Prof. Brimstone: Why not?
Interviewer: Well, that’s hardly an answer, is it?
Prof. Brimstone: Very well. I hope that through this we might be found.
Interviewer: Found? Are you saying that we’re lost?
Prof. Brimstone: Aren’t we? Aren’t we all?
EXTRACT FROM INTERVIEW, 2030 P.O. (VAULT ARCHIVES)
Without the journal to guide me, I didn’t have much to go on. Just a fuzzy dream and the Weave Watchers’ cryptic words. But this was all connected to my sleepwalking, I was certain about that much.
There was a force guiding me…somewhere. Some power reaching out, trying to connect. It had led me to Selina’s journal and… Wait! I rushed to the windowsill, to the initials etched into the wood.
S.E.Selina Evergreen.
Oh Trinity. This hadbeen her room.
That had to mean something.
Selina had been a student here, but no one remembered her. Even when I told them her name, they forgot.
There had to be a spell in place—one that, for some reason, wasn’t affecting me. But if it was affecting everyone else, then who could help me figure this out? I’d need to be careful who I spoke to about this. Whoever cast the spell was most likely still at Nightsbridge. I couldn’t risk tipping them off. But I couldn’t do nothing either.
I was stumped.
For now.
But my brain worked best when I let a problem simmer in the background. I pulled out the book on arcane botany and parked my ass at my desk. I had tons of reading to do before my new classes next week, so the Selina problem would have to wait.
I was nearing the end of my chapter when a sketch of a circle of mushrooms caught my eye, the tops gleaming in the moonlight. I’d seen this before. But where? Oh, Trinity, I’d seen it in my dream.
I dropped my gaze to the caption beneath the image.
Custos Naturae is a powerful spell that takes weeks to prepare. The fungi must be planted and nurtured with dew water and moonlight, each cap sown with intention. Completed correctly, the circle will protect its creator and hold any force that wishes to harm him or her within its grasp.
A protection spell. If my dreams were about Selina, then the spell must have belonged to her, too. But what had she been trying to protect herself from? The hooded figure?
I glanced at the window, at a sky painted orange by the dying rays of a setting sun. Where had the time gone? I closed the book and quickly changed into my training gear. Drayven would be waiting for me, and it wouldn’t do to be late.
* * *
Drayven didn’t show.Instead, he sent Jay and Brek, and I couldn’t even lie to myself—I was disappointed. They didn’t offer an explanation as to why he hadn’t come, and I didn’t ask.
My ego was bruised enough as it was.
We ran wooden sword drills. I couldn’t use a rift blade, but I’d still have a regular sword, and any blade was better than none. It could buy me time or cut me out of a tricky situation.
I sparred with the Thropes in their human form where they both attacked at the same time, shooting instructions and tips on where to stab and how to evade. Then Brek shifted and attacked me in his Thrope form while Jay taught me the best places to stab a beast like him.
I couldn’t help but grumble, though. “How will this help? There are no Horrors that look like Thropes.”
“Echoes can take a Thrope’s form,” Jay explained. “If they can get inside a Thrope’s head.”
“We haven’t had any training on shielding an Echo attack, so I doubt they’ll throw any at us.”
“Never underestimate a grading situation,” Jay said. “They could certainly throw in an Echo to test your natural mental shielding. But even if there are no Echoes, use this training to hone your reflexes and stamina. You’re going to need both.”
