Damien and Sylph exchanged an awkward glance. Then the girl raised the stick of dumplings to her mouth and took a bite out of one.

“I didn’t know you already knew magic,” Sylph said.

“It’s a new development,” Damien replied, running his hands through his hair with a sigh. “How did Professor Delph find you?”

“He was waiting for me at the mess hall,” Sylph said. “He bought me lunch as an apology for knocking me out, and he promised to give me personal training. Training that he’s now invited you to join.”

“Uh, sorry,” Damien said. “I wasn’t trying to get caught up in it.”

“I know. I’m sure he’s got some reasoning for it,” Sylph replied, starting down the path back towards their room. Damien followed after her.

“Did he say what he’d be teaching you?” Damien asked.

“No, but I expect its combat training for the field,” Sylph said. She tilted her head to the side. “Speaking of which – how did you spot Delph? Were you hiding your magic when we first met?”

“No,” Damien said. “I really did just learn it.”

“Or your companion is powerful enough to do it for you,” Sylph observed.

Henry surged to the forefront of Damien’s mind. The boy’s shadow rippled as Henry examined Sylph, energy subtly forming into a spell. Then it faded away and the companion slipped back.

“She shouldn’t know any specifics,” Henry said. “I can’t read her mind, but her companion is not powerful enough to identify me.

Sylph’s gaze flicked down to Damien’s shadow before returning to his face.

“Interesting,” Sylph said.

I think she just played you. Also, what was that magic? Don’t even think about attacking someone. That absolutely goes against our contract.

Henry’s response was an angry growl. Damien didn’t have time to continue the conversation with his companion, so he just gave Sylph a noncommittal shrug.

“He helped,” Damien admitted. “But there weren’t any rules against that.”

“Fair enough,” Sylph said.

They completed the rest of their walk in silence, arriving at the mountain and heading up the path without any more idle chitchat. When they arrived at the plateau, Damien couldn’t help himself from glancing into the other students’ rooms as they passed.

He wasn’t very surprised to see that Nolan and Reena had set up a curtain at the front door to block out prying eyes. However, Mark hadn’t made any attempts to hide his own dwelling space.

It was difficult to see much of the room as it was already getting dark outside. However, Damien was still able to make out several carpets that looked to be made out of animal hides on the floor. Mark himself didn’t appear to be in the cave.

As for their own room – all the runes that Damien had drawn inside the cave as he was carving out the training area were still powered, and their effects were much more visible at night. Faint light emanated out from the entrance of their cave.

“Why is our room so bright?” Sylph asked.

“I might have been doing some renovations,” Damien said. “I can’t turn the runes off, but we can just rub them away before we go to sleep.”

“Renovations?” Sylph asked, frowning. They arrived at the room’s entrance and stepped inside. Sylph drew in a sharp breath. “Is that a hole in the wall?”

“Well, yeah. I was making a training room,” Damien said. “They did say we could modify the room.”

“How did you carve so much stone away in so little time?” Sylph asked, squinting at him before walking over to the tunnel he’d created.

“Magic,” Damien replied lamely.

“You had enough energy to do this much?” Sylph asked with what was either awe or anger. “After just learning it this morning? How is that even possible?”

“I’m not sure what you want me to respond to that,” Damien said, shrugging. “I didn’t do something wrong, did I?”

“No, you didn’t. I’m just very curious as to what your companion is,” Sylph said. She shook her head and peered inside the hallway. Then she cursed. She turned back to Damien and crossed her arms. “Do you care to explain what’s going on?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Damien said, starting to get annoyed with the constant questioning. “I told you, I’m just making a training room.”

“Then why is there a party going on inside it?”

“What now?”

Damien squeezed past Sylph and peered inside his room. Mark, Reena, and Nolan were sitting in the center of the room, surrounded by a faint blue bubble. The group didn’t appear to have noticed them.

Damien yanked his head back around the corner.

“I have no idea! What in the seven planes are they doing in our room?” Damien exclaimed. His baffled expression was more than enough to show Sylph he was telling the truth.

“Eight planes,” Henry idly corrected. Damien ignored him.

“If you didn’t invite them in, we should go and find out. I don’t appreciate people coming into our room like they own it,” Sylph said, her voice cold. She took another bite from the stick of dumplings, which still wasn’t quite finished, and headed down the hallway.

Damien was more than happy to let her take the lead, if only because Henry seemed a little overeager to cast magic without Damien’s permission.

Mark was the first to notice them heading down the hallway. He glanced up from something in his hands and flushed a light red. The blue dome covering them faded away and vanished.

“Hey! Put that back up. What if someone hears us?” Nolan said in a hushed tone.

Mark just pointed over Nolan’s shoulder. Nolan turned and promptly did his best rendition of a ripe tomato.

“What are you doing in our room?” Sylph asked, crossing her arms.

“Well, ah, we were trying to find you two to see if you wanted dinner. Then we saw the glowing coming from your room, and there was the tunnel,” Reena started. She fumbled for words for a few moments, then sighed. “Light. It was really dark in our rooms, and yours had a lot of light.”