“What the hell happened while I was speaking to the Advanced Track professors?” Noah whispered. “How did all of this happen so suddenly? And how does Jalen know that Father is a Rank 7? Shouldn’t Garina have stopped anyone from that rank from being in the Empire?”

    Moxie shook her head helplessly. “I literally told you everything I know. Jalen popped out from nowhere. He dumped the info just I told you on me, then vanished again. Garina showed up a moment later before disappearing as well. She seemed more annoyed than angry, for what it’s worth.”

    Is this what people feel like when I bullshit them? Not a fun feeling. I hate not having the slightest clue about what’s going on. It’s been so long since I last felt so lost... gah. When I find Jalen next, we’re going to have a long talk about being better at passing along information in concise amounts of words.

    “Jalen must have had a run-in with Father somehow,” Noah mused, his stomach turning at the thought. Father had long been one of the biggest issues he’d faced. The man was a calculating, paranoid genius — and someone that Noah did not want any more dealings with than he absolutely needed.

    But... given Janice’s reaction to him, something told Noah that Father was going to be right at the center of all their upcoming problems. The man had been strong enough as he was. If he’d gotten some ancient artifact enough to force Jalen to advance to Rank 7...

    Goddamn it. We might be in trouble. I need to master Unstable Pandemonium and get the students trained up as quickly as possible. This is about more than just the idiot noble houses, now. I don’t trust Father with power like that... and now he must be fucking pissed that I accidentally outed him.

    “I imagine Garina will clear things up for us soon enough,” Moxie said. “But it means we should get ready.”

    “I was thinking the same.” Noah gave her a small nod. “We have to get everyone advancing as quickly as possible — not to mention getting back to practicing. It’s been too long since we’ve reviewed Formations. I’m going to have to fiddle with all of mine now that I have a new Rune.”

    Not to mention my violin. Every advancement makes me stronger in so many ways, but it also gives me a whole slew of new things to work on. I should try to make a duplicate of Unstable Pandemonium to experiment with.

    They slipped back to rejoin the main group. Most of the students were more than used to Noah’s oddities, but Alexandra sent them a questioning glance with more than a little concern behind it. She’d definitely seen some of what had happened.

    Noah gave her a slight shake of his head. He didn’t need her stressing over it. That wouldn’t change anything. Dealing with external issues was his job. The only role his students had was to grow stronger.

    “Thanks for waiting,” Noah said as they all resumed walking. “I’d say that went rather well.”

    “I nearly died from stress,” Karina said, still wearing Noah’s features. “I thought someone was going to try to murder me.”

    “Nonsense. That barely ever happens.”

    “Statistically, he’s more likely to kill himself,” Lee said.

    Karina stared at her. “What?”@@@@

    “Nevermind that,” Noah said with a wave of his hand. Karina had been useful, but he had no plans of bringing her into his inner circle quite yet. “Regardless, classes will be resuming tomorrow. We’ve all got a lot to catch up on. Meet at the transport cannon as usual. We’ll have a lot to discuss — and I want to see how all of you are doing on your Formation practice.”

    “You have no idea how much we’ve been looking forward to that,” Todd said with an eager grin. “Are your... uh, new students coming as well? I want to see how we match up against them.”

    “They will be,” Noah said with a nod.

    “Don’t get your hopes too high up,” Moxie warned with a wry smile. “Some of those new students are rather powerful.”

    It would be mildly amusing to see everyone try their hand against Yoru. I don’t think they’d make it very far. Then again, I haven’t seen what she’s capable of since she lost her hands. Speaking of which... gotta find a way to do something about that. Shit. Things are piling up again. I really don’t want to make another list.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Moxie nudged Noah in the side with her elbow. “Stop that.”

    A slow breath pulled free from Noah’s lips as he finally let himself relax, flopping down at her desk. He’d been acting for so long that he’d almost forgotten that the metaphorical mask was in place.

    A shadow passed over him and a warning bell went off in his head. Noah’s gaze jerked up a moment before Moxie flopped down right on top of him, knocking the breath from his lungs in a startled grunt.

    “Oi!” Noah said through a choked laugh.

    “You stole my chair. You can’t complain. I — oh, shit. Lee, wait—”

    Both Noah and Moxie let out a wheeze in unison as Lee tossed herself onto the pile, nearly knocking the chair over from the force of her jump.

    “Oops,” Lee said, slipping off Moxie. “That was less comfortable than I thought it would be. You need to get fatter.”

    “I fear getting fatter in your vicinity would probably be ill advised,” Moxie grumbled. “You’d probably try to eat me.”

    “Not entirely unlikely.” It was hard to tell if Lee was joking or not. She stretched her arms over her back and let out a long yawn before shaking herself off like a cat. “I’m going to go visit the other demons at Tim’s house. I want to see what they’re doing.”

    “That’s probably a good idea. Make sure they aren’t getting into trouble,” Noah said. “And don’t miss class tomorrow morning, okay? I want to see how your pattern is coming as well.”

    “Kay,” Lee said. And then she was gone, so fast that Noah could only track her movement by the squeak the window made as she slipped out through it.

    They were silent for a few moments. Then Moxie let out a sigh and rose to her feet, walking over to the window and peering out it.

    “What a day,” Moxie said.

    “We’ll need to talk to Garina and figure out what the hell is going on,” Noah said, pinching the bridge of his nose as he shook his head.

    “That’s a problem for tomorrow,” Moxie said. She pulled the window shut and closed the vine curtains hanging in front of it. She turned back to Noah. Then she arched an eyebrow. “So... your new rune.”

    “What about it?”

    “You’ve still got the mind rune in it? The one that replaces a Mind Meld potion?”

    “Yep. Why?”

    “We should probably test that to make sure it still works,” Moxie said, a slight grin pulling at her lips. “Testing is very important whenever you change a rune, after all.”

    And, all of a sudden, Noah suddenly found his legs had enough energy to rise beneath him once more.

    “A wise thought,” Noah making eye-contact with Moxie and exchanging a knowing nod.

    And, as it turned out, the elements of the rune that housed what had once been Empty Proliferation worked just fine.

    That didn’t stop them from testing it extensively just to make sure.