Chapter 56

“Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this Dueling League final?” Alastair asked over dinner. “Like there’s going to be trouble no matter what we do?”

“Yep,” Eloise said.

“Uh-huh,” Sebastian added.

“Almost certainly,” Amaryllis said, rolling peas onto her spoon. “It’s bound to be chaos.”

Alastair bit his lip. “Should we cancel it?”

Sebastian looked grim. “I don’t see how. This is Marcus Gold’s pet project. He’s expecting you to try to get in his way. Inviting it, really. I expect he’s ready for the school to announce a cancellation, and has a plan for what he’s going to do if that happens.”

Alastair twirled his fork—a nervous habit. “So we just, what—move forward and hope for the best?”

“Strengthen the school’s wards,” Amaryllis said solemnly. “Even more than we already have. And if they’re ready for us, we’re ready for them as well. We’re good mages, Alastair. I know it seems like we spent most of our time indoors doing research, but we can fight. At least theoretically.”

“Have any of you actually been in a real battle? Not like the last riot, but against another mage?” Alastair said, taking a gloomy bite of his spring lamb stew. “Because I know I haven’t.”

They all looked down at their food.

“I did say ‘theoretically,’” Amaryllis pointed out. “We’ve done all this Battle Magic before. After all, we’ve been teaching it to the students all year.”

“In drills. Not for real. Isn’t that what this whole year has been about? Getting the students more real-world experience?”

None of them had an answer to that.

* * *

In Primordium later that night, Lavinia pulled him aside in the kitchen.

“Headmaster, I have something to tell you.”

She and Rachel had made brownies. There was a plate of them on the kitchen counter, but he hadn’t the appetite.

“Go on.”

He sensed bad news coming. Any time someone wanted to talk to him privately these days, it always involved bad news.

“My parents want to pull me from Emberstone,” she said, words coming out in a rush. “They say they’ll let me finish the year, but then they’re sending me somewhere else. I don’t even know where. Just not Emberstone.”

“Oh,” he said. He’d heard this enough that it was no longer a shock, no matter who it was. “Well, I’m sure you’ll do well wherever you go—”

“I don’t want to leave! This school is the best. I love the classes, I love the teachers, all my friends are here. I don’t understand why they’re doing this! Can you talk to them or something?”

He sighed. “I don’t know if I can do that. Not if they don’t come to me first. It’s not my place to interfere. People are allowed to make their own choices, and if they don’t think it’s safe—”

“If I give you a brownie will you talk to them?”

The brownies did look good.

“I’ll tell you what, if you have them reach out to me, I’ll be happy to host them in my office and answer any questions I can. But I can’t force them to do anything. You’ll need to talk to them too.”

He gave her a solemn look, then moved to the living room to look over the options Quicksilver had given him.

1: Budget cuts. Emberstone can either cut faculty, classes, materials, or amenities. I recommend opting for the fourth. Fewer options in the dining hall, no staff sherry after faculty meetings, no staff parties entirely. The school will lose some of its character, but it will survive. If we see further attrition we will need to take more drastic action, but we can keep cuts conservative for one year only and see if the budget recovers. However, cuts alone will not solve the problem. We need:

2: Increased revenue. Consider selling tickets to the Dueling League finals. It will not be enough by itself, but it will help. Add a second fundraiser to the yearly schedule. The principle thing we need to do, though, is replace the students we have lost this year. Full tuition, sir, not scholarships. I know you do not like it, but we have to raise the money. We will begin with outreach, I think, hope to maintain admissions standards to the highest degree possible. Let us not lower them unless absolutely necessary.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I do hope this helps. It is the best I could do. Emberstone will survive. I know it will.

—QS

Alastair put the paper down, troubled. What would happen to Quicksilver and the other elementals if the school closed? Were they tied to Emberstone’s continued existence, or could they subsist on their own? It had never occurred to him to worry about it.

Still, Quicksilver’s assessment was encouraging. It wasn’t time to panic—not yet, anyway. When Lavinia emerged from the kitchen, he gave her a wan smile.

“Headmaster, you don’t look so good,” she said. “Is this about my parents? You don’t have to talk to them if you don’t want to. I just thought it might make a difference—”

“Not about them at all. Not to worry.”

“Oh. Good.”

“You know,” he said. “I think things are going to be all right.”

She shot him a puzzled look. “Uh, I hope so?”

He watched as she ascended the stairs, hoping against hope that she and the other students in his House would stay. It was hard to imagine life in Primordium without any one of them.

* * *

Alastair couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was brewing. He could feel it in the air every time he ventured outside the castle walls. The city was on edge, as if it could explode into unrest at any moment, and the townspeople’s eyes followed him down the street as he did his shopping. On Monday night, he met up with Ari in the Horse and Hound for a drink. His friend looked pale and there were dark shadows under his eyes.

“You look like you haven’t slept in a week,” Alastair said as he slid into their normal corner booth.

Ari smiled thinly. “Nice to see you too. I haven’t. We’ve been prepping at the office. Late nights.”