With Nora’s sudden rise to Headmaster, Oliver’s request for safe haven was granted without delay. However, there was still some work to be done before we could retire to our guest rooms.

  Relias, despite having a day from hell, offered to restore Jasper to consciousness. The other mages declined on his behalf as someone pulled out what I thought was a wooden first aid box.

  “Standard precautions,” a woman advised. “He’ll be none too happy when waking up, so we’ll make sure he doesn’t give us too much trouble.”

  Another mage opened the kit, pulling out a wrought iron contraption wound with chains.

  “That’s a slave collar!”

  “Mostly right, Captain. It comes with manacles, too,” the woman replied breezily. “But they all operate on a similar principle. We’ll let him have his magic back once he demonstrates a suitable period of good behavior. Uh, with your agreement, that is, Headmaster Nora.”

  Nora nodded. “We can work out the details later.”

  Once he was trussed up, they carried him off with a promise to Nora that they’d use smelling salts to bring him around if he didn’t wake up on his own.

  “You there,” Nora called to the mage who had initially confronted Oliver. “Name and rank.”

  “Havard of the Second Circle,” he replied sullenly, holding up his hands.

  “Who else here is part of the security team?”

  Havard glanced around, his face heavy with defeat. “We don’t have a security team. We all respond to—”

  “Then you’re the head of the new security team.” She gestured at the rest of the mages. “Pick out, oh, say a dozen temporary subordinates from the employee pool for tonight, and we’ll look at filling more permanent positions in the morning.”

  “I… Beg your pardon, Headmaster?”

  Nora picked up Jasper’s staff and gave it a few test swings. “You’re the only one who questioned our identities and reason for being here.” She paused, eyeing him. “Unless you’re just that loyal to Jasper?”

  “N-no ma’am!” he said with a salute. “I live to serve!”

  “Good, good. I want your team on high alert. Staggered patrols. Report anything suspicious. We’re expecting trouble.”

  “Trouble from who, Headmaster?”

  “Oh, just about everyone. You know how they always blame the dark mages,” she said with a sigh, glancing at Oliver. “Of course, some of us just seem to provoke it.”

  “Permission to catch up with an old acquaintance, Headmaster?” he said without batting an eyelash. “Despite my advice, it seems Tarek became lost on his return trip.”

  Nora waved him off. “Shoo, shoo. Go catch up with your old friend.”

  “Don’t wait up for me,” he added. As he passed me, animus rolled off his shoulders, and he whispered without moving his lips: “I’ll take care of our little pest problem.”

  We walked through several winding hallways, where nothing was quite square. Pathways tilted and openings angled, giving the impression that everything was collapsing inward. Relias kept quiet during our quick tour, though he did stop at times to inspect different runes along the way, seemingly lost in thought. I tried not to worry about whatever Oliver was up to, though I was almost sure he could handle it.

  “I applaud the efforts you’ve gone to prevent sympathetic magical oscillations between labs,” Nora approved to Havard, gesturing at the strange architecture.

  “Huh?” I asked.

  “The design is intentional,” Havard explained. “It isolates kinetic energy. Our chambers are offset, allowing the walls to absorb and disperse magical blasts. That way, if something goes wrong, we contain the damage to one pocket, rather than collapsing the whole facility.”

  Nora smirked. “It’s like how you balance cards against each other to build a house.”

  “Except you always blew them down the moment I turned my back!”

  “Well, how else can you make it a two-player game?” she asked. “Except if you did it this way, my blast of air would only knock out a piece, and the rest would still stand.”

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  “Alright, alright. I get it now,” I muttered.

  We were given a suite of small rooms that contained minimal decoration, other than the thin strands of gold that ran across the walls. There were dusky crystal lamps that did not burn so much as glow. Linens were also provided, and a central room featured a fountain that served as a source of water. We received some nuts and berries to eat, and although they were a long way from a hot meal, they were pretty filling. After Havard inspected our accommodations, he saluted Nora again and left.

  “Alright, Headmaster,” I said dryly. “What’s the plan here?”

  “Sleep first,” she replied. “I’ll spend tomorrow looking into what resources we have available to us.”

  “I believe they have more than one translocation circle,” Relias murmured. “We passed a few hallways very similar to the one we started in, and none of them seemed particularly upset at Oliver’s blatant destruction of our escape route.”

  “I’ll see about schematics,” she assured him, opting not to feed into his anger. “I’ll even let you have first look.”

  Relias sighed. “My thanks, Lady Nora. If you would excuse me, I would seek to rest and recover at this juncture.”

  We watched wordlessly as he entered one of the bedrooms, shutting the door loudly behind him.

  “I guess… We should both get some sleep…”

  “Just give him some time,” Nora whispered. “He’ll come around.”

  “I hope so…” I frowned. “What about you? How are you doing with all this?”

  She shrugged. “I’m fine as long as you don’t pick sides between us.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m saying, don’t get between me and Oliver. I’ll handle him myself.”

  “Nora—”

  “It’s for your own good,” she advised. “Besides, we already agreed we won’t ask you to play favorites anymore.”

  “You already have rules about how you’re going to antagonize each other?”

  “Of course we do; we’re both professionals.”

  Someone far away was trying to get my attention. They had a soft, murmuring voice that seemed half-amused and half-irritated. After calling my name a few times, I heard, “And how much longer do you intend to sleep?”

  “The very nature of the question invalidates any answer,” I slurred, rolling over. “So don’t even…” I sat bolt upright. “What are you doing in my room?!”

  “I came to fetch you,” Oliver said, using the length of his staff as a hovering chair. “I’m simply following the same protocol you have enacted against me in times past.”

  “What if I had been doing something other than sleeping?”

  He tilted his head. “Like what?”

  “Never mind. Just knock like a normal person next time!” I chucked my pillow at him, but he just let it pass through him.

  “Knock on the door? To announce myself? How novel.” He kicked his legs in the air playfully.

  With a grumble, I wiped the dirt out of my eyes. “What’s gotten into you, anyway?”

  “I had a successful night dealing with a minor demon infestation, and as a reward, I get to go outside today,” he said, his eyes opening in rare delight. “And Headmaster Nora has ordered you to accompany me.”

  Something, no... many things weren’t right. “Since when do you listen to her?”

  He shrugged. “When it benefits me to do so.”

  "What did you do to the demons...?"

  "I converted them to my cause."

  I rubbed my temples. "Are you sure they'll remain loyal?"

  "While I'm present, they will."

  There was more to consider. “Relias would never allow you to go outside, especially with only me.”

  “Not if we asked his permission, no,” he grinned. “And that’s the other half of the fun.”

  “I’m already in enough trouble for…”

  “Not killing me when you had the opportunity?”

  “Among other things,” I muttered.

  “Then what’s a little more?”

  I sighed again, pulling the covers over my head. “Just leave so I can get ready!”

  Under Nora’s written order of “securing the outer perimeter,” Oliver and I were granted access to another translocation circle. It’s exit dropped us off in the middle of a tiny but dense forest that teemed with life.

  Ah. This is where the berries came from.

  Oliver waved his staff, coaxing some of the dark green brambles to clear a small path. I let him take the leave, still feeling a little strange to be left alone with him so easily. Within minutes, we were strolling through a hot, sunny meadow of overgrown grass.

  “It’s a bit of a shame I had to sacrifice the tower,” he murmured, inclining his head to little more than the charred stump of a stone building off to the north. “In its heyday, it was quite a sight to behold.”

  I stared at a few of the unbroken blocks, noting a familiar pattern. “You modeled your own tower after it, didn’t you?”

  “I was partially inspired, yes,” he admitted.

  “The snake motif on the front was your creation, though, huh?”

  “Yes.” He turned, one eye opening. “Tell me, what was your first impression when you saw it?

  I shook my head. “Completely impractical. I’m not sure how you even got it up there.”

  “Magic, what else?” He began to laugh somewhat sadly. “It was a monument for the ages. A grotesque gesture of contempt to all of my enemies.”

  Was... that the plan?

  Dog pile on the dark lord?

  “Which was supposed to be everyone, huh?”

  “Yes,” he sighed. “I strived so hard to be the most hated. I thought it would unite them all.”

  “Humans, hybrids, and even other demons?”

  He stared off again at the remains of the Dark Mage Tower. “I failed to account for the ability to hate multiple things at the same time. Hate is, after all, limitless in power, breadth, and depth.”

  “I still think we can give it a run for its money.”

  He glanced at me, one eyebrow raised. “I don’t know what that means, but I assume it’s foolishly optimistic.”

  “It got me this far, didn’t it?”

  I mean, I didn't start with it, but it may have been in the toolbox for a while.

  “I’ll be sure to balance with some rational despair,” he murmured.

  “Rational?” I put the back of my forearm to my temple in a mock pose of desperation. “Like when you were throwing an existential tantrum on your throne?”

  He stiffened, the air about him turning dark. “Polite company would avoid bringing up such temporary lapses in decorum.”

  “Too bad there’s no such thing around you.”

  “Indeed…” Despite a long exhale, there was a bit of an alarming smirk hovering on his face. “Now then. Onto the real reason I wished to talk to you alone.”

  Oh no.

  “What? What is it?”

  Both of his eyes flashed open. “I want to know what you wrote about in your high school graduation essay. You will provide me with exact quotations wherever possible.”

  Of all the things we had to talk about!

  “You can’t be serious!”

  “Perfectly.” He folded his arms. “You demanded I help you all those years ago, and questioning Nora earlier was fruitless. Yet frankly speaking, I think it’s well past time you satisfied my curiosity.”

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