Chapter 2: Beware of Villains

The Crumpton Royal Library.

It was the greatest library in the world and was located in Wokingham, the royal capital of Ingram, and it was also known as the queerest building in history because of the repeated renovations it had undergone throughout the centuries. The original building had been constructed three hundred years ago and was a cozy and aged building only two stories tall, but annexes had been built upon it every twenty years and those annexes were all varying in height —ultimately, its construction had become bizarre, like a tail wagging its dog.

It was thanks to all the haphazard construction that the Crumpton Royal Library was currently infamous as an unclearable labyrinth. But the bad rep had been unavoidable to some extent, since the expansions hadn’t been planned but were rather constructed hastily in response to some urgent problem or another. Even still, the library was rather extreme. The original building and each annex were constructed to reflect the era and preferences of its architect, and the logic behind one building often differed to the logic of another.

The most common illustration was how the annex built at the end of the Dermott Dynasty had a fixed map, but the annex built during the Arclight Dynasty, the current ruling house, had been constructed using both newly advanced scientific techniques and magical arts, and the stairways and bookshelves tended to move on their own. Naturally, books were sorted and buildings were divided differently in every annex too. Even the librarians got lost in buildings other than the one they were in charge of.

And yet there was one annex that was particularly infamous among the many, many buildings. It was none other than the Millennium Rose Hall, which was used exclusively by the witches and wizards affiliated with Ingram. It had been built to commemorate the thousand-year war between the world of magic and the Church of Santigma that had ended two hundred years ago, and, as expected of a library built for witches, it was a mysterious place where principles that normal people couldn’t dare even imagine were at work.

Simply put, the Millennium Rose Hall wasn’t simply a place where only the stairways and bookshelves tended to move around. The books kept there were vessels for magic in and of themselves, and anyone who couldn’t handle magic could be devoured by the books at even the slightest mishap. This was also the reason why the librarians working in the Millennium Rose Hall needed to be members of the world of magic.

Rupert Walsh was a young wizard who had been hired as a librarian just half a year ago. He was nothing more than a librarian because he was an untalented wizard who hadn’t passed his promotion exam until he was twenty, but the man in question was rather content with his life. He had only ever been scorned in the world of magic, and his job paid more for less work compared to others. Hardly anyone visited the Millennium Rose Hall, and his only major duties entailed making sure that the books didn’t escape the bookshelves and managing any books the required special attention.

And so, Rupert Walsh was dozing off behind the counter yet again. Others might have faulted him for his laziness, but the witches who frequented the Millennium Rose Hall were not the types of people whom an ordinary librarian could deal with in the first place. His only work behind the counter involved stamping any books a witch wanted to borrow, so it wasn’t Rupert’s fault that he had fallen asleep, unable to best his boredom.

Tap tap.

A sudden noise interrupted his nap.

Tap tap.

He had thought the noise would die down soon, but it didn’t stop. Rupert eventually woke up and irritably looked around his surroundings.

Tap tap.

Rupert, who had been looking around the counter for a while in search of where the noise was coming from, sluggishly looked up. Sure enough, there was a small bird tapping its beak against the glass ceiling.

“Why are you there of all places……?”

There was an awkward look on Rupert’s face as he looked up at the ceiling. The glass ceiling, from which the midday sun was shining through, was so pointlessly high up that Rupert could not hope to reach it with just his height alone. He would have simply ignored it until it tired and went away on its own if he could have things his way, but, unfortunately, there were a few books in the Millennium Rose Hall that were sensitive to noise.

‘The books wouldn’t have been wakened from a quiet noise like this, right?’

Rupert thought to himself. But Sir Vincent Rochdale, the director of the Millennium Rose Hall, would surely think otherwise. And Rupert found Sir Vincent, who was not only his boss but also famous in the world of magic for his strictness, rather difficult to deal with.

Rupert pondered and pondered until, with little other choice, he finally decided to try using flight magic. It had been so long since the last time he had used it that he no longer knew if he still could, but he still needed to create an excuse for himself to tell in the future.

He drew an informal magic circle on the floor with white chalk and awkward stood atop it. He would have a better chance of success if he used a formal magic circle, but Rupert was unfortunately rather unskilled at the Abado tongue. Wizards did not inherit the incantations or the talents in willpower required to manifest magic and needed to use magic circles to cast spells, and knowledge of the Abado tongue was essential to drawing magic circles. Rupert, who had been negligent in his study of the Abado tongue, was not able to draw complicated formal magic circles. This was one of the reasons why he was a wizard who had barely managed to avoid failing his exam.

Rupert floated gently up into the air, rendering his worries over what he should do if the magic circle failed to activate pointless. The spell would be over soon, judging by how faintly the magic circle was glowing, but he was happy enough that his spell had even worked. All he had to do was chase a bird away, after all. He didn’t need to be in the air for long.

Rupert strenuously made his way up to the ceiling as if he was cutting through a current of water and knocked on the window. But the bird didn’t even budge —it was like it wasn’t afraid at all. Not only had it not moved away, but it was still tapping against the window with its beak.

Rupert grew suspicious and huddled over toward the window. And he immediately found himself at a loss. It wasn’t a bird.

Rupert wasn’t very knowledgeable about machines, so he had no way of knowing whether the bird was moving by mechanical or magical means. It was more likely to be the former, since the world of magic tended to hold science in disdain, but he couldn’t completely rule out the latter possibility either. Rupert recalled reading an article about how the young master of House Alpheus, who was quite the oddball, was conducting research to bring science and magic together. If this bird machine was one such creation, then it would be vastly more difficult to deal with than otherwise.

Rupert sighed. He had no way of handling the stupid machine like this. He opened the window, thinking that he could at least grab hold of the bird. But there was just one thing that Rupert Walsh had overlooked —the fact that the mechanical bird was much faster than he had been expecting.

“Huh?”

The mechanical bird whizzed right inside the library as soon as he opened the window. Rupert startled and flailed his limbs in mid-air. He had thankfully avoided falling down from three stories high, but now he had a bigger disaster on his hands. Rupert was on the verge of tears as he ran in the direction the mechanical bird had gone as soon as he had managed to land back on the floor. He didn’t even want to imagine just what sorts of accidents the unidentified mechanical bird might cause in the Millennium Rose Hall.

Rupert ran around the library blindly and searched between every bookshelf for quite some time. Why, just why, had the bird flown into the library of all places? There were many books in the library that had been put to sleep for preservation because they weren’t read very often. In other words, there were many rare books in the library that Rupert, a novice librarian, didn’t know how to deal with yet. He was out of breath as he pulled at his hair. Sir Rochdale might kick him out of the library for good if he ever learned about this.

Rupert eventually made his way to an uncommon spot of sunlight in the library as he imagined wild delusions. It was next to a window where the faint sunlight was filtering through. Someone had beat him there.

She had her back to the window, and the backlighting cast a dark shadow over her. But Rupert identified her quickly enough. Not only was she so beautiful that no one could easily forget her after meeting her once, but she was also so famous that anyone who had a foot inside the world of magic could recognize her.

Hester Sol.

The daughter of the great witch Griselda Sol and the genius of the century who had been blessed by the King of the Stars.

Rupert wondered whether he should ask her if she had seen the mechanical bird or if he should keep his silence and head back. He would have squeezed his eyes shut and just asked had it been any other witch, but she was none other than ‘Hester the Wise.’ She had been recognized as a proper witch even before she had come of age, and she was a promising young witch who had written her name in the White Hall at just twenty-five. She was too great a public figure for someone like Rupert, who had barely passed his promotion exam, to bother.

But there was still another reason why he found it difficult to bother Hester Sol. She carried an air about her that was as exceptionally strange as she was exceptionally beautiful. She was poised and graceful but also dry, and she felt melancholy like an aged portrait instead of like a vivacious woman her age.

Rupert watched over her back, which seemed distant as if she alone belonged to another world, before deciding to give up on talking to Hester Sol today as well. It had already been half a year since he had begun resolving himself only to give up later every single day, and he knew that he would repeat the same process tomorrow too. But what else could he do? He had realized only recently that people in love were fools who did foolish things.

But Rupert had spied it by pure chance just as he was about to turn away. The mechanical bird was sitting quietly on Hester Sol’s shoulder.

“Huh?”

Rupert blurted out. He belatedly covered his mouth with his hands, but words, like water, could not be picked up and put back once spilt. Meanwhile, Hester, who had been sitting by the window like a still statue, slowly turned around. Her eyes, as grey as fog, finally fell on Rupert.

Rupert stared back at her in blank amazement. He began stammering before he could stop himself.

“T-that bird…….”

“Sir Hugo Alpheus sent me a letter.”

“A letter?”

He did not see any letter. But instead of resolving his questions, Hester asked,

“Excuse me, but may I borrow a map for a moment?”

 

* * *

 

“Goodness. It’s truly reassuring to have you here with us, Sir Hugo.”

Colonel Oxley, who was with Ingram’s northern army headquarters, was in a very good mood. He had been frightened to death just a few hours ago by the news that a train bound for Wokingham had been hijacked out of nowhere, but his worries had already been extinguished.

It was all thanks to the young wizard standing before him. He continued,

“Those folks with the Revolutionary Army or whatnot are truly just a bunch of fools. They should have picked a better place if they were going to cause this fuss, but they hijacked the train just as it was passing through Penzas, where you live, Sir Hugo.”

Colonel Oxley laughed heartily. But his companion did not react in particular. The colonel grew embarrassed and sheepishly said,

“Are you perhaps feelings unwell, Sir Hugo?”

“……Pardon? Did you say something just now?”

The wizard, who had been staring blankly into his cup, looked up. His eyes were dim, just as they had been when Colonel Oxley had first met him.

“You don’t look very well.”

“It’s nothing important. I’m just a bit tired, perhaps because I’ve been staying up all night for the past three days.”

“For three whole days?”

the colonel asked bitterly. He may have been certain of their victory, but he still should have taken better care of himself before confronting a rebellion. Colonel Oxley continued,

“Are you sure you’re all right? You’ll likely have to use magic…….”

“Didn’t you tell me that they were on the brink of ruin anyway? Besides, the only weapons they have are old guns.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true.”

The colonel was hesitant. The wizard leaned deep into the sofa and monotonously replied,

“So, when will we depart? I’d like to finish things quickly so I can head back.”

“Do you have urgent business to attend to?”

“I came here in such a hurry because of the king’s orders that I forgot to make sure that Bamber ate.”

“Do you have children, Sir Hugo? —I heard that you were single.”

“Bamber is a lizard.”

“I beg your pardon?”

asked Colonel Oxley with a dumb look on his face. But all the wizard did was yawn. Anxiety naturally crossed the colonel’s visage.

The wizard who was so comfortably exchanging words with Colonel Oxley, who had just turned fifty, was Hugo Alpheus. He was easy to spot anywhere, as he had inherited House Alpheus’ characteristically faded silver hair and distinctly blue eyes, and, like most other wizards, Hugo Alpheus did not care much about how others viewed him.

Colonel Oxley had let go of his apprehensions because the wizard was rather mild-mannered despite his notoriety for being an oddball, but the colonel quickly grew nervous once again. Wizards generally tended not to care at all about cooperating for the public good. He had to coax the lethargic Hugo Alpheus somehow if he wanted to settle the situation nicely.

“We’ll be departing for the scene shortly. It’s not very far, so you needn’t be concerned.”

“Isn’t that a bit unnecessary……? I can teleport there instantly if you give me the coordinates,”

Hugo said as he touched his monocle. Colonel Oxley did his best to smile at him pleasantly.

“I’m sure you must be proficient at teleporting since you’re a very skilled wizard, Sir Hugo. But my aides will also need to come with me. I would ask that you save your strength until we need it to recover the train.”

But Hugo was still apathetic despite the sugary words tickling his ears. The colonel could not know if Hugo was taking the kind reception for granted or if he simply didn’t care. The wizard replied with something incoherent.

“I only ride carriages.”

“Pardon?”

Colonel Oxley looked puzzled. Then, Hugo hammered his point home.

“I don’t ride on living organisms.”

“By living organisms, you mean…….”

“Don’t soldiers usually ride horses? I don’t, so please prepare me a carriage.”

He was not saying that he could not ride horses but that he would not. Colonel Oxley already felt the edges of his lips twitching.

“But of course. I will prepare you the finest carriage at once.”

He silently ground his teeth together.

Truly, these wizards weren’t to be associated with. He resolved himself every time he had to work with one, and yet he still ended up doing his best to please them every time. Science may have developed greatly, but magic was a world that no ordinary person could ever hope to reach.

And so, he had no choice but to bear with it. The Ingram Armed Revolutionary Army had been powerful in the countryside thirty years ago, but it had all but collapsed by now. They may have hijacked an entire train through sheer dumb luck, but they only had a little over twenty men inside the train at best. What little triumph and morale they had enjoyed for hijacking the train would quickly subside once they learned that they were about to go against a powerful wizard.

That was what it meant when a wizard took to the battlefield. And Hugo wasn’t just any wizard —he was a direct member of <Just Alpheus>. Hugo Alpheus was a young wizard who had only just turned thirty, but he was prominent enough that even the general public, which was far removed from the world of magic, had heard of him.

And so, the Ingram Armed Revolutionary Army’s final struggle was destined to end in vain. Their biggest mistake had been to choose Penzas as their last stage.

Colonel Oxley looked a bit more comfortable as he brought up his teacup. He was already thinking about the vacation he was scheduled to take next weekend. He had already finished successfully apprehending the Armed Revolutionary Army in his mind.

“Hmm?”

A bird suddenly flew into his office. It fluttered past before the colonel had a chance to grab it and landed on Hugo’s shoulder.

“Sir Hugo?”

The colonel had half stood up from his seat. Hugo picked up the bird with one hand. He was very careful with the bird, as if he might crush it if he squeezed too hard.

Hugo stared at the bird for a while, as if he was communicating with it somehow.

“It looks like we’ll be expecting a guest.”

“Pardon?”

But Colonel Oxley was never returned an answer. Hugo had abruptly opened the office door as soon as the words had left his mouth.

The colonel immediately shot up from his seat. His aide, who had been guarding the door, was looking around while flustered. Floating above his head was a gun that likely belonged to him.

But Hugo simply took a sip of his coffee despite the ruckus.

“Looks like she’s already here.”

Click clack. The tidy sound of someone walking in heels grew closer. Colonel Oxley’s face was stiff as he looked out the door. His left hand slid over to the pistol behind his back so that he could attack at any moment. But the person who pushed past his aide and walked through the door was a woman whom he had never met before. And a very beautiful one, at that.

“Sir Hugo.”

The woman took off her hat as she greeted Hugo. Hugo courteously nodded back.

“It’s been a while, Lady Hester.”

Colonel Oxley was bewildered as he looked between them in turns.

“Sir Hugo. Who is this woman……?”

But Hugo simply shrugged. The colonel anxiously turned to look at the woman. She was very lovely, with her red hair done up neatly and her petite face, but he could not put aside his apprehensions because he remembered that his aide’s pistol was still floating above his head.

The woman touched her hair with a white gloved hand before she suddenly walked up to the colonel. The colonel startled and stepped back, but the woman had already stopped within four or five steps from him anyway.

Quietly, she said,

“My name is Hester Sol. You needn’t be so wary of me, for I am a witch to whom His Majesty the King has granted a peerage.”

“B-by Hester Sol, you mean…….”

“I was forced to come without notice because Sir Hugo notified me that my younger sister is a passenger on the train. Please do forgive my discourtesy,”

Hester said as she gently lowered her head. Colonel Oxley was dumbfounded as he stared back at her.

“Your younger sister…….”

“She’s a witch too, but she’s quite inexperienced and I’m worried that she’ll find herself in trouble. Would you please allow me to participate in this operation as well?”

What discourtesy? —he welcomed her presence with open arms. Wizards generally ignored it even if people were killed in their front yards unless the king had ordered them to act, so it was exceedingly rare for a renowned witch to volunteer to cooperate of her own accord. Moreover, Hester Sol was one of the top five most talented witches in Ingram.

“I would be ever so grateful if you did. Oh, and I am Colonel Charles Oxley.”

The colonel quickly erased the solemn expression from his face and reached out for a handshake. But Hester Sol simply stared at his hand, just as Hugo Alpheus had earlier. The colonel’s countenance was about to crumble when Hester, with an expression as dry and unchanged as ever, said,

“I’ll be in your care.”

Colonel Oxley collected his hand as if nothing had happened. And, at the same time, he thought. That all wizards were obnoxious no matter how deceptive they looked on the outside.

 

* * *

 

The initial fright after the sudden gunshot only lasted for a moment before everything became deathly quiet. All the passengers were seated and looked only ceaselessly forward with stiff countenances. The only sound in the passenger car was the sound of the assailants walking down the corridors.

Diana snuck a glance out the window with only her eyes. It was May, and the late spring was hurrying into summer. The days were growing longer, and evening was pushing back, but it was still almost time for it to start getting dark out. There were hardly any people around, much less any towns, so it was likely that she would no longer be able to see well once the darkness began to settle.

Diana had been staring blankly outside the window when she suddenly let out a sigh. There was only one pane of glass between them, but there were masked assailants in here whereas the outside was peaceful. She lamented bitterly at the difference. It was difficult to believe that she had been agonizing over whether Oliver was a crook or her sister’s boyfriend just earlier.

“Don’t worry too much, Miss,”

Oliver whispered. Diana’s shoulders shivered as she startled.

“P-please be quiet. I don’t want to get shot and die.”

“Neither do I. But, don’t you think something’s happened to them?”

Oliver looked toward the front of the car as he spoke. Two of the assailants who had been keeping watch over the car had their heads together and were whispering about something. It looked serious even at a first glance.

“……Seems like it. It’s strange, in any case.”

Then, one of the assailants quickly made his way over to the cabin opposite of theirs. There was still one armed assailant left to keep watch over them, but he was still clearly acting suspiciously.

“Whatever news they just got must be pretty bad, considering how tense they are.”

“If it’s bad news for them, then it must be good news for us, right?”

“Should be, right?”

Oliver replied serenely. Diana, who had been keeping a careful eye on the assailant, turned to glare at him in discontent.

“Why are you so calm?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. You weren’t all that bewildered when the Revolutionary Army or whatever they called themselves suddenly burst in either.”

“I didn’t realize you were paying so much attention to me.”

“Are you really going to keep being like this?”

Diana glowered at him in irritation.

“Who can say? Would I really have a reason to be happy in this situation? I just happen to know a few more things than you do, Miss.”

“……You aren’t working with them, are you?”

Diana asked dubiously. Oliver breathed out a laugh from the absurdity of it all.

“Why are you suspecting me out of nowhere?”

“Because you’re suspicious. The mastermind is always someone like you in mystery novels.”

“But those are just novels.”

Mystery novels were the one thing that Diana liked from human society. She had never given up this hobby despite the rebuke she received from the Jiles siblings, and she liked reading mystery novels so much that she sometimes wondered if she was under some kind of charm.

“You’re still really suspicious, though.”

Diana pouted. The assailant passed by their cabin just then, and Oliver, who had been about to quip back, casually closed his mouth. He only spoke up again once the assailant had gained some distance.

“Putting aside the fact that I haven’t the slightest idea why you think I’m so suspicious, will it help assuage your doubts if I tell you what I know?”

Diana was still as dubious as a knife was sharp as she nodded back. Oliver smoothly continued,

“For starters, the Ingram Armed Revolutionary Army is an organization that’s on the brink of collapse. They used to be pretty infamous by the western border, but seeing them today makes me think that their situation is even more dire than I’d imagined.”

“Why’s that?”

“There are too few of them. There’s only one member here patrolling our car. There are probably more members stationed in cars with more passengers, of course, but don’t you think there are still too few of them?”

It made sense, now that she thought about it. Theirs was one of the less populated cars, but there were still at least twenty passengers here. The only reason why the lone assailant was able to keep control over the situation was because he had a terrible gun. Oliver continued,

“And then there’s the guns too. They’re pretty outdated.”

“You mean they’re old? How old are they?”

“I’d say that those models were popular about thirty years ago or so. And I’m just going to throw this in here just in case you start doubting me again, but I only know this because I used to work with a lot of guns. So don’t get any strange ideas.”

Her imaginations were shot down before they could even spread their wings. Diana rolled her eyes and bitingly retorted,

“Just who do you think you’re talking to? And just what kind of work do you do that you know so much about guns? Are you involved in something shady, like supplying goods to underground organizations or something?”

“You read that from a mystery novel too, didn’t you?”

Diana closed her mouth in displeasure. Oliver continued,

“Well, I don’t really know what’s going on with the Ingram Arms Revolutionary Army either. This is all just speculation.”

“But you sounded so confident…….”

“Why don’t you hear me out until the end first, Miss?”

Oliver said confidently. He continued,

“Is there anyone that comes to mind when you think of Penzas?”

“Penzas? What’s that?”

“It’s the town where our train’s stopped.”

“This is a town?”

Diana looked out the window again in astonishment. It looked like desolate farmland no matter how she looked at it, so she hadn’t the faintest idea why Oliver was calling it a town.

“We’re in the suburbs right now. The town of Penzas is just a bit west of here. It’s a pretty small town.”

“How should I know about such a small town?”

“Oh. And here I’d thought you’d know, Miss,”

said Oliver as if he was teasing her. Diana felt her pride get wounded.

“Well, I’m sorry for not living up to your expectations. But what else am I supposed to do? —I really don’t know.”

“Then, have you ever heard of Hugo Alpheus?”

“He’s an extremely famous wizard.”

Everyone who lived in the world of magic knew Hugo Alpheus’ name. Oliver nodded, glad they were finally on the same page.

“He lives in Penzas.”

“……Hugo Alpheus lives here?”

Diana dropped her jaw.

“The train was taken over, so the king will probably order him to handle the situation soon. They say that wizards will ignore it even if people were killed in their own front yards, but Hugo Alpheus won’t be able to ignore the king’s orders since he’s sworn an oath upon his own name.”

“So you mean to say that Hugo Alpheus will come rescue us?”

“Technically, he’ll be coming to uphold his oath, but ultimately he’ll end up rescuing us along the way.”

He probably won’t even notice we’re here, Oliver mumbled. Diana stared at him in a daze before she suddenly blurted,

“……Are you a wizard, by any chance?”

Oliver broke out in laughter despite himself when he heard her absurd question.

“Dang. From an accomplice to the Revolutionary Army to a wizard —aren’t your deductions a little too dynamic?”

“But then, how did you know something that even I, a witch, didn’t?”

“You probably just didn’t care to know, Miss. Even the newspapers could tell you where a wizard as famous as Hugo Alpheus lives.”

“But…….”

Diana could not get rid of her discomfort. Oliver shrugged as if to suggest that it was nothing to him at all.

“I’ve met Hugo Alpheus before for work.”

At this point, Diana was too uneasy to ask Oliver about his job. Not only did he see guns often while working but he had even met Hugo Alpheus too, and —according to him— he had even been her sister’s boyfriend until just two years prior.

Things were becoming more confusing by the minute.

 

Diana attentively observed the assailant standing at the front of the car. Oliver had apparently been right on his money when he had guessed that something had happened to them. The assailant who had left the car earlier hadn’t returned, and only one smaller man, who looked like a liaison, was running up and down the cars in a hurry. She had no way of knowing what kind of news the liaison brought with him, but the assailant who was watching over the car all alone was visibly nervous.

Diana fell deeply into thought. There was only one assailant monitoring the car at the moment. He was carrying a gun, but it wasn’t being pointed at her. He probably wasn’t paying much attention to Diana, who looked like a small girl. The fact that she was a nameless witch whose name and appearance wasn’t widely known was rather convenient in times like this.

In other words, Diana was currently in a situation where every second counted. She might even be able to subdue the man if she used magic. There were at least twenty passengers in the car, so it should be easy to subdue the assailant as long as he didn’t have his gun.

But the problem lay in magic. Thankfully, Diana had inherited the ability to cast magic with her will alone from her mother, but that was also the only talent she had inherited from her great mother. Unlike Hester, who had taken after their mother in every aspect, Diana was the opposite of their mother in everything save for her ability to manifest magic. And Diana only had a little magical power to work with because she had been born under the star Callisto, the Star of Darkness. She could not cast something like creation magic even if she wanted to.

And there was an even more pressing problem at hand too. Even if she could take the gun away from the assailant so long as she was smart about how she did it, there was unfortunately more than one of them on the train. Diana did not know exactly how many members of the Revolutionary Army had boarded the train. The one here with her wouldn’t pose a problem, but the others would. She was not confident that she could subdue all of them. Not only was she not talented enough for that, but she also had no experience using magic against people who were trying to kill her.

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She felt an unfamiliar warmth on the back of her hand just then. Diana startled and looked up. Oliver was looking over her quietly with a serious light in her eyes. He nodded quietly as soon as their eyes met, as if he had seen through everything she was agonizing over.

Diana turned forward again. The assailant was still whispering urgently with the liaison. It was good news for the hostages if something had happened to them. Besides, Hugo Alpheus was waiting in Penzas. The renowned wizard would take care of everything even if she didn’t step forward herself.

Diana felt her heart relax as she leaned back comfortably against her seat. She would be all right. She would survive just fine and meet up with her sister again.