The revelry of the festival was still going on when Basque and Natt made it back to Dyntril. He’d thought Natt had been joking about the heart-attack-on-a-stick, but before he knew it, he was holding a double-fried cake on a stick that had a thick, sugary cream filling.

  It was delicious.

  It made him sick to his stomach.

  He never wanted to eat one again.

  “Okay,” Natt said. “I think I’ll have finally worked off the calories from that when I’m ready to have another one in ten years.”

  “Can we make it fifteen?”

  She laughed.

  A bell chimed, signalling curfew, and the students began flooding back into the academy. Basque and Natt joined the flow. Even though the Grand Entrance Hall was wide enough for over twenty students to walk abreast, since close to four hundred students were headed in all at once, they lumbered through the massive hall, as the students were in no rush to head in for the night.

  Basque and Natt pulled off to the left and went to the first-floor stairwell, bypassing the bottleneck of the Grand Stairs. All grade levels had similar stairwells leading up from various places on the first floor, but most students took the Grand Stairs.

  Class E’s dorm hall was silent when the couple exited onto the third floor. Basque looked up and down the hall. “Don’t tell me they’re all still out there.”

  Cayelyn came out of Room 307, Reianna and Fawna’s room. “Gerenet-Shr! Madam Natt.”

  “Cayelyn. Where is everyone?”

  “Their rooms.”

  “What? No one went to the festival?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “With Reianna in the nurse’s office again? Of course not.”

  “It’s nice that you all care for her so much, but I told you all that she was fine and was just staying there to recover a bit more.”

  Cayelyn shrugged. “I guess you just did too good of a job teaching us that we’re a single unit. We weren’t whole without her.”

  “You are still individuals.”

  “I know. They all know. No one said let’s not go, just, as individuals, we all individually decided not to go.”

  Basque looked at Natt.

  “So, they didn’t go. There will be more festivals.”

  “Umm…Gerenet-Shr.”

  He looked back at Cayelyn. “Yes?”

  “She’s pretty mad.”

  “Who? Fawna?”

  She shook her head. “Reianna. You might want to talk with her.” Cayelyn didn’t wait for his response or offer any further clarification. Rather, before he could, she trotted away and vanished into her room.

  Natt put her hands on her hips. “What did you do this time?”

  Basque shook his head and shrugged. “I’d better go find out.”

  “I’ll be in our room.” Natt kissed his cheek and headed down the hall, the opposite way from Cayelyn.

  Taking a deep breath, Basque knocked on Room 307’s door.

  “Yes?” came Fawna’s reply from the other side.

  “It’s Basque.”

  Silence answered him. He was about to knock again when Loushee opened the door.

  “Oh,” he said.

  Loushee stepped aside so that he could go in. Reianna sat on the sofa with her arms and legs crossed. Her top leg bounced. Fawna stood behind the sofa, holding the back of it. She didn’t meet his gaze. Loushee closed the door behind him.

  “Why did you come back? I thought you were going to stay the night in Tyze’s office.”

  Reianna held up the oath vial, twisted it in her hand, then set it down on the table in front of the sofa with a hard clack.

  Basque looked at Loushee. “Why did you give that to her?”

  “No!” Reianna said. “Why did you give it to her?”

  Basque looked at Reianna. “Because it was the only way I could trust her.”

  “Why do you need to trust her?” She leaned back, and her leg resumed bouncing.

  “Because I’m tired of people hurting you. You needed a strong supporter.”

  “I don’t need a devotee! Especially one who will literally die if they don’t follow my command!”

  Basque sat down in the chair across from Reianna. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “She went beyond what I asked, but I needed it, even if you didn’t.”

  “My life isn’t yours, Basque!”

  “Yes, it is.” His voice was calm and level. He kept the hurt he felt from her tone out of it. “I am responsible for all of your lives.” He clasped his hands together and looked down at them. “If I wanted to, I could probably beat every teacher here.” Looking up at her, he spread his hands, then clapped them back together. “But where would that leave you?”

  He stood. “I won’t be here forever. Even if I was here forever, I won’t be around you forever. In a short time, you, Fawna, Cayelyn, Xav, Malcalm—all of you—will be off on your own. Do you remember what I promised you?”

  “Yes, that you would teach us to save ourselves. But what does that have to do with that?” She pointed to the vial on the table.

  Basque picked the vial up. “Is this your problem?” He looked at Loushee again. “I gave this to you because it has proximity issues. If it gets too far away from you, the consequences of your oath will trigger.” He held it out to her. “Keep it close.”

  Loushee made no move to take it. “How far? I think it would be better if Reianna—”

  “No, Loushee. This,” he shook the vial, “is your responsibility. Not hers.”

  He continued to hold it out, and finally Loushee took the vial. Basque turned back to Reianna and slumped down into the chair, then sat up. He couldn’t show his exasperation to the students.

  “Okay, Reianna, I think I know what you’re worried about. Tell Loushee to kill me.”

  “What?” Reianna jerked her head back.

  “Tell her to kill me.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  She frowned. “No.”

  “It’s fine. Just do it.”

  Reianna took a deep breath. “Loushee, kill Gerenet-Shr.”

  Basque rotated in his seat to look at Loushee, who stood off to the side with a confused look on her face. “Well?”

  “Even if I wanted to, I can’t kill you.”

  “And yet there you stand, not killed by your oath.” He turned back to Reianna. “Disobedience does not equate to failing in devotion. She made an oath to devote herself to you, not to be blindly obedient. While disobedience can sometimes be a betrayal, it isn’t necessarily always the case.”

  Basque pushed a loose clump of hair away from his face. “Honestly, I didn’t want you to ever know what Loushee did. It was for my own satisfaction, because hurting or killing you certainly is the sort of betrayal that would count as not being devoted.”

  He glared at Loushee. “But someone ran off and blabbed to Reianna.”

  Loushee looked at the floor.

  “So, I’m sorry that what I did caused you confusion and stress. That was never my intention. And before you get upset that I planned to keep it hidden from you, I truly didn’t think it mattered. For all intents and purposes, there’s no difference between Loushee and Fawna or Taraia.”

  “Fawna and Taraia won’t die from…”

  “From what? I already showed you that Loushee doesn’t have to listen to your every command, Reianna.” Basque stood and walked around the table. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. Staring into her eyes, he smiled.

  “Not only are you the strongest student I’ve ever taught, but you are probably the most caring. I understand that my mistake with Banca has shaken your faith in me. That actually makes me happy, as I’m not a perfect man. Your skepticism is healthy.”

  Reianna looked down.

  Basque squeezed her shoulder twice, then looked at Fawna and Loushee. The other two girls looked at Reianna.

  “Is there anything else you would like to know about the situation with Loushee?”

  “What…what exactly will make her die?”

  “Good question.” Basque let go of Reianna’s shoulder and walked back to his seat. “Anything that she would consider to be a betrayal of you or your goals.”

  “How would that little vial know that?”

  Basque shook his head. “The vial doesn’t know that, Loushee does. And you do. So, the interface does. I’m not an engineer, so I have no idea how that vial works, but from my understanding, that’s what counts. That’s what matters.”

  “Okay. I’m sorry I got so upset.”

  Basque’s heart twinged. He didn’t believe she’d done anything worth apologizing for. “No, your reaction was fine.”

  She shook her head. “No. I was so angry, and I overreacted. I came all the way back here, and when you weren’t—”

  “Reianna. It’s okay. I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier. I trusted you to be safe with Tyze. If you’d been back here, I would have trusted you to be safe here as well. It’s remarkable that in just one year, you and your classmates have come so far that I have complete faith in your safety.”

  She smiled. Even Fawna smiled.

  “Anything else?”

  Reianna shook her head. “No, thank you, Gerenet-Shr.”

  He nodded, then headed towards the door. He paused as he passed Loushee. “I assume that Loushee explained about graduation?”

  “Yes.”

  “Alright, then, I’m not going to kick her out. You two discuss what she should do from here on. Good night, girls.”

  “Good night, Gerenet-Shr.”

  He stepped out into the hall and closed the door. After making sure that no students were lingering in the hallway, he slumped over and exhaled. She hadn’t pressed harder, and he didn’t want to say it in front of Loushee, but there was a hole in the oath.

  As he had said, the oath depends on Loushee’s beliefs. If she believes that what she is doing would aid Reianna or her goals, Loushee can still harm Reianna. Like if Reianna’s leg was caught in something, and a giant rock or something was about to fall and crush Reianna, Loushee could hack off Reianna’s leg.

  Or worse, if Loushee convinced herself that Reianna’s death would be to Reianna’s benefit somehow, then the vow wouldn’t be broken. That was the issue with ill-defined oaths like Loushee’s. His and Eder’s was clearer, without all the subjectivity.

  Next time, when Loushee wasn’t around, Basque would tell Reianna so she wouldn’t blindly believe Loushee couldn’t harm her.

  Basque looked down the hallway towards his and Natt’s room. He wanted nothing more than to go to it and to her embrace. It was another long tournament day, and he was tired. But instead of going where he wanted, his legs took him in the opposite direction.

  When he got to the last room, Room 314, Basque raised his hand and knocked. It took a second, but Yesenia came to the door. “Master Gerenet! What brings you here at this time? Did you need something?”

  Basque pointed at Banca’s door behind Yesenia. “Is she in there?”

  Yesenia looked over her shoulder, then back to Basque. “Yes.” She moved out of the way for him. He went in.

  “You can go on to bed. I won’t need anything else for the rest of the night.”

  “Understood, Master Gerenet.”

  He waited for Yesenia to go into her room, then he knocked on Banca’s door.

  “I said go away, Yesenia.”

  “Not Yesenia.”

  “Basque?” The sneer in Banca’s voice carried through the door.

  “Open the door and come out here, Banca.”

  “Go fuck a Yani.”

  Considering the bomb Reianna dropped on her, Basque felt Banca’s reaction was on the mild side. She didn’t yell or scream; she just growled.

  “I will break this door down.”

  Through the door, he heard Banca get off her bed and come over to it. She pulled it open. Her hair was long enough to get in a mess now, and it was a horrible mess. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her scowl looked like it had been etched onto her face.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “We need to talk.”

  She folded her arms. “So talk.”

  “Reianna is a mage.”

  Banca scowled. “Thanks. Thanks for admitting that after everything I loved was destroyed. Really Yani helpful.”

  She put her hand on the door, but Basque stuck his foot out to keep her from closing it.

  “Do you know Natt’s story?”

  “Which one? That woman is so full of stories, like ‘I love you, Banca’, that it’s hard to remember what useless Yani shit she’s spewed at me.”

  “She does love you, though.”

  Banca drooped her head, then straightened it. “Look, just tell me your terrible excuses so I can go to bed.”

  “Do you know what happens when a commoner becomes a mage?”

  She shrugged. “Get insanely powerful in a month, kick my ass, hide the fact they’re a mage, and get my life thrown into the garbage?”

  “They get experimented on.”

  Banca opened her mouth, but Basque cut her off with Natt’s story. “There wasn’t a maybe about that happening. Krill threatened to do it two-fold if it turned out Reianna was discovered to be a mage.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better? I’ve already been over this with Yesenia. She lied. You lied. Natt lied. Good intentions be damned—to me, it was nothing but a bad omen.”

  “True. We did wrong to you. We can probably never make it up to you, but we will try.”

  “That doesn’t mean I have to accept your efforts.”

  He nodded. “True.”

  “So, you’ll leave me alone?”

  “No. You’re my student. You’re my girlfriend’s adopted daughter.”

  Banca gritted her teeth, then exhaled. “Fine. I guess I should just put on a happy face and pretend I don’t hate all of you, including your spy Islae.”

  Basque’s stomach plummeted to his feet. “What?”

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice that your maid was second-year Class E Islae Thornburg?”

  “Honestly, yeah. None of my students have.”

  “I have a thing for faces.”

  “That’s incredible.”

  Banca shrugged, but it was her first non-hostile act.

  “There’s a reason for that, too.”

  Basque explained Yesenia’s circumstances and how she came to be Yesenia, and not Islae. “So please, let her be Yesenia.”

  “Fine. Me using that to hurt you would hurt her, and I don’t want to hurt her.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Argh! You’re too good at this!”

  “At what?”

  “Making things normal! Just…tell me what you want and give me some peace. I want to process things for myself. Yesenia already gave me her pep talk. I’m good without getting more from you.”

  Basque raised an eyebrow. “What did she say?”

  “She said you need to go fuck the Yani waiting in your room.”

  Basque frowned. “There are lines you need to respect.”

  Banca rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’m sorry. Can’t you just go comfort her and leave me be? What is it that you want?”

  “I need to know what you plan on doing during hunting break. Right now, your only choice is to go with Natt and Reianna somewhere.”

  “Yesenia invited me to the camps. I want to go see them.”

  Basque nodded. “Okay. We’ll go to the camps. I’ve not seen them either.”

  “Do I have to go with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fine. As long as Natt isn’t there.”

  Basque nodded. His heart ached for the two women. They both needed each other, but right now, there was too much damage between them. He hoped that one day, they could bridge their way over it.

  “Alright. I’ll leave you be. For what it’s worth, neither Reianna nor I knew that what happened to you would happen, and we excluded Natt from the decision. The only thing she’s guilty of is knowing that Reianna is a mage.”

  “Good night, Gerenet-Shr.” Banca closed the door.

  Basque raised his hand and then dropped it. Anything further, and he’d be overstepping his bounds. Only time could help the poor girl now.