“There’s precedent of course,” Vinaya is telling Luca through the compact mirror Christos lent her. “The court case will do fine but it’s getting to that point I’m having trouble with.”

Vinaya is spearheading the law reform on using creatures for ingredients. There’s been some work done in the area before which is why the staff of the creature reform centre were all quickly thrown in jail.

But that only goes for the one centre -Rafael’s- that Luca and Christos took out a few months ago rather violently. All the others are operating at a slower, more cautious pace thanks to Haochen nudging the Confederacy into doing audits but there’s no hard evidence the creatures are being mistreated and no one is allowed in to check if that’s truly a fact or not.

Luca and Christos removed the worst offenders of the staff using the dead magic zone but there’s a financial backer Vasundhara Bhale keeping it all hushed and High Mage Niaa that stands above it all.

Vasundhara is who’s giving Vinaya trouble, not wanting his business to go down, and Vinaya is only involved in the first place because Christos got to her - unlike Luca who wanted to leave her out of danger. They’re slowing each other down but that’s as far as it’s gotten.

“It’s a war of attrition, honey,” Vinaya admits. “Something needs to be done and I just don’t have the resources for it, not if you still want me to stay distant from the case.”

“Okay,” Luca murmurs, sitting on Nicholas’ bed in the empty dorm room, having been waiting for them to come back from an adventure when his mirror lit up. “Yeah, I mean Christos already told you what our current plans are. I’ll get back to you once we have something more solid.” He sighs. “Sorry, my old contacts aren’t really cooperating right now, they keep trying to go over my head to get to Haochen.”

“You’re too confident and it’s making them unsure if they can use you,” Christos chimes in, leaning over so he shows up in the mirror with Vinaya too. “Yeah, someone like you? You’re a leader and they’re scared of that.”

“I wish they’d just say that then, not string me along with maybes,” Luca points out. “I waste so much time just keeping in contact that – you know what? I’m going to drop them. They’re useless.”

“Keep a channel of communication open though,” Vinaya warns. “On your terms, but that’s just how it is. You can’t play along, you have to control it.”

Luca deflates. “Okay.”

Vinaya offers up a reassuring smile. “I’ll send you some books, sweetie. Ask me as many questions as you need to.”

Luca nods. “Great, you tell Christos, and he can tell me.”

“I did not sign up for this,” Christos says immediately. “I am way past business tutors-”

“Okay, bye, I’ll see you later, thanks!” Luca snaps the mirror closed in a rush. Christos can take one for the team since he has the basics down anyway.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Luca looks up when the door cracks open a touch. The other boys didn’t explain what they were doing when they left, but that's probably because Luca caught them halfway out of the tower window already with gargoyles watching on in disappointment as the three boys scaled the outside.

Luca tilts his head in confusion. Then he looks back down.

A tiny, palm-sized fluffy sheep enters the ajar door, tippy-tapping his little hooves in a trot as he makes his way across the carpet. He reaches the bedside, where he then does a bunny hop into Luca's empty shoe left on the ground.

Rito lies down in the shoe, chin resting on the shoelaces, butt sticking out enough that his stubby little tail can be seen wiggling. He peers up at Luca and lets out a happy bleat.

Luca's inhale stutters and he has to clear his throat a few times to calm down. "Why are you shrunken?"

"Did Nicky get back?" Stavros pants, swinging into the room with a hand on the doorframe to act as a pivot, shoving the door open the rest of the way.

Luca points down.

Stavros makes a face like that's cute but then becomes pissed off. "Is that why you didn't have to run? Are you - why would you not tell me wildshape tricked the wards?"

Rito lets out a bleat that sounds particularly mocking, which is just even cuter.

Rafael comes climbing back in through the window, windswept and eyes wide. "Oh, good, you're still alive. Where's Nicky?"

Luca and Stavros point down.

Rafael needs to circle around the bed to see the sheep in his new shoe bed. "Bite-sized," Rafael muses.

Rito is offended.

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

Rafael orders a chicken schnitzel on creamy mushroom sauce for lunch, which was absolutely a mistake because Nicholas takes one look at it and then reaches over and starts vigorously slapping it to make squishy sounds.

Stavros moans loudly. "Harder!"

"You like that, you dirty boy?" Nicholas hisses at the schnitzel.

"I'm hungry," Rafael complains, the new moon only just passed so poor little Thoth in the back of his mind rolls over to show his belly with Stavros and Nicholas bearing down on him.

Stavros picks up a skewer off his own plate and holds it up. "Get on your knees."

"Please, I just want to eat lunch."

"Yeah, I'll feed you my meat."

"Wait, wait." Nicholas picks up the abused lunch and starts to tip the plate. "Open your mouth."

Luca is pretending he doesn’t see any of this.

Flick comes storming up to the table and slams a hand down on the edge. “What the fuck did you shitheads do?”

“You’re going to have to narrow it down,” Nicholas says, putting the plate on the table again.

“It’s lunchtime, what else did you do today?” Flick complains and then steals a piece of fries off Nicholas’ plate.

“Would you like it alphabetical or chronological?” Stavros drawls, swinging his skewer around.

“Okay, fuck the rest, why is Musa bleeding out in the clinic?” Flick deadpans.

“Bleeding out?” Rafael asks worriedly.

“A light drip,” Flick corrects. “But he acts like he’s dying.”

“He said he wanted his ears pierced,” Nicholas explains. “So we did, but then it needs to heal naturally or else the hole will disappear. We offered him a sip of pain relief potion, but he said he was a big boy.”

“Alright, that tracks,” Flick allows. “Why are two year-nines in the clinic with him, saying you tried to kill them?”

“They asked what we were doing, so we shoved them out the window,” Stavros laughs.

“You know, cliff diving?” Nicholas asks, peering up at Flick with wide eyes. “We were doing that, but out of the Famure tower into the lake. Ross thought it’d be faster to demonstrate.”

Flick turns on Rafael who’s just trying to enjoy his meal. He shrugs at her. “I was in the library through all of this.”

Flick straightens up. “So your defence is that they asked for it?”

“Yep!”

“Twenty points from each of you,” Flick orders and light clinking fills the air as crystal water falls from the InCore glass tapestry on the wall and disappears mid-air. There’s a thin sliver of colour left compared to the quarter full other tracks.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Stavros purrs, eyes narrowing.

Luca drags a hand down his face.