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Vane bristled. “House Mortis may not be my own house, but it is one of the founding houses of Bloodwing Academy. Why, Mortis is one of the most prestigious bloodlines in Sangratha.”

“And they’re all blooddamned traitors,” Magda decreed loudly. “Slaughtered teachers and students in the halls that night, they did. With no care for infected or uninfected. And then what did your new House Mortis leader do? Barricaded the doors against the refugees. Why, if it were up to me, Silvio Santos would already be strung up by his tiny testicles and hanging in the—”

Rodriguez was pulling at the collar of his shirt. “Yes, Magda,” he said hastily. “Alastor knows all of this. And we have reprimanded Silvio. In fact, despite his being newly elected House Leader of Mortis, he’s not party to this meeting, as you can see. Professor Briggs represents House Mortis this evening, and we thank her for volunteering.”

A blightborn woman with long brown hair waved her hand cheerfully from down the table. “Good evening, all. I’m absolutely ashamed of House Mortis, the lot of them,” she said brightly. “I’m with you, Magda. I think the entire tower of no-good bastards ought to be—”

“Yes, Elizabeth, thank you,” Rodriguez interrupted. “But you do teach in that house and as we’ve discussed—”

“Oh, yes, Gabriel, I know the drill,” Briggs agreed. “House Mortis history instructor, no more, no less. Not that I wish to teach any of those highblood devils history or any other subject after they held the doors shut on hundreds of innocent people.”

“Well, I’m House Drakharrow and proud of it,” Professor Vane interjected. “But never did I ever expect to see one of the noble four houses shut out from this table or hear a blightborn—” he looked around the table but clearly thought better of it and continued “—a blightborn woman drag highblood names through the mud. You know, I’d like to know exactly on whose authority you’re acting, Gabriel. Why, some might say this entire meeting is a sham. I don’t see any actual board members here, after all.”

Lysander Orphos cleared his throat. “As a matter of fact, there is one board member here, Alastor. I lead House Orphos both inside and outside of these walls, and I fully sanction this meeting. Moreover, Natsumi Avari is a member of the school board. She remains missing. But if she were here, I know she would fully approve. Furthermore, we already have Kage Tanaka’s approval. As for Blake Drakharrow …” He looked at me, then away. “Now, Lord Mortis, who also served on the board, is dead—as you may recall. His daughter might have taken his place, but she is absent.”

“And engaged in an act of treachery which threatens our very realm,” Magda Stonefist muttered loudly.

“A strange affair, that,” Vane said crankily. “Catherine ought to be here instead of that blightborn b—” Professor Rodriguez coughed loudly, and Vane glared at him “—woman,” he finished sourly.

“Elizabeth is the name,” Professor Briggs called across the table cheerfully. “And you’ve known me well over twenty years, may I remind you, Alastor.” Vane harrumphed.

“Professor Vane does make a fair point,” Rodriguez said slowly. “There is the matter of governance of the school. We should discuss it. As you’re all aware, Bloodwing currently has no head. While we may not agree with him entirely, Alastor is correct that this is a rather unorthodox meeting. We have student ambassadors present, which is normally not the case for staff meetings or board meetings.”

“But it makes sense under these unusual circumstances,” Sankara pointed out.

“Absolutely,” Rodriguez agreed. “But we do need to discuss the school’s governance. The way I see it, we have several options. We might appoint a new head, put it to a vote. Or we could attempt to govern as a group by consensus.”

There were loud groans at that idea.

“It would be challenging,” Rodriguez conceded. “Not to mention quite time-consuming.”

“Absolutely not,” Professor Stonefist declared. “I’ve better things to do with my time than sit here for hours arguing with Alastor Vane. There is a school to run and a city to aid.”

“I agree with Magda,” said Elizabeth Briggs. “We cannot have our time eaten up in petty squabbles over whether or not House Mortis students should or should not have to participate in mandatory community service to make up for some of their very poor judgment and, in some cases, absolutely inexcusable actions.”

“They are highbloods. No highblood action is inexcusable,” Professor Vane declared imperiously.

“Bloodmaiden.” Professor Briggs looked shocked. “Even after all we’ve just been through. Did Alastor truly just say that?”

Professor Stonefist had already rolled up her sleeves and tugged fiercely at her beard. “He bloody well did, Elizabeth. Oh, he bloody well did.”

“Magda, I am begging you,” Rodriguez moaned, “please sit down.” Only after the dwarven instructor had grudgingly resumed her seat did he turn to Professor Vane. “Alasator, yes, that certainly might have been the way of things in the past, but it is not the future of Bloodwing—nor of this realm, if most of the people in this room have anything to say about it.”

Vane harrumphed again. Magda continued to look murderous. Professor Briggs gave an awkward little chortle. And beside me, Florence Shen looked longingly out a window as if the boardroom were the last place she wanted to be.

“Missing being on Nyxaris’s back?” I whispered, nudging her gently.

She jumped higher than I expected her to. “I just need some fresh air. It’s stifling in here,” she whispered back. Her face was alarmingly red. I suddenly started to wonder if she was about to faint.

“I’ll open a window, shall I?” I stood up and moved past Rodriguez to pull open the tall glass pane behind him. As I turned back to face the room, I paused. “Look, a rotating headmaster sounds like chaos.”

“We could rotate the position among senior faculty,” Rodriguez suggested, looking relieved to be back on topic.

“Pass. Hard pass,” Professor Briggs said at once, while at the same time Professor Vane said, “I’d be more than happy to take a term.”

“Absolutely not,” Stonefist said heatedly. “I am not working in a school led by—”

“Just a moment,” I said, raising my voice. “I think we’re forgetting something important.”