"I'm afraid you'll have to follow me, Ryan," Raegan told me, the day after. "We have important things to do."

I followed her reluctantly. Still, I tried to tell myself I didn't need to talk to Edgar. What I needed was to spend more time with Raegan to prepare for our quest. At least she was my friend. At least I could talk to her without making a fool of myself.

"I know why you're reluctant," Raegan told me. "But everybody can do this. If you can do magic, you can do this."

This made me feel a little better. Maybe I wasn't flawed.

"Then why have I never read any human emotion or thought?" I asked.

"Well, you just didn't want to," she grinned. "I wonder how it feels to be as selfless as you are..."

"Stop," I said. It was humiliating. "We don't have time for teasing."

"Right. But I look up to you, you know? And thankfully, you're a quick study. Obviously, I won't only teach you how to read minds, but also how to protect your own. Do you remember the basic rules for learning magic?"

"Magic doesn't necessarily require skill, just patience and practice. And, of course, you have to learn the right Mudras."

"Attaboy! Now, as you know, all you have to do is try to focus your energy into reading my emotions. And then you have to try and try again until you can do it. When you finally make it, you'll try to break down my defence while I'm protecting my thoughts."

I nodded. It sounded easy enough. Well, maybe not easy, but it sounded like something I could learn fast.

Vitaly made it clear that as soon as we were ready, we were supposed to start our quest. Even if it meant learning dark magic in a few days.

I tried at least twenty or thirty times to read Raegan's mind, until I started feeling what I thought were her emotions. She was right about it — it wasn't like hearing her own thoughts. But it wasn't much different either. Not only I felt the emotions, but I could tell why she was feeling them.

However, something struck me as odd. Maybe I wasn't ready after all.

"Are you really thinking that you would like Enchanters to be able to use the internet, so that you can look at videos of puppies?" I asked, confused.

"Hey, it's not like I only have tragic thoughts," she said, slightly embarrassed. "And besides, the first thoughts you're going to read have to be easy ones."

Okay, I thought, maybe she doesn't even know, but she's already protecting her mind. From the sad thoughts.

I had to break her defences and show how good I could be at mind reading if I really wanted to. I hoped she wouldn't start hating me if I did. When I tried again, I got hold of the hidden emotions. All the sadness and the rage she felt, even the guilt for not being able to move on from wanting to avenge her parents. But also the calm, confident feeling she felt when she understood that, whatever this quest would bring, it would make her powerful enough to get her close to her vengeance.

"I don't know if you've been trying to hide these feelings on purpose, to fool me," I grinned. "But it didn't work."

"That's impressive," she pondered. "If you can understand when people unconsciously hide their emotions, you are probably already able to do that with your own emotions as well. Let's tell Malinov about your skills."

When we found Vitaly and Jeff, I was a little jealous to notice how good Jeff was getting. True, I had learnt fast too, but it would take years before I became as good as my friend, if it was even likely to happen.

Raegan walked up to Vitaly and told him something I couldn't hear. Vitaly stopped teaching Jeff, and turned towards me.

"Maybe you have doubts about what you're learning."

Jeff started listening too.

"You might wonder why dark magic is so easy to learn. Not only is it the same as white magic, something you have in your blood, but I'm telling you something that is true for most everything. Learning is easy, but practice makes perfect. And maybe you're also wondering why this kind of magic, so personal compared to white magic, is different in each one of you."

I wasn't really thinking about it, but I had noticed everyone could read minds in a slightly different way.

"Well, every kind of magic is different according to your personality and how you think. Dark magic even more so, since it's dangerous but you have to reach from a deep place in your soul to be able to do it. Think of magic as something that comes from your soul, in fact. And the soul has a DNA — it changes when you go through something, good and bad. Bad things, especially traumas, leave prints upon the DNA of your soul, but every time you grow and learn something from it, the DNA changes again. All of those things shape your magic, making it so that no Enchanter will ever be like another."

"It's impressive that we all have different talents," Raegan said. "We make a good team."

"Yeah," Vitaly agreed. "The four of you. When you go on your quest, I wish I could be able to come along. But I can't."

The news hit me like lightning, and left me panicked. "What do you mean?" We didn't even know what we had to do. How could he leave us alone?

"No more black magic for me," Vitaly replied. "Have you wondered how I haven't turned into a Typhon yet? It's just a matter of time before it gets hold of me."

"This is not right," I yelled. "You told us you know what's behind this quest. You said you knew what we had to do. And we don't!"

"Knowing what this quest is about," he replied. "Doesn't mean that I am destined to take part in it. It would actually seem to me that it means that I have to stay home. Knowing too much is often dangerous."

"But the other Reapers," Jeff said, tiptoeing around it. "Well, they're not Typhons either."

"Have you ever seen them?" Vitaly asked.

"Yes," I exclaimed, still a little angry. "They have their blurring-features spell, and the ones that make their voices robotic, you know, to conceal their identities..."

"Those are not spells," Vitaly said. "This is what Typhons look like. Now you see I am not one yet."

"Tell us one thing about the quest," Edgar said, hopeful from the moment Vitaly had called the four of us a team.

"There is one thing I can tell you. Your quest will help us end the Reapers. I want Sam... I want to destroy them for what happened to him."

"Basically," I said. "You're using us to get your revenge."

"Is that a problem?" Malinov asked.

"No," I replied. It was a cold-blooded, but honest, reply. "But I wish you'd tell us the truth while you're doing it."

"I will. If I don't, it's just because of some oaths I took," Malinov told us. "I'll teach you how to make yourself invisible, how to change someone's memories and how to kill. But I want you to know something. Once you learn black magic, you might change your values or your personality."

Pause. He was thinking about Sam.

"Or maybe you could even convince yourself for some reason that you want to fight on their side."

Pause. He was thinking about himself.

"You need to learn dark magic, but not to become Typhons. Don't lose the parts of you that are pure. Remember who you are. Nobody else can do it for you."

"We'll help you out, obviously," Brady promised. "Even though we won't go with the four of you."

Edgar finally gathered the courage to speak. "Professors," he said. "There is something I must tell you. If you need someone, someone who isn't Brady to perfect the time continuum spell, I am an Enlightener."

I was wondering why he looked so demure all of a sudden, when I caught Vitaly's disappointed expression.

"An Enlightener?" he asked. "And you're losing your powers?"

"Not really, no, Brady said I'm still healthy..."

"Listen to me, son. Are you losing your powers?"

"Yes, I fear that I am!" Edgar finally exclaimed. "Do you think I look forward to the day I become useless?"

"I don't want to hear you say that you're not useful," Brady told Edgar, to our surprise. "You would be useful even if you were human, which you are not. Your parents say you're not an Enchanter, but that's not the truth. The truth is no one can label you. Just like me. You're the only one I know who's like me."

I felt admiration towards Edgar that I hadn't thought possible before. While Brady wasn't exactly what I'd call a good guy, being like him seemed like such a great thing.

"Mister Wollstonecraft," Vitaly said. "I banish you from going with the others on the quest. If you're half as clever as you look, you understand the gravity of what you just told me."

"Yes," Edgar replied gravely, and chastised.

I remembered, with a jolt, one of my first conversations with Mister Winter.

"And what happens to Enlighteners when they go on the wrong path?"

"They are the most positive of the Enchanters, so simply that their powers would start dissipating..."

"That's not fair!" I stood up for Edgar. "Everyone is learning black magic here."

"One thing is to learn it, another is to keep it a secret from Professors who would like to know how far ahead you already are," Vitaly said, unflinching. "Besides, certain secrets shouldn't be kept."

When Vitaly and Edgar left, I was still puzzled about my dreams. It seemed to me I needed to understand them if I wanted to understand my powers. So, I asked Brady, "Is there a way to see the future?"

I regretted saying it the very moment the words came out of my mouth. It must have sounded very stupid.

"Not exactly," he looked confused. "But reading someone's mind, you might understand what they're going to do."

I wondered whether this had something to do with the dreams. But I had recently learned my dreams could show me the past as well. I didn't feel like telling anybody of that power, if it even was one. Just like the way the darkness increased my powers, it seemed like something too weird to even say out loud.

"Some Enchanters want your money, or the money of the humans, for what matters, so they tell you that they can see the future," Raegan said. "But nobody can. You can only read people's emotions, but you can't know about future facts."

"The future isn't written," Vitaly added, entering the room at that moment. "Or should I say, it is written, but it's bound to change. There are multiple possible futures made up by many combinations of different factors and hearing one version of it isn't better than hearing another one. Let me make an example: do you want to know whether we're going to win this war? Well, pretend there's an Enchanter who can tell you. Ask them today, and maybe the answer is yes. Ask them tomorrow, after the Reapers might have found an ally, and the answer might be no."

Vitaly left the room as soon as he was done speaking.

We were speechless. I was wondering how a man as smart as him could have decided to help for so many years a group of ignorant monsters who didn't even know the meaning of their own aliases.

Then I thought about how humans always say that religious and spiritual names have meaning and should not be said in vain, whatever your religious belief is. Maybe the Reapers knew more than they let on, and they used these names to mock spirituality.

But Vitaly was different. He could never call himself Jophiel to mock anything or anyone. I couldn't understand how he could have stood being around them for so long.

"Where is Edgar?" Brady asked Vitaly. "I hope you weren't too harsh on him."

"I was as harsh as I needed to be, Brady," Vitaly replied. "The young man cannot certainly learn how to kill if he's halfway to becoming a Typhon already. I thought he was much less ignorant."

"But I'm sure Edgar is not pursuing black magic," Brady said in a fatherly tone. "He's a hybrid, things like his powers going away can happen..."

"Did he even think about what could have happened? He relies on written words, not facts. That's what one gets from knowing most things from books and not from experience," Vitaly commented bitterly, and left.

"I'm your new teacher" Vitaly let me know, the day after. "Welcome to the advanced phase of your training."

I should have been happy, but I only felt confused.

"No," I objected. "N-no... there must be a mistake. Jeff..."

"Yes I know," Vitaly interrupted me. "He's a better Enchanter than you are. That's true. But you're more... How can I say this? Receptive."

I didn't know if this made me proud or if it made me feel like a parabolic antenna.

"Anyway," he explained. "The advanced phase of the training is to read the minds of someone or a group of people who are far away from you. If you are very receptive, you'll be able to see where they are or what they're doing. If the Reapers have an ally with this power, then it could be the reason why they are always able to track you."

He looked at me like he was accusing me of something.

"And that's how we are going to track them," he added helpfully.

I didn't need Vitaly to tell me what to do. I already knew it. Magic is like meditation. To learn a spell, sometimes all you need is hours of concentration. I tried to visualise the spell for what seemed like hours, even though it might have been minutes.

I didn't wait for Vitaly to tell me who to reach. The feeling was like electricity was running through my body.

I felt my whole body shaking, until I felt as if I was someone else. I didn't know who I was, but I knew I wasn't myself.

I saw a man standing behind me. I jerked. He was from the Reapers, and he looked like he could be Jinn. I couldn't see his face, as usual. But something told me it was Jinn, maybe his body shape. He had always been unnaturally tall and thin. Other than his physique, I knew nothing about the man. He was one of those who was really about to become more Typhon than human, and he even had a fake, grotesque voice to match his face.

I heard him say, "Thank you for the information. I hope they won't find out we're spying on them. Your life depends on it, after all."

A shudder went through my body. I heard myself answer, "Don't worry, sir. Everything is under control."

I recognised this voice, but I couldn't tell who it belonged. The voice had spoken in a fake, robotic tone, just like Jinn always did, though this time, it sounded like a concealing spell. Still, I was sure I had heard it before.

I felt myself shaking again and then it suddenly was like somebody pulled me out from the water just before I could drown.

Then I was back to the training room and I was facing Vitaly.

He was looking at me in a way so hostile that it was hard for me to concentrate.

I thought I needed to tell him I felt sorry for trying to contact the Reapers, until he said, "You should really concentrate more."

I understood everything then. He thought I hadn't succeeded.

"I found them," I said, my voice still shaky. "I was about to understand where they were. I would have found out, if you hadn't brought me back."

"Oh. So it's my fault now..." Vitaly pretended to be hurt by my words. "Well, if it had been up to me, I wouldn't have let you contact them. Just to be sure — what have you seen?"

"It was very much like one of my visions," I said.

I noticed that now Vitaly was looking anxiously at me.

I had never seen him look as worried about anyone. I decided to take some time to get my strength back, so I could enjoy the look in his eyes a bit longer.

"Ryan, what did you see?" he pressed on. It was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

I woke up in the living room, laid on the couch and with a blanket over me.

When I looked around, the first thing I noticed were a pair of eyes staring at me, just like before.

But this time the eyes weren't green and sad. They were curious and dark blue. I was shocked at first. I thought for a moment that I didn't know anyone with those eyes, but then my mind was able to process. It was Edgar.

He leaned towards me and held my hands. I was shocked by the intimacy of the gesture.

"Never do this again, you heard me?" he said. His voice was almost commanding.

I looked at him, like I needed an explanation. He only stated, "You scared your friends to death."

"So, Ryan," Raegan added, looking at Edgar oddly. "What did you see? No. Sorry. I mean, are you alright? And what did you see?"

I laughed. I couldn't be angry at her. I valued her honesty too much.

"I saw a spy," I said, trying to sound serious. "Or should I say, I was a spy. I mean, I was in the body of a spy while they were spying on us."

My friends laughed at the way I put it, but Vitaly ordered them to shut up.

"If somebody is spying on us," he turned towards Raegan and Jeff. "Then we're in trouble. Big trouble."

"I'm afraid it's one of the Traditionalists," Raegan said glumly, as if she was apologising for creating a tribe of crazed people.

I looked at her with a reassuring look in my eyes, as if to say that it was alright.

Meanwhile, Jeff looked at me anxiously. I knew what he was thinking about. I was thinking about it too. Maybe the spy was someone from the Academy.

But none of our friends could do that to us. Jake and Alice would have told us if someone was spying on us.

I felt physical pain when I recalled the few moments I had been able to spend with them, Bill, Sean, Alice, Ohda and Lucretia.

If anything, we had been able to find out that the Reapers knew how to find us because they were spying on us and not because our minds were easy to read. But if somebody was spying on us, all of our efforts would not mean anything.

"Well, let's keep our minds shielded from this spy," Brady reminded everyone. "I think Ryan should rest for the whole day, and then tomorrow go back to training. Raegan, this time you should teach him."