Ben noticed them waking up and couldn’t hide his excitement. He just had so many things he wanted to test, things he would have felt bad about doing to two-thirds of Sachel’s party, but now there were three test subjects waiting in front of him to help push his skills to their limits, albeit, still trapped in stone and wearing looks that were some mixture of glum, defeated, and horrified.

Well, that’s officially not my problem. Still, probably need to get them out of there.

“Thera, you mind?”

“You sure? We could just leave them, I'm sure it would make things a bit easier on you.”

“Nah, I’m sure Nare’s already made things clear enough.”

“Alright, if you’re sure,” She brought down the stone that had been imprisoning them, leaving the three unsteady on their feet after being squeezed for so long, not that any noticed. Their eyes were on Thera for the level of power she’d just displayed, along with her next words as she addressed them. “Just to be perfectly clear, if anything happens again in the rest of the time you have with him, your god won’t be able to save you from me a second time.”

God, is it weird how enjoyable it is for me to hear her threaten people on my behalf?

Her comment was met with quick nods, none of them wanting to go up against the power she so casually displayed and it left her with a satisfied look as she leaned over to Ben and kissed his cheek.

“Okay, I kind of left Insia and Rocky in a rush so I’m going to go back and explain what happened. See you tonight?”

“‘Course, I shouldn’t be too late today.”

She gave him one last smile before leaving him, flying off on a block of stone to return to her new friends as he focused back on the three he had, looking bright amongst their gloomy moods.

“Okay guys, no, friends. I am so excited. Words can’t actually express how excited I am, even if I try and pull from the dozens of languages I know. This entire time, I’ve been trying to be my best self despite the constant crap attitudes you’ve all shown, but that’s over now. Nare has said you all have no choice but to learn however I want to teach you and you can’t get out of it, meaning I don’t have to be at my best, you guys finally get to see me at my worst. We are going to have such a good week together. And by we, I mean me so let’s get started.”

It was a worrying start for them, all of the more so for just how thrilled Ben seemed to have no restrictions for what he might do, even if none of them could imagine just how bad whatever he’d been intending could be as he started rummaging around the destroyed space, looking for something and finding it as he pulled out the two circlets they’d tossed away earlier in the week and modified the enchantments he had on them before their eyes.

“Now, originally I’d tried to make these as comfortable as I could as a courtesy, even if it ate at me. I mean, trading efficiency for comfort is kind of insane, isn’t it? And nobody would even buy the comfier ones I’d make back home either, so what’s even the point? It's heartbreaking. But now, thanks to you all, I can see how far a brain can be pushed! Isn’t that exciting? To really test the limits of an enchantment against a mortal mind? You guys don’t need to say anything, we’re all enchanters. Well not you, Zallith, but you’ve got some crafting-type skills too, there’s no way you all don’t want to see the limits of what can be made, do you? Nah, you don’t need to answer that, your faces are answers enough. Hold on a minute, let me grab a couple chairs”

They weren’t sure what he was seeing because what their faces were wearing was looks of fear. They didn’t fully know what he was talking about, but they knew they didn’t want to put those on after whatever he’d just done to modify them when they didn’t even know what their supposedly comfortable state was supposed to be like, but they had no choice. Nare had been clear and Ben didn’t look like he’d be taking pity on them.

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He grabbed three chairs, one for him, Nati, and Xilly, and directed each to sit down before grabbing some rubble off the ground for each of them to enchant on as practice, leaving Zallith to stand off to the side, looking grateful to be spared from whatever was about to happen until Ben locked eyes on him.

“Oh man, my leg sure is sore after being left with a hunk of metal in it,” Ben exaggerated. “If only I had a place to kick my feet up.”

“Ah, I’ll get you something right away!”

He tried to run to do just that too, Nare’s words still echoing in the priest's head, but Ben wouldn’t let him.

“Stop. It just hurts so bad, I don’t think I can wait. I need your help now.”

“Of course, what can I…”

Ben pointed at the ground in front of him and the priest finally got the message as he rushed forward rested on his hands and knees, letting Ben kick his feet up on his back.

Myriad, I’m going to be enjoying this infinitely more during the rest of the week. Just watch, by the time I’m done, these three will think twice before ever being rude to anyone ever again. Look at me, teaching a lesson on manners with everything else I’m doing. I really am such a great teacher. I deserve a title for how great I am.

He ignored the comment from his god, going back to focus on the lesson at hand.

“Alright, now you two, before you put the circlets on just a small warning. Try not to vomit. I’m not going to say you’re absolutely going to want to but the odds are honestly good and poor Zallith is in the splash zone so hold it in and without further ado, let’s get started.”

He connected to the two of them for the first time since arriving and felt what they did as the circlets touched their heads, their minds growing and splitting into ten new and powerful ones as an intense migraine and feeling of nausea assaulted them but felt both doing their best to hang on to their stomachs, taking just a minute to breath before diving into the practice he already had them doing in the days prior as they attempted to get the enchanting modifier.

With the benefits of finally being connected to them though, Ben was able to feel where they were going wrong with how they moved their mana. Neither was actually far from success, but since it would basically be a matter of flailing around till they felt something click he could already see how this new avenue of teaching would help them and he stopped them both in their work before revealing just a couple of the minds in his head, letting them feel how he put a simple enchantment with the modifier down and seeing an instantaneous improvement on their part as a result.

By feeling what he’d done, they now had something to replicate and combined with the circlets that were not only splitting their minds but increasing their learning speed by a large margin, immediately they were doing better in their own practice, something they felt as well as they kept going.

By the end, it only took another hour until they both managed it, with no feeling of success to come with the goal, only shame. They’d both been keeping him from teaching the way he’d wanted to, and as deeply unpleasant as the experience had been, they’d just had the most success in their learning that they had in the entire week.

Nati especially wanted to try and express that sentiment to begin working to make things right and tried to take the circlet off now that they were done to return her mind to a more normal state, but Ben stopped her.

He could hear her thoughts and he didn’t care, and more importantly, he wasn’t yet done.

“Leave it on. There’s still plenty more hours in the day and what you just learned is officially the easy bit.”

“Uh, what’s the hard bit then?” Xilly asked, already worried when she’d been spending the entire time doing her best to not vomit.

For her question, Ben grinned. “Well, we’ll need to work on your guys’ ritual magic and how it relates to enchanting, but to really get the most out of that there’s something else we need to do first, plus something I’m a little curious about. With the days we have left, we’re going to see just how many levels of connect I can squeeze out of the two of you. It’s going to be great. Now do me a favour and try not to struggle against what I’m about to attempt.”

The raw enthusiasm he showed filled their hearts with doubt about how great it was going to be for them which only grew with his final statement but they got no chance to voice even a single concern as Ben decided to test his skills and only a moment later they found themselves somewhere else, trapped with whatever he intended to do.