“I was hoping I’d run into you again,” Alex said, stepping far enough out of his line to avoid shouting, but not far enough to lose his place.

He stood tall, squaring his shoulders and setting his feet. Everything about his body language was meant to display confidence and ease.

‘Did he talk to the officers?’ he wondered. ‘Maybe told them things they could ask me about in that white room?’

His face was relaxed, but he was also scanning Amir and friends, quickly examining their body language.

Sinbrok the dwarf stared up at Alex for a moment, before his eyes lit up in recognition. “Ah, I remember you. You’re the student I invigilated for during Professor Val’Rok’s exam for credit in your mana manipulation course, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Alex gave his hand a firm shake.

The dwarf looked up at Amir. “How do you two know each other?”

“Oh, I supervised some of Alex’s labs for Professor Jules,” Amir said. “Last year.”

“Yeah, and now we’ll be working together on the expedition team,” Alex said, watching Amir closely.

A flinch. Just a slight one.

He noted that.

“Ah yeah, the expedition. Exciting stuff,” Sinbrok said. “Examining artifacts from far off lands.”

“If the demon summoner doesn’t ruin everything,” Alex said casually, looking closely at Amir and his friends. “Hope that mess hasn’t been worrying you guys too much. I’ve been trying not to think about it, personally.”

“I’ve been trying not to think about it either,” Amir said quickly. More shifting in his body language. He passed his weight from foot to foot—just like Tyris had when they were waiting for the results of their fight—and quickly looked at his friends. “Alex, I haven’t introduced you to my friends; they’re all graduates of the university.”

“And smart enough to get real jobs, instead of slaving away for professors for crumbs and glory,” one of Amir’s friends—the thin, rangy-looking one Alex had seen Amir with a couple of days earlier—said dryly. “I have half the work and twice the pay working for the city. Word to the wise Alex, don’t be like our friend Amir here.”

“…haha, Donovan’s introduced himself, I guess. In a way,” Amir chuckled weakly. “The other two are Leopold-”

He gestured to the heavy-set fellow, who gave Alex a broad smile. “Any friend of Amir’s is a friend of mine, except for Donovan, of course.” Leopold said clapping Donovan on the back.

Alex shook his hand.

“-and this is Ursula,” Amir continued, gesturing toward a tall redhaired woman who looked just as tired as Amir. While Tyris’ red locks were as vibrant as fire, and Derek’s leaned more toward a deeper red, Ursula’s were pale, like her freckled skin.

She looked up at Alex for a long moment then turned away and coughed into her right hand. “How do you do?”

He decided not to try and shake her hand.

Her body language was similar to Amir’s. He knew the two of them weren’t related so he could rule that out, but he had no way of knowing if any similarity was because they had similar personalities, had known each other for a long time, or were from similar areas of the world.

“I’m fine, it’s nice to meet you, Ursula,” his voice expressed a warm friendliness that was projected on his face. Inside, he was carefully observing her mannerisms.

At this point, he found that he needed to call on The Mark a lot less when he was trying to convey a certain manner: even if it was the complete opposite of what he was actually feeling.

Ursula seemed to grow…even more nervous when he spoke to her. Alex was reminded of what Baelin and Officers Ferrero and Gustavo had suggested: that even if the demon summoner wasn’t a member of the team, they knew someone who was.

Her manner was tense. She seemed awkward and nervous, like she was uncomfortable.

Could she be the demon summoner?

“Don’t you mind her,” Donovan said. “Ursula is allergic to sunlight, people and fun. In that order. It took the better part of a week of convincing to get her to come out with us, even though we all had the time off and hadn’t seen each other in half a year.”

“I’m busy.” She shot a look at him. “Very busy. Amir knows what that’s like.”

“Yes,” Amir groaned.

Alex thought back to what Khalik had said about suspicions--like the ones he was entertaining--ending empires, and spreading them had done more harm than good.

‘It’s a good thing I’m not one of the investigators,’ he thought.

In some of the plays Professor Jules had seemed to disapprove of—the ones that involved boy wizards and scowling potions-masters--the protagonist often stuck his nose in places where it didn’t belong. Or at least, where it didn’t belong according to his long-suffering professors and adult guardians.

Of course, in those stories, the situation somehow always ended up directly involving the protagonist anyway, and always required the special ability that only they possessed to resolve it.

But things rarely worked out like they did in stories…which was an odd thing for someone who was literally a chosen Hero to conclude.

Baelin had said that he was becoming a more capable fighter and strategist, and that he also had people in Generasi he wanted to protect. He wasn’t the defenceless baker anymore; so, if he saw the demon summoner and could get the jump on them before they could summon their demons, he would try to stop them.

But he was definitely not an investigator; he was just interested in checking out some suspicions just in case. Someone on the expedition team could be out to frame him or another team member, so the best way to get ahead of that was to figure out who that person was.

At the very least, it’d be better to see an enemy coming, than to be taken by surprise.

He studied Amir as they continued talking.

“So, you looking forward to the Great Water Hunt?” Alex asked.

“I know I am,” Donovan answered before Amir could. “It’s a very important event.”

“They’re all important events,” Leopold said.

“Yeah, I know, but let me finish,” Donovan said, raising his hands. “Did you know that this beach is the very place where Roal defeated Oreca?”

“Really?” Alex said, pulled from his observations to look out at the water. “Here?”

“Oh yeah, her sword slew the demigod right here,” Donovan laughed. “His blood turned into little man-eating fish—gods die in strange ways—then she and her followers had to dive into the sea and hunt each of them down before they got away. That’s why the contest is set up the way it is. Impressive, eh?”

“I can’t even imagine battling a god,” Alex said.

“And to make things worse-” the pale man continued. “-Oreca’s priests were chasing Roal the entire time. They wanted to get revenge for killing their god.”

“Yeah,” Alex snorted. “I can imagine.”

He paused.

“Hey, that’s actually something I wondered about. Why did Oreca attack Generasi, anyway?”

Ursula frowned. “There’s a good reason the university bans priests from campus, that’s just how-”

“Now, now,” Leopold said quickly. “Let’s not go down that rabbit hole, shall we? The university may ban priests—right up until they have to work with them, that is—but the city is still open to any non-hostile deity. And priests do seem to be the target of a certain criminal, so let’s not go stirring up trouble, Ursula. It’s too beautiful of a day.”

“And there’s more to the reason behind Oreca’s attack than just: ooooo, look at me, I’m a big mean demigod. It was pretty much personal,” Donovan added, making a scary face then turning to Alex. “You have to understand, sea gods are often a very…aggressive bunch. They really are. Not all of them are as even tempered as Ek-u-Dari. The selachar are actually lucky.”

“I take it that other sea gods aren’t usually like her?” Alex asked.

“Goodness, no, there are plenty who are of the mind that ‘the ocean is my domain and all land dwellers should fear it and me’,” Leopold said. “They’re territorial like angry fire ants. Oreca wasn’t a full god, but his father was—also dead, by the way, gods do that a lot, though they don’t like us knowing that—and Oreca was powerful enough to have control of the southern Prinean in the ancient days.”

He glanced over at the water. “Oreca used to terrorize the land-dwellers here. He’d demand they worship him or he’d send storms to destroy their ships, and tidal waves to sweep onto the land and wash out their crops, animals and the people themselves. That sort of thing.”

“He demanded that wealth be poured into the sea for his treasury; the greatest share of a fisherman’s catch, people bound to ocean rocks as mortal sacrifices for his chosen sea monsters to feed on, and the like,” Donovan added. “Nasty stuff. Though when he was in a good mood, he’d give the people seas so bountiful, that accounts say you could walk across the fish like a land bridge on some days.”

“That’s a lot of fish!” Alex said.

Donovan paused. “Y-yes. It was. But the point is, everything depended on his mood, and the people were slaves to it. That is, until wizards started coming here and gaining more and more power from the mana vents. Then they began growing and developing their spellcraft and magical technology. They gained spells that altered the weather, though that involved big rituals back then.” He gestured to the sky. “This was before Noarc had learned how to control the weather, of course.”

“Right,” Alex said. “So, Oreca had control of everyone before the wizards came and learned how to defend themselves from his power. I take it the people feared and worshipped him a lot less. And you talked about sea gods being territorial…yeah I think I see where this is going.”

“Yes, indeed you probably do,” Donovan said. “After a time, people relied more on wizardry to protect themselves on land and sea than they did on his blessing. They stopped fearing him, and fear is a powerful motivator for worship, as is love, of course.”

“But fear’s easier to use,” Ursula said. “You can forget a loving god; you can never forget one you’re terrified of.”

“Exactly,” Leopold quickly cut in. “And no more fear, meant no more faith and spirit, which grants deities their power, or at least increases what they innately have. So, Oreca lost his worship, but not the need for it. He became enraged and decided that if…what was the quote, Donovan?”

“If ‘these magelings shall live without fearing the sea, then they shall not live at all!’ he roared, gathering his priests and his beasts and his bloody will, and went to paint the coastal waters with Generasi’s lifeblood!That’s from: My Battles, by Roal herself,” Donovan quoted, swelling his chest. “It’s not an uncommon story with gods. The only difference is that Roal and her followers could fight back. And they painted the sea red, alright, with his blood.”

“Deities, at least lesser ones, knew then that there were…easier targets to attack than Generasi,” Leopold said. “And, so we have peace to this da-”

“Parasites,” Ursula said loudly, sounding agitated. “All deities are parasites, and they would do well to remember what happens to parasites when they’re discovered.”

Heads turned toward her.

“Ursula!” Leopold chided, glancing at the bystanders nearby with an apologetic smile. “That’s not the politestthing to say in public!”

“Polite or not, it’s true, and we’re on campus, Chancellor Baelin knows! Look, we’re on the very coast where a god tried to kill everyone in Generasi because he couldn’t get what he wanted. What he demanded from them; you know-”

“I think that’s enough, Ursula,” Amir said quickly, then looked at Alex. “Can you excuse us for a moment?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Alex said, stepping back into line.

He’d been watching Ursula during her outburst, and her body language had become forceful, agitated and erratic. But he’d also seen something similar displayed in Leopold, Sinbrok, Donovan and Amir’s demeanour, as her anger grew.

The group stood there awkwardly as people around them stared and whispered before they decided to leave without even ordering any food.

Alex could hear Donovan complaining about that as they walked away.

Leopold complained even louder.

Alex watched them go.

He thought about what he’d learned.

‘None of them seemed to be big fans of priests and gods…but, of the five, Ursula seemed to have the biggest chip on her shoulder against deities and their servants.’

He took a look at the crowd around him, noticing some of the plainclothes officers that had been following him paying strict attention to Amir’s group as they moved through the crowd.

‘Well, hopefully it’s not my problem anymore,’ Alex thought. ‘If one of you is the demon summoner, then I hope they catch you quick.’

“That was very rude, Ursula,” Amir said, as they made their way toward their seats.

“And stupid,” Donovan added.

“It was true, damn you, Don!” she pushed through the crowd. “You know what deities do. And now, there’s going to be an expedition that’s working with priests and organizations that want them back on campus-”

“Oh boy,” Sinbrok groaned.

“Ursula.” Amir shrank in his seat. “Can you please drop it? Things won’t look good if you keep going on with this.”

“But you know what priests do. Look at what they did-”

“Ursula!” Leopold and Donovan said together, then paused looking at each other.

Donovan continued, as though he expected Leopold to stop speaking. “Amir has enough problems without you bringing suspicion on him.”

“But Amir has nothing to hide-”

“And that doesn’t matter,” Leopold pushed. “Let this lie, Ursula. Let’s enjoy the day. Put dark things out of our minds and have some self-control. Alright?”

“I…strongly second that,” Sinbrok said.

Ursula paused, her anger seeming to deflate. “…right, I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Amir said to Ursula. “Thank all of you, for just being good friends.” He looked at Sinbrok, then Donovan and finally at Leopold. “I’m in your debt.”

He turned back to the ocean, imagining for a moment that Oreca was there, and the brave Roal was facing him down.

Then his mind went to thoughts of demons.

Of innocents dying.

He winced, glancing to the side.

“Nothing to hide,” he whispered. “Nothing to hide at all.”