“We have a lot to talk about.”

Victor found Chloe back in the overstocked kitchen. Morning light streamed in through the windows — though the blinds were still drawn, only letting in a good amount of ambient light while completely blocking them from seeing anything outside.

His sister was sitting at a small, rickety wooden table, almost finished eating what appeared to have been a fried egg and toast. Ordinarily, Victor would have envied the luxury — but at the moment, that kind of thought was far from his mind.

Remaining only halfway into the room, Victor leaned against the doorway and suppressed a sigh. “Yes, I suppose we do.”

Putting down her fork, Chloe wiped her mouth with a pristine white napkin. She eyed Victor impassively. “Come all the way in. I’m gonna feel weird talking to you if you just hang around in the doorway like that.”

Sighing for real this time, Victor lurched back to his feet and took a seat across from her. He steepled his fingers as if he were preparing for a professional interview and made his best effort to maintain eye contact. It was strange — he had felt distant from his adoptive sister at times in the past, but he had never felt so… uncomfortable.

“There’s so much I could say,” she began, “and I’m sure you have plenty of questions of your own.” Victor nodded slowly at that. “Nika said we should have at least a few hours though, so…” she trailed off. “I guess we can just talk it out as it comes.”

Victor studied her plate. Now that he saw it up close, he realized she hadn’t actually eaten most of it. The egg was spread around and the toast was torn up — giving the appearance of a meal — but he suspected she had only taken a few bites.

“I’ll go first then,” he muttered. Chloe tilted her head. “I mean, I’ll fill you in on what happened, not ask my questions first.”

Chloe nodded slowly herself, and Victor proceeded.

First, he explained the heist with Lord Harvey. Their objective, their plan, and how it ended up going wrong despite the initial success. When Victor got to the part where he bonded with the book, he decided to conjure it to show her.

Chloe arched an eyebrow. “So you have a focus now.”

“Yes.”

Victor passed it to her, and she ran her hand over the intricately engraved, dark yet prismatic cover. “It’s beautiful,” she finally said, flipping open to the first — blank — page. “I’ve never seen one like this.” She frowned, flipping through more blank pages. “What is it? Which class?”

Victor licked his lips. He didn’t even consider lying to Chloe. She was his sister, and even though she had hidden some big stuff from him, he still trusted her. But he had kept it secret from her initially, he realized at the same time. He still didn’t understand why he had done so.

They had both kept secrets from each other. Now would be as good a time as any to rebuild their mutual support.

But that didn’t make explaining it any easier. While Victor was determined to tell her, it was still difficult for him to form the words.

“Tome of the Necromantic Artificer,” he finally said. No softening it up, no beating around the issue. It was what it was.

Looking back up to meet his gaze, Chloe carefully passed the book back, treating it with ginger respect despite its indestructibility. Victor frowned slightly. Was it just reverence for a powerful item, or was it a kind of fear? Perhaps he was reading too much into her reactions.

“I’ve never heard of that class,” she said with a frown of her own. “So are you a necromancer now? How does the artificer part work?”

Taking the book and then dismissing it, Victor shrugged. “I’m not technically a necromancer. I have a crafting class based on necromancy. That mace I had and my cloak are both items I made from dungeon monsters.”

Speaking of which, where was his cloak? With an idle flex of his soul, Victor returned it to his inventory. That was turning out to be pretty convenient — it seemed that he would never have to worry about losing his items.

“Anyway, when I kill something, I can take its soul. That’s how I enchant the items I make.”

Chloe nodded slowly. Victor had been worried about how she would react to the revelation, but she didn’t seem distraught or alarmed. She just appeared thoughtful.

“What about all of the arcane energy?” She asked after a moment. “By what Thomas said, you had a ton.” She tilted her head. “I didn’t think you had any growth technique, since you never studied magic.” She paused. “Does the class give you one?”

Ah. Victor was vaguely aware that arcane energy could be raised through various different techniques, some of which were common and available to any mage, and some of which were rare or esoteric.

He hadn’t had to worry about any of that, of course. “I get it from devouring souls,” he deadpanned.

Chloe blinked, a bit of true surprise breaking through her expression for the first time during the conversation. “Huh. Well that’s certainly… a thing, I guess.”

Victor shrugged, and then readjusted his towel to prevent it from slipping away. “Yeah. I’ll explain more as we get to it.” With that, he resumed his recounting of the events of the previous few days. Chloe nodded to herself in some kind of understanding as he explained his encounter with Deva and how she saved him.

He then largely skipped over his day at the imperial academy and began explaining what he saw in Lord Harvey’s mansion.

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“Holy fuck,” Chloe interrupted him as he explained how he hid in the cabinet. She seemed quite shaken by his observations of Lord Grantly. Victor couldn’t blame her of course — it couldn’t be pleasant to hear when their younger siblings were held captive.

From there, Victor briefly explained how he returned to the apartment and defeated the mercenary — though he mostly glossed over the latter part. When he recounted his final encounter with Deva, Chloe snorted in amusement and rolled her eyes.

“If you think I’m pissed with you right now, you have no idea what you would have had coming from me if you had turned yourself in.”

Victor arched an eyebrow. “I think I would have been rather preoccupied with Lord Grantly.”

But Chloe shook her head. “Nope. I would have made that psycho look like a schoolyard bully.”

Rolling his own eyes, Victor explained the events of the dungeon delve. He didn’t go into much detail here either, at least until the point where he met Thomas. He even began to summarize some of the conversations they had, but Chloe interrupted him. “Yes, yes, I’ve met him,” she admonished, “and he’s still here, last I checked.”

With that, Victor leaned back. “And there you have it.”

The only thing he didn’t mention were his conversations with the books and the bizarre experience he had after his battle of wills with the dungeon. He would tell her the former eventually, but for now it just seemed like it would be a distraction, and the latter wasn’t particularly relevant.

Now it was Chloe’s turn.

“How did you avoid capture?” Victor asked. “Did you also have to run from the apartment?”

Chloe shook her head. “No. I knew to hide before I even left the academy.” Victor raised an inquisitive eyebrow, and she continued. “A professor — not anyone I know — told me that Lord Harvey was dead and that I needed to lie low.”

“I was kind of spooked at first, because I didn’t know the man. I think he knew I was suspicious because he mentioned your name and said that you had just completed a job with Lord Harvey.”

“Wait.” Victor held up a hand. “So one of the professors knew I had a job with him?” His mind began turning. As far as Victor was aware — despite Lord Harvey’s significant influence — the crime boss had never truly infiltrated the imperial academy.

Exerted influence, yes, but not control.

Unless Victor was mistaken — which he had to admit was a possibility, as he was only a minor accomplice until recently — this meant that people outside of Lord Harvey’s circle knew of the heist. That was alarming, but no longer unexpected.

What threw things off in Victor’s mind was that the unknown professor had helped Chloe.

“…that suggests that there are third parties which oppose Lord Grantly and his board,” Victor murmured.

Chloe had stopped speaking, and she now stared at him. “…you’re going to have to explain what you’re talking about,” she finally said.

Victor blinked. “Sorry, I got lost in my own thoughts.” He paused. “I’ll explain what I was thinking in a bit, just remind me.” He then gestured in a circular motion with one hand. “Carry on.”

Chloe tilted her head but did as he asked. “Anyway, I still didn’t trust him but I knew that something was up. So I took a long, roundabout way back to the apartment. I was almost there when I was intercepted by this posh red haired young woman.”

“Deva,” Victor supplied, and Chloe blinked. Victor realized he had never described her appearance.

“Ah, so that’s who that was,” Chloe surmised. “Well, she stopped me, which was admittedly quite concerning, and she told me that I couldn’t continue or ‘they’ would capture me.” She paused. “I think this was after you ran away?”

Victor shrugged. “Possibly. What did you do?”

Chloe began to laugh, and then went oddly blank. “I ran past her and she chased me. But I got there first, which is when I realized I never would have made it if she truly needed to stop me.”

Victor inclined his head, and she continued with a sigh. “Anyway, I’m glad that she followed, because there were four armed guards there. I wouldn’t have been able to take them.”

“But Deva did.”

It wasn’t a question, but Chloe answered anyway. “She tore them limb from limb, and then asked me to leave, because, and I quote, ‘I lose my appetite when other people are watching.’”

Victor just stared. “Okay.”

“Anyway,” Chloe continued, “she also told me that you went into the dungeon — so yeah, I guess this was after you got away.”

Right. That confirmed it.

“So I followed you into the dungeon.” Chloe glared now. “It was fucking horrible. I could manage the first two areas — I had to go back to the academy first to get supplies, mind you — but then that area where I met up with you and Thomas?” She shuddered. “That was horrible. Half the shit was dead, so my magic was useless, and the other half just ate up anything I threw at it.”

Victor nodded slowly. Right. Fleshcrafter.

He needed to ask about that. “So…” he shifted awkwardly. “What’s the deal with the fleshcrafting? It sounds like you don’t have a focus?”

Chloe sighed and flicked her eyes back down to her plate. “Well. It started when I needed extra money after I broke my fountain pen.” Returning her gaze to meet Victor’s, she continued. “So I took up extra work for one of my copywriting clients — Nika.”

Sighing again, Chloe flicked back a strand of blonde hair that had been dangling in her eyes for some time. “She paid quite well, so I decided to take up more additional work from her. Anyway, one thing led to another, and she offered to teach me as payment instead.”

Chloe leaned back as well, slumping slightly in her chair. “It seemed like a far better proposition than my general arcane studies, so I continued.”

Victor frowned. “But why did you never tell me? That’s what I don’t understand…”

Chloe licked her lips. “It sounds silly now… but I was embarrassed about the pen, and I knew you wouldn’t want me taking additional work. And then I knew you would worry about my studies, and then by the time I was her apprentice I kept meaning to tell you but kept chickening out.”

Leaning forward, Victor shook his head, fixing Chloe with a disapproving gaze. He understood it now, but that didn’t mean he was happy with it. “I’m not angry,” he began, “not even really disappointed.” He sighed. “I just hope you’ll tell me things like this in the future.”

Chloe nodded, seemingly about to speak — and then a sharp knock at the front door echoed down the hallway three times.

They shared a glance. A moment later, three more knocks came, and Nika emerged from the basement stairs. The scientist shot a sharp glare at the two siblings. “Keep your heads down and out of trouble,” she loudly whispered, “but run if you have to.”

A moment later, the door opened. Sharing another glance, Victor and Chloe both silently stood. Victor dropped his towel. There was no point in shame right now, and he didn’t want to worry about mobility.

“She has a pantry with a large window out to the garden,” Chloe whispered as she led Victor deeper into the kitchen. Sneaking inside, Victor closed the door behind them. The window was fairly high up, but there was a shelf next to it, and it was certainly wide enough to easily fit through.

The two siblings huddled at the back underneath it. “You first,” Victor whispered. At the same time, he summoned his cat cloak. It only covered his upper body — at least in the front — but perhaps it would grant a little extra stealth.

Chloe was halfway up the cabinet when the door opened.

Victor whirled around.

“Good morning, Miss Chloe, Mister Victor,” the clean shaven, kinky haired man greeted them. His imperial academy robes were perfectly cut and freshly ironed. “I hope that I haven’t intruded.”

Chloe slipped back down the cabinet and Victor hastily — and vainly — attempted to cover himself.

“My name is Professor Mason,” the man continued, “and while I have had the pleasure of making Miss Chloe’s acquaintance, I believe it is our first time meeting, Victor.”

Victor barely managed a nod.

“I’ll get right to business,” Professor Mason said, continuing to ignore the embarrassment of the situation.

“I’m here to, shall we say… suggest a career change.”