The next twenty-four hours were a blur.

Jacob, Camilla, Tanaka, and Brother Bondar were taken to the campus clinic. Brother Bondar was wheeled to the Emergency, but Jacob and the others, not needing immediate medical attention, were given beds in the third floor ward.

Coming from the craziness of the fight, all the flashing magic and telepathy and Brother Bondar's surprisingly magical relics, the hospital ward was eerily mundane. The clean sheets, the smell of antiseptic, the constant bright overhead lights took Jacob back to those times his parents had taken him to the hospital for phantom illnesses when he was younger.

If only they could see him now.

Jacob asked the nurse if Blake was in the hospital, but she said he wasn't. He texted his roommate, but there was no answer.

Tanaka had his collarbone and shoulder cleaned and bandaged, and then it was just the three of them there in the empty ward. They discussed the battle, talking strategy and what they could have done better, hindsight being 20/20 and all.

Tanaka drifted off mid-conversation, his snoring a sudden, startling response which gave Jacob a chuckle and Camilla a giggle. Jacob wanted to stay up and chat with Camilla but his head kept lolling forward and he'd have to jerk himself back awake, only to drift a few minutes later.

He slept like a stone, and probably would have slept right through to the end of the next day, but the three of them were woken in the mid-morning by VP Leslie and directed to dress and accompany her back to the Vanderbilt Building where they would be interviewed about 'the incident.'

She took them to the basement of the Vanderbilt where they were split up. The room Jacob was sent into reminded him a lot of a police interrogation room. Two sparse chairs faced each other across an unadorned metal table. A small security camera protruded from the top left corner of the room, a little red light on the bottom indicating it was watching.

A campus security officer with a little golden crest on his breast that must have signified a special rank or something came in and introduced himself as Officer Mullen. He asked Jacob questions. Lots of questions.

Jacob hadn't had time to work out the story of their investigation with Camilla and Tanaka; to decide what they could tell, what they should tell, and most importantly, what they would tell. He hadn't thought he would have to. None of them had suspected they would be interrogated.

In the end, Jacob trusted his gut. He didn't rat out any of the others. He didn't mention the Necromancy or any of the other illegal stuff they'd done. He'd just hope the others would do the same. After all, they'd agreed, hadn't they?

A tall, severe man who looked like he hadn't seen the sun in a while came in some time into the interrogation. He introduced himself as Detective Colbane. He asked the questions for a while, sometimes retracing the campus security officer's questions, then left.

As the interrogation dragged on, Jacob grew more and more resentful. They'd just caught the campus killer and here they were being treated like criminals. He told himself it was just how police investigation in the real world went. The heroes and saviours only got off scot free in stories. The police had to investigate everyone involved, build an objective picture of what had happened.

It felt hollow.

He wondered if they were heroes. Seemed an awfully immodest thought, but they had done something heroic, hadn't they? Still, he didn't really feel heroic. He felt tired, worn out. The greatest reward in the world to him in that moment would be them letting him go back to his dorm and go to sleep.

Then it was suddenly over and the three of them were together again in a small classroom with VP Leslie at the front. She told them the faculty were keeping things quiet until they had enough information to make an official statement. That meant the three of them were sworn to silence until the official statement 'on penalty of expulsion.'

"You're free to go now and attend your classes this afternoon," VP Leslie said, arms folded. "We will let you know if we need you again."

Jacob hoped they wouldn't.

VP Leslie cleared her throat. "And thank you. Each of you. Jacob, Camilla, Yoshihiro. You've done a good thing."

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Jacob nodded and half-smiled. It felt good to be thanked. Real good.

VP Leslie let them go. Before they left, Jacob asked her what had happened to Blake.

"Mr McGinnis is undergoing special treatment. We're making sure he didn't suffer any residual effects from the ritual Ishaan was preparing. You'll be able to see him tomorrow."

"Okay."

The three of them waltzed out of the Vanderbilt Building into the faux-sunshine.

Jacob stared across at the three type buildings and shook his head. "Like I'm going to fucking class after that."

Tanaka grunted. "Hilarious."

"You should," Camilla said.

Jacob frowned. "What? Seriously?"

"Don't start with that goody two-shoes routine," Tanaka said.

"I'm not," Camilla said. "We really should, though. It'll be good. Trust me."

Jacob looked over at her. She looked exhausted, but there was something in her eyes that washed away all of his arguments. "Okay. Fine."

"Ugh..." Tanaka said. "I guess if you're both going..."

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Joining the stream of students, entering the vaulted auditorium, sitting down in his seat felt like a glimpse of a world Jacob didn't belong to anymore. He was a dog entering a house full of cats.

Camilla looked equally stunned, though Tanaka was harder to read and disappeared to his seat in the back corner of the room.

Jacob swore Prof Michaelson looked hard at both him and Camilla when he walked in, carrying a large coffee, but he said nothing and launched into the lecture normally as if nothing were amiss.

At first Michaelson's loud, if hoarse, voice washed over Jacob. He couldn't seem to ratify that they were actually here in the light of day in class after what had happened last night, with no one the wiser. The only genuine tell was that Ishaan's seat was empty.

After some time, realizing there was nothing he could do and that worrying over it like his parents would have done was pointless, he settled in and began taking notes.

They were reviewing the reinforced wards section of the class in preparation for the exam, Prof Michaelson going over the intricacies and differences of internal support structures.

Exams started in four days.

Four. Days.

Jacob's pen clattered to his desk. He dropped his head into his hands. He'd barely even cracked the tip of the iceberg. Sure he'd done some work for the three type classes, but he'd done nothing for Intro or Basics. And there were practical components too...

He groaned.

"What's wrong?" Camilla nudged him.

"Will you help me study for this?" He asked.

"Of course."

"Thanks."

They hadn't gotten an exemption from the faculty for taking down Ishaan. Not even an option to write a make-up a few days after everyone else.

Jacob chuckled. You couldn't make this shit up, could you?

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The afternoon and evening devolved into rigorous studying. The funny part was that Jacob actually felt more confident about the practical components of the exam. At least for Prod and Cons. He'd managed to cast plenty of spells under pressure in the fight with Ishaan. Decomp was still an ordeal every time he attempted it. Grinding divination with Tanaka had helped him a bit, but he was nowhere near where he should have been.

The real issue was cramming everything into his skull in the next four days. Camilla and him went to the library. They poured over the textbooks until their eyes hurt, then quizzed each other—Camilla doing most of the asking—on minutiae about the lives of the Big Three before World War One, and the history of the development of Production magic—which Camilla probably knew more intimately than either Prof Michaelson or Prof Muesli.

Blake was released from the special ward Friday afternoon. Jacob met him at their dorm. His roommate seemed rattled, but he supposed that was to be expected. A short while later, the faculty released the 'official' statement stating the vampire had been caught.

Jacob read it on his phone, sitting in his dorm room with Blake. So many details had been left out, including his, Camilla's, and Tanaka's involvement. They'd said it was campus security who had apprehended the suspect. They didn't mention that it had been a Ritual Mage and not a vampire. They didn't mention the attack on Blake. They didn't mention that it had been Ishaan.

While Jacob was a little peeved about not being included, Blake was relieved.

"I don't want the notoriety," Blake shook his head. "Not now."

"Really?" Jacob asked.

"Everyone I know would know. It would be weird. And all these people would ask me if I was okay or feeling fine or whatever," Blake sighed. "I don't have the energy for that right now."

Jacob grunted. He supposed that was fair. The notoriety that had come with being a white mage hadn't exactly been stifling, and he'd gotten used to the occasional remark or random recognition, but did he really need more of it now? No, not really.

"Yeah, you're right," Jacob said. "Should focus on exams. You wanna go study?"

Blake seemed to think this was funny. "No. Studying's the last thing on my mind right now."

Understandable, given the circumstances. "Why don't we go for a walk around the town, then, maybe stop in the market and get something to eat."

"Amen to that," Blake said.

They did just that. Blake had already thanked Jacob profusely for saving his life, and had asked him for Tanaka's number so he could thank him as well. Camilla he would probably see at some point.

It had made Jacob uncomfortable, being thanked like that, but later he appreciated the gesture. A distance had sprouted around Blake, and while they didn't talk about the incident, they were both thinking about it, and lapsed into long, irretrievable silences.

Jacob didn't push. He himself was just glad it was over.