Nico finished drawing the spell formation. He called it the energy collection array. The array was drawn in the hallway right outside the safe room where Yuri was. He wished he had a cooler name for his spell formation, but "grey energy collection array" was a mouthful. So ‘energy collection array’ it was. Maybe Carmen would have a better name for it back on Earth. She had done some work in copyediting.

The purpose of the energy collection array was pretty obvious from its name. It collected whatever grey energy was in the vicinity until it reached capacity. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to absorb the grey energy remotely. He'd have to go there physically to add it to his body.

If his plan went well, he wouldn’t have to run around the tower alone to pick up the grey energy. He could make it come to him.

Nico had spent a half hour prior walking to different parts of the tower that was within the short distance of the safe room he and Yuri created. In that time, he’d drawn about forty very tiny spell formations for information gathering.

Luckily, the size of these specific arrays didn’t matter. It allowed him to conserve the amount of ink in the black permanent marker he was using. He was running out. It was just another problem to solve down the line.

Drawing smaller arrays aso meant that if another practitioner walked by, it would make it harder to see the spell array.

Nico preferred small spell formations. It was why he made stamps to use them quickly in case of emergency. He wished he still had his stamps on him. They would have saved him so much time. They were clean, efficient.

The arrays he’d drawn weren’t not the energy collection formation. He scattered about a dozen of another new formation which he temporarily dubbed ‘magic wi-fi’. It was a simple modification to the Gallahad control formation, informed by his new insight into how pranic barriers work.

The magic wifi arrays acted as a sort of radio signal to alert him of any information it picked up. Basically, it both extended his range of divination, and passively gave him updates of that area of the tower.

Of course, they had a limited scope, but if a member of the grey dead, Pullman, or any living thing walked into the area of the spell formation, he would be alerted immediately. The magic wifis acted more as extenders for his divination ability and passive information gatherers. If Nico invested more MP into the arrays, it wouldn’t gather more information, unlike his prana piercing formation. It could only divine very basic information like what type of life form, its location, and general direction.

Still, that was a huge boon, both for his safety and piece of mind.

Nico got the idea of being able to connect his magic together to his sigil from Pullman. He didn't like that he was inspired by the man who framed and attempted to kill him.

But Nico didn’t have a lot of places he could draw knowledge from in his current situation. He still didn't know how Pullman was able to channel his magic through his sigil without Nico knowing. The shape of it obviously had something to do with pipes, but the grander theory eluded him.

If Nico was able to channel his magic through his sigil and funnel it like Pullman, he could theoretically collect the grey energy remotely, among a million other applications. He wouldn't have to be physically present. If that were possible, all he’d have to do was sit back and relax.

One thing that did surprise him was the grey bar in his HUD seemed to have a fixed size. It was on the right side of his vision. He tried moving it to the left side of his vision, but Measure would not let him. He asked Measure for any clues about that, but all he got was a gut feeling to leave it as it was. If Nico absorbed more grey energy, would it grow past the vision like how bosses in video games had secret health bars? Or would something else happen?

He wanted to find out.

Although Nico could not channel magic through his sigil, he was delighted he could transfer information.

Using Measure and what he knew about magic in his own theories, he was pretty sure that the information channeling through his sigil went unnoticed to Pullman.

And Nico wouldn't risk this method if there was even a five percent chance Pullman could somehow divine information through Nico’s sigil. The man was not only much more powerful in terms of magical reserves, but more experienced and knowledgeable.

On the subject of Pullman, Nico recalled how the older mage had moved his boot in a familiar fashion. Something about those movements tickled at Nico’s mind, but the couldn’t place why. Measure improved Nico’s memory from a dull spoon to a sharp blade. But it wasn’t perfect recall.

He tried recreating the movements in his head, but couldn’t get the angle. The boot movement was so small and so far away, that Nico was surprised that it even stuck out to him at all.

But again, something about the movement bothered Nico. Pullman was obviously drawing a spell formation with his boot. Why did it look so familiar?

He didn't know, but he felt like it was an important aspect.

Once again, he mused about the likelihood of multiple parties being involved in the same location of the NextOver. So far, it was the treasure hunters, Nico, Pullman, and Yuri, who most likely represented a separate party. That was four different groups in the same place at the same time. Even without Measure to calculate the odds, it was a statistical impossibility. The NextOver was astronomically larger than Earth, and time here ran roughly three times faster than the world world.

If multiple parties were involved, then that meant there was something that tied them all together. Pullman because the older magicians had framed him for murder. Nico was here to apprehend Pullman and bring the man to the Sentinels of the Coalition. The treasure hunters had said they were a part of the west coast Mages Union.

Nico believed them. That meant Pullman had abused his power and station as an examiner and teacher of the Mages Union. He definitely wasn’t acting on their behalf.

And then there was the Yuri. The guy seemed to act on his own sense of Russian honor. He seemed genuinely thankful for Nico saving his life at the exam and then twice again in the NextOver. But the fact Nico couldn’t divine a single bit of information from the Russian put him as suspect.

What tied all of these groups together?

Nico needed to find that connection to see if he was just another piece on the board or another player who had stumbled onto someone else's game.

–

Nico returned to their little safe room.

Yuri seemed to be completely healed. He opened his eyes when Nico entered, got up from his meditation position, and crossed arms. He said, "Your recovery formation is spectacular. Is not as powerful as my teacher’s. But it feels…cleaner."

“Thanks for the five star review,” Nico rubbed his head self-consciously at the compliment. He knew more powerful magicians had better ways of recovering their magic and bodies, but it felt nice to get the rare positive feedback on his formations.

Yuri asked, "Who was your teacher?"

Nico was about to talk about his mother, but stopped himself. Yuri’s first question was to ask about Nico's past, not where his whereabouts or what he was doing. The blond didn’t even hint at curiosity or suspicion. It was beyond a lack of interest. He acted as if what Nico had done did not matter.

That cemented even further that Yuri was worthy of suspicion. He may not have been an enemy, but he was clearly hiding something. Nico willed for Measure to scan for information on Yuri, but once again, got nothing. Disappointing but expected.

Was the Russians able to track Nico's movement somehow?

Nico didn’t know enough about divination magic to rule out the theory completely. Maybe he should try to figure out a way to prevent others from divining information about him.

"I learned the basics from my mother." Nico answered cautiously. "But the basics just mean Gallahad’s principles. She knew a smattering of some Eastern magical theories, and even belonged to a school based on Shintoism, but she died before we could even dive into that stuff. The rest was self education. I expanded whatever I could with Gallahad’s theories, mostly through trial and error. Since most magicians have a foundation in Gallahad, I pieced together what I could over the years about how he thought about magic.”

He stopped himself from going on about how he invested nearly every penny and spare hour into dissecting the scraps of magic he’d come across over the years. The only link between them had been Gallahad’s principles, acting as a sort of invisible line Nico traced. Over time, Nico was able to deduce patterns in the variations of Gallahad’s control, mind, and element formations.

Every magician moved on from Gallahad’s teachings as soon as they studied their own school of magic under a teacher. Even hedge magicians gave up on Gallahad, using whatever magical theories they could get from pledging to a non-Union Hold.

Nico couldn’t blame them. Gallahad’s principles took the magic out of magic. His teachings demanded rigorous study and exploration of non-Euclidian dynamics within magic, abandoning the imprecision of emotions in spells, and focused entirely on arrays.

Basically, Gallahad dismissed spells altogether, favoring the precision of spell formations.

Yuri’s voice snapped Nico out of deep thought. “What is it you’re thinking of?”

Nico looked at the Russian and grinned. “All this talk about magic reminds me of something.”

“Something?” Yuri repeated hesitantly.

“Remember those treasure hunters I told you about?” Nico then explained to Yuri how he improved the treasure hunters’ magic, not through their spells, but by simply modifying the formations for their spells. He assured Yuri that it didn't require knowing everything about how their system of magic worked, but just enough about how the spell worked. Nico could fill in the gaps and make the spell more efficient.

After Nico finished explaining, Yuri sat back down in the criss-cross applesauce position, and his brows furrowed. He sat in silence for a long moment before speaking in an almost accusatory tone. "It seems almost too good to be true, what you offer."

Nico saw this coming. "It wouldn't be a full exchange. It wouldn't be me stealing your theories. I won't know enough to neutralize the spells you summon. But I can make them more efficient."

Yuri wagged a finger at him. "Your logic is fallible. If you can improve spells, you can nullify them too, or at least find weaknesses. What you ask is dangerous. If you had not saved my life many times, I would burn you into crisp hot dog."

Nico didn’t like how condescending Yuri said ‘simple formation’. Arrays were complex, but beautiful and a thousand times more practical than spells. He wanted to argue his point, but reminded himself that if he pissed off the Russian, Nico could easily become a burning corpse in a matter of minutes.

What Nico offered was tempting for any magician. One of his goals if he returned from the NextOver was to improve the efficiency of magic of all the local hedge mages he had helped over the past couple years in Buffalo.

Nico's years of being a freelance graphic designer kicked in. Over the years, he learned when he finished a proposal to a new client, it was best to just shut up. Any further talking would usually make the situation worse or lose the sale.

Yuri's stewed in his thoughts for a little bit before finally nodding his head. "I will only tell you as much as I want. But do not ask for more. If you do, I will take offense."

Nico didn't know about taking offense meant but he didn't want to strain their already tipsy relationship.

"Don't worry, man," Nico insisted. "It'll be more than an even exchange. I'll give you something really good. I promise."

Yuri looked skeptical, but explained to Nico how two of his spells worked. One was his most versatile spell that created a halberd out of fire. It required a strong amount of willpower to maintain and acted as sort of a homing missile, changing direction at Yuri’s command. Unfortunately, it consumed his magical power very quickly. He couldn’t use it for about thirty seconds max.

The other one was a simple wall of fire that he used as a sort of defensive measure.

Apparently, Nico was completely wrong about the Russian’s magical school. Nico had thought that Yuri based his fire magic on some sort of Russian or Siberian school of fire. They tended to use their memories of their cold environment to act as a trigger for summoning spells.

But Yuri’s school actually seemed closer to the Arabic Golden age primordial fire theories Nico had heard about. Blood magic was among one of the primordial schools as well. Primordial magics were the leading schools of magic before Gallahad’s principles allowed the lesser schools to advance their magics further.

Despite the primordial leanings, Yuri’s spell formations still had inklings of Gallahad's standard modifications.

Nico listened to Yuri’s explanations about how the spells worked and closed his eyes. He could feel Measure calculating and adjusting modifications to the spell arrays in the back of his mind.

When he was done explaining Yuri asked, "I have to get something off my chest. It's been on my mind for several days."

For Nico, it had been about a day since he last saw the Russian. For Yuri it had been a couple days.

Nico asked, "What is it?"

"How were you able to commandeer my fire formation during the test exam without disrupting the summoning of my spell?"

Yuri seemed tense as if ready to pounce. Nico couldn't tell if the Russian was ready to pounce at him or away from him. Either way he was on edge.

Nico was surprised by the question but chose his words carefully. It was a simple enough answer really.

He said, "Well… I lucked out because the intent of your spell was the same as mine. We had nearly the same parameters for the spell we were required to summon."

“But there was still wide enough margin of variation for the spell to be summoned. You would have to calculate for at least two dozen individual parameters.”

“Thirty eight.”

“...Okay. But is like shooting at a dart board that is spinning in a tornado. Impossible.”

Nico waved him off. “Not impossible, but calculating for every possible outcome is impractical. I calculated the amount of magic I’d have to insert without disrupting your spell. That was only like…four parameters.”

“Standard astrological positions.”

“Right. Sun. Moon. Main stars. Planets. Stuff we had in preparation before going into the examination to boost our control efficiency. Once I made the connection to your formation, I adjusted my power flow as I extended it.”

Yuri grew quiet at that. He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “You made guess at connection of power flow then guessed the rest of the connection as you extended your will through my array?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I made an educated guess, about four GTUs, Gallahad’s Thaumaturgic Units to start. I don’t know how you were taught, but I tested my magic in the field against haunts. I often ran out of ink for a new array or didn’t have time to draw one. The best I could sometimes was to commandeer formations of the hedge mage I was helping out at the time. The first couple times put me in a hospital. But after that, I adapted.”

It wasn’t like his body adapted. He had spent several hours at the whiteboard puzzling the calculations for the most efficient power flow for different kinds of spell arrays and what state they were in. There were several spells Nico would never even think of commandeering, unless he wanted a one way ticket six feet under.

Yuri looked confused. “Why not practice this technique under safety of your teacher? Is dangerous, yes?”

Nico felt his anger flare up. “Dead mom, remember? I didn’t have the luxury of someone guiding my thoughts or ideas. Real life experience against haunts to protect real people was my education. I didn’t choose it, but it’s what I had.”

Yuri’s eyes widened, he nodded apologetically. "I spoke out of turn.”

“I’m over it.” Nico calmed himself. He didn’t think the old wound could open this much after so long.

“But knowing the intent of spell shouldn't be enough,” Yuri insisted lightly. “You could have died with me.”

“It was reckless,” Nico agreed. “But your life was on the line. I was only confident in commandeering because I saw traces of Gallahad's fire formation within your own spell array. My own formation was a variation of Gallahad’s array as well. I connected the two. If they weren't from the same school, then it wouldn't have been possible."

If Nico had Measure at the time, the percentage of success would have skyrocketed. But he didn’t.

Yuri grumbled to himself silently in a language that did not sound like Russian, but he finally accepted the explanation. "Still, I don't know a single magician who was at our level or even a little bit above who could do what you did. The control required is too..precise.”

“What I lack in power, I make up for in precision.”

“And recklessness,” Yuri grinned. “Why did you say we are part of same school? We aren't. My master only takes one student at a time. If he heard about someone copying our techniques, he would thunder them with his bracelet."

“You mean belt. He’d whip you with a belt,” Nico corrected.

Yuri’s eyebrows shot up. He looked embarrassed. “Da. Belt.”

Nico shrugged. "If you see Gallahad's principles as a sort of school, then technically most magicians are all part of the same school. But only barely. Maybe by a one or two percent relation.."

“Humans are closer to bananas than magical schools are related to each other,” Yuri said. He shook his head in disbelief. "Too much control with Gallahad. Impossible."

Nico stopped himself from going down his nerdy explanation about why more willpower wasn't the same as more control. An alert popped up in his view.

[Calculations for new modification complete.]

He kneeled and copied the formations. "Alright. Take a look. I’m guessing these are your standard Arabic golden abacus modifications,” Nico pointed to a row of dots that looked like bullet points. “I replaced them with a variation from a book about Ondondoga fire magic I studied years ago. It won’t affect your spell power, but you’ll find it’ll be much easier to control. Basically, it increases the efficiency of the halberd spell’s magical power by fifty percent."

Technically it was an addition of fifty seven percent, according to Measure. For Yuri, who didn't have a way to get the exact numbers, it wouldn't matter. It would feel about the same.

The broad shouldered blond stepped on the formations and summoned his fire halberd. His eyes widened immediately, and he dispelled the fire halberd before draining any more magical power.

He turned to Nico, staring at him reverently. "I wish I could tell my teacher about these improvements. If I make it back to Earth, is first thing I'm doing."

"I thought Pullman was your master now that you were accepted into the mages Guild." Nico wondered.

"Not yet, Yuri explained."I was brought into the NextOver before I could sign the blood contract. In hindishgt, I should have been suspicious of that immediately.

Nico agreed. How could the young magician overlook something so crucial? If Yuri had died in the NextOver, then the Mages Union would have no liability. Pullman would have had no liability. And yet, Yuri did not seem too upset that they had not signed a contract.

Did Yuri somehow know that Pullman would not sign him into the Mages Union right away? If that was the case, then he or whoever he represented must have anticipated Pullman's movements.

Nico shivered at the thought of that. If Yuri really did represent another rat in this race, it was somebody with significantly more information than both Nico and Pullman.

Yuri continued. "My teacher would be very impressed by this. Although my teacher’s teacher would not be surprised. Nothing surprises him."

The Russian shivered as if the thought of his teacher’s teacher cast to wide shadow over him. He clapped him on the shoulder with his now completely healed hand and smiled broadly. "Thank you for this great gift. Like you promised. It was more than a fair exchange. When I turn twenty one, I shall buy you vodka."

Nico noted that Yuri admitted freely to not having a special ability yet. He could have been lying, but it didn’t feel like it. He returned the grin. "Don’t act impressed yet. I haven't even started. Take off your shoes and jacket."

Although confused, the Russian did as instructed. Nico had obviously gained a couple confidence points after boosting Yuri's spell formations to be more effective.

He drew a new spell formation on the bottom of Yuri shoes. He did the same on the elbows of the Russian’s jacket, but with a new modification. It was an idea that Nico had for himself, but he wasn't sure too much of the results. It was probably better to let somebody else test it. He was pretty certain that it wouldn't cause any harm, but it would be better to see how it reacted with somebody else using it.

Nico gave back the jacket and shoes to Yuri who put them back on. Yuri looked at them and asked, “What are they supposed to do?"

Nico sighed. "Don't worry, they aren’t new spells you have to learn. They’re just arrays. I got the idea from platformer video games."

"Like super Mario?" Yuri asked. Oh. A man of culture.

Nico nodded. "I used to be a speedrunner in the game Hollow Knight. The first thing speed runner's learn is efficient movement. Then map knowledge. Then they learn how to dodge attacks from the enemy. After that is countering or nullifying the attacks. It’s not always in that order, but those are priorities."

Yuri looked at the spell formation on his sleeves again. "These are supposed to help me move more efficiently?"

Nico shook his head. “It'll help you dodge. When your back is against the wall and your elbows are touching the wall, put in the smallest amount of magical power you can possibly invest. Anything more than that, and it could become dangerous. Even someone with a small amount of magical power like me only has to input. That's enough for me to do this."

He inserted a fraction of a percentage of MP into the spell formation in his shoes, which he had modified again to be more efficient. Nico jumped high enough to touch the ceiling before landing in a crouch on the floor like a professional parkour enthusiast, his body moving efficiently with the help of Measure.

Yuri whistled. He bent his knees as if to try the spell formation himself. But stood up, his eyes alert. His gaze shifted towards the entryway of the room, and he made a slicing motion with his hand.

Nico’s Map appeared in his vision, so he knew why Yuri was on edge. It was best to act like he was a little out of the loop. His plan was finally coming to fruition. “What’s wrong?"

Yuri’s expression steeled. "Enemies. It feels like many. How did they know we were here? I’ll cover this angle. You act as support."

Nico looked away from the Russian as if this were all a surprise. He strode boldly past the protection barrier of the entrance way.

"Are you crazy? Get inside!” Yuri yelled, the first time Nico had heard fear in his voice. “This place is safer. We have predictable line of sight and prepared formations!"

Nico turned over his shoulder and gave him a doggy grin. "We can't stay in here forever. Besides, I want to see what you're made of."