Delph woke them the following morning for his normal class. He was gone by the time they got up, of course. All that remained of him was a slip of brown paper. The class went as normal, with Delph mostly overseeing their general progress and giving suggestions on fighting strategies.

Dredd was waiting for them when Delph’s class ended, but he only exchanged a few words with Sylph before dismissing them. Both he and Delph seemed distracted. Damien and Sylph had their own things to worry about, so neither complained about the classes being cut short.

They both got back to training as soon as they returned to their room. Once Damien was alone, Henry peeled away from his shadow and leaned against the wall to watch him practice.

Dark Ether came to Damien easier today than it had the previous day, and it only took him a minute to bring the energy to his fingertips. He shot a triumphant glance at Henry.

“Well done. I’ve watched children half your age achieve similar things in a tenth of the time,” Henry said. “Let’s get to the hard part. In order to learn Storm, you need to learn two more spells. The first is one of the most basic applications of Space magic - telekinesis.”

Damien started to nod, then paused. “Wait. Why didn’t you start me off with telekinesis? That feels like it would have been way easier to learn than Gravity Spheres. Probably would have been more universally applicable as well, considering I can do more than destroy things with it.”

“It was boring,” Henry said, sounding ever so slightly apologetic. “I did say I skipped a few fundamentals.”

“No wonder Delph thought I was lying,” Damien muttered. “My teacher is an idiot.”

“It’s your personality messing me up. This is your fault,” Henry said, crossing his arms. “Now do you want to learn the spell or not?”

“Just show me,” Damien said, shaking his head. “And are there any other fundamentals you skipped that I should know?”

“Oh, dozens,” Henry said, then shot back into Damien and snagged control of his body before the boy could reply.

Damien flicked him with a small blast of mental energy, then sat back to watch his companion work.

“This should really be quite simple for you,” Henry said, taking a mote of Ether that already resided within his core. “Use Space Ether and envelop it with your mental energy. Then kind of stretch it as you release the spell, enveloping the object you want to control.”

Henry extended one of Damien’s hands toward a loose stone on the floor. A flicker of faint purple magic ballooned from his hand, washing over the stone and lifting it into the air.

“The only thing you have to keep in mind is that you’ve got to maintain connection to your mental energy the entire time,” Henry continued. “The moment you let go, the spell ends. Most mortals I saw using this spell would just pick rocks up and throw them, releasing their mental energy right after so they wouldn’t overstrain themselves.”

He took a figurative step back and let Damien control himself once more. The boy repeated Henry’s motions and was pleasantly surprised to find that the spell seemed to be just as easy as Henry suggested.

There was minimal work changing the Ether within himself, and he was able to form a disk of magic without too much difficulty. He enveloped the rock Henry had demonstrated on, then willed it to rise into the air. The rock floated up to his eye level. A faint purple sheen hummed around it.

“Huh. It actually worked,” Damien said, sending the rock in circles above his head.

“It is a beginner spell,” Henry grumbled. “I’d be worried if you couldn’t get it. Just make sure not to overexert your mental energy on this spell. It’s a lot of effort for a pretty basic result.”

Damien nodded. The rock did a little dance around him, then shot off into the wall and broke into several pieces with a sharp crack.

“That’s a fair bit of force,” Damien observed. “I could do some damage with this.”

“Not as much as a gravity sphere. Much lamer, too.”

Damien snorted. “What’s the other spell, then? You said I needed two for Storm, and I don’t think telekinesis is going to be much of an issue.”

“It’s another Space spell,” Henry replied, taking over Damien once more. “And, before you ask, the Dark aspects of Storm come in to pull everything together.”

I was just about to ask that.

“I know,” Henry grumbled, pulling a mote of Ether from Damien’s core and bringing it out as destructive energy so that Damien could watch him shape it. “This next spell is called Tear. It actually functions like the opposite of Warp Step, but works offensively instead of for mobility. Instead of compressing space, you split it apart in a small area.”

Henry worked the Ether through a series of patterns slowly enough for Damien to memorize them, then let the spell fade and drew another mote of Ether.

“Allow me to demonstrate,” Henry said, pulling the Ether through Damien’s arm. It burst from his fingertips, sending a dark purple crescent moon about the size of his palm shooting through the air. The spell flitted into the wall and vanished.

It didn’t do anything.

Henry formed a glove of destructive energy and scooped a portion of the wall away, much to Damien’s dismay. He tossed it into the air, then sent another crescent moon flying at it. Two perfectly smooth halves clattered back to the ground.

“It did do something. It cut right into the stone, but the slice is so thin you can’t even see it,” Henry said. “And there is a reason I didn’t show you this particular spell before today. It’s very easy to make a small mistake and accidentally release it inside your body or just cut limbs off on accident. It’s a lot of danger for a spell that’s easily blocked by any form of magical defense.”

That’s probably for the best. I think I would have lost a few digits if I’d tried learning this earlier. Actually, I’m not convinced I won’t lose them learning it now.

“I’ve been observing how you control Ether,” Henry said. “You’ve gotten passable at it, so I think you can handle this spell. It really isn’t that difficult, but making a mistake will punish you very heavily. Unlike Gravity Spheres, Tear doesn’t need a command to do damage. It’ll cut through what it hits, be it you or anything else.”

He went through the runes to imprint into the Ether one more time, with Damien occasionally interjecting to ask a question. They spent almost an hour just going over the theory before Damien tested the runes out outside himself.

It was another few hours before Henry proclaimed Damien’s progress sufficient enough to let him start practicing the spell in real. Damien steadied his breathing and turned his concentration inward, repeating the pattern he’d been reviewing with careful, practiced commands.

Controlling the Ether when it was inside his body was still significantly harder than controlling it once it had left since he couldn’t see what he was doing. He finished the pattern and pushed the Ether out of his palm.

A thin blade shot from his palm and sank into the wall. The spell was considerably smaller than the one Henry had made and lacked the moon shape. Damien grinned and raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

He paused as he spotted a thick sheen of blood flowing down his little finger. Damien swore and rushed to the shower, thrusting his hand under the water.

“Not too bad,” Henry said while Damien shook his hand off. “Your pinky was too close to the spell, though. That’s why I sent it out of your fingers instead of the palm.”

“Noted,” Damien said, letting out a small sigh as the cut sealed up. It had been so fast and clean that he hadn’t even felt any pain, but the amount of blood still felt like cause for mild concern.

“Are you okay, Damien?” Sylph asked, walking up behind him.

“Yeah. I just cut my finger practicing a new spell,” Damien replied, turning to show her his healing hand. “Sacrifices in the name of progress, or something like that.”

Sylph rolled her eyes. “I was worried your less amiable imaginary friend was making itself known.”

“Oh. No, it’s been pretty silent recently,” Damien said. “Can’t say I mind. It’s nice. How’s sharing with your companion going, though? It must feel a bit weird.”

“You’re going to have to try harder than that if you want information about her.” Sylph grinned. “But it does occur to me that neither of us could use our full strength in the tournament. It would only be fair to have another match where we didn’t have to hold back.”

“By the pool Delph showed us?” Damien suggested. “If I win, you have to show me your companion and tell me everything about them.”

“Hmm. That’s a lot,” Sylph said playfully. “And I already know a bunch about Henry. Then, if I win, we do whatever I want for a day.”

“Why do I feel like that’s going to be running for twelve hours?”

Sylph cocked an eyebrow. “Only one way to find out.”

“Fine,” Damien laughed. “Deal. But I want to get a handle on the spell I’m working on right now. Let’s do it in three days.”

“I was about to say the same,” Sylph said. “Three days it is. I’m going to get right back to practicing, then.”

“Good luck.”

“I won’t need it,” Sylph said with a grin. She headed out of the bathroom, leaving Damien staring at her back.

“Better get to work,” Henry said. “I’m not so sure you’re going to get Storm under grips in three days, but I do think she might be trying to motivate you to try harder. It would be pretty funny if you lost to her for the third time, though.”

Oh shut it.

Henry cackled as Damien returned to his room and got back to work. Time flew by as he practiced, only stopping to attend Delph’s classes, eat, and sleep. In between working on the new spells, Damien also practiced direct casting.

Unfortunately, Henry’s prediction was more accurate than Damien had hoped. He made progress with both Tear and telekinesis, but Henry wouldn’t even let him start on Storm, claiming that he wasn’t nearly competent enough with Tear to risk it.

Damien wasn’t about to argue. He managed to cut himself several more times with the spatial blades, nearly removing a finger more than once. If it hadn’t been for the healing water, he would have garnered some nasty scars for the rest of his life.

Before he knew it, three days had passed. Damien found himself standing across from Sylph a short distance away from the healing pool. The sun had only just started to rise, and faint yellow rays poked through the trees surrounding the clearing. Dull orange hues danced in the sky overhead.

“Did you manage to get your new spell?” Sylph asked.

“No,” Damien admitted. “I’ve gotten some new stuff, but not the one I was working on. What about you?”

“You’ll get it soon enough,” Sylph replied. “Unfortunately for you, I didn’t have any such difficulties. I’ve got a full manifestation now.”

“Congratulations!” Damien exclaimed. “What is it?”

“You aren’t supposed to be excited for that until after the fight,” Sylph said with a laugh. “And you’ll see in a few moments. You’re going to need a lot more magic than what you’ve used at the tournaments if you want to win this. I’ve already got tomorrow all planned out.”

Damien cast out a net of mental energy, drawing Ether into his core. “There’s only one way to find out. Are you ready?”

Henry commandeered his shadow and walked over to the edge of the woods to watch. Sylph raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not going to use his power?”

“That would be two versus one,” Damien replied. “I’m keeping this fair.”

Sylph snorted. “You better not regret that. I’m ready.”

Wind whipped up around Sylph and she shot at Damien. He threw a Gravity Sphere at Sylph, but the wind around her surged and she launched to the side, easily avoiding its range and closing the distance between them.

Damien tried to cast Warp Step, but he was unsurprised to find the spell fail to activate. A black blade sprung into Sylph’s hand and she swung it at Damien’s side. He hardened his mage armor, blocking the strike.

“Blocking my magic already? Really?” Damien asked, ducking under another attack.

Sylph kicked him in the chest, sending him stumbling back.

“Anything to win,” she replied, then flicked the blade at him. Damien smirked, then vanished. Sylph’s eyes widened and she spun, narrowly blocking his kick before it connected.

A Gravity Lance leapt from Damien’s hand. Wind surged to meet it and the spells canceled out. Sylph blurred and shot back several feet.

“How are you casting magic?”

“Your anti-magic works the same way as the Corruption draws the Ether from the world, you just connect to me instead,” Damien said, teleporting again and throwing a Gravity Sphere at her. “Now that I know how it works, I can break it.”

Sylph jumped, wind carrying her far into the air to avoid Damien’s spell.

“We’ll have to do this the normal way, then,” Sylph said. The wind churning around her surged in intensity, growing almost completely opaque around her feet.

Damien teleported high into the air to avoid whatever she was preparing. Sylph spun, then looked straight up at him and started sprinting in his direction.

Ripples of air ran out from every footstep she took as Sylph ran straight up through the sky. Damien’s eyes widened and he Warp Stepped back to the ground. Sylph’s form seemed to grow faster as she spun in the air and shot back toward him.

He teleported twice, trying to throw her off. It bought him a moment, but Sylph spotted him quickly. She blurred and he barely had time to teleport before she was upon him. This time, Damien was certain she was moving faster with every passing second and she didn’t show any signs of slowing down. If he continued playing her game, she’d get lucky and catch him.

He reached out through the connection to the Ether within his mind.

“Stop,” Damien said. What felt like an enormous hammer slammed into Damien’s back, staggering him. Sylph, who hadn’t been prepared for the spell, crashed to the ground. She rolled over, groaning as she forced herself to her feet.

Damien pushed more power into the spell, bringing her back down to her knees. The air around them started to shimmer with faint purple light.

The wind around Sylph flared once more and she started to slowly rise. Damien gritted his teeth and reached out with his mental energy. Then he cast two more spells on the earth beside Sylph.

Two giant pieces of stone erupted in front of her and slammed together with a loud crash. Damien released them, letting the rocks thud back to the ground.

“If you’d been between those, I think you would have been squished,” Damien said, his voice shaky from speaking while trying to maintain direct casting.