I woke up staring at an all too familiar glass ceiling.

I have got to stop ending up here.

I sat up but couldn't find Healer Sealie. I did see someone else though.

Professor Vivian Hearth looked upset.

If she wanted an apology, she wasn't going to get one.

"Serafina," her tone held an entire lecture in it.

"In my defense," I started before she could, "I wasn't thinking. I just did it. I saw someone in danger and the others weren't doing anything so I did. How much trouble am I in?"

Her arms were crossed and she wasn't saying anything.

I must have been in serious trouble.

"If you're expecting me to apologize for what I did, I won't."

Vivian Hearth scoffed, "Of course not."

"Am I in trouble?"

She sighed. "Not with me."

Uh oh. "Then who am I in trouble with?"

"Representative Horus and Professor Aetos both wish to speak with you. Given that there was a Kelpie student involved."

Right. Of course. "Horus is easier to handle than Anubis."

Her mouth twitched with a smile. "He certainly doesn't seem the dueling type. Let's just see what they want before either of us does anything rash."

"Have you ever done anything rash in your life?" I asked her.

Instead of responding, she laughed.

I hoped that that was a good sign.

"I suppose I should let them in." She said as she turned away from me and towards the doors.

I waited for her to open them, but she didn't. She stood there staring at them, placed her hands behind her back and waited in silence.

I really needed telepathy. So useful.

Stupid curse.

"They're on the way," Vivian Hearth announced out loud.

Wonderful.

And being the good embodiments of Kelpie Tower they were we were not kept waiting long.

Great. I hate waiting.

"The infamous Serafina Stewart, I presume?" The older man, Aetos probably, said without bothering with a greeting because Kelpies had a terrible habit of forgetting their manners around me.

"Professor Aetos, I'm guessing?" I addressed him. "And Representative Horus, hello there."

Aetos was tall. He towered over the rest of us. He wore a grey suit with a Kelpie Green tie and a black shirt.

Something in his face made my skin crawl and in that moment Fethris's desire to leave Kelpie and never return made perfect sense to me.

If this is meant to be a model Kelpie, then they really had no idea what they were doing putting Fethris in there.

Horus stepped forward while Vivian Hearth and Professor Aetos were having a silent stare down with each other. At some point she had stepped directly in the middle between Aetos and me. But I could still see him with how tall he was. His black eyes glared at me over Vivian Hearth's head for a moment before looking back at Vivian Hearth.

I never imagined there was someone in this school worse than Gorgon.

Guess I was wrong.

"Representative Stewart, I'm glad to see you are well."

It was the first time he had addressed me directly.

"I have been bitten by far worse things at this school. One sprite is not enough to do much to me. How's Runebringer?" I asked.

Horus stood in front of me with a very odd expression. "You, Representative Stewart, are an anomaly."

I blinked at him, "So what?"

"You don't even bother denying it."

"Why should I?" I stood up from the cot and kept eye contact. "I know the circumstances that got me in this mess are almost entirely unique. Of course I suppose that would bother you, wouldn't it? I don't fit anywhere in the usual status quo. If you're here to try and intimidate me you're about two and a half accidents too late."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not Salamander enough to try something like that. I just want to know what you're trying to accomplish here."

"I'm not trying to accomplish anything, Horus. I'm just trying to get through my school days. My only goal is to graduate."

Dragon Tower's…quirks aside. Red was a side project and none of his concern. And the curse definitely wasn't his business.

"And yet I find that very hard to believe."

My wrist decided to start hurting at that point. "Sounds like that's your problem, not mine. Now is there something you actually want or are you just here to annoy me because this can wait until the next Representative council meeting."

"You must have a lot of faith in Nightcall if you think you'll be attending the next meeting."

"He was in your Tower. You tell me."

"Have you bothered to pick someone to take your place should he fail?"

"Find out Saturday."

I was proud of myself for not swaying on my feet. Maybe it was the searing pain from my hand making me tired. Or perhaps the toll of overcoming the curse successfully for the second time was more severe than I thought.

Right. That happened.

No wonder the curse was pissed.

Well it and the asshole who cast it can piss off.

Later.

"For someone who thinks so highly of herself you seem pretty pale."

Speaking of people who can go to the deepest of the hells…

"Oh I'm sorry, forgive me. I'm not fully recovered from saving a member of your tower from getting too scared to protect themself from a swarm of sprites."

"But you weren't scared?"

"The Aranaea were worse."

"You certainly seem rather accident prone Stewart. Perhaps you should focus on being more careful."

"Did you actually want something? I have stuff to do and I'm sure you have better things to do than bother me."

My vision was getting blurry and I needed him to leave. But unlucky me, Vivian was still busy having a glaring contest with Aetos.

Or they really, really didn't want us to hear whatever argument they were having.

But that was fine.

"I have things to do Representative Horus. So if you and Professor Aetos have no other business with me please leave."

"See you on Saturday Miss Stewart. I wish you a speedy recovery." Horus said in a tone that the thinnest veil for a lie I had heard in a while.

Miss. Not Representative. Kelpie continuing that tradition of being rude.

Very rude. But I could handle rude.

(*********)

"I live." I announced as I sat down next to Angelina and across from Celica.

Angelina in a move that was very un-Pixielike punched me in the shoulder. It was light and delicate and clearly not meant in any way to do harm.

"I was so worried!" She exclaimed.

"All fine," I held up my hand. There was a thin cloth bandage around the finger that had been bitten. "It didn't even like take a chunk out of me. Probably won't even leave a scar."

"That is not the point Serafina!" She looked to Celica. Either in hopes of gaining an ally in telling me off for reckless behavior or for someone to detail why I should be more worried.

"People who can't cast spells shouldn't be fighting sprites Stewart."

Ah. So she's going to be mad at me about this.

"Serafina cast a spell though," Angelina announced.

I sighed, "I did. Somehow. Because the curse does whatever it wants and then punishes me for it."

"Is that why it started sparking up?" Angelina asked and then gasped. "Wait! Is that why you passed out? Does it hurt?"

"One question at a time. Probably. I don't know. And right now nothing hurts," I told her calmly.

Then I was being given a hug against my will.

"I was so worried! Don't ever do that again!"

There was something vaguely amusing about being reprimanded by Angelina.

"I promise nothing," I told her while gently removing her from my person.

"There was a storm of activity at Kelpie table. I hope you're proud of yourself," Celica commented.

"Well their Representative is a dick so I really don't care."

"Serafina!" Angelina was scandalized.

I laughed, "He is. I mean he's not the worst, that would be Kraken Tower Representative Anubis, but he's awful. Top three worst. Thoth can also decay somewhere deep and unpleasant."

"And yet you pick Nightcall to defend your honor." Celica tilted her head to the right. "Nightcall." She said it like I was supposed to know the significance of him being the one I picked.

"Because he was standing right there. If you want to volunteer then I'll say your name next time I get harassed by an older student. You probably won't have to wait longer than like a month."

Celica laughed, "Probably."

"You're both awful. Why are you like this?" Angelina covered her face with her hands.

"Because we're Dragons," I told her. Because that was the closest thing to a reason I had.

"I'm going to spend the next five years worried about you both, aren't I?"

Celica flashed a smile and leaned closer to her, "I wouldn't mind."

I did not puke on either of them. I wanted to. But I didn't.

(*********)

The windowsill of Dragon Tower was as comfortable as ever. Calm and serene.

And Russel was messing around with that same skull again.

"Alright, I'll cave." I said, "What's the deal with the skull?"

"Oh right. I haven't introduced you. Meet Osto." He held up the human-looking skull like this was a perfectly normal thing to be doing.

Necromancy, right. Speaking with the dead.

I raised an eyebrow at it, "Neat. Is there like a reason you have it or is it just because?"

Russel grinned, "Osto can detect undead."

"We know the Echoes aren't ghosts though. You already confirmed that."

"Ghosts aren't the only type of undead. And I've been trying to see if there's any undead energy in the Echoes."

"Why would there be undead energy in the Echoes?" I asked.

Russel put Osto right in my face. I was able to stare into the crystal balls that were in its eye sockets. "Jantres," he said.

Ah. Right. Of course. The most infamous necromancer in history helped build this place. "You think that maybe some of his energy lingers here to power the Echoes?"

Russel shrugged, "It seems like a possibility. I'd love to know how it works."

"The Echo Chamber," I mumbled as I thought about that. "The thing Red mentioned. We call them Echoes. Maybe the Echo Chamber is the room that powers the whole Tower?"

Russel nodded slowly, "Probably. But there aren't any other doors. We checked the attic and that was a bust. There's nothing else here."

"That we know of. Maybe we need more time? Or maybe a key or something? This is Dragon Tower. Who knows what else it holds? We have five years to figure this out. Right now I'm just going to focus on fixing my curse and more in the moment try to not agitate my latest wound too much."

"Yeah I heard about that. Forest sprites? Really?"

"Blame the Professor. I do. And I was keeping another student safe. I'm doing my job as Representative."

"You'll do a terrible job if you get killed. I can get the dead to talk back to me, but if you die that's it."

"Maybe I'll come back as a ghoul and eat some of the other Representatives. It'll be funny."

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