Once everyone was done with lunch, Jonathan shepherded the kids into the ritual room. Abigail returned to fixing up the contract ritual in preparation for Mr. Geiller to arrive, and Jonathan had the rest of the kids sit in a circle with him off to the side.

"Alright, kids, I wanted to talk to you about what happened this morning, and then once Abigail is done fixing the ritual over there we're going to adjust our contracts so that you'll be safe if anything like that happens again."

"What did happen, Jonathan?" asked Yanni in a tentative voice.

"Abigail didn't tell you about it?" said Jonathan. That was a surprise, although he supposed she hadn't spent all that much time with the other kids. Wow, had the attack only happened this morning? It felt like forever ago.

Yanni shook his head.

"Ah, okay. Well, you know how you had to move around a bunch when you lived in Eldridge? The same group that was the cause of that figured out Ethan had moved into the orphanage here, and some thugs showed up this morning. Unfortunately for them, it turns out that there's an actual demon inside of me, and when they threatened Abigail I accidentally woke it up. The demon took care of the bad guys, but demons are really, really dangerous and the contracts that I made with you weren't enough to keep you safe, which is why Abigail went downstairs on her own. She made a new contract with the demon so that it won't come out again unless she's under physical threat, and now all of you and I are going to change our contracts so that you'll be safe like Abigail was."

"Will the demon protect us from the Petty Baron?" Bethany's eyes were practically aglow at the thought.

"Um. We're going to try to ensure it doesn't come to that," said Jonathan. "Anytime the demon comes out is a risk to everyone around it. It's not a nice demon."

Bethany nodded thoughtfully at that. Jonathan supposed the kids had very vivid memories about just how not-nice that demon actually was.

"Ethan thinks that we'll have some time before the Petty Baron tries anything else, so we're going to work together to make sure that we have a plan in case it ever happens again."

"What sort of plan?" asked Jamilah.

"Well, all of you didn't have anywhere to run except the attic, and that's not a great idea because then you can't get out of there. I'm going to talk to Mr. Geiller, and hopefully we'll be able to set up some way to warn us before bad people get to the orphanage. Then, we're going to find a place in the woods out there where you can go to hide. I'm not going to be able to do it today, but I can summon tents and other camping supplies that will probably be a lot better than what you normally find in your world; maybe we'll even camp out there for fun to practice."

The kids looked excited about that prospect.

"We'll also want to make sure that everyone has a way to get out of the house from the second floor even if they can't reach the stairs. Honestly, I should have done that earlier just in case of fire, although I guess there isn't much danger of that since we don't have open flames anywhere. Anyway, the point is that over the next couple days we're going to find ways to safely get out of the house if needed, and make sure there's somewhere safe you can go once you're out. Once we've done that, Ethan, Mr. Geiller, and I will put our heads together about what we can do to make sure that you don't need to go fleeing into the woods at a moment's notice."

Kylus raised his hand with excitement. "We can help with that!"

Jonathan smiled at him. "I'm sure you can, Kylus, but Mr. Geiller doesn't handle talking to a bunch of people at the same time very well."

"What was that? Did I hear my name?" Mr. Geiller stumped into the room and pulled short, eyeing the crowd of children with obvious distaste.

Jonathan gave Kylus an ironic look and rose to his feet. "Hey, Mr. Geiller. We were just talking about ways we can keep ourselves safe now that we've got negative attention from Eldridge, and once Abigail gets the ritual done the kids and I are going to adjust our contracts. Before we do that, though, how about you and I negotiate our contract and I introduce the kids to you properly?"

"Do we really have to—fine, have it your way. I suppose I did say I'd teach the little blighters."

"Mr. Geiller is going to teach us…?" Jonathan wasn't sure if Ethan's look was incredulity or horror. Maybe a bit of both, actually.

"Yep! He's been teaching Abigail about magic for an hour or two most days, and you'll be learning from him, as well."

"Hmph," grunted Mr. Geiller. "The lunch deal is off, though."

Jonathan shrugged. "Okay, let me introduce the kids…"

Abigail finished up her work on the ritual when Jonathan was partway done introducing the Eldridge children to Mr. Geiller, and at Mr. Geiller's request he quickly updated his contracts with all of the kids so that they would be able to banish him without a ritual if he physically threatened them.

"You must not do this casually," he stressed. "If I'm banished to the Infernal Abyss, I'll probably die. But if the demon takes over and is threatening your life, then you need to be able to save yourself, and my hope is that just giving you the capability will ensure that the demon will avoid hurting you in the first place."

Mr. Geiller spoke up from the edge of the room where he was watching. "You're including that clause in our contract, too."

Jonathan glowered at him. "Sure, but our agreement is going to have the stipulation that it will only be valid if you don't attack me first. I don't want you threatening me with that medallion of yours, whatever it is."

Mr. Geiller snorted. "Fine."

Once the kids' contracts were adjusted, Jonathan chased them out, and negotiated his contract with Mr. Geiller. They agreed that Mr. Geiller would devote a couple hours each weekday to teach the children and in exchange Jonathan would ensure that the Quintarchal Church and the Mage College didn't catch wind of the fact that he had a literal inner demon.

"Thanks, Abigail," said Jonathan as he stepped out of the ritual circle. "That was a bit of a slog, huh?"

Abigail looked pretty tired after empowering the ritual so many times in a row, but smiled at him. "It's fine, Jonathan. That needed doing."

Jonathan ruffled her hair. "You're a good kid, Abigail. Go take a break."

She ducked under his hand, looking shy, and headed out of the room. Jonathan turned back to Mr. Geiller, who had stepped out of the ritual circle but was standing looking pensive.

"Mr. Geiller, I was hoping to talk to you about something."

"What's that, boy?"

"Is there any way we can set something up so that we have forewarning if any thugs from the Petty Baron try to attack us again? I know you had some sort of alarm on your property."

"Hm, well it's possible. You think they'd come by the road?"

"I can't imagine why they wouldn't, though Ethan might have a better idea."

"Then that's likely doable, with a little bit of work. If we buried a sentry array underneath the road down towards the hill, we could establish a sympathetic relationship to a bell or something here in the orphanage. You'd need to conjure some materials for the project, but I have a lot of the array components we'd need. Hm, yes, that's doable, maybe key it to a sufficient number of people in a short period of time so my deliveries don't trigger it. I'd want a bell of my own, since I doubt these ruffians are likely to respect the neighbors if they're enacting violence on preteens. The one problem would be keeping it powered. I doubt you have much in the way of appropriate catalysts, so someone would need to travel down the road to it and charge it about once a day."

"I think we can handle that. Is charging it something I could learn to do?"

Mr. Geiller waved a hand back and forth. "Maybe, maybe not. You couldn't do it with your Infernal Abyss magic, and you've never learned to intentionally channel any other type of magic, have you?"

Jonathan shook his head. He'd never had time, much less someone who could teach him, and the demonic magic was so much more useful despite its downsides.

"Abigail could do it easily. Maybe some of the other kids, but I haven't tested them to see if they have any talent."

Poor Abigail. She was going to feel like a walking battery, at this point. "I think we can make that work. I'm pretty sure at least a couple of the other kids have some magical abilities, and it would be nice to have a reason to get out of the house."

"Very well, I will prep something. Should take a couple days, and then I'll need your help, and maybe a few of the older children, to properly bury it."

"That won't be too obvious?"

Mr. Geiller shrugged. "What are they going to do, dig it up? And that would trigger the alarm anyway."

"Fair enough."

Mr. Geiller nodded decisively. "That's settled, then. I'll come by in a couple days to give the children their first lesson, and you can conjure the final materials I need then."

"A couple days? Why so late?"

"You want this alarm set up soon, don't you?"

The old bat had got him there.