I stared out my window and at a blue bird chirping away at its chicks. The bushy tree provided shade from the midday sun's blinding light.

Without any warning, Syn's head covered my vision.

"Why?" I said. Not as a question, but instead as a statement. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to translate.

"I have a feeling that you aren't using the pact's curse right now."

"You would be correct."

"And I doubt you were listening to me."

"I was... kind of."

"So you decided to stare at birds instead?"

"Well, I was staring at the window. The birds just happened to be right behind it."

"I thought you would be a lot more tense and uptight about your situation. Especially since you first appeared to be so desperate to live."

"Notice the tree the birds are on," I said, pointing straight. "That tree didn't grow in a day."

"You don't know that."

"Ok, technically, no, I don't. I'm just coming to a logical conclusion based on my knowledge about nature and how it takes time for everything in life to grow."

"Then why don't you think about what if someone used magic to make that tree grow in a day?"

"No thanks."

"I'll take this as an admission of defeat."

"You can take it however you want. I just want to correct your original thought that I was just idly staring. Instead, I was deep in introspection. Thinking."

"About...?"

I turned my chair around stared at the Nomicon. "Anyway..."

"Wait, before we move on, was this actually thinking, or were you just daydreaming."

"Are they not really one and the same?"

"Thinking is purposeful, daydreaming is usually not."

"Then both."

"So you were just wasting time. Got it."

"No, I was thinking."

"About?" Syn asked again.

"Everything."

Syn raised her hand and opened her mouth as if to object. "Fine."

"So about this soul cycling anima thing."

"Yes, your soul refines anima in cycles. Level zero spells don't require any cycles, and can essentially be cast infinitely as long as you meet the requirements. Level one spells require one cycle of refined anima. Level two spells require three cycles, level three requires five cycles and so on and so forth."

"Why are they called level two spells when they require three cycles?"

"Because two is above one."

"Three is also above one."

"But you can still have your soul refine anima in two cycles. It just grants you the ability to cast more level one spells. And its only called levels because that's how the Nomicon refers to them as. It means nothing to anyone who isn't acquainted to such terms."

"I was nitpicking at that point, anyway."

"I know."

"And you said you can use lower-level spells at higher levels?"

"Yes. You just cast the spell using anima refined by more cycles. This empowers the effects of those lower-level spells."

"But it still uses that more refined anima, correct?"

"Yes."

"And this whole zero cycles deal."

"Since there was nothing in the Nomicon that discussed it, just continue using level zero spells and hopefully your soul expands and starts to cycle."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Good thing you have me here."

"So your soul does have a cycle?"

"Yes."

"So I should be able to cast any of the hexes?"

"Yes." Syn winced. "Although, the anima cost for any of the level one hexes is nothing less than painful."

"Oh? How bad?"

"Once."

"Per day?"

"Yes."

"Expected." I sighed and rested my hand and head against my desk. "Everything is just per day."

"The once per day doesn't refer to once a day per spell, by the way."

"Don't tell me it's one level one hex per day?"

"I regret to inform you of the unfortunate news."

"Can't you just absorb anima faster?"

"As far as I'm aware, there is not a way for a person to influence their soul's ability to absorb anima. It's simply a natural, always occurring process."

"But I can still infinitely cast the level zero hexes?"

"As long as you meet the requirements, yes. They are not a problem."

"I've been assuming you were a Weaver before you the whole becoming an eidolon. That is true, right?"

"No, you were wrong."

"Well, the problem with that answer is that you were supposed to just say—yes. My previous question wasn't actually a question. It was simply a lead up to the actual question I had."

"I said no. Now what."

"Well, I know you're lying to me—"

"You don't know."

"This is literally a repeat of the tree discussion we had just a few minutes ago. And, weren't you so opposed to my supposed wasting of time?"

"Just ask your question."

"How many level one spells could you cast when you were one?"

"Four."

"That's it?"

"I could also cast four level two spells, four level three spells, four level four spells, and three level five spells."

"Now, this might sound crazy, but what if you only cycled all of your anima once?"

"Not possible. Every time your soul expands and cycles anima, the excess then gets cycled. So the four level one spells for me would be two from the first cycle and two from the second cycle."

"So it's an automatic process?"

"You really should have understood this by now."

"I do. I'm just confirming my thoughts because I want to make sure I know exactly how all of this works."

"I understand."

"Three level five spells at your peak mean you had nine cycles?"

"Correct."

I raised my left hand and stared at the warped pentagram symbol on the back of my hand. "Now, how do I call upon your powers?"

"What the exact process is, I'm not sure. But you should just think about my soul and anima as an extension of your own. They are connected, after all."

I cleared my mind and just focused on Syn and the symbol. Black lines extended from it and turned my entire arm black. Flipping my hand over, I folded each of my finger inwards one by one before unfolding it open. "Scinna Brád."

A black and transparent hand, cut off an inch or two after the wrist, hovered right on top of the hand which summoned it. Using my mind, I lifted it up and moved it until it floated in front of my face, which carried a massive shit-eating grin.

"Holy hell, this feeling is so weird."

Syn nodded with a satisfied smile on her face. "Well, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"I stopped overthinking it."

"There's a first time for everything."

In order to test the limits of the hand, I moved it as far as possible. Unfortunately, my room wasn't large enough. However, that gave me the opportunity to use it to open my window. A task, which succeeded without a hitch.

"How far is that?"

"Thirty feet."

"You're just repeating what was written in the book."

"Is it wrong?"

"No."

"Then what's the problem?"

"What if the book lies to me?"

"If it lies to you, it's going to be about something an absolute neophyte like you won't be able to figure out in under a minute."

"Fair enough."

I brought the spectral hand back into my room and moved it to poke Syn in her face. To my dismay, this failed.

"Just because its spectral doesn't mean it's on the ethereal plane. If it was, you couldn't use it to interact with any object," she explained, not even flinching at the attempt.

"Now you decide to tell me," I said in a disappointed voice. Before I could move the spectral hand anymore, it vanished, signifying that its time limit—a minute, passed.

Next up on the list was [Spectral Snap]. After saying the incantation and performing the gesture, I snapped my ring finger and thumb. An ever-changing black ball of light crackled in my hand and my finger and palm separated. My hand vibrated and shook violently as I struggled to contain it.

In a dry voice, Syn said, "If you don't want it to blow up in your face, unleash it in the next, eh, four seconds."

Realizing I didn't have any time to think about it, I leaped out of my chair and flung my torso out the window. I stared at the river and flicked my hand. The black energy streaked as fast as light and exploded. A rather large amount of water splashed, wetting some nearby drying clothes. Looking around, I noticed no one around. Luckily for me, it being slightly past midday meant most of the villagers were still working.

"Wow," I said, turning around and regaining composure. Although, my mind couldn't stop freaking out.

Syn slowly clapped her hands. "Your first actual taste of power. Almost killed yourself, but you didn't. Impressive."

Still shaking, I looked at my hand. "Handling that was more difficult that I thought."

"And it's still only considered a level zero hex. The more cycles a spell requires, the stronger it gets, but the more difficult it becomes to control as well."

"And here I was hoping all I had to do was cast them."

"In your wildest dreams. Or just have a god activate your soul. Then you don't have to deal with any of this and can just use whatever powers were granted to you."

"If only you were a god."

"I'm not, but the person who created the Nomicon might have been."

I blankly stared the Nomicon.

"Are you dreaming about being a god?"

"Yeah, just a bit."

"Don't worry. I've been there too. In fact, I'm not sure who hasn't been there at some point."

"So much power. But, yet, being one seems so boring."

"And here I thought you wanted to live forever."

"Forever is a long time. I just wanted to live for like, an extra hundred years."

"Added on your current lifespan? Or a normal person's lifespan."

"Mine."

"That's not much more than the typical range."

"I know."

Syn and I stared at each other for a few moments, creating an awkward silence.

"If you had the chance, would you become a god?" I asked, breaking it.

"Yes."

"Seems as if you've given it thought."

"I have a lot of unfinished business that I need to wrap up."

"Relatable."

"So you would become one too? Even though you think it's boring."

"I don't. But if I had the chance, I don't know if I would have the willpower to refuse."

"Willpower is a myth, anyway."

"Interesting take."

"It doesn't matter how much you think you have. The minds of us mortals are fragile, yet fate is unbreaking."

"Fate is unbreaking indeed."

The awkward silence returned.

Syn broke it this time. "Why are you just staring at me? You still have other spells to learn."

"I flipped through like—thirty pages of spells." I returned my attention to the Nomicon with a sigh. "Do you know how long it's going to take me to memorize everything?"

"You can't."

"You're probably right."

"It's not a mental limitation, it's a magical limitation," Syn reiterated. "You can only have so many of the spells memorized. Once you reach that breaking point, you can't learn anymore from the book without forgetting one of the others."

"And here I thought that choosing only four total hexes was a hard enough choice."

"Don't worry, as you increase your amount of cycles, you will eventually be able to remember more spells."

I let out another sigh and flipped the Nomcron over.