Riddle was vaguely aware of the odd series of 'accidents' around campus. However he wasn't expecting to be targeted so blatantly, and felt the distinct feeling of movement magic trying to drag him down. It couldn't happen at a worse time, as he was near the top of the stairs at the time.

He heard Trey cry out, and it was obvious that he planned to take his place to avert disaster.

He cast his eyes and spotted something odd. Ruggie in the middle of what looked like a fall on the ground floor, surrounded by other Savanaclaw students. While he was unfamiliar with Ruggie's signature spell, he did know something bad was happening.

Which was why he decided a little payback was in order.

"Off With Your Head!"

Ruggie let out a yelp as Riddle's own signature spell snapped into place, cutting off whatever he was doing. Riddle was able to grab a banister, and cut off his fall. However he was beyond pissed that they had attempted so blatant a trick.

Good thing he didn't really need to aim with his spell pen to use his signature spell...just having them in eyesight was enough.

"Ruggie Bucchi, what in the name of the Seven were you thinking?!" snarled Riddle.

Dead silence, as everyone suddenly turned to the now very nervous group of Savanaclaw students and a clearly collared Ruggie. Everyone had been so focused on Riddle's near accident they hadn't noticed them near the stairwell at all.

While he wasn't a student of his dorm, Ruggie had no idea how petty Riddle could be. And he knew damn well how sensitive a canine's nose could be. Besides, there was no way Ruggie was pulling this shit without Leona's approval.

Once Trey was assured Riddle was alright, and Ruggie would be given a "stern reprimand", he left Riddle alone. He knew Riddle would likely hide in the "housewarden's retreat" to calm down.

What he didn't know was that Riddle was absolutely going to get some payback that would never be traced back to him.

The moment he entered the retreat, the pixies surrounded him, having sensed his distress.

"Everyone, I have an assignment for you...and it will involve inconveniencing or otherwise bothering the humans," said Riddle.

If there was one thing that had never quite faded, it was that faeries, especially the lower ones like the pixies and elemental ones that helped maintain everything, loved playing pranks. Especially on humans.

So the idea of being given a mission to deliberately harass an entire dorm of them was too good to resist, especially since Riddle wasn't planning to do anything too big that the headmage would have to actually deal with.

The delighted sound of faerie giggling could be heard for hours in the retreat, as they came up with a plan of action to get some unofficial payback on the other dorm.

~*~*~*

Leona sneezed, and had to shiver. It took him three seconds to realize that there was something off with the weather controls, as the place was absolutely freezing.

Needless to say any thought of sleeping through it died instantly, as there was no way he could nap in the bitter cold.

Things only got worse from there. The waterfall had dwindled to a dangerous trickle. Not enough to properly cover the door, but just enough to keep the plants alive. He could already see several of his dorm members shivering like no tomorrow. His eyes narrowed.

"Where's Ruggie?"

"He's trapped in his room. Some sort of plant sprang up and he hasn't stopped sneezing long enough to get out," said Ruggie's roommate.

Leona easily disposed of the plant using his signature spell, but the oils it gave off made his eyes sting something fierce. Dusting it made things even worse, and he could see Ruggie was in no condition to do his usual duties.

He had some of the other beastkin drag Ruggie off to the nurse, since there was a risk he was having an allergic reaction.

It took them hours to find whatever was messing up the waterfall, and to fix it back to normal. The weather control was out of their hands, as the mage stone that controlled it was inside the mirror chamber and the headmage was currently off campus. He was the only one who could approve them going in to see if anything was abnormal.

Leona found it rather odd that none of the other dorms even remotely spoke of anything weird going on with their areas.

If he had noticed, he would have seen the slight smirk on Riddle's face at his discomfort.

Two days later, Leona was woken up by the sprinkler systems going off, drenching the entire dorm. Everyone was soaking wet, and miserable as the temperature dropped below normal again. Half the official team ended up caught with a nasty cold.

Leona was pissed.

"Any word on Ruggie?" asked one of the beastkin.

"I heard he had a bad reaction to those flowers, and the teachers are planning to launch a serious inquiry as to where they came from," said another.

"Why?"

"They're banned in dorms, because they give certain beastkin bad hives...especially canines like Ruggie."

Leona paused. That sounded like someone had deliberately targeted one of his.

This...would not stand.

The problem was that they were unable to trace the flowers, as Leona had thoroughly destroyed them and any magical traces as to their origin when he rescued Ruggie. The hyena would be out of the spelldrive tournament at the very least, but would recover.

Leona was on a murderous prowl, angry that someone had challenged him in his own territory.

In another area of the school...

Lilia whistled, hearing from the sidelines as Leona was now fully committed to finding who had messed with his dorm. It was clear he was very pissed off, and Lilia found it a tad suspicious that the 'accidents' had stopped completely.

However he had a sneaking suspicion as to the culprit of these new attacks.

"You want an invite to the next Unbirthday party?" asked Cater.

"They seem like a lot of fun, but I know such things are usually kept in-house," said Lilia. "Besides, I'd love to examine the traps you've been going through of late."

Cater was already texting Riddle. He got a reply within seconds back.

"Sure. I know your birthday isn't anywhere near the next month, and we're planning to have one in a few days to help calm the others down," said Cater. "Besides, Riddle would likely love to go on and on about the traps."

He blinked as a second text went through.

"Huh."

"What is it?" said Lilia.

"He just sent a text saying that Malleus is more than welcome to join, since he knows that your housewarden rarely gets an invite for some reason," said Cater.

Lilia blinked.

"He invited Malleus?"

"Riddle's been acting...strangely...since he reset the traps," admitted Cater. "I would be worried, but he's calmed down considerably."

~*~*~*

Malleus was so pleased to be invited that he arrived on time for a housewarden meeting for once.

"Still no word on what's going on with the dorm?" asked Vil.

"None. There's no evidence to follow, and no one's caught sight of anyone who shouldn't be there already," said Leona growling. He was definitely mad as hell.

Riddle stayed quiet, which Malleus took note of. He also noticed an undercurrent of smug satisfaction.

"Has it escalated beyond petty pranks?" asked Azul. "Whoever is doing this already cost you the tournament."

"None so far, the only consistent issue we've had is the weather controls," said Leona. "I had to post guards around the water reservoirs because someone kept tampering with it...not enough to kill the flora, but enough that it was noticeable."

"Tampering with it how?" said Azul.

"First it was lowering the water pressure, then last week someone put some sort of dye into the shower heads that caused three people to come out pink," said Leona. "Whoever is doing this is a sneaky son of a bitch."

"Sounds like a faerie prank," said Malleus without thinking. Everyone turned to him. "This sort of thing sounds exactly like something the lower fae would pull on someone who annoyed them."

Leona's glare tripled.

"You're telling me the fucking faeries are pulling this? Why?" demanded Leona.

"You shouldn't have told Ruggie to cause all those accidents," said Riddle flatly.

The look everyone gave him was priceless and he was enjoying it far too much.

"Wait. Accidents?" said Azul. "Does this have anything to do with that string of incidents before the tournament?"

"Considering they abruptly stopped after Riddle was targeted and he collared Ruggie," said Vil. His eyes narrowed at Riddle. "Didn't Ruggie have to go to the hospital wing two days after you nearly had that fall?"

Riddle looked smug.

"You bastard," snarled Leona. He looked ready to lunge at Riddle.

Riddle's face became cold and there was a sense of impending violence around him.

"You targeted me, all over a stupid sport. You should have known actions have consequences. Besides, I did nothing."

Malleus chuckled.

"Ok, how did you convince the lesser fae in charge of the dorms to prank the lion's territory?" he asked. He looked absolutely bemused.

Seeing everyone waiting with baited breath for the answer, Riddle snorted.

"Did you know most of the lesser fairies in the dorms have a penchant for pizza?" he asked.

"Pizza," deadpanned Vil.

Riddle nodded.

"They acquired a taste for it because this is a college and people order out or bring back leftovers. They absolutely love pizza night but rarely get enough for themselves. The fae of the maze contacted the ones in Savanaclaw and I made a deal with them. In exchange for a three pizzas, pepperoni, cheese and sausage, they'd prank Leona until the tournament was over. And that was for both my dorm and his."

"Let me get this straight...you bribed an entire dorm's worth of faeries to drive Leona up the wall...with pizza," said Azul, incredulous.

Riddle nodded solemnly.

"They were very pleased with the bribe, and mine were very pleased with the fact they didn't have to share with the other dorm," said Riddle.

"How the hell did you get their pizza order?" demanded Leona.

"I asked. Also, could you tell Jade to stop experimenting with the mushrooms he finds so much? The water faerie in your dorm have been complaining that some of the 'samples' he brings makes them very dizzy when he cooks them," said Riddle.

"So you're telling me that in order to get these...pranks...to stop, I have to bribe the damn faeries?" said Leona incredulous.

"They have a preference for cheese, but the fire faeries asked for the pepperoni. However they've all become somewhat leery of anything mushroom because of Jade. They don't know if he's been slipping any of his finds into the school's stock of them," said Riddle.

The look on the Savanaclaw dorm's face when they saw Leona walk into the dorm with enough pizza to feed an entire dorm was hilarious...but not as much as their reaction to learning who the true culprit was behind the mystery pranks. Seeing several faeries fly out of nooks and crannies to devour four pies all by themselves was hilarious.

Ruggie was just glad that the flower prank that nearly killed him was a one-time thing...and a clear warning from Riddle to never target his territory like that again.

He never suspected the Teapot Tyrant had it in him to pull something so vicious...or this coordinated...off.

~*~*~*~

Cater had to admit, this wasn't entirely the most awkward Unbirthday party he had ever seen.

Malleus was a good guest, and had read the 'rules' beforehand. Lilia was openly examining the traps and showing proper appreciation of them.

"This looks like (indecipherable noise) work," he said.

"It is," said Riddle. "I recognized it the moment I first entered the dorm, and was rather surprised that someone had turned them off in the first place. I originally assumed they were down for maintenance."

Lilia chalked off another tally in the "Riddle has possible fae blood in him" list. The fact he understood that noise was a pretty good sign of it, since it wasn't meant for human ears.

"Not surprising, since he is the one in charge of the great maze," said Lilia.

"I've only seen the great labyrinth once, and it was very impressive. It was no wonder mother got into such a tiff with him over who's was better," said Riddle with a smile. "From what I understand she would get most put out whenever he one-upped her in regards to traps. The servants were quite vexed with them both."

Lilia hid a smirk, as he had Riddle's parentage now. Only one person was notorious for getting into a rather heated argument with this particular fae royal...and later had a child with him. It made perfect sense now.

Though it didn't explain why he went missing.