After determining which thread clusters on Zeris's soul structure correlated with her potential for Fire magic, Caen spent some time trying to cast Fire spells while observing his own soul structure. The endeavor was incredibly complex and strained his attention to no end, but a long while later, he managed it.

He was then able to properly isolate the thread cluster in Zeris's soul structure and then conform his own thread cluster to it.

By connecting with her and fundamentally changing something about himself, Caen was not boosting his magical proficiency. Rather, what he saw improvement in was that ready willingness in his spirit and mind, that eager inclination to contort and hold visualizations.

Affinity for magic concerned how disposed or ready a person's spirit and—to a significant extent—their mind were to performing specific kinds of magic. A practician’s talent for any discipline of magic was strongly rooted in this.

Caen had been born with a strange and very unusual strain of abjection, which was a term used to refer to a sickness that involved having no affinities in any known discipline of magic. Abjects were particularly rare, and most of them could not use magic at all. Some questionable studies he'd come upon had explored instances of people climbing their way out of abjection. These former abjects did all happen to be elderly people, though—the youngest subject had been a ninety-four-year-old woman. And they'd only possessed affinity ratings so low that it could hardly be described as ‘climbing out of abjection’.

As for the abjects who could in fact use magic, they always needed to work so many times harder than others just to achieve the bare minimum. They never were able to adapt spells while still abject, and the mere act of casting caused spiritual and mental injuries more often than not.

As his soul structure hummed in concert with Zeris's, he noticed a willingness in his spirit and mind.

Then the unpleasantly warm weather outside suddenly became much more pleasant, the heat of the sun overhead barely an inconvenience.

He moved his fingers in the gestures of a spell component, his spirit contorting with ease, and the visualization forming firmly in his mind. Then came that primal and instinctive understanding of what he was trying to do, magic itself guiding him on how best to enact a working in reality. Tears streamed down Caen's face.

A fireball a little larger than his fist flickered above his palm several seconds later. Caen had never successfully cast this spell before, and whenever he'd successfully cast easier variations of it, the spell construct was always feeble and collapsed seconds after. But now he was doing it. He was really doing this.

By the Eye.

“Okay, now that was quick,” Zeris said. “How much more seamless is it compared to without the boost?”

“Feels like I've only ever climbed trees blindfolded and with heavy weights, but just took them all off for the first time. It's a lot easier; a little less seamless than Spirit-healing, though.”

“Makes sense,” she said. “My affinity for Spirit-healing is nearly two whole values higher than Fire magic. Was it easier to mimic?”

Caen winced at her mention of ‘mimic’. “Not the word I'd go for, but, yes, it was actually a bit easier.” He would have to confirm if lower affinities were truly easier to ‘Mimic’ than higher ones.

Zeris let out a pleased sigh. “More experimentation?”

“Definitely.”

Nearly a minute after he'd fully conformed his Fire affinity to hers, Caen noticed the thread cluster representing Spirit-healing in his soul structure returning to its former configuration. It wasn't an immediate thing. Something fundamental in him was reverting, but he could sense a reluctance in the reversion.

“Just lost Spirit-healing,” he said, already casting a spell in that discipline right after dismissing his fireball. “It seems I can't Mimic two affinities at once.” His spirit moved as sluggishly as ever, and the visualizations were just as unstable. That intuitive and primal understanding of how to move and manipulate his spirit faded away from his mind, but wisps of it still clung to him. Scanning Zeris's spirit took him an inordinate amount of time. “Wow,” he muttered. “This is going to take some serious getting used to. It's like waking up from a good dream.” He smiled to himself.

I'm going to make this dream my reality.

He returned his attention to Fire magic. Every spell he could already cast came to him with ease and far less control than he was used to because of the explosive power behind his now-improved affinity, as well as the fact that they weren't fully adapted. He conjured three small orbs of flame, trying to get them to circle each other. Their movements were ridiculously janky, but he was able to make them awkwardly dance between his fingers and on the surface of his palm. He could tell it was hot, but it didn't burn him. Passive augmentations were every bit as amazing as he'd thought they'd be.

“This is such a rush,” Caen said, giggling to himself. “I'm like a… like a fire fiend or something.

Zeris chuckled, rubbing the puppy's head. “Without context, it's hilarious how unimpressive this would look to anyone watching you.”

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Caen cupped his free hand around his mouth and shouted, “I am the fire fiend! Whoo! Ow ow ow.” The heat from the orbs had started to burn his skin. Passive augmentation wasn't total fire immunity, just a strong resistance.

“Shut up, fire fiend!” someone called back. The voice came from the direction of the commune.

“Want to try mimicking my Spatial affinity?” Zeris asked.

“Why, so that I can solve equations all day?” he replied.

She burst out laughing.

* * *

Just before sunset, Zeris went home to resume her studies. Aunt Vensha wasn't home, but she'd obviously come back at some point. Peering through her cottage window pane, he could see her sword leaning against the wall. She usually kept her gear here instead of in the main house.

Caen needed to get back into routine and acquaint himself more thoroughly with his mimicking ability, but he also needed to return the cute little puppy to Saya's house. More importantly, though, Saya's brothers were Body-enhancers who sparred every evening without fail. Caen was itching to Mimic a Body-enhancement affinity.

Holding the puppy in one arm, he walked through the commune with Soul-sense active, all the while familiarizing himself with the general feel of soul structures. It was a whole world waiting to be explored, waiting to be completely understood, and it all just made him feel so giddy on the inside.

He rubbed his forehead. The tingle around his speculon had grown into an aggravating itch as the day progressed. Caen had spent most of his life coming to terms with the fact that his speculon was purely ornamental. Which wasn't so bad. Acolytes of the Edict faith grafted speculous glass onto their skin, and this meant that Caen was often mistaken for one of them. But maybe it wasn't dormant after all. Klaver's Variate—the technique he used to visualize his bloodlines—always seemed to recognize it as a bloodline he had. And this new cumulative ability, this gestalt, appeared to be founded on all his bloodlines. He would have to speak to his mother about it.

He was currently attuning ambient mana, which didn't seem to bother his use of Soul-sense. He typically couldn't cast spells or do much with his spirit while attuning mana. He could hear the air horn a fair distance away. The commune was more alive than it had been some hours ago; at this time of day, people were returning from Drenlin with the evening train. A fair deal of his relatives worked in the city or apprenticed there. He could see a short queue of people in front of the generalhouse. With less than a year to the Patronage trials, many Ereshta’als became obsessively interested in finding out how much their affinities had risen.

He craned his neck when he reached the house of Malo, his cousin. It was the only house around here with a fence—though a low one—surrounding their property. Their sister, Saya, owned so many dogs, and the fence was her token attempt at trying to keep them in. Caen saw two shirtless men outback, practicing combat forms with staves.

“Malo. Ganul,” Caen called out in greeting, waving at the pair. The puppy wriggled in his grip, and he set it down. It ran into the house through a gap in the fence.

Malo was shorter than Caen but so much broader. He had a scar that ran diagonally from his left ear, skimming the edge of his lip and running down to the middle of his jaw.

Ganul was shorter than Malo. He was around Caen’s age, not nearly as muscular as his brother, but he still had quite a few pounds on Caen.

“What are you doing back so soon?” Ganul said. “I thought you slept at the tri-clinics now.” He was one of the few in their age range who didn't treat Caen with reluctance or scorn.

Caen chuckled, hopping over the low fence. “Sleep? You people still do that here?”

Ganul laughed. “Not Malo. He's doing night shifts now, along with his regular day job.”

“Gotta hustle,” Malo said in a deep, gruff voice, tossing his wooden staff to Caen underhand and moving over to grab another leaning against the fence.

Caen often worked out with the brothers and had sparred with them a few times, though of course, they'd needed to seriously pull their punches. He spun the staff around himself. With Soul-sense already active, Caen connected to Malo. He was hoping to try out a few more things, and a spar was as good an avenue as any.

“I was showing Ganul a new combat style I learned from some of the guys at work,” Malo said, dropping into a low stance. “Watch for a bit, see if you can follow.”

Ganul mirrored him, and together they began moving in a very sharp, crisp sequence.

Caen ignored the combat forms for now and paid attention to Malo's soul structure. Even though splitting one's focus had been vital to Caen's magical training, giving his attention to the forms and Malo's soul structure simultaneously was beyond his current abilities.

One thread cluster in the man's soul structure flared as he used obvious spurts of Body-enhancement spells to hasten and smoothen his movements. Caen isolated Malo’s thread cluster and several failed Body-enhancement spells of his own eventually helped him identify his parallel cluster.

He began to Mimic Malo's Body-enhancement affinity.

And after nearly thirty minutes, a migraine throbbed in Caen's head, but at the same time, something fundamental changed in him.

Power surged through Caen's body. Sound pierced the cacophony of Soul-sense, his vision grew sharper, smells he hadn't noticed before assaulted his nostrils, and the sensations of fabric on his skin were multiplied beyond belief. An awareness of his entire body and how best to move it, to use it, crowded his mind. He could barely feel the injuries on his forearm and left side. He felt strong. He stood up from the fence with more grace and agility than he'd ever employed in his life.

Towards the end of the combat sequence, Ganul had stopped keeping up, and Malo finished now with a flourish, breathing a little harder.

“Looks really intense,” Caen said.

Malo's stoic face cracked into a proud smile. “Took me a few days to learn.”

“I feel like I was close to nailing the sequence,” Ganul said to his older brother. “But I'd rather see what you can do with it. Against us, I mean.” He turned to Caen. “You don't mind, do you? We'll go super easy.”

“A spar sounds perfect,” Caen said as he walked up to Ganul, each step shockingly smooth and well-balanced.

Malo cracked his neck and resumed his low stance. “Then spar it is.”

It was so difficult for Caen to keep from smiling, even harder to keep his eyes from watering, as he cast Body-quickening Basic Spell 2 in a mere quarter of a minute.

The spell took.