The professor is convulsing on the ground. She grips her blackened arm, and her eyes are rolled up in her head. Sarrah has taken off her jacket and put it under her head as a pillow to prevent her from bashing her skull against the stone ground.

  “We need to move her; the building could still collapse,” Allia says, so they pick her up and carry her about a hundred feet away to be as far away from the building as possible without getting closer to other potentially destabilized structures, where they place her on her side and Allia erects domes over them just in case.

  “What do we do?” Sarrah asks as they

  “Cut it off!” J mutters before either can respond, evidently recovering from the episode.

  “Let’s um, try to figure out a less drastic solution first, shall we?” Allia says with a smile aimed to calm, though it’s unclear if the target is others or herself.

  “Is fine,” J says, “have many prostheses in the lab I always wanted to try out.”

  “All the same, I want to try something first.”

  With that, Allia cuts off J’s sleeve to reveal the rot having reached just below the shoulder. She creates a band around the arm a bit after the corruption stops, then fills the space with energy that seems less corporeal than her normal constructs. Getting on her knees, she creates a magnifying spell to look at her work, nods to herself in satisfaction, then drags the band down the arm and off over the hand.

  The professor screams in pain as the band moves down the arm, but the withering is noticeably lighter after it does – it seems to be working.

  “Does anyone know an anaesthesia spell?” Allia asks, but her friends both shake no.

  “I do,” J gasps, “but will only mitigate. Still thinking I prefer the prothesis.”

  “I'm sure the pain will lessen with each pass,” Allia says dryly.

  She waits for J to cast her spell, which takes nearly a whole minute, then repeats the process nearly a dozen times. J’s face twists in pain with each pass, but less so each time. Eventually, the arm returns to normal, though Allia makes two more painless passes just to be safe.

  “Why did you think that would work?” J asks, amazed at her return to health, though still fatigued by her experience.

  Allia shrugs. “Well, we knew that Zexle’s power was able to ignore shields, but not my barriers, right? So, there must be some interaction between our manifestations that allows mine to repel his. Likewise, he said it would spread, so the power must still be in the arm, and he said it was reversible. So, I just placed my power around the affected area and sort of leaked the energy in the construct and tried to force it out. I wasn’t fully expecting to work, but I’m glad it did.”

  “So am I,” J says. “Talk of prothesis was mostly bluster. Neat, but not quite at the level of a real arm yet. My thanks, Allia.”

  “Of course… so are you going to tell us about what all just happened?”

  “…Perhaps.”

  “Perhaps?” Alex scoffs. “We just saved your life, and your arm.”

  “Yes, but I think one life and one limb is not worth the secret you seek. Especially when one of the family who has been sending so many probes into us is present.” She glances meaningfully at Alex.

  Unperturbed, Alex stands straighter and places his hand on his heart. “By the DuPont name, I make the standard secrecy oath regarding any restricted information you are about to share.”

  “Standard secrecy oath?” Allia asks.

  J explains. “It is a legally binding thing, but only for nobles. It means that should he share anything part of the oath with anyone I do not approve of, then a parcel of his family’s territory in proportion to the secret shared will be transferred to me. Which, I think, in this case would be enough to make me a noble. But, while I appreciate the oath, that is not real issue. It would be irresponsible for me to tell a student such dangerous information unless they need to know. However, there was some indication that you may need to know. Did I hallucinate the centurion saying you somehow took the orb with your power, Allia?”

  Allia nods. “Yeah, I don’t know what happened. I was just trying to stop him from getting it by putting a barrier over it. Don’t know why. I didn’t really care about it, and I don’t think I could have stopped him for long. But the moment I did, the whole room filled with light. It blinded us even with shade spells up. When the light was gone, so was the orb. There was another beam of light which shot into me, knocking me back.”

  “Which you think was you absorbing the orb somehow?” J asks.

  “I um… I think I feel it inside of me. I don’t know what it’s doing, it’s just there.” Allia glances around at her friends, worry clear on everyone’s face but J’s.

  “Intriguing. Do you believe you might be able to um… unabsorb it?”

  “…Yeah… Maybe?” Allia motions for everyone to clear the centre of their protective dome, then gestures to the open space. A moment of strained expression, her brows furrowed, and the orb suddenly resolves in a flash of light.

  “Fascinating,” J says, crouching to examine the thigh-high sphere. “Look, the structure has shifted slightly to create different sentences.”

  Allia examines it as instructed and sees what at first appeared to be a solid metal orb is actually layers of hollow glass spheres nested in each other. Each sphere is covered in thin, silvery symbols, of which perhaps 10% were discussed in her enchanting classes. There are a few instances in which symbols align perfectly, going all the way to the core, but most symbols are disjointed to create the illusion that the entire surface is silver.

  “We think the sentences are formed vertically… um, outside in, or maybe sometimes vice versa, rather than within the same surface. However, we can only guess at what they do, as it resists all attempts to scan past the first layer. Perhaps you have some insight into what lies beneath, or why the arrangement shifted while inside you?”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Allia shakes no.

  “Heh,” J laughs, rubbing her patched eye. “It is very ironic, no? If we knew just a little bit more about either your powers or the orb, your absorption of it would no doubt be a major insight into the other. Hmm… well, perhaps it has less to do with the orb than we thought? Have you tried absorbing other objects? Try that wand carbine.”

  They place one of the carbines on the ground, and Allia attempts to vanish it, but nothing happens.

  “Hmm, very intriguing. It’s the most complex enchanted item we have on us, so I thought it’d be the best bet. No worries, I have other items that might have better synergy in the lab… Assuming the lab is still standing when we get to it… It would be best if you reabsorb the orb now if you can.”

  “Why?” Allia asks, head tilted.

  “Eh,” J exhales sharply, looking uncertainly away. “Let’s make a deal, shall we? If you can take it back, then I will tell you everything that I presently know about what is going on.”

  “That’s a bit of a sudden change from ‘need to know,’” Sarrah interjects sceptically.

  “Well, let us say that if she can take it back, then she will need to know. If not, then not.”

  “All right,” Allia nods, “I was a bit curious myself.” She raises her hand towards the orb in silent concentration. A moment later, the orb disappears in a flash, though not as long or blinding as the first time, and a line of light snakes into Allia’s hand.

  “Hm… interesting… could you do that again a few more times?”

  “Hey!” Sarrah says, arms akimbo, “that wasn’t part of the deal. Now tell us what you know.”

  J chuckles. “Of course. Please forgive my curiosity. Now… what I know… Let’s start at the beginning. That orb was found a year ago by a team of adventurers exploring an ancient and inhospitable ruin. Seeing its obvious power, but unable to figure out what it did, they sold it to us for a not inconsiderable sum. It took some time just to set up the facilities, but since then, we have been researching with very little to show for our efforts. Only that it is capable of creating an enormous amount of energy, which it uses to communicate with other locations despite any interference we might attempt. We do not know what these communications might be, but have traced them to a number of approximate areas – all very dangerous.

  “Which brings us to today. Allia… all three of you, the secrecy surrounding this project was not for the demons, but to prevent the military from finding out about it. It is imperative that you do not reveal the orb’s existence to the army personnel who are no doubt on their way here right now.”

  Allia wrinkles her eyebrows in confusion. “But aren’t they on our side? If the demons are involved, won’t we need their protection?”

  Alex scoffs. “If you study history, you’ll find that the army tends to start the wars it claims to be protecting us from.”

  “He is right,” J says, “but I’d imagine he’d much prefer the old days when it was the nobles’ lot to start wars.”

  “Naturally,” Alex says with an ironic grin.

  “Enough bickering,” Sarrah says. “What will the consequences be for us if we lie to the army like you want?”

  “Legally?” Alex asks? “Not much. We’re civilians, so they don’t have jurisdiction over us unless they can get the lord mayor to declare martial law. But even then, I’d imagine the consequences of them finding out about us lying would not be much different than if we told them up front; they would indefinitely detain us, especially Allia. So, might as well lie and hope they don’t find out.”

  “And if the police question us?” Sarrah asks.

  “Not really an issue,” Alex says. “Campus security isn’t just a private entity hired by the school, but an official police department with sole jurisdiction over the campus. Meaning that any police interrogation would be done by school personnel who have already been brought into the conspiracy – at least to the extent that they knew to ignore their seismic alarms during all that tunnelling.”

  “It’s not a conspiracy,” J protests, “but otherwise correct.”

  Sarrah scoffs. “You’re literally asking us to lie to a part of the government. That sounds like a conspiracy to me.”

  “Oh, well, maybe just a tiny bit conspiratorial,” J makes a thumb and index finger gesture to indicate a bitty size. “But an important one to keep.”

  “Why?” Allia asks. “Orb or not, tonight’s attack was an act of war. So, if we’re going to war either way, wouldn’t it be best if people know what it was over?”

  “War is not certain yet,” J says, “but it will be if the army learns of the orb. We may not know how to properly use the orb, but we’re pretty certain we know how to turn it into a bomb. You saw how deep we dug to safeguard from such an explosion? The army would press to use it as a first strike weapon, and the chance to study an artefact that is so far beyond us would be lost.”

  “That sounds mostly true,” Alex concedes, “but it also sounds like the standard rhetoric from the rivalry that the two most influential institutions in this school – the MDC and the TAL – has with the military. Admit it, even if the orb couldn’t be easily weaponized, you’d reflexively hide it from them. You resent that a full 15% of the school’s graduates go to them, and would do anything to keep the army’s influence in the school from growing.”

  “…Perhaps. The army is not to be trusted. But it doesn’t matter. The fact is, we can turn it into a bomb, which the army would certainly use.”

  “Then what do I say about the demons and why they came?” Allia asks.

  J shrugs. “Say that you do not know.”

  Allia is not convinced. “But without another explanation, wouldn’t they assume that they were after the manifest files and you? The only reason they would need that is if they were planning on starting a war.”

  J smiles reassuringly. “Let us worry about that. We have friends in high places who will know the truth and can act on it without letting the military know.”

  “And how did the demons know if the military doesn’t?” Sarrah asks.

  J shrugs. “We probably have a spy. Perhaps one of the other professors on the team figured something out on their own and decided it’d be more profitable to sell the information than share it with their colleagues. They simply knew too much not to have an inside source. They knew where everything was, the security for it and even that the vault required two keyed manifestations to open.

  “They even knew about my manifestation. Enough to bait me to attacking with it. That thin, hungry looking man, he somehow snatched the phenomenon and stored it until they needed to use it on the vault.”

  “You mean the guy who threw my own fire back at me?” Alex asks.

  “That would be the one, yes. Though it raises the question of why he needed to brute force the second key. Perhaps the traitor had a passive that couldn’t be stored by his power? We will investigate.”

  “How do you beat someone like that?” Allia asks.

  J shrugs. “Bullets should do. Try to shoot from many angles to overwhelm them.”

  “And what about that guy who ignored shields?” Allia presses, a note of distaste in her tone.

  “Hm, he was interesting, yes? I’ve heard of curses that could ignore shields, but they are rare rituals that require lengthy chanting and some link to the victim. I have never heard of one being a manifestation before. Then again, demon manifestations tend to have a different tone than ours. Fascinating that he couldn’t bypass your constructs.”

  “But I couldn’t penetrate his destructive field either.” Allia counters. “What do I do if I have to fight him again?”

  “Hm… Do your constructs have mass?” J asks, her hand to her chin, thinking heavily.

  “Um… Yes, I think. Or at least I’ve bludgeoned with several of them.”

  “Ah! I suppose that was real question. Very good. Try using spheres next time… though hopefully there is not one.”

  “Sphere’s?”

  “Yes, the corrupting influence seemed limited by surface area, and spheres have the greatest volume per.”

  “Makes sense,” Allia nods.

  “Now,” J says more seriously, “are you able to create a barrier that emulates a shield spell in form? Hugging your body as it moves?”

  “Um… Maybe?... Yes, I think so, though it’ll take a while to figure out.”

  “I suggest doing so immediately. Before you leave this dome, if you can. Zexle may decide to ambush you, so you should always have one erected.”

  “Won’t that make her soul fatally discrete over time?” Sarrah asks.

  J shakes no. “We don’t tend to mention it to avoid overambitious students, but powerful mages can have a few spells always active without danger. I myself always have a shield, if only from habit from working in an accident prone field. Moreover, manifestations are easier to maintain than free casted effects.”

  “All right,” Allia says, “I think I can figure it out. Just let me focus.”