Vitaly's words were welcomed with different reactions. But before any of us could ask questions, Brady Doyle, ever a gentleman, chided us to sit at the table and talk about it during breakfast.

"Being hungry doesn't help anyone when one is already angry," he said.

I, for one, was mostly stuck on a thought. I thought, even wished, Vitaly Malinov had been my father. But after his confession, I would have done anything to prove that he wasn't.

"I thought I finally found a good teacher, but it turns out this is probably just a trap," Raegan sighed.

Her grey eyes looked sad and thoughtful.

She looked like she had more emotional baggage than the other orphans at school, like Jeff and Lucretia. Sometimes, she acted as if her feelings towards violence and murder were personal and deep-rooted in her being.

"Well," Jeff choked back tears. "At least being a member of the Reapers means being against the monster that killed my father. I guess this is why he is leading them..."

"But," he added. "I cannot imagine my father wanting this life from his best friend, I'm sorry."

"Well, it's clear the Reapers were formed after your father was killed," I couldn't help but say. "Maybe life stopped making sense once Vitaly lost his best friend."

"Well, that's somehow worse, isn't it?" Jeff replied. "Joining a murderous cult isn't a way to show the world you disagree with the senseless violence that got your best friend killed in the first place. I don't know why you're always taking his side, Ryan."

"I would not take his side for anything in the world, at this moment," I said. The pain in my voice was not exaggerated. "But now I know something I didn't. I dreamt that I was Vitaly when he was about to join the Reapers. I felt his humiliation and his discomfort. I felt his disgust. Whatever this vision was, I can tell it wasn't a simple dream. It can't lie to me."

"Ryan is right. I was disgusted — I've been living in pain for years," Vitaly said. "I will tell you everything. Where do I start?"

He smiled. I'd never seen him smile, and it brought something back of the sweet, young Vitaly he once was.

"As a member of the Reaper," Edgar said, his analytical mind already at work. "What have you done that was so bad, exactly?"

"I helped them carry out some plans, and I always found space for them to regroup," Vitaly said sadly. "But I could never find it in me to shed innocent blood, and so I mostly studied artefacts and legends. For example, the way Arcanes can be used in real life..."

I smacked a hand on my forehead. "Of course!" I exclaimed. "Arcanes."

"You've never told us if it could have something to do with our quest," I reminded him. "We've seen a picture of an Arcane before, and there was also a name — Jono Mitchell."

Upon hearing the name, Vitaly Malinov froze. The look in his eyes was terrible.

"It does mean something," Vitaly said. "I don't know what, exactly, but it means we have to proceed. Actually, it might already be too late."

"So, does this mean we trust Vitaly?" Jeff asked, arching an eyebrow.

"We have no choice but to," I replied. "He didn't seem to be of bad sort of Reaper like Jinn was. Besides, it doesn't have to be so easy on him --- he has to earn our trust every step of the way."

"This is something I have to do," Vitaly lowered his head. "And a way to repent for past crimes. I've never re-joined society because I was waiting for a moment. The right moment. Where I could strike both against them and against Set. The two sides have more in common than you think... And the time has arrived when the four of you showed up on my doorstep, apparently. I will never let Jinn or any of the others get close to you, and I will fight them with whatever mean necessary if they're back. This is as much as I can prove to you right now, but I'll think of ways."

"As long as you don't kill us in our sleep, it's fine with me," Raegan shrugged. "Tell us more of the quest."

"This story started years ago," Brady Doyle said. "I should have seen that it was about to end."

I looked at them, desperate. But I could tell from the look in their eyes that they didn't want to tell us more details. Not yet.

"It's not too late, if I help you," Malinov decided. "Wollstonecraft and Barnes will join the regular courses, especially if you, Brady, can help me keep an eye on them. As for the time-changing and the space-shifting, we're missing a very important detail here."

"The Aeon," I said.

Vitaly looked at me as if I was stupid. "Black magic. To learn how to create a time continuum, one needs to disrupt the balance of good and evil in the universe. Therefore, one needs to practise both paths. This was why Jeff's grandfather didn't want you to learn it."

"But he practises mind-reading!" I exclaimed.

"It's the closest he'll come to admitting every single part of our magic is useful," Vitaly said. "Just like we have to accept every single part of us. Speaking of which, we start today, from the simplest thing. Mind reading."

I wondered if Jeff was as unsure about this as I was. I knew Raegan practised black magic, and she wasn't a Typhon, but I also realised that this was why Edgar's magic and mine worried Malinov. There was no telling how our own spells would react to the change.

"I'll split you in two groups," Vitaly told us. "I will teach Jeff, Brady will teach Edgar, and Raegan will be Ryan's teacher."

I wasn't happy about it. Why didn't Vitaly want one of the Professors to teach me? Did I do something wrong?

I remembered what Jake told me the first time we had ever spoken of black magic — the spells consisted in killing, changing someone's memories, making yourself invisible and reading someone's mind. He had said that doing these things to a human would have been very easy, but I couldn't bring myself to believe it was true. I had never accidentally read anyone else's mind before. 

I wondered if I was flawed. Maybe I couldn't read minds. If that was the case, my teacher, Raegan, was going to find out about it soon.

After lunch, we were ready to start our first lesson. Jeff was visibly nervous --- we'd just decided that we trusted Vitaly, sort of, and there he was teaching us black magic. In a way, I agreed with him. But if black magic was required to attempt space-shifting, it could be the reason Mister Winter didn't want the students to try the spell.

Before I could talk to Raegan, I found Edgar. 

At that moment, it felt as if he was taller than me by more than five inches. Heck, it was at least six. Still, he had a straight and long back with narrow shoulders, while I, while being thin, took up about the same amount of space. I squared my shoulders and he backed away.

"What was it you said about that weird dream?" he asked. "Should I be worried?"

"It was an exception. I don't dream," I replied.

Edgar smiled cunningly. "Then I guess that this has nothing to do with the way your magic is strange and unlike anything I've seen before... we talked of the storms, before."

"Do you think I'm some sort of Typhon? Really, a wimp like me? Have you gone crazy?"

Edgar sobered up. As he pinched his nose, he muttered, "Yes, that was a very bad deduction. What would my father think?"

"If he was here, he'd tell you to knock it off with the posters of Silver McQueen," I replied. "Do you have a crush on the man?"

Edgar couldn't hide the fact that he was blushing. Well, he actually tried to hide it, shaking his thick black hair in front of his face. I was secretly happy that he got embarrassed too. It wasn't only me, then.

But a second later he smiled at me, with a polite and mysterious smile, acting confident as if nothing had shaken him.

"Silver McQueen is my hero," he replied finally. "Or should I say was? What are you supposed to say when your hero is dead? Anyway, he was a famous Enchanter who used his powers for show business. In the 80s. His shows were wonderful."

"I bet they are," I said. I took that as a peace offering. "If we can find a way, you can show them to me... Hey, can I ask you something?"

He nodded. "It seems unfair you get to shoot all the questions and I cannot know about your weird dreams and shady secrets, but sure."

"Why did you choose to share your room with me? Why not Jeff or Raegan?"

He looked a bit displeased that I asked. But his voice was confident and careless when he replied, "Though you don't share my interests, well, you're lively. I'll hand you that."

"I'll take it as a compliment," I told him.

"I didn't want to risk getting in a fight with Raegan — she looks like she could kill me in my sleep. Jeff is barely older than us, but he's way more experienced. Statistically speaking, we had more chances to get along."

I wondered if Edgar was so much a social inept that he had to trust statistics to tell him that he would get along with his Griswold of all people.

"Today, during the lessons," he said. "I need to be concentrated and make a good impression, so I'd like not to think about your dream."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "I'm a little eccentric, and so are my dreams. Just think about your magic."

"You too," he replied, arching an eyebrow as if he'd surprised even himself.

That was the moment we heard the door being opened. It made a strange sound, as if someone had broken in.

"Really, Vitaly?" a voice I recognised as Jinn's said. "You should have known I would have never let the matter drop. And that when I want to... I can break in everywhere."

Edgar and I started running in the direction of the hall. 

"Are you scared?" he asked me.

"No," I replied quickly. I didn't know what was the use in lying, I never lied. But sometimes I made the truth seem better than it was.

I smiled at Edgar. I didn't want him to be worried about me.

He looked at me intensively with his dark blue eyes. "You're full of shit," he snorted. "But you're brave. I'll give you that."

When we arrived in the hall, Vitaly was looking at Jinn with fury, and he appeared to be sort of glowing from the inside out.

"You're right," he snarled. "I knew you wouldn't have let it slide! And while it's imperative we do not show our true nature to them... I also knew I wouldn't have hold back if it came to protecting the students who came here for shelter!"

I ran until I was beside Jeff. "Uh... What does he mean?"

Jeff gestured for me to shut up. He looked enthralled. Vitaly started glowing again, until he became completely white --- hair, skin, eyes, clothes... everything. And while he hadn't grown any taller, he appeared to be larger than life.

Jinn laughed. "Oh, how you trust them! More than they trust you, that's for sure. It isn't only illegal to show the humans the real face of a god... It's also dangerous. What if they go back to their precious little school and tell everyone gods are people? What if others want to team up and steal their powers? The gods have kept at bay the Reapers so far, but..."

"Humans, throughout the ages, have always found out," Vitaly replied. His voice sounded strange, like under-water. "Otherwise, how do you think the gods continued to exist? We are replaced. Ad I trust my pupils not to make the mistake I made when I became Jophiel."

In a moment, Jinn's taunting words from the other day became clear. Like every time I was overwhelmed, I couldn't help but ask a stupid question.

"Jophiel comes from the Christian and Jewish lore, doesn't it?" I asked. I was curious. "It's the name of the angel who apparently cast Adam and Eve out of Eden, even though it's not confirmed by the scriptures. His name in Hebrew means beauty of God or divine beauty."

"Hey," I added, when Jeff gave me a side-eye. "It's the first time I really understand how this works... The whole gods have been changed and re-named to incorporate the lore humans came up with throughout the ages. Lore that might have referred to those beings in the first place."

Vitaly wasn't as old as to be around before Jesus Christ, but whatever power he was hosting... that seemed to be around since the dawn of time.

"But..." Raegan exclaimed. "If you're a god, how can you lead the Reapers against Set? Isn't this treason?

Vitaly seemed to falter, and for a moment he appeared less larger than life than before, and more coloured. Jinn laughed again.

"I'm sorry, I came here to attack," he said. Now that I could see him from up close, I was disturbed at how his facial features were blurred by a spell, and his voice was robotic. Was it for anonymity? "But every time I understand how the Russian bastard handled the situation, it always gets more ridicoulous! Tell me, Vitaly Malinov, or should I say Jophiel, how many bad choices have you made in your life?"

"What do you mean?" Raegan asked. There was a drop of water floating in her hand, and it was getting bigger. I imagined she intended to use it as a weapon, and I realised I could have summoned a very unpredictable hurricane to battle Jinn if things went south.

"He told you the Reapers are fighting against Set? Well, that's what the TV thinks, at any rate. He didn't even have to lie. But the truth... the truth is different. Though these days, it's hard to see how much of the truth Vitaly can tell --- he swore so many oaths of secrecy in his youth! He was involved in literally everything that happened when Set came back on the council... On one side or the other..."

Vitaly winced. "Stop, Jinn. I know you want to confuse them further."

Vitaly was right. After he'd broken more than one very important law by showing us he was Jophiel, all of that in order to protect us from Jinn, I felt my trust and my admiration growing. I could only hope it was the same for my friends.

Vitaly made a movement of his hands, and time seemed to stand still. In a moment, we were all wrapped in some sort of giant bubble.

"It's the spell you did the other day!" I exclaimed. "This is the Void... you stopped space and time."

Vitaly didn't seem to be in mood for compliments. Or perhaps he had no time to talk. He made other gestures, Mudra I didn't recognise, and Jinn was engulfed by magic so powerful it looked like light. Then, the Reaper went slamming against a wall, with so much force one would believe he was dead.

If it wasn't for the fact that he got back up on his feet again, lame and weak. Brady Doyle created a portal. Like Jinn and Edgar, he was a Jurist. Edgar seemed to be happy the smartest out of our two teacher was a mind elementalist like him, so I decided that the news that Jinn shared their powers would have to wait another day.

"Come, jump in," Brady told us. "This will not get you far, but away from where the main action is happening."

In that moment, I understood a couple of things. Not only Brady Doyle was doing it to protect us --- there was also a hidden meaning. He was giving us a way to trust him. They'd welcomed us in their house, fed us, showed us secrets students like us weren't meant to know, told us advice about the quest... and now he was letting us go. If we accepted, there was no guarantee we wouldn't proceed on our journey. He was willing to let us leave, for good.

"No," I said. I didn't even have to think about it. "We want to stay. We are no good alone, at this point of the mission, and by living with you we don't have to waste time and money and we can actually learn something."

"You can leave and come back," Brady said. He kept stealing glances at Jinn and Vitaly, hurting each other with their powers. He sounded hopeful. I didn't understand yet why he lived with a recluse who sometimes hosted meetings of the Reapers, his murderous group, who was also secretely a god, but I wasn't going to judge him for it. It just seemed like a very lonely life.

I exchanged a look with Edgar. He understood how I was feeling. "We decided to stay, so if this place was torn to the ground, or Vitaly was killed, there would be no point in our decision, wouldn't it? No, we'll help."

Brady closed the portal, looking slightly worried. Edgar and him started talking of plans --- the weapons they could locate, the tricks they could pull on the enemy. In the meantime, Raegan doused Jinn with water. As the Reaper was coughing, Jeff and I created a whirlwind. It was difficult, because it didn't have to be big enough to wreck Vitaly's house, and I was never the master at keeping things under control. But for a little gust of wind it was destructive, and I knew it because of me.

Vitaly was doing most of the fighting, with his godly powers, but at the end of the day he was still only the most pacifist god whose main feature was stopping space and time. I realised that, before, he'd meant he had used the Void to find a way for the Reapers to meet without being sneaked upon. But I was too tired and, frankly, too impressed, to judge him.

Then, for a moment, I thought I was losing my mind. Another Vitaly appeared behind Jinn. At a closer look, however, it wasn't right. He was taller, and his features more stern. But it did the trick. Jinn turned around, and he was welcomed by a punch in the guts that sent him out of the house.

The person who looked like Vitaly but not quite showed his real face --- it had been Brady Doyle, shape-shifting.

"You're a fool," he told Jinn. "But not as much of a fool to ambush Vitaly and his new pupils again. Leave, and never be seen if you know what's good for you."

Then, he closed the door.

"That was neat," Raegan exclaimed, as well all panted and Vitaly regained his colours. "But why didn't we kill him?"

"That's black magic, and I've been refraining from using it too much," Vitaly smiled through his exhaustion. "But the four of you... You will have to learn how to do it, the next few days."