"Absolutely." Like a pawn on the chessboard, I could only hope to advance or hold my ground. "I wouldn't go there with a hundred of us."

The click of the cobblestones on the wooden wheels kept time for his incantations as I checked the wards for stealth and refreshed the fading runes. I held up my due diligence. Yet the greatest defense would be the walls of our great college, far from the diabolical mess that duty had us heading toward. The time to drop out drew nigh; if only my beloved could see it. "Elisha, do you not worry that we might be in the wrong?"

As our mule pulled us toward Viseki, the cart swayed to and fro.

I followed her gaze into the storm clouds above, scratched about in my pockets for my mage glasses.

From the alarm on her face, I had no time to interpolate the tune or guess the spell's nature. I put on my glasses to see a giant batlike monster spitting venom in our direction before a giant wave of clouds blew in to swallow it whole, venom and all.

She smiled and patted me on the shoulder as well. "And a terrible one if you're thorgabent."

That my oaths fade to lies. "Nothing of consequence."

I pulled the mule to a stop. "Hail, Urgan Guard. I come in peace."

In the great room, only a few doors down, a piano sang greetings to me as it gave voice to the magnificent ghost of my beloved.

The law of two; and there she had Voltaire. He rarely bothered to argue with Elisha, even when she had no piano within reach–because she always has the right idea. Yet this time, her logic inexorably led to doom. "Gian has vicious power–"