[The queen now showing her pregnancy, stands in a room supervising workers as they move furniture.]

The Queen: Move the dresser over there a few inches. It was just touching the window.

Handmaiden: My queen, you must rest. You should not concern yourself with the decorating of a room.

The Queen: Oh but I must. I was stricken when my husband sent me away. I so longed to give birth in the home that we had made. When word reached me of the fire, I saw it as a sign. If our home was gone, I will recreate it here and surprise his majesty when he arrives for the birth.

-Act II of the Keyhole of Time

—

Kole heard arguing as soon as he opened the door to the study group room.

“Stop using it for a day and see what happens!” Rakin yelled. “See what he thinks.”

“I don’t need to test him!” Zale shouted back. “He doesn’t care. And it makes everything simpler.”

“Yer hiding who ye are!”

“You’re one to talk!” She shot back, and then they both turned to see Kole entering and grew quiet.

Zale waved, and Rakin gave a grunt of greeting and then they went to separate sides of the room.

“Everything alright?” Kole asked, moving to her side of the room.

“Yeah,” Zale said, clearly lying. “Your clothes don’t fit.”

Kole looked down and realized the pants Zale had helped him buy stopped just above his ankle. He looked at his sleeves and saw they were too short as well.

“Ah flood,” Kole cursed. “I’m going to need to buy more. How did this happen so fast?”

“It must be all the time we’ve spent in the dungeon.”

“Did you get any taller?” Kole asked, looking at her closely.

“No,” Zale answered quickly. “Unlike some people, I’d realize it if my clothes didn’t fit.”

“Why did I grow? Is this another weird Dahn thing?”

Zale rolled her eyes.

“No, you’re a fifteen-year-old boy. I probably won’t get much taller than I am now.”

“Oh…” Kole said. “Yeah, I guess everything isn’t about magic. But… it is weird that we grow in there. Am I sixteen now? My birthday’s in two months…”

“Something tells me no one is going to count time spent in a time-dilated dungeon.”

“You’re probably right.”

Just then, a door opened and the bustling of a busy street could be heard beyond it. Kole looked over just in time to see Runt ducking in and slamming the door behind her. She pulled the handle off the wall, and the door disappeared.

“What’d you steal now?” Zale asked with a sigh.

Runt grinned and winked at Zale.

“A heart.”

“Ew, no thanks,” Zale replied as Runt moved to a seat in the room.

“Does she have her own magic door handle thing like you used to have?” Kole asked Zale.

Zale nodded.

“Why does she get one?”

“She lives in New Lakeside. She says it has ‘better night life’ and that there are ‘way less nerds.’ And, she doesn’t have one so much as she keeps stealing them.”

“Fewer nerds,” Kole said, absentmindedly correcting Zale.

“You’re proving my point!” Runt yelled from her seat, from which she could apparently hear the whole conversation.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Your mom lets her?” Kole asked, ignoring Runt.

He’d only interacted with the girl a handful of times, but he could see why Zale didn’t get along with her—even disregarding the forced rivalry.

“It’s sort of a training exercise… I think. She could just make them not work for Runt if she wanted.”

“Kole Highridge!” a cold official-sounding voice called out.

Kole turned and was surprised to find it had come from Professor Shalia.

“Um… yes? Present?”

“We need to talk,” she said, gesturing for Kole to take a seat.

“Do I look like a receptionist?” she asked.

Kole looked her up and down. She was wearing a loose-fitting white linen shirt, red leather jacket, high-leather boots, and a vaguely triangular hat.

“You kind of look like a pirate…” Kole said, again without thinking.

He groaned internally. Have I always had a loose tongue?

The professor smiled.

“That’s exactly what I was going for. So, we can both agree, I am not a receptionist and am a dashing pirate.”

“Yes?”

“So, why do I keep having to deal with your correspondence?” she asked, walking in a circle around him in his seat and dropping two letters on a table, one open and the other sealed.

Kole caught himself from answering, saying something along the lines of “I never asked you to do that,” but he had the presence of mind enough to tell that wouldn’t be helpful.

Luckily, she never expected an answer and instead pointed to the open letter.

“That one was directed to the chancellor of the school,” she began.

Again, Kole refrained from pointing out that was in fact her, so she only had to deal with two of his letters total.

“It requested I find one ‘Kole Highridge—possibly going by Kole Teak—and contained a very accurate sketch of you. The letter laid out some very serious claims of theft.”

“Theft?!” Kole asked. “What did I steal?”

He wracked his brain trying to think of what he could have stolen, but Professor Shalia pulled a familiar amulet from inside her jacket.

“My amulet!”

Kole felt in his shirt, both upset and impressed by the theft.

I didn’t feel her take that at all!

“So you admit you stole it?” she said, one eyebrow raised.

“No! It’s mine. It was my mother’s—is my mother’s.”

“The letter is very clear that all your family’s possessions now belong to this Lord Cyril Underhill,” she said, taking on a highbrow accent as she spoke the name. “He did agree to allow you to keep any other possessions you might have taken—so long as you agree to stay away and return the amulet.”

Kole stood up, too angry to remain seated.

“He can’t do that. My mother is alive.”

His mind raced with the implications.

This must be why I was chased. Did he want this the whole time? Is this why he helped? To get this?

Despite his anger, Kole was a little impressed by the planning if Lord Underhill had spent years supporting Kole to get this ensouled artifact. The cost he’d paid to finance Kole over the years was nothing compared to the price of an ensouled artifact.

Dropping the interrogation and taking on a gentler tone, Professor Shalia continued.

“I know you believe this, but if the letter is true—which you seem to have just confirmed, then my hands are tied—and not in the fun way.”

Zale let out a fake gag behind Kole at the last comment while Runt laughed.

“But…” Kole began but had nothing. Defeated, he continued, “It’s all I have to go on. It’s all I have left of them.”

“I think I might be able to help,” Tallen said, having appeared at some point during the brief interrogation.

Relief filled Kole at the words, which surprised him. He’d not have been so reassured from Tallen’s offer of help a few weeks back, but now—well, now Kole knew who he was, and he had proved a little helpful of late.

“That’s an ensouled artifact,” Tallen said, pointing to the amulet.

Kole nodded. He’d only recently learned that but wondered how Tallen knew. One ought not advertise they had an ensouled artifact if they couldn’t defend themselves from thieves, and Kole looked cautiously over at Runt who had perked up at the pronouncement.

Well, I guess I’ll worry about her if I get to keep it. He thought, decided to put off that problem for later.

Professor Shalia relaxed a bit at the claim, and didn’t ask how Tallen knew, but seemed to trust that he had a solution.

“In Illandrios—and most of the world—it’s illegal to transfer ownership of an ensouled artifact that’s still Bound to somebody. Even if the seller consents,” Tallen explained. “You must sever the Bond before a transfer can be made—if you can. If your mother is still alive, then he can’t take that from you.”

Kole hadn’t been aware of that law, but the finer parts of ensouled artifact ownership hadn’t exactly been on his self-assigned curriculum back home.

“And she’s still alive?” Professor Shalia asked, genuinely surprised. “I thought he was just a hopeful idiot.”

“No,” Tallen said but then corrected, “Well, maybe. That amulet is still Bound to someone, and if Kole has had it all this time and it isn’t Bound to him—which it is not—then it must still be connected to his mother—or maybe his father.”

Tallen’s words quickly pushed out his irritation at being called an idiot by the chancellor of the center of learning for all of the world.

“They’re alive?” he asked, disbelieving, and surprising himself with the disbelief.

He’d always told himself they were alive, and Zale had even said as much, but coming from Tallen—Tal of Storms—it cemented the belief in a way he hadn’t relieved he needed.

“Probably,” Tallen hedged and gestured for the amulet. “Let’s see if I can find them.”

Professor Shalia tossed Tallen the amulet, and he closed his eyes as he cast a spell.

Nothing visibly happened, and Tallen looked disappointed. He then cast another spell, again with no visible effect, but he had a small smile after casting it.

“Whoever is Bound to this is alive—obviously—but I can’t find them. You say they got lost in a pocket realm?”

Kole nodded.

“Well, that would do it. I did confirm the person who is Bound to this is connected to you in some way, which I’d say about confirms your parents are alive.”

“Great,” Professor Shalia said, smiling deviously. “I’ll go tell Lord Oldballs to shove his writ up his butt.”

All the students—save for Zale, who rolled her eyes—in the room broke out into laughter and looked at the head of the school with mixed looks of surprise.

“What?” she asked, “I didn’t want to comply. But I have responsibilities. And my secretary will probably word it more professionally.”