The headmaster slammed his fist into his desk and pointed at Basque the second he walked into Yasher’s office. “For the love of Yani, Gerenet,” the graying man said. “What a Yani-loving mess. What are you going to do about this?”

  “Us?” Eder asked from his seat on the sofa. He took a sip of tea and set his cup down on the table.

  Krill closed the door behind Basque and gestured for Basque to sit on the sofa next to Eder. The deputy headmaster had followed Basque when he took the unconscious Reianna to Tyze’s office.

  “Your ‘ambassador’ there attacked a dozen of my teachers!” Yasher roared from behind his desk.

  Basque didn’t pay Yasher much attention as he sat down. Krill took the seat across the table from Basque.

  “You mean where ‘dozens’ of your teachers attacked Gerenet-Shr, and he defended himself?” In contrast to Yasher’s animated state, Eder was calm and collected. In fact, he leaned back into his seat.

  “You were there! He was attacking the students!”

  “He wasn’t, though,” Krill said.

  “Oh, so this is how it’s going to be?” Yasher turned his gaze to Krill.

  “How’s what going to be? I’m just saying the truth. He never attacked any student.”

  Yasher ran a hand through his thick gray hair. “Then why were you down there, Deputy Headmaster Krill? Why were all the other teachers down there if not to protect the students?”

  “They were interfering with my rescue mission,” Basque answered.

  Eder put his hand on Basque’s knee and shushed him. Basque jerked his leg away from Eder’s touch.

  “‘Rescue mission’?” Yasher laughed.

  “Yes,” Eder defended Basque. “As you said, I was there, and I clearly saw the lack of institutional control that your school exhibited when a student from the fifth year jumped the wall and attacked two first-year students. Students in the care of Gerenet-Shr.”

  “Yani-shit! Lack of institutional control? What the hell are you Yani outwallers spewing?!”

  “Headmaster Yasher,” Krill said. “I think we should calm down. We should wait for the arches. We don’t want to dig ourselves into too deep a grave here.”

  “US?! US?! If anyone could control that mage, I wouldn’t put it past you to use her to tear me down, you sniveling little…Yani.” Yasher threw himself into his chair and sat back, then leaned forward. “I’m going to escalate this past the arches. I want this Yani out of my school,” he said and pointed at Basque.

  “Weren’t you the one who put him in this school, despite my protests?” Krill asked.

  Once again, Yasher’s glare turned to Krill. “Are you sure you want to play all of your cards now?”

  Krill spread his hands. “Play what cards? I’m not playing any games here. I’m just stating facts. When Ambassador Eder requested that we change Basque’s mission from observation to teaching, I went as far as to voice my complaint to the arches. But you—”

  “Shut your face, Krill. You can have this office when I’m dead.”

  “Your death could be an outcome of this incident,” Krill answered.

  Basque glared at Krill and shook his head. Krill shrugged. “That would be out of my hands.”

  “It would be in ours,” Eder said.

  “No blood,” Basque said. He wasn’t sure what the hands idiom meant, but he wanted to be clear with Krill and Eder that he didn’t want Yasher’s blood to be spilled.

  “Ha! Look at the three of you, talking as if my life, the life of a duke, is something you could take so easily.”

  The door banged open. Opulence in lavender strode through. “Of course, it is, Yashy!” Billiam’s hair was pasted onto his head in little crescent waves. The miniature top hat was back as well.

  Yasher frowned. “Royal Mage Billiam.”

  “Yes, yes, it is I. Now, what is this about killing you, and should I go ahead and do it now?”

  “The deputy headmaster is angling for my chair,” Yasher said.

  “Oo hoo!” Billiam pressed the tips of his fingers together. “Sounds fun! It might be time for a regime change.” Billiam strutted over to the chair next to Krill. He flicked the tails of his coat up, sat, then gave Krill a wink and an air kiss.

  “Looks like above the arches is on my side,” Krill said.

  Yasher’s face turned red. “You damn Yani! I’ll take it to Her Majesty!”

  Krill’s face darkened.

  Crossing a leg over the other, Billiam bounced the top one. Curling a fist in, he looked at his nails. “What makes you think she’ll side with you?”

  “Who do you think put me here, you freak?”

  Billiam went still. His face darkened, and he glared at Yasher. “Ex-cuse me?”

  “I’m tired of watching you prance around like you own the world. How many Yani did you even kill last year?”

  A lavender window popped up above the table. All it said was 173.

  Yasher fell back into his chair. “A…a hundred seventy-three? Impossible…”

  “Duke Yasher, how I choose to present myself has no bearing on my skills as a hunter. I did not rise to my position due to how His Majesty feels about me.” Billiam began bouncing his leg again.

  Extending his hand out, Billiam spread his fingers and continued his examination of his nails. He picked at the cuticle on his index finger, then dropped his hand onto his lap.

  “Now,” Billiam said, his voice back to his jovial tone. “I don’t really care who runs this puppet show. All I care about is that there were two mages in this school. One has gone miSSing,” he stressed the esses, “and the other is trying to kill first-years during a tournament.”

  Regaining his composure, Yasher sat up in his chair. “An elevator and a fallen,” he waved Reianna and Banca off.

  Heat flashed through Basque, and he let out a long breath.

  “Her Majesty is aware of both of them, though?” Billiam made his statement sound like a question. “Same-years accidentally killing each other during the tournament is expected.”

  Basque clenched his fist and jaw.

  “But jumping the wall?” Billiam shook his head. “It’s a bad look.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “It’s all him!” Yasher said and pointed at Basque.

  “Mhmm, he is all that.” It was Basque’s turn to get a wink. “A good look, bad for my blood. But what does that have to do with Miss Loushee jumping the wall and attacking two first years?”

  “No! It’s his fault! Mister Daymein has run away because he’s scared of retaliation from a teacher! He’s bred ill will between two students who should have never met, doing who-knows-what with them out in that shed with a fallen and two servant-levels!”

  Basque froze. They’d never tried to make going out to the tinkerer’s shed a secret, but he didn’t like the accusatory tone of Yasher’s statement.

  “What’s this?” Eder asked.

  Yasher sneered. “He’s taking two girls half his age out to a shack in the pasture!”

  Basque looked at Eder. “By ‘shack’ he means a two-story house where the tinkerer lives and is larger than the average Hianbrun house.”

  “And I’m sure he’s abusing them!” Yasher continued.

  Red filled Basque’s vision. Eder was grabbing him before Basque even launched himself off the couch, which gave Krill just enough time to throw himself in between Basque and Yasher. He spread his arms out.

  “Basque! Basque! No blood! No blood!” Krill shouted.

  Krill’s interference let Eder catch up to Basque, and he wrapped his arms under and around Basque’s. As Eder pulled him away from Yasher, Basque kicked and squirmed, but Eder’s hold was too tight.

  “Billiam! Open the door! We have to get him out of here!” Eder yelled.

  Once they were out in the hall, Eder rotated and flung Basque towards the far wall. Billiam closed the door, and the two men blocked Basque’s path.

  “Move!” Basque yelled. “I will not stand here and let a man who runs a school like this accuse me of abusing a student!”

  “Basque!” Eder said. “We all know you would never. Let it go.”

  Billiam shook his head. “Yasher is trying to keep his position. He’ll dump everything on Basque. After seeing that reaction, he knows it’ll be effective.”

  Spinning around, Basque punched the wall, denting it.

  Eder dropped his head. “Adding a busted wall to the busted column, Basque? This is the problem with you tigers. If we jaguar left you alone, we’d have no buildings left.”

  “Eat Yani, Eder.” Basque paced in front of the dented wall. Eder and Billiam didn’t move, making sure that Basque didn’t rush back into the room.

  “Don’t worry, Basky. That’s why you have me on your side.”

  Basque stopped. “Why? Why are you on my side? I’ve always wondered this.”

  “I told you, it’s what my master wants.”

  Eder held up a hand. “Wait, you’re the royal mage, though. Aren’t you the equivalent of the king of the mages?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then how do you have a master? The king and queen aren’t above you.”

  “Oh, silly! Like I would listen to that muscle-for-brains or that self-absorbed beauty pageant.”

  “That’s an ironic insult coming from you,” Basque said.

  “Darling, just because I look good all the time doesn’t mean I’m on parade like that woman.”

  “Alright,” Eder cut them off. “From what I understood, your mage society has a similar and symbiotic relationship with the normal hunters.”

  “That is correct.”

  “So, how do you have a master then?”

  “Loushee, Eder,” Basque answered for Billiam. “She made Billiam her subordinate.”

  “A teen mage?”

  “They don’t know about pre-interface metal.”

  Eder rolled his eyes. “Knowing you, I’m sure that you mean they didn’t know about pre-interface metals.”

  “What’s this about pre-interface metals?” Billiam asked.

  Basque pointed at Billiam.

  “Okay, so Royal Mage Billiam doesn’t know. Can you tell me that no Krumian knows?”

  Basque looked at the ground. “Loushee knows.”

  “Knows what?”

  Eder looked at the closed door to Yasher’s room. Yasher and Krill were still talking in there. “Pre-interface metals counteract appearancer constructs.”

  Billiam’s mouth fell open, and he looked from Eder to Basque and back to Eder. “How the Yani do you even figure something like that out?”

  “We just did,” Basque answered. He looked at Eder. “For what it’s worth, that was you, not me.”

  “Whatever.”

  Basque opened his mouth to complain about Eder giving him grief over sharing “secrets” that were common knowledge in Hianbru. How was he supposed to know what Kruamians didn’t know until it came up? But before Basque could get a word out, Billiam interrupted him.

  “At any rate,” Billiam said. “I came here as my master wishes to see you, Gerenet-Shr.”

  Basque raised an eyebrow at the formality of his name. The formality felt as awkward as if Harnel had called him, “Master Basque.”

  “Oh, good,” Eder said. “I am looking forward to meeting the young woman.”

  Billiam shook his head. “No, my not-as-scrumptious Basque Jr. She just wants to see him.”

  “I’m not one to listen to teenagers.”

  “And I’m not one to listen to you. As you said before, mage society is symbiotic with the main society, not one and the same. You’re negotiating with them, not me.”

  Eder put his hands on his hips.

  Billiam grabbed Eder’s chin and shook it. “Aren’t you just the cutest when you pout?” He let go of Eder’s chin. “We’re negotiating with Biscut.”

  “Who the Yani is Biscut?”

  Pointing at Basque, Billiam said, “This guy.”

  “Basque, I order you to take me to the meeting with Miss Loushee.”

  Billiam spread his hands. “Then no meeting. Him alone or no one. He can always report to you after.”

  “Getting that out of Basque would be like getting milk out of a Yani.”

  “That’s not my problem.”

  The three of them stood in the hallway. Basque knew he could get rid of Eder by just agreeing to talk to him after, but Basque was feeling petulant over the tiger and jaguar comments. Plus, rushing to see Loushee was meritless. Reianna was safe, and Loushee was fixed. As far as Basque was concerned, the two girls were through with each other.

  But he was still angry. He was angry about Yasher’s comments. He was angry about Loushee wounding two of his students. He felt like scolding someone, and Loushee made the best option.

  “Okay, fine. I promise to tell you about the conversation later.”

  Eder nodded once. “Everything said.”

  “Ha! No. I’ll tell you anything pertinent to your mission. Anything related to my students and my class, that’s not your prerogative.”

  “Everything.”

  Basque looked at Billiam. “Tell Loushee to enjoy her life.” Basque turned and walked off towards the stairs that would take him down to the second floor and the walkway that would connect him back to the dorms.

  “Fine, Basque! Things pertinent to my mission.”

  Turning around, Basque smiled. “Alright, Billiam. Lead the way.”

  Something crashed and broke against Yasher’s door. “YOU SON OF A YANI! Get out!” Something else crashed.

  Krill slipped through the door. Yasher still cursed him as he left.

  “Oh! Gentlemen. I didn’t expect to find you all still here.”

  “We were just leaving,” Basque replied.

  “Oh? Where are you off to?”

  “Eder is off to the Hianbrun embassy. Billiam and I are off to see Loushee.”

  Krill’s posture straightened. “Miss Loushee?! I thought she ran off.”

  “I know where she is,” Billiam said.

  “I need to go,” Krill said.

  “Oh, silly willy Krilly! Okay.”

  Eder’s eyes went wide. “Hey! What is this?”

  “I was told specifically that just you aren’t allowed.”

  “What the—”

  “Just kidding!” Billiam’s tone was melodic.

  Drooping his shoulders, Eder tilted his head and said, “Seriously?”

  “Okay, seriously, she told me these two were okay, but Thrill-Krills wasn’t a must.”

  “Fine!” Eder said, throwing his hands wide. He looked at Yasher’s door.

  Krill shook his head. “Don’t worry about him. Thanks to Master Basque’s chaos, I have everything I need to make him a non-factor.”

  “I don’t want the accusations he made earlier to see the light of day,” Eder said.

  Once more, Basque’s blood boiled, but not enough that he felt the need to crash through the door and tear Yasher to shreds.

  “That’s no worry,” Billiam said. “We won’t let any outlandish, threatening remarks be made.”

  “I also assure you.” Krill looked at Basque.

  Eder rotated his gaze across all three men, then finally nodded. “This isn’t a Yani nest I want to die in. Report by tomorrow, Gerenet-Shr.”

  “Sure,” Basque said. “Any requests?”

  “Hundreds, which is why I wish to meet the girl.”

  “I’ll let her know.”

  Eder nodded, then walked off to the stairs Basque had abandoned.

  As he didn’t want Eder following them, Basque waited until Eder was in the stairwell before saying, “Alright, Billiam, lead the way.”

  Giving a nod, the mage started down the hall, and Basque and Krill followed. Basque prepared what he was going to say to the girl. When she’d used her abilities to vanish after handing Reianna over, Basque had honestly thought he would never see the girl again. Now he needed to get ready to tell her just how bad she’d fucked up.