The light in Dean Fogg's office were glowing low by the time he called Kai in.
He stepped inside, casually shutting the door behind him.
Fogg didn't look up right away, simply ran a thumb across the rim of his tumbler of whiskey.
Finally, without preamble, he said, "Do you know how many times something has truly taken me by surprise, Mr. Parker?"
Kai's brow arched.
"Enlighten me."
Fogg chuckled dry, tired. "Mnnn… almost never anymore. But," he raised a hand, gesturing to his own face, "well, considering the state of my eyes and hands, I suppose I should've known there were still a few left. Today… was one of those days."
He rose from his chair with a slight groan and crossed the room to lean on the edge of his desk. He took off his glasses.
Even Kai, unbothered by most things, glanced once.
The dean's eyes were pale, touched with a cloudy milky sheen, fragile… but still intense.
"So tell me, Kai…" Fogg said slowly, looking at him now without filters or formalities, "how do you just keep pulling surprises right out of your arse?"
Kai shrugged, smirking. "Some people juggle, Others sing but me? I ruin expectations and break magical protocol. Gotta have a talent."
Fogg almost smiled.
But before he could respond, Kai tilted his head and cut in, voice dropping into something quieter sharp.
"You knew Julia wouldn't just give up on magic after that first entrance exam, didn't you?"
That stopped Fogg.
The dean's expression hardened thoughtful, unreadable.
He was silent for a long moment.
Then… a slight nod.
Kai took a step closer, folding his arms.
"And what were the odds, hmmm… that she'd end up meeting another one of your expelled students? One whose memories you had wiped clean, no less."
Fogg's silence was heavier this time.
"…I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you figured out she was once a student."
Kai smirked. "Oh please, it wasn't exactly hard to deduce. Not with how she knew just enough to get dangerous."
Fogg sighed and looked away.
"I had hoped those two wouldn't find each other. That she wouldn't… stir those embers back to life."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "Gee, if only she'd been admitted, then this whole mess could've been avoided. Shocking, truly."
Fogg gave him a look, as if he wanted to respond then pivoted completely.
"Do you like magic?" he asked instead.
The question was abrupt.
A deflection.
Kai chuckled, not fooled for a second.
"That's a strange question, Dean. It's not really about liking or hating magic. It's about… what it opens up, the access, the ability to move between limitations. To mold something immaterial into tangible, terrifying potential."
He walked to the window, staring at the flicker of moonlight catching the broken archways of the east wing.
"Magic is a blade, a promise, a noose, and a door all at once. The question isn't whether I like it." He turned slowly, eyes gleaming.
"The truth is I need it. So yes… I do like it."
Fogg studied him.
Then, for the first time tonight, he smiled. Genuinely. Weary but real.
"Well, I've heard all I need to hear."
He placed his glasses back on.
"Good night, Kai. Now get the hell out of my office."
Kai gave a mock salute. "As you command, oh mighty and milky-eyed."
Fogg just sighed. "Out."
---
Kai exited the office with slow steps back into the quiet corridors of Brakebills, where the wards hummed low, and also the secret entrance Elliot had shown him.
He paused, glanced around.
Empty.
He cracked his neck once, rolled his shoulders, and then Vamp-speed away in a blur.
——-
Marina stood near the center of the room, her fingers grazing the smooth, ornate edges of a wooden box her prize, her salvation.
She was practically glowing with anticipation.
"Wow..." she breathed out, voice dripping with awe. Her eyes sparkled, the adrenaline of possibility racing through her veins. "I kind of can't believe I ever thought I knew anything."
Julia, standing across from her, watched with visible unease, Something was wrong. The box hadn't even been opened, and yet… Marina was acting like it had already given her everything.
Marina turned, flashing a wicked grin.
"I'd like to share now... some of it. With some of you."
Without another word, she waved her hand lazily in a series of gestures.
Julia's body jerked forward. Her hand raised involuntarily.
"Wait—WAIT—!"
The room was filled with the sound of a violent sizzle. Julia screamed in agony as the magical stars etched into her arm were overwritten by a burning X.
As Marina was about to say something, the door exploded open.
A massive pulse of force shattered the frame, blowing it off its hinges. Furniture toppled. Every hedge magician in the room froze, some already preparing to cast, some backing away.
Julia almost collapsed to the floor, clutched her seared arm.
Marina took a step forward, pushing Julia aside instinctively.
"Who the fuck are you?" she spat.
But Julia, blinking through tears and pain, looked up and froze.
"Kai…?"
The man who stepped through the ruined threshold wore calm like a tailored coat. His eyes locked not on Marina but on Julia's arm.
He didn't speak right away.
Then…
"Pardon my intrusion," Kai said softly. "I let myself in."
His voice was pleasant, too pleasant. Julia recognized it as the calm before an inevitable, storm.
Marina's face twisted. "How did you get past my wardings, how did you find us?"
Kai stepped forward slowly, hand lifting. Dangling from his fingers was a lock of hair.
Without looking at her, he handed it to Julia.
"Locator spell," he muttered.
One of Marina's hedge magicians, a broad-shouldered man with dark skin and braids, reacted immediately after that. He flicked his wrist glyphs already forming in the air.
But before the spell was even halfway formed, Kai was behind him, hand on his shoulder. The man screamed as Kai's palm glowed red, siphoning magic straight from his connection with the wellspring.
Everyone froze.
Another hedge magician that was beside the man, an Asian man also tried to cast. He didn't get far.
Kai lifted a finger lazily and murmured a wordless curse and used the pain inducing spell to cause aneurysm.
The man screamed, blood pouring from his eyes, ears, and nose as he crumpled to his knees, clawing at the air.
The room fell into utter silence.
Kai looked around slowly, eyes deadly calm.
"Anyone else want to try me tonight?"
No one moved.
"Good."
He turned to Marina.
"To answer your other question" he began. "I merely nullified your warding. And how I did that?" He smirked. "Well, that's for you to never find out."
Marina's hand was already behind her back, silently forming a curse.
Bbbut she was too slow.
Kai was on her in a blur, fingers coiled around her wrist.
She gasped and so did everyone else who weren't expecting the sudden motion.
He leaned in, one finger gently resting against her lips.
"You hurt my friend, Marina," he said softly, "and now… you've scarred another I hold dear."
Julia was trembling, confused and afraid, her hand still scorched and bleeding.
Marina began shaking her head once, twice.
But it was already too late.
Kai whispered:
"Torsion fou mort de l'esprit."
Her hand immediately burned a jagged, creeping rash forming in the shape of a spiral symbol, pulsing with faint red glow.
She staggered back, shrieking.
"What what have you done to me?!"
Kai's eyes were still cold, unblinking.
"I placed a hex on you,"he said simply.
He leaned forward again.
"An insanity hex to be precise."
Gasps rippled through the room.
"This mark will twist your mind until nothing remains but violence, screaming, and murder. In time, the magic will become irreversible. Your brain will rot in real time."
Marina stared in horror at her hand, unable to stop the tremor now running through her body.
"This," Kai said calmly, "is your punishment for your transgressions."
He stepped back, fixing her in his gaze.
"And one more thing if you want any hope of reversing it, you will give Julia every resource she needs to further her magic. Is that clear?"
Marina, too shaken to speak, simply nodded rapidly.
Kai raised his hand to deliver another line when suddenly, a blast of light consumed him and Julia.
In a blink, they were gone.
---
Kai landed on his feet in the middle of a quiet, grassy field under a pale gray sky.
"What the fuck" he muttered, whirling.
Julia stood behind him, hair a mess, eyes wide. He scanned the space which was now void of any magical signature he recognized.
"Did one of them apparate me away? Tch… Whatever."
He turned to Julia.
"You okay?"
She nodded slowly, then looked down at her arm and back at him. "What the hell was that back there Kai?"
Kai exhaled. "There's… a lot you don't know, Julia." She looked at him then lifted the lock of hair he had handed her.
"What the hell is this, Kai?"
He winced. "Okay wait, wait. That was part of a tracking spell. Nothing nefarious. I just needed to find you."
Julia shook her head. "They kicked me out, Kai. Marina used me."
Her voice cracked as Kai hugged her, and tears welled again before asking,
"How's he?"
Kai softened slightly. "He'll live."
Julia let out a broken sigh. "I lost my friend. And now… this."
Kai rested a hand gently on her back as she cried.
"Quentin doesn't hate you Julia, betrayed yes but not hate. Now Let's get you home. You need rest."
He began walking her slowly through the quiet, empty world his mind already spinning with another thought.
'I wonder if she'll be able to break the hex…'
'She probably will. She's smart like that and resourceful.'
Still, the small satisfaction of having dealt Marina a dose of fear she'd never forget…
It soothed something deep in his soul.
For now.
——————-
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