“You garden troll!” Dean Artjom yelled, “You knew it was dangerous and you brought him along anyway. You risked the city’s only link to the past so you could talk to your insane friend. How could you be so stupid?!” The dean was yelling at Mia after they had returned. They had gone straight to his office and let him know about their extra curricular trip. Suffice it to say, the dean did not take it well.

“Hey,” Hugo said calmly, “I am not a child. I made my own decision to come along. Which turned out to be a good choice. We found out more about how the attack is going to be carried out, and what to look for. That is why we came and let you know all about it.”

Dean Artjom took a deep breath to calm himself, “Hugo, you may have been right this time, but it was a big risk. That letter positively reeked of a trap, you just got lucky.” He turned to Mia and said, “There is a reason I am furious with you and not him. You should know better by now. Aren't you a subjective thirty years old by now? Don’t let your young body let you fall into bad habits. Act your age and make smart choices!”

Mia threw up her hands and looked like she wanted to argue with him. Nothing came out of her mouth. Maybe she was doing a little mental math and realizing the dean was right. She hadn’t ever told Hugo how many times she had re-lived those five months, but if it was about twenty five times, she would be roughly thirty subjective years old. The idea that she was actually an adult must have surprised her.

“That is actually a good point, dean. I had never thought about it that way. Sometimes I feel like I have the mind of an adult and the body of a child. I really will try to act my age and start making better choices. But that doesn’t mean that I agree with you in this case. We returned safely with information the sentinels can use to save the city. It was worth the risk.”

The dean frowned, but didn’t say anything in reply.

Thinking about her age reminded Hugo that his birthday was soon. It was right after the earthquake. That reminded him of another important fact.

“Oh, by the way. Alexandru said that the earthquake coming up isn’t natural. He said we shouldn’t ever get earthquakes here. It is probably an attack by Deva as well, a failed one, but still something I think the sentinels should know about.”

“By the gods,” Dean Artjom said and ran his fingers through his hair, “It’s one thing to know they could cause the shimmer veins to explode. It’s quite another to know they can cause the whole city to shake. That’s power on a totally different level.”

Hugo shrugged, “Eh, it doesn’t really do much. Some of the poorly built buildings are coming down, but I am sure their replacements will be safer. If we just evacuate the narrows, I bet no one will die.”

Dean Artjom waffled his hand back and forth, “We can’t just evacuate the narrows. The citizens would think something nefarious was going on. Now that I know that this is an attack, that’s another reason we can’t tell anyone. We can’t let them know we know. Either way, we already have a good plan in place for this. We are having a pop up street fair with free food and games. Hopefully that will save some lives because they won’t be indoors. We started planning it right after you told us that the earthquake was coming. I don’t think our plans need to change now that we know it is man-made.”

“Oh, the fair is a pretty good idea,” Hugo said. He thought for a moment and said, “Can I go? I know you don’t want me out of the academy until after we save it, but... I want to make sure my mom goes to the fair.”

Dean Artjom scowled at him and said, “No, you can’t go. The life of one citizen isn’t worth risking the whole city for.” He sighed and said, “But we can make sure your mother goes. I suppose we can say she won a contest or something and she has to redeem in person at the fair. We will think of something. Just write down her information.”

“Thank you,” Hugo said, meaning it. He had decided not to stay in his mother’s life a year ago, but that didn’t mean that he no longer loved her. She still raised him, even though she was a horrible mother these days. His feelings about it were complicated. He was just glad she was going to be saved.

...

The night of the earthquake came around, and Hugo found himself back in the azad stadium, sitting next to Daniela. They had gotten here hours ago. Unlike the other event, there were no assigned seats. It was first come, first serve, so they went early to get good seats. They arrived two hours early and still had to sit ten rows away from the azad court. This match was popular.

As they sat, Daniela handed him something and said, “Here, I got us treats since you got us the tickets. I have a few different kinds of kringel.”

“Thank you, Daniela, this is so thoughtful,” Hugo said and took a bite of the kringel. It was a braided bread dessert with sugar and cinnamon. Hugo loved it and told her so. The two of them shared the treat and the strawberry juice she brought along.

There was a party atmosphere as the crowd of people waited for the game to start. Hugo bought drinks and they talked and laughed the whole time. He wasn’t sure how this relationship was going to develop but for now Hugo was really enjoying himself. He put his arm around her and pulled her close for a kiss.

“There you are!” a voice said and interrupted them.

Hugo looked up to see it was Mia. He said, “Yep, here to see the match. Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready right now? I think it starts soon, right?” As the winner of this year’s Blue Lion tournament, she was representing the academy in the inter-city tournament.

“Yeah, it starts soon. But I just have this feeling that I don’t really have to prepare much for this match. I just wanted to check in with you, make sure you are ok,” Mia said with an odd grin.

For someone that was trying to act more mature, she wasn’t doing a very good job at it. She was obviously alluding to the fact that the earthquake was going to interrupt the match. But the weird way she was acting was probably tipping off Daniela.

Hugo said, “Hey Daniela, have you met Mia? She is the school’s champion, although I guess you knew that.”

“We have never met, but I have always cheered for you, Mia. You are the best player I have ever seen. The way you plan out every game, it’s nothing short of brilliant,” Daniela gushed.

Mia smiled and sat right next to Daniela. “Tell me more about myself,” she said with a smile.

“I think her head is big enough as it is, you don’t need to inflate her ego any more,” Hugo said with a frown.

“She has a right to be proud. I hope one day to be half the player she is,” Daniela said, “How do you know her anyway?” She said as she turned back to Hugo.

“I just met this bad influence at school, but apparently we are family,” Hugo said, sticking to the lie they had thought up for this type of situation.

“That’s right. I come from the good side of the family, and he comes from the boring half,” Mia said, “But I am trying to teach him my ways.”

Hugo glanced up at the skies. The sun had set an hour ago so he said, “I think instead of teaching me your degenerate ways, you really should head down to the azad court.”

Mia looked down to the court to see that all of her competitors were waiting for her. She sighed and said, “Yeah, I guess so. It was great meeting you Daniela. If you want to upgrade to a better boyfriend, I can hook you up.”

“Hey!” Hugo said as Daniela giggled.

Mia just smirked and walked down to the azad court. Shortly after she arrived, the dean walked up to the stage and started talking. His voice pierced through the roar of the crowd and announced the beginning of the tournament. Hugo could tell he was making this beginning part last a little longer than normal. Maybe he was thinking the same thing as Mia. The earthquake would be happening soon.

Eventually, his speech ended and the game started up. This time the azad court created a swarm of kobolds for the contestants to kill. The short lizard monsters streamed out of the center of the court, claws flashing. The other three players methodically killed monsters, but not Mia. She was wielding a runed sword, only attacking monsters that made their way to her section of the court.

“She has never used that sword before. I bet it’s something awesome. She totally has another weird strategy that is going to crush everyone during the second phase,” Daniela gushed.

Hugo kept himself from rolling his eyes. Only three people in the azad stadium were unsurprised when the earthquake started. The rumbling and shaking made the rest of the crowd panic and scream. Some people started to flee out of the stadium in a wild panic, but others yelled to stay put. Nothing could fall on them in the open air stadium, running would only cause a dangerous stampede.

Wrapping both arms around Daniella, Hugo stood up and made sure she didn’t run away. The rumbling didn’t last more than a handful of seconds, so it was soon over.

“It’s ok, it’s ok. It’s over now,” Hugo quietly talked into Daniela’s ear.

She was shivering with fright, and Hugo held onto her tightly as she calmed down. Eventually she pulled back and said, “What happened? Are we under attack, should we run?”

Well, yes, but actually no. Hugo said, “No, we are safe here, it was just an earthquake.”

Daniela hugged him tighter. He was happy to provide comfort and support. He felt bad that he wasn’t able to tell her this was coming, so he wanted her to feel better right away.

Knowing that this was coming, Dean Arjom was quick to restore order. He sent everyone to the center of the grass clearing, while he had various teachers check the structural integrity of the academy buildings.

As they stood there, the crowd slowly calmed down and started talking in hushed tones. It was as if they were afraid to talk loudly and draw attention to themselves. The atmosphere was tense.

Hugo wondered exactly what caused the earthquake. It was an attack of some kind, and it made him uncomfortable that the sentinel command had just let it happen. He supposed it was more important that they stop the shimmer vein from exploding, so they couldn’t tip their hand yet.

Still, their strategy put everything into one basket. The dean was sure that Hugo would travel back in time and they could try again if they failed. Hugo wasn’t so sure. Alexandru said himself that he didn’t know exactly why he had traveled back in time and arrived in someone else’s body. Hugo wasn’t positive the ritual would work again, and he didn’t like that the dean seemed to be counting on a second chance to save the city. Either way though, Hugo was optimistic about their chances for success. He had identified all of the problems and given the information to a competent organization. By this time next month, everything would be resolved and he could go back to living his life.