The wait after the test is the worst of it. Finishing the examination for the College of Enchantment first, I feel almost like I have the run of the academy when I exit. The hundreds of applicants who milled around on the castle grounds are gone now, sequestered to the various testing chambers. Enchantment, as it turns out, is one of the shorter testing sections alongside the College of Mathematics.

Walking along the well-kept grounds around the standing castle and its surrounding stone architecture, I begin to appreciate the academy in ways I hadn't previously. Here, they teach about the future, prepare people to better understand the universe, and know how to interact with it. Every discipline prized by this academy is in a constant state of change, advancement, but the ground itself pays respect to the past. Inside these buildings of aged stone are modern hallways, walls made of the same material as the rest of Faeth, and the stones in the floors are cut with modern techniques. Yet, there is something of age to the academy.

A building that at first glance appears to be a stable turns out to be three different businesses squeezed together beneath a single roof. One is a cafe, and I take some time for myself to enjoy a cup of coffee while watching the sparse people stroll. The faethians love their coffee, and I have to say that the strangely sweet mixture is growing on me. The serenity I feel in the moment, sipping my drink and looking out as young people with bright eyes hurry from place to place, is almost enough to make me forget about the bill I was given.

Twelve thousand suns. Twelve thousand is the price for my initial semester at this prestigious institution. The number is staggering, easily over twice what I spent on creating my obsidianate gloves. I before today that with my not being a native faethian the price would be higher, but I never expected something this insane. Yes, my course load is staggering, and I did request additional classes in addition to the ones I already have to take, but still, twelve thousand. If I double that to include Dovik's likely need, we only barely have enough to cover it. Those weeks of monster hunting were good for something beyond simply gathering fire affix. I'm left regretting the order I made a few days ago.

I pass the time people watching and thinking about how else I can secure more funds. Then I get sidetracked, wondering if this academy exclusively caters to the wealthy. As an outsider, I can somewhat understand the exorbitant price they are willing to charge me to attend, but surely the same can't be true of the native citizens. Then again, enchantment is an expensive and professional path. I haven't been back down to the ground since encountering that strange shadow monster. The risk of going down there finally set in. That doesn't mean I can let the fear stop me, especially if I need more money.

Gaz finds me less than an hour after I sat down, her brother in tow. Jasper spends the impromptu lunch apologizing to his sister for forgetting about today; he claims to have been caught up in a project. The man even purchases three different sweet cakes for her as an apology.

We spend a pleasant few hours talking about nothing, ordering drinks now and again, and watching the academy grounds slowly become more and more busy. At some point, Gaz gets onto the subject of the golem fights in Booktown, talking at length about their team's plans for how to improve their equipment even more. It is a lot of work devoted to showing off what they can make. For Jasper, it is about attracting a sponsor, securing the financial safety to try and craft riskier and greater enchantments. Gaz seems to only care about the spectacle of the fights against the monsters; she seems to come alive as she describes watching her little artificial man swing its staff against various monsters.

The only other thing she shows similar enthusiasm for is when she speaks about the gambling aspect of the fights. Evidently, games of chance and similar kinds of wagers are popular in the city, especially at the large clubs on the east side. There is a lot of money to be made in the enchantment fighting business, it would seem, if you are willing to swim in bloody waters, that is.

By the time Dovik arrives, the sun has nearly set on the far horizon. He orders a coffee while I am on my fourth, falling back into a chair with a sigh. As I feared, his tuition is on the incredibly expensive side, and his results aren't that far off from my own. I am far more impressed by what he has done with the short time he's had than he appears to be. Our drinks finished and the sky gradually darkening to night, we make for home. Dovik convinces Jasper to come back to the apartment with us, saying that he needs help with a personal project while refusing to elaborate on it any further.

Just a few feet from the door, I stop. The knob to the door rattles on the floor as I nudge it with a toe. The door itself stands open, the lightless living space beyond suddenly filled with anxiety.

"What in the hells?" Dovik asks, the bewilderment in his voice suddenly turning to anger as he bends down and picked up the broken knob off the floor.

"Oh my," Jasper whispers to himself at the stairwell.

A sword falls into Dovik's open hand as he stalks forward. The broken door cracks against the wall as he just about kicks it off its hinges before disappearing inside. My friend's anger seeps into me as I come to the broken doorway and run my hand up and down the shattered frame. My anger isn't hot like his; it's been tempered far too long for that.

A wave of violent gold and crimson energy rushes away from me, scattering through the entirety of the top floor, searching for prey. An overturned glass, just barely holding onto the edge of a table, falls and shatters on the floor as a sudden increase of weight settles over the apartment. As the floor beneath my feet begins to squeal in protest, I have to let off the pressure, pulling my power back until it is just a hint of its full potency. Scouring the floor, I come to the same conclusion that Dovik says when he reappears a moment later.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"No one inside," he says. His gleaming sword hangs in his hand, the tip almost scraping the ground.

It is different, walking into the penthouse and seeing the damage with my eyes. The furniture is mostly where we left it, but the cabinets have been pulled out, and everything on the tables has been tossed onto the floor. In my bedroom, my closet has been raided, half of it taken. In my laboratory, the damage is far worse.

"They took the safe in my lab," I tell Dovik. "They took the money Corinth left us."

My friend sneers at the ground, anger building toward an enemy he can't see. "My rooms too. They took a lot of my equipment."

"Mine too."

Jasper finally works up the nerve to step into the room alongside us. He stares wide-eyed around at the mess made of the place. "This kind of thing isn't common on this side of the city. I think whoever did this knew you had means. Considering the state of this penthouse, that wouldn't be a difficult thing to guess. We will have to contact the authorities about this, but they are not generally able to track down robbers."

"We need that money," Dovik says, looking right at me.

"I know." With a wave, my moonsilver staff appears in my hand. I haven't had need to use it recently; it works well enough simply being a part of my armory, but this enchantment always works the best when I have it in hand. Ignoring the looks the two men throw me, I walk into the room, turning a chair back upright with my foot and sitting down in it, closing my eyes.

"If I may ask," Jasper says. "What are you doing, Miss Devardem?"

"Looking," Dovik answers him.

I raise the staff, keeping my eyes closed and concentrating on the mental projection of my turning soulshape. "First, I am waiting. Then, I will be looking."

For months, I have tracked the rotation of the interlocking shapes that make up my soul. Try as I might, I have not discovered a way to control the shifting, but I have learned something about the timing. For thirty-six minutes, I wait, watching the rotation of the different shapes until the exact alignment I am looking for happens. Two runes connect in a bolt of lightning, the entirety of my soul lighting up for a fraction of a moment. I seize that moment, stealing the power of the connection, and producing warfire in my hand.

I have only touched this mana rarely; the alignment is just that uncommon. Since that monster recognized the swirling ball of strange fire, I have kept it to myself, hidden. No one asked me about it, and I explained it to no one either. A part of me has been fearful, wondering if that monster was willing to kill me just for having this, what would others do? That changed when I managed to sell ruin mana. The price that I managed to sell it at, covering a huge portion of the expenses for building my gauntlets, both excited and scared me. I have something here with these magics I can produce from connecting different kinds of mana, a rare something. For days, I have agonized over trying to sell another one, wondering if the value would be worth potentially piquing interest.

"What is that?" Jasper asks, his eyes large as he brings his face close to the shimmering flame.

I pull the dragonfire back before he can get too close. "Dangerous."

"You were storing that?" Dovik asks; the man catches on quickly.

With a bit of effort, a ball of warfire-infused dragonfire appears as a shining bead at the head of the moonsilver staff. The tracking spell in the staff activates at a mental command, flowing up and through the mana I hold in the head of the staff. A line of dull red smoke appears in my vision, running away from me and out the open door.

"I have it."

The two men follow me as I leave at a jog. Despite being able to follow the path in front of me, the tension only grows as I move through the streets. I see it too in Dovik, in the set of his shoulders, in the grinding of his teeth. He has the awareness to dismiss his sword back into his ring before we hit the streets, and the people still out at this late hour have the good sense to stay out of our way as we hurry down the street. There is a constant itch, a nagging at the back of my mind telling me to call upon my wings, to run ahead with all of my considerable speed to reach these thieves before they can do something with our belongings. It is a good thing that Jasper is with us, or I might do just that.

"That is the police station," Jasper says, pointing across the street as we hurry down the side.

"We aren't going there," Dovik tells him.

"Oh."

Forty minutes after setting out, my feet finally still in front of a nondescript three-story building on the south side of the city. Dovik stops alongside me, nodding up at the building in front of us. We both wait for Jasper to make it down the street, giving him a moment to put his hands on his knees and heave in air.

"Here?" Dovik asks.

"The trail leads inside," I tell him. I staff vanishes once more with a flick of the wrist. "I'll take a look."

"What are you planning to do?" Jasper asks between breaths.

"Just looking for now." With an exhale, my soul presence reaches out, flowing through the cracks of the building in front of me, sinking into the foundation, and flooding in. Just a few seconds later, I find something surprising. "I am stopped somehow."

"What do you mean, stopped?" Dovik asks.

"Something is stopping my presence from seeping in. Most of the second and third floors, I can't look into. The walls inside seem to be made of something that blocks presences."

"So, since whoever is in there isn't extravagantly wealthy," Dovik says, glancing at the building and sniffing, "it is safe to assume they are up to no good."

"We know they are thieves at the very least," I comment.

"What are you going to do?" Jasper asks again, still with his hands on his knees.

Dovik turns, smiling at the man and setting a hand on his shoulder. "We are going to get our belongings back. Why don't you stay back here? Keep a lookout and make sure no one runs away with our things." His piece said, Dovik starts walking across the street.

"These people could be criminals," Jasper whispers with urgency at me. "People like this could be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" I can't help but smirk at the thought. "Jasper, these are people. They aren't dangerous."

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