Like my father had always said, life’s biggest challenges always came in packs. This semester had already been far too exciting for my liking, much more than the previous four I’d experienced at Avalon, and it seemed that life was not done trying to clobber me over the head with a rusty shovel just yet. It was times like these that sometimes made me ask if my birth had somehow upset some cosmic force or ancient divinity. I would have been perfectly content living my life out in that same tiny village I was born in, growing old with Lea and surrounded by my loving family, but this cruel world we lived in had decided that was not to be.

“So. How bad is it?” I asked Miranda quietly as I sat down across from her.

Miranda slowly let out a long breath, then looked up at me. She’d changed out of her tattered dress, but I could still see the lingering signs of the wounds that had littered her body beneath the sheer fabric of her sleeves and bodice. It seemed she hadn’t had a chance to go to the healing hall yet, so hopefully she had something good for me.

“Not good, but it could be worse,” she answered after a moment. She bit her lip nervously, hands fisted in the hems of her dress. “I haven’t really had time to investigate things properly, but I have some preliminary information.” She paused again, her eyes searching for something in my face. Then, she hurriedly added, “I’ll have a full report for you soon, I’m sorry, I swear. I just need a bit of time!”

I frowned and waved her off. “That’s fine. Let’s hear it then, I need to get out of here soon.”

“Of course, right. Sorry, Orion. Right. So, the girl is Kwesta, she’s a fourth year sponsored student from Kellesaria.” I tilted my head slightly and she hurriedly elaborated, “It's one of the tiny city-states that litter the Endless Plain, though I’m not sure where specifically in the region. I don’t think they’re particularly powerful, but they produce some high end luxury products that no one else has been able to replicate so they have something going for them. Anyway, I don’t think their reach is especially long, so you shouldn’t have too much to worry about on that angle. I’m not even sure how important she was to her family, I think she’s from a branch family of the ruling house.”

“So far so good,” I said with a slow nod. “So what’s the bad news? The fiancé she mentioned?”

“Well, I actually don’t think he should be much of a problem either. His name is Livian and he’s a third-year like us. You might have met him a few times, but I’m not sure if you’ve shared any classes. I have one with him this year and, well, he’s… nothing special. He mostly focuses on beast mastery classes, his family herds some sort of exotic cattle for their horns and leather, and he’s also from that same region but a different city state.” She paused, fidgeting in her seat and leaning forward. “If you’d like, I should be able to take care of him for you sir? Kwesta wasn’t wrong, he’s been leering at me all year.”

“Maybe. Don’t do anything yet, but that’s a good suggestion. Continue.”

“Of course. As you say Orion. Right, so he shouldn’t be an issue either. The potential issue is that Kwesta had a couple friends in her year who could be trouble.” I slumped back in my chair. Great. Just great. Having a bunch of fourth years gunning for me was just what I needed.

What a bloody mess. I was half tempted to just let her go and hope my problems disappeared, but I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. That sort of thing just wasn’t done at Avalon, or at least only very rarely. If I’d just killed her during our fight, that would have been potentially dangerous but much simpler. Instead, I now had a hastily restrained and drugged unconscious fourth year lying in a cage in my room that I didn’t know how to deal with.

I had a couple options of course. The easiest would probably be to let Rea at her for a few weeks and bind her once she was thoroughly broken, but that came with its own problems. Unlike my earlier ambush, our fight had been much more public and no one would trust her if I released her back into the Academy. I didn’t even know if I could do so, depending on how long things took. If I waited too long, she would stop being considered an Avalon student and I would no longer have the option of sending her back into the school.

It might be easier to just use her for parts, she was a fourth circle mage after all and that meant her body was positively soaked with mana. The materials I could harvest wouldn’t be as valuable as those from one of my cows or another elf, but mage-flesh was useful in its own ways.

Alternatively, I had been looking for someone disposable to test certain magic on. I’d recently learned that it was possible to temporarily implant circulations into other people, and there were some ideas that I wanted to experiment with further before trying them myself. I couldn’t just do it on a random mundane, their body would just burn away from the strain, but a mage of her strength would be able to handle most of the same things I could. Or maybe, hmm, that was an interesting idea, maybe I could…

Miranda fidgeted slightly and I realized that she’d said something while I wasn’t paying attention. I shook my head to clear it, pushing aside the half formed plans before I could get even more distracted. That sort of thing would take time, and I had more immediate issues to deal with right now.“Repeat that.”

“Sorry sir. I, well I haven’t found all of whom she was hanging around with, but a few of them could be trouble. Um, well, I…”

“Spit it out.”

“...she was friends with Clarient Valorous.”

My head thunked against the table and out of the corner of my eyes I could see Miranda cringe backwards. Well fuck me I guess. Clarient fucking Valorous? Really? For once I could see why Miranda was rather hesitant about telling me. Clarient Valorous was not the sort of person I wanted as an enemy. Even though her family’s dynasty had been overthrown a few years ago she still had friends in high places and was one of the strongest fourth year students at the Academy.

I slowly raised my head off the table, staring Miranda directly in the eyes. She sat frozen in place, shoulders hunched and eyes downcast. After a moment she whispered, “I’m sorry sir. I’ll accept whatever punishment you think is fitting.

Wonderful. Just… wonderful. I couldn’t deal with this right now, I just… of all the things, of all the times! This was why I tried to avoid politics and dealing with people and just… everything! I’d been careful, I’d done everything right, I’d practiced and researched and studied and… And one stupid fight that I didn’t even start had a chance to ruin everything.

I grabbed my cup and took a long drink, wishing that the herbal tea was something much stronger. Then I picked up the remainder of my food and stood up. “I expect something comprehensive after classes tomorrow. Don’t get yourself killed and try to avoid getting me dragged into any more bullshit. You’re on thin ice, Miranda. I’ll deal with you later.”

In the privacy of her own room, Brenda all but squealed in happiness and she watched the memory on her scrying pool for the fifteenth time. Her wonderful, beautiful, powerful Orion looked so cool! The way he just stood there, staring menacingly as the ugly wind-girl desperately tried to avoid his attacks was just… oh it was just so amazing. It would be even better if that slag Miranda wasn’t in the memory, but that sort of editing was just so hard to do with someone else’s recollections. She would do it of course, her precious Orion deserved every ounce of her effort, but… later. After she’d watched him wipe the floor with the stupid bint who dared try to touch her boyfriend a few more times!

Her legs kicked gently in the air above her as she stared into the platinum bowl from where she lay on her bed. It had been a pain to get the memory so quickly, it had cost her a not insignificant portion of her month’s allowance to get one of the fight’s few witnesses to part with it, but it had been absolutely worth it. Perhaps she could have asked her beloved directly, they were courting now so it wouldn’t be overly presumptuous, but then she wouldn’t be able to see him, watch his muscles ripple under his tightly fitting practice clothing…

She sighed dreamily as the memory cycled again and she got to look directly at Orion as he calmly faced down the older girl. He looked so heroic! Maybe she could get someone to chase her down, let Orion step in front of her and look up at him helplessly as he fought off some foul beast to protect her…

She rolled onto her back, one hand drifting to her chest while the other slid under the waistband of her skirt. Oh that would be amazing, but how to set it up? She would have to make it believable, but make sure that neither of them were in any real danger at the same time. Perhaps a tamed monster of some sort? The demon she’d co-opted weeks ago had done a good job pushing Orion to his limits, and he wouldn’t be able to run away if she was there as well.

From the pedestal, she heard Orion’s voice ring out once again. “I don’t think I will.” Even garbled slightly from the distance between him at the watcher, along with the imperfect nature of copying memories, he sounded so authoritative and stern and powerful! Everything she’d always seen and wanted from her beloved. From the first day she’d met him, she’d known he was her One! Just like mom had Fiero, she would have her precious Orion to live and grow old with. They would have a big house by the ocean, a garden for her to tend, and a few dozen kids to play with and cherish. It would be beautiful.

She moaned quietly as fantasies of Orion danced through her mind. Orion, spinning her around at a grand ball. Orion, sitting beside her on the porch as they watched the sun set. Orion, holding her hand tenderly as he looked down at their first child. It would be a girl, Brenda decided. Orellia Goodwitch, or maybe Orenda Goodwitch? No, Orellia sounded better. One daughter to satisfy mom, and then they could have as many cute baby boys and girls as they could ever want. Orion would be such a good dad, she was certain of it. The way his big, strong hands held her when she pressed herself against him… Oh, it would be… She moaned again, louder this time.

She had to see him. She had to see him right now. One of her friends had seen him heading to the portal room, which meant he hopefully would be outside the impenetrable barriers of Avalon’s dorms. She wondered what her wonderful Orion would be doing in a backwater like Xethis. Perhaps he was going off to fight monsters? She’d heard the place was apparently teeming with all sorts of horrors that the locals couldn’t deal with themselves. Oh, that would be so manly and amazing and heroic of him, the dashing savior protecting innocent civilians against the predatory advances of ancient beasts and terrors.

She rolled out of bed, a quick spell cleaning the sticky residue off her hand as she gently removed the memory crystal from the scrying pool and got to work. Watching Orion had gotten much harder recently, but it hadn’t taken her too long to find a workaround. The trick was that she could no longer scry Orion directly, clearly her wonderfully smart and talented beloved had worked out some spell that could defeat even the tremendous power of her grandmother’s artifice, but his protections did not actually make him imperceptible to scrying magic. As long as she knew where to look, she could track him down eventually.

Resting her hands on either side of the wide bowl, she focused her magic and an image slowly formed on the reflective surface of the alchemical quicksilver. She hummed quietly as the image drew into focus, a round void surrounded on every side by a wide city square. The portal itself was spelled to resist all forms of scrying, direct and indirect both, but she doubted her beloved would stay within that tiny area for long. Still, it was a perfect starting point for her search, after all, Orion must have passed through this square, no matter his eventual destination.

She pulled one hand away from the bowl, the image rippling and growing hazy for a moment as her control lapsed. From a small rack by the stand, she withdrew a single strand of dark hair and dropped it into the pool. The quicksilver bubbled and rippled for a moment, and then the hair dissolved into the liquid metal. Perfect.

She returned her hand to the bowl and the image returned in full clarity, only this time she could see hazy trails of light drifting through the square. There were three of them, but one was clearly much fresher than the others. She followed it.

The path led her on a winding loop through the quaint town, detouring several times to visit seemingly random houses and small shops. She wasn’t sure why Orion was going to those places, and he never seemed to have lingered long, but she memorized their locations regardless. Anywhere that was worthy of her Orion’s time was worthy of her attention.

Eventually however, the trail ended at a small shop near the edge of the town. She eagerly leaned over the pool, pouring more mana into the quicksilver as her spell pushed through rudimentary privacy wards and slipped through stone shingles. Just another moment and she would see her Orion again. It had only been a day since she’d last pressed herself against his side, but that was a day… too… long…

Orion appeared on the shimmering plain of quicksilver, dressed in unfamiliar leather and yet still looking so very handsome. There was another woman beside him, a large-breasted blonde standing behind him. Holding him. Pressing her hideous flesh bags against his back. Smiling. Laughing.

Brenda saw RED.