After the other cultists left, Navraj said, “Thanks for staying. I want to extend an invitation to both of you. Next week, we have a special guest. A speaker of some note, visiting from another starisle. Would you like to attend?”

Katayoun looked at Xerxes, and he looked back. He shrugged, and, not having to try very hard to sound bored, asked, “Who’s the guest?”

“Not even I know that,” Navraj said. “But I guarantee it’ll be worth attending. Special meetings like this are not to be missed.”

“In that case, sure,” Katayoun said.

“Wait,” Xerxes said. “When is it? The same time as the normal meeting?”

“Unfortunately no,” Navraj replied. “It’s on Fifthday in the afternoon.”

“Damn,” Xerxes said reflexively. “That’s pretty much impossible.”

“No, it’s not,” Katyoun said. She reached out and put her hand on top of his. “It’ll be difficult, but we can do it.”

“How?” he asked.

“We’ll figure it out.”

Navraj gave a crooked grin. “Good. Meet me at the winged bull statue by the northwest gate of the bazaar. Do you know the place?”

“Yeah,” Katayoun said.

“An hour past noon,” he continued. “Show up on time, and I’ll take you with me to the meeting. Don’t be late. I won’t stick around waiting.”

Xerxes nodded. “We’ll be there.”

On the way back to the school, Xerxes said, “How the hell are we supposed to sneak out of the school right in the middle of classes? Shabadras made it clear all of this stuff is ‘off the books.’”

“I have a favor I can call in,” Katayoun explained.

**

Gandash made it to second place in the standings that week. What was more, the top twenty High Seers were established. The latter event happened on Seconday. After that, more and more breakthroughs occurred. By Fourthday, there were already fifty High Seers among the students, one of them being Katayoun, and another of them, Jad.

When Fifthday came, Katayoun’s favor got her and Xerxes outside of the campus during school hours. A teacher had asked one of her friends to collect materials for a school project. However, the friend had purchased the items much earlier, and stored them in a bank vault for the specific purpose of taking time during school hours to ‘go shopping’ for them. The friend owed Katayoun, thus allowing her to take over the ‘shopping’ responsibility. She brought Xerxes with her, and managed to talk both of them past the gate guards.

“We have three hours,” she said. “That should be more than enough, right?”

“Hopefully. I guess we should have asked how long it would take. The meetings never last more than thirty minutes, though.”

Navraj was waiting at the appointed spot. “Good to see you two,” he said. “Follow me.”

Shortly thereafter, they left the bazaar and entered the residential streets beyond.

Minutes stacked on top of minutes. How far away were they from the school? Was it going to be possible to make it back in time?

After what seemed like an hour, but wasn’t, Navraj stopped in a small square with a beautiful fountain in the middle of it. Crystal-clear water splashed from the top of the fountain, its echo creating an ambiance within the courtyard that made confidential conversation possible.

“Alright,” Navraj said. “This is a different kind of meeting than the others. The kind with real members of our order. I’ve already vouched for you. Stay in line, alright? Don’t do anything to embarrass me.”

“We’d never, Navraj,” Katayoun said.

“I know.”

Navraj took a step toward a nearby alleyway. Then he stopped. “By the way, they have a disc that you need to swear loyalty on. I don’t know how it works, but they claim it was created by a Hasasu Archon. Probably an exaggeration, but you never know. The point is, answer their questions truthfully, swear loyalty, and you’ll be fine.”

Xerxes’ heart leapt into his throat, and he glanced over to see Katayoun looking sick. Their eyes met, and then she wiped the expression from her face, grabbed his hand, and dragged him to follow Navraj.

Now that they were both High Seers, they could communicate mentally without having to lean their heads together.

A Hasasu Archon? he projected. That could be bad. Really bad.

It depends. If the spell formation is based on Clairvoyance, we should be fine, as it only reads emotions. Just stay calm, and it won’t matter.

But the third Hasasu spell line is about reading thoughts!

I know. She remained silent for a moment. If the formation is based on Minor Construation or worse, Major Construation, then we could be in big trouble. But aborting the mission right now would be worse, right?

Yeah.

Spell formations were simply physical objects into which a spell was permanently imbued. They were extremely expensive to produce, and thus, very rare. Whatever the cost of casting a spell, including the components, the cost of creating a spell formation out of it would be a hundreds of times more. Sometimes thousands. That wasn’t to mention the time involved.

Regardless, if the cultists had a spell formation from the Hasasu order, which specialized in mind-reading, then it could be extremely problematic.

Xerxes hardly paid attention as they wound their way through a few more intersections before stopping in front of a walled manor. Navraj looked up and down the street, then knocked in a prescribed fashion.

There was a brief dialogue including an exchange of passwords, and then they were inside.

As the door closed behind them, they were led through an outer courtyard, through two hallways, and into an inner chamber. Chairs were lined up, and there was a dais against the wall. Seated next to a lectern there was a hooded figure.

Next to the door was a table, behind which was another servant.

“Put your right hand there, and answer truthfully,” the servant said, gesturing at a round stone disk on the table. It was about a cubit in diameter, and was covered in unusual carved symbols inlaid with gold. In the middle was a palm-shaped area that was blank.

Navraj put his hand on the disc.

“Are you a traitor, mole, agent, or spy?” the servant asked.

“No,” Navraj said. The golden symbols on the disc glowed briefly.

The servant looked at the hooded man, who nodded slightly.

“Have a seat,” the servant said. “Now, you.”

He was looking at Katayoun. She put her hand on the disc, and he asked the same questions. She answered the same as Navraj. A different set of symbols glowed. What did that mean?

The hooded man nodded.

Next, it was Xerxes’ turn. The process was the same. Yet another set of symbols glowed. He didn’t like that. But at the moment, there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

After it was over, and there didn’t seem to be any reaction from the servant or the hooded figure, he suppressed the urge to sigh with relief. Navraj sat in the back row. Katayoun picked a chair next to him, and Xerxes sat next to her. So far, they were the only ones present.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, more figures arrived, most of them wearing cloaks or hats that obscured their faces.

“That’s everyone,” the servant said.

The hooded man got to his feet. “Good. Take the Truth Disc away, and lock the doors.”

Xerxes’ ears pricked up when he heard that. Lock the doors?

Then the hooded man took a step forward. “Before we begin, I have a question for someone in the audience. You, Navraj.”

“Er, yes?” Navraj said.

“Why did you bring two traitors to this meeting?”