“I don’t know how much you know or understand, but we’ll start with one of the simpler spells.” Izz pulled out a book from a backpack he had retrieved and flipped to the third page. There, after a page filled with text, was an illustration of a formation. It was shaped like a snake, with an emphasis on the exterior layer of spirits, or the snake’s skin instead of the interior. Orou could spot resemblances to the formation of the red ribbon, so without Izz even prompting Orou to do anything, he started to cast the spell.

“This is an intricate spell that once might have an advanced spell with a formation to create a water spirit within it, but unfortunately, it has been lost to time. It took me several days to learn this, but the trick is to make an outline of the formation with spirits and slowly fill it in. I’m sure you could do this in a week or...” Izz stopped himself mid-sentence as he looked at Orou, or more importantly, what was floating above Orou’s head. A serpent, strangely similar to Orou himself, was floating in the air and a moment later, Orou was moving it slowly move around.

It held many similarities to the red ribbon spell, except it required nowhere as many spirits or the concentration needed to control it. In a few minutes, Orou could make it turn corners and constrict around an object, just like he would do if he was fighting someone. Maybe it was due to the fact that it resembled himself but he had no trouble making it attack with its fangs or moving its tail to sweep through the air.

Izz was for a loss of words, he stared slack-jawed at the serpent flying in the air, unable to comprehend what was happening. Meanwhile, Orou was contemplating about how he could shape the ribbon into a snake. It had many similarities to it, so maybe with a bit of tweaking, he would be able to combine the two. He ceased concentrating on the serpent and started to slowly conjure the red ribbon, making small adjustments so it would resemble a serpent. Obviously, he failed to modify the formation, but Orou believed that with enough time and endurance he could do it.

Izz finally snapped out of his trance and started pacing back and forth. “Maybe the ability to see spirits makes all of the theory behind magic irrelevant, how could this be?” He muttered to himself, pondering about what to do next. After a few more minutes had passed, Izz started to rummage through his backpack and pulled out another book. It was twice as big as the other book and it looked much, much older. He frantically flipped through the pages until he flipped open a page with a massive formation. The illustration itself was spread through both of the pages and Orou could see why.

It was a formation consisting of a massive and complicated circle, repeating five times and each time, the position of the spirits was shifted. The runes that made up the five circles were changed and swapped each time, which made Orou wonder if the runes actually meant something. In the middle was what looked to be a star, each of the star’s points was shown to be glowing as if a large number of spirits was crammed into that single spot.

“This is the spell I’m currently working on and since we only have a single month, I can’t afford to waste time with basic spells. You’re going to help me figure out this spell whether you like it or not, after all, what could be more important than reconstructing ancient spells.” Izz loudly declared his intentions, but Orou guessed he only did so because Kris and Grizz weren’t here. He excitedly picked up the book he was reading when Orou first met him and after he had flipped through until nearly the end, he showed Orou an illustration of the star formation, by its side was a spirit that Orou had never seen.

“You see, this is a manmade spirit. While many of the elemental spirits can be observed in nature, there has never been a sighting of this spirit. That’s why it’s so important for me to successfully cast the spell, simply so we can observe the spirit and potentially, discover which spells this spirit is compatible with. Although there is the formation to create the spirit here, no one has succeeded in doing so.” Izz rambled on about the spirit while Orou looked at the spirit that was in question. It was a smaller spirit and it reminded him of the scintillating spirits that he had seen in Lium. Instead of giving out light, it seemed to reflect it and in the illustration, it was shown that it takes the form and the shape of whatever was in its surroundings.

Orou immediately went to work on trying to construct the formation, but he was stuck at the first step, he didn’t know how to create the formation of the star. The points of the star were glowing, but it simply wasn’t possible to overlap spirits. Even then, he could only complete two out of the five circles needed, it required precise control over spirits to create the runes and with each circle, the demand for spirits was much higher. He looked at Izz casting the same spell, but he wasn’t faring much better. He could only complete three circles, though it did give Orou inspiration on how to more effectively place the spirits.

Days passed with Orou doing nothing but practicing spells. He didn’t have to worry about food as Grizz got enough for him to eat on a day to day basis and he didn’t have to worry about anyone hunting him down. He listened to Izz simply ramble on for days on end about magic and the importance of the spell they were researching, but Orou didn’t care beyond the fact that it was an interesting spell to practice. Izz went out and brought back books to study, and often times, he would call Orou over to show him something.

Orou slowly started learning the letters of the beastman language by reading the books together with Izz, but he was nowhere near proficient enough to actually read them. His effort in combining the serpent and the ribbon was slowly progressing, though he still hadn’t found a spell formation that would trigger. Regarding the spell with the illusion spirit, he had found out that starting from the biggest circle was the most efficient method and as he improved on his control over spirits, he could create up to four circles now, though the fifth one eluded him.

Over this month, he saw Grizz and Kris constantly go in and out of the building, often times returning with various papers or even wounds. Of course, Orou would heal them even if they screamed and yelled when he did so. A whole mountain of papers was stacked on a desk nearby and while Orou could recognize a few words, he couldn’t read what it was about.

As the slithered around the room, he noticed that both the tapestries and the silk hanging from the walls were noticeably darker than before. On closer inspection, the edges of the silk were completely dark. Even the sofa had its color drained from it, though that might have been because of Izz jumping around so much. Orou thought that perhaps this wasn’t such a nice place, after all, Kris did find it in an hour or so. Tossing the matter out of his head, he slithered next to Grizz and stared up at him writing something on a piece of paper.

As Orou stared at Grizz, he started to question his role in all of this. He had learned a bit about magic, but nothing special enough to warrant Grizz asking Izz to urgently pass down everything he knew to Orou, though Orou was still grateful for that. Grizz continued writing for a few more minutes before finally, he sighed and put down the quill. He looked down only to find Orou innocently staring up at him and he smiled, putting his hand on Orou’s head.

“I know it’s been fun learning magic and all, but there are a few things I need your help with. In fact, there’s no better time than this,” Grizz thought for a seconds before he packed all the paperwork into his backpack. Standing up from his chair, he continued: “Let’s head to the governor. I don’t know how he will react to this, but be ready to fight if it comes to blows,” saying that, he started walking out of the room, this time, without any disguise and Orou by his side.