Jacob and Tanaka strode past a confused looking Sophia at the front desk of the guest dorms. Jacob waved to her but quickly looked away, trying to not get pulled into a conversation.

They made it past and up the stairs and started down the hall.

"So, what were you going to tell him, exactly?" Tanaka asked.

"Nothing about you or the necromancy. Just the information we got," Jacob said.

Jacob pushed open the door to the priest's room, which he'd closed but left unlocked. Tanaka followed him into the rooms.

Jacob locked the door behind them and braced himself. The next few moments were going to be tricky.

He walked into the bedroom. Thankfully, Camilla leaned against the near wall, arms folded. She'd placed herself so she could see the door and the manacled Enforcer at the same time, though that fact was lost on Jacob.

Camilla's eyes widened as she saw Tanaka following Jacob. Tanaka pulled up short behind him.

"Him?!" Camilla barked.

"Her?!" Tanaka hissed at the same time.

Jacob winced, pushing down a laugh. This was no laughing matter.

Camilla came off the wall and thrust her hands into clenched fists at her sides.

"He's the one who could help you? You went and got him?"

At the same time Tanaka said. "What the hell, man? You didn't say anything about her being here."

They both started to yell something at him.

Jacob raised his hands. "Shut up. Shut up! Both of you!" He looked between them. "You don't even know each other."

"But-"

"People are dead!" Jacob barked. Christ, he knew he was immature but sometimes people could be so childish. "I'm not asking you to be friends. Just cooperate, for Chrissakes!"

Silence.

"Fine," Camilla was the first to break the silence. "But you're telling me why you brought him or I am going straight to the President."

"I knew this was a mistake," Tanaka said, turning away.

"Wait," Jacob grabbed his arm. "Okay, Camilla. Fine."

"You can't tell her!" Tanaka said, gesturing. "She's a goody two shoes. She'll snitch the first chance she gets."

"Goody two shoes?" Camilla hissed. "You have no idea!"

Jacob rounded on Tanaka. "She's in as deep as we are now. She used magic on that Enforcer to stop him from attacking me, and she waited while I went and got you, instead of going and telling the faculty. She's not going to snitch. I trust her," He glanced over at her. He'd been going to say it anyway, but looking at her standing there in that bedroom, the chaos of this crazy situation around them, he realized he genuinely meant it with every fibre of his being; he realized she was perhaps the only person in the whole world he really and truly trusted. "With my life."

Tanaka's eyebrows raised as he looked between them. "Fine." He growled. "Get it over with."

Jacob turned back to Camilla and relayed their morgue escapade to her. Her eyes went wider and wider.

"Jacob Caibo, you are one stupid moron," She said when he was done. If he'd thought he'd get clout with her for it he was sorely mistaken. She folded her arms and scowled. "So, you brought him here for Necromancy. You didn't even ask me if I could do it."

Jacob frowned. "Wha- Camilla, I... I just assumed you couldn't."

Her scowl deepened. "That's right. You assumed."

"Can you?"

"No."

Jacob threw his hands up. "Well then-"

"But you should have asked me first. Before going to him." She was clearly hurt.

"Sorry, Camilla," Jacob said. "Next time I'll ask."

Camilla hmphed and turned to look at the corpse.

"Girls," Tanaka muttered so low Jacob could barely hear it standing next to him. "Why are we doing this again?"

"We need to see if he found out anything about the vampire. What if he found out who it was? What if he saw who it was?"

Tanaka nodded. "You remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just do it."

"Wait," The gruff voice came from the Enforcer. He was watching them from where he sat slumped against the wall. Jacob hadn't noticed that he'd woken up. "What are you doing with Father Emil?"

Jacob glanced at Camilla. Were those manacles going to be enough to hold this guy down? He looked like he could crush rocks with his bare hands. What if he started yelling?

"We're going to commune with his shade," Jacob said.

"What do you mean?" The Enforcer said.

"We're using Necromancy to talk-"

"The poison!" The Enforcer thrashed against his manacles, but they held. "You will not touch Father Emil's corpse. You will not degrade him with the poison."

His tone was so authoritative that for a half second Jacob agreed with him. Then he shook himself out of it.

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"We're trying to figure out what he knew!" Jacob said.

"Do not soil him with the poison," The Enforcer twisted his body, but only succeeded in falling over onto his face.

"Listen to me!" Jacob barked. He'd had enough bullshit. They were wasting time. "The vampire killed your friend here. The man you were supposed to protect. If there is even a slim chance we could find out who it was that killed him, would you not have us do that?"

The Enforcer sagged into the floor, going limp. "Heathen mages! Scheming, city-dwelling, heathen mages! We never should have come here."

Silence.

"What is it that you will do?" The Enforcer asked.

"We call up his shade, basically a remnant of his personality, soul, essence, whatever you want to call it," Tanaka said. "Then we bargain with it for information."

The Enforcer squeezed his eyes shut. "Do it," He hissed through clenched teeth. All the life seemed to drain from him with those two words. His head fell against the floor.

"Wait. Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Tanaka said. "What about you? Do you know anything? Did this Father Emil tell you anything? It would save us having to use magic on him."

The Enforcer shook his head. "He told me naught of the vampire. It is not my job to investigate, only to protect him," At this, the Enforcer squeezed his eyes shut.

"Did he write it down anywhere?" Jacob asked. He'd searched the rooms but a secret compartment was always possible.

"No. Never. Everything he learns he stores in his mind."

Jacob grunted, then nodded to Tanaka. It didn't look like they had a choice. "Let's do it."

Dark violet slashed out of the transfer student. Jacob was ready this time. He felt Tanaka's spell hover out of him and into a faint presence within the priest's corpse. The already dim room darkened, until Camilla and Tanaka were silhouettes and the corpse on the bed was a series of dark lumps. The single window was a pale, ghostly portal in the wall.

Tanaka's spell drove energy into the faint presence within the priest's body, strengthening it. Wispy clouds rolled out of the body and onto the floor, covering Jacob's ankles. Camilla yelped.

"It's fine," Tanaka said.

"I was fine," Camilla managed.

The room chilled, and another presence joined them.

Someone was sitting in the armchair to Jacob's left.

Jacob whirled.

A ghostly version of the priest sat in the armchair, translucent enough that Jacob could see the dark outline of the armchair's back through his face. The priest wore the same white robes he'd been killed in, and sat with one leg crossed over the other, a teacup and saucer held in one hand. He was elderly, his wispy white hair slicked back over his skull. His face was lined, leathery, dominated by a hawkish nose, and his ankles and feet disappeared into the flowing clouds. Despite his ethereal appearance, his eyes pierced them.

Beside Jacob Tanaka blew a breath out. "That's a normal shade," He whispered. "Thank God."

"What was the other one, then?" Jacob asked.

"I still don't know," Tanaka admitted. "Remember, don't offer any information voluntarily."

"Okay."

The ghostly priest took a sip of the equally ghostly tea, then smacked his lips.

"Well, well, well. Back from the dead already. Necromancy, is it? Can't say I'm surprised you heathens would do something to this effect," He chuckled. "However, I quite expected the perpetrators to be more mature. You three can be only students, which is either alarming, or hilarious, depending on your perspective."

Jacob turned to face the shade square on. He deliberately stared into the priest's eyes and forced himself to hold its gaze. "Did you see who killed you?"

"Now, now. I may not be a mage myself, but... Be? No that's not quite right, now is it? I may not have been a mage myself, but I know the rules. You tell me how my Enforcer, Brother Bondar, is doing, and I will answer your question. Deal?"

"He can't see the Enforcer and the Enforcer can't see him," Tanaka nudged him.

"Why?"

"The Enforcer doesn't have magical ability. He can't see magical entities and they can't see him."

"Oh."

"All deals are binding, remember. The bigger the ask, the more powerful the bind and the repercussions if one party doesn't follow through."

"What would the repercussions be here?"

Tanaka shrugged. "Fairly low stakes, so, the backlash might knock you unconscious for a while, give you a concussion, make you unable to access your magic for a few hours. Something like that."

Jacob nodded. "Okay," He turned back to the priest. "Deal."

The priest smiled. A whisper of magic Jacob had never felt before tensed in the air, like a slack steel cable between them snapping taut.

"Your Enforcer is alive," Jacob said, unsure how much information he needed to give.

"I am glad to hear that, but I need to know his condition as well."

"He is tied up at the moment, but he's fine. I think he's a little angry and sad that you were killed."

The priest nodded.

The Enforcer called out. "Are you talking to him? What is he saying? Tell me!"

Just as Tanaka had said, the priest didn't show any indication of having heard the Enforcer.

"Now, your end of the bargain."

"Of course. I did not see my attacker. As you can deduce from my corpse, they attacked me from behind."

Jacob cursed under his breath. Christ, were they ever going to catch a break? He felt that little steel cable between him and the priest's shade dissipate.

"Do you have any more questions?" The priest asked.

"I do," Jacob straightened. "Sort of. Tell me everything you found out about the vampire."

This was it. The other question didn't really matter if the priest had already discovered who the vampire was.

The priest's eyebrows raised. "Expensive information." He placed the teacup back down on the saucer, though there was no clink of china. "The price for this will be steep."

"I'm willing," Jacob said.

Behind him, Tanaka hissed.

"I can see that," The priest said. "Here are my conditions. You must capture the individual that killed me. Deal?"

Jacob blinked. That would be easy once they knew who it was. He opened his mouth.

Tanaka grabbed his arm. "Shh! No!"

"What do you mean: 'No'?" Jacob cried. "If he tells us who it is then it'll be easy to catch them."

"Exactly. Think about it," Tanaka tapped the side of his head. "The deal wouldn't be to capture it if he's going to tell us who it is. It's too easy of an ask once you have the identity. The stakes don't match the value of that information."

Jacob frowned. "So, what?"

"So, he doesn't know who it is," Tanaka said. "He's probably got some information, but he's trying to bind you to solving it for him."

"He's right," Camilla said, speaking for the first time since Tanaka had cast the Necromancy. "It doesn't make sense."

Jacob glanced back at the priest. "But, then, that's a fairly big ask, isn't it? To capture them if he's not going to tell us who it is?"

Tanaka nodded vigorously.

"So then the information he'll give me must be valuable in order to match that ask, even if it isn't the vampire's identity."

Tanaka considered this. "Maybe, but it's still too risky of an ask."

Jacob ignored him and turned back to the priest. "What do you mean by 'capture'?"

The priest shrugged. "Killing them, identifying them, physically restraining them. All of these are acceptable."

"Okay," Jacob nodded.

"Caibo, this is idiotic," Tanaka said.

"It's valuable information," Jacob said. "You agree with that."

"Yes, but higher stakes means the bind is stronger. The repercussions greater."

"Okay, for a deal with these stakes, what are we talking? What are the repercussions?"

Tanaka shook his head. "Stakes like this? The backlash might rip your magic right out of you, man."

"Which means?"

"You might lose your magic, permanently. You could end up unable to cast. A useless, normal person."

Jacob blinked. "Jesus."

"Jacob, don't," Camilla said.

"It's not worth it, man," Tanaka said.

Jacob shook his head. "No. It is. Two students have been killed. Who knows how many more are going to be? This is the guy the faculty brought in to kill the damn thing. He's dead! What the hell are they gonna do? What the hell are we gonna do? We need every bit of information we can get if we're going to catch this thing before it kills anyone else."

Tanaka shook his head in disbelief. "You're so self righteous you're going to destroy yourself."

Jacob turned to Camilla. Oddly enough, he felt that betraying her abilities to Tanaka had been a bigger ask than this. She met his eyes and shook her head.

He turned back to the priest. Maybe it was stupid. But it was the right thing to do. It was the courageous thing to do. He wouldn't chicken out. "Deal."

If the last bind had been a steel cable, this one felt like a nuclear explosion had been condensed into a tense line that bound them together.

"Now, tell me," Jacob said.

The priest nodded. "Very well." He took a sip of the phantom tea and cleared his throat. "There is no vampire on your campus."