They didn’t have to go far. Loushee was waiting for them in one of the guidance rooms. When Basque and Krill entered, she stood, but didn’t say anything. After giving Krill a look, Basque walked over to the chair that was directly in front of where Loushee had been sitting. Krill took the one next to him. Neither of them sat, though.

  “I’ll leave you three be,” Billiam said and closed the door.

  No one spoke.

  Loushee gestured with her hands for the men to sit. Basque looked at the chair, then sat. Once the two men were sitting, Loushee sat as well. She still wore her exercise uniform.

  The silence of the room made Basque’s ears ring, but he wasn’t going to be the first to speak. Loushee bit her lip and clasped her hands together as if to keep them from fidgeting. She looked at the table between them while Basque stared at her.

  Time passed, and no one spoke.

  Basque didn’t want to prompt her. He knew everything. She knew he knew everything. What he didn’t know was what she would propose to do from here on out. He knew what he wanted her to do, but he wasn’t going to tell her. Either she would suggest it on her own, or he would make sure she never neared his students again.

  Finally looking up from the table, Loushee looked at Krill. Basque didn’t know why the man wasn’t speaking, but he’d discovered that no matter how hard he tried, he would never understand the man’s reasoning.

  “Can…can I speak with Gerenet-Shr alone?” Loushee asked.

  “No.” Krill’s response was quick and short.

  The young woman’s gaze dropped to the table again. “I’m sorry, Gerenet-Shr.”

  Basque folded his arms.

  “I’m better now. I…” She shook her head. “It’s been years since I’ve felt…whole.”

  Basque raised one of his hands. “Reianna has explained your issues. I understand what you mean by you’re better.”

  “I don’t,” Krill said.

  Loushee’s face hardened as she looked at Krill. “You don’t need to. It’s over.” Turning to Basque, her expression softened. “I won’t hurt her again.”

  Basque nodded.

  “Thank you for letting her help me.”

  He shook his head. “That was her decision. Thank her. More than that, you should dedicate your life to that girl. She put her life at risk to save you while you were trying to kill her.”

  The situation got the better of him. He hadn’t wanted to say it, but he had. He’d wanted her to come to that conclusion on her own.

  “Okay.”

  Krill frowned. “‘Okay’ what?”

  She looked at Krill. “I’ll dedicate my life to her.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous! Not only are you a mage, but you’re one of the best hunters this academy has ever produced! You can’t dedicate yourself to a commoner child!”

  “I can, and I will. In fact, I was already thinking about doing it before Gerenet-Shr suggested it.”

  “To a silver-haired ferret like that?! It’d be seconds before she’d turn Yani on you!”

  Rage flashed across Loushee’s face as the couch warped around Krill, trapping his arms and legs. “You will not speak of her like that. If you think I was something special, just wait for her. Yani, her entire class will surpass me.”

  “Loushee,” Basque said.

  Her shoulders relaxed, and the sofa returned to normal.

  Krill straightened out his suit and adjusted his posture. After brushing some lint off, he said, “A mage and an exceptional hunter becoming a servant for an elevator?”

  “When did I say I was going to be a servant? I can dedicate my life to her without becoming her maid.”

  “You need to graduate to be registered as a hunter, or do you think your father will actually pay the registration fees?”

  Loushee’s face went red. “I have no father. And why wouldn’t I graduate?”

  Krill laughed. “Do you really think you’ll be allowed to graduate after what you did today?”

  Basque held out a hand. “Isn’t that going a bit far?”

  “I thought you loved your elevators.”

  “I thought you didn’t care what happened to them.”

  Sitting back, Krill shook his head. “Maybe you see it that way, but to me, a student is a student.”

  “Ha! After all you pulled with Ashkar to try and make my classes more deadly and dangerous, you expect me to believe that?”

  “She attacked your students at a public tournament! In front of hundreds of nobles!”

  “Ah,” Basque said. “That’s it. She publicly humiliated you.”

  “No! She endangered the lives of other students. I thought you would be with me on this, Basque.”

  Basque shook his head. “No. I don’t agree with that punishment. She’s already decided on her own. I agree with that.”

  “And you trust it?”

  “She’ll take an oath.”

  Loushee tilted her head. “An oath?”

  Pulling out an oath vial and a knife, Basque set them on the table.

  “What is that?” Krill asked.

  “It’s an oath vial. Loushee, take the knife and cut your hand. Squeeze a drop of blood in the vial, and once the dialog box comes up, swear on being a mage that you will dedicate your life to Reianna.”

  “What happens if she breaks the oath?”

  “She’ll no longer be a mage.”

  Krill pulled his head back and glared at the vial as if it would jump off the table and attack him. “You have something like that? Why would you even have something like that?”

  “Hianbrun history hasn’t always been peaceful, but that’s not important.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Loushee reached forward and picked up the vial. She rotated it in her hand. “How will this not make me a mage?”

  “Your blood activates it—”

  “Why blood?” Krill asked.

  Basque sighed at the interruption and glared at Krill. “My ancestors used to make ‘blood pacts,’ and it’s a carryover from them. Now, please don’t interrupt.”

  Turning back to Loushee, Basque said, “Your blood activates it, and you are given a command prompt. In the prompt, you enter your oath—in this case, dedication to Reianna—then the punishment for failing your oath—losing your mage powers.”

  Krill laughed. “You expect me to believe something like that is possible?”

  Basque glared at him. “I don’t care if you believe it or not.” He looked at Loushee. “I care if she believes it or not. Maybe a small demonstration would be good?”

  Loushee nodded.

  “Alright, we’ll make it something low-stakes and quick.” Basque rubbed his chin. “How about swearing not to put your feet on the table, and if you do, the item in your quick-access slot 1 will be expelled from storage.”

  “Okay…” She picked up the knife.

  “Alright, cut the palm of your hand and squeeze a drop into the vial.”

  Loushee did as she was told. “There’s a command box.”

  “It only accepts oaths. Say, ‘I vow on the expulsion of quick-access slot 1 not to put my feet on the table.’ And then say you accept.”

  “I vow on the expulsion of quick-access slot 1 not to put my feet on a table.”

  “No!” Basque said.

  “I accept.” Loushee’s eyes refocused on him. “What? Did I do something wrong?”

  Basque smiled and shook his head. “It’s the difference between ‘the’ and ‘a’. Now, for the rest of your life, if you ever put your feet on a table, the contents of your quick-access slot 1 will be dumped out.”

  He waved his hand. “It’s not that big of a deal if you keep your feet off tables, or keep unimportant things in slot 1.”

  “I don’t really have a habit of putting my feet on tables.”

  “Alright,” Basque nodded. “Well, what do you have in quick-access slot 1?”

  “A book.”

  “Put your feet on the table.”

  She put her feet up, and a book went flying through the air. “What the Yani?!”

  Krill still looked skeptical. “And she didn’t do that on purpose?”

  “Why? Do you think she cares about deceiving you?”

  “No. She cares about deceiving you,” Krill retorted.

  “Whatever. Okay, Loushee. Once more, this time with your dedication of devotion.”

  She nodded. “Do I need to cut my hand again?” She held up her palm and showed that blood still trickled out of it.

  “No, not as long as you can get a drop in the vial.”

  Holding her fist above the vial, she squeezed another drop in. “I swear to dedicate my life to the service of Reianna Santi on penalty of death.”

  Basque jumped out of his chair. “Loushee! Say ‘amend!”

  “I accept.”

  His shoulders drooped, then he rubbed his temples.

  “Gerenet-Shr, if I betray her, I’d rather be dead.”

  “You say that now, but you’re still only 18.”

  After shrugging, she held up the vial. “What do I do with this now?”

  Considering she’d run wild with two reckless changes, Basque contemplated asking for it back, but he couldn’t take it back to Hianbru with him. “You have to keep it—on you is best. If you get more than about fifty kilometers from it, it considers you trying to run away from your oath, and the penalty activates. Oh, and if you try to alter it with your abilities, it will also count as breaking the oath.”

  “What if someone else tries to alter it?”

  “It’s not intelligent. It can’t differentiate between you and someone else. How would it know that you didn’t try to have someone else alter it for you? So, be sure to keep it deep within your inventory. Trying to break it will also activate it.”

  She nodded, and the vial vanished.

  “Okay, so now we’ve got the Hianbrun mysticism out of the way, can we discuss what’s going to happen from here on out?” Krill asked.

  “Fine,” Basque answered and sat back down. He took his knife back from Loushee and put it away.

  “Since Headmaster Yasher knows that I’m after his seat now, he’s going to want to take Miss Loushee’s punishment into his own hands. Miss Loushee, I need you to refuse it, whatever it is, and refuse to graduate.”

  “Back to this?” Basque asked. “You might not believe it but—”

  “It’s okay, Gerenet-Shr. I don’t really care about graduating. I mean, in the past I did, because I wanted to take my mother out of that…Yani’s house, but I don’t even know if she’d actually agree to leave.”

  “That!” Krill said. “I can do that for you. Forsake the elevator and come to me.”

  “Is there anything else you’d like to speak with me about, Gerenet-Shr?” Loushee asked.

  “Loushee!” Krill yelled. “Even if you are a mage, mages are still required to be registered in the counter. If you don’t graduate, your registration will terminate.”

  She looked at him. “I don’t care.”

  “Your mother—”

  “Look, Krill, what makes you so confident that you’ll escape unscathed in your little power play?”

  Krill pointed at Basque. “I was vehemently against him being put in charge of a class. Duke Yasher was the one who acquiesced. And because of that, the only two mages in the school will have vanished without graduating.”

  She laughed. “The little daffodil Yani’s run off, but I can just as easily blame it on you.”

  Basque cleared his throat. “I, umm, would kind of like it if you could help put him in the headmaster’s chair.”

  “Oh? Yani, I feel so…ignorant without my mirrors.”

  “Concentrate, girl,” Krill said. “This isn’t the time for your vanity.”

  “I know he’s kind of a Yani-hole, but I’ll pretty much get everything I want if I help him become headmaster.”

  “Be careful, Gerenet-Shr. If you lie with a dog, you might get fleas.”

  Basque smiled. “Now that’s an idiom I can understand. I’m already itching.”

  “Can you two not talk like I’m not here?”

  “Alright, Krill, I’ll cooperate with you to get the headmaster’s chair. I’ll make you look good. You, like, mediated for me and Gerenet-Shr, but Yasher got in the way or something.”

  Loushee stood and stretched. As she did, her clothes shimmered from her head down. Her school uniform transformed into a topaz spaghetti-strap dress. The pleated skirt went to her knees in the front and back, but arched up to mid-thigh on the sides of her legs. Her topaz hair went from a ponytail to loose, wavy locks.

  “Like mother, like daughter,” Krill said.

  “And you wonder why I don’t even consider you.” She pulled a uniform from her inventory and put it on the table. “I’m going to go check on my mistress. Deputy Headmaster, Liam will let me know when I need to be in touch with you. Gerenet-Shr, please take care of my mistress until she graduates.”

  “What will you do?” Basque asked.

  Loushee shrugged. “Get things smoothed out for Miss Reianna? I’m not sure. Anyway, gentlemen, have a nice day.” She nodded to them and collected her book from the floor.

  “Hey!” Basque stopped her. He stood. “Take care of that vial and DO. NOT. make any new oaths. Bury it in your inventory and forget that it exists.”

  “Understood,” she said and left.

  Rubbing his eyes, he turned towards Krill. “Annoying people really seems to be your specialty.”

  Standing as well, Krill sighed. “I can’t believe you’re letting her go see Reianna already.”

  “She’s taken an oath. To an extreme, even. If she thinks of hurting Reianna in the slightest, she’ll die.”

  Krill rolled his eyes. “No object can tell if she has those sorts of intentions.”

  “It’s not the ‘object’. It’s the interface. It’s her. They know. The vial just acts as the receptacle. It’s like…a cup or something. I don’t know, I’m not a tinkerer.”

  Walking to the door, Krill paused before opening it. “I’m sure that thing isn’t abused in your country. Unless you’re interested in further suppressing the commoners here and making them slaves for real, I’d advise you and your countrymen from letting any more people be aware of that item’s existence.”

  Krill left.

  Basque stood in the room by himself and digested what just happened. A coldness that pierced his bones flowed through him as Krill’s warning rang in his ears. Considering Krill’s opportunistic nature, Basque was surprised he’d not demanded that oath vials be brought to the negotiation tables as one of the main bargaining points. Basque hadn’t thought of it from that angle, that it could be used to force servitude.

  He rubbed his temples. It was another long day at a tournament. Basque decided that he hated tournaments. Not just because Kruami used them as a weak excuse to hurt and kill students, but because he felt like he’d worked for ten years during them.

  Two tournaments. Twice they ended with Reianna bleeding and unconscious. Victorious, but still a toll taken out of her. He hoped putting Krill in charge was the right call and that this would be the last Kruamian tournament that would take years off of Basque’s life.

  His eyelids were heavy. He wanted Natt’s hug. To smell her hair and feel her hands sliding across his back. Glancing at the sofa, he thought about just lying down on it and napping. But, no, he had too much to do. He had a class to protect, a student to check up on, and a welcoming partner who was waiting for him.