Alex staggered backwards, slamming into the doorframe. His knees buckled and slid halfway down before Henry caught him. The assassin was here. Did Henry just call him brother? No, no, that's impossible.

  "Alex? Hey, Alex, are you alright?" Henry held on tight to him, his voice tight with panic.

  Alex raised a shaky finger and pointed at the assassin. If they didn't know who he was, he was going to make that clear. 'You... you were there," his voice cracked. "You... you killed them. You killed them."

  The assassin didn't flinch at the accusation; if anything, he looked mildly amused.

  "And then I brought you here, yes," the assassin said. His tone was light, casual even. The tone someone might use to confirm they bought milk at the store. "I'm glad you at least somewhat remember our first encounter. I would have thought Tamsin had wiped your memory by now."

  Henry turned to his brother, confusion flickering across his face. "What? What are you talking about?" It was clear the young Fairy had no idea what was going on. Despite that, he still helped Alex get back on his feet.

  The assassin didn't respond to his brother's question. Instead, his eyes stayed focused on Alex, steady and cold.

  "He saved you, Alex." This came from Fillonia. Alex hadn't even seen her in the room yet. All his focus had been on the assassin as soon as he saw him. The healer was sitting at the long table, drinking from a cup of tea. Why was everybody acting like it was normal for him to be here?

  Alex's voice rose, raw and troubled. "He killed them!"

  "They were cultists, Alex. Dangerous ones." The healer said, like that would make it better.

  "They were people. I heard them talk, argue, while I was in the cocoon. They had lived, and he took that from them."

  "And they would have taken that from you if I hadn't stopped them. It wouldn't have been the first time," the assassin responded, a hint of sadness in his voice at the end. It was the first real emotion Alex had seen the assassin display.

  Alex looked from the assassin to Fillonia, to Miss Philaxter and finally to Henry. They were all okay with the assassin being here. They weren't afraid of him. Even after everything, they had no problems with him. He had to do something. Make them see the kind of monster he was.

  Before he could do anything, Henry jumped between them. "He's my brother, Alex. He's not here to hurt you."

  Fillonia joined next to the young Fairy. Alex hadn't seen her get up from the table. His focus had once again been solely on the assassin. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and a familiar warmth spread through his body. It calmed him down. He could trust them. They had always been here for him. "We aren't dismissing how you feel, but Zeth's right, Alex. I saw your body when he brought you in. You were more skin on bone than anything. If it weren't for him, you would no longer be here."

  Alex didn't know why, but she was always the one that seemed to be able to calm him down. They were right. If Zeth had wanted him dead, he would have been by now. He had saved him. Twice now. That's right. He was there yesterday at Professor Reel's office. Had he been spying on her? Or had he been keeping tabs on Alex?

  "Sit, please." Miss Philaxter spoke up now that the tension in the room seemed to have calmed down. "We have much to discuss."

  Henry and Fillonia guided Alex to a seat at the long table. Each taking a seat on opposite sides of him as Miss Philaxter placed a cup of tea in front of him. The assassin sat on the opposite side of the table from his brother. Alex didn't want to accept it. In his head, Zeth was supposed to be simple, a monster, a blade to his neck. But Fillonia had never lied to him. She seemed to trust him, as did Miss Philaxter for that matter. If he really wanted to kill him, Zeth wouldn't be sitting at the same table.

  "Why are you here, Zeth?" Henry asked his brother.

  The assassin looked over to Miss Philaxter.

  "All will be revealed soon," she said, taking a sip of her own tea.

  The short-lived peace was broken again when a large red-scaled Drake burst through the door.

  "Mister Moor," Miss Philaxter said, her voice full of contempt, "you're late."

  "Sorry, Annaba, one of the Lorses was acting up in the stables," the large Drake explained, walking over to Fillonia. "Hey Flower," he added, giving her a quick kiss before sitting on the opposite side of the table from her. Lorses? Were those the strange horse-like creatures Alex had seen at the stables?

  "Good, now we're all here." Miss Philaxter said.

  "Can somebody please explain what is going on?" Henry interjected, still clearly lost on everything.

  Henry's plea hung in the air as everyone settled in. Miss Philaxter set down her cup of tea with a soft porcelain click. Everyone's attention turned to the librarian.

  "Very well, let us start with the reason Mister Rixtor is here," the librarian said, turning to Alex. "That being what you overheard yesterday, Mister Vansteen."

  "He was spying on her?" Alex asked, trying to piece it together.

  "On whom?" Henry asked, still confused about what was happening.

  "Miss Reel, and no, Mister Rixtor was keeping an eye on you, Mister Vansteen. As he was tasked to do by the board after bringing you to the campus."

  "Flower? What's going on?" Professor Moor asked Fillonia. It seemed he was just as confused as Henry about what was happening.

  "Wait, you don't know what is going on either?" Henry asked. "Then why are you here?"

  "Fillonia asked me to come, so I did."

  "I'm sorry. After Annaba filled me in on what happened yesterday, she told me not to tell the board. I promised, but told her I couldn't keep him out of the loop. He's my husband." Fillonia apologized, looking at both Alex and Zeth.

  "Will somebody please tell me what's going on?!" Henry almost shouted, tired of being the only one in the room with not a clue of what was happening. "I thought this was just supposed to be about finding out what was going on with Alex's Otherborn physiology. Now you're talking about spying on Professor Reel?"

  "Calm down, Henricks," Miss Philaxter interjected, not loud, but sharp. "I'll explain everything; just, calm down."

  "Sorry."

  "It's alright," Miss Philaxter reassured the young Fairy. "Now, as you might know, Mister Vansteen took on a courier job from the Notice Board yesterday, tasking him with delivering four scrolls to members of the board." Everyone in the room nodded, confirming they either knew about it or saw him doing deliveries. "One of those scrolls was to be delivered to Miss Reel. While he was doing that delivery, he overheard her talking to someone."

  "Who?" Henry asked, eager to finally get some information.

  "We don't know," Miss Philaxter admitted. "What we do know, thanks to Mister Vansteen and your brother, is that she's working for some organization outside of the academy. And that they want both Mister Vansteen and the Power Pearl he came with."

  "Are you sure?" Professor Moor asked, a clawed finger nervously ticking on the wooden table.

  "Sadly, we are, honey." Fillonia placed her hand on his to calm down his nerves. "Zeth heard the conversation as well. He's the only reason Alex didn't get caught and the one who reported it to Annaba."

  "Brother, why did you report to Miss Philaxter and not the board?" Henry asked, turning straight to Zeth for an answer.

  "Because my primary allegiance is to her, not the board," the assassin coldly answered.

  The large Drake jumped out of his chair. "What?! She's the librarian, Zeth. We're your friends."

  Fillonia tried to pull her husband back down into his chair. "She's not just a librarian, honey."

  "What do you mean, Flower?"

  "She's an Elder?" Henry asked tentatively, looking at Miss Philaxter with a whole new set of respect. In turn, the librarian nodded to confirm his suspicion.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" the Drake asked his wife as he sat back down, his rage subsiding. Alex could see a faint glow coming from Fillonia's hand where she was touching him.

  "Among us Fairies, the Elders are a hidden council. While we may answer to school boards, guild leaders or even kings, if an Elder asks us to disobey those commands, we listen. They guide us to thrive in the world, unseen by everyone else. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you, Lukyn," Fillonia answered, her hand now stroking the large Drake's.

  "And she's one of them?" Lukyn asked, his gaze switching between the three adult Fairies in the room. "I thought she was just your cousin, and that's why you recommended her for the position of head librarian when we started the academy."

  "So, are they like the most powerful Fairies? Or how does it work?" Alex asked, trying to understand how this whole Elder thing worked. They were more influential than literal kings, so they had to be powerful, right?

  "Not necessarily, Mister Vansteen. Though most of us are. When one Elder passes, the others unanimously elect someone to replace them." Miss Philaxter explained. She refilled her cup of tea before going around the table to refill the empty cups of others.

  "This is all done in secret to help preserve their identity from retaliation. Only a select few Fairies know who the Elders are, and never who all of them are," Henry added to the explanation. Alex could see he was glad to finally be up to speed again and able to contribute to the conversation.

  "Fine," Lukyn said. Alex could see he was still upset that both his friend and his wife apparently trusted the librarian more than him and the rest of the board, but that he understood how complicated racial customs could be. For a moment, Alex wondered if the Drakes had something similar. "But what do we do now? We have to report her to the rest of the board."

  "Not yet," Zeth answered, looking at Miss Philaxter to explain.

  "We can't move openly against Miss Reel yet," the Elder Fairy continued. "If we do, whoever she is reporting to will vanish before we can learn anything. And then they will strike without us being able to prepare for it."

  "So we leave her?" Alex asked. "Let her teach?"

  "For now, yes, Mister Vansteen. We watch. We listen. And we collect. The more information we have, the better we can prepare."

  "I will continue to keep an eye on you. If she tries to make a move on you, she will regret it," Zeth said directly to Alex. While he knew Henry's brother wasn't going to harm him, the idea of him constantly watching him sent a shiver down Alex's spine.

  "What about the Pearl? Should I talk to Garrus about tightening security on it?" Lukyn asked.

  "No, at least not yet. Judging from what Mister Vansteen and Mister Rixtor have overheard, we believe Mister Hightorn isn't compromised, but asking him about the Pearl might tip Miss Reel off that we are on to her."

  "Or it might make her believe we have plans for Alex ourselves and cause her to move irrationally." Fillonia added.

  "Exactly, for now we should just trust that Mister Hightorn can keep it safe on his own. Is that clear to you all?" Miss Philaxter asked, waiting for everyone to give her confirmation. "Alright, now that the immediate crisis is dealt with. I believe Mrs. Fillibaxter told me there was something else you wanted to discuss today, Mister Vansteen?"

  For a moment, Alex was confused. With everything that had happened with Professor Reel and Zeth coming back into his life, he had completely forgotten about the floating blue box the voice inside his head had created. And how it had drained his progress. He looked over to Fillonia, who gave a curt nod, showing it was okay to tell everyone in the room about it.