Excitement, apprehension, fear, and surprise, a whirlwind of emotions carried me up the stairs. I looked to Bere at my side. She gave me a ed expression. I could feel the emotions coalesto something more mellow. What could g if she was there? We were damn near unstoppable.

  “I think it’s Berryhop,” I said.

  “Why would it be Berryhop? We’re a thousand miles from the Kingswood.”

  “I think I’ve been having prophetic dreams about her.”

  “What? How?”

  “Not sure,” I said. “They stopped right before the opera opening.”

  “Good, I guess,” she said.

  Soon, we were out the front door and into the snow. Down the freshly scraped path, he gate, stood a small party on a colorful carpet, surrounded by about five guards.

  Upoing closer I was able to make out the party. An orcish man towered over the rest, an elven woman by his side. o them was a gh white hair. A curl of pink had escaped her hair ribbon.

  It was her.

  “I know her!” I said. “I’ve been expeg her!”

  “Really?” Bernie asked quietly, as roached.

  “No, I am pletely dumbfounded, but they need in,” I whispered back.

  “Zabsp; My friend!” called G’nash, with a toothy grin.

  I smiled and waved. The elven woman, I couldn’t tell which bartending sister it was at first gnce, huddled closer to the ord smiled too. Berryhop frowned.

  Oh, and Braelyn was there too.

  “Gd you could make it in one piece!” I said.

  The guards let them through. G’nash stayed behind to roll up the carpet, so the girls walked up without him.

  There, in that snowy path, I met Berryhop again.

  A lifetime of experiences separated us. I could see that she’d bee someone much more formidable. Potions hung from a bandolier across her chest, and a rge dagger from her belt. A strange crossbow poked up from behind her shoulder. But also too, the eyes she gazed back at me with had steel behind them. She was not the carefree woman I’d known.

  “I am a little surprised,” I said, “but I’m gd you’re safe.” I took a guess at her panion. “Is this Dara?”

  “It is,” Berryhop said. Dara kept her hands owin swords hanging from her belt.

  “Then I’m gd to see her too. What brings you here?”

  “ we talk inside?” she asked.

  I nodded, and soon we were in at the ground floor coat chebsp; Here they stowed their ons, though I was able to vihem that the potions were no harm.

  Soon, we were in the mess hall. We got some food and all sat down together.

  “Food is good,” Dara said, “though I find the meat a little heavy,” she said, referring to the roast duck.

  “Yeah, the cooks are phenomenal here,” Bere said. “Though I don’t think anyone will be matg your stew. It was divine.”

  “Why, thank you.”

  “Okay,” Berryhop interrupted. “I’ll just get into it.”

  “Take your time. Or you tell us ter,” I said. “I’m just gd you’re safe.”

  “I poisoned you,” she blurted out.

  “Really?” I replied. “I feel fine.”

  “No, when we were dating. I didn’t know if it would actually work, but that’s no excuse. I gave you the dreamtwin mushroom. It, well, it ected us in dreams. How it works is plicated, but you sort of lived as me, and I you. But only when asleep.”

  “Well that expins the dreams,” I said.

  “What dreams?” Bere asked.

  “I’m sure Berryhop expin.”

  “Well,” she said. “Uh. I didn’t know how it worked. Or even that it would work at all! It was silly. I khat you would leave, eventually, and I wao go with you, but I couldn’t leave Briree. Not then at least,” she said, eyes suddenly shadowed by pain. Then she looked up at me, pleading almost. “So. I put some dreamtwin mushroom in your soup.”

  “Huh,” I said as a way to dey having to respond. This was not how I expected this to go. I just sort of thought I had an active imagination.

  “But what does it do?” Bernie prodded, her fareadable.

  “It einds, and when we dream, it repys the events of the day for the other person, so even though you are apart, you see the events of the other’s lives. It’s a way to ect people that ot be ected.”

  “That’s… that’s kind of fucked up,” Bernie aknowledged.

  “I know!” Berryhop said, flinging her fa the table and hiding it behind her arms. “I’m a monster!”

  Bere ughed. I ged a little inside. It wasn’t a good thing she did. But I’d done worse. In the scheme of things, it was almost harmless. And in fact, I’d grown to have ehe dreams. But I didn’t say that.

  What I did say was, “you made a mistake Berryhop. And I should rightly be mad. But I haven’t had the dreams in some time. Did it wear off?”

  “No,” she said, small and under her arms. “I made an antidote.”

  “Well, thanks. What made you ge your mind?”

  “Um,” she looked up at first Bere, then me. “Well when you two had the date on the boat.”

  “Ah,” I said.

  “Yikes,” Bere said.

  “It wasn’t unenjoyable,” Berryhop said, with an apologetic grimabsp; “But I certainly was impressed by the, um, transgressive nature of my mistake.”

  “Wait,” Dara cut in, “you watched them have intercourse?”

  “We didn’t actually hook up,” I said.

  “Eh,” Bere cut in, “that’s debatable.”

  Dara’s eyes went wide.

  “It was close,” I admitted.

  Bere, and I ughed nervously.

  Berryhop was teically my ex, but it was hard to be mad at her. It wasn’t just her ess, she had an intractable earness. Also, It was a mistake I could have made. It’s not like I didn’t stalk my previous ex’s socials after we broke up. This was certainly much more invasive, but I uood the urge to not let go.

  “Uuuuughhh,” Berryhop groaned. “ you five me?”

  “Sure,” I said.

  “I’m okay with it,” Bere said, “as long as you don’t do it again.”

  “Never!” Berryhop said. “Never in a million years!”

  Bere smiled at me. I shrugged.

  “What’s with the potions?” I asked.

  “Oh. Uh, whies?”

  I poio the bandoleer.

  “Oh!” she tinued. “Well this one,” she poio a luminous blue liquid, “is a catalyst for several effects. It sets a mist on the ground and if I toss this oo it,” she said then poi a transparent, brackish liquid o it on the bandoleer. “Then it explodes into fire. But if I toss this one,” she poio a bck liquid. “It erupts into an ice wall.”

  “Impressive,” I said.

  “I knht?”

  Bere smiled at her, then looked at me.

  “It’s o see you agaie the, uh, the poisoning. Why are you here?”

  “I ahat,” Dara said, her sparkling green eyes gazing at me ily. “The Bck Lions want to make a deal with Ailmer and King Caleb, and I guess you two as well.”

  “The Bck Lions?” I asked. I, of course, remembered the medallions on the bodies of the bandits we killed. And filling in the bnks of what I knew from my dreams, it makes sehat she’d have joihem. But had they really climbed so high that she was making deals for them?

  “Yes. I know you may have some less than pleasant iions with them in the past, but traveling merary foreed to resupply however they . And they are under much more petent leadership now.”

  “You?” Bernie asked.

  “I am one of them, yes. We have a broad leadership structure that allows freat flexibility.”

  “‘No Kings, Just Captains,’” cut in Berryhop reverently.

  “Just so,” Dara agreed.

  “And I am renoung my membership,” Berryhop said with some sadness, “uess hopefully renoung, to study here. I’ve heard this is the best magic school in the try.”

  “That’s what they say,” I offered.

  “How is the South?” Bere asked.

  “Not good,” Berryhop admitted. “Briree is gone. My family joihe Bck Lions as scouts and fers, but none of them are as good as me. We’re struggling. Pendras has fallen to the dragon. The king is on the run. I’ve, uh, decided that my fortune is best made through my skills as an adventurer. That way I send bay family.”

  “I'm very sorry, Berryhop,” Bere said, reag her hand out and toug it gently.

  “World’s a dangerous pce,” Berryhop said, nontly. “I only hope to do what I .”

  At that moment G’nash returned, and Dara ran to greet him. With all three of them gathered, they bid us goodbye so as to set themselves up in the guest quarters. Berryhop had a ste now, and said that she’d message us when it was time for the official meeting with Mark.

  I gave her my Number Identity Set, which she o tact me, theo give them some spabsp; Last I saw of them, G’nash iling his tray up with copious amounts of meat.

  I wao brief Mark before the meeting, so none of this would be a surprise, aook the stairs slowly. Despite all of its wonders, the tower still relied on stairs to get everywhere. There was supposedly aor for bulky items, but it wasn’t open to the public.

  “Berryhop is cute,” Bernie said, as we waited to catch our breath between floors. Most people did this, traveled in pairs roups, and gregated on the small ndings to socialize. Several people passed us as we talked.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “But she’s different now.”

  “How so?”

  “The potion thing is new. And she’s got, like, a sadness in her.”

  “I didn’t see that,” Bernie said. “I think she’s happier now. She’s ashamed of it because it doesn’t serve her family, but she loves those potions, and the freedom it gives her.”

  “Maybe,” I said, stroking the stubble on my .

  “She’s also pretty curvy for a little person, so I get it.”

  “Oh do you?” I replied. “Do I sense some rese?”

  “Of her? Nah. What about G’nash? Heard he and Busty-elf-tits McGee are in an opeionship. Maybe I’d like a piece of that.”

  “Y to make me jealous?” I asked, folding my arms, and leaning against the wall opposite her. “I don’t get jealous.”

  This was a lie. I wasn’t the jealous trolling type, but I had a healthy sense of possessiveness for my romantic partners. I was just trying to py it cool.

  “Oh really?” she asked, stepping closer. “I like that, that’s good. But damn if I don’t want to test your ‘aw shucks’ good guy act.”

  “It’s not an absp; Not that I’m a good guy, I just ’t act.”

  Berrailed a finger along my shoulder, theled into a spot leaning on the wall right o me.

  “What if I tried my hand at Dara instead? Would that make you jealous?”

  “I know I’m not supposed to treat that any differently, but I holy think that’s sort of rad.”

  I was only half serious about that.

  Bernie snorted, and rolled her eyes.

  “Of course,” she groaned.

  “You know, my st serious boyfriend said the same thing,” she tinued. “He thought having a bisexual girlfriend was hot, until I flirted with anirl, and then it was all ‘which friend are you hanging out with?’ or ‘who else is going to be at that party?’”

  “Every story you tell about this guy makes him seem worse and worse.”

  “Yeah, he sucked.”

  “The’s not talk about him if you don’t want,” I offered.

  “Look,” she said, “liking girls is cool. Girls are hot. I get that. But it’s not some kind of accessory a guy gets to have. It’s mine.”

  “You don’t have a monopoly on finding women attractive,” I added pyfully.

  “Yeah, but my feelings are my own.”

  “Of course. What’s this about?”

  Bere shrugged.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’ll say again,” I ran a finger along her jaw to direct her face right at me. “I’m not the jealous type. But I pretend to be, if you think that would be fun.”

  She smiled wide.

  “I like to flirt, and if you pretend that bothers you, it would make it more fun. I just don’t want it to actually bother you.”

  “You demon,” I said facetiously, grabbing her by the waist, “there’s no stopping you is there?”

  “I’m unstoppable,” she said lustily.

  I pulled her in, nuzzled her nebsp; She sighed. I kissed her lightly on the neck, then cheek, then pulled away.

  “More stairs?” she asked.

  “More stairs.”

  Here’s the thing about the Are Academy: the eop four floors were exclusively Mark’s. The first two were his private library, separate from the school’s, and the third was his private study. The very top floor was only spoken of in hushed tones. Apparently, that was his secret project.

  Once we got to his library, we found a sturdy door ed in long lines of glowing ruhat marched tidily down the surface of the wood. Bere keyed in the passcode, his birthday, and we walked right in. Hardly a secure code.

  Word among the staff was that he kept it iionally easy, so that cheeky students may feel like they were accessing more knowledge than they were allowed. Iy, he enced students to seek outside their grasp. Apparently, this school was incredibly petitive.

  Inside were a lower and upper deposed of hundreds of shelves, with dders on railings strewn this way and that. Little reading nooks were pocketed between and several students, as well as one faculty, could be found reading in them.

  I waved at Professraves, and moved on to the stairs up.

  “You know that guy?” Bere asked.

  “Yeah, Illusionist teacher. Not even sure if it’s him or one of his doubles, but it’s best to be polite either way. Chill guy all things sidered.”

  She nodded, and we arrived at the door. This one had a more difficult code. It was a series of hat ged monthly, and only given out on a o know basis.

  Inside, y a room much like the previous, though without any students. Its only inhabitant stood patiently o the firepce, above which sat a massive oversized portrait of a woman.

  I texted Mark, then we waited.

  The thing standio the firepce approached us, then bowed.

  “Uh,” I said, “I guess some tea?”

  It hen walked toward the teaset pced on the cart o the firepce.

  “What is that?” Bernie asked.

  “I mean, it’s a robot,” I said, gesturing to it.

  The thing moved through the space with inhuman silky smooth grace, as it assembled the items needed for tea. The joints showed as copper, or something like it, but the bulk of it was made up of smooth white por material. The edges of the ptes had been adorned with gold embellishments, aweees revealed hints of the wirework underh. The face, such as it was, looked like a single molded piece of the por in a gently smiling, genderless mask.

  “Okay,” Bernie said, “but where did he get it?”

  I shrugged.

  “Billie,” Mark said, walking down from the stairs that presumably led to his office, cloak fluttering behind him. “You’ll make one for me as well.”

  The robot smartly waved at him, and quickly retrieved a third cup.

  We sat he fire, and filled him in o developments as Billie served us the tea. It was great, and I appreciated the caffeine.

  “So wait,” I interrupted Bere as she was finishing up her summary of the st couple days events, “why do you call him Billie?”

  Bere frowned.

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  “Serial number on his shoulder,” he said, brushing a limp piece of bck hair from his forehead. He pivoted back to the more pressing matter. “I think it’s fihat this, Berryhop was it? It’s fihat she join the academy. If she’s as good as you say, she’ll be a delightful addition to the school. But this Bck Lions thing s me.”

  “How so?” Bernie asked.

  “Part of Caleb’s trouble seg a victainst Sofia is his ck of well trairoops. The Bck Lions were his huard that he abandoned. Or well, we abandoned, I guess. I teleported him out, stranding them. Some defected and became the Knights of the Word, and some became these Bck Lions.” His icy blue eyes cut to me. “I am a little surprised that my guards let them in, as they could be holding a grudge.”

  “Well, I know Dara,” I added.

  “Do you? How do you expect a barmaid became the head of a merary pany so fast? Serving drinks?”

  “Okay, maybe not that well.”

  “Any ood o share?” he asked.

  I looked to Bernie.

  “Not really,” she said.

  “We’re dating now,” I said.

  “Good for you,” he said, standing. “Now, I have important projects to tend to before the meeting. I’d rather be as far along as I be before I get assassinated.”

  “I wouldn’t let—”

  “That was a joke,” he said, turning and walking up the steps. “Help yourself to a book while you’re here. Billie knows the pce back to front.”

  “What are you w on?” Bere asked.

  “You’ll see,” he said, without even a backward gnce.

  The robot stood at attention, and nodded wordlessly.

  I turo Bere.

  “Rachel thinks I’m too harsh on him,” I said. “But I think he’s a jerk.”

  “He had teleportation magic,” Bere replied, “and chose to stay here anyway. I’ll let you guess what I think of that.”

  Asterids