The next morning, Hugo went to the shooting range after classes let out for the day. He wanted to work on his shooting bracers, and he was going to be responsible for once. Instead of shooting untested weapons in his dorm room, he was going to experiment in a safe place.

To his surprise, there was already someone there. He chose this time because he thought no one would be there. He still wanted to keep his second domain secret from the general public even though the dean and sentinels and Mia knew. Maybe he was fooling himself that his secret would stay that way.

As he got closer, he realized who was blasting away at the range. It was Lenna. He had slowly been building his friendship with her again over the last few weeks and he was glad for the chance to talk to her again. She shot an arrow at an armored dummy. It hit, but didn’t penetrate. As Hugo grew closer, she quickly cycled through a mana dart, crossbow bolt, fire rune, sword, and a shimmer caster. The armor seemed unfazed.

Just as Hugo arrived, Lenna yelled out, “Yes! It works!”

“What works?” Hugo said.

“Gah! I didn’t see you there,” Lenna said, “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

When she saw he was still waiting on an answer, she fumbled for the shimmer caster and held it up. “This shimmer caster was supposed to be broken, but I fixed it.”

“The shimmer caster?” Hugo said with a raised eyebrow. “A formations mage was out here working on a shimmer caster? They call those mage killers you know. Should I be concerned?”

Lenna said, “Uh, no. I don’t really want to use it. It’s just a hobby. Don’t be worried about the caster, it only had enough shimmer for one shot anyway.”

“Right,” Hugo said, “Well the armor held up well against all of that. Where did you get it?” He walked onto the range to inspect the armored dummy.

Lenna ran ahead of him and stood in front of the faintly glowing armor. “That’s not for you to see. My parents would be mad. You don’t want to make them mad. But let’s not talk about that,” she said, casting around for another subject, “Oh hey! You have to tell me where you heard that rumor. My dad didn’t believe the rumor, but we moved some valuables anyway. And the tiger gang tried to rob the warehouse two days later. Please, tell me who your source was. I must know.” She led them away from the dummy as they talked.

“Oh you know, friend of a friend. I doubt that my friend would like his name spread around, let alone who he heard the rumor from. I am just glad that the advice helped out. Although, I bet he wouldn’t say no to a reward,” Hugo said with a smile. He felt a little silly mentioning money, but he did save her family from losing thousands of platinums worth of mana cores.

Lenna barked out a laugh. “You know what, I bet my father will be feeling extra generous soon. I will ask him, and we can send a reward over if he agrees,” she said and held out her hands wide.

While they were talking, Lenna continued to walk him away from the shooting range. They chatted for a bit as they walked. Hugo couldn’t help but notice that she left everything behind. She really didn’t want him to see that armor.

That confirmed it for Hugo. Lenna finally got her special project to work. Hugo had always wondered why she chose spider silk as her first element. She had chosen three elements that combined to make something special, that must have been the armor.

It didn’t look like plate armor, like all of the best armors out there. It looked like cloth actually, with metal strands woven in. Hugo found it particularly interesting that the armor still glowed faintly after being hit with a shimmer caster.

If Lenna could produce armor that would retain its magic even after being hit with a mana stripping shimmer shot, that was something special. The balance of power in Reval was pretty equal with the shimmer corps on one side and the sentinels and nobles on the other side. This armor could shift that balance. Without the ultimate option of the shimmer caster, the corps would be little more than fancy mundanes.

Hugo walked back to his dorm. He wasn’t going to get any experimenting in today. He wondered if he should even mention Lenna’s discovery to anyone. Perhaps he should talk to the dean or Sage Rasmus about it. It was game changing, but if Sage Rasmus told everyone what her elements were, that would strip her of her competitive advantage. She had obviously kept her other two elements secret so no one could quickly copy her.

He decided to keep her secret for now. It was worth a lot of money to Lenna and her family, and he couldn’t think of a compelling reason to tell everyone about it. New armor wasn’t a danger to the city like the hedge mages were.

He found a letter waiting for him when he got back to his dorm room. It was related to the mountain guide brothers he had contacted weeks ago. They had gotten in touch with Alexandru about Hugo’s request. Alexandru had sent him a letter personally, asking to talk.

Hugo had to read through the lines, but it seemed like the ritualist suspected that Hugo had traveled through time. Alexandru wanted to talk, but he refused to come meet him in Reval. He insisted on a meeting in Tallinn the next Eighthday.

The letter mentioned twice that he had to come alone. That stipulation gave Hugo pause. Someone had already tried to kill him, this seemed like an obvious trap. On the other hand, he couldn’t see why the ritualist would be working with the hedge mages.

It was possible that Alexandru had simply realized that his ritual wasn’t legal. The authorities might be after him. It was a reasonable concern now that he thought about it. Even if the shimmer corps and sentinels didn’t want to imprison him, parents of dead children might be after the ritualist.

Hugo’s first instinct was to go anyway. It was a risk he was willing to take, getting ahold of Alexandru was too important. He might hold the key to stopping the explosion.

On the other hand, he was trying to make better decisions these days. He took the letter to Mia and they got a meeting with the dean.

“Well, my first thought is that it seems like a trap,” Dean Artjom said.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Hugo said.

“I know Alexandru,” Mia said, “I ended up talking with him over dozens of loops. I don’t think he is involved with the hedge mages. He thinks he is advancing scientific endeavors for mages, he wouldn’t work with a group intending on bringing them down.”

“Are you sure about that? What if they offered him a lot of money?” Dean Artjom said.

Mia hesitated for a moment before she said, “No, I don’t think he could be bribed to work against science. He would do a lot of despicable things for money, but everything he earns always goes back into his research.”

The dean nodded and said, “I imagine you were able to get a good read on his personality, but I am not sure that putting Hugo at risk would be worth it.”

“How can it not be worth it?” Mia said, “This is the fate of the whole city we are talking about.”

“It’s easier to risk someone else’s life rather than your own,” the dean said disapprovingly. “We suspect that Alexandru’s ritual might have something to do with this disaster, but we don’t know for sure. It isn’t worth risking Hugo's life on a maybe. We know that Deva and the hedge mages want to destroy this city. We need to focus on them.”

“It isn’t a big risk. I know Alexandru. Even if his ritual has nothing to do with the explosions, he might know something about how they are using the shimmer veins to attack the city.”

Hugo had been looking back and forth between them as they argued. He said, “I’m willing to risk it. Saving the city is worth risking the life of one person.”

“No. We can’t risk you. Hugo, you are our only connection to the past. Our second chance. You need to stay alive until after the new years. After that, feel free to throw away your life as you please.”

Hugo and Mia frowned at the dean, but said nothing. The discussion was obviously over. They left dejected. Hugo still thought he should go. He couldn’t always play it safe, they would never make progress on saving the city that way. The dean was older and wiser though, he would trust his judgment for now.

...

The next morning, Hugo was woken up by the sound of someone banging on the door. He got up and blearily walked to the door. There was no one there. It turned out that they had been knocking on Oskar’s door down the hall, not his. The dean and an upperclassman were talking with Oskar. Shortly thereafter, the student pushed into the room, the dean following.

Hugo nodded to himself. Oskar must not have taken his warnings seriously. He only had himself to blame now. Dean Artjom was right to crack down on the sale of drugs at his school, it was just too bad Oskar thought being liked was more important than doing the right thing.

He heard arguing from the open door. Oskar obviously wasn’t taking this lying down. Which was kind of funny. Even though Hugo had seen him deal drugs twice over by now, he still thought Oskar didn’t seem like the drug dealing type. He didn’t have any street smarts or slick connections. Where had he even gotten the ravim in the first place? Oskar said he grew up rich, where did he find the lowlife that would sell him the drugs?

As the arguing continued, Hugo had a sudden realization. It had to have been the hedge mages. It all made sense. The hedge mages were trying to bring down the nobility and mages, what better avenue of attack than a drug that rots your brian? He didn’t know much about ravim but maybe the rumors about how it stunted soul core growth were true too. It must be another weapon in their war against mages.

That would explain how Oskar of all people had gotten the drug, the hedge mages must have approached him. The attention starved boy must have been easy prey for them. They might have even used their shadow mage to get the initial deal going.

Oskar was led out of his room then, the dean’s hand firmly on his forearm. They were taking him away to be expelled.

Hugo fought with himself for a bit before he yelled out, “Dean!” He walked closer and said, “I think I know what this is about, and I have an idea to help you out. Oskar probably didn’t realize this could get him expelled. I bet if you offer to let him stay, he could help you catch his source. The real ravim dealers.”

Dean Artjom stood there stiffly, “I suppose that may be true, but law enforcement is not my purview. My responsibility starts and ends with the academy walls. I see no reason not to just expel the boy.”

“Oskar, I bet your source was the hedge mages, right?” Hugo said.

“How did you...?” Oskar said before he shut his mouth forcefully.

Hugo gave the dean a meaningful glance and then walked back to his room. It was nice knowing that someone else would have to follow up with that investigation. Even if the dean wanted him to go along for informational purposes, no one would want to put Hugo near the hedge mages. The dean was going to pass on the info anyway. The sentinels would probably follow Oskar to his ravim dealer and arrest the hedge mages there.

Now that he thought about it, it made sense that they didn’t trust the shimmer corps with this. At first he had just assumed that they didn’t tell the shimmer corps because of the inherent animosity between mages and shimmer corps. Now he knew that the mages were right to distrust the corps. They hadn’t stopped the ravim trade, nor hedge mages operating within their own city. Either someone in command was complicit with their actions, or the shimmer corps had a mole. They couldn’t be trusted.

Hugo walked to class, deep in thought. He wondered how corrupt the shimmer corps were. Was it possible that they were working with Deva? The saboteurs had to have help in the city. He thought at first that it was just the hedge mages. Now he wondered if it was the shimmer corps as well.

That idea didn’t make much sense when he thought about it. The shimmer corps were full of noble people that sacrificed to protect the city. They wouldn’t betray the city they protected and lived in. It was much more likely that it was just a few rogue agents protecting the hedge mages. A voice shook him out of his musing.

“Hugo are you alright?” Daniela said.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Hugo said. The question surprised him, he didn’t think he had been acting strangely. Maybe he had a weird face as he was pondering conspiracies.

“Well, it’s just that. Well, I don’t want to sound needy, but...” Daniela trailed off.

“What is it?” Hugo said, concerned.

“It’s just that we haven’t talked at all in the last three days. I thought you liked me, but you have been ignoring me in class and just walked away without talking to anyone,” Daniela said.

Hugo’s heart sank.