Despite what professor Toadweather had suggested, I didn't rush the summoning contract. While the spell wasn't going to detonate if I did it wrong or anything of the sort, small errors would cause it to take more ether, and major errors would cause the spell to fail to work at all. Either one was going to detract from my grade.

Once I had drawn the circle out, I began to flood magic into it, gesturing and chanting. Despite the spell being a ritual, it only required several minutes of chanting and spellwork in order to complete, rather than the hours, days, or weeks that I was used to.

When the entire thing was glowing with the soft blue that was the averaged color of my cobalt blue ether and the sapphire blue of the ether crystals used, I cast Summon Wadjetktt, calling out for Amos, who materialized with a flash of light in the circle. He looked down, his feathered wings rustling as he watched.

"Oh, hello Emrys. I didn't realize you could cast this spell."

"If you don't want to create a contract, then I take no offense," I said. "I'll consider the ether I used to call you up as a freely given donation."

"No, nothing of the sort! It just surprised me. It's just that most summoners who use contracts want to know the strongest person willing to heed the call of a stranger, and since you never asked me for that, I assumed you didn't use them."

"I don't, not often. I'm too poor to get much use out of them," I admitted. "But I much prefer being able to work with someone I like and can trust than someone a lot stronger than I am."

It was more than just wanting to be a bit charitable to the helpful young serpent. At the end of the day, when summoning a being with no relationship, a third circle spell was still a third circle spell.

While Professor Toadweather had repeatedly shown how important it was to build good relationships with my summoned creatures, especially to summon beings stronger than the spell should be able to call, that was a long term advantage borne of familiarity, not something that I could use for the fight with Gerhard.

If I had tens of thousands of silver, maybe it would have come into play, but as was, it didn't really matter.

"Emrys?" Amos asked, and I blinked rapidly, pulled back into the present.

"Sorry about that. My summoning teacher, a faerie known as professor Toadweather, has summoned a hellspitter worm and released it in the forest around us. I'm not entirely sure where, but she has implied that it will attack people if it encounters them. Given that this is a test of my summoning ability, I suspect that she won't let it go too far, but I'm not sure."

Amos bobbed his head up and down.

"So you want me to help you find and defeat the demon? I can help, but wouldn't the cursed psychic be better?"

"I'm not allowed to have outside help in the exam unless I summon it," I explained. "But that is what I want help with. In return, I have prepared this as payment."

I reached into my pocket and removed three small, smooth, speckled objects – quail eggs – which I put on the floor just outside of the circle.

Technically, I could place them within, since the spell I'd summoned Amos with was a binding one. He couldn't take the eggs without my permission, let alone bite me. But if I ever became a powerful enough summoner to conjure things up with spells that didn't bind a creature, I didn't want to be in the habit of sticking my hand in the protection of the ritual circle.

"Furthermore," I continued, raising my hand and conjuring up a flame at my fingertips through my bloodline. "I am willing to summon you immediately after the contract, and fill the spell with as much of my fire as I can."

Amos bobbed his head up and down.

"One condition. I know you wouldn't intentionally trap me, but it's best to put a time limit on these sorts of things."

"How about until the end of the testing period? That's… roughly two hours? Until two in the afternoon."

"Deal," he hissed, tapping his tail to a symbol on the ground. I tapped one on my end and flooded it with ether. As it did, I felt the magic clicking into place, forcing me to define what helping me find and defeat the hellspitter worm meant. It wasn't a definition in words, not exactly, but in intentions. I knew what help was, what I expected, and Amos agreed readily.

It made sense why professor Toadweather had warned us. If Amos had been able to define it, I would have been fine, but that was only because Amos was a genial person. A faerie or demon who wanted to hurt me…

I shook the thought off as the magic settled into place, binding Amos to this realm until his contract was complete. The circle vanished, and Amos unhinged his jaw, quickly swallowing down the eggs one at a time.

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There was a popping sound as professor Toadweather appeared.

"Good job so far," she congratulated me. "I would personally have summoned a demon of violence, and its payment would have been it being allowed to kill the worm, but your solution is elegant enough."

Amos inched away from professor Toadwater, but I put a reassuring hand on his scales.

"It's okay. I've worked with Amos before, I trust him to handle himself."

Professor Toadweather gave me a bright, genuine smile at that, and I pulled my broom from out of storage. Amos wrapped around my left arm, Seren spitting to show that he wasn't allowed on my right, and I conjured Orla. I glanced at the professor.

"Am I allowed to use my wand for spells now?"

When she inclined her head, I waved and began conjuring elementals. Two each of air, earth, and wood, which I began giving instructions in their various elemental bloodline tongues.

"Thank you everyone. I am hunting a hellspitter worm, a creature about three feet long with a fire and death bloodline. It's somewhere in this forest, and can both burrow and fly. It often leaves a trail of fiery destruction in its wake, but not always. If you find it, signal me through the spell. Everyone understand?"

Though none of the lesser elementals I could summon were fully sapient, the use of their bloodline tongue helped send impressions through to them, and my spell's will served to guide them. Within moments, my elementals were zipping across the forest, while I floated upwards to remain in view of everyone. Amos and Orla spread out, flying slightly lower than me to find the creature.

It took several minutes of searching, and it was one of the wood elementals that finally found the worm. The creature tugged on my attention through the spell, so I flicked my wand and cast summoner's eye to peer through its senses.

A wood elemental's sense of sound was dull, but their sense of smell was actually fairly adequate, though tuned to a slightly different source than my own, and their vision was excellent. Not due to the quality, which was below even a normal human, but for the ability to peer through plants as if they were transparent green and brown panes of glass.

The hellspitter worm was large and ugly, with skin that resembled crackling magma flows covered in boils and pustules. It didn't have a clear head or tail, much like the common earthworms for which it was named, but as it chewed through plant matter, it spat out a steaming hot oil from the other end, which was supposed to be highly flammable.

I flicked my vision back to my body and called for my summons, then floated down. Amos released blasts of his white hot sunlight venom, Seren spat a stream of flame, Orla barked out a wave of blue light, earth elementals punched up from the ground with spikes of stone, wood elementals shot thick vines, air elementals released slicing arcs of wind, and I whipped out three rapid arcane missiles.

The vines were burnt away as the worm lit itself up like a bonfire, and it managed to sense the earth spikes, twisting out of the way of one of them.

But that was all. The hellspitter worm vanished, killed by the storm of attacks, and Amos vanished in a flash of light. Professor Toadweather appeared next to me with a pout, waving her wand and extinguishing the licking fire around us. It was always strange to see her outside the castle and be reminded that she was really only about a foot tall.

"You combat mages are no fun. Last year, I had someone with a plant affinity try to fight using only wood elementals, and thought they could render them immune to flame. Now that was a fun time. He almost burned the whole forest down! The dryads would have been after his head…"

"Mmmm," was all I said in response, since I didn't really know how to respond properly to her statements. I waved my wand and re-summoned Amos, pouring all the fire I could into the spell. He appeared, then vanished as I released the spell again, letting him return to Effervesce's plane with the full power.

"How did I do on my test?"

"You did fine," the pixie pouted. "Bit more work needed on arcane passage, but you're pretty much fine."

"Teleporting myself turns my stomach," I commented. "Arcane passage isn't as bad as Etherstep. That feels like being caught out during the middle of a storm in only a canoe."

"Dragons," she said, her voice scornful, but also playful. "Never able to give up control."

I rolled my eyes at her, but didn't hide my smile.

"Well, I've got two more tests to complete tomorrow before I'm done for the semester," I said, my stomach flopping. "Then this Saturday is the duel."

"Go and study for your tests!"

I thanked professor Toadweather one last time before I hopped onto my broom and surfed home.

The following morning, I flew out bright and early to professor Gemheart's classroom, who greeted me happily, puffing on his pipe.

"Alrighty boy, show me what you can do of the third and fourth circle."

I normally might have had a bit of annoyance at the term 'boy', but he said it in such a fatherly, kindly manner that I had a hard time holding it against him. Instead, I just glanced around.

"Are you sure I should be casting rubblewall in your office?"

There was a beat of silence, before professor Gemheart chuckled.

"I forgot I put that on your list. I normally have the students learn bloodhound nose, but that wouldn't do much for you. Right, let's take this outside, where the reversion enchantments will undo the damage before long."

Once we were outside, I worked through the list of spells that he'd given me: rubblewall, greater mending, some of the theory behind rearrange organs, and animate plants. When I finished, he was nodding, puffing on his pipe furiously and stroking his beard.

"Not bad, lad, not at all. Animate plants in particular – once you're in your third year, and able to cast permanency, that should be a right ripper of a spell. Now for the hard part."

He held up a small scrap of shed skin, pulled from his Etherius locker. I took it, closed my eyes, and started to chant out the animal morph spell.

I failed, too nervous to get it on the first go, and too unpracticed to have mastered it fully.

On the second attempt, I managed to cast the spell, and shrank quickly, until the grass towered around me like trees. My vision split, going wide, rather than focused, as my transformation into a gecko completed.

Honestly, apart from the smaller size and the lack of wings, it wasn't all that different to my draconic form, which brought up some… strange feelings. I skittered forwards until I was on a walkway, then turned back. A moment later, professor Gemheart clapped me on the back.

"Not bad. Shape up that last spell over the summer, and you'll be a right proper shifter before long. Can you manage aquatic or winged forms?"

"I haven't had the time to try them," I admitted, and Gemheart frowned, nodding.

"Ah, yes. Nasty business, that. Best of luck."

"Thanks," I said, sighing. "I just have to defeat an ember-roc, then my brother, all in a few short days. I'm getting lunch. After all, it might be my last."

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