"I gotta go get changed," Jacob said. "I'm soaked."

"Okay," Blake said. "See you in class."

Jacob grabbed his backpack and left the training room and crossed the campus back to the dorms.

Blake had scheduled his daily training session so they could practice strength. Jacob's match with Archie was next weekend, and although it was only Monday, he couldn't help but feel like he needed to figure something out, and figure it out now.

In the weeks since his match with Wilkins he'd become a passable Producer through sessions with Camilla and his own rigorous training, and yet he knew it wasn't going to be enough for Archie. He was missing something, he just didn't know what.

Jacob picked up his pace and half jogged up to his dorm room, not wanting to be late for Intro this afternoon. He'd made a pact with himself to not skip any more classes, regardless of tournament training, campus killer, or any other tiny apocalypses. How long that conviction would last, he didn't know.

He entered his dorm and shut the door behind him. His side of the room had devolved into a mess over midterm week. Clothes were stuffed at the foot of his bed and spilled out of his bag and onto the floor. Dirty gear he'd sweat through while training but hadn't had the wherewithal to wash was crammed into the locker so it wouldn't stink up the entire room (it still did). Textbooks and sheets of loose paper covered his desk. He had hardly noticed.

Jacob took off his shirt.

"Boy." A gruff voice barked.

Jacob turned and let out a girlish yelp.

Brother Bondar leaned against the wall behind the door, arms folded. He wore a big grey hoodie that was tight across the arms and chest, and a pair of beat-off jeans that looked like a mechanic had worn them for a decade. The outfit looked immature and out of place on him. Jacob had been expecting the guy to go around in a robe or combat gear or something.

Jacob quickly threw his shirt back on. He didn't know how a man that bulky could be so stealthy.

"Jesus Christ, man. You scared the shit out of me!"

"Do not say the Lord's name in vain," Brother Bondar said. "I searched the campus. I found no evidence of that Ritual Magic you showed me. No symbols or carvings on the entire campus."

"What? Really?" Jacob frowned. He'd half-forgotten about asking the Enforcer to search for Ritual Magic. "You're sure you searched the whole campus?"

"Every possible place."

"In the town too?"

"Yes."

"You're sure?"

"Are you questioning my work?"

Jacob swallowed. "No, no I just- The campus is huge."

Brother Bondar's eyes narrowed. "You do not seem very familiar with death or blood. If someone were spilling blood onto the floor somewhere, it would not easily come out. I have training as a hunter and tracker, skills that translate even to this cesspool. Nothing escapes my eye. If this Ritual Magic is truly what is happening, then it is not happening on campus."

Jacob ran a hand through his hair. Christ, was nothing straightforward? "Okay, thanks for searching."

Brother Bondar pushed himself off the wall. "What is next?"

Jacob shook his head. "I don't know. I need to meet with the others, see what they think. I'll let you know what develops."

Brother Bondar grunted.

"You sure you don't have a phone?" Jacob asked. "Might be easier to communicate that way than this."

The man tapped one thick finger on his arm, considering. He reached in his pocket and pulled out an old flip phone. "Very well. I am putting the three of you at risk meeting with you in person."

He handed the phone to Jacob, who added his contact into it and then texted himself as he wouldn't put it past the Enforcer to forget to do that.

"Okay. I'll let you know what's next," Jacob said.

Brother Bondar nodded, a single sharp, curt motion. He opened the door carefully, peered out into the hallway, then vanished.

Jacob ground his teeth. He fumbled around for a moment, trying to decide what the next move was. He'd have to let Camilla and Tanaka know, and they'd have to figure something out. How had Bondar not found anything? Did that mean it wasn't Ritual Magic?

Jacob ran a hand down his face. Tanaka, for all his disinterest in school—not to mention lack of need to learn magic in class—had been at every single class Jacob had attended. He would certainly be at Intro. He pulled out his phone and texted Camilla:

Come to Intro.

Jacob tossed his phone on his bed, took his shirt off again, grabbed his towel and ran to the showers.

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"...and that's the beginning of our section on World War 2's effect on the world of magic," Professor Muesli smiled up at the class from the front of the auditorium. "Your midterms should be marked by next class. Make sure you come so you can pick them up at the end. Have a good evening, everyone."

Professor Muesli closed his laptop and the overhead projector went blank. The class broke up.

"Let's wait for Tanaka," Jacob nudged Camilla.

"Okay," she nodded.

Jacob had separately told both Camilla and Tanaka about Brother Bondar's news, and they'd agreed to meet up after class.

Blake and Grace joined the stream of students leaving the auditorium, saying they'd grab a spot at Fireball Roast for the four of them. Archie was AWOL once again. Jacob loitered with Camilla, each pretending to search for something, him in his backpack, her in her purse.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Let's go," Tanaka appeared beside them.

The trio left the auditorium and made their way to one of the empty classrooms in the basement of the Richter Building. Jacob shut the door softly behind them.

Jacob relayed in detailed what Bondar had told him. "...so, basically, he didn't find anything."

"And you're sure he searched the whole campus?" Camilla asked.

"Yes, I-"

"I had a feeling he wasn't going to find anything," Tanaka said. He had leaned back in his chair and folded his arms as if the whole world and all its troubles were beneath him.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Jacob asked.

"Wanted to see if I was right."

Camilla rolled her eyes. "Alright, Mr Smarty-Pants, why?"

"Because searching mundanely is the wrong way to go about it," Tanaka said. "Bondar said it himself: those patterns and all that blood is too hard to hide."

Jacob had an intuition. "You think we should have been searching magically."

Tanaka grinned. "Now you're starting to get it. This is a magical case, with a mage culprit. Searching using regular means is wasting our time."

"So, tell us again why you didn't think to inform us of this?" Camilla asked.

"Well, we weren't going to do anything over midterms, so it doesn't matter. This way at least that Enforcer has confirmed it."

"So, how do we go about searching the campus magically?" Jacob asked.

Tanaka shrugged. "I've read about seeking spells that let you search out certain types of magic. They're usually Decomp."

Jacob snapped his fingers. "Haruspicy! Or, divination, I guess. We could use that."

"Is that what it's called?"

"Professor Muesli mentioned it when I was distracting him while Camilla stole the Ritual Magic book."

"Oh yeah, I vaguely remember him saying that," Camilla said.

Jacob got up and paced. "So, what, we learn divination, use it to seek out the Ritual Magic? But how is that any different than just a more efficient method of what Bondar did?"

"The Ritual Magic is somewhere on campus, it's just hidden," Tanaka said. "What other option is there?"

"He's right," Camilla said. "It could be under a veil or even in a hidden room, or anything really. If we can track the magic, we'll be able to see through whatever its using to hide."

"Okay," Jacob rubbed the back of his head. "I'd offer to learn this, but honestly I'm swamped with training for my match this weekend against Archie."

"I'll learn it," Camilla and Tanaka said in unison.

They each whipped their head around to look at one another with narrowed eyes. A silent battle took place between them. Jacob looked from Camilla, to Tanaka, and back again.

"I'm the better Decomp mage. I'll learn it," Tanaka said, finally.

Camilla's eyebrows shot to the ceiling. "Stronger. You're the stronger Decomp mage. You're not better."

"Does the delusion come with your father's last name?" Tanaka asked. "Besides, you need to practice for your match this weekend. Never know when there might be an upset."

Jacob cringed away in anticipation of Camilla's nuclear explosion.

But, to his shock, she appeared completely unfazed. Apart from her laser-like gaze locked on Tanaka, she could have been lounging in a lecture.

"I will fight you right now," Camilla said, as if she were telling them the weather.

"Okay. You don't have to tell me twice," Tanaka shrugged.

"The arena is usually empty on Mondays. We go right now."

"No!" Jacob stepped between them, holding placatory hands out to each side. "No! No fighting. Look, Camilla: Tanaka can learn the divination. It's Decomp. It's more his thing. But someone has to learn how to actually perform Ritual Magic so we can attune the divination spell to it. That's Production. That's more your thing."

Neither of them turned to him, and he thought they hadn't heard him.

Camilla cleared her throat. "Fine. I'd have to go steal the book from Muesli again, but that's easy for me."

"Okay," Jacob said. "Are we cool? Does that work for everyone?"

They both nodded.

Jacob sagged back onto a desk. They talked strategy, promising to meet up again Thursday evening once Tanaka and Camilla had both had enough time to learn their respective spells—a conversation which elicited another grandstanding, each of them trying to pretend they could learn their spell quicker than the other.

Jacob left that room a little frustrated with both of them, but hopeful. He felt like they were finally starting to make some progress. Just so long as there weren't any more snares.

----------------------------------------

Jacob sat down and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the towel he'd actually remembered to bring to the training room this time. He was there by himself. Blake had offered to come help but Jacob had wanted to focus on figuring out a strategy. The feeling of inadequacy, the idea that no matter how hard he trained Archie was too far ahead of him, too facile with Decomposition, had dogged him the whole day.

He sat down and tried to meditate, but angst over his fight and the campus killer refused to go away, tiny campfires in the otherwise dark and empty night of his mind.

He felt a little bad about just leaving all the magical work to them while he—to quote Camilla—just sat on his ass. And yet it was the logical solution. They were both better mages than him. They'd learn the spells quicker, which might end up saving someone's life. He needed to stop feeling guilty and focus on his fight. It was like Tanaka had said: did he want to be nice, or did he want to beat Archie?

That decided, he actually felt a little better, and settled in to focusing on his strategy against Archie. His feelings had been accurate. He needed something. Something outside the box.

Maybe he could learn how to cast a reinforced ward? But he'd be hard pressed to learn that by the end of the week. He'd just barely gotten a handle on regular wards and hadn't even read the chapters Mr Michaelson had assigned for reinforced wards. And besides, what if Archie already used them?

Jacob cursed himself, wishing he'd paid more attention to the boy's fights.

That was another problem too. He was picturing Archie as the boy had been last round. Who knew what he'd learned or polished since then?

What would he use?

What had he been hiding?

What would Archie think Jacob was going to do?

What would Archie think Jacob thought he was going to do?

Jacob put his head in his hands. You could go on endlessly in circles. He needed to lay out the facts.

His Consumption was still his strongest suit. Archie had more powerful Production, vastly more powerful Decomp, and an unknown Consumption. Once again, Jimmy and Sheriff Hueller's advice rung true. Jacob needed a strategy based on his own abilities, not one on assuming those of his opponent.

He wasn't going to beat Archie in a straight up magical slugfest. That much was obvious. The boy had more strength than him and could better use it. He was bringing a knife to a gun fight. Well, maybe muskets to an AR fight was more accurate.

There was a chance his perception and strength spells would be enough to let him effectively rush Archie—he'd strengthened both spells since his fight with Layla Wilkins—but it was a fair guess that Archie would be proficient in both as well. He needed something extra. Something special. Something unexpected that would give him an edge. A trick.

He thought through everything he'd learned in the term so far, but drew blanks. Wards, forcewards, fire magic, he'd even been working on a laser beam like Layla Wilkins had used against him. It was all too straightforward. Archie would have seen all of it, could probably do all of it.

"Damn it," Jacob hissed.

What did he know about that he knew Archie didn't?

Nothing. That was the problem. It wasn't fair. He'd just learned about magic a little over two months ago. Archie had been around this stuff his whole life and had been practicing for a year. Of course he was screwed.

No! Stop that. You're complaining again. Just like Tanaka said.

Okay, think, Jacob, think. What did he know that other students didn't? Well, there was the rogue mage chasing him, feeding the creatures to increase their strength, navigating the magical world by himself. He doubted anyone else in his class apart from Camilla and Tanaka had been through something like that. But none of that knowledge was applicable to a duel.

But it did spark a lightbulb in his head. What about similar stuff? Other things he'd been through that were unique to him. The Necromancy with Tanaka, or the abilities of the vampire. All that extra reading he'd done while investigating the killer. Magical Absorption and Transferral. Nobody else knew about that stuff.

And suddenly it was there before him, falling into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Of course! Something he'd read about not too long ago, outside of class. Could he use it in a duel, though? Would there be anything in the arena to...

Jacob noticed the walls of the training room again, remembering that Mr Michaelson saying they were made of magic, and his eyes widened. For the first time this week, a seed of hope blossomed in his chest. He scrambled to his feet and put his hand against the rough surface of the wall. He could practice it here, too. See if it actually worked.

The only question was, was it legal?