The Earth Elemental was horizontal, nursing a cup of chamomile tea. He looked exhausted but happy, like a fern that had just survived a hurricane.
"It's a serious condition," Kai continued gravely. "In three weeks, you'll cough up a disco ball."
"Not funny," Rhett muttered, though he was careful to sweep around the patch of moss Kai had accidentally grown on the rug during the post-battle nap yesterday.
Two days had passed since Marrow's departure.
The campus was in a state of blissful, chaotic recovery. The "Mandatory Yodeling" spells in the library had worn off (mostly,though the Philosophy section still hummed in D-minor). The cafeteria was serving real food again, though the salad bar was still suspiciously aggressive—I had seen a cucumber snap at a freshman this morning.
And the Enforcers? They had quit en masse. Without Marrow's direct control, the zombie-thrall spell had broken, leaving behind fifty very confused security guards who just wanted better dental benefits. They had formed a private security firm called "Nice Guards Inc." Their new slogan wasSafety First, Kindness Mandatory.
I sat on the balcony, watching the sunset over the mountains.
It was peaceful. It was quiet. The only sound was the distant laughter of students on the Quad below.
"You okay?"
I turned. Lucien was stepping out to join me. He wasn't wearing his usual armor of suits and sarcasm. He was wearing jeans and a soft gray sweater. He held two glasses of wine.
"Yeah," I smiled, taking the glass. "Just... decompressing. It feels weird not to be afraid. It feels weird not to have a nemesis."
"We'll find a new one," he promised, leaning against the railing beside me. "Maybe the squirrels. They've been looking at us funny since Kai gave them speech."
"He gave the squirrels speech?" I asked, horrified.
"Only a little," Lucien smirked. "Mostly they just ask for nuts and complain about the weather. It's quite banal."
I leaned into him. He smelled like rain and old books. He felt solid.
"We did it," I whispered. "We actually won."
"We didn't just win, Lina," Lucien said, his violet eyes catching the fading light. "We changed the rules. Marrow wanted a hierarchy. You gave him a community."
"We gave him a community," I corrected. "I couldn't have done it without the Pack."
"The Union," he amended, clinking his glass against mine. "To the Union."
Down in the Archives, the cleanup was quieter.
The sub-basement still smelled like ozone and unwashed laundry, but the tension was gone. The "Resistance Headquarters" was being dismantled.
Amelia was back in her jumpsuit—the gray, drab probationary uniform she had hated for months. But she wasn't scrubbing floors. She wasn't organizing scrolls.
She was packing.
She folded a silk shirt with military precision and placed it into a cardboard box.
"You're leaving?"
Arthur stood in the doorway of his office. He was holding a mug of tea, his knuckles white against the ceramic. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week, but his eyes were bright behind his glasses.
"My probation is over," Amelia said without turning around. "With Marrow gone, the Board reinstated my scholarship. Apparently, 'leading a successful resistance movement against a tyrant' counts as extra credit for Civics. Who knew?"
"That's... good," Arthur said. His voice sounded small. "You'll be back in the dorms. Back to the parties. Back to being a Vance."
Amelia paused.
She looked at the gray shirt in her hands. She looked at the dusty office, with its stacks of forgotten magic and the smell of old paper. She looked at Arthur—at his tweed vest, his messy hair, the ink smudge on his cheek.
