After the encounter, the group managed to rest for three days, Marc and Mia studying the books they were told to read, as Noir was busy inventing new creatures, using the drawings from his time in University as a basis, and improving them to be more realistic and combat ready.

He just finished his first non-familiar, a classic Unibun, a rabbit with a single horn extending on its forehead, though he made it grow barbs and changed it to end in a tip the size of a needle. It was meant to calm him down, but his dreams had gone to truly horrifying images, subconsciously influencing the way he used his magic.

With the cute creature done, he sat down and began to pet it, the vibrant, buzzing form of Gazer, illuminated his new work space, a room filled with animal carcasses he once planned to use for taxidermy reminding him of the necromantic skull that followed his student everywhere.

As his thoughts went to the weird magic that seemed to be actually part of his life now, the rare smile that petting a unibun gave him vanished, and he put it in the cage with the other bunnies he held for this experiment, and a mountain of corpses he gave to warper and whisp, so that the two could keep their new bodies alive, the carnage that followed something he hid from his newest pets by putting a blanked above their cage.

As he entered the kitchen to prepare food for the other two, he noticed that like his pills, most of their vegetables were gone by now, a discovery that finally motivated him to put a shopping trip on his plans for the next day.

Quickly noting that down, he activated the stove and prepared the ingredients for a stew.

He never told them what exactly the 'mages stew' was made of, something he didn't even tell them.

He always told them it was his secret recipe, and while Mia was having her doubts about the content, both her and Marc did notice a stronger connection to their magic when eating it.

Noir was quite certain he was doing something good, rabids had always been a staple source of food for many centuries, and bugs were not only nutritious, but a surprisingly great mixture with potatoes and carrots, besides, anything tasted great if you took european dark bread with it, an expensive, but absolutely worthwhile investment he made at least once a month.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The stew did not only nourish them, it also made use of the ever increasing vermin population and reused anything that died in his experiments.

He was certain that every spirit knew what he was doing, though while the necromatic specter was quick to judge him on every occasion, Mias spirit quite enjoyed her life as part of the household, reading about Noirs perspective on magic and helping around the shop to make sure everything ran smoothly, though the ball of blue fire making a list of every ingredient as it flicked around the building, often barely dodging as it rushed in between its new home in the fireplace and the incense candles.

While he let his thoughts wander, he connected his magic to the stew, making the flesh move and having Gazers abilities predict when the perfect timing to enter each ingredient would be.

He got better with each day of training, his reaction to impromptu divinations increasing as he never turned the gift off, slowly getting used to the accompanying head ache. The other part of the exercise was much harder, connecting the tissue of insect and rabbit as they were cooked, making him exhausted once he was sure that he managed to complete the procedure.

"Foods ready!"

He called, pulling of the lid and letting the resulting smell draw in his students, Mia was still busy experimenting on her control with a candle and contemplating a contract that would make an air tight deal with the first devil she would summon. In the meantime, Marc simply did what he did best, examining a skeleton and thinking about how to best construct an artificial soul. He absolutely despised the use of real people in his work.

When they arrived to eat, he asked both of them to demonstrate their progress, for him to consider further teachings they might be interested in.

When Marc animated a squirrel, and every candle on the table turned on at the same time, Noir knew he would have to teach them something new, and while he did his best, he was quite certain that he would have to make up entirely new stuff, or rely on fiction tropes.

As the whise man he was, he decided upon the latter, and just as he got ready to dig in, the doorbell sounded.

At first, they simply ignored it, thinking it a figment of his waning sanity. But when it resumed, and the other two looked at him expectandly he knew that it was time for him to go and face his greatest fear.

People that contacted him outside of his opening hours.