I wandered up and down the library bookcases as Seth and Owen searched for hunting spells. Owen did his searching by wandering like me, running a hand along the books and stopping to read titles occasionally. Seth was poring over a spell index.

"Here is a Lure cantrip," Seth said. "The description says it will entice a creature known to the caster to a specific location."

"We would need to know what's there and be particular about what we're hunting then. What does it last? Can you do a mess of different ones?" Owen asked.

"No. It's a focus spell. It'll only last as long as I'm focusing on it."

"Unless we know what's nearby, that won't work. Actually, what's the range on it? Does it say?" Owen asked.

"Range isn't listed," Seth said. "That might mean it's flexible based on intent."

"Or it might mean the spell's only for using right there, like collecting mice in a barn or fleas off a dog," Owen said. "For them, better to be using a Repel than a Lure. Are there other versions of it? Something higher tier, maybe?"

"I'll look when I get to the next section. Here is an Alarm spell. If something touches the target of the spell, it'll make a sound. This is a focus spell, too," Seth said.

"Nah. It'd chase away what we're trying to catch," Owen said. He stopped at a book and pulled it out to look at it.

That sounded like a thing about cantrips. They didn't last long. Most of them, like Seth's Moonlight spell, only lasted as long as he was focusing on it, and Booth's Lightstone spells only lasted a few minutes.

I wondered if it was a power thing. Most magic I'd seen cast was a quick effect. A spell was cast and a thing happened. Done. The long-term stuff was anchored in some way. It was carved into magic substances or held mana somehow.

Summons followed that, too, to an extent. Duvessa had a limit on how much she could summon, and when that thing was killed, she suffered mana exhaustion. But she didn't suffer from exhaustion while the summons were out and about. She must have been connected to their mana somehow, even when they were far away.

"We've got Moonlight as a spell for light. That should be fine, right?" Seth asked.

"Sure. It was plenty bright enough, I thought." Owen put the book back. "Go to the next tier already, I wanna hear what they got."

"Should I look through the basic tier or go straight to median?"

"Straight to median. You're good at casting, you can pick those up easy, right?" Owen asked.

"I don't know. It did take me most of the two weeks to do Copy. And that one is on the easy side of median."

"I don't think we can spend two weeks learning new spells. Especially if they don't do exactly what we want," Owen said.

"I suppose we could ask Selendrith tomorrow. She might know of some we could try to learn." Seth flipped forward chunks of pages. "Here are the median spells." He ran a finger along the list. "Oh, Bind looks interesting. And there's Fireball. A bunch of these are crossed out, like Lightning Trap, and Stolen Voice."

"Does that mean they're forbidden or something?" Owen asked.

Ooooh, forbidden spells? I liked that idea. But wait, why would you list forbidden spells in an index with regular spells? Shouldn't they be on a hidden list instead?

"I don't think so. Stolen Voice is … okay let me see if I can find the book listed." Seth left the index open and headed amongst the bookshelves.

He couldn't find it. And when he checked other crossed out spells, those books were missing too. So, they left those spells listed because, well, I don't know. They wanted to show off what they used to have? Or was it too difficult or expensive to reprint the book? My guess would be a bit of both.

"Why do you reckon the books are missing?" Owen asked. "Most of these should be in more than one book, right?"

"Yeah, some do list multiple books. But some people take books and don't return them. Like that cantrip book Kaban lent us. Well, lent you, and then I took it. We haven't given that back yet."

You book thief! Dirty rotten book thief! Steal more of them! Or not. Just let me learn magic already. Well, I could use items anyway. That was a very nice form of magic.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Yeah, we need to finish doing those," Owen said. "Do you know if there is a cantrip version of Lightning Trap? Or a basic version? If lightning don't kill you it can knock you out, or at least make it hard to move, right?"

"I'm going to find Bind first. I want to see how complicated that one is."

Hmm. Yeah, I can see that being a really useful spell. Curious, I hopped up on the table and took a look at the spell lists.

My reading wasn't there yet. I could get a few words, and could sound out a fair bit to get the meaning. It would take me hours to read just these pages.

Welp, I had nothing better to do, so I got to it.

Seth made copies of spells from books and headed to the library practice area. It wasn't as private, or as nice, as the dining hall training rooms, but Seth didn't have a time limit here.

Seth learned the Lure and Alarm cantrips pretty easily and worked on teaching Owen. The assholes used me as their target.

I spent the next hour doing my damnedest to ignore that freaking spell. The better they were at casting it, the harder it was for me to ignore it. It was like starving all day, and suddenly you can smell an orange, all sweet and delicious. The compulsion to check it out was uncanny. And the brats were ecstatic every time I gave in a little.

I could resist it. I didn't need to walk over to it. But I wanted to. I could see how an animal without a strong will or awareness would be lured in. But smarter or stronger beasts wouldn't be fooled.

Then there was that little shot of happiness when I touched the Lure. That instant of 'Yes! I got it!' It was its own type of addiction.

The stronger versions of that spell scared me. I wasn't sure resisting them would be possible, depending on how high a tier it was.

We practiced a bit more, until Owen managed to cast Lure and decided he was done practicing for the night.

----------------------------------------

Seth turned to Mau after Owen left. "I think I should practice with Saben's power. I've never had a good relationship with it, and I'm a little concerned about how it will go. I have class in the Wind Tower tomorrow."

Mau, who'd been doing her best to ignore both boys, and their Lure spells, walked over to sit before him.

Seth laid one of the spells he copied onto the floor in front of him. Wind Blade.

It was one of Saben's favorite spells, one he could do nearly without casting. Seth had never managed to make it work properly for him.

Part of that was the makeshift, unstructured mess of a spell Saben had taught him. Sure, it was nearly the spell, but from what Seth had learned using mana vaults, that wasn't good enough for true structured casting.

The first thing he did was practice the correct form without mana. It was technically a cantrip but bordered on basic. As he already had an idea for how the spell worked, It didn't take long before he was confident he had the right motions and incantation now. After all, they were very similar to what Saben used, but Saben's were effectively slurred or mumbled.

Then Seth closed his eyes and listened. He no longer felt like his magic was supposed to obey him. He'd tried to view it that way before, but in his heart he always thought it should do as he wished. That wasn't true anymore. The power wasn't his. He was nothing more than a temporary guardian. Anything the power did for him was a gift from Saben, and should be respected as such. So he listened, and he waited.

He could hear it. The wind that had always defied him, ignored him, fought him. This time it listened in turn. As Seth listened, he felt like it was speaking to him. He could hear where the air was in the room. He could hear its whispered movement over the papers on the floor, the air ducts in the ceiling, even Mau's breath.

And then he could hear his own breath, and hear the wind's reluctant willingness to work with him. The power didn't trust him, like it expected him to force it to his will, subjugate it.

Seth knew better now. The wind could not be subjugated. It would never be caged.

But he could ask for its help. And it would help him.

Seth opened his eyes and made the motions to cast the spell. The apple he'd placed on the table sliced neatly in half.

Seth closed his eyes again and listened. For the first time, he understood what Saben had been talking about, that he needed to listen to the wind.

It made him wonder. If you needed to listen to wind, was that true of all wind casters? Did others feel it differently? What did a water talent feel like? Stone?

He wondered what a talent really was. Why they could be stolen.

Booth had likened a talent to a limb or eye. You could never see out of someone else's eye, or use someone else's limb.

Why was a talent different? Why was Seth too young to have his own? Why did the very young not get talents? Were prodigies genuinely impossible?

Why didn't everyone get talents?

Mau rubbed against his legs and meowed at him.

"Why do you think someone needs to have a talent in order to bond to a familiar? Any ideas, Mau?"

Mau cocked her head. 'What?'

"I was just thinking about talents, is all. I was wondering why a normal person can't have a familiar. What is it about talents that lets the soul bond happen?"

Mau snorted.

"I think it is relevant. My talent is stolen. It's really Saben's. What if the familiar bond is really between you and Saben, and not me at all?"

'What? No,' Mau signed. 'No,' she signed and rubbed her whiskers with a paw. She waited a beat then did it again. 'No,' whisker rub, 'far away.'

Seth wondered if he'd forgotten signs again, and then decided no, these were new words. "All right, that whisker rub. Magic? Pressure? Water?" It took a few minutes, but Seth worked out that Mau could not sense Saben at all, and did not consider him to be a component in the familiar bond.

"All right. I won't worry about it then. If something happens when Saben gets his power back, would you be willing to do the bond again, Mau?"

Mau jumped up on his shoulder and made grumbly noises.

She nodded firmly.