The Faculty of Agriculture is responsible for studying spells that maintain and expand the little arable land to be found on the continent. The difficulty of this task has required them to turn to unconventional methods.

  – Tzu Ye, High court Historian of Ao Guan

  “You have the audacity of a starved gull to be running around here instead of digging that burrow we told you to.” The Dean of Agriculture said. “Especially with that thing in tow, its shame plain to see.” She jabbed at Kave’s horns with her cane.

  He had decided to not put the turban back on, figuring that if he was going to be a lab subject in a few days, he might as well spend them with some shred of dignity. The horns drew a look from almost everyone who saw, along with a few jeers. No rocks though, no drunk louts trying to pick a fight. It was likely how he walked now. The subservient, cautious steps were gone. Instead, his stride was long, confident in its focused anger.

  Those looks had only gotten worse when they had the entered the main office of the Faculty of Agriculture. The large brick building was half covered with vines of ivy. Their lushness in the heat was just as much a threat of power as the demons crawling through the Faculty of Summoning had been. Behind the building was a space enclosed by a large wall that was three times as tall as Komena, with the same vines draped over the top. Komena didn’t doubt for a second that if she tried to climb that wall, she would get swatted down by the plants.

  Inside, students in brown robes floated palettes of sprouts from room to room or maintained a river of loam running up near the ceiling through the building. When they saw Kave pass by, they flinched. A few even stopping what they were doing to cast wards over themselves. Komena saw that the tips of the vines writhing between the brick courses and turning to focus on Kave as he walked through the halls. Thin veins of green following him along both walls.

  The two went through the main hall, searching for the Dean’s office, until the woman herself came out. The clicks of her cane on the floor magnified to cracks of thunder. She had started haranguing them in her halls the moment she had seen them.

  They responded with formal bows. Komena’s was done with clinical precision, the same textbook reproduction she had done every time she had been brought before them. Kave’s usual elegant bow was stiffer than normal, but he went lower to compensate. His eyes didn’t go down though. He kept watching her, watching the tendrils of her power around him.

  “Honored Dean, we simply wanted to-” Komena started, but was cut off by another deafening tap from the cane.

  “Save your brown-nosing for the rest of the council.” The Dean said, sharply turning away. “Come along. We’ll spare the others your charade. There are places where you can only bother me.”

  She led them to an exit at the back of the building, the door was gilded and hadsapphires studded like berries over a design of leaves and branches. The dean flicked her wrist as she walked towards it, causing it to rotate up and away. The open passage led into the most greenery Komena had ever seen.

  Passing through the door, Komena felt the firm springiness of stepping on actual dirt for the first time in her life. Not hard baked stone or cold sea sand. Earth, carpeted with clover and dotted with beds of short wildflowers. The sun was blocked out by trees, twisted things shorter than the walls surrounding them but topped with full, green leaves. The air was filled with the faint buzz of insects going from blossom to blossom and the chirping of small birds preying on them. Something flitted by Komena’s ear, making her flinch away. It flew in front of her, a few inches tall, bird wings sprouting from the back of a tiny, giggling sprite-like figure. It was so gaunt that Komena though she could see the gnarl of the roots inside of it instead of bones. The flew by Kave, dodging his hands as he swiped at them, before landing to tend to some tree branches.

  At the very center of the compound was a large basin of clear water, too deep to see the bottom of. The Desert’s Sapphire, the only discovered, natural source of fresh water on the continent. There were a few people in the glade, wearing elaborate robes of high rank, taking water samples, caring for the trees, some just enjoying the sun dappled shade. When they saw the Dean approach, they moved away, giving the three enough space to not be overheard.

  They were led to the biggest tree in the glade, a willow on the basin’s shore. The very edges of its wispy leaves just traced the water’s surface. Under its bough’s, shielded from the world by its leaves and the wards laced into them, was a small tea table and two simple stools. The Dean motioned for Komena to sit as she settled comfortably into the one nearest the tree.

  “These are one of the benefits I’ve wrung out of my position. Some people thought that if the garden was too delicate for the public, it was too delicate for furnishings, but we all need our privacy. Fortunately for you, that makes this the perfect place to reject your offer.” The Dean said as she laid her cane over her knees. “Now then, what was your little proposition?”

  Kave was looking at the willow’s leaves nervously, likely coming to the same conclusion about what the leaves could do to them, sharpened to razors and whipped on the wind. His focus had been shaken ever since the gate had been opened. There had been a flash of surprise when he had seen the garden, but he had been quick to cover that up. He was also repressing his snarling irritation at the cherubs tending to the plants around them. But he would shake himself awake, like something had been lulling him off.

  “We simply wished to offer our services in the investigation you plan on conducting. While I’m certain you have your own resources for available, you would have hired them initially if I didn’t have something to offer.” Komena said.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Well, if you thought that was a good plan simply because I wanted to keep you around, then you’re too incompetent to work for me.” The Dean replied. “A vote doesn’t mean I’m not motivated to kill you or put Struth’s mongrel out of its misery.”

  “Of course not, but you have a reputation that you’ve lived up too.” Komena said. “Keeping cherubs summoned here must mean they’re kept under strict orders. You might not be the official faculty of summoning, but you’re showing more restraint than they ever have. I imagine that the thought of a demon being summoned, something you’re such an expert in, and being used for purposes you so disapprove of grates. No, if Kave running loose has you irritated enough show it, a demon like the Flauros would be worse than ‘grating’.” The Dean’s face stiffened. She hadn’t hid her contempt until now. Had she forgotten why people did until this reminder?

  “I came to you because I think you’re annoyed enough to go against the other Dean’s for this. To point an old knife at them. To bloody the waters and hope some sharks tear each other apart.” She said, tilting her head back to Kave. If he noticed, he didn’t say anything. Hopefully that was trust, but it could just be distraction. He kept glaring at the tree branches, trying to see through them and find some waiting ambush.

  The Dean tilted her head for a moment, then motioned in a wide arc in front her with her cane.

  “Did you know that this is holiest place in Sabbelah? As much as the word holy applies to anything.” The Dean of Agriculture said. “The half-breed does. He can feel it crawling through his bones by the looks of things. An energy opposed to everything he ever was or could be, drilled into the dirt.” She said, her expression calm, but venom still slipping through.

  “You are right. As part of our research here, we’ve needed to master contacting the outer plane for assistance. Our work is an unnatural thing here, and occasionally that requires unnatural actors. But we are less active than the self-destructive taskmasters at the Summoner’s department. We don’t ask the questions or make the calls that will inevitably destroy them. These things, spirit or angel or demon, are not rational creatures. They are defined by some singular aim, unfamiliar and incompatible with human prosperity. Every action they take, no matter the orders, is malicious. That is why we have implanted the limits we have on laypeople summoning. Why some of our trees are turned to ships, to visit the other countries and prevent them from bringing anything more into this world that may damn us. Why I’ve made something like this.”

  She tapped her cane against the willow. The wood twisted and unraveled, revealing a pendant inside. The dean took it, a silver circle set with a sealed, water-filled vial in the center. Kave paled as the wood peeled away, suddenly sick to his stomach.

  “This amulet is enchanted to make one undetectable by summoned creatures and weakens their hold on this plane. I’ve confirmed it dispels those messenger imps at five feet. I doubt the Flauros will be as frail, but I guarantee it’s the best defense you’ll find.”

  The dean held the amulet out by its chain and Komena snatched it away. She looked at Kave, who nodded. He was shaking off the effects, focusing more now that he knew what to focus against. She could only hope his resistance was a human quality, and not a sign of weakness in the talismen.

  “You could have mentioned this at the meeting.” Komena said as she fastened the clasp behind her neck, hiding the amulet itself under her robe.

  “Why, to let the others know I was working on it? There’s that na?ve streak of yours, girl. If you hadn’t come here to offer help, there wouldn’t have been a point in giving it to you. I’ll inform the others that I’m giving you my full backing in this investigation.” The Dean of Agriculture said, then started chuckling. “Oh, I can only imagine the squirming they’ll do when you come sniffing around again.”

  “Full backing?” Kave asked. Komena had promised him support, and he needed to know how much line he had to hang them all with. The old woman spat before answering.

  “Any rejection they give Komena an insult to me. Something they’ll moan and grumble about, but they won’t act stop her. I’ve worked very hard to develop my reputation when it comes to insults. She’ll be able to enter their faculties and interrogate whoever she pleases.” Her cane jabbed at Kave again. “This doesn’t extend to the tools she uses to compensate for her weakness, though I am certain the inspector will find a way around that.”

  “This still leaves the matter of what happens when we catch the culprit. Your reputation won’t discourage the Flauros.” Komena said.

  “Is your faith in our institutions so shaken? I hired you to investigate, not resolve. Once you know who the culprit is, return to me. I will present your findings to the council. I’ll even send another hunter of my own on the trail, if you don’t think that lot will act quickly enough.” The Dean said. Another cherub brushed through the willow leaves to fly by her shoulder. She held out a hand and it landed, sitting on it like it was a bench.

  “This will require your certainty. You’ll be doing more and worse than wasting my time if you’re wrong.”

  She stood up from her chair, waving her hand and sending the cherub back into the air. It flew into the tree branches as she put her weight onto her cane, levering herself back on her feet. She waved a hand like she was sweeping dust, and the willow leaves mirrored the motion, opening an exit.

  “I’d like you to get to work now. I didn’t give you that amulet so you could go back to lounging in obscurity.”

  “Of course,” Komena said from her seat. “The first thing we would need to know is the components for the summoning ritual. If there’s anything unusual about it, we could use to narrow our search.”

  “If we could have stopped the thing from being summoned by enforcing a monopoly on materials, we would have done that instead of summoning one of our own. The ritual is obtuse to the point of lunacy and incredibly power intensive, but not costly to perform. If you had a free hour or two, I could walk you through the market and show you everything required. Assuming I can have you executed afterwards.”

  Komena clicked her tongue. An avenue closed. “Well then, who do you think is responsible?”

  The Dean almost snapped something back at her. Instead, after a moment she said. “It’s hard to say. They’re all so impulsive. Mundane and Transmutation don’t have the means, but there are ways around that. That thug is probably enjoying the notoriety of being a suspect, though. He may try to threaten you, put on a show. Other than that, Summoning almost seems too obvious a suspect, but that woman was always the type to rely on a single tool.”

  “She’s investigating the matter herself from the beginning. That doesn’t seem like something the guilty party would do.”

  “Well, that settles that then. It makes sense that she would take someone using her field of study like this personally. I wonder if she would even tell us if she found the one responsible or settle it privately.”

  “Or she’s working to cover her tracks.” Komena said. The Dean sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

  “I’ll leave the circular paranoia to you, inspector. I’ve found that the grand designs of my peers tend to petty ends.”