Penelope went straight to the administration building.

  It was one of the first places Cirdor went after the barrier around the campus fell and it was somewhere she could talk to him alone.

  She sat down in the orange Elf’s chair, put her feet up on the desk and waited for him to rush in. She’d learned a long time ago the sight of her feet on his desk would distract him from everything else in the room, giving her a chance to convince him by bringing his attention to the things one at a time. It didn’t take long for him to rush through the open door and freeze when he saw her.

  “Cirdor Pengal.” Penelope leaned back in the chair. “I’m Penelope Flynn, a representative of Jeru Bannem, the Elder who brought all the Humans outside here to stop the Demon Incursion.” A snap of her fingers destroyed the spell he tried to cast. “Let’s not fight.” She pulled her feet off the desk and sat up in the chair. “You need answers and neither of us has time for me to prove I’m more powerful than you.”

  Cirdor clenched his jaw. “You’re not—”

  Another snap of her fingers and the enchanting circle under his feet lit up. It wasn’t set to do anything other than channel mana, but the extra swirls she had drawn into the circles as well as the handful of runes she’d placed on the outside left no question as to where the circle had originated.

  “You recognize the Bannem circle.” It wasn’t a question; Penelope knew he could tell what he was looking at. She gestured at the two items on the desk. The same two items that had been in her hands when she arrived. “I have items I brought with me from Earth, if you want more proof…” She leaned forward in the chair and gestured at the circle on the floor. “Don’t worry, it’s just there for show; I’m not charging a spell to trap you, though the security system here would be able to hold even someone of your strength.”

  She felt a tug on the system in her mind but directed the system in the building to ignore the order. “You didn’t even notice that someone else had administrative access now instead of you…” She tilted her head. “There are a couple more things I could do, but I think that’s enough to prove who I am and that I’m not your enemy.”

  “How…” Cirdor took a cautious step out of the circle, then hurried over to the seat in front of his desk. “How are you doing this? Humans don’t…” He shook his head.

  “The incursion turned this into a system world.” Penelope motioned at the ceiling. “Specifically, just the portion that is under the outer dome.” She shrugged. “With the system, Humans have access to skills and spells. As to how I know all of this, Jeru left behind notes for me before he died.” She steepled her fingers. “Which is something the others don’t know and I’d appreciate if it was kept between us.”

  “Right…” Cirdor shook his head. “Sorry, it’s just… taking me a moment to wrap my head around.”

  “You’re trying to figure out why Jeru would make a Human the one he bet on to stop the incursion instead of the Elf in charge of the campus it happened on.” Penelope tapped her fingers on the desk. “Simple. Can you honestly tell me that you want to go into that Demon lair and fight against who knows what type of Demons for the next five years without much of a break?”

  The orange man stiffened. “If that’s what is required—”

  “I didn’t ask if that was what you were told to do. I asked if that is something you want to do.” She shook her head. “Jeru knew you have a distaste for combat. You’re much better suited as an administrator than a fighter.” She stood up. “Which is why he charged me with being the one on the front lines while you’re the one in the chair.” She motioned at the seat she’d just vacated.

  Cirdor nodded slowly. “How bad is it?”

  “The incursion?” Penelope began pacing. “We’ve cleared the first three floors out of ten. We’re sixty days in and only 3.64% of the way through.” She looked over at him. “I get that you’re going to have to make a report in front of the Council, but we don’t have time to wait.” She gestured at the open door, towards the square and the portals down to the Dungeon. “First thing we need is for the guards to stop arresting everyone. If they go down to the third floor or we wait too long and people start coming up here, there’s going to be a fight you can’t win.”

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  “Our guards—”

  “By systems standards are all in the twenties at best.” Penelope pointed at his wrist pad. “You need to give the order to not engage before someone dies and we cross a line we can’t come back from.”

  Cirdor nodded slowly, then typed out a message. “Done, but are you sure your people won’t attack us?”

  “Ula will try diplomacy first.” I hope. Haven’t actually had her be the one in charge during this phase. Penelope sighed. “But I need to get down there sooner rather than later.” She gestured at the wall safe. “Your wrist pads are able to communicate between floors and it will mark me as an Agent of the Elders. I can take our teams down to the fourth floor and give you a report on how things look down there so you know what type of people to send.”

  “I thought Master Jeru wanted me to be the one in charge of administration.” Cirdor folded his arms across his chest. “It sounds like you’re the one giving orders.”

  “If you want to do this without my help, then by all means…” Penelope motioned at the door. “Be my guest.”

  “I didn’t say that.” Cirdor’s golden eyes looked from Penelope to the door and back.

  “Good, because we’re going to have to work together if this incursion is going to be stopped.” Penelope stopped pacing.

  “Why not send an army?” The orange man turned his chair so he could sit straight and not turn to see Penelope. “Why send a few Humans?”

  “Aethoria is under attack.” Penelope swallowed. “I know you can’t verify it because the Demons cut you off from the rest of the universe, but that is why there are no reinforcements coming.”

  “Surely they could send help once they repel the attack.” Cirdor pointed out the door. “An incursion isn’t just something they can ignore!”

  “Dinmar isn’t a place that can sustain a system.” Penelope sighed. “Jeru made a choice to trust us with a system and contained the colony in case we fail.”

  The seriousness began to set in. Cirdor’s shoulders slumped. “Why…”

  “The University is going to fall. Feletis saw it and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.” Penelope shook her head. “It’s going to take too long for the Elders to rebuild and they don’t have the numbers to fight the battles they currently have, let alone stop an incursion. Jeru did the one thing he could by bottlenecking it to slow it down and give us a chance to push it back.”

  “But Humans?” Cirdor shook his head. “Why?”

  “A promise he made.” Penelope took a deep breath. “Every one of us was about to die. Jeru took us from Earth and dropped us here to give us a fighting chance.”

  Cirdor shook his head. “That man…”

  “It’s also worth pointing out that not only was Jeru from the future, but he brought all of us there as well.” Penelope paused. “No one else out there knows that. Jeru told me not to tell the others things that I couldn’t learn other places.” She looked at Cirdor. “He knew there had to be cultists in the colony and he was worried they would target me if they knew he talked to me before he died.”

  “Great, just great!” Cirdor threw up his hands. “Out of all the Elders, why send Master Jeru?”

  “He said he was the last one left.” Penelope motioned at the open door, towards the portal outside. “He said that’s what happens if we don’t stop this incursion.”

  Cirdor paled as he realized the implications of what they were up against. “I was hoping to have you testify in front of the Council, but that’s probably not a good idea. I’ll do what I can to shield you from their inquiries.”

  “We need to get out there soon.” Penelope spun her finger. “People are going to start asking questions and I don’t know how long either side is going to be able to hold off fighting each other without us out there.”

  “Alright.” Cirdor slapped his legs, then stood up. He walked over to the wall safe and took out a wrist pad. “Have you ever seen one of these before?”

  “Jeru left me instructions on how they work.” Penelope strapped the band on her wrist and turned it on. The device accepted her as its user and gave her access to all of its functions.

  “That’s the only one I’ve got here, but we can get some of the other people ones from town later.” Cirdor eyed her. “That one already has my information logged into it.”

  “Got it.” It’s not like I haven’t been wearing this thing for half my life. Penelope looked over at him. “There are a few people that you need to keep an eye out for.”

  “Troublemakers?”

  “More like people who want to be in charge for the sake of having the title and little else.” Penelope sighed. “We’ve been keeping some of them close, because when we left them on the surface, they caused problems.”

  “We’ve got places to put problems.” Cirdor followed her out of the office.

  “Good.” Penelope headed down the stairs. Hopefully we won’t have to use it.

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