At the coming of a hazy, lulling dusk, I took Emily to the backyard garden and brought her before the fountain I'd adopted as my temporary workshop. Another point on which old customs were broken. An ordinary mage would never let a rival into her holiest of holies, save only in her dying moment. But neither of us was an ordinary mage, or could afford to be pigheaded about tradition, and calling this spot workshop was like calling a grill van palace.

  The mana stone in the base of the Sylphid statue had run out of power. The sprout dried up, leftover water wallowed in the pool undisturbed, the floor of the basin streaked green with algae. A stagnant smell of warm, standing water hovered in the vicinity. It was no longer a very pleasant, refreshing place to be. But it had to do. We drew a rudimentary alarm ward around the maze so that no clueless worker or a nosy aunt could sneak up on us. Confirming the ward was active and without glaring gaps, I then turned to face the hatchling of a novice standing next to me.

  “I know disclosing your study to anyone who's not your mentor or disciple is a strict taboo. But we are, as I understand it, the last practitioners of our respective houses. For the sake of efficiency, I’d like us to train together and learn from each other in the short time we have before the school term.”

  “Is it?” Emily asked, looking puzzled. “Taboo, I mean?”

  “You don't know?”

  “What?”

  “Well, it is a taboo. Generally speaking. Because knowledge is power. If other magicians learn what you can do, then they may not only copy your techniques but also infer your weaknesses and gain an advantage over you. That competitive mindset is so deep-rooted, it’s considered a sign of incompetence not to take the opportunity to strike when so foolishly given. Wasn't that why you were so apprehensive about moving in with us?”

  “No, I was just worried you'd laugh me out the door. I can't remember the first thing about etiquette.”

  “...”

  “But isn't that weird?” Emily continued with a frown. “We're going to an academy to study magic together, so won't we end up showing our skills to everybody there, anyway?”

  “We will mainly study general theories, common principles, and basic practices,” I recycled the answers Charlotte had given me a month back. “The overall goal of the magic curriculum is simply to ensure the standards of magecraft are preserved—preferably raised higher. That the universal level of knowledge increases instead of regressing. Since there have been close calls in history, so-called dark ages, when arcane know-how was very nearly lost.”

  “Ah, that. It was on the test too. But weren't those ages something that happened a long, long time ago?”

  “That it happened a long, long time ago doesn't mean it can't happen again. The bottom line is, students will avoid revealing their personal main traits, or any original techniques they may know, as a rule. It’s very much possible that your classmates today will one day face you as enemies. If they realize your areas of study overlap, eliminating competition will be in their best interests.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that. This was probably the reason Hallant picked on you on the exam day too. I doubt she really cared about our conversation. She merely thought you were someone she could easily eliminate, and took the opportunity.”

  Emily recoiled with a cringe. “What? That witch pulled such a show just to get me disqualified?”

  “And almost succeeded. So stay on guard and never show all your cards. Not to the other students, not even the professors.”

  “Not even the professors?”

  “Not every one of them are there just to selflessly help you. They have their own research to mind, and are probably not above stealing ideas from their students.”

  A shadow fell over Emily's face and she looked down.

  “What a heartless culture, having to assume everyone in the world is an enemy before they've even done anything to you.”

  “Yes. Mages are creatures like that. Prideful, elitist, and endlessly paranoid. The more power they have, the more jealously they’ll safeguard it. Because no matter how much you have, it can never be enough. The scions of older families will resort to murder without second thought to protect their specialties. Well, school is still school. Everyone there is under learner status. There's a tacit understanding not to go overboard and turn a blind eye to things that wouldn't be tolerated outside. But try to keep this in mind.”

  “Thanks for the warning, I guess. Geez.”

  “Now, I know I'm contradicting myself, but will you still work with me? It'll be necessary for us to share information that should be considered confidential. But I believe I can help you improve, and this is the fastest way to go about it.”

  Emily stared back at me without immediately answering, posing with arms folded, furrowing her brows, thinking before answering, and it was the first time I thought she looked a little bit like a mage. Even if she ended up turning me down, it was maybe worth it to see her adopt a more suitable mentality.

  Finally she said,

  “You told me not to trust anyone, so I bet you'd be real disappointed if I just said, ‘Sure, whatever you say!’ We may be both students on paper, but I can tell you're more the proper sort of witch among us. And you talk about us working together, but I can't see all that much you stand to learn from me. This deal seems to favor one a lot more than the other. And when something looks too good to be true, it’s probably not, right? Even I know that much. So I can't help but wonder why you'd even propose such an arrangement. What’s your angle? You’re not going to say it’s just because we’re friends now, are you? Because if you do, I’ll get scared for real.”

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  “A fine answer,” I told her with an easy smile. Really, test scores didn't tell you everything about a person. “Frankly speaking, Emily, more than a friend, I'm looking for a collaborator. A co-conspirator. A partner in crime.”

  “Are you planning to rob a dwarf bank, or what?” she asked, jokingly smiling, but the look in her eyes was terrified.

  “Something like that. As said, we live in a world where every colleague is a potential enemy. And we're headed into a veritable nest of hundreds of young vipers. In that case, it wouldn't hurt to have an ally inside. Helping you here isn't so much about instant gains for me. I consider it an investment for the future. The better you'll do at Belmesion, the more helpful you can be to me later down the line. That should serve your personal interests too. You are free to use me, as I will use you, for the mutual goal of graduating without too much trouble.”

  “So that's how it is,” Emily replied, relaxing a little. Being so mulish about fairness, it must have comforted her to know there was a price to pay and an opportunity to pay it. “But aren't you worried I might betray you myself after I learn all you have to share, and you'll lose your investment?”

  “You're right,” I said. “That possibility always exists. Which is why I'd like to learn more about your own way of magic. I can advise you on your technique, but however strong you become, I won’t be so easily surprised when I know what to expect. I’ll have insurance, so to say.”

  Emily looked disoriented by the answer.

  “I was joking, you know? Who can just casually accept the idea of being backstabbed by her friend? That’s crazy! And I wouldn't do that, honestly. You have my word. If having honor means I can't be a ‘legitimate’ mage, then so be it. I'll be my own kind of witch.”

  A beautiful thought. As it was childish.

  In books, people like Emily would surely be called “heroes.” But the future was always hidden, life constantly changing, and people changed alongside, quick to forget the promises of yesterday. You loved somebody today and hated them tomorrow. Blaming people for not being perfectly consistent and prepared for every unforeseeable eventuality was meaningless. You might as well have asked birds to stop flying and fish to start drowning.

  I'd long since ceased to put any weight on the word promise. And I took Emily Troyard’s betrayal not as a theoretical possibility, but as a foretold destiny, made only more certain the longer our relationship should go. But that never factored in my plans, since even as an enemy, there was nothing at all this girl could do to me.

  Even if imagining it was a little sad.

  “So you'll work with me then?”

  “I won't say no, if you're offering,” she said, resolutely clenching her fists. “If not for you and your aunt, I’d have missed the first day of the exams, and couldn't even try to be a mage anymore. If you hadn’t stopped my fist when you did, who knows where I’d be? And here you’ve gone and lent me your home too, and got me out of that damn cafe. Even if you told me you want to suck my blood for dinner, what else could I do but say, 'Sure, go right ahead!' Until I’ve paid back this massive debt somehow, I’ll do whatever I can. My abilities now really aren’t anything to brag about, though…”

  I nodded approvingly.

  “Very well. Then, let’s start working on those abilities straight away. First, could you show me your mana circulation? I'd like to assess your channel capacity before anything else.”

  Emily made a very awkward face. “Uh, show you my what?”

  What part was confusing?

  “How you circulate mana?” I repeated. “The way you'd normally train? Just the basic form.”

  She shrugged. “But I just cast spells? Isn't that how everybody trains their ability?”

  The girl really had no idea what I was talking about. I rubbed my forehead, frustration starting to boil again.

  “Yes, that’s how it was done—a thousand years ago. Casting technique and channel capacity are seen as different fields these days, and are trained in different ways. You never heard about this from anyone…?”

  “Well, my father was the only one who taught me anything about magic. And it's been eight years since he passed away…”

  Eight years? So this girl performed a ritual heavy enough to overload herself and kill her father when she was ten? Was she a prodigy or an idiot, I honestly couldn't tell. None of it made any sense.

  “I understand,” I said, and somehow got my act together again. “We'll start from there, then. As counterintuitive as it sounds, casting is a very inefficient way to train your capacity as a mage. Your mind is exhausted faster and adapts slower than your circuitry. There will be rapid progress in the beginning, but it leads to diminishing gains and even decline over time. The same way as always lifting the same weights will stop making your muscles grow before long.”

  “Huh. Is that right?”

  “Circulation doesn’t provide similar growth spurts, but the long-term gains are far superior, and there is no upper limit. Instead of pouring out your energy in spells, you circulate it internally and impose a sustained, distributed load on all of your channel. The continuous stress forces the pathways to expand, form new connections, and grow more resilient, which leads to increased output. It will not help your phenomenon control on its own, but we’ll get into that later.”

  “Oh. I see. I think.”

  “I'll demonstrate first. Use your Mana Sense and observe how I route the power within myself.”

  Emily raised a hand to interrupt. “Hang on. My what sense?”

  “...”

  How did she ever get three doors open in the Corridor?

  Suddenly, I felt very tired. The mountain I chose to climb turned out to be much higher than I first thought.

  Maybe leaving her to serve drinks would’ve been the easier choice, after all…