She did not know where Eborum was, nor did she have a map on hand. After a few minutes, Helena went back to her book and allowed Larissa to skip class with me under the guise of her worry over my injuries.

“On second thought maybe, you should take the ring and get off campus,” I whispered, while an idea took shape in my head.

“And leave you with him?” she replied, also in a whisper.

“It’s not like I’m unarmed,” I said and showed off the thigh sheath I was wearing. Technically, students were not allowed to be armed or use dangerous magics on campus, save for at specific designated places or times. Though, my sister and I both sported some type of hidden armament.

“I’m still not sure."

“I probably did not need to run, it’s just the first time I faced a magic opponent,” I explained. It was the truth, I more or less panicked at seeing magic, but in reality it had done little more than knock me down and cause some pain. “In fact, I feel pretty bad about exposing him to your anger.”

“Those bursts of magic would have broken bones for any other boy your age,” she replied.

“Listen, if anything they will go after the ring, so that’s the most dangerous place to be. Technically I’m in more danger if this is anywhere close to us. Besides, we don’t need it forever, just until she breaks.”

“You...I…I agree,” she said.

“So, if you were to, I don’t know, spend the night at Alwein’s house, there would be no chance of us losing.” She bit her nail as she thought about it.

“Fine, hand it over,” she said, putting her palm out.

“Just don’t put it on. It’s not like the curse changes you right away, but it’s still manipulative,” I replied as I handed it over.

“I won’t put the cursed ring on it. Please don’t do anything too rash,” she said as she pulled me into a hug.

“I’ll try not to,” I replied. She turned and said her goodbyes to Helena before leaving.

It was another few hours, before the man, who I assumed was one of Caterina’s attendants stirred. By that point, Helena had introduced me to Tabula. It was only after she explained the rules, that I realized it was just backgammon. Back on earth, I had played a few times but was still generally considered a novice. She was far more experienced, and I found myself facing a string of losses when we heard a moan from the man.

“It looks like he’ll wake up soon, maybe you should get him some water or wine since he was out for so long,” I suggested. I just wanted some time alone with him before he could say anything weird to her.

“Oh dear, I should have had that prepared already, but I just got so into the game,” she replied before scurrying out of the room.

With a trembling hand, I unsheathed my knife and pressed it against him. Then I rustled him with the other hand. No response. I had to flick his face a few times before he was finally awake enough to talk.

“No sudden movements,” I whispered to him, trying to sound as menacingly as possible while I gave him a small poke with the knife. “We should talk for a bit before we try and kill each other,” I explained.

“Talk to you? First, you assaulted milady, then you stole her priceless engagement ring,” he retorted.

“Yeah then you almost died, so it’s not like you’re in a position to refuse,” I replied. “Besides, I didn’t steal the ring, hell I don’t even have it anymore,” I continued.

“Where is it?”

“I promise to tell you if you promise to answer a few questions. Also, tell the healer you fell down some steps, I don’t want her involved.”

He looked at me in the eyes for a few moments before nodding his head. “Fine, I’ll go along with this for now, though she will probably have others looking-“ he started to say before being cut off by the healer’s reentrance. I discreetly put the knife back in its sheath.

“Hey there, how are you feeling?” she said while handing him some watered wine.

“Much better thanks to you,” he replied.

“Oh, it’s just my job, you should really be thanking this young man and his sister. If they hadn’t found you on the way to the infirmary, you might still be laying on the ground,” she said. My heart was thumping heavily now. This was the moment of truth, either he went along with my suggestion or outed me here and I would probably be forced to flee the area. My muscles tensed.

“About that…” he began to say before trailing off. “I already gave him my thanks,” he continued after gritting his teeth together. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“That’s good, now how did you manage to get so mangled?” She asked.

“I…was just running after somebody when I tripped and I couldn’t stop myself from falling,” He explained.

“You really need to watch where you’re going, you could’ve been seriously injured!” she scolded him. “Now sit back and relax, let me know if you need anything else.”

“I think I’ll call it quits here as well,” I said motioning to the Tabula.

“I agree, it might be too loud,” she said before gathering up the game and returning to her desk. Before long she was back into the book she was reading when I first arrived.

“I’m surprised you went along with this,” I whispered to him.

“Don’t be, it’s not like either of us could stop you from running. I’ll take what I can get,” he explained.

“What’s your name?” I asked. Here was the real reason I was willing to take a chance with this guy. In the novel, Caterina had only a few attendants that were loyal only to her. One of which, was a man named Ridates. Willing to do anything for her, he meets his tragic end defending her against the bandits in the epilogue. If it was him, I could at least trust him to make a choice that benefits her the most.

“Its Ridates,” he replied. A wide smile crept up my face.

“Good, what if I told you that I’m actually helping Caterina.”

“Well obviously, I wouldn’t believe you.”

I pushed air through my nose loudly and gave it some thought before coming to a decision. I told him as much of the truth as I could about the curse, the ring, and how it affects Caterina. He seemed to contemplate the whole thing, but I doubted he trusted me.

“Come on, how long have you been protecting the girl?” I said, trying to convince him.

“A very long time, she’s my only ward,” he offered.

“Ok and hasn’t it been weird? I mean she couldn’t have been this ruthless before the engagement.”

“No, but she has to defend her position.” He wasn’t convinced yet, but I had one final piece of information to offer.

“That’s crap and you know it. She promised Rollo not to stand in the way of his love and to even break the engagement if he found a lover,” I hissed at him.

“How did you know that? How did you know any of this?”

“I just know things, I’m not sure I could explain it to you.”

“What like some kind of diviner?” he offered sarcastically.

“Wait, that is a really good way of putting it,” I replied. That should probably be my go-to way of giving out future pieces of information.

“If you know about that and the curse, then did this to her?”

“I have no idea.”

“So, you know about the curse, but not its creator?” he asked. I nodded in response.

“Then what are you planning on doing now?”

“Believe it or not, I’m just going to wait here with you, since Caterina will show up eventually,” I replied. He looked confused, so I explained how unpleasant breaking the curse was. He just took it all in silently.

“So want to play backgam- I mean tabula?” To my surprise, he agreed, though I was disappointed to learn that he just used it as an excuse to keep interrogating me about the situation. So, we went on like that for most of the day. Helena brought us lunches and readily refilled our drinks before putting more mana into the salves on our bodies.

It was around the end of the school day when classes were wrapping up that a limp Caterina was carried into the room. Her ornate robes were soiled, her silver hair was in disarray, and a sheen of cold sweat was visible on her body. Despite how bad she looked; I couldn’t help but smile at Ridates. He didn’t share my happiness though. Instead, he limped to his feet to check on her. Things got worses before they got better. Despite my warnings, Ridates was thrown off by her appearance. Both he and the man carrying her accused me of poisoning the girl. Soon a weapon was drawn with a tense standoff. Helena for her part took this all-in stride and tried to calm everyone down before getting to work on checking Caterina. I offered to stay with them, though I doubt they had any thoughts of letting me go now.

“Just as I promised,” I said as I placed the ring in Caterina’s hand. This was the second time I was meeting her before our practical magics class. She grimaced but took the ring and examined it for a moment. Then she tossed it to Ridates who was standing behind her.

In return, she handed me my strap of books from the day before. Her attendants must have collected them after I left. “Thanks,” I said. The two of us stood there awkwardly for a few moments.

“Well, I’m going to take my seat,” I said, trying to find an exit from the situation.

“Yes, so should I,” she replied, though I had already started walking into the amphitheater.

Once again, were were needlessly early. I wasn’t sure how long the handoff would take, and with my hang-ups on attending class, I had us meet exceptionally early. The good news is that I had my pick of the seating, so in true scholarly fashion I chose the center front row of the class.

“You won’t need that,” Caterina said as I was pulling my notebook out.

“Why is that?” I said, turning around to look at her. She was sitting a few rows behind me.

“We will just be testing magical power and discussing theoretical basics,” she explained.

“Oh, thanks again,” I replied and turned back, this time picking up my history tome.

“Heraclius’s discussion on the Great Migration?” she said, this time her voice was closer. She had moved up a few rows.

“Yeah, I’m interested in ancient history,” I explained. The Great Migration was a period of time around a thousand years ago that saw Humans, elves, and dwarves coming to the shores of the current continent of Acheron in the millions. They had been chased from the other side of the Barrier Ocean, fleeing the Great Cataclysm.

“He sees the future but looks to the past,” she said in a mock-wistful tone while referencing my divination.

“That is one way of putting it; listen I was planning on reading until class, but if you want to chat you can just tell me,” I replied. Between her and her attendants, I thought we had talked enough. It took her well into the night to recover. The whole time, her two attendants wouldn’t let either Helen or I leave the place. The poor woman was forced to work well past her shift ended. When Caterina did finally come to, I found myself repeating the same information for the third time that day. One of the good things about being subjected to a mind curse is that one instinctively understands what had happened once they’re free. So, the whole conversation was relatively easy compared to my previous talks with Ridates. The whole experience yesterday was tiring, but the way I saw it, it was something I had to do.

Now though, I was supposed to be done. I broke the curse, gave back the priceless ring. I should be able to finally have the chance to attend classes without any weird interruptions for just a little bit. Instead, Caterina moved up to the seat next to me.

“Do you mind if I…?” she said while motioning to the seat.

“If you want it, I don’t think there’s a reservation or anything,” I replied.

“I do want to talk…about your divination,” she said as she sat down.

“Don’t bother, it was a one-time thing; I’ve literally lost the means to do it.”

“Oh. Well, is there anything you didn’t tell me last night?” I thought back and rubbed my chin.

“Nothing important, to be honest, you weren’t the main character of my divinations.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You were the villain, the bad guy in someone else’s story,” I explained. “The divination was from her point of view.”

“Wait, who’s this all-important person?” she asked, irritation in her voice.

I let out a few laughs as I remembered another important piece of the novel. “Was there a girl named Gyra in class yesterday?” I asked.

“Gyra Athanasius? That bubbly baron’s daughter?”