"We got ya now, Barney!"

Marian's head peered over the top of the ladder in time to see the large man turn around. He yelped upon seeing her three companions, who'd clambered onto the adobe roof moments before her.

One of them - a man in a dusty-orange uniform whose rapier was leveled at their foe - shot a side glance towards the speaker. "You have got to learn a thing or two about the merits of subtlety, Wendy."

With arrow nocked and bowstring pulled taut, Wendy's attention didn't waver an inch from their rotund target as she replied, "Ain't no point in it now, is there, Natty? He ain't got nowhere ta run."

"Nathaniel. My name is Nathaniel, you stubborn woman."

"Yeah, yeah, tell me about it when we ain't about ta perforate this thievin' sunnuvajerk. Speakin' of-"

Wendy loosed her arrow at her target's feet. The man hollered and bounded back, yanking his right leg several feet in the air away from the danger. It took him a few moments to realize his foot wasn't in pain. The arrow had bounced off the hardened mud rooftop a hair's breadth from the big toe of his right boot.

"That was a warnin' shot," Wendy explained. She pulled another arrow from her quiver and nocked it with a single fluid motion. "Now, yer gonna return this school's magic books, yer gunna say yer sorry ta Marian here-" She tilted her head towards Marian, who had now climbed to the rooftop and was standing back and to the side of the archer. "-fer conkin' her in the noggin, an' yer never gunna steal nuthin' never again."

"And you're going to turn yourself in to the authorities for judgement, you miscreant!" Nathaniel punctuated his demand with a small flourish of his rapier.

"Dun push it, Natty," Wendy muttered.

"Nathaniel," he muttered back.

Barney took a step back from the line-up, then stopped. He relaxed his tensed, nervous pose and shifted his weight back to the center between his feet. He moved the heavy sack he was carrying to his left hand so he could reach the crude cudgel strapped to his back with his right. Marian couldn't help but notice the huge biceps on his two sleeveless arms and the huger belly hanging over his belt. A crooked, yellowed grin pushed aside his five o'clock shadow and soul patch as it split his face.

Barney started laughing. "Oh, I'm gonna return all me loot, is that it? Maybe turn meself in to the bobbies? Aoh, now you's 'avin' a bubble, is ye? Well, forget it! It's my loot, right and square! Now shove off and go bother some other bloke!"

Marian was taken aback by the thief's sudden confidence, but the other three companions' weapons never wavered from their target. "You sound certain of yourself," Nathaniel quipped. "Do you expect your henchmen to bail you out once more?"

"Ah, but ye do learn quick, don't ye? What good's being a Bandit King if ye don't got no bandits to boss around?" Barney chuckled once more.

"You tell me, Barney! We took out yer boys on the way up here! An' unless ya got some more roughnecks squirreled away in there, it's lookin' like yer a party o' one!" Wendy laughed back.

Barney's scowl was his only response, so Wendy continued. "Now, us, on the other hand. Yer facin' on the meanest archer outta Greenbriar Copse, one of them uppity guardsmen from Cauldibery-"

Nathaniel shot a dry look at Wendy.

"-probably the finest of all witches an' students right here in Sanddust City's very own Starry Night University-"

Marian glanced at Wendy, surprised she'd merited mention in the line-up.

"-an' lest Ah forget, the one an' only Wyvern Hunter. Ya know all about him, dontcha?"

Wendy tilted her head to indicate the final member of the group. The young man had kept silent, but his conviction in chasing the bandit across rooftops in plate armor spoke volumes, as did the stern expression on his face and the ornate falchion pointed at his adversary. Though Marian had only known him personally for a day or two, she'd heard all about the Wyvern Hunter's legendary exploits - as had Barney, judging by the nervous expression on his face.

"What, the 'Unter, 'ere? Don't ye got a dragon to fight or summat? Surely an 'umble Bandit King's a'neath yer notice?"

The Wyvern Hunter's glare intensified, but he remained silent.

"No crime is beneath the notice of a hero, thief!" Nathaniel answered in the Wyvern Hunter's stead.

"Aoh, so that's what you thinks you is? A buncha 'eroes?" Barney's sudden confidence had returned once more, but he wasn't laughing. "Thinking ye'll off an 'onest crook every now and again while ye wait for the next monster to come crawling outta an 'ole in the ground? Yer nothing but a bunch of bullies, you is."

"Funny to hear from a self-professed Bandit King," Nathaniel noted.

"I'm just 'elpin' put food on the table for me boys. I ain't the one going around bashing men on the job." Barney's cudgel started swinging in a lazy circle before him.

"No, but you are bashing students who didn't do anything," Marian grumbled as she rubbed the lump on the back of her head.

Barney's grin grew hungry as his attention shifted to Marian. "Aye, and I'll keep bashing as many as it takes to get me bees and honey. So mind yer own business, girlie."

"Nathaniel's right. You are a bully." It wasn't a particularly clever retort, but Marian was still new to this. She tried to make up for it by reaching her hand down to her side, where her arcane tome was holstered and ready for combat. She wasn't used to the holster, so she could only hope the implied threat was obvious.

"Ah'll third that," Wendy added, her bow still poised for the attack.

Keeping his rapier pointed at Barney, Nathaniel cast a glance at the Wyvern Hunter. "What say you, commander? Are we the bullies here?"

The Wyvern Hunter said nothing, but he adjusted his stance so he could point his sword even closer to the Bandit King.

"That makes it Four ta One," Wendy chimed in with a grin. "Majority rules, Barn."

"You will address me as your Bandit King!" Barney hollered. He pointed his cudgel at each of the companions in turn. "For a buncha 'eroes, ye sure don't know 'ow to talk to royalty, do ye? Maybe I'll 'ave to beat some sense into ye before I go!"

"No turning back now," Nathaniel said with grim finality. He shifted into a battle-ready stance, as did Wendy and the Wyvern Hunter. "Let's take this ruffian out and call it a day."

A lot of things started happening all at once around Marian - weapons were wielded, arrows were aimed, and injuries were incurred. Though she'd fought several battles that day, Marian was still new to being in the middle of a fight, and she found herself overwhelmed by the speed of it. Holding back from the initial assault, Marian took a couple quick breaths and thought of her combat training classes back at University.

In one of his seminars, Professor Horii had once described combat as a series of distinct actions made in turn by each combatant. One could view a fight as a single continuous sequence - for indeed it was - but an experienced warrior knew that the individual actions were what counted. Each action had the potential to be the single decisive moment that determined the battle's outcome. Paradoxically, this potential made all individual actions in the fight equally important. If one wanted to emerge from a fight victorious, he had said, one needed to consider every action made in a fight, how it was influenced by previous actions, and how it could influence future actions.

At the time of the lesson, the sheer numbers game behind a theoretically infinite number of actions in a single moment dictating a theoretically infinite number of actions in an indefinite number of moments, past and future, had overwhelmed poor Marian. Now that she'd seen a few fights, she understood the logic of it. It was less about knowing the best of all the possible actions ahead of time and more about navigating the fight by reading the individual actions themselves. If she wasn't concentrating, the strikes traded between Barney's cudgel and her allies' swords made for a fluid dance of weapons, occasionally interrupted by a stray arrow shot from Wendy. When she did concentrate, she could break down each disparate motion of each individual weapon as its own "turn".

Marian's mental sequence started with Wendy. The archer would pull an arrow from her quiver, nock it to her bowstring, draw it back, and release it. Nathaniel would follow suit, lunging into the fray with an elegant jab of his rapier. Barney's cudgel came smashing through next, tagging whoever was before him in a wild horizontal swing. The Wyvern Hunter would retaliate thereafter with a fierce slash of his falchion. Enough time had elapsed by that point for Wendy to retrieve another arrow, and the cycle would begin once again.

With the pattern broken down, Marian realized...

"I don't know if we're strong enough for this..."

The deadpan glare she received from Wendy told her she'd said her worries out loud. She clapped her hands to her mouth, too little too late.

Barney swung his cudgel at the Wyvern Hunter, who blocked it with his shield. The collision sounded like an off-key gong clamoring over the city rooftops. The force was enough to drive back the Wyvern Hunter a step. The dent left in the Wyvern Hunter's shield was a clear demonstration of the larger man's overwhelming physical power.

"If I may, Marian," Nathaniel interjected, grunting with the effort needed to lunge in for a piercing thrust. "If you're so concerned about our well-being, we would appreciate any help you could-"

Nathaniel yelped as he failed to torque his body around Barney's counterattack. Marian watched as the cudgel caught the uniformed fencer in the ribs, badly battering the smaller man. It was a testament to the guardsman's perseverance that he resumed his fighting stance despite the fierce blow.

Nathaniel gasped through the pain. "You were doing well enough in our fights this morning!"

"Or, ye could do us both a lemon and shove off?" Barney suggested with a laugh. Despite having several arrows embedded into his arm and several lacerations in his loose-fitting leather armor, the criminal appeared no worse for the wear. "I wouldn't 'old it against ye, girlie. That's just being smart. Self-preservation and all."

Marian shook her worries from her mind. No matter what, she couldn't let the big bully get away. It was time for her to enter the sequence and take her turn.

Drawing upon the hours spent that morning practicing her "quick-draw", Marian's left hand zipped to her hip, flicked the holster straps away like she was plucking a harp, and yanked her tome up and open. Transcribed in the book were the spells Marian had learned. Despite the size of the book, there wasn't much written in it - just the handful of spells that she already knew, with room for the myriad of spells she hoped to learn in years to come.

Marian's thoughts raced as she tried to assess the situation. Barney was proving tougher than her allies, so she needed something to make him weaker. One way to make Barney weaker would be to infect him with some sort of malady or ailment.

The scholar's fingers flung pages in her tome back as she looked for the section she'd labeled "Ailments". It took less than a second to get where she needed - and at once, her finger jabbed at the sole spell written there: "Canker". Her eyes scanned the entry beside the spell, and she remembered.

Every witch experienced the phenomenon of magic in her own way. In her lessons, some of Marian's classmates had described a vague but innate sense of magical power within themselves. Some spoke of talismans through which they channeled their magic. There were a couple students whose magic came from a linked consciousness with the primal elements of the world around them. She even knew of one young man who triggered his magic by intoning specific phrases, though she thought that the idea of idle words themselves possessing magic was ridiculous.

In Marian's case, her experience with magic was tied to her emotions. At certain moments in her life, when her emotions reached a fevered pitch, she had become aware of magic as a rattling in the back of her skull. Marian had learned over the years to concentrate on that sensation and use it to manifest her spells, coaxing the essence of reality into heeding her call.

But spells could only be triggered by their corresponding emotions, and Marian could never remember the right emotions on their own. Instead, she'd taken to transcribing the events that had given rise to those emotions. In remembering the events, she could recall the sensations and so recall the magic itself.

The memory associated with "Canker" was a simple one. She only needed to read the words "Elizabeth MacKenzie", "moldy cupcakes", and "sawdust" for the familiar old sensation to start in the back of her skull.

With a shout, Marian stepped forward and raised her right hand, fingers and arm outstretched. A ghastly purple mist erupted from the palm of her hand and zipped head-on towards the brutish thug before her.

Marian was disappointed to see the spell fail to take hold. Instead of seeping into Barney and coloring his skin a sickly violet, the mist instead swept around him as though he were a great stone entrenched in a riverbed. After a second, the mist dissipated, becoming a harmless part of the dry desert air behind him.

The thief hadn't failed to take notice. "And what're you trying to do, girlie?" he leered, a mocking grin splitting his face as he let his attention drift towards the witch. "Poison me? Maybe get me koffin' and weezin' sos I can't fight so good? Did yer teach never tell ye about 'ow the biggest toughies in all of Sidgegaard are immune to being poisoned?"

Marian curled her open hand into a fist and shouted, "I didn't think you counted!"

Wendy let out a sharp bark of laughter as she reached for her next arrow. "Ah'm likin' ya more an' more, Marian!"

After a couple seconds, Barney scowled. "Right, that's it, yer getting yours first, then."

By the time Marian had realized that she'd put herself within attacking range of Barney, it was too late. The crude cudgel came swinging through, cracking Marian on the cheek. She was sent flying away a couple paces before falling in a heap on the rooftop. Her breath caught as she saw just how close she'd landed to the edge - in her posse's rush to chase down Barney, she hadn't noticed quite how high they'd climbed.

Luckily for Marian, the Wyvern Hunter was quick to retaliate with an attack of his own against Barney, buying her time to recover. As she stood up, she prodded her cheek, sending ripples of tingling pain through her face. She would surely have a tender welt there before long. Her next move would have to be a bit smarter.

Barney was still proving tougher than the four of them - she watched the big crook shrug off an arrow to his shoulder as he dealt a crushing blow to Nathaniel. Marian would need to find another way to even the playing field. It occurred to her that if making Barney weaker wouldn't work, she could try to make her allies tougher instead.

She flipped through her tome to the section marked "Defensive". There were a couple spells listed here, but the tingling in her cheek helped her settle on the spell "Bolstr". The memory listed next to it was a recent one: she'd been watching a drill of the Sanddust City guard on her way between classes when she saw one of the recruits accidentally unload his crossbow into his commanding officer's pectoral muscle. The officer hadn't so much as flinched as he removed the bolt, snapped it in two, and continued with his lesson.

The memory brought forth the magic, which appeared as a blue light dancing between Marian's right fingers. She reached out to Nathaniel, and the power drifted over towards her battered companion, washing him in a gentle azure glow. While the effect wasn't immediately obvious, it proved itself soon enough: Nathaniel caught another cudgel swing to the face, but rather than knock him for a loop, the guardsman staggered a slight step, as though he'd been struck with a small slap.

"Thank you, miss!" Nathaniel shouted over his shoulder while the Wyvern Hunter pressed a counterattack. Marian cast the spell a second time for the Wyvern Hunter's benefit - he gave Marian a quick, appreciative nod during Nathaniel's counter. She smiled, but she knew she had more work to do.

Even with the increased defensive capability, the two fighters' injuries were piling up, and Marian needed a way to make the two feel better. Healing magic wasn't her specialty, but she knew one modest spell suitable for the job: "Salve". Her long fingers danced with the heavy pages of her tome until she'd arrived at the memory. The simple recollection of her scraping her knee as a little girl and her mother kissing the pain away was enough to call forth the magic.

The leafy green magic smelled of mint as Marian cast it towards Nathaniel. She watched as the patchwork of bruises that mottled the man's skin tone faded, and he started to stand a little straighter. "Much better, miss," Nathaniel called.

Marian started to cast the spell again, but she was surprised to see the Wyvern Hunter already awash in soothing emerald light. "Ah got him fer ya," Wendy called, pulling her arm back from their leader's general direction.

All these tactical spells did not go unnoticed by Barney. "Oh, I see. Ye think yous can outlast me with some healing and buffing, is that it?"

Marian wasn't sure how to respond. "Y-yeah?"

Nathaniel reproached her in a low voice. "Best not to give the plan away to the enemy, miss."

"Err, I mean, no! Noooo. Not at all."

"Yer a regular actor," Wendy sighed.

Barney scowled at Marian. He took a step backwards from the group, cudgel outstretched to keep them at bay. "Well, you lot may 'ave yer tricks," Barney said, "but I got an 'ole bag of me own, too!" He bounced the heavy sack on his left shoulder before letting it drop to the earthen rooftop. Keeping the cudgel out, the crook squatted down and reached into the sack.

Marian considered tagging the man with a spell - she reasoned that he must be tiring if he was monologuing. She paused, recalling a piece of advice her father had given her before she left for university: "Be wary of cornered opponents. Get a sense for what surprises they have before pressing the attack." Marian chose instead to lift her tome up in a defensive guard in case Barney's surprise proved dangerous.

After a moment, the brute pulled his arm out and produced a rather impressive sandwich. Pepper-specked mustard and lettuce sloughed from between soggy slices of pumpernickel and thick cuts of roast beef, hitting the roof with audible splats as he stood back up.

"You were keeping that in there with the university's secret tomes?!" Marian gasped.

"That's what yer worried about?" Wendy muttered.

"Do you have any idea how old some of those books are?!"

"If you would keep focused on the task at hand...!" Nathaniel reprimanded in a harsh whisper.

The two young women turned back to see the Barney ram the whole sandwich into his maw. He worked his jaw just enough to mulch it into a slurry - a process Marian got to watch in its entirety due to his atrocious table manners - then swallowed. She was amazed as several of the man's cuts and arrow wounds healed over, the injuries disappearing before her eyes.

"Th-that's some sandwich," she stammered.

"Ah've seen more impressive," Wendy muttered. "Hand on heart, mah Meemaw once made a hoagie that dun cured my Aunt Ethel's paralysis."

"What would something like that even taste like?"

"Apparently? Much too much pepper."

"In any case," Nathaniel said, louder than necessary, "we seem to have been knocked down a peg or two."

"And I got more where that came from," Barney interjected, wiping a globule of mustard onto his forearm. "I can do this aaaaaall day."

Marian gulped. Every spell she cast drained from her own magic energy reserves. Eventually, she'd run out of magic, and she'd be completely useless. She wasn't sure how much energy her companions had, but she was sure they didn't have a sack full of magical healing sandwiches at their disposal. They would need to end this soon.

As the fight around her resumed, Marian started to page through her tome once again. She soon landed in the section labeled, "Offensive". A couple spells were listed there, forcing Marian to pause and deliberate between the two. "Burn" was an easy favorite - no spellcaster alive could resist the allure of hurling fireballs at targets - but shooting a piercing jet of water with "Soak" had its uses, too. The two spells were similar enough in strength that the difference came down to preference in most situations.

Marian eyed Barney as she debated, only to remember that the man had a stash of centuries-old, one-of-a-kind books in his bag. He stood over it, safeguarding his treasures with his body. Any attacks she launched at him would have a risk of attacking the books, too. This helped her settle on "Soak". Sure, they were probably all ruined now because the cretin had stored his slimy sandwiches in there, but she could at least mitigate any further damage to the books by not launching a raging ball of fire at them.

Marian's eyes flitted over the memory transcribed next to "Soak". She was transported back to those lazy summer days spent with her neighbor, Tomas Graily. The two would place rocks in front of the neighborhood spigot and crank it to full force. She smiled - Sanddust City was founded upon an oasis, and she and Tommy used to get in so much trouble for wasting precious well water to play with pebbles, but darn if it wasn't fun seeing how far those suckers could fly.

The nostalgic smile widened into an eager grin as the familiar sensation tugged at the back of her skull. She raised her right palm, then turned it counterclockwise as though she were activating her own magical spigot. A jet of water launched from her palm and smacked into the naked fat of Barney's stomach. The force would've been enough to send a rock clear over Mr. Patchouli's patio, but here it just made the giant man's gut jiggle. Nevertheless, the spell had the twofold effect of bruising his burly belly and knocking his breath out.

Marian couldn't resist cheering, "Eat that, Barney!"

The crook's retort came out as a wheeze, with the only coherent words being, "...Bandit King...!"

"It seems magic is a more effective tool than blades in this fight," Nathaniel observed as he sidestepped a clumsy cudgel swing. "If I had any at my command, I would be able to test that hypothesis." He instead satisfied himself by jabbing at Barney's bruise, eliciting a yelp of pain from his opponent's reinvigorated lungs.

"Ah dun got too much meself," Wendy confessed as she touched another arrow in her quiver. "Just enough ta keep us goin' in a long fight." She nocked her arrow but glanced at the Wyvern Hunter before firing. "Looks like yer on, hoss."

The armored young man shot a glance back at Wendy and nodded. He sheathed his sword and made an elaborate gesture, spreading his palms out and swinging his arms in a full circle before his face. When his hands met at the bottom of their arcs, he raised them to chest height and squeezed them into tight balls. Even before opening them, Marian could see the warrior's clenched fists thrum with strange orange energy. Then, in a single motion, the Wyvern Hunter extended his arms out and opened his hands, as though he was exerting a great force.

Marian wasn't expecting the sheer intensity of the fireball expelled from the Wyvern Hunter's hands. The attack apparently had enough physical force to stagger Barney a step backwards - even before the spell detonated and knocked him off his feet. Luckily for the schoolbooks, the robber's immense girth shielded them from the spell.

The witch couldn't dwell on this, nor on the dull whumph! her spellbook made when she unwittingly slammed it shut, when there was a far more important matter that needed addressing: "What spell was that?!"

"Just yer standard 'Bern Too' spell," Wendy replied with false modesty.

"The Wyvern Hunter's 'ace-in-the-hole', so to speak," Nathaniel contributed. He scrunched his nose at the smell of scorched clothing and singed body hair emanating from Barney. Astoundingly, the burned man was still able to stand after the concussive burst, though he moved far more gingerly than he had moments ago.

"Wait... there's a 'Burn 2'?!" Marian asked.

"'course there is! Wouldn't make much sense ta have a 'Bern Wun' without a 'Bern Too', would it?"

"I didn't know there was a 'Burn 1'!"

"Ya mean to say-" There was a crunch and a deft whimper as Barney absorbed another arrow. "-you've been castin' 'Bern Wun' all day without knowin' what it was?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean... the distinction was never brought up in my classes!"

"Then I mean no offense to you, young lady, when I suggest that your teachers have been remiss in their duties."

"Probably they just wanted ta keep kids from turnin' each other inta crispy critters. Ah wouldn't be too harsh, Natty."

"Bandit King!" Barney shouted, reflexively.

After a moment, he groaned. "Aoh, you lot're in for it now. No more Mr. Nice Guy! ...just as soon as I've 'ad me nosh." The big man squatted down and reached his arm into his loot bag once more.

"Oh, no you don't!" Marian shouted.

She looked down at her spellbook once more, only to realize it was still closed. She wouldn't have enough time to flip through it and find the right spell before the big galoot crammed another sandwich down his gullet. She'd have to improvise.

Catching the Wyvern Hunter - busy retrieving his sword from its scabbard - out of the corner of her eye, a thought occurred to her. She knew how to cast "Burn", or "Burn 1", if her companions were to be believed. If there was a "Burn 2", it should follow that casting it should be like casting "Burn 1", only with more power. If a world-famous hero could cast it, maybe she could, too.

It was a simple thought, but it was enough to send her mind reeling and make her heart race. And, like many of the times Marian's thoughts made her heart race over the years, it set the back of her skull buzzing.

With a gasp, Marian realized two things. First, Barney had just retrieved his sandwich and was moments away from chomping into five layers of wilted lettuce and greasy salami on a stale sourdough bun. Second, she knew how to cast "Burn 2".

Marian raised her right hand to her chest in an imitation of the Wyvern Hunter's gesture. She clenched it into a tight fist, letting it thrum with pent-up energy for a split second, then shoved it forward, her fingers splaying outward. The difference was obvious - rather than the fist-sized tongue of flame she was used to from casting "Burn", this fireball was half her height in diameter.

Barney had just opened his mouth to eat his sandwich when he spotted the advancing inferno. His eyes bugged out and his fist clenched, pulping the sloppy sandwich in his hands. "Not in the faaaaaace!"

He tried to brace for impact, but it was no use - the wall of fire smacked him hard enough to knock him back. This time, the bag of ill-gotten goods was right at his feet, and the man lost balance trying to step over it. He teetered backwards a couple paces as he fought to keep from falling.

Then the fireball exploded into a great concussive burst of flame. Marian felt a sudden rush of hot air whip past her and instinctively squeezed her eyes shut. She opened them when she heard Barney screaming but was confused when he wasn't visible. As realization dawned on her, she rushed over to the edge of the roof and peered over. She was just in time to see the burned form of Barney, the self-professed Bandit King, crashing into a heap of garbage in the alleyway below. A second later, the guts of a very well-done sandwich came to a crunchy stop on his face.

Marian stared at the unmoving man, trying to tell if he was still breathing. Her mind was pulled back to the rooftop by a solid slap that struck her back. For a moment, she was worried about a surprise attack. Then Wendy's voice cut in. "Ya did it, Marian! Ya dun got 'im!"

Marian couldn't stop looking at the broken form far below. "I didn't... do him in, did I?"

Wendy leaned over to look, just in time for Barney to start wailing, apparently to himself. "Aoh... she got me good. I think... I think me back's broke... I'm never gonna walk again..." He flailed his legs to demonstrate his paralysis.

"He's fine," Wendy flatly reassured. "Just bein' a big ol' baby. He ain't gonna bother no one for a while."

"More to the point..." Nathaniel's voice pulled Marian away from the pathetic display below. She saw the two swordsmen eyeing her, Nathaniel with an impressed smile and the Wyvern Hunter with a curious expression. "...that was an excellently executed 'Burn 2', particularly for someone who only just learned of the spell's existence."

Marian rubbed her arm nervously, unaccustomed to the praise. She chuckled, "Yeah, well, I've always been good at learning by example. My favorite classes have been the ones where the professors-

"THE BOOKS!" She spun around on the spot to where the bag lay, lightly incinerated from the raging ball of fire that had erupted mere feet away. She hustled on over and knelt to peer into the scorched sack. "No no no no no..."

The inside was a messy mix of burnt toast, smeared sandwich toppings, pulverized pages, and ash. Marian pulled at a book that had seemingly escaped unscathed, only for the thick cover to rip loose from dehydrated pages. She moaned as she let the bag's opening fall to the rooftop, her neck and shoulders slumping. "They're ruined..."

Marian gradually became aware of a cold hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see the Wyvern Hunter, somehow able to squat in his heavy armor. Despite the heavy gauntlet, there was a gentle reassurance in his hand that matched the mildly apologetic look on his face.

"I'm terribly sorry, Marian," Nathaniel said.

"If it's any help," Wendy offered, "them books was probably ruined anywho by that big oaf's sammiches. Ya didn't do nothin' that weren't dun by him first."

Marian could only think of how much easier it was to clean mayonnaise off a book cover versus reassembling blackened ash into coherent pages. But she recognized the attempt at making her feel better, so all she said in response was a piteous "Yeah..."

After a few more moments, Marian sighed and started to rise, prompting the Wyvern Hunter to do the same. "Well," Marian muttered, "I guess that's it. There's no way they'll let me back into Starry Night U after blowing up their secrets."

"What, even though we stopped that big lummox from sellin' 'em on the black market? Don't that count for nothin'?" Wendy asked.

"Well, sure. Now they won't gut me on sight."

"Touchy folk, huh?"

"Ah, I don't know that I blame them. It's my fault he got a hold of them, after all."

"We went over this, Marian," Nathaniel chided. "It wasn't your fault that dastard caught you by surprise. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Yeah, I know..." Marian hated to whine, but she couldn't help herself when she got upset. "But I was the one who had them checked out. I don't know if the school will accept that on top of me destroying them. I'll have to beg them to let me back in."

"Well, if they're gonna be jerks about it, nuts to 'em!" Wendy spat on the roof next to the bag of ruined books. "Ya dun need 'em ta be the meanest wizard in the world! Ya just learned yerself a spell they was never gonna teach ya anyway!"

"Much as I may not agree with my companion's tone..." Nathaniel began, pointedly eyeing Wendy. She stuck her tongue out at him as he continued, "...she does raise a valid point. You know you're not learning everything you need to here. Why stay if you're going to be treated poorly for an honest mistake?"

Several thoughts came to Marian as she turned to look at the group. Most of these she couldn't articulate to people she'd met mere days ago. How could they possibly understand just how desperately she'd wanted to be accepted into the town's magic college? How she'd been working towards it her whole life, ever since her earliest memories of understanding what magic was and how she could command it? How the idea of fitting in at a school of like-minded spellcasters was the only thing that had kept her going some days? These feelings were far too private to share with complete strangers, no matter how many bandits they'd bested together over the past couple hours.

Instead, she chose only to voice the least-intimate truth. Marian cast her eyes to the scorched mud rooftop as she confessed, "It cost my family so much for me to get here. I couldn't possibly turn my back on everything they worked towards..."

The three do-gooders before Marian seemed to accept this as an understandable moral quandary. The Wyvern Hunter crossed his arms and looked down. Nathaniel squeezed his eyes shut in concentration as he stroked his chin. Wendy scratched at her tangled mess of orange hair.

After a short while, Wendy broke the silence. "Ya could join up with us." The two men besides her nodded thoughtfully.

Marian could only offer a lame, "Bwuh?"

"We could use a skilled mage like you," Nathaniel admitted.

"If'n yer interested, of course. No pressure if ya ain't the adventurin' type."

"I guess I never really thought about it," Marian admitted. She pursed her lips in a tight frown. "Though I don't see how..."

She trailed off without completing her intended sentence, '...how that solves my problem.' She couldn't think of a way to say it without sounding rude.

Before she could come up with a better response, Nathaniel posed a question. "You have been going to the University for how long?"

"Just over a year," Marian answered. She was struck with how much time had passed for her since moving into the school dormitory.

Nathaniel's response came slowly while maintaining his thoughtful expression, as though the answer was a careful waltz through a muddy ballroom floor. "I am sure you have learned a couple important things during that time. Among them, if I have the correct read on today's events, is the fact that you will not learn everything you want to learn in your classes. ...this does not diminish the value of the effort put into getting to this point, nor does it invalidate the past year's worth of lessons, because it was necessary for you to experience all that in order to come to this realization."

"Plus," Wendy cut in, as though the answer were a tablecloth to be yanked from beneath a full dinner spread, "We only ran inta ya on account of yer bein' a student here. It's like yer folks set ya up fer a job interview with the greatest adventures in all the world!"

"Once again, not how I would have put it, but I can't disagree with her words."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Marian was quiet for a while. The two made decent arguments, much as she wasn't eager to break any of this news to her parents. However, she was more focused on the idea of her as an adventurer. She'd never felt the call to action or adventure the way some of her friends had. Marian had a head for magic and wanted to learn everything she could, but all of it - even the desire to learn combat magic - came strictly from a place of academic curiosity. Before today, she'd never even cast a spell against another person with the intent of causing harm. Though, she supposed, she would've gotten there eventually in her Magic Combat courses once they'd finished on all the theoretical stuff. Still, it wasn't like she had a taste for harming others or a sense of justice.

But it had been satisfying seeing Barney get his just desserts...

Marian looked up at the group, intending to ask them to give her some time to contemplate. However, the words died in her mouth when she saw the Wyvern Hunter. The young man couldn't be much older than her. He could even be younger - not much was known about the man before he had started fighting evil. But it wasn't his age or his legendary reputation that stayed her words as it was the outstretched arm, offering a simple handshake. The expression on his face was innocent, gentle, and welcoming.

How could Marian refuse that face? She took the proffered hand and shook on it.

"Well, all right!" Wendy cheered.

"I'll need some time to settle things here," Marian said. "You might need to wait a day or two before I'm good to go..."

"Take as much time as ya need, hun. We ain't got nowhere ta be in a hurry. Just the open road ahead of us."

"Besides," Nathaniel offered with a smile, "you're one of us, now. We're here for each other as much as we are for the everyman. If there's anything we can do to help you out while you say your good-byes, please let us know.

"Fo' sho'!"

Despite the knowledge of her impending expulsion and her parents' disappointment, Marian couldn't help but give the three a big, wide grin. For all they had fought together over the past day, only now did they feel like her companions. This moment was the first time Marian had felt like she belonged.

It had also been several years ago.

As this realization came to Marian, the world around her began to change. The dizzying height, the harsh desert sun, the dusty bite to the arid wind; all faded away. In their place was a stiff back, the orange-black color of her eyelids, and years of aches and exhaustion.

Marian opened her eyes to discover that, once more, she'd fallen asleep while pouring through her spellbook. Judging from where her finger lay - stiff from remaining outstretched for several hours - she had been reviewing the memory associated with "Burn 2" when she passed out. She couldn't remember arriving at this spell in her studies, despite the dream. Then again, her late night study sessions tended to blur together, and there was little she could remember besides the color of her candle - teal, this time. Now it was morning, with her candle nothing but a waxen slurry on the corner of her desk and the gentle summer sun already high in the sky outside the window of her study.