Once he received the message from Kanda later that afternoon, Alistair headed downstairs to receive her due to gender rules of the Fledgling dormitories.

“I’m tutoring him,” Kanda told the student at the front desk, a Skyward who seemed to know her.

The long haired boy’s eyes jumped to the bag over her shoulder. “Yeah?”

“And I have plans after, Brad.”

“Got it. Wait,” Brad told Alistair as they stepped past. “Isn’t your roommate being tutored too? Like, at this very moment.”

“Correct,” Alistair said as he tried to mirror Ghost’s calmness in a situation like this. “We have separate tutors.”

“If you have any more questions, Brad, send them to me over Spectral Text,” Kanda told him in a sweet-rude voice. “We need to get started.”

Brad waved them away, and the two headed up the stairs. They reached Alistair’s dorm room to find Zola seated on one of the couches while Juno continued packing his things.

Kanda and Zola locked eyes; Kanda shook her head slightly. “I still can’t believe I agreed to let the two of you come with us across the border. I’m not your chaperone, and that message is meant for you, not Juno, by the way. For Juno, I actually have to give a shit about what happens to him. So in that way, I’m sort of his chaperone. But you’re on your own, got that?”

Zola, who had already been warned that Kanda was starting to crack, shrugged her off. “Fine by me. I can take care of myself.”

“I’m serious, Zola.”

“So am I, Kanda,” she said as she returned the older girl’s harsh gaze.

Ghost: Shit, Zola means it. Kanda has her dead to rights with magic, but Zola might be able to beat her otherwise.

Alistair: I’m glad you’ve thought this through.

Ghost: I think about violence a lot.

“Let’s see your room,” Kanda told Alistair.

“Um, sure.” Alistair opened his door and motioned to the portal. It was currently dormant, yet there was a flicker of barely perceptible mana that he knew Kanda would be able to make out.

“Pretty basic,” she said after a quick look around. “You haven’t done any decorating?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because it’s your room.”

“It’s temporary,” Alistair said, his statement bringing a smile to Kanda’s face.

“Have you been in Juno’s room?”

“I have. It’s a bit messy.”

“And is it decorated?”

“Sort of?”

“I guess it doesn’t matter.” Kanda sat on the bed. “Moving on. You said you had an idea.”

“I do. We do,” Alistair told the older girl, aware that Zola could hear him from the living room. “And we think it will work.”

Kanda: What about Ghost?

“Yes,” Alistair said, replying verbally to her secret message. “We want to use Juno.”

Kanda could barely hide the skepticism on her face. “Use Juno for what, exactly?”

“To bait your uncle.”

“You really think my uncle, who has locked himself in one of his mansions protected by the Baronblades, will be swayed by Juno?”

“I do. Juno thinks so too.”

“And what do you even mean by baiting him? You think he is some sort of pedo?”

Ghost: Don’t answer that. Clearly, Felix is a fucked up piece of shit. Is he touching kids? I don’t know. Would I put it past him? No.

“Your plan of just showing up and starting the assault won’t work, even if he is down a few Blades. You know that; I know that,” Alistair said, repeating the words that Ghost told him in his head. “But if we show up with Juno, claiming that he has information for Felix, maybe, just maybe, we will be able to lure him out, and you’ll able to use your card.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Alistair tried to sound convincing. He really did his best, but there were so many uncertainties in their plan that it was hard to project confidence.

First, they needed to get her dungeon core card. They had the extractor from Annie the bard; now, they needed to put Kanda to sleep. And they would need to put her to sleep later when they ditched her.

It was only by coincidence that she now sat on Alistair’s bed, a perfect opportunity, according to Ghost. But Alistair’s next set of questions were now bothering him, as they had when they had devised this possibly batshit plan: what if Kanda checked her cards? And how would coming awake feel for her? Would she suspect something?

If Kanda was a Fledgling, she wouldn’t be able to access her status on the fly. But she was a Skyward, meaning she had access, meaning she could see what she’s working deck-wise in the blink of an eye.

Then there was Daisy, her Abyssal summon. Currently, Noctarii was hidden in the shadows. He’d yet to sound the alarm that Daisy was there, but Alistair knew not to put anything past Kanda.

If they did this, and it didn’t work, there would be serious repercussions, even more so if it happened on campus due to the legalities of using the card against her. If Kanda discovered what they were doing now, or if she discovered what they had done after, the gloves would be off at that point. There was no telling what she would do.

Yet trying to put her asleep in Solaria and extracting the card then would be more difficult, especially once they were on the move.

A message came in from Zola.

Zola: I’m wand-ready. Explain her exact position.

Alistair: She’s seated on the bed.

Zola: And Daisy. Is she here?

Alistair: Noctarii hasn’t warned us, so I’m going to go with no.

Zola: Perfect. Can you have Kanda turn toward your desk?

Alistair: I can try.

Alistair approached his desk and Kanda’s head naturally followed him. “Decorating,” he said as he placed a hand on his desk, hoping to keep her gaze. “What would someone normally do? Would they put a calendar or something here?” He motioned to the wall in front of his desk. “Maybe there?”

“A calendar?” Kanda smirked at what she assumed was his naïveté. “You are such a cute orphan sometimes. Of course, someone would put something like that there. That, or one of the summon flowcharts.”

Alistair yawned. “Sorry.”

Naturally, Kanda yawned as well.

Ghost: See? I told you that yawn trick works.

“You aren’t sleepy, are you?” she asked.

Alistair stretched his arms over his head, aware that he still had her full attention. “Nah, I’m fine.”

Alistair: Now!

A flash of nearly invisible mana from the other room struck Kanda just as Alistair coughed. “Sorry,” he said, Alistair coughing even louder, which drew Kanda’s attention back to him. “I got this cough the other day—”

“You’re sick too?” she asked.

Zola: It worked. She didn’t notice!

Alistair: Looks like so!

“Yes, err, no, I’m not sick,” Alistair told Kanda as he tried to calm his pounding heart. He had no idea what would happen next.

Kanda yawned once again. “Maybe… maybe I could just take a little… nap before…” The older girl’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. She fell to the side, out cold.

“Shit,” Alistair rushed to his door to fetch Zola. “She’s out,” he whispered, as if Kanda could hear him.

“Get the extraction tool!”

Noctarii appeared. “Holy goblin taints, I really can’t believe that worked!”

“Not now,” Alistair told the shadow fae as he shoved his hand in his pocket and found the rusty bracelet, one that glowed with mana.

Zola now at his side, Alistair clasped the bracelet to Kanda’s right wrist. The piece vibrated and cards lifted from Kanda’s fallen form and arranged themselves in the air.

“Just like Annie said,” Zola told Alistair.

“You could steal all her cards and leave her helpless,” Noctarii suggested. “Easy way to kill the b—”

“Let me focus. Come on, come on,” Zola said as she quickly cycled through the cards. She found the dungeon core card and handed it off to Alistair.

“Got it.” He removed the bracelet and stuffed it back in his pocket. Once it was gone, he checked the Status Stone on his desk to see that the forbidden resonant card was listed:

{Resonant Enchantments}

Dungeon Core Starter 1/1

Feather of the Phoenix, 1/1

Plague Bearer, 1/1

Umi Hoshi Kraken, Level 49

“It’s there. Dungeon Core Starter. I didn’t even have a chance to read it,” he said as Zola removed the bracelet. “

“Later. We don’t need it until later.”

“Shouldn’t you keep it?”

“For now, it’s best you have it,” Zola said, “just in case she suspects something. I have the other things,” she told him, referring to the additional supplies they would need to subdue Kanda later. “Best we spread out our deceit.”

“Now, she’s going to wake up and… and…”

“And, we’ll figure it out,” Zola said. “And we have to keep her distracted so she doesn’t check her status.”

Juno’s door opened and shut. The other boy approached Alistair’s room and peeked in. “And just like that, I’m ready to hit the Dracolich Empire like a bad stink. Wait. What did I miss?” His eyes nearly doubled in size. “You all actually did it? Holy shit, you all did it!”

“Quiet, Juno,” Zola hissed. “She’ll wake up soon. We’ve got to make it seem like she simply fell asleep.”

“For all the planning you do, I can’t believe you didn’t play this one out,” Juno told her. “But don’t worry. I told you all earlier I had an idea. Are you ready to hear it?”

“What’s your idea?” she asked hurriedly.

“Easy. Everyone get on the ground and pretend to be asleep. Don’t worry. This will work.” Juno winked at the two of them. “I’ve got it from here. Now, act tired. Quickly! Go to sleep, my fellow Fledglings. Trust in Wraith.”