“Mascot.”
“Very well, mascot.”
“Never mind.” The answer was clearly yes. Aware now that people who weren’t Kaylin didn’t perceive the marks the way she did, she said, “Can you see the light?”
“I can. It provides decent illumination—but I don’t suggest you attempt this when Sanabalis once again resumes his instruction.”
“Oh?”
“It would be considered either lazy or cheating.”
Kaylin did not grind her teeth. “We all have different skills and different strengths. I believe those were among his first civil words to me.”
The Arkon snorted. “I believe his response would be, ‘And different weaknesses.’”
The light was bright, but not harsh; she didn’t have to squint or wait until her eyes had adjusted to its glow. The floating rune moved away from her, drifting forward until it was about ten feet distant. There it stopped.
“Do you think Killian was aware of his other visitors?”
“What do you think?”
“I...assumed he was unaware of them. Now I’m not as certain.”
“The first time we encountered Killian he looked much the same as he looked today,” Bellusdeo added. “But the assumption that he was the Avatar of a building was Kaylin’s, not mine.”
“What did you assume?” the Arkon asked.
“Do not take that tone with me,” the gold Dragon replied. “I am not one of your students.”
They appeared to be standing in either a long hall or a very narrow room. The walls were stone, and the ground beneath their feet no longer shook. “Take that tone with me,” Kaylin said.
Bellusdeo’s brows rose. “You hate being a student.”
“No, mostly I hate condescending old men who treat me as if I’m stupid.”
“I fail to see the difference in this case.”
“Compared to theArkon, Iamstupid.”
“Ignorant,” the Arkon said, correcting her. “I have never said that I believed you to be stupid. Lazy, yes.”
“Fine. You can talk to me as if I’m a student. A dim student you’re saddled with because you have no other choice.”
“Your magnanimity knows no bounds,” was the dry reply. “Very well. What do you wish to know?”
“What’s a chancellor? I mean—I get what it is in the Imperial hierarchy, but this isn’t that.”
“Ah. In this particular case, the chancellor is the head of the Academia. To Helen, the equivalency is tenant. You are her tenant. The rest of the occupants she houses are your guests.”
“How exactly does one become chancellor?”
“When I was a student in these halls, it was irrelevant.”
“Who was chancellor then?”
“Aramechtis.” He exhaled without apparently inhaling first. “The Academia was lost in my youth. The rise of the Towers that guard against the spread of Shadow devoured it. There were some irregularities with its disappearance, but research into those irregularities was far more difficult, and far less accessible, given the nature ofRavellonand the Towers.
“Not until the two of you came to me with your suspicion—” He stopped. Cleared his throat. “I do not know. I would have said, given our experience of the border zone, that it would either be impossible for Killian to select a chancellor, or impossible for the admission of students.
