Silence weighed down on the meeting as the implications of the situation settled in. All eyes fell to Vincent as the Daamon’s acute senses measured the Headmaster’s authenticity. “This is too well planned,” Vincent mumbled to himself, as though saying the words out loud implicated him in the crimes of his predecessors. He ran his good hand through his hair. He looked a few decades older since the start of their meeting. “This has got to have been going on for years…” He shrunk in his seat fearing the answer to his implied question.

Avery nodded to Dezmond. “Our records show that the games were involved since the Council took over. But I wouldn’t doubt that it was happening during the Regime’s era too. Those records were wiped in the change over.”

Astral pondered. On the surface of the situation, the brashness of the Regime’s actions suggested spite. The transition from one power to another had not gone without incident. Did the Regime have something sinister to hide. The change over to the Council may have given the culprits the opportunity to refine their systems. She’d have to leave the detective work to Damien and Dezmond.

“The rabbit hole might go a little too deep on that one, pops,” Damien stated. “If we have officials working against human interests, we have to do something.” Were the students of the academy tribute to a new god? Or did the culprits think they could milk the demon’s influence indefinitely? She’d like to know how many powerful people she’d upset when she killed their pet.

Dezmond remained quiet as he considered the depth of the problem. He nodded to himself as he took inventory of his leads.

A knock at the door was followed by Mathias buzzing in to announce his presence. The electronic version of his voice struggled against the distortion caused by Dezmond’s thick milky veil. The councilman released his spell, allowing it to fade. Much like a circular ward, breaching the shield broke the effects of his magic. Depending on the version of Dezmond’s spell, Mathias may have been barred entry until the veil was lifted.

Mathias entered the room, closing the door behind him. He bowed deeply to the Councilman, his temporary employer. “Forgive my lateness, Councilman. I had to make arrangements for my son on short notice.”

Mathias rose from his bowed state, as the old sorcerer’s ward finished taking hold.

“How is William?” Astral asked keeping her tone light, despite the severity of the problems he had caused.

Mathias couldn’t help but glance at her to weigh her sincerity. “He’s… He’s under a lot of stress.” Mathias ignored Avery’s snort to the statement and continued. “His trauma has resurfaced. I’m going to have to seek assistance before accepting my position here.”

Astral nodded. “I’d like to pay a visit during Winter break, maybe I can explain things a bit so he can come to terms with everything that’s happened here.” This was all code of course, she had no intention of sharing any information relating to the demonic activity at the school to William.

Astral had picked up early on that William had the ability to see Hunters. She couldn’t remember how or when she knew for sure, but she knew that with the guided assistance of her core, she needed to dull his talents. William was dangerous and he needed to remain defanged and declawed.

“He’s expected to join the monastery for re-education within the month,” Mathias volunteered.

She didn’t have much time. She needed to apply a permanent seal to William, but had been waiting for the kid to go through his growth spurt. She had littered his room with combinations of symbols that she hoped would trigger the want to apply permanent body art to his person. Specifically, the components she used in the creation of his ward. She anticipated that his act of rebellion against his father should occur at anytime. But now, she couldn’t afford to wait.

Fortunately, she knew how to craft her seal to the smallest possible size, giving it the look of an oddly shaped birthmark. The risk with small marks was that they were prone to reshaping as the subject grew in height and weight, forcing her to reapply the ward multiple times a year.

Surgery was an option. She could graft the mark to his bones, preferably his skull as it was the closest to his mind which impacted his vision and the way his mind filtered the world. All she was doing in essence was manually adding another filter to his world. She’d have to think on it and be mindful of an opportunity.

William needed to have a serious accident sometime in the next month.

Dezmond’s icy grey stare fixated on her, forbidding her to make any further contact with the boy. William had played his role superbly. While she didn’t like the challenges of a life labelled as an Enhanced, she was mostly free of Dezmond’s plans for her. She had limited uses. The only one she cared about was being able to slay as many demons as she could. The less time she spent with human intrigue meant she was less likely to step back and let the demons finish the job. Not that she would. She couldn’t. But it was nice to think about, particularly on days like today.

William’s desire to ruin Astral absolutely was exactly what she wanted according to her core. Given William’s talents, and his hatred of all things better than him, Astral found it difficult to argue with the intrusive entity. ‘With William focused on you as the source of everything wrong with his life, he’s not going to be able to see the others. He can’t kill you, though eventually, he’ll try.’

When she thought about William, he was an odd blip in her memory. Normally, when she thought of someone like Seth or Mathias, she’d have stored memories of things yet to come, as though they had already happened. Mathias’ transition to Death Keeper and Seth’s destruction of the veils protecting the world were among two of the major noteworthy events she needed to keep track of. But with William, all she could remember of him was he would kill his father, and he was a catalyst in releasing the Thing that Devours. She had a vague sense of integrating herself into his life on a few occasions, but the Red Order always had a way of re-shaping and weaponizing the boy.

The odd thing about William was that he was never where he was supposed to be. She had the sense that he had been homeschooled, or that he had been trained exclusively at a monastery. She felt like it was only recently that their paths had crossed. She didn’t know why, but the randomness of their conversion bothered her.

Baby steps.