“Begin.” A stern-faced, cold-eyed man stood at the front of the room, signaling the start of our time.

Of all my instructors, he was the one I’d seen the least of. Instructor Larius was his name. He was the “teacher” for my ethics course, but unlike most of my other instructors, he rarely ever addressed us or gave us lectures. As the class was almost entirely discussion-based, he was more of a facilitator, occasionally listening in on the various breakout groups’ discussions and making cryptic expressions.

Discussion-based though it was, Policy and Ethics was unfortunately not test free. Before me lay a small booklet full of test questions, some of them revolving around current policies in Sylum, some of them essays on the ethical questions therein.

I’d say that being faced with a big test made me nervous — I’d certainly be in good company judging by the nervous looks donned by some of my classmates — but frankly, it just wasn’t true. I’d taken countless exams before, and those, at least, had been important for me to graduate, get into grad school, and then get a job. In comparison, the stakes weren’t quite as high here.

It didn’t hurt that my memory and thought speed were superhuman now, and on top of that, there was the whole “multiple near death experiences and talking with actual deities” thing. An ethics test really just didn’t cut it in terms of getting my nerves to flare up.

Without further ado, I opened it up.

Which chambers were the main detractors from the most recently passed legally binding building safety codes? What reasons did they cite?

I scribbled down my answer: Wealth, Magic, and Artisans. The codes had been brought forward by the Chamber of the Commons after a string of shoddily built animated earthen homes had collapsed on their inhabitants. Both Wealth and Artisans claimed the extra oversight would slow them down too much and cut into profits.

The mages, on the other hand, just wanted to build all sorts of freaky magical structures without the headaches of extra laws. Having to prove that, yes, the architecturally unsound building is safe because half of it is held up with gravity magic, just sounded like a pain.

Before I could even finish writing the answer down, however, I froze.

The incredibly familiar sensation of being watched hit me with full force. With my Perception verging on 30 at this point, I knew it wasn’t just a trick of the mind, either. Unusually, though, the sensation came from all around me. I scanned the room, trying to pinpoint its origins, but failed.

I mean. Not really my problem, is it? Not like it’s an assassin in the middle of class. If someone’s trying to cheat off me, I doubt there’s much I can do, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Instructor has a way of catching them.

Actually, on that note, it was pretty possible that it was the Instructor I was sensing. It would be kind of surprising for anyone to be gutsy enough to use some sort of cheating skill while Larius was watching all of us. Much more likely that Instructor Larius had some sort of observation skill he was using on us.

Well, whatever. Once again, not my problem.

I continued writing my answer down and then moved on. Soon the pages flipped by one after another.

“Time.” Instructor Larius graced us with his first word since we’d begun the test, and that was that. With the expected groans and the collective shuffling forward, a class’s worth of test-takers turned their work in.

Having just written a bunch of essays, I was mostly planning to vegetate for an hour or two, but fate had other plans for me.

“Miss Astorius. Stay after, please.” Larius delivered the line stiffly from a desk at the front of the room as I turned my test in, and I couldn’t help but wonder what I’d done to attract the man’s attention.

When most of the class save for a few stragglers had filtered out of the room, he addressed me, though more vaguely than I’d prefer.

“Miss Astorius. Before we speak further, is there anything you’d like to say?” The words came out with a certain flavor of monotone that I couldn’t decipher. Whether the man was bored, unhappy, neutral, or secretly elated, I just couldn’t say.

Something about the words themselves set off warning bells for me, but I really didn’t have anything to say. Unless this was about that feeling of being watched that I’d noticed earlier? I figured it couldn’t hurt to mention it, but before I could manage, a new voice chimed in from behind me.

“Instructor. Apologies for interrupting, but if you’re discussing what I think you might be, I may have some pertinent information. I had a number of guardsman skills activate on the Lady Astorius during the test and was going to speak to you about it if you didn’t notice anything yourself.”

I barely managed to stifle a deep full body groan as Warram opted to butt in.

Of course this has something to do with him. Save for being a menace during the class discussions, the guardsman had been remarkably passive towards me since the incident at the ball. Optimistically, I’d hoped that just meant he’d learned to stop messing with me, but if I was judging the situation correctly, apparently I’d been naive.

“Guardsman.” Far from telling the man to mind his own business, Larius nodded politely at Warram. “In that case, you can stay as well.” He shooed the remaining students out of the room until it was just the three of us within. “Out of curiosity, what sort of skills?”

For a moment, Warram looked as though he were waffling between answering or not, as if reluctant to deliver what I assumed would be some sort of testimony against me. It was a great credit to the man’s acting skills, considering I was only too sure he was thrilled to do so.

“I have one which gave me a general sense that some sort of rule was being broken. I also had one activate letting me know I was being remotely scried on, and it seemed to come from the Lady Astorius’ direction.”

Not only was I confident that both his claims were bull, I was even fairly skeptical he had skills that could do that. Considering he was the only one in the city with his class, he could probably just make things up, and as long as they sounded remotely guardsman-like, no one could call him out on it.

“While I don’t wish to doubt my classmate-”

Knowing that he would drone on for a while, and figuring it didn’t do me any good to let him control the narrative, I opened my mouth to cut him off, only for the words to die on my lips.

You have been affected by the Law’s Embrace!

You are immobilized! You are pacified! You are protected!

Most forms of damage against you are temporarily nullified.

My body locked up, my chest so tight it felt like my lungs were compressed into shriveled up balls. In a repeat to the ball debacle, I found myself unable to speak, with even breathing growing to be a pain. My entire body screaming for a respite from the skill, I shot him a hateful glare before pivoting my eyes towards Larius.

Thankfully, the instructor seemed well enough aware of Warram’s signature skill to understand why I’d suddenly turned into a statue. He raised a single brow towards the guard.

“Is that really quite necessary?” His relaxed tone left something to be desired, but I tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t know how unpleasant this was for me.

“In the classroom during debates, we are forbidden from speaking over one another or interrupting. I see no reason for that not to be the case here as well, no? It seems reasonable to enforce that rule at least until I’ve finished speaking.”

While not appearing entirely convinced, Larius couldn’t be bothered to contest the point, waving a hand at Warram to continue. Had I been able to swear, I assuredly would have.

“As I was saying then, I hate to cast doubt on a fellow student, but I was wondering if perhaps someone was trying to copy off of me. I suppose it would make sense, considering how new the Lady Astorius is to the city. It’s probably quite a struggle to remember all the policies we study for class without having lived with any of them.”

Bastard, bastard, bastard. I considered using up my Cleansing Shower Gem Pendant charge if just to stab him, but refrained. It would just waste the charge needlessly, and he was certain to reapply his skill before I managed to convince the instructor to refrain from using it.

“Oh? I suppose that’s settled easily enough.” Larius sifted through the stack of tests in front of him, pulling out the two of ours and opening them up side by side. All the while, Warram maintained his skill’s grip on me, forcing me to watch in pained silence.

“Clear enough. The long essays are different, but the short answers are verbatim. It’s blatant enough that I don’t even need a skill to verify it.”

Guess it’s clear what that feeling of being watched was now. Somehow Warram had managed to cheat off of me.

“Anything to say for yourself?” He nodded at Warram to release me, and it was only the knowledge that lashing out would make me look very guilty that kept me from doing so.

“Firstly, I want to be very clear that at the level where that skill keeps me from talking, it makes it hard to breathe and feels like a torture skill. If he does that again, I would appreciate if you did not just sit there and let him do so. I’m more than enough of an adult to not need a skill to be used on me to keep me quiet.” Maybe I lost some points for not immediately defending myself, but I wasn’t about to let Warram use that skill on me for the rest of the discussion.

He bristled, taken aback as if he were the victim here. “A complete lie. I’d hardly be using it if-”

“I was very clearly not done talking,” I cut in. “If I have to remain silent while you speak, you will do the same for me.” I hated to raise my voice. Hated to get worked up. Hell, I was half convinced I was magically allergic to confrontation. If he was going to force one, though, he’d get one.

Larius nodded. “Fair is fair. Continue.” Though his words lacked any skill to back them up, they had the desired effect. Warram pursed his lips into a thin line, blissfully shutting up.

“Secondly,” I continued, this time raising my voice loud enough to resonate through the room, “do you know what happens if I fail this class?” I maintained pointed eye contact with the instructor, watching as his expression became baffled at the unexpected turn.

“I- I’m afraid I do not,” he admitted.

I forcibly relaxed my face and took a step back. Leaning heavily on Trauma Suppression, I let the anger at my recent pain simmer away.

Calmer, I just shrugged.

“Yeah, me neither,” I agreed.

I wasn’t lying either. I really had no idea.

“Like, would anyone actually care if I failed this class? I was kind of just taking it because I was told to. Do you even have GPAs here? Or majors?” Either way, it was hardly like I was trying to get into Sylum grad school or get a job as an ethicist. “Ignore that last part. Point is, I can’t for the life of me see why I’d cheat, and if for some bizarre reason I did, the guy whose class is to catch crimes would be the last person I decided to copy off of. You get how nonsensical this is, right?

“And if you don’t believe me, just ask me any of the questions. No reason for me to cheat when I actually know the answers.” It was so patently ridiculous that I couldn’t even fathom why Warram would go through with it. He had to know it didn’t make sense, didn’t he?

Considering he was an instructor for a debate-centered class, Larius was hardly the type of person to ignore a sensible argument. Sensing a lull in the conversation, and seeing the instructor grapple with my words, Warram pounced.

“No amount of trying to get yourself out of this changes the fact that the two tests are identical, Lady Astorius. Or are you suggesting you somehow accidentally activated my skills and filled out your test identically to mine?”

I calmly reminded myself that punching Warram probably wouldn’t do me any favors in Larius’ eyes. I settled for throwing my hands up in the air, finally exasperated enough to call him out in full. “No. Look, I’ll just say it. You’re petty and still butthurt over getting publicly embarrassed at the ball. You didn’t manage to get back at me then, and now you’re trying to set me up for some ridiculous scandal now, either for revenge or to save face. Feel like it’s pretty clear that the tests are the same because you copied off of me.”

For a sheer instant, the guardsman’s facade broke. Instead of looking defeated or even angry, however, a flash of glee slid on and off of his face. The unguarded moment sent alarm bells ringing in my head as I scrambled to figure out what he could possibly be so excited about.

Pensive, Larius remained oblivious to Warram’s momentary slip. Warram, for once, opted to not fill the silence, only making me more nervous.

“I was hoping to get a confession out of this and put it to rest, but if both of you are accusing one another, I’m afraid I’ll have to escalate this and get you both in front of a truth gem.” He nodded as if to agree with his own judgment.

A truth gem? Like the one Suds used on me when I came to the city?

Wait, was that the entire reason Warram had done all this? Some contrived excuse to force me to get in front of a truth gem?

Even then, though, what was the point? It would still show he was the liar. Was he just dumb? I mean, he was dumb, no doubt, but was that all there was to it?

“I have nothing to hide,” he lied smoothly. “Forgive me for questioning your verdict, though, but as a guard, I have some limited truth sensing skills myself. For whatever reason, they don’t seem to work on the Lady Astorius. Are we certain using a gem will work?”

He’s been trying to use some truth skill on me? I blanked for a moment on why it would fail before abruptly remembering. One of the obfuscation chains Suds had given me had been stronger than the rest, holding a masterwork enchantment on it. In addition to the standard obfuscation effects, its description also contained an extra line: Additionally, blocks most truth sensing and forcing effects.

Larius waved the concern away. “There are various ways of ensuring the gem works. If she’s wearing some sort of resistance gear, she’ll simply be made to take it off.”

It was finally at that point that I started to sweat.

They absolutely could not make me take that obfuscation chain off. The moment it left me, anyone with a high enough inspection-type skill might be able to sniff me out as a Protagonist as fast as Suds had. Having that happen while in front of a truth gem sounded like a nightmare.

Does he know somehow? Or suspect? Was this really the plan all along — to get a chance to have someone inspect my actual status without the obfuscation chain in the way?

Maybe I was reading too much into it. Maybe the person in charge of the truth gem belonged to the Chamber of Peace, and Warram was just planning on using them to force me to answer sensitive questions. Maybe he had a suspicion that I wasn’t Suds’ granddaughter and thought he could get me to spill it and get into a massive scandal. Or maybe he really was just petty and dumb.

It didn’t matter. I could not get that chain taken off of me.

Letting my Intelligence prove its worth, my brain raced to conjure up a lie in real time. “My grandfather Suds was incredibly clear about giving me an item to help me resist truth effects in case any political rivals thought I was a weak link and tried to use me to get information on my chamber.” It wasn’t even far from the truth, in this case. “If you’d want me to remove it, I’d need his permission. I’m sure if he’s innocent, Warram wouldn’t mind going first in any case.”

As soon as I name dropped my “grandfather,” Warram scowled, not bothering to hide his distaste even from the instructor. Larius looked like he was about to say something, but as if sensing things wouldn’t go his way once Suds got involved, Warram shifted gears immediately.

“Very well. I had hoped not to resort to this out of consideration for you, Lady Astorius, but if you insist on running to your grandfather, I’m afraid I have no choice.”

You have been affected by the Law’s Embrace!

My body locked up once more, and despite not having an excuse for silencing me, Warram made no effort to spare me from the worse effects of his skill.

Noticing me go rigid, Instructor Larius frowned at the guardsman, clearly about to intervene on my behalf. Done trying to convince the man, however, Warram held a firm hand up.

“I’m afraid I’m no longer acting as a concerned student, but instead a guardsman. I’m afraid one of the reasons I even suspected the Lady Astorius is because I have a skill that allows me to sense contraband and common criminally-used items. And if I’m not mistaken…” He moved over to my motionless arm, bringing his hand down to my wrist to sift through the myriad of bracelets I’d collected before coming to rest on the most recent of them — a thin, string-like circle. “This right here would be a Mana Obfuscation Bracelet.”

Oh? That little string the archmage gave me so I could practice during class without anyone getting on my case? It seemed pretty benign to me, honestly, and I was having trouble understanding why Warram was sounding so pleased with himself.

At this, Larius granted us his first serious reaction of the conversation, his brows shooting up. Evidently, he recognized some significance to the item’s name more than I did.

“I thought those were tightly regulated,” he helpfully supplied. Or, at least sort of helpfully. If he were actually being helpful, he’d get Warram to stop squeezing my lungs, but barring that, the context was nice too.

“They are. Not much reason to hide your mana usage unless you’re doing something you don’t want people to see. They’re practically a must for any serious criminal, and if I’m right about the quality of this one, then Lady Astorius, not even your grandfather could simply hand one to you. Must be how she spied on my test without us seeing any mana usage or spellform.

“In any case, this is a legal matter now. I’m afraid I’ll be taking you with me to figure this out. Instructor, I’m sure you understand. If I may, afterwards we can decide on what to do about her cheating. As for the bracelet in question, I’ll confiscate it.”

He started pulling it off my wrist, and I was immediately glad that I wore my most serious obfuscation chain under my clothes. It was alarming how easily he could remove gear from me, and if I’d worn the masterwork chain on my wrist too, it was possible the entire gig would have been up right then and there.

Really hope I get that back though. I have a feeling that Archmage Callis would be pissed if I lost his bracelet.

If I recalled, the item description had even come with a note very emphatically telling me he expected it back.

The bracelet was at last fully removed from my body and confiscated, with Warram moving to throw it into a pocket.

It would serve him right for saddling me with some super illegal permit-only type item though. If he wants it back he can get it himsel-

With no warning, no fanfare, no burst of light, a wizened old man suddenly popped into existence directly in front of me. Bedecked in robes fit for an emperor, his appearance hardly went unnoticed.

Either through magic or through sheer stupefaction, both Warram and Larius made not a peep, simply staring wide-eyed and startled.

The wrinkled man frowned disapprovingly at the bracelet currently en route to Warram’s pocket. Completely ignoring the guardsman, however, he tore his gaze away from the string to turn to me.

Archmage Xander’Callis tsked.

“I could have sworn I was quite clear that that was a loan.”