Parry had tried to reset the workshop to where it had been yesterday, without complete success. He'd rushed it, as the odd flaming light the demon conjured began to sputter while its caster slept. By the time Parry his way back to bed he was completely night-blind. He didn't bump into the furniture...much.

  When he and Pharryl opened up the next morning, it was clear the job wasn't done well. Which way had the grain been running on that floor ply? Was the bench always just there, or an inch over? Worse, Pharryl noticed, and looked nothing but amused.

  "We're strangely low on weepsfoot leaves," the man smiled. "Also powdered krilum and...gold leaf?" The smile turned sardonic. "Parry..."

  "Maybe there was less than you remembered?"

  "Every apprentice since the dawn of time has snuck in to their master's workshop after hours. Nothing wrong with exploring your new abilities. But if you use up my reagents, it will cost you privileges. And money."

  "Yes, Father."

  The man's eyebrows waggled. "Did you try to summon a seed fairy?"

  "...!"

  "There's one nesting in a birch tree a few miles from here. She likes gold."

  "First, no, I did NOT. Second, how do you know what she likes?"

  Pharryl drew himself up to his full height. "Academic knowledge."

  "I don't want to know about this."

  "You owe me for the gold leaf, the weepsfoot and two hours use of my shop."

  "It was one hour!"

  "Aha! You admit it!"

  For all the teasing, Parry spent that day being particularly careful. Not only had he opened up dozens of new spell and spell category slots with his leap past the Fifth Step, all his current abilities would operate at a much higher level, as long as they had the demon's power to draw upon:

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  The two new shaper class attributes brought Parry a sense of relief. There's little difference between a craftsperson and a powerful shaper without those. They'd always come, but to get them this early was a boon.

  The new tamer class opened a lot of doors. There was never a question Parry wouldn't be multi-classed. This might be the youngest he ever managed to unlock another class, though, and that boded very well for the future. And otherworldly was a rare strain of tamer indeed. How many sorcerers ever tame a demon, let alone bind it to them so fully they become a familiar?

  Well, he had several times in his many lives. That didn't make it any less gratifying now.

  The higher rituals didn't do much for most of the core attributes, but there were some pleasant surprises there all the same:

  A huge jump in magic and health, which made sense as the demon was now more strongly bonded to him. Those numbers might even grow over the next weeks and months simply using that new relationship and Parry's new higher levels.

  The most important change appeared on his spell and spell category page:

  Room, precious potential to add so much more. Parry had no intention of filling those spaces with specialized shaper skills, which is what his father could offer. All those slots represented his chance to control the future with his own hands.

  Rather like shaping yourself after all, he thought. Once a shaper, always a shaper.