DARKLIGHT

- 35 -

A shadow meets me in sunlight,

Righteousness's acolyte.

I was now sure that Kacey Blaine was, in fact, Kaces, and the Light dragon was Zephion, but I still couldn't see past the effects of his disguise spell. As far as my perception cared, I'd never seen the two of them before. He, Zephion and I met near the stacked benches and chairs, away from the commotion. Before I could say anything, Kacey asked, "How's your head?"

I was completely caught off-guard by his directness. "Fine," I stammered, "but what about you? What happened to you and Zephion?"

He shifted the book still under his arm. "I learned the hard way that completely shifting myself back to Light is essentially impossible at this point, but I found a workaround. This thing isn't going to work forever, but I know how to improve it." Kacey slid up his now white sleeve to reveal more of his Light symbol. A very small shifter disc was embedded in its center, missing its outer plating. I could see the metal mechanisms and glow of internal Light magic. "I tried so many variations that I lost the motivation to make them look clean," he said with a sigh.

"Where did you get the Light magic to use in that shifter, though?" I asked, fascinated by the intricate metalwork.

"Once I narrowed my options down, I visited Lionel."

"When?"

"Earlier today. Why?" Kacey eyed me confusedly.

"I talked with him this morning too. We must have just missed each other!"

We both cracked up. "We could have passed each other, for all I know," Kacey said when we'd mostly collected ourselves. "I was disguised by that point and only paying attention to putting the final touches on this disc. What a coincidence," he sighed.

Zephion nosed Kacey in the face again, and I hid a smile. "The watch," he rumbled.

"Oh, right." Kacey slid a hand into his cloak and retrieved my long-lost watch. "I found this in Brymea's office and remembered it was yours. I can't imagine why she set it aside in the first place, to be honest."

I latched the watch around my wrist. It felt good to have it back. Its weight on my hand was a small part of me that I'd lost the day I met Kaces. "Thanks."

"I should probably give this to you too," he continued, offering me the textbook under his arm.

"Speaking of coincidences," I said as I took the book from him, "did you know that I was going to be at the library?"

"No," he replied flatly, "I just needed somewhere to conceal those documents. It didn't seem right to carry them in the open. Thankfully I didn't also need an improvised weapon. This went more smoothly than I expected."

"How did you convince the Councilors so easily?" I prodded. "The entire Council saw you attack them, and more than half of them were there when we came back."

"The disguise spell is part of it. I also took the liberty of tracking down each of the Councilors, and your parents," he said, averting his gaze, "and selectively wiping memories that involved me. It's a technique that Brymea used as kidnappings became more common," he explained. "Anyway, everyone knows it's nearly impossible to clear an entire set of memories, but you can target specific ones fairly easily if the person's actively thinking about them. I only had to worry about their time in the conversion complex and the day we returned to the Order, since I was disguised during the Council attack."

"You don't look the same every time you use Kefen, then?"

He nodded. "The spell is much more complicated than a simple visual illusion. It keeps my face from being memorable. Since you know me, I expect you'll see through it eventually."