14. Quill
Quill
I’d spent the better part of the night lying awake in my bed, trying to figure out what the hell to do about my current situation.
Professor Blackwood wanted me to spy on Aeron, but I didn’t feel right about that.
Aeron wanted me to be his personal plaything, but that felt weird too.
And Lysander wanted to live vicariously through me, it seemed, by asking me extremely personal details about my sex life, none of which I wanted to share with him.
Top that off with the ward breaches that I’d been sworn to secrecy about and my life had basically become one giant pot of bullshit stew.
So I decided to break it down. There was nothing I could do about the ward breaches, so that subject got left alone.
Lysander I could fend off easily enough.
However, the issue with Professor Blackwood, Aeron, and Elder Thaddeus made things complicated.
In the end however, I decided that Professor Blackwood would be the easiest to remove from the equation.
She was a teacher asking a favor and willing to return one in kind, which I desperately wanted.
But when it came right down to it, I didn’t feel right disobeying a direct order from the Elder Council.
And while I would like nothing more than to tell Aeron to fuck off, the truth was… I wanted to see him again.
That made Professor Blackwood the weakest link.
With that in mind, I figured I should sever those ties before things went too far.
That’s why, when her office hours rolled around, I was standing outside her door.
But the moment I lifted my hand to knock, I stopped.
There were voices coming from inside and from the sounds of it, they were not happy.
“—completely irresponsible,” a male voice was saying, sharp and clipped in a way that made my stomach drop. “Thaddeus is trying to cover up the truth, even if it puts the students in danger.”
“But do you really think exposing him will help?” Professor Blackwood replied, her tone sharp. “If we blow the whistle and incite a needless panic, the entire Elder Council will have us behind bars. Or worse, we’ll just disappear.”
I pressed myself against the wall beside her office door, my heart hammering in my chest. I shouldn’t be listening to this. I knew I shouldn’t be listening to this. But I couldn’t seem to make my feet move away.
“Then what do you suggest?” the male voice demanded. “We just let him continue? We let him hide breach after breach, let him manipulate the narrative, let him put students at risk because that dragon’s too proud to admit something’s wrong?”
“I’m not suggesting we do nothing,” Professor Blackwood said, and I could hear the frustration in her voice. “But we need to be smart about this. We need proof. We need witnesses. We need something concrete before we go accusing the head of the Elder Council of a cover-up.”
“We have proof,” the man said. “The breaches themselves are proof. The fact that they keep happening and nothing’s being done about it—”
“Nothing’s being done publicly,” Blackwood corrected. “That’s different from nothing being done at all. Thaddeus has resources we don’t have access to. I have to assume he’s investigating this, but he’s keeping it contained.”
“He’s hiding it because he’s terrified,” the man said bitterly. “He’s terrified that if people find out how many times the wards have nearly failed, they’ll lose faith in the Elder Council’s ability to protect them. And he’s right to be terrified. They will.”
I swallowed hard, my mind racing. This was exactly what Blackwood had warned me about.
There was something going on behind the scenes, something bigger than just random attacks.
And whoever this man was, he wanted to expose it.
He wanted to bring down Elder Thaddeus, or at least force him to be transparent about what was happening.
“If you go public with this,” Blackwood said carefully, “Thaddeus will destroy you. You know that, right? He has the resources, the connections, and the power. You’ll be branded as a conspiracy theorist at best, a traitor at worst.”
“I know,” the man said quietly. “But what’s the alternative?
We stay silent? We let him continue to manipulate everyone?
” There was a long pause before the man added.
“Because the wards are going to fail at some point. You know that right? The Purity Front is systematically testing them for weaknesses and once they find a way in, people are going to die.”
Another pause. I held my breath, waiting for Blackwood’s response.
“Let me think about it,” she finally said. “Give me some time to figure out the best way to approach this.”
“Time is something we don’t have,” the man replied. “The next breach could happen tomorrow. The next one after that could be worse. Not to mention the rumors flying around right now.”
“Don’t listen to the rumors,” she said. “Listen to fact. And when you have new facts, let me know. I’ll do anything I can to protect these students.”
I heard footsteps moving toward the door and I scrambled backward, pressing myself flat against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway and made a pathetic attempt to look casual. My heart was pounding so hard I was afraid they’d hear it through the wooden door.
The office door swung open, and a man emerged.
He was tall and had his hoodie up so I couldn’t really see his face.
I didn’t recognize anything about him though, which meant he probably wasn’t faculty.
Or at least not faculty I’d seen around campus.
He looked angry, his jaw clenched tight as he stalked past me without so much as a glance.
I waited until he’d rounded the corner before I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
What the hell had I just heard?
Professor Blackwood wanted proof before going public. And that man, whoever he was, wanted to expose Elder Thaddeus for covering up the ward breaches. And they were both convinced the Purity Front would break through at some point. That we were all in danger.
I thought back to what I’d seen in the forest. Those shapes pushing against the wards.
Had that been the Purity Front? Were they really organized enough to be conducting systematic tests?
They’d attacked the school before, but never got very far.
However, the attack on the Elder Council had been, by all standards, a resounding success.
Five of the most powerful people in the world were dead.
And now, that same group was trying to break into Widdershins Academy. But why?
My mind was spinning. This was way bigger than just Aeron being suspicious. This was about the safety of everyone on campus. And Elder Thaddeus was apparently attempting to hide it all.
I should have walked away. Should have gone back to my dorm and pretended I’d never heard any of this. But instead, I found myself knocking on Blackwood’s door, my mind suddenly reeling.
“Come in,” she called, and I pushed the door open.
She was sitting behind her desk, looking composed despite what I’d just overheard. Her dark eyes assessed me carefully as I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
“Quill,” she said, gesturing to the chair across from her. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
I sat down, trying to look casual even though my hands were shaking slightly. “I came to talk to you about the favor you asked of me,” I said, testing the waters. “But I think I heard something I wasn’t supposed to.”
Her expression didn’t change, but something shifted in her gaze. A sharpening of attention. “Did you now?”
“I was outside your door,” I admitted. “I heard you talking to someone. About Elder Thaddeus. About cover-ups.”
For a long moment, she just studied me. I could practically see her calculating whether I was a liability or an asset.
“How much did you hear?” she finally asked.
“Enough,” I said, my voice shaking. “Enough to know that something is seriously wrong and that you’re trying to figure out how to handle it without getting yourself in trouble.”
She leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers beneath her chin in that familiar gesture. “This is the problem with asking favors of intelligent students,” she said quietly. “They tend to stumble onto things they shouldn’t.”
“I already knew,” I said, my mind suddenly made up. “I was with Aeron when the Purity Front attacked the wards. I saw them.” I leaned forward in my chair. “And Aeron’s grandfather swore both him and me to secrecy.”
Professor Blackwood looked shocked. “Elder Thaddeus was on campus?”
I shook my head. “No. Aeron has a crystal ball that allows them to speak directly. Through the wards somehow.”
Professor Blackwood’s eyes widened slightly, the only visible crack in her composed exterior. “That’s not possible. The wards should block all magical communication.”
“Well, apparently they don’t,” I said, feeling a strange mixture of relief and dread at finally being able to tell someone about this.
Underneath it though, I felt like I was betraying Aeron as well.
“He contacted his grandfather right after we got back to his dorm. Told him everything we’d seen.
And Elder Thaddeus told him to keep quiet about it. He said panic wouldn’t help anyone.”
She was quiet for a long moment, her fingers still steepled beneath her chin. When she spoke again, her voice was careful. “Did Elder Thaddeus say anything else? Anything about what the breaches mean? Or who’s behind them?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “He just wanted us to stay silent. To not report details to security because they’d know more than us anyway.
” I paused, considering whether to tell her the rest. But I’d already come this far.
“He also said he’d be in touch with Aeron.
Like he was expecting to have answers soon. ”
Professor Blackwood stood up and walked to her window, gazing out at the campus below.
“That crystal ball is troubling,” she murmured.
“If the wards can be bypassed that way, then Thaddeus has purposefully left a hole in them without telling anyone. Although, the rest of his directions to you align with what he’s telling everyone else.
I can only assume familial attachment caused him to leave a gap in the wards so he could speak to his grandson. ”
“There’s something else,” I said, without being prompted. “I… I don’t like spying on Aeron.”
Professor Blackwood glanced back at me with one eyebrow raised. “Then why tell me all this? Why share what you saw?”
“I just…” I paused for a moment, gathering my thoughts. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt. But I also don’t want to hurt Aeron.”
“Why? I thought you disliked him?”
“He… He saved me,” I heard myself say. “When the ward breach happened. He came running after me. And if he hadn’t… if those things had gotten through the wards while I was froze up…”
“I understand,” Professor Blackwood nodded. “You like him.”
“No I don’t,” I said defensively, but even I could hear the lie in my voice. “I just… I feel grateful toward him.”
Professor Blackwood turned back from the window, and there was something almost sympathetic in her expression.
“Sure. If that’s what you need to tell yourself.
But you risked coming here, risked exposing what you’d overheard, to protect him from suspicion.
That suggests your feelings run deeper than simple gratitude. ”
I wanted to argue, but what was the point? She’d already figured it out. Hell, Lysander had figured it out in about three seconds. Probably everyone on campus had figured it out except me.
“So what do I do?” I asked, feeling helpless. “I can’t spy on him. Not now. Not after—” I stopped myself before I could say anything incriminating.
“Not after what?” Professor Blackwood asked, settling back into her chair.
I felt heat creep up my neck. “That’s not relevant to the current situation.”
“Perhaps not,” she conceded, though her lips quirked slightly like she was suppressing a smile. “But it does change things from my perspective. If you’re emotionally invested in Mr. Pyre, then your observations would be biased, anyway. That makes you less useful to me as a spy.”
“So we’re done?” I asked, hope blooming in my chest. “The favor is off?”
“Not entirely,” she said, holding up a hand.
“I still need your help, but in a different capacity. I need you to tell me anything you find out about Elder Thaddeus’s intentions or the Purity Front.
Everything Aeron has said about his grandfather’s plans, his concerns, his fears.
I need to understand what Thaddeus is thinking, what he might be planning.
Can you do that without it feeling like a betrayal? ”
I considered it. Reporting on Aeron’s personal conversations still felt wrong, but at least it wasn’t active surveillance. At least it wasn’t him finding out that I’d been watching him, cataloging his movements, looking for inconsistencies in his story.
“I can try,” I said finally.
“That’s all I ask,” Professor Blackwood said. “And Quill? Be careful. If Elder Thaddeus is as worried as I think he is, if the breaches are as serious as the evidence suggests, then Aeron might be in danger. The Purity Front might be looking for a high-profile target to make a statement.”
A chill ran down my spine at those words. I’d never considered that Aeron might be a target. That by being close to him, I was in more danger than ever.
“What should I do?” I asked quietly.
“Stay close to him,” she advised. “Keep your eyes open. And if you notice anything unusual, anything that suggests he’s in trouble or that something bigger is happening, you come to me immediately. Understood?”
I nodded, though my stomach was churning as thoughts raced through my head.
“And Quill?”
“Yeah?”
“If you see anything trying to break through the wards again,” she said, a warning in her tone. “Take your dragon and run.”