Pale: 7.9 - Avery

Gone Ahead – 7.9 | Pale
“Take this,” Jessica told her.

They were in the little building with wood paneled walls and fluorescent lights that had gone up in the middle of the sports field.  Half of the anti-Bristow forces were within, getting treated for injuries and figuring out their plan.  Jessica held out a wrapped- Avery took it.  A wrapped, chocolate covered protein bar.

“I don’t want to take your supply, it’s-”

“It’s fine,” Jessica told her.  “I like those for energy, but if you don’t like it, I’ve got other stuff.”

She reached into a pocket, pulled out two chocolate bars, then put them back, pulled out two more.

While she did, Snowdrop reached over, took the protein bar, and opened the package.  She put it into Avery’s hand and moved her hand to her mouth.

“Is- did you make your raincoat supply you chocolate bars?” Avery asked.  She bit the bar.

“I’m self-taught.  I picked up what I did through trial and error,” Jessica said, taking a protein bar of her own.  “When I get a chance to learn or do something new, I start with the essentials.  Stuff that lets me stay in the Ruins longer.  Because not much ruins my day more than seeing a glimpse of what I’m after and then having to leave it behind because I have to come up for air.  Or food.  Or light.”

“So… no?” Snowdrop asked.

“I rigged one of the pockets to supply me with rations, yeah.”

Avery wanted to reply, but the protein bar, with raisins and almonds and sunflower seeds all compressed together into a dense honeyed mass and layered with chocolate, was very chewy.  It took some work to get it out of her mouth and into her throat.

Snowdrop lowered her head to where Avery’s hand rested with one thumb hooked into the pocket of her shorts, and she took a bite.  Avery let her.

Wary of the way past conversations with Jessica had gone, Avery ventured, “I do that too.  Focusing on basics.  For me, it’s running fast.  Whacking stuff.”

“If it works, it works.”

“Those glimpses?  That’s stuff like your cousin?” Avery asked.  Was the cousin a touchy subject?

“Other things too.  Power concentrates, down there.  You might see something bright or something that still glimmers, when so little can.  Sometimes that’s an echo, or a bird in a rusty birdcage that some skinny guy is carting around.  The trick that lets me ‘lose count’ of my snacks and never run out was one of those things.”

Avery nodded, taking another bite.

Jessica sat there, watching Zed talk to Brie, the two of them chewing.  Over to the side, Lucy and Verona were figuring out the papers of Bristow’s they wanted to distribute.

Snowdrop bent down to take another bite from the half-eaten protein bar that rested on Avery’s knee.

“If she wants one of her own, I have more,” Jessica said.

“I don’t mind,” Avery told her.  “I have enough siblings I got pretty used to it early on.  Feels a bit like home.”

“That’s important,” Jessica said.  “Feeling at home helps heal the Self, which you need after a stint in the Ruins.”

Snowdrop said something with her mouth full.

“Chew, then talk, you savage,” Avery said, poking Snowdrop in a bulging cheek.  Snowdrop flipped her the middle finger.

“Why are you being nice to me?” Avery asked.

“You weren’t… this.”

“You came.  You went looking.”

“A lot of people make promises to me,” Jessica told her.  “It doesn’t mean a lot, a lot of the time.  Deals to do something they put off until the last minute.  Or they track their own bullcrap in with it.”

“I don’t want to be dishonest, I wouldn’t give it the weight you are.  I was rattled, tired-”

“That’s it,” Snowdrop said, to Avery.  “Convince her she shouldn’t be nice to you.”

“When things get this bad, the bullcrap peels away and we show our real selves,” Jessica said.  “Yours is fine.”

“Thank you,” Avery said, voice small, not sure how else to reply.

“Your friend’s scares me.”

Avery looked at Verona.  Aside from being tired, frazzled, a bit bruised and scuffed up, her hair even scruffier than usual, Verona looked weirdly fine.

“She’s, uhhh…” Snowdrop snatched the rest of the bar out of her hand.  “You brat!”

Snowdrop ducked back out of Avery’s reach, and Avery winced, touching the horizontal cut Shellie had made at her collarbone and shoulder.

“Let’s get that fixed up,” Jessica said.  “I’ve got some medical stuff.  Sit.”

Avery sat back,butt against a table, feet on the floor.  Snowdrop hung back out of reach.

“You’re supposed to be backing me up, Snow.  Support me fixing up my Self.”

“I’m not sorry,” Snowdrop told her.  “Here, have it back.”

Avery looked at it, and something moved under the wrapper.  Avery nearly dropped it, and Snowdrop caught it.

“Is that Toadswallow chocolate?”

“Do you have another shirt?” Jessica asked, pulling some supplies out.  She handed Avery another protein bar.  Avery opened it.

“In my dorm room.  I liked this one, dang it.”

“Can’t help you there,” Snowdrop said, with her mouth full.  Avery kicked out in Snow’s direction, aiming for a light kick to the shin.

“Yeah?” Avery asked.  “How does that work?”

Snowdrop hopped up onto the table, switching to opossum form, masticating the remnants of the protein bar, crawled around behind Avery, and became human again while behind Avery.  She wore a short-sleeved shirt over a long-sleeved shirt, and shorts.  The short sleeved shirt was pink, had an winking opossum with makeup on, two paws over the end of her nose.    An dotted-line arrow  extended to the right, to where her eyes were, winking.  ‘Eyes over here’.

“That might be the first one I don’t get, Snow,” Avery admitted.  She looked at Jessica, who shrugged.

“Don’t wear it,” Snowdrop said, pulling off the one shirt, keeping the long-sleeved one on.

“I’m confused both about the shirt and the weirdness of wearing something that’s technically you, Snow.”

Jessica wiped something cold along the length of the cut.  Avery shivered, full-body.

“Do you want to try to salvage this shirt, or can I tear it some?”

Jessica’s face was very close, and her expression was very intent, and she was being caring and even though Jessica wasn’t the build she really liked, the rest of those things were enough together to get her attention.

Avery jumped as Jessica tore the shirt to get more access to the shoulder cut.

“No cracking, no veins.  You don’t feel heated or chilled?”

“No hallucinations?  Any figures at the corners of your vision?  Whispers?”

“Does she count?” Avery asked, indicating Snowdrop.  “Or her weird shirt?  Does the shirt make sense to people who aren’t possessed?”

“I see and hear her too, and half those shirts don’t make sense to me, don’t worry.  I assumed it was an internet thing.”

“I’ll put on some cream for scarring.  I don’t think you need stitches.  Maybe here and here, but I’m going to use some sterile glue.”

“Okay,” Avery said, taking the shirt from Snowdrop, who tried to steal the second protein bar as she handed it off, draping it over one leg.  She jumped again as Jessica touched something cold to the big cut.

“You’re turning blue,” Snowdrop said.  “You’re getting cold.”

Avery’s face felt warm.  Was she flushed?

“Hey, Snow?” she asked.

“I’m not sure if you’re trying to cheer me up or change the mood, but, uh, not now?”

Snowdrop swiveled around, scooted over, and sat on the table, her back against Avery’s.  She wasn’t that much shorter than Avery.  The back of her head rested against the back of Avery’s neck, like they meshed.

“You’re the same as you used to be,” Snowdrop said.

“You too, you know,” Avery said, grateful for the distraction from Jessica’s proximity.

“Pinch,” Jessica said.

Avery pinched her own skin together.  Jessica adjusted, then nodded.

“The Avery I got to know from the start wasn’t the sort who’d think that stuff was fun,” Snowdrop said.

“I think the Avery who you got to know from the beginning wasn’t one who’d dealt with the Wolf.  Or seen someone die.  Gabe, kind of.  For a certain meaning of death.”

“Alright then,” Snowdrop said, shifting position, her back pressing against Avery’s.  “I know just how to adjust, then.”

“We talk, Snow.  We communicate, we listen.  And as part of the communication, you can tell me what this shirt is about.”

“Whatever you do, you can’t ask Toadswallow.”

“Toadswallow isn’t here.”

“Ave,” Verona said, hurrying over.

“Yes?” Avery asked.  She was probably still flushed, because Verona grinned.

“Bristow’s coming, we’re going to mobilize.  He’s walking, so we’re going to run.  Can you catch up?”

“Probably.  What’s the plan?” Avery asked.

“Are we covered?” Verona asked Lucy.  “For Augury?”

“We’re not covered but we should know if they look,” Zed said, as he walked over.  Brie followed him.  “Why?”

“Discussing the plan.  Move number two of my hits against Bristow.  I want to burn his new place.  I think as far as coup, claim, screwing up the power he has here, it’s a pretty good move.  And it’s really hard to deal with Alexander while also handling the blaze, and it’s big, dramatic.”

“Can’t,” Zed told her.

“Okay, maybe it’s complicated to do, but-”

“But you can’t.  It’s worked into the runes below the place.  Believe me, technomancy is about places, and I was just scanning the place, less than fifteen minutes ago, to figure out the weak points.  After the recent fires in the library and stuff, I think they were extra careful.”

“Can we blow it up?” Verona asked.  “Where are the goblins?  Or the elementalist kids?”

“It’s pretty sturdy, Verona,” Zed said.  “Seriously.  He was expecting a fight.  He fortified it.”

Lucy stepped forward.  “It’s one hundred percent off the table as a plan?”

“Probably not one hundred percent, but… I think you want to find another tree to go barking up,” Zed answered.

The three of them paused.  Jessica moved Avery’s hand.  “Pinch.”

Avery pinched her own wound shut, again.  Jessica adjusted, then glued.

“You had four ideas on how to hit Bristow, Ronnie?” Lucy asked.

“Yeahhh.  Had.  Now I have three.  One that I just used.  And I just committed to hitting him three times.  Because it’s a good number.”

“Classic number, but maybe outline your other plans?” Zed asked.

“I wanted to hit him where his power is.  Three challenges that weaken or gainsay him, or make him a lot weaker against Alexander.  The last one, I challenged his word.  Challenge idea number two was the building.  If he loses his place on campus, he loses authority, he loses power, he loses standing, any stuff in there.”

“Not doable,” Zed said.

“He’s walking over here to challenge you.  You wanted to scare him enough he had to run.”

“And to get him to huff and puff and look less sure of himself, because he’s not a runner, yeah,” Verona said.  “Idea three was his Aware.”

“Which I’m very skeptical about,” Lucy told Verona.  “Every single time we try…”

“But Bristow is here, and so is Alexander.  If we can corner them into saying something, that-”

“Won’t do,” John said, from the background.

“No!” Verona exclaimed.  �Why won’t do!?”

“Guilherme thinks the Aware couldn’t be budged as things stood when they made their last move against us.  There’s no reason to think it could happen here.”

“But if we can go after one in a fight…” Verona said.  “We don’t have to convert them if we knock ’em out and hold them hostage.  Make him say he’s willing to let his hostage die in front of the others.  Even if it’s a small hit, if we can get three minor wins-”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” John told her.

“No!” She echoed, frustrated.  “Why?”

“Same principle as the building.  He brought them here knowing they’d be an obvious target.  He reinforced them.  I haven’t seen any true openings and I have a fair eye for these things.”

“It’s like you theorized, with how Shellie was affected,” Avery told Verona.

“We had four ideas,” Lucy said.  “Now we have-”

“Three,” Verona cut in.  “Attacking his oath was used, that leaves this one as a maybe, if we can hit his power base enough, weaken the way he set them up-”

“When hitting his power base is the goal?” Zed asked.  “That’s like saying you can move the queen piece where you need it if only you get the king into checkmate first.”

“Help me,” Verona told him.  She turned to Lucy, then Avery.

“What’s idea four?” Avery asked.

“You don’t keep your third in the loop?” Jessica asked.

“She’s off running around a lot, so she wasn’t there when conversations happened, or we were worried about being listened in on and we couldn’t say,” Verona said.

“Sorry,” Verona said, quiet.

“Fourth is the students,” Lucy told her.

“Kass and Mccauleigh,” Verona said.  “Maybe others.”

“Fernanda,” Avery said.  “After Laila?  They were friends.”

“How?” Zed asked.  “On short notice?”

“Knock them out, set them up… hope for two out of the three as they come to?” Lucy asked.

“It might not be that simple,”Jessica told them.

“But it’s not impossible?” Verona asked.

Jorja.  The younger sister of Tymon and Talos.  Her Bogeyman was behind her, hovering.

“With the knocking out part?” Jorja added.  “It’s okay if I get expelled.  I lost my friend, I don’t want to come back anymore.”

“I think we should get your brothers to sign off on this,” Brie said.  “If you get involved at all.”

“Your big problem is how you present this,” Zed told them.  “You don’t have to get expelled.”

“We do,” Zed said, glancing at Brie.  “Here’s what we do…”

“Ave,” Lucy said, while Zed talked to Jorja.  “You good to go?”

Avery nodded.  “I don’t suppose you can tell me what this shirt means?”

She held it up for the other two.

Snowdrop snorted, her back still to Avery’s.

“Or you?  Boon companion?”

“It’s a short, easy explanation…” Snowdrop said.

“No time,” Verona said.  “We split up?  Take one each?”

“I don’t have the juice,” Jorja said, to Zed, raising her voice.  “The binding lesson, I used a lot of it.”

“It’s that limited?” Verona asked, turning back.  “One shot, once a week?”

“A month?  Maybe every two months,” Jorja said.

“We’ll cover you,” Talos said, from the sidelines.

Jorja looked at her big brother.

“We got you,” Tymon added.

Jorja smiled, and the smile faltered as the lights flickered.

The lights went out, turned red, and then the ceiling went out, showing them the roof above, and then the walls went out, fritzing as they went.

A machine that hummed in the corner popped audibly, then began to smoke.

The group of them adjusted their positions, eyes adjusting to darkness.

Bristow had rounded the corner and now approached.

“Want me to stay?” John asked.

“Go to the woods, talk to the Others, get us set,” Lucy said.  “Please.  You have the anti-Kevin charm?”

He nodded once, raising his hand, where a little, blue-painted ‘eye’ charm dangled from a cord, an inch below the wrist.  Then he went.

Jessica gave the bandage at Avery’s shoulder a pat.

Avery quickly pulled on Snowdrop’s shirt, reached under to grip the existing shirt, and ripped it the rest of the way, before pulling the remains off through the armhole of the new shirt.  She looked at Snowdrop, then poked at the cord at Snowdrop’s neck, checking Snowdrop had the charm too.

Snowdrop drew a kitchen knife and rusty fork from her pockets.

Avery grabbed her stuff.  Hat on, mask on, cape on, bag slung over one shoulder.  She adjusted her charm bracelet and found it empty.  The Ruins had washed away the glamoured objects.

“On my signal,” Verona said.  She backed away a little as Bristow approached.  He had Rae and Ted with him, and a few students trailed a bit further behind.  “Jorja?  Talos, Tymon?”

“Ready,” Tymon said.  “We, uh, can’t protect you from what Jorja does.  Not on short notice.  Your opossum might not be as affected.”

“Damn,” Snowdrop said, quiet.  “I’m not okay protecting these three.”

“Here we are!” Bristow raised his voice.  “Made me come to you?  I’ve left poor Alexander waiting.”

“And here’s my second of three challenges!” Verona shouted, pumping her fist into the air.  “Now!”

Avery pumped her own fist into the air.  Lucy followed suit a bit later.

“Downer downpour!” Jorja called out, her voice high.  Her brothers had her back, each with a hand at her shoulder.

The Drugstore Cowgirl loomed out of the shadows.  A raver girl, drawn out tall and exaggerated, who arrived with vague clouds in multiple colors, and an expanding rain of pills and pellets.

“Tranquilizing Truce!” Jorja shouted.  “Let’s put a big pause button on the fighting!”

Making it a truce, affecting both sides, to get past the rule about harming students.

The pills changed, all to white and blue capped types.

A pill hit Verona like a bullet fired from sky to ground, and Verona keeled over.

One bounced off of the brim of Avery’s hat and off of Snowdrop’s head.  Another punched through, without leaving a hole.  It slipped into her, flooded her mind, and she was out.

“They used to think the Paths were dreams.”

The voice had an off-kilter edge to it.  Like how a hacksaw could make different sounds on the push and the pull.  Pushes for some words, pulls for others.

“Then they thought different.  They’re far-flung realms, the cliff’s edge of the world, so ragged that the pieces flake off.”

The Wolf stood opposite Avery.  Old, hunched over, but big, wearing a startlingly red dress.  Laila laid at the woman’s feet.

The Wolf put her foot under Laila’s neck and lifted it.  Toes worked their way through Laila’s hair.

She stomped.  The head made a sickening, familiar sound.

“The Paths are dreams, Avery,” the Wolf said.  “And they are the edge of reality.”

She raised Laila’s ruined face, lifting with toes gripping hair, and then stomped again.  The sound repeated.

“Both at the same time.  The world’s dream, your dream.  One and the same.  Humans make up the world and that has its border.  Its sharp edge.”

She stomped again, then again, with a faster tempo.

“Your world, your dream, your edge of sanity.  I’m here, Avery.  I haven’t left.”

The stomps repeated, drumming wet, until they defied sense and reality.  The head going to pieces, the original chunks becoming pulp.

The exact same sound was there, behind it all, repeating over and over again.  The sound of Laila’s head hitting rock.

Avery’s hand clutched her shirt, over her heart.  The shirt Snowdrop had given her.  It helped, just a tiny bit.  But she needed even the tiny bit.

“How long would it take you to get home, to mother, father, family, brothers and sisters, a nice warm bed?  How long, if you decided to run?  To ask for help and drive it?  Hours and hours.” the Wolf asked, against the backdrop drumming of sick, violent sounds.  “How long would it take for you to get to me, if you wanted to?  Less than an hour.”

When there was nothing left for the Wolf to stomp, what happened?

“How long would it take me to get to you?”  The Wolf laughed, and it was an eerie sound, that hacksaw effect all the more pronounced, decorated with blood spatter and a foot pounding its way past broken bone.  “How long?  Seconds, once the way is clear.  I’m closer to you than home is.  I want to embrace you more than anyone or anything else does.  The briefest of embraces, before I tear you to pieces.”

Avery swallowed, and it took effort, made her head shake.  She didn’t break eye contact.

The Wolf’s foot came down, and it slipped, turning sideways, scraping to the side in the red gore.  A look of surprise crossed the Wolf’s face.

The look of surprise became a toothy smile, ear to ear, her eyes dark.

She lunged, moving with long, gnarled limbs and a reaching hand with long, broken fingernails.

Avery, keeping to the rules, didn’t back up.  She ducked left, avoiding the reaching claw.

A hand gripped her neck, and terror seized her.

Alpeana.  She recognized the face.  The second or two it took to process the realization were more than enough time for the Wolf to get her from behind.

Alpeana pulled her into the dark woods.

Avery woke, scrambling, pulling away from the shadows of Alpeana’s darkness.

“If you’re unconscious as I arrive, that’s a failure to meet,” Bristow said.

“I’m conscious,” Verona said.  All around them, people had collapsed.  Only the Others, Jorja and her family, Brie, Zed, and those of Bristow’s contingent that had come with were unaffected.  Snowdrop crouched nearby, brandishing her weapons at Ted.  “A brief lapse.  If you’re focused on that, you’re not paying attention to the challenge.”

“Help,” Alpeana whispered.  “I cannae work so fast.”

Avery gripped Snowdrop’s shoulder, then started running.  Ted lunged, reaching, and momentarily got his hand on Snowdrop.  She swiped with the fork and he let her go.  He didn’t run after.

Lucy was already running.  Not as fast, but running.  Circling around the western end of the school.

“Fernanda,” Avery huffed.

“I dinnae know tha names, lassie.”

“Daughter, prissy, our age, pretty, skinny.”

“I dinnae pay much mind ta faces, either.  Prissy covers a wee bit under half tha lot.”

“She lost a friend.  Her friend died.  Hit the rocks, because- we think it was Kevin.  The evil eye.”

Alpeana’s darkness roiled, chasing, buoying.  It pushed Avery, encouraging her forward.

She ran by the woods.  And she saw the goblins trying to match pace.  Gashwad was faster.

“What!?” Avery asked.

“The shirt!” Gashwad raised his voice, before laughing.

“Focus!” Lucy barked.  “Cover us!”

Alexander was there, amid the workshops and other external buildings, his back to the parking lot.

So was Clementine, unconscious.  So were some other adults Avery didn’t recognize.  Alexander was waking students.

“I got Kass!” Lucy shouted.  “We talked about her, Alpeana!”

“Aye, I remember!  Direct me!”

Alpeana’s amorphous, multi-limbed, multi-faced form grew and divided.

“Can’t-” Alpeana said.

She peeled away.  The darkness dissipated, hands, faces and black drain-guck hair-smoke pulling back.

Rae, hands in her pockets, walked down the stairs.  She was a woman who could have been a model or celebrity, except she looked so tired.  The woman held out a hand, and a pill bounced off of it.

“Weird,” Rae said, her voice hollow.

Lucy was dragging Kass off to the side.  As she got Kass out of sight, Alpeana was free to work.

If we can get the Aware to split up… that’s another challenge.  We need three wins.  Three wins against Bristow when he and Verona are going back and forth on the Brownie thing should tip things in our favor.

They had two challenge ideas, one of which they’d managed okay.  The second was the students, and Rae was in the way of that.  The third could be the Aware, but that wasn’t likely to happen.

“Don’t know you.  This is all pretty crazy, huh?”

“Kevin sure dragged you into something, huh?” Avery asked.  Snowdrop took her hand.

“He does that,” Rae said.

Avery glanced at Alexander, who stood back.  He’d woken Clementine, who looked up.

On the other side, though, other reinforcements had arrived.  Chase and Nicolette.

They approached and backed Rae.  Silent and staring.

“We got the rundown on the Kevin thing,” Avery said.

“Yeah?  Seems like everyone knows my life.  Parents, friends, strangers.  Whatever you’re going to say, I promise you, people closer to me, older, with more experience in the world have said it.”

“Okay,” Avery said.  She shook her head.  “What are you doing here?  Why here, why now?”

“It’s kind of a vacation getaway.  Not really a vacation, not really a getaway, but kind of, isn’t it?” Rae asked.  She smiled, and it was a bit wry, like feelings behind it betrayed the smile.

“Can I get you to go inside?”

“Why not?” Avery asked.  She paced, trying to direct Rae’s attention away from Kass and Lucy.  Maybe Lucy could get Fernanda and they could do something there.

“Kevin’s counting on me.”

“Kevin’s kind of a dick, though,” Avery said.

“He’s mine,” Rae answered.  “My guy.  He’s letting me in by showing me the kind of work he does when he goes away.  So whatever you’re doing, whatever reason they need to have private security, while weird rich kids run around… stop.  Don’t make me stop you.”

Rae’s hand went to her waist.  She had a gun holstered there.  The hand rested on the handle with a casual ease.

It was like she’d stopped caring about anything.

Rae shrugged.  “Privileged.  You can come to a place like this.”

Avery was close enough to Alexander and Clementine now.  Clementine went to take a step forward and Alexander stopped her.

“No, you wanted to interrupt?  Interrupt.  We can wait until you’re done.”

“I don’t really know Rae,” Clementine said.

“Help?” Avery asked Nicolette.

“I’m not sure I could, even if I had the a-ok.  I’m very sorry.  The situation sucks,” Nicolette said.

“Maybe get Raymond to come?”

“He stepped in a few too many times,” Chase answered.  “He’s taken a spot critical enough in the world scene that within the hour that he takes a side, six or seven people bigger than Durocher, Bristow, or anyone here will wipe him off the face of the planet.  Guaranteed.  They’re deliberating now.  Because he countered the movements of the staff the one time, he arranged healing for a student on one side, and some other stuff.”

“Sounds big,” Rae said.  “I won’t pretend or try to understand.  But just in case it keeps me on the right side of people that big and important, I’m going to insist you all stay put and stay quiet until some others arrive.”

“Is this really what you want?” Avery asked Rae, still moving, pacing, leading her to the side and away from Lucy.

Rae didn’t answer.  She only laughed.

And it was an unhinged, hacksaw-back-and-forth kind of laugh.

“Avery!” Lucy raised her voice.

Rae twisted around, pulling the gun free of the holster, and aimed it at Lucy.

Lucy, who’d stepped out of cover, left Alpeana and Kass, who hadn’t gone for Fernanda.  Stepping into danger.

Lucy bit her lip, then raised a hand slowly to her eye.  Her other hand remained still.  She scratched her eye as she made eye contact with Avery.  While held at gunpoint.

Avery turned her Sight on.

Mist over everything.  Motion made more real.  She could see connections, and she could see movement.  Changes in expression clearer than expressions themselves.

Rae was like stone, unmoving.

And the mist was thick, cloudy, noxious.

Like it was acid, the mist was eating away at connections.

The longer, fragile one, it was between- not Avery and Lucy.

Avery looked down at Snowdrop, then took a step away, before wishing she hadn’t.

The step away gave her a better view of her little friend.  Her companion, and the way connections between Lucy and Snowdrop were dissolving.  The connections between Snowdrop and Avery.

“This is great,” Snowdrop said.  Her hand went to her throat.

“Easy!” Rae raised her voice, the gun moving with an erratic swing.  Even Alexander ducked some.  “None of you are moving until Kevin comes back or my landlord comes and passes on other orders.”

Ted.  Ted had momentarily gotten his hand on Snowdrop.

“Oh, I’m like a little trash goblin.  I have lots of junk.  Weird that I lost that,” Snowdrop said.

You’re a Lost, denizen of Paths.  You can’t hold onto stuff, you told me that.  Not weird you lost your grip on it.

You couldn’t have ditched the stupid knife or fork?

“Don’t say or do anything,” Lucy urged.  “It makes it worse.”

“Shut up!” Rae raised her voice, reacting to the change in tension.

“Rae,” Clementine said.

Rae pointed the gun at Clementine.

“They’re kids,” Clementine said, staring down the barrel of a gun, with one eye that was half-closed, a little foggy, the other unwavering.  “Don’t you want kids one day?”

The agitation grew as the smoke did.

“Hey, loser,” Snowdrop said, turning her head to look at Avery.

Avery shook her head.  Small motions.

“Eh,” Snowdrop said, her voice wavering.  “Sucked knowing you.”

“You little brat,” Avery hissed.  “Don’t you dare.”

“If I die here, I’m going to leave you without a cool shirt on,” Snowdrop said.  “Funny.”

Avery mentally translated.

If I die here, I’ll leave you with a shitty t-shirt.  Tragic.

Their help was on the other side of the building.  Unconscious or tied up with Bristow.  Verona was stuck there, dealing with the trials, presenting or countering any arguments.

The goblins couldn’t take on an innocent Aware.  Maybe Clem, but Rae was a danger.

“You didn’t explain the shirt to me,” Avery told Snowdrop.

“Don’t ask Toadswallow.”

Avery took a step back.  Snowdrop flopped over.

A car alarm in the parking lot sounded, going off, whooping through the air and casting a faint red tint into the gloom as the lights on the back flicked on and off.

“Pay attention to me,” Rae said, gun raised, a curl of smoke barely visible from the barrel.

Avery paid attention to her, expression serious.

The noxious mist cleared.  Avery’s focus was on the smallest of Rae’s movements.  Of Lucy’s.

“What the hell’s with her?  I wasn’t aiming anywhere near her,” Rae said.  “It was a warning shot.”

Avery didn’t move, didn’t look away.

The connection was still there.  Even if she didn’t look, she could feel it.  It healed as the mist seeped away.

Snowdrop had fainted.  Kevin’s influence had pulled away, thinking his job was done.

Avery didn’t budge, her eye on the ‘ball’.

“Distract her,” Avery hissed.

“Did you actually hit her?” Lucy asked.

“I aimed in the air.  You saw.”

“Is she dead?  Did you kill a kid?” Lucy asked.

Closing the gap in record time.

She reached for Rae, her Sight showing the woman as a silhouette surrounded by handprints.  Not touching her- apparently he hadn’t hurt her like that.  But they were there and so dense they were a wall.  Comments, barbs, other things he’d done to separate her from the world.

Avery couldn’t get past that.  She knew it by looking at it.  By how they seemed to clarify instead of fading or pulling away as she got closer.

Each one, instead of fingerprints, had scenes, as though the whorls and prints were papers, arranged into the shape of a man in a doorframe.  A scribbled word against a background at a store.

Rae wasn’t the enemy here.  Something supernatural had pulled her to a place dark and unreachable.  And Avery couldn’t touch her there, couldn’t get to her.

So Avery went for the gun.  She’d spotted the connections that had jumped out when the gun had fired and claimed everyone’s attention and now she pursued those.

She barely grazed the side of the gun, reaching out.  But she could grip connections and put her power into those connections.  Like she had on day three of the practice.  Reclaiming her mask.

It was, in Rae’s reality, a grazing touch at a moment she didn’t have a good grip.  The gun fell from her grip.

Avery hit the ground, the cut on her chest screaming like she’d just torn it open again, as she landed on her back, holding the weapon.  She raised her feet, a barrier, and kicked as Rae lunged in, reaching.

“I’ve taken self defense,” Rae told her, grunting as she pushed a leg aside.  Avery flipped over and scrambled back, holding the gun pointed down and to the side.

Rae didn’t fight like she’d just taken self defense.  She fought like Avery had imagined Ted would.  Slippery, fast, strong.

The ‘slip’ part of that might have been the kind of Aware she was.  Nothing got to her.  Not words, not a reaching hand trying to get hold of her wrist.

But some of it was something else.  Like she was in the zone, her focus entirely there.

“This isn’t you!” Avery grunted.

“It’s us!” Rae shouted, groping for the weapon.

“You’re worse off because of it!”

Avery twisted, kicked, and pushed Rae away.  It barely landed, barely worked.

“No,” Rae said, again, before adding, “I can’t be alone.  I won’t ever be alone again.”

The words were heavy.  Rae’s presence heavier still, as she crowded in on Avery.  Using reach to win the wrestling match for the weapon.  There was no self-preservation on Rae’s part.

“Might not be alone right now,” Avery grunted.  “But you’re not you either.  Not like this!”

She pushed.  It worked.  Rae moved back a bit.

Avery feinted, and Rae fell for it.

Avery used the moment to turn, to hop up onto the hand-rail by the stairs of one of the exterior classrooms and run up to the top of the stairs, her feet by the doorknob.

As Rae circled around to the bottom of the stairs, Avery hopped up, climbing onto the roof.

“Get- come down here!” Rae shouted.

Avery gave the woman the finger, glancing warily at Alexander and then over at Chase and Nicolette.

She glanced down at the gun, figured out how it worked while being very careful of where it was pointing and what she was doing, and ejected the clip.

She tossed the clip into the darkness behind the building, then set the gun down in a gap between gutter and a chimney-pipe.  It would be hard to find in daylight.

Chase was chanting.  Nicolette hung back, looking miserable, eyes on the ground.

Where?  Avery looked around.  They’d tended to Fernanda and Kass.   There was still Mccauleigh.

Was Mccauleigh back in her family’s room?  Hiding out?  Or- had she gone with family?  Avery didn’t see any of the Hennigars.  She hadn’t since Hadley had left the building, when the others had been stuck in the top floor of Bristow’s building, listening to that music box.  Hadley had jumped out of the window.

Hennigars were gore-streaked.  They did the warcry thing as part of a war-pact that let them endure or deal with pretty much anything, as long as they paid for it in violence.

Had they gone looking for trouble?

Toward the ‘enemy’.  Toward the back of the school, where Zed and Verona still were?

Avery turned, took a running start, and leaped from the rooftop of the workshop to the canopy over the outdoor dining tables.

From canopy to the sloping rooftop over the window that looked into the library.  She landed, slid down half a foot, then scrambled up.

Up to the peaked rooftop, where she had a view.

Chase’s chant was getting louder.

Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t good.

Avery scanned, searching.

She wished she had Verona’s eyes for seeing in the dark.

Verona and Jorja were surrounded by the Hungry Choir.  Twenty children gathered around them, warding off Bristow’s group and Tedd.  It looked like Zed might have taken a punch, because he was sitting on the ground, one hand at his cheek.

The Hennigars.  Had they followed?  They’d want to be close to the action.

Avery looked, scanning… scanning…

Smoke erupted behind Avery.

Lucy and Chase.  She had tried to interrupt him.  But he kept chanting.

Nicolette put herself between Chase and Lucy.

Avery wanted to help, but the way she could really help was by spotting the target.

One person to find out of the twenty-five or so that were in the gloom.

If she used a light, she might get a glimpse.  But she would get pursuers, interference.  Whatever else.

Musser was down there with his niece and son.

Past them were the Hennigars.

“Alpeana, Alpeana, Alpeana,” Avery murmured, finding and reaching for that connection at the same time.  She gave it a tug.

Black drain-hair and smoke swirled up the side of the school building and pooled.  A pale face and limbs emerged from it, tilted and bent in odd ways.

“Thar she is.  Tha Belanger laddie is preparin’ to wake ’em all.”

“He dinnae say.  Ye sure want a dangerous one, Avery.  That Musser family isn’t a joke.”

“Distract them, aye?  And dinnae go blamin’ me if we’re short on time.  Unless ye want ta get tha Belanger blowhard while ye’re at it.”

“Git tae!” Alpeana exclaimed, as she slipped from the roof to the woods.

Avery went further down the rooftop peak, closer to Bristow.

Then she let herself slide, making noise as feet scraped shingles.  She banged the gutter.

Musser and Bristow both looked up.

Ted put himself between her and Bristow.  Musser took a running start, disappeared from view, then appeared, gloved hand gripping the roof’s edge.

“Uncle!” Raquel shouted.

His son followed.  Blackhorne put a hand out and practically heaved Reid up to the roof’s edge.  Drowne followed shortly after, flung with the other hand, moved faster, and caught Reid as he landed on the roof, helping secure his balance.

Reid drew two knives from his waist.

Musser walked with his hands in his pockets, moving easily along the sloped roof.

“I don’t intend to let you by,” Musser said.

“What if I say please?”

“Uncle!  Reid!” Raquel shouted.

Again, the two were silent, focused on their enemy.

“Try waking the Hennigars again, Raquel!” Mr. Musser called out.

“We’re- there’s an Other!” Raquel shouted.

Alpeana and the goblins were at the edge of the clearing, near the Hennigars.  Raquel couldn’t advance any further because Tashlit was there.

Avery let herself slide down the roof, toward Bristow, and Musser moved to counter.

She scrambled, running, and made a beeline for Chase, instead.

“Reid, deal with her!” Musser called out.

Avery skidded, running on the southern side of the rooftop, closer to Alexander, Chase, Nicolette, and Lucy, as Reid, Blackhorne, and Drowne crested the peak.

Blackhorne ducked out of view as Rae looked.  Drowne, a little more capable of passing as human, carried on after.

Avery half-ran, half-skidded on her way down, and threw herself toward the ground, rolling many times as she landed.

She hoped the others could deal with Musser.

Drowne was fast, and the Other with wet hair matched her pace with ease.

Black smoke erupted around them, and Avery decided to trust it, hiding in it, instead of avoiding it.  She could hear Drowne, hear Chase, and hear Rae shouting.

Maybe if she got the gun-

A hand seized her neck, not for the first or second time today.  Clammy, cold, and wet.

Drowne had her.  And, as he reached into the smoke, he had Lucy too.

Reid was there on the roof, holding a chain stretched taut between two fists, like there was some purpose to it.  He smiled like it was all planned.

All of those still sleeping and unconscious had lights glowing between their two eyelids.  Rae didn’t seem to notice.

“There we go,” Drowne said.

“Open your eyes!”  Chase shouted, clapping.

The clap came with a breeze, or a shockwave.  The lights in people’s eyes went out like candles blown out in a strong wind.

The sleeping people awoke.

Did we get enough?  We got Kass, we got Fernanda.  No guarantee they’ll take the cue, but if a nightmare can be a wake up call about something…

“Just step-!” Lucy called.  Drowne gave her a fierce shake to get her to be quiet.

“Don’t change sides!” Snowdrop called out.  She’d woken with others.  “Don’t give Verona and Avery and Lucy credit!”

“That is the worst reverse psychology I’ve ever heard.  And I’ve had a geriatric try to tutor me in emotion manipulation.”

Nobody seemed willing to step up or be the one to cross the lines.

This was supposed to be a second win.  They’d committed to three and they’d been pared down to two, no matter how much Verona seemed to think the Aware could be taken out as a third condition.

“Don’t join the side with my friends on it!” Snowdrop called out.

“Shut up!” Fernanda shouted.

“Fernanda,” Alexander said.

“No!  You shut up too!” Fernanda called out.  “You were supposed to either lose or make things better when you got back!”

“Either-or?  You should blame them.  They’re the reason this is messy.”

“Get bent!” Lucy shouted at him.

“You suck!” Avery called out.

“Enough,” Drowne told them.  “Insults can be come curses.  Come.”

“Can you tell Lawrence I’m waiting patiently while he struggles to get his house in order?” Alexander called out.

Drowne glared at the man, and dragged Avery and Lucy with.  Avery motioned for Snowdrop to hang back, and Drowne shook her, somehow slapping her hand down and away.  Dead eyes met hers, warning.

Nicolette shifted position.  She reached out for Lucy.

“I don’t need help,” Drowne said.

“I’m helping regardless,” Nicolette said.  She extended a hand to Lucy’s face.  “Sorry.”

“You suck!” Avery shouted at her.

Nicolette moved her hand, touched Drowne’s face, and closed his eyelids.

He jerked, stumbling back, then remained where he was, still holding them, eyes still closed.

He let go of Avery and Lucy, hands going to his face.

“-kkkkkkked!” Avery forced it.  “You rock now!”

“I don’t know that I do.”

“What the hell are you doing!?” Chase shouted.

“I guess I’m giving up on a really cool position with a group of Augurs.  And ending up on the bad side of both Bristow and Belanger,” Nicolette said.  She pushed Avery and Lucy behind her.  “I’m probably going to be in a lot of debt as far as deals I’ve made, I might lead the rest of my life destitute, doing this.  But… I think I can make do.”

“Did you forget I’m better than you?” Chase asked.

“You are… as an augur,” Nicolette said.  “I’m pretty darn good with some scary arts, you know.”

“I have more years of training in elementalism, shamanism, fighting…”

“We can try fighting,” Nicolette told him.  “Your call.”

“You’d have to deal with us too,” Lucy said, from a position a step behind Nicolette.

Snowdrop hurried over.  She wrapped her arms around Avery in a hug.

Chase didn’t opt for a fight.

“Rae,” Bristow called out.

He was there, at the corner of the building, walking around.

Avery’s Sight alerted her to motion.  Verona appeared at the roof, cat form.  Avery raised a hand, and Verona bounded over.

“Go inside.  Relax.  Find Kevin and Shellie.  Send them out.”

Ted and the Mussers followed behind Bristow, along with Tanner, two of the Hennigars, and some Others.  Blackhorne was with them.

As the man arrived, students sorted themselves out.  Many were still waking up.  They backed away from one another, as battle lines were unconsciously drawn.  A gap sat between Alexander and Bristow.

Fernanda situated herself off to the side, near the alley between two buildings.  Not choosing either, her head hanging a bit.

Verona hopped down and became human, and joined Avery, Lucy, and Snowdrop.  They took up positions opposite Fernanda, at the edge of no man’s land.

“What happened, Fernanda?  Your family’s fortunes are rising,” Bristow said.

“I’m a manipulator.  I know they were messing with me, showing me those things.  Putting Laila in front of me.  I don’t care.  It happened on your watch.”

“Been thinking about this for a while.”

Bristow nodded.  “The original allegation was forged.”

“Doesn’t matter.  The school handbook warns the brownies may act if they get your gratitude, affirmations, or positive feedback,” Verona said.  “I looked it up.”

“Followed by two halfhearted, paltry attacks,” Bristow said.  “I’ve told Mrs. Hayward that we do not operate in absolutes.  A regret about an outcome is not a regret about what I’ve done regarding her hometown, nor is a general sign of happiness over outcomes aimed at the staff.”

“Halfhearted defenses on your part, you mean!” Verona shouted.  “All of this, us three working so hard against you!?  Follows from what you did to our home!  And you owe the staff for the help you got!”

“Paltry!” Bristow spat the words.  “And a few changed minds?  Is that your form of attack?  Two students who barely rate?  Lesser daughters from lesser families?”

Lucy touched Verona’s arm, indicated Nicolette.

“Four,” Verona said.  “Mccauleigh has doubts, and Nicolette’s abandoned you.  You put so much importance on people but you don’t keep them!  You lost them.  Is this the kind of leadership you’re going to have?  You’re going to keep losing people, and you put so much pride on holding onto people like Clem, like Kevin, or Ted.”

Was this Verona’s hope?  That she could find the leverage to affect the Aware, score a win there too?

But Ted didn’t budge.  Kevin and Shellie emerged from the building, and took up spots behind Bristow.

“Your office is trashed,” Shellie told Alexander.

“Not the kind of damage I did.  Don’t lie, Alexander,” she said, her voice low.

Alexander pressed his lips together.

“It’s scarcely anything in the grand scheme of it all,” Bristow told Verona.

“It’s a win for me and a loss for you.”

“And?” he asked.  He spread his arms.

“And!?  For all this petty teenage drama, this interference, this petulance!?” he asked.

Verona didn’t have an answer.

“It weakens your position, Bristow,” Alexander said.  “Funny how that works.  May I continue, then?”

They didn’t have a third challenge.

Not unless Avery wanted to jump up to the roof and maybe try to gun down Kevin.

Probably wouldn’t work.  Musser was there.

Was this all their effort had amounted to?  A shaking of Bristow’s cage, giving Alexander the win?  When he’d stood by like that?  He’d probably planned this this way.  It was what he did.

“If you must,” Bristow said.  “But-”

“Wait!” Avery took off.

Running.  Straight for Alexander.

“What are you-?” Alexander asked.

She ducked around him, bumping him a bit, to knock him back.

Taking Clementine’s hands.  Avery’s momentum was such that she circled around Clementine, spinning the woman in a half-circle.

“Give them nothing,” Alexander interrupted.  “They interrupted us, they made us wait, Bristow isn’t right about much, as far as I’m concerned but he’s right that their attempt was feeble.  They-”

“They’re kids!” Clementine spoke up.  “They’re kids, and I don’t understand anything, but they were kind to me and they should be listened to, not talked over, especially by their teachers.  I think they were fair to me, when they could have been harsh.  Mr. Bristow?”

Lawrence didn’t speak.  He remained there, backed by two tall men, flanked by students, by staff.  Others who the Aware shouldn’t see hung back in shadows.  Visible to Avery, Lucy, and Verona, but not Ted or Kevin.

Clementine cleared her throat, and then addressed Mr. Bristow, “Mr. Bristow, Alexander has things to say to you.  So do tenants who think you’ve failed to do a very good job, because you’re spreading yourself too thin.  My sink still needs fixing, I can speak on behalf of a few others who have wanted your help or attention but haven’t been able to get in touch.  You let things slide.”

“All will be tended to, barring interference or extraordinary event.  I promise,” Bristow said.

“Okay, well, while we’re on the topic of promises, this is the big one.  You promised me you’d answer a question for me.”

“I am in my rights,” she said, glancing at Alexander, “to demand an answer now.”

“I gave her some advice,” Alexander said.

“Give,” Avery whispered. “Help.”

“Everyone wants answers now.  Go home, Ms. Robertjon.  I’ll speak to you there, barring unexpected circumstance.”

“I demand my answer,” she said, more firmly.  “You owe me for the trouble-”

“For the trouble Daniel, Sharon, and I put those three girls through.  For their sakes-”

“On our behalf,” Avery said.

“On their behalf, please answer in the here and now.”

“Third challenge, woo!” Verona whooped.  “Let’s do it!”

Bristow gave her the side eye, then stared Clementine down.

“Third challenge, sure,” Clementine said, very serious.

Stolen from Alexander.  He had to have something prepped against Bristow.

Alexander didn’t look happy.

“What are the questions?”

“Question one,” Clementine said.  “How may I, Clementine Robertjon, or anyone I designate to search on my behalf, access the most valuable pieces of information you keep on me?”

“Pieces of information?” he asked.

Diagram? Avery thought.  Is this the arrangement that has the Aware all secured and trapped?

“Ask your second question.”

“How many I, or anyone I designate to search on my behalf, access the most valuable pieces of information you keep on Ted Havens, tenant and assistant manager of the building?”

“How may I, or anyone I designate to search on my behalf, access the most valuable pieces of information you keep on Sharon Griggs, tenant and sometime helper of yours?”

“I can guess how the rest go.”

“Are you going to rush home?” Alexander asked.  “It’s a long, long drive.  I can testify, as I just traveled the opposite direction.  And I can tell you that Wye may be injured, but he’s ready.  Everything you have on them, to keep them under your thumb?  It’ll be long gone by the time you even cross the provincial border.”

“I want my answer now,” Clementine declared.

“Third challenge!” Verona crowed.  “Is it going to be a third, sucky half-answer?  Because that sounds pretty bad for you as far as our back-and-forth go over your difficulties with the staff.  You’re wobbly with your word, got it on paper, as you’ve seen, you’re not keeping students-”

“Letting them die,” Fernanda said.

“-and you’re not keeping promises made to tenants?  Gosh!”

“Thank you,” Avery murmured to Clementine.

Ted laid a hand on Bristow’s shoulder.  Bristow, wordless and still, flinched, jerking back out of the way of the hand.  He took a few seconds to resume his prior posture, gradually resettling.

“Lawrence?” Alexander asked.  “Cede.”

“There are ways.  Verona- if you’re claiming this win and he can’t dispute, would you agree to go easy?  There are ways to deal with the staff, the tenant situation, but you’d need to clear it.”

“Sure!  If he agrees to terms,” Verona said.  “Gladly, sure.”

“Stepping down,” Alexander said.

“You don’t get to take control over this!” Lucy raised her voice.  “You failed people here.  You let things slide, you- you ruined Seth!”

“You don’t get to win here!” Lucy raised her voice.  “You don’t!  You don’t get to decide terms!  Bristow!”

“Can you call me Mr. Bristow, please?” the man asked.

“Step down,” Lucy said.  Verona nodded beside her.  “Make amends to Laila.  To all of us, we deserve something for the pain and stress you put everyone here through.  Release your hold on your tenants.”

“Agree to leave us alone,” Verona added.  “No retaliation against anyone here, or anyone related to us.”

“Giving up everything?” Bristow asked.  “Everything I’ve built, everything I am?”

“You’d be alive, you’d even be able to salvage relationships,” Lucy said.

“I wouldn’t even have the flames of hate and revenge to drive me forward.”

“You’d be alive.  Free.”

Unforsworn, Avery finished.

“I won’t make this any easier by surrendering.  I’ll leave the mess that follows to you,” Bristow intoned, his eyes downcast, the light making veins and lines on his head very visible.  “In a little while, bad things will come to pass.  Things that end cities.  I don’t know what they are, but the conditions are right.  What I was going to build here would have prepared us.  Yes, it’s harsher.  Yes, fewer students make it through, but we’d be ready and organized against threats to come.  It won’t be in the next few years, it may not even be in the next decade, but I think these wrongs are coming in your lifetimes.  And I damn the lot of you to it.”

Ted reached for him again, and he smacked Ted’s hand aside.

“Bristow!” Alexander called out.

“You most of all,” Bristow said, without turning back.

On either side of him, in blue tinted windows that glowed with interior light, x-shaped eyes opened, orange-red.

They multiplied, opening from bottom to top, in all of the available windows.

“This is dumb,” Verona’s voice was barely audible, talking to Bristow.

Verona’s eyes were purple with the Sight, visible only to fellow Sight-havers, and as the orange eyes filled the window, turning it from pale blue to orange-red, Verona’s eyes reflected that, doing much the same, purple to a warmer color.

The Aware, looking back, didn’t seem to notice the interior lights were different.

“As my last act as headmaster, you and your friends are expelled, for acting against a teacher.”

“I don’t think you’re headmaster anymore,” she said.

Bristow shook his head.  He turned to Musser to say something.

He pushed the doors open.  For the brief moment the double doors were open wide enough to let him pass through, the room was bright and stirred, as if an orange-red flame burned inside.

The doors closed behind him.

The multitude of orange-red eyes closed, or turned away.

The interior returned to a soft blue.

Verona didn’t even seem to flinch.  Lucy’s eyes were downcast.

“As practical lessons go,” Alexander Belanger said, “that was a steep one.  Shall we-”

“You’re not headmaster,” Nicolette called out.

“Can someone get Ray?” Nicolette asked.  “Zed?  I know you’re still mad, but please?  Tell him Bristow’s gone, he doesn’t need to worry about taking sides anymore.”

Zed nodded.  He hurried up the stairs, past the remnants of Bristow’s continent.  Into the building.  No ‘fire’ of x-shaped eyes burned inside as he pushed the door open.

“This goes smoothest if I resume my position as teacher.”

“Let’s wait for Ray,” Nicolette said.

Ray didn’t take long at all.

He stepped outside, wearing red sunglasses despite having been indoors, long hair combed, dress shirt and suit jacket on, with a very narrow red tie.

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” Raymond said.  “Bristow’s gone?  Can I get confirmation?”

There were wary nods here and there.

“Students, I’m sorry.  I believe we’ll have a reduced class selection for the next few days while we get things sorted and organized.  Mr. Musser, while I have your ear, would you happen to be available?”

“Alright.  I know some students haven’t eaten.  I’ll ask the staff to please put something quick together.  Guests- you are-?”

“Tenants,” Clementine raised her voice.

“Tenants of Lawrence Bristow.  You’re welcome to stay for dinner.  It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to get ready once I get them started, and the quality is top notch.  If you are unable or unwilling to make the drive home tonight, I can look into accommodations.  Things are chaotic, so I beg your patience in all things.  I beg everyone’s.  I’m not good at this, I don’t enjoy it, but I will do my best for all of you.”

“Raymond,” Alexander said.

Raymond held up a finger.  “Students, please be aware, I’ve expressed a very strict no-tolerance policy in the past.  If there are any lingering disputes, please put them to bed, or reach out to staff to resolve them.  If I have to expel anyone as a result of this, rest assured, I will not be paving the way for those expelled students to return.  A headmaster will replace me, I’m sure, and their policies will be their policies.  I’ll do what I can to ensure the selection is as agreeable to everyone as is possible.”

“Ray,” Alexander said, approach.

“Alex.  Can you please seek accommodations elsewhere?”

“This isn’t the way to do this.”

“Please,” Raymond said, voice firm.  “I will find you as soon as matters are settled here.  I hate deadlines, but I’ll suggest a gentle one of two or three days.”

“Make it a vote,” Alexander told Ray.

“You realize, by taking any other course, you earn my enmity.”

“By making it a vote, with what you’ve set up here in this school, I’d be making you headmaster.”

“The alternative is having me as a very dangerous enemy.”

“Understood,” Ray answered, quiet, very serious.

Alexander remained where he was.

A student put up their hands.

“I know there are a lot of questions,” Raymond said, to the student.  “And many of you will want to speak to me.  I’ll do what I can, but if you’ll be patient, ask classmates what you can, get comfortable, eat when food is served… hopefully questions can hold until tomorrow.  I’ll send Durocher out with her apprentices to address any medical care.”

His eye fell on Avery, and it was bright in the gloom.

She watched him warily as he strode on down to where his car was parked.

His headlights flared on.  As that light faded, his eyes remained bright.  More anger and intensity in there than there’d been in that orange-red frenzy-fire that Bristow had walked into.

That kind of anger, that kind of fury?  He wasn’t going to let things sit.  He’d come for them, and soon.

Having me as a very dangerous enemy, he’d said.  And she believed him.