“Brrrrpt!” Auri shot off down the hallway to our shared suite.

“Home!” I dramatically cried out, feeling a pang of regret and sadness.

My little rented suite was the only home I had. In just a few more weeks I’d officially be homeless.

And without a job.

Something had gone very wrong somewhere, and I wasn’t quite sure where. Apart from the whole fairy ring business.

I’d figure it out. With Auri and Iona.

“We’re back!” I cried out as I burst through the doors.

“Championosaurus won the whole thing!” Iona announced to our remaining suitemates, wherever they might be.

Frankly, it was only Reinhard, Skye having already graduated and left.

Reinhard burst through her door.

“You!” She yelled at me, stalking down our hallway and pointing accusingly at me.

“Me?” I asked, looking around. What had I done…?

Reinhard was poking at my chest with every sentence, but was staying far away enough to still remain polite and non-threatening.

“Yes! I don’t know what you’ve done, but I do not appreciate armed men accosting me to inquire about you and your whereabouts. You are supposed to be keeping a low profile! For Auri! For the rest of us! Whatever it is you are doing, please stop, or tell the goons that I am not to be bothered.”

Having said her part, Reinhard whirled around, and stomped back to her room. She magically closed the door behind her, a large glyph burning on the door.

That was a ‘keep out’ if I’d ever seen one.

I scrunched my eyebrows up.

“Any idea what that was about?” I asked Iona.

She shook her head.

“Maybe if Reinhard had given us a better description of who had shown up, we’d have some idea.”

I grabbed Iona’s hand and dragged her to our room, activating the privacy runes I’d etched in a long time ago for… reasons.

“Going through a quick list of why armed people would be looking for me.” I started thinking out loud. “I’ve barely spent any time since my fairy misadventures outside of the School. People could want me because of my level and my tag, but usually people would only get annoyed if I’m living where they are, right? Nobody would chase after a healer over 256 in Immortal lands?”

I ended my thought with a question to Iona. She knew the culture of the world much better than I did, having grown up and all that jazz here.

“Unlikely. It depends on the exact relations - I can’t tell you how Geum interacts with Draakveld - but it’s expected that Immortals live in Immortal countries. Sure, there might be the occasional border dispute, but I’ve never heard of anyone traveling all this way just for a high level healer. You’d expect half the professors here to be harassed if that was the case.”

“Maybe it’s because of the Gladiator Gauntlet? The Yellow Jackets wanted to try intimidating or bribing me to throw a fight? That doesn’t really make sense to me, you’d think they’d know the schedule of the Gladiator Gauntlet, and not completely miss me…” I said, then snapped my fingers.

“Wait! When I did all that biomancy! I had a few sketchy people, including some dullahans, ask for modifications. Maybe one of them’s come back to haunt me?”

I knew they had been too good to be true, and I’d done some reading after the fact. Adamantium armor for dullahans was a sign of the royal family… half of which was currently missing, thanks to the civil war ripping the Han Empire apart.

“That… sounds reasonable. Once you’re done with the School, you’ll be practically impossible to find. That, and you’d be protected by your sponsor, whoever they are. That’d be their thinking at least. If they weren’t supposed to be here, I can believe them staying for just a short time until the School realizes they’re not supposed to be here and kicking them out. From them interrogating Reinhard it sounds like they might’ve just landed and started asking questions, trying to find who you were and where you were. Maybe expect more annoyed people?” Iona theorized.

I groaned.

“That all sounds right. Still, end of the day, they paid so much money. Totally worth it, would do it again as long as nothing else happens. Right, unless I’ve got my days of the week horribly wrong, I have a class… now. I’m going to run and catch the tail end of it. Love you!” I gave Iona a quick peck, regretting that I’d just come back and didn’t have a mango to quickly grab on my way out.

“Love you too!” She said as I dashed out the door, straightening my robes.

I was going to be late, but I could at least look presentable.

I knocked on Marcelle’s door a few days later.

“Enter.” She said, and I slipped in.

“Elaine! Oh my goodness, you should’ve said you were coming! I would’ve arranged a much nicer place for us to meet! Would you like a drink?”

I laughed and held my hands up at Marcelle.

“Whoa, chill! It’s still me! Nothing’s different about me than the first time I walked through your door. I will take that drink though.”

“Oh, of course, of course! Here, take my chair, it’s nicer.”

I shook my head.

“No need, it’s your chair! I’m used to the normal one.”

Marcelle fussed over me like I was a [Queen] as I took a seat, my advisor clearly star-struck. She poured me a generous helping of one of her favorite vintages, and I took a deep sip, enjoying the fruity aroma.

She believed. She knew deep in her ever-shifting bones that I was the [Mother of Modern Medicine]. The only question was, would I still get quality advice from her?

“What can I do for you? Any issues with your classes?” Marcelle asked after some initial polite conversation.

“Looking for advice. As you guessed, I seized Immortality.”

Marcelle lifted her glass in a toast.

“A thousand and one congratulations to you for your achievement.”

I took a sip at Marcelle’s toast.

“My question is one of timing. Sorry if my next question is sort of personal. You were turned from mortal to Immortal. When did you decide to make the change from… human? To vampire? And why? I’m starting to think about my own time to change. Do I wait as long as possible? Do I get it done with now? Can the School help me with my curse? What’s your take?”

Marcelle leaned back in her chair, my questions grounding her. The star-dazzled look in her eyes faded, replaced with the cold, calculating look that I knew so well.

“An excellent question, ironically one that isn’t asked often enough. Most of the time, Immortality skills are passive, immediately granting their benefits the moment it is taken. No chance or question of timing. When given a choice, too often mortals who manage to seize Immortality will immediately use their ability, staving off death. I was in something of a similar position. When I was told that my contributions to the Exterreri Empire were enough that I was to be granted the gift of vampirism, I didn’t hesitate or wait. I immediately accepted, and was turned within the hour.”

Marcelle got a faraway look in her eye as she took another sip of her wine.

“Part of it was that I'd grown up in Exterreri. I knew the place. I knew vampires. I knew what I was getting into. A larger part was juvenile excitement. I’d worked half my life for the opportunity, and I was afraid that it would just vanish. That they’d realize they had made a mistake, and I wasn’t worthy.”

I cocked my head, puzzled.

“Didn’t you train as a [Biomancer]? Couldn’t you seize it on your own?”

Marcelle tilted her glass back and forth, the wine sloshing hypnotically.

“Yes, and no. Yes, I could’ve seized it on my own, but that was my backup plan. I’d always wanted to be a vampire. You have to understand, growing up in Exterreri, they were the top. The most beautiful. The coolest. The richest. The best. Everyone wanted to be one growing up, and I succeeded. But enough about me. We were talking about you.”

I nodded, wanting Marcelle to continue expounding on her wisdom. She looked at her glass, and lifted it up, drawing attention to it.

“I have been drinking, so I will make absolutely no comments on your biomancy, or my estimates about it. With that said, I will give the general advice that people can die of old age, and the longer you wait, the more likely that is.”

That… was stunningly obvious and worthless advice, although I guess Marcelle was being careful with her strict ‘biomancy and alcohol don’t mix’ rule.

“As for your curse. The School is the single greatest center of learning in the entire world. There are two whole curse departments in the Dark tower alone, one of which researches curses that White Dove hands out. Most of their effort is dedicated towards the common racial curses, but some will be interested in granted curses. They have a wide range of knowledge. My plan, back before I was offered the gift of vampirism, was to wait until as late as possible before privately turning myself. I would get the wording of White Dove’s curse, then poke around and discreetly ask the curse department about it, possibly modifying some of the wording if I could. Now, there are a few important caveats to that. First, I was waiting because I wanted to be a vampire. Second, I had permanent access to the School as a professor. You could simply speak the word and be made a professor after your contributions if you wanted to, but if you were planning on doing anything else, that doesn’t apply. In your position? Take the curse now, while you are in a safe and secure location, talk with some experts about what you received, and make plans for your life with that knowledge. What if you discover that you need to be submerged in the ocean once a day? You’ll want to look at coastal nations, and who’s friendly. What if your curse is to never touch the ground again? The School will happily take you, or you need to start looking into treehouses. A curse of your socks always being wet is mitigated by living somewhere dry, the list is endless. You’re lucky, you’re young and unsponsored. You can move anywhere in the world! Best to find out now.”

I swirled my glass of wine, thinking about what Marcelle said.

She brought up a number of excellent points. I’d need to double check my biomancy notes, and cross reference with a book on aging to triple check what my internal age was - and if it was worth resetting early.

To use a human analogy with no vitality - a heart could last 90 years. However, at 60 years, it was starting to slow down, and show its age. It could be worth turning a 60 year old heart back to a 20 year old heart, even if it wasn’t ‘almost dead’.

“Thank you Marcelle. You’ve given me lots to think about.”

“No worries! I heard that you managed to win the Gladiator Gauntlet this year?”

I gave her a grin, the vampire clearly wanting to chat about more mundane topics. Why not?

“Yeah! We had a blast! The first round was practically a bye, the Lithos team having run into some issues…”

“Iona. My endless condolences for your loss. May I borrow a half block of your time, along with Elaine’s, for a meal and a discussion?” Iya managed to find us in the grand central park, Iona drawing the people she’d met during the Gladiator Gauntlet while I lay on her lap, reading two different books at the same time.

With a mental sigh at being interrupted, I closed the least-favorite book in [Parallel Thoughts], shifting my attention to the beautiful naga. My other thought process kept going, gripped by the riveting tale of a poor alchemist in Suen trying to make his fortune.

“Sure. Does the last meal of the day work for you?” Iona asked. We couldn’t exactly call it the evening meal, given that the sun was just coming up over the horizon… in the ‘afternoon’.

Honestly, as much as I loved the School, the time and the sun aligning once again would be nice.

“That would be most excellent. I can’t wait for the honor of your presence.” Iya looked like she wanted to say something more, but slithered off instead.

“Wonder what she wants?” I asked.

Iona shrugged and idly scratched my scalp just the way I liked it.

“Dunno. She might want to talk about her sister… cousin? You did face her in the games.”

“Oh yeah, Norta. Alternatively, I dunno, there was some minor divine fucking intervention during the tournament, and she did explicitly call you out. Maybe she wants to talk about that? Either way, Iya has great food.”

“Brrrpt!” Auri was a big fan of Iya’s treats.

Iya had a modest spread laid out for us and her other retainers when we arrived. It looked like normal fare, but a closer examination showed the quality hidden by the simplicity.

Also, she knew her audience. Mangos!

I noticed Raith subtly ducking out of the way, and my eyes narrowed at him. Still wasn’t a fan.

We sat down, Iona and I being given preferential seating near Iya, Auri having a little dish all to herself and Fenrir outside with a gigantic raw hunk of beef, and started some small talk. I sent a quick grace off to the moon deities. Was still kinda new to this whole ‘being religious’ thing, but hey, it couldn’t hurt, right?

“We met a relative of yours at the Gladiator Gauntlet.” I smoothly and expertly changed the topic of conversation from the School’s current flight pattern and if we’d see the living storm or not, to what I suspected Iya wanted to talk about.

Iona started to choke-cough, pounding on her chest.

“Are you okay?” I asked her. She nodded, her face starting to go red.

“Oh? Which one?” Iya asked.

“Norta. Part of the Hapensburgs team? Same family name as you, was alright as a mage.”

Iya laughed.

“Oh, if only I could see you say that to her face. She’d have a conniption! ‘Alright as a mage’ indeed.” Iya continued to laugh, and even a few of her retainers chuckled at the joke.

Something I liked about Iya - while she had minions, they weren’t obviously ‘laugh at the boss’s joke’ type. They seemed to take a perverse delight in pointing out when Iya was wrong about something, and she took corrections with good grace.

Iona seemed to recover - kinda strange, I thought she was practically immune to choking with her stats - and rejoined the conversation.

“What’s the deal with you and Norta? You’ve said you’re the heir, but Norta’s at Hapensburgs. The Omospondia Confederacy is a little hard to understand, pardon my ignorance.”

Iya tilted her head at Iona.

“I understand the confusion. Frankly, it depends on who you ask, and I can’t be sure that even I know the truth. If such a thing as ‘the truth’ truly exists. Additionally, there is what I have been told, and a number of motives I suspect are the truth. The fundamental truth of Omospondia is that steel sharpens steel. Norta was sent to Hapensburgs. I was sent to the School. Aka was kept at home. We have all been given resources and opportunities. Our father wishes to see which one of us will rise above the others, and claim the family seat.”

Iona raised an eyebrow.

“You’re going to be killing your sisters?”

Iya nodded.

“Yes. What better way to determine who is most worthy, who is the best suited to continuing the family? Selecting the first born is stupid. They could be feeble-minded. They get coddled. Spoiled. Never wanting for anything. You’ve seen it yourself in Rolland. How many of the [Lords] and [Ladies] are truly the best suited for their role? How many second sons and third daughters would do a better job? We Sahels inherit our seat, true. But we must earn it.”

“BrrrRRRrrrpt! Brpt?” Auri was struggling to wrap her mind around the whole concept and idea. She was thinking that Iya had a few points.

Iona gave me a wordless look that said see? Told you they were a bunch of backstabbing snakes.

I rolled my eyes at her, hopefully telling her ‘yeah yeah you’re right no need to rub it in.’

“Fruits?” Iya offered us each a tray of the food. I’d already picked all the mangos out of it, but appreciated the gesture, and grabbed a nice apple. Iona shot a quick smirk at me as she grabbed a banana. We ate as Iya continued to talk.

“I am glad that you asked, Elaine.” Iya must’ve noticed our ‘conversation,’ but smoothly ignored it. “It would be completely unfair for me to have this next discussion without the two - excuse me, three - of you having the proper context. Iona, once again, my condolences for your loss. Elaine. It is my understanding that the two of you are, at this time, tragically unsponsored. You have no place to be, no home to go to once your time at the School comes to an end, and from our discussions, your end is coming soon. I would like to offer the two of you the shelter of the Sahel family. Come with me. I can guarantee that even if I should lose the war of succession - which I have no plans to - you will be safe and secure as retainers of the Sahel family. I don’t expect an answer now, but please, think on it.”

One of Iya’s retainers cut in after Iya’s offer had been hanging out in the air for a few seconds.

“Auri, in your expert opinion, what’s the best wood to burn?” He asked.

“Brrrpt? BRPT! Brrrrpt, brpt brpt Bbrrrrrrrrrpt!” Auri started to speak, carving flaming words in the air to describe what she meant.

Well, it depends on your definition of best. Do you want the hottest wood? The longest burning? The prettiest? Even within each type of wood, there are dozens of factors to consider. Take the common oak, for example…

I spent the rest of the meal chewing over Iya’s offer, and I could see Iona doing the same.