They went through a few more rounds of testing, using the fragment, of course. Zeris and Guinevere kept ramping up the intensity each time with very interesting results. Chasma remained merely curious.

  By the sixth round, even Mimicking Guinevere's Lightning affinity, Caen still dropped to a knee from the magnitude of the shock. Lightning magic was terribly effective.

  Zeris Impassioned her attacks on the seventh round of testing, but had quickly needed to withdraw her Impassioning from the fire as it hurriedly crawled over Chasma. Caen could feel the heat even with Zeris’s passive augmentations and the fragment’s protection. The exterior of the fragment itself was very hot to the touch, and the concussive force of the fireball had nearly thrown him off his feet.

  “I want to try eating attacks now,” Caen said. “I'll need some time to set that up.”

  “Just hurry up so we can get back to throwing spells at you,” Zeris said. “It's fun.”

  Caen shook his head as he Mimicked Chasma's spirit receptor in seconds. As always, his spiritual senses vanished entirely, along with his passive augmentations. However, he experienced Chasma's full attention on him by way of that profound and equally simple Parthran language. He engaged Chasma's absorption with a thought, though of course, there was nothing for it to eat right now.

  Feeding Chasma usually required Caen to mold the fragment around its meal. This wasn't necessary, but it was more efficient. Now, however, he bid the fragment to feed from its exterior. It complied immediately, and Caen Mimicked the web of clusters in its soul structure that represented its ability to feed.

  The utter abjection felt more significant because he couldn't even communicate with Chasma in the Parthran language.

  He spread absorption to cover every inch of his hand beneath the fragment. He'd already found out through some light testing on his way back to Drenlin that it was pretty much impossible to feed on living things while Mimicking absorption.

  “I'm ready,” he said to Zeris, holding his gauntleted arm out.

  She began once more with a small, regular fireball. There was no noticeable difference. The fragment’s resilience and absorption were enough to completely rebuff the attack.

  Caen felt an impression of ‘relish’ from his fragment, and he chuckled.

  Looks like I'll be expanding your diet much sooner than I'd hoped.

  He had Zeris scale up the intensity of her attacks. And the more she did, the more heat actually leaked through to Caen's hand beneath the fragment.

  Without passive augmentations, it might have been enough to cause him injury, but his hand ‘absorbed’ the heat, which was uncomfortable but far from blistering.

  He sensed the faintest trickles of vitality rushing into his body. Her attacks kept rocking his arm off to the side, though none of the concussive force leaked through to his hand beneath the fragment.

  This was essentially equivalent to Mimicking Zeris's Fire affinity while using the fragment. Caen was pleased. Too pleased, in fact. If he hadn't already committed to feeding Chasma excessively to accelerate the fragment’s growth, this alone would have swayed him.

  Ancestors. The possibilities.

  After checking in with Chasma through their connection and making sure it was okay, he said, “Impassion it this time.”

  Zeris didn't even wait for confirmation. The fireball rocked his gauntleted palm to the side and began crawling across the fragment. Scalding heat seeped through the fragment. Absorption wasn't working. Not on Ardor. Not on the resulting heat. But more importantly, he sensed reluctance through his connection to Chasma.

  “Extinguish, extinguish,” he said in a pained hurry, and Zeris complied.

  Caen Mimicked Chasma’s spirit receptor, trying to find out what had gone wrong.

  Chasma was unwilling to eat living things.

  Caen blinked at this and expressed understanding. His fragment thought Passionfire was a living thing. He shook his head. “It doesn't seem like it can absorb Passionfire,” he said for Zeris and Gwen's benefit.

  After a quick Blood-healing spell that took care of his light burns, they moved over to testing out lightning, and the results were better here. The fragment could absorb Guinevere's Lightning attacks, and Caen, with gritted teeth, absorbed whatever leaked through, earning himself wisps of vitality. He still got shocked senseless when she increased the intensity, though.

  “This is crazy,” Guinevere said with an eager smile. “I want to fight you.”

  Caen gave it some thought but shook his head. “I'd like that, but I need to grow a bit more familiar with using Flora magic first.”

  “We could use Body-enhancement alone,” she offered.

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  Caen laughed. “I've seen you fight, Gwen. You'd beat me handily. I only recently started taking my training in Body-enhancement more seriously. Once I've properly incorporated Flora magic in, we'll spar.”

  “I'll hold you to that,” she said. “How's your training been going so far, though? In preparation for the entrance exams, that is.”

  “I haven't really been focusing on that as much as I should,” he admitted, as he picked up his vase from where he'd kept it by the door.

  “Oh? Zeris mentioned that she has a scholarship, and I assumed you and I were in the same boat.”

  “We are, but the Ereshta’al family hosts this very competitive event called the Patronage trials. I’m participating in it this year.”

  “I've seen some recordings of those,” Guinevere said.

  “If I perform well, I get a sponsorship.”

  “That… sounds like a lot of steps,” Guinevere noted as she led them out of the practice room. “Did you participate in the trials, too, Zeris?”

  “Gwen, unlike you two brutes, I'm actually talented.”

  Caen chuckled.

  Guinevere let out a scandalized gasp. “Oh, forgive me for asking, my Lady. But seriously, how do I sign up for that? Starting to wish I was an Ereshta'al.”

  Zeris eyed her sidelong. “Your parents are archmages. Can’t they work something out with the school? A free pass, maybe?”

  Guinevere snorted. “As if. The Imperial Citadel of Magic is run by archmages. They wouldn't be so impressive otherwise.”

  Caen hadn't known that. He manipulated his fragment into the vase so it could feed. “How exactly have you been preparing, Gwen?”

  They returned to Guinevere's room as she regaled them with her many struggles. The entrance exams tested theoretical knowledge as well as practical. Guinevere was spending a lot of her time preparing for the written assessment. She shared a few tips she'd learned from her older sister, and mentioned that she'd be happy to study with Caen later.

  Once they'd settled in her room, she fetched them snacks of chocolate cookies, sandwiches, and fresh fruit juice. Her parents enjoyed cooking, she’d said.

  “I also got these,” Guinevere added, swirling a vial of a softly glowing yellow liquid.

  “What's that?”

  “It’s a home brew my dad makes. Helps me stay focused for long stretches. Think ‘Rien stimulants but stronger’. It's a real punch to the gut at first. You both have decent Blood and Body affinities, right?”

  Caen had heard of concoctions of this sort. There'd been a few cases in the tri-clinic involving some children who'd taken these. Since their passive augmentations weren't strong enough to handle the effects, they'd needed emergency care.

  Zeris ever so subtly raised an eyebrow at Caen. He shrugged.

  “I won't mind one,” she said.

  “Me too,” Caen added, just as he began Mimicking his fragment’s absorption.

  Guinevere sat at her table studying. Zeris lay on Guinevere's bed, reading a romance novel beside Mister Black Eyes, formerly known as Honey Cuddles.

  Caen sat on a sofa by the fireplace. His first sip brought a wave of spasms that left him a little breathless and caused a slight burning sensation to radiate outwards along his torso. Absorption was working overtime, however. There was a rush of vitality, and then the discomfort abated.

  Once he'd emptied the vial, he felt very alert and invigorated. This was great. He'd have to ask for the recipe later.

  Mind sharpened, he disconnected from his fragment and began curating a schedule for himself. The following weeks would be training-intensive, and he needed to decide how best to apportion his efforts.

  Zeris occasionally chuckled to herself and kicked her feet while reading her novel, which made Caen and Guinevere exchange amused looks.

  He took out his grimoire and went about adapting spells. Mostly Gleam and Vibration magic, as he intended to use those—along with a few others—in the first round of the Patronage trials.

  When he stopped to replenish his reserves, he was surprised by how quickly it took him to do so. His recently acquired Spirit-healing passive augmentations granted him faster mana regeneration. But this was well beyond that.

  “Is there a gathering array in your room, Gwen?” Caen asked.

  “We don't have those here on the farm, no. Oh! You're asking about the mana density? That's just my parents. Archmages. No idea how, but yeah.”

  Caen blinked. The Parthran Plane and Ser-gwu Island both possessed rather high mana densities. But they had one other thing in common: very powerful archmages. Whether correlation or causation, Caen couldn't say.

  Guinevere craned her neck from the table to glance at his notebook. “What are those diagrams? Is that even a language?”

  “It's a cipher,” he said, holding up the notebook for her. “I use a bunch of mathematical transforms to encrypt my journals.”

  “Huh. That's a really cool way to journal.”

  “Do you journal yourself?”

  “All the time,” she said, kicking back in her chair and crossing her feet on the table. “But I never write it down, though.”

  Zeris looked up from the book she was reading. “I can tell you're about to say something very interesting.”

  “My bloodline allows me to store information. Like, take notes and shit.”

  “How is that even fair?” Zeris said.

  “You have two bloodlines,” Guinevere accused. “You can't say that to me.”

  Caen very carefully changed the subject before he got caught in the crossfire. “You inherited a bloodline from your mom, but not your dad?”

  “My mom is at a higher stage of advancement than my dad.”

  Both Caen and Zeris were leaning in now.

  “Please don't stop talking,” Zeris said.

  “Do you know what the stages that come after Percipient are?” Caen asked. He had not found any definitive terms to describe the higher stages of advancement. His searches had led him to words like ‘stars’, ‘paragons’, ‘essentials’, ‘holders’, and even ridiculous ones like… ‘baskets’.

  “I only know what stages my parents are at. Dad's something called a ‘Wreather’. Mom's a ‘Parity’. There's something very big after that, but I don't know what it is.”