They found Mark in his room, surrounded by the Goldsilk girls and with a dozen swords on the ground around him.

“It’s just dinner,” Mark said irritably, holding one of the blades up to the light to examine it. “I don’t see the point of spending so much time on it. Besides, I already ate.”

“When?” Elania asked, crossing her arms. “And it won’t take that long.”

“This morning,” Mark replied. “I’ve been busy.”

“You’ve been staring at a sword for the last thirty minutes,” Viv pointed out, trying to hide a smile. “We won’t force you to come if you don’t want to, but you really shouldn’t lock yourself up like this.”

“If I go, dinner will end up stretching on for hours and you’ll probably decide to do something equally as pointless afterward, dragging me along with you,” Mark said, setting the sword down with a grunt and picking up another one.

Eve’s eyes crinkled in amusement, but she seemed content to let the others speak. As far as Damien could tell, she wasn’t a woman of many words anyway.

“But Damien and Sylph are going,” Elania said. “If they can find time, why can’t you? If constantly training without any breaks was that effective, you’d be winning the tournament instead of them.”

Mark paused at that. His gaze shifted over to Sylph before traveling over to Damien. “You’re back from training?”

“We weren’t training,” Damien replied. “We were on vacation, actually. Delph mandated it.”

“Elania said you and Sylph were training,” Mark said with a frown.

“More like we trained them,” Damien corrected. “We didn’t actually do much training ourselves. The break feels like it did a lot of good, actually. It helped me recalibrate myself a little, you know?”

Mark rubbed his chin. “I take breaks, sometimes. They’re called sleep.”

“When’s the last time you actually sat around and did nothing for a few days?” Damien asked. “And for that matter, why hasn’t Delph told you to rest for a bit? You’ve been at this longer than I have.”

“Delph mostly lets me do my own thing,” Mark replied with a shrug. “He can’t exactly teach me much magic I can use, I don’t share any types with him. All he can do is hone my combat skills, and I show up to class for that.”

“Don’t you ever feel like your progress is slowing down?” Nolan asked. “There’s only so hard you can push yourself.”

“Eh. Progress is progress,” Mark replied.

“Not if you account for what you’re losing by trying too hard,” Reena said. “If you get too tired and lower your potential to learn, you might spend five days figuring something out that would normally take you one.”

Mark mulled over their words for a few seconds. “I see what you’re getting at, but I feel like you can just push yourself past that point of worsening return until you surpass it.”

“In the time we’ve spent arguing, we could have already gotten to a restaurant,” Viv pointed out. “Just saying.”

“Gah. Fine,” Mark said, hopping to his feet and sheathing the sword at his side. “Let’s just get it over with, then. I don’t think you’re going to go anywhere until I say yes.”

“Glad to see you’ve come around,” Nolan said. “We should take the opportunities we get to relax when we can. Things are only going to get busier for us from here on out.”

“You mean the ranking tournament coming up?” Mark asked as they walked out of his room and headed down the mountain path.

“No, I’m talking about the strange new monsters that have been popping up all over the kingdom, seemingly out of nowhere,” Nolan said. “The ranking battles are important, but at this point, I’m not even sure how much they matter.”

“If they even happen,” Reena said. “I’ve heard rumors saying that students might get called on to help suppress the monster attacks.”

“Are they really getting that bad?” Damien asked. “Sylph and I have kind of been out of the loop.”

“A lot of the professors are gone to help the surrounding cities,” Viv said. “Although Blackmist still has a fair number of them in the area. The attacks seem random, but its believed that they’re under the control of a dangerous monster that’s planning something. Nobody wants the schools unprotected since a lot of them house dangerous artifacts.”

“That’s worrying,” Damien said with a frown. Second was clearly gearing up for something, but he had no idea what it was. He doubted it was just the artifact he and Sylph had gotten from the Crypt, or Second would have just showed up at Blackmist. Whatever had happened to Moon, Damien suspected the man wasn’t in a position to oppose Second at the moment.

“It’s not as bad as Viv makes it sound,” Elania said. “Most of the attacks have been in pretty remote areas, and there are a fair number of mages that are capable of fighting them to a standstill. I know a few of them tagged along with Delph to figure out how he fought the Corruption, and know how to fight them as well.”

“The Queen hasn’t sent out any word that we should be more concerned about this than what the situation implies,” Nolan said. “For now, let’s leave it to the professors. If the situation was really that dangerous, they wouldn’t be sending us on an expedition to the ruins of Forsad.”

The others nodded and conversation fell into a lull as they made their way through Blackmist’s campus. Instead of heading to the dining hall like Damien had expected, Reena took the group over to a large, open faced restaurant.

Several chefs manned the kitchen, making large bowls of soup while waiters dashed form table to table, delivering dishes. A set of stairs on the corner led up to a balcony that overlooked a large garden.

Reena took them up the stairs and over to a long table at the edge of the railing, where Yui and her attendants were sitting.

“I’m sorry we’re late,” Reena apologized. “We had to spend some time convincing Mark to come.”

“It’s quite all right,” Yui replied with a small smile. “I only just arrived a few moments ago. I’ve heard good things about this restaurant.”

“The Frisky Fish hardly seems like a name for an upscale joint,” Gaves grumbled. “But the view is nice.”

They sat down, with Damien and Sylph taking the chairs at the far end of the table. A waiter floated up over the edge of the balcony, nearly giving Damien a heart attack as the man alighted beside the table gracefully.

“Welcome to the Frisky Fish,” the man said, making the name somehow sound sophisticated. “We have several fresh catches from off the coast today, and I would highly suggest them to anyone looking to experience the flavors of the sea without having to travel beyond the comforting walls of Blackmist.”

He spread his hands out, summoning menus before himself and sending them flying out to land before everyone at the table. “I’ll be back shortly once you’ve all come to a decision. Do you have any questions before I go?”

“I think we’re good for now,” Reena said.

The waiter inclined his head and leaned back over the balcony, flipping once as he fell over the edge. Damien resisted the urge to rush over and peer over the railing. Henry did no such thing, splitting a tendril off Damien’s shadow and slithering up to the railing to look over it.

Damien tried not to glance down at his companion. He didn’t need to bring any more attention to Henry than was necessary.

“So, how has training been going after your break?” Yui asked, crossing her fingers on the table.

“Surprisingly fruitful,” Damien said. “I’ve been making a fair bit of progress, although it’ll be hard to say anything for sure until a few days have passed. Delph just trounced both me and Sylph in sparring matches and told us we needed to work harder.”

“Sounds about right,” Nolan and Reena said simultaneously. They glanced at each other, then looked away.

Damien picked up his menu and scanned through it. There were a lot of fish dishes, which he supposed made a fair amount of sense given the name of the restaurant. They were also all reasonably expensive.

He eventually settled on one that didn’t look too fancy and was mercifully only a few silver instead of a gold. The waiter returned a few minutes later as promised, bearing glasses of water for all of them. Once they’d been distributed, he took their orders.

Nobody was surprised to find that Yui ended up ordering the chef’s special – which happened to be a ludicrous ten gold. Everyone else settled for more appropriately priced dishes. Both Sylph and Mark ordered the same meal that Damien had.

“We haven’t sparred in some time now,” Mark said idly, taking a drink of water. His words sounded considerably flatter than usual, almost as if they had been rehearsed. “Now that we’re all here, we should get some practice in together sometime this week. It would be a good use of our time, and I’m sure we’d all enjoy spending time together.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Damien spotted Elania give Mark a discrete thumbs up.

“I want to get a better grasp of the new spells I’m working on,” Damien replied, holding in a laugh. “But I’d be happy to afterward. Maybe in a week? We didn’t get a chance to fight during the intermural, so it’ll be interesting to see how we stack up against each other.”

“Same with me,” Sylph said. “I can’t speak for anyone else, though.”

“We’d all be happy to take some pointers from you,” Viv said. “If I’m being honest, half the reason we’re here is because we want to figure out how Blackmist got such a menacing group at the tournament. Sparring with you will be an excellent way to do that.”

“I would love to join as well,” Yui said. “But, let’s not talk about that for now. We do so much fighting already, it would be nice to move our attention elsewhere for a few hours.”

“We don’t do much other than fight and train,” Mark pointed out, returning to his normal cadence. “What else would be worth talking about?”

“Well, there’s the excursion coming up somewhat soon,” Yui said. “But let’s not worry about that either for the moment. Perhaps you could tell us all a little more about Blackmist? I’ve only been here for a short while, so I don’t know much about the area.”

“To be honest, I don’t know that we know much more than you do,” Damien muttered. “We’ve spent almost all of our time here fighting or training. I didn’t even know this restaurant existed. I normally just eat at the dining hall or cook in our kitchen.”

“I remember you mentioning that,” Yui said. “Your room has a kitchen?”

“Well, we had to make it,” Damien replied. “We just got a tiny room to start off with. I used destructive energy to grind away the walls and make some extra rooms.”

“Ah. They gave me the same thing,” Yui said.

“Blackmist doesn’t differentiate between nobles and normal students,” Nolan said. “It’s… somewhat refreshing.”

“I can’t say I agree,” Reena said with a small frown. “But it’s fine. You get used to it. Kind of.”

They chatted for a few more minutes until the waiter brought their food over. He placed an enormous platter bearing the head of a fish easily large enough to feed a small family in front of Yui, then distributed much more appropriately sized meals before everyone else.

Yui eyed her fish with distaste. But, to her credit, she didn’t hesitate to dig in when everyone else started to eat. She offered everyone a portion of the meal, although Damien politely declined. He was pretty sure the fish was still staring at him.

The meal finished a short while later. Damien let out a relieved sigh and leaned back in his chair, stuffed beyond words.

Mark burped. “Anyone up for a spar?”

A cacophony of groans drowned him out. After paying the waiter for their meal, they all dispersed to head back to their housing. Damien considered practicing his new spells a little more, but he dismissed the thought. The meal had been far more filling than he’d expected, and he didn’t feel like regurgitating it.

His thoughts turned to Nolan and a small frown tugged at his lips. The conversation he’d had with Yui before leaving Ardenford tugged at the back of his mind. At the very least, he’d have to tell Nolan about it. He didn’t know what it really meant for the noble boy, but it wouldn’t be fair to keep it from him.

Unfortunately, before Damien could pull Nolan aside, the other boy broke away from the group, saying that he had some business to take care of. Damien made a mental note to take care of it when he saw Nolan tomorrow.

He and Sylph got back to their room and exchanged a glance.

“You going to practice?” Sylph asked.

“Probably not,” Damien said. “You?”

“A little,” Sylph said. “My companion is starting to come around a bit, and it doesn’t take too much out of me to communicate with her.”

“Ah! Your companion is a she,” Damien exclaimed. “That’s the first hint you’ve given me.”

“And the last one you get for now,” Sylph replied with a grin. “I’ll try to keep things down, though. See you tomorrow.”

“See you,” Damien said, watching her head into the training rooms.

“I wonder what we could accomplish if you had her training ethic,” Henry mused. “We’d probably have destroyed the world a year ago.”

Hey, that’s hardly fair. I think I work pretty hard.

“You do,” Henry admitted. “But that’s not as funny.”

I still don’t understand how you came to develop such a horrible sense of humor.

Henry’s laughter followed him into bed.