Leaving the training hall, Emily sends a small spark of mana into the crystal within her robes to end the rec, pleased that she’d had the presenind to take the rec crystal to the lesson with her. After cheg The Clock quickly, taking note of the time, she heads towards the transportation rooms, lost in thought.

  I review the fight and work out how he cast without a magic circle ter. As for finding out who’s colleg crests as trophies, my best bet will be Oscar and Jenny. I’ll go to Jenny first since she’s been here longer.

  Stepping into the teleportation circle, Emily thinks of the teacher’s dorms while iing mana. After a quick dispt, she finds herself in an unfamiliar hallway. A lush crims stretches down the tre of the long corridor. The ceilings are arched, with decorative patterns carved between the glowing crystal lights.

  Each door is two metres of silver metal with a name and ched delicately in the tre, separated by at least fifty metres from the . The first door starts at ‘101’ and Emily slowly walks down the empty hall until she arrives at ‘118’, Jenny’s room, without spotting a single person.

  I guess the teachers don’t like roaming the halls much. I don’t oftehem between csses either. It’s slightly uling.

  Clearihoughts, she reaches up and knocks politely, hoping Jenny’s in. After a dozen seds, as Emily’s hope begins to die, the door fades from existence, revealing Jenny standing before her with a raised brow and a quizzical smile.

  “Emily, what a surprise. Please e in,” she says lightly while stepping aside.

  Emily ehe room, looking around with curiosity. Tht, as she steps in, are a few sofas arranged around a low coffee table and a burnih set into the wall. Inside, she sees a small red magic circle carved into the ground with a few small red crystals p it.

  Moving her gaze away, she looks to her left and sees a small kitette with a ter and a few raised chairs in the tre.

  It’s a lot more homely than I expected.

  Unsure what to do, Emily awkwardly looks to Jenny, who walks past her into the kit.

  “Take a seat over there,” Jenny says while gesturing towards the firepce. “Would you like any tea? Coffee? Hot Chocote?”

  “Um, tea please,” Emily answers as she settles down on one of the soft sofas.

  Looking around, she notices three doors leading further into the residence. All of them are dark wood with silver hahe same as the bathroom door in Emily’s own room. After a short wait, Jenny walks over carrying a tray that she pces down on the coffee table between them as she sits on a sofa herself.

  “It’s a simple herbal tea. Sorry there’s not any choice: I don’t drink tea myself. There’s milk in the jug and sugar in the bowl if you’d like. As for the cookies, help yourself!” Jenny cheerily expins as she takes a sip from her own mug, taining a dark brown liquid that Emily assumes to be coffee.

  “Thank you. I’m holy surprised you even have a kit in your room.”

  Emily pours some tea into her cup and adds a small drop of milk as she speaks.

  “Haha, yes. A small bonus of teag here, I guess. We get to ise our rooms, and I wanted a kit since I enjoy cooking. I even baked these biscuits myself,” Jenny answers with a cheeky grin while taking a bite from a chocote chip cookie she has dipped in her drink.

  Maybe it’s hot chocote.

  “Anyway, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

  Emily siders the question for a moment, unsure how to approach the topic of the trophy collector without mentioning the bck market and her own w breaking. She wants to focus oing answers not answering questions.

  I guess I skirt around the issue at first and see how she reacts.

  “I just wao ask you a question.” She pauses to take a sip of her tea before tinuing. “Have a lot of mages gone missing withiy?”

  Jenny flinches slightly before responding.

  “Are you asking about retly, or in general?”

  “Both.”

  “Well, there haven’t been a lot retly. In fact, we haven’t had a disappearance for the st three years. But yes, we do have the occasional vanishing mage. Why do you ask?”

  “I was iy this m,” Emily begins, watg closely for Jenny’s rea, “and I noticed somebody following me.”

  Jenny pces her mug down with a slight quiver that Emily wouldn’t have noticed if not for the enhanced eyesight from her awakening.

  She knows something.

  “At first, I assumed it was just a normal mugger. It wouldn’t be the first time I was attacked for my money on the lower levels. However, when I allowed them to follow me into a deserted alleyway, they used some strange inse that blocked my mana flow. I was able to defend myself thanks to my hand-to-hand bat training, but it seemed like a targeted attack, and I ’t help but wonder if it has happeo others before.”

  Finished setting her bait, she calmly sits bad takes another sip from her tea as she watches Jenate before speaking.

  “Yes, that would make sense for the past cases as well.” Jenny nods solemnly before tinuing with a sigh. “I don’t know much about it myself, but there have beeain… rumours… around The Dome for a while about a group of mage killers ag withiy. I’ve seen a few of their victims myself, all of them appeared to have been killed with a cled on. I did always wonder why they didn’t defend themselves with magic, but if the killers had inhibition inse that would expin a lot.”

  “You saw a few victims? Did they still have their crests?” Emily asks without a thought.

  “No, they didn’t. How did you know that?” Jenny narrows her eyes at her.

  Whoops. I probably shouldn’t have asked that yet. Ah well, I think that’s everything she’ll tell me anyway.

  “I just guessed,” Emily calmly states.

  Jenny nods slowly, her look of suspi still present.

  “Iing guess. Anyway, I’ll inform the other faculty members about this and submit a report to my superiors about the w use of inhibition inse. They will likely visit you within a few days to ask for a more detailed at.”

  Not if this versation never happened.

  “Thank you fing this to my attention, Emily,” Jenny tinues. “Is there anything else you would like my help with?”

  “No, that’s all. Thank you for your time,” Emily says politely while standing up and bowing her head.

  “Nonsense! I told you to e to me for anything, especially if you’ve been attacked iy.” Jenny stands up and walks with her to the door. “Be careful out there, I’d advise not travelling into the city alone from now on.”

  “Thank you, I’ll keep your advi mind.”

  Leaving her words of thanks behind, Emily swiftly makes her way through the corridor back towards the teleportation circle.

  That just leaves asking Oscar. He seems to be keeping track of things happening in The Dome. I’d be surprised if he didn’t know something about these mage killers.

  Stepping through the teleportation circle, Emily once again arrives in a new corridor. Simir in design to the staff apartments, the A-grade dorms also boast a plush red carpet and stylish ceilings. However, the scale of the hallway is reduced, and the doors are all closer to each other. She quickly makes her way down the corridor, passing a few people before she arrives at room A19.

  After a few firm knocks, the door vanishes, and reets her with a smile.

  “Hey Emily, what’s up?”

  “I want to ask you about something. I e in?”

  Oscar raises a brow, but still steps aside and quickly ushers her in. The room is twice the size of hers, with several pieces of expensive-looking furniture and a few doors leading to side rooms. Emily quickly chooses a rge sofa and drops onto it, fag Oscar as he walks over to sit opposite her with obvious curiosity.

  “So, what do you want to know?”

  “What do you know about mage killers iy?” Emily asks straightforwardly, uned about skirting around the truth like with Jenny.

  Oscar’s eyes narrow instantly, glinting coldly as he focuses on her.

  “Why are you asking?”

  “I went to the bck market earlier and was baited iering a tent with a crystal skull embroidered on the front. Inside, I met someoh a colle of crests from ant mages. They used inhibition inse to try and kill me. I want to know who they are and why they’re killing mages.”

  Oscar rexes slightly, leaning ba his seat and pg his head on his fist as he nods.

  “I see, and are you asking this personally, or as a mage of the Mandrago family?”

  Emily narrows her eyes slightly and tilts her head in fusion.

  “Personally, but why would that matter?”

  “Well, if you were asking this for your family, I wouldn’t answer,” Oscar replies with a derisive grin, surprising Emily with his shift in demeanour. “Of course, your family would be able to tell you themselves if they weren’t so greedy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Oscar looks slightly surprised by her question.

  “Don’t you know? Your family ’t give you information on the mage killers because they haven’t had a mage within The ant as staff or student sihey sent their st members on a suicide mission into The Gde ten years ago. Everyone knows that the only way to gain information from within The Dome and capital is to leave a member of the family as staff in The ant. It’s just on sense.”

  I didn’t know, but it’s o find out they have no way of getting information from within The Dome anymore.

  “Okay, ign my family’s inpetence, are you willing to give me any information or should I leave?” Emily asks, breaking Oscar out of his mog ughter.

  “Oh sure, I’d be thrilled to help you!” His quick switch to a beaming smile sends a slight shiver down Emily’s spihe group you ran into refer to themselves as The Crystal Skull, quite an obvious name from their emblem. They popped up in the capital about thirty years ago now, five years after the st truce was signed with Morzea. They’re a group of highly trained individuals who kill low-level mages in training within the kingdom, but mostly focused on the capital. The royal family has tried to get rid of them a few times, even putting together a squad of third circle mages to capture a few of their members three years ago, but they always spring back up, like the weeds they are, whehey get wiped out. Unfortunately, they had several tingencies io kill themselves before revealing muformation as well, so we didn’t find out much.”

  He pauses for a moment to let Emily process everything before tinuing.

  “Now, as for the information we do know, they aren’t mages, and kill purely with traps and close-quarters bat. Hence why hand-to-hand bat is such a popur lesson these days: it makes it far safer to travel withiy if you know you defend yourself against them after having yic blocked. They also have access to a plethora of magical oddities, like the inhibition inse you mentioned, and we don’t know their source. However, I suspect that they are trained and supplied by Morzea for the sake of weakening us duriime.”

  Emily nods thoughtfully for a moment before asking:

  “Wasn’t our st peace treaty meant to end the wars for territory on this ti?”

  “Ha, is that what they told you in geopolitio, the peace treaty was only set to st one hundred years. It may seem like a lifetime to oners, but to us mages it’s only a temporary ceasefire to gather strength.”

  “I see. Thanks for the information,” Emily says absentmindedly, sidering the sequences of Oscar’s words.

  If they exclusively fight in close quarters, I should be retively safe. The thought of war brewing is troubling, but it’s still seventy-odd years off, so I’ll toss that to the bay mind for now.

  “Why are you so willing to tell me all this?”

  “I feel like it’s in my io stay in yood graces,” Oscar replies smoothly. “By the way, are the explosives ready for sale yet?”

  “Not quite, I have the ratios finished now, but I still o design and make my final prototypes before I sell them. Give me two days and I’ll show you my final test before we decide on a prid how many you want.”

  “Sure, I look forward to it!”

  ***

  Emily spends the evening designing her explosives, then the day doing spell creatios. Carefully watg the time as she does, she pulls out The Clod resets at the exact time she left her magical bat lessoy-four hours prior.

  With her inquisitive versations wiped , she finds Oscar as him know about the final test in two days' time, before returning to her room. Finally, she has time to review her ret magical duel.