Everything was chaos.

Brakebills was on high alert. Students had been advised to stay in their rooms until further notice. The Beast had come to them.

Quentin, Alice, and Juels flipped through pages trying to find something, anything that would have any impact against The Beast. There was nothing.

The clicking of heels carried into the library. Jane Chatwin. The actual Jane Chatwin, from the Fillory books, the Fillory books that were real. Quentin still couldn't believe it. He had always hoped, but he never really imagined the stories could be real.

"What have you found?" Jane asked.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There isn't a single thing in here that could help us defeat The Beast. All of this magic is way over our heads," Quentin said, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair.

"There has to be something in here that you can use. You're not helpless, you're magicians," Jane snapped.

"Magicians who are still just learning. And what do you mean by you. Aren't you going to help us?" Quentin looked the woman directly in the eyes.

Jane smiled and tilted her head to the side. "I'm sorry, but I cannot help you. It's not that I don't want to, but I'm the only one who can correct things should you and your friends fail."

"Maybe we wouldn't fail if we had more help from the people who actually remember what happened the last two times," Julia said, giving Jane a pointed look.

"For the last time, I can't tell you. Even if I could, it would be better for you to not know."

Penny threw his book down on the table across the room. "What good are you, any of you? You do what? You watch us fail and then just turn everything back so we can do it all over again? Did you ever stop to think that maybe if you put yourself in the action, if you helped out just a little bit, then maybe we wouldn't fail?"

"That's not-"

"That's not the way it works. Right. Well, then how about you just get out of our way and let us do whatever it is we need to do." Penny stared at Jane, arms across his chest.

"Very well, I'll be on my way."

Quentin stared down at his book, unable to look Jane Chatwin in the eyes.

Jane straightened her coat and walked out of the library, leaving them in silence.

"I may have found something," Alice said. She made her way to the table Quentin was sitting at, setting the book in the center. "We can channel our magic to one person. It's very straight forward. From there, whoever it is, would theoretically be able to go up against The Beast."

"Theoretically?" Eliot asked. He lifted a flask to his lips, tipping his head back and downing the contents.

"If I don't actually have to fight, that's fine by me. I just did my nails." Margo looked down at her hand.

Quentin looked up from the book. "I can do it."

"Q, no," Julia said.

"Quentin, you're not exactly the most experienced magician, maybe someone else should do it." Alice shrugged.

"What? Like you?" He knew she was a good magician, a great one even. He saw that every day. He also knew she didn't believe he was good enough. "I'm going to do it. I'm going to go up against The Beast. Whether I do that with your help, or all by myself, well, so be it."

"No, Q, we'll help." Julia placed her hand on his.

"I suppose if you're going to go off on your suicide mission anyway, the least we could do is make it less suicide-y," Eliot said as he took another swig from the flask.

Penny and Alice were the only ones who seemed reluctant to go with it.