Janice fell to her knees on cold stone floor. A dimly lit room spun around her, illuminated only by faint white imbuements covering every bit of the room. The fragments of a crushed Imbued Artifact slipped from between her shaking fingers, turned to nothing but powder. Its purpose had been served. She had been delivered to the safe house.

    Her lungs burned as the last twists of Father’s magic danced within them. Adrenaline made her heart pound like a runaway horse. Janice didn’t let herself breathe in. There was still foreign magic in her lungs — and drawing it deeper into herself had a nonzero chance of very unfortunate results.

    Only five seconds after the last of the energy had faded did Janice finally allow herself to draw in a ragged breath. Her fingers were trembling, and it wasn’t from lack of air.

    Spider had nearly caught her.

    She gave herself exactly one second to acknowledge the emotions gripping her before she shut them down. Rising to her feet, Janice brushed the dust off her pants and adjusted her jacket. Father did not approve of needless panic.

    All situations had to be approached in a calm and logical manner. Emotions could influence decisions and create flaws in plans that should have been flawless.

    Still — she’d never expected Spider to have read them so thoroughly. Janice had been serving Father ever since he’d taken her in from the streets as a child. Not once had anyone ever managed to get the upper hand over him, even in the slightest altercations... and this demon had managed it multiple times.

    “Janice.”

    Father’s words echoed through the dimly lit room. Janice spun toward their source, failing to conceal the surprise in her eyes.

    “You’ve already returned?” Janice asked. Thoughts raced through her mind and she nearly asked Father if Spider had managed to interfere in his plans again before she noticed the plain wooden staff held in the old man’s hand. Her eyes widened. “You were successful?”

    “Such is the thing with most long plans,” Father said idly. “Though they may be hundreds of years in the making, the actual execution and success is often decided in mere hours. Yes. I was successful. The payment for that hard-earned success was the groundwork I spent so long laying. Tell me, Janice — why are you here? I did not call for you.”

    “Spider,” Janice replied. “He knew more of our plans than we thought. He declared there were traitors within the Bastions that sought the artifacts hidden within the Archives. Then, when asked to identify them, he went straight for me. He knew.”

    Father’s head tilted to the side. His features didn’t so much as change in response to the new information, but Janice had known him long enough to tell that he was deep in thought.

    “Traitors?” Father repeated. “Plural? Are you certain?”

    He didn’t seem surprised in the slightest that Spider had managed to figure out what they were going for.

    Janice’s brow furrowed. She cast her thoughts back to Spider’s speech.

    “Yes,” Janice said with a nod. “In all of the houses.”

    “Interesting,” Father said, tapping a finger against his thigh. He ran a thumb along the surface of the wooden sheperd’s staff. “How curious.”

    Is he not concerned that our plans were discovered?

    This wasn’t the first time he’d managed to pull a blanket over people’s eyes, but something was different. Noah couldn’t quite place his finger on what it was. His stomach felt simultaneously uneasy and satisfied, as if he’d just had a great meal.

    His runes also felt ill at ease. He couldn’t hop into his Mindspace to check on them, but it didn’t feel like anything was actually wrong per say; it was just... different. Odd.

    Todd’s mask did an excellent job of concealing his face from everyone else so he could indulge the thoughts with what little attention he could spare them. He was pretty sure he had a pretty confused expression on his features — but fortunately, nobody else could tell.

    It wasn’t long before professors and their students hurriedly left the meeting, all rushing to prepare for what was to come next. Nobody knew exactly what would come of a revelation like this, but there was no doubt about one thing — there would be opportunity in it.

    There was always money in war.

    His job for the night had been accomplished. The noble houses would turn on themselves for at least as long as it took them to figure out there weren’t actually any traitors within them. And, in that time, none of them would be able to work together to go after Isabel.

    Noah wasn’t stupid enough to hope that they’d just give up on her Master Rune. If anything, the houses would individually all want it even more. Powerful weapons became a whole lot more valuable when times were tense.

    But nobody was going to be working together against him. They couldn’t do that when they couldn’t trust each other... so he’d bought them some time.

    And time was exactly what Noah needed. It had been far too long since he’d been able to work with his students. They were in need of some remedial lessons.

    He’d gathered their group and slipped out of the Advanced Track meeting. Fuyin had done nothing to stop him, but she’d caught his gaze as he left. Her eyes spoke of a promise.

    They’d be speaking again soon. Noah didn’t actually mind that. She seemed reasonable enough for an Inquisitor. Perhaps there was something useful he could get from working with her — but that took second priority to preparing his students.

    Nobody stopped them as they left. Noah wasn’t even sure if most people noticed. They were all too caught up in their own worries.

    They put several minutes of distance between themselves and the meeting before Moxie caught Noah’s eye — and something about her expression brought him to a dead standstill.

    “Hold on,” Noah told everyone. “Give us a moment.”

    He and Moxie stepped to the side and lowered their voices.

    “What is it?” Noah whispered.

    “We may have some trouble,” Moxie replied, her features grim. “Jalen ran by the meeting as if he was being chased by something. He reached Rank 7 and got kicked out of the Empire — and he’s not alone. Father’s also a Rank 7, and he just managed to get his hands on some ridiculously powerful artifact.”

    Noah stared at her.

    What?