"I know why you're reluctant," Raegan told me during our first lesson. "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.

"Jake might have said it was easy... Well, it's easier than reading Enchanters' emotions, I grant you that, but black magic is not something one can do by accident," Raegan replied. She sounded very sure of herself so I didn't press the issue.

"And thankfully, you're a quick study," she added. "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.

I knew that, as soon as we were ready, we were supposed to continue 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.

"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.

"My parents didn't die when I was a baby, like Jeff's," she felt the need to explain, sheepishly. "It was the second time Set came back on the council, the year we couldn't hide it from humans..."

"You were ten years old," I said. "I was that same age when my mother died. It was a car crash. I can't imagine how wrecked you must be."

"You actually can," Raegan replied. "You hide your feelings the same way I do, but I know how you feel about it. Once someone has been part of tragedies... It's easy to sense it in others."

"However," she grinned. "This isn't the reason you read my thoughts so quickly. That was pure, raw, magical talent. That's impressive. You can understand when people unconsciously hide their emotions and you are 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 imprints 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. "But don't get too cocky with black magic. Have you forgotten what all Enchanters learn as little kids? Use too much of it, and you're going to be a Typhon."

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

"Have you ever really looked at them?" Vitaly asked. "Have you looked at Jinn, the other day?"

"Yes," I exclaimed. "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 that Vitaly was showing more things with us.

"There is one thing I can tell you. Your quest will help us end the reign of terror Set has been spreading. I want Sam... I want to destroy Set 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. 

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 a Jurist. I am a fast learner."

Vitaly nodded. "Of course." Then, he looked at Brady. "I know I swore some oaths... and there are many people who would come looking for me if I spoke out, but I feel like I have to tell them something... they can't do this and not know the truth."

Vitaly's voice was full of pain. Brady looked uncertain, but he added, "Share as much as you're comfortable."

"Basically... do you remember Jinn laughing at me and saying I was wrong in saying there were two sides? It's because there aren't. The Reapers want to find the Empty Mirror to give it to Set."

"I don't understand..." Edgar spoke up. "It doesn't make sense with anything we were ever told."

"Trust me, I'm the leader of the Reapers. We work for Set. But since no other god has a force of people working for them, and I am a god too, as you now know, you understand why it's very sensitive information that should stay secret. But I wasn't lying when I said Set should be destroyed."

"You would never work willingly for the god who killed my father," Jeff completed the sentence, but he couldn't hide how pale his face was.

"I've always been on your father's side, all this time, and I don't intend to stop," Vitaly replied, and I thought about Jinn's sentence about unrequited feelings. "Set must be stopped. Which is why is vital that you don't give the Mirror to either of them. The end result would be one and the same. They spread propaganda that says they want the Mirror to steal Set's powers, but the truth is that the god has been growing paranoid, and he wants the Empty Mirror so no one else will ever use it against him. And if you meet a member of the Reapers along the way and they tell you to exchange the Empty Mirror with Risa... Please, don't. They aren't famous for keeping their promises. I know how much you want to save her, Ryan, but there has to be another way."

Edgar fidgeted on his chair, like someone who is keeping secrets, too.

"As you all know, I like reading from all kinds of old tomes," he said. "I read about the quests of old, where prophecies were issued. We could use this time..."

"The future isn't written," Vitaly said sharply. "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 he could have decided to help for so many years a group of ignorant monsters. It didn't take a genius to see people like Jinn weren't the sharpest tools in the shed --- he used a religious alias to feel closer to the gods, but chose one with a meaning he probably didn't know, as he had no similarities with Djinns. I now knew almost everything about Vitaly's story. It was just hard to understand how he could have stood those people for so many years.

"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. "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 one was really, really good at it, one could change the memories of people, as well. Once you reach for the memory, you can mold it... or delete it entirely."

He looked a little menacing, at the moment. 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 I was pretty sure he was Jinn. He had always been unnaturally tall and thin.

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 out something important," I said, my voice still shaky. "I knew Jinn hadn't given up. They're spying on us. It was like... I was the spy."

"It was very much like one of my visions," I added. "The ones I dream."

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. No adult had ever worried for my well-being after my mother passed.

"Ryan, don't tell me all of it. Rest, now," he said, and, even though I was blacking out most of the things I saw and felt, I still was conscious enough to know he'd helped me lay on the couch.

Then, several minutes later, I opened my eyes, and I noticed I'd been covered with a blanket.

And the person staring down at me was Edgar.

"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. "Whoever it was... They sounded familiar, as if we knew them. And they were spying on us, for Jinn."

"If somebody is spying on us," Vitaly said. "Then we're in trouble. Big trouble."

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.

"Well, let's keep our minds shielded from this spy," Brady reminded everyone. 

"It might be too late for that," Vitaly pointed out, grimacing. "Not only Jinn knows where we live, so the spy might have given him some other kind of information, intel about the quest, but I can sense them with my godly powers... They're here right now."

I looked around, panicked. "You mean the spy is in the room with us?"

Edgar looked offended, as if I'd said he was the culprit. "Is this the way you trust us?"

"I'm not like you. You would have accused me of being the spy, with no proof other that I'm a little shady, and you would have left it at that."

"You're impossible," Edgar replied.

"Stop bickering. The spy is here, but outside," Vitaly said.

When someone rang at the door, he added, "Now they'll probably pretend they are a pizza delivery guy or something. But I say, let's give him a show."

Before any of us could protest --- Vitaly, as times, could be as reckless as me --- he had already opened the door. I imagined one didn't have much to fear when one was already Jophiel. It was just hard to think about the man I believed was my father as a god.

The man behind the door was not a pizza delivery guy. And he wasn't anyone we knew. He wasn't even wearing a disguise, as a matter of fact. He was a Reaper through and through, with a half disfigured face and the trademark red hood.

"This is our warehouse," he said. "Jinn has been warned, but the others have not. I'm his second in command, designated to ask you about a trade."

Vitaly was smart, a god, he could read minds and he'd lived with those people for a lot of time. I imagined he'd been onto something when he said the Reapers might have wanted to exchange the Empty Mirror with Risa.

"No," I said, before he could tempt me further. I was worried sick, but it didn't mean it was the right thing to do. "Not only I'm telling you no... but you will not even remember what it is you came here to do. You'll be lucky if you remember your own name."

I was thinking about Vitaly's words about memories, how they could be changed, and I didn't realise that I sounded a little unhinged.

I could feel his emotions the way Raegan had taught me to. The fear Jinn had in his voice when he told this man was real --- the older Reaper would not come visit us anytime soon. And, after seeing what I did to his second in command, I hoped he wouldn't send anyone else either.

And then I reached further, as if I could dip my hand into his brain. It was a terrible sensation, and I was afraid of the power I wielded as I warped his memories, but it was useful, too. I realised he was not, in fact, the spy, and I was disappointed to find that out. He didn't know who the spy was, either.

But then I let the memories go, crashing into each other, and I just knew I had deleted them. The thought made me feel a little guilty... living with Vitaly had helped me understand maybe not all the henchmen of the god of violence were monsters. But this one was. The violence, hate and crimes he'd committed I'd seen in his memories... Vitaly was right. We'd never know all of it.

When he left, he looked mildly nauseous, and he kept saying that he didn't know what he was doing there.

"Let's call the Law Enforcement," Brady said. "They'll see he's a Typhon and arrest him."

In the meantime, I didn't dare look at my friends. But when Vitaly spoke up, he sounded proud.

"To see this quest through, you have to be able to think outside the box and do things you would have never done. Which is why, during the week-end, Ryan, Raegan will teach you how to kill."