Pale: 6.9 - Avery
Author: Wildbow

Cutting Class – 6.9 | Pale

A light rain fell as they stepped outside, and Avery couldn’t shake the feeling that it was like in the movies, when a rain put out the fires left on an empty battlefield.  Except there were no fires, there were no signs of destruction.  Nothing obvious, anyway.

Less cars in the parking lot.  It was hot out, but the classrooms and workshops that were separate from the main building had the doors closed, with no signs of activity within.  Nobody outside.

She was sore from the weekend spent watching over Lucy, hiding out from the worst of the Blue Heron Institute’s civil war.  Too much time spent sitting on a chair, or lying on hard ground.  Her hand had an ache from holding her phone too much, and from holding some of those big tomes in her lap while still keeping it where she could read.  She was sweaty, her hair a bit messy, she was tired, and her stomach sorta vaguely ached, probably from the weekend of snacking on granola bars, fruit cups, yogurt, and eating no veg in the process.  She’d done two changes of clothes while Lucy was busy being a fractal Lucy-earring-blob, and she still felt like she was ten thousand percent ready for a shower and a fresh change of clothes.

Verona wasn’t much different in terms of scruff and all the rest of that, but Verona was probably the only human Avery knew who could spend a weekend perching on a plastic chair in an inadequately lit room, sleeping on the floor, going without a change of clothes, and munching on packaged foods that definitely hadn’t been the same healthy-ish assortment Avery had chosen, and still be normal afterward.

Scruffy was Verona’s normal, as was occupying herself with writing, sketching, and phone stuff, and watching the magical diagram periodically make movements from being something room-spanning to something that framed Lucy, to eventually folding into Lucy altogether.

As for non human scruffy sorts…

“I hated that,” Snowdrop said.  “Being in the dark, nothing to do except sleep and eat random crap.”

“Thanks for helping me keep a lookout, Snow.”

“I hate that nothing happened.  Can you imagine?  It’d be great!  Some Others kicking in the doors, me with my fork, you with your hockey stick, trying to protect Lucy?  Aaaaa!”

“Aaah,” Avery said, too tired to put any emotion into it.

Lucy didn’t look scruffy.  She didn’t look like she’d been cooped up in a warm building without showers or changes of clothes.  She’d come and gone as the ritual flowed around and through her, and for the last two days she’d been mostly gone, barely moving or doing anything when she did appear.  Her hair was the same, her clothes the same as she’d worn when she’d gone in.  The earring was different, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly how or why.  Maybe a bit more tarnished, a bit sharper where the segments that ran inside her ear were, the gem a little redder, but all in ways that could be explained as a change in the light.

Avery turned on her Sight, and she could see the earring, exaggerated.  Metal-framed crystals, elongated, hung in the air, close to her head, and wire ran from her ear, along her hair, and into her ponytail, where it proliferated, decorating what was there.

“She seems taller,” Avery remarked, watching Lucy pull her sneakers on and chat with Verona.  Lucy put her hand out past the eaves to check the rain, then stepped out, carrying some of the stuff they’d brought in.

“She doesn’t seem that way, but she is,” Snowdrop said.

Avery turned that same Sight out toward the campus.  The ‘bands’ of film-negative cutouts that represented connections were stretched tight, to the point of being strained, and many others were lying limp on the ground, especially here, between the parking lot and the school, and at the front of the school itself.  She didn’t know if that meant they were broken forever if it meant the slack would be picked up later, but it caught her eye.

Not that many bloody handprints.  Some on one workshop door.  It had been the one Eloise and Amine had been helping with, last week.

Because Verona and Lucy were taking their time, and because she was restless, Avery walked a circuit around the grassy area between all the outside classrooms and workshops.  Snowdrop walked with her.

It was close to lunch, but there were no students.  Nobody was hanging out in the doorways of the workshops, messing around, chatting, or catching the breeze.

“I can’t ask around about what happened,” Snowdrop said.  “There’s no little goblins or anything nearby.”

“Maybe try it later.  For right now, until we have the lay of the land, we should stick together, at least staying where we can all keep an eye on each other.”

“Ugh.  I’ve spent too much time in your company these past few days.”

“It’s like with the Carmine Beast and the Kennet Others.  We can’t start taking risks or taking action until we have more information.”

“Worst part of this approach,” Snowdrop muttered, “Is I’m going to start getting Bonky Donks shoved in my face by the brownies again.”

They joined back up with Lucy and Verona, who were on their way to the front door.  Avery hopped up to the windowsill, standing on the edge of it to better look through the window.

The big classroom had an afternoon class in session, and it was only ten people.  Of those ten, three were wary enough to spot Avery at the window.  Jarvis, Silas, and Maddox.  The sixteen year olds who were good at human binding, second maybe only to the Hennigars.

Graubard was teaching.  A big screen behind her was showing some heiroglyph-like symbols.

Assuming there was another class running, and this was the big one, where the heck was everyone?

“We should swing by our rooms, get sorted,” Lucy said.  She lifted the bundle of food, trash, spare clothes, and makeup stuff that they’d brought into the workshop room.

Verona turned Avery’s way as Avery hopped down.  “I was just telling Lucy, if we assume Bristow has Augurs on his side, now, then we should be careful what we say.  We don’t want to agitate.”

“Good plan,” Avery said.

“Side door, so we’re not walking through the middle of class?” Lucy asked.

They circled around the school, walking over in the direction of the lunch tables, inside, and then past the library.

A class was in session there too.  Bristow and five students.

No chatter in the rooms they walked by.  No noise in the showers.  No movement in the student lounge.

Avery’s Sight indicated the spot where Laila had attacked Melody with the curse breath.  Bloody handprints that smoked in a hazy way.

There were others.  A streak here, like fingers had dragged against the ceiling.  A spatter of ‘paint’, white, between two stark white handprints with blood leaking out of the creases.

A bit of fish skeleton.  A set of paw marks.

“Paper?” Avery asked.

“Do you have blank paper on you?  I have some in my bag but I’d have to drop stuff.”

“Yeah.  We could step into the room.”

“Yeah, but this is faint, and I want to take note of it.  Sight stuff tends to disappear or move if I take my eyes off it.”

Their door was only steps away.  Avery kept an eye on things.

Verona handed her paper.  Avery bent down and sketched the rough outline of the little paw marks.

“Animal?” Verona asked.

“Snowdrop?” Avery asked.  “Do you know your prints?”

“That’s not Dreg’s,” Snowdrop said.

Lucy reached down, touching Avery’s shoulder, and pulled her to a standing position, a bit further back from the door opposite theirs.

The door to the room of the Leos boys opened.  Tymon was there, not wearing a shirt.  To Avery’s Sight, he had a bloody handprint on his face, but no visible injuries.

“Sorry if we disturbed you,” Avery said.

“Nah,” Tymon said.  “Just glad it’s you.”

“It’s us,” Avery answered, shrugging.

“I heard Lucy was doing the implement ritual,” Tymon said.  “Go okay?”

“On purpose, a little bit.  We keep getting sucked into things.  Being a step away from this is a survival decision,” Lucy said.

“But we’re pretty bewildered.  Can you give us a recap?” Avery asked, pressing her hands together.

As she asked, her Sight showed her some movement to her left, just past the frame of her ability to see.  She turned her head, and Tymon did too.

Jarvis and Silas were standing in the archway that separated the dormitory hallway from the main classroom.  Staring at them, the class continuing behind them.

“For right now, I’m waiting on word from the parents,” Tymon said.  “It’ll take a while, I think.  They’re busy this summer.  Part of them sending us here was to get us out of the way.  It’s why they sent Jorja, despite her being young.  That and Talia was coming and she’s friends with Jorja.  Sucks, with how that’s going.”

“Friendship on the rocks?” Verona asked.

“It’s… rocky here, right now.”

“Is your familiar okay?” Lucy asked.

“Dreg?  How’d you know about Dreg?”

“My sight,” Avery jumped in.  She held up the paper.  “I saw a bloody footprint on the floor.”

“And I see a sword in the ground there, and a stain behind you,” Lucy offered.

“You guys are supposed to be new to the practice,” Tymon said, eyes narrowing a bit.

“That kind of fine-tuned Sight doesn’t come easy.”

“We adopted a bit of a role, when we awoke,” Verona said.  “I think we specialized more because we Awok-”

“I hope you understand if we don’t get into that,” Lucy jumped in, before Verona could say more.  Lucy gave Verona a look.

“Even with that.  That’s…”

“And we’re strong,” Verona said.  “Not giving anything away by saying it, enough people have seen.”

“No kidding,” Tymon said.  “I can pull that kind of Sight stuff off, but it’s pricey.  Black Gutter starts to chase its way down any channels I make when tapping into power like that.  I’ve still got some scars from the times it caught me.”

“What happened with your familiar?” Lucy asked.  “I didn’t think students could be attacked.”

“I like you, Lucy,” Tymon said.  “I like you three, but asking about vulnerabilities after protecting your own…  Like you said, I hope you understand if I don’t get into it.”

“I don’t, but at the same time… fair.”

“Can we ask, at least, about what happened over the weekend?” Avery asked.

“Again, I’m waiting on word from my parents before I do anything more.  Even sharing information could test things.”

He glanced over in the direction of Jarvis and Silas.

“Where is everyone?” Lucy asked.  “Nobody in the back field, workshops are quiet, classes are small…  Or is that sharing too much info too?”

“The weekend was pretty rough.  Some long friendships aren’t doing so hot.  I know you guys are new to this, but… it can be hard to make friends.  Real friends, who get what’s going on.  Makes it sting when you lose that.”

“Relationships too?” Avery asked.  “Partners?”

“That’s a whole other mess.  The unawakened tend to get suspicious, and the awakened, well… practitioner families.”

“And arranged marriages between families,” Lucy added.

Tymon’s eyebrows went up.  “That’s jumping straight to thinking about huge stuff most of us don’t have to worry about for a while.”

“Eloise and Ulysse are in that sorta situation, right?” Avery asked.

“Yeah.  Yeah, and I guess, speaking of them, and going back to what I was saying, some of the students are taking a break.  Talos took Jorja down to the town, down the road from here.”

“Talia Graubard didn’t go with?” Avery asked.

“Her mom is making her stay close to her, from what I can tell.  I think Talia would’ve wanted to go with.”

“That’s so sad,” Avery said.

“Oh yeah,” Tymon answered.  “Jorja’s just- she stayed with my brother and I last night after Talia wouldn’t talk to her for hours.  Kept saying she wanted to go home, she wanted to go home… and the centerpiece of our place, in case Talos hasn’t mentioned it or you haven’t heard, has a naked, house-sized spirit of degeneracy and downward spirals situated in the middle of it.  And she’s homesick for that because this is- this is pretty awful, for her.  For a lot of us.”

“How big is your place?” Verona asked.  “Demesne?”

“Come on, Verona,” Lucy said, elbowing her friend.  “Empathy, remember?”

“It’s big,” Tymon answered.  “Big enough we’ve got a temple for that primary spirit I mentioned.  And no, not a demesne.”

“I hope she bounces back okay,” Avery said.

“So do I.  She’s tough.  So serious, it’s part of why we gave her the Cowgirl.  We thought something a little cartoony, a little wild, would shake her up.”

“Serious isn’t bad,” Lucy said.

Jarvis and Silas were approaching.

Hardline Bristow loyalists.  Left Alexander’s class after he took over for Bristow, were at the top of the line for human binding exercises.  Jarvis was a summoner who did contract stuff, and Silas Vanderwerf was associated with Fae stuff.

Avery had done some reading through the school’s guidebook over the weekend to teach herself with who the students were, so she could be just a bit more prepared for anything that came up after.

“Any issues?” Jarvis asked.

“Are you the police here, now?” Tymon asked.

“Next year Silas, Mad and me are going to be senior students, along with Gene and Xerxes.”

“And America, right?” Avery asked.

Silas and Jarvis smiled.  Tymon didn’t.

“She’s old enough, right?  To be a senior student next year?”

“She got expelled, along with one of the Hennigars,” Tymon said.  “Stuff happened.”

“Liberty too?” Avery asked.

“Liberty is still around, for now,” Jarvis answered.  “America and Kellen might come back, but they’ll have to appeal the expulsion.”

“And Mr. Bristow decides?” Lucy asked.

Jarvis shrugged, smiling again.  “Yep, so long as he’s headmaster.”

“And Alexander?” Avery asked.

“Has projects to look after.  Three of his apprentices are preoccupied with opportunities the new headmaster has provided.  Some work for the Belanger circle, sure, but they’re only helping Alexander with some prior stuff they promised to do.  Not taking any more jobs or picking up the slack the others left.  So Alexander’s got a full plate, for meeting obligations, keeping things in motion, fulfilling contracts.”

“Sounds busy,” Lucy said.

“He does, doesn’t he?”

“And Bristow has a school with barely any students in it?” Verona asked.

“For today, at least.  I think we’re all taking it easy.  He’s focused on the long term, he has the money to keep this place running.  It might mean a few students leave in the short term, but we can be more tightly knit and stronger in the long term.”

Silas nodded as Jarvis finished speaking, then added a simple, sly, “Bringing up the number of students on a day like today isn’t the sort of thing that knits us together and strengthens us, Verona.”

“We were just telling Tymon that we’re new at this,” Verona said.  “We’re out of the loop, and mistakes happen.”

“Yes, and we regret them so,” Silas said, a small smile at one corner of his lips.  He clearly wasn’t buying it at all.

To Avery’s Sight, the connections from their huddle here were strained so tight that they almost vibrated.  Between student and school.  Friend and enemy.  Between them and the two groups who wanted them on their side.

“You finish your ritual?” Jarvis asked.

“I did,” Lucy said.  She adjusted the angle of her head.

“You know, if you want to make the most of it, you should ask Mr. Musser.  He came a long way to be here for our new headmaster.  I know you were hanging out with Raquel Musser last week.”

“Yadira and Raquel, yeah.”

“She’s related to him, of course, you could use that.  Go ask him some stuff, and it’ll give you another shot at getting acquainted with her.  Connections matter.”

Connections.  Avery could see that Silas Vanderwerf’s connections had a tint to them, and as she focused on it, she could see that the very rigid, intense connections had more of that tint.  A fine creeping of black frost on the dark bands that extended from Silas and along the band, toward everyone he was interacting with.  Her looking at the frost seemed to thaw it- but it also drew Silas’s attention.  As if they’d always been there, but were turned sideways so she couldn’t see them, new bands extended from Silas’s eye level to the point she was looking at, then back to her.  The frost was quick along that line.  His eyes locked to hers, pupils narrow.

Under the guise of adjusting her top, aware she was still sweaty and sorta gross from the weekend spent in the workshop room, Avery reached for one connection, seeing if she could loosen one of those new connections.  The edge of it cut the side of her finger, like sliding her finger along the length of a piece of paper.  The chill at the band, even though it hadn’t crept all the way to her, made her finger go a little numb.

She turned off her Sight and the pain changed from being something physical to something like a glimmer of bad feeling when she thought back to an embarrassing moment, threading through her arm like a flinch, then into her stmoach.  She wanted to retreat before that more intense frost got to her, but she didn’t want to look weak.

“…think she was realy close with Mr. Musser,” Lucy was saying.

Avery felt uncomfortable, aware of the subtle game being played, even if she wasn’t on top of the rules or the full consequences.  She wasn’t sure they had the tools to defend against it.

“It’s a story you see a thousand times, in a certain class of practitioner, probably non-practitioners too,” Silas said.  The fact his name was Silas caught on Avery’s attention, like it was very fitting for a few reasons.  That it sounded almost like ‘silence’, and he maintained a volume that was quiet, precise, and controlled.  That it started and stopped with ‘s’ sounds.  Like a snake’s hiss, his words slithered through the conversation, while that creeping chill extended along connections.  “The chosen heir gets all the privilege, all the attention, love, hope, and expectations.  Meanwhile, there’s someone who gets the opposite.  No privilege, no power, no inheritance, no hope or expectations.  But they want it.  The kid who has it doesn’t care, and the kid who doesn’t have it craves it.  That’s Raquel.”

“Not very flattering,” Verona said.

Silas chuckled softly to himself.  His voice had a cool edge to it.  “It’s not good or bad.  Whether it flatters or doesn’t flatter is up to her.  If she can recognize what’s happening and use it, it’ll be very flattering.”

“Exactly,” Jarvis said, sounding far less insidious.  He was more the kid who sounded like a wannabe lawyer or businessman.  Casually confident, just full enough of himself that he was a bit rigid.  “Consider it a win-win.  If she remains where she is, within the Musser family, she’s still a point of contact, eager for opportunity and other routes to climb by.  And if she somehow rises above the expectations Mr. Musser has in her, you’re now the friend of someone powerful who is in a position to reward you for your support.”

“Applies to any powerful family,” Silas said.

“Doesn’t mean they will pay you back, though,” Tymon said, leaning against the doorframe of his room.  “Some cut ties to everything that reminds them of who they used to be.”

“Some do,” Jarvis admitted.  “But being nice costs so little.  Which begs the question.  All of us are over here, enjoying this class, networking with powerful families.  And what are you guys doing?  Sitting in your room, licking your familiar’s wounds, Tymon?  Hiding, Wild Practitioners?”

“Taking advantage of resources here,” Lucy replied.

“Like you said, looking after my familiar.”

Avery stole another glance with the Sight.  Silas still had that effect at work, and it didn’t look like he was doing anything.  She was starting to get nervous about what happened if they stayed in a conversation with him for long enough.

But when things were this tense, it was hard to avoid offending, or to avoid looking like they were scheming.

“If you need a bit of help healing the familiar so you’re not so useless right now, we can help you out,” Jarvis said.

Snowdrop was remaining quiet, watching everything, and Avery put a hand on Snowdrop’s shoulder.  Snowdrop looked up at her and frowned, grumpy.

“I don’t like to be in people’s debt.”

“No intention of that.”

“There’s always some debt,” Tymon said.

Avery subtly gave Snowdrop a firm two taps behind the neck where the boys couldn’t see her fingers move.  Again, Snowdrop looked up at her, slight smile on her face.

Avery pressed her lips slightly together, knowing Snowdrop was paying the most attention to her.

“Avery?” Snowdrop asked.  She adjusted her grip on stuff she was still holding.  “Can I ask you about something we talked about before?”

“Yes, of course,” Avery said.  She glanced back, “Excuse me.”

Silas was giving her a long stare.  As Avery walked away, the band between her and him reeled out.  She could see the frost accelerating, and forced herself to look away, in case she fed it and gave it more paths to chase her.  Moving away, at least, seemed to outpace how fast it crept toward her.

“Did I do that wrong?” Snowdrop asked, quiet, as Avery dropped down to a crouch by her, setting the bags of stuff on the floor.

“That was great.  Thank you.”

“I don’t know how your head works or anything like that,” Snowdrop said, biting her lip for a second.  “But I understand this.  What’s happening?”

“The conversation is a trap,” Avery murmured.  “We need to extricate ourselves without making enemies.”

“Avery!” Lucy called out.

“Yes?”  Avery twisted around.

“We were going to get sorted.  I know you didn’t have a physical body for a good portion of the weekend, but I did, and I think Snowdrop, Verona, and I could use a scrub-down, a good meal, and a bit of a break.”

“I think that sounds like a plan.”

“There are more things at work here than creature comforts,” Silas said.  “Didn’t you want to know what happened?”

“I don’t think that story’s going anywhere,” Lucy said.  “My friends supported me for the weekend.  Now it’s my turn to look after them.  Please excuse us.”

“We can talk later,” Silas said.

“We’ve got the entire summer ahead of us,” Verona said, picking up the bags and clothes she’d set down.  “Of course we can.”

“Take care of your familiar,” Jarvis said, to Tymon.

Tymon didn’t respond, and remained where he was, watching the other two boys retreat down the hall.  Avery followed Lucy and Verona into her room, put her stuff down, got the stuff from Snowdrop’s arms, then returned to the door to shut it.  She paused before shutting it, seeing the emotions in Tymon’s face as he stared down the hall, so preoccupied with what he was thinking that he didn’t even realize she was looking.

When they emerged a few minutes later, Tymon had disappeared, presumably into his room, but Bristow was standing at the end of the hallway.  They walked quicker than they otherwise would have, hurrying to the showers and away from Bristow.

They had to figure out a plan.

“So he studies Winter Faerie, right?” Verona asked.

They walked down the road to the town.  Away from campus, toward the students who had escaped campus for a bit.

“Rigid, inflexible, imperious,” Lucy said.

“So this connection thing you’re describing,” Verona said, looking at Avery.  “He wasn’t doing anything that pushed it?”

“Nope,” Avery said.  Avery was walking backward, hands in her pockets, the rain occupying that annoying middle state where having a raincoat on or an umbrella up would be wimpy, but it was still making her wet. She had a jacket in her bag but didn’t want to pull it out.

As mindful of each step as she was, Snowdrop was walking at her side, legs swinging forward, each foot being deliberately placed in ditch-mud and puddles.  Some droplets were splattering Avery’s legs, but Avery didn’t mind that much.  It made her think of soccer practice, and she was just glad to be away from campus and in the outdoors, as damp and drizzly as those outdoors were.

“There’s some practices that you do, and they’re rituals that change how things work,” Verona said.

“Like that, sure, but more… I dunno.  More like you get benefits just for doing the ritual, and you don’t have to go anywhere.  Maybe you deal with some people.  Some of it was in the collector stuff we looked up.”

“Doing a ritual so the world sends the trash-tier trinkets and doo-dads your way,” Lucy noted.

“Yes,” Verona said.  “And some that are like, they increase your claim.  Just a big, expensive ritual, and it gets harder to take stuff from you.  And you can do it multiple times, but each time the price doubles.  And you have to renew.  So if you’ve got some crazy claim ritual where the cost doubled up to something like a million dollars, you’re having to pay that every five years or whatever.  So you have to be careful.  Because failing to be ready when the renewal time comes clears you out.”

“Sounds like the sort of thing Bristow would love, and would definitely do,” Lucy said.  “And if you can find it in the Blue Heron Institute texts, chances are good he’s probably read it too.”

“Probably,” Verona said.  “And he’d take a ton of safeguards to protect himself, and probably wouldn’t schedule any big school takeovers for when the renewal thing is due.”

“Unless he needs the school to pay what’s due?” Avery asked.

“I don’t feel like that’s the key to handling this whole thing,” Lucy said.  “Anyway.  Yes, there are rituals that give you big benefits.  And they’re pretty much always on, sometimes needing renewal, or a constant power source, or whatever.”

“Yes,” Verona said.  “So my guess?  Silas has this.  And Faerie love the social manipulation and subtle crap.  So how does that work with something like a Winter Faerie?”

“A creeping frost over connections?” Avery asked.

“What does frost do, though?” Verona asked.

“Chills?  Makes things more rigid?” Avery suggested.

“Or it’s a prelude to freezing them,” Verona said.  “Imagine.  A big ritual, and it locks things down?  Imagine that this kid is spending time around people, establishing a relationship as… I dunno.  A friend, an enemy, a boyfriend, a student, and then freezing those relationships.”

“What’s the advantage in doing that to us?” Lucy asked.

“I think there’s a huge advantage in knowing exactly where you stand with people,” Verona retorted.

“Certain not-very-wild cards!” Snowdrop proclaimed, jumping into a puddle, thoroughly undoing the work of getting her clean.  Avery had made her take a shower.  Snowdrop pumped her fists in the air, turning their way.  Her t-shirt read ‘my spirit animal is a lumpy garbage bag’ and had a garbage bag framed in the center, with all sorts of abstract smoke and effects coming off of it.

“Set up the pins, knock them down,” Lucy mused.  “But students aren’t allowed to practice on other students.  Do they get away with it because Bristow’s in charge and calling the shots?”

“Maybe because it’s always on, Silas can’t turn it off, he can’t get chewed out,” Avery thought aloud.  “It’s like if you invite a goblin to your tea party, it’s really your fault if things end up a mess.”

“Or it’s neutral,” Verona said.  “Sorry, I got this idea from yours, but if it affects friends and foes, can it really be ‘hostile’, exactly?”

“We should stay away from Silas.  And we should look into protections,” Lucy said.  “It helps that we want to research Faerie countermeasures anyway.”

“Oh!  I wanted to ask, but not in earshot of the school’s augurs.  Back there, when I told Snowdrop the conversation was a trap, did you hear?” Avery asked.

“Yeah,” Lucy said.  “It’s easier to hear you two than other people.”

“What’s it like?” Verona asked, excited.  “The implement?”

“There’s a weight to it.  I hear whispers, but the sound doesn’t come through my ear, and I don’t hear the louder things.  There’s a weight to the decorated part of it that’s hard to explain.”

“Try, try,” Verona said.

“Are you going to be annoying about this?”

“I can be, if it gets you to explain.  This is interesting!”

“It’s like a sense, but it’s not a sense like seeing or hearing or touching, smelling, or tasting.  It’s like the sense of balance.  And it reaches out and I can feel… I felt that Avery wasn’t hesitating and wasn’t saying sorry as much as she used to.  That Tymon stood a little taller when he stopped worrying about us doing something weird in front of his door and started to just talk to us.”

“I think he might like you,” Verona said.

“I could see it,” Avery added.

“I don’t know,” Lucy said.  “Wouldn’t I feel that?  Or something relating to that?”

“Depends on what you’re feeling exactly,” Verona said.  “We need to do tests.”

“Something for tonight, maybe,” Lucy mused.

“Yes!” Verona crowed.  “Yes, okay, so Ave, we’ve gotta think of a battery of things to test.  So we can understand this better.”

“I have zero ideas,” Snowdrop said.  “I’m a dumb opossum.  I don’t have a brain…”

“What’s your idea?” Avery asked.

“You know those tiny goblins and little Others who’re around the school?  Can’t get in with the barrier?  I say we make them show off to Lucy, be all powerful and cool so we can see what happens.  Then we make Lucy show off to them, if she can.”

“Presentation tests.  Goblins to Lucy and Lucy to goblins.  Cool,” Verona said.  “I should take notes, and make a list.”

“I don’t know if I want to go out at night.  Things are dangerous enough in the day,” Lucy said.  There’s so many loopholes to the protections at the school.”

Like the loopholes at home.

They walked down the road.  The ditches on either side of the rough two-lane road were filled with trash thrown from cars or blown by the wind, but past those ditches were tall pine trees.  The air was easier to breathe than it was in the middle of Kennet.  In the fifteen minutes they’d walked, one car had come by, and the driver had thought nothing about going into the other lane to give them an extra-wide berth.

“Can we use loopholes of our own?” Avery asked.

“I think that’s a dangerous question.”  Lucy was measuring her words out, being very serious.  “Because asking it means there’s intent, and if there’s intent, then it’s harder to skirt the rules.”

“But if we happened to have options, that wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

“That’s where we’re at, huh?” Verona asked.

“Yeah,” Lucy said, quiet.  “I had to stab an Other in this scenario my ritual conjured up.  There was a bunch of stuff.”

“Can I ask?” Verona asked.  “What were the scenarios.”

“Being hunted by Others, with only the Earring to use.  Me on a rock with hundreds of little Cherrypop style goblins around me, unable to climb up.  Some more real stuff.  Paul.  Kids being crummy in seventh grade.”

The way to the town meant rounding a corner and walking down a slope to get to the town.  As they turned the corner, the ‘town’ was there.  Kennet was a quarter the size of some places that could be called actual towns, and this was less than half Kennet’s size.  The houses were scattered, and there was a gas station, two fast food places, and some scattered stores.

And there were students there.  Zachariah and Salvador, with Dom talking to Jorja.  Talos was using a decrepit old pay phone a few steps away.

Laila, of all people, Fernanda’s friend and the one who had spat curses at Melody, was sitting on the little yellow-painted concrete bumper that kept cars from driving into the front of the gas station.  Alone.

“It’s like they’re hiding out here,” Lucy noted.

“Where else do you go?” Avery asked.  “I mean, a lot of them live in the city, and the cities are way further from here than Kennet is.  Can’t go home, and the school’s a hostile place…”

A house off to the side of the road had a dirt driveway, and a kid with a low bowl cut that was young enough to be totally indeterminate, gender-wise, but old enough to be left unattended in a shallow kiddie pool in the front yard.  The kid stood there in ankle deep water, chewing on a plastic shovel, watching them walk past.

“There’s no goblins here,” Snowdrop said.

“Is this where they camp out?” Avery asked.

“Nah.  Nowhere near here.  No spirits or echoes either.”

Talos hung up the phone.  He looked out of place in this rustic, out-of-the-way spot, with a mop of black hair on top, sides shaved, earrings, and a tight-fitting shirt with a pattern on it.  The other students from the Institute remained where they were, watching, as Talos approached.  Behind him, a small black duck with white dashes at its cheeks and sides of its wings flapped awkwardly, crash landed, and then rose to its feet, swaying slightly, as a tall woman with wavy brown hair that came to the backs of her knees, with a sloppy black dress and half-lidded eyes.

She reminded Avery a bit of Daniel Alitzer, the Glamour-Drowned.  Like there was some incredible grace there, but it had been hobbled.  She followed after Talos, not moving in a straight line.

“Done your thing?” he asked.

“Yep.  Talked to your brother,” Lucy said.

“On the mend, I think?” Lucy asked, looking at Avery, then Verona.

“Sounded like Tymon lost a lot of power, but Dreg is okay,” Avery said.

“Then about the same.  He should have come.”

The woman with the long brown hair steped up behind Talos, then wrapped her arms around his shoulders, resting her chin on his head.  She swayed enough that he swayed with her.

“What are you doing here?” Lucy asked.

“Talking.  Thinking.  We came this morning.  Some came and went back.  Some from Bristow’s camp.  Others like us who couldn’t stay away from class, because their parents check in.”

“The school seems so empty,” Avery remarked.

“Tymon didn’t go over what happened?”

“Alexander’s gone, Durocher is stepping back, Ray is keeping his head down.  Zed is looking for Jessica, I think because he doesn’t want to be here and he’s mad at Ray.  Most of the Augurs turned.  A lot of students got hurt or scared off.  Some went into the woods, others came here.”

Into Avery’s ear, Snowdrop whispered, “I’m gonna stick around.  I’m more useful here than elsewhere.  You guys are useless without me.”

“Don’t go too far?  Be safe?”

“Nah,” Snowdrop said, with a snort.

Avery patted Snowdrop’s hair more into place as Snowdrop walked away.

“He invited Musser back.  And Musser hasn’t been back in person since he and Alexander got in an argument years ago.  Doesn’t even drop off his kids, normally.”

“Reid and Raquel,” Avery noted.

“What happens next, then?” Lucy asked.

Talos shrugged.  “It depends on what Alexander does.  Some kids aren’t calling their parents, in hopes Alexander wraps up what he needs to do elsewhere, then delivers a master stroke.  I called my parents, but they’re useless for this.  They’re doing a big project they’ve been prepping for a year.  Eventually some of the parents who get calls, like ours, are going to say something to parents who weren’t told.  Some of us might get pulled out of school.  The Kierstaads are pretty worried about that.”

“Are they here?” Avery asked.

“They were sitting in the Drooling Cow with Brie.”

Avery looked over at the more distant of the two fast food places.

“We pretty much have to go back tonight to sleep,” Talos said.  “They will make a big power play when we do.  They’re giving us today to come to terms with the regime change, but tonight they’re going to hammer home that we need to make a decision.  Join or leave.”

It was kind of chilling, Avery observed, to hear him say it with such certainty.  “How do you know?”

“Because my family’s dealt with a lot of gangs in the past.  You start to see the patterns.”

“This sucks.  I just want magic classes,” Verona said.

“This is more than that,” Talos said, with some intensity.  The brunette lifted her head up, like she’d been startled awake.  “This is important.  It’s  going to determine which families are important, which aren’t, I- you don’t deal with outside practitioners in some way?  You dealt with some of the senior students.”

“Zed, Nicolette, and Brie.”

“Yeah,” Talos said.  “As our parents catch on, there’s going to be ripple effects.  Families and practitioner circles rise and fall with this crap.  You know two students got expelled?”

“America and one of the Hennigars,” Lucy said.

“Tymon told you.  Yeah.  And the Hennigar will get back in, and America will… if Liberty stays and America doesn’t, then that puts Liberty at an advantage, where she’s learning stuff and she might end up taking over the family.  There’s tons of stuff like that.  It’s going to change who you meet, who the go to people are to talk to… there’s Others that need to be kept bound, far from humanity, and I know the Legendres do a lot of that, but if they end up stepping down, someone else might end up stepping up.  For some these moves are huge promotions, for others it’s responsibilities they didn’t ask for.”

“Bind this Other once a month or a town gets eaten or something?” Verona asked.  “That type of thing?”

“Yeah.  And as much as some might sabotage or attack another family for power, others will fight to avoid being made to handle stuff like the bound Others nobody wants to associate with.”

“It all seems so cutthroat,” Avery said.

“Throats may actually get cut.  Mostly we’re stuck waiting.  Seeing if Alexander has a plan.  Trying to figure out if there’s a way we can take action on our own.  The moment stuff starts leaking…”

“Your parents won’t?” Lucy asked.

“Nah.  We talked it out and things are okay for now, but this stuff gets out eventually.  Bristow will force it if it’s convenient for him.”

“It’s messing with the school, right?” Verona asked.  “He weakened it.  Less students… a bunch left?”

“It’s weaker now.  I think he thinks that if he invests in it, shapes it according to his will and preferences, it’ll be more his, and it’ll be a smaller, more tightly-knit group of students that he has some influence over.  That’s more powerful in the long run.  It doesn’t matter that it kind of ruins this summer for us.  It’ll be better in the long run.”

“He specializes in messing with people, doesn’t he?” Verona asked.  “Setting them up?  Like, to be stronger, or weaker, or complimentary?”

“And the big class on human binding… the reason all the students on his side were so good at it?  Is that because Bristow taught them?”  Verona asked.

Avery’s eyebrows went up.

“So that’s his specialty.  He moves people around, he arranges them, binds them, he has a bunch of kids with complementary skillsets in his contacts-”

“He has lots of contacts,” Talos said.  “Organizations, groups.”

“That’s how he got Nicolette?”

“She was going to join another Augur circle, once she had enough information to sell.  Bristow talked to them.  Then she defected.  And Seth’s been treated like crap for a while, and Bristow made some promises to Tanner years ago… I guess Tanner’s been considering them for a while, and he got what he wanted out of Alexander, so why not?”

“I don’t know.  All I know is that Alexander Belanger is fantastically good at what he does.  He’s not world famous like Durocher or Ray are.  He doesn’t seek that out.  But he does earn a reputation with the people that do know him.  So there’s a feeling like of course he’ll save us.  Of course he’ll turn up, critical solution, and bring Bristow down in a way that doubles the Belanger holdings, get his apprentices back…”

“You don’t think so?” Lucy asked.

“Lawrence Bristow knows this as much or better than any of us do.  And he still decided to do this.”

Snowdrop had returned.  She stood by the side of the road.  A small goblin with a condom stuck in one ear and out the other was perched on her head.  It looked like maybe his brain was sitting in the bubble of the condom that sat outside one ear.

Avery looked around, then jogged over.  As a test, she murmured, “Checking on Snow.”

Lucy looked back over her shoulder, then leaned in to say something to Verona.

“…the guys Bristow has with him, they’re scary…” Talos said.

Avery left the conversation behind.

“This guy doesn’t want to talk to you,” Snowdrop told her.  “They’re really useful guys, they’re willing to share everything they know.  Do you think we can do them a favor?”

“Brownies!” the little goblin yipped.

“They love ’em,” Snowdrop said.

“And they want to do nice things in exchange for nice things the brownies did for them.”

“They’re the worst things. They’re horrible. They’re awful.  Why are you so wrong!?” The goblin craned his head around to try to slap Snowdrop’s scalp with the little fluid-filled latex balloon.  He wasn’t coordinated enough to be good at it, and was maybe giving himself brain damage in the process.   “So wrong!  F!  You get an F!  You’re an F of a person!  I’ll beat an indent into your flesh so people know!!”

“He’s cool,” Snowdrop said.  “They had no information about…”

In a town where there hadn’t been a single car in the entire time they’d been talking to Talos, three cars were coming down the road.  Avery recognized them from the parking lot.

The goblin on Snowdrop’s head climbed down, scampering away to hide.

Talos’s sleepy, dizzy brown-haired familiar straightened up, a bottle in her hand that hadn’t been there a bit ago.  Behind Talia, at the corner of the building, her creepy, floaty familiar loomed, out of sight of any innocents, but there.

Lucy slipped on her ring.  Verona stepped back, hands in her back pockets.

Avery wrapped her black rope around her hand, taking Snowdrop’s hand firmly in case she needed to move.

The cars stopped in the middle of the road.

It was some of the senior students Avery hadn’t really met yet.  Reid and Estrella, along with Chase and Fernanda.

In the car behind, it was Ted, Shellie, and Kevin’s girlfriend, Rae.

The door to the gas station opened.  A sixty-something woman in a faded forest green polo shirt with a nametag came out.  “No!  I don’t want any of your trouble!  You rich kids at your school, you’re causing trouble every month, your kids mess with ours, break our teenagers hearts or get them mad enough to murder!  Get out!  Go!  Whatever you’re doing, not here!”

“Go inside,” Estrella called out.

“This isn’t your place!  I’m sick of-”

Estrella looked around, then she pointed.

The gas station attendant turned and went back inside, slamming the glass door hard enough the attached bell could be heard from Avery’s position.

Estrella looked back over her shoulder at Avery.

“The little goblins I found would be useless against her.  Can you imagine?”

“I don’t think it’d be as easy as you’re imagining, Snow.”

“There’s not many.”

“Even if there’s lots.”

Estrella, craning her neck around, spotted the vacant kid in the kiddie pool.  She pointed at the door to the kid’s house.

The kid turned, tripped over the lip of the kiddie pool on the way out, then hurried to the door, shutting it.

I don’t want this to be what we do, Avery thought.

Estrella indicated the Drooling Cow, and beckoned.

It took a minute before Brie, Melody, and Corbin emerged.  Laila backed away from the three of them, giving the rest of the kids who’d fled to this small town a wide berth, before stopping at the fringes.

While they got sorted, more car doors opened.

Blackhorne stepped out.  Standing in the street in the middle of broad daylight, radiating menace as he stood a step behind and to the left of Reid.  He took up a spot between Kevin Noone and Shellie.

“I would like you to know that you are all expected at dinner tonight,” Estrella said, her voice carrying.  “This is not optional.  Classes will be signed up for at the dinner table, so the teaching staff can better accommodate you.  If you don’t sign up, you won’t have classes the next day.  They’ll give you worksheets to be done in the library, instead.”

“Expect more practical exercises over the course of the week,” Chase announced, with a smug little smile.  “Practicing is dangerous, and we’ll all need to prepare for any eventuality, so look forward to some more competitive classes.”

“The little goblins didn’t have anything to say about that,” Snowdrop mumbled.

“What’s that?” Avery asked.

“It’s been reported to us that some students are plotting sedition,” Chase said, with a smug little smile.  “You will be expelled if you act against the school.  Staffing concerns are the concerns of the staff.  The quality of your education will not diminish unless you diminish it yourselves.”

Those were his parting words.  Message delivered, they turned to go.

Avery watched Fernanda’s brief moment of eye contact with Laila, and found herself sympathizing so much it hurt.  She watched Fernanda get in the car and drive off.  Laila remained behind.

This was all so dumb.  Could they really duck their heads down and ignore what was going on?  Like Jessica had intended to do, before she was pulled into it?

“America!  Lovely America!” a new small goblin crowed.  It was lumpy, scabby, and twisted, like it had been rolled over by a car a few times.  It spoke with a lisp.  “They kicked her out!  I cried!  She called them names!  I laughed!  She fought!  I cheered!  They came for her!  I fought!”

“Who came for her?  The aware?  The big guy, and the woman with the weird eyes?  The one with the decorations!”

“A lot of them!  The horned one.  The bitch!  The small-faced dick-curd of a man!  Glorious Liberty couldn’t even fight to protect her, because of oaths sworn!”

Estrella or Fernanda?  And Chase?

Students were supposed to be protected from students and staff.

Except, Avery realized, if we’re expelled, those protections were revoked.

She looked back at the gathered Blue Heron refugees.  At how lost and scared they seemed.

Did they know?  Or were they suspicious?

“Bristow’s a total tyrant,” she said to Snowdrop.  “He’s betting we’ll endure it instead of risking the war between families?  Or is he holding students hostage?  He wants to bully us into submission?”

“Doesn’t even have the whole summer to do it,” Snowdrop said.

Avery used the black rope, tugging Snowdrop behind a tree with her, to get to the gas station quicker.  She had to dance a few hurried steps to the right to keep a safe distance away from Jorja’s creepy floating bogeyman familiar.

“They attacked America Tedd?”

“We don’t know,” Corbin said.

“The local small-fry goblins are saying they did,” Avery said, lowering her voice so the little kids wouldn’t hear.  “They expelled her, then went after her with students and Aware.  And now she’s gone?”

Brie, the only real adult present that wasn’t an Other, exactly, was trying to calm the youngest kids.  But she looked pretty bewildered herself.

She was more a newbie to all of this than the three of them.

And the other students who were left weren’t exactly the heavy hitters.  The Leos were, but the Leos’ practice was apparently expensive and they didn’t look eager to throw down.

“It’s going to be another power play when we get there,” Corbin said.

“I know,” Talos said.  “Don’t panic.  We have a bit of time before dinner.”

Lucy, Verona, and Avery exchanged a look.  Avery looked down to Snowdrop, who took her hand.

“Do we-” Verona’s expression was pained.  “Do we have to miss class?  To try to fix things so the rest of classes aren’t awful and manipulative?”

Avery gave Verona’s shoulder a squeeze.  Verona’s expression was cold, the emotion dropping away.

“Damn him,” Verona muttered.

“I told the earring I wanted to be scary to be against.  I don’t think they want to be nice to us,” Lucy said.  “So… time to live up to that.”

“Melody,” Avery said, turning.  “Or Talos, or Zachariah.  Can you walk us through what happened?”