Alec slowly, possibly even delicately, closed the ledger he’d been reading. It had been slow going and he was due a break where they’d been working meticulously. The last thing anyone wanted was to have to go through the entire library a second time because someone had been too tired to realise what they’d read.

It had taken them three days to finish moving all the books, and had been a day since then, though he had to confess Amara had done less the lion’s share of the work and more the entire pride’s. Vampirism had its perks, though moving an entire library in such a short time had left the vampire more than lightly peckish. Animal blood had sufficed, with some minor grumbling from Amara – apparently chicken blood was disgusting.

As he got to his feet, having to massage some feeling back into his legs as he did so, Alec headed on to his next task for the day. Holly met him at the door, the two trading places without saying a word; at least out loud.

‘I got as far as the Ancient and Noble Order of the Smouldering Lake’s expense claims.’ Alec told her, mind to mind, ‘How’d your lesson go?’ As they conversed he headed towards his own teacher, Ilvere of all people had been trying to teach him how to sense the currents of mana in the air as Holly could.

Amara had tried to teach them but the problem with being an ancient vampire and master mage was that one’s own apprenticeship lay so far back in the past that she was struggling to remember how she’d been taught a skill that now came to her as naturally as breathing, more so in fact, vampirism being what it was.

‘Poorly.’ The dryad’s mental voice was the embodiment of a sigh, unable to stop her frustration from leaking through to him. He could empathise, he wished his own lessons had been going so well as poorly.

Magic, as it turned out, was hard. Even for a being who’s body was literally made of it. Holly could command and manipulate plantlife almost by reflex, it was her birthright, much as excessive speed and strength was Amara’s and shapeshifting was Alice’s.

Structured magic, the magic of mages, wizards, sorcerers and shamans was a different matter entirely. Maybe, and it was only maybe, dragons could cast those sorts of spell by instinct, but no one else could.

Holly had been under Amara’s tutelage for a few days, and so far hadn’t gotten any further than managing to vaguely push mana in the air into a cloud rather than the intricate shapes and flavours of a proper spell. Alec wasn’t wholly sympathetic, a small bitter voice in the back of his mind couldn’t help point out to him that he hadn’t even reached the cloud stage yet.

Ilvere was waiting for him out on the outskirts of Valda, between the gateway in and the town itself, a precaution in the unlikely event someone decided to check in on the town. The geomancer had been hunched over a large stone cauldron of water, summoned out of the earth for the occasion.

The geomancer smiled when she saw him, eyes flitting for just a moment to the position of the sun, “You’re early.”

“I realised the fourth time I read the same page that I wasn’t doing anyone any good where I was.” Alec admitted without any embarrassment, “Where did we leave off?”

“Sensing the mana in the air.” Ilvere replied, stepping back from the cauldron of water, “I think we’ll try something a little simpler today. I’ve charged the water with as much mana as I can. Hopefully it will be easier to sense.”

“What do you need me to do?” Her student asked, not sounding too hopeful. This was the third attempt at simplifying things so far. He’d been able to sense his own magicka, a surprisingly deep well of energy that so far mostly went into keeping Holly alive as well as powering the magic the dryad used.

It had been the sensation of that energy leaving him that had allowed him to find where it had been coming from, Ilvere had been amazed by how quickly he’d done it but since then his training had stalled out entirely. A fact made all the worse by the knowledge Erebus and a paladin monk he’d once learned under had both instilled a lot of the basics into him already.

“Place your hand in the bowl. Let me know what you feel.” Ilvere ordered him simply. Her green gaze unwavering from interest as Alec did as he was told.

“It… tingles slightly?” Alec replied, more question than answer.

“Good. Focus on that.” The geomancer urged, “Try to let your mind follow that feeling into the water. That tingling is where the mana is interacting with your magicka.”

“Shouldn’t I try to focus on my magicka then?” Alec asked, not unreasonably.

“No. That would be the start of a very bad habit.” Ilvere told him firmly, “The extra step would slow you down.” It also was an important part of some of the more advanced mana sensing techniques, the kind she was only now starting to learn herself but for obvious reasons she didn’t mention that.

Her student nodded, closing his eyes and calming his breathing so that he could focus completely on that sensation. It was not a fast process, the meditative state at least came swiftly, as the old adage said, practice made perfect.

After that came the hard part, dissociating the sensation of the water on his fingers, the difference in temperature between the two and the tingling that, he was beginning to realize, was not actually real. Nothing was actually causing it, or at least nothing that should have been triggered by his senses, it was, to all intents and purposes, an effect with no cause.

It was just as he was starting to untangle that realization that Holly spoke in his mind.

‘You need to open your eyes then head for town.’ The dryad’s mental voice was calm, but the strained kind that hinted it was taking a serious effort.

Alec cursed out loud, the moment ruined. Still he opened his eyes and was glad he’d done so before he replied. Ilvere was no longer stood over him, the geomancer in fact over by the gate where she was in a heated argument with five people, three in mages robes, red, black and a pale green, and two in the enchanted plated mail of paladins attached to First Response. Clearly Holly had been monitoring his senses while he’d not been using them.

It was vitally important not to run and so it was at a walk just stopping itself from turning into a jog that he headed back into town. ‘What do we do?’ He asked Holly silently.

‘I’ve alerted Amara, she’s going to find Alice as we speak. Grab your things and meet me at the infirmary. We’re to help hide everyone in Evan’s lab then get in there with them. I’m to seal the hatch once we’re in.’

Damn, Alec thought dryly, Holly hadn’t wasted a moment’s time. ‘I’ll take the west side.’

He took a moment to glance over his shoulder. Ilvere’s argument had failed to erupt into violence, the geomancer now apparently escorting them into town. The teenager got a proper look at her expression, the young woman was terrified but the set of her jaw and the determination in her eyes at least told him she was holding it together, her pace a bit slower than her typical walk. The Guardian buying them a few extra vital seconds.

As soon as he broke line of sight with them Alec broke into a run, scrambling for the abandoned house he’d been sleeping in these past few days.

In just a couple of minutes later he emerged, wearing all of his gear, and mentally beating himself up over not having been wearing it in the first place. From now on, he quietly swore, he wasn’t going to let a little thing like the midday sun persuade him to take off his body armour.

Getting everyone to head for the infirmary proved a simple enough task, though they had been forced to double back where they’d come very close to crossing Ilvere’s path as she escorted what Alec was almost certain was a First Response strike team to her office.

Still there had been a singular hiccup, the last place on Alec’s half of the town had been The Melodious Duck, where even now three people sat quietly playing cards. Alec was increasingly sure they’d been sleeping in the tavern.

“I’m sorry to interrupt.” He told them, urgent if a touch wretched, “But Guardian Ilvere wants everyone to head for the infirmary. There’s a situation.”

The old man looked up from his hand and met his gaze, blue eyes clear and twinkling with grandfatherly warmth, “That’s kind of you lad, but we’ll be fine here. Best you run along.”

Alec frowned, “It really is quite serious sir. You could get killed.”

“If I die. I die.” He shrugged, “But I’ve a feeling I’ll be fine. Am I going to die sis?”

He nodded to the woman at the table, the beautiful lady in a fairly threadbare black robe and cloak, though the difference in age made Alec struggle with the idea they were siblings.

The woman chuckled, shaking her head, “I think we’ll be fine young man. But thank you for your concern, let me give you a little something for your journey.”

She delicately dropped two copper coins into Alec’s hands, “Now hurry to the infirmary, you’ll be safe if you sit this out in Evan’s lab.”

The teenager accepted the money out of polite habit, looking puzzled, “Are you sure?”

“Quite sure.” She promised him, “Now if there’s nothing else I have a game of cards to win.”

“You always win.” The old man grumbled, placing down his cards in surrender. Alec didn’t recognise the game but he was guessing a two and a seven was a bad hand.

There wasn’t time to argue. Reluctantly the teen headed for the door, only to pause at the moment of egress, turning to stare at the young woman. “Actually there is one thing… could I maybe borrow your robe?”

 

*

 

“You took your time.” Holly replied, trying to be waspish but only managing worried.

“A couple of folks didn’t want to come along.” He said, carefully closing the bond as far as it could go. Holly would know that he was hiding something from her, she just wouldn’t be able to tell what it was.

“Well hurry, I do not want to be outside if spells start flying and neither do you. Amara’s in position outside the Guardian’s office and Alice is ready to flatten the building if she has to.” Holly grumbled, all but running for the trapdoor and hauling it open.

“Fine then. Ladies first.” Alec gestured to the open hole in the floor.

Holly darted down the ladder with almost indecent haste only to open her mouth in an unheard yell as the trapdoor slammed shut, the sound of heavy bolts sliding home followed moments after.

‘What in Von Mori’s name do you think you’re doing?’ Holly shrieked, managing to force the message through the soul-bond despite his best efforts to keep it clamped shut.

‘Amara didn’t think it through.’ Alec replied softly, feeling like an absolute heel as he betrayed his friend. With trembling hands he carefully smoothed the carpet over the trapdoor. ‘If we’d left the trapdoor exposed they’d have found the lab.’

‘Oh… that’s a good point. Well let me up and then we’ll close it.’ Holly compromised, thrilled that the apparent lunacy at least had a reason.

The teenager bit at his lip, ‘I can’t do that Holly. You need to seal it from the inside, just in case, and that means you need to be able to see what you’re doing. If everyone else dies you’re the closest thing they’ll have to a mage, their lives depend on you.’

It was again a good point, then again so was Holly’s counterpoint, ‘If you die then I die to. They’re just as doomed without you as me. Try to find somewhere to hide.’

‘I can’t do that either. If they found me they’d conduct a full search. I’m going to go help Amara.’

‘That’s insane! They’re trained combat mages! They’ll slaughter you.’

Probably. Alec could at least admit that much to himself, but close to thirty people’s lives depended on him and he wasn’t going to let them down. ‘I’ve got the jacket on and I’ve got a sword.’ As if that would matter a damn, the enemy had swords as well and knew a lot better how to use them. ‘If I do get killed Evan had bottles of mana infused water in his desk, that should keep you alive for a few days, find my body and drag it to a tree. I’ll try to linger as a ghost, maybe we’ll be able to rebond you.’

It wasn’t technically impossible. Sure he’d have to replicate an advanced magical ritual despite never deliberately casting a spell. And sure he wasn’t even sure if ghosts could cast spells or if becoming a ghost was as simple as wanting to. But it wasn’t technically impossible and he made sure to project certainty and confidence across the bond.

‘You absolute liar… If you do die then I’m going to be the one that haunts you.’

Alec took a couple of calming breaths, wondering if he’d gone crazy or simply taken a head wound without noticing.

It was possible that Ilvere could talk her way out of whatever was happening. That his presence would unbalance an already precarious explanation but something about the sheer terror in the geomancer’s eyes told him they were already well past that point. It also told him that he was going to be hideously, possibly even hilariously, outmatched.

It didn’t matter. He’d meant what he’d said. Logic said that if they killed Ilvere, Amara and Alice they would go on to search the town. If they were even vaguely competent they would find him. If they were cruel they would easily find out about the trapdoor.

He had to be in the open and he had to provide enough of a threat they had no choice but to kill him. The middle of a fight between a bunch of master mages was probably the best place for that, hells they might even manage to kill him by accident.

Slowly he got up from the infirmary bed, pausing as his gaze alighted upon the empty robe of Sato, still laying upon the bed he’d died in, more specific it landed on the brace of combat alchemicals he’d worn. Maybe the playing field wasn’t quite as uneven as he’d initially thought.

 

*

 

Of course nothing was that simple. He may have successfully strongarmed Holly into going along with his plan, the dryad, betrayed as she was feeling, was monitoring his senses for him, trying to give him whatever edge she could so that he might survive his own insane plan, but the other members of Erebus’ motley crew were not so simply subverted.

He didn’t get within twenty feet of the door to Ilvere’s office. Instead finding himself dragged out of sight so fast the only reason he didn’t get whiplash was Amara’s hand supporting the back of his neck, her body pressed tight to his to guide him. Normally she’d have placed a hand on his lower back but she’d needed that other hand to cover his yelp of surprise and dragging a human being by just their head tended to be bad for the human.

Forget no plan survives contact with the enemy. This plan didn’t even look like it would survive contact with his own allies.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Amara hissed in his ear, sibilant and harsh as she pulled him deeper out of sight.

It occurred to Alec that he might dangerously jaded by this point, a vampire was literally dragging him into a dark alley and his main response was embarrassment.

“I was going to help.” He explained lamely, withering under the glare that the pyromancer was giving him.

“I see. Because children are renowned for their combat potential.” Amara scoffed, still keeping him pinned face first against the wall.

“I know I’m outmatched but… if you lost… it was important I died in the fight.”

The vampire slowly relaxed her grip, “You are far too young to be sacrificing yourself.”

“I don’t think Death cares how low they have to stoop to swing the scythe.” Alec countered, “You all agreed I could be part of this. This isn’t me charging in blindly, I know the risks. I know there’s a damn good chance I get killed but they have you outnumbered. I’ve got armour and I have a blade, that means they have to at least take me seriously.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Erebus.” Amara grumbled but released him all the same. “Fine but if I tell you to disengage, you do so.”

“But if they-“

“Because that means either we have to bring Alice in or I can handle it on my own.” She continued over him.

“Fine.” Alec conceded, pleased to at least be taken seriously. He gave his gear a quick double check then headed for the door.

“Hurry then.” The vampire urged him, “The conversation is not going well.”

The teenager pressed his ear to wood, eyes closed as he focused on his hearing.

“A death zone opens up after centuries and you honestly expect us to believe you’ve no idea what happened?” A harsh and brassy voice scoffed, “You’re a poor liar girl.”

“I don’t know what to tell you!” Ilvere yelled back, frustrated from repetition, “It’s not been centuries. If you aren’t lying about the year it’s been a week! If that!”

“This is getting us nowhere.” A more feminine voice groaned, “Let’s just search the town and have done.”

“No! I forbid it!” Ilvere snapped. Alec could almost picture her stood behind John’s desk, one hand on her wand, face slowly purpling with barely constrained rage. The teenager had to hold back a sigh, the deputy Guardian was indeed a poor liar. The smart thing to do would have been to let them search the town and just try and keep everyone out of their way.

“You forbid it?” The woman’s voice hissed, “You have no authority here child. I don’t know who you really are but you’re certainly no Guardian.”

There was a shocked gasp and the distinctive schlurk of someone pulling a blade free from a body. Alec let out a gasp of his own, just about managing to muffle it with a palm. A quick glance to his side showed Amara still in the mouth of the alley, the vampire had taken off her robe, muscles rippling as she tensed down into a crouch, ebony skin aglow from barely restrained ignition.

“Was that wise?” The brassy voice asked with nothing more than light curiosity.

“She wasn’t going to talk.” Another man’s voice answered simply, cold as an arctic blizzard. “It’s one less variable to worry about.”

“If he isn’t here then we just killed an innocent woman.” A third man pointed out evenly, not bothering to hide the judgement in his tone.

“A death zone opens up the day we get a tip off he’s hiding in a death zone and you don’t think Erebus is responsible?” The second man retorted icily, “If you honestly believe that then your training was wasted.”

“Stranger things have happened.” The third replied soft as satin, but there was a core of steel there as well suggesting that for all his level tones the second man would find him as immovable as any mountain on this matter.

“If I was wrong then feel free to hand me in at the end of this, but I’m not wrong.”

“We should report in.” A second woman said, the last of the five spoke with all the seriousness of the grave. “If he is here then we’ll want backup to take him down.”

“Are you kidding?” The first woman snapped, “I am not splitting that bounty. The fae courts have promised a domain to whomsoever slays him.”

“Better a bounty split many ways than a funeral split one.” The third man pointed out, “We should call it in.”

The first man, presumably the leader, answered next, forcing Alec’s hand in the process. “I’ll call it in.”

Trembling slightly he rapped his knuckles hesitantly upon the door, “Guardian Ilvere?” He called through the timber, not having to fake the uncertainty pouring from his words, “Is everything okay in there?”

The office went silent and Alec had to resist the urge to dive aside, his mind’s eye playing him a picture of one of the mages levelling their battlestave at the door and sending a burst of power through both it and him.

Instead the door opened, there was no ominous creak though Alec was damn sure there should have been. The teenager stepped inside, it was a fight to keep his cool but it was a fight he was equipped to win. An idle part of his mind wondered if the old monk who had trained him to regulate his emotions had known some of the future he’d be facing, Erebus certainly had when he’d built upon those same lessons.

Carefully he resisted the urge to sneak a glance behind the desk where he knew Ilvere’s body lay, one of the mages stood there in necromancer black, presumably the man that had done the deed.

“Can we help you mageling?” He asked calmly, pale blue eyes boring into his from beneath his head.

Alec could feel their consideration as he stood there in his borrowed robe. He certainly wouldn’t pass as a full fledged necromancer but he wasn’t trying to. With a robe several sizes too big for him and threadbare to boot it was easy enough to sell the idea he was an apprentice, and the bagginess did a good job of hiding his armour. Hopefully.

“Guardian Ilvere wished me to tell her when I was done burying the dead.” He answered politely, without knowing what lie the geomancer had tried to sell them he just spun his own instead.

“I see. I am afraid the Guardian had to leave to attend another matter. Perhaps we can be of assistance?” Their leader murmured from behind him, forcing Alec to turn to address the pyromancer. A tall gangly figure with a shock of copper hair. It was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, turning his back to the very man who had stabbed Ilvere in hers, but he managed it with barely a glimmer of tension in his shoulders.

Hopefully that would pass unremarked, what apprentice wouldn’t be tense when addressing unfamiliar master mages?

“If you could sir that would be greatly appreciated, Guardian Ilvere was going to help with raising the headstones… I’d do it myself but…” He gestured to his black robe, “I’m more earth worm than earth mage.”

“I suppose we can give you a few pointers lad.” The fire mage assured him, clapping a hand on his shoulder, “You don’t apprentice at the Vulcanus without picking up a little geomancy.”

“That’s very kind of you.” Alec smiled, trying to move towards the door. If he could just get them into the open then Amara would have a good chance of picking them off. He got about two steps away before jerking sharply, being pulled back by the pyromancer’s grip on his shoulder.

“Before we go,” The mage began, smiling broadly, “there’s a small matter you might be able to help us with. We’ve been sent to find a rogue necromancer who was last seen travelling with a young man, a dryad and two mages. I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’ve seen him Alec?”