I walked over to Seth and climbed right into his lap. The kid didn't flinch at all, despite the fact that I was freezing cold and soaking wet, and he gave me a hug. I really appreciated that because I needed it in that moment.

I'm not a violent person. I don't want to injure people. And what I did to that guy completely by accident was pretty horrific to me. I didn't mean to shred his arm. I was just trying to hold on to him so I wouldn't get blown away.

What if I'd done that to one of the kids?

I'd been working on getting better control of my new body. It's working too. I have much better control over my paws, and I'm getting good at picking up and holding the rocks I've been practicing with.

My claws were not something I've been working on though. I knew they were sharp. I could hold onto sandstone pretty easily. Now I was wondering just how sharp they really were.

Violence was a thing here. I saw a lot of it my first day. I didn't really believe it then, as I was having trouble believing any of my whacked out circumstances that day. But I believed it now. And I am going to be involved with this violence. And the cause of it sometimes. I needed to get my head around that and figure out where my boundaries needed to be, and what my moral standards should be.

I don't think I could ever kill anybody. And I don't ever want to. But would I to save one of the kids?

Speaking of violence to save the kids, I took a good look at Seth. He'd been in trouble earlier, and I chose to leave him to it. He'd come out of it, but wasn't entirely okay. There were marks on his neck that would turn into bruises, and little red dots around his eyes. The kid had been strangled.

The bastard who did that could have killed Seth.

I've seen so many bizarre and weird things here that I just haven't been able to take it seriously. How do you take lizard surfing seriously?

But some of this shit was serious. And speaking of that, Owen was currently bleeding. He was standing on the stone bridge looking out over the water with his left arm wrapped and cradled against his body. I did a quick check of the others. The only injured ones were Owen at needing immediate attention, and Seth at fine for now.

I meowed at Seth and looked at Owen. That woke him up from his funk and he scrambled to his feet and rushed over to Owen. I got tucked awkwardly under his arm with my butt way higher than my head. Dude, just put me down.

Owen never took his eyes off the river, but did present his wounded arm to Seth. I realized Owen was watching the hyena.

"There's not much left in this," Seth said apologetically, as he pulled out his amulet. "I can only do a little for you."

"It's fine," Owen said. "I'll need a full healer for it anyway."

When Seth used his healing amulet on Owen, I could feel a resonance to it in my whiskers, and in the amulet I wore. It didn't feel the same to me as using regular spells. I wanted to explore that some more, but six people in royal blue uniforms were trotting right at us. They stopped at the gatehouse, talked to Booth, and checked out the barrier on the tunnel.

Owen's wound wasn't healed when Seth stopped. It wasn't gushing blood anymore, but it was still bleeding a bit. Based on how much it had healed, it would take at least an hour, probably more, of using that amulet to actually heal the whole wound. That was consistent with the healing potion I'd seen Seth use. It visibly healed things, but it did take hours to do. Seth had slept through most of it at the time.

I watched as another group showed up. There was a lord of some sort with an entourage of four bodyguards. They were on horses and dismounted when they got to the guards.

I was baffled by how law enforcement worked here. There wasn't an actual police force. It was more like private soldiers who worked for lords in the city who would beat the crap out of someone they deemed a perpetrator, and drag them in front of the lord who would decide what to do with them. Trials weren't really a thing. Fucking scary. If you were falsely accused, your only recourse was to convince the lord, who may not even listen to you speak.

Lawyers weren't a profession here. Vigilante and mob justice were common.

It turned out that Seth was pretty well connected. He knew the guy in charge of this troop of guards, and the lord on the horse, though the lord didn't remember him. But business was getting done. The guards talked to all of the kids, they got the barrier down, they sent a message to the gatehouse at the other end, and they woke up the two guys at the gatehouse on this end. They called for mounted soldiers who arrived within a few minutes and sped down the tunnel. All that and they caught the hyena too.

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I didn't know how long that tunnel was, but if it went all the way through the mountain, the bad guys wouldn't be getting out the other end. I didn't think whoever had planned this missed such an obvious failure point. I was expecting shenanigans.

Blaise's family, the Firesands, were important people. They were all fire mages, and were competing with another important family, the Stoneholds, for a shot at a noble title. The symbol on the pick that Owen found and the crest on the carriage were of the Stoneholds. And the Stonehold family was famous for domesticating hyenas.

It's like these guys were saying 'Hey! We did this! Look at us!' So either they wanted to be caught, or someone else wanted them to be caught. I could see it going either way.

The kids were sitting down out of the way and near the stone bridge. Booth had brought the unconscious Reginald to Duvessa as soon as the guards started working on the barrier. Seth started healing Owen again. The two of them had discussed how much healing he should do. Apparently there was a chance for it to be healed improperly when done using items or potions, so they decided to only go so far as stopping the bleeding, and then going to the Circle Tower for it to be checked. Booth was really interested in the healing too, and watched them both.

The Lord of Derinheld walked over to us. This wasn't actually the first lord I've seen in this world, I've seen a princess too after all. This guy was skinny, on the older side, and kept covering his face with a lacy handkerchief. He oozed the air of middle management.

"Ew. What am I supposed to do about this?" he kept asking the guard in charge. "Fine, fine." He'd wave the handkerchief dismissively. "What am I supposed to do for that?" he asked and pointed at the hyena.

"How about having it held at the Menagerie, my lord?" the guard said.

"Ugh. Fine, fine. You, boy, you're bleeding." The Lord of Derinheld waved at Owen. "No, no, don't stop healing him, boy," he said to Seth. "What am I supposed to do about them?"

"Perhaps my lord will arrange transport to return them to school?"

"Fine, fine. I am generous that way. Do that."

"You girl, I know you, don't I?" the lord said to Duvessa.

Duvessa was still crying and only nodded. The lord handed her a fresh handkerchief.

"I understand," he said. "Dreadful and inconvenient. I thought I should recognize you. My apologies, my lady, but I'm absolutely dreadful with names and faces. Hmm. I seem to have forgotten what I was going to ask of you."

I watched him. The dude looked at absolutely everything. For a guy who was so dismissive of all of this, he seemed really present in the scene. He even looked me in the eye. Then he waved around his handkerchief again and dismissed it all. But he didn't look away.

"Right! Right, I remembered. You can summon shadows. Give me one and I'll send along a note with it when we find your friend."

Duvessa struggled to get her sobbing under control. "You, will you really find her?"

"Me? Heavens no! But someone will, and then tell me about it. Maybe you should give the shadow to someone else then. I'll probably forget to pass on the message."

"My lady Duvessa," the guard said, "you look exhausted. Are you able to cast?"

Duvessa shook her head and blew her nose in Lord Derinheld's handkerchief.

"My Lord," the guard said as he turned back to the lord, "the young lady is clearly mana exhausted. She won't be able to call forth a shadow for you."

"Fine, fine. What am I supposed to do then?"

The guard sighed. "I will update the young lady when we update the school of our findings. I've already sent messages ahead, and have contacted the missing student's family."

"Ah, fine, fine. Looks like everything is handled here then. Good work lads." With another wave of his handkerchief, the lord mounted his horse and trotted off down the tunnel, his entourage following behind.

The lord guy wasn't middle management. He was a master of upper management. Didn't actually do anything, yet will get all the credit for everyone else's successes. Unless there was more to him than that, the dude was just an extra. The real mvp was the town guard that got everything done.

And true to his word, we were given a lift back to school.

----------------------------------------

It was distant, but Blaise could hear talking. She wasn't able to move, and she couldn't see anything. So she listened.

"This was not the plan. She was supposed to be taken to Mariglade, not here. You risk exposing everything!"

"You worry too much my friend! This is exactly the plan. My plan." Hands were being rubbed together.

"You don't seem to understand that your plan will be cut short if we are discovered. She is too close to too many other pieces in this game. Have you already…?"

"Pshaw, it's done. And the dogs will be chasing the wrong rabbits. I'm not playing a game here. I am orchestrating a revolution. The unworthy need to know their time has come."

"Those rabbits will still lead directly to both of us if we don't step carefully now. It would not do for your revolution to be snuffed before it gains the momentum you wish it to have, my lord. Please trust in me, and trust in the plans I laid out for you."

"My friend, I appreciate you and all the help you have provided me. But don't overstep yourself. I am Lord here. You work for me."

"Of course, my lord. I am just asking, please, don't change plans without informing me. I can't make adjustments in the moment if I don't know what the plan is."

"If it concerns you so much, use the cup and muddy the waters. Take it, give it, whatever you like. Once this test is complete, we'll be ready for part two!"

There was a heavy sigh. "Then what shall we do with the girl? She cannot be stored here, and we can no longer bring her to Mariglade as planned."

"Her purpose has been served. You may dump her somewhere. I don't care if she is found or not, do whatever sets your mind at ease."

Heavy footsteps stopped by her head and a hand tugged on her pendant.

"This could work. Cast the spell again, the girl is waking up."