Sharaka hissed. Most students had left the school to less boring places, and she was wearing the pavement down as she waited for Daneera. She didn’t have detention today, Sharaka was pretty sure.

“Hey, just the gal I was looking for! What’s up, Sharaka?”

The viashino had deliberately looked the other way when she had recognized the sound of the limo. She turned with as blank an expression as she could manage. “Chardis.”

“So wary...” How Syl managed to sound genuinely wounded, Sharaka couldn’t imagine. “We come bearing an olive branch, you know. We’re here to make amends.”

One of Sharaka’s eyebrows raised. “Har har. Much funny, very joke, so laugh. You finished?”

Chardis actually laughed. “She’s meming on us! Isn’t she a riot, sister?”

“So very funny,” Syl agreed with polite amusement. “But turning down a peace offering is rarely wise, Sharaka. Think about what we could offer.”

Sharaka crossed her arms; she knew she was trading with the devil – with due respect to Tryst – but she wanted to know what they were aiming for. “What could you offer that would be interesting to me?”

“Peace, of course,” Syl said with a charming smile, “you of all people know that being on our naughty list isn’t a fun time.”

“Oh, and Dorn, of course,” Chardis added, almost as an afterthought.

“I see Dorn all the time.” Sharaka’s upper lip curled, showing teeth. “There’s nothing you could do to him that I couldn’t if I put my mind to it.”

“That, gal, I sincerely doubt,” Chardis replied with a shark smile.

“We’re not offering to beat him up,” Syl pointed out, “and besides, if we did you wouldn’t have a furious Fisco to think about. No, I’m talking about something more… spiritual. You know our family’s rich, right?”

Sharaka took a meaningful look at the limo behind the twins and put a hand over her snout in mock surprise.

“Yes, we don’t go out of our way to hide it,” Syl conceded. “What you may not know is that we own quite a few properties in the city… including the land beneath one or two places of worship.”

Sharaka’s brow shot upwards. “You mean...”

“What was it called again?” Chardis scratched his chin thoughtfully. “The Pathetic Stroke?”

“I think you’ll find the name to be the Path of the Majestic Storm, brother,” Syl corrected him, her eyes still of Sharaka. “Yes, we happen to own the building where they hold their meetings. Distasteful people, as we all know, and not very remunerative, but they pay rent in time, so that’s alright for our parents. But a few words from us, and the position of Dorn’s abbots would become… problematic.”

“I bet it would do wonders for their faith,” Chardis commented. “The rainy season is close, they should get up close and personal with their object of worship. A sturdy ceiling would only detach them from divinity, I’m sure.”

Sharaka’s mouth was almost watering, but she fought to appear detached. “And what would you want in return?”

Chardis opened the door of the limo. “We can talk terms in a place with more privacy. And some expensive food, if you’re feeling peckish.”

“Expensive food.” Syl gave a look-over at Sharaka, taking in the viashino’s cargo shorts and Anime Was A Mistake T-shirt, and her left eye twitched ever so slightly. “Certainly.”

Sharaka took out her wallet and made a show of looking into it, then shook it out. Its contents bounced pitifully on the pavement with a couple of tinny sounds. “Is a kebab the same for you? I should have a full points card somewhere.”

Chardis rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Our treat.”

Sharaka then flashed a big toothy grin to Syl, trying without much effort to appear innocent. “Now that you mention it, I’m starving.” She followed the twins in the limo, sparing a glance to the coins on the ground. Surely just breathing in the general direction of the place they were taking her costed more.

“Well, nobody can say you got bad taste in leather,” Sharaka commented, settling on a seat with room for her tail. “Under all the bloody perfume, it almost smells freshly skinned.”

“I was sure you’d like it,” Chardis replied genially. “I can vouch for the perfume too, but I guess it’s more of an acquired taste.”

“Sure,” Sharaka replied evenly, then leaned forward. “So, what do you want exactly?”

“Aren’t the best negotiations done with a full stomach?” Chardis asked.

“Maybe, but I’ve got the feeling it won’t be a negotiation,” Sharaka said. “You wouldn’t approach me without terms you’de be sure I wouldn’t refuse.”
Syl raised an eyebrow.

Sharaka replied with a thin, quick smile. “If we come to an agreement, I’ll be satisfied with a take-away pizza. If we don’t, I’ll spare myself being kicked out from whatever fancy place you had in mind to dazzle me.”

“I said she was clever, sister,” Chardis replied with a smile, and Sharaka believed to almost see a trace of respect in his smug gaze. “What we want is just a friendly chat from time to time.”

“See, not even a blinded Gruff would have missed the advertisement for the Beryl Justice Committee,” Syl said with a condescending smile.

“Not even Dantalion,” Sharaka replied with a hint of venom.

“Hey, you sound like we’re responsible for every possible bad thing happening to you and your friends,” Chardis objected. “Given our… everything, really, it should be no wonder many would want to be in our good graces. Some of them take initiatives, and from time to time those initiatives prove to be... unfortunate.”

Sharaka didn’t buy it, but she smelled no sign of nervosism from the twins. “Sure, go on.”

“We let Dantalion know we would be very disappointed if he took similar initiatives in the future,” Syl offered. “After that, however, we didn’t hear of more meetings, though we noticed increased activity in a certain darkroom.”

“A darkroom lined with natron,” Chardis added, “which supposedly stops magic.”

“So we believe your little group is, shall we say, out to get us,” Syl continued with an amused smile, “and while you’re not something to really worry about, there’s the chance of some of you… taking unfortunate initiatives, so to speak.”

“You want me to rat on them,” Sharaka replied, teeth bared.

“If we know what’s coming, we can make sure our reaction isn’t... too unpleasant,” Chardis said. “There are things people can’t get away with.”

“And you’d throw the Storm priests on the street just for that? What would you really gain from it?” Sharaka leaned back and crossed her arms. “Stop taking me for an idiot, smug bastards.” She didn’t like her odds, but she wanted the truth.

“Want it spelled out? Fine,” Chardis spat, all pleasantness forgotten. “Your pathetic committee contains some rot-brained loose cannons who think they have little to lose. If any one of them, in an unlikely turn of events, makes the school think they put one past us, we would be irritated. When we’re irritated, we tend to make an example out of people. Do you want us to make an example out of your friends, Sharaka?” Chardis was almost snarling now. “Do you want to know just how much land we own, brat of a gods-forsaken lizard tribe?”

Sharaka didn’t even blink at the provocation, quietly gathering mana in case the man did something rash. As an orphaned ex-pariah, Sharaka had an idea about how many things people took for granted.

Syl put a hand on Chardis’ shoulder. “Dorn and his friends are nothing to us,” she added. “And you happen to be just so very slightly more than nothing. As long as the Committee tries and fails, we can enjoy their powerless frustration without actively targeting them, and you can enjoy the resulting peace. Otherwise, we’ll have to dedicate you time we’d rather spend around smarter people, and no one would be happy about that. Not our friends, not us, and certainly not you.”

A tense silence followed.

“You won’t do anything to harm or harass us.” Sharaka looked straight in Syl’s icy eyes, ignoring the smug smile forming on Chardis’ face.

“Nothing we can easily avoid doing,” the woman replied. “If one comes at us with a baseball bat, figuratively or not, we’d step aside and trip them, but we wouldn’t kick them when they’re down, or break the bat on their stupid face.”

“Nothing against people important to us either.”

“For Hartley that would include half the school,” Syl objected. “Be more specific.”

“Partners, family and people we live with are off-limits, and so are close friends that have nothing to do with you. And no sabotage of our extracurricular activities either.”

Syl seemed to think on this, but eventually nodded. “As long as none of those interfere with us. You’ll warn us of every future Committee meeting, and any initiative of each member within, say, twenty minutes from the end of the meeting. We’ll give you a number specifically for that, and you’ll supply any information we’ll ask you.”

Sharaka hesitated before shrugging. “As long as they’re relevant. You won’t let any of them know of this pact.” She had half a mind to tell them anyway – Jackie and Daneera surely wouldn’t be happy about that, but if they knew they could find a way around the terms, maybe.

“We have no reason to reveal our source.” Syl nodded with a worrying glint in her eye. “You should take part in some Committee initiatives too, if you don’t want them to know about our little agreement. Any specific condition about Dorn?”

“Not really.”

The twins looked at each other for a long moment, then both nodded. Chardis offered his hand, which Sharaka shook.

“That wasn’t difficult,” Chardis commented breezily, holding her hand and staring at her. “I told you, sister, she wouldn’t hold the dead mother thing against us.”

Sharaka had no visible reaction as her anger howled for blood. She had practiced that for years.

Chardis let the viashino’s hand go and lazily leaned back. Vulnerable. “See?” He winked at his sister - baring his neck. “Retarded mother or not, anyone can learn to take a jo-”

Sharaka slammed into Chardis so hard the limo swayed and the window behind him cracked. Her fangs bit into his face. Her knee pressed against his groin. Her tumbs sinked in his throat. Syl’s mind magic boiled touching Sharaka’s molten fury.

Sharaka felt something yield under her claws before she was kicked away. She kicked back with the mana she had left. The prey’s head broke through the glass. A stream of hell-cold air pinned her down until she her brain froze over.

Daneera looked around the empty courtyard again. Raiker had kept the class after the bell again and Daneera had been unable to warn Sharaka because her phone had died, but Sharaka wasn’t the type to leave without leaving a message. Something shone on the ground near the parking lot, probably a parking coin. She was starting to worry for some reason.

Daneera jumped when she heard footsteps behind her. “Sharaka?” She said as she turned.

“Your viashino friend?” The Shifter replied, with a cheer that frightened Daneera. “Hasn’t she just left in a limousine? Hey!”

Daneera ran to the shining spot she had saw earlier. A limousine? Sharaka wouldn’t leave her behind without a warning. She crouched and a shiver went down her spine. It wasn’t a parking coin.

They were two pennies.

“Miss DeCoeur, please wait a minute,” Mr. Elphimas said after the bell rang.

Jackie raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t even been trying to get detention. She shrugged, stopped cleaning her nails with the knife and swept the content of the desk in her bag.

She soon realized something was wrong. Elphimas’ smile was more tired than usual, the circles around their eyer darker and they had remained uncharacteristically silent for five whole minutes. Jackie was considering how to approach the matter when Daneera, Aloise and Beryl walked in. Daneera looked worried. Was it related to the SFJ? Elphimas just gestured for them to take a seat, and they all sat on the first row.

After them it was Lumina’s turn, who took the place at Beryl’s right after handing the teacher a folded note, and Tryst’s, who dropped her bag on the ground and strode toward the last row, leaving the comfortable distance of an empty seat between her and Jackie, then started carving the desk in front of her with a claw. That confirmed Jackie’s suspicions. The only missing members of the club were Alessa and Sharaka, who she hadn’t seen around that day.

Elphimas took the note, sighed and put it down without opening it. “We’ll begin without Miss Rehn, then.” They pinched the bridge of their nose. “As some of you may have noticed, Sharaka Kozuti didn’t come to school today,” Elphimas began. “I asked for you as she made clear she values your company, and your support may be very precious to her in the months to come.”

Tryst stopped decorating the desk. Jackie noticed Daneera’s shoulders tense. Other than that, the atmosphere was of worried confusion.

“Sha- Miss Kozuti is... currently in Mender’s Memorial, recovering from very serious injuries,” Elphimas said. “The doctors observed that the natural viashino physiology, combined with Miss Kozuti’s remarkable toughness-”

“What happened to her?” Daneera asked, her tone worringly blank. Her right hand’s knuckles where white, as if she had been clutching something.

Elphimas massaged their temples. “Yesterday night, she… she fell from the overpass near Dammerdall Lane.”

A heavy silence followed the vedalken’s words. Aloise and Beryl brought their hands over their mouths. Tryst’s jaw clenched.

“She will make it,” Elphimas added hurriedly, “but the recovery will take time, and… there are two matters with which your help might prove invaluable.”

The following pause seemed to be more for the teacher’s benefit than for the students’.

“The first is… she is gravely injured, as I said. She has not woke up yet, and while the doctors consider her out of danger, her condition has irregular fluctuations-”

“Are the nurses human?” Daneera interrupted.

“...some of them, yes,” Elphimas replied. “Why?”

“Sharaka once told me that in the past she had problems sleeping surrounded by humans,” Daneera explained. There was something she wasn’t saying. “Something about our smell setting her on edge. It has gotten better, but...”

“...the trauma might have brought that issue back to the surface. I will inform the staff of the hospital of this circumstance.” Elphimas wringed their hands. “This is not, however, the main problem. After she fell, she was apparently able to get away from the road on her own, but before… before she could, a car ran over her left arm.” Elphimas took a deep breath. “The doctors weren’t able to save it.”

A few gasps. Daneera took her head between her hands.

“Well… I mean...” Beryl tried with careful hope, “At least it-”

Jackie saw Tryst’s hands close into fists. “Sharaka is – was – left-handed, wasn’t she?” Beryl cringed, and Jackie knew she had just saved the younger girl from finishing a very unfortunate sentence.

Elphimas nodded gravely. “Adjusting will not be easy. Just… just be with her, please.” They really cared about Sharaka. Rather unusual, for a teacher. “The second matter is even more... delicate. Her guardian delegated her care to me during her convalescence – that is not out of ordinary, by the way, her guardian is a tribe leader with responsibility over dozens of young viashino, and I was honored to be asked,” they explained. “He said that some hours before the incident he received a… he received from her phone what appeared to be… well, a suicide note.”

“Those damned bastards,” Daneera snarled, slamming her fist on the desk.

Jackie didn’t need another word to take a solid guess on what Daneera knew. It made no sense for a suicidal girl to drag herself out of the road. A trauma caused by humans was likely to trigger a human-related issue, after all. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen the twins around either. She felt her trigger finger twitch.

Elphimas seemed to ignore Daneera’s language. “Miss Kozuti will be supported by Lady Nasina as soon as she returns to school, and I will make sure she receives appropriate psychological care during her convalescence. So do not feel responsible for her, but… if you can spare her a moment of your time...”

“Who knows about the note?” Lumina asked.

“...Outside this room, just Lady Nasina and a hospital therapist,” Elphimas replied. “Miss Kozuti’s guardian was adamant about keeping this matter discreet.”
Lumina nodded. “Good. We wouldn’t want such a rumor to spread, it wouldn’t be good for her.”

And now we can track the gossip if it ever spreads, Jackie added mentally. Surely all kinds of rumors will go around, but it’d be only normal for the school counselor to keep tabs on a very athletic girl who suddenly lost her good arm.

Elphimas nodded. “The doctor said that due to her peculiar family circumstances, close friends are allowed in her room, no more than two at a time. I made your names. Today’s visits will be limited to an hour in the afternoon.”

Another silence. Jackie supposed Daneera wanted to offer herself, but knowing her presence would only make Sharaka suffer… That would exclude almost everybody in the room.

“I’ll go today,” Jackie said, “We didn’t talk much, but I remember her saying she liked the smell of my eyes. You can take turns when she’s actually awake.”

“I’ll go too,” Tryst drawled.

Aloise turned to address them with a sympathetic smile. “I appreciate the gesture. Just to be clear, you shouldn’t feel responsible just because-”

“Don’t worry about my demon blood, Miss Rainbows,” Tryst snapped, a vicious curl to her lip, and flipped Aloise off. “Who do you think convinced me to join your stupid blowjob committee?”

Aloise was about to reply, but Daneera put a hand on her shoulder.

“**** you and your brownies, self-righteous choir-girl,” Tryst muttered under her breath, though Jackie felt no real venom in the words.

“That seems settled,” Elphimas commented with a placating tone.

“Was there magic on her?” Lumina asked.

“Preliminary exams showed no trace of lasting enchantments,” Elphimas said.

“And such trauma is likely to muddy any trace of mind-affecting magic, is it?”

“Good guess, Miss Revelaris,” Elphimas replied a moment’s reflection, “if a rather specific question. May I ask what is on your mind?”

“Apart from the Rulus trying to kill her?” Daneera interjected, furious. “They aren’t around either, and Sharaka isn’t the type to go down without a fight.”

“That is a very serious accusation,” Elphimas warned. “As I understand it, yesterday their parents called to notify the school they were flying overseas for urgent family matters.”

“A.k.a. vacation,” Lumina commented, taking her phone out, “Chardis is always sporting two weeks’ worth of tan after attending to such “matters”.”

Elphimas had enough self-respect not to defend the twins further.

“Last direct oversea flight took off at 19.45, assuming they were leaving immediately,” Lumina declared, putting her phone back. “Though I suppose that would mean little to a well-trained mind mage.”

“I must commend your sleuthing acumen, Miss Revelaris. But while your supposition is accurate, I must stress that similar conjectures could prove very inflammatory to some people,” Elphimas warned again with a serious frown.

“I trust your judgement, Mx. Elphimas,” Lumina replied earnestly. “May I come to you in the future to test my suppositions about the incident? Your perspective would help us - er, me - avoiding inappropriate lines of inquiry.”

Jackie lifted an eyebrow. Decent as they seemed, there was no way Elphimas would-

“Very well, Miss Revelaris,” Elphimas sighed. “It would be better to discuss this case with me than with other members of the staff. This goes for all of you,” they added, opening two blue-glowing eyes for a split second to regard them all.

Jackie’s eyes narrowed to slits. A teacher siding with the SFJ? That could prove useful. “Cool. Now excuse me, but I have urgent matters of my own to attend to,” she said as she picked up her bag. “When it’s visiting hour again?”

“You’re early.”

Tryst lifted her head from her hands. “You too,” she replied to Jackie as she stood up.

“Barely,” Jackie objected, and headed toward the reception. “Known Sharaka for a long time?”

“Middle school,” Tryst blurted. “Sharaka Tharnak Kozuti,” she said to the nurse. A nearby doctor lifted her head at the name.

“The viashino?” The mousy fair-skinned nurse replied. “Access is limited to relatives, you know.”

“Kozuti’s a special case, Cyrus, remember?” The doctor interjected, a smiling dark-skinned woman with a piercing gaze. “Your names, young women?”

Once cleared, the two were led to a room and gently but firmly reminded to be mindful of Sharaka’s condition.

Tryst didn’t know what to do with herself once in the room: Sharaka and her shared a lot of... good memories, but they rarely talked about feelings, if ever. And besides, the unconscious viashino on the bed barely looked like her friend. The head spikes and strong jaw were there, sure, but Sharaka was a ton of sharp edges and restless energy squeezed in a 200-pound girl; she didn’t stay still even when asleep. This viashino almost looked…

A chill crawled down her spine at the thought. Tryst dropped on a chair at the side of the bed, and finally noticed Jackie carefully reaching for the bandages on Sharaka’s chest. “What’s the big idea?” Tryst hissed.

“Looking for clues,” Jackie said calmly as she slowly lifted a gauze, and pointed at the vitals on a nearby screen with her free hand. “The numbers are steady, she’s not feeling it.”

Tryst had no reply to that. Not knowing what to do with herself, she slipped her hand into Sharaka’s and squeezed softly. She thought about the etched plate Tryst kept on her nightstand, and wondered how many things her friend had lost forever.

“Both collarbones are broken, not sprained,” Jackie muttered under her breath, interrupting Tryst’s grim train of thought. “And these round bruises mean beatdown.”
Those words would have made Tryst rabid in any other situation, but there, self-consciously holding the hand of her comatose friend, all she could feel was dejection. “Do you think the Rulus...”

“**** likely,” Jackie spat. “A friend working in a blue-blood garage just had a certain limo come in for a complete refurbishing, all cushions already removed.” Jackie took a deep breath. “The Rulus will pay for this,” the red-eyed girl annouced grimly. “We’ll make them pay.”

Tryst’s hand was squeezed faintly, and a jolt of energy ran through her body. “Sharaka?” She saw the viashino’s non-bandaged eyelid flutter.

Jackie glanced at the vitals and swiftly stepped back. A moment later, the door opened and both doctor and nurse strode in.

“You’ll need to step outside for a while, girls,” the doctor said. Tryst felt guilty when she slipped her hand away from Sharaka’s weak grip, but the woman nodded gratefully, and Tryst dragged herself out of the room. Time passed like in a fever dream, staring through the window as doctor and nurse performed a series of tests.

The world snapped back into focus when Sharaka’s half-open eye met Tryst’s gaze. Tryst absent-mindedly stepped forward and put her hand against the glass. The corners of Sharaka’s mouth curled upwards, and Tryst’s eyes filled with tears. She barely heard the doctor’s words.

“...awfully tough, but she’s in a lot of pain. It’s better for her to sleep now, but I’m sure she’ll be up for visits tomorrow evening.”

Tryst could see Sharaka was fighting to keep her eye open. “Tomorrow,” Tryst mouthed. Sharaka frowned slightly - sending a knife through Tryst’s heart – but stopped struggling, and her eye closed.

Tryst was half aware of dragging her feet to the elevator. Jackie had her phone out. “What you’re doing?” She asked, more out of habit than curiosity.

“SFJ meeting tomorrow morning,” Jackie replied with a dangerous edge to her voice. “There’s justice to be had.”

Sharaka snorted blood over the supple leather of the limo with a small grim satisfaction. Cleaning this mess would cost a small fortune. It wasn’t worth a mouth full of broken teeth, her arms broken beyond use and spirits knew how many cracked ribs, but she took victories as they came.

She was lying on her side, black tendrils binding her legs and tail together and wiring her mouth shut. Chardis was towering over her with blood-drenched handwraps, a messed up face and a very ragged breath. She regretted not getting some banefire on him, to help the wounds surviving their first meeting with a professional healer.

Chardis dropped on the seat opposite her, coughing blood. Syl quickly checked his hastily healed wounds and came close so she could hear him, nodding from time to time. Neither twin averted their gaze from Sharaka. Syl eventually put a hand on Chardis’ chest, and he reluctantly leaned back.

“My brother reckons you’re about even,” Syl declared.

Even with a numb face and an eye too swollen to be opened, Sharaka’s skepticism must have been clear.

“Ordinarily we’d send you the bill for replacing the window, but I doubt your whole tribe could afford half the sum. Today, however, we’re concerned about civic-mindedness,” Syl continued with a straight face. “You see, your little tantrum littered a public street with dangerous glass splinters, and almost made a person fall from a moving car. It’s evident that whatever pathetic excuse for a guardian you have has been lax at teaching you basic behavior, so it falls to us to rectify such a grave gap in your learning. In our opinion, learning by experience is often the best course of action.”

Sharaka’s insides filled with ice.

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to throw you out of the car,” Syl explained, her hands humming with energy, “someone might get the wrong idea.” She knelt before Sharaka, her fingers hovering over the viashino’s head. “I’m going to tell you how to learn this very important lesson now,” Syl whispered with a predatory smile, “and I’m sure you’ll follow my instructions to the letter.”