The hours dragged on as Kai wandered through the ruins of Brakebills. Every corner he turned was another reminder of the massacre that had happened here. Bloodstains dried into the floorboards, walls scorched black, the silence suffocating. Eventually, his steps carried him into what had once been the library.
The great hall was barely recognizable. Broken wood crunched underfoot, dust swirled with each step, and torn books lay shredded in heaps across the ground. Some shelves still stood, but most had collapsed into splintered ruins.
Kai stopped, scanning the wreckage, when a voice drifted from his left.
"You're still here…"
He turned sharply. Alice sat slumped on the floor, surrounded by scattered books. Her hair had fallen loose, a few strands brushing the ground in the odd position she was sitting in.
Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "I thought you'd have gone by now."
Kai smirked faintly. "And leave you here all alone? Who'd keep you company then? Besides, I was checking to see if any room wasn't completely trashed… or decorated with the blood of its former occupants. Real top-tier interior design around here."
Alice tilted her head at him, skeptical, but said nothing.
He walked over and lowered himself onto the floor beside her. "So. What are you digging through this mess for?"
Her eyes flicked up at him. "Answers."
He raised a brow, then looked around again at the gutted shelves and shredded pages. "How long have you been holed up here by yourself?"
"…Two years."
Kai exhaled through his nose. "Right. And you want me to believe you haven't already gone through every book in this school?"
Alice shifted, sitting properly now with her legs tucked to the side, her eyes lingering on him. "What did you mean earlier… when you said you were the answer to this?"
Kai looked at her for a moment, then sighed. "The reason Henry was able to overwhelm and outright decimate the entire magical faction is simple. It's because he was part of it. He knows all the tactics. All the spells. All the counterspells that can be thrown at him. And worst of all? He's intelligent. Dangerously so. Now, stripped of his shade, he has no conscience no restraint. He can cast any spell, no matter how forbidden, without consequence."
He pointed a finger at her. "Something you, unlike him, cannot afford to do."
Alice swallowed hard, understanding.
"You see," Kai continued, "when you're up against someone who knows every angle, every probability, every counter, fighting fair is suicide. He's already factored in the obvious responses before you even think them. Which means the only path forward is the one he hasn't calculated."
Alice's brows knitted. "…But you're from Brakebills too. No matter the universe, it can't be all that different. How are you any different?"
Kai chuckled. "Because I'm a special case, even in my own world. Predictability isn't exactly one of my vices."
She tilted her head. "And what about strategy? He's more experienced than almost anyone alive."
Kai nodded. "True. But in the face of overwhelming power, trickery alone is useless. Which is why you never go in with just one plan. You go in with a plan, and three backups. And then backups for those backups. And always—always—something he won't see coming."
Alice blinked, startled by the calm certainty in his tone.
He smirked faintly. "Eliot put us through a little trial recently. One of the lessons? Cheating. Learning how to bend rules to get what we want."
"Cheating?" Alice asked.
"Magic itself is cheating, Alice," Kai said simply. "It's hacking reality. It was never meant to be fair. And when someone has no shade, no conscience… like Fogg, or worse, a Niffin. They aren't shackled by any limits. That's what makes them terrifying. But…" his eyes sharpened, "…that's also what makes surprise invaluable. Magic, unlike most things, amplifies the probability of a surprise succeeding. Reality bends to it. And when reality bends in your favor, you don't need to play fair."
Alice studied him in silence for a moment before softly saying, "So you'll use anything Fogg doesn't already know."
Kai grinned. "Oh, you should worry more about the fact that I know spells he definitely doesn't."
Her lips curved into a small, almost involuntary smile. "Oh really? Like what?"
Kai smirked. "Come with me."
They rose together and stepped outside. With his hands raised slightly, Kai whispered an incantation.
"Resarcio tempus fractum, redde ordinem pristinum."
The broken wreckage of the library stirred. Splintered wood lifted piece by piece, sliding up and moving back into place piece by piece. Shattered shelves rebuilt themselves beam by beam. Torn books stitched their pages together, binding themselves whole once more. The cracked stone floor smoothed as though time itself reversed. Slowly, steadily, the once-ruined library stood restored.
When the last piece clicked into place, Kai lowered his hands and turned back to her. "There."
Alice stared, wide-eyed. "…That was… a reverse entropy spell?"
Kai shook his head.
"…Then… a reconstruction weave?" she tried again.
"Nope."
Her eyes narrowed. "…Temporal layering?"
Kai chuckled. "None of the above. Just a simple mending spell. Fixes broken things."
Alice blinked at him. "…Where did you even get a spell like that?"
"From one of my parents' special grimoires."
Her eyes widened slightly. "Special grimoires?"
Kai nodded casually. "Yeah. Most of the spells they created aren't exactly… conventional. Let's just say they work a little differently."
His smile was straight, calm and believable. Alice found herself actually buying it.
She asked quietly, "Do you know other spells like that?"
"Oh, just a few," Kai said lightly. "But enough."
Then his expression grew more serious. "Tell me something, Alice. Do you really want to leave this place? What are you willing to do to escape this prison you've been trapped in?"
Her gaze dropped. "…It's not that simple."
Kai frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Even if I could escape… what then? I've lost everything, Kai. My parents. My friends. My lover. I don't have anything left."
He studied her silently, then said flatly, "So you're just giving up. Did their deaths mean nothing to you? Didn't they all die so you could live not hide in this graveyard? If you stay locked up here, the beast wins. And if you don't fight back, then what's the point?"
Alice didn't answer. She turned her head, staring at the now-restored library in silence, his words weighing heavy.
---
Later, Kai sat alone in the dorm room he'd cleaned and restored for himself. The silence gnawed at him as he leaned back in the chair, staring at the cracked ceiling.
'How long have I even been gone from my world? Are they looking for me? …Hell, I wasn't even supposed to be here. The key was tied to Fillory. So how the fuck did I end up in this mess?'
He let out a humorless laugh. 'Bet Richard and his merry little cult haven't figured out how to summon that fox abomination yet… gods, I really hope not.'
Standing, he stripped off his jacket and made his way toward the bathrooms. The corridors were just as ruined as the rest of the school, but he eventually found one section still intact barely. Probably spared by chance.
He stepped inside, peeled off his clothes, and turned the tap. The water sputtered, then flowed, running hot down his skin. He closed his eyes and groaned softly at the relief.
Then—
The door creaked open behind him.
Kai turned his head, droplets running down his face.
Alice stood in the doorway, her eyes on him.
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