Myra decided to check out the event hall, although Benkoten had elected not to join her.

The event hall was the oldest building in the university, an architectural curiosity that the rest of campus had been built around. It was said over a hundred mages were needed to hold its blueprint, and the mathematical proof of its structural integrity, in their minds as the building had been constructed piece by piece. The building was pentagonal, and it was positioned so that, looking at it from the front, it was framed by the slopes of the Ralkenon Volcano, which sat directly behind it. The building’s metal exterior never rusted, and it shone a blue-ish silver in the broad daylight.

Despite—or maybe because of—its renown, it didn’t see a whole lot of use. Myra had been inside for end-of-year ceremonies, but that was it.

It wasn’t, as far as Myra knew, generally restricted for entry. When she approached the building, though, she was quickly stopped by a dark-clothed man in a face mask. The distinctive man was the head of university security, Myra was pretty sure. His name was something like Iwasaki.

“Sorry, miss, but the event hall is off-limits for the time being.” Myra had figured out that much. The front door was visible chained shut.

“Oh, what for? I just noticed the space here is really odd…”

“Yes, you’re not the only one,” the security head assured her. “I have just activated the security functions of this building, which includes spatially severing the entire building interior from the outside. Nobody is going to be getting inside for a while.”

So in other words, even if you could somehow break down the building walls, you’d just find a big spatial hole.

“What for?” Myra repeated.

“It’s confidential, I’m afraid.” He sounded apologetic. “There may be an announcement at some point, but I can’t say any more.”

◆

There wasn’t much else to be learned hanging around the event hall, so Myra turned in for the day. The next morning, she decided to follow Benkoten’s advice and seek out Professor Snailsworth. She had never taken any of his classes, so she was a little unsure how best to approach him. It was especially intimidating because Myra had the impression that Snailsworth was a very important person—the sort of person so busy giving invited talks and consultations that she didn’t know when the hell he had the time to do the work he was so famous for in the first place.

His secretary, though, was able to make an appointment on short notice… with one of Snailsworth’s research assistants, a young bespectacled woman named Rose Tara.

Fortunately, Rose was very nice, and she immediately confirmed that the lab was open to hiring someone with Myra’s background.

“So to start, why don’t you tell me what you know about aura channels,” Rose asked in an encouraging tone.

“Um… well, I know that it’s responsible for letting us access all the different elements anywhere in the city, and at any time.”

Mages classified the aura elements into two groups: the inner elements and the outer elements. The “inner elements” were those found within their own planet, water, ash, leaf, fire, and so on. The “outer elements” were those from the celestial sources, Sola, Luna, and Astra, and they included elements like light, gravity, infinity, and vacuum.

Of course, the inner elements were heavily geography-dependent. Water aura was more prevalent near a lake, leaf near a forest, and so on. Meanwhile, the outer elements were heavily dependent on the time. Sola was the biggest source of light aura, so light was harder to access at night; meanwhile, Astra, though technically accessible, was mostly drowned out by Sola during the day. And the strength of Luna waxed and waned over a month.

Historically, mages were stuck having to plan around these factors, but today, there was a different solution: aura channels, which were both capable of storing aura and distributing it geographically. As long as Myra was in Ralkenon or any other modern city with a substantial network, she would never lack for any naturally occurring element.

Rose seemed to be looking for more, though, so Myra continued. “They also power a lot of machinery and infrastructure that runs on aura. Like the trains and libraries, or the barriers keeping the volcano dormant.”

“Sure. What else?”

“Um…” Distribution for mages and distribution for machinery had been the two major applications she’d learned in primary school. Was there something else…?

“Oh! Um, they absorb and carry away cursed aura, I think?” Myra wasn’t entirely sure what they did with cursed aura, but they at least kept it away from humans.

Rose nodded. “Keep going.”

“Um…”

“There’s something else, similar to the last thing you said.”

Myra racked her brains, but she couldn’t come up with anything else.

Rose finally explained. “The final role is to absorb excess aura, not just cursed aura. Even natural aura can cause problems when it builds up in excess, resulting in spontaneous anomalous phenomena.”

“Oh, like monster genesis?”

“Yeah. Monsters, dungeons, area effects, like the fractal fields or the vortex of death, that kind of thing. It’s really dangerous when they appear close to human settlements, so one of the objectives of aura channeling is to suck up excesses.”

“And that’s what you work on?”

Rose nodded again. “I do. Sort of. Specifically, I try to ensure that our aura channels don’t inadvertently create new excesses. Here, have a look at this.” Rose pulled a scroll out of a drawer and handed it to Myra. “Tell me, what’s this do?”

Myra unscrolled it and looked it over. It was a very complex diagram of rune inscriptions. Is she testing me?

Myra almost grinned. Analyzing runes? She couldn’t have asked for a better test.

“It’s some kind of measurement device…? Like, it’s definitely measuring some kind of aura flow here… and this component is, what—” She squinted, making sure she was reading it right. “A time-keeping device?”

“That’s right.”

“Why do you need a time-keeping device?” Myra asked. “I mean, why not use the time from the Common Library?”

“It’s not accurate enough.”

Myra blinked. “Huh? But its units are, like, 10-120 of the Planck time.”

“I mean, yeah, it gives you a lot of sig figs, but it’s not accurate.”

“Oh. I thought it would have been state-of-the-art? I mean, especially if it’s this easy to make a better one.”

The Common Library was an enormous collection of mathematical definitions and proofs in Abstract Space with a history going back over a millennium. It was the most significant shared endeavor of humanity from every nation and every continent on the planet. In particular, it contained an enormous number of spell templates that anybody could access. Or, well, that had been true for a while, anyway.

About half the spells Myra used on a daily basis were spells from the Common Library, spells that would be way too complicated to cast from scratch, like automatic quill writing. Time-checking, like they were discussing, was another one. Myra used it frequently when she was too lazy to turn her head and check the clock.

To Myra’s question, Rose just shrugged. “Well, let this be your first lesson in runic engineering. Any project that needs a clock is going to use a variant of that component you’re looking at now.”

Rose went on to discuss the measurement device with Myra. Apparently, it wasn’t just looking for an excess of aura in absolute terms, but it was also looking for high-frequency fluctuations, which apparently could also be harmful. The device was also incomplete, and Myra gathered that it was what she would be working on if she was hired.

If this had been a test, Myra seemed to have passed. At the end of the hour, Rose even took Myra to meet Professor Snailsworth, an austere-looking old guy with thick glasses, a forehead of wrinkles at angles so weird that Myra likened them in her head to a runic inscription, and incredibly old-fashioned robes. He didn’t say very much, merely approving Rose’s plan and telling his secretary to arrange the paperwork.

So, Snailsworth had been kind of disappointing. Still, it looked like Rose would be easy to work with, and the project was definitely going to involve runes. She’d have to thank Benkoten—his advice had been dead on.

◆

Over the next few weeks, Myra began to work on the device under Rose’s direction, and she continued seeking tutelage from Benkoten on Algebraic Topology. That subject continued to push her limits, as every time she felt like she understood something, the material suddenly accelerated in a new direction. She got a little help from Iz, as well. She plodded along in Biomechanical Systems and her final pick of the semester, Material Science II.

She got a letter from her father, postmarked from the high-security prison where he was kept. She looked at the envelope for a while, then shoved it in a drawer without opening it.

Her stepmother, of course, never bothered to contact her.

She tried to ignore all this and relax and have fun with her friends. That meant shopping with Cynthia; the library with Iz; hopstones (a strategy board game) in the park with Tazhin; skipping rocks at the pond with Nathan; the library (romance section) with Cynthia; and cooking dinner with everyone. Slowly, Myra got back into her rhythm.

With regards to the major event whose security the university had spared no expense for, the rumor mill has equally spared no expense in its conjuring of explanations. The headmaster was retiring. A new faculty member of great renown was being hired. The Outer Explorations Guild would announce life on the moon. The university would be hosting a high-stakes death game. A new fruit would be announced.

One rumor had suggested that Mirkas-Ballam Pharmaceutical would be holding some kind of symposium. Apparently, this rumor took hold because of a leaked statement suggesting they would be completing something soon, but nobody could actually connect it to the university event.

Once the rumor mill got away from the Mirkas-Ballam idea, the class finally started to converge on something that was both plausible, high-profile enough to warrant intense security, and actually backed by evidence. The first time Myra heard it, it was from Nathan.

“Right, so I heard it from Carsten, who heard it from Melaney I think… who heard it from Freia, who got it from her boyfriend, what’s-his-name… the guy with that hat... Anyway, he got it from Benkoten. And of course, he knows what’s going on because he’s the class president.”

“Do you actually talk to your brother yourself?” Cynthia asked.

“A bunch of imperial heads are holding some talks with Unkmire. The subject’s going to be resolving the trade embargo.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Cynthia rolled her eyes. “That’s the lamest answer I could have imagined.”

“No, look, think about it!” Nathan hushed his voice to conspiratorial tones, not for any particular benefit. “Doesn’t this sound like a pretense to discuss Unkmire joining the empire?”

“I mean, sure, it’ll make history, and whatever, but it might as well happen at any old place with a fancy meeting hall, for all we’re concerned. I thought this was gonna be some fun school event! It’s not something we’ll be participating in.”

“I mean, it won’t just be the—look, the imperial prince is here! We have actual, eye-witness confirmation that he’s staying at the Hotel Caldera as we speak.” That was Ralkenon’s fancy upscale hotel. “And his daughter’s there, Princess Mala.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t change the fact that we won’t be discussing international treaties with them.”

“I mean… maybe he’ll give a speech, or something.”

“Are you trying to make me unexcited?”

Myra didn’t say much throughout the conversation. Though she didn’t want to be so dismissive about the significance of the event—if true—it was ultimately yet another inevitable step in the Raine Empire’s quest to control the entire continent. And if there were any peripheral events to participate in, they would probably be dreadful, jingoistic affairs. Myra glanced across the table to Iz, whose sullen look told Myra she probably felt the same.

◆

Eventually, it was confirmed by the university administration that the event would be taking place on the upcoming eve of the full moon. The student body was instructed to be on “the best behavior.” As Nathan had predicted, there would also be a short address from Prince Humperton. There would also be some “handshake events,” but nothing Myra was invited to.

There was some talk that Melaney Barlow was trying to organize a student party that would somehow attract the imperial princess’ attention. That seemed like a long shot to Myra, but Melaney was also substantially more popular than her, so she probably knew more about this kind of thing. Myra tried to tune the whole thing out, so she could focus on keeping up in topology and her other classes, and on making progress with the aura frequency analyzer.

When the address did come around, it was about as Myra expected. There was a lot of pomp, a needlessly long introduction for Imperial Prince Humperton William Raine, son of Emperor Kurtwell Raine, first in line to the Imperial Throne. Prince Humperton was a beefy man with thick red hair and imposing sideburns, with a sharp, dark suit decorated by a prominent bloodstone brooch.

The prince spoke of how his father, the emperor, had been aghast to discover the Common Library, unprotected and vulnerable, and how he had taken on the burden to keep it safe. He spoke loftily of the collaboration that had gone into its curation and development under the empire, and the untold leaps in living conditions that had resulted. He had lots of grand words to say about Ralkenon University’s role in the same. He spoke of the continued need for unity in order to persevere through the obstacles facing the four continents. He was kind of vague on what the obstacles were, but he had mentioned “chaos across many business sectors,” and Myra had a feeling she knew what event that was referring to.

At least it was over pretty quickly. Despite the lengthy introduction, the imperial prince turned out to be an efficient speaker.

◆

“How many faculty did Melaney sleep with to get this thing approved?”

Though Myra wouldn’t have put it like that, it was a good question. Melaney’s party was situated in a field between two of the dorms, spanning indoors and outdoors. She had acquired the most important elements, beer and music, and it was looking like it would be a pretty rowdy event. Of course, there was the obvious answer, she was going for forgiveness rather than approval. Or she was banking on the princess actually showing up and having a good time.

“And what was she thinking having it now?” Cynthia continued. “That fucking trade talk thing is in like four hours! Does she really think the princess is going to show up and get wasted right before some huge imperial function?”

“Well, it rained yesterday—Wait, their talks start at midnight?”

“Whatever, we’ve had indoor parties before. And yeah, anyway, the royals just exist on a different timetable than the rest of us.”

Myra, personally, did not want the princess to show up in any case. Everything she had read about the girl suggested she was, well, a spoiled brat. Myra certainly didn’t understand the obsession that everybody else seemed to have; she couldn’t prove it, but she had a strange feeling that the subset of the student body who really wanted to meet a princess somehow overlapped the group that otherwise claimed to oppose imperial expansion.

“Let’s just enjoy the party,” she said, taking Cynthia’s arm. It was organized by Melaney after all, so it was probably going to be good. The night air was already lit up by dozens of levitating lanterns, a group of bards was setting up at one end, and a row of kegs was at the other. Some of the dorm walls had been made incorporeal, to better connect the indoor and outdoor spaces, and the games and activities were well in motion. Some couches had been turned sideways, presumably in preparation for a game of couch wars, and another group was bouncing around a water ball.

In one corner, rocks hung in the air going several stories up. A climbing ring with everybody drunk as hell… that couldn’t go badly. At least there was a cushion.

Myra scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Zirphilia was deep into the water ball game. Aurora was chatting with a guy… she was twirling her hair and smiling, so it was probably going well. Shera was standing alone by a column, fidgeting with her hands and looking uncomfortable. Benkoten was eyeing the climbing ring, probably planning out a route. Iz, Nathan, and Tazhin were laughing in a circle.

Myra and Cynthia made a beeline for the alcohol, then, drinks in hand, navigated their way through the crowd towards their three friends.

“Are you guys gonna do couch wars?” Tazhin asked.

“Hell yeah!” Cynthia said. “Let me get shit-faced first. I don’t play couch wars sober.”

“I’d rather play to win,” said Nathan.

“Then get drunk, it’s the key. The biggest obstacle in couch wars is your own self-doubt.”

“Mm…” Myra considered the activities. “I wanna try the climbing—”

She was cut off by a ripple through the crowd, a silence growing out, having caught on and reinforcing itself. Oh. It really happened.

On the opposite side of the lawn, a very conspicuous person had entered. She was a young woman with striking pink hair tied back in a wrap-around braid, wearing a heavy black dress adorned with golden thread placed so as to accentuate her features, and a bloodstone pendant around her neck. Her head was slightly upturned, and her expression was bored, aloof. She was, no doubt, Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine.

She was followed by two others. One was a maidservant, with an exasperated look on her face. On her other side, and standing much closer to her than the maid, was another woman of around the same age. She was wearing a similar, albeit more humble, dress, and had a pixie cut of blueish-green hair. She wore teal-tinted glasses, had a smattering of freckles, and wore a bored expression matching that of the princess.

The players who had been responsible for holding the water ball together lost their focus, and it fell to the ground with a splash. (That would cost them a point.)

The princess continued unperturbed into the crowd, which sort of instinctively parted for her. Then something seemed to catch her attention.

“Hey, I know you.”

For an absurd moment, Myra actually thought the princess was talking to her until she remembered that despite all that happened in her family, it wasn’t like she had become known or had her picture plastered over every newspaper in the empire.

No, the princess was talking to Iz.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” the princess continued. “You’re that genius commoner. You won that contest.”

Iz clutched at Myra’s arm. “Ah—”

“What’s your name again?”

“Isadora, your highness.”

“Isadora! That’s right.” The princess snapped her fingers.

Myra chanced to interject. “Iz, have you… met…?” She’d known Iz had won an important contest in Jewel City, but she had never heard of the princess participating, or of Iz meeting her.

“Ah, her highness was the adjudicator…”

The Princess cut back in. “How about we have a go?”

“Pardon…?”

“Let’s face off. A proper mage’s duel. Genius commoner versus princess of royalty. Who shall triumph? Birthright, or hard work and talent?” She smirked, then teleported a meter forward, startling Iz as she appeared just in front of her, leaving her elaborate black dress in its place. It fluttered to the ground behind her. The princess now was wearing just an elastic sports bra and tight shorts, and the only accessories she had kept were her bloodstone pendant and a golden wristwatch. She was barefoot.

Her handmaiden looked extremely distressed, though she didn’t say anything.

“Um, I’m not really a duelist…” Iz said.

“Just name a prize, whatever you want. C’mon. I won’t even ask you to put anything on the line in return.”

Iz shifted uncomfortably. She was telling the truth, of course; she had never been much of a dueler. Whatever contest she’d won, it hadn’t been a dueling contest.

“Seriously, what d’you want to fight for? A mansion? A job? Just, like, money? A husband?” Suddenly, Iz took a step forward, finding some kind of resolve. “Oh? Really? A hus—”

“Your pendant.”

The princess’s smirk faltered for a moment. “What, you want a bloodstone? I could getcha—”

“No, I want your pendant.” Despite the conviction that now coursed through her words, she was visibly shaking.

“That’s a really fucking personal thing to demand.”

“You said I could name whatever I want.”

The princess clutched at the object of consideration, holding it dearly. “This is a keepsake from my mother. It’s what I remember her by—”

“My grandmother was killed in the famine that resulted when the emperor cut off Miirun from the Common Library,” Iz said. “It was her life, and I’m only asking for your memory… it sounds fair to me.”

Everyone started muttering. The princess gaped at her for what felt like an eternity, until she finally came to a decision. “Very well.”

With a wave of her hand, she sliced a circular arena into the dirt. Everybody scrambled to get out of the way as she took her place on one end. “Vi, you’re officiating.” She pulled off the pendant and tossed it to her freckled pixie-cut friend, who caught it without question. The princess summoned her staff to her hand, which appeared out of thin air.

Iz took her place opposite the princess. Her neck was drenched in sweat.

“Iz!” Cynthia called out. “You don’t have to—”

Iz looked back, but then she held up a hand and returned her attention to the princess, resolve intact. Cynthia looked at Myra, uneasy. From the terms of the duel, though, the worst that could happen was that Iz would lose. Right?

The friend—Vi—clapped her hands and took command of attention. “All right! We are gathered for the duel between Isadora and Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine. At stake by Princess Malazhonerra is her honor, and her mother’s bloodstone pendant. At stake by Isadora is her honor. We shall use the Prerarian Code of Duels.”

Myra breathed a sigh of relief, and she heard Cynthia do the same beside her. The Prerarian Code was a sensible and safe one.

“Are there any objections to the terms?”

“I have no objections,” said the princess, popping her knuckles.

“I have no objections,” said Iz.

“Then let us enjoy a fair fight, and may the best mage win. 3… 2… 1… Begin.”

Before Iz could cast, she was knocked into the air several meters back, while blood sprayed from several gashes that appeared instantaneously across her stomach. She hit the ground with a thud, and she screamed, though it came out in a bit of a gurgle, as she coughed up blood.

Everybody screamed, and Myra, Cynthia, Nathan, and several others rushed to Iz. Over the clamoring, Myra only barely heard Vi announcing Princess Malazhonerra as victorious.

“Iz! Iz!” Myra screamed. Her friend’s face was streaked with tears, and she clutched at Myra’s robe. Myra took her hand while Cynthia immediately began casting a spell to stop blood loss.

There were a handful of voices clamoring, but the one that got through the clearest was Benkoten’s. “What the bloody hell was that? That wasn’t the fucking Prerarian Code, your highness.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“She was knocked back before she got cut.” the princess snarled. “And the duel ended when the first spell hit. Damn crybabies, it’s not like she’s gonna fucking die.” She picked up her dress, which was still where she left it on the ground earlier. “Vi, let’s get out of here.”

Vi followed after, sparing only a kinda-apologetic look back at the group. It was hard to give her any benefit of the doubt, though, when she had proudly proclaimed Malazhonerra as the victor only a moment ago.

“Cynthia, get her to the infirmary,” Myra muttered.

“O-okay.” She looked at Myra in confusion as Myra stood up, wiping a tear from her eye.

Myra, usually, did not think of herself as a particularly selfless person. If you had asked her earlier, if would she stand up to imperial royalty for no reason other than for the sake of her friend’s honor, she probably would have said no.

But…

When Iz had started at Ralkenon University, she had taken a lot of shit. A ‘commoner’ made for an easy target, and people didn’t like being outshone by one. Her first few weeks had been hell. Then Myra, in a moment of unusual moral clarity, had invited Iz to eat lunch with her and Cynthia. Whenever Myra started to feel bad about herself, she often thought back to that moment. At least I had the common decency to do that much, she could think.

If she did nothing here… Myra didn’t think she could be proud of that anymore. That’s why she acted.

Or maybe it was the alcohol.

“Hey, your highest cunt,” she shouted at the princess. “You think you can pull this shit and not face me afterward?”

The princess turned around.

“And who the fuck are you?”

“I’m… I’m Isadora’s second!” Myra invented.

The princess cocked her head. “Well, do you dispute my victory?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely, I do.”

The princess snickered. If there was an actual protocol that Myra was butchering, she had no idea.

Myra took a deep breath and continued. “Forget slashing up her stomach. I know what you pulled to knock her back like that.”

Her eyes went dark. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“I’m—I’m not accusing you of anything,” Myra backed off. “I’m just disputing your victory.”

“Mm. So then what do you propose?”

“Duel me. Prerarian Code, your fucked up version of it, and if I win, you have to apologize to Iz. Forget the pendant; you just have to apologize to Iz. Beg for her forgiveness.”

“And if I win?”

“Didn’t you hear me? You get to cut me up or whatever you want to do.”

She chuckled to herself. Something had returned to her eyes, a thirst for asserting her dominance, perhaps, and Myra was sure for a moment she was going to accept. Before she spoke, though, Vi put a hand on her shoulder.

“Mal. C’mon, we should go.” The princess frowned, but she paid attention to her friend. “This already spiraled out of control. If you win again, it’ll just make it all worse. We should leave it here.”

The princess looked at her friend for a bit and finally exhaled. “Fine. You’re right.”

Seriously? You’re going to say that like this isn’t 100% your fault? As if you’re somehow being forced into escalating the situation?

They turned to leave …

Then they were interrupted again.

This time, it was Benkoten. “Hold on a moment.”

“Oh, what is it now?”

“My name is Benkoten Talzatta.” Standing upright, with a bag over his shoulder, he held out his hand, as if greeting someone at a networking event. “I’m the student body president here at Ralkenon University. I’m afraid I have to speak up here, as standing up for the students here is my elected obligation.” He eventually put his unshaken hand down, right at the boundary of it becoming awkward.

“And?”

“I can’t say I abide by you leaving things this way, acting as though you are taking the high road by leaving things at this, ignoring the option to simply do the right thing and apologize. All while refusing to acknowledge your own blame in the situation.”

Yes! He’d put into words exactly how frustrated Myra was.

“So what do you propose, then?”

“Exactly what I said. You apologize. If not, then I will duel you for it. On the honor of… the Ralkenon student body whose social event had been spoiled.”

The princess rolled her eyes—no, her whole head. “You all are making all this up… Vi, what do you think?”

The bespectacled woman looked a little bewildered at this turn of events. She blinked a few times, then seemed to compose herself. She waffled, “Ehh. Sure. I guess he’s got a point? Duel if you really want to. Why not?”

The maidservant buried her face in her hands.

◆

How had they all ended up here, exactly…?

I was supposed to be her second! part of Myra thought indignantly, while every other part was relieved and appreciative at not having to fight or endanger her stomach.

“We are gathered for the duel between Student Body President Benkoten Talzatta and Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine. At stake by Princess Malazhonerra is her honor, and an apology. At stake by President Benkoten is his honor, and by proxy, the honor of the student body. We shall use the… Prerarian Code of Duels. Are there any objections to the terms?”

“I have no objections,” said the princess. She stood at the ready, but her eyes lacked the same fury as they had earlier.

“I have no objections,” said Benkoten. He had set his shoulder bag to the side of the field, though he was still wearing his stiff, formal student council robes.

“Then let us enjoy a fair fight, and may the best mage win. 3… 2… 1… Begin.”

Benkoten started instantly with a barrier all around his body. Malazhonerra, however, didn’t try the same trick as last time. Instead, she conjured lightning from her hands, assaulting Benkoten’s barrier, leaving smoke behind but ultimately failing to break through. Meanwhile, Benkoten swept her legs from behind with a strong gust of wind. I was gonna start with that too…

As she fell backward in mid-air, she teleported and appeared standing at Benkoten’s back. Teleporting while changing pose was pretty advanced, but not unexpected for someone of her status. As soon as she appeared, though, she yelped and leaped back. She nearly landed out of the arena, but she telekinetically adjusted the border, crudely drawn in the dirt, before she hit the ground.

There was a lot of confused clamoring from the audience, and more cries that the princess had abused the terms. Myra knew, though, that manipulating the border was, in fact, allowed in some circumstances. As for why she had jumped back, Myra could only guess that Benkoten had anticipated the teleport and superheated the air around him without her noticing. It was a pretty good trick.

Unfortunately, Ben seemed to have blown his advantage by not accounting for the possibility of the moved border. Already telekinetically attuned to the dirt on the ground, she lifted massive chunks into the air and flung them at Benkoten. His barrier finally broke from the barrage, and it took all his attention to halt the projectiles with focused dispels. As a result, he nearly missed the rocks flying at him from a different direction, which the princess had pulled from the climbing ring.

He just barely dodged, and one of the rocks almost hit Shera, still standing by herself on the opposite side of the field. She stumbled backwards and fell, tripping over Benkoten’s shoulder bag. She scrambled to her feet, looking terribly alarmed. Vi grimaced at the entire situation, though she didn’t do anything about the tactics that were again starting to veer on fairly questionable.

She tried the lightning bolt again, but Benkoten dispelled it with split-second reflexes. The princess tried a few more times just to meet the same result, and she grimaced, clearly frustrated. She switched to producing wind, but Benkoten dispelled it, again almost instantly. The princess snarled in frustration, and Benkoten smirked. Damn, his reflexes are nothing to sneeze at.

It looked like he was gaining the upper hand again, but though he was finally able to instigate his own volley of dirt projectiles, the princess dodged all of them. In fact, they seemed to just miss her; Myra suspected she was warping space like Iz did sometimes. It looked like one was going to slip past and hit her, but at the last second, she teleported it. Ben’s eyes went wide, and he leaped to his right, presumably guessing that the rock was now aimed at him from behind.

But he guessed wrong.

The rock had appeared to his side, traversing the field horizontally. The projectile struck his arm with enough force to count as a victory.

◆

Not much happened after this. The princess shortly left with her party, and people generally seemed… mollified that the princess had now won… ‘by the book.’ Well, the rock thing was still kind of iffy.

Anyway, Myra didn’t hang around anymore. She went to check on Iz, whom Cynthia had taken to the infirmary. She was going to be fine, although she was pretty shaken by the events and unwilling to talk much about it. Myra and Cynthia stayed with her for a while, and Tazhin and Nathan stopped by as well. This created quite the crowd, though, which pissed off the nurse a bit. It wasn’t long before Iz was ready to sleep and the group was ejected.

The four of them widely agreed they didn’t want to go back to the party, except Nathan, who had framed it as a mission to gather intel on what the rest of campus was thinking. Cynthia and Tazhin headed back to the dorms, while Myra decided to take a walk and clear her head.

Why couldn’t I fight?

Myra was annoyed that she hadn’t fought harder to be the duelist, especially now that she had seen the princess had been more… restrained in the second duel. Not that it should have mattered. She should have stood up to defend her friend, shouldn’t she have? Not stood up and then backed down as soon as it was convenient.

Coward.

She stopped as she noticed a crowd down the walkway. Of course. Had she gone this way on purpose? Maybe she had.

It was the crowd getting ready to enter the event hall for the peace talks or trade talks or whatever they were. She recognized the looming figure of Prince Humperton, and Princess Malazhonerra was there beside him. She was in her black dress again, and she was looking vaguely pissed off. She was absent her two companions—incidentally, Myra had learned from Nathan that “Vi” was likely Violet Penrilla, the daughter of Duke Henrick Penrilla. It made sense enough to Myra. Violet Penrilla would be in the right social caste to be a personal friend of the imperial princess.

Also in the group was the King of Unkmire, whom Myra could pick out simply based on his dress, accompanied by three staff members whose roles Myra couldn’t guess. There were half a dozen imperial sages in their own distinguished garb. Of those, she thought she recognized the Imperial Sage of Magical Infrastructure, Hazel Ornobis, though it was only because her predecessor’s death had recently been in the news that she had any space in Myra’s head at all.

And finally, there was one man she was surprised to also recognize: Justice Philium Krasus. The man was quite hard to miss, with the distinctive attire of a judge, with long robes and a curly wig. Presumably, he was here to adjudicate fair negotiations, though the idea of an imperial judge serving as a neutral party was laughable. Myra recognized him because he had been the judge on her father’s case, the one who had blown through the evidence with ruthless efficiency, settling matters in less than a week from start to finish. He was a bit shorter than Myra had been imagining, as the only picture she had seen was of him sitting down at her father’s trial, though he was no less intimidating for it. Myra’s mind went back to the letter from her father, which she still hadn’t found the will to open.

The group eventually started to enter the building. It looked like they were teleporting in with the assistance of Iwasaki, the security head Myra had met outside the building before. Before long, only Iwasaki remained outside.

The talks are in session, I guess.

In the end, Cynthia had been right. This really was a bunch of nothing, as far as any of the students were concerned.

Myra kept walking, but she was startled all of a sudden to run into Benkoten.

“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you—”

“Oh, no problem, it’s just a little dark out, you know…”

“I was actually looking for you, Myra.”

“Oh, is this about the duels?”

Benkoten nodded. “Yeah, I wanted to thank you, actually, for standing up.”

“Oh, it’s—it’s nothing. I didn’t do anything in the end.”

“But you did!” Benkoten insisted. “If you hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have stood up either. The fact is, I was content to let it blow over. It was only when you confronted the princess that I was reminded of my duty as student president.”

“Eh, heh heh.” Myra scratched the back of her neck. “I mean, I probably should have insisted…”

“Nonsense! If you all can’t rely on me to stand up to your defense, I don’t deserve my title as student president. Given my dreadful showing, I’m not sure I deserve it anyway.”

Myra didn’t know where Benkoten was getting his ideas of a student president’s duties, but his words made her chest glow all the same. I inspired someone with my courage…?

“I’m sure you deserve it,” Myra reassured him. “And thank you, for your kind words.”

“Anyway, have the talks started yet? I noticed you watching the event hall.”

“Yes, they’re all inside now, I think.”

“Ah, a shame. I would have liked to see it… I suppose it wasn’t much to see, though. Hey, uh—” He scratched at his neck. “There was actually something else I wanted to ask you. Would you come to my room for a sec? Ah, I mean, I have a gift for you, there.”

Myra couldn’t recall Benkoten acting so nervous before. Oh…

Myra had started to have suspicions from the last few tutoring sessions, as Benkoten had become more familiar and warmer. And she was at least open to it… but tonight? This wasn’t the time…

Well…

Well, Myra would hear him out, at least. He had stood up for Iz, after all. “Sure, let’s go.”

◆

The gift was a bundle of flowers.

It was a very nice bundle of flowers, too. It really was very sweet.

“Myrabelle,” Benkoten started in the cute overly formal tone that came naturally to him. “I, uh, I, I wanted to make a proposition, would you like to be my girlfriend?”

“Ah… maybe we should go out a few times, first? I mean, I’m interested…” It’s just, ‘girlfriend’ is a bit much to commit to right now…

He grimaced, fidgeted, and seemed to choose his words carefully. “I was hoping for a more definitive answer. Like, I don’t want to put you on the spot or anything. It’s just, I don’t want to be strung along, you know.”

You are putting me on the spot, though…

“I don’t want to string you along!” Myra protested. “I mean it, I am interested. Maybe, I mean. I mean, it’s just, a lot happened tonight, you know? I need some time to think about it. And if you’re worried about being strung along, we just make a deadline? Like, I can give you an answer a week from now. For sure.”

“Next week is…” He fidgeted again. “It’s hard to explain, but I’d quite prefer an answer tonight.”

Myra didn’t know how to respond to this level of pushiness. “Um…”

“Hold on, your tea’s almost ready.”

“Oh, sure.”

He scuttled into his room’s mini-kitchen to pull the kettle off. It was now an established habit to make mint tea whenever Myra came over. He poured a cup and handed it to her, a sad look in his eyes. What did he expect? I’m being totally reasonable, aren’t I?

Would it be rude to turn down the tea? I kind of want to go… This was turning awkward.

“Did I do something wrong?” he asked.

“Yeah, you’re being kind of… impatient?” She went ahead and sipped her tea.

“No, I mean before that like. Is there anything I could have done that would have made your answer an enthusiastic ‘yes’?” After cleaning up some of the dishes in the kitchen, he had moved to his bag, which he had unzipped and was rummaging through for something. “I’m looking for genuine feedback here.”

What the fuck? Why has he gotten so weird? I didn’t even say ‘no’! I just said I needed a few days and now he’s shooting himself in the fucking foot!

“Sorry… I… don’t have anything to say.”

Benkoten didn’t respond though, as his attention had gone more intensely to his bag. He was rummaging through it pretty aggressively now, tossing out all kinds of school supplies, looking increasingly exasperated.

“Um—”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” He was looking in all the other compartments now. “FUCK.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Sorry, I—I seem to have lost something really important.”

“Do you want me to help search your room?”

“No, it—it must have fallen out—” He was flustered and distracted, and he started ticking off his fingers like he was thinking through the day. “What the hell! Myra, can you—sorry, can you stay here a sec? I won’t be long, I just need—sorry, look, I know I’ve been—just—”

“Ben—”

“I’ll apologize more properly when I get back.” He ran out of the room, leaving Myra alone with her mint tea.

I have to wait for him?!

She held her face in her hands and let out a brief cry of frustration. The barrage of crap was starting to overwhelm her, and her head started to thump. Ugh…

She walked out into the hall, but he was already out of sight.

How long would he be? Would he really just be a minute? Maybe he knows long-range teleporting? It was restricted within the building, of course, but he could have gone outside. Long-range teleporting was quite advanced, though, much more difficult than just moving a couple of meters.

Tiredness started to overwhelm her. Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to wait.

Myra scribbled a note apologizing and left for the stairwell. I’m right, aren’t I? He was acting weird, it wasn’t just my imagination? Did I misread something?

If he hadn’t run out, we might’ve been able to clear something up…

Myra wondered what could have been so important, anyway, or why he’d even been looking for it.

She heard someone running behind her. Was he back already…?

It wasn’t Benkoten. It was Shera, looking panicked.

“My-Myra!”

“Huuuh?” It came out in a bit of a drawl, unintentionally.

“I-I-I-I-I heard y-you went-t-t-t off with Ben-Ben-Benko-t-t-ten—” She was waving her arms frantically and was even harder to understand than usual, her agitation compounding on top of her speech impediment. “He-he-he had—at-t-t the match—I s-s-s-saw in his b-bag he set d-d-downnn—” Huh. That had happened, hadn’t it? She had tripped over it?

Wait, was that why he was missing something?

“Sherrra—” She started to say. Oh fuck, what the hell was wrong with her? She clutched at her head. “What’d youu sseee—”

“In the b-bag, he, he had da-da-da-date-date r-rape drugs—”

Oh. Myra swayed. “The teaaa—” That explains… a lot…

Wait, no it doesn’t! He already drugged me, so what was missing from his fucking bag?

“—and, and th-these sy-syringes, I-I f-freaked out and I-I t-took ev-everything—” She pulled two syringes out of her pocket, one with a bright red drug, almost pink, and the other a deep blue and showed Myra.

“Sherrra, he—”

“Hold on, hold on, I-I brought a-a—” Her hands scrambled around her pockets while she awkwardly held the syringes in her hand. “a-a-here—” She pulled out a small walnut-sized gel that Myra quickly recognized as an antidote. Oh thank fuck—

“Oh, you’re the one who took my serums.”

Benkoten had appeared from the stairwell. Myra’s mouth went dry.

“Y-you—” Shera only got the single word out. There was a pop and crunch, and a shimmer in her vision of a small projectile that was too fast to see, and a small streak of red from Shera’s head. She crumpled to the ground.

I took Myra a second to process what she’d seen. Benkoten carelessly bent down to recover the chemicals from Shera’s hand. The antidote gel went rolling away, either unnoticed by or unimportant to Benkoten.

What the—

What the fuck?

Shera was—

Myra ran. Or she tried to run. The effects of the drug were now severe, and she was completely defenseless, barely able to attune to an elemental or reach into Abstract Space. So she tried to run, but she couldn’t very well do that either. She didn’t get very far before Benkoten yanked her up by the collar and dragged her.

“You, youu murrrderrred—”

“No, I didn’t,” he spat. “Well, not really. It’s not something I’m going to explain. God, what a clusterfuck she made this into.” He tossed Myra roughly onto his bed. “And of course, she shows up with my stolen property after I go through the trouble to get a replacement…”

Cast something, idiot, fuck, what can you cast—ignoring the fact that she was being crushed by the weight of her own skull, her staff had fallen in the hallway with the antidote gel, and she had almost no options. In this state, there was no spell she could initiate, maybe she could modify something, if there was something around—

“You murrrderring raaap—” She helplessly tried to move to the edge of the bed, but he simply pushed her back, meeting

She was going to die, wasn’t she? She had witnessed him kill Shera in cold blood—she would have to go.

It still doesn’t make any sense, though! There was no way he’ll fool the murder investigation! What the fuck is he thinking?

What did murderers ever think, though? Did they just, not think?

“I’m not a rapist, Myra,” he growled, running one hand along her hair. “I’m going to figure out how to impress you and win your heart properly. I’ll get it right eventually.”

“Wh—the fuuckk—”

“Don’t worry about it.” He loomed over her with the red syringe in hand. Myra remembered something.

She reached out with her mind, several stories until she found the enchantment on the wall, the one that had been made incorporeal as part of the party setup. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to find it, but with the topological senses she’d modestly honed over the last month, the unexpected hole in the building was easier to find than she expected. She latched onto the enchantment and pulled it up to the bed she was lying on, and to the floor below it.

Myra fell through while Benkoten cried out in shock, and she dispelled the enchantment on the floor immediately, making it solid again before Benkoten could fall through. He had been leaning over her, so her aim was for him to fall and pin him under the bed. Well, it wasn’t like the bed would trap him or anything, but maybe it would cost him like three seconds.

Probably the first lucky thing for Myra was that she landed on a bed. She’d honestly had no idea what was going to be below her; with Benkoten’s bedroom being a different layout, she’d had no way to know if the beds in the adjacent floor plans would line up. Anyway, she did land on a bed. And she also didn’t land on a person. The room was empty.

At this point, she could only make half the effort she needed to walk. And she could only make half the effort she needed to do meaningful magic. But she could combine those two things. With her legs barely supported by the little magical strength she had, she walked over someone’s dirty laundry to reach the door. Relief washed over her as she looked into the hall to see that her plan had worked. She had used one final piece of incorporeality to have her staff and the antidote gel fall down from the floor above.

She popped the gel in her mouth. It was like the sensation when you hold your breath and finally breathe in. The gel worked instantly, the fog lifting off her senses and her motor control returning to normal. He grabbed her staff, and—

Benkoten appeared.

Myra boggled. He can subvert the dorm anti-teleport field? It wasn’t like the dorm’s security was the best in the empire, or anything, but it was still pretty good. Myra didn’t even know the theory behind such a thing, or where she could learn.

There was one place Myra knew the wards would let her teleport: her room. Of course, if she vanished, Benkoten would know she had gone there. Still, she didn’t have time to think about it. She teleported to her room—a trivial feat, with her regained magical senses and her staff in hand—she just had to activate a spell in Abstract Space that the dorm made available to her only.

Myra didn’t know how to long-range teleport. Instead, she grabbed an enchanted stick from a cup on her desk, which she had been saving for a day she was late to class. She didn’t know if the stick would work in the building or not, so she hopped out her window and snapped the stick in half. In an instant, she appeared across campus at the main academic building.

She would be safe here… probably. In principle, he might be able to guess where she’d gone, so she immediately set off again.

What the fuck just happened?

Benkoten could evade expert-level disruption fields. He could teleport into anybody’s dorm room… did he use that to peep? How much of a creep was he?

And what the fuck was going on with the drugs? There had been two drugs, right? There was the ‘date-rape drug’ that had paralyzed her, which had probably been in her tea—she hadn’t seen Benkoten spike it, but there were a handful of ways it could be done. Then there were the drugs in the syringes… which Benkoten had planned to inject into her after she had already been drugged…?

And there had also been a date-rape drug in the bag that Shera had taken, right? She’d taken it in addition to the syringes? It’d been hard to understand her, but Myra was pretty sure that’s what she’d been saying—

Oh, Shera.

Fuck.

She was dead. No matter what Benkoten’s ravings had implied, she was definitely dead—she’d died helping Myra. Without Shera, I would have been a victim for sure. He would have kept the upper hand the whole time, and there wouldn’t have been any antidote for me.

Myra felt like throwing up. I can’t believe it… I’d never gotten along with her, but she may have saved my life for all I know… It felt like her stomach was full of hot iron.

She slapped her cheeks to force herself to focus. All this, figuring out what the fuck was going on, grieving, it could happen after she had dealt with Benkoten. She reached into Abstract Space and searched for the campus alarm trigger. She didn’t know where it was immediately because she was a complete idiot. She didn’t know where the alarm was, she didn’t carry emergency teleport sticks. It was pure luck she’d had one lying around her room at all …

While she was searching for it, Abstract Space went dark.

What…?

This experience was so baffling it didn’t even bother Myra at first. Her entire mind was convinced she was misunderstanding something simple. But after a minute or so, it became obvious something was deeply wrong.

Where the fuck is the Common Library?

She could access Abstract Space. She could even find some of her own personal scratchwork that she’d left untethered to anything. But the Common Library was… gone.

It’s… the drug is still in me, right? It wasn’t just a date-rape drug, it was a cut-you-off-from-the-Common-Library-ten-minutes-later drug. That was immune to antidotes. This is a completely plausible scenario.

The Common Library can’t be gone!

Then the ground rumbled. Though it startled Myra, it was a pretty weak quake.

The next one, a moment later, almost knocked her off her feet.

“Shit!” she cried, against all common sense when someone was possibly hunting her. “Fuck, will this day ever end?!” It was probable that nobody heard her because she was drowned out by the loud crash of roofs collapsing all around her and a loud, screeching alarm she’d never heard before. What the shit? The buildings shouldn’t be that poorly built!

The city had tested its emergency alarm system before. It had been nothing like this, though, and it had also provided some instructions telepathically, while this one was not.

Myra ran. She just ran, she hardly cared where. She was sure the infirmary was one of the buildings to fall. Iz had to be dead. What about Cynthia? Nathan? Tazhin?

Finally, she came upon an authority figure. Iwasaki, the head of security, was standing outside the event hall, working frantically on some enchantment with an orb the size of his head.

“Sir!” He looked up at her. “Sir! Benkoten, the class president, he killed Shera Marcrombie, he tried to rape me—”

“I feel awful to say this,” Iwasaki said quickly, “but I need to deal with the emergency right now. I will handle your situation, I promise. Please, stay here in the meantime.”

“O-okay.”

Iwasaki returned to whatever he was doing with the orb. Myra presumed it was the interface to the event hall’s security system.

“You’re getting them out?”

“No, we’re going to be going in,” he explained. This is the safest place on campus. Actually, would you send up a flair, so people know to come here? This alarm does not have the capability to provide instructions.”

“Um, yeah, of course.” Myra did as he instructed, sending up a flare into the sky. She had to think carefully about how to do it because she could not access the usual spell in the Common Library. She had to cast from scratch. “So what is this alarm, anyway?”

“It is a back-up alarm, for if the main one with the telepathic capabilities fails. I presume it failed because it relies on functionality from the Common Library.”

“So the Common Library really is gone—um, or I mean, inaccessible?”

Iwasaki didn’t answer. However, he seemed to finish what he was doing, and Myra felt it, too. The interior space had been reconnected. Finally, Iwasaki unlocked the chains in the front of the building, a surprisingly quick bit of telekinesis.

They entered together, Myra behind Iwasaki, as she didn’t want to be the one to interrupt the important trade summit.

However, that worry turned out to be the wrong one.

◆

The sight consisted of the following.

A large, circular table was in the center of the room, overlooked by three decorative suits of armor, and surrounded by a mural that covered the walls and ceiling, depicting the founding events of the nation of Casire.

Around the table were thirteen chairs. Eleven of these chairs were occupied by the following people: Imperial Prince Humperton William Raine, six imperial sages, the King of Unkmire, and three other individuals from Unkmire.

These people were all dead, drenched in the spray of their own blood. Their throats had been slit.

Of the remaining chairs, one was empty, and angled a bit away from the table, and the other—the most decorative chair in the room—had been knocked over. By its design, it was clearly intended for the arbiter, Justice Philium Krasus. The judge also lay on the floor, belly-up, with his arms and legs sprawled outwards. His wig had fallen off, and there was a dent on his forehead, the source of a pool of blood. His throat had also been slit. Nearby on the floor was a decorative mace, which looked like it went with one of the armor statues.

Finally, the thirteenth person, Imperial Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine, was on the surface of the table. She was in six parts: a torso, two legs, two arms, and a head. These were separated, each by about half a meter from the torso, as if she had just been pulled apart. Her torso had two deep gashes horizontally through the stomach. A bloodstone pendant was between the torso and her head, sitting on top of her pink hair, which stretched the length between her head and the stump of her neck. A golden wristwatch remained on her left arm, identical to one worn by her father.

Hachirou Iwasaki, the man responsible for the safety of these thirteen individuals, was speechless.

Myrabelle Prua-Kent, no longer caring whether the inside or outside was “safer,” decided to leave. Regardless, an answer came soon enough, arriving with the loudest noise Myra had heard in her life.

She had partly expected it since the first earthquakes, and from her understanding that the protective barriers relied on the aura channels which relied on the Common Library. In the end, nowhere was safe.

The cap of the Ralkenon Volcano burst into ash and smoke and lava, descending on the campus—no, the city—to wipe clean the fallout of a series of insane and incomprehensible events. Myra died in agony, smothered by the inferno.