I fully expected to be back in the dark alley to meet with Grey Eyes, but instead found myself in Geist's shop.

I was a bundle of nerves, of energy, of high-powered paranoia.

Geist sent me on an errand to destroy that store, and I'd done his bidding without question.

It was only then that I really considered that pale hand that had reached out from inside the storefront to receive Geist’s pouch and disappeared back into the darkness.

Was that person inside the store when it was destroyed? Had I destroyed that person?

Lebec hadn’t mentioned any casualties.

My shoulders jumped when Geist called to me from around the corner. “Hexana. Come in. Come in.”

I made my way into the main room of the store and turned.

There’s only one door in here. The only door is the gateway you just came through.

Something clicked in my head.

You’re effectively trapped. If Geist wants to keep you here, you won’t be able to open the gateway.

I swallowed and put on my best cocktail waitress smile for Geist.

“Hi,” I said. “I just got finished with class.”

“I heard,” Geist said, and I couldn't help but frown.

How did he hear?

It had been literal seconds after Lebec had released us that the bracelet around my wrist had paged me. Same as the first-time class had ended.

“What,” Geist said with a pouting look. “You didn’t think I would have eyes everywhere?”

This isn’t right. Why would the person in charge of finances and student housing have eyes everywhere? There’s something wrong here.

It didn’t seem like the right moment to bring it up, though. I wasn’t sure that confronting a man who had me trapped in his shop was the best option.

“So, how was class?” Geist asked.

“I'm learning stuff.” I let out a sigh. “There's so much I don't know. Half the words that people are saying are new words to me. I don't know what they mean. It feels like I'm listening to people speak in a foreign language.”

I was still on guard, but it felt good to voice my frustrations.

“Yes,” Geist agreed. “That must be… infuriating.”

“It is.” I paused for a moment, considered. “I have a question.”

Geist raised an eyebrow and his face took on an almost stricken look.

I chewed on my lip. “I was wondering if you could tell me where the dormitories are, where I'm supposed to stay.”

His face relaxed. He'd thought I was going to ask about the delivery and possibly the subsequent explosion. He had been bracing himself for it.

Not a chance.

“Oh.” Geist plastered on a smile. “Well, that's simple. As soon as you're finished here, I’ll send you on your way, directly into the dormitory. There you'll find your name on a placard outside your room. It's all very simple.”

“I'm sure it's very simple to you, but for a stick like me…” Gotta play up the naïveté. I’m just a silly little stick girl. “For a stick like me, it's scary. So many new experiences, so many new, confusing things and events.”

Geist nodded, a look of complete fatherly understanding gracing his face.

If he thinks of me as a daughter, maybe he’ll let me leave.

“Yes,” he agreed. “I can see how this new experience would be troubling. You're a tiny insignificant fish in a very big lake, an ocean really, and you need the protection of much larger fish in order to survive.”

Both the general idea of what he was saying, as well as the very specific knifepoint he was holding against my stomach registered.

“I understand,” I said. I’m not a threat to you.

“Do you?” Geist cocked an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms across his chest. “In time, we’ll see.”

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He said this completely flat, as though I was nothing more than an animal he was examining and deciding whether to keep me or not, or if he should go ahead and put me out of my misery. Permanently.

“I wonder if you could help me with something…” he said. Before he even asked, I knew where this was going to go. Lebec's last words rang in my ears as Geist asked his question. “I heard that your class went on an excursion. Tell me, where did you go?”

He already knew exactly where we went, and I also had a good feeling that he knew that Lebec had told us to keep silent about what we'd seen, what we'd experienced at the site.

“Well,” I began, balancing on the knife’s edge between Lebec and Geist. For all you know, Lebec might know what Geist is doing here. Lebec might have ears in as many places as Geist seems to have eyes. “We went and examined a magickal incident. That's what you call them, correct?”

“Yes.” Geist brought his hand up and twirling it in front of himself: get to the point. “What else?”

I swallowed. “We watched adepts work the scene and vanishers collect the lume they found on the wreckage.”

“What color was the magick?” Geist asked.

“What color was the magick?” I repeated.

“The lume,” he clarified. “The lume residue. At the epicenter. What color was it?”

This is the moment. I can tell the truth, tell him what I know, and betray Lebec's confidence or I can lie to Geist and possibly face whatever consequences a magickal being can delve out onto a stick.

Grey Eyes’ words came back to me: If you weren’t under Geist's care, I would just exterminate you like the vermin you are…

If I ever fell out of Geist's good graces, assuming Geist wasn’t a hands-on type of person, I had a good idea the next person I'd see would be Grey Eyes.

I took a deep breath before I finally spoke. “It was red.”

“Red?” Geist smiled, the corners of his lips twitching.

Is he overly excited at the news? That blood magick was used? Or is this something he hadn't realized, something he'd been unaware of?

“Well,” Geist said, “that's unfortunate.”

“That's unfortunate?” I asked.

“Yes. Yes, it's unfortunate,” Geist said absently. He cleared his throat. “It’s also unfortunate that the witchstones the poor professor was researching were destroyed. I’m sure the Austerium will get to the bottom of what went wrong.”

“That was a professor?” I asked, remembering the pale hand.

“Yes.” Geist frowned. “He was a stonebreaker.”

“A witchstone—”

Geist cut across me. “I believe it's time for you to head to the dormitories.”

“Can ask a question before I go?” I asked.

Geist dipped his chin.

Should I ask what a stonebreaker is or…

“What was the culling?” I asked.

Flin had already given me the broad strokes, but I wanted to see what Geist's take on it was. They say history is written by the victors, and if Geist had me deliver blood magick, if he was a blood caster or blood wizard, I had a feeling he might feel differently about the culling.

“Why…” Geist fixed me with a cold look. “It was one of the worst moments in magickal history. Any moment where you slaughter the lives of thousands is a dark moment, be it good lives or bad lives. The loss of that amount of talent was untenable.”

I nodded. “I was told a great many blood wizards and casters were killed.”

“Yes, that is true.”

“If so many of those who cast blood magick were killed in a genocide, how did blood magick find its way to that storefront?”

“A very good question, indeed,” Geist said. “Just because many were slaughtered, doesn't mean all were slaughtered. Many fled the Nidema Plaine before, as well as during, the culling. They settled in a new place.”

“A new place?” I asked.

“A new shard. These are all rumors, mind you, but it is said that many of the most powerful blood wizards and casters were already gone when the culling occurred, which means, if the most powerful blood wizards are now living on their own shard, for this many years, that there are sure to be more blood casters and wizards than we realize. I believe some of them are even living amongst us in silence.” Geist cocked an eyebrow at me. “It's surprising, is it not?”

I let out a nervous laugh. Is Geist telling you that he’s a blood wizard?

“Everything that I find out in this world is surprising,” I said. “I didn't even know blood magick was a thing until twenty minutes ago. Seems like I can say that every twenty minutes too.”

Geist laughed.

“Yes,” he said. “I suppose it's like being a child again. Absolutely everything that you hear or learn is as if for the first time.”

“It's like that exactly. I have another question if you don’t mind.”

Geist nodded, although this time he looked irritated. “Last one and then you need to get back to your dormitory. I have business affairs to attend.”

“It's about witchstones,” I said. “Can sticks use witchstones?”

The irritation on Geist’s face transformed into a cat-who’d-caught-the-canary smile. “Sticks can use any witchstone they find, the only problem being that a stick’s body is unable to process magick in the same way that a caster, an adept, or a wizard is able to.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can use any witchstone you wish, but there's a cost.”

“And that cost is what?”

“Ten years at the baseline,” Geist said.

I laughed. “Ten years? What do you mean ten years?”

“Ten years off your life. Instantly. Use a witchstone and the minimal amount you’ll age is ten years. There's a cost to every caster and wizard, but the costs are nominal, borderline fractional for wizards. For casters it's a little more, but unless the witchstone contains a very, very powerful spell, it's likely to do little to no damage at all. Adepts can use witchstones as well, but the damage they take approaches the same amount as a stick.”

“So, you're saying that by just using a witchstone, I’ll instantly age ten years?”

“At the baseline,” Geist answered.

“You keep saying keep saying baseline. What do you mean?”

“I mean that ten years is the baseline cost to you for using a witchstone containing a very basic spell. If you used a witchstone that contained a spell to say… I don't know… levitate a single other person, you would instantly age ten years. If you used a witchstone containing a spell stronger than that, the number of years you would age would increase.”

“So theoretically there could be a witchstone so powerful that I would die instantly if I used it?”

“Yes. Many such witchstones, but that’s what scryers and stonebreakers are for.”

“What’s a scryer?”

“I said one question and I think you’ve used up your quota. You're in school for this anyways. I think you'll find a wealth of information in the library. Now, if there's nothing else, and there better not be, I think we're finished here.”

We’re not finished at all. “Okay.”

Geist turned his back to me, and I stood there awkwardly for a moment, unsure if he was going to turn back around or if I was just supposed to walk away.

My stomach growled and decided for me.

I walked back to the gateway. When I pulled the door open, I saw into the place I would be living for however long it took to become a vanisher.

The school dormitories.