When it was time for breakfast, the Stella family was a bit surprised and concerned to see a very tired-looking Lucas all but collapsed into his seat at the table. The only thing that kept them from being more worried was the smile that refused to leave the young man’s face.

  “I thought I told you to get some sleep, Lucas,” Magnus said as he noticed the dark circles beneath Lucas’ eyes.

  “I did. Just woke up early because I wanted to practice my magic some more,” Lucas lied, the words coming out far easier than they should have.

  “Guess I can understand that. Just make sure you’re rested enough for training later tonight. Just because you’re tired doesn’t mean that I’m going to go easy on you,” Magnus replied, pointing towards Lucas with his spoon.

  The reminder of the nightly training sessions sent a small shiver down Lucas’ spine, and he quickly did his best to ignore the dread he felt. It would all be worth it by the time that the month was over.

  “You’re smiling so much. Did you finally figure it out?” Fay asked eagerly.

  Rather than answering verbally, Lucas grinned even wider and roused his mana once more. He focused on the center of the table and created the framework bubble once again. He’d spent hours figuring out how to refine the process and speed it up. What had taken him entire minutes of slow, agonizing concentration just required a few seconds of focus to manifest now.

  Lucas didn’t notice how Magnus’ eyebrows rose as the bubble of mana surrounded the table. But the young man did notice the sounds of surprise and shock when an illusory copy of a sleeping Dusk appeared in the center of the table. The copy was curled up and sleeping, solid looking and it even appeared to be breathing.

  It hadn’t taken Lucas long to move on from small, simple things like pencils during his hours of practice. Once he’d managed to get the image stable and make it look entirely real, he moved onto bigger targets. The easiest, and hardest, challenge had been Dusk. The fox was perfect to work with, as she was sound asleep and he’d become plenty familiar with her and her form since they’d met one another.

  Creating the image of the sleeping fox had been pretty easy, but the extra details were the hard part. He had to focus and refine the image, making it look more like Dusk had actual fur instead of just a sleek, black body. Then he had to work on making it look like the copy was breathing. That had been hard, creating movement in an already established illusion. But once Lucas had figured it out, he’d kept refining his work even further.

  The end result, after hours of hard work, was a near perfect replication of his cute little fox companion. Though, Dusk hadn’t been as amused about her copy when she saw it. He’d laughed a little bit when he watched her try and fail to pounce on the illusory copy and Lucas got the distinct feeling that his familiar was insulted by it. She seemed unhappy with him until he’d appealed to her ego and complimented her about how pretty she was and how beautiful Dusk’s pitch-black fur was.

  “That’s incredible! I knew you could do it!”

  Fay was out of her seat in seconds, squeezing Lucas in as big a hug as the blonde could muster. Lucas just laughed, the illusion fading as his focus was interrupted.

  “Thanks, Fay,” He replied, hugging the excitable girl back.

  “She’s not wrong, Lucas,” Lissa chimed in. “What you just did is very impressive. You’ve already figured out so much in only a few days. I can’t say I know how difficult Illusion magic is, but most types of magics can take time to figure out at first.”

  “It’s something to be proud of,” Magnus agreed. “But be careful not to let it go to your head. Magic takes a lot of work and I’m sure Granny Wren will have you learning plenty more once she finds out that you can do this.”

  “You might even be able to tap into that Darkness affinity of yours, now,” He added.

  “What do you mean?” Lucas asked. He held back a chuckle as Fay released her hug and returned to her seat, at her mother’s insistence.

  “Now that you know how your mana feels when you use your Illusion magic, you’ll be able to feel when you tap into Darkness. It’ll feel different, so you’ll know,” Fay chimed in.

  “Exactly. It’s not perfect or anything, but it tends to work well for people that have two affinities. The way that you use your mana will feel different for each,” Magnus explained.

  A knock at the door pulled Lissa away, while Lucas, Fay, and Magnus continued to talk about his illusions and ideas for how to potentially use his Darkness magic.

  “Lucas,” Lissa called out as she walked back into the room. “This was just dropped off for you.”

  He turned to look at the older woman and spotted the slip of paper in her hands. It wasn’t very big, just large enough for a message. And as he took it from Lissa and read it, Lucas grinned.

  “It was a busy day yesterday. I got a rush order from an old friend out of town. I made sure to clear my schedule today so I want you to come by the shop as soon as you can once you get this. James should know to let you in the back. And if he doesn’t, show him this letter. -Wren”

  It was exactly what he had been hoping for. Lucas was eager to show Wren what he had learned and hopefully convince her to teach him even more about how to craft and shape illusions. He quickly dug into his cereal, eating much faster as he rushed to finish his breakfast.

  “It’s a note from Wren,” He explained between bites. “She wants me to go to the shop.”

  Magnus laughed. “I wouldn’t make her wait. Granny Wren can get pretty mad when people don’t listen to her.”

  “She’s not too bad,” Lucas argued, chugging down the milk he’d been served a moment later. “She’s just old.”

  Magnus gawked at Lucas for a moment before laughing even harder. “Only you would be crazy enough to say that about her.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Lucas just smiled in response.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Getting to Poisons and Potions on his own wasn’t too hard for Lucas. He took a wrong turn or two, but the people of Helstrum were more than helpful whenever he got a bit lost.

  When he walked into the small shop, Wren’s grandson was behind the counter once more. Just like the note had said, the man let Lucas slip around into the back room without issue once he saw the young man approaching.

  The room was pretty much exactly the same as when he had last been inside. The only real difference that Lucas noticed was that some of the pots against the wall were empty and not in use.

  But he also noticed how Wren was nowhere to be seen.

  He looked around the room, trying to see if the woman’s small frame just made him miss her. Though, he paused mid-sweep when he noticed something. In the back corner of the room, there was something off. It was faint, and hard to see, but it almost looked like the air was warped and distorted, almost like the way that the air would get in a heat haze.

  “What are you looking at?”

  “Holy shit!”

  Lucas jumped as he heard the sudden voice behind him. On his shoulders, Dusk’s claws dug into him as she tried to keep herself stable. He spun around quickly, finding the older woman standing behind him in the entrance of the back room with a sly grin. When he scowled at her, that grin only grew wider.

  “Don’t do that!” He shouted as Dusk growled at the old woman.

  “Oh, you may as well get used to it,” She responded. “I intend to have some fun teaching you. And that includes making you jump and doubt your own shadow.”

  Lucas was starting to doubt his own ability to choose a good mentor. First Magnus and now Wren, both of them seemed determined to break him down or drive him crazy.

  “Now, what were you looking at a moment ago?” Wren repeated.

  “Oh, that,” Lucas looked back towards the corner of the room. It took him a second to spot it, something made a bit easier thanks to his darkvision, but he eventually found the same distortion, still in the same spot as before.

  “There,” He said, pointing at the slight warping of the air. “Something is going on in the corner. I can’t tell what it is, though.”

  “What does it look like?” Wren asked, seeming oddly calm about some mysterious presence in her private workshop.

  “Like a ripple in the air. Almost like a mirage of some kind.”

  “Well now, it looks like you really do have the gift. Those eyes of yours are sharp, child. It seems like you have the passive benefit of an Illusion affinity. This should make things more interesting.”

  Wren’s voice, this time, didn’t come from the woman herself, but from the same corner that Lucas had been looking at. And a moment later, the strange warping of the air was replaced by Wren, or another copy of her.

  “The passive benefit? Like how I can see in the dark?” He asked.

  “You can see in the dark as well? My, you really do have some sharp eyes indeed,” The old woman replied, the copy in the corner walking over.

  “Illusion magic can manifest a few different types of passive benefits, but almost all of them involve detecting illusions. I can sense when an illusion is cast or when I walk into the area of one, no matter how subtle it is. I always get this little shiver down my spine. But it looks like you can see through illusions. Or at least, see that there is an illusion.”

  Now Lucas was a bit confused. He looked over the old woman, but he couldn’t see any sort of warping or distortion in the air around her.

  “But you don’t look like an illusion.”

  Wren laughed and pointed to his side. “That’s because I’m not, child. You’re standing next to the illusion.”

  At first, he didn’t see it. When he looked at the Wren standing at his side, she looked perfectly real. But when he looked closer and actually focused on her, he could see the same subtle signs of distortions in the air. The old woman clearly noticed, as she let the illusion fade away.

  “Now you see it. Don’t worry, you’ll get better at that over time. Sensing and spotting illusions is something that gets easier the more you understand them and know what to look for,” She explained.

  “But why could I see you in the corner?” Lucas asked.

  “Because I was using a rather basic illusion to hide myself. Making the copy was something I put far more effort into, so it was harder to spot the illusion. You also weren’t expecting it, so you didn’t take any time to really look at who you were talking to.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Lucas mumbled, making the woman laugh.

  “Now then, I gave you a task the last time we saw each other. Have you made any progress?”

  It was Lucas’ turn to grin, and he took a moment to look at the fox perched on his shoulder once more. With the confusion settled, Dusk had tentatively returned to her normal spot draped over his shoulders like a scarf. Sensing his focus on her, the little fox lifted her head and licked his cheek.

  Lucas closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he slowly fed his mana into the growing bubble around him. He spread it out, casting the net wide to fill the entire room. It was odd, he idly realized, that he could sense how far his mana was reaching even though he couldn’t see it.

  Once he had the bubble in place, he cut loose. He pulled on more mana and focused hard on the image he wanted to produce. And there, at his feet, was the form of Dusk, sitting on her hind legs and looking up at Wren. And then there was a second, sitting on the woman’s left. Then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth.

  He could hear Dusk quietly huff on his shoulder as she watched the copies appear.

  When Lucas opened his eyes, there were six foxes occupying the room, with five illusory copies surrounding the old potion maker and the original perched on his shoulder. When he saw the stunned look on Wren’s face, Lucas had to fight to hold back his laughter and try to keep his focus on the illusion. Though, a few of the copies did waver for a second or two.

  That little warping of the illusion was enough to snap Wren out of it and she cackled loudly.

  “I don’t believe it!” She gasped, gesturing around her at the five illusory copies. “You actually did it. And to such an extent!”

  “I worked really hard on it,” Lucas replied, letting a hint of pride slip through. “You told me to make an illusion and I wasn’t going to fail your first task.”

  “Yes, I told you to make an illusion. And I gave you the roughest of information to do it. You weren’t meant to pass that test, Lucas. You were meant to perhaps get an idea that you were doing things wrong and you would get instruction on how to do it properly today. I wasn’t expecting you to figure out how to create such a stable illusion in three days, much less hold multiple at once,” She passionately explained.

  “… What?”

  “Child, this was a test that you were meant to fail. That you succeeded and even outdid what I was planning to have you do today is nothing short of amazing. You have a gift for Illusion magic!” Wren let loose a cackle again and grinned up at the teen. “And now that I know you have such a natural talent for illusions, I’m going to make sure to teach you everything I can.”

  Lucas was surprised. He’d never felt like he was gifted or any sort of prodigy, especially not in school where it seemed to often matter. But with Wren, when it came to learning how to craft illusions, he had skill. It was something he could take pride in, and it lit an even brighter fire inside of him to learn.

  Wren wanted to teach him everything she knew of the craft that she’d learned through her long life, and Lucas was going to do his best to soak it all up like a sponge.

  “Where do we start?”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  You can find it here if you want to check it out. Those who join can read a full 8 chapters ahead.