Chapter 2

The aroma of breakfast sent Parker's stomach rumbling. She bit her lip as she pushed the cleaning cart past the pickup window to the kitchens, where even from the dining hall the sizzle and pop of what smelled like fried eggs wafted under her nose. This was torture. How was she expected to work a dining hall while she was so hungry? Something about it felt a little like a punishment, but aside from appearing at Night Raven College—against her will, mind you— she hadn't done anything. And yet here she was in grimy coveralls on an empty stomach, dumping magical-boy left overs into the garbage.

It figured.

Crowley had come by that morning before the sun had a chance to rise properly, far too chipper for the hour. He'd brought the monstrosity she wore with him, clearly proud of what he'd managed to summon up for her.

"Let's see it on," he said, sounding like her mother had when picking her prom dress. She'd rolled her eyes, but complied. The material was stiff and smelled as if it hadn't been washed in years.

"Can't you use magic instead of… this?" she adjusted her shoulders in an attempt to settle the coveralls.

Crowley waved her off, "Oh no! That would require far too much concentration. I can't find you a way home if I'm too distracted by a spell after all."

Parker pursed her lips. Fair enough. The clothes were frumpy but they hid her frame well. Anyway, it wasn't like she planned to wear this for very long. Or, at least she hoped she wouldn't.

Even now, as she wiped down a table she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose every time she caught sight of her sleeve. Clearly, "summoned" in this case was figurative, since it was obvious the clothes had been sitting in a closet somewhere. There was so much dust on it, it had made her sneeze twice. Just the thought of it sent her nose twitching...

A third sneeze rocketed out of her so violently her hand flew to the top of her head. Her nerves sang until her fingers touched fabric instead of hair. She sighed. Good. The cap was still there.

For a moment, she almost gave Crowley credit. It would have been easier just to cut off her hair… except that would have been too much. Far too much.

The headmaster had frowned, "Come now, you're far too conspicuous."

"No," she shook her head. She wasn't quite aware how her hand gripped her lengths, the way her fingers wove between the long locks, tangling them in place. This was her hair- her's— and Crowley couldn't have it. She retreated another step. The blades of Crowley's conjured shears flashed in the dim light of Ramshackle's common room.

With a sigh, Crowley stopped. His lips were still tugged into a frown, but even so he lowered the scissors in favor of crossing his arms. For a while the two stared at each other, clearly at an impasse.

Parker wondered if Crowley would force her into an ultimatum: cut her hair, or be kicked out. If it weren't for his mask she would have tried to read his face, tried to decipher his ticks and expressions. Alas, the mask held firm. She couldn't even see his eyes.

She watched him tap his chin, "What do you suggest, then?"

Parker bit her lip, but loosened her fingers, "I can put it up. Or… a hat. You think I could borrow a hat?"

"A hat," Crowley echoed, "yes, I suppose that might work…" He eyed the length of her hair. The ends grazed just under her shoulders. With a flick of his wrist, the shears became a gray baseball cap. Parker wasted no time in braiding her hair and tucking it into the hat. The fit was snug, but it worked.

"It'll have to do," he said, then sent her off to tend to the dinning hall.

So far, the students of the school didn't spare her a second thought. To them, she was little more than a crack in the ancient stone walls. The thought chaffed a bit, she was providing them a service after all, but for what she and Crowley wanted it was the best she could hope for. In return, she didn't so much as glance at any of them, choosing instead to focus on her work. The hall was starting to clear now. Only a few straggler's who rushed in late remained scattered along the tables.

Her stomach groaned as another wave of breakfast smells hit her. Would they hurry up, already? She made to roll her eyes for the second time that morning.

Something glimmered at the very top of her vision. Parker set her frustration aside in favor of curiosity. A chandelier spanned most of the dining hall's ceiling. The fixture looked a little like a trunkless tree, hollow and dead and dark, save for the orbs of light at the points of each branch. She followed one of the gnarled limbs as it stretched towards a set of tapestries on the back wall.

There were seven total, each with the image of a different person. Parker blinked. Rather, six of them were people. The seventh was embroidered with the image of a dark-maned lion. Parker wondered at them even as she tied her latest garbage bag shut.

"Impressive, yeah?"

Parker almost startled at the voice. A student had materialized to her left, looking over the tapestries in the otherwise empty dinning room. For a second Parker thought he was the red head from the night before, until she realized he couldn't have been. This one was taller.

"Uh, yeah," she answered, coughing to try and lower her voice, "Are they, like, the founders or something?"

The red head looked her over, "Sort of. They're called the Great Seven. Each of the dorms are modeled after them," he pointed towards the tapestry of a woman dressed head to toe in red and black, "That's the Queen of Hearts, for my dorm. Name's Ace, by the way."

"Oh," Parker didn't quite know what to say next, so she settled on "Parker."

Ace turned back to the tapestries. "All of them were great mages," he said, "so naturally everyone wants to be just as powerful by the time they graduate."

Parker took another look at the Great Seven. She didn't doubt it by the looks of them, but the more she examined their tapestries the more… uneasy she felt. She wasn't quite sure what it was, the arch of the octopus woman's brow maybe, or the calculating stare in the lion's eyes…

"I don't know," she squinted, "They look kind of sketchy."

Ace snorted, "Of course you'd say that. You're that magic-less runt from the ceremony last night."

Parker's breath hitched. She didn't dare look at Ace.

"Don't think I didn't notice," he continued, "What, you didn't have any magic so they made you the janitor instead?"

Something hot ignited in Parker's chest. She snuffed it as best she could. In another time and place, she would have tore into him. Would have carved his heart out with manicured nails and the disposition of a queen. But this was here and now. She didn't belong here, and for now anonymity was key. The sooner she disengaged, the better.

"I should get back to work," Parker turned away, but Ace wasn't finished.

"Aww c'mon," he grabbed Parker by the arm. She froze under his grip. He was too close to her. Way way too close. Panic tingled at her fingertips. Pinpricks danced around the spot where his hand held her bicep. If this idiot blew her cover so soon... She had to get him off.

"Let me go," Parker tried to shrug away.

"Don't be so lame," Ace laughed. He yanked Parker forward so hard she almost fell. Her free hand flew to the cap on her head, just to be sure it hadn't slipped. The heat was back in her chest. Before she could properly collect herself she scowled, adjusted her stance and knocked Ace away with more force than she intended.

"I said, let go!"

Horror spiked in her stomach as she watched Ace tip backwards over his heels and into the tray of another student passing by. Ace caught himself on the edge of a table but it was too late. He'd knocked the tray out of the other student's hands mid-fall. A bowl of leftover oatmeal hit the stone floor, splattering a mess onto both of their uniform pants.

"Hey!" the other student cried, "what's wrong with you?"

Ace ignored him. His gaze locked straight onto Parker. Wonderful. He was pissed and she was in it, deep. She backed away as he pulled himself up.

"You're picking fights, now?" Ace straightened, "Couldn't get yourself into school so you take it out on me?"

"Hey, I'm not-" Parker didn't get a chance to finish as Ace launched himself at her. She ducked out of the in time to avoid being pinned to the wall. Ace reared, ready to go after her again when the student he'd fallen into held him back.

"Are you insane?" the student shook Ace, his dark hair hung in his eyes as he did. Parker noticed he wore a red and black ribbon around his arm identical to Ace's, "Riddle's going to kill us if-"

Ace shrugged him away and went after Parker again. She braced herself, meeting his eye as he charged straight at her. Her nails dug into her palms, her teeth clench. But Ace never reached her. Before he made another step, he cried out. Parker thought he trip, only he never hit the ground. In fact, he was floating a good several feet off the ground and rising.

"You're not dragging me down on my first day!" Parker watched the dark-haired boy aim what looked like a pen at Ace. It took her a second to realize he'd used magic to keep Ace from beating the absolute crap out of her. She would have thanked him, but she sensed this was far from over.

"Put me down!" Ace clawed at the air around him. He flailed his arms like he was trying to swim but only managed to turn himself upside down. The other student only glared in response. His pen remained aimed on Ace. The red head cried out, whether in fear or frustration Parker couldn't tell, "Fine! I give! Just get me down before Riddle hears about this!"

Mentioning Riddle seemed to do the trick. The other student nodded and put his pen down, but Ace only dipped a few inches in the air.

"Put him down," Parker said.

"I- I'm trying," the dark-haired student shook his pen now. Above them Ace matched his motion, diving and rising in quick succession. The grounded student tried again, but nothing he did released Ace from his magic.

"Stop shaking it!" Ace was higher now, a good distance over their heads and rising. He struggled even harder as the other student's pen motions became wilder. Parker could only watch as he dipped and rose in the air in a spastic dance. The student tried twisting his pen, whipping it from side to side. He knocked Ace into the branches of the chandelier.

Ace was kicking now, "Ow!"

"Sorry!" The student on the ground help up his hands, his pen tucked between his thumb and forefinger. In response, Ace shot up into the center of the chandelier. He kicked at the structure, hard, to keep from slamming into another one of its branches. The impact shook the chandelier, then gave a brittle crack.

The other student jumped at the sound. The shock released the magic on Ace and sent him plummeting to the floor. Parker gasped to keep from screaming as he fell.

Ace was a foot away from the floor when he cried, "Wind!"

In response, a gust of air blew past them and slowed his fall just in time. If it hadn't Parker was sure he would have broken his neck. The air that gushed out of Ace was almost as powerful as the gale that saved him. Despite herself, Parker's own shoulder sagged in relief. As much as she'd come to dislike Ace, she didn't want to his brains splattered over the checkerboard tiles. She would have liked to clean them off that floor even less.

"That was close," Ace breathed.

As if the chandelier had been waiting for that exact moment, something small plummeted from its center. The sound of shattering glass echoed as a hundreds of shimmering pieces arced across the floor. Something bright and smokey rippled out from the spot of impact.

Up above, the chandelier flickered and went dark.

"Oh no." the dark-haired student was white, the black spade he'd drawn by his eye stood out more than it already did.

Ace sprang from the floor with a growl. He rounded on the other student. "Are you an idiot?! If the headmaster finds out we broke the chandelier-"

Footsteps clicked behind them one by one. Parker didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

"If I," Crowley's voice was brittle, "find out."

As one, Ace, Parker, and the other student faced the headmaster. Crowley's mouth was set in a thin line as he came closer, looked from them to the floor and stared at the glittering mess. He didn't move. Parker wasn't sure he was even breathing. He only stood there, head down, absorbing the sight.

"Have you any idea what you've done?" the headmaster said at long last, his voice too calm for the rage that roiled off his feather-clad shoulders.

They didn't have a chance to answer as Crowley flew into a rage.

"This chandelier was made by a renown master of magical items! It was entrusted to this school since it's very foundation over a century ago, and thanks to you…. delinquents it will never be lit again!" the headmaster pinched the bridge of his nose through his mask, his voice unsteady as he added, "The destruction of such a priceless artifact is grounds for expulsion."

Expulsion. The two students went rigid at the news. The phrase 'sucks to suck' almost crossed her mind, but another thought beat it. Did… did that apply to Parker? She wasn't a student, but by the way Crowley was fuming she wondered if this was serious enough for him to kick her out on the street. If he did that, she'd have nowhere to go and what's worse, it would mean the end of his help in finding a way home.

She would be stranded forever.

"Can't you fix it with magic?" she blurted it out. The question felt stupid, but she hoped maybe his temper was blinding him to the simplest solution.

"Magic isn't all powerful," Crowley said, "fixing a relic of this importance can't be done with a simple spell, especially not when its source of power has been damaged beyond repair."

Source of power. Could he mean the thing that shattered all over the floor? She glanced down at what remained of it. It looked like it was once a glass ball. Crowley took to examining the rest of the chandelier.

"Of course," he began, "the rest of the structure seems to be intact…" Hope sparked in the both Ace and the other student as Crowley circled it from the ground, "It may be a question of replacing its crystal."

"I'll do it!" the other student jumped up, "I'll fix it, please, just don't expel me! Whatever I have to do, just say it."

"Yeah, and I'll help!" Ace added, "I can't get kicked out on the first day."

Crowley held up his hand to quiet the boys, "Finding a compatible crystal is no small task. It must be the same type with the same origin. The crystal that powered this chandelier was taken from the Dwarf Mines, and those have been empty for decades."

Decades. The word hung over their heads.

Ace frowned, "Maybe one of the crystals was missed. We'll go check! And If we can find a replacement, we can stay at Night Raven, yeah?"

Check the mines? Ace must have been desperate to keep his place at the school. Parker was sure there was no way Crowley would take him up on the offer. Absolutely-

"Alright," the headmaster nodded, "Since I am such a generous headmaster, I'll allow you a chance. You'll have until tonight. If the three of you manage to find a replacement by then, you won't be expelled."

The three of them? Parker bit back a scoff. How was any of this her fault? Ace was the one who started the fight, the other guy was the one who used magic! She hadn't done anything. Not a single... well. She winced as she remembered shoving Ace into the other guy's breakfast. It was self defense, really... She sighed. Alright, fine. Maybe she did have a hand this.

"You may go together once classes have ended, but for now, shoo," Crowley gestured towards the exit of the dining hall. Ace and the other student bowed and left, promises of success and a shower of thanks poured from their lips all the while. When they were gone, Crowley jut his chin towards the remains of the crystal and the discarded meal tray.

"Clean this up," he ordered, and disappeared.

Parker frowned and went to find a broom. This was ridiculous. Now her breakfast would be cold.

Something glimmered in the corner of Parker's eye. She stopped. Was that the chandelier? She whirled her head, convinced that maybe it hadn't been broken after all, but when she faced it, there wasn't a spark left. Her face fell, her eyes were playing tricks.

She could have sworn something blue flickered between the branches.

A feline smile crept up the creature's mouth. He'd ducked away in time to keep that stupid human from seeing him, but even so an idea was beginning to take shape. Was the headmaster really so desperate for a replacement? It sounded like he'd do anything for one.

And the dwarf mines? The creature just so happened to know exactly where that was.