Alistair turned to Kanda, his mismatched eyes giving away what he was thinking.

“Yes…?” she started to ask.

Alistair: I’ve been informed that Senka has followed us back here.

Kanda: Who has informed you?

Alistair: Noctarii. He’s been in shadow-form all night just to be safe.

Kanda: You could have told me earlier.

“Sorry.”

Kanda looked back at the gates of the Academy. She shook her head. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes?”

“Follow me.” The older girl led Alistair to a secluded area between some of the dormitories, one hidden from any roaming students, who occasionally strolled across the grounds. Alistair focused, looking for any signs of resonant mana as if Senka would trigger something.

She never did.

Instead, the assassin dropped down from a roof soon after they arrived, hand on the hilt of her sword. She lowered it and smiled at Kanda.

“You’re here for Chane Brashlung.”

Senka nodded.

Kanda turned to Alistair. “Where is Chane?”

“He’s not in my building. He’s in the same dorm as—” Alistair snapped his mouth shut. He didn’t want them to know Finnian’s name. He didn’t want to say anything else.

“Okay. The other male fledgling dorm.” Kanda looked around. “It’s just a few doors down. Wait here, Senka. I’ll get the information you need. Alistair, stay with her.”

Kanda departed and Alistair turned to the silent assassin. The assassin placed her hand on the hilt of her sword again. She remained still to the point that she didn’t seem like she was breathing.

Alistair cleared his throat.

Ghost: Not worth your effort. She’s not going to say anything to you, and you need to be ready if she draws her sword. It really is a pity what we’re going to have to do to her.

Alistair: I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone like her.

Ghost: That’s because you haven’t. They don’t make them like Senka. We were a thing for a couple of years. Not quite the best years of my life, but close.

Alistair: Do what? Why are you telling me this?

Ghost: Don’t act like you haven’t heard of sex before.

Alistair: This is not the conversation I expected to be having at midnight. It’s midnight, right?

Ghost: That doesn’t matter. You’re still training in the morning.

Alistair: I figured you’d say that. And you’re being serious? About you and Senka? You two were a thing?

Ghost: I wish you’d stop asking me if I am being serious or not. I’m always serious, and yes, it was years ago. And before you ask, yes, she looked pretty much the same. A bit plumper, actually. She has lost weight with age. I hope she’s eating.

Alistair: And now you’re talking about her weight.

Ghost: I don’t mean anything bad by it. I mean she has grown thinner and more muscular, likely from the effects of the relics.

Alistair tried to look at Senka but ended up turning away. She was too intimidating, her stare piercing in a way that made him uncomfortable.

Ghost: Never turn your back to Senka. People from the Dawncrest Kingdom have battledeck mages who use cards imbued with powers and are able to capture the essence of a summon in a card. This is without talking about Celestial Binding, which your dear professors haven’t quite covered for you. What I’m trying to say here is that people from the Dracolich can’t do any of that. They don’t have the technology to do it. So they have found other ways to abuse resonant mana.

Alistair: Like eating them? What do you mean?

Ghost: That’s not actually far off from what Senka has done. There are certain ways to do it, and at the time, one of the more popular ways was to eat ground up runestones to absorb the mana. It worked until it began to change the way her face looked.

Alistair: It made the scars from the inside?

Ghost: It did, over the course of a year. This was before our brief fling.

Alistair: How can you have a brief fling over the course of a year?

Ghost: Assassins travel often. We were rarely in the same city. If we had been, we likely would have been together two or three years tops. I’m good at traveling, you know. What you put in your go-bag—and by ‘go-bag’ I mean the bag of weapons, poisons, and clothing you intend to take with you—is important. I’m very efficient at that.

Alistair: Noted. Do assassins always date each other?

Ghost: It comes with the territory. It’s hard to date someone who isn’t an assassin once you become one. There are other things assassins have been known to do though, instead of dating. There are pleasurehouses, of course, or one could be like Felix and just pay the Baronblades to protect and to serve, if you understand what I’m hinting at here.

Alistair: I don’t exactly.

Ghost: I probably shouldn’t elaborate then.

Alistair started to turn away again, embarrassed by what Ghost was suggesting, but then he remembered he needed to keep an eye on Senka.

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

He smiled at her as best he could. No response on her face.

Alistair: Changing subjects. The mana she has abused, what does it allow her to do? I have seen how fast she is.

Ghost: Senka is like Noctarii in the way she can meld into shadows. It’s uncanny. He’s better at it, but that’s only because he is smaller. She’s fast, she’s much stronger than she looks. In an arm-wrestling match, she could hold her own against Goran. I’m not afraid of any of the assassin still on our hitlist, but if I were afraid of one of them, it would be her.

Alistair thought of Goran the huge, muscular man armwrestling with Senka. By the time he was done picturing what that would look like, Kanda returned.

“He’s on the second floor, room 2J. Do what you must, Senka, but don’t let it get too messy.”

Alistair watched as Senka pushed back into the shadows and was gone.

Ghost: Savage, but necessary. Kanda is a keeper.

Alistair: Sometimes, I hate you.

Ghost: And sometimes, the only thing standing between you and certain death is the assassin that has taken residence in your head. If that isn’t a metaphor for life, I don’t know what is.

“Good, she’s gone.” Kanda turned to Alistair. “Now, as promised, let’s pay Professor Lysander’s office a visit.”

****

Rather than go to the front of Beacon’s Row, Alistair and Kanda came around to the back, where there was a private portal currently glowing. The two were still in their formal wear, Alistair’s tight velvet jacket annoying him to the point that he made the split second decision to take it off and tie it around his waist.

“That’s a look.”

“Is your uncle going to want the jacket back?”

Kanda shrugged. “I would just keep it. Anyway, we’re here, and it looks like the place is empty.”

“I thought the professors lived on campus,” Alistair said as he took in the large building.

“Why would they do that when they could live anywhere else and just portal here? Besides, Lumina is boring.” Kanda paused as she took in the building. “Their offices should be protected, but I don’t see any barriers. Strange. But maybe not impossible. Who would be stupid enough to break into Beacon’s Row? Are you seeing anything?”

“Nothing with my Gem Gaze power. I was able to open the door last time.”

“It can’t be that easy.” Kanda touched her chest and drew her hand back. A summon appeared, one that resembled a man’s shadow. The summon had red eyes and its arms were much longer than they should be. Alistair didn’t know what it was, but he was certain it would have been classified as Abyssal, just like Noctarii.

“I can call my shadow fae.”

“No need,” Kanda said. “Daisy can handle it.”

Ghost: She named that thing Daisy?

As if Kanda had heard Ghost’s question, she continued: “I named it Daisy so people don’t know what it is when I mention it. Daisy has an ability that allows him to leave no trace, operating as something less than a shadow If there are any traps, Daisy won’t trigger them. He is also an expert in finding magical traps considering he is a Twilight Eidolon.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Alistair’s skin crawled at the sound of Daisy’s haunting voice, a harrowing cacophony of entangled whispers.

Ghost: Say something back to it.

“Ugh, nice to meet you, too.”

“Once I make sure you are able to enter, I will let you know.” Daisy pressed through the outer wall and was gone.

“Daisy is a banned summon, you know. They allow them at the Defin Monstera Academy, but not here.”

“Then how are you able to hide it? The professors can see our summons, can’t they?”

“They can see our summons, but not our powers. There were debates about that long before our time, and it was decided that because professors can play favorites, and some might end up as opponents later on in reunion tournaments, that the Skills and Wandbound Abilities would be hidden.”

“What about Resonant Enchantments?”

Kanda cocked her head as she looked at Alistair. “Someone has been studying. Resonant Enchantments are a third tier of spells that many don’t know about, which is why I didn’t mention it. How did you know that was how Daisy would be listed like that before I even mentioned it?”

Ghost: Don’t tell her about the Card of Rumors.

Alistair: Obviously.

“Well?” Kanda asked.

“Zola was saying something about it, something about forbidden cards which are listed as Resonant Enchantments. It’s not from studying. I barely have time for that.”

“And she would be correct. Listing something as a Resonant Enchantments would be a way to hide it from systems, especially in place meant to spy on our powers. What I was getting at was that even though we’re given this privacy, higher level administrators like the provost do have access to our entire system. But not Resonant Enchantments, which is how the Ghost guy was reborn.”

Alistair wanted to ask about Calista Halor, why she would leave a forbidden card behind in the first place, but didn’t. Instead, he played along: “The Card of Rebirth was a Resonant Enchantment.”

“Exactly. And that is how Daisy is listed. Speaking of which.”

Daisy pressed out of the wall, his red eyes locking onto Kanda. “I disabled the only enchantment in the hallway. You two may enter.”

“Good.”

“He can disable them as well?” Alistair asked Kanda.

“If he can sense them, yes. Daisy was hidden in an Imprint Card purchased for me by my uncle. His level is not listed, but if it were, it’d be in the forties.”

“I like to think fifties.”

“Perhaps.”

“I didn’t know people were buying and selling cards.”

Ghost: That’s because you never asked. I could have told you that. Some of the marks I took were from card sales gone wrong.

The older girl moved toward the backdoor and Daisy floated after her. Kanda extended her hand and a magical glove took shape, which she used to open the door. “This will prevent further detection.”

Alistair caught up with her and was reminded of the original intention of their meeting. “What about the fire in Lumina? Weren’t we supposed to do something to cover up any tracks?” he asked as they continued down a darkened hallway.

“My uncle saw to that by paying people off. He doesn’t want battledeck mages involved either.” Kanda stopped in front of Lysander’s office door. “Here we are.”

Once again, she used her magical glove to open it. Alistair noticed that it also unlocked the door.

They stepped into Lysander’s office. Alistair felt a chill, all but certain that Lionel would attack them again. Instead, they were greeted by an empty waiting room without any seats, another door beyond.

Kanda: No more talking aloud from here just in case there are auditory traps in place.

Alistair: Got it.

She turned her hand around and produced a glowing orb that provided a faint orange light.

Kanda carefully approached Lysander’s door. She opened it, and motioned for Alstair to follow her in.

His office was exactly what he would have expected from the professor, his desk cluttered with papers and the bookshelves surrounding it filled with scrolls and other oddities, from the skull of a creature that looked like a miniature dragon to a display of rings. Lysander had a diagram of the human body on the wall with ancient writing designating certain points. Whether these were energy points, or the best places to attack, Alistair wasn’t certain.

Still with her gloves on, Kanda opened one of the drawers and went through the first set of files. She shook her head once she didn’t discover anything. She opened a bottom drawer.

Kanda: Ewww…

Alistair: What is it?

Kanda: I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. Some sort of food. Doesn’t matter. Next drawer.

She rifled through the next drawer, and was just about to shut it when Kanda looked up at Alistair.

Alistair: Yes?

Kanda: This is it.

Alistair, who had been standing by in anticipation, approached Kanda as her eyes skimmed through a couple letters she had unfolded. She placed them on the table and turned the letters to him.

Ghost: That bastard. I knew that he was treating you that way for a reason, but to see it spelled out like this. Easy enough. We can handle this.

Alistair grunted a response.

For once, Alistair knew what needed to happen next.