While I was at work Tuesday, on a whim, I pulsed a bit of ether into my ring, as if trying to create a waystation. I didn't think it would work, but it was clear that the Charm and Fable had funky dimensional magic, and that Fable had a relationship with previous members of the Coven of the Twilight Grotto – the secondary Court Mage, Syn was a member and had worked here, and they knew Henry well enough to be on a first name basis with him.

To my surprise, there was a flicker of magic in the ring, but before it could solidify, the magic snapped. An instant later, Fable appeared, folding out of the air with a staff held in his hand. I'd never seen Fable's staff before, and was rather taken aback by its construction. I supposed that I shouldn't have been – the Charm and Fable sold components of all sorts, including those that were used in the construction of staves, wands, and amulets. It only made sense that one of the owners of such a store was able to equip himself with a powerful staff.

Still, it struck me as odd. The man hadn't even summoned a staff or wand or other mage tool when the aberrant that had been the Dreki matriarch had appeared, yet he held one now? Before I could contemplate on it, the man banished the staff, presumably to an Etherius locker. I'd only seen it for a moment, but from what I had seen, it was impressive. It had seemed to be made of a glassy white substance, like someone had framed the moon, then smoothed out all of the craters on its surface. The color was almost opalescent, yet not quite as sparkling or bright as the scales of a Nraig dragon. It was perfectly smooth, with no cracks or blemishes anywhere.

At the head of the staff, where the focusing and core components were often exposed, the material seemed to fuse seamlessly into another, bright and multicoloured glassy substance. It reminded me of the bright and colorful trails that comets and meteors could make as they passed by or fell to Earth, somehow captured and spun into glass. While I wasn't able to see a core substance, like the heart trapped within ether crystal that the Erudite's staff, there was a faint golden glow, like the molten brightness of the sun, leaking from within the staff and out into the air. I wasn't able to angle to get a better look at its core, however, before it was gone and Fable turned to me with a fatherly smile.

"I'd ask you not to do that again – the protections I've put around the shop to protect against unwanted visitors are rather severe, and trying to forcibly connect a demiplane is less than ideal."

"I understand, it won't happen again," I agreed, nodding rapidly. "Is that why Salem gets such an unusual, creepy feeling from your shop? He said he can't see the past in the shop, and feels like he's constantly being watched."

"It's connected to our defensive measures, certainly, though I very much doubt it was the planar breaching wards," Fable agreed, though I noticed he didn't actually answer the question. "We have a variety of protections, including ones to protect against psychic intrusion."

I studied him, not for the first time wondering just what the enigmatic man's affinity was. He'd admitted himself that it had a lot of similarities to a conjuration affinity, but wasn't quite the same. No two affinities were exactly the same, but there were broad similarities – two fire affinities might not be identical, but they were still both fire. I was increasingly leaning to him having some sort of spatial or dimensional affinity, given everything that I'd put together.

"Charm told me to wait until I'd completed my dragon mage and archmage rituals, but I've got some questions," I said, only for Fable to shake his head.

"I can guess your questions, but if Charm told you to wait, then wait. You're strong – stronger than I was at your age, and much stronger than Charm was when he was in his early twenties. But there are doors and choices that, once made, cannot be taken back."

"Like how the Erudite gave up any chance at godhood to become an Erudite?"

"That is a prescient, if somewhat different, example. Now, how goes the work on your affinity magic? You mentioned sealing magic – have you successfully constructed any spells for it yet?"

We spent a bit of time looking over my affinity, and Fable offered some helpful tips in applying similar spellform shapes, words of power, and gestures that were commonly used of abjuration magic to the use of sealing curses, before he had to leave. I spent the rest of the night working on my affinity with Salem, who was working on his homework for his enchantment class, before going out to continue the buckler ritual and going to bed.

The following morning, I ate breakfast with Jackson and Salem before heading to the campus greens where Applied Mage Combat met. I wrinkled my nose when Yushin approached.

"You stink," I said, the words spilling out before I could help myself. Still, it was true – she smelled awful, like she'd spent weeks exercising nonstop without showering, soiling herself rather than going to the bathroom, and eating decomposing food out of trashcans. Jackson elbowed me in the side, and I winced. Salem laughed and shrugged.

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"Ya do smell a bit ripe, though I wasn't gonna say anythin' about it."

"I do," Yushin agreed. "Though first, we should protect our conversation."

I nodded and flicked my wand, casting hidden conversation, and Salem perked up, pulling out his wand, as well as a small crystal. It didn't look like anything crazy, just an ordinary chunk of quartz.

"I learned ah' new spell in my divination class," Salem said excitedly. "Detect spying."

He began spinning his wand, muttering a chant. Green light flowed from the tip, spiraling out into a circle around us, before fading away into nothing. Even as that light faded, green light began to spark within the crystal, slowly melding together into a single, solidified glow.

"If the light's green, then we're not bein' spied on wit' a divination spell, windlistenin', spirit senses, or any a' the more common methods to listen in on people. There's always stranger ways ta' listen in, but this is a good general warnin'. If one enters our area, it turns yellow, an' if one locks specifically onto the area or someone in it, the crystal'll turn red."

"Useful," Yushin said, giving a short, approving nod.

"Can it be imbued into the crystal?" I asked curiously, but Salem shook his head.

"Nah, but it can be the focus of a permanency spell, which is useful."

"Permanency has to be the first fifth circle spell I learn, it's just entirely too useful," I muttered. "Either that or teleport. That's also useful."

"True, but we're getting off track," Jackson interjected. "Why did Emrys recoil from your scent? I can't smell anything, but my nose isn't very good."

"Emrys' sense of smell being so much stronger than human baseline is likely picking up on more of the lingering results of my training. The first stage of cultivation is known as body purgation, and it involves running life energy through the body to remove flaws. My family is rapidly pushing me through it, and I have expelled many impurities."

"What does that actually mean, flaws?" Jackson asked. "Who decides what is and isn't a flaw?"

"The soul," Yushin said seriously. "It removes any excesses, and increases any deficiencies, optimizing your body and preparing it as a vessel to store chi. Ah. To store life energy. At the peak of the body purgation stage, you will have forcibly expelled all damage done to your body, rendering you the absolute maximum of your own potential. The life energy in your dantien – core – can push you beyond "

"It's one of the reasons Shé Rui suggested that if I was insistent on picking up a new type of magic, that I should follow a path of cultivation that intentionally sacrificed future growth to speed my advancement to the peak of body purgation," I said. "It wouldn't be too much of a burden on my time, the life energy should have merged with my fire, and I would have made better use of my fire."

"Of course, even sacrificial paths are expensive, in the cost of time or money" Yushin said. "The Path of the Future Burning Flame, for example, requires either the better part of five hundred hours of work, or several thousand silver in resources."

"What about you?" I asked, curiously. "I know your clan has been saving for a long time for your own advancement."

"The resources I am using to bring me to the peak of energy drawing, and ready to form a perpetual core, within a single year can be measured in tens of millions of silver," Yushin said calmly. "Though, I will still need to form the core on my own. No elixirs can guarantee the formation of a perpetual core."

Jackson, Salem, and I all traded looks with one another. To me, that still felt like preparing a vessel for a god than it did opening a gateway. Salem and Jackson seemed to agree, but we all looked away quickly, so as to not take away the attention from Yushin.

"Lotta money," Salem said, letting out an impressed whistle.

"A small amount, when compared to a god's freedom," Yushin said. I didn't want to argue with her, so I instead turned my focus to another topic.

"Do you think that if I used the Path of Burnt Future Flame, and it fused with my dragonfire, I could then use the dragon mage ritual to bring the power into my ether pool?"

"The Path of the Future Burning Flame," Yushin corrected, before hesitating and shrugging. "I do not know. It is possible that the integration of chi into your fire would render it too far distant from standard draconic magic for a dragon affinity to work on it. But it is also possible that your dragonfire consuming the path would allow you to merge all three into a greater whole."

"I don't think it's worth the risk," Jackson stated. "If you managed to become a dragon mage, your power would skyrocket, and if you could incorporate the same automatic density improving ability that dragons have that makes them more dangerous as they age, your strength would only keep growing. Is becoming a slightly better channel worth risking that?"

"Probably not," I conceded. "Still, I can't help but imagine what would or could happen if someone managed to unite magic from as many sources as possible. Imagine how dangerous someone would be if they managed to merge together divine boons enhancing their fire, fire element cultivation, a fire affinity, a flame bloodline, and pyromancer destiny magic."

"Aye, it would be impressive," Salem agreed. "But I dinnae if anyone could actually get tha' much synergy. There's too many elements a' randomness – aren't destiny marks random?"

"The marks are not, however the core destiny is usually seen as a factor of providence," Yushin said.

I glanced at her, curious how much she knew about destiny. Before I could, our conversation was cut short by the crystal flashing a bright red. Everyone tensed, and I saw shadows playing around Yushin's serpentine fingers, while sparks flew in Jackson's hand, and Salem and I raised our wands.

An instant later, Henry appeared in the middle of us, blinking and rubbing his eyes. He leaned against a nearby oak tree and let out a long, stifled yawn.

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