Basque looked at the broken window and blinked. “What do you mean she ran away?”

  Reianna nodded. “I figured out how to fix her, and she ran away.”

  “But what does that mean?”

  Rubbing her arms, Reianna sat back down at the table. “You should sit, it will take some time to explain.”

  “It’s too cold in here with the broken window. Let’s go downstairs.”

  Reianna nodded and followed him down. He knew that the two girls were up to something, but he still wasn’t quite sure what. How could a thirteen-year-old girl ‘fix’ someone with a psychological disorder?

  Everyone looked at them with surprise when they walked back into the kitchen.

  “Umm, Tink,” Basque said, “You’re going to have to replace a window upstairs.”

  “Is that what that crash were?”

  “Apparently, Loushee jumped out the window and ran away.”

  “Not ‘apparently,’” Reianna said as she sat at the table. “I figured out how to fix her, and she ran off.”

  “What do you mean ‘fix her’?” Natt asked. Basque sat down next to her, and Symantha stopped messing with the dishes.

  “It’s no secret that Loushee suffers from multiple personalities, right?”

  They all nodded.

  “Well, I figured out how to fix that.”

  Basque shook his head. “That’s not something that you can fix.”

  “Well, yeah, but Loushee’s case is different. She did it to herself.”

  “How?” Basque asked.

  “Why?” Natt asked at the same time.

  “Let me just tell you what I discovered. So, you know how I told you with my power, I can see boxes for items?”

  “Yeah,” Basque said.

  Reianna looked at the table and played with her fingers. “Well, people have them, too. I can see all sorts of information about people, like their level, their statistics, how integrated they are.”

  Basque looked at Natt and raised an eyebrow at her. Hianbru had records of people having that ability, but as far as he knew, there hadn’t been a person capable of it in centuries. That’s how they knew about things like the INT stat.

  “Loushee’s was different. Her numbers never stayed still. They were a blur of movement. The only time they stayed still was when she was the purple Loushee.” Reianna pulled the book-mirror out. She set it on the table and rapidly flicked through its status, and the object flickered back and forth between its shapes.

  “That’s kind of what’s happening to Loushee. She is constantly switching between states, between personalities. She has hundreds of them, thousands even, maybe. And they’re all fighting for control.”

  If that were the case, it made sense to Basque that Reianna could fix Loushee. It wasn’t as psychological as it was tied to the interface.

  “And I figured out how to do this.”

  Everyone backed away from the table as the book changed into a book with a mirror cover and a gilded handle, like the one from the hand mirror, attached to the bottom.

  “This is a birrork. It’s not as interesting looking as the dookgar, but it’s a combination of the mirror and book. I can combine two states that Loushee made to make something new. I can also do this.”

  The birrork split into two, and both the mirror and book sat on the table. “Gerenet-Shr, please pick the book up.”

  Basque reached his hand out, and the second it should have hit the book, the book vanished. He jerked his hand back. “What?”

  “What ‘what’?” Natt asked.

  “I didn’t put it in storage. Right as I touched it, it just…disappeared.”

  Reianna nodded. “It doesn’t exist anymore.” She looked at the mirror, and a second one appeared next to it. Reianna picked the original one up. “This is the mirror.” She pointed at the one on the table. “That’s Loushee’s listening device. Natt, try to pick it up.”

  Like Basque, she reached her hand out, and right before her fingers made contact, it vanished, and she jerked her hand back. “That’s too weird.”

  “I don’t know if I need to combine Loushee back together, or if I just need to make the less sane versions of her disappear.”

  “And that’s why she ran away?”

  The other four adults got into a debate about which Reianna should do. Basque didn’t have an idea. Would removing one eliminate that trait from Loushee permanently? Would combining them make her more extreme personalities calmer? It was a risky thing to experiment with.

  By the time Basque ushered Reianna and Natt out of the Tinkerers’ house, the other adults also hadn’t reached a consensus. Natt was staunchly on team “combine” while Tinkerer was on team “delete”. Symantha kind of waffled between the two.

  Natt’s logic was that each Loushee was part of Loushee and that deleting any one of them would leave a hole in her personality and psyche. The tinkerer pointed out that after the artificial things created by Loushee had vanished, the original was all that was left. Basque still didn’t know what he thought, nor did Reianna reveal what she was thinking.

  Once they were back in their room, Natt continued to try to convince Basque of her argument, but his non-committal responses angered her, and she drew an invisible line on their bed, forbidding him from crossing it. Unsurprisingly, she was the one who crossed it when she snuggled up to him and apologized for getting overheated when he wasn’t even arguing with her.

  The rest of the week passed quickly, and before Basque knew it, the weekend before the tournament arrived. Unlike the first tournament, when none of the students’ parents planned on coming, Cayelyn, Jame, Emilisa, and Kyre each had at least one parent say they were coming. However, none of them were coming for the pre-tournament festivities.

  Also, in contrast to the first tournament, all of the students wanted to go out and about and enjoy the festival rather than cowering inside. Though they did agree to eat pig-squash together while watching the fireworks from the windows on their outcropping.

  While Basque was nervous about meeting the parents for the first time, he was more concerned about his lunch with Krill. The deputy headmaster sent word for Basque to meet him at that restaurant, leaving Basque to wonder if a different restaurant existed.

  “Billiam will meet you there,” Natt told Basque as he dressed to leave.

  As he straightened the overlap of his robe in the mirror, Basque said, “Great, thanks.”

  “Are you sure you want him there?”

  “We’re talking about shutting down Daymein’s skills. I’d like him to be there.”

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  Natt came up behind him and brushed his shoulders off. “But Daymein hasn’t been back since that day.”

  “He’s still out there.”

  She patted his shoulders and walked over to the bed. Sitting down, she crossed her legs and bobbed the top one.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come?” He asked, looking at her in the mirror.

  “Banca actually agreed to go to the festival with me.”

  “What?” Basque turned away from the mirror and walked over to her. “Why didn’t you lead with that?”

  She shrugged. “I’m still not getting my hopes up. When it’s just the two of us, she barely talks, and when she does, it’s all pretty short.”

  “She’ll come around.”

  “I guess…. Come on, I’ll walk you down to a carriage.”

  Natt led him out of the dorm hall and down into the Great Entrance Hall. Students, parents, and siblings roamed around, and for once, Basque was glad for the hall’s enormous size.

  Since the carriage path to the front of the school was packed with stalls and people, they had to walk all the way to the main gate before Basque could get a carriage. By that point, Basque contemplated just walking to the restaurant, but Natt put him in the carriage.

  “When I get back, I want to hear all about your and Banca’s day,” he said, standing in the carriage’s doorway.

  “You know you’re just going to blab about your lunch first.”

  “No! I promise to listen to you first.”

  “Uh huh.” She stepped onto the carriage’s footstep and kissed him. “It’s alright. Yours has more life-or-death attached to it. My daughter-date can wait.”

  “Love you, Natt.”

  “Love you, too.”

  They both stepped back, and Natt closed the door. He watched her watch him leave until his ride turned and put her behind him, and he couldn’t see her anymore.

  When the carriage pulled up to the restaurant Julvie had taken him to so long ago, he sighed. He wondered if he would ever have a good memory of the place. Sure, his lunch with Billiam had been drastically better than his date there with Julvie, but unused to Billiam’s personality, the lunch had been awkward at best.

  Krill was already seated at a table for two, and the maitre d’ led Basque to him. “Actually, there will be three of us,” Basque said.

  “Oh? Is Natt coming?”

  “No! Silly Krilly! I am!” Billiam strutted into the restaurant. This time, all of his hair was slicked toward the back of his head, the front forced into a rigid crest that jutted forward a few centimeters before being pulled back. The sides were tight, and all of his lavender hair shone with whatever he was using to hold it in that shape.

  His lavender-colored coat went down to mid-thigh and was buttoned down the middle with gold buttons from its standing collar down to the bottom. The white cuffs of his shirt peeked out just above his wrists. His pleated pants were a matching lavender, and he still wore his tan shoes with pink shoelaces.

  “Yani. What’d you have to go and call him in here for, Basque?” Krill stood and bowed. “Royal Mage Billiam, what an honor.”

  “Shove it, Krill. I want that table over there,” Billiam said and pointed at a four-person table next to the windows.

  “As you wish, sir,” the maitre d’ said.

  A few seconds later, the three of them were seated at the table. Billiam sat next to the window and Basque, while Krill sat in the seat across from Basque.

  “Wine, gentlemen?” Billiam asked.

  Krill waved his hand, and Basque said, “I’m fine.”

  Billiam looked at the waiter across the room. “A bottle of 1205 Silvant.” He turned back to the table. “The wine selection here is the best.”

  “So, Krill,” Basque said. “What do you want? What do you think I can give you?”

  “Well, now that I’m a duke, I can challenge Yasher for the headmaster position.”

  Billiam let out a long whistle. “Am~BISH~ons!”

  “Why would I help you do that?”

  Krill leaned forward. “Unshielded.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll get rid of the unshielded section of tournaments.”

  Basque stared at the man. Was he being serious? The one thing that Basque wanted more than anything else, and Krill was offering it to him? Banca’s face came to mind. “More.”

  Krill glared at him. “What do you want?”

  “I want that and no interference with anything that I do at the school.”

  Krill shook his head. “No. That’s too much free rein for you.”

  “Then I don’t know if I can help you get rid of Yasher.”

  “Then I don’t know if I can stop him from making tournaments completely unshielded for all Class Es, at all grade levels.”

  Billiam stuck his hand between them. “Tut tut tut. Time to order.”

  The waiter set a wine glass down in front of Basque. “None for me, thanks,” Basque said.

  “Nor me,” Krill followed.

  “I’ll take it all, love. By the way, has anyone told you your hair color is brilliant?”

  The waiter blushed.

  “What color do you call that?”

  “Zaffre, sir.”

  “It’s just a glorious shade of blue. Don’t see that shade much.” Billiam put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on the back of his hands.

  Once more, the waiter blushed.

  “Leave him alone,” Basque said.

  “Boo. You’re no fun.”

  The three of them ordered, and the waiter left them.

  Basque glared at Krill. “Look, Deputy Headmaster, this is more than just removing Yasher—bloodlessly. You used my students in your political games. You should be happy that I didn’t just tear your arms off.”

  “I thought you were bad at body part idioms.”

  “That wasn’t an idiom.”

  Krill sat back in his seat, grabbed his napkin off the table, and put it in his lap. “Fine, but let’s make this more specific. An open-ended ‘anything’ is out.”

  “There’s a two-month break coming up, correct?”

  “Yes, hunting season for the teachers. Then the students are off for three more weeks while we prepare for the new school year.”

  Basque pointed at him. “Okay, I want to choose the incoming Class E’s teacher.”

  Krill frowned. “Fine.”

  “Even if she or he is already a homeroom teacher.”

  “What?”

  “Even if they’re a third or fourth-year teacher already, I get who I want, if they agree.”

  “That’s ridiculous! We can’t break them up!”

  “Why not?” Billiam asked and took a sip of wine.

  “Because teacher commitments are five-year intervals.”

  “That’s why I said if they agree.”

  Krill threw his arms up. “What about the class that they abandon?”

  “That’s for you to figure out, but it might not be a homeroom teacher. It could be a supplementary teacher.”

  “If you want it to be Miss Cormick, just say so.”

  Basque shook his head. “No, she’s going to stay in her current position. I need her help, and so will the new teacher.”

  Billiam hid his mouth behind his wine, but one of his eyebrows rose. Krill just scoffed.

  “I also get to set the schedule and curriculum of all Class Es.”

  Krill shook his head. “No. Absolutely not.”

  “Mine and the incoming.”

  “No.”

  “Non-negotiable.”

  “Fine. Anything else?”

  Counting on his fingers, Basque said, “No more unshielded tournaments, I get to choose the Class E teacher, I get to make their and my curricula.” He scratched his chin.

  “You can stop there. I won’t give anymore.”

  “I want one Yani-off.”

  “Yani-off?”

  “Yeah, just an open ‘leave me alone.’ ‘Yani-off.’”

  Krill folded his arms. “Fine. One.”

  Basque snapped. “Oh! And I want Billiam here to do whatever it is for the Yani-kill counters for all the Class E kids.”

  “That’s not up to me.” Krill nodded his chin at Billiam.

  “Oh! What do I get, Biscuit?”

  Basque looked at him and tried to keep from laughing at Billiam’s hair. Despite how hard-set it was, the part sticking out over his face bobbed whenever he moved his head.

  “My thanks.”

  “Not even a kiss?”

  “How do you think Natt would react to that?”

  “She’d probably put an arrow through my skull.”

  Basque nodded. “There you go.”

  “I’d rather you put something else through my skull,” Billiam said and wiggled his eyebrows.

  “That…” Basque’s face squished up. “Just weird, man.” He turned back to Krill. “Alright, what do you need me to do? And remember, this is bloodless.”

  “If attacked, I will defend myself.”

  Basque raised his hands. “Given, but no finagling to make someone attack you. Now, what do you need?”

  “Get your friend, the Royal Mage Billiam, to take away Daymein’s mage skills.”

  Basque blinked. “That’s it?”

  “That’s it.”

  All he had to do was do something he wanted to do anyway? Butterflies danced in Basque’s chest. He turned to Billiam.

  “Anything for you, Biscuit.” He winked. “What do I care about a crazy kid?” He lifted his wine. “To strange alliances.”