Miranda

Listen, okay. I'm sorry, Jessie.

I never meant to hurt you or Colt.

SigRyd3r

That's it. Make rescuing Asher all about you.

This conversation is over.

Miranda

When else! You haven't talked to me since it all went down.

C01T System

Signal Failure: Technomancer Block Initiated

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ASHER

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Fingers closed on page protectors as Asher thumbed from one spell to the next in the near-to-bursting, three ringed binder.

Green was wrong. It wasn't a grimoire, not exactly. It was more of an intro to Shadow Magic guidebook. Terri gave him a bit of an explainer and warned him about going too deep before he was ready, because many of the lessons and spells needed a degree of skill before being read; pages could harm fledglings, body and mind, if they weren't ready.

Green probably wouldn't be much help, when Asher first opened it, the 'little devil', as Terri called him, tried to add some levity to the heavy atmosphere by telling him to handle a spell to see if he was a Living Grimoire. Terri quickly intervened, setting Green off into fits of honks, binkies, and teeth chitters as Asher tried to pull the first spell free from its page protector.

She explained Living Grimoires were a myth, shade mages who could touch grimoire pages and imprint the symbols on their flesh, so they didn't have to carry books around. They also had greater access to spells beyond what their minds could hold. The stories said it came with constant pain because even a naked page would have delivered Asher a healthy zap; apparently spell pages didn't like being touched. She acted like they were sentient, if not sapient; were they?

He would figure it out; he would have to, because it was probably the only way to get a straight answer. It seemed Green and Terri had unique teaching styles, but both wanted him to figure things out in a nearly Darwinian fashion. Keep on his toes, that's the name of the game they're playing, but trust that neither wanted him to cycle — they would jump in if he needed it — he hoped.

Asher skimmed through the introduction chapter, but most of it was stuff he already knew. Now he read about Shadow Magic and how it worked; its less common name was Wraith Magic after the source — Lady Wraith. They were literally channeling the same power as their enemy. People in the Belly who can visualize the ambient energy that infuses City have the potential to cast Shadow Magic. Asher was pretty sure that's what the spiders were, his visualization of that ambient magic. Non-shade mages could see it too, but only when Lady Wraith was nearby. "Wait. So, Lady Wraith is an actual person?" Asher held a finger against the page to keep his place.

Cheddar nodded. "Very real." O'Leary was upstairs, asleep on the cot, but Cheddar sat at the table with him and Green while Terri excused herself to practice her sword and spell forms in the basement. She warned them to call down the stairs if they needed her, but not to come down. "I wouldn't call her a person, though."

"You've seen her," said Green. "She was that single spider on the car's dash in your vision."

Asher nodded. "I've heard her too."

"You, you, you have?"

Asher met Cheddar's eyes. "When you pulled me, as the Awaken spell imprinted. She spoke in my mind."

"We call it a mindscape," said Green. "I wouldn't worry too much about it."

"Wh, wha, what? She doesn't talk to just anyone." Cheddar was shaking their head. "I thought she only talked to Ice."

"Ice?" What wasn't Green telling him? He could feel it. His familiar was keeping something locked away, but there was nothing he could say to make Green spill it. They were both keeping secrets from him.

"The top Finder Keeper," said Green.

"Yup, yup. He's the bosses' boss and not very nice."

"How's it you can hear Green?" asked Asher.

Cheddar shrugged. "That's a scary question for now. It might mean something very bad."

"Like, what?"

"Like the next time they put on their shadesack, it'll try to eat them," said Green.

Letting out a sigh, Cheddar glanced over at the resting rucksack. "Yeah, the Lady might be really mad at me."

"Oh. So, you were a tree caster before becoming a Finder Keeper?" Asher cocked his head to the side. "But you're still not fading, right?" Asher found he didn't have to eat constantly, but it was a snacking lifestyle to keep his color close to normal. Cheddar hadn't eaten since sharing the chocolate bar with O'Leary and, far as Asher knew, their color hadn't changed at all.

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"No, no, not fading, yet. I don't remember being a tree caster." Cheddar shrugged. "It was a long time ago. I think."

"Really? You don't look old. Like, younger than me."

"Wardens, Finder Keepers, and animals don't age," said Green. "They're not part of the Cycle of Devouring."

"What?" Asher started flipping through the book. "Where does it say that?"

"Keep reading, fledgling."

Asher grumbled, but kept going. He read the first three foundation chapters, letting out a visible sigh when he got to the imprinting step of learning a new grimoire spell. Imprinting wasn't anything like what he experienced when fractured in the classroom. The mindscape was still involved, but you didn't get locked in and the sensation you experienced was more a tingle or settling feeling than blinding pain. Asher read through the chapters a second time before flipping to the Weapon Enchantment spell. Okay, he had the steps. He knew what to do. This should be easy. "I think I'm ready."

Standing off to the side, Cheddar took practice swings with the bat. "Cool. We should get Terri." They set the bat on the table, walked to the door leading to the basement, and cracked it open, calling down the steps.

Asher stared up the stairs where O'Leary rested.

"What do you think Cutters do behind closed doors?" asked Green.

Asher chuckled, picking up the bat and giving it a practice swing of his own as he stood. "Maybe I'll be a Cutter one day and find out." He held out the bat like a sword in a mock fencer's stance. "En Garde?"

It took a few minutes for Terri to join them as Cheddar and Green dodged Asher's mock thrusts with the top-heavy bat. "So, you're both ready to give this a try?"

Cheddar rolled under the table, knocking a chair over with a crash. "Sorry."

Asher blushed. Setting the bat on the table, he offered Cheddar a hand up. "Oh. Uh, yeah, I have the foundation chapters down, I think. First, I want to .... Wait. What do you mean, both?" Asher looked over at Cheddar. "Aren't Finder Keepers considered advanced users already?"

"She means me."

Terri pointed a finger towards Green on the table, now loafed with his chin resting on the bat's handle. "This is unprecedented. You read about how the spell will imprint on your mind?"

Asher nodded.

"A mind that's connected to an animal. A creature infused with Meyonohk's protective power."

It was a small section, but Asher remembered the note about how tree magic and shade magic didn't interact. It could be dangerous and even lead to cycling, and to an animal that could mean death. Asher felt fear building in his stomach, but Green sent calming emotions pulsing along the bond, lifting his head from the bat. "It'll be fine. I can create a mental shield to keep me safe."

"You sure? I don't have to do this."

"You already have a vault level spell in there. If that hasn't hurt me, I doubt a beginner spell will be much of a threat." Green hopped down from the table and Asher bent down to give him a pat. "Yeah, besides, I'll be the first animal to see an imprinting. Do you know how long it's been since I saw something new?"

Asher didn't, but probably not for a long time. "Okay, he says he's good. Green can put a mental shield up if he needs to defend his mind."

Terri nodded, but Asher notice her focus was somewhere beyond him. She was running through potential outcomes — a trait Asher learned from her. "Okay, kiddo. We can try this." She adjusted the sword on her hip, then turned to Cheddar. "This might take a while. Why don't you check on O'Leary and grab some sleep?"

Cheddar hopped up, "Okay! Yes, I love dreams." They went to pick up their shadesack, but hesitated a moment before leaving it on the ground and heading up the stairs.

"You sure that's a good idea? O'Leary wakes up and finds Cheddar sleeping beside him."

Terri nodded. "Finder Keepers don't sleep. If O'Leary wakes up, Triskele will realize something is strange. Besides, I need to know if they actually sleep."

"They don't sleep. Like ever?"

"No. It's the one of the few actual rules, beyond loving her foremost, Lady Wraith decreed to those who serve her."

"Seems like Cheddar is breaking rules." Asher and Terri both turned to look up the stairs. "What's likely to happen to them?"

"Nothing good," said Terri. They both let out a sigh before turning back to the bat and book on the table. "Okay, let's get started."

Asher nodded and looked down at the spell. Glyphs studied student as the student studied the glyphs. It wasn't about memorization but finding the most efficient pattern. That was step one — glimpse. He needed to get the glyphs' attention as a potential caster through eye movement. He felt silly as he tried to pay compliments to glyphs through glances.

"Breath. Take it easy, there's no reason to rush, Kiddo."

He wanted to let her know how weird this was, when a glyph in the center of the page inverted. "It's working."

"Good, keep going."

There was no sense of time now as Asher's eyes danced in a pattern. The glyphs followed his eye movements, spinning, rotating, and even partnering or splitting, to form new glyphs. They took on a straighter form with hard angles instead of the flowing forms on Terri's sword. He slowed his eye movement; it was time for step two.

He let his eyes relax, taking in the whole page at once. "There!" It was only moments before a singular glyph sent a surge of surety to Asher; It was kind of like a combination lock, like when that first number is set. His eyes focused on that glyph, freezing it in place with a flex of mental will; then he set the second and third. The more glyphs he set in place, the more concentration it required, but the process repeated until he set all the glyphs on the page.

"Good! Now, part of your mind needs to hold them in place." Terri slid the bat over to Asher. "Do you have it?"

Asher focused until he felt he could move part of his mind away to speak. "Yeah. I think so." Success, he was doing it! The glyphs didn't do more than twitch.

"Solidify your focus. Even a minor twitch can cause a corrupted imprint."

"I got it." Asher reached down and picked up the bat, holding it balanced horizontally across his palms. Step three was when things got weird. Asher moved his eyes to the first he'd set, then repeated the pattern, but this time words associated with the symbols appeared in his mind, as if a narrator was reading them to him.

The voice in his mind changed timbre and pitch a few times before settling into something more familiar, but that only made it more unnerving as a high-pitched James Marsters, from one of the many audio books he'd been listening too, muttered arcane gibberish in his noggin.

"Whoa, that's weird." Green said. "I can hear them too."

Asher could never use the sounds in a coherent sentence; they were in a language called Shadowspeak, but hearing the sound let him understand the glyphs on another level and that understanding was the fourth step. Then came the last step — Imprinting.

"Maybe we should stop. I don't feel so good."

"Fleetfury?" Terri rushed forward as Green rolled on to his side, his tiny body wracked by convulsions. "Asher, stop. You need to stop!"

"I can't. Terri, I can't. It's pulling me in."

"Just look away. Break the connection."

"I can't. Oh no, not again. Aunt Terri!" The first glyph lifted from the page.