less.”
“Since when?”
“What do you mean?”
“Since they first entered Records? Since you began your work as a Hawk and not an...adjunct?
“Mascot.”
“Very well, mascot.”
“Never mind.” The answer was clearly yes. Aware now that people who weren’t Kaylin didn’t perceive the marks the way she did, she said, “Can you see the light?”
“I can. It provides decent illumination—but I don’t suggest you attempt this when Sanabalis once again resumes his instruction.”
“Oh?”
“It would be considered either lazy or cheating.”
Kaylin did not grind her teeth. “We all have different skills and different strengths. I believe those were among his first civil words to me.”
The Arkon snorted. “I believe his response would be, ‘And different weaknesses.’”
The light was bright, but not harsh; she didn’t have to squint or wait until her eyes had adjusted to its glow. The floating rune moved away from her, drifting forward until it was about ten feet distant. There it stopped.
“Do you think Killian was aware of his other visitors?”
“What do you think?”
“I...assumed he was unaware of them. Now I’m not as certain.”
“The first time we encountered Killian he looked much the same as he looked today,” Bellusdeo added. “But the assumption that he was the Avatar of a building was Kaylin’s, not mine.”
“What did you assume?” the Arkon asked.
“Do not take that tone with me,” the gold Dragon replied. “I am not one of your students.”
They appeared to be standing in either a long hall or a very narrow room. The walls were stone, and the ground beneath their feet no longer shook. “Take that tone with me,” Kaylin said.
Bellusdeo’s brows rose. “You hate being a student.”
“No, mostly I hate condescending old men who treat me as if I’m stupid.”
“I fail to see the difference in this case.”
“Compared to the Arkon, I am stupid.”
“Ignorant,” the Arkon said, correcting her. “I have never said that I believed you to be stupid. Lazy, yes.”
“Fine. You can talk to me as if I’m a student. A dim student you’re saddled with because you have no other choice.”
“Your magnanimity knows no bounds,” was the dry reply. “Very well. What do you wish to know?”
“What’s a chancellor? I mean—I get what it is in the Imperial hierarchy, but this isn’t that.”
“Ah. In this particular case, the chancellor is the head of the Academia. To Helen, the equivalency is tenant. You are her tenant. The rest of the occupants she houses are your guests.”
“How exactly does one become chancellor?”
“When I was a student in these halls, it was irrelevant.”
“Who was chancellor then?”
“Aramechtis.” He exhaled without apparently inhaling first. “The Academia was lost in my youth. The rise of the Towers that guard against the spread of Shadow devoured it. There were some irregularities with its disappearance, but research into those irregularities was far more difficult, and far less accessible, given the nature of Ravellon and the Towers.
“Not until the two of you came to me with your suspicion—” He stopped. Cleared his throat. “I do not know. I would have said, given our experience of the border zone, that it would either be impossible for Killian to select a chancellor, or impossible for the admission of students.
“But here we are. Ah. I did not answer your question, did I?”
You noticed. She didn’t say this out loud.
“I do not know. When I first arrived, I assumed it was a choice made—or suggested—by the governing council, those who taught and researched within the campus itself. That august body of intellectuals seemed the pinnacle of all knowledge; as I said, I was young.”
“Larrantin?”
“He was a member of that council, yes. If you mean to imply that the message—or book—he tasked you with delivering is somehow a demand or command that Killian grant that power to you, I do not believe you to be correct.”
“But you won’t surrender the item, just in case?” Bellusdeo’s voice was teasing. Her eyes were orange, but they had gold in them, not the red of danger or rage.
“I cannot think why I did not reduce you to ash in the Aerie.”
“You would have had to leave your room.”
He snorted. “I assumed—I believe we all assumed—that Killian accepted the decision of the council with regards to the position of chancellor.”
“And now?”
“I am less certain. I believe a chancellor is required.”
“Our location now implies he still has some flexibility, and at least the ground isn’t threatening to break beneath our feet. Where do you think we are? Did your old school have dungeons?”
“Killianas was a building. My old school, as you so disrespectfully call it, had