“No, no, no. Don’t die on me Linny. Don’t die,” Ramin said as he ran up to her.

Hugo groaned and scooched out of the way of the branch. “What kind of shitty armor did you think I was wearing? And also, who is Linny?”

Ramin felt the back of Hugo's armor in amazement. The wooden portion had been pierced, but the inscribed titanium had held up nicely. Hugo still hobbled around though, it had been a solid hit. Hopefully his health points would be enough to clear them up soon.

“Message received, no childhood nicknames, Lina of the Brambled Wood,” Ramin said and wiped away a tear, “Forgive me for ever doubting your family. I don’t know who they got to create armor without steel, but it was worth every penny.”

Hugo nodded, “The armorer is someone special. We didn’t spend any money on it, but you know how favors are with nobility.”

Ramin nodded. He walked around the clearing, collecting the traitor’s money satchels and the handful of weapons that didn’t get destroyed in the fight. He stopped and stared at Parisa, unwilling to touch her pincushioned form.

“I’m sorry,” Hugo said, “Just because they make bad choices, doesn’t mean that you stop loving them.” He would feel differently if she was still alive, but it was easier to forgive the dead.

Ramin just glanced back at Hugo and nodded. They stood in silence together. The fire in the mother tree slowly went out and the sun peeked up over the horizon. Eventually, the huntmaster carefully grabbed her bag and took something out. It was seeds. He scattered them over her corpse and walked away.

Following after him, Hugo said, “How did they find us in the first place? I know Parisa was in league with them, but they were only a half hour away after a day of riding from us.”

“Whoever is after you must have a blessed seer. I don’t think it is one of the big families, otherwise they would have been able to predict this,” Ramin said and gestured to the bodies. “We are going to need to keep moving and make random choices. It’s the only way to keep ahead of them.”

Hugo nodded. He had looked into seers after his run in with the hedge mages. The gift they had to see the future was based on predicting the choices people made. One way to beat it was to keep randomly making a choice, particularly ones based on random events. But that wasn’t guaranteed to work, a powerful seer could find them anyway.

Lucky for Hugo, he already knew that he counted as dead for the riese magic. He said, “The first random choice needs for me to be in charge.” Ramin started to protest but Hugo held up his hand, “I know what you are thinking, but seriously, can you think of a more unlikely choice you could make?”

Ramin opened and closed his mouth. After a moment he said, “I guess that is true.” He folded his arms and said, “So, where are we going, Lina?”

“I don’t know. I am trying not to think far ahead. We need to get out of here, but after that I will make random choices,” Hugo lied. He actually had a set plan now. He would randomly walk until he saw the city of Reval and suddenly remember that he had friends there that could protect him. He was sure that the huntmaster would want to stay out in the forest, but Hugo couldn’t do that.

With his food burnt to a crisp, Hugo couldn’t stay out in the forest without the huntmaster finding out that he had lost his connection with The Mother. He might already suspect it, but it was one thing to suspect, and another to know for sure. Besides, he was sick of roughing it in the forest. He was sure that Dean Artjom would protect him in style within the academy.

...

“Thank you for coming to visit, Lina of the Brambled Wood. I must admit, I was worried when we didn’t get a response from Mia’s or my letters, but I wasn’t expecting you to visit in person,” Dean Arjom said.

Interesting. Hugo hadn’t gotten any letters, he wondered who had been intercepting his mail. He would have to track down who had been doing that. Not important for now though. He said, “Thank you for having us. And thank you for keeping Huntmaster Ramin out of it. I don’t know how he would take it.”

“I thought you said you were a time traveler?” Mia said. The three of them were sitting in Dean Artjom’s office.

“I am, I have traveled back to the beginning of the year four times. But this is the first time in this body. I have never been a princess before,” Hugo said. He knew it would complicate things, but he found that he just didn’t care this time.

“What? Seriously? You are body hopping?” Mia said, leaning forward.

“So to speak, yes. Alexandru made the changes to the ritual you asked for, but he did it wrong. Instead of halting the time travel aspect of the ritual, all he did was make it so I hopped into a new body each time I am exposed to massive amounts of shimmer. Seven people died in the ritual and I have hopped to a new body three times,” Hugo said.

“That’s messed up.”

“It is. And it gets worse. I am not the only one to body hop. Alexandru created another one last year and he is trying to kill us all,” Hugo said. He told them all about Marshal Botha and his plans to destroy all eight cities on the wheel. He explained what he knew about the hedge mages and their plans as well.

Dean Artjom and Mia stared at him dazed after all of his revelations. Hugo said, “We need to get the sentinels on board, they should be able to come up with a plan to save everyone. I know this all sounds crazy, but let me show you a little something that will help convince you.” He fabricated a wooden ball, inscribed it with ignition and lit it on fire, then wrapped it in a barrier sphere to smother the fire. “I have several domains as a result of the ritual. I also have the ritual domain, but I haven’t learned how to use it yet.”

Mia sat back, stunned. He bet she was wondering if she could have gotten multiple domains as well. Dean Arjom had more practical questions.

“Does Marshal Botha have several domains as well?” Dean Artjom said.

“Probably. I know he has the shadow domain and I suspect he has the barrier domain as well. He is dangerous either way. His shadow magic is very advanced, one of the strongest mind controllers I have ever heard of. We will have to be careful,” Hugo replied.

Dean Artjom nodded, “This will be difficult. We can discuss it further with the sentinels. Where will you be staying?”

“I would like to stay here. I know your tuition is high, but I believe my contributions to saving the wheel should cover it, right?” Hugo said.

The dean reluctantly said, “I will speak with the bursar and get things arranged for you. Will your huntmaster be staying with us as well?”

“Yes. Thank you for your help,” Hugo said. He was looking forward to sleeping in a real bed again.

A few days later, Ramin came to visit Hugo in his room.

“We should go. We need to keep moving. We aren’t safe here,” the huntmaster said.

Hugo shook his head, “I’m not leaving until it’s time for mom’s challenge. We have three layers of protection here, and no one has breached it yet. If a group of riese come into the city, the shimmer corps have promised to alert the dean. The walls of this academy are runed and warded. If anyone did get in, we have a dozen high ranked mages ready to fight to defend us. You might feel more comfortable in the forest, but I like it here.”

The huntmaster stood at the window, his eye level just below the top of the window frame. “I think you are underestimating the power of the seers. Given enough time, they can thread the needle past each of your layers of protection. A distracted guard here, a broken ward there, soon enough you will wake up with a dagger in your throat.”

“Do you actually think that is likely?” Hugo said. He wanted to stay here, but he wasn’t going to risk his life for creature comforts.

“Yes. Well, no. Maybe,” Ramin said and looked back, “It all depends on who is trying to kill you. If it is one of the smaller families, they will have already given up. They lost four agents that night, that’s an enormous expense. They are likely to cut their losses and try something cheaper when you are home again.

“If it’s one of the big families, Juniper or Oak, then they probably have someone in the school already. I used to think their faith in The Mother would prevent them from doing anything like that, but after Parisa, I don’t trust my judgment anymore,” Ramin said.

Hugo stood up and put his hand on the huntmaster’s shoulder. He said, “It’s not your fault Parisa betrayed us. If it is anyone’s it’s mine. I think she hated me, what I represent. Royalty leads, but some just don’t like to follow.”

“You think she was with the emancipators? Could be. I know the Juniper family is much more friendly to them than your dad is. But why would Parisa break her oaths to join them? That was an oath to the mother.”

Hugo only had a vague idea what he was talking about. He had never heard of emancipators, but they seemed to be revolutionaries from context. “I didn’t know Parisa as well as you did. Do you think she could ever join them?"

“Maybe she was planning on getting soulmarked afterwards. They have an easy path to strength and the magic domains to boot. This whole school is dedicated to how desirable that magic is,” Ramin said and gestured to the room around him. He seemed contemplative and said, “Maybe that was it. She was young, and the young often see the faults of their own mothers and think that The Mother might not have our best interests at heart. They don’t have the wisdom to see that she has been better for riesekind than any other form of government could be,” Ramin said and turned to the window, “Maybe the emancipators are planning on ingratiating themselves with the new royal family and then killing The Daughter. With her gone, we would all lose our magic when The Mother dies at the end of the year. I will have to tell your father about this when we return. Even if your family is supplanted, The Daughter can’t be allowed to die.”

Hugo nodded along but didn’t say anything. This conversation was solidifying things for him. The pulsing symbiote in the middle of that pond was The Mother, an intelligent magical being that granted some of the riese their powers. It was currently under the control of the nox, and they made the riese pay tribute. The riese seers knew that the city would explode at the end of the year and it would remove the nox’s control over the riese.

In order to keep their magic, an offshoot of the symbiote, The Daughter, was waiting as backup. Hugo guessed that there could only be one active at a time and it would become the new Mother after the first one died.

But now there was a wrinkle of the emancipator faction. They wanted the Mother to die and not get replaced. The riese would lose their magic, but Ramin had mentioned something about freedom.

“Honestly, I never understood the emancipators. What freedom do they want that we don’t provide?” Hugo said.

Ramin nodded along, “We are already preparing for the end of the tributes to the nox, which is half the reason the emancipators exist in the first place. And the freedom to travel? It would be nice to see far off lands, but at the expense of our magic, our safety? You are right Lina, they are all insane.”

Hugo sat in the chair at the foot of the bed and continued to chat with him. He suspected that the huntmaster was out of sorts in a human academy and needed the riese company. Hugo was just the opposite. He loved being in a school again. He spend most of yesterday reading reference books to improve his formation and runic knowledge. Then he wandered around campus. It was comforting seeing all the familiar sights, just from a slightly higher perspective. The only bad thing about the school was the chair he was sitting in. The bed they gave him was made for humans, so he had to place this chair at the foot of his bed to extend it.

Eventually, he had to stop the conversation with Ramin, he had somewhere to be. As long as he was in a school, he needed to take full advantage. He walked over to the correct building, but didn’t find his target inside. He eventually found her in a workshop attached to the back of the building. Short with long red hair, looked like the right person.

“Sage Preot?” Hugo said.

“Yes?” she said without looking up. She was carefully carving out a design on a circle of dark wood.

“Hello there. My name is Lina. I just got my domain and the dean recommended I come talk to you for a primer on the ritual domain,” Hugo said.

She looked up from her work and stared at him for a moment before she said, “No he didn’t.”

Hugo tilted his head, “Um. Yes he did. He mentioned you are the school’s only ritual sage and you should have time to help me out late afternoons.”

“Sounds like a lie to me. I am not even sure you are supposed to be here,” Sage Preot said.

“So you are thinking that an enormous riese snuck into the school, tracked down the only ritual sage, and pretended to talk to the dean just so I could get the basics of the ritual domain?”

“Hm. Maaaybe?” She stood up, “When you put it that way, it does seem likely you are just a student.” She held out her hand to shake.

Hugo took it and carefully gave her a handshake. Her hand was so small.

“Well, nothing for it but to get started. Come on. Let me teach you all about the secrets of the universe,” Sage Preot said and quickly walked away.

Hugo was startled with the sudden change in attitude. It brought up a flurry of questions. Was the ritual sage mentally unstable? Now that he thought about it, he realized that Alexandru was kind of insane too. Were all ritualists crazy? The main stat for the ritualist domain was wisdom. Shouldn’t ritualists be more mentally sound, not less? What was it about the ritual domain that made them this way? Would the same happen to him?