Chapter 13

The cold gray ceiling of the cave blurred into view above Damien. His entire body felt stiff and cold. He groaned, his muscles protesting as he slowly sat up. It felt like he'd aged fifty years.

"Stop whining," Henry said. "You did this to yourself, and it will pass."

Damien's mind sorted through the foggy memories, the frown deepening on his face.

"Did it work?" he asked. "Can I cast magic?"

"Not yet," Henry replied. "And we weren't trying to let you cast magic. We were trying to let you connect with the Ether. There's a difference."

Damien rolled his head in a slow circle. His neck let out a series of pops, and he let out a relieved sigh.

"Well, did that work?"

"You tell me, you idiot," Henry said. "Do you even realize what you did? You nearly died!"

"Henry, you're the one who told me we don't exactly have a lot of time," Damien said, his tone growing cold. "Or do I have to remind you about the five…things roaming the world as we speak?"

"Don't pull that shit on me," Henry snapped. "I can read your thoughts. I'm well-aware you're just insanely obsessed with learning magic, and you didn't want to wait any longer."

Damien's cheeks flushed. He crossed his arms and shrugged.

"Maybe."

"You're insane," Henry said. "Don't forget this isn't just your life you're toying with! If you die, I get sent back to the Void! If you don't pace yourself, you aren't going to live to cast any real magic."

"Fine, fine," Damien said with a heavy sigh. The feeling returned to his limbs once again. "I'll be more careful, but can we please get on with the magic?"

There was a pause that Damien assumed was Henry rolling his eyes. Then a thrum of static rippled outward from his chest, passing through his entire body.

"First, pull out that little wristband the school gave you," Henry said. "Let's see if your stupidity got us anywhere."

Damien nodded and activated the wristband, bringing the screen to life before his eyes.

Damien Vale Blackmist College Year One Major: Undecided Minor: Undecided Companion: [Null] Magical Strength: 3.5 Magical Control: .5 Magical Energy: 8.5 Physical Strength: .2 Endurance: .35 "Improvements in Magical Strength and Energy," Henry said. "Small, but not bad considering you didn't do anything other than be stubborn."

Damien dismissed the screen. "Can we get to the part where I do magic?"

"I'll help you find the Ether the first few times, but you'll eventually want to find it on your own," Henry said. "The connection has been established. Reach out with your mind, but do not close your eyes."

That was easier said than done. Damien drew a deep breath to steady his thundering heart and extended his senses.

"Not like that!" Henry said.

Damien felt a force envelop his mind. He resisted for a moment. Then he relaxed, allowing Henry to guide him.

Henry molded the mental tendril Damien used like putty, turning it into something closer to a net.

"Send this out around you," Henry said. "Like how mortals do when they fish, but in every direction instead of one. When it touches the lines of Ether, they'll light up for you."

The net felt strange in Damien's mind. He'd grown so used to the single tendril that arranging the energy into a more complex form was taxing. If Henry hadn't helped him hold it together, the net would have already collapsed.

With Henry's assistance, Damien threw the net of energy outward. It expanded and stretched, forming a rough sphere around him. The world lit up.

Damien jerked back as hundreds of thin glowing threads appeared all over the room. Some disappeared into the rocks, some into his belongings, and some into him. It was as if he'd fallen into a giant spider web.

"Wow," Damien whispered, unable to find better words.

He reached out and brushed a line of Ether with his hand.

His body passed clean through it, not disturbing the light in the slightest. "I can see the Ether. How do I use it?"

"You are impatient," Henry said. "You need to get used to the Ether. Then you can worry about using it. We're going to repeat this a few more times. Just focus on the energy surrounding you."

Damien nodded, too engrossed to argue with his companion. Henry allowed him to sit there for several minutes, silently absorbing the beauty of the Ether surrounding him. As Damien's concentration faltered and his mental net wavered, the lines faded from his vision.

Damien let the net drop completely, and the lines blinked out. He gathered his mental energy, trying to mold it the same way Henry had. The result was a blobby, misshapen box of crisscrossing energy that could have been mistaken for a net by someone with a severe concussion.

"A little help?" Damien asked meekly.

Henry snorted. The energy shifted into a more netlike appearance. With a grin, Damien cast it out once again, this time with more energy behind it. The room lit up with the Ether once more.

"This is amazing," Damien breathed. "Is this how you see the world all the time?"

"You'll learn to filter it out eventually," Henry replied.

"It's just clutter that blocks your sight. And you'll only see the Ether while you're drawing it into yourself. Having it in front of you constantly would be infuriating."

"What do you mean? It's beautiful!" Damien said. "It's pure, unfiltered magic, isn't it?"

"More like a few wavelengths of magic," Henry replied.

"Particularly, the four schools of magic I have access to:

Light, Dark, Space, and Void. There are more schools than you can count, but most beings end up in one of the more common ones. If you could see all forms of magic, you'd be blinded. It would just be a wall of light everywhere you looked."

"Wow. That sounds amazing," Damien said, running his hand through a line of Ether again.

"Stop daydreaming," Henry said. "What happened to rushing? Drop the net and make it again. We're repeating this until you can make it on your own. It's not hard, so you should be able to do it today."

And that was exactly what they did. It took Damien a little under an hour to be able to form the net on his own.

As Henry had said, it wasn't hard, just different. Damien had a slight headache from all the mental energy usage by the end of it, but that couldn't keep the smug grin from his face.

"I'm doing magic!" Damien exclaimed, casting the net out once again and marveling at the Ether surrounding him.

"More like you're looking at it," Henry grumbled. "But this is enough to get started. Nothing fancy, mind you, but you can start to channel some basic energy without me babysitting you."

"Get on with it, then!" Damien said eagerly. For a moment, he almost forgot his instructor was an eldritch being. Henry just chuckled.

"Envelop your hand with mental energy. It doesn't have to be pretty, just cover your hand. It'll let you interact with the Ether," Henry said. "Grab some energy and pull it away.

For now, only touch the lines going into you. The others are harder to work with."

Damien followed his instructions. After his work with the net, making a thin layer of energy around his hand wasn't a challenge at all. He touched the line of Ether. It vibrated in response.

He wrapped his hand around the line and gave it a small tug. A mote of light tore away and came free in his hand.

However, the line didn't look any different.

"The Ether will dim if you take enough energy from it," Henry said, guessing Damien's next question. "It'll regenerate with time. The more you use the Ether, the more you'll be able to take at once."

"Okay," Damien said, memorizing every word his companion said. "What do I do now?"

"To use the Ether's energy to cast magic, you need to bring it onto the Mortal Plane," Henry explained. "The Ether is actually a separate plane overlaid on your world.

The barrier between the planes is very weak, so all you have to do is draw it into yourself. At that point, you'll either be able to store or use it."

Damien closed his hand around the mote of Ether. Henry hadn't said to, but it just felt right. What felt like a miniature bolt of lightning shot down his arm and into his chest. It settled around where his heart was, inside a strange sphere of dim energy Damien hadn't created.

However, the shock wasn't painful. If anything, it almost felt good.

"Good instincts," Henry said. He slapped Damien on the back of his head with a small burst of mental energy. "Now, stop using them. No experimenting unless you want to make a mistake and blow us both up."

"Right," Damien said, rubbing his head. "Sorry. Where is the Ether being stored? It looks like it's in an orb of some sort, but I didn't create it."

"Don't be sorry. Just do it right. And that is your core," Henry said. "It's overlayed with your heart. As you grow stronger, the Ether will travel through your veins and enter the rest of your body as well. Now, you've got a small amount of Ether. Extend your hand toward the wall at the foot of your bed. Let the net fall, then reach out to the Ether within you. Channel it toward your hand, but keep it restrained. Do not let it burst forth but keep it at a slow stream. I will assist."

Damien nodded, too excited to say anything. His heart beat so fast it could have outraced a rabbit. The lines of Ether faded as he let his concentration drop.

He extended his hand and placed his palm a few inches from the wall. The mote of Ether within his chest buzzed and hopped the moment he reached out toward it.

It leapt toward his hand faster than Damien had expected. A chill passed over him as Henry's energy enveloped the mote of light, slowing it down to a crawl.

"Control it!" Henry snapped.

Damien swallowed and nodded, using more energy to keep the Ether from slipping away. Henry slowly released it until the Ether was fully back under Damien's control. He inched it forward, fighting the energy's desire to escape, until it shimmered in the base of his palm.

"You are going to slowly channel it out of your hand.

Focus on creating a sphere," Henry ordered. "This is not a true spell, so don't worry about anything else."

He did as Henry said once more, allowing the Ether to edge forward until it slipped out of his palm. A dot of dark energy formed in front of Damien's hand. It expanded and Damien narrowed his eyes, fighting back his excitement as he forced it to remain about the size of a small apple.

The ball hovered in the air before his palm, not moving.

Damien swallowed and failed to keep the gleeful grin from his face.

"I'm using magic!"

"Barely," Henry grumbled, but he didn't sound very displeased. "Now, be careful. Because we didn't try to control how the magic was formed, that's essentially just an orb of destructive energy. It's completely useless in a normal fight since there are so many spells that do its job better, but it works great for carving stone."

Damien got the hint. He slowly moved his hand toward the wall, his body trembling in excitement. The orb let out a low whine as it melted clean through the stone. Damien pulled his hand back, revealing a perfectly carved furrow in the wall. He let out a whoop, and even Henry couldn't keep himself from grinning within Damien's mind.

Of course, Damien's loss of concentration caused the ball of energy to splutter and fade away. His headache had grown a tad worse, but it was still completely manageable.

"That was amazing!" Damien said, pacing back and forth along the thin pathway between his and Sylph's bed. "Let's do it again!"

"I won't stop you," Henry replied. "The faster we get a training room, the better. Just don't accidentally burrow into one of the other kid's rooms."

Damien winced at the thought of popping through Mark's wall unannounced. The boy had been amicable enough, but that was a surefire way to get him on Nolan's side.

His heart beat so fast he had to sit on the bed for a moment, much to Henry's amusement.

"Are you seriously winded from that basic little trick?"

Henry asked, laughing.

"Of course not," Damien replied, his mood too good to take the bait. "That was the first time I've cast a spell! I'm a little overexcited."

"You are so lame."

"And you're an eldritch creature that uses teenager slang unironically," Damien replied. "Between the two of us, I think you're worse off."

Henry grumbled at that, but he didn't grace Damien with a response.

What followed was entirely uninteresting. Damien spent hours focused on the Ether, carving the wall away bit by bit. The churning destruction energy made quick work of the stone, and it didn't take him too long to carve a rough hallway that led deeper into the mountain.

Damien continued onwards until he was certain he'd passed their tiny bathroom, lighting the way with small circles of runes he drew on the wall with chalk. Time slipped away from him as he worked.

He was utterly engrossed in the menial task of carving away the stone. He carved relentlessly, all thoughts of the outside world long gone. Damien loved every moment of it.

If it hadn't been for the magical carving tool, it would have taken Damien years to cut through the stone.

However, with his new powers, he created a small room before the day had ended. Henry remained silent throughout the entire day, only speaking up when Damien's concentration faltered or if he made a mistake while using the Ether.

His hand finally dropped, his muscles strained and weary. His chest and core tingled, as if a miniature bolt of lightning was trapped within his body. Damien blinked, looking around the room as if he were coming out from a trance. It wasn't large by any means. It was only slightly bigger than their bathroom, which wasn't saying much.

That being said, it was a room. The floor and walls were rough and uneven, but Damien didn't care.

"Good job," Henry said.

Damien waited a few moments, but his companion didn't add anything else.

"That's it?" Damien asked. "No snarky remark?"

"You'll earn one soon enough," Henry said. "Just take the compliment. You've also progressed your cultivation by a miniscule amount. That electric feeling in your chest is your body trying to adapt to the Ether. You haven't done anything particularly amazing, but it's still good work for your first time casting magic."

"Thank you," Damien said, not replying immediately.

After a few more moments, he added, "I couldn't have done it on my own."

"Of course you couldn't," Henry said with a smug laugh.

"You'd still be waiting for your teacher if you didn't have me."

"And there it is," Damien said, rolling his eyes. He yawned, and his stomach rumbled loudly.

"How long have I been working?" Damien asked.

"I don't know. Go look outside," Henry said. "I didn't leave while you were using magic. The last thing I want is you blowing yourself up by accident."

"I think I can support that," Damien agreed. He glanced at his feet. Several inches of stone dust had accumulated on the ground, but none of it had gotten on him.

"I kept the debris off you," Henry said. "And I still am. If you inhaled this, you'd be in for a bad time."

"Could we get it out of the room somehow?" Damien asked.

"Sure. There are a dozen ways I can do it, even with the meager power you have access to right now. Give me control for a moment," Henry said.

"Safely," Damien added.

"Right, then. A few less ways," Henry said, sighing. "But still possible."

"Five minutes," Damien warned. Henry just grunted as Damien allowed him to commandeer his body.

A tendril of darkness unfurled from the ceiling. It reached down, and Henry had Damien's body grab it. The tendril lifted him into the air. At the same time, a pool of darkness spread across the ground.

The stone dirt vanished into it soundlessly. The darkness vanished, and the tendril set Damien back down, disappearing into the shadows of the room.

"There. Nice and boring," Henry said, giving Damien back control of his body.

"Thank you," Damien said. His stomach rumbled again.

This time, it was accompanied by a dull stomachache.

Damien walked back down the hallway he'd made. Sylph still wasn't in the room, but the sun was already setting outside. He grabbed several coins from his travel pack and stuffed them into his pockets. Then he strode over to the ledge and looked down over the campus. It was cast in dull orange and pink hues.

"I wonder what she's doing," Damien said. "Wasn't she just getting food?"

"Why do you care?" Henry replied. "Just go eat. If your stomach grumbles any louder, it might deafen me."

Damien huffed and headed down the mountain for the mess hall.

"Are you planning on buying food? You don't have all that much money," Henry said.

I don't want to eat warm vomit.

"Food is food," Henry said. "You could spend that money on getting stronger instead."

Damien nearly missed a step. He ignored the amused glances the other students sent his way and walked faster.

How? I didn't think money would help me with magic, and I certainly don't have enough to buy anything fancy.

"There should be some basic herbs that allow you to improve the rate at which you grow," Henry said. "You can't use them yet, since your connection to the Ether is far too weak. Still, the herbs are quite common, so I doubt they'd be very expensive."

You're assuming they haven't died off in the past four thousand years.

"I— Well, yeah," Henry said, sighing. "All the more reason for us to go to the library."

I'm not spending that much time in the library. Figure out what you want to read, and I'll get it.

"You have no passion for learning," Henry griped.

"You're a human! Shouldn't you have creativity and curiosity?"

I do. For magic.

"Boring," Henry decided, receding into the back of Damien's mind and leaving him alone for the rest of his walk.