Theo did not move from his spot, his hands clasped behind his back. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m your tactician.” The answer seemed obvious.

  He shook his head, “You don’t need to go to school if you can do that.”

  I didn’t do it, she didn’t say. “How do you know about it, then?”

  “I’ve seen my teacher do it. That’s why I know the trick to delaying it.” He started walking toward her, revealing the book he had been holding behind him. For a moment, he seemed to be searching for something in her reaction, but came up disappointed. “Do you even know what you did?”

  Ty stayed perfectly still as he advanced, her mind trying to run but getting nowhere as he arrived only to crouch and get a better look at her hand. She recoiled and retorted, “No.”

  He got up and cocked his head at Ty curiously. “You don’t have to pretend. I believe those were the first few lines of an Ex-Annihilate.” He flipped through his tome, its contents dark from the shadows. “Ex- spells, as you should know, are not only non-permissible on campus, but are usually so high order that tomes containing the words are banned. They’re passed down orally, and even then, many can’t reproduce the spell. Even I can’t. So, knowing that—you should be employed at MATS, not a student.” He stopped and looked up at Ty. “What is your purpose here?”

  Wide-eyed, Ty struggled to maintain her composure. “I spoke the words for a Break,” she muttered.

  Completely ignoring her comment, Theo looked her straight in the eye and articulated slowly, “I don’t know why you’re here or what you’re up to, but if that was a student, we’d have a dead body on our hands. This might be fun for you since you’re our tactician, but we’re not here to kill each other.” He looked down at her hand, the next sentence softer. “We’re here for peace.”

  Ty just stared at him, a thousand thoughts still running through her mind, none of which she could pinpoint or articulate in a cohesive manner.

  Realizing this, he sighed exasperatedly and put away his book. “If you really had meant to cast a Break, then I’d suggest you refrain from casting altogether in case you create more trouble for all of us. Now, don’t move.”

  Gently grabbing her bloodied hand, Theo began casting a spell.

  About halfway into it, Ty recovered from her stupor and pulled her hand away, walking over to the grass and crouching down to recite a simple Rinse spell over her hand instead—that, she had a spell for in her other pocket tome. “Healing magic doesn’t work for stuff like this,” she explained slowly. “What’s gone is gone.”

  Theo stopped and knit his brows, covering his mouth with his free hand. “It’s a tactician thing, isn’t it? Did this happen when you yelled the shield spell? How did you not have one authorized already?”

  Ty had no excuse.

  “I guess…I’ll get the rest.” He helped himself to the tome that she had dropped earlier, not even bothering to check the authorization list before casting it. It was easy for him—there were no repercussions. It would have just not worked had it not been authorized.

  When they were both finished, Theo handed Ty her tome. “Truth be told, you did look surprised when you discovered the target was missing. And my counter-Stabilize only lasted for that long. It was bad luck that it ended when you approached. Sorry about that.”

  Ty nodded, silent and brooding, waiting for further reprimand.

  But Theo only gazed up at the main lecture hall building before exhaling and checking the time. “It’s getting dark,” he commented. “Is there class after ours?”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “No, but the doors lock at ten.” At least she knew that much.

  Content with the response, Theo promptly set down his bag and then turned to Ty, who was beginning to look more and more like a shadow. “Well, then. Let’s fight.”

  Taken aback, Ty blurted, “What?”

  Theo knelt down to rummage through his bag. “You heard what I said, let’s duel.”

  “Why does everyone want to fight me?” she complained, gritting her teeth. She felt completely lucid now, annoyed at herself for failing to foresee the circumstances in which she found herself. Failing to cast properly, to check if there was anyone left in the courtyard, failing to carry her combat tome with her. The pain from the earlier transgression was almost cathartic. “If I’ve denied every single one of Faris’s challenges, what makes you think I’ll say yes to you?”

  “Because we both know that I’m better than him.”

  “I’m better than you.”

  “Prove it.”

  Ty clenched her fists, shaking her head as she bit her lip, anger beginning to infect all reason. “I don’t need to prove it to you,” she replied mildly, staring daggers at him.

  Despite that, Theo’s lips began moving. A switch flipped, and she felt the air start to change shape around her, constricting her.

  Petrify. Dodge?

  It was how her mother had taught her—analyze, react. One, two, her voice repeated in her mind like a metronome. One, two, one two, Ty. No opponent worth their salt will give you more than two seconds.

  She immediately darted back, until she could no longer feel the invisible force, keeping an eye on Theo’s shadow walking toward the center of the practice yard as she hid behind a pillar. “What happened to peace?” she tried to bark, half choking on her words instead.

  “Peace is an empty word if you can’t protect us.”

  Another gust of air, this time coming from underneath her as she looked down—the floor was starting to glow. She turned, found Theo’s shadow, focused her eyes but could not see what he was saying.

  “You’re not even trying to fight back? This isn’t a test, you know. I’m quite serious.”

  The light around her started to lose its light, evidently from Theo stopping his casting to speak.

  “Consecration spells are a waste of time against human opponents, everyone knows that,” she spat, hearing Theo start to mumble again as she dropped her cloak and ran straight toward him, refusing to listen to all the alarms going off in her mind.

  Puncture. Counter?

  No, shut up. The earth—she could feel the atmosphere slightly alter, shift toward the ground.

  Left leg, Puncture. Danger.

  No time. There was no time.

  Nowhere near arm’s length from Theo, Ty felt the ground come up from under her and strike her leg, grazing it as she broke the subsequent fall with her outstretched arms.

  Reckless as ever. Get up, she scolded herself as she struggled back up despite feeling hot liquid trickle down her leg.

  “I…I don’t want to hurt you,” she forced through gritted teeth, ignoring the sharp pain in her left leg to run the rest of the distance to Theo, who refused to give in. The déjà vu was palpable as frustration began to dominate all reason.

  That’s an augmented morphing spell, Ty.

  Which augment? Disfigure, upper left. Counter?

  In the span of a second, after feeling the air around her wounded arm move just the slightest amount, ready to snap on Theo’s command, she finally let her anger take full control as she grabbed him by the collar of his sweater and slammed him down onto the ground.

  “Stop,” she begged breathlessly, kneeling over his stunned body, watching him continue to say his spell aloud, wide-eyed, slowing down when he realized what was happening.

  The air remained stationary, unyielding. It would not move for him.

  Silence.

  Scanning her face, he blinked a few times before starting to recite another spell by heart. Loud and measured sentences, trying to figure out what was wrong.

  Grade IV Pandemonium. One step up into five, and that’d be grounds for suspension. He wasn’t lying, the voice in her mind registered.

  Yet still, nothing.

  The words stopped.

  Theo looked down at Ty’s ringed hand, still clutching onto his collar. It was clean, immaculate. “How did you…?” he finally whispered, a mixture of astonishment and confusion written all over his face.

  “I don’t need to explain myself to you,” she growled, lifting Theo’s torso up for a second before pushing him away and letting go. “Get out.”

  As she unfurled her fist around Theo’s sweater, she could feel herself shaking from the anger and the adrenaline. It had been a long time since someone had forced her to fight unwillingly, but then again, her mother knew never to push her so far. There had never been anyone else—not her tutors, not other students, not her non-existent friends.

  You have to protect yourself, her mother had said. People are going to want to hurt you. Especially you.

  Ty could feel hot tears begin to trickle down her face as she knelt on the grass, hunched forward, clutching onto its blades to try to quell the shaking and lightheadedness. She heard Theo quietly stand up, gather his belongings, and then leave the courtyard with a soft click of the door.

  There were only the charred remains of grass in her fists as she unclenched them to cover her face.

  She sobbed quietly to herself.