I gave myself a quick once over in the mirror and knew my hair was going to be a problem sooner rather than later. The problem with my hair was that it wasn't exactly curly, but the waves were tight enough that the only way to keep it out of my face was physically restraining it.

I decided to grab the hair tie to try and force it into something resembling order. This was a plain red one that almost disappeared into my hair. It would have to do for now. I hadn't brought any of my more fun ties, I hadn't expected to need them so soon, but I had a few in simple colors.

I straightened up and took a breath. A black t-shirt with the silhouette of a white wolf. A long red vest that stopped past my thighs hung open. Black pants with rips exposing red and grey bits of patterned cloth. Gloves that stopped at my palms and had holes for my thumbs. A long and smooth chunk of carnelian hung by a black rope around my neck.

A little less bold, but still more out there than the kind of stuff I wore at the beginning. It was another step. A show of faith in the only people here I could trust. It helped that I knew that trust was returned.

Not that they were here yet, they wouldn't be expected for another hour. The arrival time wasn't a sure thing either, they had a window of five hours to return in.

They just had to be here by one o'clock.

I went down the stairs before I could overthink this any more than I already had.

Vivian wasn't here yet.

I wasn't sure what the other Towers were doing, but we were meeting here in Dragon Tower. No need for anything very formal with just us. Plus, for better and for worse, this was our home away from home.

"We can do this," I mumbled to myself.

A rumbling purr from the walls made me feel better. I took a steadying breath. The warm pulse of magic in my body was never strange, but the weakness of the pulse wasn't as comforting as I would like. It wasn't strong enough. I could feel that in almost every beat of my heart.

I went down to the lower floor, to the small kitchenette and table with plenty of space for us five.

I opened the cabinet and was almost struck again by the massive amount of choices. I was looking for comfort so I grabbed the dried raspberries, the green tea, and the mint.

I'd missed the antique-looking intricate teapot down here. The steam and comforting smell was nice. A little bit longer. Then everything would be better. We'd figure out what to do together.

All five of us. Well…us five plus M.

No one could do this alone. We weren't meant to. People were made to solve problems together. Me and my tiny community of weirdos.

I drank my tea slowly. The tired weariness was giving way to excitement. I was looking forward to seeing my friends again, crazy circumstances or not.

I almost hadn't heard the footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Are you ready?" Vivian asked me. She didn't seem nervous, she looked almost happy. Maybe I wasn't the only who missed this place.

"I think so. Or at least as ready as I can be. Are you?"

"I trust that you and Jarec won't cause me too much trouble." Teasing. She was teasing. That had to be a good sign, right?

"I will do my absolute best to not cause trouble."

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She sighed, despite the slight smile on the corners of her mouth. She was fond of it. Maybe that's why this worked out. "I think it'll be too much to hope for you all to behave for a few more months."

"I promise to try. I can't promise more than that though. I don't ever go looking for trouble, but that doesn't mean a lot if trouble is looking for me."

"I hope trouble isn't looking for you, or anyone else in these walls," Vivian mumbled.

"You and me both." I knew that it almost certainly was, but telling her wasn't a good idea yet. Not until there was more we could actually do. Besides, everything was still too tenuous to risk. We still had no idea who we were going after.

And plus, she'd totally tell Mom and then I would vanish off the face of the Earth.

So... No telling Vivian.

We would have to solve this problem ourselves, somehow.

(*********)

Jarec was the first to come back to Dragon Tower. No knocking, just the opening of the stone door to reveal a big grin.

"Finally!" I said, he'd barely kept me waiting but still. It'd only been ten minutes since the front gates were opened to let people back in. He must have been waiting by the gates to get back in this quickly.

"I didn't see the others out there, so I must be first. Anything fun happen yet?"

I couldn't answer that question completely while Vivian was here. And I wanted to check with him before telling her about the Malcarg thing.

"Nope. Not yet," I told him instead.

I saw a flash of something inquisitive on his face. He must have sensed that there was something I wasn't comfortable saying given our company.

"Hard to have fun in an empty tower," he conceded.

"Basically."

I don't think Vivian noticed anything odd about our exchange. She seemed quiet for a moment, either being telepathic or just thinking about other stuff.

I gave a slight smile, "I'll go get your schedule." It wasn't a long walk to the workroom but there was something in Jarec's expression that was making me nervous. It reminded me of when Mom was holding back her facial expressions.

We really needed to talk once Vivian left.

Somehow, when I got back there was another familiar face. An origami dragon in many colors resting on Jarec's shoulders. Scraps was out and his tail was wrapped loosely around Jarec's neck.

I wasn't sure where he'd come from, but it was nice to see him. He angled his head upward and opened his jaw to let out a small puff of confetti that rained down in front of Jarec.

I giggled and held out his schedule for him to take.

"We just have Spellcraft together, I'm guessing," Jarec commented as he looked at it. "I don't see you taking Stitchwork."

"No. That's definitely not for me."

Jarec gave his schedule to Scraps, who held it in his mouth like it was a toy.

Huh. I wondered what else Scraps could carry.

"Unfortunately," Vivian commented after a moment, "It would seem there's something demanding my attention."

"I can manage greeting three people and keeping them up to date on safety protocol. If there's anything catastrophic Jarec will contact you, yeah?" I looked at him to see him nod in agreement.

"Good, I'll check in with you all at one," she looked between the two of us as she spoke and she relaxed just a little bit. And then she left through the door, leaving me and Jarec alone in the walls of Dragon Tower.

I counted to five in my head before speaking. "I need to tell you something very important and I need you to promise me to not tell anyone."

"Even the others?" Jarec asked cautiously.

"I'll tell them when they get here."

"Okay. What's up?"

"Death's Echo is still here. In the school. It never left over winter break."

There was a terrifying moment of silence. "Oh. Okay, this is all serious then."

"Yeah."

"Do we still think it's staff?"

"I think it's the most likely, but we can't prove anything. All we have is the word of a ghost."

"Is that confirmed?" Jarec asked then his head perked up like someone had called his name. His eyes darted around like he was trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.

"I've taken to calling him M."

Jarec nodded, still distracted. After a moment he exhaled slowly and then turned to me. "He really is still here. Does Grandmother know?"

"I haven't told her, but if you think we should I'm cool with it. I thought it would be better to ask you first."

"I have no idea how she'll react to that. It…might be best to not tell her. At least for now."

"You've known her longer than I have, I'm relying on your judgement."

"Serafina, what are we going to do about Death's Echo?" Jarec asked softly.

"I don't know. Not yet. But I have some ideas. We'll talk about all of this when the others are back too. We can't solve this by ourselves but I don't want to drag anyone not already involved into this."

"Too risky. If the thief finds out that we know…"

"Them not knowing is good for us. We need to keep it that way."

"Yeah. One wrong move and someone could very easily get hurt. Anyone we tell could be put at risk too."

"Exactly."

"It's not great," Jarec reached up to pat Scraps as he talked, "but I don't have any better ideas right now."

"You think of one, we'll talk about it."

"This is shaping into a mess Serafina."

"I feel like 'mess' is an understatement." But we might just find a way to figure out how to clean it.

We were smart, we were capable, there had to be some hope still in all of this.

And we would find it.

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