The cold grey ceiling of the cave blurred into view above Damien. His entire body felt stiff and cold. He groaned, his muscles protesting as he slowly sat up. It felt like he’d aged fifty years.

“Stop whining,” Henry said. “You did this to yourself, and it will pass.”

Damien’s mind sorted through the foggy memories, the frown deepening on his face.

“Did it work?” He asked. “Can I cast magic?”

“Not yet,” Henry replied. “And we weren’t trying to let you cast magic. We were trying to let you connect with the Ether. There’s a difference.”

Damien rolled his head in a slow circle. His neck let out a series of pops and he let out a relieved sigh.

“Well, did that work?”

“You tell me, you idiot,” Henry said. “Do you even realize what you did? You nearly died!”

“Henry, you’re the one who told me we don’t exactly have a lot of time,” Damien said, his tone growing cold. “Or do I have to remind you about the five… things roaming the world as we speak?”

“Don’t pull that shit on me,” Henry snapped. “I can read your thoughts. I’m well aware you’re just insanely obsessed with learning magic and you didn’t want to wait any longer.”

Damien’s cheeks flushed. He crossed his arms and shrugged.

“Maybe.”

“You’re insane,” Henry said. “Don’t forget this isn’t just your life you’re toying with! If you die, I get sent back to the void! If you don’t pace yourself, you aren’t going to live to cast any real magic.”

“Fine, fine,” Damien said with a heavy sigh. The feeling had started to return to his limbs once again. “I’ll be more careful, but can we please get on with the magic?”

There was a pause that Damien assumed was Henry rolling his eyes. Then a thrum of static rippled outwards from his chest, passing through his entire body.

“I’ll help you find the Ether the first few times, but you’ll eventually want to find it on your own,” Henry said. “The connection has been established. Reach out with your mind, but do not close your eyes.”

That was easier said than done. Damien drew a deep breath to steady his thundering heart, and extended his senses.

“Not like that!” Henry said.

Damien felt a force envelop his mind. He resisted for a moment. Then he relaxed, allowing Henry to guide him. Henry molded the mental tendril Damien used like putty, turning it into something closer to a net.

“Send this out around you,” Henry said. “Like how mortals do when they fish, but in every direction instead of one. When it touches the lines of Ether, they’ll light up for you.”

The net felt strange in Damien’s mind. He’d grown so used to the single tendril that arranging the energy into a more complex form was taxing. If Henry hadn’t been helping him hold it together, the net would have already collapsed.

With Henry’s assistance, Damien threw the net of energy outwards. It expanded and stretched, forming a rough sphere around him. The world lit up.

Damien jerked back as hundreds of thin glowing threads appeared all over the room. Some disappeared into the rocks, some into his belongings, and some into him. It was as if he’d fallen into a giant spider web.

“Wow,” Damien whispered, unable to find better words. He reached out and brushed a line of Ether with his hand. His body passed clean through it, not disturbing the light in the slightest. “I can see the Ether. How do I use it?”

“You are impatient,” Henry said. “You need to get used to the Ether. Then you can worry about using it. We’re going to repeat this a few more times. Just focus on the energy surrounding you.”

Damien nodded, too engrossed to argue with his companion. Henry allowed him to sit there for several minutes, silently absorbing the beauty of the Ether surrounding him. As Damien’s concentration faltered and his mental net wavered, the lines started to fade from his vision.

Damien let the net drop completely and the lines blinked out. He gathered his mental energy, trying to mold it the same way Henry had. The result was a blobby, misshapen box of crisscrossing energy that could have been mistaken for a net by someone with a severe concussion.

“A little help?” Damien asked meekly.

Henry snorted. The energy shifted into a more netlike appearance. With a grin, Damien cast it out once again, this time with more energy behind it. The room lit up with the Ether once more.

“This is amazing,” Damien breathed. “Is this how you see the world all the time?”

“You’ll learn to filter it out eventually,” Henry replied. “It’s just clutter that blocks your sight.”

“What do you mean? It’s beautiful!” Damien said. “It’s pure, unfiltered magic, isn’t it?”

“More like a few wavelengths of magic,” Henry replied. “Particularly, the four types of magic I have access to: light, dark, space, and void. If you could see all forms of magic, you’d be blinded. It would just be a wall of light everywhere you looked.”

“Wow. That sounds amazing,” Damien said, running his hand through a line of Ether again.

“Stop daydreaming,” Henry said. “What happened to rushing? Drop the net and make it again. We’re repeating this until you can make it on your own. It’s not hard, so you should be able to do it today.”

And that was exactly what they did. It took Damien a little under an hour to be able to form the net on his own. As Henry had said, it wasn’t hard – just different. Damien had a slight headache from all the mental energy usage by the end of it, but that couldn’t keep the smug grin from his face.

“I’m doing magic!” Damien exclaimed, casting the net out once again and marveling at the Ether surrounding him.

“More like you’re looking at it,” Henry grumbled. “But, this is enough to get started. Nothing fancy, mind you, but you can start to channel some basic energy without me babysitting you.”