A knock at the door.

Tyler's hand was on the now-familiar grip of the Glock-19 before he was even fully conscious. He rose immediately and drew the pistol from under his pillow. He checked the bedside clock. It was the witching hour.

The knock came again, formal and urgent.

Tyler flicked the safety off and reached over to the night-table and grabbed Father Emil's pair of ancient copper wire bifocals. He moved across the dark room, past the slumbering furniture. The only light came from the crack underneath the door to his rooms. He could see the shadows of two feet on the other side.

He moved quietly, stepping on the balls of his feet, sidearm held out low, the bifocals held in his other hand. He stopped to the side of the door and put the bifocals on. Every surface he saw through them became transparent. The door, along with part of the wall and floor, became like glass. The hallway and the wall across from it were clear. He could see all the way through the other rooms, through transparent beds and sofas and toilets, to the far side of the building. After that, things became muddied.

The President of the academy stood outside his door. His beard had grown out, scruffily. He looked tired.

"What do you want?" Tyler asked.

"Our detective has arrived and would like to speak with you."

Tyler mulled this over. He'd reported Father Emil's slaying the evening before last, just as he had promised those children who had come to investigate Father Emil's corpse.

The President had told him that he was going to inform the campus security, so Tyler's presence would be known on campus. He had also said that the detective they were bringing in from their own organization had almost arrived. He would ask questions. He would want answers.

Tyler was unsure if he should keep his promise of secrecy to the children, or tell all to this supposed detective. The uncertainty unfamiliar to him, and made him hesitate. He half-turned to ask Father Emil for advice, but of course the Father was no longer with them.

Tyler grimaced.

"Are you still there, Brother Bondar?" The President called.

Tyler unfroze. He pocketed the bifocals and unlocked and opened the door. "I am. I need a minute first."

Tyler closed the door. He went back into his bedroom and placed the bifocals back on his night table. Using them made him feel dirty. They had been one of Father Emil's many magical artifacts, and here Tyler was using them so soon after his death; so soon after he had failed his duty.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

He pulled open the drawer of the night table and took out the little letter Father Emil had left him. The Father had given it to him the first day they had been trapped in this awful place, sealed in an envelope, and had told him to "open it in the case of my death." Tyler opened the letter and read it through a second time:

Brother Bondar,

My official will resides in Sant'Guglielmo, but since you will be unable to leave the academy until the four months is over, I will inform you of a few of my relevant decisions therein.

I bequeath to you all of my Paladinic equipments. In my will, I have requested that the Primate raise you to Paladin in my stead.

Aid the heathens in their investigation.

E.V.

Tyler thought of the suit of armour in the closet, the sword sleeping in its scabbard under the bed. He couldn't take them. Not yet. It wouldn't be right. He hadn't been officially raised to Paladin yet, and for a Brother to use Paladinic equipments was inexcusable.

But he wouldn't go out unprotected against magic. He attached his defensive talisman to his belt. It was a white cross encrusted with topaz and amber that absorbed magic. Another gift from Father Emil.

Tyler clenched his fists, then he met President Russell at the door to his rooms.

President Russell led him out of the guest residences to the building with the clocktower they called the Vanderbilt Building. Two of the campus security guards in their long, unwieldy cloaks shadowed them once they left the guest residences. They made their way down into the basement of the Vanderbilt Building, to a small, spartan room with two chairs facing each other across a desk. An interrogation, then.

A man sat in one of the chairs, flipping through a sheaf of papers. He had a Nordic complexion, and even though he was sitting Tyler could tell he was tall, well-built. Hints of sculpted muscle showed through the creases of his black dress shirt. He watched Tyler enter with ice-chip eyes that absorbed every detail about him as if they were little vacuums.

Not like the faculty members here, then. More like the President. A killer. A man who could actually solve investigations.

"This is Detective Colbane," The President said.

Brother Bondar eyed the detective, who didn't stand to greet him. "Are you a police detective or are you a part of this organization?"

Detective Colbane grunted what likely passed for a laugh. "Straight to the point. We'll get along just fine. I'm a Ranger in the Order's Special Investigations Division, but it's simpler to just call me detective."

Brother Bondar grunted and sat down. He examined Detective Colbane. This man was a professional. Certainly more so than those three bumbling youths. How was he even considering trusting them over Detective Colbane? The girl hadn't even filled into her body yet and the boys still had the gangly self-consciousness of the immature. They had no clue what they were getting into.

But the girl had been right. He couldn't trust any of them.

Paranoid. But was this not a situation that called for paranoia?

Tyler didn't trust this man. He didn't trust the President, who had planted himself in the corner of the room, with the intent to stay for the interview. Only a few people had known about Father Emil's presence here on campus. If Tyler leaked what had really happened with those three kids and the poison they had used on Father Emil to the President and the detective they would no doubt leak to others, which could come back to the culprit, who would wreak destruction on the three kids, and then he would be out of certain allies.

Tyler Bondar decided to lie.