Eventually, the Institute was secure and their class was allowed to return to the normal world. They'd missed the first half of Intro to Magical History already and by the time they got back Prof Muesli had cancelled it. They all received a very loud email about making sure to do the readings. Blake and the others went back to the dorms to get some rest, but Jacob figured he'd go and check that book Dr Renault had mentioned out of the library first.

Fireball Roast bustled with the afternoon rush, but the library was thankfully empty. Jacob started looking for the book then remembered that the library had a weird numbering system instead of doing it by alphabetical order. He could have looked up the book on the website but he forced himself to go up to the desk, where Mrs Macdonald sat, reading a leather bound tome.

"Hi," Jacob said.

"Ah, Mr Caibo. What brings you here today?" Mrs Macdonald asked, tipping her spectacles back up her nose.

"I'm looking for a Production magic book by Antonio D'Angelo," Jacob said.

Mrs Macdonald chuckled. "You're going to have to be more specific. What's the title?"

"It's called Magical Absorption and Transferral."

Mrs Macdonald frowned. "Really? Hmm, I think that might be in the restricted section." She slid her chair over to the monitor and started plucking away at the keyboard.

"There's a restricted section?" Jacob asked, suddenly nervous.

"Yes, mostly for banned magics and magic too dangerous to let the students have free access to. Can't have a bunch of you running around trying to cast Necromancy and other banned magics," Mrs Macdonald chuckled.

Jacob laughed nervously.

"It's a running debate within the institution whether or not we should even have one, but I won't bore you with the details of that. May I ask why you're looking for this book?"

"Dr Renault—she works in the Menagerie—recommended it to me because I was curious about mageiatophagous creatures and the vampire."

Mrs Macdonald nodded. "I see. Regardless of her recommendation, it is in fact in the restricted area, which means you need to be faculty to access it."

Rats.

"However, I can reference some other books on Production by Antonio D'Angelo. They might be useful in building an understanding around the family of spells that make up magical absorption. Okay?"

"Okay."

"There's Methodology for Classification of Production Spells and The Siphon: How Producers Generate their Magic. I remember that second one when it came out. Seminal work. Go have a look for those two, see if there's anything relevant. Here's their numbers."

Ms Macdonald recited the numerical location of the books and Jacob took it down on his phone.

He nodded farewell and went deeper into the library. Why would something like mageiatophagy be in the restricted section? How was it dangerous? Or was it banned? He shivered at the thought of Tanaka and him performing that necromantic ritual.

He reached the aisle that matched the numbers. The shelves were filled with Production books. He read the spines and stopped short, eyes going wide.

The first book was Fundamentals of Production Magic by Sir Reginald Ellerman. After that it was: Revising 'Fundamentals of Production Magic' by Antonio D'Angelo. Functional Production Magic Spells and Casting by Antonio D'Angelo. Advanced Production Magic by Antonio D'Angelo. Production Mastery by Antonio D'Angelo. Basic Production Combat by Antonio D'Angelo. Expert Production Combat by Antonio D'Angelo. Beyond the Experimental: Towards a Working Theory of Future Production Discovery by Antonio D'Angelo. Methodology for Classification of Production Spells by Antonio D'Angelo. The Siphon: How Producers Generate their Magic by Antonio D'Angelo. Fire Magic: From Candle Flame to Inferno by Antonio D'Angelo. Revising 'Fire Magic: From Candle Flame to Inferno by Antonio D'Angelo. Advanced Combat Fire Magics by Antonio D'Angelo. Basics of Ward Family Spells by Antonio D'Angelo. Mastering Magical Wards and Physical Wards by Antonio D'Angelo. Offensive Wards: Wards in Combat by Antonio D'Angelo. Illusions and Non-Physical Production Magics by Antonio D'Angelo. Practical and Combat Applications of Illusion and Non-Physical Production Magics by Antonio D'Angelo. Magical Machinery I: Creating Complex Structures and Systems with Magic by Antonio D'Angelo. Magical Machinery II: Systematizing the Creation of Magical Weapons and Objects by Antonio D'Angelo.

And on.

"Christ," Jacob muttered. There was hardly a handful of Production books not written by him. He grabbed the two books Mrs Macdonald had recommended and went to a desk and leafed through them. Half his mind was thinking about Camilla. No wonder everyone knew her family. Judging by those books her father had practically created Production magic. He wondered how many of the spells he'd seen or others had used that were described in those books. Did Camilla think about that every time someone used a Production spell?

The books weren't super helpful. He could tell they were just too advanced for him to make sense of most of the content. But the excursion had given him an idea: why not go directly to the source of all this information?

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Jacob walked through Schumann Hall, hoping Camilla hadn't left to go to the cafeteria or something. He'd been outside Camilla and Grace's shared dorm a couple times, so he knew where it was. The halls were fairly empty, only the occasional student hurrying by.

He knocked on their door and waited, shifting from one foot to another. Don't be nervous. He wasn't here for anything weird.

Camilla opened the door halfway and looked him up and down. She was wearing baggy sweatpants and a Harvard hoodie and her hair was tied up in a messy top bun. Her face lit up when she saw him.

"Jacob? What are you doing here?"

Jacob cleared his throat. "I was wondering if I could ask your father something. About magic, of course,"

Camilla's eyes narrowed and she didn't make a move to open the door any further. "Why do you need to ask him?"

"It's about a complicated magic topic that he wrote a book on."

"Hmph. Try me."

Jacob relayed the conversation with Dr Renault and his search at the library. He didn't mention the shelves of books penned by her father.

"Why do you need to know about this?" Camilla asked.

"I'm wondering if it's..." Jacob lowered his voice and glanced around nervously. "...related to the vampire."

Camilla frowned. "How would that help finding it?"

Jacob shrugged. "Dr Renault said it's similar to mageiatophagous creatures. So, I figured if we can find out how it works, how it actually absorbs the magic, that might help us find whoever it is."

Camilla frowned then nodded. "Okay, fine. I don't know anything about that stuff so you can ask my father. Come in."

She slung the door open and walked back into her and Grace's dorm.

Jacob froze, a protest on the tip of his tongue. Don't be weird. It's just her dorm.

But her dorm room was way bigger than his and Blake's, more like a hotel suite than the cramped space they shared. Camilla and Grace each had a window above their bed, a larger bed, a desk and a comfy office chair, and a huge closet. There was even a little sitting area near the entrance and a doorway that led into a private bathroom.

But the biggest difference was that their room was a mess. Candy bar wrappers littered the floor around the garbage can, and there were clothes everywhere. Jacob stepped gingerly around a pair of athletic shorts lying near the door. He noticed a lacy black bra hanging from the edge of Camilla's office chair and quickly looked away, flushing.

"It's a bit of a mess," Camilla said offhandedly as she grabbed her phone from her bed. She didn't seem the least bit perturbed that her undergarments were everywhere and that Jacob could see them.

"Yeah," Jacob coughed. "I can see that."

"Don't tell me you're a clean freak as well as a biology buff," Grace said. She was lying on her bed, staring at her phone. She also wore grey sweatpants and a hoodie.

Jacob folded his arms. "I thought you said hoodies and sweatpants were for kids," Jacob distinctly remembered Grace berating him the other week about it.

"Whoa there, mister! You do not lecture me on fashion," Grace tossed her phone to the side, suddenly engaged. "There's a big difference between what you wear around the house and what you wear out."

Jacob shrugged. "Just saying."

Grace pointed at him. "You need a fashion lesson."

"Maybe," Jacob turned back to Camilla. "How come you guys got a bathroom? We have to use a grimy shared one. Are all the girls' dorms like this?"

Camilla scoffed. "No. This is a suite."

"Oh."

"Here, I'm sharing my father's contact with you."

Jacob reddened further. "You could just text him!"

"No. This is your show," Camilla shook her head and typed something into her phone.

Jacob groaned as the shared contact popped up on his phone. The idea of texting Antonio D'Angelo himself was like... well, after the Institute and what he'd seen in the library, it would be like texting a god.

He hesitated, then reluctantly typed out a text, reintroducing himself and asking about the differences between the three different types of magical draining and how the vampire actually drained the magic through the blood, if it was a specific spell or not. He sent the text and shivered, hoping he hadn't embarrassed himself.

He glanced up at Camilla, who was rummaging around in her closet. Was that what it was like for her every day? Christ, the pressure of living up to that. He'd known before that she was famous, that she was under pressure because of her father, sure, but now that he'd had his own taste of the pressure of being a white mage during the tournament, he thought he could glimpse how insane it was for her. If the fact he was a white mage had cast a small shadow over him, Camilla stood beneath Mount Everest.

"Are you alright?" He asked before he could stop himself.

Camilla frowned up at him. "What do you mean?"

Jacob reddened, debated making something up, then remembered the time in the library when she had helped him talk about the rogue mage. "I was in the library—in the Production section looking for that book I was talking about—and I saw all the books by your father..." He trailed off.

She looked up at him, searching his face.

"You didn't know?"

Jacob shrugged, suddenly anxious. "Well, I mean I knew he was famous and strong and that he's on some council but I didn't really know why."

For some reason, this made Camilla smile.

"He's like the Einstein of Production magic," Grace said. "He might just be the Einstein of magic."

"And I'm going to be a better mage than him," Camilla said, as if automated.

"Is that why you came here?" Grace asked Jacob.

There was something in her voice Jacob couldn't quite understand.

He wiggled his phone. "I needed to ask him something."

"About what again?"

"The vampire and the mageiatophagous creatures at the Menagerie today."

"Oh," Grace said dejectedly. Her face lit up. "That was pretty crazy wasn't it?"

"The Menagerie?"

"Ms Sterling! That razorbear attacking!"

"Is that what that was called?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah! I wasn't expecting that from her dusty old ass," Grace said.

Jacob frowned. Ms Sterling couldn't have been more than thirty.

"She was posted in New Orleans," Camilla said.

"Why is that a tough posting?" Jacob asked.

Camilla shrugged. "It just is. Lots of places where the barrier is weak. You only get posted there because you're skilled enough and you want to be, and you only want to be posted there if you want to fight."

"She was pretty quick today," Jacob admitted. "Didn't even hesitate."

"That's what it takes, I guess," Camilla said.

"Either of you started training for the tournament?" Jacob asked.

Grace shook her head.

"Got a couple sessions in this weekend," Camilla said, "but I don't have a gameplan mapped out yet. What about you?"

"I was helping Blake out, so yeah," Jacob shrugged.

A part of him wanted to ask Camilla if she would train with him again, but asking face to face was harder than over text, and Grace was sitting right there. And besides, he had Intro readings to do.

"Okay, thanks for the help with your dad. I guess I'll see y'all tomorrow at class."

"Cya!" Camilla said.

"Bye!" Grace shouted.

Jacob left and walked back through Schumann Hall by himself. The moment he was out of their dorm room he silently cursed himself for chickening out.

Angry with himself, he pulled out his phone and went to book a slot in the training rooms. There was an empty one starting on the next hour. He booked it and texted Blake.