Flynn came to my room six days later, all smiles and cheer.

  "Afternoon," Flynn said, waltzing into my quarters. He pulled a chair from his ring and practically collapsed into it, leaning back and kicking his feet up onto my desk for good measure.

  I reached out with my Aether, pulling the energy together and trying to push his legs away with a burst of force magic. The wave crashed into Flynn's own, passive defenses and broke apart, barely ruffling his pants. For a moment, I debated trying again and putting some real magical muscle behind it, then sighed and shook my head.

  "Can I help you?" I asked without looking up from my reading. Hard to do, considering he now sat all of two feet to my right.

  "I assumed you wanted an update on your friend," Flynn replied, and I could tell even without seeing his face that he was smiling. "I did some digging into her, as you asked."

  "And?" I pressed. "What did you find out?"

  "Well, a darkness mage with training as a healer named Selene isn't much to go off, if I'm honest. We had a location, sure, but chances were she'd already fled at some point. Your instructor warned you, and I wouldn't be shocked if she had a way to contact her other student as well. But I reached out to some contacts and...well, I've got some good tidings, some bad, and some just plain interesting. Where should we start?"

  "The bad, obviously," I said, rolling my eyes. "The sooner I know what problems exist, the sooner we can solve them."

  "Pragmatic as always. Very well, the bad news is that Selene vanished without a trace. In fact, I doubt any spy alive could track down a darkness mage named Selene."

  I was surprised at the twinge of guilt and...not grief, necessarily, but maybe regret that stabbed through me. I knew I could've done more to help her, but I always put it off until it was too late. I still wasn't sure if it was a mistake, but even if I did, that wouldn't change a thing.

  "Very well. Thank you for looking into this. If it's all the same to you, I'd like to know if there is anyone I can send my sympathies to—"

  "Ah," Flynn cut in with a laugh. "You didn't let me get to the good. I said we didn't find a darkness mage named Selene. What I didn't say was that we didn't find your friend."

  I blinked, then closed my notebook and threw it onto the bed before turning to face Flynn. As I suspected, he had an arrogant smile on his face, reclining back as if none of this bothered him whatsoever.

  "What do you mean?"

  "That's the interesting part of all of this. See, I had my spies looking for a woman matching the description you gave me. At the time, I assumed 'Selene' had picked up a new name, just like you. Obvious move if you're trying to run from assassins, particularly ones famed for tracking and killing mages. The more you can hide yourself, the better. But..."

  I nodded. It was what I'd done, though I had also made sure to put as much distance between us as possible.

  "But?" I repeated after a few seconds of silence.

  "But that's the interesting part. While we were searching for her, I had my men comb through records on mages awakened within the past five years or so. They looked for women with darkness mana with the name Selene, and strangely enough, they couldn't find her. Expanded it to ten years, then twenty, and they still couldn't find anything. So, instead, I had them start looking into every woman regardless of their names."

  "And you found her," I filled in the blank.

  Flynn nodded, even as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a page. He slapped it down before me as if presenting a prize, nearly teetering over as the move knocked his chair off-balance. After a second, he settled back into place and, with another broad smile, waved a hand.

  "Allow me to introduce you to Vesper Ollais, darkness mage. Twenty years old, and the second of two children of the Ollais family."

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  The name didn't stick out much at first. Vesper was an older word that translated roughly as "evening," which seemed somewhat ironic given her element. But the way Flynn had spoken seemed to indicate something was special here.

  After a few seconds, I placed the last name. When I did, I looked up from the page and back towards Flynn.

  "Ollais. As in Arenius Ollais?"

  Flynn smiled. "The very same."

  I had never met Arenius Ollais, even though we had both attended the Academy at the same time. Not many first-year apprentices would have the opportunity. In fact, the only knowledge I had about him came from rumors I had heard idly from Grace, the mage who had first shown me around the school at the start of my training.

  Arenius was a man of contradictions, with a reputation unlike any other student. No one denied that he was powerful, with a nearly perfect mixture of raw talent, intelligence, focus, curiosity, and dedication. In fact, all the rumors claimed he was the Academy's strongest apprentice by a wide margin.

  They also all claimed that he was completely and utterly uninterested in progressing his social standing. As far as anyone could tell, he had no friends or allies and seemed to care only about his training and education.

  I wondered if this was what it was like to have a personal hero.

  "Why would she hide her name?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

  "Not sure. Anonymity has its place, and the Ollais family has tumbled quite a bit. They've gone from a duchy to just an earldom in a handful of generations. Maybe she's ashamed?"

  "Maybe." I agreed, then shook my head. "But you did find her, yes?"

  "I did. Vesper returned to Volaris, where she is staying with her brother for the time. And before you ask, the assassins decided not to go after her. The Ollais haven't lost all their influence and seemed to feel it was best not to poke the sleeping dragon. Her brother is on pace to be quite the battlemage, after all."

  I tapped my fingers on my forearm, considering his words. Recruiting Selene—no, Vesper, I corrected—was something we needed to do as soon as possible. The faster we got her on our side, the better. Unfortunately, that didn't wholly solve our issue with the ritual. We still needed inhuman focus and mental strength.

  But a trip to Volaris might be the perfect way to solve two problems at once.

  I picked up the book I had been reading before Flynn's arrival and held it out to him. He raised an eyebrow, then leaned forward and took it from my hand.

  "What's this?" Flynn asked, turning it over in his hands before flipping open to a page at random.

  "A book on mental magic. How much do you know about the school?"

  "Basics, mostly. Telepathy, empathic senses, and a few other tricks are possible, but nothing super complex. I remember reading into it a little when I was a kid, planning out my future training, and thought it wasn't worth the time or effort."

  "A perfectly reasonable answer," I replied. "Thirty years ago."

  Flynn raised an eyebrow, then lowered his gaze back to the book. After a second, he looked back up. "I'm not reading this whole damn thing. Just tell me."

  "And after all of those complaints about spoiling surprises," I remarked dryly before continuing, "A mind palace."

  "What the hell is a mind palace?"

  "It's a mental construct generated by mana that allows for quick, structured development of certain talents. Telepathy. Empathy. Mind reading. Memory alteration. Even offensive applications. Gained faster and more effectively than any mage has ever managed to in centuries."

  A lesser mage might not have followed, but I could see Flynn's mind already starting to follow the trail.

  "Would I be right in assuming improved self-control and willpower are possible as well?" Flynn asked.

  "You would. Well within the realms of possible, in fact. My reading suggests those are among the easiest and quickest talents to manifest."

  "How did I not think of this already? Hell, how did my father not?"

  "This is a new text, written several years ago. You likely overlooked it, as it's less a guide on how to create a mind palace and more a history of the field of mental magics overall," I explained. "As for your father, my suspicion is he has, but he'd rather we come to the answer than give it to us. The only reason he allowed me to remain here in the first place was to assist your progress, and I doubt easy solutions are a part of that."

  "You found this one, so I don't know how much difference it makes," Flynn countered, and I allowed the point with a shrug. "Still...this is huge, Vayne. Not just for the ritual, either."

  I knew what he meant. I hadn't ever really allowed myself to consider mental magic in the past, and I was regretting that decision now. The possible improvements to our minds seemed limitless, but it had always felt like a bad idea in the past, even though...

  Wait. Why had I never considered it until now?

  Mind magic wasn't useless. Flynn might think so, but I should know better. Possibly the most dangerous mage alive was a master of the school, and I had a vested interest in keeping my thoughts to myself.

  The easy explanation was that the field was risky and complex, particularly without a mind palace. I couldn't find much in the way of specifics, but messing around with your thoughts seemed a dangerous idea.

  Beyond that, the Academy likely didn't have much on mental magic. It was a fledgling school until recent years, and most would likely have ignored it, just like Flynn. But there was just one problem with that explanation.

  I couldn't remember even thinking about looking into it.

  A chill ran down my spine as I considered an unpleasant possibility. Maybe the reason why I couldn't remember that decision was because someone else had felt it was better to keep me away from mind magic entirely. It sounded far-fetched, but someone of particular talent could absolutely implant compulsions within a particularly vulnerable target.

  "Vayne!" a voice shouted, breaking into my musings.

  I blinked and realized Flynn had sat up and was now shaking my shoulder, concern clear on his face.

  "Are you okay?" Flynn asked, staring at me.

  I shook my head. "No, I'm not, but I'm also not sure it's worth discussing yet. Let's focus on our plan, and we can round back to my issues later."

  Flynn looked as if he wanted to protest, but nodded after a tense few seconds. "If you're sure."

  "Always. Now, as I was saying, we don't have any books that detail the process of crafting a mind palace. I suspect few do, as it is still a new creation. In fact, the only place that likely would have the information we need would be a legendary repository for magical knowledge, headed by the woman who created the process. And since we're already going to be in town to find Vesper, why not multi-task?"

  Flynn's eyebrows rose, and then he smiled. "In that case, we need to get you ready."

  "For what?"

  "Why, to present you to the world as a real noble, brother."

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