“Here! Take!” Suds threw a pair of rough, many-faceted blue gems my direction, and despite my surprise, I caught them with ease.

On arriving back home from the ball, I’d fallen asleep nearly instantly. Enough had happened that perhaps it would be good to sit down and reflect a touch, but I’d found myself far more winded than I had even after my dungeon runs back in Drawgin, if perhaps in a different way.

Presently, I was intent on escaping the house — I had a very clear destination in mind — but Suds had stopped me with some sort of gift. I glanced down at the twin gems, focusing on one.

Recall Gem (Emer’Thalis)

Charges: 2

When activated, teleports all entities within 5 meters to the specified location.

So this was what would be letting me get back to my settlement. Switching my focus to the other of the two, I confirmed that it was largely the same, but would return me to Sylum.

“Thanks.” It would be nice to go back and see everyone for a bit. I even had a small hope that Cal and Hartha would be back by now. More immediately, though, the description was a bit odd to me. “Seems like kind of a big radius to be teleporting just me, though. Isn’t that inefficient?”

Suds hummed before answering. “Less efficient, but also less costly. Getting someone who can make recall gems is already a hassle. Finding someone who can add enchantments to them that wrap perfectly around you, your clothes, and anything you’re holding, without accidentally chopping bits of you off? Not worth the effort unless you’re using it a bunch.”

Huh. Guess there was a lot I didn’t know about what went into making magic things tick. I wondered to what extent that deficiency would be corrected at the academy I’d been hearing so much about.

Ultimately, though, that was all a problem for later-Tess. Suds seemed to agree.

“Now! You can use that whenever you’d like. Just make sure you’re back in three days from now. If I have to come drag you back…” He let the threat hang there, letting me fill in the blank.

Lots of soap. My tongue betrayed me by summoning up the memory of the soap’s taste. I’d make sure to be back by then.

I was used to the man’s demeanor by this point, choosing to respond to the well-meaning threat with a bit more cheek. “Thanks grandpa! Going to go see the archmage first, but see you in a few days!”

Without further fanfare, I shot out the door. As I did, I could hear “grandpa” chuckling to himself.

Now. Off for more magic!

Archmage Callis arched his archmage-ly brow. “From your return, I take it you’ve managed to succeed at raising one of your cantrips to the Initiate rank?”

I nodded. Having managed to get Conjure Water up to level ten, I was due a new cantrip from the archmage. If anyone thought I was going to go back to Emer’Thalis without it, then they clearly didn’t know me.

“Very well,” he intoned. “Have you given thought to what class of magic you next wish to pursue?”

I had. Initially, I’d leaned towards one of the remaining elemental varieties. Air, probably. Thinking it over, though, I still had that gem from Hex burning a hole in my pocket. It was unusable because my levels in Mental Magic and Dark Magic weren’t high enough.

If I took the first gem, might as well consider taking the second, right? Couldn’t even think about it unless I had access to dark magic in the first place.

“Dark magic, if that’s okay.”

His brow returned to its earlier arched position. “Mmm. Not the choice I anticipated, but just as well. I’ve had some trouble deciding on what your first cantrip should be in some of the classes. For dark, however, I have just the thing.”

He waved a hand, and a thick tome flew off a nearby bookshelf, stopping in front of me until I grabbed it.

I psyched myself up before taking a look at the book’s description or title. It was a cantrip hand-chosen for me by an archmage. Sure, he hadn’t been too gung-ho about me learning battle-magic, but it had to be good regardless, right?

Soon I’d be summoning up dark mana from my core, weaving it around into a mighty spellform, having it rush out to impose my mighty magical will upon the world! A burgeoning dark overlord in the making!

With those thoughts in my mind, I at last took a look at the tome.

Spellbook of Darken Small Object

I blinked.

“So, uh. ‘Darken Small Object?’”

The archmage responded with a rare grin. “Indeed. An ideal spell to get a grasp on the fundamentals of dark mana. Also one that you will be able to practice continuously without drawing too much attention. I briefly considered giving you Sinister Aura, but perhaps not something you’d wish to be using too frequently, hmm?”

Probably not, but would have been kind of cool. Sounds like it would make me seem all dark and scary and imposing? Not things I often wanted to seem, but maybe worth looking more into later.

“Darkness has many aspects and uses — to obscure, to blind, to contrast — but at its core, it is much simpler. Beginners often can become lost in the metaphors without understanding the more basic truth: Darkness darkens. Nothing so profound that you’d find it in a philosophical tome, but on occasion, the simple truths are the ones we need most to learn, yes? Something to dwell on.”

Well. If he said so.

“Thank-”

Without warning, the archmage’s study disappeared, and I found myself at the base of his tower once more.

I shrugged. Abrupt, but that just means I can try it out sooner, I guess.

I’d already told Suds I was leaving, and I wasn’t going to read the spellbook in the middle of the street, so it seemed that now was as good a time as any to head back to Emer’Thalis. After pulling my recently acquired gem out of my inventory, I made sure no one else was in range, and then activated it. The world became transparent, and an instant later, I rushed away.

All at once, the empty black of my vision was replaced by a host of colors.

Not a large host of colors. Not particularly vibrant colors either. But brown and gray were colors, weren’t they? The blue of the city’s mana shield counted too.

“Wish the gem teleported me straight to my tent...” I eyed the mana barrier around the city, knowing I had a long, solitary walk ahead of me. In some sense, it was comforting — I was glad it wasn’t that easy to just make a gem that bypassed the city’s defenses. Didn’t mean I had to like it right now though. “Going to be a while before I can read the spellbo...”

I let the words drop off. Were they even true? Not like anyone was here to bug me, and considering I’d once marched through the deadlands for days, I was no stranger to sitting on its barren earth.

Plus, I had to be honest with myself. There was no way I was getting back to my tent without someone pulling me into something. I’d been gone long enough that I was sure someone would want to speak with me.

“Okay. I’m sold. Magic time.” I sat myself down, took out my new book, and started to read.

You have learned a new spell: Darken Small Object

Imbues any sufficiently small object with dark mana, temporarily darkening it.

A duo of other notifications appeared letting me know I’d learned Dark Magic and managed to complete another class quest. I dismissed them in favor of immediately trying the spell out.

Small object. Small object. What do I have?

The first thing that caught my attention was the bracelet Nadja had gifted me back in Ftheran. Like many baubles from the city, it was emerald and black.

I activated the spell, feeling as the system heavily aided me in weaving and curling threads of dark mana into the required shapes.

The green sections faded until they black. Not all at once, I was surprised to see, but over the course of a second, they got darker and darker until the original color couldn’t be discerned.

“Neat. What else do I have?” I looked around my person, finding a small number of other jewelry I could try it out on. I considered which one to use next when a thought occurred to me. “What counts as an object?”

I pulled a strand of hair out in front of my face — wavy and auburn thanks to Barb’s hair regrowth potion — and tried to activate my new spell on it. The effect took, and I watched as the reddish-brown shifted to black. At the same time, I watched the spell fade from my bracelet, returning it to its usual colors.

“Temporary hair dye. Or like, magic highlights, but the opposite? Lowlights? Whatever.”

Probably not the important part. I channeled some dark mana into my boots, curious to see what new skill variants I’d unlocked. My feet were quickly encased in a wispy layer of mana, which was, as expected, very dark.

Dark Soles

Cushions your feet with immaterial soles. Muffles footsteps and leaves fewer tracks. +5 to Stealth. Good arch support.

Stealth shoes. Got it. Considering I hadn’t yet gained the Stealth skill, I wasn’t sure how much I’d be making use of them, but it was nice nonetheless. Avoiding fights altogether was usually preferable to the alternative.

Channeling the mana into my armor granted the usual protection, extra defense against light magic, and then an additional +5 to stealth. Instead of muffling footsteps, the darkness here acted as padding in some sense, apparently silencing the sounds of armor scraping against itself. Likely a bigger deal if I wore plate, but with my usual leather armor, probably less of a concern.

Vision wise, the result was a let down. As perhaps should have been expected, channeling dark mana into Arcane Vision granted darkvision. Considering I had that at all times from my Illuminated Sight boon, I doubted I’d ever have reason to use it. Maybe it would make my existing dark vision even stronger, but that hardly seemed like a big win.

It was the weapon enhancement where the mana really shined. Or, I guess, didn’t shine. I summoned up a spear — not my previously soulbound one, which I still lacked access to, but one of pure mana — and gasped as it radiated darkness all around it.

Dark Enhancement

Surrounds your weapon in darkness, obscuring it from sight. Deals additional dark damage on hit.

With my own darkvision, my spear was still clearly visible to me. To anyone else, however, it would be completely hidden within a cylinder of darkness that surrounded it a few centimeters in all directions.

Admittedly, it wasn’t like the weapon was invisible. People would still know to dodge the big cylinder of darkness if I swung it at them. Still, not knowing exactly where the tip of the weapon was would make things a pain for others, and I imagined they’d have a hard time knowing exactly what my reach was.

Wonder if there are weapons this works better on. Some kind of slingshot, maybe? I could have it fire a few rocks at an enemy and then mix in some sort of magical grenade, if that’s a thing. They’d look exactly alike, and people wouldn’t know to dodge as far out of the way as they needed to. Or maybe use my bow as-is and find some exploding arrows.

Nevermind that I didn’t have a slingshot or grenades or exploding arrows. Still fun to think about.

For now, though, I’d settle for smaller ways to practice my dark magic. I idly retriggered darken small object, re-darkening a lock of hair. I’d recast it whenever it faded.

Through with playtime, it was at last time for me to head into Emer’Thalis. I got to walking.

Rubble. Dirt. Trees well off in the distance. If anything, the outskirts of the city looked worse now that the sun was around. Less eerie, true, but the light only served to highlight the dilapidation surrounding me.

Considering I’d expected a fairly long solitary walk, it was some small surprise when I eventually spotted a person in the distance. As I neared them, eventually they resolved into a familiar scaled figure. When I at last got into ear-range, I shouted out.

“Jason!”

The gator-man swung my way, his momentary startle quickly transforming into a wide, toothy grin. “Tess! Hi! You’re back!”

Wild. What are the odds? “I’m back! Whatcha doing all the way out here?”

When he spoke, I belatedly realized I should have known the answer already.

“Rocks!” he replied. “And walks! Nice to get away to think some thoughts sometimes. Plus, there’s so many old rocks around here that no one’s even looked at in ages. How can I resist that? Maybe I’ll find something really good to throw around, or even for my collection!”

If he was referring to his new collection that he’d been gifted by Hex and Aarris, then I seriously doubted he’d find a divine rock just lying around, but seeing his smile, I didn’t attempt to dissuade him. And who knew? Stranger things had happened.

“Am I interrupting? Or do you want to walk back with me?” It would be nice to catch up, but sometimes a person needed some alone time, and I respected that.

“Being interrupted by an unexpected friend is always good! Let’s walk! In fact, I believe I know where Barb is right now if you’d like to go see him. He will be happy to see you back.”

Huh. With how angry Suds seemed about him being here, I half expected he’d be back in Drawgin. “Yeah, that sounds good. Let’s say hi.”

Thus said, the two of us started off again back towards the woods of Emer’Thalis.