Heresy | Broken Time Series: Book Three

Chapter 2

Master Dagmire missed his office. He truly did. While the position had its downsides, he loved being the head of Carvolier Academy, a place of learning and youthful wonder. He enjoyed watching young mages grow into something bigger than they ever thought they could be.

But now his office lay dusty and abandoned. Everything was neatly shelved, and whatever stray papers were left were stacked neatly on his desk. He picked one up gently as if it would turn ash, and he smiled at the report. A request for more potion materials, crystals, all in preparation for the end of the term so many years ago...Whatever came more recently went straight to a certain professor's office, no doubt collecting just as much dust, if not more than his office ever will.

He was still here to return, while the other was not.

"Who is Master Erswell?" Nagan asked, breaking Master Dagmire out of his thoughts.

"He comes from a family of librarians, and the Erswells own what is probably the largest library of magic in all of Tarkon." Master Dagmire shrugged. "Don't mind his questions too much. He doesn't mean to be invasive. If anything, his entire family is prone to doing so."

"No, I have a reason to be suspicious," Nagan scowled. An expression Master Dagmire was more familiar with. "No one outside of a handful of people should know that journal exists because I never turned it in."

Master Dagmire blinked before narrowing his eyes. "What do you mean, 'no one should know that journal exists?' Nagan, if you've kept vital information from the Council all this time—"

"I didn't. They didn't need to know it existed." Nagan gave a frustrated sign before crossing his arms, shifting his weight to one foot. "It had nothing more besides what was said in the first occurrence, the Sunglare Circle. He left it with Madam Sivil, the woman we spoke to back in Celors, so nothing more was written. Besides that, it was filled with personal observations or whatever thoughts came to mind. Because of that, General Meixong told me to keep it."

"So you did turn it in?"

"Meixong kept it for me while I was off on missions."

While Nagan's answer didn't quite answer his question, Master Dagmire let it slide. He trusted that Meixong knew what they were doing, and if they didn't see a problem with Nagan keeping the journal to himself, then there really was no beneficial reason why the Council should have it. He then glanced at the door, fearing someone—someone specific—lurked beyond, but Nagan stopped him as he began to move.

"I've already set a couple privacy barriers. If anyone is there, they shouldn't hear more than a murmur."

"I see..." Master Dagmire couldn't help but let a small, proud smile slip onto his face. "I'm glad to see that you've mastered being a caster. And what was that incantation you used to make your earring fall?"

"What do you mean?" Nagan asked with overly feigned innocence.

Master Dagmire barked out a laugh. "Never change, Nagan. Once a troublemaker, always a troublemaker."

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you," Nagan grinned, detaching the earring that fell and holding it out for Master Dagmire to inspect. "It's a replica of my mother's earring, and this one has a clip in the back rather than hooking through. So I just use a modified version of the unlocking incantation, saying kyvis rather than kyais, causing the clip to unlatch. Nine out of ten, usually the motion of me tilting my head forward and the weight of the earring causes it to fall. I can cast my time spells silently, but I can't get rid of the bell chime yet."

"Yet? Do you know if it can disappear at all?"

"I mean...kinda? Yeah?" Nagan reattached the earring. "It's happened maybe twice, but I wasn't sure if it was because I'm used to hearing it or if there was some sort of special circumstance for it to happen."