“We practice dueling not because the strongest should lead, but because those with the will to succeed, to sacrifice and to step over the corpses we must leave behind, is.”

  -Avestan Zend.

  Relief snapped through Komena as the rust sickness faded. That made sense. No way to torture a dead woman, after all. The pain was gone but exhaustion remained. She let herself drift on it. The greatest scholars hadn’t been able to prove what happened after this. The prevailing theory was annihilation, like a brick crumbling to dust. Peace by cessation. Now it was just another mystery she could unravel.

  Then there was a crash. Thunder, right beside her. The shock re-ignited her mind, and the world made sense again. Indistinct shadows in her peripheral became the floor, freshly cracked and smoking where the dean had been standing over her. The light wasn’t a pure, blinding thing anymore. It was simply a shattered and burning door. Broken chunks of smoldering wood were strewn down the stairs, leading up to the source of the wreckage. There, lit by the empty frame and his own flaming breath was Kave.

  “Found you, monster.” The Fiendblessed said, prowling down a few steps, before lunging at the Dean of Healing. He soared, his outstretched hands burning talons. The dean conjured a blast of ice and wind to knock him from the air. The air dried out as its moisture was frozen into blades and hammers, crashing into Kave. He left a trail of steam as he arced over the struggling angel and demon until he slammed against a wall.

  As Kave came to a landing Komena found the strength the move. Not enough to stand, but she managed to roll up against one of the walls, the same way a small child playing on the floor would. It was enough to get her as much out of harm’s way as she could hope to be.

  Kave peeled himself off the brickwork. He was bleeding from a few cuts, but they were little more than scratches. His eyes had focused back on the dean. There was a flicker of recognition as he saw the Flauros, but it burned away under the rage. The demon was nothing but a heat haze between him and the true killer. Magic snaked into the floor and erupted into a wave of shrapnel racing towards the dean.

  Its wake blasted up from beneath the angel, launching both it and the Flauros up. Where jagged rock ripped into the angel’s back, the demon was bashed into the ceiling. Either one would have reduced a human to shredded meat. For these creatures, it simply reset the fight. They readjusted as they fell, landed, and clashed again on even footing.

  Whatever spell the dean had thought to cast as a coup-de-grace was thrown away. Instead, the ground under him was reinforced and a shimmering wall thrown up. Desperation and haste made it only as strong as iron, but iron was enough. The wave stopped in front of him, drawing a clean line between the broken floor and his pristine territory. Lethal spears of rubble crumbled to dust in the air a full meter from their target against his shield.

  “An inelegant attempt boy. You’ll need more than-” the doctor started. His taunting was cut short by a swarm of red-hot glass blades, formed from the clouds of wreckage. These got closer but were shattered by a stone that raced through the air around the dean. The distraction was enough for Kave to rush him again. Within two steps, both Kave and the dean were casting again. Both follow up and counter stroke seared through the air.

  Komena had hoped that Kave that would have enough raw power for an edge in this fight. That wasn’t the case. At best, they were evenly matched and that wouldn’t be enough. Where Kave was throwing chunks of broken stone and thick waves of fire, the dean was countering them all elegantly. Blue flaming hands choked out the red heat and shaped figures smashed their way through broken stones twice their size. In the breaths between this defense, he threw out his own strikes. Kave had no choice but scrambling dodges to stay alive.

  If Kave did have one advantage over his target, it would be affinity. He was ignoring what damage he couldn’t evade, casting spells as quickly as he could and constantly moving forward. It wasn’t just instinct, it was a smooth familiarity with violence, sharpened to a killing point.

  The Dean of Healing didn’t have that. Even if there was no delay, Komena could see that there was thought behind his actions. Whether he was thinking his actions through, or running through a pre-planned script, she didn’t know. But as Kave stepped closer and closer, she saw the pressure start to rise. A flush crept up the dean’s neck, dark enough to be seen through his beard. He didn’t retreat. Taking a few steps back to build distance wasn’t in his plan. His attacks became more manic, the shapes of them becoming cruder. This wasn’t weakness. The spells were still just as strong. He was still going to kill Kave. Kave was simply going to kill him as well.

  For all the force being thrown between the two, there wasn’t much collateral damage. Neither of them could afford to waste energy with spells that were off target. The angel and demon were still fighting, evenly matched again. Komena was still pushed up against the wall, trying to be as small and covered as she could be. Safe if things stayed in balance.

  The smart thing would be to run before that balance tipped. Send help, go home, wait to be summoned by the university and hear the final tally. Limping up the stairs wouldn’t be a quick or stealthy exit, but it couldn’t less safe than waiting here. The case was already solved, seeing it out was a luxury.

  Komen got up onto her feet. She needed to use the wall for support, and her legs were still numb and trembling. But she could walk in steady, faltering steps. She followed the wall, moving towards the stairs.

  Kave kept moving against the raging current of magic being thrown against him. He was scrambling desperately, struggling for every foothold he could get to not be swept away. Underneath the distractions he cast to cover his advance, he weaved another spell. A line of heat coming down from his hand, thin as a sketch and dense as diamond. A blade to plunge in the Dean’s heart, if he could get close enough.

  Five steps away, he threw up a pillar from the ground in front of him.

  Four steps away, it covered him from a ribbon of fire. He felt the heat blister his skin, hidden in the stone’s shadow.

  Three steps away, he danced around the shield, ducking to avoid pieces that were sheared off and launched at him. He was too slow; one caught him in the side of the head but was blocked by one of his horns. He barely kept his balance as it cracked off.

  Two steps away, and Kave lunged forward. His defenses dropped, the dean put his own gambit into play, the rubble smashing together above them into a molten hammer. Kave ignored it, thrusting his hand forward. The dean’s eyes widened as he brought down his own crushing blow.

  “Die monster! We go together!” Kave roared. The Dean’s fist twitched but didn’t come down. His counter stroke stayed in the air, powerless as Kave punched a charred hole between the Dean’s ribs. His raised arms fell slack to his sides as the rubble above him cooled and crumpled. Behind him, Komena was belt and stiffly rubbing her shoulder and looking at the knife she’d thrown into his back.

  The Dean of Healing shuddered and gasped. There wasn’t a struggle, just the tremors of a dead man falling. As the corpse hit the ground, the summoned demon reared back, form rippling. Before it could recover, the angel was striking. An open hand snaked around and caught the back of the retreating demon’s head. The angel stepped forward, kicking the demon’s knee out, and drove a hand through one side of its immaterial throat. As the hand ripped out the other side, the Demon’s body dropped and smoldered into nothingness. The head maintained its shape, weakly snarling, until it was thrown against a wall and burst into fading embers.

  Komena watched Kave fall to the ground alongside the Dean. She could see him trembling. He didn’t have the energy for it now, but he would be weeping by tomorrow as the last few days hit the boy without revenge to distract him. Hopefully, closure would make it easier to bear.

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  “Argus, is that the culprit?” A voice said from behind her. Turning, Komena saw the Dean of Agriculture, followed by a small team of brown cloaked assistants. They flanked Dr. Amara Vairusta, hands unbound but still obviously in custody. The angel paced through the room and came up to the two downed figures, its eyes focused on the corpse.

  “The Dean of Healing. Confirmed to be the summoner and a murderer. Deceased.” It said, before turning to the old woman and standing at attention. “Are there conspirators to be hunted?” The Dean of Agriculture looked down at Komena. Not a glare, not a raised eyebrow, just the flat look of someone expecting change with a purchase. Komena shook her head.

  “No. You’re dismissed.” The Dean said. The angel’s eyes closed as its stance relaxed. It’s blue skin quickly darkened to black, fading into the shadows of the now barely lit room. A faint breeze marked it fading out of the world.

  “I’m impressed, Inspector. I didn’t expect you to have an answer this quickly.”

  “Well, I would have liked to take some extra time to verify some things matters. But we needed to rush at the end” Komena groaned, glancing at Amara.

  “Well, rushed or not you were right. The summoning would have failed if we didn’t have the identity of the culprit as a component.” The dean said, as her entourage split up throughout the basement, lights following them through the room. A few checked around the room, revealing old diagrams that had burned away, broken equipment and old bloodstains. Two of them knelt by Kave, casting spells over his burns and breaks. He didn’t react as the wounds scabbed over. A few days of consistent treatment, he would be back on his feet.

  “Then you followed it here when tracked the Dean of Healing down. Like how the Flauros knew where its victims were. Where are we?” Komena asked, peeking up the stairs. The only thing she could see was a low table, but that could mean she was under anything from a café to a library.

  “We thought it was just a house, owned under an alias. Looking down here though, I’d say this was his personal laboratory. We were able to pick this one up on the way.” The dean said, rolling her head towards Doctor Amara.

  No one was guarding her anymore. There wasn’t a point now. The woman just stood there, focused on her husband’s corpse. She had pulled out her silver necklace and was absently rubbing the poppy amulet, homing in on the yellow gem and working it hard enough that it moved in its setting.

  “So, Trin Rappoport. Care to give your testimony?” Komena asked. The doctor took a deep breath before turning to her.

  “A few days ago, I learned that he was intercepting my correspondence, including the research notes I had been trading with Vanitha. He questioned me on this.” She said, glancing around room. “Eventually he had the truth out of me. Within the day he had his scheme. Spoke the whole thing aloud as he worked it out. I saw him do the summoning, heard the terms of the Flauros’s hunt. Then he enchanted this gem with a shield from the Flauros and a tracker. Said he wouldn’t appreciate the attention my demise would bring onto him.”

  “This whole mess started because of an intercepted letter?” Agriculture said. “Sand and storms girl, you couldn’t even set up a proper drop box for notes?”

  “We don’t all have partners who don’t pry into our secrets, hag. He cracked open every one of them. I was distracted by the work and forgot to keep my own tabs on him.”

  “Well, will you see that distraction through now?” Komena said. Amara shook her head.

  “The project was only viable as a team effort. Vanitha, the Evoker, drove research while Selim would have distributed the finished product. He would have done it cheaply too. The dream dies without them.”

  “Not to be crass, but couldn’t you finish it? You have your own position and an inheritance coming. There must be enough between those two to get the final touches done.” Komena said.

  “You think my husband setup a will? You think he thought to have anyone outlive him? His funds will go to the faculty, if only by default because he was its dean.” Confusion turned resignation as she sighed. “This whole mess will probably cost me position as well. The faculty will want to be moving away from any lingering attention. An opportunity to good for the sharks below me to pass up.”

  “But could you distribute the cure if you had the funds for it?” Komena asked.

  “There is no cure. My research was incomplete and if there was a complete formula, the scrolls for it would already be in production. Completing the research on my own would take years to cover Vanitha’s work. I would need the research he stole, assuming it’s not ruined.” Amara said, looking around the ruined room. Her eyes settled on a cracked open and smoldering cabinet, it’s heavy lock visible and broken. One of the brown cloaked attendants was picking through the wreckage, the embers and shattered pieces picked up and away on weaves of magic. Revealed inside was a thick stack of papers and scrolls. They smoldered, protected only enough to not have been burned away immediately in Kave’s rage.

  The attendant didn’t need orders. With a burst of cold air, they extinguished the papers and sent the package floating over to their leader. Amara snatched it from the air and flipped through the first few damaged pages, grimacing.

  “He kept her notes on top. The embers burned through most of them.” She said, letting the pages fall to the floor as she flipped through them. Charred holes and smeared ashes made them illegible.

  “Here are mine. I’ve recorded these vitality support motions enough that I could do them tied down.” She muttered flipping through another large chunk of the pages, before pulling them out from the larger stack. It seemed that hers and Evocations notes made up half of what Healing had been able to scrounge together.

  “These ones are useless. Just my work but less efficient.” A few more pages fell to the ground. “This one is a study in infection vectors. Interesting. They did good work, and I don’t know many who would risk the research. But it also doesn’t suit our needs. Heh, this last one concerns removing mushrooms from flower stems.”

  “That’s probably Muarim’s. He was the second victim, after the dean. After Vanitha.” Komena said as Amara read the gardener’s work. The Dean of Evocation’s proper name was odd to say. Her amusement had faded into academic interest as she flipped through the pages faster and faster. It only took her a few minutes to reach the end of the notes.

  “This gardener of yours did good work. The Bloom’s main threat has always been its resilience. It was a problem I was unable to solve. Anything powerful enough to scour it would harm the host, but it seems that he managed to solve both issues. If his recorded tests are correct, then he’s already confirmed that the spell is effective against the fungal Bloom while it preserves the ones on flowers, no matter how delicate.”

  “Is that enough for you to work with?” Komena asked. People weren’t flowers.

  “Hypothetically. But it would take months of focused research to combine his fungicide with the spells needed to keep the patients alive through the infection. Then there’s still the matter of distribution. I don’t have enough, even if I threw whatever fortune I have left into this.” Amara said, gathering what she deemed to be the important pages into a stack. “Unless we can find some other sponsors, and I don’t dare dream they’ll be as charitable in their intentions. They’ll price the cure so high, less than five percent of people could afford it.”

  Komena pulled out the pouch of gems she’d been paid with at the start of all this. Even with all the carriages she’d taken the last few days, it was still heavy.

  “I appreciate the gesture inspector, but I doubt very much doubt fee will cover the costs.” Amara said.

  “Maybe, but it can’t hurt. I’ll keep this one though.” Komena said, flashing a single gem she had slipped out. “My rent is due soon.”

  Amara sighed and took the offered bag between pinched fingers. The weight almost pulled it out of her grip before she tightened on it in surprise.

  “I look forward to seeing what you can accomplish doctor, with your scavenged notes and an inspector’s fee. I’ll take what evidence I need back with me to the other fools. I hope that this is the last of the troubles our little council foists upon the both of you.” The Dean of Agriculture said.

  Komena closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Even with the smoke and the ash, those last words made the air as refreshing as sea wind. It was done. Culprit found, pay earned and spent.

  She opened her eyes and saw the dean’s corpse, being floated at waist heigh. An attendant was wrapping a cloak over it, either as a final dignity or to keep his death a secret. Then she saw them doing the same Kave, too exhausted to struggle against the forces holding him up.

  “What are you doing?” She asked. There was no reason to jump to conclusions. On site first aid wasn’t enough for his injuries and they needed to get him to a hospital somehow.

  “We’re taking the half-fiend into custody. The council will decide his final fate.” The Dean of Agriculture said. She had the decency to not look excited at the idea. She would put him under the knife with grim determination, not glee.

  “Like hell you are.” Komena said. She had meant it to be a declaration, but lingering tightness and pain turned it to a growl in her throat. “He’s a member of the Mundane Faculty and entitled to the protections thereof.”

  “Then they are more than welcome to claim him when you tell them what’s happened. That will not stop this.” The old woman said. Her attendants didn’t stop at Komena’s outburst. They kept floating Kave and the corpse towards the stairway.

  “A dean is dead, Komena.” Agriculture said, stepping in closer. “That had consequences for the Dean of Healing, it will have consequences for a picked-up demonic urchin.”

  “He saved my life! You were here to kill him too!”

  “And unfortunately, that might be enough to save him in turn. But I’m not going to allow any more weeds to sprout here, in my garden, than I need to.” The Dean of Agriculture said, before she followed her prizes out of the cellar.

  Komena tried to go after her, but she couldn’t find the strength. Instead, she kept what dignity she could and watched them climb up the stairs. They soon reached the top, leaving the door and her sight behind them.