The light stabbed into his eyes and Hugo groaned and rolled over.

“Drink the potion I left on your nightstand, it will help, I promise,” Oskar said.

“Uggg, not so loud,” Hugo said softly. He cracked one eye open and saw a small blue potion bottle on his nightstand. With considerable effort, he reached over and downed the whole thing. It was disgusting. Why couldn’t alchemists make anything taste good? He rolled back over and curled up into a ball.

About ten minutes later Hugo was feeling good enough to talk, “What time is it?”

“It’s half past ten. You missed breakfast and most of athletics, but we can still make Marta’s class,” Oskar said.

Hugo didn’t even want to think about getting up, but he knew he had to. He slowly maneuvered himself to a sitting position. “What happened?”

“I really am sorry about last night. I never should have forced you to come along. I didn’t know you were scared of heights. It was a bad idea to bring you along, especially since you aren’t used to drinking vaimud. I really should have thought of that, I am so sorry.”

“Is that what happened? I got drunk at the party? This hurts so much,” Hugo said with his head in his hands.

“You don’t remember?” Oskar said hesitantly.

“No, I don’t even remember where the party was,” moaned Hugo.

Oskar handed him a large glass of water, “The party was at the clock tower. We move it around, but we always have it somewhere up high. It is usually pretty fun. But you didn’t have fun. You don’t like heights, apparently? And you drank a lot to make up for that. Kinda your fault really.”

Oskar shook his head, “But what they did to you wasn’t your fault, and I am sorry I didn’t stop them.”

“What did they do?” Hugo said.

“It is better that you don’t remember, I guess. Let’s just say, they weren’t very nice. I won’t make you go to any more parties,” said Oskar.

Hugo swore and looked up at him, “That bad?”

Looking away, Oskar said, “Yeah.”

Hugo knew he should press for details, but he just wasn’t feeling up for it yet.

Sage Marta’s mana class went slowly. Hugo could tell that she was frustrated with him whenever she glanced his way, but she didn’t say anything. Faint memories of last night came back to him, but he didn’t remember much. He was feeling back to normal by the end of the class though. He was thankful for the potion Oskar gave him. Without it, he was sure that he wouldn’t have been able to even attend class.

During lunch, Hugo had his notes out and was trying to solve the magic equation between bites. It wasn’t that he didn’t know the answer, Oskar had solved it for him so he had the result. The problem was he didn’t really understand the math. According to Sage Rasmus, until he actually understood the math, he wouldn’t be able to properly guide his mana in the creation process.

A tray plopped down in front of him and took him out of his revere. It was Lenna.

“It was awful what they did to you last night,” she said.

Hugo groaned, “You were there too?”

“No, I was at an azad after party. I heard about it this morning,” she said.

A louder groan escaped his lips, “Does everyone know about what happened?”

She shrugged, “I am not really a gossip, and I heard about it. So, probably?”

“I don’t even remember what happened, not really,” Hugo said.

“Nothing?”

“I remember bits and pieces, flashes mostly. Oskar was there, but he doesn’t want to tell me the whole story,” Hugo said. He was starting to remember what happened last night, and it wasn’t pretty.

Oskar shrugged, “It was my fault he came to the party, I feel bad. I don’t want to make him relive it if he doesn’t have to.”

Taking a carrot from her tray, Lenna threw it at Oskar’s head and said, “Tell us anyway.”

“Ok, fine,” Oskar said while he rubbed his forehead, “I’ll give you the short version. Hugo and I went to the party last night. I guess Hugo is afraid of heights, so he drank too much. He got pretty drunk and was acting dumb.”

“Oh, so this whole thing is his fault?” Lenna said.

“No. But that’s just how it started. Hugo went around the party, too scared to talk to anyone. He saw Alice, and ran over to her because he knew her. Then he tripped and spilled his drink on her.”

“That part I did not know,” said Lenna.

Oskar nodded, “Yeah. And she was upset with him, but I think she was just going to go back to her room and change, but then her boyfriend came up and shoved Hugo. Do you know Mattias? That’s her boyfriend.”

“Yeah, I have met him, he is kind of snooty. Thinks he is a big deal. Is that how this started, they got in a fight?” Lenna asked.

“I wish. If they had a fair fight, then maybe this would blow over,” Oskar said sadly.

Hugo felt all over, he didn’t feel bruised. He didn’t remember a fight last night. He did remember feeling terrified, so maybe he ran away. He asked, “So, what did happen?”

“You trounced him. You were stinking drunk and you beat him down in six seconds flat. I thought it was kind of funny.”

Lenna looked at him funny. Hugo shrugged, “I can fight, my dad taught me.”

“Anyway, then he went and got his brother. His brother is a third year, and he must have heard that you were scared of heights. He didn’t say nothing, he just picked you up and threw you out the window.”

“Out of the clocktower window? That is four stories up,” Hugo said.

“It is. And you were screaming bloody murder as you flew out the window. Martin, that’s the brother’s name, threw out a barrier and caught you. Then he dismissed it, and you fell again. He kept dropping and catching you. I think your brain broke, because you didn’t stop crying. Pissed yourself too. Everyone at the party thought it was hilarious.”

“Really?” Hugo said. He remembered enough to corroborate what he had said, but still.

“Yeah. It wasn’t a good look for you. I think you gotta just skip parties for a while, maybe they will forget about last night. Maybe we can give you a new haircut, start fresh later?”

“No thanks. I think that is just a sign that I should avoid parties from here on out,” Hugo said.

“You should forget about them,” Lenna said, “It doesn’t matter what those jerks think anyway.”

“It kind of does. Hugo and I need business networks in the city. We do have to stay popular if we want to be able to work in this city,” Oskar said.

“Don’t you have a job waiting for you when you graduate? Your dad owns a sewing machine factory, right?” said Lenna.

“Yes, but businesses don’t operate in isolation. I need connections, suppliers and transportation, all that kind of stuff starts here, in this academy.”

Hugo went back to lunch and mumbled between bites, “Let’s just forget about it for now, I will figure out something later.”

After lunch they went to Sage Rasmus’s class early as usual. Oskar pointed out Mattias talking to Alice. They both stopped and stared as the three of them walked into the room and sat down. Alice and Mattias walked up to them. Hugo’s heart beat faster. He wasn’t going to like whatever they had to say.

Hoping to derail the conversation, Hugo spoke first, “Hey, Alice. Sorry about spilling my drink on you last night. I feel bad about that.”

Alice seemed exasperated, “That... that isn’t. I didn’t want to talk about that.”

“Still, I am sorry,” Hugo interjected.

“Why did you sucker punch my boyfriend,” she said exasperated. “That was just dirty of you. Who does that? Are you some skeevy criminal or something?”

“He’s not a criminal,” Oskar said, “Mattias pushed first! He was just defending himself.”

“He was just defending me! Hugo is the one that went all vicious, trying to kill Mattias!” Alice yelled.

Hugo could almost feel how the rest of the conversation would go. As long as he kept defending himself, they would get madder and madder at him. Mattias would probably threaten to sick his brother on him. He didn’t want it to end that way.

“Alice,” Hugo said and then paused.

After a bit, she spit out, “What?”

“What would it take to make up for this? Should I apologize to Mattias?” he said calmly.

“For starters!”

Hugo stood up and held out his hand to Mattias, “I am sorry about last night. I shouldn’t have hit you. You were just being a good boyfriend. Please forgive me.”

Mattias stared at the outstretched hand for a bit then he shook it briefly. “Whatever, sure. They say god cares for idiots and drunks, and you were both last night,” he said.

Hugo nodded. He turned back to Alice and said, “Are we good? Or is there more that I could do?”

Alice just stood there. This wasn’t the way she thought this would go.

“Maybe I should be forced to listen to more of your terrible jokes?” Hugo said with a smile.

A snigger escaped her lips before she caught herself. “We will think of something,” Alice said and grabbed Mattias’s hand and left.

After they walked away, Oskar said, “I can’t believe you just rolled over like that. Only a sheep lets himself be sheared. I never could have debased myself like that.”

“It helps that I don’t remember much of last night. I feel like I am apologizing for someone else,” Hugo said and shrugged.

“It was the right choice, even if it hurt,” Lenna said. “Mattias’s family is big in the city. If you want your precious connections, you can’t afford to have them mad at you.”

Hugo smiled at Lenna, glad to have the confirmation of his actions. It did feel a little weird to apologize when he knew that they were the ones in the wrong. All he did was defend himself, and his brother tortured him as everyone laughed. He still felt a spike of anger when he thought about it. But his father didn’t raise a fool. Making enemies wouldn’t help here.

Sage Rasmus walked in shortly after that, about fifteen minutes late. He got out a few papers and shuffled through them before addressing the class. “Sorry to be late, students. You don’t know yet, but that is a rare occurrence indeed. But it couldn’t be helped though, I had to repair some of the defenses after the attempted robbery this morning.”

Robbery? Hugo hadn’t heard anything like that. He leaned over to Oskar and whispered, “What happened?”

Oskar waited until Sage Rasmus was writing something on the board to respond. He whispered, “Someone tried to steal the academy mana core before the sun rose this morning.”

Hugo sat back in shock. The mana core provided the power for most of the academy, running everything from lights to heating and cooling. Even the enchantments on the walls were powered by the huge core.

“What happened?” Hugo said.

“What do you think happened? The thief got splatted,” Oskar whispered back.

Hugo nodded. Everyone knew that mana cores were heavily guarded. And a mana core protected by the city’s foremost mages? Doubly so. It wasn’t surprising that the thief had been killed by the defenses. It was surprising that they had even tried. Hugo did his best to concentrate on the math, trying to remember what he had learned from the book yesterday.

“Hugo, please stay after,” Sage Rasmus said right after the end of the lesson.

His heart fell. He knew what this was going to be about.

“I thought I told you to get a tutor?” Rasmus said with a stern look.

“A tutor was never an option for me. I just don’t have the money,” Hugo said honestly, “But I did get a few books from the library and started working through them.”

“Which obviously wasn’t enough. You did just as poorly today as you did yesterday and the day before. We are creating a simple hyperbolic paraboloid here. This was supposed to be easy practice. If you even halfway understood what you were doing, you would have perfected the form,” said Rasmus. He sighed, “We do expel untalented students, you understand that, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Hugo said.

“Don’t sir me. This isn’t the corps. Call me Sage.”

“Yes, Sage Rasmus,” Hugo said, abashed. He felt even more ashamed at the mixup.

“Hugo. I need to get you up to a minimum standard. I won’t have anyone in my class unable to complete a simple equation. I want you here in this classroom every morning to study the math we will be working on during the afternoon class.

“I have time during the breakfast hour, so I expect you to get up early and bring breakfast for the both of us, arriving in this room at the seventh bell. Not a moment later. As far as payment goes... There isn’t a lot you have that I want. Except I suppose your time. I will have you clean the classroom every day after your class. And every day just before lunch I want you to swing by the classroom. The older students sometimes create finished products that I will have you transport to the academy walls for later sale. You are dismissed.”

“Thank you, thanks so much,” Hugo said. Rasmus was being generous. The cost of a tutor was well above the worth of Hugo’s labor in the classroom. It was hard to adjust to the possibility, but it seemed like Rasmus was actually being nice.