Lee was indeed with the students. It seemed that she’d decided to attempt to further their practice of patterns through a demonstration of her own. That had spared them all of a session of stretching, though Noah suspected that the assortment of objects, both living and non, that Lee had shoved into her mouth were having considerably less fun.

He and Moxie arrived just as Lee swallowed and somehow managed to make something around two or three pounds of food vanish down her gullet and disappear as if it had never been there. Todd gave her a hearty round of applause that drew looks from everyone else.

“What?” Todd asked as he lowered his hands and glanced around at the attention he was getting. “I’d rather she eat other things than decide to see what something more intelligent tastes like.”

That might be one of the smartest things you’ve ever said.

“Good to see everyone’s having fun,” Noah said. Everyone had been so focused on Lee that they hadn’t even noticed him or Moxie. They turned toward him in varying states of surprise and Lee turned her gaze from a plump bird on the top of a nearby building. If the bird had any sort of guardian angel, Noah suspected that it had been the one hastening his steps.

“Fun’s certainly a word for it,” Emily said as she covered a laugh and turned to make sure Todd couldn’t see the flicker of a grin passing across her lips. “Do you think I could learn that pattern? If I could eat that much and not puff up like a ball of dough, I think I’d swap on the spot.”

“Yeah!” Lee said with a wide grin and a nod. “You definitely could. I’ll teach you.”

“I’m not so sure that particular pattern is going to work for anyone other than you,” Noah said with a laugh. As usual, Lee had covered for his ass. Nobody had so much as noticed that he was late.

Honestly, Lee is the absolute master of completely distracting people to the point where they don’t even realize they’re being distracted.

“No, you can definitely do it,” Lee told Emily with such confidence that Noah almost believed she knew what she was talking about. “You just have to build up to it. It’s like training your muscles. All you have to do is eat until you can’t eat anymore and then have some more after that.”

“That is not how you train your muscles,” Noah said, though Lee’s words did give him quite an insight into why her stretching sessions were the way that they were. “But I digress. We’ve got some work to get to and, according to what Moxie has told me, you’re all just about ready to move to the next step.”

Noah didn’t say what the next step was – he didn’t know who was in the area, but speaking in terms that a normal teacher would use was going to make it pretty hard for anyone other than his students to figure out exactly what it was that he meant.

Everyone’s eyes – other than Emily’s, whose eyes flicked to the side and broke contact with Noah’s as her face creased with a flash of concern – lit up. It looked like Moxie’s warning had been right. Emily didn’t feel like she’d progressed her pattern enough to take it any further.

No point making her suffer.

“But, before we get around to that, we’ve got some slightly more mundane things that we’ll be working on,” Noah said, starting toward the transport cannon. Everyone fell in line behind him and he continued to speak. “Moxie and Lee are going to lead some sparring and combat practice.”

A round of grimaces passed over the students’ faces – particularly those of Alexandra, James, and Todd. That was another one of Moxie’s theories proven correct. They were the farthest along in formations and likely wanted more.

Well, James was probably disappointed because he was going to have to do actual work, but that was just James.

“Whoever shows the most improvement from the last time is going to get points in our competition,” Moxie added, and all of a sudden, there wasn’t a single person who looked even vaguely reluctant.

After a short walk up the transport cannon’s stairs and a ride up its elevator, the group reached the top. Tim’s face creased in a smile and he raised a hand in greeting.

“Professor Vermil, Moxie. Good to see you and your students again. Have anything fun planned today?”

“Just some boring practice, that’s all,” Noah said with a shrug. Tim wasn’t acting even slightly differently than he normally did. That was what Noah had asked him to do. If anything, Noah was somewhat surprised to find that Tim was this good of a liar.

I guess he probably overhears a lot of stuff while working the transport cannon. It might take a degree of discretion to keep a job where you interact with so many different people. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Of course, of course,” Tim said. “Well, where can I send you? Just give me the word.”

“Windscorned Plateaus, please,” Moxie said. Noah sent a quick glance over his shoulder at the students. The plateaus were definitely a good training area, but after what had happened just a few days ago, he wasn’t so sure either Emily or Alexandra would be keen on returning.

“It’s fine,” Alexandra said, catching Noah’s look. “We’re students, not children, Professor Vermil. We can handle going back to train in an area where something dangerous happened. It’s not like anyone died.”

The others nodded. It was pretty clear that Alexandra and Emily had let them know what had happened. Noah suppressed a smile and turned back to give the older man a nod. Tim set about adjusting the direction of the transport cannon.

The more the kids share with each other, the better. They’re in this together. It’s a relief to see that Alexandra is meshing better with them than I initially thought she would. The divide between her power and theirs is pretty significant, but I think their worries and goals are close enough that it doesn’t matter.

The transport cannon shuddered as the tube adjusted its angle and set in place. Tim raised his hands from the control panel and gave them an encouraging nod. “Go on, then. We’re all set.”

“Thanks, Tim.” Moxie headed over to the cannon and laid down on it. A moment later, she was gone. Lee followed after her and the rest of the students trailed. Noah was the last to lie down on the cannon’s cold metal surface.

“Have a good trip, Professor Vermil,” Tim said, raising a hand in farewell. Noah only had time to utter a single syllable of thanks before the cannon activated and he was gone in a streak of blue light.

He slammed down in the Windscorned Plateau just a few moments of mind-numbing travel later. The others had all already gathered themselves and were waiting patiently in a semicircle before him.

Noah adjusted his jacket. Despite his words just a few moments earlier, he glanced around the area to make sure there wasn’t anyone lying in wait for them. As far as he could tell, the plateaus were as plain and desolate as they normally were.

“Let’s go ahead and get started, then,” Noah said. “Lee, if you do any stretching, make sure to leave everyone with enough mobility to spar without falling on top of each other like two piles of wet noodles.”

“That’s the point of stretching, though.”

“Well, maybe a little stretching,” Noah said, much to the horror of everyone else. A grin pulled at the corners of his lips and he held himself back from laughing. It wasn’t like he was going to be the one stretching. Lee would make a great distraction so that nobody was too focused on what he was –

“I’ll make sure you catch up and get an extra stretching session later, since you’ll be missing this one,” Lee said.

Noah’s smile fell away. “Ah, right. Lovely.”

It was everyone else’s turn to grin. Noah just sighed and shook his head. “Emily, you’re up first. Let’s go see what you can do.”

A look of panic flashed across her face and she sent a discreet glance at Moxie, who gave her a small nod of reassurance. It didn’t seem to do much. Emily swallowed and stepped away from the others. She walked over to join Noah and stood as stiff as a board by his side.

Noah drew his flying sword from its spot at his waist and tossed it to the ground. He got onto it first and Emily, after a second of delay, stepped on behind him. She put her hands on his shoulders to keep her balance.

“Good luck. Call out if you need me for whatever reason,” Noah said. He nodded up to the plateau above them. “We won’t be far. Just at the top of that.”

“Sounds good,” Moxie replied. She glanced at Lee. The demon was practically vibrating with excitement at her side. Heaving a sigh, Moxie sat down. “Everyone else, find somewhere to sit. I’m going to give Lee a little while to get the stretching out of her system before she pops. I don’t want to hear any complaints. Just be glad I’m having her do this first so we have an excuse to stop when we need to get to the rest of class.”

Noah activated the flying sword while the students moved to follow Moxie’s directions. Wind hummed through the air around his feet and it lifted into the air. He waited for a moment to make sure that Emily had a good hold of him before taking the sword up and over to the plateau above.

He landed gently on the grass. A flicker of memory passed through his head at the thought of his old flying sword. As chaotic as it had been, landing it anywhere successfully had made him feel pretty accomplished.

“Magus Vermil, I–” Emily started.

“Magus Vermil?” Noah asked, aghast. “Why the hell are you being so formal? I’d get professor, and I’m certainly not asking you to call me Teacherman, but Magus? Relax, Emily. Moxie talked to me. I’m not here to make you do something you aren’t comfortable with.”

The tension flooded out of Emily’s shoulders and escaped her lips in a relieved sigh. “Oh.”

“I’m here to help, you know,” Noah said. “I want all of you to succeed. If you’re struggling with something, you can find me after class or something. It’s not like you don’t know where to look.”

Emily shifted from foot to foot. Her gaze moved to land anywhere other than where she could see Noah. “I know. I just… I don’t know. I want to do it myself.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that, but you can’t brute force everything.” Noah paused for a second and scrunched his nose. The moment the words came out of his lips was the moment that he was reminded that he had quite literally brute forced everything he knew. “Actually, scratch that. I suppose you can brute force everything. It’ll take way longer than asking for help, though. Why ignore resources when you have access to them?”

“I – yeah. I guess you’re right,” Emily admitted reluctantly. “I just don’t like it.”

“That’s fine. For now, it doesn’t matter. Just show me where you are and what you’re having trouble with.”

Emily nodded. “Okay.”

She closed her eyes and a look of concentration passed over her features. Noah crossed his arms and settled in to watch. He was confident that everyone had the ability to use a pattern. Emily was no exception. She was a bright, if slightly argumentative, student. That meant that the problem was probably something the others would run into at some point as well.

This should be enlightening.