°So, what now?° The human asked.

°Now I´m going to sleep, today was a lot.° Mor yawned. °Good night°

°Good night, sleep well.° The human answered and began to slowly wander the compounds of Mor´s mind just looking. Which for Mor was somehow soothing and let him quickly drift off into sleep. But as sleep took him, so did the nightmares, and while he tossed and turned in subconscious movement, the human watched. Watched the nightmares, watched the boy, who will be his other self from now on, watched what the four bullies did to him, and felt a protective rage.

°Those asshats will pay. This ends, right now.° the human promised the sleeping Mor.

The next morning Mor acquired some writing implements and got to write his punishment essay. While the Human was backseat writing or more backseat questioning.

°Ah, so if you use a spell, where your magic is insufficient you could die, because the missing magic energy will be subsidized with a thing you call "live energy", but those energies are more or less the same, just that the "live energy" is the magic energy getting held back for your basic functions. But wouldn´t that mean, if you trained your basic strength and endurance that your magic energy would also get stronger? But then why do the elderly have more energy than someone in their prime?° The human asked

°Could you please shut up, I need to concentrate. I don´t want to write it again. And I told you that is not how it works! Also, why would training your strength do anything? You have your body and that's it. What would you even do, to "train" a body? It´s stupid.° Mor complained.

°Wait! Is that why everyone I saw is so scrawny? You have no concept of training your body? It´s just "I have to be born right, or I can´t use the fancy pants spells I read in a book", for all of you?! How did your kin survive until now? What about hunting for food or gathering, what about natural predators?° The human exclaimed.

°What stupid question is this now, we grow our crops and everything here on our floating islands, why should we hunt or whatever? You cast a spell and all the fruits get neatly gathered where you want them. This has always been that way.° Mor explained while continuing to write.

°That´s idiotic.° The human interrupted.

°Shut it!° Mor shushed the human.

The rest of the evening was spent in silence, but just before lights out the human spoke up again.

°Got an idea how we will deal with those bullies of yours?°

°No... I don´t even want to think about that.° Mor confessed.

°But it probably can´t be avoided, best get to it then. The biggest problem is Zaletha, with her illusion magic, but the last time it somehow failed. Maybe it has something to do with you? Because you have no fear of her, I was also protected? Illusion magic is strange like that, you need some kind of emotional power over your target, or it has a big chance of failing. If that is the case, then it will not take long for Ranbor to escalate their abuse. He somehow really hates me.° Mor said

°Yeah, seemed like it. Any idea why? Well, it doesn´t really matter. Still, then we need a good plan to deal with them it´s four against two, and I can´t talk to anyone but you. So more like four against one and a half? But if this girl needs to have some kind of hold against me, she will be shit out of luck. The problem then is they may do something else to keep you in line. Maybe trying to intimidate you with more physical means.° The human mused.

°Then they would get into a problem with the school because attacking another student with magic is against the rules.° Mor interjected.

°But what would stop them from claiming it was an accident while helping you train? The best thing we could do would probably ignore them and if they don´t get the hint we just loudly declare, that we don´t want to have anything to do with them.° The human said and this got Mor thoughtful.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

°That might work, but most might not understand, why we would not want to have anything to do with them, because it would be helpful for my social standing to liaise with the nobility.° Mor said and the human agreed.

°Yes, let´s try this. What could go wrong?°

Agreeing on this plan of action, their talk went to other subjects until Mor decided it was time to sleep and rest. They would resume talking the next day, and it would again be Human to ask the first question.

°Could we use the time, while we are stuck here, for you to explain to me how exactly this magic is working?° The human asked

°Yes of course.° Mor answered. °Firstly as you already know, to cast a spell you need magic energy, but that is only the first step, you have to afterward concentrate on guiding those energies or the spell can fail. Secondly, while there are some continuous spells they are hard to upkeep, for you have to concentrate on the energy continuously. Because of that spells like body enhancement or elemental puppet spells are almost impossible for single mages.

Body enhancement more so, because a flesh and blood body is more complicated to move, by the limits of how the energy can flow. Therefore most mage teams would fall back on an elemental puppet if they needed someone to keep their enemy at a distance. But those are last option things, best to deal with anything at range of your instantaneous spells.° He explained.

°It would be really cool if we could pull something like that off, it would be something like a secret trump card.° Human joked.

°Yes it would, but how could we even start to pull something like that off, firstly the energy cost would be far too much for me and you would somehow be able to control the body or guide the magic energy and that is impossible. In the stories, the bound elemental only supplied the mage with more energy and affinities.° Mor retorted.

°That´s why I meant it as a joke. But still, the surprise on the faces of the other mages probably would be really funny. If it is true it is impossible for a single mage. Still, I think I got it, it is best to use those instantaneous spells, because you can just fire and forget them, or start casting the next one. How much concentration is required to keep a spell up?° The human asked.

°It depends on the spell, but it ranges from, almost nothing to completely occupying your attention. For example, letting a fire spell go on, would be on the lowest distraction level, while guiding an elemental puppet would be the highest.° Mor explained.

°Ok, got it.° But still the human got thinking because for them something felt off.

Mor used the time of quiet to finish his punishment report and catch up on the stuff from the missed lessons. So while the human brooded over the pieces of information, Mor got himself back on track with his studies with sporadic help from Miss Amethyne. Like this two more days have gone by and Mor was finally released from the infirmary, as good as new, according to the healing adept. But only Mor and his new partner knew, how close "new" was to the truth. Still, Mor had this bad feeling about the almost inevitable confrontation with his tormenters he would with almost perfect certainty end up in. He hoped with all his heart, that the strategy of himself and the human would work as they planned.

The next morning on the way to class, of course, it happened and he heard the call from behind him.

"Hey peasant, finally up again, you have to make up for your laziness now."

"Ranbor..." Mor sighed.

"Hey you worthless pawn, what kind of reaction is this? Is this how your parents raised you? Seems someone has to teach you respect of your betters again." Ranbor exclaimed and slowly Mor turned around.

"Excuse me, your lordship, I believe the presence of someone of so lowly standing is no fitting company for someone as illustrious as yourself. But where is your noble retinue, sire? It does not do for someone as royally important as yourself to be without them. Should I go and tell someone to summon them for you?" Mor replied trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, as the human in his mind giggled.

°Good one!° They not so helpfully added.

"You´re going too far this time!" Ranbor furiously stated, his ruby eyes glowing balefully with magic energy. But Mor just shrugged, turned around, and left.

°Are your eyes also this creepy? It looks to me that you only have a black pupil and the rest is in whatever colour.° The human questioned Mor.

°Is that different where you are from? In most cases the color fits the family, so Ranbor of course has ruby red, and mine would be of more an agate green-blue disposition.° Mor answered.

°Nope, we have white, then a colored ring around the pupil.° The answer came back until they heard Ranbor behind them raising his voice.

"Don´t turn your back on me, you worthless peasant!"

Which in turn led the human to giggle again

°He is really creative with his curses. I diagnose a lack of intelligence.° That in turn was too much for Mor as he could not suppress an amused snort.

"You´re not laughing at me!" Ranbor raged and as Mor turned around to address that pompous ass, he only saw the red and yellow of a fireball that was flying right toward him.

He felt the heat lick his skin, and the shock of the force and fury of the attack let his mind blackout. While the enclosing darkness would protect him from the pain of burning, he knew that this was too much and his end. The last thing he heard was the voice of his partner going.

°Holy shit! OK, that´s interes....°