When they left the dungeon, it was dark, night having long since fallen.

  The entire group that had gone into the dungeon were exhausted, stumbling around as they walked out with hardly a nod towards the guards outside the dungeon. Liliana had given up on walking on her own over an hour prior, coercing her brother into letting her use him as transportation. Or, rather, jumping onto his back and refusing to get off no matter how much he griped about it. It was coercion, of a sort.

  “I’m so tired,” Liliana whined into her brother’s shoulder, where her head was currently laying. Thankfully, he’d eventually removed some of his armor after she’d complained long enough and his shoulder made a comfortable pillow for her to rest in a half doze.

  Alistair snorted. “I have no idea why, since you haven’t been walking.”

  “I’m supervising. It’s very strenuous work.” Liliana said primly, tugging on one of Alistair’s braids.

  “I’ll drop you on your ass,” He threatened. Liliana pouted but dropped his braid, her arms loosely circling his neck.

  “Lili, check your notifications,” Emyr called out, his voice strained from exhaustion. He’d glared at her for jumping on Alistair’s back, but she thought it was because he hadn’t thought of doing it first.

  Liliana groaned, loud and long. “It’s going to suck.”

  “Stop ignoring your notifications in dungeons, then.” Alistair said, exasperated.

  “Nope.” Liliana said cheerily as she let the notification flood her vision.

  Closing her eyes didn’t help all that much. At the least, it stopped the over-stimulation of seeing the world around her in bare flashes and distorted through piles of translucent boxes that became far too opaque when they were stacked all across her vision.

  Liliana tried to shove the notifications away as quickly as they came, cutting them off before she could even finish seeing what they said. She was lucky that if she didn’t check her notifications in battle; the System consolidated the information and just gave her the total creatures she killed or assisted in killing. And that it didn’t breakdown the full experience gained from each creature, unless she was utterly insane and asked it to.

  No one wanted to know that information. If they did, they needed to see a Psyche Healer immediately because they were unhinged and a danger to society.

  Liliana felt her head spin when the list of skills and spells that leveled during the dungeon rolled past her eyes, passing so quickly she absorbed none of it, but did gain an odd form of motion sickness for her troubles. When the final three notifications popped up, Liliana let out a relieved and happy sigh. She’d gotten three levels in that dungeon. She pulled up her tables quickly to assign the points before she inevitably forgot.

  Liliana spent a moment looking over her stats before she quickly sent four to Endurance, ten to Strength and a final seven to Intelligence. She was satisfied with the progress from the dungeon. It took ages to level without a dungeon, so it was always gratifying to watch her levels jump after diving one. Even if her body always screamed in protest at the end of them. She closed that table and pulled up her skills and spells.

  Looking over the skills and spells, Liliana noted that most of them had leveled. It wasn’t a surprise, dungeons were the best thing for grinding and progressing because of the high concentration of creatures in them, which was incredible for leveling even before the dungeon percentage was accounted for. The varied types of monsters to fight also meant an assortment of skills and spells could level, as dungeons typically pushed those who ventured into them to use everything they had to survive and progress.

  In addition to the typical benefit of diving a dungeon, this one had a forty-two percent bonus added to all experience gained, which was high for a dungeon. But around average for the Academy. Liliana secretly thought the headmistress had something to do with the fact that the Academy dungeons gave such large bonuses.

  “Don’t puke on me,” Alistair told her, voice only slightly teasing. Liliana opened her eyes and whimpered when the world spun concerningly. Her arms and legs tightened around her brother as she hid her face once more in his shoulder.

  “Lili, it’s been years of going into dungeons, and yet you do this every time.” Alistair sighed at the sister that was hanging off of him like a limpet as their group trudged back to their dorms, the promise of a hot shower and warm bed the only reason most of them were still standing.

  “Constant vigilance,” Liliana muttered to her brother, looking up again, relieved when the world seemed to decide staying still was a good idea.

  She saw Corbin and Diana leaning on each other to stay upright. Somehow neither fell, but seeing them tilting and swaying as if they were drunk was more than a bit hilarious. Anya was shambling around like a zombie with her eyes half closed. Koth’talan watched her with tired amusement and picked her up when she fell into a bush and set her back on her feet, only for Anya to run right into a tree not ten seconds later. Liliana could hear Koth’talan sigh as he gently redirected the wolf girl.

  Emyr was leaning on Alistair’s side, half asleep on his feet. Liliana was surprised Alistair hadn’t picked him up. Carrying both Liliana and Emyr wouldn’t be too difficult for the burly man. He was probably too tired to think of it. Liliana knew her own mind was moving sluggishly, thoughts scattered and distant.

  Alistair rubbed at his face, and Liliana could feel him groaning. “It takes maybe a minute after a fight to clear your notifications, Lili.” An old argument that they seemed to have every time they left a dungeon.

  “It takes a second to die,” Liliana shot back with a weak smile, too exhausted to really argue with her brother. It was why this argument never reached a resolution. It was always had after a dungeon, and they were all too tired to make logical or convincing arguments.

  Alistair growled and shook his head, the decorations in his hair chiming in a discordant melody. “Fine. Be sick every time you leave a dungeon, you masochist.”

  “Who taught you that word?” Liliana demanded, head perking up as she stared at her brother accusingly. This close, even in the dark, she could see his rich brown skin darkening further.

  “No one, go to sleep, Lili.” Alistair told her gruffly, head turning away from her.

  Liliana huffed and looked at Emyr, who was smirking at her, his eyes positively sparkling with amusement. Liliana’s nose scrunched in disgust, her eyes rolling as she thunked her head on her brother’s shoulder in the hope it would beat the knowledge from her mind.

  “Gross.” She murmured, eyes closing. Going to sleep did sound nice, and maybe she’d forget this entire conversation, too. There were some things she didn’t need to know, or think about. Ever.

  When Liliana opened her eyes again, she was in her room, Alistair disentangling her limbs from his body and setting her on the bed. Liliana grumbled something unintelligible as she rolled over onto the bed, dragging a clumsy hand over her summoning stones and letting her bonds out.

  She heard them moving around the room, and a quiet goodnight from her brother as he left. Liliana grabbed her blanket and dragged it over herself, uncaring for the fact that she was disgusting even with copious usage of [Cleanse]. She didn’t have the energy to open her eyes again, let alone crawl into the shower. Her eyes shut again, and she was asleep before her next breath.

  Liliana’s door slammed shut. She didn’t even bother to look up from the first draft of the essay she was writing, and the final drafts she was writing for two others.

  She heard a body hit her bed. “It’s not Alistair.” Emyr said in a matter-of-fact tone that didn’t reveal any of the relief he was surely feeling.

  Liliana paused in her writing before she checked over what she had done and nodded, pulling back and deactivating [Threads of Control]. She turned in her seat to look at Emyr, who was lounging in her bed, arms behind his head and back propped up on her mountain of pillows. Nemesis was sitting curled up on his chest, looking rather smug for a snake.

  Liliana hoped Emyr hadn’t let her eat anyone. That would be inconvenient.

  “You’re sure?” she asked, and Emyr nodded.

  “I’ve been following him for two weeks, Lili. And I had Nemesis helping. I’ve gone through his rooms, his storage devices too. He’s not the one you were warned about. He has nothing to do with the assignments.” Emyr explained.

  Liliana watched her friend for a moment, seeing the way the stress from the past several weeks was almost gone. His features weren’t drawn tight, the dark bruise like circles under his eyes looked lighter, his eyes were brighter and his body was relaxed in a way it hadn’t been in too long.

  Neither of them had truly wanted to think Alistair could be behind any of this, could be someone the gods would warn Liliana about, but they’d had to accept it as a possibility. Guilty until proven innocent. It had been a strain on both of them until they were sure. But Liliana knew it was the worst on Emyr, who had known Alistair for far longer than she had. Emyr and Alistair had grown up with each other. They were in love with each other. She couldn’t imagine the strain that had put on Emyr.

  “Good,” Liliana said finally with a soft, happy smile. “Are we going to tell him?” she asked.

  Emyr frowned slightly, head tilting. “Ali is worse at lying to people he cares about than you are,” he said slowly. Liliana winced and nodded.

  “He’ll be mad if we don’t tell him, though.” Liliana pointed out. Emyr winced and looked up at the ceiling, eyes distant.

  Mad was an understatement. Alistair would be enraged and hurt. So very hurt, if they didn’t tell him about this. But Emyr was right, Alistair was hopeless at lying to people he loved. He could lie like any noble, could wear masks custom fit for any situation. But when it came to people he cared about, he was a painfully open book. They couldn’t afford to tell him and risk the truth being revealed to the very person they were trying to uncover.

  If it’s the Headmistress you won’t have to worry about Alistair revealing anything.

  Liliana thought bit her lip. It could be the Headmistress. There was as much a reason to suspect her as anyone in Liliana’s friend group. It could be the mysterious Headmistress, a Rank 1 beast who taught humans for some inconceivable reason. It could be Marianne, the crown princess, even if Liliana couldn’t fathom why Marianne would put her own subjects at risk.

  It could be Koth’talan. Perhaps he’d been given a mission from his father to destabilize their country so it could be conquered. It could be Diana, the daughter of two bakers, a commoner blessed beyond what anyone had ever seen by getting every base affinity the moment she Awakened. It could be Anya, the battle hungry wolf girl. It could be Corbin, the bard with a mysterious background and a beautiful voice. It could be Jasper, with his fear of battle and a dream to be left to his studies in a manor home in the countryside.

  It could be anyone. They all made an equal amount of sense. In such a way that it made no sense for any of their friends or professors or their headmistress to do this. Liliana couldn’t fathom a single reason any of the people she knew would do this. She’d assume mind control, but none of them acted any differently than they ever had. Nor did they show any of the same symptoms Liliana had. None of them were quick to anger, paranoid, and seeing enemies where there were none. None of them were pulling away, or showing more violent tendencies than normal.

  Liliana’s paranoia wanted her to suspect everyone, to make up justifications and theorize on progressively more and more wild motives. Her logic wanted her to suspect no one, because it didn’t make sense. But this was why she left Emyr to spy on their friends. He wasn’t mired down by these struggles, or if he was, he never let it affect or hinder him.

  “We’ll tell him we got new information on the assignments and we have a unique avenue to investigate, but we can’t tell him about it.” Emyr decided finally. Liliana looked up from where she’d been staring at her hands in thought and blinked.

  “So we tell him we have a secret we’re hiding, but not what it is?” Liliana asked to clarify.

  “It’s for the best. He’ll know we’re hiding something which will soothe him, but we won’t risk the mission.” Emyr said decisively. Liliana bit her lip and then nodded slowly. That would be best. It was the least risk all around.

  “You should tell him. He’ll take it best from you,” Liliana told him. Emyr nodded in agreement easily enough. His face relaxed once more now that they’d dealt with that problem.

  “Next is Marianne, right?” Liliana asked softly, heart stuttering for a moment in fear. What if…?

  “Next is Marianne.” Emyr agreed, eyes hardening.

  Liliana really hoped they wouldn't be adding regicide to their list of crimes in the near future. The civil war that would consume their country if Marianne died wouldn’t be good for any of them, and Liliana didn’t doubt that Emyr had every intention of killing whoever was behind the warning and assignments.

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  Light

  Illusion

  Light+Earth= Crystal

  Light+Fire= Lightning

  Light+Water= Reflection

  Light+Wind= Spatial

  Light+Life= Creation

  Light+ Soul= Psyche

  Dark

  Shadow

  Dark+Earth= Poison

  Dark+Fire= Celestial

  Dark+ Water= Acid

  Dark+Wind= Gravity

  Dark+Life= Plague

  Dark+Soul= Control

  Soul

  Astral

  Soul+Dark= Control

  Soul+Earth= Animation

  Soul+ Wind= Telekinetic

  Soul+Fire= Runeic

  Soul+Water= Oracle

  Soul+Life= Reanimation

  Earth

  Metal

  Earth+Light= Crystal

  Earth+Soul= Animation

  Earth+Fire= Lava

  Earth+Wind= Sand

  Earth+Water= Muck

  Earth+Life= Nature

  Fire

  Heat

  Fire+Light= Lightning

  Fire+Soul= Runeic

  Fire+Earth= Lava

  Fire+Wind= Combustion

  Fire+Water= Gases

  Fire+Life= Purification

  Water

  Ice

  Water+Light= Mirror

  Water+Soul= Oracle

  Water+Earth= Muck

  Water+Fire= Gases

  Water+Wind= Storm

  Water+Life= Blood

  Wind

  Sound

  Wind+Light= Spatial

  Wind+Soul= Telekinetic

  Wind+Earth=Sand

  Wind+Fire= Combustion

  Wind+Water= Storm

  Wind+Life= Music

  Life

  Death

  Liliana Rosengarde:

  Marianne Summerwarden:

  Alistair Thornebell-Rosengarde:

  Emyr Bealstal:

  Diana Baker:

  Koth'talan Katrioti:

  Anya Chadborne

  Corbin Newfeather

  Jasper Rathwater

  Basil Zindru,

  Nor Dawn:

  Rycharde Wardeby

  Arai Veiltross

  Diadre Valkenrost

  Lilac Murrish

  Kenneth Levy

  Dianna Upperton

  Miranda Renaud

  Howard Lale

  Roy Lawry

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  Snowwayne

  Tyrnings

  Spryngbloom

  Warmingtym

  Lyght

  Syn

  Fyrepeak

  Lyghtfall

  Symber

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