“Hold on,” Damien said, struggling to catch his breath. “I need to be careful. I’m under the effects of some Void magic that might show up if we fight.”

Delph frowned. “Can you not fight at all, then?”

“Well, Henry should be able to help me, but I don’t know if it’ll happen or not. It just comes out of nowhere.”

“Eh,” Delph said, shrugging one shoulder. “Sounds like something we’ll deal with if it happens. If you can fight, you can train. The Corruption won’t sit around and wait for you.”

He snapped his fingers and a gray line zigzagged through the air. Damien dove to the side as a loud crack split the clearing and the air shattered. He dropped into a roll and staggered back to his feet.

“Freeze,” Damien commanded. Delph’s arms stiffened for a moment. He bared his teeth and Damien’s magic vanished once more.

“You aren’t using direct casting to its full potential,” Delph said. “Stop just using it to do single word commands. Speaking just helps focus it, so get more creative. If all you do is try to restrict me, you’re not going to have a good time.”

He flicked his fingers and the air around Damien rippled. Walls formed around him, humming with enough magic to cause his hair to stand on end.

Damien yanked his hand back before he accidentally touched one of them. He didn’t get the feeling that would go very well for him. Delph had been dismissing his magic without any effort. That probably meant it went in the other direction as well.

Damien extended his will and focused on the cage surrounding him. There had to be something about direct casting that let Delph dismiss it so easily, or the professor would have done it to his other magic.

As he peered closer, Damien was just barely able to make out tiny strands of translucent energy running from the magic surrounding him to Delph. Damien reached out with his mental energy and tried to touch the strands, but it passed right through them.

Frowning, Damien instead drew on the rune circle in his mind, funneling his will through its connection to the Ether. “Dissipate.”

The cage collapsed around Damien.

“Well done,” Delph said, driving his fist into Damien’s stomach. Somehow, Damien had completely missed the professor until he was directly upon him.

Damien rolled with the blow and skidded against a tree with a groan. He pushed himself upright and raised his hands as Delph stalked toward him.

“Can you do that with all magic?”

“No. Direct casting tells the Ether what we want it to do, but spells are the Ether returning to its natural state. It takes more effort to keep a directly cast spell running than a normal one, and if your command isn’t strong enough, it’ll either dissipate, not do what you wanted, or can be dismissed by someone else that can direct cast.”

“Which is just you and me.”

“Never assume anything,” Delph said. Gray energy warped around his hand and formed into a ball. He lobbed it at Damien, who tried to get rid of it the same way he’d gotten rid of the cage.

Nothing happened. The ball bounced off Damien’s head and hit the ground with a thunk.

“Not enough willpower behind that command,” Delph said, shaking his head. “Do better. You can’t just want something to happen. You need to command it. If my will is stronger than yours, you’ll lose.”

“What’s the point?” Damien asked, hopping back before Delph could reach him. “Or is this training to get better control over my own direct casting? I can’t imagine I’m going to run into many people that can do this, even if one or two other ones somehow exist.”

“How can you figure out the point of an exercise, yet still somehow miss it completely?” Delph asked. He kicked the ball at Damien. It warped as it flew, turning into a sharp point that blurred straight for his chest.

Almost instinctively, Damien dismissed it. The orb vanished midair.

“You were more motivated that time,” Delph said, his lips quirking up. “You’ve gotten enough of your breath back. Ready up.”

Delph never warned Damien when he was about to attack, and that could only mean one thing. Damien’s eyes widened and he sent a command out to the Ether with all the willpower he could put behind it.

“Shield!”

A dark lattice stretched out before Damien, solidifying into a barrier moments before a savage blast of gray light slammed into it. Screams ripped through the air as Delph’s spell chewed into Damien’s magic.

Wind whipped around them and crackles of energy arced off the two spells, scorching the grass at their feet. Damien gritted his teeth, reinforcing his command through the Ether while Delph watched him, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

Delph’s attack flickered and faded away, leaving Damien’s shield floating in the air. It was badly tattered and dissipated only a few seconds later, but it had still outlasted the older man’s attack.

Pain thumped in Damien’s head like a drum. The mental strain from the spell threatened to overwhelm him. It was all he could do to stagger over to the lake, ignoring Delph, and dip his head under the healing waters.

“Well done,” Delph said as Damien came back up for air. “We’re done for today.”

“What was that about?” Damien asked, groaning. “What did I cast? That wasn’t space magic.”

“Dark magic, if I’m not mistaken,” Delph said. “Condensed energy shield. Pretty common application of the magic, but not one you know of unless you picked something new up.”

“I didn’t. I’ve been mostly focusing on Space magic and only used a little Dark to learn another spell. I have been wanting to branch out, but I just haven’t had the chance yet.”

“Then we accomplished what I wanted. I don’t suppose you’re willing to take a guess as to what that might have been?”

“You were showing me that I didn’t need to know a spell to cast it with direct casting, right?”

“That’s a big part of it,” Delph agreed with a slight nod. “Direct casting is almost communicating directly with the Ether. The rune circles in our minds still have to translate a bit since we don’t actually think in runes, but it’s as close as a human can get. That means you don’t have the constraints that a normal spell does. There’s no need to limit yourself to things your spells can already do. That defeats the purpose.”

“Couldn’t you have just told me that?”

“That’s much less fun,” Delph said with a smirk. “And experience is the best teacher. Before I get to the other lesson we covered, there’s one more tidbit you should know. As you’ve gathered by now, direct casting is more versatile, but it’s also harder to control.”

“Yeah, I got that much. I’ve caught myself in my own spell more than a few times.”

“It’s because you didn’t communicate exactly what you wanted. The Ether has no intelligence of its own,” Delph said. “So if you just ask for something general or leave even the slightest loophole for something to go wrong, it will. You’ll have to continue practicing to find the fine line between taking too long to cast a spell and making sure the spell actually does what you want.”

“So its just like everything else. Practice until it works.”

“Yup. Who would have thought,” Delph said with a smirk. “It helps if you deplete your magical energy, though. If you’re out of your own Ether, you’ll have less distraction while trying to use direct casting. I recommend spending as much energy as you can before you practice. That’ll help you focus.”

“Ah. That’s the reason you chased me around everywhere first.”

“Well, that and it was fun,” Delph replied. “Sylph isn’t as amusing to fight. She actually knows what she’s doing in hand to hand combat.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. You aren’t half bad anymore yourself,” Delph said, tapping his chin. “I’d like to spar you a little more seriously sometime soon, but not before you get a better grasp of direct casting. Your abilities with it are still far too rudimentary, and I’d have to focus too much on holding back.”

Damien squeezed the water out of his hair and shook his head, trying to clear it. By some stroke of luck, the Void hadn’t come out during his fight with Delph. He wasn’t sure exactly what caused it to surface, but he wasn’t about to go poking around to find out either.

“What is Havel doing with Sylph, anyway?”

“Practicing, much as we were,” Delph replied. “Sylph also has a new ability that she’s keeping under wraps. I’m quite excited to see it put to full use, but she’s got a ways to go before it’s at the level she wants it to be.”

“Story of our lives,” Damien grumbled. “She hasn’t told me what it is yet. I want to find out.”

“Hah. Get strong enough to force it out of her, then.”

“I will. Next fight,” Damien said. “But… there’s something else we need to talk about, regarding what happened after I fought Second. Henry, could you block anyone from listening in on us?”

A ripple of purple energy washed out from Damien, passing through the clearing and fading as it reached the trees.

“You’re all good,” Henry said in his mind.

Damien launched into an explanation of everything that had passed since he’d fallen through he portal. Delph listened, his frown growing more prominent until the story was finally over.

“I was hoping you might know more, since Havel can somehow detect the Void,” Damien finished.

“That’s incredibly concerning,” Delph said, rubbing his chin. He pulled a wooden toothpick out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully on its end. “How often have you felt the Void try to influence you?”

“A few times now. Sometimes when I’m fighting, sometimes just out of the blue.”

“I’ll have to admit that I really don’t know much about this kind of thing,” Delph admitted. “Your assumption that I learned about it from Havel was correct, but Havel is very reluctant to speak much about what happened before I found him. I know the dangers of the Void, but I’ve never heard of a human wielding its power.”

“What about Moon?” Damien tried. “When he trained you – did you learn anything about it from him? He could use Void magic too.”

“Moon wasn’t human,” Delph said. “I know that for sure. He was more.”

Damien cleared his throat. “Right. But… did he ever talk about the Void or if it affected him?”

“I didn’t know him for that long. Moon was almost always doing something, and usually not anything he’d tell me about. I’m honestly surprised he sought me out to teach me magic. I would have loved to learn more about him, but I never even saw his face. He certainly never confided his greatest secrets in me. If the Void troubled him, he never mentioned it.”

“Perfect,” Damien said with a sigh. “So we’re in the same spot as before.”

“Not quite as bad,” Delph replied. “Havel might know something. I’ll ask him for you, but just don’t keep your hopes up. If he’s kept silent this long, I’m not sure how willing he’d be to suddenly start spilling secrets.”

“Only one way to find out.”

“Quite so,” Delph agreed, starting toward the edge of the clearing. Damien followed after him and Henry dropped the sound ward.

“Where did Sylph and Havel go to train, anyway?”

“He should have teleported her shortly after we escaped campus,” Delph said. “She’ll be in the forest near my house. I just need to pick something up before we head over to join them.”