Page 62 of Mantle

“Grandfather’s watching you, huh?”

“Oh, he definitely is,” he said, chuckling.

“You know that means he likes you? He’s taking you under his wing. That’s a huge thing, especially from him.”

“I’m getting that, yeah.”

“Good. You deserve the admiration and recognition.”

“He certainly does,” a voice came from behind us.

We swung to see Pops approaching.

He came around to the front of the gazebo, taking us in.

He looked tired, drained.

Before we could get a word out, he told us, “It’s time for you to return to Maven Academy.”

“Ketheron hasn’t been dealt with,” Kai said.

“Ketheron is no longer on this plane.”

“What?” I uttered, rising to my feet, and Kai joining me, standing side-by-side with me.

“After days of being unable to track him, even the best trackers in the entire world failing to, we finally obtained a trace. We found magical residue—a magical signature bleed—indicating that he’s left the mortal plane.”

“The fact that he was suddenly trackable suggests he wanted us to know that he was gone, that he drew your people there on purpose,” Kai pointed out.

“Perhaps. This doesn’t mean we will halt or even slow our efforts of developing the means to stop him and render him no longer a threat. But for the time being, we all need to return to our regular lives and routines. Especially the four of you. After your heroic actions at the Guardian Compound, you are looked up to, Ari. Having you back at the Academy will serve as a sign of stability, which will give a great many people comfort. The Underveil Shields will remain, which are in place at all magical educational institutions as well. And Blackline Protocol will remain in effect to ensure people are vigilant and careful.”

“Wow, that’s… I can’t believe it. Why did he just leave?” Part of me was relieved, but there was also more there than that for me where Ketheron was concerned.

A lot more.

“We don’t know. Cassius will be reaching out carefully to the Celestial Plane to investigate. For now, the immediate danger has been removed.” He smiled. “Get back to your life, Ari. You deserve it.”

“Okay, yeah, we’ll… we’ll do that.”

He gestured toward the house. “Dinner will be ready within the hour. We’ll all sit down before you head back.”

“That will be nice, yeah.”

He smiled, then teleported out.

I turned toward Kai. “Well, then. Back to Maven Academy it is.”

12

~Vorzyr~

Things were tense at Maven Academy.

The invocation of Blackline Protocol was no small thing, and every student—and faculty member, despite their attempts to hide it—felt the weight of it.

But in spite of that, I was actually having a good morning.

First, I’d woken up peacefully entangled in Ariana, Kai, and Nyx, in Ariana’s dorm room. We’d come back here last night and spent hours letting loose on one another. It had been amazing to see Nyx go all out as well now that he had the Soulweld Ring ensuring he didn’t have to worry about his allure leaking out and impacting anybody. He was really feeling the freedom of it and he’d shown it last night in spades.

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