Once they got back, Sylph helped him into the shower and turned it on.
Damien let out a relieved sigh as the healing water cascaded over him, taking the raging headache away bit by bit. After several minutes within it, Damien shook his head off and rubbed the water out of his eyes.
"Thanks, Sylph. It felt like my head was about to split in half."
"No problem. What made it so much worse than normal? I've seen you cast more than twelve spells before."
"I cast them all at the same time," Damien said, rubbing his temple. "It wasn't a lack of Ether; it was a lack of mental energy. It was like trying to concentrate on twelve different things at the same time. Not easy, and clearly a bit too much for me in a realistic scenario."
"Well, better problems with mental energy than Ether," Sylph decided, moving out of the way as Damien emerged from the shower and started drying his hair off with the towel. "Mental energy can be trained much easier than controlling Ether, so at least you can progress there."
"That's true," Damien admitted. "I just never tried handling that much mental energy at once. It'll probably be something I work on this year."
They headed back into the main room, where Damien pulled a change of clothes out from his travel pack. His mage armor had already dried, but the same wasn't true for everything else. He swapped into the new outfit in the bathroom, then hung the soaked garments up to dry.
Sylph had a slip of brown paper in her hands when he returned. Damien raised an eyebrow as she let out a small sigh.
"New message from Delph?" Damien guessed.
"You guessed it," Sylph said with a nod. "And I'm not sure it's good news for us. We need to figure out what we're going to do about manifesting our companions."
Damien sat down on his bed and rubbed his chin.
Henry, do you think you'd be able to somehow manifest a version of yourself that doesn't blast your true nature to every single person in the area?
"I've been thinking on it," Henry said, shifting within Damien's mind.
"And it's a fine line. I don't think I can trick Whisp into thinking that I'm a companion from the Plane of Darkness that they already know of. She's going to recognize that my energy signature is wrong."
There's a but in there somewhere.
"If I don't try to pass myself off as something that already exists and instead attempt to make it seem like I'm an undiscovered creature from somewhere deep within the Plane of Darkness, the people that could cause us trouble might not even start to wonder about the Void. I'm also working on properly removing any traces of Void energy from myself so I can take appearance normally, but that might be a long time coming."
So instead of pretending to be something normal from the Plane of Darkness, you'll be something weird that they don't know of in the first place, so they don't have any reason to suspect you're an entirely different thing. I suppose that makes sense, but what are you going to do about appearance? The whole mouths-and-eyes everywhere shtick is honestly a dead giveaway that you're an eldritch creature.
"Working on that as well," Henry said. "I'd be more concerned about Sylph. You've got to have a companion to manifest one, and she doesn't."
"Henry says that he's got some ideas on my end," Damien said. "I'll have to look into exactly what manifesting a companion involves, but I should be okay. What are you going to do, though?"
"I'm not sure," Sylph said with a pensive frown. "I could pass off the weapons I can create out of my flesh as the manifestation, but I think we're expected to be able to do more than that. I literally don't have a companion, so if I'm expected to bring out some little creature, I'm out of luck."
"What was your plan when you first joined the school?" Damien asked, cocking his head. "You had an artifact then. That's hardly alive."
"I didn't have much of one in that regard," Sylph admitted. "I had no idea that we had to manifest our companions. I really didn't know much
about the college at all. It was just an opportunity to escape what remained of my master's influence."
Damien crossed his arms and sighed. "I see. We need to figure something out, then. That starts with figuring out exactly what 'manifesting our companion' would entail. Shall we drop by the library?"
"I was about to suggest the same," Sylph said, hopping to her feet. "We can stop by for some food on the way back as well."
"What a coincidence," Damien said, a grin tugging at his lips. "I was about to suggest the same."
Henry made a gagging noise within Damien's mind. "You're both so lame."
Says the eldritch creature using modern slang.
Damien hid a laugh as Henry muttered an insult at him, drawing back into the back of his psyche. He stood up and followed Sylph out the door toward the library.
Their trip went unimpeded, and it didn't take them long at all to find something of interest in the library. As soon as they walked up to one of the podiums at the front of the huge building, a portly man greeted them with a kind smile.
"What can I help you with today?"
"We're looking for a book that covers some information about manifesting our companions," Damien said.
"Ah," the librarian said with a small chuckle. "Year Twos getting ahead of the curve, are you? That's always commendable. You aren't the first to ask, but luckily Blackmist has quite a few copies of the book you're looking for. Even so, it goes out of stock pretty quickly every year."
As he spoke, the librarian inched out from behind his stand and hopped to the ground beside them. He started into the endless aisles of books, Damien and Sylph trailing behind him.
"We only need one, if that would help," Damien said. "We're roommates."
"Ah. How polite of you. That will certainly help, and I'm sure someone will appreciate the notion," he said, reaching a shelf near the front and snapping his fingers. Faint golden motes of energy fluttered out from his fingers, rising up to a book at the top of the shelf and pulling it free. The book floated down into Damien's hands.
"That book should handle everything required in Year Two," the librarian said. "You'll probably use a few chapters and never touch the rest of it. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"That's it for now," Damien said. "Thank you."
The librarian nodded, returning to his position at the podium. Damien turned the book over in his hands. It was bound in hard leather and wasn't particularly thick. The plain title on the front read "Manifestation."
Their prize in hand, Damien and Sylph returned to their room. Mark glanced up at them from within his room as they passed, giving Damien a slight nod as he passed. There was no sign of the Gray siblings.
Once they were inside, Damien sat down on his bed, flipping the book open. Sylph sat down close beside him and peered over his arm.
The books contents were rather simple. It was split into two main sections. The first was figuring out how to communicate properly with your companion in order to form a strong enough connection to manifest them in the Mortal Plane, and the second one was the practical requirements for it.
Damien flipped straight to the second half, skimming through it. It wasn't good news. Like Sylph had feared, they were expected to manifest their companion in two main ways. The first was a combat mode, which was what Jayce had used against him in their fight. The second, and more difficult, was a full manifestation of the companion independent of the summoner.
The more he read, the harder it got to pay attention to the book in his hands. Sylph was pressed against his right arm and the top of her head was only a few inches below his face as she squinted closer at the book.
"Stop that," Henry complained. "You're not the only one that has to live in your head. I don't need your teenage hormones in here."
Damien flushed, flicking Henry back with a small application of mental energy. His companion's muted laughter faded as Damien blocked him out.
"Are you okay?" Sylph asked, straightening back up and glancing away from the book at him.
"Yeah," Damien said. "Just Henry being, well, Henry."
Sylph nodded her understanding, then returned her attention to the book in his hands. She flipped the page, letting out a pensive hum, and continued reading. For a moment, Damien considered offering her the book since she was completely blocking his line of sight of it.
She inched closer, muttering under her breath as she flipped to the next page. Damien decided it would probably be best if he held onto it.
They remained there for several minutes as Sylph flipped through the rest of the book. She then straightened with a sigh, flopping back on Damien's bed and letting out a groan. "I'm in trouble. There are ways to get around the combat form, but not the normal manifestation."
"And I don't think somehow figuring out a way to manifest what remains of the corruption within you is a good idea," Damien agreed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Maybe Dredd will give you an exception?"
"I don't think they've got the power to do that," Sylph said, scrunching her nose. "Especially not with how much Whisp knows about us. We don't need to give her any more weapons. No, I need to find a way to actually manifest something. The book said that companions often don't actually communicate verbally, so it can be borderline braindead, but it can't be inanimate."
Damien flopped back beside her. "What if you just summoned a companion?"
"What?"
"You know, with a summoning circle," Damien said. "It's not like you have one, right? So, hypothetically, couldn't you summon one?"
Sylph turned her head to look at him. Damien could feel her breath on the side of his neck as she considered his words. "Is that possible? I thought Hen, ah, your friend said that I didn't have the space to do it or something."
Damien swallowed, gathering his wits back as he prodded Henry.
"Must you do this now?" Henry asked. "And yes, I was listening. You can block me out, but I can't do the same to you while I'm inside your body. As for Sylph, it's…complicated. It's possible that she could summon a companion, so long as it wasn't too powerful. It depends on how much room her soul has knocking around."
It's based on magical energy, right?
"That's a rough way to state it, but largely," Henry said. "Magical energy is just a numerical way to state how much brain power you have.
Splitting your attention to maintain multiple spells at once—that's magical energy. The stronger your soul is, the larger it is and the more you can do."
So is there a way we can figure out if Sylph's soul is big enough to handle a companion?
"Yes," Henry said after a moment. "Normally, I would just go into her body and inspect it. That is no longer a good idea. When I rebuilt her with the Corruption, her mental defenses were significantly improved as a byproduct. Pair that with her core—" Wait, I know the rune circle is still on her, but shouldn't her core have been repaired when it evolved?
"No. It was partially healed, but damage like that doesn't fix itself that easily. It takes time. Her core can still shatter if it isn't allowed to fully heal.
Now, as I was saying, if you want me to take a look at her soul and see if it can accommodate anything else without popping like an overfilled pastry, you're going to have to bring her into your mental space."
I can do that?
"I suppose I spoke incorrectly," Henry said, letting out a dramatic sigh.
"I'm the one that has to bring her in. But inviting someone into your mental space isn't exactly the same as visiting it yourself. Don't forget, you'll be in complete control, and souls are vulnerable outside of their bodies. You have to take care not to accidentally injure her."
I'm not going to be flinging magic around for no reason, but I'll keep that in mind. No training in my head. Can you do it, then?
"I wouldn't have told you about it if I couldn't," Henry grumbled. "I'm taking over."
Damien only had a moment to prepare before Henry's chilled presence pushed him to the side as his companion took over his body. He stiffened, then let out a sigh.
"Henry?" Sylph asked, sitting up a little.
"Damien came to me for help," Henry said, commandeering Damien's mouth. "We're going to find out if you can handle anything else in that battered vessel of a body you've got."
"Okay," Sylph said. "What do I do?"
"Just keep your eyes closed and lie down," Henry said. "I'll be bringing you inside Damien's head for a bit. Try not to trip over anything weird, and don't touch anything pointy."
Sylph nodded and laid back down. Henry sent a tendril of mental energy out, touching it to Sylph's head. Her body instinctively resisted his power, but Henry crushed the girl's mental defenses and pressed inward.
It only took a few moments for him to make contact with the shimmering white spark that was her soul. Henry supposed that having built
a large portion of her body had made it easier to navigate.
Her soul was wreathed in crackling green-and-black flame that made it impossible to make any details out. Henry wrapped the entire thing with a blanket of energy, then slowly formed a connection with Damien's soul. He took extra care to make sure no energy could flow down the line, as he didn't want to accidentally crush her with the unfathomable weight of an eldritch creature's soul.
As soon as he finished the connection, a translucent white line formed between their heads. Both of their bodies went slack. Damien felt the world blink out as he appeared on the grassy hill he'd grown used to. Henry appeared before him in his shadowy form, and a moment later, Sylph shimmered into being on the grass behind him, completely naked. Damien's eyes widened and he flicked his hand. Her usual clothes formed around her before she could even roll over or stand up.
"Forgot about that part," Damien said, his cheeks bright red. "I'm sorry."
"Oh, spare me," Henry said with a groan. "I was in the way. You didn't see anything. Let's just get on with this and skip the uncomfortable part, shall we?"
"It's fine," Sylph said, pushing herself upright and looking around. "So, how do we do this?"
"I'm already getting started," Henry said. "All you have to do is sit here and not bother me for a few moments. This first part is a bit intricate."
He shifted toward Sylph, shadows curling up off him and evaporating into the air. The air chilled as Henry raised his hands and started to gather orbs of violet energy within them. Dozens of miniature lines sprang out of the orbs. They shot out and connected to multiple spots over Sylph's body.
"Try to relax," Henry suggested. "The less you resist me, the easier it will be for me to get a good look at you."
She nodded, sitting down before him. Once she was settled, the lines flared. Damien watched silently as Henry stood over his roommate, silent.
They stayed like that for several minutes. Aside from the ever-churning dark flames covering Henry's multi-eyed body, there was absolutely no movement.
One of the strands snapped, falling away and evaporating. Another followed after it, and the rest weren't long behind. Henry lowered his hands and let out a pensive hum as Sylph opened her eyes.
"Well?" Damien asked.
"Never let it be said that constant trauma isn't an effective way to improve," Henry announced. "Her body has adapted very well. My handiwork, of course. Really, I'm the one to praise here. I did an excellent job."
"Henry!" Damien snapped. "Come on, man. Can she summon a companion?"
"Yes," Henry said, rolling about a dozen eyes at once in an almost mesmerizing pattern. "Don't get me wrong, she's barely got any room left in there. All I could do was poke my nose in. But, given the fact that her body is housing bits and pieces of the Corruption, it's quite surprising there's any room left at all."
"When you say room, how much are you talking about?" Damien asked, making his way over to stand beside them. "Because you take up a massive amount of mental space. Sylph isn't trying to get another Void creature."
"Something relatively weak," Henry said after a moment. "Even by your standards. She doesn't want a companion for the purposes of combat anyways. Sylph made it this far without one, and she'll keep going the same. If you stick to the planes closest to the Mortal one and avoid summoning some abnormally powerful creature, she'll be fine."
"And what if I accidentally summon something like that?" Sylph asked, yawning and glancing up at them.
"Then we make sure you don't bind with it," Henry said, his voice losing its humor. "Trust me. That would be really, really bad. Your mind only has so much room, and if it gets full, things start going poof to make room."
"Understood," Sylph said. Damien helped her to her feet and brushed some of the grass stains off the back of her shirt. Henry snorted. Damien cleared his throat, and the stains vanished as he willed them away.
"Thanks," Sylph said to Damien, giving him a quick grin before it faded away. "So…how do I get a companion? Summoning Circles aren't exactly easy to use once you're already in college. I suppose we could ask Dredd or Delph."
"No need," Henry said with a dismissive wave. "Have you forgotten that we've got an expert in summoning circles with us?"
"Damien?" Sylph asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," Henry replied. "Me. Of course. I suppose Damien is passable, but runes aren't even an ounce of difficulty for me. It won't be hard to make a summoning circle, so all you'll have to do is the ritual."
"We'll have to keep a really close eye on it," Damien said, crossing his arms as a deep frown passed over his features. "I don't want a repeat of the last time I made a rune circle. I still don't know who messed with it, but if they manipulated my circle, they could do the same to Sylph's."
"We will," Henry said. His body crackled with cold heat. "But I doubt anyone would be bold enough to fiddle with the circle while we're both watching for it. Regardless, I think we've accomplished our goal. We don't want to spend more time in here than necessary, or Sylph's soul might get a bit too comfortable outside of her body."
Sylph swallowed. "That does sound like a good idea to get back."
"Indeed," Henry said dryly. "You might feel a bit dizzy once we return.
Your soul wasn't too happy about me fiddling with it, but you'll get over it.
Just don't stand up too quickly and you'll recover within a few minutes."
Sylph nodded. Henry snapped his fingers, and the ground rushed up, swallowing them in darkness. Damien's eyes snapped open as he found himself lying in bed once more. Sylph was pressed against his side, her breathing slow and rhythmic.
Ah…Henry? Is she asleep?
"Her soul is settling back into her body," Henry said. "Give it a few seconds. Not everybody ignores soul damage like you do."
No sooner than he had spoken did Sylph twitch. Damien, with some reluctance, sat up. She blinked at him. Her eyelids were half closed and the eyes behind them hazy. Damien helped her sit upright.
"Sylph? You okay?"
"Yeah," Sylph said, scrunching her lips and shaking her head. She let out a large yawn. "Everything is really foggy, but it's coming back. It feels like I didn't sleep for a week."
"Do you know what that feels like?"
"Yes," Sylph replied as more strength returned to her tone. "I had to do it a few times in the forest when I was younger. You can't afford sleep when you're getting hunted."
"What kind of predator didn't sleep?" Damien asked.
"My old master," Sylph replied. The ice in her tone was sharp enough to cut steel. She shook her head again, then slowly slid to her feet and stood
up. "I think I'm back. What sort of preparations do we need to make that summoning circle? I'm not going to have much time to get the bond with my soon to be companion up to a point where I can summon it."
"Unless Henry is thinking of something different than what I am, we just need some chalk," Damien said. He received a mental nod from his companion. "And I've already got that for my runes. We can do it immediately, but are you sure you're totally recovered?"
Sylph opened her mouth. Then she frowned. "Maybe I'll take a quick shower first. It couldn't hurt."
"Henry and I will make the circle in the meantime," Damien said, giving her a nod. "That's probably for the best. We don't want to take risks here. I did, and look who I got landed with."
"Shut up," Henry grumbled from within him. "I'm the best thing that ever happened to you."
Damien rolled his eyes, and Sylph let out a small laugh. "Sometimes I wish I knew what you two were talking about."
"It's nothing interesting, I promise you," Damien said. "It's usually Henry being a pompous ass."
His shadow twitched as Henry commandeered it, forming a small mouth. "It most certainly is not. He just doesn't want to say—" Damien stomped on the mouth, and it vanished, leaving Henry's fading laughter behind. "As you can see. Pompous ass."
Sylph smirked at him as she grabbed a change of clothes and headed into the bathroom. The shower clicked on a moment later. Damien shook his head and ruffled through the travel pack under his bed, grabbing half a stick of chalk.
You sure you don't need a reference book or anything for this?
"I'm quite certain," Henry replied. "I've forgotten more magic than you'll ever learn, but I've kept all the interesting stuff. It doesn't get any more basic than a summoning circle."
I'm pretty sure it does. But is basic really interesting? A light rune— "Damien. Eldritch horror here. Do you need a book for simple little light rune circle?"
…no.
"And I don't need a book for a simple summoning circle," Henry finished with a smug laugh. "Don't worry. I'll make it as if I were doing it
for you. She won't get hurt. Just keep an eye out for interference while I work."
Damien sighed and nodded. He headed into the second training room, and Henry rose up within his shadow. A pulse of dark energy rippled out of the Eldritch creature's body, stopping at the edges of the room.
"We're protected from any prying eyes," Henry said. "So now, if anyone happened to be watching, all they saw was Sylph promptly taking a shower after lying down next to you."
"And me trying to stomp on my own shadow," Damien said, refusing to blush at Henry's words. He tossed the stick of chalk to his companion. "Get on with the rune circle."
Henry cackled and started to trace runes across the floor. Despite Damien's earlier complaints, it was mesmerizing to watch. He knew that he was more than adequate at rune crafting, but Henry was really something else.
Every single motion was a masterwork. He didn't make mistakes, and the speed he worked at was almost inconceivable. It was almost as if he were writing a grocery list instead of a channel for the surrounding Ether.
Damien kept a close eye on the runes—particularly the ones for banishment in case anything went wrong. He wasn't particularly surprised to find that no shadowy tendrils emerged to modify it.
Henry finished the entire multilayered circle within only a few minutes.
However, instead of stopping, Henry drew a second circle around the first.
Once he was done, his shadowy form straightened, and he scanned over it all before giving an approving nod.
"What's the outer circle for?" Damien asked.
"Power limiter," Henry replied. He handed all that remained of the chalk—a tiny nub—back to Damien. "It's to make sure Sylph's call isn't somehow too strong. We need some weak little elemental or the like."
"That makes sense," Damien admitted. He turned the tiny piece of chalk over in his hand. "And what am I supposed to do with this? You used it all up!"
"I don't know," Henry said. "Eat it, maybe. Probably tastes better than that slog they had in the mess hall. Even your memories of it are distasteful."
Damien stuck the piece of chalk into his pants pocket. He scanned the rune circle again, this time trying to see how much of it he could remember.
To his disappointment, it wasn't much. It looked mostly right to him, but he barely remembered its appearance in the first place.
"It's fine," Henry said. "The circle is correct."
"I know," Damien said with a sigh. "Can't blame me for being at least a bit cautious with it, though. I wish we know who messed with my circle the first time. It would make everything so much easier."
The running water from the shower clicked off. Henry gave Damien a shrug.
"No point worrying about it now. You'll come to realize that, if there's nothing you can do about an issue, you might as well not waste your energy on it. You'll deal with it when it happens. There's no point suffering twice."
"That's surprisingly wise," Damien said.
"I have my moments."
Sylph stepped through the hallway, her hair still slightly damp. "Is the circle ready?"
"It is," Henry said. "All you have to do is step into it and commence the ritual. Do you know how it works?"
"No," Sylph admitted, flushing. "I never thought I'd be doing it because of my terrible magical energy."
"It's quite simple, really," Henry said, leaning against the wall of the training room. "Just channel all your desires and feelings, then imagine yourself throwing them at the circle as hard as you can. That's all."
"Don't I have to worry about summoning something too strong?" Sylph asked.
"I put a limiter on the circle. Any excess power you put in will get cut down, so just give it your all," Henry replied. "If anything, you need to make sure your call is strong enough. Not everyone can summon a companion, after all."
Sylph nodded. She swallowed, then stepped into the center of the summoning circle. "Do I just stand in the middle?"
"Yep," Damien said. "It can help to put your palm on the floor and imagine your call coming out through it."
Sylph nodded. She bent over and pressed her hand against the stone.
"Ready?"
"Just go," Henry grumbled. Damien gave her an encouraging grin.
Sylph closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. She let it out slowly as her face set itself into a concentrated mask. The runes around her lit up with
faint white energy one by one, humming with faint power that grew in intensity by the second.
The smell of ozone filled the air, and her hair started to flutter around her shoulders. The second circle lit up with brilliant purple energy, rotating counterclockwise on the ground around Sylph. Crackling fingers of energy rose up from it, pouring into the power flooding out of Sylph and subduing it.
"Would you look at that?" Henry muttered. "Good thing I put that limiter in. She might have gotten quite the summon, even with her low levels of magical energy."
Damien nodded, too engrossed to even say anything in response. There was a dull hum followed by a crack as all the energy condensed into a tiny mote of white-and-purple light before Sylph. The purple runes on the outside of the circle faded, and it slowed to a stop, the chalk markings crumbling and burning away.
Sylph stared at the mote, her eyes glassy as if she were looking straight through it. After several moments, she blinked. The mote shot into her chest and she staggered backward, a flash of pain crossing her features.
"Her body isn't too happy about having something new in there," Henry observed, but he didn't sound too concerned. "It's fine. She'll adapt soon enough. I felt the strength of her companion, and it wasn't very high at all.
Exactly what we wanted. But…" "But?" Damien pressed. "But what?"
"You might want to go catch her. She's about to fall over," Henry suggested.
Sylph staggered. Damien lunged forward and grabbed Sylph before she could fall, wrapping his hand behind her back and slinging one of her arms over his shoulder for support.
"Are you okay?"
"Wasn't expecting that," Sylph muttered. "All my Ether just flooded out of me. I'm fine, though. Thanks for stopping me from falling."
"It's your companion," Henry said. "Whatever it was—it took your Ether to avoid getting cannibalized by your Corrupted body. It'll stabilize over the next few hours and you'll be back to normal."
"So it worked, then?" Damien asked. "You've got a companion?"
A smile flittered across Sylph's face. "Yeah. I've got a companion."