Seth sat on the floor next to the wall of the Celestial Tower training room. Beside him lay his wooden practice sword and a cup of water. Seth was sweaty, bruised, and winded. He had lasted longer today than ever before, yet he'd still exhausted himself before Owen had taken his first break.

  Owen was still sparring energetically with Professor Kaban. Seth wondered if Kaban could tell that Owen's energy had the slightest tinge of desperation. Owen was impatient to get better and more skilled. He'd been in too many fights that were beyond him already and he needed to close that gap.

  Seth took a slow drink of water and watched as Professor Kaban not only matched Owen's energy levels, but picked up the pace. Seth knew he could train for years and Owen would always outmatch him. Professor Kaban knew it too, and didn't call Seth out for resting longer than necessary.

  But that was fine. Physical fighting wasn't how Seth wanted to win conflicts. It was Saben's and Owen's way, not his. Sometimes it was unavoidable, so he'd keep training. He didn't need to be the best, just capable of holding his own long enough to cast spells.

  Seth examined the bruises along his arms. They weren't that bad, really. Red, sore, and only a few would purple if he didn't heal them away after class. He was improving, but still had a long way to go.

  His eyes stopped at the spot his bracelet should be and reflexively he rubbed the empty space. The sigil marks in his skin that granted him access to his dorm, the Wind, Fire, Celestial, and Circle Towers wound around his wrist in the same spot. His probation mark was still there too.

  Mau told him not to worry. She said she had it handled, and that he'd have it back in a few days to a week or two.

  She was also slightly damp this morning.

  He couldn't figure out where she could have gotten wet. He didn't think the pot with his not-really-dead plant was moist enough, and he didn't have water in his room last night. He didn't think cats sweated, but maybe she had overheated.

  Seth hadn't brought it up to Mau because he didn't want his roommate to notice. The last thing he needed was Isaac getting another bone to pick at. There was a chance Isaac was courteous enough to let Mau out of the room at night, but he certainly wouldn't let her back in.

  When Seth got back to the dorm room later, he'd have to check that the window was secure. Mau may have promised to stay out of places she wasn't allowed, but Seth knew she would only remember that when convenient.

  He glanced over at Mau. She was laying on her back with all four paws on a ball puzzle Professor Kaban had given her. She was told to remove the interior ball without damaging the exterior one. The cub was intensely focused on her task, to a degree that surprised Seth. He expected her to last only a few minutes before abandoning the puzzle, using her claws to break it, or batting it across the room to chase after it.

  Professor Kaban seemed to have a knack for keeping her occupied. He had a knack for Owen too. Seth was the one who felt like the odd man out.

  Seth looked back at the spar between his best friend and the professor. As he'd been doing for each professor all week, he considered Kaban as a candidate for his mom's killer. He was old enough. He had the power and ability. If Benjamin was right about the killer being a woman though, that'd rule him out. Also, Kaban had not made any efforts to recruit Seth, curry a relationship, or even encourage contact outside of class. If anything, Kaban would be perfectly happy if both he and Owen stopped attending class.

  On the first day of class, Seth had told the professor about his brother's lost power. The professor was not at all interested, and told him to ask in the Circle Tower.

  Seth decided Kaban didn't make the priority list of potential murderers. The next thing Seth wondered was if and how much he could trust Kaban.

  Seth had spells he wanted to learn that he hadn't been able to puzzle out himself. He had the crystal rod from the ogre illusion, and he wanted to turn that into a casting tool. Yesterday he'd been thinking he could ask Kaban for pointers in developing the rod. Now, he was rethinking that idea. Maybe he was getting paranoid, but he was reluctant to tell Kaban about any of it.

  He didn't like that he was being so untrusting. It was like some important part of him that believed in people was being taken from him. Seth didn't want to be jaded or bitter.

  So why not trust Kaban? What was the worst that could happen? Seth hadn't done anything wrong. He hadn't hurt anyone. Well, he did effectively steal the rod, but the ogre illusion had already been damaged. Seth ignored the fact Mau had broken it.

  There would be consequences for telling Kaban about the rod. It was a powerful vault, and an expensive magical resource. Kaban would question him about where he got it. When it was connected to the ogre and the fiasco in Laureli, there was a decent chance Kaban would confiscate the rod as part of an investigation. Since it was stolen from Thurstan, it was unlikely Seth would get it back.

  Seth and his friends might even get detained. Seth didn't think they'd be blamed, but things could go sideways.

  Seth was mildly surprised he hadn't been called in for questioning. Duvessa's grandmother had been handling all that and she'd kept all of them out of it, probably for Duvessa's protection.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  He decided not to show the rod to Kaban, or ask him about casting tools.

  Selendrith's grandfather would only work on the rod for payment. That was fair. The man had already done Seth a favor by examining his bracelet.

  What about Selendrith? Could she do it? Would she? Maybe he could ask her to show him how to carve it himself. When he'd talked to her about it before, he was thinking from the standpoint of her grandfather making it. He hadn't considered having her try to carve it. He hoped she'd agree. Even if the rod was ruined, it was worth trying.

  She said you needed to be able to cast the spell you wanted to carve. And there he was, right back at trying to learn spells.

  Owen landed flat on his back with a sharp whump just feet from where Seth was sitting, startling him. He realized he'd zoned out for longer than he thought.

  "You're getting there, kid," Professor Kaban said as he held out a hand to Owen. "Keep calm. You are easy to manipulate when you get flustered." He glanced over at Seth. "You ready to get back to it yet?"

  Seth pushed himself to his feet. "Actually, Professor, I was wondering if you could demonstrate a spell or two for me."

  "Oh?" Kaban looked Seth over as he tapped his practice sword. "Most students have their hands full with the curriculum spells. If that Love Nine spell is making the rounds again, I should warn you it's a fake spell. It won't work."

  "Love Nine?" Owen asked, perking up.

  Seth's brow furrowed. "No sir. I've not heard of that one. I actually have been trying to cast Bind. I found it in the library, and it looks like a really useful spell."

  Kaban was surprised. "Bind? That's a medium tier spell. That should be well above what you can do right now."

  "Copy is medium tier, and I can cast that one," Seth countered.

  "It is," Kaban said and glanced back at Owen, "but Copy is about the easiest at medium you'll find. The structures and pronunciation it uses are much simpler than Bind. It's also a much less fussy spell."

  "Bind is fussy how?" Seth asked.

  "It's aspect locked. You need to convert mana to a compatible aspect to cast it. Also, it is more particular about getting the details right. Copy will let you mess up and do any old thing and you'll get some sort of result. That sort of feedback from a spell is useful in teaching. Bind will fail without doing anything if you don't have everything perfect." Kaban shook his head. "You've got a wind talent. Wind won't work with Bind."

  "Even if I try to do it unstructured?" Seth asked. "I thought all spells had unstructured variants."

  "Nope. A fair number won't work at all. Why Bind? Most people are more interested in the mending or cleaning spells. They have a more practical, day to day use."

  "We've been hunting magic beasts for Professor Isolde's bounty," Seth said. Perfectly true, but not the only reason.

  "She is doing that, isn't she. All right." Professor Kaban leaned his training sword against the wall and gestured to Owen. "I'll cast it at you."

  "One second," Seth said, and quickly cast Detect Mana. "Okay, ready."

  Professor Kaban's eyebrows rose. "You've been studying extra cantrips." He studied Seth, his expression moving from surprised to calculated before he turned back to Owen.

  Seth watched as the Professor deliberately cast the spell very slowly. The spot where Seth was having trouble with the positions of his fingers? That was where the mana the Professor was putting into the spell changed from unaspected mana into force mana. When he released the spell at Owen, nearly invisible bands of force wound around him and snapped his arms in and legs together.

  "Gah!" Owen cried, and hopped in place, trying not to fall over.

  Professor Kaban grabbed Owen's shoulder and held him steady. "All right. You can feel the bands of force? What do they feel like?"

  "They're hard," Owen said. "I expected them to feel like rope, but they're more like bands of metal. Tighter than I expected too." Owen wiggled one of his hands over to grab the band holding his arms. He pulled and squirmed but couldn't get it loose.

  "This spell is only as strong as the mana you put into it. It's not a channeled spell like most cantrips are, and while you can put more into it, it won't work if you try to do less than the spell will accept," Kaban explained. "A strong target like a large beast can break the bonds. While you can increase the spell's strength by increasing mana, I don't recommend using this on larger beasts. The strength of the spell does not scale well and you'd need more mana that could be better put into a more effective spell."

  "More effective like what?" Owen asked.

  "Like a blade or arrow spell. A beast strong enough to break Bind is too much for Professor Isolde's familiar racket," Professor Kaban said. He spoke a word and the bands of force around Owen disappeared.

  Seth realized the single word was actually a spell. "You can't just dismiss the spell?" Seth asked. "You have to dispel it? What kind of dispel was that?"

  "That's not a true dispel, more like a release. It only affects spells I cast. Most of the spells you've been working with so far are instantaneous or channeled. Any spell that can function without you providing constant mana to it needs to be released separately."

  Seth thought about that. The Barriers he'd cast he could dispel with a thought, but they took mana to maintain. Even with mana constantly supporting the spell, a strong enough impact would exhaust the spell. Copy and Wind Blade were both instantaneous. Nearly all of the cantrips he knew were all channeled spells.

  Thinking of the cantrips made Seth wonder about aspects. "Why does Bind need force aspected mana, but a spell like Flow doesn't need water aspected mana?"

  "I'm glad to see someone studied the cantrip book I gave you," Professor Kaban said, amused. "I thought you'd forgotten about it."

  "I've been studying it too!" Owen protested. "Seth's just faster at it than me."

  "Flow doesn't use water, it moves it," Professor Kaban answered Seth's question.

  "How about spells like Spark or Ignite?" Seth countered.

  "A lot of it depends on the spells. Those spells are some universally useful cantrips that are not aspect dependent. They are about creating the spark or flame, not using them. Some spells that need certain types of power will convert the mana as part of the spell casting, other spells are more particular and need the right mana type provided," Professor Kaban explained.

  "Why won't my wind aspect work with the Bind spell if I cast it unstructured?" Seth asked.

  "You're already surrounded and bound by air. What more would the spell do?" Professor Kaban asked. He picked the training sword back up. "You learn all of this next semester. Being able to manage the right aspects in casting is an important part of dimensional magic. Teaching you spells before then is a waste of time, since it'll be months before you could cast them anyway."

  "Could you teach me how to change mana aspects?" Seth asked.

  "I just told you that you learn this next semester."

  "How about just the force aspect then, so I can cast Bind? Please? I can practice that while you spar with Owen some more."

  Professor Kaban looked Seth over. Seth knew how he looked. Sweaty, wrung out, exhausted. Not really up for more sword training.

  "Fine. Let's start with a cantrip that is easy to do conversions with."

  None of them noticed Mau sitting attentively and watching the whole exchange, her puzzle ball forgotten behind her.