I wait outside in the hallway while Lebec and Cerulea talk in lowered voices. I can't really make out what they're saying.

That poor girl. That could've been me.

I only attended Bristlebloom for a few days, but based on my interactions with casters and their casual bigotry towards witches I could see all too easily how that could've been me.

And for the Austerium to assume a witch had killed that girl? Witches don't use magick. They eat it. So how is there blood magick around her ankles?

Silvy appears on my shoulder. “Someone's lying.”

“Yeah,” I agree, “but why?”

“Maybe they want to show you what can happen if you step out of line.”

“No,” I say. “I don't think it's that. I don't understand why they brought me here. I raised such a stink about the blood wizard, tried to warn them all, and they just laughed at me. They told me he doesn't exist. They told me it was an urban legend and that I was falling into a stick-like tendencies with conspiracy.”

“I still should say that you should have let me open a couple of those wizards up. That would've shut them up.”

What am I supposed to do next? I guess I can go home, see if Marist emailed me, and then get to sleep. Or, I can head straight to C&C.

C&C is the nickname for a coffee shop in the Night Market called Coffee and Content. It was there that I saw my first and only witch. We didn't really have a chance to speak. I didn't even know her name. We just made eye contact, she made me a drink, and that was that.

Does she even still work there? I might have scared her off. Maybe she quit right after she saw me.

A yawn slips out of my mouth.

Time to go home. I'll check up on Marist and her daughter, catch some sleep. I can do the coffee thing tomorrow afternoon.

I smile at the thought of it. I'd be going back to the night market, for the first time in two years.

As I yawn, again, Lebec and Cerulea came out into the hallway.

Lebec appraises me. “I'm headed back to the Austerium. Cerulea will take care of everything from here out. If you need anything, let her know. She'll take you anywhere in Anara you need to go, within reason.”

Cerulea smiles at that addition.

She's gonna lord that over me.

“Fine,” I say. “And remember our deal Lebec. You talk to the Austerium now. You let them know what this is.”

He gives me an almost imperceptible nod before turning away and walking down the hall. Once he's out of earshot, Cerulea and I look at each other and start speaking at the same time.

“—I need to go home.”

“—Let's get started.”

We both stop and glare at each other.

“—I need to go home, check my email, and get some sleep.”

“—We should get to work right away. Time is running out.”

Silvy giggles from my shoulder. “This is going so well. You two should be besties.”

Cerulea and I glare at each other before we do the whole interrupting thing a third time.

“—You go first.”

“—I'll go first.”

“Good,” Cerulea speaks before we have a chance to do it again. “I'm glad you want me to go first. We need to get to work. Time is running out.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I look at my watch. “What do you mean time is running out? It's 11 o'clock at night.”

Cerulea shrugs. “You read the message. ‘Don’t try again.’ We need to figure out if there are more witches in Bristlebloom.”

“And how do you figure we're going to do that right now? All the students are probably sleeping.”

Cerulea rolls her eyes. “No one's asleep right now.”

“Sure. Okay. Why is time running out though? You seem to have very specific ideas about that.”

Cerulea swallows.

“You saw what was in there.” She gestures at the now closed dorm room. “The body itself was a message. Whoever did that is taunting the Austerium.”

“Right.”

“If they're willing to taunt the Austerium at Bristlebloom, I've got a feeling they're getting ready to do something much worse.”

“You've got a feeling? A premonition?”

Cerulea scowls at me. “Again with your stick conspiracies. That stuff doesn't exist.”

“That's nice,” I say. “Look, I get the time's running out for you, but I need to go home. There are some things I need to do.”

“Oh?” Cerulea asks. “Things more important than stopping another of your kind from being murdered?”

“She's got you there, darling,” Silvy purrs.

I saw the image of myself hanging in that witch’s place again, but I pushed it away.

I promised Marist I would look into her daughter's disappearance. I need to check my email. If Anara had stick cell reception, I could do it right here, but that's obviously not the case.

“Okay,” I say, an idea popping into my head. “I'll make a deal with you. Give me a lumadex so I can check my email and I won't need to go home.”

Cerulea fixes me with another scowl. “Not happening. We don't know what you could glean from possessing a lumadex.”

“Worth a shot…” I sigh. “Okay. Take me home then. I'll deal with the stuff I have to deal with there, get some sleep, and we can start tomorrow afternoon.”

Cerulea's nostrils flare and she licks her lips. “You must be misunderstanding what I'm telling you. This is a high-priority issue. We need to take care of this. Starting tonight.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I heard you. But you're not willing to give me a lumadex so I can take care of my stick affairs. Unfortunately for you, this witch needs to take care of her stick business. I know it blows your mind that someone else's world doesn't revolve around Anara and casters like you.”

“I'm an adept,” she corrects.

“Same thing.”

Her eyes get really big then and I can see that I've maybe pushed her a little too far.

“Fine,” Cerulea says. “I'll take you home.”

“Promises, promises.”

“Shut up and follow me.” She stalks off towards the gateways.

***

Cerulea accompanies me all the way back to the front door of Sulis, the old theatre I live in.

“You live here?” she asks.

“Yeah.”

There's a secret gateway inside that leads directly into the back room of Blackhart so I hardly ever leave the place unless I want food or something else. Work is just a short couple of steps away.

I unlock the door and turn back to her. “I'll see you tomorrow.”

She smiles at me. “See you soon.”

Without another word she stalks off into the darkness. I go inside Sulis and lock the door behind me, praying that Ivy is asleep. I'm not sure if I can deal with her tonight.

I make my way through the lobby of the theatre and into the theatre proper. It was originally an opera house, but later in its life it was bought and turned into a movie theatre. They kept the seating the way it was though. I replaced the screen and sectioned off the theatre boxes as parts of my living space. I'd converted several of the boxes into my bedroom.

Several of the other boxes had been converted into a makeshift office.

That's where I head immediately.

I'm not hungry. I just want to check my email and go to sleep. The day’s events have drained me. Using a witchstone to fight Renald had taken most of my energy and fencing with Cerulea had taken what little remained.

Once my computer is fired up, I check my email.

The email from Marist is already in my inbox. From the timestamp it seems that Marist sent it as soon as she made it home, right after seeing me.

Dear Hex,

Thank you so much for meeting with me this evening. I apologize for my frantic state, but you must understand how worried I am. This is the first time Pixie has ever done something like this. I can't tell you how much my daughter means to me. She means everything. She's my whole world. I went through her entire room with a fine-tooth comb and only found a few things that may be of interest.

I found a comb with the word Filigree carved into the handle. It looks like a man's comb. I've never seen Pixie use it and it seemed out of place and thus worth mentioning. I also found a book titled Curses and Promises. It's old. It looks ancient, leatherbound and again, the word Filigree is carved into the cover.

There's one last thing that's out of place. I found a scrap of paper in her desk with two words on it. Again, Filigree and beneath that the word Beckeldorff’s.

My breath catches in my chest at this. I skim through the rest of the email, but it only contains Pixie's physical description as well as identifying marks.

The thing that's frozen me, the word my eyes keep darting to is Beckeldorff’s. I don't know what significance Filigree has, outside of its common definition, I know exactly what Beckeldorff’s is.

There's a back alley bar in the Red Market were some of the shadiest characters in Anara hang out.

Its name?

Beckeldorff's Tea Room.

No stick should have even an inkling of that name.

I turn the computer off and stumble through getting ready for bed, but once in bed, sleep doesn't come.

All I can think about is the sign that hangs just below the larger sign that reads Beckeldorff's Tea Room.

The smaller sign is painted with red ink and reads Enter at your own risk. Sticks and witches executed on sight.