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‘What you create is yours completely. You have dominion over its existence. For instance, if you create a fully iron sword, you could then destroy it utterly, leaving no trace. But if you came upon an iron sword which already existed, you wouldn’t have that same power over it, because you didn’t create it.’

“What’s mine is mine completely... Hmm...”

‘That’s the principle of it, anyway. You shouldn’t get too excited, though. Servant abilities grow extremely slowly. Even very simple objects will take practice to create.’

“How much practice?”

A beat passed as Garovel eyed him. ‘Shitloads.’

“Aw, c’mon...”

‘The thing about servants, though, is that they don’t die, which gives them ample time to hone their abilities. Suffice to say, they can become very powerful. Frighteningly so.’

“Those other reapers you mentioned... the ones involved in wars...”

‘Yeah. This is the main reason why their servants are so dangerous. And why we will keep our distance.’

“Right...”

Training was simple enough. It required concentration, Garovel told him. Focus, clear his mind, and begin by imagining simple metallic structures. He tried a sword, but Garovel said that was too complicated, so he imagined a cube. Garovel said that was also too complicated because of the straight edges and perfect symmetry. He relegated himself to an amorphous lump, in the end.

Garovel told him to maintain this state of meditation for as long as possible without letting his mind wander into anything else. He managed an hour and sixteen minutes. The reaper seemed impressed, though Hector thought he could do better.

Afterwards, the only discernible progress seemed to be that he could make the specks disappear and reappear. And seeing as he hadn’t thought to try beforehand, he wasn’t sure if that really qualified as progress.