The next day, Max got up and began his routine as usual, but he could already tell that something was different. Usually, Lavinia would greet him shortly after he came out of his bedroom. But so far, she hadn't said a single word to him.

It wasn't until Max was snacking on a muffin at a table in his bedroom, with the door open signifying that his spirits could interact with him in his room if they wanted, that she finally greeted him. The former Summoner manifested wearing the original outfit Max had met her in. "Good morning," she said. Sure enough, there was something strange in her tone.

"Good morning. He turned a page of the text he was reading on his tablet. Conversationally, he said, "You know, something has occurred to me that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Supposedly, after we leave the Quartet, we bring our tablet with us. Except, when we are sent back to our own world, it is in a different body. We have to tie weapons or armor to our souls in order for those items to follow us back to our world.

“So knowing all of that, that must mean that our tablet is also keyed to our soul. And if our tablet is keyed to our soul, and pairing the tablet was a relatively simple thing to do, it begs the question why it takes twenty-five mana units and a specialist in order to do the same thing for a sword." He turned the page. “It also begs the question why the tablet, and the pairing, is free.”

"I suppose that is true," said Lavinia hesitantly. "Is there a reason you are studying this?"

"Several," said Max, but he didn't explain any further.

The truth was, as convenient as the tablets were, he didn't understand why the Quartet would give them away for free to students when they were so precious. Not only that, Challengers took them back to their own world. Max remembered the story from Earth of the Trojan horse, and he'd begun to look at his tablet with a certain amount of suspicion. He wouldn’t need to be a die hard conspiracy theorist to wonder if tablets were used as tracking devices of sorts. The really disturbing implication was that if so, somebody might know he had already returned to Earth.

Challengers from a non-technologically advanced world might never have had some of these questions.

Lavinia seemed to understand where his thoughts were going. "I'd never even considered it. Then again, I was never planning on going back to Albion, so there is that."

"There is that," Max agreed.

Lavinia phased into the visible light spectrum a bit stronger, her outline becoming clear as she stood next to Max. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"I figured," said Max. He took a bite of his muffin and said, "I'm listening."

She sighed. "I think I want to just get this over with and show you my biggest secret."

Max held back a look of surprise on his face. "You're intangible, Lavinia, and I kind of already have a girlfriend. I'm sorry, but your love will be unrequited."

The ghost girl frowned and crossed her arms. "I'm being serious, asshole."

Max didn't even allow himself a chuckle, although he felt a flash of amusement. Now he could tell how serious his friend was. He immediately fixed his posture and met Lavinia's eyes with sincerity. "Sorry about that. I didn't know you were going zero to sixty immediately."

"That’s okay. I know it’s just how you are," she said. Then she pointed at the empty chair opposite from Max and asked, "Can I sit down?"

Max nodded wordlessly, and as always, he wondered why she bothered going through the motions when sitting or standing was all the same for her. Perhaps it was calming emotionally.

She said, "I just went to check recently because I usually don't go back there, but my original workshop, the one I used before I became like this, has still been untouched since the last day I left it."

Max nodded slowly. "I had suspected, but it's still pretty incredible to actually hear it from you."

"I hid it well," Lavinia paused and then said, "As you may have figured out, although I consider myself an officer class spirit, when I was a Summoner, all of my spirits were practically identical and they were all sergeant class. You may have wondered why they were all the same. The truth is, I used my circle after lucking into the first sergeant spirit. After that, I thought very strongly about the type of spirit I needed and put some power into the calling. I believe you’ve tried something similar before, but it might be useful to lean into it. There is a lot power in a Summoner’s will.”

Max frowned thoughtfully and Lavinia shook her head. "There is a point to me talking about this. I needed my spirits to help me get to and from my workshop. Even though I was a shut-in, I still needed to go to the cafeteria, and I needed to get into and out of my lab. You've already seen how my spirits can act as ropes. I couldn't climb them as adeptly as you, but I could still make do with what I had. Anyway, I would like to know if you are up to go…see my secret.”

“Well, when do you want to go?”

“ I could go whenever. Other than the usual, I don't have anything to do until this afternoon."

"I don’t know how long it will take. We should probably go tonight," said Lavinia firmly. "That's when I always went, too."

"Okay, slight change of plans for my day now," said Max. "We will go out tonight after it's dark, and then you'll show me your old lab."

"Can't wait," Lavinia said, her tone hollow.

***

Max crouched on the rooftop of Summoner academy dormitory at night, mentally communicating with Lavinia. You know, I forgot something, he said.

What? asked Lavinia. She was unusually on edge.

If I'm being followed by a reconnaissance spirit, if we go to visit your old workshop, isn't the headmaster or maybe somebody else going to know about it?

Her voice sounded smug as she answered, Nope, because I put my workshop where I put it for a reason. I found a torn leaf of a book inside another book hundreds of years ago. That's how I discovered this place. It has powerful magic to deter sight and also confuse anybody watching. The effect cuts in before we get there. You'll see.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Okay, said Max. He shrugged, knowing that Lavinia would still see the gesture in the dark. Did you used to live in this dorm? asked Max.

Yes, I got myself transferred here eventually so it would be more convenient to make it to my lab and work at night. Since I kept getting killed anyway, even though I was still technically enrolled in classes, everyone knew that I was dying over and over again. Eventually just stopped going to classes and no one even noticed.

Max didn't know how to respond to that, so he just nodded. Then, Lavinia's spirits created a rope down from the roof, not glowing, exactly how Lavinia had used them when she'd been alive. Max rappelled down into a small garden. Across from the garden was another building, which from this angle seemed fairly unassuming, but was one of the central administration buildings in the Summoner Academy.

Nothing here has changed in hundreds of years. The ghost girl’s mental voice was subdued.

Lavinia guided him to a hedge near the administration building and then instructed him to crawl forward on his hands and knees. There was probably ten feet of bushes, but Max managed to reach the wall. Then, following Lavinia's careful orders, he pushed a series of bricks until a small portion of the wall moved in and then slid aside. At the same time this was happening, a small light above the hole lit up and around it a circle of runes glowed. In Max's mind, Lavinia said, To anybody watching you now, you just fell asleep and took a nap. If they come to find you, they will believe that you left. This is powerful magic. I don't even know what Path put it in place.

Max wanted to ask her what this hole led to, but he knew she'd just respond to wait and see, so he didn't give her the satisfaction. Instead, he crawled forward until he found himself in a small hallway that he could stand in. Behind him, the doorway in the brick slid back again, sealing the entrance. Lights overhead came to life after the entrance was sealed, and Max was astonished that he couldn't see a trace of dust anywhere.

There must be housekeeping spirits or something here, Max sent to Lavinia.

Yes, I never saw them before, but now I can feel them around us. They're completely neutral, but they are definitely there, she replied.

Max nodded absently and walked forward down the short hallway that curved downwards almost like a cellar. He wound up before a door made of metal. Once again, Lavinia instructed him to touch a pattern on the wall and once it was done, the door soundlessly swung open. Max walked inside and shut the door behind him, slowly looking around himself as a mix of emotions compelled him forward to get a better view of the entire room.

Against one wall was a bank of what looked like organic machinery. There were lights embedded in it, and even though components of it were made of metal, they still contracted and moved like they were alive. The rest of the room had been empty at some point, but now had tables and furniture on three walls. In the center of the room was a contraption that looked like part magic circle, part steampunk machine, part reclining electric chair.

Lavinia appeared next to him and said, "You can speak out loud here; this place is about as secure as any place can be in the Quartet."

"What the hell is this?" asked Max.

She pointed at the one wall that still pulsed and moved. "That is a backup generator for the Summoner Academy. Every school in the Quartet has one. The different buildings and some of the sensitive areas are protected in various ways, but that requires power. Whoever built the Quartets had redundancies in place to prevent anything from getting too damaged even if the standard power went down. And you're looking at one example of that."

"Why doesn't anybody else know about this?" asked Max.

Lavinia shrugged. "Who knows how many thousands of years this was here before I even stumbled on it? The leaflet I found in a book seemed to have come from a library from a different Path. And after I read it and memorized the code, I burned it."

"You burned it?" asked Max.

"Sure did," she said, and her voice was completely free of any guilt. "Since the page came from a different book, the library system didn't even register it as missing. So when I walked out with it, I didn't trip any alarms. And then I disposed of it because with the information only in my head, nobody could steal it. This sanctuary is the only reason I was able to accomplish anything before I died. If I hadn't had a safe place like this to work in, I probably would have just been dead all the time. Or maybe I would have tried to get some exception to go back to my world or test out early from the academy just to make the monotony of permadeath end. I guess it's more accurate to say that this room is the reason why I could accomplish anything during my seven years in Summoner Academy."

Max walked around the center of the room. He immediately noticed similarities in the written notes on the table to the magic formula to the summoning circle that Lavinia had developed. Perhaps she'd predicted where his thoughts were heading because she pointed at one table against the wall and said, "That is all of my research materials on summoning circles, including a few books on magic, circles, and glyphs."

"How do you have books in here?" asked Max.

Lavinia shrugged again. "I was able to steal some mana units while I was alive to fund my research."

"You were a thief!?"

"Well, how else was I going to get money? I wasn't a fighter and I wasn't even going to class because people kept killing me.”

“But how did you even steal? Don't people keep everything on themselves?"

"First years don't always," said Lavinia, "especially the first-year lifers. Some of them get overconfident. After I had my spirits, they could ind where some students had stashed money or things I could sell for money. My ectoplasm spirits might not move fast but they could be really strong and break open safes or hiding holes. This lab gave me a place to stash things safely.”

Max shook his head. "If you could do this, why didn't other Summoner students beat you to the punch?"

"Oh, that's easy," said Lavinia. "When I was a third or fourth year and had spirits, think about it. How many other third or fourth years with spirits would be wasting their time trying to get ten or twenty mana units here or there from first or second-year students? It would be a much better use of their time to just go to a dungeon. What I did, I'm not proud of, and it got me what I needed, but I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't just getting table scraps compared to what I might have been able to earn if I had been a proper Summoner student."

Max nodded and walked around the rest of the room. Then he did another circuit around the contraption in the middle of the room. He pointed at it and asked, "So you were here when your seven years was up?"

"Yes," said Lavinia quietly, "but don't worry. There's no body. Nothing decayed here. When my time was up, I died. But just like other bodies in the Quartet, my spiritual body vanished."

"I see," said Max. He spent another hour or two poking around the room, and finally said, "Lavinia?"

"Yes?" Now she sounded strangely worried.

Max said, "You left a ton of material here and on top of that, I've spent the last few months with you going over the summoning circle that you developed. So I kind of understand your methodology and also the parts that you used in order to make all this stuff work. All this is to say, I think that if you and I both were to work on this," he paused and looked at the machine in the center of the room again, "we could make it functional. I think you almost pulled it off. The fundamental theory behind your machine is not flawed. I'm guessing that one of the outside parameters you used was just a little bit off and created an error, which created a feedback loop." The pointed at a specific series of glyphs carved into the floor. “Here, I think.

"I thought as much too. After all, I've had a long time to come down here as a spirit and just observe this machine for years."

"So, then you might have even better ideas on how to fix it," said Max. "But how did you get down here as a spirit?"

"Same way that the housekeeping spirits are here," said Lavinia. "Since I've been in this room before, I've been attuned to it. All of your spirits could probably get in here on their own now, too."

"Oh," responded Max. He went back to the machine and studied it carefully. He thought about some of the books he'd seen on soul and body transportation in the library.

"You know what, Lavinia?" he asked.

"What?"

"You know what else I think this machine could do?"

"I'm listening," said Lavinia.

Max rubbed his chin and slowly said, "I think that this machine could be used to send a Quartet student back to their world, like to sever the connection with the Quartet and send a person's soul back to their original body. I would assume that once the soul enters the old body, whatever holding pattern it's in to keep it in storage ends and the body appears back on earth. So basically, what you developed this machine to do, I think it can do the opposite too."

"I'd never thought of it like that before," said Lavinia. She looked up in absolute shock. “Holy shit. I think you might be right.”