"There's the happy couple! When's the wedding anyways?" I tease, grinning as Justin and Ethan hustle back inside the base, jabbing one another along the way. The tiny diamond Ethan tasked Justin with this morning is no doubt still cradled in his hand.

Odd, no one has expressed any disgust at the wedding remark yet.

Situated in one of the alcoves nestled at the back of the training arena, I continue to balance 3 small plastic blocks on top of a thin layer of water, making sure to keep it afloat. I spare a glance in their direction, eyeing the leaves in Justin's hair.

And the dirt embedded in the creases of his clothes. And the bruises forming around his chin. And wow, is that a twig poking out from his sleeve?

"Sparring didn't go as planned?" I ask. No response. The two are still standing there, almost catatonic.

Footsteps echo the halls like the slow buildup of thunder as Liz plows into the arena at breakneck speed. "Hey, you guys are back! Heard you got hitched, congrats. But man is Ethan a miser or what? Look at the tiny diamond."

Once again, no response from either of them. A few beats pass then Ethan shuffles across the arena and into the alcove adjacent to me, Justin close in tow. Almost in perfect sync the two pull out chairs from the table and settle in.

Okay, this is weird. I glance at Liz, holding her gaze. She raises her eyebrows and mouths a 'what?' as she very theatrically gestures to them.

Ethan massages the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. He sighs deeply and simply says, "take a seat."

We do as he says. Not another word is uttered for the next few minutes. I'm almost out of patience when John enters from the main door. He immediately shuts it behind him and practically flies over to us.

"Elizabeth and Victoria. A matter has risen that has to be treated with the utmost delicacy and discretion. The people present right now will be the only ones to know of this matter. Is that understood?"

I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat. I can feel my palms dampening by the second. Big revelations always get me sweaty. It's because I'm a water guardian.

"Approximately 2 hours ago, Ethan and Justin were sparring in the forest in a nearby area. The exact events remain... unclear, to me- regardless, the result was these two situated at the bottom of a small cliff, quite a distance away from here. And so, at this point, I will ask either Justin or Ethan to continue."

Ethan instantly clears his throat and begins, "wait I can actually tell you what happened, we were sparring and Justin fell dow-"

"I did not fall, you pushed me!"

"No, you failed to dodge and so you fell."

"No," Justin mimics, "you suddenly attacked harder than you trained me and I went rolling down that god-awful hell slide."

Ethan groans and purses his lips. "Yeah well excuse me, is it so wrong that I got too excited at your rapid progress and accidentally hit too hard?"

At this Justin gapes in disbelief. "Yes! Yes, it is. Wrong, very wrong. I'm your student, you're supposed to be careful. I didn't even get to try out the diamond. I was so excited and it all got ruined by that stupid skeleton."

Liz and I gasp simultaneously. I can't believe it, what in the hell did they stumble across?

"What? What skeleton?" I ask, my eyebrows knitted together.

"Oh yeah. After Ethan mercilessly shoved me, I was at the bottom of the cliff and everything was hurting. Then I realized that I accidentally slipped into guardian mode and had my second sight on. I saw heavy traces of exploitative magic, that ugly yellow shade completely swallowed the base of one of the trees."

Ethan shifts in his seat and continues from Justin, "when we dug up the spot we saw nothing. Whatever was there was concealed by a spell, a strong one; we couldn't break it. So we brought John over and he broke it. What we saw was a skeleton. An actual human skeleton."

Damn. So many questions my brain can't even process.

"Do you guys know who's it is? Or who put it there?" I ask.

Liz, who has been silent up till now, finally speaks. Slowly, she mumbles, "there's a murderer on campus."

From beside her, John places his huge hand on her slim shoulder. He pats it lightly then addresses all of us, "all we know so far is that the person who did this is a mage. Or a mage is involved, at least. I'm going to be spending the next few days getting in touch with Octavia, a talented medical mage I trust deeply. Once I've securely handed the remains to her and she has performed a thorough autopsy, we'll get more information and decide what to do."

"And the other order of business," Ethan says, "I've received reports of 4 more murders around the country where the essence was extracted. With the 6 in Neris we investigated 2 months ago, there's a total of 10 victims. We have to take a more aggressive stance in regards to Grim and Genesis."

"Does this mean another mission?" I question, trying to hide the eagerness in my tone.

"Yes. The first phase of my plan requires gathering information on the two we encountered in Neris. As well as anything we can find on 'Pandora' and the rest of their group. We can't attack blind and, well, knowledge is power."

Ethan gets up from the table and paces around the room. He stops near the rusted steel bookshelf and drums his fingers across each of the books fitted snugly in, before finally stopping on the thickest one. From it, he pulls out a stack of papers.

"I believe it's best to start by searching for Bilo himself, the man responsible for creating these monsters."

He pauses a moment, glancing at each of us around the table. When no one raises a concern, Ethan continues.

"Justin and I will pay a visit to the Sparrow and her girls. Liz, I want you and Tori to check in various underground circuits, pull favours- for this, I have a feeling you'll have to." He hands over the papers to us and continues, "these are the types of questions I want answered, as well as the information we have thus far. We start bright and early tomorrow."

"Wait," Justin exclaims, "why do I have to go with Ethan?"

"Because, I said. And why not, I'm pretty great."

"Because," Justin narrows his eyes, "trust issues."

Ethan sighs, and for the third time today he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens them again, his icy grey irises focus on me. "Blondie will you please tell Fides here that I won't kill him. And also, he has to listen to me."

I grin and translate to Justin, "Ethan says he'll try not to kill you and also that he's very sorry about pushing you down the cliff."

"Why does Mr. Friend killer need me anyways?"

Ethan smirks. The kind of smirk he has before setting one of his schemes in motion. He chuckles and replies, "the Sparrow has a very soft spot for, in her words, 'gorgeous dark-haired boys'. I'm more than enough to get her in a good mood but it doesn't hurt to double up."

Oh, wow. Sparrow is an interesting lady. Seems Justin is stunned, his lips are slightly parted and his eyebrows are raised.

Liz leans closer to me and says, "you'll meet my family tomorrow! I'm so excited but also nervous because they're my family and they can be rowdy as you can tell because I'm not the quietest person around but they're well intentioned I swear you-"

"Elizabeth." She stops, staring at me wide-eyed. "If they're anything like you at all, I'm sure I'll love them."

*****/\/\*****

"Are you ready?" Liz beams. It's 7 in the morning and I feel as if the actual sun is in front of me right now. My eyes hurt, my brain is sore. And somehow, Liz is perky and giggly, all decked out in a canary coloured dress and a deep maroon cardigan. Actually, maybe I should have put more effort into my own outfit. Flannel is great, but it's not meet-the-parents great.

At least I'm in my best flannel.

As soon as I nod, she reaches into her purse and pulls out a 3-inch pocket knife. The sleek bald is curved and rooted in a rich mahogany handle with pristine pearls at the helm. She takes the knife, slips into guardian mode and positions it high above her head.

In this pose, it looks like she's about to stab someone. She slowly brings the blade down in the air, almost as if she was actually cutting through something.

What is going on?

Liz then puts the knife back and with both hands she pulls apart space itself. That's the best way to describe what she's doing.

Its as if the air in front of her is fabric and she is simply sifting through it. Before my very eyes a triangular portal bigger than me unveils.

She literally tore through space. Now I see why the knife is so fancy.

"Tori, we'll be taking a portal. My parents are several states away so... yeah. Okay, lets go." And with that, I'm jostled through.

Loud. That's what its like on the other side. Bright and loud.

I stumble a bit, running my fingers all around me. A railing, I'm grasping a railing. I'm at the bottom of the stairs in an upper-class suburban home. Hardwood floors, marble countertops, beautiful chandelier, and loads of yelling.

"Poppy!" a very, very, tall man bellows as he hustles past me and envelops Liz in the biggest hug I've ever seen.

From behind the an I spot a well endowed woman grinning while cradling a basket of chocolates and then, somehow, a small boy latches onto my legs. 

I guess these are the Otiums. 

/\/\/\***/\/\/\

Thank you so much to @beautifulinsanity_ for your wonderful comment, it's very appreciated :)

What are your thoughts on this chapter? Any theories on what their search for Bilo will uncover? Or who the skeleton belongs to?

I'd like to stress that I know right now I've put in a lot of things that seem unrelated (like the business with the honey in Principle Oliver's office) but I assure you all that it is related. It'll be revealed in due time.

Part of my ongoing editing process is trying to make the story more seamless lol

Chp pic: a rough idea of Liz's home. By the bottom of the stairs is where the portal opened up to.