Adon felt a surge of unique power all around him as he added fire magic to his roster of abilities.

I didn’t even have to go into the darkness this time, he thought. That thought was a quiet one, almost fully drowned out by his focus on what he was doing. He was still feeling out fire magic, trying to intuit how to keep it stable. That had not been part of Rosslyn’s lecture, he was certain. Perhaps because she had not expected any of her students to start using magical affinities anytime soon.

“That is amazing, Adon.”

Rosslyn’s voice came to him from what felt like far away.

Adon tuned back in to reality.

Sometimes, when he was doing something—and perhaps this was especially true of attempting magical tasks—he completely zoned out.

Probably a side effect of one of my Skills or Adaptations, he thought. He was fairly certain, without searching through his memories, that he had been this way pre-Evolution.

He knew he had not been like that in his last life. He had been as easily distracted by his various screens as any of the humans around him—as though he was living his entire life vicariously.

But he did not think any further about it. Rosslyn had just praised him. It was time to bask in her approval.

Thank you, he transmitted. Do you think I’m starting to get it?

“Your talent is remarkable,” Rosslyn replied instantly. “I could not say how many days it took me to produce my first spark when I learned to harness fire.”

You could talk to Sir Jaren, too, if you like, Adon heard her think. You can hear this, right?

What do you think, Sir Jaren? Adon sent, communicating with both of them now.

“I think I have never heard a nonhuman speak,” Sir Jaren said, looking slightly stunned. “Witnessing one perform complicated magical maneuvers is another first. I myself do not know how to use any magic affinity other than healing.” Adon read a subtle sadness on the man’s face.

Affinities run in families, Rosslyn said, he reminded himself. I wonder if Rosslyn would be all right with him learning it.

But it seemed likely, as he thought about it, that she probably would not be. She had mentioned how noble families and royals jealously guarded their affinity knowledge. Sir Jaren had clearly known the Princess for a long time, and neither she nor the King had ever given him a primer on fire magic. There was no way that was an accident.

I bet Rosslyn would prefer if someone in their family’s service could learn the secret family techniques, but I guess I can think of good reasons why that’s not allowed, he thought.

To Sir Jaren, he simply sent: I am honored to have left an impression on you, good sir.

Adon realized as he transmitted the thought that the knight made him less nervous than any human he had ever met. They could talk normally without Adon consuming alcohol or anything. It probably helped that Sir Jaren was not royalty—or female.

There was no feeling that Adon might disappoint Sir Jaren by saying something dumb. His calm, down-to-earth demeanor settled Adon’s social anxiety. It was almost as if the butterfly was talking to himself.

“Well, I am honored to be talking to the national creature,” Sir Jaren replied immediately, a smile tugging at his lips now. He turned to Rosslyn. “I am correct in my guess, am I not, Your Highness? This is the sort of magical butterfly represented on your family’s emblem?”

Rosslyn looked slightly flustered at the question for a moment, then she shook her head and gave Sir Jaren a smile in return. It looked tense to Adon, though. Practically painted on.

“If you will keep it between the three of us—”

Sir Jaren nodded.

“Yes, he is the national creature,” Rosslyn confirmed. “We are trying not to let anyone know that we have a visitor of such importance right now. As the threat of war grows more imminent…”

Sir Jaren was nodding again, and he seemed to pick up everything Rosslyn was saying, both verbally and in subtext.

“I will keep it between us, Princess.”

Rosslyn visibly relaxed at the words.

That’s good, since it’s probably your head if someone finds out from you that I’m here, Adon thought very quietly.

He was beginning to understand how careful the Royal Family was about their secrets. He imagined that they had to be, but there was still something a bit unsettling about it. Dangerous. He hoped the nice knight understood how serious the King and his family were about things.

As he was contemplating Sir Jaren’s possible fate, Adon felt the fire around his body weaken slightly. He poured a little more Mana in, and the flames blazed back into full life. It was amazing how much easier magic had become for him since Evolution. Just like Color Change, it required a fraction of the focus and thought that had once been necessary. This body was truly specialized in magic, coupled with an insane knack for manipulating Adon’s own appearance and shape.

“Would you like to test your new affinity out with me, Adon?” Rosslyn asked.

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Adon sent an immediate Yes. He could not ask for a better opportunity to refine his technique, now that he had grasped the basics of what Rosslyn had explained earlier, than showing her what he could do.

It’s really amazing that I can do anything with fire magic at all, he told himself, considering I was drunk for the lecture. If I was this smart in school during my last life, I would have ended up as a college professor or something. But he had his Impeccable Memory to thank. It seemed that even if he had been semi-drunk, he could remember the broad substance of lessons he had been given. It was just slightly more effort to recover it.

“Sir Jaren?” Rosslyn said.

Adon saw the knight nod and then withdraw out of the circle that Rosslyn and Adon stood in. Sir Jaren pulled way off to the fringe of the room, as if he was anticipating that Adon and Rosslyn were about to destroy the whole area within the circle.

That seems ominous…

He turned back to Rosslyn, and Adon saw that she had summoned what seemed to him a great quantity of aura that surrounded her whole body below the neck.

If that’s to protect her, why isn’t there any around her head?

Adon was halfway to thinking that might be how Rosslyn ended up with a scar over her eye, when he got his answer.

The aura around her body turned red and then burst into flames. The girl was on fire. She looked like Adon imagined a living sun would look. The flames covered everywhere below the neck.

She must have kept it from going above her neck to avoid accidentally burning her hair.

How she was keeping the flames away from the rest of her body, he thought he understood, since he was doing the same thing with the cloak of flames that surrounded him. But if her hair got loose from the tie that held it in place, it might char black in an instant.

“All right, Adon,” Rosslyn said. He could hear power and excitement in her voice. “Show me what you can do.”

She’s fighting fire with fire, he thought. I did not know today was going to go this way. A part of him wanted to laugh. But a larger part found itself sharing in her excitement.

All right, Princess, he sent.

Fighting and magic were the two things he had discovered he was good at in this life.

He threw out an experimental tongue of flame. It struck the mantle of fire around her body and bounced off.

She just stood there, a challenging smile on her face, waiting.

I’ll just do my best, then.

Adon threw out a half dozen whips of fire now, and Rosslyn actually moved. She used her flaming arms and legs to flick the flames aside.

Then she stepped in closer, as if she was going to launch her own attack. Adon reflexively flapped and flew backwards, opening up some distance between himself and the Princess, but she did not pursue. She just stood there smiling.

I guess this isn’t a fight, even just a training fight, Adon thought. She’s letting me use her as a punching bag. An invincible punching bag.

Adon threw out a dozen flaming tendrils, having had a moment to collect himself. He knew the Princess was trying to teach him how best to use these flames. Since he did not have Telekinesis, he could only control fire magic that was directly touching his body, rather than doing what she had done to the Vendetta Ants and manipulating flames to land on anything she wanted, separate from her body.

Theoretically, that put him at a big disadvantage relative to Rosslyn.

But she was also not using Telekinesis right now. She was just wearing the fire as an extra layer of armor, using it to reinforce punches and kicks and to block attacks.

That was probably on purpose.

She deflected the dozen flaming tendrils without changing her posture, using punches, kicks, and her sword, which she drew so quickly from her side that Adon completely missed the movement. He did see that the blade was glowing gently, and recognized that she had infused some Mana into it, though it was not of the flame affinity.

Adon threw out more fire attacks, aiming for quantity rather than precision, and to his surprise, Rosslyn stepped to the side and completely avoided half of his next barrage of attacks. The flames spent themselves on the ground and the wall that had been behind her.

Sir Jaren seemed to react to that off to the corner of Adon’s peripheral vision, but Adon had little time to notice that.

Instead, he maintained a laser focus on Rosslyn.

She had broken a slight sweat now, but it did not create any openings for Adon to exploit. The droplets evaporated as they dripped down her face, leaving faint streaks of salt. It smelled strangely good to Adon. He had a moment to wonder if that was another weird butterfly thing, or if that was a weird Adon thing.

Then he threw out his next barrage of attacks, nearly thirty flame tentacles that he aimed at every part of her body he could see.

It was only at the last moment, when he lacked the power to call the flames back, that he realized he had also aimed one of the tendrils at her head—and the specific area of her blind spot, no less!

Shit. Shit shit shit…

The Princess was delicately pretty, with fine-boned features. Even if she had looked like a warthog, Adon would not have liked the idea of leaving burn marks on her, if she should fail to deflect one of his wild attacks.

And he knew, from having seen Rosslyn’s face recently, that even with healing magic to patch a person up, human wounds could still scar. He did not know if it was because the assassins who had attacked her had used poison, or if it was some other cause.

Insect anatomy was different—or such had been Adon’s experience thus far. Injuries to him were something to be shrugged off with a new skin. Venom was something that he slept off with no lasting effects.

But there was nothing he could do to pull his attack back now.

She was deflecting the other blows with her flaming arms and legs, flawlessly as usual. But she had not reacted to the tentacle of flame that closed in on her blind spot. The tendril was so close now. Adon could almost feel it, about to lick her cheek.

He braced himself to hear the Princess scream. He would have to try and switch to healing magic instantly.

Then there was a sudden flash of light. Adon saw it for a fraction of a second—her glowing sword making contact with the flames, somehow appearing in the last few inches before they touched her face. The flames ricocheted harmlessly off of it.

Oh my Goddess! Wow. Holy crap! I’m glad I’m not in a real fight with her. I don’t know how I’d win in a million years. I’d have to get lucky, and she’d have to not take me seriously. It was right in her blind spot, too…

Adon watched as Rosslyn batted away the last couple of flaming tendrils with her arms and legs and returned to what seemed to be a ready position.

Her eyes said, Go on, keep going, but Adon thought he’d had enough for one day.

The attack that felt like a near-miss had left a bad taste in his mouth, and he was also growing tired. The flurry of attacks, coming as they did after over an hour of figuring out how to use fire magic, had burned through most of his Mana.

I think I’m ready for a time out, he sent. I’m getting pretty low on Mana. I used up a lot of power just figuring out how to make fire magic work. I could really use a snack. Maybe you’ll join me?