“Seven planes,” Nolan exclaimed. “You completely destroyed him!”
“I had to move before he could do anything,” Damien replied, cracking his neck. “Rank two means he had to be pretty strong, so the quicker it was over the better chance I had. I don’t want to give away too much right now, and it really didn’t look like I was getting out of that without a fight.”
“It’s unwise to refuse the Princess’s request,” Reena said. “She’s known to be very… passionate.”
“I’m sorry for bringing you both into this,” Nolan said as he let out a slow sigh. “I had no idea the Princess would be here today, nor did I think Father had arranged something behind my back.”
“It turned out splendid, though,” Reena replied with a grin. “She looks on us with quite a favorable light. This could be massive for our family.”
“I’m sure,” Nolan said, waving his hand dismissively. “Although the gaze of royalty brings success and destruction in equal portions. I’m still not happy you hid this from me. Today was mean to be relaxing, not more work.”
“You wouldn’t have come if you’d known.”
Nolan’s eyes narrowed, but he gave her a nod. “You aren’t wrong. Then, do you have any more surprises waiting for us?”
“That’s it,” Reena promised.
“Good. Then we should head back. The Princess didn’t deign to send us back to the Dancing Dragon, and our dates are waiting for us there.”
He turned on heel and started towards the arena exit with Reena at his heels. Damien and Sylph trailed a few feet behind them.
“You okay?” Damien asked in a low voice.
“Yeah.” Sylph nodded. “I had some emergency jerky stored. I won’t melt myself, and I don’t think Yui saw how my wound healed.”
“Do you think she’s going to be a problem? I think she’s a lot more perceptive than she let on. I think she knows I helped Nolan with the staff.”
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Sylph said. “She wasn’t going all out against me either, although I’m still confident I could have won the fight just based on her reaction speed. Yui is more than she seems. We’ll have to keep an eye on her during the intramurals.”
It was Damien’s turn to nod. They fell into silence, catching back up to the Gray siblings. The arena turned out to only be a few blocks away from the Dancing Dragon, so it didn’t take them long to get back.
After reuniting with Valentine and Loretta, the group mingled with the lower nobles for the rest of the social hour. Nolan managed to fend off the most aggressive ones, but no shortage of prying glances were cast at Damien and Sylph.
In the end, no further difficulties arose that day. Damien wasn’t a huge fan of the attention, but they left the Dancing Dragon soon enough. Reena took them to the beach, where they spent the remaining hours of the day sitting on the sand and watching the ocean lap at the beach. She’d brought three blankets to lay on – one for her and Valentine, one for Nolan and Loretta, and the last for Damien and Sylph.
That was, by far, Damien’s favorite part of the day. The gentle waves were mesmerizing, and he was able to let his guard down for the first time in the last few hours. The group remained there to watch the golden sun set behind a sparse blanket of clouds on the horizon, lighting the sky up with brilliant purple and pink hues.
Once night was well underway and the wind started to pick up, they all finally packed up. They headed back through the portal in the center of Seaview, and Nolan returned their clothes to them after everyone had arrived in Blackmist.
Damien thanked him for the invitation, which Nolan responded by thanking them for helping with the Princess situation. After that, they all headed to their respective beds.
The following days were quick to fall back into the normal routine. Damien and Sylph spent all day practicing or in class. Sylph continued to work on establishing a connection with her companion. With Henry still working on making a convincing manifestation form, Damien finally turned his attention to the book on Light magic that Delph had given him.
He started by picking up a simple flash spell that would, in theory, create a spark of Ether so bright that it would temporarily blind anyone that was looking at it. That only took him two days to learn, as it was one of the most basic spells he’d seen.
Unfortunately, most of the other spells within the book didn’t draw his interest. There were a few, such as a light shield, that would have been useful, but they either overlapped with the abilities of his existing spells or simply weren’t worth the effort to learn.
Annoyed, Damien abandoned the book and headed to the library, leaving Henry and Sylph to practice in the room.
“Heading to the library?” Delph asked, nearly causing Damien to leap a foot into the air as the man stepped out from the shadow of an alley.
“Eig – seven planes, Delph,” Damien swore as the man fell in step with him. “You scared me. How do you hide your magical presence so well?”
Delph just cocked an eyebrow. Damien let out a sigh.
“Yes, I’m going to the library.”
“Why?” Delph asked. “I wouldn’t imagine there’s much in the way of spells that you can learn from a book that your friend can’t teach you.”
“He’s busy right now,” Damien replied. “And he doesn’t know everything. Just a lot of things.”
“Then what about the book I gave you? It was a good starting point for Light magic.”
“It was boring,” Damien replied. “Sorry. I learned the flash spell, but everything else just wasn’t worth my time. Blasting a light beam out of my hands would be great, but the form to do it is too complex for the results it provides. I could throw a gravity lance and probably end up doing more damage.”
“That’s because Space magic is annoyingly strong,” Delph said, but he didn’t sound particularly put out. “So what kind of spell are you looking for? Offense? Defense?”
“I’m honestly not sure yet. I think what I’m really looking for is something… sneaky. All of my current spells are pretty straightforward – aside from Devour and Expunge, I suppose. And even those only work once before someone realizes how they work. I need a trump card.”
“Dark magic is apt at things like that,” Delph observed. “Space has some applications there as well, although they do tend to be much more Ether intensive.”
“I don’t think that’s a problem for me,” Damien said. “And I do think that Space magic is probably my main field at this point. Do you have a suggestion or something?”
“I’ve got a thought,” Delph said. “But you aren’t going to find it in a book."
“Well now I’m interested. What is it?”
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Delph put a hand on Damien’s shoulder. Ice lanced out from the man’s touch and through his body. Before Damien could even gasp, the world turned gray and faded.
He staggered forward, missing a step and falling straight into a puffy red couch. Damien’s head swam as his head adjusted to the sudden teleportation. He sat in a homely, clay brick room with a fireplace across from him.
Stacks of books lined the walls and covered the carpet, and papers were strewn everywhere. Delph walked out from behind him, leafing through a book the thickness of his forearm.
“Where are we?” Damien asked, blinking.
“My house,” Delph replied. “I wanted to go somewhere without too many ears, and Dredd was listening.”
“Why? He knows everything. Should we not trust him?”
“Oh no, he’s fine,” Delph said, waving his hand dismissively. He tossed the book onto the top of a stack, which wobbled precariously for a moment before somehow managing to stay upright. “Dredd is just a huge worrywart. And an annoying stickler for rules.”
“…does that mean we’re breaking a rule?” Damien asked.
“Not one of any importance,” Delph responded, smirking. He paced up to stand before Damien. “It’s not like you follow many rules anyways. Your very existence breaks at least three that come to mind.”
“Okay, fine,” Damien said, rolling his eyes. He leaned forward, putting his hands on his knees. “So you’ve got a forbidden spell or something? I’m not going to pretend like I’m not interested. What is it?”
“Not exactly forbidden,” Delph said. “Just a bit more risky than normal.”
“Sure,” Damien said, not believing the man for a second. “Are you going to dance around it or just tell me?”
“I preferred it when you were meek and terrified of me,” Delph said irritably. “It’s not a spell. It’s a technique for casting magic.”
“That doesn’t sound particularly interesting,” Damien said, frowning. “Casting magic is just drawing Ether into your body and expelling it in a pattern, isn’t it?”
“That’s the normal way,” Delph said, grinning. “Use your mental energy to watch me. I’ll work with Space magic so you can see what I’m doing.”
Damien obediently cast out his net, illuminating the golden lines that crisscrossed throughout the room. The lines of Ether around Delph twitched like someone was plucking on them.
They bent of their own volition around Delph’s hand, parts of them pulling off and forming into a churning sphere of purple energy. It vanished a moment later and the lines snapped back to their normal positions.
“I don’t get it,” Damien said, frowning. “You didn’t pull the Ether into yourself. How did you cast a spell?”
“It’s called direct casting,” Delph said with a smug grin. “And it’s similar to what the Corruption does, although this is much more natural. Instead of destroying any Ether that I touch, I instead make it do my will without bringing it into myself.”
“That’s interesting,” Damien admitted. “But I’m not sure how it has any advantages over normal casting. I guess it’s a tad faster since you don’t have to draw it into yourself, but is that it?”
“No,” Delph said. “It’s actually a little slower, at least for me. There are two major improvements over normal casting, though. First, direct casting can use much more Ether. Since you don’t have to store it within yourself, you can interact with more at once. But the other, and much more important, benefit is that it’s much more forgiving.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Magic happens when the Ether tries to return to its natural form and unravels the pattern you pushed it into,” Delph explained, dropping into his ‘teaching’ voice. “But, you might have noticed that I’m not actually using a pattern for direct casting. That’s because I’m actually directly sending commands to the Ether.”
Damien’s eyes widened. “You don’t need spells at all with this, then? You can tell the Ether to do something and it’ll just… do it? No pattern, no fancy manipulation or runes?”
“Exactly,” Delph said, the grin on his face growing wider. “Granted, the Ether isn’t particularly smart. It’s not intelligent at all, actually. So if you get too fancy with your commands, nothing happens.”
“Still, that’s incredible! It means you can do a bunch of very basic magic at a higher strength without even having to learn a spell for each application,” Damien mused. “Alright, you’ve hooked me. That seems beyond powerful. Why isn’t this taught normally? Or is it just for higher level students?”
“This isn’t something in any mage college’s curriculum,” Delph said. “The other professors here don’t know about it either. In fact, I’m the only one I know of that can use this. And I only know it because someone taught it to me many years ago.”
“Wow. Why haven’t you shared it with anyone? Is it that dangerous?”
“Mixture,” Delph replied with a shrug. “It’s quite dangerous, yes. But I was also told not to share it unless somebody met certain requirements. You’re the only one who meets them.”
Damien frowned. “Certain requirements? You don’t mean…”
“The Void,” Delph said, nodding. “The only people I can teach this method to are those who can use Void magic. Since your companion is a Void creature, you must have access to it.”
“Wait, this is Void magic?” Damien asked, rising to his feet as his eyes narrowed. “You know Void magic?”
“No. This isn’t Void magic. You just need have the Void element for me to teach it to you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why does–”
“Do you want to learn or not?” Delph asked, crossing his arms.
Damien opened his mouth. Then he closed it with a sigh and gave Delph a nod.
“Good,” Delph said, a crazed grin crossing the man’s grizzled face. “That’s what I thought. We’ve got a lot to cover if you want to learn this in time for the intramural tournament, so let’s get started.”