Loosely Lawful | 15

The next morning, Sera stood at the front gate of a staggeringly tall townhouse in what Kali and Benvolius called the “professors’ neighborhood” of Jadeport. Gaville didn’t have a “professors’ neighborhood.” Most of the professors were as poor as their students, living in the same cramped apartments and run-down bungalows, though often in slightly less tight quarters with their peers. Very few of them owned houses. Probably only the college deans and the university president lived in places like this.

“Is this a house or a wizards’ tower?” Benvolius asked, blinking up at the roof. There seemed to be an observation deck and a turret, though it was hard to see exactly what was going on up there, with the sun blazing into everyone’s eyes.

“Arguably both,” Kaliko said, which was silly because obviously a wizard’s tower was also a house. She strode up the front walkway and knocked politely.

“Someone remind me why we’re here,” Avon mumbled.

They were here because Kali had decided, after they had already gotten off the overnighter from Gaville and walked to the university campus, that some news was better broken where people couldn’t eavesdrop. And while Sera saw the truth in that–the university was crawling with strangers–she was already tired and cranky from a restless night on the train, and this extra, unexpected walk had only made her more so.

The front door creaked open, and a small, blue snout poked out through the crack, forked tongue darting out to taste the air. After a long moment, the snout nodded, and the door swung all the way open, revealing a diminutive dragonesque who narrowed their eyes at everyone before sliding into a sly grin.

“Dr. Kulaiana,” they said in a raspy voice, “what a pleasure. You ought to come by more often. The archeology department is always looking to cross disciplines with arcane theory.”

“If only archeology had unearthed anything magical,” Kali replied. She winked at down at her colleague and lowered her voice. “Unfortunately for you all, we chanced upon that particular archeological discovery first.”

“Oh, Kaliko. I had my doubts about you going into adventuring, but you’re clearly onto something.” The dragonesque stepped back, gesturing for everyone to come inside. “Now, come in. I assume you’re all hungry after your trip.”

Sera was starving, but she’d heard rumors about Dragonesque cuisine. Though it varied from region to region, raw meat and fish found their way in everywhere. Sera wasn’t hungry enough for that, though she knew Kali ate raw fish on the regular, and Kyle had a taste for the raw meat of a few very specific species. Gulping, she trotted up the stairs after her party and tried not to gawk at the house’s interior.

It was bigger on the inside–as any respectable wizard’s home was. The foyer unfolded like origami, spiralling out into various branches of the house that turned unrealistic corners and had views out of impossible windows. A great stained glass window sat front-and-center opposite the front door, gleaming with full sunlight, even though technically, the window faced north and would never actually face the sun. Southern, Jadeport might be, but it wasn’tall the way across the equator.

“Wizards,” Sera muttered, as they all passed into a wide, open kitchen-dining-room combination. Sera eyed the cutting boards along the far wall and the animated knives slicing thin curls of meat on top of them. Her gut settled a little when she saw one cutting board held a block of prosciutto. At least something at breakfast would be cured, though still not cooked.

Kali led the way, taking a seat at the breakfast nook off to the side of the kitchen. Then, when everyone had joined her, she began pulling papers out of her bag and spreading them out on the table. “Everyone, this is Dr. Blue-of-the-Glacial-Crevasse. She’s a pioneer in Consumed Continental philology.”

“And I taught Kaliko’s archeo-linguistics class when she was in undergrad,” the doctor added with a toothy grin. “Call me Crev. Or Dr. Crev, if you insist on titles.”

“I’ve requested her assistance in gathering the knowledge base for a translation spell. Dr. Crev already has a list of professors and graduate students with a diverse expertise that will help us.”

Avon looked up from where they were already cramming rolls of meat into their mouth. “Is it really a good idea to bring so many people in?”

“Genius I may be,” Kali sniffed, “but miracle-worker I am not. It would take a decade for me to accomplish alone what twenty people could do in a matter of days. And in the meantime, you lot can undertake some espionage.”

Sera’s stomach sank. She was awful at espionage. Since the day she’d taken her oath, Sera’s gut had rankled at the idea of telling full-blown falsehoods, and though she could manage half-truths and lies of omission, they didn’t always come out easy.

“How do we know we can trust all these people?” Avon huffed.

Kali and Dr. Crev launched into an explanation of how they planned to vet, threaten, and intimidate any fellow scholars who would dare consider spilling the beans on this endeavor. Obviously, it would be in their academic self-interest to keep any businesses totally in the dark. If the North Wilds Company caught wind of this, the university might never get enough information to build a case and request the government purchase the land back for research and preservation purposes.

“But if you’re really worried,” Kali added on at the end, after Sera had eaten her way through five slices of prosciutto on two slices of bread, with three different kinds of cheese and an apple jam, “we do have Sera.”

“Huh?” Sera said.

“What could Sera do?” Avon asked, lips curling.

Kali gestured at Benvolius, who was likewise stuffing his face with breakfast, and he froze mid-chew. “If the Wilde family lawyers can magically enforce an NDA like the one on Benvolius, then it stands to reason Seraphina could draft a similar one for this circumstance.”

Immediately, the vision of Benvolius mummy-wrapped in the Wilde family’s magical contract flashed in Sera’s mind. She blanched. “Nothing that extensive,” she said.

“I would never expect such cruelty of you,” Kali replied, “but I’m sure you can invent some creative consequences.”

It would need a guaranteed end condition, Sera thought, mind already spinning. An expiry date, because simple was better, and she wasn’t going to write the kind of contracts the Wilde family wrote. Unfortunately, before she could put more thought in, the conversation moved on.

“Regardless. The translation ritual requires substantial time to prepare.” Kaliko pulled a slip of paper from inside her shirt and held it out loosely in the boys’ direction. “And substantial material. If you four would address the shopping?”

Ugh. Arcane magic was such a pain. Sera slumped over as Kyle held out the list for all four of them to look at. She counted at least twenty different items, all with notes of clarification and specific acceptable manufacturers. On the backside of the list, Kali had listed a handful of arcane material shops.

“Is this going to take multiple trips?” Benvolius asked. He snaked an arm over Kyle’s and dragged his finger down the list, stopping on a handful of items that Sera was sure meant something, but were totally beyond her. People who drew their magic from the divine rarely needed materials. When they did, it was usually more about the spirit of having them than about the precision and material makeup.

“With an entire quartet of shoppers? Hardly.” Kali darted a gaze to the ticking grandfather clock in Dr. Crev’s sitting room, and then her face glazed into a veneer of calm as she thought through some kind of calculation. “However, Azuria’s Amazing Arcanery closes at noon, so it is imperative you leave now.”

Dr. Crev’s snout curled for a moment, but Kali surged forward to nudge everyone back and out. Kyle snagged a fistful of snacks as he tumbled into the foyer, and with him and his bulk at the back, it was impossible for Sera, Avon, and Benvolius not to tumble out the door in front of him.

Kali slammed the door shut, cutting off the beginning of what was clearly Dr. Crev ranting about this triple-A store, leaving the rest of them blinking on the sidewalk under the Jadeport sun.

“Where in the hells do we even find all these things?” Avon asked.