One

"Class has been canceled."

Ninos looked up from his book, staring into Kina's looming face. "What are you talking about?"

"Professor Brandor. I went over there early to speak with him about my final project and there was a sign on his door and the lecture hall that classes have been canceled the rest of the week."

"We graduate in two weeks!" Ninos said, slamming his book shut, ignoring all the turning heads around them. "We get our familiars in two weeks! How can he cancel an entire week of classes? I just finished my final project last night! I was meant to present the day after tomorrow." He was so excited for it, the culmination of a lifetime of work, a day he'd been working toward since he was five. Mastery of sylvan magic, so good at what he did he would get a familiar, a companion for life. "I just saw him last night; he didn't mention anything about canceling classes today." It wasn't like Brandor not to tell him things. He was technically only Ninos's advisor, but he'd looked up to Brandor more like a father practically from the start.

Certainly he'd learned more from, and could rely on him more, than his actual father. Ninos didn't even know what his parents looked like anymore, it had been so long since he'd last seen them. Sometimes, that hurt. Most of the time, he just didn't care. He was doing all of this for them, for the village, but…

"I hope he's all right. Why wouldn't he mention any of it to me last night?"

"Guess even you don't know everything. Clearly it happened suddenly, whatever it is, too suddenly for him to send a note to his precious favorite."

"Oh, be quiet."

"Well it's true you're his favorite and everyone knows it."

"That doesn't mean I get away with anything the way everyone says." He bit his lip. "It really is strange he didn't mention anything to me, that something might be going on or could come up that would lead to him canceling class."

"Whatever. I'm sure he's fine and it's just that something stupid and weird happened." Kina pushed off where he'd been bracing himself on the table and rose to his full height, spreading his hands out in a gesture of I have no idea. "They'll get it sorted and we'll be in the lecture hall for your precious presentation."

"We'd better," Ninos grumbled as he packed up his things. As there was no class, there was no reason for him to be waiting here until it started. He hoped Brandor was all right, but surely, he would have sent Ninos a message if something was truly wrong? Probably it was just something stupid and vexing and he'd hear all about it later. "Want to get something to eat? Like, real food?"

"Does anyone ever answer no to that question? Tally's?"

"Works for me." Ninos slung his bag across his chest and followed Kina from the crowded study hall, down to the ground floor of the academy library, and out to the main pavilion. From there they made their way to the main gate, one of only two ways in and out of academy grounds, and signed out with the guards there before heading off into town.

The Havenbright Academy of Magic sat like a crown over the city of Teth, nestled in a valley at the base of the Iron Strike Mountains to the west, in the southwest corner of the kingdom. For decades, even centuries, magic had been taught master-apprentice, scattered and inconsistent, all the more dangerous for it. Eventually, Queen Balla had worked hard to standardize everything, and the Academy was born, with branches all over the kingdom. Children with an affinity were sent off to begin training as young as four, as old as ten, though five to six was the most common. Magic had gone from an inconsistent tool to an important component of everyday life.

It had also had enormous impacts on other facets of life, like the economy. If not for the Academy, Teth would likely have gone the way of all the other mining towns in the region, but it had a location ideal for the practice of all kinds of magic and so now here it was.

Thankfully, academy town meant there was no shortage of options for food—and it was available at all hours of the day and night, crucial when exam time came, and students rarely got any real sleep. Nothing would ever compare to his mother's cooking, or at least the memory of it, the comfort of a simple venison stew and fresh baked bread, but he definitely had no complaints.

The Academy was accessed by a single long, wide road, roughly a ten-minute walk into the town itself. From there, it was an easy matter to go down a couple of streets until they found the small sandwich shop they'd loved since they'd discovered it as hatchlings, not even a full week after arriving.

Ordering his usual, he found a seat by the window so he could people watch while they talked and ate. "So how is your final project coming along?" Like all of them, Kina was sup er secretive about the details, not wanting to be copied or sabotaged, sadly long-standing traditions at the academy.

Ninos had solved the problem by venturing deep into the woods, working on his project in a glade that took at least an hour to get to, depending on the weather. With another hour to make it back, a total of at least two hours, never mind however long it took to get his work for the day done, it wasn't the kind of effort cheaters were willing to put in. Even Kina didn't know how to get there, though Ninos hadn't avoided telling him on purpose. There was just no point. Kina was an aqua mage, and Ninos sylvan. Their respective projects were of no use to each other.

Nobody was really interested in sabotaging yet another boring sylvan mage anyway. That wasn't where the bitter competition in magic lay. Sylvan mages were the most common, always needed somewhere for something, all of it boring. He was as remarkable as a sandwich shop.

He also didn't care. He wanted to do something that would help his family, his village, and rare, difficult, and dangerous magic wouldn't do that. A magic that could help with crops and such would. Even if, secretly, he always had more fun tending his many plants and combining different flowers to create new ones. That was a pursuit for people who already had plenty of money, though, or scholars with tenure who received funds for those kinds of experiments.

"It's going," Kina said with a shrug. "I present beginning of next week, so I'm hoping to have it done by the end of this one, though midweek would be better since I have to go home for my sister's engagement ball day after tomorrow." He sighed. "Going to be so annoying ."

"Celebrating your sister's marriage to her sweetheart is annoying?" Ninos asked. "I guess I wouldn't know, as I've only had cousins my whole life, not siblings, and I'm not close to any of them since I went away for school so young." When he was five, in fact, and since then he'd only been home to visit a few times, and the last time was ten years ago as he just hadn't had the time to make such a long journey while he was busy with his schooling. He'd been fourteen the last time he'd seen home, and nineteen the last time he'd seen his parents when they'd come to visit him.

He was disappointed they clearly weren't going to come for his graduation ceremony, but it was a busy time of year in the village. No doubt they'd do something nice for him when he got home.

"Trust me, it sucks being the 'other' child when the first one is oh so perfect and wonderful…"

Ninos had heard this rant more times than he could count, but he let Kina speak, half-listening while also watching everyone outside. Bustling shoppers, children crowded in front of the candy shop, anxious businessmen, students of all ages, harried looking servants, and more.

The streets also had greenery maintained by the city landscapers, which included several sylvans. Cherry and plum trees kept to sizes amenable to city streets. Flowers in window boxes and heavy stone planters along the edges of the streets. Many rooftops also boasted city gardens, most of the produce grown ranging from cheap to free for residents, excess sold to nearby villages.

He would miss this place when he was gone, but he couldn't wait to finally be home.

"—listening to me?"

"What? Sorry, got distracted by people watching." Ninos finished the last bite of his sandwich, chewing and swallowing quickly. "What were you saying?"

"Did you want to come with me? To my sister's ball?"

"Uh, sure. I think I'll have the time. My project is done, and I've practiced the presentation to death."

"Excellent!" Kina beamed before finishing his own sandwich. "Wanna go get ice cream before we head back?"

"I never refuse ice cream," Ninos replied solemnly. "Maybe we can—" He stopped as everyone outside stopped moving, clearing the way for a group of grim-faced peace guards hastening down the street. Behind them came a large, dark red cart, the kind used to transport bodies. "Wonder who died." Because if it was just a death from old age or poor health or some tragic accident, it wouldn't require guard escort. No, this spoke to murder, or something unusual enough to warrant investigation. These guards were making certain the body wasn't tampered with in route to guard headquarters at the far west edge of the town.

"Who knows?" Kina asked. "Probably some poor person beat to death by an abusive drunk spouse, or something like that. Isn't it always?"

Ninos winced. "Why are you always so callous?"

"It's not callous to state facts," Kina replied. "Come on, let's get that ice cream."

Ninos followed him out and back down the street to the main boulevard, where they got ice cream from their favorite street vendor before heading back toward the academy.

They'd barely passed through the entryway and signed back in when the sound of a frantic crowd, tens of voices speaking all at once, drew their attention. "What's going on?" Ninos asked the guards in bewilderment.

of them shook her head. "They found someone dead. No details released yet. Brought the peace guards in all quiet, didn't know a thing about it until the red cart showed up. Said they'll make a formal announcement in the main yard soon."

"That's alarming," Ninos said. "Do you think this has anything to do with why Professor Brandor canceled class?"

"Probably, I mean it was kind of sudden," Kina replied. "Think it was a student or faculty?"

Ninos shook his head and simply headed for the main pavilion, where he moved to stand against a wall, able to hear any announcements but not get swallowed up in the crush. Kina settled at his right side.

"Ninos!" A few of their classmates spotted him and pushed through the crowd to join him. "Have you heard?" asked Carloth, another sylvan mage.

"Guard mentioned someone died," Kina said. "That's all."

"They're saying it's a professor," replied Jastor, an ignis mage, hissed. "I heard some of the staff talking while I was finishing up kitchen duty. No one knows who though."

A prickle of alarm ran down Ninos's spine. Surely not? There was no way Professor Brandor could be dead. Even ignoring that he was an accomplished, uncommon dual-mastery mage, Brandor was the size of a house. It would take at least twenty guards to kill him. "You don't think—"

The tolling of the tower bell made them all freeze, and dread settled into Ninos's gut as Headmaster Wintry stepped through the doors and stopped at the top of the long, wide steps leading up to the main building, the original academy before it had expanded into many buildings over a great deal of land. On his shoulder perched his cat familiar, hallmark of susurri mages.

"Thank you for gathering so quickly," Wintry said. "As you probably all have a general idea of why you are here, I will be brief. We found Professor Brandor dead in his bedchamber early this morning, murdered violently. At this time, we do not have any suspects, but until further notice all students are confined to campus. No one is allowed to leave, and those still outside the gates will be located and returned. Food and other concerns will of course be attended. At this time, all classes, exams, and social events are cancelled. We will let you know if that changes. What will become of exams and final presentations will be determined, and students informed as soon as the decision has been made. For now please return to your rooms, and do not leave your room without permission from you hall master, and do not leave your hall unless you are instructed to do so. You are dismissed."

Ninos walked back to Garnet Hall numb and dazed.

Professor Brandor was dead. Had been murdered . He would probably start crying when that truly sunk in. It was so incomprehensible. He'd had Brandor as his advisor from the first day of his arrival at the main academy. After plague and fire had devastated his village, royal recovery assistance had come in and, by sheer luck, someone had noticed he had an affinity for magic. He'd been sent off at just five years old to study at the branch novice schools for youths, made it all the way to acceptance to the main campus at fourteen.

He'd continued on after the base lessons to gain full mastery of sylvan magic. Brandor had been his advisor all ten years of his time there. In just a few weeks, he would have watched Ninos graduate with honors.

Tears ran down his face as he hastened to his room, ignoring everyone calling his name, closing and locking the door behind him. He didn't even want to see Kina right now, who'd been his friend since they'd met two weeks after his arrival.

Brandor was dead. He'd been advisor, father figure, a guide in so much more than school… Wherever Ninos went next, he'd fully intended to keep in touch with Brandor. He knew Brandor better than his actual father.

Now—Now—

Anger and pain and helplessness twisted and turned in him, like a nasty storm ripping leaves from trees and tearing up smaller, weaker plants. How could he be dead? Not just that but murdered. Violently. There were a few professors, Ninos could have understood. Not condoned, but some of them were outright bullies, tyrants, ego-tripping maniacs who found their greatest pleasure in breaking students. Any of them, murder would be appalling but unsurprising.

Brandor was a genuinely good person though. Stern, strict, but fair and reasonable. The only people who had anything negative to say about him were those who were failing their classes. Getting Brandor for an instructor, or far more rarely an advisor, was considered a stroke of luck, an unmatched advantage. Who would want to kill him?

Still crying, but unable to sit still, he got up and wandered restlessly around the room before finally discarding his clothes and heading into the washroom. As a 'final' student, he had his own suite—bedroom, study room, and washroom. Very few people actually made it this far, most finishing after the basic courses were done at six years. So those who remained longer, to gain mastery, earned privileges with that.

He would certainly miss it, because years of schooling didn't bring much in the way of income, only a modest allotment each month. He supplemented that with tutoring sessions and assisting professors with the more tedious parts of their work, but that still didn't amount to a whole lot.

Tutoring. He should have had two tutoring sessions that night, in the library. was just helping a few hatchlings with the basics, since whatever your mastery, the magic alphabet, casts, were universal to make life easier for everyone and minimize dangerous mistakes. There were hundreds of them just to get through basic, and thousands at the higher levels. Many were learned at the outlying schools for children, but the number more than quadrupled in just the first year at the Academy, and many a hatchling broke at the realization.

His other tutoring session was with a fifth-year student who needed help with exam workings, which were arduous on a good day. Now there was no telling what he'd be doing the next few days. Not his presentation, which suddenly seemed like a small, insignificant matter. Just minutes ago it had been just short of his entire world.

Finishing his shower, he climbed out and dried off before returning to his bedchamber to pull on lounging clothes. He certainly wouldn't be needing going-out clothes.

What was he supposed to do? Studying seemed pointless, and he'd only think of Brandor and start crying all over again. Read? He'd never concentrate. Normally he'd go out to the woods, fuss over his project. He couldn't even do that .

He had his room plants, though. Picking up the water pitcher and small tool bag, he went to the window, a beautiful large bay window that he'd been lucky to get, as only six suites had them, and went to work tending his plants. They didn't need much, as he tended every plant he owned lovingly, but fussing over them kept him calm and distracted. Moonmallow, Whisper Willow, Witch's teeth, Dragon Eyes.

After the window plants, he moved on to the small trees in five pots scattered around the suite, then the hanging plants, and finally the smaller potted plants on shelves, his desk, table, and wherever else he could fit one. Valley Ash, White Plum, Mountain Willow for the trees; fairy wings, black ivy, bone roses, snakevine, spiderwart, belle of the ball, and several more mundane herbs for the rest. He also had a few types of mushrooms in a special grow box in his bedchamber, but those didn't need the same maintenance as everything else.

By the time he was finished, all he felt was wrung out. Kicking off his house slippers, he collapsed facedown into bed. Sleep, however, wouldn't come. Instead his memories of Brandor played on a loop in his mind, occasionally cut into by fear and worry. Who had killed him? Why? What would become of their projects? Would his graduation be put off? Would he have to wait an entire year? Surely not, there was no way they would hold back that many students when they were so close to finally being finished .

Brandor wouldn't be there no matter when it took place, and he'd been the only person who felt like family who would have attended. Who would have seen him graduate and then get his familiar, finally, after all these years.

Family. Brandor didn't have any family. Who was going to take care of his body, see it properly given to the earth? The Headmaster? Probably. What about all his belongings? He wouldn't want his books or his bust of Nefara to get tossed out or given to just anyone. Or his beautiful clothes that he'd taken such pride in, or his wedding ring that—

His familiar would also be gone, of course. They vanished as though never there once their mage died. God, it must have been horrible for his familiar to be there and unable to help, whatever had happened. Brandor was a highly skilled sylvan mage but that clearly hadn't been enough to stop whatever had been done to him.

Tears overtook him again, Ninos helpless to do anything but cry into his pillow until he was forced to get up to clean his face and change the pillowcase, tossing the dirty one into his hamper with all the rest of the laundry he'd planned to take to the student laundry after his presentation. more thing that was so simple, but seemed so…not complicated, but heavy.

Sitting down at his desk, seeking anything at all that would put him to sleep for a few hours, escape this terrible grief, he flipped open the book of familiars.

The first familiar had been conjured by accident, though the exact details of the event varied widely. Broadly, the mage had been panicked and afraid, on the verge of death, and combined with her power had brought forth a creature of magic, a beautiful gray cat, who had been able to help her survive the deadly challenge before her.

Familiars weren't real animals as such, though they seemed like for all intents and purposes. They were beings of magic, some said shards of the soul, bound eternally to their mage, a friend, guide, and assistant for the rest of their life.

Most mages never reached the level of power required to conjure a familiar. They finished the standard set of schooling, left school at twenty, and went on with their lives. Those that pushed on, went toward mastery of magic, they conjured familiars. After his graduation ceremony, there would be the far more important conjuring ceremony.

If there was a mage who didn't wonder what shape their familiar would take all the years they were in school, they were a liar.

As he was a sylvan mage, he would get some sort of woodland creature: unicorn, deer, rabbit, or even a squirrel. He was hoping for a stag, but honestly having any familiar at all would make him happy. A familiar meant he'd made it, that he had mastered his magic, and he could at last return home.

The victory felt rather hollow at the moment, when the person he'd most wanted to be there—maybe, secretly, even more than his parents—was gone.

A series of hard, ringing knocks came at his door, making him jump. Pushing back his chair, Ninos hastened to the door and pulled it open.

And stared at the gray and green uniform of three peace guards. "Can I help you?"

"We have a few questions for you, Master Ninos. May we come in?"