Chapter 2

Sebastian gave Alastair’s steamer trunk a disdainful look. “Charmed, is it? Does it have a name, too?”

The trunk snarled, and Alastair stepped forward in an effort to de-escalate matters. “Basic Ambulatory charm. But it’s developed a mind of its own. And yes, its name is Amby, if you must know.”

“Cute,” Sebastian sniffed. “I take it you won’t need help with your things, then. Good. I wasn’t fond of the idea of getting my hands dirty.”

Why did they send him? This wasn’t an auspicious start to the year.

“So,” Alastair said, trying to think of something polite to say. “A teacher, then?”

“Yes.”

“At Emberstone?”

“Yes.”

This wasn’t going to be easy if all of his answers remained monosyllabic.

“What subject, pray tell?”

Sebastian groaned. “Alchemy.”

Well, that was more than one syllable, but still just the single-word response.

“Alchemy?” That had never been Sebastian’s strongest subject when they were in school. “Would have expected you to be teaching Elemental.”

“Elemental was taken,” Sebastian said stiffly. “I am also the head of House Aurum, as befits my current specialty. Shall we go now?”

Sebastian turned his back and began the long walk through the sunlit station. Alastair followed, his trunk needing a bit of coaxing to move.

“It’ll be fine, Amby,” Alastair whispered. “C’mon.”

House Aurum. That was, indeed, where all the Alchemy specialists lived at Emberstone.

“Been a long time since I last saw you,” Alastair said, trying again to be friendly. Perhaps things didn’t have to be as they once were. “Would have expected you to be, uh…”

Would have expected you to what? Be somewhere more glamorous than Emberstone? Would have expected you to have moved on? He didn’t want to antagonize Sebastian, especially now that he’d be one of his co-workers. The words just slipped out, and now he was unsure how to finish them. Luckily, Sebastian took the queue to respond to Alastair’s unspoken question.

“I found I just couldn’t bring myself to leave.” His voice was dry and without emotion despite his next statement, “Fond memories and all that. Took three years out, and the school just reeled me back in.”

Alastair eyed him quizzically, though Sebastian hadn’t turned to see it.

There’s more to that story, most likely.

However, it wouldn’t be entirely out of character for Sebastian to have spent three years at various festivals and debaucherous gatherings before realizing he’d caroused himself out of any other employment that would have him.

“Fond memories,” Alastair repeated, unable to hide the derision.

“And as for you,” Sebastian said, not picking up on it, “where’ve you been? Seems like you up and disappeared. No one’s heard anything about you in years.”

Alastair bristled. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been at Glimmerglass for a decade. Was made headmaster three years back. We do fine work, are proud of our students—”

“Ah, Glimmerglass.” It sounded as if Sebastian were holding back a snicker, the bloody snob. “A bit far out, isn’t it?”

“It is a country school, yes,” Alastair said, teeth gritted. “Rural area. Quite beautiful. Trees, seasons changing…”

“And then to come to Emberstone—must be quite the shift, right?”

Alastair narrowed his eyes. “What are you implying?” he asked, no longer trying to feign pleasantries.

“I’m not implying anything,” Sebastian said. “Just saying it must be a change.”

He was definitely implying something. Alastair waited. When they were students, Sebastian hadn’t been able to resist any opportunity to score a point. And sure enough—

“It’s just that—well, I don’t want to be rude,” he said, dismissing the start of his jibe with a waved hand.

“No, please go on.”

“Well, if you insist,” he continued as if he was planning to anyway. “It’s just that going from headmaster at a quaint school like that to Emberstone, being in charge of Emberstone, even—I mean, it’s just a big shift, isn’t it? A big leap.”

“You keep saying ‘quaint’ as if it’s a bad thing. Glimmerglass is wonderful, as is Emberstone. They both have their strengths.”

“Right,” Sebastian said, shrugging.

Alastair didn’t respond.

They were leaving the station and moving onto Watermere’s main promenade. Much was as Alastair remembered it: the gleaming stores full of expensive baubles, speeding motorcars, the women holding their long skirts clear of the dust as they rushed past. But it wasn’t exactly the same. There were boarded up windows now, and people sleeping in the dark alleyways between shops.

“And,” Sebastian went on after a few minutes of silence, “there were some on the staff who were expecting Ozelius to pick, well, an internal hire—”

There it is!

“Like you.”

Sebastian finally turned to look at Alastair, a frown touching his lips. “What?”

“Like you. That’s what you meant, right? You were expecting to be interim headmaster instead of me.”

“I didn’t say that—”

“You did. Perhaps not in as many words, but that is what you’ve been implying since the moment I stepped off that train.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I didn’t expect anything of the sort,” Sebastian snapped, increasing his pace as they crossed the avenue. “I just said that some others were expecting the job to go to someone already employed at Emberstone. Who already knew the job and the students. It would only make sense, right?”

“Fine. I’ll accept that.”

“Good.”

Silence carried them another few blocks while Alastair tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t set Sebastian off.

“Town’s changed a little,” he noted. “Or was it always this way and I simply never noticed?”

Sebastian sighed. “No. I’ve lived here all my life. Things are different now. That—” he gestured at an empty storefront; a tattered FOR LET sign hung inside the front door, “—used to be Juliet’s Toy Store. You remember?”

Alastair’s face screwed up in thought. “Barely,” he admitted.

He’d never had extra coin available for expensive toys. Most of his meager funds had gone to classroom supplies, books, and school uniforms.

“Stood on this spot for thirty years,” Sebastian said. “It was a Watermere classic. We used to do all our birthday shopping there. Gone now. There are a few places like that. Tough times, you know. But we’ll recover. The city always does.”