The Oakheart Library’s offerings proved far more valuable than Nox anticipated. Besides Wilson’s Stasis, he also found a spell capable of stopping time for up to ten seconds. Its three-digit mana cost made it impractical for everyday use, but Nox could foresee it proving useful in emergencies—if he dedicated a planet to the spell. The complicated spellform and casting meant it would take far too long to activate otherwise. As he studied the script closely, Nox could see how Wilson’s ancestors had derived their Stasis spell from it.

The tomes also included the origins of Annabelle’s Danger Sense spell. Foresight allowed the caster to scry possible futures surrounding a person, object, or instance. The cost increased exponentially with every additional second, skyrocketing by triple digits at ten minutes and four by thirty. Nox tried looking a minute into his future and that of all of his companions during dinner. The spell gave Nox the worst headaches he had ever experienced. The pain started between his eyes and followed three distinct paths. Two cut across the eyes and stopped at his ears. The other traveled up through his forehead and carried on all the way to the back of his head.

Not letting his eyes overflow with tears at the dining table proved challenging. Nox successfully kept things together and excused himself just before dessert, citing too much wine and needing the washroom. It took a few sips of Spirit Caller’s Tea and five minutes of non-stop deep breathing and meditation for the discomfort to pass. When he returned, he got curious glances from Aria, Brianna, and Joey, but no one questioned him about the odd behavior.

On the bright side, Nox had found several new runes, pairings, syntax, and techniques necessary when dealing with time. Much like spatial magic, time spells had their own set of rules and techniques. Nox was not surprised by their uniqueness. The magic toyed with the fundamental building blocks of reality after all.

“Wilson.” Nox caught up to Annabelle and her fiance after dinner. He had stayed silent throughout the meal, and the pair didn’t linger after the meal ended. The man stiffened when Nox approached and looked at him with a steely gaze. “I’m sorry for being short with you earlier in the day. It was uncalled for, and I should’ve handled the matter more tactfully. Annabelle is a dear friend; you are an important part of her life now. It was wrong of me—”

“Thank you for the apology,” Wilson said. “Does this mean you will respect my request?”

“Somewhat,” Nox replied. “I won’t publicize any spells that might use the Stasis function. However, I can’t make such promises of the runes, pairings, techniques and unique syntax. When we spoke earlier, I meant that these are essential building blocks for building spells and are often not patented, and I will use them as necessary.”

“I suppose that’s acceptable.” Wilson nodded. Annabelle smiled and thanked him from behind him.

The men shook hands before parting ways. Nox returned to his waiting fiancee, and she hugged him. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered. “I know it was neither easy nor necessary, but you made the right move for your friendship and business relationship. Even if Wilson never gets the power of decision-making, he might influence them. He might never like you for bedding Annabelle and having to stay around while you did so. But mutual respect, begrudging or not, will go a long way.”

“I did it for the business,” Nox said honestly. “I don’t care about his pride or how this might affect his future with Annabelle. Honestly, business relationships are more important to me than friendships. I want you to know that. Even though she was my first real relationship, I no longer hold a candle to her. You’re the most important person in my life and the only one I have eyes for.”

“I know that, you fool.” Aria stood on tiptoes and kissed Nox’s lips. “I was just annoyed and frustrated before. The exchange shocked me, is all. You resolved that nicely. Given how reserved Wilson is, I don’t think it could’ve gone any better. He probably knows that it was mostly for show, but his pride is secure.”

Exhaustion and a full belly got the best of Nox. He let Aria drag him to bed, and sleep soon took him. Despite indulging in Spirit Caller’s Tea, Nil didn’t end up on a spirit walk and was relieved for it. He lacked the confidence to go at it alone. Aria often assured him that it was safe. However, concerns regarding repeating past mistakes still deterred him.

The following morning, Nox woke with the first lights of dawn. It took him a few minutes to wiggle out from the limbs Aria had draped over him. Spending the entire day socializing and touring the estate had left her exhausted. Nox didn’t want to risk disturbing her and delaying his start in the library. He crept out of their room, hoping to find no one on the way to his destination. Unfortunately, he only made it a dozen steps before bumping into Alex, creeping similarly. Except he hadn’t come out of his room but Brianna’s.

The young druid’s cheeks flushed as soon as his eyes met Nox’s. “I ascended last night,” he replied, grinning. “Brianna was helping me separate.”

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“I’m not judging.” Nox laughed. “Although I’m surprised she didn’t break your skinny arms and legs.”

“Brianna can be surprisingly tender when she wants. Please don’t tell anyone? It was just a bit of fun, and I don’t want Caitlin making a big deal out of it.”

“It's not a big deal unless both parties agree that it's not. I hope that was conveyed to Brianna. Either way, it's none of my business, and you won’t be delving with as much—”

“—if at all.”

“I want to be optimistic and say much. You’ll be missed in the party.” Nox smiled at the younger man and shook his hand. “Congratulations on the ascension. It won’t be long before you’re leading and commanding the rest of us.”

“That’s the one bit of druidism I’m not keen on,” Alexander said. “I don’t want to lead people. But I’m excited for the rest. Grandmother says adept rank where it begins for druids. My inner grove is larger. I can build more spell structures and activate the inherited few that I couldn’t access before.”

“I don’t have much of a clue about how a druid’s magic system works, but you’ll need to show me your new toys sometime.”

“How about now? I’m too wired to go back to sleep.”

“No. I need to get back to the library. You can buy my silence regarding Brianna if you give me a hand.”

“Do I have to?” Alexander’s shoulders drooped.

“It won’t be too bad,” Nil said. “I found stuff on druids and planeswalkers. You might find stuff that can help both of us in there.”

“Fine.” Alexander sighed. “Grandmother says that Gaia and most of the old druids were planeswalkers. I suppose it will be interesting.” He glared at Nox. “You’re an ass. You know that, right?”

“I was reminded of the fact a few times yesterday. It's probably why you guys love me so much.”

Alexander didn’t avoid libraries because he disliked them or academia. Dean Woodson rarely gave him time to himself, and the stacks consumed most of his time. He also tended to get over-invested in work and forget all else, missing appointments, dates, and even lectures. Alexander’s obsessive nature proved invaluable.

Nil hadn’t expected to find much on spatial magic. The rare form of magic had disappeared almost a century ago, and mentions of it outside of fiction were rare. Some of the books included journals of mages investigating planeswalkers too. While exploring said tomes, Alexander uncovered folded etchings of runes and spellforms of warp stones and rift gates. Nil had read about the remains of the latter to the south of the City of Ygg, near Sen’s Watch. Apparently, they were so faded and damaged that the information was impossible to decipher.

The etchings Alexander found were incomplete, with large sections of it missing. Nox guessed time, elements, and the battle had damaged the carvings. The surviving sections wouldn’t be helpful to most, but that wasn’t the case for him. His existing knowledge of spatial magic helped Nox piece together the rune scripts. It wasn’t enough to replicate the planeswalkers’ magic, but he got several ideas on how to improve his existing Spatial Manipulation magic. His planets needed to grow before he could add to the spells, but he successfully whipped together a script for Fold Step’s moon. Nox believed it would significantly cut down on the mana cost and accompanying mental strain.

After a breakfast break, Alexander returned to the library. The Oakheart library had successfully hooked him. Aria and Brianna also joined the pair. The latter focused on exploring cantrips first. She needed to expand her repertoire. Meanwhile, Aria assisted with temporal and spatial magic research while Nox took a break from personal research ideas for his apprentice.

Mage Hand had far more upgrades and evolutions than Nox expected. He wasn’t surprised. It was one of the oldest and most popular cantrips after all. Not many people used it as their mana systems core, but one in five mages added it to their repertoire during their careers. The base spell gave an extra hand to complete simple tasks but only had half the user’s unenhanced strength. The challenge of control and lacking power meant it didn’t have much use in combat.

The options ranged from conjuring strings and manipulating them with Mage Hand to entangle and garrot foes to transforming them into Hands Of The Giants. The path replaced the base cantrip with two-to-three-foot-long hands with fingers as thick as Nox’s wrists. It helped overcome the cantrip's low strength, enabling heavy lifting and combat use.

Nox found the two best spells and copied them for Ingrid, improving them as he worked. He also used the inspiration to whip together a couple of new spells, hoping to give his apprentice more options.

“Nox, look at this,” Aria said, interrupting the Spell Weaving. She dropped a heavy, open tome in front of him, which annoyed Nox for a moment. Then he saw the little treasure trove she had found. “It's a dungeon trap using spatial magic. I don’t know whether you can make something of it, but the author copied a fair bit of runes.”

The diagram featured four flights of stairs connected in a square. “This is fascinating. The spell and wards trap the victim in a loop.” Nox’s heart skipped a beat when he read through the journal. The mage encountered the trap during a delve along Sundarshahar’s borders. After being trapped for three days, she and her companions almost died of dehydration. “I don’t know whether I have the resources or mana to recreate this, but looping space has incredible potential. Good job, love.”

“Maybe you could turn it into something else. I’m far from a decent Spell Weaver and don’t understand how spatial or temporal magic works, but the applications of something like this could be amazing.”

Alexander took the journal and studied the diagram and runes closely. “This script is beyond incomplete. How can you make heads or tails of this?”

Nox shrugged. “A year of non-stop obsessing has its benefits, I guess.”