Beatrice nodded graciously to Nicholas's well wishes, but when Nova returned to their table with a tray of food, she gasped so loudly that both the vampire and her roommate were startled.

"Bee?" Nova asked, concerned. "You okay?"

"Vampire!"

"Huh?"

"Nicholas, you're a vampire!"

"Yes, but I wouldn't want to announce that fact so loudly in a room full of Hawkswoods." He hissed, warily looking around. No one else seemed to pay them any mind, and the dining hall was loud. "I did just tell you I am."

"Yes, I'm sorry," Beatrice stammered, her mind running faster than her mouth. "But you've been alive for a long time, I mean, undead for a long time. Right?"

"That is roughly how vampirism works, yes."

"And you've been at Ravensburl for a long time!"

"Yes..." Nicholas said slowly. "Where are you going with this?"

Beatrice leaned closer to the young-looking vampire and lowered her voice, now more consciously careful of being overheard. "What do you know about the Necromancy classroom?"

"Ah." The vampire's eyes widened in understanding. He leaned closer as well. "I was not permitted to hang around when the Necromancy classes were in session, but I know quite a bit about it, yes. Are you looking to learn?"

"Not particularly, but I do need to know what's inside."

"What is inside? The artifacts that are kept there? Beatrice, the artifacts themselves are much more dangerous than beginner spells, that's why the classroom has been locked. There is no way for the Headmistress to dispose of or remove the artifacts. At least, none that I am aware of."

The young druid fell silent, brow knitted together deep in thought. "Alright, just for curiosity's sake, what can some of these artifacts do?"

Nicholas leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment. "Necromancy is the magic of death, and that involves raising the dead, puppetting their bodies, and enslaving and binding souls. I don't recall each and every artifact that was stored there, of course, but I do remember there was one that gave even myself the shivers."

"What was it?"

The vampire looked sternly at Beatrice, his pale eyes piercing. "It was a length of Damascus chain, ensorceled with fell spells. Its purpose was to bind a living soul to do the master's bidding. Anything the master wanted, you would be forced to do. And if they wanted you to act normal, act as if nothing was wrong, you would have no choice but to do it. Those spelled could lure their friends and unsuspecting victims to the necromancer's traps, where they could be killed, souls enslaved, bodies raised." When Nicholas was done speaking, he was met with stunned silence from the two girls. "As you can imagine, it is an incredibly powerful artifact that would cause untold havoc if it got into the wrong hands... Why do you ask?"

The earth witch went pale despite her sun-kissed complexion. She leaned back in her chair, stunned, feeling small and helpless. Is this what the imposters were after? Was Laurence trying to get his hands on the Damascus Chain?

"So," Nova said slowly as she distributed the food and drinks from her tray between herself and Beatrice. "Some pretty bad stuff is still inside the Necromancy classroom, just locked up on the first floor. Name's Nova by the way."

Nicholas nodded. "I know. I watched your win in the Skeet-Shooting competition."

"You did not. It was in the morning, in broad daylight."

The vampire snickered. "From inside, through the third-floor window, I mean. I had a decent view of the field from there."

Nova's lip pulled into a smile. "There we go. Alright, so. Hypothetically. How could someone break into the Necromancy classroom? There are those heavy chains across the door and everything."

Nicholas tapped the side of his plate with a fork as he thought. "I've only been learning magic pretty recently, but I know there are some high-level locking spells on it. You can kind of feel an energy trying to keep you away from it if you approach with your wand."

"So someone would have to break the spells or unravel them or..."

"I don't know if the spells are permanent or if the Headmistress ever meant for the contents of the classroom to be removed eventually. I would assume the spells are permanent. Besides, none of here is strong enough to break them, I'm sure." He returned to taking a spoonful of his now-forgotten food.

"I guess you're right." Nova took a sip of her drink and gently nudged Beatrice. "See, Bee? It'll be fine. No one can get in, so just enjoy your win and the rest of the Games before classes start back up again. Could be fun."

"I mean..." The earth witch hesitated, still agitated and nervous.

Nova laid a hand on Beatrice's and gave her a small smile. "It'll be okay. The classroom's stayed intact this long, right?"

"You're right, I guess."

"Of course I'm right. Now eat your dinner, it's getting cold."

Nicholas snickered softly and said nothing as he returned to his own dinner, letting the two young witches enjoy the night while it was young.

Right after dinner, instead of taking a walk through the courtyards or sitting by the pond at the east field, Beatrice hurried into the library with Nova in tow. She breezed right into the shelves and began pulling down book after book, pausing only to pile them on Nova's outstretched arms and levitate a few back to a table.

"Bee, what's all this for? Class don't start up again till next week." The tech witch groaned from behind a towering stack of books that she put down on the table with a thump loud enough to elicit a "Shhh!" from somewhere in the darkness, wherever it was the vampire librarian was lurking.

"I completely forgot!" Beatrice said a bit too loudly, causing another "Shhh!" "The Wisdom Game is still on! I forgot all about it because of the duel with Circe!"

"Wait, really? I forgot about it too." Nova organized Beatrice's panicked pile of books by school of magic to make it a bit easier for her roommate. "Alright, how else can I help?"

"Oh! Quiz me!" Beatrice sat down and pushed a book of basic Abjuration spells over to Nova. "Just flip through the book and ask me a question."

Nova chuckled as she picked the book up and flipped through it, opting to perch on the table instead of sitting. "Confident, huh? That's good. Alright.... What's the standard movement for the shield spell?"

Beatrice's face lit up and she whipped her wand out from her satchel. "Easy, that was the first day of class! Like this." She made a gesture with her wand and added a slight flourish at the end that caused her shield spell to twinkle with a slight rainbow sheen as it hung in the air.

Nova nodded and flipped through the book at random again. "Nice. This one might be too easy for you, Bee."

"It always pays to review the basics, always," Beatrice replied. "Hit me with another one."

As Nova continued the quiz Beatrice, the earth witch correctly answered question after question, causing the two to move on from basic Abjuration to Destruction, to Illusion, to Divination, to Botany. It was while Nova was quizzing her roommate about what kind of herbs are used in healing poultices that Beatrice stopped.

"Hey, Bee? Healing poultices?" Nova raised her eyebrow. "Isn't this something you've been making with your family since you were born?"

"Yes," Beatrice said slowly, clearly distracted. She was staring off at a point behind Nova with a bewildered expression. Nova noticed her roommate's cage behavior, again, and put down the book while slowly taking out her phone to hold at the ready as a wand. She looked behind her and scoffed in surprise and bewilderment. "Damn it, Bee, I thought you saw another impostor."

"I'm sorry, but how could I not get distracted? Look at him!"

The two witches fell silent as they openly watched the sight that was unfolding across the room from them: Meowstaff, sitting at a table with a book propped up against a pile of other books, reading. As they watched, the talking cat professor daintily placed a paw on the page and turned it with a flick.

"A cat, reading! Isn't he cute?" Beatrice cooed.

"He is, but he's still a professor so... I don't know why I'm so surprised to see him reading." Nova leaned back, raising her phone to eye level to snap a photo of the cat.

As the two witches watched, however, Mortanius the librarian emerged from behind the shelves with a couple of books in hand. He placed them on Meowstaff's table, opening them to relevant pages, and letting the cat scan the contents. Both the cat and the vampire were beginning to look increasingly more worried as whatever they were looking for didn't seem to be within the tomes.

"They look like they're having some trouble." Beatrice mused. "Let's go over there, maybe we can help."

The tech witch sighed, but she was already hopping off the table. "If you're sure you're done studying."

"Helping others is way more important than winning a contest." The earth witch said as she strode over to Meowstaff and Mortanius.

"Good evening, sirs!" Beatrice beamed as she approached the two of them. "Is everything alright? Can Nova and I help with anything?"

"Ah, you two are here, I see," Meowstaff replied, his tail swishing. Beatrice's brow knitted in concern; though she wasn't too familiar with cats, she knew that was not a happy tail swish. "I think you might be able to help, yes. Especially you, Miss Gaia."

"Me?"

Nova picked up one of the books Meowstaff had on the table, and the earth witch looked over at the contents. It and all the books on the table were about different herbs and other kinds of plants. "Are you researching about plants, professor? I can definitely help with that."

"Not just any plants, Miss Gaia," Mortanius said in his deep, gravelly voice. Even he looked quite concerned. "The good professor here has requested every book I have on the Lullabye plant."

"The...what?" Nova's brow was raised in the way she always did when she heard something that simply must be nonsense.

Meowstaff looked back at the tech witch with his back straight and his ears folded back. "The Lullabye plant is a magical plant with special properties, primarily used in sleep droughts. Very helpful in small doses for insomnia and the like. They are bright purple and quite nice to nap under and bloom only at night. These plants are very hard to cultivate and grow, and I have been taking special care of a crop of Lullabye for years, ever since I started teaching Botany at Ravensburl."

"So what's the problem, professor? It sounds like you know everything there is no knowledge about them if you've been growing them for that long."

"Yes, but Lullabyes should not just disappear!" Meowstaff yowled, baring his teeth in his frustration. "I suspect there to be some bizarre leap-year phenomenon that occurs with these plants, maybe their pollen made me dream that I had planted this year's crop and they were going to bloom tonight? I just can't understand it." The cat's tail whapped the table hard enough there was an audible thump to punctuate the professor's frustration. "That has to be it because the entire crop is gone! Five dozen flower pots, completely empty with their soil packed and undisturbed as if I had never planted anything all this time!" The cat growled again and flipped through the pages of the book in front of him. "This just cannot be right!"

"In all the years I've been alive, Meowstaff, I have never heard of such a thing occurring." Mortanius chimed in, unfazed while the two witches had unconsciously taken a few steps away, wary of the yowling and hissing cat.

"Well where did they go then? What happened to my plants!" Meowstaff hissed, his fur standing on end as he grew angrier.

Mortanius, already undead, dared to lay a hand on the cat and soothingly stroked him from head to tail. "There, there. I have a few more books, we will go through them together to find a solution."

Now burning with embarrassment from being pet while angry, Meowstaff grumbled and continued his search through the books to solve the mystery of his missing flowers. "Months of care, gone! Just like the flowers!" He hissed as he scanned page after page on Lullabyes.

Beatrice, backing away and letting the cat and vampire handle the research, stood beside Nova. "Do you know what I'm thinking?"

"I think I am."

The earth witch nodded, drawing her wand and leading the way out of the library. "Let's check the Botany greenhouse."

The two young witches had to check several of the greenhouses that were on the school grounds, as only after they had checked their own year's assigned greenhouse and found nothing out of the ordinary did Beatrice realize that Meowstaff never mentioned which greenhouse he was growing Lullabyes in. It took a while, and the night was getting quite dark indeed, but Beatrice had spotted a building that looked like a greenhouse out towards the woods, far to the end of the east field and partially shrouded by trees. A brick path, partially overgrown with grass, led from the back corner of the main castle and forked halfway down the field, with one path leading to the greenhouse and another leading to a one-storey building of red brick, possibly a maintenance shed of some sort. Beatrice fearlessly led the way down the disused path, the tech witch nervously following her.

"Bee, are you sure?" Nova said in a hushed whisper, clutching her phone. "Doesn't look like we should be back here."

"I know, but this is the last greenhouse," Beatrice answered softly. She took her roommate's hand and the two walked the path together.

"I think the Headmistress knows we're here."

"Did you see any ravens? The last one I saw was the big one at the east field fountain."

"I didn't see any on the way here, but I mean, come on. She would have them all over, wouldn't she?"

As they approached the greenhouse, it became more apparent just how dark it was. There were no lights on in the area, and the tree cover blocked what moonlight there was. "She would, but that's never stopped any of the impostors. So it shouldn't stop us either." Beatrice said with much more confidence than she felt.

The door to the greenhouse was clean and well maintained, with a section of the brick path in front of it clear of debris and grass. It was well travelled and frequently visited, despite it having been built so far behind the castle. The earth witch took a breath and held it as she crept towards the door, and laid a careful hand on the handle. She turned it, but it refused to open.

"Locked," Beatrice whispered, letting go of the handle.

"Bee, we should go."

"Not yet." The earth witch levelled her wand at the handle and spoke an easy unlocking spell. The two heard a soft click from within and the door began to swing open, much to their shared relief. As Beatrice cautiously led the way into the greenhouse, Nova held up her phone and used its flashlight feature. The light that the phone cast was weak, and only illuminated the first few pots that were on the floor, closest to Beatrice's feet. Muttering under her breath, Nova shut off the flashlight and spoke a spell in another language instead. Electricity crackled and a light flared to life, rising to hover just above their heads. The light it cast was far stronger and brighter and immediately illuminated the entire greenhouse.

Something towards the back of the greenhouse hissed in response to the light, and Beatrice levelled her wand at the source of the noise. A monstrous plant took up most of the northeast corner, its roots spilling out of the large pot it had been planted into. It bore a bulb that was split in two with thorns all along the inside and looked exactly like a giant mouth with wickedly sharp teeth. As Beatrice and Nova watched in terrified silence, the plant seemed to grumble at the light and settle, growling softly every few seconds.

"I think it’s... It's snoring." Beatrice whispered, unable to keep the smile off her face. Her roommate, meanwhile, stared at both the plant and Beatrice in horror.

Lined against the far wall and safely out of the toothed plant's reach were shelves with pots that bore familiar leaves that likewise seemed to sway with breath. Mandrakes, Nova realized, and they were all asleep. She brought her ball of light a bit lower and dimmed its glow so as not to wake this greenhouse of sentient plants. But as Beatrice moved further in, the earth witch found a table packed with clay pots, the soil inside them seemingly undisturbed. There must have been half a hundred pots all along the long table, and there were some more scatted around the greenhouse. Beatrice stopped to inspect the few pots closest to the door and saw their soil disturbed as if someone had been digging through it. Her mind leapt towards their most likely suspect, but she soon found a trail of small paw prints left in soil upon the table. The paw prints were scattered and frantic, hopping from pot to pot.

"Oh no," Beatrice whispered. "Professor Meowstaff must have been so worried! These prints are all over the place, he must have checked so many pots before rushing out to the library."

"I understand though, this is all a lot of work," Nova replied. "Look at all these plants! Must be several hundred packed in here."

"But all the Lullabyes are missing." Beatrice mused. Her eyes went wide as an idea struck her, and she turned to Nova. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, her roommate cut her off."

"You have an idea who took the Lullabyes, and it’s Laurence." Nova guessed quickly. "Am I right?"

"Yes, you are, as usually. But do you know why?"

"Humor me."

"You're right, this is a lot of work. And it’s even more work for a cat with no opposable thumbs."

Nova's eyes likewise widened. "Professor Laurence was Meowstaff's Botany assistant on our first day of class."

"He has access to the greenhouses!"