Night fell without me even realizing. I still struggled to whittle down which spells to learn, even with Syn's input. Eventually, I sorted all the spells into two ranked lists. One were offensive spell. The other—utility based. The two different lists were because I wasn't sure how many I could learn. In the past, Syn said she had only been able to learn four of the level zero spells. Having set the precedent, I assumed that it would be the same for me.

The reason I separated them into two lists was to help me maintain a balance. Of the four hexes, three were utility based, and one was offensive. Granted, two of them were level one spells which could only be used once per day, but they were still a factor.

After much internal debate, the first spell I memorized was [Magic Detection]. A utility spell that did exactly what its name said.

[Lesser Illusion] was my next choice, and my personal favorite of the bunch. With it, I could create any sound or image and have it last for an entire minute. With some restrictions, of course. The first being any image created could be no larger than five feet tall and five feet wide. Along with this, if I chose to create an image, I could not also choose to have the image create any sensory effects alongside this. Whether I could cast the spell once more or use [Legerdemain] for such a purpose remains to be seen. I also needed to test what would happen if someone interacted with the illusion. Still, it was good enough to cause a bit of mischief, and the thought of a major illusion spell forced a smile across my face.

For my third and final choice, I ended up taking [Lightning's Ark]. Casting this spell would send a line of lightning from my hand and at the target. However, if there was another target close to the initial one, I could willingly have the lightning leap onto them as well, hitting two birds with one stone.

"I'm surprised that you decided upon [Lightning's Ark]," Syn said, sitting on my desk. Or at least what looked like sitting, since she couldn't actually interact with it.

"Why?" I slumped back in my chair. "It was at the top of the offensive list?"

"Exactly."

"Well, look here. I don't need six different spells to attack someone."

"You do want different methods of attack, though. After all, creatures and people are different. Some can resist certain types of anima more than others."

"Which is why I learned [Lightning's Ark]. But, the spells haven't disappeared."

"They won't disappear, you just won't be able to learn anymore without forgetting another."

"Which one will I forget? Or is random?"

"You will forget the earliest learned spell."

"So the order I learn them in does technically matter. But, it doesn't actually since it took me longer to decide which ones to learn, than to actually learn them."

"For level zero, you're correct. However, look at a level one spell. Each subsequent level essentially doubles the learning curve."

I didn't need to flip over to look at a one; it was already apparent when I looked through earlier. The arcane words required were no longer just a few words and instead turned into an entire phrase, along with more complicated gestures. In fact, it was quite the odd sensation because I could have tried to read the page about [Flesh Warp], but no matter how many times I tried, I could not remember even the smallest of details of how to cast it. Only its effect was still present in my mind. This was probably similar to what would happen if he forgot a spell. Luckily, there was no harm in trying to learn another at this level.

In that case, I shifted my eyes to number three on my utility list. [Bend Water] allowed me to control water in a few different ways, including to bend water or animate water into simple shapes. Change the color or opacity of said water. Or freeze the water, which would in turn relinquishing my control of it. I could only use two of these effects at a time, but they would last for an entire hour and only required hand gestures.

I moved onto the next spell, [Flame Creation], because five was an odd number, and it would be a weird number of spells to learn. This spell occupied an interesting position at both the number three damage spell and number four utility spell because at the end of the day—fire was still fire. It created a small bundle of fire in my hand that could be used for general fire purposes, or I could throw it at a target, which would sadly on be about thirty feet or so. After learning this spell, I still having [Legerdemain] lodged in my memory, but I got a mild head cramp, so I left it at that.

Six level zero spells were two more than Syn had been able to learn. Those, along with the two level zero hexes from the pact, granted me a total of eight. Which was an increase of infinite proportions compared to yesterday.

I closed the Nomicon and stood up.

"Having the equivalent of eight level zero spells is quite a bit," Syn said, getting up with me.

"Compared to double yours, no doubt," I replied, still in the middle of stretching my back.

She raised her finger and corrected me. "It's actually only two more than what I had in one cycle. Whether it's because you're a Weaver with zero cycles, or if it's because of the method I used, you don't seem to have any additional abilities besides the instant cast."

"That is true. And speaking of, what spells did you have a choose?"

"Besides some of the worthless options, the ones presented to me were not the same as yours."

"I wonder if there's a way to access those."

"Although not by much, the spells you have are technically superior to the ones I had."

"Not by much, technically—do you want to add anymore qualifiers?"

"No."

"Good." I exited my room. No one had returned yet, although it had only been a day. I opened up the icebox before closing it. Strangely disappointed that more food hadn't decided to appear in it. "Shame that there wasn't a spell to make or cook food for me."

"I knew of Weaver's that had abilities tying into food and other culinary arts. Unsurprisingly, they were some of the best chefs of the time."

I locked the front door behind me. "Were they chefs first? Or did they gain their powers and then become chefs?"

"Most were chefs first, obviously. The exceptions likely gained their powers at a young age and then traveled on that path. Are you looking to become a chef?"

"No way. I hate cooking."

"I've never cooked before, so I can't agree or disagree with you."

"I feel like you would agree."

"Why?"

"No idea. It's just a gut feeling."

"Understood."

Several minutes of equally dry conversation and walking passed until I found myself in front of Athas's house. I was about to walk up and knock on the door, but then I realized that I carelessly hadn't come up with a good excuse of why I was here that didn't give away Mitre being a Weaver and both of my parents not being home. While in thought, fate decided that I was given enough time, and the door opened. His mother held a white bag of trash, signifying it was leftover food scraps for the livestock. Like Athas, she was a bit stocky, yet fairly muscular.

"Aleister?" she asked, slightly confused.

"Oh, Miss Ariel! I was just about to knock on the door," I said with my hands out.

"Ah yes, you can come on it, but Athas isn't home right now."

She probably assumed I'm here to see him, which makes sense. I can't believe I overcomplicated it. But her last part left me just as confused. "He isn't?"

"No, he said they assigned him watch duty for the rest of the weekend."

"Really? That's weird."

"Exactly what I said. Tulsi rarely assigns guard duty on two consecutive days, but for three?"

"It is odd, but... I think I might know the reason," I said.

"I recall mentions of visitors in town?"

"Actually, yes. That was the reason I had in mind too."

"Someone important?"

"I do, but..." I wobbled my hand in the air a bit. "Normally, I don't think I should say this, but I don't want you to worry. But yes, they are a diplomat from Vallonia."

"Why is someone so important in Stillside?" she asked with wide eyes.

"They aren't here yet, but it's probably due to our location and proximity, maybe?" I exaggerated the shrugging of my shoulders. "I wish I knew more than well."

"At least something interesting is happening down here."

"True, and, I can take that out for you."

She heaved the trash bag behind her shoulder. "It's fine, I got it."

I chuckled. "Have a good night then."

"Oh, before you leave, I have one more thing to ask of you."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Come on inside. I was hoping that you could deliver Athas his dinner. And you can have some while you're at it."

"No problem," I said. I slide past her and into the kitchen. On the dining table was a rather large slab of braised beef alongside some sauce covered pears. My mouth watered.

"That looks pretty good," Syn said.

I turned around to make sure his mother was still outside. In a hushed breath I said, "Ok, you really need to tell me how to do the whole mental communication thing."

"Just focus on me and the words you wish to communicate."

"Like this?"

"Like what?" Athas's mother asked as she walked in.

Syn carried a disappointed expression across her face.

I pointed at the food on the counter with my thumb. "I was just saying I like the smell of this."

"Oh, thanks. I was just trying something new since this is the last batch of pears for the year."

Several minutes later, I walked out of the house, carrying much more food than I expected and it was taking all of willpower to not nibble on it before I reached Athas.

"In what part of my instruction did I say to speak the words?" Syn asked. "How does that even happen?"

"None. And I don't know. I was just focusing on speaking the words, that, my mind just registered as me wanting to say them and they just came out of my mouth."

"Try again."

I focused my mind on Syn and the words I wished to speak. The problem was, I had no idea if I successfully communicated or if my attempt ended in failure.

"Did you get that?"

"You will know if I your words entire my mind."

"Got it," I said before engaging in a numerous amounts of attempts. All of which, ended in failure.

"Aleister?" Athas questioned. He let out a yawn, expanding his lazed eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Your mom asked me to deliver some food to you," I explained, gently placing a tin case down in front of him.

His eyes now glistened, but looked at him in confusion. "Why did she ask you to come? On the rare occurrences where I have to leave before supper, she usually just brings it over herself. Is she ok?"

"It's just because I stopped by your house and she asked me to do this. It's not that complicated."

"You stopped by? What did you want to talk about? Probably the visitors in town, right?"

"Initially no, I just wanted some food, but since I'm here, we can talk about it."

"I can't tell you much more about them. Something weird is happening for sure though."

"Because you're being forced into three days of night watch duty?"

"Yes. And do you know the reason?"

"Nope."

"It's because most of the town guards are camping in the area around the east gate. Isn't that so weird?"

"Because the only thing east besides more trees is the Vallonian border?"

"Now that you mention it, that only makes it even weirder."

"Anyway, we can discuss that matter in a bit. Right now, let me tell you about one of the visitors currently in town that I met."