Adon focused his mind on how his body was supposed to look, and after a moment’s thought, he returned to his previous post-Evolution coloration.

There you are! sent Goldie in an obvious tone of relief.

So cool, thought Samson.

For a few seconds, as he thought of becoming one with the air, Adon had unintentionally turned his whole body invisible. Not simply clear, as his crystal-like wings had been naturally since the moment he emerged from the chrysalis. Rather, Adon had become so perfectly translucent that even his outline could not be seen.

This is more than just changing my color, he thought. This is a bit like Color Change, but it seems like a highly upgraded version. Even a chameleon was not perfectly invisible to a close observer with good vision. Yet Goldie and Samson had been less than a foot away from him for part of the time when he was translucent, and they nevertheless managed to convince themselves that something had happened to him.

I wonder if I was bending light around my body or something, Adon sent.

This new version of Color Change functions just like the body modification thing I did with my wings and when the ends of my limbs turned into little scalpels, he noted to himself. It only requires a thought. Even a really abstract, almost accidental, mental image can transform my body. I’ll have to be careful and get used to this before I go out into the world.

He flapped his wings and fluttered around the room a bit more. He thought about the wind and the air, but he could see he was not becoming invisible. His own limbs were the easy proof of that.

I did not know light could bend, Goldie sent back.

Samson’s posture shifted, and Adon could see that he was considering thinking something at them, but he apparently thought better of that.

He was probably about to explain that light is a wave and a particle, or something like that, Adon thought to himself. The butterfly knew nothing more than that about the substance of light, and he was fairly certain it was a piece of information he had repeatedly learned across a few human lifespans. That is, he had been taught it, had dutifully memorized the information for a test, and had then never used it again.

But Samson was a better student than me, just like he was better at everything else. What does it even mean for light to be both a wave and a particle? Isn’t that contradictory? He shook his head. No, I need to stop thinking about that. I don’t care.

He returned to enjoying the joy of flight.

For several minutes, Adon continued moving around the room, almost floating up like a bubble at times, and at others soaring down rapidly like a little bird—performing stunt-like maneuvers for his own and the spiders’ amusement.

Then Samson spoke up, and Adon almost crashed into a bedpost, only saving himself at the last moment with a frantic flurry of flapping.

Would you be willing to give me some pointers on magic now, Adon? Samson asked.

Adon knew from that request that Samson had already purchased Telepathy, Mana Manipulation, and Magic Perception. The latter two were the Skill and Adaptation that Adon had recommended for learning magic, while the former was evident in the request itself.

Rather than catching Samson’s thought as he brought it to the forefront of his mind, Adon had received it, like an arrow shot from Samson’s mind. The feeling was quite different than that of communicating with someone who did not have Telepathy. Adon had already experienced it when Goldie began talking to him with Telepathy after his Evolution, but in the excitement at seeing his old friend again, he had not taken note of it.

So, now there are three of us who can use Telepathy who came from the garden, Adon thought. Rosslyn said that was rare. I guess the garden insect Class of Whatever-This-Year-Is really outperformed expectations.

He felt again a painful loss of uniqueness, of something that he had thought made him special in this world.

Then he realized that he was lost in thought, and his brother had been waiting a few seconds for Adon to respond to his request. A simple enough request, it must have seemed to Samson. Adon knew a little magic, so why not share it?

And Adon could not think of a good reason to refuse off the top of his head, though a part of him desperately wanted to.

How much of my self-worth is tied up in these things I can do? he reproached himself. Surely I’m more than just a magical butterfly who can talk—right?

There was no reassurance foreseeable in that line of thought.

Sure, Samson, Adon sent. Goldie, do you want to get in on this too?

At least he would be helping his friend as well as the brother he felt such mixed emotions toward.

I should just be happy to see him, Adon told himself. What in the world is wrong with me?

I would love to learn, Goldie replied. I bought Mana Manipulation just for this purpose. I hoped you would teach me!

Adon heard the pure joy in Goldie’s voice, and he felt better.

I can’t believe I was sort of considering trying to come up with an excuse not to teach Samson, he thought to himself. Imagine how he and Goldie would both have felt then… What sort of brother am I?

There was a knock at the door, and Adon thanked the Goddess for sparing him further self-loathing silence.

Come in! he sent.

The knob turned, the door opened, and the head of the Princess poked through.

“I hope all has been well,” she began, then suddenly stopped.

Is something the matter, Your Highness? asked Goldie.

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“It is just—Adon, are you flying already?” Rosslyn asked incredulously.

Yes, I am flying, Princess, Adon replied, puffing himself up as best he could despite being a small invertebrate. Thank you for noticing.

Goldie turned toward Adon. He could not read her emotions, since she had no face, but her posture looked slightly bemused to him. Or maybe amused. Despite how long he and the spider had known each other, it was impossible to read her body language sometimes.

“Usually, I had heard your wings take a bit longer to dry,” she said. “That was all. I suppose you are, um, precocious. And you fly very majestically!”

Thank you! Adon replied. As for me being precocious, I’m probably just a little impatient, honestly. I’ve been looking forward to flying for so long… I used a new ability I don’t know the name of yet to grow the size of my wings temporarily so that they would dry faster.

“Oh, you can transform your physical shape,” Rosslyn said. Her expression became inscrutable for a moment before she smiled down at him.

For Adon, who craved appreciation more than anything else, the warmth of the Princess’s smile felt like a second sun shining down on him.

It seems that I can, he sent after what he realized was an unnaturally long delay. Um, within some limits that I haven’t yet explored very well yet, Your Highness.

“I think I told you this before, Adon but you—” She turned to face Goldie and her hatchlings—“and your friends can simply call me by my name: Rosslyn. Think of how many words you will waste in pointless formalities, otherwise, when in this Kingdom, your status renders it completely unnecessary. If and when you have to meet some foreign leaders, we will discuss proper protocols for those encounters then. For now, please be at ease.”

That is very kind of you, Rosslyn, Goldie sent before Adon could say anything.

It was strange to him. For a moment, it felt a bit like Goldie was cutting him off on purpose.

Nah, it couldn’t be, he thought.

Goldie went on, As for how things are going, Adon was about to start teaching us magic. That is, teaching me and my firstborn child Samson. She reached up and tapped her son on the head.

It’s so weird that Goldie’s son is my brother, Adon thought. Although I have always felt a kind of big sister connection to her.

“That is wonderful,” Rosslyn said. She waved. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Samson, as it was a pleasure to meet your mother and Adon. I would have been happy to teach you what I know of magic myself, but it might be better for you to learn from Adon, depending on what types of magic you intend to study.”

Adon felt as if he had been thrown an inadvertent lifeline.

I think it might be more useful if Rosslyn taught you guys, actually, he sent quickly. I was going to give you what I know, but I’m sure she received much better instruction than me. I only know what I learned haphazardly through the System. So I’m really just a few steps ahead of you guys, while I think Rosslyn has been training with magic for years.

She nodded. “That is true. I try to practice every day.” She smiled a little bittersweetly. “When I am not in a coma.”

Her right hand twitched slightly, as if she wanted to raise it and touch her eye again. But she kept it under tight control, at her side, so that Adon imagined that only he had noticed.

Thank you for your kind offer, Rosslyn, Goldie sent. We would be happy to accept your instruction.

“Very good,” the Princess said. She took a seat on the bed in front of them.

Adon flew up to the bedpost to stand and watch the lesson. He wondered how different it would be from how his self-taught experience had been, but he could not feel jealous of Samson or Goldie getting this personalized instruction from an expert. He had a certain sense of pride that he had discovered what he knew about magic by himself, with only the System as a guide. Since Samson and Goldie both had Mana Manipulation, they had roughly the same possibility to do it on their own as Adon, and in much more favorable conditions.

In some intangible way, he felt affirmed in his own skill level, validated for having managed to learn magic alone in the wilds of the garden.

And I get to keep the secrets of the specific types of magic I learned to myself, he thought a little greedily. He immediately felt a bit guilty for having that wish, but there it was. Adon wanted to be special. He could not be special if other people kept having and being able to do the same things as himself.

“The first step toward learning magic is to meditate for long hours on the flow of energy through your body,” Rosslyn began. “This is to locate your Mana core—”

Um, I’m sorry, Princess Rosslyn, sent Samson, but I don’t want to make you repeat things we’ve already learned. We got the Magic Perception and Mana Manipulation Adaptation and Skill through the Evolution Store. We completed that first step already.

Adon wished he could roll his eyes at Samson. Be patient, man! he thought to himself. She’ll get to where you are, probably one step beyond that, in a little while. Plus, maybe the hours of meditation would do you good. We have no way of knowing if the quick and dirty way of doing things that the System prompts us toward is the best way or the right way. We only know it’s our way.

This was part of why Adon wanted to watch Rosslyn teach the others, rather than continuing to test his new wings. He wanted to know if there was something he was missing, some part of his foundation that should be improved.

“Congratulations on having moved through the first step so quickly,” Rosslyn said, smiling. “I will always be a bit jealous of you nonhumans for being able to do that. On to the next stage, then…”

She explained about pulling Mana from the core and moving it around the body, and Adon relaxed and watched his friend and his brother as they began their first attempts at manipulating Mana.

This stage lasted several hours, taking up most of the afternoon. Adon watched Samson and Goldie struggle to get the hang of moving their Mana around their body. He felt bad that it seemed to be taking Goldie a while to get the hang of it, but secretly a little gratified that Samson did not get the hang of it immediately.

There is, after all, something I seem to be more naturally talented at than him.

Despite what Adon felt was slow progress, Rosslyn was encouraging.

“You are both moving along nicely,” she said. “This is something you can practice on your own. For now, I think we should break for lunch—”

Is there anything more advanced that you could give us to practice? Goldie asked, interrupting her.

I’ve never known Goldie to be so impatient, Adon thought. What’s gotten into her?

Rosslyn hesitated for a moment, then said, “I cannot see why I should not. We are all friends. It is not as if you would ever use this knowledge against us.” To Adon, she looked as though she was wrestling with her self-doubt. The thin scar gave her a different look. Where before, she had seemed untouchable, somehow above it all, now she looked acutely vulnerable.

Betrayed. That was the word that came to his mind. He didn’t know the details of how she had gotten the scar. Who hurt her?

“You must understand that every noble family has its own magical specializations,” Rosslyn continued. “The only shared competency is healing magic, because it is universally understood to be too important to risk that knowledge dying out. So our household’s fire magic and light magic are a secret, and I would ask that you keep them to yourselves.”

Of course, Goldie sent.

I promise, Samson added.

Me too, Adon transmitted hastily.

“Very well,” Rosslyn said. “I will give you the Royal Family’s book of magic to review, along with a lecture on the basics, after lunch. There is too much for me to go over quickly.”

A book? Adon asked.

A book and a lecture? Too much to go over quickly? He questioned why the Royal Family’s process for using magic sounded so different from his own. Had he been doing something unusual all this time? Perhaps something wrong?