Harmoni fell to the ground, the creature no longer existing to keep her in the air. That hurt. Damn it hurt. Something was probably broken.

But that was low on her priority list. She sat part way up with a groan, struggling to get farther. She opened her eyes.

‘Don’t!’ Fleck warned. ‘Your eyes look different! Stay down!’

If he knew that, he must be close.

‘No duh.’

She had noticed, sort of. She'd realized he was coming towards the tower as soon as the creature attacked. She just didn't realize he was close enough to see.

She gave up on sitting up, which was nice. That had been hard. She dropped back against the stone, kept her eyes closed, and tried to look through Fleck’s eyes. Like when she’d been kidnapped.

It worked. In fact, it was easier than before. They were in the same room, not vastly different environments. And her own eyes were closed, not giving her conflicting visuals.

Fleck was standing in the doorway. The explosion didn’t seem as effective this time, but it had still been devastating to the creature. The fungus had blown up like someone had placed a bomb inside it. Some of it had turned to paste, tiny droplets hitting the walls like paint. But some of it just fallen as big clumps, looking like small piles of mushrooms sticking together.

Fleck had been the first into the room, but Tolith swept past him as Harmoni was taking in the sight.

“Are you alright?” Tolith asked.

Marble student let out the most unconvincing “fine” Harmoni had ever heard.

“No,” book girl whimpered.

“The others are injured,” Rasha explained. She really was the only one still fine. “The fungus did something to them.”

Tolith moved in. He started with marble student, which was for the best.

With everyone else distracted, Harmoni shifted her weight and clenched her hands together tightly. When Fleck said her eyes looked different, he meant they were red. He hadn't wanted to tell her that, but he hadn't had much choice. She'd shoved the realization down when she'd felt it, because there were other, more pressing matters to attend to. But that was bad. What did it meant to blow something up with dark magic, and then have red eyes?

Did it have to do with the dark magic? It hadn't happened last time.

Was that true? Or had neither of them noticed?

The dread sat there in her stomach. She made something explode again, just by panicking. And this time she'd had some training in magic, some familiarity. She’d felt herself reach into the metaphorical red crack of her magic, expanding it and drawing out incredible power.

And shouldn’t someone else have noticed that? Even with the necklace on, shouldn’t someone have sensed that kind of magic? She didn’t care if they did at this point. They should punish her.

Fleck cared. And he didn’t think punishment was going to help her stop, which was the whole point.

What he was concerned with was if her eyes were still red. She couldn't just keep them closed for all eternity.

Yes, well, luckily her internal spiraling hadn't taken much external time. With Tolith healing the marble student, Harmoni risked cracking an eye open. It was weird to look at Fleck, and look at herself through Fleck's vision. But she could see her eye was green again, not just through Fleck's knowledge, but through his gaze.

Good thing too. Tolith went to her after marble student. He seemed to be doing it based on how injured everyone was.

Which was fine, but Harmoni was so deep in her head she barely noticed her injuries, or the difference once Tolith was done.

He went to heal book girl, who complained about how the school was supposed to have protections against this kind of thing.

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“Is everyone OK now?” Tolith asked, standing up in the middle of the room to look over his handy work. He seemed put together, hands on his hips and eyes going over each of the students, but something seemed off. He half sighed the question, for one.

“I’m-I’m fine,” marble student managed.

“What do we do now?” book girl asked.

Tolith looked behind him at the doorway. His head rolled, letting gravity do most of the work in moving it.

It looked like there were small clumps of mushrooms sticking together on the floor. The doorframe was wrecked, there was a hole or two to the outside world in the wall, and the ceiling was cracked.

“Well, the good news is, I think we just got some new food.”

The other two did actually look happy about that. Harmoni thought that was a little strange. She just hoped they made some changes to the mushrooms before serving them, make them a little more appealing.

Fleck exchanged a look of solidarity with Rasha. They could eat the fungus, but still needed that meat.

“Uh,” Tolith continued. Oh he was definitely tired. Harmoni had never heard him use a filler word before. “You should probably leave the tower for right now though. Until someone can repair it. There’s plenty of space in the meeting rooms or the library if you need someplace to relax.”

Book girl perked up.

“What about the dorms? Sir?” Rasha asked, taking a step forward. “The two of us sleep in them.”

She pointed between herself and Harmoni, who remembered, belatedly, to nod along.

“The thing about magic is, I’m sure repairs will be done by the time you need to sleep. But, if they’re not, we can set something up in the cafeteria. Any other questions?”

Apparently not.

Tolith gave a single nod. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to make sure someone is coming to repair this stone, and I should have a word with the headmaster. If you need anything, you know where to find us.”

"Will the headmaster be able to help?" Rasha asked. She sounded mostly concerned, shaken, after that little run in. But Harmoni could hear the skepticism in her voice, just barely.

"Of course. I was taught by him back when I was a student, you know? Very powerful magician. He knows his stuff."

'Liar,' Fleck internally scoffed.

Well not necessarily. Tolith was an adult elf. Who knew how long ago he was a student? The headmaster might genuinely be good at magic, and at teaching it, but he didn't do that anymore, did he?

Tolith swept back out of the room, practically gliding down the hall. The rest of them shuffled out, with a bit less grace, and paused just outside the tower.

And if none of them were saying anything about the fungus monster exploding, Harmoni was not going to bring it up. 'Understand?'

“So, now does anyone want to play marbles?” marble student asked.

~~~

Harmoni did in fact play marbles with him, in a clear patch outside. He had apparently asked the other two when he’d first entered the tower, but they’d said no, so he’d been reduced to just looking at his marbles, counting them up.

“They could always use a quality check anyway,” he said with a shrug.

They played a few rounds, of which he was far, far better. Harmoni didn’t think she’d ever played before.

The feeling of horror at her own capabilities didn’t go away per say. It was still awful. The fungus might not have been sentient, but killing two things by accidentally blowing them up wasn’t a good precedent.

But Fleck was being persistent. He still believed punishment was pointless, only things that stopped another accident from happening were worth her time. And she knew there was nothing she could do to prevent another one immediately. She had practice. She had to get better at magic, and maybe take the barrier around her memories down. So she had to play the waiting game.

That and the marble game lulled her mind back into a sense of . . . normalcy. The feeling of dread and horror could stay, but they could stay at the bottom of her stomach, where she could ignore them until she could do something.

But it was getting late. It was getting harder to see their game, and Harmoni wanted to see if she could go back into the dorm room. Most of the tower had been fine. It was just the entryway that had been damaged.

'And the ceiling,' Fleck reminded her. If the ceiling on the first floor was damaged, wouldn't that effect the higher floors?

‘Would you like me to spend the night with you?’ he offered, stepping closer.

Harmoni gave him an unimpressed look. He liked it better outside, and they both knew it.

'Yeah, but I stayed with you last night. And during the day before that.'

'Which makes it all the more logical you go back to the cave tonight.' She would manage on her own tonight, and she knew Fleck got the picture.

With that settled, she headed back indoors, and started across the main hall. She slowed when she reached the headmaster’s office. The headmaster and Tolith were still talking.

“You think someone sabotaged the protections?” the headmaster asked.

“Not exactly what I said.”

“You were implying it.”

A pause. They were both speaking in elvish, but that wasn’t a problem for Harmoni.

“Yes,” Tolith confirmed. “There are protections around the school to prevent things like this. You probably know how well they work better than I. And, you’ve seen those fungus creatures before.”

Another silence. It was possible there were some gestures going on here, which of course, Harmoni couldn't hear.

Tolith continued. “So, if the wards didn’t need renewing any time soon, and the fungus creatures aren’t strong enough to break them on their own. . .”

“Someone’s been tampering with them,” the headmaster concluded. He didn’t sound happy that Tolith was right. “The good news if it’s one of the students, they’ll either have been very sloppy, or they’re more experienced than they’re pretending. Either one should be easy to notice, now that we’re looking.”

“And if it’s not one of the students?”

“Then we have bigger problems than just IDing them.”

Well, that was bad. This conversation was filling Harmoni with dread. But the conversation was clearly winding down, and Harmoni did still have enough sense to start walking again. She didn’t need to be caught obviously eavesdropping.