**
“I hope you spent some of your long weekend practicing; everyone to the courtyard,” said Andin to his first period class.
The class moaned in unison. One of his bolder students spoke, “Professor must you always have quizzes on Mondays?”
Andin took a loud slurp from his coffee before answering, “It’s Tuesday.”
The class formed a semicircle in the courtyard. Andin raised a row of stone targets for his students, each capped with a smaller stone. “I know many of you are strongly considering wind magic as your second discipline; you will have three attempts to knock the stone off of the target.”
Lines formed behind each target. One by one each student hit the stones; the more adept students did so on their first attempts. Andin noted their performance in his grade book. He offered advice to some struggling students, “It’s not finite like a ball of water, give the spell room to breathe.”
His students finished and Andin stood in front of them, “Well done – back to the classroom and I’ll explain the formatting of next week’s final exam.” Andin followed his students back inside and outlined the final. The fire prince finished, “Any questions?”
A girl raised her hand, “Will we be doing devotions after finals week?”
Andin answered, “Yes, those of you who are ready to select a second discipline will be able to devote to it at the end of finals week before winter dismissal.” The prince dismissed his class and they shuffled off to their next lesson.
After his morning classes Andin headed to the lab to check on the portal research. After only a few weeks of research it was obvious that he was hindering progress just by being there. The presence of an immortal disturbed the magic and collapsed the conjured portal. He offered assistance now only as an advisor. Andin rationalized the peculiar behavior simply, he figured the combined power of three immortals was enough to force a doorway open, regardless of how they naturally operated.
“The demigod alarm warned us you were coming,” teased Perc.
“Demigod alarm?” said Andin perplexed.
“The window starts disrupting when you are about halfway down the lab wing’s hallway,” explained Perc.
“Any progress?” asked Andin.
“Yes and no, mostly no,” said Perc in her characteristic snippiness. Andin stared until Perc continued her report, “Well we’ve gotten very good in the last week at making stable windows without constant input – but we can’t keep it open longer than nine minutes, no matter what we try.”
“But it’s still the canvas?” asked Andin.
“That’s it, it’s always your friend’s weird plane,” answered Perc. After weeks and weeks of varying the execution of the spell Andin and the research team could get the window to open only to Fake’s Canvas.
“It’s the most revolutionary magical advancement in a hundred years, and it’s wholly worthless right now,” complained one of the professors in the lab. Perc handed the fire prince a thick stack of notes to review.
Andin eyed the hefty stack and sighed, “I heard a rumor that Pelagos had some great works of literature.”
Perc rubbed Andin’s shoulder sympathetically, “At least you aren’t locked in here with a bunch of grumpy sailors pretending to be academics.”
“Oh witty stargazer could you lend me a hand with grading papers? I heard you didn’t have many students this semester,” countered another professor.
“Shut up,” shot Perc.
Andin left the sharp tongued lab rats to their work. He leafed through the first few pages of notes in his room. Fake walked in after him, “Hey what are we doing for the winter recess?”
Andin shrugged, “I’m not sure – did you have something in mind?”
“The Silver Island chain,” replied Fake.
“You’re not still thinking about breaking into the fort on Carmen Island are you?”
“No, there’s no reason to anymore – but the islanders might be able to fill in some of the gaps about our guy.”
Andin sat forward, “I’m in but we’ll need an excuse to give to Lady Pria.”
“Actually, I already figured that out too,” said Fake trying to hide his smile. Andin eyed him suspiciously. Fake continued, “Percaphia invited me; well us, I told her we’re a package deal.” An entire semester’s worth of Fake’s late night visits to the observatory rushed into Andin’s head.
Andin looked humorously disgusted, “Let me guess, she lives in that island chain.” Fake nodded.
“How long have you two…?”
“Since that first night in the observatory, you left early remember?”
“I can’t help but think this is mine and Chief Sorrel’s fault,” said Andin airily.
“I’ve been alone for almost a thousand years, what did you expect?”
It was as good an excuse as any other. Andin wasn’t very hopeful about the trip but hearing the account of the murders from the locals might shed light on the situation. In just a few months Fake had become an adept researcher and strategist, Andin could think of no better accomplice.