Yui nodded her understanding. She rose from the chair and gestured for the others to follow her as she headed out the door. Gaves, Bella, and the Goldsilk girls followed her out of the house.

Damien ran a hand through his hair and flopped down into a chair. “What in the Eight Planes is going on? This is just weird.”

“Eight Planes?” Nolan asked.

Damien cursed inwardly. “Got mixed up, I haven’t thought about the Planes in a while. I meant seven.”

It wasn’t the most convincing argument, but Nolan grunted his understanding and let the matter drop.

“I think I’m missing a few key pieces of information,” Nolan said. “So I can’t help you there. Do you actually need time to figure out how to teach us this secret magic?”

“Not really,” Damien admitted. “It’s pretty much brute force. All you have to do is use your mental energy to disconnect the lines of Ether from the Corruption.”

“Corruption?” Nolan asked.

“Ah, that’s what the weird monsters are called,” Damien said. “They consume the Ether around them, draining the environment until it’s almost completely devoid of it. You can’t kill them while they’re connected to the Ether, since they have an incredible regeneration rate. You’ve got to split them off, then kill them.”

“Interesting,” Nolan said. “Is separating the lines connecting someone to the Ether really that easy, though? I’d have thought that would be a common fighting technique if it was.”

“It seems borderline impossible on people,” Sylph said. “I gave it a shot once we figured out the technique. My mental energy is unfortunately low, so I can’t do the technique. I did ask Delph and he reported similar results, though.”

“So something about the Corruption makes them easier to split off?” Nolan asked. “Interesting. It’s like they’re not properly connected to the Ether at all. Are these monsters artificial?”

“We don’t know,” Damien admitted honestly. “They’re… something, and it isn’t good. The easiest way to fight them is with at least two people. Have one person disconnect them from the Ether, and have the other finish them off.”

“I see,” Nolan said. “In that case, I have another question. Why did you send the Princess and everyone else off? If you didn’t need time to prepare, couldn’t you have just taught them now and have been done with it?”

“Well, it’s easier in concept than it is in practice,” Damien said, snagging a berry. He went to eat it, then paused and handed it to Sylph. She took it with a grin and Damien claimed another berry for himself. “It’ll probably take some time for everyone to master it, and there’s no real way to practice beyond actually fighting the Corruption, so it’ll be a lot of theory. But, for your first question, I sent them away because I need to figure out if we can somehow use them to solve a problem that I’ve got.”

“A problem? What is it?”

“Nothing quite as important as the Corruption,” Damien admitted. “It’s a political problem. The mayor here, Shindal, is trying to get rid of the old teacher and trying to instate his kid in her place. He’s claiming that Rune Crafting isn’t worth teaching, and her talents would be better put to use elsewhere.”

“What?” Nolan exclaimed. “Rune Crafting is incredible! I’m still not particularly good at it, but there are so many applications both in and out of combat. It’s incredibly important for people to at least get a taste of it.”

“That’s the problem,” Damien said. “I’m pretty sure the mayor’s kid just can’t get a job so he’s trying to get him here at the cost of people’s educations. We’re trying to figure out a good way to help the teacher keep her job.”

“Ah,” Nolan said, his eyes lighting up. “I see what you’re getting at. You want Yui to step in?”

“It’s the least she could do,” Damien said with a wry grin. “It’s not like the mayor can ignore a direct request from the Princess.”

“You’re not wrong, but the mayor is probably going to know exactly who asked Yui to step in,” Nolan warned. “Rumor moves fast in small towns, and he’ll absolutely hold this against you.”

“Does that really matter? He probably wouldn’t go back on his word with a princess,” Damien said. “And I’ll be back at Blackmist soon enough. I don’t have any plans of living in Ardenford forever, so if the mayor doesn’t like me it hardly matters.”

“That’s true, but your mom is still here. Couldn’t he cause her difficulties?”

“I guess it’s possible,” Damien said with a frown. “I didn’t think about that. Honestly, I don’t think he could do much to her. She’s a council member and my dad is pretty influential – when he’s actually around. The most he could do is annoy her, and I don’t think she’d mind that in exchange for letting Mrs. Hubbard keep her job.”

“Then it can’t hurt to ask,” Nolan said. “Everyone who came here asking to get trained essentially owes you a favor, anyways.”

“Wait, what? Why?”

“That’s how things work with nobles,” Sylph answered before Nolan could speak. “And all the people we’re about to train are nobles. That means they all owe you a favor. If they didn’t, they’d be indebted to you and that could cause issues down the road if other people found out and accused them of not paying back what they’ve been given.”

“You know a lot about nobles,” Nolan said, raising an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize.”

“I picked up a thing or two,” Sylph replied with a shrug. Damien briefly wondered how much her training had forced her to learn about noble society. He repressed a grimace and the desire to ask Henry if it was possible to dig up someone’s soul just to drop kick it off the Planes.

“Wait, if they owe us a favor, is this really the best thing to use it on?” Damien asked.

“With Princess Yui? Absolutely,” Nolan said. “You want to get rid of that as quickly as possible. Trust me, you want to limit any ties you have with her. Having favors from minor and major nobles is great, but the Crown is different altogether. That gets you wrapped up in the real politics. You don’t want to be anywhere near that.”

“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Damien said, offering Nolan a grape. He accepted it and sighed.

“I am,” Nolan said. “Please don’t ask more than that. I don’t want to speak about it, but I’d answer if you did. I promise it isn’t very important to what we’re doing right now.”

Damien shrugged. “Sure, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. It’s not a surprise to either of us that we have secrets. But you say you’d answer if I asked – is that because you feel like you owe me a favor?”

Nolan’s mouth quirked up. “Perhaps.”

“I – you know what, never mind. I don’t think I’m ever going to fully understand nobles,” Damien admitted. “But I do appreciate you as a friend, favors or not.”

Nolan blinked, then gave Damien a small grin. “And I likewise. You’ve taught me more than I think you realize.”

“Now, more importantly,” Sylph said, “wouldn’t it be funny if we made everyone run laps until they were exhausted before we started training?”

***

Yui and the others returned about an hour later. As tempting as Sylph’s suggestion was, they instead opted to return to the shed to begin training. Damien wanted to minimize the amount of time he had to spend training so he could get back to doing just about anything else.

“Alright,” he said. “First off, you can’t actually beat the Corruption on your own, so you’ll need to partner up. This is a two person job.”

“Corruption?” Yui asked.

“There are only three of us,” Gaves said.

“There are six,” Damien corrected, nodding at the Goldsilk girls. “One of you can partner with one of them. And the Corruption is the name of the monsters that we’re fighting against. If you want to know why, ask Delph.”

They shrugged, although Gaves didn’t look particularly pleased.

“Why do we need two people?” Eve asked, her voice so quiet that Damien barely heard her. “Delph is on his own.”

“Because it’s too dangerous for one of us,” Damien replied. “I don’t know what Delph is doing, and I was under the impression he was working with another professor. Regardless, he’s a professor and we aren’t. To fight the Corruption, you first need to understand how it works.”

Damien spent a few minutes explaining the Corruption’s regeneration and how they consumed the Ether in an area the longer a fight went on.

“So that means if you fight this Corruption too long or if you just fight a lot in the same area, you could end up draining the magic away?” Elania asked.

“If you fight incorrectly, yeah,” Damien said. “Which is why it’s vital that you don’t. The Corruption’s power is tied to siphoning away the Ether from the surrounding area. Unlike normal people, it looks like they can be split off from their magic using mental energy. Once you do that, they still regenerate a little, but they’re much weaker. You can attack them until they turn to stone and then eventually die.”

“So that’s why you need two people,” Viv mused. “One person has to concentrate on splitting the Corruption off from the Ether, and the other one kills it and protects the mental energy user.”

“Exactly,” Damien said. “So split up. One person in each group should be at least competent with magical energy, since I know all of you are at least semi-capable fighters. Nolan will just have to partner up with me or Sylph since we’re short one person.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gaves asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“We fought the Corruption for an entire summer,” Sylph said, stepping to meet his gaze. “And both of us have nearly died multiple times, even with Delph’s help. We don’t need to argue with you about this. Either do what we say or leave.”

Gaves glowered but inclined his head.

“Gaves, partner with Bella, she’s got a good grasp of mental energy,” Yui said. “I’ll partner with Viv, if that’s okay with her. I’m decent at using both mental energy and Ether.”

“That’s fine, Princess Yui,” Viv replied, walking to stand beside her. “Elania is very talented at using mental energy herself, so these parings should work.”

“Perfect,” Damien said. “I’ll go over how to properly use your mental energy to split it off from the Corruption together with Bella, Elania, and Viv. Sylph, can you go over some strategies to fight the Corruption with everyone else? Nolan can watch whichever he’d prefer.”

Sylph nodded and waved for Yui and Gaves to follow her outside. Nolan strode after them. Once they’d left, Damien gathered his Ether. He channeled it into his hand, then shifted its form to look like a lasso.

“You can’t actually see my mental energy, so I’ll just use Ether to demonstrate,” Damien said. “You need to make some way to grab a large number of Ether strands. I don’t think it matters what method you use, but it can’t just be one strand at a time. If there’s even one still connected to the Corruption, it won’t die.”

The lasso morphed into a dozen tendrils. “If you can control multiple probes at once, then that’s probably the most effective way to do it. You need a lot of mental energy for that, though. Most people don’t use much at once, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this seems a bit foreign to you.”

“How many strands of Ether are normally connected to the Corruption?” Viv asked.

“I don’t think it’s the same every time,” Damien said, scratching the back of his head. “Expect anywhere from ten to a few dozen. Maybe more, but most of them had around that. If there are too many for you to handle, then let your partner know and just retreat.”

Elania screwed her eyes shut in concentration. A moment later, a confident grin crossed her face. “Can we just collect them all with one or two tendrils?”

“Yeah, that works. Just make sure you don’t lose hold of them. It gets harder when you try to hold a lot at once.”

“I can tell,” Elania admitted. “I’m holding a few right now without drawing from them. I couldn’t hold this for long, especially if there were a lot more.”

“Which is why coordination is very important for this. Most people don’t have enough energy to hold the Ether indefinitely, so you’ll have to work with your partner closely. For now, everyone should practice and figure out what method works best for you.”

He leaned against the wall of the shed and watched as the other students closed their eyes and got to work.

“I bet if you walked over and pushed one of them, they’d fall on their face before they realized what happened,” Henry mused. “They’re so unaware of their surroundings when they close their eyes like that. Humans are more like goats than they think.”

We’re not doing that.

“You’re not doing that,” Henry corrected with a gleeful laugh. “Bets are off for what I do at night, unless you want me sticking around.”

Damien didn’t have a good response to that. He was pretty sure setting Henry loose on an innocent farmer’s goats in exchange for time with Sylph was at least a little evil, but he wasn’t about to say no.

“I think I’ve got a basic grasp of it,” Bella said after a few minutes.

“As do I,” Viv added. “But eight strands of Ether is my max and even with that few, I wouldn’t be able to hold on for more than a few seconds. How did you manage to do it for a few dozen?”

“I have naturally high mental energy,” Damien admitted. “But a good portion of it was also practice. A lot of my spells use a ton of it, so I’ve just had more time than you to get good with it. Don’t worry, it’s much easier to train than new spells. You’ll probably be seeing results by the end of today.”

Henry laughed in his mind. “We’ll see about that.”