Once he’d gotten everything as clean as he could, Damien put the new bedding on. He and Sylph both spent the rest of the day training, and he was pleased to note that the dark tendrils tattooed onto his chest seemed to have no effect on his magic.

He still couldn’t quite get Devour to work properly, but he made significant progress. Once they’d finished training and the sun had set outside, Damien made a second steak – this time patting as much of the moisture off the meat as he could to reduce the smoke.

It tasted about the same as the last attempt, but he didn’t turn their room into a biohazard in the process. Once they’d finished, both headed to bed to prepare for the following day.

Henry didn’t visit Damien that night. He slept peacefully, waking up the following to faint shuffle of footsteps in the training rooms. Damien rolled out of bed, pulling his clothes on and ignoring the slight pain still emanating from his chest.

Did you find anything interesting in the book? Or have you not read it yet?

“I was checking on the locations of the other void creatures tonight,” Henry replied. “The book will be today. And, for reference, they’re moving a little. Well, most of them are. None seem to have escaped, though.”

I had a thought about that. The void was made to fight the Corruption, right?

“That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but yes.”

Is there a chance we need to free your friends so that they can help us fight it? Would we be able to convince them to? Or would they just try to destroy the world?”

Henry let out a thoughtful grunt. “It’s possible. Not a risk I’d want to take, but there’s a chance that I could convince at least one of them. I wouldn’t count on it, though. Continue planning on dispatching any that come near us if you want to live.”

Noted.

Damien headed into his own training room, already almost completely awake. He drew the Ether into himself and started to practice once again. His movements seemed smoother than normal.

The dark disk sprung to life and Damien quickly repeated the process that he’d done hundreds of times in the past few days. But, to his surprise, the result was different. The disk bulged outwards and the spell went off without a hitch, bending outwards for a moment before snapping back to normal.

He blinked, excitement springing up unbidden. Damien forced his emotions down and went through the motions again in case it had been a fluke. Expunge triggered without a hitch. Damien tried it one more time to similar results, then pumped his fist in the air and cheered.

“I did it!”

Sylph poked her head out of her own training room, raising an eyebrow. “Finally got the hang of the spell you’ve been working on, huh?”

“Yeah!” Damien said, rubbing his hands together in glee. “Watch!”

He cast the series of spells again, puffing out his chest.

“That’s the shield spell, isn’t it?” Sylph asked. “What does making it look all weird do?”

“You’ll see,” Damien said. “Although I suppose it’s not going to do all that much against you. Do you even have any ranged attacks other than throwing your knife?”

“Not really,” Sylph said, laughing at his forlorn expression. “I prefer to get up close.”

“And Mark doesn’t either. Damn it,” Damien said, sighing. “That’s a downer. Henry, I need a new spell.”

His shadow twitched. “That can be arranged. You need a movement spell. I’ve got a few in mind already.”

“Henry have anything interesting to say?” Sylph asked, leaning against the wall.

“I’m going to learn a new spell soon,” Damien replied. “And is it really that obvious when I talk to him?”

“Yes. Your eyes flick around and you mouth words sometimes. It’s honestly somewhat hard to miss.”

“Ah,” Damien said, wincing. “I’ll work on that. But how has training been for you?”

“Enlightening,” Sylph said, a wide grin stretching across her face. “I’ve made more progress in the past week than I did in the last few years. I’ve already gotten my magic back to where it was before our quest, and I think I’ve made some good progress since then. I’ve also become much more resilient. I spent a little time testing it, and I can heal from wounds at an incredible rate.”

She formed a thin dagger out of dark energy and dragged it across her forearm before Damien could stop her. Before the blood even had a chance to well up, her skin knit itself back together.

“Seven planes,” Damien breathed. “Does it do anything else?”

“The areas that heal turn to some hard substance for a while,” Sylph said. “I haven’t figured out how long it stays like that, but it seems to scale with how bad the wound is. It fades eventually, though.”

Sylph held out her hand so that Damien could feel the healed area. It was cold and rough, like a thin line on her arm was made out of stone.

“Well, it certainly seems strong,” Damien said. “It’s like your body adapts to damage for a short period of time.”

“As long as I don’t turn evil, it’s great,” Sylph said with a wry grin. “I’m quite curious to see what I can do, though. Should we take Mark up on his offer to spar? It’s not like Jayce is going to bother us again.”

“Might as well,” Damien said, nodding. “I don’t think my new spell will be much help, but training against you and Mark should be useful for me. Bah, it’s going to be even harder to keep up with you now.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” Sylph said, flicking him in the shoulder as she walked past him.

A thought passed through Damien’s mind, reminding him that he did have a way to get stronger. He just wasn’t quite sure he wanted to do it quite yet. Damien shook his head and followed her out of the room.

Nolan was already sitting outside, using the morning sun to illuminate a sheet of paper that he had balanced on a flat rock. It already had a mostly finished rune circle on it. The noble glanced up at them.

“You going to go train?” Nolan asked, setting the paper down.

“Yeah. We’re hoping this round of sparring goes better than the last one,” Sylph said. “Are you and Reena joining?”

“Anything to get away from runes,” Nolan grumbled. “If I could pay Damien to do them all for me, I’d do it in an instant.”

“And you’d get kicked out of Blackmist right after,” Reena said, sashaying out from their room with a smug grin. “Thereby proving that I’m the superior choice to lead the Gray family.”

“I was just talking,” Nolan replied. “The only place you’ll ever be ruling the Gray family is in your dreams. Why has your class only given you a single homework assignment anyways? My teacher keeps adding new ones!”

Reena just shrugged. “Maybe he just knows we’re smarter.”

Or the next assignment is too difficult to do in conjunction with a quest.

Damien grimaced at that thought. His thoughts were interrupted as Mark emerged from his room, a large sword sheathed at his side. “Sparring time?”

“As long as you still want to,” Sylph said.

“I do,” Mark replied, licking his lips. “And who knows how much energy we’ll have once Delph starts classes back up. Now is the best time to do it.”

The others nodded. After Nolan put his runes away and got changed, they all headed down the mountain and towards the arena. When they arrived, there were several other students already using it. However, Damien also spotted several older students in the stands, looking over them.

“It looks like they’ve put some supervisors to make sure we don’t kill each other,” Nolan observed. “Probably for the best.”

“I think I see Sean over there,” Damien added, squinting at them as they hopped down onto the sand. “I guess that means we don’t have to worry much about getting hurt.”

“Good,” Nolan said. “I don’t think we can safely spar at this point without the risk of injury. We’re all getting too strong.”

Mark grunted in agreement. “Sylph, can we go first? I want to get you before your Ether runs out and you can’t fight anymore.”

“Mark!” Reena scolded. “Manners.”

“What did I do wrong?”

“You don’t point out people’s weaknesses,” Reena said crossly. “It’s impolite.”

“Why? Everyone should be aware of what they are good and bad at. Avoiding it is stupid.”

Reena opened her mouth to reply, but Nolan put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Sylph just shook her head and gave Mark a shrug.

“Sure, we can go first.”

The two of them walked several paces away from the rest of the group. Damien briefly considered finding out if Reena or Nolan wanted to spar, but he realized that he’d learn just as much from watching Sylph fight Mark. And, learning aside, he was curious to see how much Sylph had improved.

“Are you ready?” Mark asked, drawing his sword and holding it loosely at his side. The sand at his feet twisted up around his legs, forming light armor around his body.

“Whenever you are,” Sylph replied, dropping into a fighting stance. They both nodded at the same time.

Sylph’s body flickered and faded away, camouflaging with the background. Mark thrust a hand into the air and sand started to whip around him in a miniature tornado. To all of their surprise, it moved unimpeded and Sylph remained hidden.

Mark’s head moved on a swivel as he searched for the hidden girl. Damien barely even caught the blur as Sylph appeared at the edge of the tornado and blurred through it, a blade forming in her hand.

Sand rushed towards her and Mark spun, raising his blade to block the strike. Her energy blade crackled as it slammed into his steel one. Sylph blurred away as condensed streams of sand punched into the ground where she’d been standing.

“You’re faster than before,” Mark grunted.

“And you’re still holding something back,” Sylph replied. “Are you ever going to go full out?”

“No,” Mark replied. He stomped a foot on the ground and the sand beneath Sylph rippled, erupting outwards and launching her into the air. It surged beneath Mark, raising him towards her.

Sylph twisted midair. A dark blur shout out from her back and she somehow changed her path, shooting to the side and adjusting her path so fast that Damien couldn’t even tell where she was until she reappeared in the air behind Mark.

She brought her foot crashing down on top of the boy’s shoulders. It hit with a solid thunk and he staggered forward.

“Killing blow,” Sylph declared. “If that was your head, you would have been unconscious at the least.”

“Conceded,” Mark grunted. The pillar of sand they were standing on slipped back to the ground. Mark rolled his shoulder with a pained grimace. “How did you move yourself like that? You shouldn’t have been able to change your course.”

“Figure it out on your own,” Sylph said with a laugh. “I’m not going to tell you for free, especially since you hide so much about yourself.”

“Fair enough,” Mark said, still rubbing his shoulder. “Who’s next, then? I’m taking a short break so my shoulder can relax.”

“Down for a rematch, Damien?” Nolan asked.

“Sure,” Damien replied. They walked out, taking Mark and Sylph’s spots on the sand.

“Ready?” Nolan asked, the sand rising up and forming twin sabers in the boy’s hands. The wind around him started to grow stronger as well.

Damien nodded, forming a gravity sphere in each of his hands. Nolan dashed towards him, sped up by a sudden burst of wind that nearly shot him through the air. Damien tossed a sphere in between them, forcing the other boy to throw himself to the side to avoid the spell.

“Don’t you have any other spells?” Nolan complained, darting towards him.

“I’m working on it,” Damien replied, casting Enlarge through the tip of his foot and forming a sand barrier between them.

Nolan’s swords punched through the enlarged sand grain, splitting it in two. Damien tossed both spheres at the ground between them, and Nolan wasn’t able to get away in time to avoid the powerful suction force that yanked him back towards the ground.

He rolled, popping back up to his feet and lunging at Damien. Damien’s mage armor hardened and he blocked one strike with each of his arms, then kicked Nolan in the chest, forcing him back a foot.

Nolan smirked and hopped back. Wind started to whip around him. Damien quickly drew a rune in the air, casting Devour just as two blades of wind shot out of Nolan’s swords, tearing across the sand before vanishing harmlessly into the dark void.

“Seriously?” Nolan complained. “That’s lame.”

Damien smirked and cast Expunge. Nolan’s eyes widened as the spell bulged outwards, spitting the two wind blades right back at him. He dove to the side, dodging the first but taking a solid cut from the second across his side and arm.

A new gravity sphere flickered to life in Damien’s hand and he hurled it at Nolan. The spell struck the other boy in the foot and detonated with a violent crack. Everyone winced as Nolan let out a slew of curses.

An older student dropped down from the stands, glowing energy already dancing at his fingertips. He quickly healed Nolan before heading off without a single word.

“Well, I officially hate your magic,” Nolan said. “I have no idea what I’m fighting against half the time. First its gravity, then it’s my own magic.”

“Thanks, I think,” Damien said, lowering his hands and letting the net of mental energy fade away. The fight against Nolan had been much easier than it was last time, although he suspected the surprise of the new spell had accounted for a lot of that.