The girl rolled with the strike, hopping back to her feet. A dagger formed of shadows materialized in her right hand. She grabbed something invisible in the air before her and pulled it to the side, stepping forwards and disappearing.

“You need to learn a new trick,” Delph said. The wendigo reached behind it, ripping Sylph free from her camouflage.

Her hand flicked, sending the dagger flying straight into the creature’s chest. It arched its body, but the blade carved a thin furrow through the monster’s thin skin. Delph let out an annoyed grunt. He set Sylph back on the ground as the monster’s skin rippled and faded away, revealing his normal form once again.

“That was a real transformation,” Henry provided. “Not an illusion.”

Sylph let out a groan, rising to her feet and brushing the sand off her clothes.

“Clever way to win,” Delph said, shaking his head in mock disgust. “Getting caught on purpose to get me off my guard works for this test, but don’t be stupid enough to try that in a real fight. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you kill your opponent. The most important thing is that you survive yourself.”

Delph patted Sylph on the shoulder and beckoned for Damien to join them as Sylph leaned against the wall to watch. The professor examined the boy with a critical eye before nodding.

“There’s no point giving you a physical test,” Delph said. “You’ve got nothing left. I want you to run five laps around the arena every day, regardless of whether I’m teaching you that day or not.”

Damien grimaced but nodded, his tired muscles already cursing him for the promise.

“Now, you demonstrated you knew how to channel the Ether, but you don’t know any true spells, correct?” Delph asked.

“Not yet,” Damien said.

“Then we shall test if you’re as talented as you claim to be,” Delph said. “Unless your mental energy is exhausted as well?”

The way he said that made it very clear that if the answer was anything other than ‘no’, Damien would be running laps for the rest of the day.

“I’ve still got some left,” Damien hedged.

“Good response. As I’m sure you know, your companion’s magic determines what magic you can use. What is lesser known is that most companions have access to multiple types of magic. They might specialize in one, but all you care about is the access. Your progress is independent of your companion’s talents. As long as the door is open, you can choose to focus on what you want.”

That was news to Damien. Henry just scoffed.

“So,” Delph said, raising an eyebrow. “I understand that some companions are not willing to commune much, but have you discovered what types of magic you’ll have access to?”

Damien opened his mouth. Then he closed it and cleared his throat awkwardly as Delph’s mouth thinned.

Henry? Now would be a good time to start talking.

“I thought you wanted me to remain quiet,” the companion said petulantly.

Henry!

“Oh, relax. I have access to light, dark, void, and space,” Henry said. “It goes without saying that telling him about void would be incredibly foolish.”

“I know what they are,” Damien said before Delph could say anything else. “Light, dark, and space.”

Delph paused, the words dying at his lips. He tilted his head to the side, inspecting Damien as his eyebrows slowly raised.

“Space?” He asked. “That’s not a common one. I happen to have some talent with space myself, although it’s not my main element.”

“Is that what you used to knock Sylph out the first time you two fought?” Damien asked innocently.

“No,” Delph said. “That was something else. If you make sufficient progress, I’d consider teaching it to you.”

Damien nodded as Henry murmured in excitement.

“Regardless,” Delph said, tapping a finger on his chin, “you’ll eventually want to figure out which field of magic you want to focus on. You’ve got some time, so just think on it. In the meantime, I’m going to teach you a basic space spell.”

“Okay,” Damien said eagerly.

“The majority of magic is based off two things,” the professor lectured. “The first is intent, and the second is pattern. The Ether wants to return to its natural state. This happens when it is expended as energy.”

Delph raised his hand into the air and an orb of dark blue light formed above his palm.

“If you don’t give it any intent or pattern, you get the most basic application of magic. It is simply destructive energy that is let off as the Ether moves back to a line. However, you can make it harder to return to normal by controlling how much of the Ether can escape at once.”

A crackle of lightning erupted from the orb, turning a small area of the sandy ground into glass. Damien jumped despite himself.

“I forced all the Ether to leave at once instead of letting it slowly burn off,” Delph explained. “I also visualized a lightning bolt. Since your desires influence the Ether, you can encourage it to do what you want. Now, be wary of experimenting. You influence the Ether, but you do not control it. If you try to do something your school of magic does not permit you to do, the Ether will not react how you expect, often with disastrous consequences.”

Damien swallowed and nodded. It wasn’t hard to understand the meaning behind Delph’s words: experimenting was a very bad idea.

“You’re lucky you’ve got me to ask questions,” Henry said, reading the boy’s mind. “If you didn’t, the curiosity would probably eat you up and you’d probably blow your room up.”

Oh, shut up. Just because you’re right doesn’t mean you have to say it.

Damien did his best not to break eye contact with Delph as he responded to Henry. It was impossible to tell if the strange professor had noticed anything.

“I have access to the sky school of magic, so lightning is a natural form of energy for me to use,” Delph said. “You do not. I don’t know what would happen if you visualized a bolt of lightning, so I advise against it. Of course, you could emulate it with your light magic, but you’d only get the flash and nothing else.”

“So, what should I visualize for space?” Damien asked.

“For now, we’ll start small. Space magic can change the size of an object, so see if you can enlarge a grain of sand,” Delph suggested. “It’s basic enough that you don’t need to make an actual spell for it, as all you have to do is impart the energy into the sand quickly while picturing it enlarging. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Keep in mind that this will not work on living creatures or magical items. They both have innate magical energy that will resist a spell of this level.”

Damien nodded. He cast his mental net out once more, grabbed a mote of Ether and drew it into himself, and started to cast his first real spell.