A NOTE FROM MICHAEL L NELSON This is a STUB, the complete work is on Amazon KU and KDP. This is a prequel short story to the complete 173k word story that is available to read here until April. This is Chapters one through three. A prequal for the Return from Cataclysm Saga - Terius is the Dean of Testing and Evaluation at Mammatus Study. He is also by contract the Defender of Brust Valley, Brass, and the surrounding territories. Recently added to his duties is the responsibility of tutoring two new students, a near unstoppable force called Teum and the unpredictable, impossible to measure, Luscin. Life can be frustratingly busy, it's a good thing trouble in the form of a degenerate duelist gives him an outlet for violence.