‘What do you want me to do?’ Ethen’s question reverberated in Malena’s mind as everyone stood in the half finished watermill. What should she have him do? What should she have any of them do actually? On a surface level, she knew Ethen was a warrior type, Lilith had crazy inventions, Silene was basically a druid, and Hana had telepathy, but she needed more than that. Hana could relay some useful info, but she couldn’t really be trusted after saying everything she did. What, were they supposed to be nice and avoid casualties at the costs of their lives? How ridiculous. Any army or group that thought that way would and should get slaughtered.

Hana glared at Malena.

“Oh right,” Malena said, glaring back. “You can hear my thoughts. I’ll just say it out loud then: how can we trust you not to get us killed, miss pacifist?”

“I don’t want anyone to die,” Hana said, “not you guys, nor the Solis army.”

“Mhmm.” Malena nodded. “And what if someone has to die no matter what you want?”

“Then I’d try my best to avoid that,” Hana said.

“You can’t,” Ethen said. “This isn’t some Solis children’s story, this is real life.”

“Yet you’re still thinking of stories,” Hana said. “You’ve never killed anyone, Ethen. I doubt you could do it. You’re not like Lilith.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked, glaring back at her. “I’ve been in plenty of fights.”

“Yet you’ve never killed anyone. There’s something in people that breaks when they experience death too much,” Hana said. “Something close to their humanity. You didn’t see what I saw, but Lilith’s more like a monster than a human.”

“You mean she’s more like a beast of the forest than a sheltered city person,” Silene said. “Every animal has to defend itself to survive. Only a few humans can avoid it.”

Hana shook her head rapidly. “Humans aren’t animals, Silene. Dragons aren’t animals either. Unlike animals, we both experience a little part of what everyone and everything around ourselves does. So when a person dies around us, it’s like a part of us died.” Then she side eyed Silene as a few memories played. “And we’re mages. We could destroy cities if there was nothing holding us back. So I think we should hold ourselves back.”

Everyone saw a memory of Hana at Lilith’s trial from her perspective, and saw all the beastfolk and knights holding their weapons at their own necks. Then, they felt just how easy it would’ve been to push a bit further and end all of them right then and there.

“Solis was right to monitor me,” Hana said. “Lilith and I are both walking natural disasters.”

Malena frowned, then opened the door and looked to the mouth of the cave. It was smaller than the courtroom she just saw in Hana’s memory. After taking that in, she turned back and closed the door. “So it’s not a matter of fighting and surviving then,” she said, sighing, before she paused. “Wait, Hana, if it came down to us or an army of mages, would you let us die? Or would you kill them?”

Hana didn’t answer. She just looked away.

Malena frowned. “So you’d rather be useless than have blood on your hands.” She shook her head. “Back to square one then--well almost. Hana, can we at least trust you to keep watch over the cave so we can hide from intruders?”

Hana nodded.

Malena breathed another sigh of relief. “Good. Now--” She turned to Lilith and the others. “--who else knows about this place?”

Lilith spoke up, “Dr. Crowe knows. He might tell some of the others, now that I think about it. I also told my parents so they could avoid being captured.”

Malena grit her teeth. “We might need to pack up our stuff and head somewhere else then.”

“Sure, but where?” Lilith asked. “Also, wouldn’t that leave my parents in danger?”

“Hmm… we can keep a watch for your parents, I guess,” Malena said. “Actually, I never met your parents, what are they like?”

“Oh! They’re really good smithies!” Lilith beamed. “They don’t use magic like me, but if they have a source of heat, they can make anything.”

Malena nodded. “So they could help out. Good.” She turned to Silene. “Do you know where we could go? I remember you helped Lilith find this place.”

“I know there are some other caves in this area,” Silene said. “They’re smaller though, and this is the only one I know of that’s by the river and has a second entrance.”

“Solis would also definitely search all the nearby caves in the area too,” Malena said, thinking out loud. “So unless we find something new, they’re not much better than just staying here.”

Lilith perked up at the words ‘something new’. “Oh! We have all these unexplored branches and the river though!” Then she paused. “Also, they’re at least going to split their search because I flew to the other mountains.”

“Maybe.”Malena shrugged. “It’s not like they’re going to investigate a decoy forever when Crowe knows you're here. Also, you nearly died in the river, and I don’t want to risk that again.”

“I think I can make decompression chambers though,” Lilith said. “That would make diving much safer for anyone that could use a scuba system, and we could also just stay there like it’s an underwater base! I can make some now with the metal, but I’d be using all of it. If I could get glue or leather though, that’d be perfect!” She looked at Silene.

“Glue comes from hooves,” Silene said. “And we don’t have any animals for that, or for the leather. I could look at the different tree saps we have around here and see if any are good enough, but that could take a while.”

“Alright…” Malena took it all in and nodded. “So we could go underwater and have an air pocket. Can we go anywhere else?”

Silene shook her head. “This is the best cave by a river with fish. The other caves would be searched too, and the mountain doesn’t have much else to cover or sustain us. Maybe if we went into the forest though?”

Ethen shook his head. “If Lilith builds anything in a forest, it could be visible if some wind blows the trees the right way and traders might randomly go through. I wouldn’t risk it. The underwater base is actually a pretty good idea. Only a water mage would risk going into that river, or someone insane like Lilith.”

Lilith pouted at Ethen.

Jatte stepped forward. “If we spotted any water mages, I could drag them away if they got close. They use air bubbles to breathe, and those have a lot of buoyancy.”

“Oh!” Lilith practically hopped. “You could do that long distance too! If you can improve your LRAD stuff, you could focus it to a point instead of a beam!”

Jatte shook her head. “That only works with vibrations, not a constant pull…” She paused. “Though, maybe I could do really slow vibrations.”

“Yeah, try that!” Lilith smiled.

Malena looked over the group. Ethen was probably the most military minded; Silene could turn invisible, knew the environment, and would seriously help with gathering resources; Lilith represented hope: she could give them unknown advantages, and was really the only reason they had a chance of surviving or maybe even more; Hana would be incredibly useful if not for her pacifism, but even then she might be good for defense, if she could be trusted; and Malena herself was a decent strategist as long as she had information. Right, she needed information.

“Alright, I think we’re done planning,” Malena said. “Ethen and Silene, you should fly and scout for resources while keeping watch for Lilith’s parents. If there are any traders, Silene, please sneak around with your light and get information from them. Take the two scuba tanks with you too: if you’re spotted by anyone from Solis, you’ll need to be able to fly over them.”

Ethen nodded, walked over and picked up a scuba system alongside Silene, and walked out of the partially built watermill with her.

“Jatte and Lilith, I need you two to work on making that underwater base thing.”

Jatte’s shoulders sagged. “Ugh, I hate building.”

“Did I ask!?” Malena glared and walked up to her.

Jatte froze.

“You and Lilith have to build that right now, or we could die.” Malena glared. “Do you not get what kind of situation we’re in? Work now, or we die.”

Jatte shakily nodded her head.

“Don’t worry,” Lilith said as she grabbed Jatte’s arm and pulled her outside. “I’ll try to make it more fun.”

“And you,” Malena turned to the only one left in the room: Hana. “How can I trust you? ” She paused before pulling out a pen and paper so she could go over her words later, realizing Hana might just be able to manipulate her mind.

“What can I do to prove I’m trustworthy?” Hana asked.

Malena paused to think again. What could Hana do? It wasn’t like she could just test her ability to help them hide yet, and she couldn’t test Hana’s willingness to defend them. However, she didn’t think Hana would just run and tell Solis where everyone would be hiding either.

“I guess I’ll just have to stay in this cave, like I’m in a giant jail cell,” Hana said.

Malena frowned, then got an idea. “You led the rest of them a few times, right? Let’s try and come up with some defense plans together.”

---

Cyla stood at the top of the mountain, looking down at William and Lilac from behind a tree. Trailing them wasn’t easy since there were cliffs and outcroppings that it was hard to see past, and if she flapped her wings or knocked rocks down there, she’d be found out. However, it was worth it, because she could see them walking into the cave now.

She got up and stretched her wings, then hopped and flew down behind them, peering into the entrance as she hid most of her body against the wall.

Then, she heard some footsteps behind her and turned.

“Hey Cyla,” Ethen waved as Silene got her balance beside him.

“H-- hi…” She paled. Even if she was more experienced than both of them, Ethen was a decent flight mage now, and Silene’s magic was fairly well known. And she didn’t want to get in a fight with one of her students anyway.

“Come to join our little hideout?” Ethen asked with an almost pitying expression. “I’d rather not fight.”

“Me too,” Cyla said, raising her hands up. “I trust you guys though. I just wanna know why you did it.”

Ethen frowned. “Well Lilith will tell you, but you might be risking being able to go back to Solis. We can’t risk being found out.” He gestured into the cave and started walking.

Cyla walked into the cave, gawking at the massive pile of wood and the large, partially built watermill. “Did you guys make all this?”

“Lilith did,” Silene spoke up. “This has been her lab for a while. We were just looking for resources nearby.”

Lilith’s parents turned back, then glared when they spotted Cyla, before looking ashamed.

“Why’d you let yourselves get trailed?” Ethen called ahead.

They stopped and walked back. Then William spoke, “She saved our lives and protected us through the forest, then flew off ahead once we reached the mountains. I didn’t know she was trailing us.”

“So are you guys Lilith’s parents?” Cyla asked, grinning.

William looked to Lilac, then to Ethen. “Uh.”

“I was her flight instructor!” Cyla said.

Lilac looked at Cyla, then at Ethen and Silene behind her. “Yeah, we are. I’m Liliac and this is William.”

“I’m Cyla!” Cyla smiled. “Your daughter’s crazy, you know that?”

“Hahaha!” Lilac couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah. We thought she’d be more at home here, but I guess not?”

Cyla frowned as they caught up and started going through the watermill door. “That’s what I want to ask her. Why did she do it?”

Malena and Hana stopped their discussion and turned to look.

“Why did she do what exactly?” William asked. “She was pretty vague.”

“She killed the Prince of Voldia,” Cyla said, raising an eyebrow. “And two Solis guards. Did you not hear?”

“Oh, that’s… why would she do that?” William said. ”She seemed happy at school from what I heard and the prince shouldn’t have had anything to do with her.”

“She did it to save me,” Malena spoke up. “I assume you two are her parents?” She looked at William, then Lilac, then stared at Cyla. “Wait, who?”

“I’m Lilith’s flight instructor.” Cyla waved. “Did she not mention me?” She looked slightly sad.

Malena turned her gaze to look at Cyla’s wings for a moment. “Oh yeah, you’re the reason our room was filled with leather wings for so long!”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Eh hehe…” Cyla gave a sheepish grin. “Can’t say I’m not proud.”

Malena turned to Hana. They exchanged a few expressions as if they were talking, before turning back to the rest of the group. “I guess we should have a talk. Lilith’s further in.” She walked over, opened the other door to the watermill, and beckoned them to follow.

William frowned as he looked at the watermill. “Looks like someone just threw the wood together…”

---

The group found Lilith welding a brass plate onto a large metal box of plates. “And there were these mole things in there. Cool looking, but super mean. So mean they attacked me and Silene,” Lilith spoke as she worked

“What’s she working on?” William tilted his head.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Malena said. “But it’s some underwater bubble thing.” Then she turned to Ethen and Silene. “You two can go back to what you were doing. Jatte and Lilith should be able to handle it if anything goes wrong.”

Ethen nodded and flew off while Silene jogged alongside him.

Meanwhile, Lilac saw Lilith’s hat, then took off her own, stepped forward, and plucked Lilith’s hat off her head.

“Huh?” Lilith turned, holding her hands over her ears. “Mom?” She smiled and an ear slip through her fingers. “You made it!”

“Yep!” Lilac smiled back. “And you don’t need this now that you’re here, now do you?”

Lilith blinked. “I guess not.” Hesitantly, she let her hands fall away from her ears, then wiggled them a bit. “Ah, feels good.”

“So what’cha making?” William asked.

“It’s an underwater decompression chamber!” Lilith beamed.

“A what?” William blinked.

“When you go underwater for a long time, you can come up there to get used to the air pressure again, or you could just stay in there while underwater,” Lilith explained.

William tilted his head the other direction, still not getting it. “Why would you go underwater in the first place?”

“You’re not diving in there, are you?” Lilac looked at the end of the river.

“Yep,” Lilith said. “I am.”

“Unfortunately, that might be our best bet at surviving,” Malena said, then took out a paper and started writing things down before she looked at the rest of the group. “Jatte, we’re taking Lilith. You can try practicing that thing she mentioned earlier, just stay close by.”

Jatte shrugged, her expression neutral. “Lilith’s underwater talk was kinda fun, but sure.” She drifted off.

“Now,” Malena said, “let’s see how we should organize things.” She wrote more on her list.

“Before that,” Cyla turned to Lilith, suddenly serious. “Why did you do it? Why did you kill those people?”

Lilith’s expression fell as she looked her in the eyes. “The prince was punching her and was on top of her taking off his clothes. I wasn’t about to let her get raped.”

Cyla’s eyes went wide as she tried to comprehend that.

“But weren’t they married?” William asked.

“Not by choice,” Malena said. “Voldia forced Solis to find an heir for marriage. I had to accept the marriage or they would invade.”

They stood in silence for a bit.

Lilith’s parents were immediately on her side. Lilith was just protecting her friend from a foreign kingdom, so it was pretty clear morally.

Cyla could see both sides. For the adventurers, they only cared that Lilith killed other adventurers, and they didn’t know how forced Malena was or that she was close with Lilith. But, if what Lilith said was true, she might’ve been in the right. If the whole kingdom was set on abusing her friend, then she might’ve done the same herself.

And Hana was silently taking this all in. If everyone else thought killing was necessary, was she the one in the wrong to have zero exceptions?

“Well.” Malena looked at William. “We can all catch up later, but we need to make sure we’re working our best on surviving. So what can you do?”

William shrugged. “Welding, smithing, construction, that kind of stuff.”

Malena frowned. That was more than covered by almost everyone else. “Er, what can you do that Lilith can’t?”

“Design a house apparently,” William said, pointing his thumb behind himself. “You know you put the support beams too far apart from each other right, Lilith? I’m not sure that thing back there will hold a roof, let alone the bending stress from the watermill once it’s running. I’d double the support beams and add some diagonals. Also, you need to reinforce the area around the wheel axle, not just put it against a hole. The axle is going to be dragged along in the direction of the river current and you need something that can handle that.”

Lilith’s ears folded down. “I thought I was doing it right.”

“You can watch me when I do it and help out,” William said. “I don’t want you to try building something else and have it fall apart.”

“Is the underwater chamber good at least?” Lilith asked.

“Well, If you’re putting it underwater…” He shrugged. “I guess it’s fine. It is metal after all. That brass will rust though, so it’s better if you seal it.”

“Seal it with what?” Lilith tilted her head.

William opened his mouth, then paused. “You wouldn’t happen to have any frostbend trees around here, would you?”

Lilith shrugged. “That sounds like a question for Silene. I didn’t see any trees from back home though.”

Malena stared at the two, then turned to Lilac. “Well, what do you bring to the table? I’m eager to know now.”

“I split the cashier work with William and kept track of the inventory more,” Lilac said. “I would like to try making some holes for our ears and tails if we’re staying here though.”

Lilith shook her head. “If I’m seen as the enemy of Solis, I’d rather they see me as a human like them instead of a beastfolk.”

Lilac paused, then nodded. “That’s noble of you, not letting other beastfolk be blamed for your actions.”

“Uh, yeah, that.” Lilith forced a smile. In reality, she just wanted them to view it as entirely their own failure, not her hometown’s.

“I guess we could use keeping track of the inventory,” Malena said, then turned to Cyla. “How about you?”

“Before that, what about your other parents?” Cyla asked, tilting her head.

“My dad’s the one that got me involved with the Prince, and he didn’t help me at all, so no.” Malena grimaced. “And I think the others here are foreigners.”

Hana shook her head. “Jatte said her parents were coming to Solis soon, and Silene should have parents back in Solis.”

Cyla frowned. “You might want to keep a lookout for Jatte’s parents then. Otherwise, they might get captured and questioned.”

“Good idea.” Malena wrote it down. “What do we do about Silene’s parents?”

Cyla’s shoulders slumped. “They’re already in Solis, so they’re probably being questioned.”

The group was silent for a bit on that somber note, before Malena wrote down another note and said it out loud, “prisoner exchange.”

“Eh, exchange?” Cyla shrank back a bit.

“Not you.” Malena looked up. “They’re going to be sending out mages, and Lilith made something that allows us to fly higher than them--”

“She did what?” William asked, curious.

“--so,” Malena continued, “we can get prisoners whenever we want. We should aim to capture them from a wide area and keep them in an external site so it doesn’t reveal our hideout. That, along with some… information that could cause a war between Voldia and Solis, should be enough bargaining power for a prisoner exchange.”

Cyla stared back, blinking. “I thought you were some innocent girl caught up in all this. Are you sure you’re not a gang leader?”

Malena paused. “I could be, I guess.” She shrugged. “But what about you? I don’t think we can trust you to go back to Solis as a spy for us.”

Cyla shook her head. “Eh, I don’t like lying anyway.”

“I thought as much.” Malena continued, “I suppose you could be useful as a scout, but there’d be confusion around why you left Solis.”

“Huh.” Cyla looked away. “I could at least leave a letter saying I went back home. I don’t like that they’re hunting Lilith down, especially after knowing what the Prince was doing. Then, as far as everyone knows, I just went back home.”

Malena turned to Hana. “So, can we trust her?”

Hana nodded. “She’s telling the truth. However, she might confess if she’s found.”

Malena frowned. “So, what’s your answer?”

Hana paused for a moment. “I think it’s worth it. She’s probably not going to be found, and then she could fly around without it being suspicious.”

Malena nodded, then turned back to Cyla. “Alright.” Then she shook her head slightly. She was trusting someone who’s loyalty she was just questioning to tell her the truth about someone else. However, Cyla telling everyone to come here would probably lead to bloodshed, which wasn’t what Hana wanted, so it was probably safe. “We’ll let you do that. Just make sure not to get caught or tell anyone where we are. Otherwise, they’re probably just going to execute us all here. I don’t think they’ll risk a trial.”

Cyla furrowed her brow. “Why would they do that? It’s just Lilith they want, right?”

Malena shook her head. “Like I said, we have information that could start a war. They’d probably rather kill us than risk letting that get out.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Cyla frowned. She couldn’t mess up now that all her students’ lives were on the line.

Finally, Malena turned to Lilith. “Making an underwater room isn’t all you can do, is it?” She readied her pen.

“Of course not.” Lilith smirked and shook her head. “I just thought it was the best idea.”

“Tell me all the ideas you can think of,” Malena said. “Your dad might have some more pointers, and I’d like to make sure they’re not as dangerous as your last scuba trip.”

Lilith nodded. “Okay. Off the top of my head, there’s making a floating aerogel platform, making an engine for an airplane, a gun, Jatte using her gravity to send messages, and a fume hood for Silene.”

The whole group stared at her, not understanding many of the words she just said.

“I don’t even know what I’m seeing,” Hana said. “Lilith your thoughts make no sense.”

“Ugh.” Lilith slumped, then picked herself up, determined. “Alright. Aerogel is a solid foam that can hold a lot of weight, and I think I can make it lighter than air too if I fill it up with hydrogen. It can be made from waterglass, which is like quartz. However, we’ll need to pressurize a chamber with carbon dioxide at a very, very high pressure, until the c-o-two becomes liquid, and then becomes something called a supercritical fluid.”

Malena wrote all of it down, underlining several of the phrases like supercritical fluid, quartz, and co2, and putting question marks everywhere. She looked up from her paper, flustered. “Wh-- what?”

“I can’t explain this much better,” Hana said. “I’m just seeing a chamber where a weird liquid’s surface just… dissolved into the air.”

“Okay…” Malena said, then shook her head. “Where do you get Co2?”

“We breathe it out,” Lilith said, “but that’s not enough. I was planning on getting oil for it before you went with the underwater idea.”

Malena shook her head. “No. No, too dangerous. The oil cave is miles from here, and it’d be as deadly as your scuba plan if not more. You’re going to have to wait on that one. What was the next one?”

Lilith frowned. “The engine, but that needs oil. There was the gun idea, but that needs gunpowder for its explosive, which I don’t know how to make--”

“Can you use something else for explosives?” Malena asked.

Lilith blinked and looked around before shrugging.

“Magicite.” Hana turned and deadpanned at Lilith. “That’s definitely one of magicite’s uses Lilith. We learned that in class.”

Lilith frowned. “Eh, I guess.”

Malena sucked in air through her teeth. “Magicite’s expensive though. I was hoping we could sell it if we were going to risk getting a lot of it.”

“I guess I could try the gun then,” Lilith said, shrugging. “Oh yeah, the gun has a scope on top, like a telescope, and a long metal barrel with grooves inside. The gunpowder, or magicite, explodes behind something like a lead ball, the grooves make it spin which keeps the ball stable, and then it always shoots off in the same direction so the scope is useful.”

Malena stared at Lilith. “I understood that.” She blinked. “Wait, would that give more range than bows?”

Lilith nodded. “Yeah, it should give a much longer range.”

“Can it be nonlethal?” Hana asked.

Lilith paused to think for a second before nodding. “I mean, not perfectly non-lethal, but if the bullet is made to go through instead of exploding on impact, it can be.”

Malena underlined that idea several times. “Alright, anything else.”

“Fume hood,” Lilith said. “Malena mentioned testing some of the plants around here. I wanted to show her chemical formulas and some other stuff to see if they could help, but some of her stuff could be dangerous if done inside the cave without pushing the air out, and we don’t want to do too much outside when we’re hiding.”

Malena nodded. “Okay, Lilith, I think you should work on the gun first. Go over the details with your dad before you build it though.”

---

Alec had to bite his lip as he led the group through the castle to Reinholm. The memories of Cormac and Lilith both smiling at their new flight abilities as they barely hovered above the ground flashed in his mind. In a just world, they would’ve got along.

He turned right, into the room he was investigating Lilith’s files in before, and found Reinhold. “Hey, I got two adventurers ready for a fight. What do our forces look like?”

Reinhold pulled over a map with a few pins on it. “The coastal mountains are being covered by most of your flight mages, but they could always use more. We could also use some backup in case anyone fights back in questioning though.”

The man from the couple stepped forward. “Actually, I want to help with the questioning. I’m in the mood for more than just leisurely flying.”

Reinhold looked at him, then Alec.

“Were are they stationed? Prison?” Alec asked.

Reinhold nodded.

Alec picked up one of the papers from the table and wrote a note, “on behalf of the King’s orders, they may serve as interrogators…” He handed it to the guy. “Give that to the jailers and they’ll let you in.”

The couple nodded and left.

“Who did you find for questioning?” Alec asked, turning to Reinhold.

Reinhold grimaced. “Only three people. This was well planned.” He sighed. “Lilith’s parents? Missing. Ethen? He comes from a village where they’ll kill us if we send anyone that’s not a good enough negotiator. Jatte? No idea where she comes from. Hana? Apparently that’s beyond even my clearance. Silene? The community loves her, but her dad’s a widow and hasn’t spoken to her at all since she left for school, and they weren’t on good terms before. Malena? Her dad was blindsided by all of this. Lilith’s internship mentor has no idea either.”

“Do we have any leads?” Alec raised an eyebrow.

Reinhold shook his head. “Just speculation, but…” he sighed. “Lilith doesn’t have teleportation magic, and we found a spinal vertebrae from Prince Keith across the room from the bed he died on. It’s possible Malena--’”

“If you want to go to war, I can kill you right now,” Alec said, glaring.

Reinhold glared back. “I think we should treat this like we’re fighting a strategist, not some kid with a few weapons she doesn’t know how to use.”

Alec squinted back. “That’s fine, but none of that baseless speculation should reach your king’s ears.”

“Please.” Reinhold rolled his eyes. “I’m a commander. Speculation is left out of my reports, and Lilith already knew multiple magics while Malena knew none. It’s more likely Lilith did it. I’m just telling you that I don’t think we’re fighting Lilith alone.”

“Why would her friends join her?” Alec raised an eyebrow. “They’re risking their life for someone that killed good people.”

“Because they’re her friends.” Reinhold raised his own. “Are you sure you’re not too close to this work?”

Alec frowned. “I might be, but it's also my duty to fix this.”

“It’s all of our duty now,” Rainhold said. “We both want peace in Solis, and we need to appease Voldia with Lilith’s head for that.”

Alec winced at the image of ‘Lilith’s head’ that came up in his mind.

“Look, maybe you should sit this one out.”

Alec ground his teeth as he stared back at Reinhold. “I need to clear my head. I can tell that’s true. But I’m not sitting this one out. She was my student. They were all my students. I need to find them and personally find out what the fuck got inside their heads to make them think what Lilith did was okay.”

Reinhold stared back, then nodded. “Just don’t lose your own head doing it.”

Alec turned, then waved. “I won't.” He levitated, then flew towards the exit of the castle.

Once he was outside, he shot up to the sky, letting his full magic loose once he got enough clearance, then looked down at the clouds below him. Many flight mages had trouble breathing at that height, but he’d acclimated to it long ago.

Now, he just remembered Cormac’s face when he first flew above the clouds. The kid’s face was filled with pure joy. It was the same with every flight mage he taught, including Lilith. He grit his teeth at the memories and choked back tears.

He’d accepted he’d attend some of their funerals long ago, sometimes from skirmishes as part of the force, and sometimes as adventurer work, but never from another one of his students. Cormac was dead, but Lilith was worse than dead.