“We can explain,” Bellara began.

“I am waiting for you to do just that,” the Warden replied.

“Wait...” She tapped her chin with her index finger pensively. “What exactly do you know?”

The Warden scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Let’s dispense with these coy games, young lady. I have been sent to recover what you’ve stolen from the Redrune Academy, namely ten crystals fully laden with aura, as well as a priceless ancient artifact known as the Psysword.”

“I told you this would happen,” Sahni moaned quietly. In the corner of his eye, Kendrick saw her ruffle her own aqua hair in front of her face as if to shield herself.

“Okay, fine, so you know pretty much everything,” Bell conceded. “Except I bet you don’t know what we’ve done with the items we stole. It’s not as if we took them for selfish gain—we used the crystals as part of a very important ritual, and the Psysword has slain numerous Underworld invaders already. He’s the one who wields it...” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at Kendrick. “...and he’s proven quite competent with it so far.”

“And what is your name, young man?” asked the Warden.

“...Kendrick,” he replied hesitantly.

The Warden smiled. “And, Kendrick, from what region of Kanthos do you hail? You don’t look like someone from around here. Something about you seems... different.”

Kendrick cleared his throat. “I... am from...” He glanced at Bellara and Sahni for any hint of a clue. “...F-f-, um… Townshire...don.”

“Townshiredon,” the Warden repeated with impatient, half-lit eyes. “You are from Townshiredon. Is that what you’d like me to believe?”

“You may not have heard of it. Really small. Everybody knows everybody, kinda place. Good... good people in those parts.”

“Khloremi, you seem to be the most honest one among you lot. Why don’t you tell me the real story of this outlander here?”

Sahni fidgeted nervously before answering, clearly unable to contain the truth at her lips. “Bellara and I summoned him... from another universe.” Bellara slapped herself in the forehead and sighed. “I’m sorry. He already knows everything else, right? I thought I... I thought...” Her little voice trailed off into silence again.

“From another universe, you say? That’s a bold claim. What evidence do you have to support this claim, other than the fact that he seems to come from a land with oddly named locales such as Townshiredon—”

“Will you give it a rest, dude?” Kendrick said defensively. “I was obviously improvising.”

“That’s really none of your concern, Warden,” said Bellara. “Just take the sword. The crystals are empty, but you can have them back, too. Isn’t that what you really want?”

“I don’t believe it is up to criminals,” the Warden answered in a scolding, lordly voice, “to decide how their own interrogation should proceed. I request again that you either provide proof of your extraordinary claim or tell me how you actually used the aura in those crystals. Those to whom I report are very interested in learning the whole truth, and I won’t rest until I hear it.”

Bell shot him an angry look. She hesitated. “Fine... we were lying, okay? We thought you’d go easy on us if we said we used the aura for a noble cause. He’s just some criminal runaway trying to escape his gambling debts in Varyngard. I keep him around because he knows his way around a fight and he does what he’s told...” She reached into her bag and pulled out two empty, lightless crystals. “We sold the aura in a black market on the west coast. It fetches a high price these days, what with the need to defend oneself against invaders.” She gave Kendrick an up-nod. “Do me a favor, take the Psysword from Sahni’s bag and hand it over, would you?”

In that moment, her gaze locked onto his with an iron focus. Her eyes bore holes straight through his. Then she shook her head ever so slightly.

“You got it,” he answered in his most confident voice.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Sahni whimpered.

Bellara inhaled sharply. “Sahni, let’s not—”

“We could have sold the blade off tomorrow and dumped the empty crystals in the river,” she went on. “We were so close...”

“Yes, yes, it sounds like you were,” the Warden scoffed. “This should teach you not to meddle in matters about which you know nothing.”

Why is Sahni going along with the lie? Kendrick thought. He paid meticulous attention to everything that was said next, trying to make his movements look as natural as possible.

“Professor Greenwood was none the wiser, too,” Bellara added. Kendrick held the hilt of the dormant Psysword blade in one hand as he advanced toward the Warden. He stepped forward cautiously, waiting for another signal. “Oh, Professor Greenwood, Aldiel bless her heart... She let us handle all those priceless artifacts when we visited the Academy—unsupervised, at that! We could have taken even more. I just hope we didn’t get her in too much trouble. She was the nicest professor I’ve ever had!”

The Warden folded his arms and smirked disdainfully. “Oh, rest assured, she has already been apprehended and will receive her own justice soon enough. Perhaps her sentence may be more lenient now that the stolen items have been recovered... mostly.”

“Really? You’ll go easy on her? You promise?”

The Warden rolled his eyes. “My word is my bond, but my patience is growing thin. Hand over the blade. Now.”

“Really? That’s what I was hoping you’d say... because...” Bellara reached out her arm to hold Kendrick back. Then she crouched into a battle-ready stance. “Redrune Academy has no Professor Greenwood.”

The Warden sneered at them. “What in the Ecumene are you talking about, Cass?” Something flickered behind his eyes. “Is that so? Well-played, middling. I prefer stealth and trickery, but I don’t mind getting some blood on me if the need arises.”

“B-, uh, Bellara?” Kendrick sputtered. “Translate?”

“Listen very carefully,” she answered him solemnly. “This is a matter of life and death. Activate the blade and get between me and Sahni.” The two girls dropped their bags without ever taking their eyes off the Warden.

Meanwhile, the Warden cracked his neck and his knuckles. His body hummed with a menacing energy. Even the air around him seemed to waver like heat rising from the ground on a scorching summer’s day. “I’ve been following you three for some time, but I could never quite get close enough to you to learn what I needed. Whenever I caught up, you were always in crowded places, too. Until now.” He scoffed and spat on the ground. The soil where he’d spat sizzled and sank in on itself. “It’s funny... I really was going to let you three live if you’d given me what I wanted.” He looked at Kendrick. “But I don’t think I’ll have much trouble taking it.”

“B-B-Bellara?” Sahni trembled. “We need to get out of here!”

“It has our scent,” she argued. “Portaling will just burn aura and it will buy us only a few moments.”

“But—”

“No. No!” She gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. “We’ll be killed. Our only chance is to fight.”

“The blue-haired one has the right idea,” said the Warden. “But the red-haired one makes a fair point. You would only delay the inevitable.”

“Glacios,” said Bellara, clenching her fists. “I’m going to enjoy sending you back to the Underworld. Jinn.”

With that, the Warden burst into searing orange flames.

“Whoa!” Kendrick exclaimed. “What the actual f—”

Fwoom! A cloud of ice roared forth from Bellara’s punch.

“Parto reig!” cried Sahni.

Their two-pronged attack enshrouded the pillar of fire with a vortex of ice and simultaneously encapsulated the Warden—or the jinn, as Bellara called him—in a bubble of aural energy.

Kendrick focused his will, and to his delighted surprise, the Psysword burst to life in a half-sharpened blade of sorts. If the aura were metal, it could generously be called a short sword (albeit a dull, misshapen one.) In this break in the action, he asked Bellara, “Just what exactly is he?”

“That is a jinn,” she answered while maintaining eye contact with the sealed fire-and-ice maelstrom. “A powerful spirit of the Underworld. They are spies and assassins who report directly to demons.”

“Can we take him?”

“With you here?” At this, she shot him a sidelong glance. “We might have a chance if you fight. Glacios.” Cold air materialized around her hands. “I’ll watch out for you if you do the same. Do you trust me?”

Before Kendrick could answer, Sahni’s forcefield shattered like glass. The jinn attacked.