The three of them watched as the professors finished off the remainder of the monsters and slowly started to make their way towards the hill, gathering around them. Dredd spotted Damien and Sylph. His gaze flicked up to Delph, a frown creasing his face.

“You got the students involved,” Dredd stated.

“Just in a bit of cleanup,” Delph replied, waving his hand. “Look, they’re fine.”

“And if they hadn’t been? They’re Year Ones, Delph. Not Year Fours.”

“Let’s not dwell on hypotheticals,” Delph replied. “Everything turned out fine. Was anyone injured?”

“No,” Dredd replied. “It was one of the most pathetic monster hordes I’ve seen. There was no organization to them, just random monsters that look like they were thrown together and ran here at a moment’s notice.”

“Interesting,” Delph said, pulling out the pendant and turning it over in his hand. “Just what is this thing? If they wanted it so urgently, something tells me they’ll send another wave after it.”

Dredd snatched it from the other professor and squinted at it. “No idea. You stole this from the Dean’s office, didn’t you?”

“Reappropriated,” Delph corrected. “Better me than the monsters.”

Dredd grunted and threw the pendant back to the other professor. “Whatever helps you sleep at night. Give it back to him, then give me a report of everything that happened today – including the children.”

“Since when did you become the boss?” Delph asked.

Dredd glowered at him. “Delph.”

“You’ll get your report,” Delph said, rolling his eyes. “And if you weren’t such a hardass, maybe people would actually do things before you asked them to.”

“Funny, everyone seems to do things that I need aside from you,” Dredd replied. “I know you’re playing at something, Delph. This isn’t the frontlines. You can’t toy around like you did there – there are innocent lives at stake.”

“I would never do something like that. My work is not just ‘toying’ around,” Delph said, making air quotes. “And no life is innocent.”

Dredd pressed his lips together, but he didn’t get a chance to respond. The crowd of professors parted slightly as a very bedraggled Whisp made her way past them. Her hair was poofy and stuck out in every direction. She was covered in soot and dirt, and one of her eyebrows was half singed off.

“Looks like you had fun,” Delph said, putting the pendant into his pocket.

“Can it, Delph. I need a drink,” Whisp said with an irritable sigh. Her gaze flicked to Damien and Sylph. “Why are you two here?”

They both wordlessly pointed at Delph, who didn’t even have the good grace to look abashed. Whisp rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Whatever. I really don’t care. How bad is the damage to the school?”

“A few buildings. Nothing important,” Delph said.

“Which buildings?”

“A restaurant that nobody liked and a few other stores. None of them had anything too valuable, so repairs should be fast,” Delph said.

Whip’s singed eyebrows grew closer together. “What restaurant?”

“The crappy noodle one.”

“I liked that restaurant!” Whisp complained.

“Then nobody of relevance liked it, acting Dean,” Delph said, smirking.

Whisp rubbed her face with her hand, only succeeding in smearing the dirt around more. “You are insufferable. Go take your wards and bring them home so they can do something other than gawk at me. Then go put in the orders to get things rebuilt.”

“Why me?” Delph asked. “I didn’t blow up the buildings.”

“You let monsters into the school to let your students fight them,” Whisp said. “Or am I wrong? You can’t tell me that they breached the walls of the school without damaging them.”

Delph cleared his throat. “I’ll get the orders handled as soon as possible. Show’s over, kids. Let’s go.”

Damien bit back a laugh as Delph put a hand on his and Sylph’s shoulders. The professors watched them with a mixture of amusement and worry as Delph’s cloak expanded outwards, enveloping all of them. It shrank down, spinning into a small gray dot before vanishing.

The two students reappeared in front of their room. Delph was nowhere to be seen. With a yawn, Sylph pushed the door open and walked inside, holding it open for Damien.

“Well, that was eventful,” Damien said dryly.

“It’s just like Delph to intentionally bring a bunch of monsters into the school to train us,” Sylph said, shaking her head. “At least we know he didn’t abandon us.”

“He could have just grabbed a bunch of monsters and tossed them in before doing whatever he wanted to,” Damien pointed out. “He’s insane. I wouldn’t count on anything. But, more importantly, what was up with the monsters attacking in the first place? Delph was right – they must have really wanted that locket. I wonder what it was.”

“Somehow I don’t think we’re going to figure it out in the library,” Damien said. “Henry? What do you think?”

His companion stirred within him. “I was staying very far in the depths of your psyche, so I didn’t get much of a look at anything. That Dean of yours has some impressive levels of power for a mortal. You’re lucky he didn’t seem to care about you in the slightest – even with the rune circle, he might have been able to sense me.”

Noted. I’ll do my best to stay away from him in the future.

“Nothing useful?” Sylph guessed from Damien’s expression.”

“Unfortunately not.” Damien sighed. “I suppose it’s none of our business for now. But how was your magic working? Everything functional?”

“I’m about where I was before the stone mantis,” Sylph said. “Just without the limit to my growth. And, out of curiosity, I checked the seal that Hen – you put on me. It’s still there, so the evolution didn’t get rid of it.”

“I’m sorry,” Damien said, frowning. “I guess it’s just linked to your core.”

“It’s fine,” Sylph said, giving him a small smile. “I think I can deal with it, especially considering the thing you’ve got on your chest.”

Damien grimaced. He pulled up his shirt and looked down at the twin circles on his body. The writhing tentacles emerging from them reached almost up to his arms.

“Were they always this long?” Damien asked worriedly.

“I don’t think so,” Sylph said, squinting at it. “Maybe they absorbed some of the power during the core evolution?”

“Wonderful.”

“Do you feel any different?”

“Not really,” Damien said. “Just tired. And a little hungry, but not enough to actually get anything to eat.”

“Then you’re probably fine – for now, at least,” Sylph said. “And, unless you want to run down to the general store and beg the clerk for food, I think there’s only one problem we can solve right now.”

Damien nodded. The mere thought of the bed had reminded his body of how tired it was from after the core evolution, and he could practically feel nonessential functions shutting off. He flopped down into his bed, not even bothering to remove his clothes.

He caught Sylph doing the same out of the corner of his eye, but his tired mind barely even registered it before the embrace of sleep swallowed him. Mercifully, Henry and Herald both decided to spare Damien a nighttime visit, so the night passed peacefully and without interruption.

The next morning, faint rays of sun peeked in from around the cracks in the door. Damien groaned, rolling over and shoving his face into the pillow. Core evolution or not, every single part of his body ached, and he couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed and drag himself to the shower so it could heal.

The shower turned on. He curled his nose and rolled over again. Sylph wandered out a few minutes later and nudged him. “Stop being lazy.”

“No,” Damien grumbled. “We fought off a monster horde yesterday.”

“We fought like three monsters,” Sylph said. “The professors did everything else.”

“Semantics,” Damien muttered, but he rolled out of bed. Sylph cocked an eyebrow as he dragged himself past her and into the shower. A short while later, he reemerged feeling mostly reinvigorated.

The remains of the panther hadn’t survived their core evolution, so the two of them headed down to the mess hall to get breakfast. Luckily, the large woman staffing them was still present. Once they’d eaten, they made their way back to their rooms. Most of the campus was still deserted, but there were a few more people walking around than the previous day.

“How long do you think it’s going to take until all the other students get back?” Damien asked, sitting down on his bed. “Even if they have the guys in the red robes go out and collect everyone again, it’ll probably still take a while.”

“I doubt all of them went home,” Sylph replied. “They probably just got sent to a nearby city that was considered safe. I’m sure everyone will be back by the end of today.”

“That’s probably a good point,” Damien said. “I suppose there’s not much to do than practice, then.”

“That’s how it generally is,” Sylph said, a grin tugging at the edge of her lips. “At least we can say we got to do something during the siege. I’m sure at least somebody will be jealous.”

Damien chuckled as they both headed into their respective training rooms. Once Sylph was out of sight, Henry slipped out and rose from the shadow beside Damien.

“Ready to practice Warp Step again?” Henry asked. “Your core evolution shouldn’t have affected your progress with it much, but it hardly matters. You were almost there already, so you should have it figured out in a day or two.”

I hope so. The spell is interesting, but I have to admit that the spells that make things explode are a little more… cool.

“And this is coming from the boy that didn’t want to be a combat mage just a short time ago,” Henry said, scoffing. “And don’t worry, we can focus on some more destructive spells after you figure out Warp Step.

Damien nodded. He drew on the Ether and got back to work, eager to finally get a handle on the spell.

As it turned out, it didn’t even take him the rest of the day to push through the last stretch. Just an hour or two after lunch, Damien was able to cast Warp Step correctly at least six out of ten times. It was far from mastery, but he was happy with it.

“Does that ever get old?” Sylph asked from her bed as Damien blinked across the room, nearly running face first into the wall.

“Not in the slightest,” Damien replied, cackling. He vanished again, this time tripping over his bed and falling straight into it with a grunt. Sylph laughed. The motes of dark energy floating around her faded as she lost concentration.

“Ha ha,” Damien said, rolling his eyes and brushing imaginary dirt off himself. “I don’t see you practicing your new spell. It’s not fair that you’re the only one that gets to laugh. I’m sure yours isn’t going all that much better.”

“It isn’t,” Sylph admitted. “It’s the first time I’ve learned a new spell in a very long time. The last one was my camouflage, and I was taught that when I was eleven.”

Damein blinked. “Damn. That–”

“Sucks,” Sylph finished. “But it doesn’t matter now. I’ve got a chance to progress again, and I am making progress. It’s just slow.”

“Anything worth showing?” Damien asked.

Sylph pursed her lips. She raised a hand, concentrating on it for a few moments. One of her fingertips shimmered, the end growing sharp and lengthening. Before Damien could get a good look, it snapped back to its normal appearance.

“Damn,” Sylph muttered. “I still don’t have a lock on it. It’s harder than it looks.”

“I can imagine,” Damien said. “But what’s the point of making your fingers sharp? You can already make shadow swords or whatever – isn’t that just the same thing?”

Sylph smirked. “It’ll have more applications than that, but I don’t want to talk about them now in case I can’t get the magic to work right. I’ll show you what it can do once I figure out how to control it.”

“Fair enough,” Damien agreed, Warp Stepping across the room again. Syph groaned.

“Your endless amounts of Ether are so annoying,” she complained. “It’s like you never run out.”

Damien blinked over to stand beside her bed. He stubbed his toe hard against the post and he cursed, hopping around on one foot and holding the injured toe. After a few moments, he cleared his throat and regained as much of his dignity as he could. “Coming from the person who placed rank one in the ranking battles.”

“And I plan to do so again next year,” Sylph said with a smug grin. “Then again, with the rate you’re improving at, I might have to shoot for second.”

“We’ll both probably have to put in our all,” Damien said. “If Mark figures out how to control his companion – or just lets the damn thing loose – we’d both probably have a lot of difficulty standing against it.”

Sylph nodded thoughtfully. “Although that’s all assuming the school doesn’t get ransacked by monsters looking for Delph’s pendant.”

“Yes,” Damien agreed. “I suppose that’s true.”

After a few more minutes of small talk, they both got back to work. Damien continued practicing Warp Step while Sylph returned to meditating and attempting to grasp the reins of her own spell.

The rest of the day passed quickly and the following one was upon them before they knew it. As Sylph had predicted, the campus had come back to life overnight. When the two of them walked outside, Mark was sitting beside Nolan, who was hunched over a stack of paper and drawing a rune circle.

Damien peered over they boy’s shoulder and grimaced. A moment later, the paper in Nolan’s hand burst into flame. It shriveled up and turned to ash within moments, blowing away in the wind.

“Was that supposed to be a heat rune?” Mark asked.

“No,” Nolan said, sighing. “It was meant to be a barrier.”

“It wasn’t a very good barrier.”

“I’m aware,” Nolan said, brushing his hands off and craning his neck to glance up at Damien and Sylph. “I didn’t see you two at the evacuation. Delph wouldn’t let us into your room. What happened?”

“Well, that’s a bit of a long story,” Damien said. He didn’t see any reason to hide it from Nolan, so he explained the events of the past few days.