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Clementine exhaled deeply as he pushed the bathroom door open. He was met by Elliot, Mathew, and Mavis' smiling faces, their conversation coming to a halt so that they could greet him and ask him if he was okay. He nodded in response, ushering them away from the bathroom and down the corridor where the rest of the students hadn't long wandered. He'd cleaned the blood from his hands and face, but he kept checking his skin in case he'd missed a spot. He also made sure to hide his face from his allies so that they wouldn't question him in the middle of the academy.

          He waited until they were heading up the spiralling staircase to the library to slow down. There wasn't anyone around, and he didn't want to risk people overhearing in the library.

          "Guys," he said.

          The three of them stopped and looked down at him from the steps they were standing on.

          Where should he even start? "I, uh...something happened in the bathroom." There was no going back now.

          "What happened?" Elliot asked worriedly.

          "Are you okay?" Mavis asked.

          He nodded. "Yeah, well...no—but yes," he said, scratching the back of his head.

          Now that they could actually see his face, concerned frowns quickly warped all three of their expressions.

          "What the hell happened to your face?" Elliot asked.

          Mathew growled something agitated. "Who did this?" he asked, gesturing to Clementine's face.

          "That's what I needed to tell you about. I was in there and I heard someone come in—it was Ian—"

          "Ian?!" Mavis squeaked.

          "Ian's goons," Clementine said, trying to remain calm. "They grabbed me, and—"

          "Where are they?" Mathew growled.

          How many times was he going to be interrupted? He sighed irritably and shook his head. "I wanted you to hear it from me before it spreads. They grabbed me, they were going to kill me, but...some guy came in and killed them. I didn't see who it was," he lied, "but he killed Ian's friends and ran off."

          Elliot adorned a nauseous stare as Mavis and Mathew glanced at one another, confounded frowns on their faces.

          "They...tried to kill you?" Mavis uttered.

          "How did they get in?" Mathew questioned. "We were right outside the door."

          "There was another door—it's how that guy got in, too," Clementine explained.

          Elliot finally spoke up. "So...Ian's friends; they're...dead?"

          Clementine nodded. "Only three of them. I recognized Connor and Horace, but the other dude...I don't know," he lied. Why was he still lying? Should he just tell them he'd gathered names from the student files? No, not yet. Not until it was relevant.

          Mathew reached out and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Clementine?" he asked sincerely.

          "Should we take you to the medical wing to see if they can give you something?" Mavis asked.

          He shook his head and shrugged Mathew's hand off, his grip agitating his bruised body. "I'm all right, honestly. Just a little...shocked, I guess."

          "W-we should tell the professors," Elliot uttered. "There's going to be a trial, we have to—"

          "There won't be any trial," Clementine interjected.

          Elliot frowned in confusion. "W-what do you mean? You saw who did it; you have to tell—"

          "No," he refused, shaking his head again. "I didn't see who did it. I was kinda disorientated. "

          Mathew nodded. "And Clementine was the only one there, too," he said, glancing at Elliot. "If we tell, there is the risk that Clementine might be painted as a suspect."

          "I don't like this," Mavis whispered, shaking her head. "What if the one who saved you comes out and tries to blame you?"

          "I don't see that happening—"

          "Why?" Elliot questioned fearfully. "You said you didn't see them—they could be telling a professor right now to shift the blame!"

          "If that were the case, we would have heard the gramophones calling us all to the trial room."

          "B-but what if they use this to blackmail you, or...or...why did they even let you live?" Elliot panicked, moving a step down so he was a little closer to him.

          "I don't know," he uttered. "Maybe he thought I was already dead or something. I was laying on the floor from where Ian's goons beat me up."

          Mavis suddenly squealed in fear. They all looked at her as she dragged her hands over her face. "Ian is going to think we did this, and then he will come after us—and this time, he won't miss!"

          She had a point. She had a horribly concerning point. Ian had to have sent Connor and the others to kill him in the bathroom, and when they didn't report back to him, he was surely going to think that Clementine had killed his goons. Sebastien might have saved his life, but in doing so, he'd just dug Clementine into a deeper hole.

          He shook his head, but before he could speak, the academy went cold. Of course it did. Three kids had just been slaughtered.

          The four of them stood there as the world around them faded to a gloomy, miserable blue. The only one that wasn't shivering was Mathew, who Mavis clung to with both her arms. And then, a very faint monstrous growl shook the ground at Clementine's feet.

          "Come on," he said, easing past Elliot so that he could lead the way. "Let's just get to the library."

          "What if Ian's waiting for us?" Elliot uttered as he, Mathew and Mavis followed Clementine up.

          "We've got Mathew," he said confidently.

          Mathew nodded. "I won't let him hurt you again, Clementine."

          "Maybe...maybe it would be better for us to just go back to our dorm," Elliot suggested. "We've got books in there. Maybe they can help us with our assignment."

          That was a good idea, but Clementine wanted to search the library for a book that might tell him what a dybbuk was. So, he glanced back at them as they reached the top of the stairs. "If we hide away in our dorm, it's only going to make us look even more suspicions—well, me," he said. "The best thing to do right now is to just keep doing what we're doing like nothing happened."

          "And...and if Ian comes, then...we fight, right?" Mavis whispered.

          "Maybe he will be scared now that his friends are dead," Mathew suggested. "He will be wary of you, Clementine."

          "Yeah, but I didn't actually kill them," he said with a sigh, and as a group of girls up ahead headed through the large archway and into the library, he glanced back at his allies. "Let's just stop talking about it for now, okay? We don't need anyone overhearing. And let's keep a close eye out for Ian."

          They all nodded in agreement and followed him into the library.

          Clementine found he felt relieved. Of course, he hadn't told his allies everything, but not having to hide what had just happened from them provided him with a calmness he hadn't felt since coming to Aldergrove. And they'd also reacted rather favourably. He knew Elliot would freak out and try to suggest they inform the professors, but it had been relatively easy to talk him down. Mathew responded the way he expected—he was the muscle, after all. And Mavis...well, Clementine didn't exactly know what to expect from her half the time. He still didn't know very much about her other than that she was fae and didn't follow the religions of any of the students here. He was glad, though, that they were still his allies.

          "Over here," Mavis said quietly, leading them to one of the few available reading booths.

          Elliot squeezed in first, and as Mavis sat beside him, Mathew shuffled along the seat across the table from them. Clementine sat beside him and leaned back, sighing quietly as he tried his best to relax, but the bruises he suspected covered most of his skin beneath his clothes made that a little difficult.

          For a long, awkward moment, the four of them glanced around the table at each other. Clementine was sure they wanted to ask more questions about what had happened in the bathroom, but there were ears everywhere. Students were packed into the booths; others were scouring the towering shelves of books. Even if he wanted to talk about it, now wasn't the right place or time.

          "Mathew and I can go and look for the books if you two wanna stay here and...well, I don't know," Clementine mumbled.

          "We'll keep our seats; if we leave, they could be taken by thieves," Mavis uttered with a scowl on her face, looking around the library.

          Clementine got up, and as Mathew sluggishly followed, he headed towards the towering bookshelves.

          "Are you sure you are okay, Clementine?" Mathew asked quietly as they stopped in front of a bookshelf.

          Reading over the book spines, he nodded. "Yeah."

          "That bruise is looking pretty bad," he said, leaning a little closer.

          Pulling a book on rituals and sacrifice from the shelf, Clementine backed off a little. "I'm fine," he insisted.

          Mathew nodded and started looking through the books.

          Clementine kept hold of the book he'd taken from the shelf, and while Mathew searched, he gradually moved away from the lanky kid, glancing over at him to make sure he wasn't watching him. Then, he slinked over to the bestiary section and hastily searched over the spines. He hoped he'd find something that read 'dybbuk's', but he found no such thing.

          "What are you looking for over here?" came Mathew's voice.

          He looked to his right, watching as Mathew stood beside him and stared at the shelves.

          "I don't know. Books aren't my thing. I'm not really sure what I should be looking for."

          "Hmm...I think this will do," he said, holding out the large mahogany book titled: 'Wandering Spirits and All-Hallows' Eve' which he'd brought over with him.

          Nodding, Clementine followed him and placed the book he was carrying back on the shelf. They headed back over to where Mavis and Elliot were waiting and sat down.

          "Did you find something?" Elliot asked quietly.

          "This," Mathew answered, placing the large book down.

          Elliot pulled the book closer to himself and opened it to the contents page.

          As Elliot read through it, Clementine glanced at Mavis, who was twiddling her thumbs together. He hadn't forgotten what she'd said in the assembly hall the other day, and it had him curious. "So, if your people think this celebration is sin, aren't you going to be excused or something?" he asked her.

          She looked over at him. "Well...."

          "Yeah," Elliot agreed with an intrigued frown on his face, looking over at her. "Do the fae celebrate their own version or some sort of other thing on All-Hallows' Eve?"

          "Well, I remember my parents would put up wards to keep away the wandering spirits—they don't believe they deserve rewards," she explained, shaking her head.

          "So you'll be putting up wards?" Mathew asked her.

          "Well...no," she mumbled. "I sort of want to join you guys."

          Clementine frowned. "But you don't believe in it," he said, as though he did.

          She shrugged. "It sounds fun. A party—I like parties. And there aren't any other fae here, so no one can tell me to disappear."

          "But isn't it against your beliefs?" Elliot asked.

          Mavis then adorned a frustrated glare. "What the fae believe and what I believe aren't the same, okay? I get my own say."

          Clementine's frown thickened. She had seemed pretty adamant the other day, talking about the fae's own deities. Why the sudden change in her tone and response?

          "Sorry," Elliot said. "We didn't mean to offend you."

          "Yeah," Clementine said with a nod. "We just...well, I don't really know all that much about the fae, so."

          She shrugged. "It's okay. I'm not offended. I know that not many people know about my kind—we are very hard to find."

          "So, are you allowed to take part in All-Hallows' Eve?" Mathew asked.

          "Well...I don't really know, but I can't see why not," she answered. "My parents only ever said that it was sinful, but never mentioned it was disrespectful to Goddess Ephriel."

          "Ephriel?" Elliot asked.

          Clementine recognized that name.

          "The Angel Goddess?" Elliot questioned. "She's the fae's deity?"

          Mavis nodded. "Goddess Ephriel is the Numen, but she created many deities that the fae worship, too."

          "Do you do anything for her on All-Hallows' Eve?" Clementine asked.

          She shook her head. "I don't think she will be mad, though. At least...I hope so."

          "Why are you the only fae here, Mavis?" Clementine asked.

          Looking down at her lap, she shrugged. He didn't fail to notice the saddened pout on her face, though. Had he upset her?

          "What did you do for All-Hallows' Eve?" Elliot suddenly asked.

          Clementine looked over at him to see that he was looking at him.

          "You lived in Ulrora Slope, right? I heard there's some divide there between the wolf walkers. Some of them still try to keep the old ways alive."

          He had no idea what he was talking about. "Yeah," he said quietly. "I don't know. The orphanage I was in didn't really do anything. I think they set up an offering table, but that's it."

          "You grew up in an orphanage?" Mathew asked sympathetically.

          "Yeah," he said with a shrug. "My family died when I was young."

          "I'm sorry," Mathew said sadly.

          Mavis nodded, a look just as sullen on her face.

          Clementine shrugged and looked at Elliot. "What did you do?"

          "Well, other than trick-or-treating with my mother, our whole street would come together and set out a table of offerings for His Lord Caedis. He favours items associated with witchcraft, so we'd lay out mandrake root, cinnamon, roses, lavender, lemongrass incense, and when we could find some, vendite. As for the wandering spirits, we left sweet rolls on our doorsteps. We tried to do the same every year, but it's so hard to find vendite; we had to resort to gold coins after a few years."

          Mathew nodded. "My family would stuff the carcass of the animal we offered with gold coins, magickal herbs and black salt. Our hunts were bountiful for weeks after."

          As cultish as Clementine thought this practice was, he couldn't deny that he was intrigued. "So, if the god likes your offerings, he...what? Grants you fortune or something?"

          "He blesses us and our families," Elliot confirmed.

          "And what if he's not satisfied?"

          "Wrath," Mathew uttered, an ominous tone in his voice. "I've heard stories of His Lord Caedis' anger—he has destroyed entire countries before."

          Clementine's eyes widened a little as he held back a scoff. Part of him thought it was all scaremongering, but then again, if he was wrong, he didn't want to anger some deity and deal with the repercussions. "So, we should make sure we offer the best we can find, right?"

          Elliot nodded. "And I think we could find everything we used to offer here in the academy. The gold coins might be a little harder to come up with, but we're heading to Ulrora Slope tomorrow, so we could visit the bank."

          "And do what?" Clementine asked, frowning. "I don't have any spare coins to give out."

          "Neither do I, actually," Elliot admitted.

          "I could spare a few," Mathew said. "My family gave me an allowance to last the semester."

          Mavis clapped her hands. "I could spare some as well. This is going to be so fun, I can tell!"

          "Okay, so that's the offerings for the god covered," Clementine said, pulling the book Elliot was reading closer to himself. "Now we need, uh..." he paused, reading over the list of things required for the celebration, "offerings for the wandering spirits"

          "The spirits like trinkets and sweet things," Elliot said.

          "I could bake something!" Mavis said excitedly.

          A choir of hushes came from every direction.

          Mavis frowned in embarrassment and hid her head under her hands.

          "That sounds good," Clementine said quietly. "What about trinkets?"

          "My family and I left out a chess board one year," Mathew said. "The pieces were made of glass—the spirits seemed to like that."

          "We could also pick up some little crystals in Ulrora Slope," Elliot suggested. "Some of them are fairly cheap."

          Clementine scratched the side of his face and stared down at the book. He didn't have money to spare on crystals and offerings. He'd barely scrounged enough together to get into Aldergrove; he hadn't thought about gathering more to use throughout the semester.

          "I can give my chess board," Mathew said. "I should also be able to get us some crystals—"

          "Is it bad if all of this comes from just one person, though?" Clementine asked.

          "Not that I know," Mathew answered. "But if you are worried about that, I can give you all some coins."

          "Oh, you don't have to," Elliot said.

          He shook his head. "I am more than happy to."

          "Aw, Mathew," Mavis said, smiling at him. "You're so kind—a rare find!"

          The voices hushed her again.

          Mathew shrugged. "If we need more money, I can write to my family. They are one of the biggest bodyguard-lending businesses, so it shouldn't be an issue."

          "Huh, I guess it makes sense you don't want to be just like them then," Elliot said quietly. "I suppose they expect you to follow in their footsteps?"

          "Yes," he said, nodding. "They have been in business since before the war."

          "Well, you can be whatever you want. Just like Clementine said. When we get to the New World, you'll get to choose what you want to do," Elliot told him firmly.

          Mathew's crooked smile twitched across his face.

          Clementine closed the book and slid it back across the table to Elliot. "Is that everything?"

          "Well, other than getting outfits for the ball, I think so," Elliot said.

          "What kind of outfits do we have to get?"

          "It's customary to wear blacks, reds, and golds. Dress robes, suits, that sort of thing," Elliot explained. "And my most favourite of all, the masks."

          "Masks?"

          "Masquerade masks!"

          Mavis clapped her hands excitedly.

          Mathew nodded. "To blend in," he said.

          Clementine nodded. "Right, the whole dressing up like wandering spirits thing."

          "Precisely," Elliot said, smirking. "I already have a good idea of what I'm going for."

          "I already have my dress robes," Mathew said. "I will just need to pick up a mask."

          "I'll need everything," Clementine muttered.

          "Me too," Elliot said.

          Mavis smiled. "Me three."

          "All right, well we're heading out there tomorrow," Elliot said, "so, let's focus on getting what we can today for the offerings."

          "There is an alchemy and potion storage room near magick studies," Mathew said. "I am sure the professors will allow us to take what we need considering as this is for the academy."

          "We should still ask, though," Elliot said.

          "Agreed," Clementine said. "The last thing we need is another two-hour Saturday detention."

          Elliot nodded.

          "Should we head down there now?" Mathew asked.

          Clementine stood up. "Yeah. The sooner we get all that stuff, the better. Then we can focus on—"

          "Baking!"

          "Shhh!" the library echoed.

          Mavis hid her face behind her hands again.

          "Come on," Elliot whispered, "let's go."

          Then, as Elliot led the way, they left the library, heading for the alchemy storage room.

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