I think I’ll pass. She wants me to teach her how to make the knife with Ether, but I don’t want to become a teacher for the other students. If word gets out that I’m offering lessons, I’ll never get a minute of down time. Besides, I’ve got absolutely no interest in her.

Henry let out a chuckle and faded into the back of Damien’s mind as he headed back up towards his room. When he got there, Sylph had already returned. She glanced up at him from her seated position on her bed.

“Class go well?” Damien asked, stepping inside and letting the stone door swing shut behind him.

“Well enough,” Sylph said, giving him a half shrug. “I’m not sure how much I’ll actually be able to learn, but if it even increases my mental energy in the slightest, it’ll be worth it.”

“Don’t worry,” Damien said as he sat down on his own bed and shrugged his coat off. “We’ll get you that dagger thing.”

Sylph swallowed and nodded, glancing away from him. Damien pulled out the paper he’d been drawing on during lunch and squinted at it. The half-finished rune circle stared back at him.

So – what could it be? The rune circle.

“This might be a better conversation for night,” Henry suggested. “It’s not urgent anyways.”

I – damn. I suppose you’re right. Tonight, then.

Damien sighed and put the paper back into his pack. He closed it and pushed the bag under his bed. Sylph raised an eyebrow, but he just shrugged and shook his head. He hopped up to his feet and wandered over to the training room. The next several hours of the day were spent training his new Devour spell.

By the time Damien was done for the day, the spell had taken several steps forward in appearance. It actually took the form of a flat disk, and it largely followed his commands. He was able to cast it almost every attempt, and Henry was satisfied with how he drew the rune to summon it.

There were still a few good hours left in the day, but Damien was too tired to practice the spell any further. Instead, he summoned two balls of destructive energy in his palms and started carving through the back wall of the room, expanding it further into the mountain.

At one point, he summoned an orb at the tip of his foot. He tried it with the other foot as well, and then with his elbows and finally his nose.

“You look stupid,” Henry said as Damien held his face against the wall, carving a line through it with the ball of energy spinning between his eyes.

He stepped back and brushed the dust off his face, letting out his pent up breath.

It will be useful to be able to cast spells from any point on my body.

“You’re not wrong,” Henry said. “But that doesn’t make you look any less dumb.

Damien rolled his eyes. He’d managed to expand the 2nd training room by almost half of its original size. It was now several times larger than the room with their beds.

“I suppose I should start on a new room,” Damien said, brushing his hands off and examining his handiwork. “Ah… do you think you could…”

Damien could tell Henry was rolling his eyes as the eldritch creature reached forward, taking the reigns of his body. Henry piloted Damien out of the room and summoned a pool of darkness along the floor.

The dust fell into it and vanished as the pool snapped shut and Henry released Damien’s body.

“That spell is a modified version of the Devour spell, you know,” Henry said. “You can work on learning it after you get a better grasp of the basic spell. Then I won’t have to be your maid.”

It’s not like you’ve got anything better to do.

Henry huffed as Damien let out a small chuckle. He left the training rooms to take a quick shower and brush his teeth. Sylph still hadn’t budged from her spot on her bed by the time he got back into their main room. He hopped into bed, not particularly tired but eager to speak with his companion. He still had no blankets, but he once again couldn’t be bothered to get new ones.

“How’d the training go?” Sylph asked, opening her eyes. Her hands were clenched at her sides, but they relaxed when she realized that Damien was looking at them.

“Pretty well,” Damien said. “I’m trying to learn a new spell. I also expanded the second training room by a good bit.”

“The one with all of the books in it?”

“Yeah. I should probably return those to the library soon,” Damien said.

“Even Love Making for the Uninitiated and Lustful?” Sylph asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve heard that one’s a good read.”

Damien groaned and buried his face in his hands. “My companion wanted it.”

“I’m sure he did,” Sylph said, laughing. Henry joined her and Damien mentally sent him a rude gesture.

“You might want to hide those books better,” Sylph suggested. “There’s some things I don’t need to know.”

“You’re the one who went shuffling through his book pile,” Damien said, crossing his arms.

“I did not,” Sylph said. “You left it in the bathroom.”

“I most certainly did n–” Damien froze as he heard Henry’s laughter double in intensity.

I’m going to strangle you. You’re a millennia old void creature. Don’t you have better things to do with your time?

“Not really,” Henry said. “I’m stuck here, watching you fiddle with basic magic. You’re growing quickly, but it’s hardly riveting. Your little gift to me has been ruining my patience. It’s quite the pain.”

Hmph. Good.

Damien laid down and rolled over, burying his face in the mattress. Sylph smirked and returned her attention to meditating. A few minutes later, Damien drifted off to sleep.