I took the long way, walking all the way out to the library, and got Alvaro after asking around with the librarian at the front desk, who called him down.

When he saw me, he froze for a second, frowned, then smiled and nodded his head over to the plush leather seats near the fire. I followed him over, and we both took a seat.

“First, I should apologize,” he said. “I was… Rude. I was frustrated. But I shouldn’t have taken it out on you like that.”

“Thank you,” I said seriously. Dusk was silent, just watching Alvarro. “I should apologize too. I know I’ve got problems with being focused on one simple thing like that. I’ve taken steps to start addressing them – alchemical and therapeutic both. I knew I wasn’t suited for the job, but I took it anyways, and I put you in a bad position by falling asleep on the job. I’m sorry I did that.”

“Thank you,” Alvaro said, smiling. He held out his hand awkwardly. “Friends, then?”

“Friends,” I said, shaking his hand. It was awkward and strange, and exactly what I needed, sending a huge wave of relief through me.

A few moments passed in a slightly awkward, slightly nice silence.

“I did come with a gift, too,” I said, breaking the moment. “A charity donation to the library.”

“Oh?” Alvaro asked, canting his head to one side. “What is it?”

I drew the book and pile of notes out from Dusk’s realm, and we spent a while going over everything I’d gone through.

“This is great!” Alvaro said, eyes shining. “I’m only somewhat versed in enchantments, but there’s a ton of practical enchanting information in here, based on a flip through. And the spells you all extracted… Definitely useful. Thank you!”

He smiled brightly and hefted it.

“I’m not sure exactly how much the donation is worth,” he said. “But you’ll certainly get something out of it. If nothing else, we can give you a tax deduction for it. But is there anything more personal that I can put forth as something you may prefer?”

“I need to grow the walls of my first gate,” I said after a moment of thought. “Life, death, space, and time. I also am working on the second half of a set of full gate spells, so something to expand my second death gate’s power to let me sketch it out would be good. Oh, and this is a bit odd, but plants are also a good pick. I’ve got a collection going. Alchemical plants work, so do ones that just have an effect on their own.”

Alvaro’s head bobbed up and down in a nod, and he tucked the book and notes away into a storage space.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “Is there anything else you needed help with?”

I drew out the pamphlet that the river dragon librarian had suggested I read through.

“Veils. I’ve never veiled my power before, and it’s getting to be a problem.”

“Oh sure,” Alvaro said. “There are some abnegation spells that can create really complex veils, but you don’t have that, so I’m guessing you just need to learn to hide yourself from basic mana senses?”

“Right,” I confirmed. “I can read the pamphlet, but I think its easier if I can sense what you’re doing, and hear you. I’m more visual and doing-learning focused than anything.”

“Well, it can’t hurt and will likely help. I’m hardly a master of veils, but I know enough to demonstrate,” Alvaro said with a shrug. “You’ve already got a mana meditation style mastered, right?”

“Yep,” I said. “Depths of Starry Night.”

Alvaro’s eyes grew distant for a moment, and I figured he was searching for information in his mental library.

“Not a bad pick at all,” he said. “Not as common as something like Succard’s Regeneration or the Heaven Shattering, Earth Grinding Wheel of Power, but a few people have gotten solid use from it.”

The river dragon librarian who’d presented me with the scrolls and technique manuals for mana meditations hadn’t even presented those as options, and I felt a pang of annoyance for a second before I dismissed it.

Depths of Starry Night suited me well. I’d ingrained a lot more spells than average, so squeezing advantages out of them was worth it.

“Why do you ask?” I asked.

“Oh, well, the simplest type of veil is to simply hold everything in your mana-garden as still as you can,” Alvaro explained. “It’s got its advantages for sure, but the biggest disadvantage is that it would stop you from making any gains from the automatic cycling of your mana meditation.”

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“I’d rather avoid that,” I said dryly.

“Understandably so. Since that’s out, I think the best choice for you would be the Circulating Wall-Winds. Here.”

He held out his palm, and I put two fingers on it. A quick spell from him, and I was pulled into his mana-garden.

He led me to the second gate of his knowledge side, an orderly space filled with bookshelves, then he pointed to the walls.

“I’m going to demonstrate the technique now, so watch carefully.”

As he spoke, he began to stir his mana, just at the very edges, where it butted up against his walls. He pulled it up into the air, then began to spin it in a lazy loop around the entirety of his second gate.

After I got a good sense for it, Alvaro booted me out of his mana-garden, then repeated the technique.

Watching from the outside was rather different. As the mana currents he used encircled his second gate mana, my sense for it began to dim, then vanished completely.

“The disadvantage of this technique is that it also restricts your mana usage,” Alvaro said. “I’ve effectively cut off my second gate mana. My Library of Endless Knowledge is still cycling, but I can’t cast spells without dropping the veil.”

“Do all veils act that way?” I asked.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Most advanced veils can obscure the power of a spell, at least to a degree. But they’re also complex mana manipulation techniques that build on your initial veil skills. Once you can raise or lower a veil at will, we can look at those.”

A part of me felt like I was being underestimated, but the more reasonable part of me agreed with Alvaro. Better to learn to walk, then learn to run.

It was harder to manage than I expected. I was decently skilled at manipulating my mana, but the trick of it was figuring out a way to get the unused, loose bits to move without weakening the effect of my Depths of Starry Night technique.

When I wasn’t able to get it within an hour, I gave up on doing it in the library. Alvaro had to go do other stuff anyways – he was actually working, after all – so I left to walk home.

The walk was long, and I stopped midway through to grab a sandwich from a shop. It was actually quite tasty, thick cut turkey with some sort of citrus-cranberry relish. I’d have to try and make it on my own sometime.

When I got home, I saw Ed and Kerbos practicing in the back yard. I slowly wandered over, curious at how my brother was progressing. He had to have put in as much work into growing as a mage as me since Meadow’s arrival, after all.

“Hey,” I said as I watched.

Kerbos, the strange dog-dragon-metal creature that Ed had picked up, seemed to be trying to weave thin threads of brightly shining metal through the stone spear Ed was forming.

The little creature was swiftly growing in power. Some of it, at the very least, was as a result of Ed bonding, but I also thought that the guy must be decently powerful on his own.

“Hey,” Ed said.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Kerbos’ magic isn’t just metal,” Ed explained. “It’s… Kind of a purifying-light-strength metal. In theory, by weaving together with my spells, they should be able to affect incorporeal beings like ghosts, as well as a bunch of other things too.”

I pursed my lips in thought, then nodded. That was definitely useful.

“Wouldn’t that be better if you used metal spells, not stone ones?” I asked, and Ed made a so-so gesture.

“Metal magic drains mana a lot faster than stone, and I’m an endurance fighter. By weaving threads of Kerbos’ purification-metal through stone, it’ll strengthen it proportionally more. Sure, using metal on metal would be overall stronger, but the net gain would be lower. And when you consider the mana rates, running the threads through stone works best.”

A small smile touched my lips. Ed might not appear to be classically smart, but he also had a gift with mana and magic.

Dusk let out a wind-in-trees rustle, saying she was pretty sure that Meadow thought of it that, and I couldn’t help but nod.

“What about the light and purifying?” I asked.

“Those aspects aren’t as strong till this little guy hits second and third gate. But once he does, he can craft temporary mobile enchantments of light and metal, and even infuse them onto me.”

Ed gave me a lopsided grin.

“Think about how cool it could be for my Skin of Stone spell to have spell formula of metal that absorb light to empower strengthening enchantments.”

I let out an appreciative whistle, and glanced at Kerbos.

“Weaving metal into things to strengthen them and form temporary enchantments, huh? With that and your telluric mana, you could probably make some good permanent enchantments. Ever thought about doing it?”

“Yeah,” Ed said, nodding. “I’ve not made much progress, though. There’s a reason most enchanters get a college degree.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the storage ring he had from work, then removed a stone rod, about fourteen inches long. He threw it at me, and when it impaled into the earth, a gravitational field pulsed out, pulling me down, and flattening the grass around me.

Dusk tumbled off my shoulder and caught herself with a spell, then began to generate an aura around her that nullified the enhanced gravity.

“So far I’ve only made one-use enchantments of spells I can already cast,” Ed explained, as I pushed against the gravity with raw strength, struggling to walk out of its range. “Useful for backups when I’m out of mana, but hardly worth mentioning.”

“Still,” I said appreciatively as Dusk spread her aura over me, finally allowing me to straighten.

I wondered at that. Not so long ago, she wouldn’t have been able to do that. Was it her absorption of the binding knot? Ascension to second gate? A bit of both?

“How many of them do you have?” I asked. “I’d be willing to trade for something like that. Maybe a second gate healing potion for one?”

Ed perked up and nodded happily.

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought about that. Sure, I’ll make that deal.”

He handed over another rod, which was heavier than I expected, and I handed off one of my second gate healing potions in exchange. This one hadn’t been made with Healer’s Heart, since I did only have one plant, and I warned Ed of such.

“Still useful,” Ed said with a shrug. “We’ve got a few standard issue third gate healing potions, but anytime we use them, we have to file a report and stuff. It’s much easier to just use ones we buy ourselves.”

He snapped his fingers.

“That reminds me, I found a place that you can harvest a new magical grass. It’s not the most useful for you, since you’ve got Blademoss, but it’s still a pain in the foot.”

He seemed to find that far more amusing than he had any right to, and I wondered if the grass had stabbed his feet.

I spent a while sketching and practicing spells, then turned in.