“Didn’t think they’d send you in person, mage,” Dallion said with a hint of sarcasm. After being locked up for what seemed like years, he was glad for any human contact, even her.

“They didn’t.” The woman’s fingers danced in the air, completing a spell. Apparently, the limitations preventing Dallion from casting magic in the room didn’t apply to her.

A chair appeared out of thin air and gently floated to the floor.

“Wash your face, shave up, then put that on.” She sat down. “And get yourself presentable. Two improvements, at least.”

Dallion had no idea what was going on, but decided not to push his luck. Using Ruby’s assistance, he shaved any and all hairs sprouting on his face, then scrubbed his face with a chunk of water.

“Any chance you can tell me what’s going on?” he asked, passing the water through his hair. “How deep are we?”

“Oh, we’re in shit alright,” Katka replied in a casual manner. “The worst kind: not deep enough to mobilize the entire empire, but too much for it to settle on its own. If you had been a bit faster and saved that idiot, things would have been a lot less chaotic.”

“I take it that the news of his death has spread?” Dallion tossed the chunk of water into a nearby bowl of marble.

“The bastards had planned it pretty well. In some places, people heard about the news hours before it happened. It was impossible to deny or suppress. As far as everyone is concerned, the tower split with half rebelling against the emperor and the other half supporting him.”

“Nice and tidy.”

“Tidy my ass! Such PR would never have passed on Earth. Then again, I suppose I have to be thankful for that.”

Done with the washing, Dallion spent a few hours improving every single one of his clothes. With his current skills, it was rather easy. In a quarter of the cases, the item guardians outright surrendered, accepting their improvement. The rest felt an obligation to challenge him to keep his and their skills sharp. It was rather touching, even if Dallion could defeat them without half trying.

“What’s the real story?” he asked when ready.

“The Academy split into a lot more pieces. Less than a tenth joined the battle mages against us. About as many joined the Alliance of Stone and Steel. Of what was left, half decided they wanted to become independent.”

“Just half?” Dallion expected the acrchmage’s death to create a lot more turmoil. With the number of giant echoes unleashed, it was inevitable there’d be clashes even before the dust began to settle. Then again, maybe that’s what happened? All those who couldn’t achieve what they wanted could have taken advantage of the chaos and simply left to work in one notable, noble family or another.

“That’s the one benefit of having an incompetent boss.” Katka let out a scary laugh. “Things don’t get worse. Of course, those who chose to remain have automatically pledged allegiance to the emperor. No more doing “research” in the comfort of the Academy. If requested, we must be ready to go to the front lines and actually fight the enemy.”

“We’re in the army now?” Dallion gathered the rest of his gear.

“You can say that, only we’ll be fighting more than people.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dallion didn’t like the sound of that in the least.

“And spoil the surprise?” The mage laughed. “No way.”

Dallion looked at the green robe. Most observers wouldn’t notice anything special about it. Even as far as awakened were concerned, it appeared like a cheap robe made out of cotton. Anyone with the magic trait, though, could see the vast number of magic threads woven in with the physical material. The robe was an amplifier, shield, and magic battery all in one. It wasn’t by any means as impressive as Katka’s own blue robe, though significant in its own right.

“I take it I volunteered?” Dallion put it on. It felt highly electrified, almost as if he were wearing a piece of static electricity.

“No, you graduated. No seal, no more novice nonsense. Welcome to the fun part of being a mage, apprentice.”

That was right. By removing his mark, Dallion had become an apprentice. Good to know that even in times of crisis, the Academy stuck to their internal regulations.

“I guess I can take more complicated courses now?”

“I don’t think you’ll have the time. You’ve been assigned to me.”

“You?” Dallion blinked. “You are my mage?” A week ago, Dallion could have welcomed such a change. Now, he was having serious reservations. The way things were going, the only way he’d see Eury was on the battlefield as enemies.

“There were worse options for the both of us.”

That wasn’t very encouraging. Uncertain what to think, Dallion followed Katka out of the room. The corridor was as he remembered it, but there was no time to delay. The two of them made their way to a wooden carriage. Unlike most of the ones Dallion had seen near the Learning hall, this one had actual horses in front.

“Don’t ask,” Katka said, not even hiding her disgust. “We have the new archmage to thank.”

Obviously, the woman had a thing against horses. What was more interesting, though, was her follow up comment.

“There’s a new archmage? Things sure move quickly.” Dallion made his way into the carriage. A lot of spells had been cast to give it the most presentable appearance, but Dallion could see that beneath the glamor it was pretty common.

“What do you expect? We can’t afford to show weakness. A decision was made the very same day.”

Why didn’t anyone tell me that? Dallion cursed internally. Given the importance of the event, someone might have hinted at least. It wasn’t like it would make any difference. Dallion wasn’t able to leave his prison to spread the news, even if he wanted to.

“Don’t worry, we’re heading there now. You need to get your official reward and learn a thing or two about your new tasks.”

“Kill people that don’t like us?” Dallion asked beneath his breath. “That’s what wars usually involve.”

Katka let out a chuckle, but said nothing. The amount of joy emanating from her was outright scary, almost as if she had been looking forward to this.

With the sound of a whip, the carrier set on its way. From what Dallion remembered, the distance between the archmage’s complex and the current building wasn’t that much. Of course, two weeks ago he had traveled by air.

“What happened with the shardflies?” he asked.

“All gone. It’s as if someone told them to run off and hide south.” No accusations were made, but both knew Dallion had something to do with it.

Out of habit, or possibly boredom, Dallion glanced at the sky. He didn’t expect to see other shardflies apart from Ruby, who remained loyally on his shoulder. Yet, he didn’t expect to see crimson clouds floating in the air, either.

“And how is the south?”

“Half the provinces are dead or dying.” Katka saved him the trouble. “Some are lost, some are fighting. The rest have placed all their troops near the borders, waiting. Everyone except the Order had joined the conflict. Merchants, crafters, awakened guilds… all of them are out there.”

Everyone had picked a side. There probably wasn’t a single nation in the known world that hadn’t picked a side in one way or another. The fiercer the war became, the more the alliances would harden, until there was only one.

Suddenly, thunder echoed nearby.

Dallion immediately split into instances, expecting an attack. Instead, he saw sparks of lightning moving throughout the crimson clouds.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Katka said dismissively. “We got some assistance from a few generous parties. A small contingent of furies to look over our skies.”

“There weren’t supposed to be any cloud citadels left…”

“These are new ones. One of Alien’s projects. The emperor lent his crimson guard. We just provided the cloud forts and a few thousand mercenaries. Well, technically, a few interest groups loaned them to us, but till the war is over, they are as good as ours.”

“Crimson furies…” Dallion whispered. He had seen one during the night auction in Lanitol. When he had inquired at the time, there were suggestions that the Academy was involved in granting unique properties to ordinary furies. Now he saw that the mages had been involved with a lot more. “Are they funder furies?”

“A few. The emperor keeps most of them close to his palace.”

More thunder sounded as the carriage proceeded. According to Katka, the cloud forts were doing some sort of tactical training—something she was utterly uninterested in. If one were to take her at her word, she could easily defeat half a dozen forts without breaking a sweat. The image brought back memories of the time she had tried to kill Dallion, Jiroh, and Euryale at the last major cloud citadel. Thinking about it, she had mentioned needing the creatures keeping the citadel in the air. Now Dallion could see why.

There was no trace that the archmage complex had even been damaged. The style was atrocious as before, but every hole, crack, and imperfection had been repaired and covered with a new set of protective spells. The new archmage had even planted a lot of decorative plants, glowing like clusters of purple neon balls all over the place.

A fury with crimson hair and light bronze armor greeted them at the main entrance, courteously opening the doors on both sides of the carriage using air currents.

“Welcome, mistress Katka,” he said, with a slight bow. “The archmage is expecting you.”

Mistress? Dallion looked at the mage. Clearly, he wasn’t the only one to get a promotion.

“Ignore them,” the woman said, taking the fury for granted. “They’ll get used to the proper etiquette in time.”

“Heartbreaking,” Dallion whispered, all the time walking a few steps behind her.

More furies were placed within the building. Though not of the crimson variety, they seemed more than capable of dealing with any attacker. Of course, the same had been said for the security system of the Academy. No one was supposed to be able to harm anyone in the learning hall, yet no one had taken into account the possibility of silver glass weapons.

“Anything I should know before the meeting?” Dallion whispered.

“Nothing you don’t know already.” Katka gave him a confused glance. “There’s nothing to be worried about. The archmage is a huge fan. I’m sure you’ll have a lot in common.”

Harp, is she lying? Dallion asked.

Probably, the harpsisword guardian replied. She’s using a spell to change the emanation of her emotions. She wouldn’t do that unless she was lying.

Just great. Right now, Dallion wished he had another chunk of Moonstone. Escape was absolutely impossible. Even if he could somehow outwit the furies, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Katka. While it was true that the Moon vow prevented her from killing him, there were many ways she could prevent him from moving without causing physical harm.

A double door made entirely of sky silver opened in front of them. Dallion hadn’t had time to check out this section of the complex during his previous “visit,” but he could see that it was just as luxurious.

Gold and purple light emanated from inside, making it seem as if they were entering the Purple Moon’s domain.

“Hey, relax,” Katka said with a carnivorous smile. “If we wanted to kill you, we wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble to hold an official ceremony. Besides, you still owe me one.”

“Let me guess, you’re calling in that favor.”

“You got it. If I had ten, I’d call them all. Also, it’s something you’ll want as well. Trust me.”

Dallion knew from experience that whenever someone said “trust me,” they were lying. The only question was lying about what.