Even though the entire party had passed Advanced Dungeon Combat, they still made it a point of getting together once a week. They didn’t use the university’s training rooms. Instead, they utilized the far larger, better-warded, and more private space under the Galleria. It served as Nox’s spell and essence-glass arrow testing area. April, Ingrid, and all their little birds also enjoyed it as a supervised area for learning combat techniques and cantrips when possible.

Usually, only the party trained together, but after returning from the voyage, they included April and Ingrid in their sessions too. Nox had tried to rope Aria into it too. Given recent events, he believed it vital she get better at self-defense, but she always turned him down.

“I’m good enough for my rank,” she told him. “The war mage department has trained me well enough to fend off assassination attempts and the like from journeymen and below. No matter how good I get, fending off adepts is beyond me, and it's unlikely I’ll make it to the rank in the next couple of years, and I’m okay with that.”

“Can’t you just join us for my peace of mind?” Nox pushed. “With everything happening around us, the city is no longer safe.”

“There are different types of growth, Nox.” Aria sat on Nox’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. “I’m a politician, businesswoman, and dream walker. Combat will never be my strong suit, and that’s okay.” She sighed, rolling her eyes when Nox’s shoulders drooped, and he looked at her with pleading eyes. “Fine. How about once a week, we meet in the training room, and you can help me get better? No party. No Ingrid. No April. Just you and me. Then we have an excuse for more alone time. We can focus on each other. Talk. And you can teach me how to use my spells better.”

“I suppose that’s acceptable.” Nox smiled.

“I really need an Otis capable of storing and throwing alchemical bombs. Sort me out one of those, and I’ll be fine unless there is a godfall or dungeonbreak.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

“Why not?” She frowned.

“People who speak such nonsense are always the first to die.”

“Sounds like superstitious nonsense.” Aria hopped off Nox’s lap and pulled him onto his feet. “They’re waiting for you. Stop lingering and going, mister.”

“Mister?!” Nox feigned horror and offense. “It’s sir, young lady.”

Nox got a laugh, but his paramour didn’t relent. She ushered him out of the study and their suite on the galleria’s top floor. He struggled to wipe the grin off his face as he descended the structure. He waved to his cousins, passing them in the corridor outside their quarters, pausing to humor them for a moment. Staff members nodded and greeted him as he passed. Nox couldn’t help but notice how much more friendly they’d been over the last few weeks. They remained formal but weren’t as stiff as they used to be prior to his time away. He guessed that physically getting involved in the search and rescue of staff had improved their opinion of him.

To avoid being seen by the public—someone almost always wanted a word—he cut through the first and ground floor staff quarters. A hidden door leading to their new laundry gave him easy access to the basement. Then, it was a matter of weaving through artificing workshops and the mass-production alchemy laboratories before reaching the training area.

Joey and Alexander fought on one end of the titanic space. The former of the pair had a new spell in his arsenal. All projectiles and squirrels that came flying at him suffered violent redirections. They changed directions multiple times before landing far from Joey. It seemed as if someone had tied an invisible tether to them and was thrashing them around. It didn’t take Nox long to recognize the magic. He had witnessed Lillin do something similar when she first discovered gravity magic. Nox doubted Joey would get the same level of benefit out of it as her, but it was certainly a potent weapon in his arsenal. If the warlock figured out minor gravity projectiles, his destructive potential would rival that of Nox.

In the center of the room, Caitlin played with Ingrid. Nox’s apprentice had finished evolving her star and made Spatial Hands its core. He expected as much. Given Ingrid’s love of sneaking around and mobility, she struggled to turn down the idea of potentially learning Fold Step. It was too expensive a spell for a mage of her level. Yet she had already started working towards dedicating her first planet to Spatial Manipulation.

Currently, Ingrid stood two feet above the floor. She had spatially locked a pair of mage hands to her feet. Unlike the cantrip, the new spell had enough strength and decent durability to support her weight. Ingrid hopped around Caitlin’s wood elemental armor, swatting it with conjured hands that floated a couple of feet in front of her own. They did no damage but gave her excellent potential as a control mage against individuals of her own rank. Ingrid had a talent for small blades, and Nox made plans to give her an artificed pair. Paired with alchemically made poisons, she had the potential to become a terror.

Meanwhile, April and Brianna trained in a distant corner, far from everyone else. Both appeared paler than usual and had bags under their eyes. However, the younger of the pair moved with much greater speed and precision than usual. Joey had taught her a few cantrips, and it seemed the teenager had made Haste her star’s core. Still, Nox couldn’t help but think she looked much too fast and surefooted for someone of her rank.

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Several soldier families in the Trade Empire favored aether practitioners who made Haste the core of their mana system. The martially talented became terrifying weapon masters while the rest evolved the cantrip into pyromancy or electrokinesis. Both made for excellent artillery spells and excelled at defending the floating nation and its trade ships. Nox knew enough about the cantrip, its uses, and its performance to recognize its effects.

Joey said the two women had grown closer over the past couple of weeks. So, Nox wrote it off as Brianna taking an interest in April and teaching her aether warrior tricks. The former thief and now spy seemed more interested in using martial weapons and archery than learning magic. Their bond made sense.

Since Nox had no training partner, he used the time to polish spell mastery. His archery needed no work. Ever since Ratra’s Bow became a physical part of his body, Nox’s aim had become near perfect. Sapna believed that it had runes for improving such abilities, but Nox hadn’t yet unlocked them. Now, his mana closely intermingled with the fragments, forcefully unlocking its full potential.

After constant practice, research, and development, Nox needed a break from wardsmithing. So, he practiced Fold Step instead, bouncing around the room. He got Ingrid a pair of practice daggers, retrieved April’s throwing knives, and irritated the party’s two other male members with Crystalize Essence until the floating glass spearhead chased him away.

Once Nox ascended the Temporal Sphere to expert, he planned to grow the Spatial Manipulation planet until it was big enough to support a moon. Dedicating a heavenly body to Fold Step felt compulsory. Nox needed its cost low in case he faced melee foes like the aether warrior again. It would reduce the mental strain that accompanied intent-driven casting, too.

No matter what he did, there would always be an element of challenge with Fold Step. Once he completed the moon, it would flex and stretch his mana zone. It would also fold the distance between the two selected points. The physical side of things still required practice. Even though it took one step to get where he needed to reach, the fact that he covered several feet while doing so didn’t change. It took Nox a moment to adjust to the momentum and speed when he emerged on the other side, and he believed his recovery time still required improvement. Unless Nox dedicated a planet to time perception, practice was his only route to improvement. The improvements were gradual and slow, but every little helped.

As Nox watched his companions, he also got an idea for a new spell to pair with Crystalize Essence. He had spent long and hard wondering how essence came to be. Mages expelled mana when casting spells and gave it purpose. Hundreds of scholars before Nox had tried to distill said purpose and give it more meaning but failed.

It was alchemists who found the same essence in magical plants and beasts and successfully distilled it for artisanry. Then Nox came along with Crystalize Essence, doing the same with spells cast by fellow mages and artificed products. Now, Nox wondered how to increase the quantity of essence in his possession without involving other mages.

Theoretically, besides spell scripts, stars and planets also contained essence. They worked in tandem to give mana a purpose. Nox hoped to do the same while cutting out the middleman. He hoped to use essence and a spell script to convert mana into more essence. He wasn’t sure where to begin or how to go about his creation, but observing Joey got the gears in his head turning.

“We need to talk,” Joey said, approaching Nox later in the day.

Everyone else had finished their training sessions. Brianna and April were the first to depart. The pair had wished them all goodbye before leaving. He couldn’t help but notice a new coldness from Briana. He wondered whether their allegiance had left the woman with regrets. April seemed more distant than usual from everyone except Joey. It was odd but not worrisome. Abduction, torture, and near death would leave most young women of her age traumatized.

“I got Lorenzo to talk. He demonstrated how to activate the ring and commune with Perry the Spider. It's exactly how you said it would be.” Joey carried on to explain everything the defensive magic professor had told him about the other members of the spider organization. The details regarding the missing and absentees made it all seem far too convenient.

“So, it's probably safe.” Nox sighed. “The question is whether we want to risk everything. If our intuition is wrong, we’d be exposing ourselves to the very people abducting and killing young women. Or we might just get all the answers we need.”

“You tell me, Sir Ratra,” Joey said. “You’re the one with everything to lose. I’m the unwanted street rat.”

“Please. Quit your Hogg shit. Caitlin and April adore you and will miss you. That doesn’t sound unwanted in the slightest.”

“I say we go ahead with it.”

Nox rarely used his weapon’s dagger form, but it proved convenient for slicing his finger open. He lined the insides of the spider ring with blood before injecting it with mana. The signet’s face lit up like a beacon, casting a bright silver light. Only the spider insignia remained dark, creating a matching shadow on the ceiling. Nox felt something leave the ring, and a physical entity grew out of the dark patch.

“I was wondering when you’d reach out to me,” the awfully organic-looking spider said. “You could say I was getting antsy.”

“We—”

“I know what you want to know.” The creature spoke in Perry the Spider’s voice. “Stefan was kind enough to enlighten me. The answer is no. We weren’t involved in the incident that happened in the City of Ygg. It cost us a few valuable spiders, though.”

“Who are you, really? Who, by Hogg’s taint, is behind the organization? Why should we trust a single thing you’ve got to say?”

“Do you really want to know, Nox Ratra, Jitendra Pal?”

Joey nodded. “I do.”

“We need answers,” Nox added. “This chaos needs to stop, and if you can’t be honest and open with us, I have no choice but to consider you the enemy.”

“Very well.”

The spider spat a black mass and Nox through his arms up to protect his eyes. Nothing made contact. When he lowered his hands, the world had changed.