Relax. Understand your situation. The stage you’re on and its actors. Then you can strike.

  -Cao Feng, Elder of the Viper Fists Sect

  If the demon was going to hunt them down, then the best thing they could do was go somewhere it wouldn’t go. Fortunately, Komena had a fair bet for where that would be. With the books they had salvaged tucked under their arms, she led Kave through the busiest streets and crowds until they arrived at the Peach Vale.

  “You’re insane if you think hiding in some random shop is safe. Hell, we’re not even hiding.” Kave muttered. It was the first thing he had said since they had left the mansion, so she let the insult slide.

  “Kave, hiding isn’t what we’re doing here. If it can find us here, it can find us anywhere, and the last thing we want is for it to hunt us into some dark alley while we ran somewhere more secure. We’re waiting it out instead, in the closest place I can guarantee company.” She said, pushing through the front door. Bursting inside, she found it just as busy as she’d hoped. There were only a few tables free, and they claimed one of them by dumping the books onto it before sitting down. Huang was by soon after, but Komena sent him on his way with a few gems and an order for a strong pot of black tea.

  Kave began putting enough power into the silence rune carved on the table to make it glimmer. Komena kept an eye out for signs of people trying to read their lips as the noise of the shop cut out. Paranoia was always a sound reflex. Luckily, they were all focused on sipping drinks and eating snacks, either to relax before bed or to recharge for the rest of their night. More would come into replace those who left throughout the night.

  “That thing has made a point to only strike at people in private and at night.” She said. Explanations and reassurances would keep Kave from panicking. Not panicking would help him work and not burn anything else down. “It must be a requirement of whoever summoned it, and they won’t adjust until the next summoning. Maybe later if they still want to keep the thing a secret. That means we’re safe until daybreak and that hiding in crowds is our best bet to see it. I don’t know anywhere with better defenses than what the Dean of Evocation had set up that would allow us inside at this time of night, anyways.”

  Huang came back, tea pot in one hand and a platter of cups and small cakes in the other. It seemed paying for a drink for the first time in years had done wonders for his mood. He poured them each a cup, gave them the same bow he used for all his customers, and let them be.

  The tea had been steeped long enough to sit in the cups as a heavy, near-black liquid. Komena took a sip and found that the bitterness overpowered most other flavor, except the strongest floral notes struggling to undercut it. Exactly what she had asked for. Besides, no matter how it tasted, it was good to have a warm drink after that panic.

  “How will Struth get out?” Kave asked. It was little more than a whisper as he stared into his own cup. Komena sighed and put her cup down.

  “Look at me, Kave.” She said. It took a moment, but he did look up into her eyes.

  “Struth knew that he was the one best suited to buy time. That’s why he told us to leave and that’s why we did. So that he could focus on keeping himself safe. All he needs to do is get out of the fire, leave the mansion and get into the crowd to be as safe as we are. You know him better than I do. Are those things you think he could do?”

  Kave thought about it for a full minute. Komena knew what his answer would be even before his expression changed. “Struth will make it. He’s an Ironheart, practically bred for fighting. I can’t tell you how many stories about some scar he got from afighting bandits or some skeletal mess from back home that he’s told me. He knows what he’s doing.” Kave nodded once more, mentally stamping the thought as “approved”.

  Komena didn’t share his optimism, but that was a line to tie off later. A few extra hours of hope wouldn’t destroy the boy, and she needed him functional until the sun rose.

  “That’s good. That means we can focus on the next step.” She said. “The Deans are going to keelhaul us about this mess in about ten hours, so we need something to show them. The more answers we have, the less they have to fill in themselves.”

  “Because their answer will be that we did it.” He answered. He was getting motivated now, frustration reinforcing determination.

  “Exactly, and five books that we don’t know anything about is not going to keep them off our backs.”

  Kave nodded and almost smiled, stopping at a sneer. “Fortunately, we have more than that. The demon is a Flauros, and we already know as much as we could find about it.”

  “Exactly how much is that? We never went over the exacts of your research.”

  “At this point we’ve done more relevant work on this case than you have.” Kave said with a sneer. He took a sip of tea before assuming a lecturing air.

  “The Flauros is associated with fire and ignorance. It has the intellect and resistance to magic we associate with high-ranking demons.”

  “Intellect? How can we tell its intellect when all it did was gibber at us? Did someone summon it just to run tests?” Komena asked.

  “No, that gibberish changes. Once when it was summoned, they managed to associate it with some pre-Sabbelah desert tribe dialect. The next time it was summoned, it was speaking something else. Presumably another dead tongue. Then it destroyed all the records we had on that dialect.”

  “I see, so when you say it’s associated with ignorance, it doesn’t take a passive role.”

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  “No. It’s obsessed with creating secrets. Every recorded instance of summoning a Flauros has ended with the thing getting loose, stealing all the research it can on a subject and murdering the researchers. It creates situations where it is the only thing that truly understands a subject. Then it hoards the knowledge, forever. Never using it, never telling anyone. Just keeping it dead to the world.”

  “Does it have a favorite subject? Does it only go after spell research?” Komena asked. This was actually one of the better answers she could have hoped for. Clear confirmation that the Dean’s research was at the root of this and not some other random thing no one noticed.

  “No, it doesn’t care about the subject, or if the knowledge is new or old. When I said it destroyed all the records of that dialect, I meant anything that conceivably be a record. Texts in libraries and private collections. Relics and carvings. Historians. If there was someone out in the sands who still spoke it, they’re either dead or strong enough to form a faculty of their own.”

  The tea in Komena’s mouth lost its flavor and turned ice cold. She forced herself to swallow. “Does it have any weaknesses?” Kave shrugged in response.

  “It’s not like we can just throw it into the sea and put it out. Point-blank annihilation, probably. Something with enough power behind it should be able to do enough damage to send it back to the other side. Just like any other demon.”

  “Well, it’s not like getting rid of the thing is our job. Did you find anything about ritual to summon it?” Komena said with a sigh.

  “Yes, we did.” he said. “It’s an involved one too, not the kind of thing that can be thrown together by anyone.”

  “That’s exactly what we need. That’ll leave a trail of supplies we can track them down with. Assuming you have the ritual?”

  Kave started grinning. It was like a feral slash across his face. “I don’t. It’s not the kind of thing of thing a library keeps public. It was censored, to keep messes like this from happening once a week, but the list of those with access is public. There are only seven mages on it today.”

  That was too precise to be accurate. Komena looked around the shop to distract from headache she felt starting. A few had left, but there were still enough coming in to keep them safe.

  “Seven people? You’re certain? Someone, somewhere could have worked out the ritual on their own.” Kave nodded, the grin wider and more eager.

  “Seven people. They made certain of it quite recently, after one of them died. You really don’t follow politics at all, do you?” He asked. Komena shook her head and cast a spell to lift her half empty teacup. It slowly rose a foot from the table, wobbling the whole way, until the spell collapsed under the strain. She managed to catch it before it landed. She wiped the forming beads of sweat from her brow with a napkin as she refilled the cup.

  “I know enough to pay my taxes, make informed race bets and to hide away when someone starts trying to fix people with my condition. The best thing for people like me to do is keep our heads in the sand. Trying to play the system would just make me a pawn on the board.” She said.

  Kave’s grin faded. Disappointment maybe? Whatever, the boy was in no position to judge. “A few years ago, the university summoned a Flauros to wipe out the ritual used to summon them. Those who had the knowledge we’re given covert opportunities to assist and be given proper promotions. Then the demon was set loose on those who refused. Eventually it ran out of targets other than those who summoned it. The demon was eliminated, and the mission was judged a success.”

  “Wait so those mages you mentioned are all high-level members of the University.” She asked. Desperate for an answer other than the one she knew. Eight mages. Eight faculties. Seven, since one of them was already dead.

  “The deans are our suspects.” Kave said with a nod and a little clap. She groaned in response, laying her head on the table.

  “Of course. Of course, our main suspects are the most powerful people on the continent. In literally every sense. No one who’s paranoid enough to become a dean would trust anyone else with the spell and they wouldn’t just wipe it from history.”

  “Are you still going to the meeting this morning? When they know that you know, you’ll be on borrowed timed.”

  “No.” Komena groaned, before throwing her head back up from the table, hanging it over the back of the chair to look up at the ceiling. “No, the only reason we wouldn’t go is if we knew that one of them was the culprit. And we’ll still have the Flauros coming after us next time it’s summoned, no matter what we do. The best option is to go and tell them all at once. Maybe get protection until this is solved.”

  It would also be the best way to leave the investigation. This mess had been over her head when it had been some backroom rebellion. Now it would be an open fight between archmagis. As much as she would love to lock the auditorium doors and let them settle it, more likely it would end with ashes mixing with the sand on the wind.

  Her breakdown was interrupted by Huang coming towards their table with a platter. She fixed her posture as he stepped into to field of silence, putting a bowl of roasted, lightly seasoned nuts in front of Kave and small pitcher with a matching tiny cup in front of Komena. It was filled with clear liquid but smelled unfamiliar.

  “When the old man heard you were actually paying, he assumed you needed something stronger than tea.” He said, before stepping back out.

  It wasn’t the first time Qin had made the offer. Celebrations and tragedies, some hers, some his long past. This time, she poured out a cup and drained it in an instant. It tasted like water, but with a strange, exotic sweetness that faded into a burn in her throat. She gagged a little, unused to the sensation. It wasn’t enough to help with the anxiety, and she couldn’t risk drinking anymore.

  Komena made a show of cracking knuckles and stretching her neck. Selim’s books were still in a loose stack at the table’s center. She pushed one of them to Kave and took another for herself.

  “Anyway, these are problems for the meeting. Right now, we have a few hours to see what we can pull from these. So, drink your tea, get to reading and order anything you want. It’s going to be a long night.”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’m an academic. Be more worried about your own ability to get through this.” Kave said, opening his book.

  The night passed like Komena had predicted. The Peach Vale had enough business through the night to keep Huang busy and the demon away until the sun came up. The last few pages were read by the light filtering in through the window. Every few hours, they had gotten a refilled plot of tea and more snacks. The closest thing to an actual meal they’d had were dumplings, stuffed with meat and herbs, and served with a black dipping sauce. They ended splitting them more or less evenly; Komena was too busy to focus on the food while Kave was too busy to sulk and not eat.

  The only surprise was the content of Selim’s books. They were mostly textbooks about a variety of subjects, from Ao Gungian metallurgy, plants found in Veldeti, the Desert’s Bloom and a few grimoires of spells from the summoning and transmutation schools. They had even grabbed the minutes from his company meetings from the last month. Those were disappointingly mundane. They mentioned meeting the Dean of Evocation, but no other details besides days and clothing. Records of a new set of robes and a change in accessories in the occasional throwaway line. No codes in the margins, no suspicious passages underlined, nothing important that Selim hadn’t said herself.

  Komena left a few extra gems on the table as they left. Huang’s exhaustion was replaced with briefly with concern as he did his last rounds of the shop. Pragmatism quickly beat that out though, and he took them as usual. Hopefully a clear tab would buy some kind words after this affair went public. Maybe she would run it up again, but it hadn’t been something she wanted left behind.