The man didn't respond, no matter how many times Lexie prompted him. Finally, she gave up and headed out to answer her father's call.

She was still unsettled as she bounded down the stairs, and questions plagued her. How on earth did that guy know her name? Was she hacked somehow? Could they hack a cellphone through the Undernet? Had the chess game simply been a distraction for that?

If so, then he was a slimy jerk.

Lexie quickly sent Isaac a message on her way to the kitchen, asking him if the Undernet could be hacked. She found her father stress-baking, and he spoke to her with his back turned, kneading dough.

"Monty just got back to me," he said. "Your paperwork has all been processed, and Victoire is ready for you. He also sent our Skybird tickets to depart in two days."

"So soon?" Lexie thought she had a week.

He finally turned to regard her. "Yes, but if you have something you need to do, we can postpone it."

Lexie had a lot of things she needed to do. She had to send Arcadia a message turning down their admission, she had to say goodbye to her friends at the dojo, go shopping for school supplies, etc.

But all of that could technically be accomplished within a few days.

Plus, a part of her didn't want to be in Hovelton right now. The town was still mourning Max, and it felt like everywhere she went, she couldn't escape it. It would probably be like that for the next few weeks.

"No," she said. "I can go."

Aiden inclined his head. "Okay then."

Lexie went closer and hoisted herself up on the countertop. She watched him knead and then reached for the tray of freshly baked muffins on the other side of him.

"They're hot," Aiden warned a second before it scalded her hand, and she yanked it back.

"Ouch." She blew on the burn.

"Told you. But you're just as impatient as..." Aiden let the words trail off, although Lexie knew that he'd been about to bring up Lara again. He probably stopped himself because of how Lexie had reacted the last time he'd compared Lexie to her.

"Hmm." Lexie didn't mind the comparison now, maybe because she now knew that Lara was her real mother. Well, part of her's mother. She still did not feel the emotional attachment she was supposed to feel, but that might come with her memories.

Lexie briefly considered telling Aiden what had happened, but she didn't want to bring up her link to the Undernet unless she had to. Not until she heard back from Isaac, at least.

Luckily, Isaac texted her back pretty quickly.

Isaac: No, no one can hack into your phone and uncover your identity using the Undernet. The phone itself has no identifier, and the network is not traceable. Plus, with the Undernet, anonymity is literally the point.

Lexie: Are you sure?

Isaac: I'm the tech genius here, of course, I'm sure.

Well, that shot down one theory and made the whole thing spookier. How did he know her name then? Because she certainly hadn't told him. Was it magic? Could he read her mind over the Undernet?

She had no choice but to ask her dad now.

"Say hypothetically," she started. "Someone was talking to someone else on the Undernet. Totally anonymous, and they were having a completely mundane discussion. Could one of those people use magic to somehow figure out the identity of the other person?"

Aiden paused and frowned at her. "What are you talking about? Who was on the Undernet?"

"It's a hypothetical question, Dad."

"Lexie." His warning tone showed he wasn't buying it.

Lexie sighed. "Fine. You know how I went with Bane to Old Moulding to see Uncle Max's friends there." At least that was the excuse she'd given him.

"Yes."

"Well, one of them has a phone connected to the Undernet, and I tried to look up dungeon stuff on there. I started talking to this guy who seemed to know a lot, and in the middle of our conversation, he blurted out my name, though I'd never told him about it."

Aiden appeared alarmed. "How did he know your name?"

"Exactly."

His eyebrow ruffled as he turned on the tap to wash his hands and covered the dough with a clean towel. "Okay. Start from the beginning. What were you two talking about?"

Lexie relayed their conversation, while Aiden listened contemplatively.

"So, he asked you to play a game of chess with him?"

"Yes," she said. "He said he hadn't played in a while."

Aiden's lips pursed. "One of the philosophies that Fae and Eldritch share is a love for fables and games. They believe such things teach you more about a soul than an introduction ever can. But I've always thought that was just one of their idioms, and I've never seen magic used to identify someone through a long-distance virtual game."

Lexie's eyes popped out. "You think I was talking to a Fae or an Eldritch?"

"I don't know," Aiden said. "Whoever you were talking to, you're not going to be talking to them again." The stern note at the end of his voice assured her that it was an order, not a request. Lexie didn't dispute it.

"I'm not going to tell you not to access the Undernet, that would be moot," Aiden said. "But be very careful with it."

"I know," she said. "I am.'

For the next two days, both father and daughter were busy getting Lexie ready for school. Aiden was also starting his investigation into Silas Creevy, and combined with his teaching job, it made for a very hectic schedule.

"It's a good thing I have an intern," he said the next night over dinner.

"How is Abernathy doing?" she asked.

"He's great. Very intelligent, as you said, and eager to learn."

"I knew it. I was thinking that eventually you could teach him to make some of the potions you did without magic. Maybe he can make a living off that?"

"Maybe. There's definitely potential, although I have to look into the legality of having a mundane make some of those potions."

"True."

Before she left Hovelton, Lexie decided to stop by the dojo to say goodbye to her friends one last time.

Only about half the class was there when she got there. The situation with the AFC was now complicated, not just because of the tremendous disaster, but also because of the way Top Dog had been losing so severely to Torin Firebringer before it. And now he was heavily wounded and out of the ring for months, probably. What that meant was that the viewership was down, and there was talk of some serious restructuring when it came to the games.

Lexie wondered if that had something to do with what Xena had said and the fact that Victoire was now trying to incorporate the AFC into the academy's curriculum. Lexie had mixed feelings about that, but it leaned more negative than positive. She didn't think it was fair for [Heroes] to compete, and neither did she think that their inclusion matched the ethos of the AFC, which was to give fighters a chance to make a living without risking their lives. So why was the AFC president, Mr. Douglas, allowing it? Why did he seem downright ecstatic watching Torin Firebringer make a fool of Top Dog?

Lexie didn't know, and neither did Conrad when she asked him.

"Douglas is a weird guy," he said. "He's a real schemer, too, and greedy as hell. My guess is that he wasn't happy with the viewership of the AFC lagging and figured adding [Heroes] to the mix would be a way to boost ratings again. As for Victoire, well, there was always the PR component of hero school, but I don't get this new shift towards entertainment. Seems like a waste having [Heroes] train for the AFC when there aren't even enough Heroes to do actual Hero work."

"Yeah, it feels strange." They were both sitting on the bench watching people spar. Right now, it was Shadow versus Cara, and the latter was holding her own, her balance greatly improved by a combination of Conrad's training and Lexie's card. Lexie wanted to make Cara another balance card that would last forlongerperiods of time and would require less effort in terms of activation.She wanted to do the same for Urmas, too.In general, she wanted to keep specializing every card she made for others, so they could more easily use them.

She figured that if she continued on that path, she would eventually learn how to make cards that mundanes could use. That remained her ultimate goal with card magic. The good thing was, now that she was in the special program at Victoire, they would entirely fund all her research. So she could order as many blank cards as she needed.

Good, because her other source, Tate, had been cut off.

As Shadow jumped back to avoid Cara's kick, his eyes met Lexie's. There was a query in there that soured her mood a little. She still hadn't talked to Tate. She told herself she wouldn't reach out to him first. If he were truly apologetic for what he'd done, then he would come to her and apologize. She'd probably forgive him…eventually. Talking to Boris, it seemed like the bigger guy had already forgiven him, too, and was pretty much just worried about him at this point. But Lexie stubbornly held onto her grudge for now, because she refused to make it that easy for him. Tate had to get over his inferiority complex and whatever demons from his past he was fighting, so he could see the error of his ways.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

If not, he would continue to think only of himself and push his friends away.

But what if he never came to the conclusion she wanted him to? What if he didn't care about his friends?

After all, he'd never had friends before.

Lexie shook her head and turned to Conrad, who was giving her a knowing look as though he could figure out what she was thinking about. She changed the subject by asking, "How is Top Dog doing?"

Weariness entered his gaze. "Well, he's grumpier than a raccoon with a sore paw, and he's driving everyone around him insane. He's determined to get back to training so he can get back into the arena next month, even though it's supposed to take him at least a year to fully heal. We've managed to hold him down for now. Isla is starting to get irritated, though."

"Isla? You mean your girlfriend?" Lexie had heard Conrad mention her name a few times when the girl was here.

"Yup," he said. "She's Hakeem's–I mean, Top Dog's cousin."

"Wow." Lexie's eyes widened. "Is that how you met her? Through Top Dog?"

"Nah," he chuckled. "I didn't know who she was the first few times we met. She didn't know who I was either. Isla's not an AFC fan, and we met at the fruit aisle of the grocery store near a gym I trained at. We both wanted the last cumquats and got into a lengthy argument about it. Ultimately, I let her have it because I thought she was cute, but I wasn't looking to date anyone at the time. She probably just thought I was some jerk with an overbearing love for cumquats."

"That's adorable."

"Yeah." He gave a wistful smile. "Anyway, we met again when she came to the gym TD and I trained at, to see her cousin. When we met, she offered me a free smoothie from her juice bar as a thank you for letting her have the last cumquats, and we got to talking from then on. Things kind of grew from there, and the feelings snuck up on me eventually. Top Dog had nothing to do with it. If anything, she's the reason he and I are friends, because she's the only reason I began to see him as anything but an egomaniac bonehead."

Lexie snorted, and Conrad seemed pleased that he'd made her laugh.

"Sometimes, people aren't what they seem," he said. "But unless the right circumstances present themselves, you'll never bother to look beneath the surface."

"Right." She turned to watch Shadow again and continued, "By the way, I'm going to Victoire tomorrow."

"Oh. To visit your friend?"

"No. For school."

That was the most alarmed Lexie had ever seen Conrad look. "What?"

She sighed. "Yeah. It's a long story, but basically, given all the news around me and everything, my dad thought it would be for the best."

"Wow. I'm sorry." Conrad looked down at his feet and said, "Somehow I feel responsible for all this."

"It's not your fault."

"It is though. I pushed you into joining that tournament even when you didn't want to, and didn't give you a choice. I've always known you weren't here because you wanted to join the AFC, but I thought of how well you could do in the league and thought maybe this would help you stop hiding from yourself a little bit."

Lexie blinked. "Meaning?"

He thought about it for a second before answering. "I've never seen you go full-out on any fight. That Diana fight was the closest I've seen, but before that, you'd been skating by winning your matches with relative ease, without really pushing yourself."

Lexie frowned. That wasn't how she remembered things. She felt like she gave all her fights her best.

Seeing her confusion, he explained, "When you fight Lexie, it looks like you're more interested in solving a problem or proving an academic thesis than winning against your opponent. Sometimes, you let yourself lose just because you've already figured out whatever you were trying to figure out from there. Even with the bare minimum, you were already so skilled. More importantly, your powers were interesting, powers I'd never seen before. I can't lie, I was curious to see what would happen if you would apply yourself, and I thought the tournament was the right place to do that." He shook his head. "But I regret it. It was probably partially my ego talking because I wanted to show you off to the world. Now I see you didn't need the extra push. You would have been fine without it."

"Nah." Lexie reached over and squeezed his hand. "It's not your fault at all. I'm grateful. I wouldn't have been able to learn anything about my powers without you and this dojo. I appreciate you always looking out for me, even when I was too stubborn to take your advice."

He still looked guilty, so she added, "Plus, that's not the only reason I'm going to Victoire. It's also because I helped save a guy from a troll, and they told me they might reduce my dad's sentence if I go along with it, so..." She shrugged, carefully.

He nodded. "I understand. A reduced sentence for your father has to be tempting."

"It is," Lexie said. "Anyway, I brought up going to Victoire to ask if you had any advice. I know you dropped out, but it wasn't in your first year, right?"

"No. I was in my third." His eyes darkened the way they always did whenever he thought back to his academy days, and he hesitated for a few seconds, chewing on his lips.

"There are a lot of things I want to say, but most of them wouldn't be helpful. The best advice I can give you is to not let them control you, because believe me, they will try." He had a serious and thoughtful expression. "Always, always think for yourself and remember who you are. Even in simulations…"

"Simulations?"

"Yes. I can't tell you much about it, because I always sucked at them but just…remember who you are."

Lexie stared at him for a long time and finally nodded. She decided to ask her father about it later.

She got a chance the next day when he was finally taking her to campus. They woke up early at around 5:00 am and packed all their stuff into Frank's lizard-shaped vehicle. He drove them to the train station, where they took a train to Arcadia. There, they got a Skybird ticket direct to the capital city.

"If we get there and you change your mind, you can always still come home with me," Aiden said, and a part of him looked almost hopeful about it. "And if at any point you don't want to do it anymore, just call me and I'll come get you."

"I will," Lexie said, but she didn't plan on doing that. Despite her nerves and being less than enthused to be joining a hero academy, just the possibility of reducing her father's sentence was a good enough reason for her to tough it out.

"I'm serious," Aiden said. "Never feel like you have to do this for me. Like I said, the likelihood of me going through a retrial is probably slim to none, and Monty only mentioned it because he could sense that it would impact your decision."

"I know," she said. "But I still want to do this. I get unlimited funds for research and get to hang out with Xena and Dewie. I only have to do hero stuff sometimes. What's not to love?"

He finally exhaled. "Alright. Just to warn you, though, there's a hazing process, and it's mostly mild, but it can get rough. Sometimes it continues through the school year, too. You're a target for several reasons, including the fact that you're my daughter. Your best friend being a Lightbringer can either help or hurt. And Dewie…"

"Don't worry, Dad," Lexie smiled back at him. "I can handle it. It's nothing I haven't experienced already in elementary school."

"This is a bit more than that. These people have powers, and they will actively use them against you."

"For real? I thought [Heroes] weren't allowed to use their powers indiscriminately."

Aiden had mentioned that he couldn't use magic against his childhood bully because he would have gotten kicked out of the academy.

"It's forbidden to use your powers against a civilian outside of the academy walls," he said. "Except in special cases, like what happened in Hartville. Within the academy, though, everyone is a target, and attacking each other is largely seen to be a part of the training there. After all, as [Heroes] in the real world, you'll likely experience semi-regular surprise attacks from [Villains], and you have to learn to watch your back or you get taken out easily. So the student's hazing is largely overlooked as par for the course."

"Of course,' Lexie said wryly. What would a hero school be without super-powered bullying? Surprisingly, neither Xena nor Dewie had mentioned it. With Xena, she understood, because she was a Lightbringer and all. But Dewie not getting hazed? That didn't seem plausible.

Maybe Torin was looking out for him like Lexie had asked him to. Or maybe Dewie was just hiding it from her.

Well, if he was, it wouldn't be for much longer.

"Is that what simulations are?" Lexie asked.

"No. Simulations are something different, but you don't have to worry about it right now. I'm pretty sure you only start that in your second or third year."

"Okay then." She patted her knee as the train reached its first stop. "How are the investigations going with Silas Creevy?"

"It's going slowly. I'm still gathering information and putting out feelers. I'm also using some of Max's old contacts from the underground. A few of them attended the funeral, and I spoke to them. They're helping me check things out on their end."

"Is Monty okay with that? I thought he wanted to keep the investigation secret."

"That would be impossible," Aiden said. "But so far, they think I'm acting on my own with my only agenda being to clear my name from the Hartville incident. They don't know I'm working with Vacek."

"Oh. Okay. If you want access to the Undernet, let me know." When he gave her a sharp look, she shrugged and quipped, "I know a guy."

Her father simply shook his head as Lexie winked.

They touched down in Capital City within six hours. Lexie didn't get to see much of the city itself because right at the port, she had to take a direct train to Victoire Island, which was where the main campus was. Boarding that train was complex. They went through a version of TSA where all the bags were checked, their system screens were accessed to ensure they were verified visitors to the Island, and they also got a ton of questions about what they would be doing once there and how long their stay was for.

After that, they were then given a virtual ticket and allowed to board a train, which was a four-person shuttle on an invisible rail, floating to the Island.

Lexie admired the vast, unbothered blue sea as the shuttle lifted higher in the air. She noticed from her vantage point a shimmering forcefield that covered the entire Island.

"They take their security seriously, don't they?" Lexie murmured, and Aiden chuckled.

Victoire Island was mountains and lush green forests, in the center of which she spotted a labyrinth pattern that made up the main campus.

Their shuttle passed through the forcefield without incident, and Lexie noted that the campus looked even bigger in person than in pictures. It was a veritable neo-Gothic castle, surrounded by a maze of other castles, and bordered by forests and lush gardens. It was beautiful, and it brought a classic touch to the tropical vibe of the Island.

As the shuttle began its descent, Aiden said, "One last thing I wanted to tell you."

"What is it?"

"About this investigation…if anything happens to me, I want you to tell Naem to trigger the Final Oath."

"What is that?"

"It's a clause in our soul contract. He gets to reap my soul and in return, he carries out my last wishes, which include taking care of you and protecting you with all the power in his arsenal."

"No." Lexie swallowed, getting emotional just thinking about losing Aiden. "I don't want that."

"I don't plan to die." He kissed the top of her head. "This is just a contingency so that in the case of my death, you're taken care of."

Lexie wanted to protest, but she didn't want to continue this conversation, so she simply nodded.

"Another thing. I know you want to have conversations about using your Eldritch magic with Naem. I won't stop you, but I will ask you to be careful with him. Naem is not human. He can pretend better than most others, but always remember he is Eldritch."

Finally, the shuttle touched the ground and brought them right up to the high and fancy portcullis gates guarding the campus.

"Victoire Island, Main Campus Stop." The electronic voice announced as both Aiden and Lexie disembarked. While Aiden began to take out the bags, Lexie noticed a very short man with vibrant yellow skin and a bulbous head approaching the gate.

"Who are you?" he asked in a voice as scratchy as sand. "What are you doing here? There were no visits marked today."

"We're not here to visit Biufur."

The man stopped, peered at Aiden, and gaped. "As I live and breathe. Is that our dear professor, Aiden Sparrowfoot, before me?"

"In the flesh." Aiden grinned fondly. "How have you been?"

"Better now that I've seen you. But I thought…" He choked on his words as his head turned to Lexie. "Oh! Is this your daughter?"

"Yes. She will be attending Victoire starting from today."

"Oh really? How come I wasn't told? I swear, sometimes I'm the last one to know these things, and they expect me to do my job." He grumbled as he waved, and a shimmering keypad appeared. He typed in a code, and the gate slid open.

"I'll help you with your bags," he said to Lexie. "You should get either the groundskeeper or the headmaster to help get you situated."

"Where are they?" Lexie asked, and he pointed at a door in a direct path through a courtyard in front of them. Then he went over to grab her bag from Aiden's hand.

"It's been too long, Professor."

"It has." Aiden turned to Lexie. "Go on in and find Journeyman, Lexie. I'll help Biufur take your bags to your room."

"You're not coming with me?"

He shook his head. "I'm still a [Villain], remember?"

"Ex-villain. So you're not allowed on campus."

"He is," Biufur said, and Aiden shot him a look.

"Lexie, I don't think I should go with you," he said, and it finally dawned on her why he was hesitant. He didn't want them to be spotted together by students.

"I don't care what they think," Lexie said. Besides, once she said her name, everyone would know she was his daughter anyway.

"I know. But I care and I don't want you to be any more targets on your back because of me."

Lexie pouted, but she ultimately relented.

She followed his directions to the door of a nearby tower, knocking once and then pushing it open.

She expected it to be an office or some kind of staff lounge.

Instead, she found herself in a large hall, with about three hundred students and staff, all of whom turned to stare at her.

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