The next time Luca sneaks onto the island, he sends a pigeon first and even brings some nice treats Jordan packed. Notably, Luca has also gone off with his grandparents to buy himself some new contacts and so no longer wears the old glasses. That, combined with Nicholas’ hair recently shaved short at the sides again, means they’re less identical. Brothers, rather than twins.

Nicholas claps his hands together, sitting on his bed cross-legged in front of Luca with their knees touching, the curtains drawn in case one of the other InCore year-tens burst into the room and thinks Luca is a doppelganger. "Okay, mind magic! So to start, I'll show you mine. I'll use the detect thoughts charm on you and then pull you into my head to show you my defences."

"You know how to do that charm?"

"A bit - not very well to be honest but - okay bad. Horrible. Detect thoughts is just one of those things all heritage are taught and I can scrape by." Nicholas shrugs.

"So heritage just learn everything then," Luca grumbles because once again he realises how much he missed out on being hidden in the mundane population.

"Half of it’s trash," Nicholas reassures him. "Rubbish like how to curtsey properly, how to hold your wand, what accent you're allowed."

"Accent-?"

"Okay, look into my eyes~" Nicholas sing-songs, pushing up his glasses.

Luca braces for pain like always but feels a tap tap-tap tap!

"Come in?" Luca offers.

Nicholas sniggers and then they're both pulled into Nicholas' head.

Luca blinks and he's in a hallway - not the citadel, not Ayad Manor but with all sorts of paintings and wallpaper, the walls made of wood or stone or plaster, it all shifts and makes Luca dizzy if he stares at it for too long.

"This way!" Nicholas calls and waves from down the hall. "Let me show you."

They spend the next half an hour running through a maze of hallways and secret tunnels and changing rooms that shift around every time a door is opened or shut, even talking portraits that point them in the wrong direction with such charisma and earnestness that Luca believes them even when Nicholas whispers they're lying.

And that's only the defences - Nicholas' memories are actually a level deeper, the cracks lining the walls and around the picture frames - deceptively hidden in plain sight.

They come out of it a bit lightheaded, still sitting upright except now with an added Stavros lying down just off to the side. Rafael is wandering around picking up clothes off the floor and dumping them in the laundry basket near the bathroom door, watching the two Ayads with a half-hearted curiosity.

"Oh," Luca says in shock. "Hi?"

"'Sup," Stavros drawls. "So, I'm your favourite uncle, right?"

Rafael huffs with an eye roll. "Whatever, I'll get the next one. What were you two doing anyway?"

"Trying to get Luca set up with a proper defensive system in his mind," Nicholas says with a shrug, reaching out to pet Stavros' hair like he’s Hearth right now. "So that's it, Luca. You start building and it settles into place after a while – just about repetition until it becomes a reaction. You can start throwing off not just mind-reading spells but also emotional manipulation or mind-based glamours."

"It's very different from what I was taught," Luca admits. "Hurts a lot less too."

"Oh, you were doing it the other way," Stavros muses. "What Nicky’s talking about is conscious defence - which you pull up when you need it. The other dude probably taught you unconscious defence that you kind of leave running in the background even when you sleep and stuff. That's a bit extreme."

“Don’t you have unconscious?” Rafael asks.

“Well yeah, but not willingly,” Stavros mutters.

Luca tilts his head a bit. "I probably needed it at the time. It just would have been nice to know that I could have…whatever. Okay, how do I start?"

Nicholas gestures vaguely. "Think of something you want -literally anything- and picture it."

"Loops?" Luca says immediately because that's just the easiest to think of for him.

Nicholas and Stavros high-five because damn straight Luca didn't escape Loops.

Rafael drags a hand down his face. “It's fine, I get the next baby.”

"Okay, so a Loops field," Nicholas agrees. "Do you want offensive? I'm passive, and people just get lost, but if it's Loops you could do like superspeed rings to throw people off."

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"And goals," Luca says excitedly, getting into it. "But too many goals!"

"Exactly!" Nicholas says. "Where are you putting your memories? In the crowd? A sublevel inside the Mobius strips?"

"In the banners hanging from the seating stands," Luca announces.

"That's so mean, I love it," Nicholas laughs. "Basically you just construct it in your mind and after you pull it up enough times -just randomly do it during the day- you'll put enough magic into it that it becomes locked in. Of course, that's the simple explanation though."

“Get that down and we’ll show you how to wildshape next,” Stavros offers.

Luca smiles, a bit awkward around this new Stavros. “Where would we even do it considering it’s…Dark magic for an InCore?”

“We have ways, although honestly, it’s surprisingly fast after you get over the first hurdle.” Nicholas taps his fingertips together with a bright smile. "I think I like teaching you things."

"You can teach me anything," Luca gushes immediately.

Rafael tosses the last sock into the basket and looks between the two Ayads. "Oh, so you're just as bad as Nicholas is. Wonderful."

Luca clears his throat awkwardly and doesn't really know what to say to that. “By the way, what kind of sheep are you? My Stavros – um, Christos now-“

“Christos?” Rafael interrupts.

“He needed a new name for his documents and stuff,” Luca says with a shrug and doesn’t see the glances the three boys share before he’s already moving on. “Christos didn’t have any pictures -for obvious legality reasons- so I’ve never seen Rito properly. I know you’re not the shearing kind of sheep but…”

"He’s not a dignified one," Stavros scoffs. "I bet a normal animal doesn't trip over tree roots half as much as Rito does."

Nicholas turns on Stavros in outrage. "I trip so much because you shove me!”

“Yeah, me and my little fox strength,” Stavros mocks.

"Shut up, I’m showing off for my baby,” Nicholas dismisses, ready to flaunt his skills in front of his son. He gets up to his knees before he pauses. "Ah - no, I mean. I'm not...groomed properly." He shoots a frown at Rafael. "Thoth bites my horns, they're chipped."

Rafael shrugs. “He likes the taste of lamb chops.”

“I hate you.”

"I don't care about that," Luca says quickly. "I just...want to see. Because I think Rito is very handsome."

Rafael and Stavros roll their eyes but the compliment works and Nicholas puffs up immediately. He clambers off the bed and shakes apart. Luca's eyes widen as Rito trots around the bed to the other side and strikes a pose with his head high, trying to mimic the graceful majesty of woodland creatures.

Hearth full-body tackles Rito around the back legs and they go down hard.

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

For their final-year practical exam, Ritual Casting students are gathered out on the grass in massive groups depending on the year, standing around bonfires. They’ll each sacrifice something with meaning for the ritual, but instead of containing the resulting power inside themselves to use the magic later, they’ll give it up freely as part of the ritual. The power will be stored for the wards instead.

“We're literally right here,” Nicholas laughs, kicking his feet as they swing over a good ten metres of air below the tree branch. “They're going to know it's us.”

“I want them to know it's us,” Stavros retorts, sitting next to the trunk and his wand already out.

Rafael is on Nicholas' other side, sceptically eying the bowing branch under them. “School is ending in a few weeks.”

“It is ending,” Nicholas realises. “I suppose we can run away from detentions until then.”

“That's not what I meant,” Rafael sighs. “I was going to say, how about we play nice for once?”

Nicholas laughs in his face.

“We have, what, only a couple dozen InCore points left?” Stavros continues, nudging Nicholas in the ribs and making all three of them wobble precariously. “Let's end the year in the negatives.”

The bonfires are raging infernos after only a few students step up to do their rituals. RitCast practicals are all generally a performance with crazy flashing lights or powerful bursts of magic so quite a few other students are watching from the citadel windows or sitting on the grass to watch.

Off in the distance with another group, Stavros’ little cousin Aeneas steps up, hands closed around something. He walks up to the heat and, with carefully measured steps and head high, enters the fire. That’s brave for a year nine, and a flex about his control. As expected from the Lambros heir.

The flames flicker and snap to a brilliant white, Aeneas barely a shadow in the centre. He spends a moment inside performing the ritual casting, and then the flames roar higher with the magic the ritual puts out, exploding into a pillar that reaches up towards the sky, the white fire almost extending past the citadel towers it’s so strong.

The very top trails off into white embers that drift and sway, continuing their upward saunter until they join the sparks being put off by the other bonfires. The yawning wards overhead are visible like a translucent bubble as they draw power from the rituals.

Aeneas steps out, not a curl out of place, robes unsinged even the slightest. He takes his place back amongst the circle of students and pretends not to hear Nicholas and Stavros cheering wildly for him.

On the other hand, the year-tens closest to the tree are having some trouble. Jules takes a few steps towards the bonfire holding a small glass bottle and the fire just gutters out.

“Oi, turn the ritual back on!” Stavros shouts.

Nicholas throws his head back with a laugh, tipping off balance enough that Rafael needs to save him from backflipping out of the tree.

“Do not interfere in the ritual!” the teacher shouts at them, moving back towards the bonfire to help.

“Maybe they should be better at magic then!” Nicholas calls with a grin.

“Can't put up one shield?” Stavros mocks.

“Yeah, go on, try again.”

“You'll get it next time.”

The two of them crack up laughing.

Some RitCast students go up to the teacher to complain in hushed voices. A few moments later, the teacher raises a shield in faint green.

It takes Rafael five minutes to crack it apart and that's only because he has to hold Nicholas and Stavros up before they fall out of the tree. Nicholas transfigures the bonfire into a fish pond and Stavros raises a better shield to keep the RitCast out.

“Get down here!” snaps the teacher, walking towards them.

“They're mages!” Nicholas complains. “You'd think they'd know how to use magic.”

“Yeah, what are you teaching them, sir?” Stavros crows.

“Shouldn't you be studying, Rafael?” the teacher lectures.

Rafael jolts at being addressed, used to fading into the background around his friends. “Um.”

“Fine, have your dumb ritual,” Nicholas cuts in, putting a protective hand on Rafael's thigh. “We all know you're a lesser version of InCore anyway.”

The RitCast class surges up in a roar, voices overlapping in outrage.

“Hey, hey!” Stavros cries, hand coming up. “Let's be mature about this. Remember, sticks and stones can break your bones-“

"-but magic lets me time travel to be your dad!" Nicholas crows and they both crack up laughing again.