Nick and Crow left Madam Quince to inform the headmaster. If anyone should know

  about digging under the school, it should be him. The tunnel needed to be filled in.

  An active search would have to be done for others.

  Two misfit students would not be required to do anything like that.

  “I would like to see what’s on the other side of that door,” said Nick. “The problem

  is that the marker will be gone if I wait until tomorrow.”

  “They will mark it for us,” said Crow. “Then the problem will be you won’t have

  everything you have now.”

  “Do we wait until the adults open the tunnel?,” asked Nick.

  “I think they are going to fill it in and not look at what’s on the other side,” said

  Crow. “The headmaster might already have filled it in. That won’t stop a master

  magician from opening it again, or another one somewhere else in the castle.”

  “So the question is which of the earth magicians on staff is opening tunnels for the

  goblins to search the keep for whatever he is looking for,” said Nick. “That’s what

  we’re looking at and hoping he doesn’t figure out I killed his goblins in the first

  place.”

  “He doesn’t have to be a full earth magician,” said Crow.

  “I don’t understand,” said Nick.

  “He can be a dual practitioner,” said Crow. “You came in on one of the airships,

  right?”

  “Yes,” said Nick.

  “The creators of those are both air and earth magicians,” said Crow. “Their abilities

  aren’t usually master class, but they could be.”

  “So the magician doesn’t have to be a strict earth magician,” said Nick. “Okay, I see

  that.”

  “He can hide his proficiency from the faculty and us,” said Crow. “Just like we’re

  hiding our abilities from them.”

  “I wonder how many students hide what they can do,” said Nick.

  “I doubt many because it’s how people make their way in this world,” said Crow.

  She opened the door to their dorm. “Why hide anything that will allow you to build

  a better life unless you don’t really need it?”

  “So all of us hiding things are okay as long as we don’t want to move up beyond

  wherever we are at now?,” said Nick.

  “Also it’s an advantage if you need it at the right time,” said Crow. “Tea?”

  “Sure,” said Nick.

  They walked to the kitchen and found Calliope and Will arguing over cups of tea and

  cards about who was cheating whom at their game. They both looked up at their

  dormmates.

  “Courting,” said Crow. She went to the cabinet and pulled out two more cups and

  some tea bags.

  “Name the child after me,” said Nick. “There should be more Nicks in the world.”

  “We’re not courting,” said Calliope. She gave Crow and Nick a glare.

  The monster hunter shrugged it off as he helped make his tea.

  “But if we were, where should we do our courting at here in town?,” asked Will. He

  had forsaken his usual cigarette for a small candle on the table by his hand.

  Nick shrugged. He had flown in and only knew the part of the city between the school

  and the gate to the east. And he had only known that because of his fleeing his

  teacher.

  “You can take her to a play,” said Crow. “They say there are three tolerable things

  running if you want to go.”

  “Really?,” asked Will. “Would you like to go to a play, milady?”

  “Would you like to stop cheating?,” asked Calliope.

  “I will if you will,” said Will. He put on a smirk.

  “I wonder if we can get a map of the city,” said Nick.

  “Probably,” said Crow. “There might be one in the library.”

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  “If we knew where the goblins were coming from, that might be a grip on how to stop

  them,” said Nick.

  “I agree,” said Crow. “Maybe Madam Quince will have an idea.”

  “You two aren’t going to leave this alone?,” said Calliope.

  “They say you should try out the courting and see what happens,” said Crow. “They

  can’t quite agree if you should name your child Nick.”

  “It’s not like they like me,” said Nick. He frowned as he poured the hot water for their

  tea in their cups. Crow set in the bags to steep.

  “They will like you eventually,” said Crow. “You have already shown two of the

  qualities they like the most.”

  “Are you two courting?,” asked Will.

  “They don’t allow it,” said Crow. “Oracles are meant to do their quests with nothing

  else in their lives.”

  “Sounds lonely,” said Will.

  “I have the six of you as my friends,” said Crow. “That’s all anyone needs.”

  “Are you okay with that?,” asked Calliope. She gestured at the pale girl to indicate

  the loss of a life outside of her responsibility.

  “Eventually there will be a new oracle and I will be allowed to leave the service,” said

  Crow. “Until that happens, I have to abide by the rules that I agreed to. That is the

  way of the world.”

  “Expendable resources,” said Nick.

  “That too is the way of the world,” said Crow. She checked her tea with a finger tip,

  then pulled out the bag and threw it in the fire. She sipped the tea, and smiled.

  Nick sipped his tea without comment.

  “What kind of plays do you like?,” asked Will.

  “I have no idea,” said Calliope. “I also doubt that the Academy is going to let us get

  out of here to roam around at night.”

  “When you want to go, I will ask them for suggestions,” said Crow.

  “That’s great,” said Will.

  “If it is a dual magician, how do we go about finding them?,” asked Nick.

  “I have no idea,” said Crow. “I assume that he, or she, will try to kill us over this

  constant interference and then we’ll know for sure.”

  “I’ll try to get something to hide my face for future actions,” said Nick.

  “Once the tournament happens, and we’re in it, everyone will know what we can do,”

  said Crow. “We may have to fully exert ourselves instead of hiding things on the

  sham battlefield. Until then, you may want to disguise the other things you can do.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” said Nick. He finished his tea.

  “I will ask for the map,” said Crow. “I know you want to go over the wall and look

  for the end of the tunnel, but this one time, please wait on me.”

  Nick looked at the stone floor as he considered her words.

  “All right,” he said. He nodded his head. “I can do that.”

  “Classes will be starting,” said Calliope. “We’re going to be tested on our academic

  skills. We have to be ready for that because that’s where our general classes will be.”

  “It will be fine,” said Will.

  “I am more worried about your magical classes,” said Crow.

  “If I can get over this ignition thing, I have already made generalist,” said Will. “It’s

  the only thing holding me back.”

  Nick noticed the fine scars on the fire magician’s hands for the first time. He said

  nothing. Will would tell him what happened when he wanted them to know.

  “Madam Quince knows about Nick and my part in events, but not yours,” said Crow.

  “Please feign ignorance while keeping an eye on things. I want all of you to come

  out of this fine. Nick and I may have problems and may need your help, but I will

  try to come up with a strategy to keep your involvement to a minimum and behind

  a cover so you should have an easy time here. The Lords of Darkness are not going

  to take our resistance lightly, and there may be spillover, but I will also try to keep

  that at a minimum.”

  “Do you really think we’re going to be dealing with one of them?,” asked Calliope.

  “If Nick and I interfere too much, they may target the whole class,” said Crow.

  “Unfortunately I can’t do anything from the outside, and I need someone to help me

  do the job. The rest of you will have to be ready to defend yourselves and each other

  against the threat.”

  “I think we can do that,” said Calliope. “Getting ready for the tournament will help

  us figure out what we can do in a bad situation, and how to compensate for

  problems.”

  “He can’t let us keep killing his minions,” said Nick. “Eventually he is going to start

  looking around for us. Will he be confused enough to let us hide here until we figure

  out who he is and deal with him?”

  “I don’t know,” said Crow. “Your spells look like a group of mages are throwing

  magic around, not just you. We may face some of the teachers trying to lock us down

  under the thought that more than one student is roaming the halls.”

  “I wonder if that is what the brothers should be looking at,” said Will.

  “What do you mean?,” asked Crow.

  “They may be able to dual specialize their magic,” said Will. “They may be able to

  take water and earth classes.”

  “You might be right,” said Crow. “The way it is now, they are transforming water to

  earth when they cast.”

  “Which should be impossible,” said Calliope.

  “I think we will be mentally working hard in the next few days,” said Nick. “We have

  these classes, we will have to practice our magic, and we will have to think about how

  we can help our class to diversify.”

  “If we can get Will a way to ignite without a tool, and fix the brothers’ spellcasting,”

  said Crow. “That will just leave Steve. I don’t know if he can change his magic at

  this stage.”

  “Do you think he can learn the ability to rewrite his spellwork?,” asked Calliope. “It’s

  a big ask.”

  “It’s another way for him to come out ahead after this is over,” said Crow. “I think

  we should turn in and rest for the morning.”

  Calliope gathered up the cards and stacked the deck on the table. She poured the rest

  of her tea out in the cooking fire before she headed for her room. Will drank the rest

  of his first and then left the cup on the table before he went to his room after her.

  Crow and Nick left their cups and followed at a more leisurely pace.

  “We need to figure out where the goblins are coming from, then try to figure out who

  our mystery magician is,” said Nick. “Maybe we can put a stop to this with one shot.”

  “We may have to face the Warlord’s return,” said Crow. “Forces are in motion and

  I don’t know how to stop them all.”

  “Granny will help us with her kitchen knife,” said Nick.

  “I think you should not mock her over her spell,” said Crow. “I think it is still a sore

  point that is the only spell she can cast despite how hard she has trained to do other

  things.”

  “I will try to account for her feelings,” said Nick.