From the transcript of the interrogation of Florian Quinn by the Academy Prime: “Rotforces? Inside the castle? Surely that’s impossible?”

  It had been so long since Florian felt the downright predatory fingers of Professor Lawrence on his body that he’d begun to think she forgot all about him and the extra lessons she promised.

  He would not be so lucky.

  The morning of what was to be their first lesson passed by damn near joyously for Florian and his merry band of Death Dealers… and a half. The designation of ‘half’ he brought out for Talia who’d been spending a lot of time with Lane, so much so they joked she’d become the world‘s first Energy Dealer. Or Lane would become a Death Warrior. Florian didn’t mind sharing his buddy with Talia, not the least of reasons why because she seemed as cool as he remembered from their youth. Always quick with a joke or sarcastic comment and never sensitive about…well…anything except maybe Madeline, she fit in as one of the guys, even making Thad spit out his milky coffee when she described a particularly garish shade of pink as ‘the colour of dick skin’.

  How did she even think of something like that? One of the guys, indeed.

  Florian had chanced a wave at Madeline that morning who had actually waved back and she offered the barest hint of a smile which for Madeline might as well have been her displaying the outright glee of a child on Ye Evergreen morning.

  “She’ll come around,” Talia had said, quietly so only Florian could hear. “She just needs time.”

  “I know,” Florian said, shrugging. “She owes me nothing. I just thought it might be nice to get to know her a little better.”

  Talia smiled, knowingly. “She’ll come around, I promise,” she repeated before Thad changed the conversation to the lesson of the previous day. They’d spent most of the month learning about and practicing the decay of simple objects. They’d started with a simple leaf from a tree outside that had followed the transition from summer to fall’s logical conclusion. Florian had turned the first red leaf a dead brown on his third try, faster than anyone else in the class and more powerfully then the next person who’d turned their leaf - a rail thin girl named Cheska.

  Florian received Professor Lawrence’s summons on the walk to their first class of the morning which represented astoundingly bad timing, Professor Bonetti had a pop quiz that Florian certainly failed on account of lack of focus. The rotund Professor Adriano Bonetti, belly doing its best to stretch every shirt the man owned, wore disappointment on his face when Florian made nothing happen to his tree branch.

  He used the summons from Professor Lawrence to cut out of the afternoon class much to Thad’s predictable chagrin. Florian said he needed to prepare for whatever Lawrence had in store and he’d owe him one if he could copy his notes later. Thad rolled his eyes mumbling about how it’s only been a month and that he’s already owed, like, ten. Florian smiled and patted his friend lovingly on the back before exiting.

  Professor Lawrence didn’t suggest any specific attire, so Florian wore that which he felt most comfortable in. A pair of well-fitting slacks, a white button down, a black cardigan and a loose bracelet on his left wrist. His skull talisman hung around a plain chain on his neck.

  The walk to Professor Lawrence’s office took longer than last time but then again, last time he had a guide from Ruthann’s administrative office. A part of him longed for the rough smelling Ashton to guide his way again, anything to make the journey feel less lonely and less…ominous. Perhaps Lawrence controlled the lack of natural light in the pathway to her office by design, perhaps like his father, everything she did served a purpose of intimidation and truculence.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He reached the threshold of her office and took a deep breath before entering, prepared to walk - no, stride confidently - to the seat he remembered in front of the ornate bone and black desk he remembered. Not so.

  The entire office had been rearranged with everything hastily pushed to the sides leaving a large open space in the center of the room framed perfectly by a circular black shag carpet. Lawrence hadn’t arrived yet.

  He felt a flush of apprehension being in the Professor’s office by his lonesome, yet the voice in the back of his head whispered that he’d be castigated far worse for being late than he would be for standing meekly in her office, minding his own business. Still, his eyes wandered, drawn back to the hearth that held no fire again. What was the point of such ornate stonework if no fire burned? The skull portrait hung where he remembered but other things in the room had moved including the haunting portraits of Dealer conquests, the dolls now painted in violent detail and the long, thin dagger, and curiously a single white flower in a vase on the moved desk.

  “Florian, sit,” Professor Lawrence barged into her office, commanding and utterly devoid of small talk, of pleasantries, of basic human decency.

  “Yes, Professor,” Florian mumbled and sat on the edge of the shag carpet as far away as he could reasonably get away with. Huh. It was more comfortable than he’d expected.

  Lawrence joined him on the carpet but sat cross-legged in its center with her scepter laying across her thighs, motioning him to join her away from the safety of the edge where he could pretend he owned a modicum of safety. He shuffled the paces on his rear toward her, then allowed her to adjust his body until their knees touched and they stared at each other. Well, Lawrence stared at Florian who looked away, her stare an unblinking thing that only served to unsettle him.

  “Why are you here?” she asked him, the mint in her breath stinging his nostrils.

  “Er, you requested it, Professor. May I ask if this setup is necessary?” Florian asked, ensuring the appropriate amount of deference touched his tone.

  “You may not. You will trust me completely - no matter what I ask - if you wish to reach your full potential. This is not a collaboration. This is not a negotiation. You are the student, I am the teacher. Now, let me rephrase,” Lawrence spoke clearly and with the sternness befitting her station as Academy Second. “You were once the scion of a powerful house with the ability to gain acceptance to any secondary school you desired. You chose the Academy. Why?”

  The truth underwhelmed. The Academy’s entrance exams were first on the calendar and he had a self-imposed mandate to exit the Quinn Estates with all haste. He told her exactly that.

  Professor Lawrence closed her eyes for a beat too long, the first sign of her patience thinning. “The real reason, not the one you tell yourself before you fall asleep at night and dream of sunshine, rainbows and Grinnrock girls. The world is a dark place and you wouldn’t have been placed in my affinity if dark things didn’t happen to you.”

  Florian opened and closed his mouth like a fish gaping for water. “I don’t dream of Grinnrock girls,” he said lamely, hackles raised. What did the Professor want to hear? That his father tossed him out on his ass because Florian found out the old piece of shit did what old pieces of shit did? That his mother cut off all contact, not even a goodbye? His blood pressure spiked and he curled his hand into a fist on his thigh.

  “The reason, Quinn,” Lawrence sneered. “There has to be more to you then another lost pretty boy, hunting for pussy in a new place,” she tapped his head, hard, with two fingers.

  Florian drew his other hand into a fist on his other thigh.

  Professor Lawrence continued her tirade. “You could have fucked girls from all over the world without accepting my offer to join the Death Dealers, so why are you here? No other Quinn in recorded history took the entrance exam which means its not a legacy thing so I ask again. What drives you, Quinn? You think it would be cool to become a Death Dealer? Boost your social cred-,”

  “I don’t give a fuck about my social status,” Florian spat, angry now.

  “Then what!”

  “I want to make my father rue the day he ever abandoned me,” Florian roared, losing his composure completely. “I want to eclipse his name in every way, so much so that when people even think of him they bring me up. I want-,”

  Professor Lawrence cut him off with a small wave of her hand. “Collect yourself and act like a Death Dealer,” she said. “You have answered my question. Now, let us begin our lesson.”