A few days after my talk with Vitaly, while my friends and I left to buy groceries, we were stopped in the middle of the street by a strange looking man.

His face was not blurred, and he was wearing black clothes, but my bad luck had taught me that it didn't mean he was a good guy.

"You," he spat out, in fact. "How dare you bring Vitaly to your side and use our warehouse? He should have never let you out alone."

I looked around. A few people were turning around, shocked. "First of all," I whispered. "I don't think you want to do this here. And second, if I know our teacher as well as I think I do, Vitaly simply let us go because he taught us black magic already."

"Or perhaps," I grinned. "You should ask your friend, Jinn's second in command, who messed with his memory, if he remembers what happened in the first place."

The man tried to lunge at me, to strike me in the face, but Edgar stopped him, grabbing his arm in mid-motion.

"You're not like them," he added then. "A Typhon. You must be a very low ranking member."

The man grinned. "In fact, I was sent here to distract you. My superiors are attacking Vitaly's house --- from the outside. I came here to bargain."

I exchanged a look with my friends. I had a plan, and I hoped they would trust me enough to let me follow it through. "We know. We will give you the Empty Mirror once we find it, and you give me back my cousin Risa."

The man in black had the audacity to laugh. "No, why would we do that? Do you think we'd make you swear without any binding oath? That's too easy."

I wanted to bluff further, and say I could sign whatever he gave me, but then I recalled Vitaly's oaths of secrecy. Some people took vows very seriously.

Raegan finally lost her patience, and encased the man in a block of ice. Jeff hissed, "We are in a crowded street!"

"Let them think what they want to," she shrugged. "We need to get to Vitaly, now."

"But we'll never know their bargain," Edgar reasoned, as we started running down the road.

"If it didn't have anything to do with Risa, it probably wasn't good enough for me. And just so you know, I wouldn't have given them the Mirror any way or the other," I specified.

When we arrived in front of the house, a group of hooded men were standing right in front of the doorway. They were attacking with different powers --- fire scorching the front door, ice encasing the windows and trying to break all the locks, earth burying the house a few inches into the ground, and even air creating a whirlwind. I'd never seen an Air Hierophant using their powers in a similar way to mine before, and I felt a little guilty. I didn't know what the Jurists in the group were doing --- they'd probably planned the ambush.

"We can't take them all," Jeff reasoned. "We should probably call the Law Enforcement, but we can't do that without turning Vitaly in."

Just as he finished speaking, the door opened up and a blinding light came out. It threw the Reapers in different directions, killing many of them on the spot. The others ran away, scared. Even my friends and I had to shield our eyes, and we were still about thirty metres away from the house.

Then, when everyone left, the light dimmed, and Vitaly walked out of the house, almost fainting. "That was my godly aura," he said. "And this will be the last time that I use it."

Vitaly explained everything later, after Brady Doyle insisted to make us drink one of his special brews.

"Using the powers we've claimed takes a terrible toll on a god," he said. His eyes had black circles under them, enhancing the blue-ish green colour. "If we use too much of it..."

"You risk becoming mad," Edgar commented softly. I wondered where he got that information from, but then I remembered it must have been one of his books.

"This quest you're going on... Samuel and I have looked for the Empty Mirror before," Vitaly added. "It wasn't a real quest, in our case. We had no back-up. I failed at it. Now it's your turn."

"To fail?" Raegan asked, to lighten up the atmosphere.

"No. You'll make it," Vitaly smiled bitterly, and his voice broke with emotion. "And in a few days time, you should probably leave. Please, do not worry too much about me, or the Reapers when you're gone."

Vitaly left, and we remained alone. We waited until Brady followed Vitaly upstairs. I wondered if they were a couple, but then I thought of Jinn's comment about Vitaly's unrequited love. I was almost sure that, the first time, Vitaly had fallen for Samuel Winter.

"All of those things we've been told about the gods..." Edgar started out as soon as Brady left. "Considering that hosting their power seems to be such a hurdle... It makes me wonder whether the gods don't exist."

"Are you out of your mind?" Raegan exclaimed. "Have you seen that?"

"That's not what I mean," Edgar bit his lip. "Their godly powers do come from somewhere. But Vitaly told us that, in recent times, many humans, I mean, Enchanters, have taken on their powers. But maybe the gods never existed. Maybe it's always been usual people, stealing that kind of magic from someplace else."

"And how does that help us?" Jeff shook his head. "I'd never thought I'd say this, because I am starting to feel almost like Raegan, but perhaps we shouldn't overthink things so much. We risk running around in circles."

"Jeff is right," Raegan beamed, ignoring the offhanded comment. "What we need is a good night's sleep."

Later that evening, in our room, Edgar talked to me before he turned off the light.

"Our friends are right. We are going around in circles. It's almost the winter holidays at the Academy, now. Tomorrow we'll leave and go back to the Academy, to tell them our progress and ask for more money to fund the rest of the quest."

I didn't want to leave Vitaly so soon, but I couldn't say no. It was a good idea, and I missed our classmates. I just didn't miss Mister Winter, but I imagined Jeff did, despite the old man's fault. "Let's not mention Vitaly," I added.

"Let's certainly not mention the Reapers," Edgar commented. "Or how dangerous they really are, up close. It makes me wonder if it isn't them we should fight, instead of Set... though thinking on it, we should tell the Professor the two are on the same side."

"And speaking of the gods," he added. "I know you agree with my previous words. We aren't so different."

"When we first met, you dismissed me as lazy and uncultured," i pointed out, but my tone was light. I wasn't angry at him. "It's true, I don't read as much as you do — it bores me, after a while. But I do read. A lot. I love books. It looks like none of my plans are thought through, because I act on whims, but they are impulsive actions that I think through, in my head. Sometimes, I wish I did follow my emotions more."

I grinned sadly. "I still end up doing disasters even thinking things through. It would be better if, at least, I didn't have to think."

In the dim light, I could see Edgar nodding carefully. "I'm sorry I've judged you. I'm not as bookish and collected as I look. You might have noticed how I always seem to say the wrong thing. I like being prepared for any eventuality, but in the end I follow my heart. My emotions betray me, they get the best of me every time."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "It seems like the things we had hated about each other, were really things that we were afraid to see in ourselves."

Edgar was silent for a while. He didn't say it out loud, but I thought I understood it all the same — we'd never hated each other. Fair, but we hadn't enjoyed each other's company either.

The following day, I was tired and sad. It seemed we hadn't learned much at Vitaly's house, even though it was the most informative time of my life. I now knew black magic, and more information about the gods and the Reapers. I knew Vitaly was alive, and that he was my second cousin. But most of that couldn't be told to the Professor, or our classmates, and I wasn't any closer to finding the Empty Mirror. We just knew we had to space-shift, something we also couldn't tell Mister Winter, and we didn't even know where we had to go, or how to do it.

"So, basically, the only thing we will tell my grandfather is what an Arcane is, that it has something to do with our quest, and that, magically, we found out that the Reapers and Set are on the same side and the fight a ruse, because everything else has to be censored," Jeff commented, when we were on the tube. "That's great."

"It's best not to mention Vitaly, and we shouldn't definitely tell him of the black magic he taught us," Edgar said, mostly for my sake.

When the tube arrived, Edgar noticed the excited look in my eyes once I walked down the familiar teal street and the huge building of the Academy was in the distance.

"You've been here less than us, but you think of it as home," he guessed. Then, he added, "I'm sure it mustn't have been easy to live with Mister Locksley. Have you ever thought of leaving home, maybe to enroll at the Academy?"

It was a good, perceptive question. Mister Locksley and I had indeed fought about the fact that I wanted to study at the Academy the year before. A huge fight that came to physical blows, and that I didn't want to be reminded of.

"I didn't. It always made me feel like a coward. I've always thought it would have taken a lot of courage to leave, if it was the best thing for everyone."

"Sometimes," Edgar said. "It takes a lot of courage to stay."

He hugged me. I'm not much for physical contact, but it didn't feel awkward.

Even though he was taller than me, his body was very thin and he had light bones, making our bodies fit perfectly.

As soon as the hug ended, I was overcome by the realisation that, somehow, Edgar and I had a breakthrough. I did not know where that was leaving us, only that we apparently didn't dislike each other.

Mister Winter welcomed us back at the Academy with a uncharacteristic grin on his face.

"Very good! Are you done with the quest yet?"

We exchanged sheepish looks. "No," Jeff finally managed to say. "We need more money to proceed... But we have very good leads! Why don't I explain everything to you while the others make themselves at home?"

Raegan, Edgar and I took our respective places around the table. We were exhausted, but the other students wanted to party --- both because we were back alive, and because Mister Winter and Jeff would be gone for thirty minutes at least to talk of the quest.

"I can't believe you guys were out in the Aether realm all alone. The Reapers attacked again!" Sean exclaimed. "I don't know what they are trying to achieve --- why don't they strike at the gods' council?"

I didn't know what to say to that, without telling him the truth, so we simply shrugged and said that we did our best to avoid them.

"I'm so excited that you're back for the Feast Day," Ohda's eyes glittered. "It's on the Winter solstice," she explained to me. "Please don't leave until then. Mister Winter agreed to let us celebrate in style and each one of us can prepare, or buy, the food we like the most. I've been trying to nail my mother's recipe for murgh makhani."

I promised her that we would stay, even though it was a lot of time, and Edgar gave me the stink eye. But Ohda was very nice, one of the students I felt closer to, and I couldn't let her down. Her enthusiasm and the fact she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty reminded me of Risa.

"Alice and Lucretia have been fighting," Bill warned us in a low tone when we went to the drinks' table to grab a cup of fruit punch or two.

"And where is Jake?" Edgar asked. I tensed immediately, and I saw Raegan doing the same.

"He is the reason Alice and Lucretia are fighting," Bill explained. "He left, with some weird claim about how the Aether Realm was going to destroy itself before we were done with the school year. Mister Winter said he was jealous of the quest. Lucretia believes he'll be back, but he hasn't even contacted anyone. Alice was heartbroken at first, but now she's mostly angry. She says she can't wait until he comes back, so she can break up with him."

"I think," Raegan said. "That this is the very reason Lucretia is anxious for Jake to be back, too."

I wanted to nudge her with my elbow, but Edgar flinched so hard he almost poured his fruit punch on the carpet.

"Let's go somewhere where we can talk," he said. "Alone. I don't want to share what I'm about to say with the others, just yet."

The first place we found where others wouldn't find us was a little broom closet near the kitchen. At first, standing in that place with Edgar made me feel awkward. Then, Raegan coughed, and I acknowledged her presence. I scuttled further from Edgar, just to have Raegan insert between us as a very oblivious sandwich.

"Oh, I've been so stupid!" Edgar's fingers were trembling so hard, I took the cup from his hands before the content was spilled. I threw it in a bin right outside the door. Edgar bit his lip so hard he drew blood. "You see, the reason I've been having trouble trusting people after last year's quest was that Jake had been acting so shady. He and Jeff were alone in a cursed temple when Jeff got jinxed. I always had my doubts that Jake hadn't done his best to help him, the way Sean or I would have done, because he'd always been jealous of Jeff. I thought that the quest had shown me the worst sides of my friends, sides that I didn't want to see... Or maybe that I was confused, and I was losing my mind, doubting everyone and everything."

I put a hand on his shoulder. I doubted he would notice either way, worked up as he was. "But now I see the truth, clearly... Jake..."

"He is the spy," I finished the sentence for him. "I know. He must be. It's the only thing that makes sense... As much as it pains me to say it. His arrogance aside, he seemed like a very good person."

"How can we prove it?" Edgar asked, sadly lowering his head.

"We will. Very soon," I realised. "Thank you for giving me the idea."

"I didn't give you any idea," Edgar frowned.

"You made me think of something. Let's check out the room I share with Jeff. Jake and Jeff always had a history of rivalry," I explained, as we were making our way upstairs. "And Jake is much too proud to leave and let people think he's gone without a real reason. Why, when he was in London he was probably already following us. He's the kind of person who'd be proud of his accomplishments."

"I'm willing to bet," I concluded. "That he left some kind of message for Jeff in our room before he went. It's the kind of person he is, and, if he is the spy, he must have realised we wanted to go back to the Academy sooner or later."

"That's a bit far-fetched," Edgar pointed out. "But knowing how Jake loves to show off, I can't help but think you are right."

The room looked just the same Jeff and I had left it. The ceilings and the walls painted in pastels, with scenes of English gardens that looked as idyllic as the most tasteful wallpapers. The beds were made. Nothing looked out of place.

We searched every angle, but we couldn't find anything written on the walls, under the beds, or no piece of paper on the floor.

"We might as well check out the room that I share with Jake," Edgar reasoned. "I don't think he would make it personal against me --- we aren't that distant from one another, but it's also true I showed him how appalled I was at his carelessness towards Jeff after the quest, and we grew apart."

Edgar was so pale, I realised he must have been a friend of Jake, before. A good friend. He thought it might be personal, but he didn't want it to be.

When we walked in their room, the very first thing I noticed was a Silver McQueen poster on the wall. Edgar had told me Jake wouldn't let him put them up. Edgar paled visibly.

"Who's the good looking man with the violet eyes and the silver hair?" Raegan inquired. "Is that your father, Edgar?"

"I don't keep posters of my father..." Edgar got angry, then huffed. "I don't keep any posters at all." 

He tore the poster off the wall, uncaring if it was tearing apart. I imagined Edgar, always the perfectionist, was really ashamed of his crush on the magical equivalent of a rockstar. I found myself wanting to tell him that when I was younger, I felt the same way with my favorite singer. I didn't know if I wanted to be Kurt Cobain, or date someone who reminded me of him.

I wisely decided to keep the thought to myself.

When Edgar took the poster off the wall, a writing in black sharpie was looking back at us.

"That's Jake's handwriting," Edgar said. "And this is his clue."

I couldn't help but shiver. The writing on the wall said,

Heroes of the quest. Now you know my secret. Let's meet at the tomb of Silver McQueen on the day of the solstice.