The stew was delicious. Duran found himself subject to stares as he ate a second, then a third bowl, at the end of one of the tables and tried not to slurp too loudly. He’d been worried his mother would be waiting here, but it seemed she was elsewhere. The only residents of the room were other students, all wearing the same uniform as he was.

  “Your tunic is on backwards.”

  He turned, still chewing on an onion. “What?”

  The boy pointed. “Your tunic. Backwards.”

  He looked… familiar somehow. A pointy face, dark hair. Duran made it through another three chunks of meat and another onion before he figured it out. He gestured with his spoon, splattering broth everywhere. “Servius!”

  “Of course it’s Servius,” said his once-enemy. He was a little taller, and Duran saw a little more muscle than he’d had before. But he was still tweedy and looked a little nervous. “Are you crazy? Why did you come here?”

  “I wanted stew,” said Duran.

  “Not- not the dining hall! The Crags!”

  “Oh,” said Duran. “Sorry, can’t tell you. Top secret paladin business.”

  He chewed on another onion, relishing his secret. This was real heroism. Yes, he’d been tempted to tell the truth to his mother, but now he understood. This was his job to do alone. That was what she had meant when she’d told him to keep his mouth shut.

  “You’re not a paladin,” said Servius. When Duran didn’t respond (he didn’t lower himself to petty arguments like that), Servius yanked his bowl out of the way. Duran stared as his spoon hit wood instead of his third bowl of stew.

  “That was uncalled for,” he said. “I should challenge you to a duel.”

  “Why are you here,” hissed Servius. “I know that cook of yours couldn’t afford the tuition. Not to mention the travel up here.”

  “Don’t insult Madame Elysia!” Duran noticed he was getting a lot of looks and quieted, just a little. “She has… funding. Mysterious funding. From mysterious ways you wouldn’t understand.”

  “She’s a cook,” said Servius. “That funding isn’t very mysterious.”

  Duran tried to pull his stew bowl back from Servius, but Servius must have been training here properly- he yanked it out of the way as soon as Duran got close.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I went to the Spire with you,” said Servius. “Don’t you think I deserve to know what you’re up to? And don’t pretend you’re just here to go to school. I’m smarter than that, thanks.”

  “Give me back my stew and I’ll tell you,” offered Duran.

  “I’m not such a fool that-”

  Duran took advantage of his distraction and stole it back. “Actually, I did have a question for you,” he said, after he’d finished it. “What’s the deal with the bear?”

  “You saw the bear?” Servius looked horrified. “And you lived?”

  “We’ll talk about this later,” Duran said. The door had opened to the hall, revealing a familiar silhouette. “I’m going to bed.”

  As it turned out, even in the dormitory Duran couldn’t be free of Servius. He’d just curled into his bunk when Servius stepped inside and began climbing the ladder to the bunk on top of him.

  “Go away,” he muttered. He was scheming. First matter of business was to befriend the bear. He didn’t currently have a step two.

  Servius leaned over, his face inverted and his hair askew. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “This was my bunk first.”

  Just Duran’s luck. “Fine,” he said, sitting up. “We can talk. But you can’t tell anyone about this.”

  “Promise,” said Servius, solemn. It didn’t come off very well when he was still upside-down. Duran waited for him to climb down the ladder, both of them sitting on his bunk, before he began to explain Unnr’s plan.

  “You actually plan on doing this?” said Servius, once he was finished. “I was right. You are crazy.”

  “Just because the first step went wrong-”

  “I don’t care about the first step,” Servius insisted. “This is bigger than that. I’m surprised you haven’t already been caught and thrown out- there aren’t a lot of students to get confused for. Plus, you don’t have a boat now. How are you planning to make your quick escape?”

  “Maybe Teuthida could help?”

  Servius leaned back and sighed. “You’re hopeless. It’s a good thing you came to speak to me.”

  “Even without you, I could manage to-”

  “No,” said Servius. “If you want to learn about this school, about how it’s run- you’re going to need me.”

  “So you know where they’re hidden?”

  “I don’t know about the gods you claim are in the human world- if that’s even possible, really- but I do know where the Imagos are,” Servius said. “Hard to miss them, really. If you get in trouble, you end up in charge of cleaning their wing. But it’s under top security.”

  “No problem,” said Duran. “I can get in trouble and clean the wing.”

  “No,” said Servius. “If you end up in charge of cleaning, they send a guard with you. They don’t trust us students. We’ll have to take another tack.” He leaned back, drumming his fingers on his thigh. “Maybe something unexpected.”

  “Since when were you in charge?” Duran had thought that was a pretty good plan.

  “I think I have an idea, but there is a small problem,” said Servius, ignoring him, “To get into the locked wing, we’re going to need a distraction.”

  “That’s easy,” said Duran. “Fire? Riot?”

  “For this to work, we’re going to have to arrange things delicately,” said Servius. He adjusted the blankets, staring thoughtfully into the darkness. “You’ll have to pretend to be a good student first,” he said. “I know that’s hard for you, but…”

  Duran was losing confidence in this plan. “What if we just tried to steal an axe? Isn’t the building wood?”

  Servius held up a hand, stopping him from speaking. “No. My plan is going to work perfectly, I can already tell. But… I want a promise before I help you.”

  “What kind of a promise?”

  “When you leave, you have to take me with you,” said Servius. “I haven’t seen the sun in months. Months!”