“Well, congratulations,” he said, his smile becoming genuine as she grinned back at him, obviously pleased to tell him. “I’m happy to hear it.”
“Thank you,” she said breathlessly. “I was worried you might be annoyed—having to find a replacement secretary and all. I promise I’ll make it easy for you. I can pick someone and train them myself before the baby’s born, and hopefully I won’t be gone too terribly long.”
“It’s far too soon to worry about that,” Adrissu said, waving a hand dismissively. Itwouldbe annoying to have to find another secretary; but he knew enough about humans that if he were to say that, it would upset her, so he held his tongue. “Though Iwilladmit, that makes Nethendriel’s ideas about a second campus makemuchmore sense.”
“Oh, no, he had that idea a month into being interim headmaster,” she laughed, shaking her head. “It’s all he’s been talking about since your father left, it seems like. It didn’t influence his proposal much, if at all. He put together most of what he gave you months ago.”
“Just fortuitous timing, then,” he replied with a wry smile, and she chuckled. They talked it over a little longer—she was due at the end of the year, so the timing for a replacement secretary wouldn’t be too inconvenient, and she already had a few people in mind. She and Nethendriel had decided to marry, but would wait until the following year, probably in the summer.
Eventually, she thanked him for his graciousness, he congratulated her again, and she left for the day.
Despite her insistence on its lack of correlation, he felt certain that knowing he had a child on the way at least motivated Nethendriel to bring the topic up to Adrissu almost immediately upon his arrival. It was a lot to consider all at once, and he had not wanted to take on another major project so soon after establishing his new identity as a younger Adrissu. But if he refused, either to explore the possibility of a second campus, or to consider Ned for a leadership position at a second school, Eris would be upset. She might even fear for the future of her child, and as much as he tried to distance himself from the lives of the humans that surrounded him, hedidlike her and wanted her to be safe and comfortable.
If he did open a second campus, it would still present the problem of finding someone he trusted enough to run a school associated with his name, hiring more staff, handling students... Nethendriel had proved he could do it, and rather well, if the reports from the other instructors were true. Adrissu could avoid the headache of getting someone else if he went with Nethendriel.
If he were going to follow through with a second campus, putting Ned in charge of it was the best option he could see. So, with his decision made, he called Nethendriel to his office late in the afternoon several days later, and asked where, if anywhere, he most wanted to open this new campus.
They deliberated over this for a month, but eventually came to an agreement. If the city was amenable to such a thing—and Adrissu was quite sure they would be—they selected a slightly larger city about twenty miles to the west of Wintergrove called Feld Heslyn. It was far enough away from Polimnos to justify opening a second campus, and nearby enough that Adrissu could easily check in on the school whenever necessary. And, of course, it was near the lair of Tyrsun so that he could keep tabs on the other dragon, since he still thought it would be the best candidate for an eventual soul transference.
Nethendriel was pleased with the decision. Feld Heslyn was in a part of Autreth that was not as developed as Polimnos, but had steadily improved in recent years; and it was on the cusp of meeting the requirements set out by Gennemont to have a Lord Representative and other boons that the Federation offered such cities. It would be a good place to build a career, he explained, quietly confirming Adrissu’s suspicions that Ned had ambitions beyond a second Academy of Magic.
This decided, they put together a proposal, and Adrissu traveled to Feld Heslyn the next month to present it to the city’s mayor. His presentation seemed to convince the mayor, a stern-looking human woman named Annaliese, who invited him to remain an extra week to scope out a location for the potential secondary campus. Walking around the city, it reminded him very much of Polimnos in the years before it was annexed into Autreth: still rather small and quaint, but buzzing beneath the surface with growth and possibility.
He asked about local legends of the nearby dragon; while Feld Heslyn was about a day’s journey from Wintergrove, Tyrsun was still the nearest dragon. Annaliese confirmed that there was indeed a red dragon rumored to live to the northeast; she had never seen it, though, and only a few citizens of the city claimed to have ever witnessed it.
“As far as rumors of dragons, I don’t think our resident beastie would cause you any trouble here, headmaster,” she joked with a smirk. “After all, I hear the Scourge of Polimnos sleeps just beneath the surface of your own city, but it still stands. A dragon miles away from here shouldn’t be any more of a threat thanthat,would it?”
He smiled back at her. “No, I suppose it wouldn’t.”
The first ground broke for the Feld Heslyn Academy of Magic just under a year later. There had been no suitable structure existing in the city for them to use, so it would take extra time to build up the school. Adrissu was in no rush, but Nethendriel seemed discouraged by the timeline presented to them by city workers; of course, now that he was a father, Adrissu supposed he could understand his dismay at his promotion being delayed another year.
The secretary he had found in the meantime was considerably less friendly than Eris, Adrissu thought, but did the job. He resigned himself to getting used to her presence. Eris had promised she would return after only a few months, but Adrissu doubted the logistics of it; and even if she did, she would move to Feld Heslyn with Ned before much longer to keep their new family together.
Sure enough, despite her promise, Eris did not return. By the time the school was built and enrollment was underway, Ned and Eris’ daughter was two years old, and Ned had shared excitedly with Adrissu that they had another on the way. He had been in Feld Heslyn on and off throughout the past year to oversee construction and was now preparing to move his family there permanently.
Adrissu traveled there a few weeks after they had left Polimnos and toured the school grounds with Ned, before joining them for dinner in their new home. It was all quite different from Polimnos and the Academy there, but he supposed it would suffice. He was glad at least thathewasn’t the one moving. While he was there, he made a few side trips, seeking rumors of the nearby dragon. Everyone he spoke to agreed that Tyrsun, while alive and well in his lair to the north, rarely bothered Feld Heslyn. Adrissu became more confident that his presence in the city would remain undetected, and that any unusual activity from the dragon would likely be noticed by the mages at this new campus. All in all, it seemed like an ideal arrangement, as far as he was concerned.
The second Academy opened to much more fanfare than the original had, with over one hundred students attending classes conducted by ten instructors. Though it had been far more Ned’s project than his own, Adrissu still felt a swell of pride in his chest when Ned sent him a letter with all the details of the first day. It was all his legacy, one that mortals would recognize and admire far more readily than a pile of gold buried beneath the earth. How could he not be pleased?
Once that was all settled and running smoothly, though, little else of note happened in his day-to-day life. He busied himself with all the minutiae of keeping the Academy running and ensuring the second school didn’t stray too far from the curricula and lesson plans set up at the main campus. He thought of picking up more of his own personal studies, but lacked the motivation. Instead, he kept his head down, and worked, and waited. His mate would return eventually.
Book Five
Pollux
Chapter Seventeen
Whilethesecondacademywas the first project Adrissu worked on when he adopted his new identity, it was far from the last.
Another instructor had been working on a pet project in his absence as well. Alana Pughes was attempting to enchant a device that would build up steam and redirect it, creating a rudimentary power source. When she presented it to him several months into the term after his arrival as the new headmaster, he had been mildly impressed, but unsure of what practical applications it might have.
“I think I could get it to power a cart,” she answered firmly, when he expressed his uncertainty. He raised an eyebrow, the response unexpected.
“A cart?” he repeated. “Instead of a horse?”
“Yes. It would be faster than a horse could travel,” she said. “Or a larger cart to carry more people. This is a small model, but the larger the tank, the more steam it could generate, and the more force it could push.”
“I see,” Adrissu murmured, eyeing the little device again. “I see. An interesting premise, Alana. I think the academy can certainly help fund this.”
