The day had been both very interesting and delightfully boring.

  Owen's sword was amazing. Of course it was. It was super magical and, you know, loot. The carving lesson that afternoon was boring.

  Seth traded one of the spell stones from the ogre fiasco to Selendrith's grandfather, and they talked about the basics of carving formations, structures, and all sorts of stuff for ages. Apparently carving spells involved carving all of the spell, including the sigils and sounds, into complex formations. I recognized some of it from the Ritual Geometry class, and even bits from the Materials class, but there were some large gaps still in my education. Not only that, the carving runes used for the spell sounds were not the ones used for their local language. My brain did not convert the spells into English like it did the local language.

  I did not have the brain bandwidth to learn another language on top of the one I was already studying. Not to mention the other school subjects. If I could take notes and practice, maybe. Relying on only memory? I was going to mess it up and probably get myself some really bad habits. Not to mention my paw dexterity was not anywhere close to adequate.

  I decided I was fine with that. I'm not really the artsy craftsy type. On the other hand, having a servant that can do those carvings for me if I ever got the hankering to have one was a good investment.

  Unsurprisingly, Selendrith was quite skilled. Even still, her grandfather made her practice on non magical antlers and told her she had to do it perfectly six times before he'd let her try on the real rod.

  She was doing the spell Magic Arrow that we'd been learning in Structured Magic. Neither one of them were capable of Bind yet, though Seth was nearly there.

  After getting an idea of what they were going to be doing, and deciding it wasn't for me, I plunked myself down on Owen's lap on the comfy couches in the front of the store. He didn't mind. He futzed with his ancientish new sword and gave me full body scritches. I napped.

  Later that evening, Seth zonked out delightfully early. It was before Isaac had come to the dorm room, so I arranged Seth's covers to hide my absence and I skedaddled.

  And now I was fresh as a daisy, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and ready for my night of prowling. I was going to find Mighty Mick and his magic wardrobe. Tonight. Dammit.

  Where oh where to begin. I had yet to see where Professor Mick went after the combat classes ended. I thought he stayed in the same faculty building that Isolde–Ritual Geometry Professor of the familiar wrangling side hustle–lived in. But I never saw him in that area. Then I'd been staking out and searching the coliseum for the past few nights, and getting nowhere. No sign of Mick the Mighty, or one of the magic wardrobes that would take me to the secret land of familiar fake-death combat.

  I was out and about earlier tonight than I had been previously. I decided to pick a spot to see where people went as they wrapped up their nights. For all I knew, Mighty Mick and some other teachers wandered into the city for liquid entertainment. That meant that the tower courtyard was possibly the best spot for spotting said wayward teachers.

  It didn't take long for me to park my butt on a balcony that was perfectly positioned to see all the towers and the campus gate.

  Some towers were hard to see at night despite the magical lighting in the courtyard, like the Celestial Tower with its weirdly deep looking dark stones, and the Fire Tower made out of dark volcanic glass. At the other end of the spectrum, both the Circle Tower's white bone, and the Ice Tower's icy sheathing gleamed in the darkness. I crouched down behind the railing and peered out, waiting for something interesting.

  Surprisingly, it happened way sooner than I thought. It wasn't Mick I spotted though.

  I saw Cicily, the Wizard of the Circle Tower and the instructor for Seth's life and healing class, rushing out of the Ice Tower. Her movements were jerky, like she was angry and upset. Hot on her heels was Rebecca, Wizard of the Fire Tower and enforcer of probations and cafeteria rules, easily recognizable by her long red scarf.

  Cicily spun around and confronted Rebecca with her fists clenched. I was too far away to hear the drama. I debated with myself for a second. Was it better to watch what was happening, or to get close enough to hear the argument? If I left my post, Mick might slip by without me seeing him. I decided to stay put.

  Neither Cicily or Rebecca were teachers of remarkable concern to me or to Seth. Rebecca had made Seth's list of potential mom murderers. Cicily met the minimum requirements, too; she was old enough and female. Not exactly damning evidence. Seth had done nothing more than write their names down.

  Rebecca's hands waved in short, sharp motions, and then she was waggling a finger in Cicily's face. Cicily batted the hand away. For a moment I thought I'd get to see my first professor ranked wizard duel. Instead, after a few more aggressive gestures, the two stalked off in opposite directions.

  I'd never given much thought to the politics of the school. I didn't know who the head honcho was, how the professors managed things, or anything like that. I knew that certain professors had the title of 'Wizard', and that title meant they were in charge of a tower of learning. They also tended to live in their tower with some upperclassmen, and probably other teachers.

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  I didn't know how the towers related to each other, or the other general academics at school. For instance, Isolde didn't live or teach in a tower. There were several other generic type classes, like history, materials, zoology, and stuff. The towers were the advanced classes, and I'd gotten the impression that the tower professors had higher rank than the general ones.

  But between the towers, I had no idea how the hierarchy worked. A higher tier tower came with more prestige, but that didn't mean it came with more authority or a more competent wizard. What happened when two professors had beef?

  Not my problem. Not tonight anyway.

  I waited until no one crossed the courtyard in over half an hour. It was well past bedtime for decent people, and bedtime now for the not so decent.

  Another fucking bust.

  I was not optimistic, but I climbed down and headed to the coliseum anyway. It was dark and gloomy over here, with fewer magic lightposts. I sat outside for a moment, trying to decide where to look. The faculty building across the way? The one near the library instead?

  And then I got a fantastic bit of luck. A distant warning bell began to ring. A wyvern bell. It was on the other side of the city. I gazed up at the sky, and couldn't see any sign of the wyvern.

  Moments after the bell started to ring, from the faculty building across the way, Professor Mick the Mighty sprinted out the main door wearing pajama pants, an open robe, and slippers. He headed straight for the tower courtyard.

  He left the front door open.

  Why thank you, Professor! I'd be delighted to come for a visit. Thank you so much for inviting me inside.

  I sauntered in and looked around. This building had the same type of suite setup that Isolde's building had. And Mighty Mick left his inner door open too. Gracious sweet peas, give that wyvern the luck of the heavens, and may it keep the city, and Professor Mick, busy for a long time.

  This was a magic school, and I'd already encountered an Alarm spell, so I treaded carefully and paid special attention to my whiskers. Here in magic land, people tended to be just as lazy about setting alarms and locking doors for spaces they lived in as anywhere else. There was no discernible security on Mick's suite.

  Like Isolde's space, it had more rooms than Duvessa's, but was more sparsely furnished. His living space had a table and chairs, and a desk. The rest was open space. There were piles of clutter, mostly consisting of training weapons and equipment, some of it broken, some of it dusty. Nothing really interested me here. I headed to the bedrooms.

  The first was Mick's room, and like the living area had some piles of equipment, clothes on pegs, and a messy bed. There was an open trunk, open drawers on a bureau, and a pile of laundry on the floor. I got no magic pings from this room, and there was no wardrobe.

  Dude needed a housekeeper.

  Next room. This one was actually the largest of the bedrooms. It was dominated by a large table with a narrow walkway around it. From my vantage point only a foot from the floor, I couldn't see what was on the table. I could see the collection of boxes and crates under the table. I took a closer look at those, wondering what kinds of things would be important to Mick.

  The first crate had a strange collection of small wooden planks. I noticed some small wheels in there too. The next one had a variety of little lead beasts and soldiers. Oh, I think I know what this is. Curious, I hopped up on the table.

  It was the city of Rosia in miniature. The detail was extraordinary. There was just the slightest whiff of magic here, so I thought it might have been constructed with magical assistance, but the diorama itself was not magical.

  This was a cool hobby. I paused a moment to take in the whole scene. The Palace, the Magic Academy, and the city walls. Soldiers were on the Palace towers and on the city walls.

  And a different set of soldiers outside the closed city gates.

  The invading army had a variety of beasts with them, as well as siege engines. There were tokens in places with symbols on them. I recognized one as the symbol for fire. In this scenario, a section of Rosia was burning, specifically the East End.

  I took a closer look at the Magic Academy and the Towers. Some of the little figures were painted, while most were not. I didn't recognize who most were supposed to be, but I did recognize the red scarf of Rebecca.

  Mick was planning out scenarios. Well, at least one scenario, that involved a siege of the city. Was this just a war game hobby, or was this a war plan? If he was making plans, what side was he making plans for?

  I didn't recognize the banners on the invading army. Not unusual, really. While I'd seen a bunch of the nobility when we were at the Palace, none of the guests were carrying battle flags like weirdos. The most anyone had was emblems sewn onto their uniforms. This army could also be a foreign power. To the best of my knowledge, I hadn't met anyone not from this kingdom.

  I knew Mick was a battle maniac. For all I knew, this was a reenactment of a historical battle. No. As soon as I thought it, I knew it was wrong, not unless Rebecca was involved in a previous battle. I'd have to ask Seth.

  Beyond that, not my circus, not my monkeys. I'd just have to make sure Seth and I had a surefire way out of the city. Which brought me back to the reason I was here.

  The third bedroom was the smallest. It was hardly bigger than a closet, but it was big enough for the wardrobe sitting next to a small window. I made sure the door shut behind me and paid careful attention to sniffing out any spells active in the room.

  I was relieved to find the only magic in this room was the wardrobe itself. Nice. Before checking out the wardrobe, I turned to the window.

  It was shuttered and locked. But it was not a solid window, so it could open. And it could open wide enough for me to climb in. Perfect. Then I noticed my paw prints in the dust on the windowsill I was sitting on.

  Snickerdoodles.

  The rest of the room wasn't that dusty, and the top of the wardrobe wasn't at all. Ah, okay. This room hadn't been used for a long time, and then was cleaned up a bit when the wardrobe was brought in here. I'd guess it was pretty recent.

  I used my tail to wipe away the dust and hide my pawprints, and took a look around the room. Okay. No sign of me being here.

  In the distance, the wyvern bell stopped, and I paused for a moment of silence for my departed distraction. You will be missed, little wyvern, and I'm very glad to never see you in person.

  Right. Up in the wardrobe. Close the door. And activate this sucker.

  Seth was having some trouble figuring out how to change the aspects of his mana. He could use generic mana, or wind mana. After some struggles, Professor Kaban had given him a focus to practice with.

  I had no such trouble. For whatever reason, I could instinctively change mana to whatever I wanted. It worked a lot like using a mana vault or activating my amulet. I had a feeling it was related to the type of magic beast I was.

  What can I say, I'm awesome.

  Magic wardrobe to the secret land of magic beasts, activate!

  Shit. That didn't work.

  I'm not going to say how many tries it took me to figure out what aspect Tom the tomcat had used to activate the wardrobe. I will say I did figure it out. Eventually.