The clean room…
Or whatever Henry insisted on calling it wasn't what had Kai on edge.
He stood against the wall beside Sunderland, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the ceiling but not really seeing it. His mind was elsewhere, gnawing at a mystery that had evaded even his sharpest senses.
'Where the fuck did that blade disappear to…?'
The Virgo Blade the thing that had carved Penny open like a sacrificial offering, the same cursed thing that had vanished before he could even react. It hadn't blinked out in a flash or dissolved like some textbook magical artifact. No, one moment it was there and the next It was just… gone. Houdini-style.
'Was it the blood?' Kai mused, jaw clenched. 'Could it have done a sleight of hand while I was distracted?'
He traced back the moment again, the exact time it slipped away from existence. His eyes narrowed, It had been just when Professors Sunderland and March entered the room. Coincidence? Maybe. But Kai wasn't a believer in coincidence. Especially not in Brakebills.
"Kai. Hey, Kai…what's happening in there?"
Elliot's voice cut through his thoughts, and Kai blinked, looking down. Elliot and Quentin were striding toward the door. Professor Sunderland held her hand out firmly.
"You can't go in there."
The door opened just as Dean Fogg stepped out, frowning deeply. But Kai's only glanced at the dean before looking into the room at Mike.
The guy was shackled by the ankles to the floor, seated like a calm prisoner. He lifted his head and looked straight at Kai.
There was something in that stare and it was not remorse, not confusion. It was caution. Kai's lip curled in a faint smirk.
'Liar.'
Mike had feigned amnesia when talking to Henry. But that was a lie because apparently
Martin is in front row seat, in fact he's driving the bus and he was enjoying the show.
His smirk faded slightly as a sliver of doubt crept in. What if… what if Mike really was in there, somewhere buried, and Martin was using some shielding magic to bypass the dean's diagnostics?
He turned back to Elliot, catching the tail-end of the argument.
"I'm telling you," Elliot insisted, "this could have been mind control."
Dean Fogg, ever the skeptic, replied dryly, "There's always the possibility that this was Mike and he did this intentionally."
---
Brakebills Hospital Wing
Kai sat near the window, sunlight slanting over his shoulder. Penny lay in bed beside him, pale but still very much awake.
"You're not exactly the face I expected to wake up to," Penny muttered.
Kai glanced over. "I needed someone to bother and since no one is allowed to go out of brakebills well…," he said flatly, dry as dust.
Penny scoffs before saying. "Sorry about Mary."
Kai looked away, exhaling. "She didn't deserve what happened to her."
There was a pause.
"How're you feeling?" Kai asked, changing the subject.
At that moment, Alice walked in, arms full of thick books. "Hey," she greeted, seeing Kai, a little surprised.
Kai raised an eyebrow at the stack. "Homework? Are you kidding?"
Alice set the books down with a soft thud. "Yes, Penny. I brought you your homework."
"Why?" Penny groaned.
Kai tilted his head looking at one of the book then mockingly said. "Because clearly, nothing says recovering from magical impalement like a deep dive into enchantment theory."
Alice gave him a deadpan look. "I'm here because I thought you might like to talk to someone who isn't a healing student."
"Ouch," Kai said with a smirk. "That's fast. Dismissing me in one breath."
Alice shrugged. "Well I didn't know you'd be here and uhh, since Kady's not here…"
That was salt on a fresh wound.
Penny's expression stiffened. "Is this pity? Because I don't need it."
Alice's shoulders dropped. "Okay. Fine. It's pity."
"At least she's honest," Kai muttered.
"I mean, she had shit to do. Elsewhere," Penny added quickly. "I'm good."
"Great," Alice replied.
Kai chimed in. "Fantastic."
Alice crossed her arms. "I get it. People are generally disappointing."
Kai looked at her, then nodded. "That's just about everyone, yeah. But sometimes, people aren't meant to thrive in every setting. Give them the right environment, the right time and they'll surprise you."
Penny scoffed. "Doesn't matter. Me? I'm ready to pull the ripcord any moment."
Kai leaned back slightly. "Is that what you're doing now?"
Penny flinched suddenly, wincing as a jolt of pain racked his body.
"Uh… Penny?" Kai leaned forward, concern flickering through him.
Penny didn't respond.
"PENNY," Kai said louder, as blood began to pool underneath the shirt.
Alice gasped. "Oh my god—"
Penny rolled up his shirt to reveal dark, root-like veins bursting from the wound.
"Shit, that's not good" Penny muttered.
Alice turned to the hall. "Somebody get Quentin!"
Kai stared at the cursed sapling growing from Penny's stomach. Then he had a thought.
'Should I siphon the magic from wound?'
"Wait," Kai said. "I might know a spell. It's… supposed to kill organic plants."
Alice blinked. "What?"
"Herbicide-type spell," Kai lied. "Total crapshoot, but brace yourself."
He reached out, hand glowing red as he placed it over the wound.
Penny screamed.
The roots began to curl, retracting into his body like retreating worms. The sapling blackened, shriveled… and died.
Penny stopped screaming and passed out cold.
Kai breathed, "It worked."
Alice stared. "What was that?"
"Told you. A spell that fries magical plants."
Looking at the smooth skin where the wound had been. Kai took a moment then excused himself to avoid the mountain of questions already cooking up inside Alice brain.
The nurse furrowed her brow. "That… that spell doesn't exist in the Brakebills lexicon does it?"
Alice looked at Penny. "No. It doesn't."
She turned to the nurse. "We still need to tell Quentin."
---
Outside Penny's Room
An hour later Fogg and Quentin go to the pennys wing and Alice explained everything.
Quentin blinked. "Wait, wait how did Kai do that?"
Dean Fogg cut in. "Doesn't matter. What matters is what this curse was."
Quentin said, "It's the Virgo Blade curse. Used by a Lorian assassin in Fillory. Uhhh,
The one used when the assassin tried to kill Jane and stabbed her with it and rose vine grew from the wound."
Alice nodded. "It's in the fourth book."
Q, looked at Alice in surprise.
"I read it for research." She told him.
Quentin looked stunned. "Okay uhhh, well according to the lore the rose vine will keep growing until it strangles the heart, but, there's only one way to cure a Virgo curse."
Dean Fogg frowned. "And that is?"
"In the book, Jane survived only because the curse was severed after she burned the thing she treasured most."
Alice added, "For Jane, it was the doll she carries along with her always that looks just like her and it would be accepted as a substitute"
"But Kai already removed the sapling," Fogg said.
"Temporarily," Quentin replied.
---
A Few Hours Later
The air was tense as Dean Fogg rushed back to the hospital wing.
He burst into the room to see Penny collapsed on the floor. Alice and Quentin were panicking. The sapling had returned, darker and more twisted.
"What the hell—" the Dean started.
Kai burst in behind them.
His eyes widened as he saw the rose vine again. "That's not possible."
He rushed over, helping the nurse lift Penny onto the bed again. His gaze locked on the curse blooming anew.
"I thought he was cured!" the nurse shouted.
"Apparently not," Kai growled.
Quentin muttered, "It wasn't lifted properly. The curse... I think it's anchored."
Alice's face paled. "It's like in the book — the curse only lifts permanently when the victim's most precious item is burned."
Kai frowned. "Okay… but that still doesn't explain why it's back now."
Quentin looked at the wound. "The blade that made the cut… if it's still around, maybe the curse is tethered to it. The energy flows back in because the connection was never broken."
Kai's gut tightened. Magic here worked on different rules. He had siphoned the active magic from the curse… but not its external supply.
'It's like draining a battery but leaving it plugged in,' he muttered.
"So… now what?" Kai asked.
Quentin exhaled. "We find what Penny values most and burn it. How hard can that be?"
Kai almost laughed. The candy wrapper Kady had given Penny.
But he stayed quiet. Fate didn't like being cheated.
"Come on," Quentin said. "We'll check his room."
Alice followed him out.
"Check for anything he might have brought back from brakebills south" Kai said as he saw the two rushing out to Penny's room
Kai lingered a moment longer, then sighed and stepped into the hallway.
He didn't get far before he stopped in his tracks.
There, walking calmly past the corridor leading to the forest was a woman.
Eliza.
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