Florian practically flew through the halls, speeding over to where he’d been told Theo’s office was. Opening a series of heavy wooden doors and angering more than a few of the guards as he brushed past them, Florian found himself in a large room illuminated by a pair of large small windows. Theo sat at a large, wooden desk with all manner of documents stacked on top of it. At Florian’s entrance, the wizard took his eyes off a paper he had been reading and regarded Florian with no small amount of surprise.

“What do I owe this pleasure to?” Theo asked, putting the paper down on top of the mess that occupied his desk.

To be honest, Florian hadn’t quite thought this through. All he knew was that he was angry at the wizard for not doing more. Theo could probably single-handedly turn each night from a massacre to barely more difficult than the day. Had Theo escorted the Warriors to the forest, maybe more would have returned alive.

“Why don’t you fight the monsters, Master?” Florian asked, his caustic words drawing Theo’s ire. The other man stroked the beginnings of a beard, even as his eyes burned holes in Florian.

“I do not believe you are in any position to be telling me what to do, Disciple,” Theo replied. “I am tending to matters that are far beyond your wildest dreams. I am working to save this world, Disciple, and I can ill afford to waste time on such distractions.”

What kind of world-saving involved sitting behind a desk and sifting through what looked like old property information? Florian spotted tax documents on the desk, along with utilities payments and just about every kind of document that might have been near Leeds Castle. “It doesn’t look like that to me.”

Theo stood up at his desk, leaning down on it to look at Florian at face-level. “That is because you do not know the half of what this world is experiencing. You people are lucky that it was I who was sent over, and not the other twits,” Theo spat. “You need to remember your place, Disciple. All you are is because I opened your eyes to the truth of reality. Without my interference, you would have never understood the universe as you do.”

Florian scowled. That much was true, but that knowledge hadn’t done him much good recently. Memories of Warriors falling under the darkness of night, tumbling off the very wall they defended, came to mind. Memories of those calm faces – eyes wide open – in the medical tent, none of them responding to him as he passed them by. Memories of the attack on the lumber camp, memories of a boy with green eyes.

“I’m taking the rest of the day off,” Florian announced, turning around and abandoning his hastily constructed plan. Theo wouldn’t budge on this.

“You are most certainly not. The sun has not yet totally set,” Theo called out from behind him. “Remember our deal, Disciple. If you disappoint me again, I may not see the value in such an agreement with you. Regrowing a limb is a taxing process, one that not even I have much experience in…”

Florian froze in the doorway, wanting to say the choice words that came to mind, but he couldn’t. In the end, though he gripped the wall until his hands went white, he could say nothing but “Fine.” It was pointless to be mad at the wizard. He just needed to do what he could.

And so he returned to the classroom to resume his vigil over the meditating students. Most of them were still deep into meditating, though a large majority of the non-advanced students were laying on the ground, recuperating. A few of them – including Wesley and Mack – were gathered around the window, watching the scene unfolding in the courtyard. Florian walked up to them, noticing now that families had come to greet the procession.

Mothers and fathers walked up to the procession only to find that their sons and daughters had not made it back to the castle. They cried, clutching at the dirt beneath them. Others shook in rage, their arms pressed to sky in a silent scream. Children, brothers and sisters, so used to the cruelty of this world, did not need to be told what had happened. Their screams pierced the skies, the loudest of them carrying even to the third-story classroom.

“Such a shame,” Mack said, his voice soft. “A lot of good people died today.”

Wesley simply nodded, his hands pressed against the glass. A teardrop rolled down the man’s cheek, the last light of the sun making it glisten.

And then the sun was gone, buried by the horizon. The shadows beneath them, their shapes lit by the torches scattered around the castle, began to move up the wall. They were preparing to defend against the monsters again. Florian’s fists clenched and unclenched as he considered breaking Theo’s agreement to render whatever aid he could.

As he was about to settle on that decision, about ready to fight as a Warrior once more, he remembered the lumberjack boy. He had been so young, about the same age his younger brother would be. His heart seized as he wondered if Aaron had met the same fate as that boy. He needed to find his way back to him, back to his family. He’d failed to help anyone the last time he’d fought, needing to be saved by Anna.

Her name brought forth a sense of shame, even as he decided that he couldn’t take risks like the ones he’d been forced to make ever since his expulsion from Dover. Instead, there was something else he could do. It was time for him to unveil one of the cards he’d held close to his chest. It was time for him to reveal to his students a way to boost their consolidation of power: consuming Hellwolf meat.

The sooner they were capable, the sooner they could act as the much-needed cavalry the Warriors needed. He didn’t know how long it would take, but an army of magic-wielding individuals would be fearsome, and it was the best he could do for Leeds and its people. “Wesley,” Florian whispered, pulling the lanky older man to the side and away from Mack, who had just begun to turn away from the window and make to leave the room.

Wesley looked at him with a question in his eyes.

“I need to show you something tonight. Don’t eat dinner.”

Confused, Wesley simply shrugged and nodded before exiting the classroom, leaving Florian to watch as a sea of blazing orange orbs made their appearance just beyond Leeds’ walls.