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I've been spending days trying to shorten this - aaaaand gave up.

Why cut the finale anyways?  

Just touching up the second half, expect it in LESS THAN 36 hours!

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         "So what's the new way you're getting caught?" Phantom said, his voice pressed with a cringe as he saw Káel try and climb up onto a chair just below the hatch with his injured leg. "I can't watch this."

          Káel balanced on one leg, watching the small hook binding the hatch shimmer with an enchantment when his fingers brushed it. "Truvius said these were emergency exits, so maybe we can get to the secret room without Tia seeing us." he replied, muttering insanctious and ordering the hatch to open.

          The fine dust of a shattered spell fell on his face and the hatch swung down, settling a flurry of dust at his feet.

          "Those aren't emergency exits. Zalius' father didn't like the servants walking the same halls as the nobles, so those exist." Phantom replied,  "Probably helped whoever killed him get away too, but they really don't go where you're thinking."

          "They go out of this room without getting caught by Tia, that's where I'm thinking," Káel said, his grin twisted with gritted teeth to hide the pain in his leg. Taking a deep breath he gripped the edge of the opening, veins popping as he tried to lift himself up with one leg and his arm strength. 

          Phantom watched the struggle, still anxious at the wobbling chair Káel was touching with just one tippy toe. "I appreciate your concern for me, but this is just getting a little deflating to watch."

          Káel raised his chin, hoping the extra inch would somehow lift him through the hole. "If Mr. Rudas is a taste test, then the Council isn't getting you-" his voice hitched at the blue wisp floating at his eye level, the strength in his arms flatlining to pull his head out of the opening with a nervous laugh as the wisp followed. "Hey Tia... sorry I just really needed the bathroom and Mr. Rudas locked the door."

          He paled as the wisp welcomed itself into the room, the hairs on his neck rising from the sticky web of fear he'd fallen into. A new surge of fright struck him when the little blue ball popped, bursting into a grinning person who's hollowed eyes glittered with mischief as he let out a little boo. Káel let the fear and relief mix at the sight of Zalius, accepting the spirit's help off the chair while he beheld him without words to speak.

          "Maybe he saw you fly in," Phantom said, downplaying any hope Káel had that he could now summon spirits with simple prayers. 

          Zalius went straight for the door, ignoring Káel's warnings about the locking enchantments lacing it and giving it a small kick. Like a broken machine it obediently cracked open, the rest of the nursing quarters no longer beyond and replaced by three familiar tight grey walls.

          Káel allowed Zalius to coax him inside, the door fading behind his final limping step and another one forming in front of them. The smooth black polish piqued familiarity, the last details of its grainy ashen wood crawling into focus just as Zalius grabbed the handle to open it. There wasn't a second to lose for the spirit, Káel's amazement in seeing the broad polished floor of the secret secret room coming second to urgency as he tugged him out of the room by his wrist.

          Káel let his icy grip lead him, pressing his lips to deal with the rhythmic pain thumping with every step until Zalius stopped him halfway through the room. He worked on getting the branch out of his brace while Zalius walked through the wall to the room filled with the ingredients he'd sorted, a few minutes passing to fuel some concern for Káel that the school had already emptied its contents after Ray gave its existence away to Samanthra.

          But Zalius returned, a few knicknacks in tow and a sour frown hanging on his lips as he walked through the false wall. He knelt down to let them spill onto the floor, grabbing a thick chunk of chalk and pointing it back at the wall with an accusing frown. "Clean?"

          Káel swallowed. "I sorted it."

          Zalius let his contempt scream in silence, carefully balancing the stick of chalk on its head and muttering a spell for it to start on drawing by itself. Káel felt a little useless standing to the side staring at Zalius, the man orchestrating half a dozen chalk sticks while he placed an armful of candles everywhere until the scent of sweet wax filled the room. The guilt mixed with bitterness when Zalius brought Puff into the mix, getting the little drake to light the candles and leaving him about as useful as Phantom as they both leaned against a wall.

          Káel stared at the lines of chalk, nearly taking the entire space now and laced with runes he couldn't translate. The only detail that seemed to give away ancient lumience. "This looks dangerous." 

          "If you want dangerous, that half shot zodraic battery ritual was about a hundred times more likely to kill you... and the whole school," Phantom replied, the chuckle in his throat running off at Káel's expression. "I'm kidding! It was more like a thousand."

          Káel breathed out a sigh, watching Zalius place the final ingredients down in their own circles. Pixie dust, crystalback venom, a dragon scale, a winter tree branch, and a final ingredient that sucked at Káel's gut when he thought about it.

         His blood. 

         He watched Zalius pull a thin blade from his little mound of materials, pinching it by the tip as to not freak Káel out more while he walked towards him.

         But now that it was all really about to happen, the spirit's actions didn't help much. He could feel the colour ebbing from his cheeks, his gut flopping between trust and fear, friend or foe. He'd done all of this for a creature he'd trusted by their incapacity to harm him in any way, and he was about to break down that wall.

          "It's okay, he's not going to stab you."

          Káel gave Phantom a wary glance, a clear tremble hitting his fingers as he accepted the blade from Zalius. "Phantom, we're really friends, right?"

          He didn't shift at all from the question, arms folded as his shoulders bounced off the weighted question. "Of course."

          "Alright. Good," Káel weakly replied, dragging the stone of doubt in his stomach over to the final circle. He stared at his cut reflection in the blade, grimacing as he placed it to his palm.

          "Woah there!" Phantom yelled, jolting Káel before he went to slice. "Why are you cutting you hand open?!"

          Káel blinked, flattening his tone. "It needs my blood."

          Phantom gave the logic an incredulous scoff. "It doesn't specify how much. Prick your finger or something, coinkidink brain." 

         Káel looked at the blade, a breathless laugh involuntarily escaping while his nerves leaned again towards friends at Phantom's sass. Squeezing his eyes shut, he pricked the tip of his finger and smeared a tiny line of blood in the final circle. "That it?"

         He looked to Phantom to share a joking smirk, his friend no longer leaned against the wall, nor anywhere else in sight. Zalius had placed the rock at the dead center of the drawing, the faint glow of the chalk lines seeming to hold some suspicion in where Phantom's illusion had disappeared to. 

         It was really starting. The fulfillment of his final promise.

          He felt his heart thud, the nerves before a final exam beaten tenfold by the sensation that had gripped him. His only preparation for this had been collecting ingredients, he was just following a spirit's lead on a spell he knew next to nothing about. His eyes rested on Zalius as the spirit stepped out of the circle, a folded paper pinched between his fingers to hand off to Káel.

         He accepted the note, knowing full well it was the phrase to start the spell, and undoubtedly murder to read. Be it the candle studded floor, or the strange energy that ran through the glowing chalk lines, the room was hot and suffocating, squeezing the stress out of every crack in Káel's composure as he eyed Zalius.

         "What happens if I mess up?"

          Zalius smiled, shaking his head. "Don't."

          Káel unfolded the paper, a single, simple word scrawled in black. 

          "Rathadeile."

          Káel was hoping he'd done something right when every candle in the room went out, a breeze crawling past his ankles to draw the lingering smoke into the center of the ritual. Despite the dark room the heat grew, lapping up his energy like a thirsty beast of smoke and magic. 

          He felt the breeze rise from his ankles, whipping from the walls as everything smaller than Puff was sucked into the center of the room where a thick veil of smoke twisted and thrashed, squeezed tighter by the second.

          But the burning didn't leave, a searing bite looped around Káel's neck as he realised where the heat was coming from, and exactly what his necklace was ready to do. He quickly ripped it off, the cord scorching his palms in protest as he tossed the necklace to the side, quickly refocusing on the ritual. 

          The breeze could now kiss his neck, the last of it pulled into the ritual to leave a dark room void of sensation and sound. There was still enough of Zalius' natural glow to give light to the scene, a spot where the air itself had split wide sat where Phantom's rock once rested, the wound in reality filled by shifting black clouds too thick to simply be candle smoke and dust. 

          Káel felt free of the spell now, his feet drawn to the strange hole in the air enough to stand a couple feet from it to stare into the rocking shadows. He couldn't see Phantom, in the black, nor in the room around him. The rock sat center to the ritual had vanished as well, likely crippled to dust in the magical whirlwind. 

          Káel leaned closer, scared even his breath would cover a sound of movement he could pin Phantom to. When none came, he ignored his clenched gut and moved his hand towards the rip, his fingers barely brushing the black shadows when a hand seized his wrist. 

          His heart stopped for only a moment, the white glove jerking back to tug him inside but thankfully failing as he quickly grounded his feet and tugged back. The hand undoubtedly belonged to Phantom, disjointed by the swirling shadows and hiding whether Phantom was trying to pull him inside, or something else didn't want him to leave. 

         But Káel felt a set of hands grab his shoulders, Zalius joining the tug of war to tip the scales and send the tall red spectre stumbling out of the black and right into Káel. With a small groan Káel picked himself up, catching a glimpse of Zalius' foot deliberately smudging one of the chalked lines to end the spell and seal the rift. 

          Káel could still feel Phantom's pinching grip on his wrist, the two of them collecting their own thoughts as they worked through what had happened.

          And what was going to happen.

          Káel felt his wrist lift, Phantom giving his hand a long stare before finally letting him go to rub his aching skin. He flexed his hands, tapping the ground with his foot a couple times before everything finally hit him. "It worked..." he dipped down to Puff as the dragon cautiously sniffed him, seizing the ball of fluff and all the while ignoring the terrified warble as he raised him up above his head. "It worked! I can pet you Mudbrain!"

          The panic washed clean as Káel chuckled, watching Puff get a few licks on Phantom's mask before he put him down and turned to Káel.

          "You did it! You actually did it!" he cried, wrapping his arms around Káel to rip him right into a tight hug.

          Káel let the unexpected gesture sink in, catching a glimpse of Zalius over Phantom's shoulder, dimmer than before, but energised by an excited smile. The paranoia of Novans was exactly what Káel had hoped, a concoction of bitterness and fear that hadn't aged well. His fear of Phantom had been a simple illusion, and he had freed a friend, not a monster.

          Phantom went to pay up Zalius on the hugs, part of his excitement hitting a wall when he noticed a piece missing from Káel's attire. "Your necklace... you didn't use it?"

          Káel shrugged off the odd question. He'd taken it off before to cast spells better, and didn't want to risk the brunt of the hostility it had towards the ritual. "It started burning, and I didn't want it to do that explody thing."

          "It shouldn't have worked."

          Before Phantom could elaborate, Káel felt a wave of heat blast past his back, the tight red ball of lumience coming too close for comfort as it ripped through the door at the end of the room, consuming the interchangable room with a cracking explosion that left a ring in Káel's ears. 

          Káel instinctively covered his ears in case another roaring crack assaulted them, everyone eyeing the illusion of a wall that concealed the room they stood in. The exact spot the deadly spell had flown from.

          Káel's heart stopped at the man that came through, purple robes draping his body as he lapped up the sight of the ritual with a cocky snort. Mr. Rudas fueled himself on being right, waiting for the four white robed council members to follow before landing his sneering glare on Káel. "Pardon the entrance, I thought there was a wall there." His gaze fell on Phantom, lips pricking with disgust as a soft red swarmed his face. "The guilty always run."

          Another cluster of people followed the council representatives, Samanthra beholding the room with widening eyes as Mr. Mudelin kept to her side, his frown keeping to his usual character of unbridled disappointment. Ariabella was careful to keep her distance from everyone, ensuring every aspect of her arrival did not clump her with the council in any way as she eyed the scene with a notebook and quill.

          "With the amount of magic this ritual saturated the air with, you practically invited us to arrest you," Mr. Rudas continued, a mix of stupidity and confidence allowing him to step closer to Phantom and Káel. "I didn't think his majesty Elisious' nephew was so eager to rot away in a cell."

          "Let us not jump to any conclusions." Samanthra said, receiving an audible scoff from Mr. Rudas.

          "There are no conclusions to jump to, I have all the evidence I need." Mr. Rudas motioned to Káel and Phantom, his voice stretched to a boom that barely frightened him. "Knees down and palms flat to the floor, both of you."

          Káel flinched to comply, stopping himself when Phantom closed the rest of the distance between Mr. Rudas and tightly folded his arms. "No."

          "Step back or I'll have no choice but to forcefully detain you," Mr. Rudas hissed, his entire body squaring when Phantom unfolded his arms.

          Phantom leveled off his voice, calm compared to the capped anger that had a vein popping in Mr. Rudas' forehead. "Then I want to know what I'm being detained for."

          "Suspected war crimes." 

          "I've been stuck in a rock longer than he's been dead, your books on me are fairytales. So does that mean we can go?" Phantom mused.

          Mr. Rudas didn't acknowledge the nod Zalius gave Phantom's claims. "The council will confirm that, you'll not earn your freedom by the words of an executed murderer."

          "I can't imagine offending his Majesty Whitecrown, especially in death, is a wise move," Ariabella cut in, softening the darkened glare on Zalius' face before it turned into a spell. 

          "If you don't mind, I'll be leaving now, since you actually have no reason to arrest me."

          Mr. Rudas hummed in disagreement. "Other than suspected warcrimes and resisting arrest?"

          "Oh, so now you're going to arrest me for resisting the fact that you have nothing to arrest me for?"

          Ariabella stepped up, raising her hand to silence any protest from Mr. Rudas as she paid Phantom a minuscule dip of the head. "I understand your confusion, perhaps I can clear it up. As of the current moment the council is unable to confirm your participation in any wars or notable historical crimes, so, by the order of The Grand Council of Lumi your Novan descent means arrest is required by law in any institution or plot of land under their jurisdiction," Ariabella said, smiling as Mr. Rudas nodded along to her words. "There are of course places where they cannot practice certain laws, Alta Staar, as a non-specific example." 

          "It's a good thing the Mauran region has conceded to proper regulations," Mr. Rudas sneered. 

          "Wait... Seriously?" Phantom tilted his head at Mr. Rudas. "You're arresting me just in case?"

          "Enough of your disrespect demon! Surrender yourself peacefully to the council or you will be seen as guilty!" Mr. Rudas yelled.

          "Of what?! Does my existence offend you?!"

          "Seal this creature before it uses any spells!" Mr. Rudas boomed, scaring the hesitation out of his subordinates as they readied themselves to immobilize Phantom with whatever spells the council deemed fit. "It is resisting arrest, you may use force."

          "I'd love to see you try," Phantom growled, his voice stretching a chill throughout the room as he raised his right hand. "Jraelskin, come."

         A rustle captured the room's attention, a sound like glass shards scraping against concrete slithering from above, and then behind as a jagged puddle of red crawled through the illusionary wall, weaving around the council member's feet as they jumped away in fear.

          The puddle kept its track towards Phantom, the close distance defining the shards as small fragments of metal that took to the air like a buzzing swarm, converging on Phantom's hand to form a long crimson blade.

          Káel felt something sick writhe in his gut as both sides readied to fight. He knew who would come out on top, and the backlash there'd likely be if that future came to pass. So he stepped in front of his friend, open palms to Mr. Rudas, but the gesture was too late when he saw the tight red ball of energy barreling at him. He instantly flipped to panic mode, screaming out the first shielding spell that popped into his head. The cool blue shield sprang up in the nick of time, but Káel paled when it did something horribly familiar.

          It caught the red ball, smoke washing across the shield as it bent inwards and threw the shot back at full force. 

          And a cracking boom stopped Káel's heart entirely.

          The smoke from the explosion was still dense, too thick for Káel to make out the aftermath as his legs locked and his hands went ice cold. He felt Phantom nudge his shoulder, leaning to whisper in his ear. "Drop the shield."

          Káel couldn't think, stuck on autopilot as he dropped the spell and fixed his gaze on the thinning smoke. He could see some of the aftermath now, panic flourishing as he noticed one of the white robed men on the ground, Samanthra and two other representatives hovering over him with healing spells.

          And then he saw something else.

          A new film of cool blue was surrounding them. A new shield.

          "What are you doing?" he breathed, darting between Mr. Rudas' glare and Phantom as he tried to keep himself from screaming the words. "Put the shield down, it wasn't you."

          Phantom shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about, you don't have the reflexes." 

          "Please! Put the shield down!" Káel pleaded, knowing in the back of his mind that it was likely too late. If he could see Mr. Rudas clear enough, then the man could most definitely see them. "You didn't do it!"

          "Neither did you," Phantom replied, snapping to shatter the spell when he was sure Rudas had a good view of him. His voice was less than a whisper to Káel's ears as the sword in his hand shifted and compressed, forming into a small dagger. "Now stay still."

          Káel stiffened as he was tugged into Phantom's hold, feeling a slit of cold metal press into his throat as Phantom held him up off his feet. 

          "Attacking me for talking," Phantom chuckled, facing the widened eyes of everyone in the room, "Thousands of years couldn't get you lumers past stinking savages it seems. But at least I can control your feeble little minds just the same. Attack me again and you'll have two corpses." 

          Káel bit his cheeks, the guilt pooling as he stared at the downed representative, Samanthra becoming more urgent by the second as she kept her fingers to his neck. Now Phantom was selling the act of blame by spitting out a cheap villain's dialogue, which was enough for Mr. Rudas' cocky smile to come back.

          But the words that came out of him were like a coat of frozen needles.

          "Then Do it."

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Quality Quip #57:

'Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.'

~ Joseph Fort Newton