The break was over far too soon. Ludere got ready for his return trip with trepidation. His family was supportive of this, but they also got the full truth.

  He held nothing back. They even knew about him learning Spirit Magic. How else could he explain the spear that cursed whenever he grabbed it? Today the spear was quiet. He almost forgot that it was with him.

  Regardless of what anyone else did, no one else had talked with the weapon. It felt like the spear had chosen only him to receive threats. He wasn’t so paranoid as to think only he could receive death threats, but the spirit of the former succubus was definitely present inside the spear.

  As he got closer to the transport, it finally dawned upon him that he wasn’t going to spend any more time at the capital for a while. One month had felt like a long time. The additional two weeks due to the new loop added onto his time. It felt like a prison sentence that he was going to have to go through.

  Headmaster Cass would want a full report of what he had done in the intervening time. He wasn’t so crass as to ask Ludere what his skills were at without some preamble, but he knew the questions would be coming.

  The handful of times he had run into the man with the wire-rimmed black glasses, he had always left feeling like the man would squeeze him as much as he could. Ludere kept on the straight pathway to avoid having to speak with the man.

  He had an agenda. That was fine. Ludere had one as well.

  “Are you just going to be standing there brooding about this whole thing the whole time?” Erebus said. “If you’re not going to help me out with this problem I’ve been having, then I don’t even know.”

  “You’ve got the two dinarii that you need to send messages back and forth. Find out whatever you can. When I get back...”

  “When you get back, we’re going to have a long talk about your future and Cire... You know she’s been pretty uh.”

  “I’ve been hearing it from both of you. You’ve been hanging around the oracle too long. What we have is not going to be what you have. You haven’t done anything formal, right?”

  Erebus reeled as if trying to avoid a feint. “I think her father would have me buried if he knew I had even taught her how to do that rear naked choke.”

  “She is pretty good at that,” the oracle said quietly.

  “Ah! How are you able to sneak up on us like that!” Erebus said.

  “It’s not hard. You know that you’re pretty worked up, right? Having sight does not mean that you’re observant. You’re not relying on your will sight.”

  “I haven’t... ACK.”

  The Oracle grabbed him by the ear. “If you’re going to be around my boyfriend, I expect that you’re going to be working in all domains. If you want the girl, she’s going to want you to be strong as well.”

  “Oracle, please!” Erebus was turning red.

  “He needs some instruction.”

  “Thanks for giving me Unarmed Combat. I never thought that I could use it like this. The prospect of...” She tugged at his ear slightly. “Erebus not being prime beef when you return is not pleasant to me.”

  Ludere couldn’t help it. She was treating his friend like a little brother and he was here for it. Cire was waiting there, of course, when they arrived and it was really his duty to rib his friend for not telling her that her feelings were reciprocated.

  “You know she hasn’t had a chance to really talk to someone that isn’t politically aligned with her father in forever. So this might be her only chance to break from family tradition. Senator Celisar doesn’t have any male heirs.”

  Erebus was not in an advantageous position. “Help,” he squeaked.

  “If you don’t march over there and tell that girl what is going through your rental boy brain, then it’s going to hurt a lot more.”

  Erebus nodded. The Oracle released her hold, and he walked with a tiny amount of swagger over to where Grammarian Tyler was in deep conversation with Cire.

  The Oracle put a hand on his shoulder as they watched. “We’re going to need to distract her handler.”

  Ludere waved to the grammarian who looked three pages deep into a lecture about proper will channeling with the poor girl. For her part, she looked interested.

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  As Erebus got closer, she brightened.

  The grammarian turned, his will glasses flashing. His robes looked fresh-pressed as always as he regarded Erebus.

  Ludere switched to will sight. Erebus's aura was muted and contained within a short area around him.

  Both Cire's and Tyler’s auras were like large spheres surrounding them. He hadn’t thought about their weight, but clearly Erebus had not advanced his skill nearly as much as Cire had.

  He was going to have to talk to him about that. Perhaps a sternly worded letter would get the point across, but not as much as his girlfriend would.

  “You’re going to need to train him.”

  “I’ll handle him if you handle her,” the Oracle said. “But first you have to handle something else.”

  “Ahem.” The stern man’s voice was from somewhere behind them.

  The Senator was exactly the same as he had been the last time Ludere had seen him, save for the giant crease on his forehead. That part looked new.

  “Senator Celisar.” Ludere turned to face him. He wasn’t sure how he had missed the Senator.

  “Regnicus. My apologies for not being able to see you before now. I have read your messages.”

  The silence between them filled the space.

  “How have you been?”

  “Not well. Government seems to think that it can sweep these incidents under the rug. Military wants to use them to increase what they’re getting. It probably would have been a different story if more people had died.”

  He knew that was the case. He thought about what the government’s response should have been.

  They would never take his visions seriously. If one of his classmates had been killed by a demon, that might have taken it seriously, but instead several of them had gotten badly wounded. During the two visions he’d experienced where he died at the academy, others had also perished, but that was undone.

  No one understood the undone time.

  “Cire told me that your studies have been going well. Keep it up and you’ll have a spot in government.”

  “Thank you for that offer. I’m going to be honest, I haven’t gotten any inquiries from military. I thought that they might have taken an interest, but...”

  “If you’ve given them a list of your skills, then they’re going to be very interested. If it hasn’t leaked yet, then it probably will soon. I can’t be held responsible for what the factions are going to do once they figure out what you have.”

  Ludere had given him a mostly complete list of his skills, at least the ones that were relevant. He hadn’t gotten that many more since he joined the academy, but the ones he had were getting up there. Constant combat has honed his reflexes. It had brought his skills up to a respectable level.

  He could see himself taken down a few dozen people before any of them had a chance to even touch him. This was assuming, of course, that they weren’t on the same level as him. Most average people walking around would never get to the amount of skills that he had. They might have two or three good ones. If they were lucky, they’d have one that was in the thirties or forties.

  “I’m hearing something that you might need to know. I need you to understand that this is just between us.”

  Ludere’s ears perked up. This had been coming. This was probably the reason the senators showed up.

  “There’s a lot of people in government that think that military was going to profit from whatever happened in that incursion. Because we don’t know what happened. We can’t say. That’s what happens when you mess up your enemies best laid plans.”

  Ludere stared at him blankly. “There are people that think military did this? Or so specific faction within them?”

  Of course, he had his doubts. Seeing what was underneath the arena gave him so many doubts. Yes, the thing made sense. But if someone had recently placed him there, the limited number of times they could have concealed it and made it appear as if nothing occurred would have been obvious. There were many days when the arena didn’t even open and the military would rent it out for whatever drill they were doing. He wouldn’t have to never had to show up on those days, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t able to do something.

  The monumental task of putting a will construct in there. That was so large. That kind of ordeal couldn’t be just one of two people. That had to be at least nearly a whole workshop of people working day and night.

  The fact was undeniable. Not knowing how long it took to make it to Will Construct was hampering them. Without that, his mind went wild, not knowing the possibilities.

  The knowledge and how to use or create such a will construct didn’t even have to exist. They could have picked out a pre cataclysm artifact. If time had erased the method of making the thing, he couldn’t be helped. But if that was something that they could do and military was talking with the Invaders on how they wanted it to happen, then that would just be too much collusion for his taste. He already didn’t like his government. If he had to burn it down from the bottom up then he would.

  “I understand what you’re asking to do Senator. I’m going to keep my eyes open and I will report back whenever I can. I assume that I’m not telling your daughter about this. Would that worry her too much?”

  The Senator looked over to Cire. She appeared to be rapidly gesticulating a point that either was not landing or she wanted to really send home. He couldn’t make heads or tails of it. This Sunday. Would obviously want to talk to his daughter, but the transport hadn’t arrived yet either. He wasn’t at an impasse. If he told the senator his suspicions, then the senator would know that he was digging him to it. He wasn’t entirely sure whether they had logged their investigation. And even if someone had reported it up the chain. He had all the thought that perhaps just going there would have helped and known what military’s thought process was. But it appeared upon first brush for him to fully understand all their motivations.

  He just needed her to get an idea of where they were coming from.

  “Thank you for your wise counsel. Don’t you want to talk to your daughter before she goes away?”

  “I’ll take my leave of you then.”

  As soon as he walked away, the Oracle wrapped him in her arms. Senator Celisar was thankfully quiet about his approach. He was within the range of his daughter before he nearly got tackled by her. That made him smile.

  “He is sounds pretty off for an older man. Imagine if you couldn’t see a family after they went through a demon attack and they were looking for any excuse to see you, but you had to go through through some bureaucratic nonsense. And then imagine further that the ones that are to deal with the events I suspected.”

  "I know you are going to miss me."

  "Keep the faith. Your transport is arriving."

  She kissed him like he wouldn't be coming back. Which, for all he knew was true.

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