Hugo, Mia and Dean Artjom walked into the hall of sentinels. There was a long curved table in front of them with nine sentinel commanders seated and staring at them as they came in. Eight of their uniforms were identical blue and gray colors of the sentinel uniform, with the center man wearing a uniform that included splashes of red. There were three seats in the middle of the half circle and they walked up and sat down in them.

“Artjom, good to see you. Now we can get started,” the man in the middle said jovially.

“Colonel Sebastian, thank you for seeing us today,” the dean replied politely.

“For an old friend like you? Of course I would set up a meeting. And from what I am told this is an issue the sentinels should handle anyway. Attacks on the city by foreign powers certainly falls under our purview,” the colonel said.

“Indeed, it’s an issue that I believe can best be handled by the illustrious men here,” Dean Artjom said, “We have reason to believe that hedge mages are working with an unknown party to bring about the destruction of the city during new year’s. I believe a summary from our main source of information would be in order.” He nodded towards Hugo.

Once the colonel motioned his assent. Hugo cleared his throat, he had thought about this all this morning. He wanted to give them enough details to spur them into action, without getting them caught up in irrelevancies. He said, “As some of you are aware, a brilliant but insane ritualist set up a secondary soulmarking ritual on Shimmer mountain three years ago. The flawed ritual still soulmarked Mia here, but it sent her back in time over and over again until she was able to break the loop. An explosion of shimmer was what sent her back and she eventually stopped the problem. She did gain a few advantages from that time though, there is a reason she is the school’s azad champion.”

Mia gave them all a shy wave. There must have been a few azad fans on the council, as several of them had shocked looks of recognition on their faces.

Hugo continued before they had a chance to comment, “Two years later, I was soulmarked in the same flawed ritual. I lived an entire year before I was sent back to the beginning of this year. The explosion of shimmer came from the mountain top right after the heartbeat, a series of explosions leading down to the city. The explosion took out half of the city, killing thousands and thousands. We need to stop it.

“A month before the explosion happened last time, I heard hedge mages predict the end of the city, they demanded that the nobles tell them what was going on. I thought that made them allies, but it turns out a portion of them were in on the attack on the city. They abducted me and were intent on silencing me and my friends to keep their secrets. Luckily I escaped. I also survived an attempt from a known mercenary.”

Colonel Sebastian said, “Ah yes, we received the report on the body found at the bottom of the ravine. Impressive for a young man like yourself to survive the attempt.”

Hugo nodded in thanks.

Dean Artjom said, “I was hoping that sentinel command would have additional intel and would be able to take our information and act on it to save the city. I understand that information is normally classified, but I was hoping Hugo here would be read in. If we fail at our first attempt, he is our only way to send information back in time.”

A woman to the left of the colonial said, “That is all well and good, if the boy is telling the truth. I would hate to give up state secrets to a child with delusions of grandeur.”

“Oh shut up, you old bat. Just because you are a hundred and twenty years old, doesn’t mean you can tell us what to do. I tried to put you in charge, but you refused. If you aren’t going to lead us, you have to be led,” Colonial Sebastian said. It was obviously a sore issue.

She replied, “I’ll shut up about it if he provides some proof. We can't invest the resources and time needed to investigate his claims without some sort of proof.”

Reluctantly, the colonial turned back to Hugo and nodded.

“Well, Mia and I both corroborate each other’s stories. I’m the one that sent the letters about the saboteurs hitting the control runes on the walls,” Hugo said.

“That was you?!” a man on the end yelled out, “We have been trying to figure out who did that for months!”

“How do we know that was really you?” the woman said.

“Wow, you really are miserable, aren’t you?” Colonial Sebastian said.

Hugo could tell that he was just messing with her though, and the council still expected more proof.

“Well, in a few weeks there is going to be an earthquake. It will take out the city power and everything,” Hugo said, “But I suppose you want some proof right now, huh?”

Hugo sighed. There was only one other thing he could think of. He had been hiding it for good reasons, but he couldn’t put himself above the city. “Remember how I told you the ritual was flawed? It has some benefits. I ended up with two magic domains.”

With one hand he created a small blue sphere, and with the other he created a titanium ball. The council and the dean stared at him in shock.

Suddenly, everyone was talking all at once, “...how is this possible...can we replicate this...how do we know this isn’t an illusion...we need to act now...the power we could gain.”

Eventually, the colonial slammed his hand on the table, “Silence! I think we can proceed with the assumption that Hugo has been telling the truth. First order of business is to save the city. To that end, we will need to talk to the ritualist that created this time loop. It is likely there is a connection between him and the shimmer vein explosion. Once the city is saved from destruction, we can discuss experiments involving humans gaining two domains.”

The dean nodded along, but Hugo thought it was interesting that their first thought was tracking down Alexandru, not stopping the hedge mages. “Do you have any other information about why the hedge mages are doing this?”

“I believe you have shown yourself to be trustworthy,” the colonial said, “But the information we discuss in this room stays here, understood?”

Hugo nodded seriously.

A small man on the end started talking, “The first thing you have to understand is that there are three major groups of hedge mages. They number in the thousands across twenty cities, and are well hidden in the general populations. It is difficult to say anything about them with real certainty.

“We do know that one group of hedge mages call themselves ‘the betrayed’. Sometime in the middle of last year, they started working with a splinter group of the Reval military. The nobility of Reval knows that a war wouldn’t be good for profits, so they don’t want a conflict. But for some reason, a large portion of the military has been cooperating with hedge mages.

“We believe they have a specific goal in mind, perhaps this attack at the end of the year you mentioned. Normally their philosophies conflict, hedge mages are considered forsaken by the Octarians. But both groups hate us and the ruling nobility, so they are working together for the moment.

“The real problem is that we can’t track down the source of their funding. Someone outside of the wheel is funneling in platinums by the cart load. They seem to be working closely with someone in Deva. The hedge mages and Octarians might be doing what they always wanted to, but someone else is pulling the strings.”

Dean Artjom nodded and said, “Do you have any ideas on how they are going to detonate the shimmer veins? Or even who exactly is going to do the deed?”

“We only started taking it seriously moments ago,” the colonial said as he gestured at Hugo, “After this meeting, I will put together a taskforce to track them down. I will have to call in some favors from the other sentinel branches, but we will find and stop them, rest assured.”

The rest of the meeting consisted of them hashing out the details. It took five times as long as Hugo thought it should take and involved endless questions. They pumped him for the details he omitted earlier. He told them everything. All the important details from his first go around, including the exact date of the earthquake. Even how Oskar had put him in touch with the hedge mages. He even told them that this wasn’t his original body.

They seemed oddly disappointed that Hugo had body hopped when he traveled back in time. After the second question about it, he realized they just wanted a second domain for themselves, and didn’t like that his method wasn’t easily replicable.

Eventually, they made plans and sent messages. They planned on another meeting three weeks from now, the day before the earthquake, to report on their progress.

Walking out of the meeting, Hugo felt nervous and unfocused. He was surprised at himself, he should have been happy. The sentinels had taken him seriously, and they were taking action. He no longer had the fate of the city in his hands.

After a few blocks of walking he realized that was exactly what was making him nervous. He trusted the sentinels to find and apprehend the spies. The nervousness came from the fact that he wasn’t in control anymore.

Not that he thought he should be in control. He had enough of that. He just wanted to focus on school again. With the feeling identified, he felt his anxiety fade.

It was time to enjoy life and focus on school again. Tomorrow or the day after, he would have to start paying attention in class again anyway. He wasn’t going to get kicked out of school this time around, so all of the lessons would be new again. He was looking forward to that. He thought he would be able to keep on top of his coursework this time, he had a solid base to work from now.

That did bring up an important point though. What should he do about Oskar selling ravim? It was a complicated issue. His first instinct was to warn him. On the other hand, he is the one that put him in touch with the hedge mages that were out to kill him. It didn’t seem to be his fault, his former roommate was likely just a patsy in their plans. Hugo hadn’t talked to him since that day, so he didn’t know for sure.

He mulled it over after he got back to his dorm room. At one point the two of them had been great friends. After his betrayal, Hugo had been furious with Oskar. Now he was mostly ambivalent. Oskar didn’t seem like a bad guy, but ravim wasn’t really good for his fellow classmates.

Eventually, Hugo decided to warn Oskar. He walked down the hall and knocked on his door.

“Oh hey, man. Come on in. Haven’t talked to you recently,” Oscar said, “How did that meeting with the hedge mages go?”

Hugo knew he couldn’t tell him the whole truth, but felt like he should tell him something, “Not good, man. Not good. Those hedge mages are bad news. It was a bad night.”

“Ah man. I’m sorry to hear about that. You really wanted to meet them too. I guess I will have to make it up to you in a different way,” Oskar said.

Hugo waved it off and said, “Don’t worry about that. I came to talk to you about something else. About the ravim.”

A shocked look appeared on his face and Oskar said, “Really? I didn’t expect you to be one of those that bought the stuff. I mean, I can get you some, but I didn’t think you were the type.”

“I’m not. Ravim is a serious drug, it’s not good for anyone. I am here to tell you to stop selling it.”

Oskar drew back, offended. “Look. Just because you want to be all high and mighty, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have to make ends meet. This is how I am paying for my tuition. Plus, the connections are good. I am not going to give that up because it makes you feel icky.”

“Look. If I heard about it, and I don’t even want to buy any, the administration can’t be far behind. You should stop before you are expelled.”

“I wouldn’t get expelled,” Oskar said casually.

“Then stop selling because it rots your brain. They say it also hurts your soul core. Selling ravim is just bad for everyone.”

Oskar looked like he wanted to continue arguing, but Hugo held up his hand and said, “I just wanted to warn you. I have done that. Whatever you want to do from here on out is up to you.”