“For instance,” The fifth host of the Tonight Show, Seth Rogan asked while righting his signature square-rim glasses. “The eighth-level spell you demonstrated at Wednesday’s Entombment ceremony, Chaos-Nova I believe it was called. That wasn’t something this phantom student could have taught, right? It’s obvious the slander spreading from this Ralph fellow is…”

“His name is Rafael.” Gwen cut-in before the fat, annoying-laughed, prick could infuriate her any further. “But you’re right, Victor couldn’t teach me Chaos-Nova. Afterall he’s a lousy teacher, but he’s definitely no weaker than I am.”

“Ehehheheheh.” Seth laughed while sorting a few blank notecards awkwardly. “I suppose we have gotten off-topic, your right. So, tell us about your next project. Any thoughts on pushing for Sage?”

“Oh… no, that’s…” Gwen stammered with difficulty as the final addendum was tacked on at the end. “I certainly won’t be pushing for tenth level just yet. I’d like to stabilize my abilities first and maybe dabble in spell-craft like… my grandmother.”

“Amazing, amazing.” Seth nodded, twirling a book into his hands with a practiced motion. “That’s right, everyone Constantine Ashcroft’s Spell Book is being reprinted with a foreword that, Gwen you wrote, is that right?”

“Mhm.” Gwen sighed with a visible eye-roll. “For a limited time it’ll be available internationally in thirty major languages.”

“Incredible, incredible.” Seth nodded, flipping the book open to a page at random as-if he had a single clue of what was inside. “It’s a page-turner folks. Really good stuff.”

“Hehhh…” Gwen sighed again, watching for the red light to finally cut.

This was now the eighth appearance she’d had on television since their graduation a month ago. And apart from the first few, all of them had eventually devolved into one-sided theory-crafting regarding the abilities of her mysterious classmate.

The book-peddling was new as well. Her mother had approached her a few days after returning from the academy and pestered Gwen to write a few random paragraphs about learning magic. Gwen felt like the worst person to ask but to stop her mother from annoying her, she hastily jotted down some words that paraphrased some of the things Victor had said to her.

Apparently it had been what Mrs. Ashcroft was looking for, as a handful of days later a stack of proofs showed up at their door and the rest was history.

“Is that everything?” Gwen asked the woman her parents hired to over-see her schedule once the video-feed with the Pacifican Television Studio had been cut.

“Until tomorrow afternoon, yes.” The publicist confirmed, pulling a phone from her bag and handing it back to Gwen. “A call came during the interview. The number wasn’t saved but it was a Novgorodian country-code.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Thanks.” Gwen said, retrieving the device and punching in her pin to check the call-log. “Hmm?”

Tapping the number with a feeling of who would be on the other side, Gwen set the phone to her ear as it began ringing.

“CHTO?!” A male voice asked aggressively confirming Gwen’s assumption without even needing to know Novgorodian.

“Did you want to talk to me or not?” Gwen impatiently said, nearly hanging up before she finally detected Ana’s voice.

“Sorry, sorry. I was busy.” Anastasia explained once she’d rerouted the call back to herself. “Have you been able to get in contact with Victor today?”

“Should I have needed to?” Gwen returned with a contorted expression.

“No, I need to.” Ana explained poorly. “Something happened to my sister’s friend, and I didn’t know who else to ask, but his phone is going straight to voicemail.”

Realizing that it wasn’t the time to be petty, Gwen’s expression quickly changed back to normal as she grew concerned from Ana’s tone of voice. “What’s wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Get Victor to call me,” Ana snapped harshly before audibly taking a deep breath. “Boris can explain the rest. I gotta go.”

“Wh…” Gwen tried to counter but the familiar sound of the phone connection rerouting again cut her off.

“CHTO?” Boris again repeated.

“Forget it, he can tell me after.” Gwen grumbled, yanking her phone from her ear and hastily tapping a few buttons to make a separate call.

“I’m sorry, the phone number you have dialed is…”

“Damnit.” Gwen cursed, clicking again on her phone, and making a third call to a number she wanted to dial even less.

‖֍‖

“Hello?” Katie asked into her phone cautiously after the unanticipated contact flashed across the screen sat on her desk.

“Where’s…” Gwen partially asked before rephrasing mid-word. “Ana needs to talk to him. Tell him to call her.”

“Huh…?” Katie muttered absently as the abrupt request landed awkwardly in her thoughts. “What do you mean him? Him who?”

“I know he’s working with your dad; you must know where he is.” Gwen answered, again ignoring the name. “Anyways just… Ana sounded frantic so just tell him to answer his phone. Please.”

“Alright.” Katie nodded, “Was that it?”

“Yea… well…” Gwen stammered out uncomfortably. Only just then realizing she and Katie had never actually spoken on the phone like this before. “Actually, there’s a party in a few days, something about celebrating young female magic users. It’s mostly the children of my parent’s dusty friends, but if you…”

Katie wasn’t prepared for the attack so her hands jittered nervously as she heard the invitation. She and Gwen weren’t particularly close friends, but she didn’t dislike her. “If it’s okay. Then sure, I’ll come.”

“Good.” Gwen awkwardly returned, suddenly a touch happy that she’d randomly thought of the upcoming event. “You’ll be able to take some of the heat off me.”

“So, come in disguise. Gotcha.” Katie smirked.

“No! Please!” Gwen cried out, prompting a laugh to fill the speaker. “Anyways, do you know where he is or not?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell him.” Katie responded narrowing her eyes as she heard no response come from the other side. “Fine, my dad brought him to talk to some people at the B.M.U.E., happy?”

“Is it fine?” Gwen asked after a short pause, worried the bureaucrats might oppose the ethics of Victor’s creation.

She was one of the only people apart from Victor who truly understood the dirty secret of his Portal; So she, more than her classmates, was heavily invested in watching how the world reacted to the unveiling.

“It should be. My dad wouldn’t have brought him if it were risky.”

“I hope you’re right.” Gwen said, chomping uncomfortably on her lower lip. “Anyways, I’ll text you the details for the tea party. Just make sure he call’s Ana.”