Shaya watched Apricot’s memories replay before her with rapt attention. In an instant, she realized why Oraeus had shoved her back in the keep, his esper’s affinity for foresight letting him see further into the future – but not enough to come up with a better solution.

The illusory monster vanished as something leapt onto Oraeus, raking his unarmoured legs while trying to bite past his straight sword. As blood sprayed from the downed mage, the monster’s shape was revealed as blood splattered across its camouflaged skin. Apricot and Ral moved to assist, but Melda’s scream from behind them forced the latter to pull back and aid her.

Apricot’s scimitar glanced off the Titan spawn’s thick hide and one of its tentacles slammed into her arm. She managed to block the blow, turning aside the spikes, but the blunt force still threw her back. Resolve made her bounce back quickly despite the injury, allowing her to spit out an incantation in her language. She and her serpentine storm of an esper threw their hands forward and unleashed a small, concentrated blast of fire into the space above Oraeus. The creature roared, bulk and tentacles made visible as its skin was charred black.

“Ral, trade!” She shouted back up the stairs, whirling towards the other threat as flames danced along her forearm.

Ral broke off from the invisible form pinning Melda to the stairs, the healer’s bones grinding as the monster’s heavy weight drove them into the stone. Ral had taken a spiked tentacle to the arm, forced to wield their scythe one-handed, but the monster seemed incapable of further action. Apricot spared a glance at Samorn, her forehead covered in sweat as she played a soothing tune that seemed to smother the monster’s desire for violence.

“Samorn, move!” Apricot barked, raising her hand again as more flames licked up her arm.

After another focused gout of fire made the second beast visible, the group made quick work of them. Ral’s scythe disabled the monster’s flailing appendages, allowing the group to close and finish them off with heavy blows that punched through the spawn’s hides.

With the rear flanking force defeated, they pushed forward, though Melda held Oraeus and Ral back for healing given the injuries all three suffered in the attack. The remaining enemy forces crumbled before them and within seconds they pushed into the dining room where Shaya and her group had launched their counter attack. Lan beheaded the last guard standing while Ren lay slumped in the chair Shaya found him in later, Jade energy flowing across his bloodied body.

Basillo walked into the room shortly after Melda, Oraeus and Ral caught up, surveying the situation with a grim expression. Melda rushed over to Ren, supplementing his healing with her own, despite her exhaustion. Basillo suddenly cocked his head, then looked to Apricot. They nodded and then they rushed off, shouting for Melda to follow.

Apricot barked another order for Melda to stabilize the kitchen servants as they rushed past them, following in Shaya’s footsteps and the wake of damage she had left behind her. Shaya found it interesting to see where Apricot’s eyes focused as she moved, so different from her own priorities. The short woman noted the flickering torches that offered dim illumination to the dungeon, the wan faces of the prisoners that shouted to her, and the destroyed doorway, not even catching how the sinking ruin offered different avenues of movement between rooms.

The auditorium gasped as Apricot laid eyes on Shaya’s form, though a few people snorted in derision.

Shaya winced. She had no idea that she had sustained so much damage from being flung about the room, with her own physical exertion during the battle reopening the wounds she had sealed on her way down.

Then Apricot entered the small room and her eyes immediately snapped from Shaya’s prone form to the apostate chained to the wall, wisps of blue-green energy illuminating the space around him where his spiritual form evaporated from contact with iron.

The auditorium went silent, all chatter and rumour-mongering dying in an instant as the mutated apostate hovered in view, far larger in life through Celica’s illusion.

“Shaya!” Apricot cried, vision snapping back to her friend’s prone form as she kneeled in front of her. A trembling hand reached out and placed two fingers against Shaya’s bruised and torn throat, checking for a pulse. “She’s alive!”

“Medic!” Basillo boomed.

“I think that’s enough,” the real Basillo grumbled on stage, and Celica cut off the illusion.

“The plan they utilized,” Zaal said, stepping forward again, “was high risk, but it was rewarded with capturing three apostates, one of whom appears to be a ring leader and coordinator tied to other cells. The reason the group returned so late was because of the logistics of escorting three injured but dangerous mages, twenty of their minions, and two dozen rescued prisoners slated to be tortured to death.

“This is what it means to be a true warmage: weighing risk against reward, putting the Empire’s interests above your own, and thinking about the long term.” He continued, hands behind his back as he scanned the auditorium of students, “Intelligence can win or lose wars, and make no mistake that the Empire is always at war against apostates, heretics, dissidents and the Titans’ monsters. The Intel Shaya and Apricot’s teams secured yesterday may save dozens or hundreds of lives down the road as the Inquisition roots out this group’s allies and sympathizers throughout Vayeira.”

Shaya blinked at the praise, stunned. She felt eyes on her and her friends across the auditorium, not all of them friendly, though she couldn’t spare the effort to turn her body to look around her. Given the hatred burning into the back of her head, she knew Azreon was glaring at her and would be ranting about collusion or some non-sense right up to their duel. She ignored him and kept her eyes forward, where the professors on stage looked at her and her friends with great respect, clearly impressed by their actions. Except Basillo, who stood with arms crossed and avoided looking toward them or Azreon.

“Could things have gone better?” Zaal asked, then gestured to them, “Of course, look at the state of them. Many of them nearly died, including the full stealth team. Before you rush off to mimic the success you witnessed here, consider if you’re capable of pulling it off. It is a fine line between hero and idiot, and the life of a warmage is also quite valuable to the Empire. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour, after all.”

Ah, there’s the Zaal we know and love, Shaya thought with a chuckle.

Their teams received minimal feedback, which didn’t surprise Shaya. With Zaal and the professors clearly radiating praise for them, the political situation was no longer a known quantity by any stretch, and the replayed mission had also exposed the students to some disturbing information no one had prepared them for. Shaya had plenty of suggestions for her group to improve, and plenty of questions for the professors as to what in the nine hells they had faced.

Is that apostate even human? The level of bonding with spiritual energy... can humans become Titan spawn? None of the histories mention it, but I wonder if this is what they mean by Kassarah’s betrayal and corruption.

Shaya had a lot of questions she knew she’d never get straight answers for.

“... and that leaves the following teams in the top five,” Zaal said, dragging Shaya from her thoughts again.

She shook her head to clear it before she realized what she was doing, spasming in pain from the slight movement she managed. Cursing inwardly, she couldn’t help but wonder if her concussion was worse than expected, given how often she drifted from reality since the deployment.

Zaal continued, “Yllaneth, Parmenia, Una, and, finally, Apricot and Shaya’s teams. Congratulations, you all excelled within the confines of the mission. To the rest of you, I recommend you review what these teams did and learn from them, and perhaps next time you’ll reap the rewards of success as well.”

Shaya could hear wood creaking, imagining Azreon’s white knuckled grip on his seat as he failed to restrain his rage. Her ears twitched as she also made out a faint sigh of relief, likely belonging to Parmenia who was thankful her ranking was separate from Azreon, who had narrowly dodged the bottom ranking.”

“Before we part ways for the day,” Zaal said as the discussion wrapped up, “I want to make an announcement. As mentioned earlier, the Empire is always at war and warmages, even novices such as yourselves, are invaluable to its defense. We are seeking volunteers willing to extend their next deployment to take up the full winter break between semesters. While only volunteers will be deployed for the extra length of time, it’s worth noting that you will be paid for your services.

“I would encourage all of you to strongly consider doing so, as it will give you an opportunity to gain invaluable experience and learn how to cooperate with local forces during a long-term assignment. Despite your power, many of you will need to learn humility when operating alongside normal forces – and answering to their chain of command.

“That is all – now go prepare for your finals. Dismissed.”

An eternity of minor inconveniences and pain later, Shaya had packed up her belongings and joined her friends, thankful that they waited for her. She was surprised to see Una standing and joking with them, the scrappy woman turning to give her a lopsided grin.

“Well, I see the jinx strikes again,” she laughed, “congratulations on top spot yet again, I think even those who were starting to respect you are beginning to hate you all over again.”

“Thanks,” Shaya replied with a frown, “congrats on third place, it matches your mediocrity.”

“Bitch,” Una smirked wolfishly, teeth showing, “don’t make me beat some more sense into you, because I’ll do it if there’s anything left of you after Azreon’s done.”

“There might be a queue forming after today,” Ren chuckled.

“Too true,” Una said, turning to look Ren up and down, “looks like you took quite the beating for once, got lots of scars under those wraps?”

“You couldn’t even imagine,” Ren sighed, massaging one of his biceps.

“Well, if you need a personal healer,” she smiled up at him, “you just let me know, and maybe I’ll swing by.”

Gods... Shaya thought, feeling nauseous.

Apricot cleared her throat, “Perhaps we should get going, we have a lot of studying to do and I can’t help but wonder if there might be some downsides to taking so many apostates alive.”

“What are they going to do?” Shaya chuckled, “Arrest us for our success?”

Her friends groaned.

“Why are you like this?” Ral asked, shaking their head.

+++++

Shaya groaned as she sat across from Inquisitor Valanar in a small cell.

Why am I like this!? She screamed internally. They’re totally right – I am a jinx!