The weekend passed too quickly.

  Whatever fragile balance Cassian had managed to regain shattered the moment he remembered Laney’s declaration. One week. That was all his victory had earned him. One week before he was tested again. Another exposure. Another chance for the world to see what he truly was. It did not feel fair.

  If life was going to be like this-

  No. That was a foolish thought.

  When he arrived at the academy gates that morning, he half expected Laney to be waiting for him there, blade already drawn. She was not. Only Sabrina and Todd stood in their usual place, as though nothing in the world had changed.

  He greeted them, and for a fleeting instant he allowed himself to appreciate their presence. If everything was destined to collapse, then at least he would not spend his last quiet days alone.

  They entered the academy together. The corridors were already alive. Wooden swords at belts. Students eyeing one another like predators measuring distance.

  As they neared the classroom for Mysteries of Numbers, Jurgen and his circle stepped into their path.

  “So,” Jurgen began with a lazy grin, “has our little crazed servant challenged you yet, Viamnova?”

  “No,” Cassian replied evenly. “But the day has just begun.”

  Jurgen scoffed. “She said next week. Maybe she’ll wait. Or maybe she’ll get cold feet. I’m not expecting much of-”

  “That is quite rude of you, Mr. Quiascendus.”

  They turned. Laney stood in the doorway of the classroom, hands folded neatly before her, expression composed.

  “When I say I will do something,” she continued gently, “I do it.”

  Jurgen straightened at once, rolling his shoulders back, recovering his swagger. “Well? Then what are you waiting for? Say the-”

  “In a moment,” Laney replied. “I must first escort Miss Virinterviros here, so she may witness.”

  Jurgen frowned. “What are you-”

  Laney vanished.

  Not stepped away. Not blurred.

  Vanished.

  The air where she had stood folded in on itself like mist dissolving under sunlight. At that exact moment, another Laney appeared at Priscilla’s side further down the corridor.

  “Apologies,” she said calmly. “It took me a moment to arrive.”

  Jurgen stared, comprehension dawning. “An illusion.”

  “A refined one,” Cassian added.

  Laney inclined her head slightly. “Yes. I am rather gifted in that discipline. Thank you, Mr. Viamnova.”

  Her gaze then shifted.

  She drew her wooden sword in one smooth motion and leveled it toward Jurgen.

  “Mr. Quiascendus,” she said, voice clear and unshaken, “I challenge you to a duel.”

  Sabrina reacted first. The moment Laney leveled her wooden sword and Jurgen’s grin sharpened into something dangerous, she seized the two boys by their sleeves and pulled them back.

  “Move.”

  Todd followed her lead, waving others away. Even at that early hour, enough students had arrived that within seconds a loose semicircle formed. The corridor shifted, transformed into an arena. Belts creaked. Wooden swords thudded lightly against hips. Everyone leaned in.

  Jurgen drew his wooden blade in one sharp motion. He did not wait.

  A fireball burst from his free hand and hurtled toward Laney. It roared down the corridor in a flash of heat and light. Laney stepped aside with effortless grace. The flames struck stone and scattered into sparks.

  Jurgen was already moving. The fireball had only been a veil. He lunged forward, closing distance with a direct frontal assault. His wooden sword cut cleanly through the space where she had stood.

  Her body did not get stricken, it thinned. Like mist under sunlight, her form unraveled and dissolved into the air, threads of pale light dispersing soundlessly. An illusion.

  Jurgen spun, furious. “It is against the rules to use magic before the duel!”

  Laney’s voice answered him from everywhere at once. The walls. The ceiling. The very floor beneath their feet.

  “The rules prohibit attacking your opponent with magic before the duel begins. They say nothing about preparation.”

  “That’s unfair!” Jurgen barked. “That’s not honorable!”

  “Combat rarely is,” her voice replied calmly. “If you neglected preparation, that is not my failing.”

  “That’s for weaklings and cowards.”

  He planted his feet and stomped. A ring of fire exploded outward from him in a blazing circle.

  Cassian moved instantly. The expanding arc would have reached them. He grabbed Todd by the collar and Sabrina by the wrist and forced them back a full step just as the heat swept past their previous position and dissipated.

  Jurgen stomped again. Another ring of flame burst outward, wider this time, forcing the semicircle of students to scatter and reform farther back.

  “So what now?” Jurgen shouted, turning slowly. “You can’t attack me without revealing yourself. And you can’t approach while I keep this up.”

  He stomped again. The pulses came faster.

  Cassian’s eyes scanned the corridor. Illusions required anchors. Texture distortions. Light bending around irregular surfaces. There, a faint ripple along the stone wall. Another ring of fire surged outward, grazing the wall. The stone shimmered.

  Laney sprang away from it in a fluid leap, her form peeling free from the surface like a shadow detaching itself from light. She had been camouflaged against the wall, blending so seamlessly into the stone that even Cassian had nearly missed it.

  Jurgen saw her. He charged. No feint. No hesitation. He drove forward with raw force, wooden sword raised high, fire still spiraling at his heels.

  “Yes,” Laney said quietly. “As expected.”

  She stepped toward him. Her palm rose and pressed forward.

  Light gathered in her hand, purple and coiling, not bright like flame but dense and inward-turning. It struck Jurgen squarely in the face.

  He froze. His sword remained raised mid-strike. His body locked where momentum had placed it.

  Cassian stepped closer, unable to stop himself. Jurgen’s eyes. They were no longer focused. The irises spun slowly, concentric rings turning within them in controlled spirals.

  Hypnosis. Not a crude stun. Not a daze charm. A dominion over the mind.

  Laney lowered her hand. Jurgen remained suspended, trapped within whatever structure she had imposed upon him. The corridor had gone silent. Cassian understood the scale of what he had just witnessed.

  This was not a casual trick. Hypnosis at that level required precise threading of mana through the cognitive centers. Timing measured in fractions of heartbeats. Absolute clarity of intent. The teachers probably did not know about her dominion of hypnosis magic.

  If they did, she would not be fifth in class. She would be much higher. Probably even above Cassian. That was how impressive the spell had been.

  “I must confess, Mr. Quiascendus, I am somewhat disappointed,” Laney said calmly.

  Jurgen’s body remained rigid, sword still raised above his head, eyes swirling faintly.

  “My heart fluttered when I saw those rings of fire. That was new. You are always inventive. You improvise well. You possess a good mind for combat.” She stepped closer, studying him as one might examine a specimen. “But in your case, all paths lead to the Tower of Wisdom, as they say. No matter how creative the setup, no matter the variant, you always end in a full-frontal charge. You always create an opening to rush.”

  Her gaze softened, though not unkindly. “That is why Miss Virinterviros defeats you so often.”

  Priscilla lifted her chin faintly.

  Laney turned back to Jurgen. “Since I have you in complete control, I believe I might offer you a lesson. It may improve your candidacy for master in the future. To begin, drop your sword.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Jurgen’s fingers obeyed. The wooden blade slipped from his hand. Unfortunately, it was still risen directly above his head. The sword fell and struck him with a dull, solid crack.

  The impact jolted him out of the trance. His eyes snapped back into focus. He blinked twice, rapidly.

  Laney tilted her head. “Well. That was my blunder.”

  Jurgen’s fury returned instantly. His left arm surged forward, flame gathering in his palm as he lunged toward her face. The next instant, his palm collided not with Laney but with the opposite wall of the corridor.

  Stone rang beneath the impact. Jurgen spun around. Laney was no longer before him.

  Professor Aitor of Mysteries of Numbers stood where she had been, one hand raised. Laney now stood beside Sabrina and Todd, looking genuinely startled by the sudden shift.

  “What?” Jurgen demanded. “What just happened?”

  Professor Aitor brushed imaginary dust from his sleeve. “Well, boy, that is a fascinating question, though it may be a bit advanced considering our current curriculum. In simple terms, I changed your coordinates. A small transformation of a three-dimensional vector. The more delicate portion was the rotation. Adjusting quaternions in real time is less a science and more an art, I find.”

  Jurgen stared blankly.

  “But I suspect your question was more practical,” Aitor continued. “I intervened because you had already lost.”

  “I have not!” Jurgen snapped. “She used a non-contact spell. That does not count.”

  Aitor clasped his hands behind his back. “The hypnosis was indeed non-contact. So, we shall award zero points there. However, you then dropped your sword upon your own head.”

  “That was my own sword!”

  “And it made contact,” Aitor replied pleasantly. “Duels are decided by first contact. Zero plus one. That yields?”

  Jurgen’s jaw tightened.

  “An easy calculation,” Aitor added. “You may attempt it.”

  “That does not count,” Jurgen insisted. “It was my sword.”

  Aitor raised an eyebrow. “If you were to stab yourself with your own blade, would that not wound you just because it belongs to you?”

  Jurgen opened his mouth. Nothing came out. He grunted instead.

  Aitor nodded with satisfaction. “Very good. Then we are agreed.”

  He turned toward Laney. “Congratulations, Miss Perpetomundus. Your first victory.”

  Laney inclined her head with quiet composure.

  Aitor clapped his hands once. “We are ten minutes early, but most of you have already assembled. Let us begin class.”

  The semicircle dissolved into reluctant movement as students shuffled toward the classroom. Jurgen retrieved his wooden sword in stiff silence.

  Cassian watched Laney as she walked ahead. Hypnosis. Camouflage. And composure under pressure. Laney was more dangerous than Cassian had first believed, and he had already considered her a massive threat.

  Priscilla must have shared the thought. For once, she did not celebrate Jurgen’s defeat. No sharp remark. No satisfied smile. She simply watched Laney with narrowed eyes. Her gaze met Cassian’s for a brief second.

  As Laney crossed into the classroom, she paused and turned her head toward Jurgen. “I almost forgot. Considering the point, you lost yesterday, I’ll give your performance a four out of ten.” Then she stepped inside without waiting for a response.

  Jurgen stood there fuming, jaw tight, fingers curling into fists before he forced himself to follow.

  Classes continued as usual. Professors lectured. Notes were taken. The fire lanterns at the front of each room shifted colors and blinked when one lesson ended and the next began. Whispers about the duel surfaced now and then, but nothing else of importance occurred. Later, in the banquet hall, it seemed everyone in Cassian’s class had finally been allowed to discuss the duel openly.

  Todd leaned forward across the table, eyes bright. “I thought I was the only one in our class that used Arbiter spells,” he said. “Seriously. I didn’t think anyone else even bothered with them.”

  He shook his head, still in awe. “And hypnosis? That’s really advanced stuff. You have to scramble your opponent’s mind, really mess with it. That’s not beginner magic.” He let out a breath. “I’d love to talk to her about it. I really would. But she’s super creepy.”

  Sabrina snorted softly. “Creepy or not, I’m glad someone humbled Jurgen. He’s been subdued all day, and so have they.”

  Cassian glanced toward Jurgen’s table, where he sat with his friends. It was true. The swagger was muted. No loud challenges thrown across the hall. No exaggerated gestures. Just low voices and stiff shoulders.

  When he turned back, he caught Sabrina looking at him with open concern. The moment their eyes met, she looked away, almost too quickly, embarrassed at having been caught.

  She’s already beginning to think less of me. The thought wounded him. Already starting to look down on me. Already she believes that I cannot defeat her. The worst of it is that she was most likely right.

  It made him feel small. For a fleeting second, he considered asking her why she had looked at him like that. But before he could speak, another presence slid into the space beside them. Priscilla pulled out a chair and sat at their table without invitation. She was focused entirely on Todd.

  “Hey. Cassian’s friend. You know about Arbiter spells, right? That’s why he came to you during the special quest.”

  Todd straightened immediately. “First of all, my name is Todd. If you have to use a title, you can call me the Candy King.”

  “Former Candy King,” Sabrina corrected dryly. “Now he’s nothing more than a candy beggar.”

  Todd shot her a wounded glare.

  Priscilla waved a hand. “Are you done? If you want me to call you Todd, that’s fine. I just need you to tell me what you know about hypnosis spells.”

  Todd went quiet for a moment. Then he glanced at Cassian and gave a small nod.

  “Well,” he began seriously, “in theory, you need your mana to go fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh down your arm before you make it pop,” he explained, making the gestures with his hands. “And then you flash it right in front of their face. Don’t touch them. If you touch them, the whole thing goes crraahhk and it breaks. So you flash it, the spiral goes into their eyes, then into their brain, and then you make it go boom-chaka-boom-pum-pum!” He finished with an enthusiastic little side dance.

  Priscilla stared at him, uncomprehending. Then her eyes narrowed. “Are you making light of me?”

  Cassian spoke aloud, absently holding his chin between his fingers, anchoring his thoughts while he sorted through them.

  “So the spiral has to begin before the spell manifests,” he said slowly, not correcting Todd but building from what he had heard. “You start by shaping it internally, down in your arm at first. It needs preparation time, in short. Once it forms, you project it directly in front of the opponent’s face. More precisely, in front of their eyes. There must be no contact. If your hand touches them, the structure collapses. But if it holds, the spiral travels through the visual channel into the brain. From there, you can interfere with their mental state. Maybe by influence the natural mana circulating inside, but not subduing it, because that’s for simple confusion spells; you need your mana to destroy it, so you may take control.”

  Todd crossed his arms, satisfied. “Yes, exactly.”

  Priscilla looked from Cassian to Todd, then back to Cassian. “What is this?” she demanded.

  Sabrina sighed. “I don’t know. I think it’s a boy thing.”

  Someone dropped into the empty seat beside Cassian, jostling him in the process.

  Jurgen.

  “So,” he said without preamble, leaning forward on his elbows, “you’re talking about how to take Laney down, right? I want in.”

  Priscilla did not even look at him at first. “We were discussing how to fight her. Yes. And we don’t need you for that,” she added coolly. “You’ve already had your chance. So, get lost.”

  “Shut it, Virinterviros. I don’t have time for you today. I need my revenge.” He glanced at Todd. “So. What’s the plan?”

  Sabrina opened her mouth, clearly about to insult him, but Todd beat her to it. He smiled, shrugged off his jacket, and held it out.

  “Sure. Just wash this for me and I’ll tell you everything.”

  Jurgen’s fist slammed down on the table hard enough to rattle the cups. From the corner of his eye, Cassian noticed Sabrina lift two fingers ever so slightly, pointing toward Jurgen. Duels were forbidden in the banquet hall. Cassian stepped in before things escalated.

  “Todd,” he said calmly, “would you tell us how to counteract a hypnosis spell?”

  Jurgen stilled at that. Cassian did not particularly like him. He never had. Loud. Proud. Always trying to prove something. That made him dangerous. And since the incident with Todd, the disdain had sharpened into something hotter. Still, Jurgen could be useful.

  If Jurgen found a way to defeat Laney before she reached Cassian, that opened a path. The same could be true of Priscilla. Better that they all understood what they were facing.

  “The way I see it,” Cassian continued evenly, “the three of us are in this together.”

  Jurgen clicked his tongue.

  Priscilla turned her head sharply.

  At the same time, they bellowed.

  “I am willing to work with a Viamnova. But I will not work with a Virinterviros.”

  “If I have to partner up with Cassian, fine. But I won’t stoop so low as to partner with a Quiascendus.”

  The tension at the table thickened. They truly despised each other.

  Cassian was grateful that he bore no such inherited hatred toward another great house. Their rivalry ran deeper than pride, it was a deep familiar disdain. He had anticipated this.

  “Fine,” Cassian said calmly. “Have it your way. Todd, once they are both gone, tell me what you know. Not a moment sooner.”

  Jurgen’s jaw tightened. Priscilla’s stare turned glacial. The silence stretched.

  Then Jurgen exhaled sharply. “Fine.”

  Priscilla looked away. “If it is the only way.”

  Cassian inclined his head slightly. “Good. Todd Could you please tell us?”

  Todd straightened, suddenly aware that three heirs were leaning toward him.

  “Well,” he began uncertainly, “there’s the simple way. Shield charm. One positioned in the head. If it’s strong enough, it should repel the spiral before it reaches your eyes.” He winced. “Problem is… her arbiter magic is way above yours. Pretty sure of that. If she uses the spell your shields would just shatter. So. Not great odds.”

  Jurgen scowled.

  “The other option,” Todd continued, “is trickier. But I think it’s better.”

  All three leaned closer.

  “You hypnotize yourself.”

  Jurgen blinked. “What?”

  “It’s not like the normal one,” Todd said quickly. “You don’t make it pop. The energy just fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh inside you. Then you send it up to your head and go pow-pow! Bam-bam!”

  Jurgen stared at him.

  Then he slammed both palms onto the table and shot to his feet. “You are still mocking me, commoner!”

  Priscilla sighed deeply. “What happened to boom-chaka-boom-pum-pum?”

  Todd looked horrified. “Why would you boom-chaka-boom your own head?”

  Sabrina pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. “It’s not a boy thing. It’s just a them thing. Cassian, did you understand what he meant?”

  Cassian was already thinking.

  “The spiral doesn’t manifest outward,” he said slowly, almost to himself. “It remains internal. You begin the rotation inside your own body. Wherever your mana flows most naturally. Then you guide it upward to your brain.” He paused, assembling the idea as he spoke it. “Not to suppress or fracture. But to reinforce. You use the same principle of enhancement.” His gaze sharpened slightly. “It becomes a mental enhancement. A reinforcement of will. If used correctly, it could help you perform beyond your limits.”

  Todd crossed his arms and grinned smugly. “Exactly.”

  Jurgen looked at each of them in turn, then slowly lowered himself back into his seat. Probably deciding that whatever this was, it wasn’t aimed at mocking him.

  Priscilla folded her arms. “So, what does enhancing our brains give us, exactly? Other than a boost in power that would be far easier to achieve with a basic enhancement spell?”

  Todd wagged a finger from side to side. “You’re missing the brilliance of it. So much for second best in class.”

  The look Priscilla gave him was lethal enough to make Todd flinch.

  “I mean-what I mean is…” he rushed, stammering. “When it comes to hypnosis, you can’t stack one on top of another. Even if the first one is weak, the theory holds.”

  The three heirs processed that at the same moment.

  “That means…” Priscilla began. “One would be immune to her hypnosis, even with a weak hypnosis spell of your own…”

  Cassian continued the thought without pause. “And hypnosis can only be broken through physical trauma.”

  Jurgen’s eyes sharpened. “Which, given the fact that duels only last until first contact, guarantees you’ll be protected through the entirety of it. Which means…”

  The three of them spoke nearly in unison.

  “You would completely defang her!” Jurgen exclaimed.

  “You would severely weaken her.” Priscilla spoke.

  “You would remove her strongest weapon…” Cassian concluded.

  Todd beamed, pleased with himself.