“No need,” Damien said, his eyes narrowing. He handed the fork back to Sylph. “You’re still trying to imply that I had something to do with Jayce’s disappearance. I didn’t. The last time I saw Jayce was right after he tried to kill me.”

“So you’re refusing?” Whisp asked, cocking an eyebrow and eating the piece of meat.

“No,” Damien said. He crossed his arms. “I’m saying your terms aren’t good enough. Shoot higher.”

Whisp nearly choked. A curt laugh burst out of her mouth and she shook her head. “Seriously? You’re trying to bargain with me?”

“We’re already bargaining,” Damien replied. “The only thing we’re talking about is the price.”

Whisp harrumphed. “Perhaps. So then, oh innocent one, what do you propose? I’m curious to see what you’ll try to wring out of me.”

“All the terms of the original deal, largely because I’m fed up with you holding this over my head,” Damien said, raising a finger. “And a favor. And maybe some money too.”

“A favor?” Whisp asked. “You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

“That’s all I’ve got,” Damien replied. “Nothing too big. Maybe a teleportation somewhere, or a few hours where you have to turn your back and pretend you didn’t see something. I don’t know – I haven’t figured it out yet.”

Whisp drummed her fingers on the table. “I have the right to refuse or negotiate the favor when you ask it.”

“Only within reason. If we can’t come to an agreement on the favor within five minutes after I ask for it, let’s just say you owe me… ten thousand gold. Actually, toss five thousand gold our way anyways. It’s not like we have any reason to help you.”

“That’s a ludicrous amount of money. What could you possibly need that for?” Whisp asked.

“None of your business. Better make sure you find terms that are agreeable when I ask for the favor, then,” Damien replied. “Paying five thousand is better than ten.”

“Hm,” Whisp said, cocking her head and examining him for a moment. “Very well. And what of you, girl? Any little caveats you want to add yourself? Perhaps a personal butler?”

“If you’re offering, some free cultivation resources might be nice,” Sylph said.

Whisp rolled her eyes. “You’re both rug salesmen in training. Fine. I will provide what you request.”

The three of them ate the rest of their meals in silence. Damien had to admit that it was delicious, but a large portion of his enjoyment was ruined by Whisp’s unblinking eyes constantly burning into him.

Once they’d all finished eating, Whisp stacked several gold coins on the table. She stood, wiping her mouth with the back of a shirt sleeve and letting out a contented sigh.

“I can never get enough of this place,” Whisp said. “And now for some wine to wash it all down. I don’t suppose you drink?”

Damien and Sylph both shook their heads.

“Then our business is done,” Whisp said. “The tournament will take place in several months, near the middle of the school year. Obviously, if you somehow fail to pass your finals or don’t make it into the tournament, our deal is off. You aren’t the only people I’ve contacted about this, so don’t feel too special.”

With that, Whisp waved her hand in a dismissive motion. They were only too happy to step out of the room and retrace their steps out of the strange restaurant.

“I wonder what artifact could interest Whisp so much that she’d try to make a bargain with us,” Damien said. “If she’s playing at something, I don’t know what it is.”

“Neither do I,” Sylph replied. “But I do know we probably would have tried to enter the tournament anyways, so we didn’t lose anything agreeing to try. Extra cultivation resources are too useful to simply ignore, and the money doesn’t hurt. Good move.”

The air beside them warped. To their credit, neither Damien nor Sylph flinched as Delph appeared striding alongside them as if he’d been there the entire time. Frankly, it was possible that the man had been there the entire time.

“You have to pass your finals first,” the professor said, stroking his chin. “Something which you two don’t seem to be particularly concerned about, even though they’re only a little over a month away.”

“Hello, Professor,” Damien said. “Should we be concerned? I don’t want to seem cocky, but we’re significantly above most of our class. If we can’t pass, I don’t think they will either.”

“What makes you think the test is a general one? It could be personalized.”

“That wouldn’t make sense,” Sylph replied. “If it was personalized, you’d end up flunking your more talented students.”

Delph’s nose curled. “Gah, I suppose that’s true. Fine, you’re right. I highly doubt any of the finals will pose any issue for you. So long as you don’t sit around doing nothing from now until then, there’s almost no way you fail mine. I can’t speak for your other classes, but something tells me you’ll be fine.”

“So what’s the point of popping up like this?” Damien asked. “It seems sort of pointless, and you don’t do pointless things.”

“Tell that to the Dean,” Delph muttered. “But you’re right – I do have a point. There’s one more quest week before finals. Tell me, have you finished all the required quests for progressing to the next year yet?”

“Not yet,” Sylph said. “But we’re close. It won’t be hard for us to finish them off. Why does that matter?”

“Well, you’ve gone on a special quest for Whisp,” Delph said, giving them a small shrug. “I figured you might want the chance to do another one with me at the lead instead.”

“You?” Damien asked, shocked. “Why are you leading a quest?”

“You don’t have to sound so shocked,” Delph said. “And it’s in relation to the little dalliance the college had with the monster horde. I can’t tell you more than that unless you accept, but I can promise it’ll be a very enlightening experience.”

Damien examined Delph’s face for a few moments, which was harder to do than it sounded while they were walking. “Something tells me that saying ‘no’ wouldn’t go well for us.”

“What gives you that idea?” Delph asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Have I ever done anything to make you think I would do something petty and vindictive if you didn’t do what I asked?”

“Yes,” Damien and Sylph said at the same time.

“Wonderful,” Delph said. “Then I’ve got your answer. I’ll pick the two of you up in two weeks. Don’t be doing any weird teenager stuff when I arrive.”

He contorted, disappearing into his cloak just as they turned the corner and stepped onto the main street. A loud group of students walked past them, chattering excitedly. Once they passed, Damien let out a heavy sigh.

“He’s insane.”

“That’s hardly news,” Sylph said. “At least he basically said we’d pass the finals, though. That helps alleviate a little stress.”

“Did you really think you wouldn’t?” Damien asked, tilting his head.

“Everyone has worries, even if they might be a bit irrational.”

“Fair enough.”

They finished the rest of the walk to their room and both got to work on their respective training. With Delph’s quest so soon on the horizon, neither of them had any plans of letting any time slip away. Every minute of preparation could mean the difference between success and, at the least, painful failure.

Damien fell into something of a rhythm once again. He trained magic in the mornings, then sparred and got lunch with Sylph afterwards. Whenever they ran out of food, they returned to the forest to hunt. He then spent the rest of the day casting repetitive spells to cultivate. At night, Henry brought Damien into the mental world to train even further.

Instead of trying to start on a new spell, he focused on getting a better mastery over the ones he’d already learned. Warp Step grew easier and easier for him to cast, although it was still his hardest spell by far.

As for Sylph, she spent almost all of her time in the training room. She woke before Damien and went to bed long after him. He was starting to get desperately curious as to what the girl was working on, but he respected her privacy too much to pry. Even Henry admitted to being curious, but he honored Damien’s wishes to leave her alone.

She’d tell him whenever she was ready to. Until then, Damien was resolved to wait. They went to dinner with Mark and the Grays a few times, but it was clear that finals were hanging low over everyone’s minds.

Well, almost everyone’s. Mark didn’t seem to care in the slightest, but that was just about normal for him anyways. Damien also took pity on Nolan’s amusingly bad attempts to learn runecarving and spent an evening going over the art with him, showing the noble as many tips and tricks as he could cram into his head.

Damien wasn’t sure if his tutelage had worked, but at least he stopped waking up to the smell of burnt hair lingering outside their door from Nolan’s failed attempts.

Reena continued to try and get into Damien’s good graces, which only served to make him more uncomfortable around her. Her attempts grew more frequent as finals approached. However, after Damien helped Nolan, they abruptly stopped.

Whether that was because Reena’s goal had always been to get him to help the boy or if Nolan had stopped her, Damien didn’t care. He was just glad to have her out of his hair. He’d gained a little respect for Nolan, but every interaction he had with Reena left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

Fortunately – or perhaps unfortunately – Damien didn’t have long to think over such things. The two weeks passed and, before he knew it, the morning of the quest week arrived. He and Sylph were both rudely awoken as their door swung wide open and Delph strode inside.

Damien blinked wearily, groaning and sitting up. “What time is it?”

“Time to get up. We’ve got monsters to kill,” Delph said, letting the door swing shut behind him. “Go take a shower or something. You look exhausted.”

“I wouldn’t look so tired if you didn’t barge into our room at…” Damien peered past him, but it was still dark outside. “…whatever time it is.”

Sylph was smarter. Instead of joining the conversation, she just pulled herself out of bed and headed into the bathroom. She pulled the curtain shut and the shower turned on a moment later.

“What’s the reason for showing up so early?” Damien asked. “Is this secret or something? Because you did just loudly announce it for everyone in the vicinity to hear, so Mark or the Grays might have listened in.”

“Not really a secret, although I wouldn’t tell them anything they don’t need to know,” Delph replied. “And get used to waking up early. It’s the best time of day.”

“Agree to disagree. Besides, I don’t know if you can really claim it’s currently daytime,” Damien muttered. Sylph emerged from the bathroom a minute later, and Damien took her place. The shower did a lot to help wake him up, but he still wasn’t particularly pleased about being awake so early. He grabbed his toothbrush on the way out and tossed it into his travel pack.

“Are you two ready?” Delph asked.

“For what? You haven’t told us anything about the quest,” Damien pointed out. “Are you at least going to give us a summary of what we’re supposed to do?”

“I’m getting there,” Delph replied. “And, while this isn’t a secret quest, it might be better to do it away from anyone who might be prying.”

He extended his hands. After a moment of hesitation, Damien and Sylph accepted them. Gray energy flared and his cloak expanded, enveloping the three. They disappeared in a flash, leaving no trace behind.

A mote of grey bloomed underneath a large tree, depositing them all on the wet grass. Damien staggered, grimacing as his stomach churned violently. He’d gotten so used to the teleportations that he’d nearly forgotten that long distance ones made him sick. Luckily, he managed to keep his food in.

They stood at the edge of a large field and the start of a sparse forest. The grass, still wet from the previous night’s rain, reached up past Damien’s knees and tickled his fingertips. “Where are we?”

“Under a tree,” Delph said helpfully.

“Could we get a little more specific?” Sylph asked.

“I could,” Delph said. “I won’t, but I could.”

“Well, that’s nice. So much for this not being secret,” Damien said.

“Oh, it isn’t. I just like keeping people wondering. Makes me feel smart,” Delph said with a straight face. It was impossible to tell if the professor was joking or not. “Besides, it hardly matters where we are.”

“Can you at least tell us what we’re doing?” Sylph asked. “Not that this is uncommon for you, but we have absolutely no idea what’s going on.”

“We’re here to try and figure out what the artifact that I stole from the Dean’s office does,” Delph said. “And, before you ask, the way we’ll be doing that is an old mage.”

“An old mage?” Damien blinked.

“Yes, that were the words I said. Very astute,” Delph said. He started walking into the forest. Damien and Sylph followed after him.

“What does an old mage have anything to do with an artifact that belonged to a group of monsters from beyond the frontlines?” Sylph asked.

“She’s an expert in identification of artifacts,” Delph replied. “Was pretty famous for it, back in the day. Used to charge exorbitant fees for even the smallest identification. Ridiculous, really. But she was good at her job.”

“I thought we were going to be fighting something,” Damien said, frowning. “Why do you need us for this?”

“Would you prefer to fight something?” Delph asked, cocking his head. All traces of the plains behind them had vanished behind the countless trees. “Actually, that might not be a bad idea. Maybe we could beat the information out of her instead of paying whatever ridiculous price we get quoted.”

“I don’t like how you’ve said ‘we’ while talking about a crime,” Damien said, narrowing his eyes. “Is this quest even official with the school?”

“Of course it is,” Delph said, waving his hand. He stepped over a particularly gnarly looking root, then turned to the right. Damien had no idea how the man was navigating. As far as he could tell, every single tree in the forest looked identical. “For being tired, you two are awful chatty.”

“One more question,” Sylph said. “What use could you possibly have for us if you’re just talking to a mage?”

“Ah,” Delph said, wincing slightly. “There’s a nonzero chance she despises me. I did try to kill her a few years back, and some small, minded people aren’t very forgiving of things like that.”