Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Heartslabyul Dorm

The fog outside the window had thinned a little, but not enough to see the courtyard properly. 

Ace lay stretched across his bed with a rubber ball in one hand, bouncing it off the wall above his head and catching it again, over and over. He had been doing it for at least twenty minutes, and he had no plans to stop.

The room was built for four first-years, and it showed. 

Four beds were crammed along the walls, and a mess of bags, textbooks, and spare uniforms covered most of the floor. Two of the beds were empty. 

Their owners had gone out for club activities before the fog rolled in, and neither had come back yet. Ace hadn't thought much about it. More room for him to stretch out.

Deuce, unfortunately, was not as relaxed.

He stood in the narrow gap between the beds with his arms crossed, glaring down at Ace. Every few seconds his heel tapped against the floor, and Ace had been trying very hard to ignore it.

"You know the flamingos still need to be fed, right?"

"Yeah, and I know it's impossible to do anything in this." Ace waved the ball toward the window before bouncing it off the wall again. "Look at that. I can't even see the gate. What if I walk straight into a hedge?"

"It's fog, Ace. It's not the end of the world."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who'll end up with a face full of rose thorns."

Deuce let out a long breath through his nose. "Housewarden didn't say anything about fog. He said flamingo duty. If you skip it, you're going to get collared, and I'm going to get dragged into it again because we share a room."

"Then don't get dragged into it."

"That's not how it works and you know it."

Ace grinned at the ceiling. "Relax. If anyone asks, I'll just say the fog blocked my path. It's a perfectly good excuse. Nobody can argue with the weather."

"Nobody can argue with the weather," Deuce repeated flatly. "Yes, I'm sure he'll accept that. He definitely won't have a rule about it."

"There's no rule about fog."

"There's a rule for everything."

Ace opened his mouth to argue, then stopped, because that was annoyingly true. He caught the ball, held it against his chest for a moment, and then tossed it at the wall again. 

"Okay, fine. Even if there is a rule, he hasn't come to yell at me yet. That means he's probably busy with something else."

Deuce stopped tapping his heel and glanced toward the door.

Ace almost missed it. Somewhere out in the corridor, there was a faint sound of footsteps passing by, light and quick, and gone almost as soon as he noticed them. 

They were swallowed up by the steady thump of the ball and the creak of the bed frame under him. He figured it was just another dormmate heading downstairs, and he went back to staring at the ceiling.

"It's weird that he hasn't come by," Deuce said slowly.

"Not weird. Lucky." Ace shrugged. "Let him stay busy. I'm not complaining."

"I'm not saying I'm complaining. I'm saying it's weird. He usually knocks on every door at least once an hour."

"You say that about everything."

Deuce dropped onto the edge of his own bed and watched the ball hit the wall again. 

Ace could tell the rhythm was getting to him, because after a minute or two Deuce's shoulders loosened, and he stopped looking at the door. For a while neither of them spoke. The fog outside drifted past the window in slow white ribbons, and the dorm felt as sleepy as an old house on a rainy afternoon.

Then Ace's stomach growled loudly.

"...Okay," Ace said. "I'm hungry."

"We missed lunch."

"We missed lunch because you wanted to finish that stupid essay."

"It's not stupid, it's due tomorrow!"

"Whatever. Come on, let's go see if the fog's cleared enough for us to get to the dining hall." Ace sat up, stuffed the ball into his pocket, and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "If we're lucky, Trey-senpai will have baked something."

Deuce hesitated, then stood. "Fine. But you're still feeding the flamingos tomorrow."

"I'll think about it."

"Ace."

"I'll think about it."

The corridor was quiet. Ace noticed that right away, though he wasn't sure why it bothered him. A few doors were closed, and he could hear someone snoring faintly behind one of them, but there were no voices and no footsteps. Nobody was out complaining about the weather.

"It's really empty," Deuce murmured.

"Everyone's probably napping." Ace stretched his arms over his head. "It's the perfect weather for it."

They made their way downstairs, and the lounge came into view.

Both of them stopped in the doorway.

The lounge was a disaster. Two of the armchairs had been knocked over, and a low table lay on its side, with a scatter of playing cards fanned out across the floor beside it. Cushions had been flung against the far wall. One of the teacups had shattered, and a dark stain was spreading through the carpet where the tea had spilled. A heavy bookshelf stood crooked, as though someone had slammed into it hard.

"What the hell happened here?" Ace said quietly.

"Did someone have a fight?"

"In Heartslabyul? With the Housewarden around?" Ace stepped over a fallen cushion and crouched to pick up one of the cards. "No way. He'd have collared them all within five seconds."

"Then where is everyone?"

"Don't ask me."

Deuce walked further into the room, careful not to step on the broken porcelain. 

Ace followed his gaze to the open door on the far side of the lounge, the one that led out to the courtyard. It was hanging slightly ajar, and a thin curl of mist was creeping in through the gap.

"Look." Deuce pointed. "The door's open."

They pushed it wider together, and the cold evening air rolled over them. The fog was lifting from the courtyard, but in the clearer patches they could see the ground, and it was in the same state as the lounge. 

A couple of potted plants had been knocked over. A pile of fallen leaves was scattered across the path as though something heavy had dragged through it. And at the far end, near the entrance to the rose maze, one of the garden lanterns lay on its side.

"It's a mess out here too," Deuce said.

"Somebody really went through this place."

"Do you think it was a prank?"

"Nobody would risk pranking the Housewarden like this." Ace's voice had lost its usual teasing edge, and he noticed it himself. "If he sees this place, he's going to lose his mind."

"Which means he hasn't seen it yet."

They looked at each other.

"The maze," Ace said.

"Yeah."

"He's always in there around this time, checking the roses."

"Then we should find him and tell him."

Neither of them said what they were both thinking, which was that if the Housewarden had seen the mess, they would have heard him shouting by now.

They crossed the courtyard together, and the smell reached Ace halfway there. It was faint and sweet, like flowers left too long in a vase. He wrinkled his nose.

"Ugh. Why does it smell like that?"

"The roses?"

"The roses smell like paint."

Deuce paused. "...You're right."

They entered the maze. The hedges rose on either side of them, damp and dark, and their footsteps echoed on the stones. Ace kept brushing his sleeve against the bushes and flinching every time a leaf touched him. Deuce walked slightly ahead, scanning each turning.

"Housewarden?" Deuce called. "Are you here?"

No answer.

"Housewarden!"

Still nothing. The silence in the maze was heavy enough that Deuce's voice sounded strange in it, and Ace felt the back of his neck prickle.

"He's probably gone back inside," Ace said. "We missed him."

"We would have passed him."

"Not if he took a different path."

They turned a corner, and Deuce stopped so suddenly that Ace walked straight into his back.

"Hey! What are you—"

Ace stopped talking.

A staff lay on the ground, half hidden beneath a rose bush, one end snapped off at an angle. A few steps further along the path, a small figure was sprawled on the stones with one arm bent under him and his face turned to the side.

Riddle.

His hair was a mess, strands of red stuck to his forehead, and a dark patch was spreading across the ground beneath his head.

Blood.

For a second, Ace couldn't move. His brain simply refused to put the picture together.

"Housewarden?" Deuce's voice cracked. He dropped to his knees beside him. 

"Housewarden! Hey, can you hear me?"

No answer. Riddle's chest rose and fell, very slightly, but his eyes stayed closed.

"Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no." Deuce's hands hovered over Riddle's shoulders, shaking. 

"He's bleeding. He's actually bleeding. What do we do? What do we do?"

That snapped Ace out of it. He dropped down on the other side, and the smirk he'd been wearing all afternoon was long gone. "Don't touch him! If he hit his head, you're not supposed to move him."

"How do you know that?"

"I don't know! I just heard it somewhere!"

"That's not helpful!"

"Neither is panicking!"

Deuce pressed both hands over his mouth as though that might stop him from yelling. 

His whole body was trembling. "He's not waking up. Ace, he's not waking up."

"I can see that!"

Ace leaned closer, his own heart pounding so hard he could feel it in his ears. Up close, he could see how pale Riddle's face was, and how the blood had matted the hair at the back of his skull. There were no scorch marks on the hedges, no broken branches, only the snapped staff and the silence.

He tried to think. He tried to remember anything from first-aid class, or anything Trey-senpai had ever said about injuries, but his mind was a complete blank.

"Okay," he said, mostly to himself. "Okay. Okay."

"Ace!"

"I'm thinking!"

"Think faster!"

"I don't know what to do, Deuce!" The words burst out of him, louder than he meant. For once there was no joke in his voice. "I don't know what to do, okay? I'm not a doctor!"

They stared at each other.

Ace dragged a hand through his hair and forced himself to take a breath. When he spoke again, his voice was steadier. "We need someone older. Someone who actually knows what they're doing. Trey-senpai, maybe. He'd know what to do."

Deuce's eyes widened. "Trey-senpai. Right. Yes."

"Go find him. He's probably in the kitchen or his room."

"What about you?"

"I'll stay here with the Housewarden."

"But what if—"

"Just go!"

Deuce hesitated, looking down at Riddle one last time. Then he scrambled to his feet and bolted back toward the dorm, his footsteps fading quickly between the hedges.

Ace was left alone.

He sat down on the cold stones, close enough to see Riddle's breathing, and pulled off his jacket. He folded it awkwardly and pressed it near the wound, careful not to move Riddle's head, the way he'd seen people do in movies. His hands were shaking, and he hated that.

"Hey, Riddle," he said quietly. "You'd better not die. I've still got, like, a hundred rule violations to rack up."

No response.

Ace swallowed. "...Seriously, though. Wake up, okay? I'll feed the stupid flamingos. I'll feed them twice. Just wake up."

The maze stayed silent. Somewhere beyond the hedges, the last scraps of fog drifted apart, and the air grew a little clearer. Ace stayed where he was, jacket pressed against Riddle's head, and as the minutes dragged on, a thought crept into his mind that he didn't like.

Those footsteps in the corridor earlier. He hadn't paid attention to them, because he had been too busy bouncing that stupid ball.

If he'd stopped for even a minute, would he have heard something?

He shook the thought away and kept his eyes on the path.

Hurry up, Deuce.

Every second felt like five. He counted the stones in front of him, then counted them again. He listened for footsteps, and every rustle of leaves made his head snap up. 

Once, he thought he heard something moving on the other side of the hedge, and his whole body went tense. But nothing came out of the shadows, and eventually he made himself breathe again.

Then he heard it. Real footsteps this time, pounding hard along the stones and getting closer.

Deuce came around the corner first, breathing hard, with Trey right behind him. There was flour on Trey's apron and a smear of it across his cheek, and he had clearly run the whole way.

"Trey-senpai!" Ace's voice came out thinner than he wanted, and the relief hit him so suddenly that his eyes stung. He looked away and blinked hard.

Trey knelt down beside Riddle without a word. His glasses caught the pale light as he reached for Riddle's wrist, and Ace saw that his fingers weren't steady. It took him two tries to find the pulse.

"Trey-senpai?" Ace's voice came out thinner than he wanted.

"Hold on." Trey's own voice was too quick and too tight, nothing like the calm tone he used in the kitchen. "I'm checking. Just give me a second."

Nobody said anything. Deuce hovered a step behind them, his hands opening and closing at his sides, and Ace realized he was holding his breath.

"He's breathing," Trey said at last, and the words came out in a rush, as though he'd been holding them back. "His pulse is there. It's fast, but it's there."

Deuce let out a shaky sound that was half a laugh and half a sob. "So he's okay? He's going to be okay?"

"I don't know." Trey's jaw tightened. He gently lifted the jacket away from the back of Riddle's head, and his face went pale when he saw the wound. "I don't know, Deuce. I'm not a doctor. There's a lot of blood, and he won't wake up. I don't know what to do."

It was the first time Ace had ever heard Trey say that. He had always been the one with an answer, the one who stayed calm when Cater was panicking and Riddle was shouting. Seeing him kneel there with blood on his fingers, staring at the wound like it was something he couldn't read, made the maze feel colder than it already was.

"What happened to him?" Deuce asked, his voice cracking. "Did he fall? Did he trip? Why would he..."

"I don't know." Trey pressed the jacket back against the wound, careful and slow. "We don't know anything yet. Don't guess. Not right now."

"But the staff is broken."

"I see it." Trey didn't look at it. His eyes stayed on Riddle's face. "It doesn't matter right now. We can figure that out later."

Ace swallowed. He wanted to say something, anything, but his mind kept circling back to the sound of those footsteps in the corridor, so he kept his mouth shut.

Trey dragged a hand across his face, leaving a faint streak of flour on his cheek, and forced out a breath. When he spoke again, his voice was a little steadier, though Ace could tell it cost him. "Okay. Okay. He needs professional help. Deuce, go straight to Professor Crewel."

"Me?"

"You're the fastest. Tell him the Housewarden is hurt and unconscious, and that he needs to come to the rose maze right away. Don't stop for anyone, and don't wait for him to ask questions. Just say it and make sure he moves."

"Yes, Trey-senpai!" Deuce was already on his feet, though his legs looked ready to give out. He took one last look at Riddle, then turned and sprinted along the path.

Ace watched him disappear around the corner. The sound of his footsteps faded, and then the maze was quiet again, and it felt a lot bigger than before.

Trey stayed where he was, one hand on Riddle's shoulder and the other pressed against the jacket. His glasses had slipped a little down his nose, and he hadn't fixed them.

"Ace."

"Yeah?"

"Tell me what you saw." He said it gently, almost like he was afraid of the answer. "Anything. From the beginning. Even if it doesn't seem important."

Ace opened his mouth, then closed it again. His throat felt tight.

"We didn't see anything," he said finally. "That's the thing. We were in our room the whole time. The fog was there, and we thought it was just a normal day, and then we got hungry and went downstairs, and the lounge was..." 

He trailed off and shook his head. "It was wrecked. And the courtyard too. We came into the maze to look for the Housewarden, and then we found him like this."

Trey nodded slowly. "Did you see anyone? Hear anything?"

Ace hesitated. For a second he wanted to tell him about the footsteps, but he honestly didn't know if they had been anything at all.

"I don't know," he said, quieter this time. "Maybe. I'm not sure. I wasn't really listening."

"That's okay." Trey tried to smile, but it didn't quite work. "You don't have to be sure. Just tell me whatever you remember. We'll sort it out together."

Ace nodded, though his eyes drifted back to Riddle. His face was so pale against the stones, and his hair looked darker than it should have in the dim light. Without his usual scowl, he looked a lot younger than Ace had ever thought of him.

"Hey, Trey-senpai?"

"Yes?"

"He's going to wake up, right?"

Trey didn't answer right away. He looked at Riddle for a long moment, his hand tightening on his shoulder.

"He has to," he said at last, so quietly that Ace almost didn't hear it.

For the first time all day, no one was joking.

Hall of Mirrors

Deuce didn't remember crossing the dorm.

One moment he was running past Trey-senpai's kitchen with the smell of burnt sugar in his nose, and the next he was throwing himself at the Heartslabyul mirror and tumbling out the other side. His shoes skidded across the polished floor of the Hall of Mirrors, and he barely caught himself against one of the tall frames before he went down.

His lungs were on fire. His hands wouldn't stop shaking. All he could see was Riddle lying on the stones, with that dark patch spreading underneath him.

Professor Crewel. Go straight to Professor Crewel.

He pushed off the mirror frame and kept running. The Hall of Mirrors was dim and strangely quiet. Every dorm's mirror stood in its place along the walls, and the reflections of his own panicked face flashed past him on both sides.

Then the thought hit him, and it nearly stopped him in his tracks.

He had no idea where Professor Crewel was.

The Hall of Mirrors sat at the far edge of the campus, in a building tucked away behind the old gardens. The school was on the other side of the grounds, past the main street and a long stretch of winding paths. 

On a normal day it took fifteen minutes to walk there, and Deuce had complained about it every single time. At a full sprint, he might cut that in half. Maybe.

But Riddle was lying on the stones with blood soaking into his hair. Trey-senpai had said it himself: he needed help. And Deuce didn't even know if Professor Crewel would be at the school at all.

What if I get there and he isn't there? What if he's in the staff room, or the dorm, or somewhere else?

His chest tightened. He ran faster.

He was halfway down the hall when someone rounded the far corner at full speed.

Deuce didn't have time to stop. He slammed straight into a solid chest, and both of them staggered backward.

"Sorry! Sorry, I can't, I have to..."

"Deuce?"

He looked up. Silver stood in front of him, one hand gripping Deuce's arm. 

His hair was a mess and his uniform was rumpled, as though he'd gotten dressed in a hurry. But it was his face that made Deuce falter. Silver was usually calm, almost sleepy, with that quiet look that never changed. 

Right now his eyes were wide, and his breathing came in short, uneven bursts.

"Deuce, wait. What are you doing here? Why are you running?"

"No time! I don't have time!" Deuce tried to pull away, but Silver didn't let go. "It's the Housewarden! He's in the maze, but the maze isn't the problem, it's the, the blood, and Trey-senpai said straight to Professor Crewel, and the roses are fine, but the staff is broken, and Ace is holding his jacket, and the lounge..."

"Deuce. I can't understand you."

"I know! I'm not explaining it right! He's lying there, Silver, and the school is so far away, and I don't even know where Professor Crewel is, and I can't stand here talking, I have to go, I have to go, I have to..."

"Riddle is hurt?"

"That's what I said!"

Silver's face went white. For a second his grip on Deuce's arm tightened until it almost hurt, and when he spoke, his voice wasn't steady at all. "Then I'm coming with you."

"What? Why? You don't even..."

"Because I need a teacher too!"

The words came out louder than Silver had probably intended. He seemed to realize it and clamped his mouth shut, but his hand was shaking. Deuce stared at him, then at the corridor ahead, and made a decision he didn't have time to question.

"Fine! Just run!"

They bolted together, sprinting out through the nearest archway and into the open air. 

The evening had turned cold, and the last patches of fog were still clinging to the ground, thin and pale and slowly coming apart. The campus looked different in it. Every window stood dark, and the long stone path stretched ahead of them, empty.

Silver's strides were longer than his, and Deuce could hear the other boy's breath hitching with every step. He kept glancing toward the side paths, as though he expected someone to step out from between the trees.

"Why do you need... a teacher?" Deuce panted. He didn't slow down. He couldn't.

"I woke up... twenty minutes ago." Silver's words were broken by his breathing. "In the courtyard. I don't remember lying down. The fog was thinning, and my head felt... and I went back to Diasomnia, and..."

"And?"

"And they're gone."

Deuce's foot caught on a loose stone. He stumbled, caught himself, and kept running. 

"Who's gone?"

"F—" Silver's voice cracked. He swallowed hard. "Lilia. And Sebek. I looked everywhere. His bed is empty, and his things are still there, and Lilia would never, he would never just..."

"Okay! Okay, I heard you!" Deuce's voice cracked too. "That's bad! That's really bad! But I can't, I can't stop, the Housewarden..."

"I know!"

"Then why are you telling me now?"

"Because I don't know what else to do!"

They were both nearly shouting, and neither of them slowed down. Deuce's mind kept leaping from one terrible picture to the next: the broken staff, the empty lounge, Lilia-senpai's vanished bed. It didn't make sense, and he didn't have the breath to make it make sense. All he could do was run.

The path curved toward the main street, where the old lanterns were just beginning to flicker back on, one at a time. His legs burned, his chest ached, and every step felt heavier than the last. 

He kept doing the math in his head, and it kept coming out the same: too far, too slow, too long. Every minute he spent running was another minute Riddle spent lying on those cold stones.

Please. Please let there be someone.

He had almost given up hope when he saw a tall figure at the end of the street.

A long coat. A coiled whip at the hip.

For a moment Deuce thought he was imagining it. Then the figure turned, and the lantern light caught his sharp, severe profile, and Deuce's heart nearly stopped.

"Professor Crewel!" Deuce and Silver shouted at the same time.

Crewel's head snapped toward them. He had been standing at the edge of the main street with his arms crossed, staring into the thinning mist like a man who had come out to find out what on earth was going on. He strode forward with his brows already furrowed.

"Spade? Silver? What is the meaning of this? Why are you two shouting in the middle of the..."

"Professor!" Deuce slid to a stop in front of him, knees nearly buckling. "The Housewarden! The maze! Blood! Trey-senpai said you, and the roses, and Ace is there, and it's the head, it's his head, and he won't, he's not..."

"Spade, calm down and..."

"And Lilia is gone!" Silver blurted out beside him, his usual composure completely shattered. "My, my fa... Lilia! And Sebek! They're not in Diasomnia, and nobody has seen them, and I woke up in the courtyard, and I don't know why, I don't..."

"Silver, one thing at a..."

"The rose maze!" Deuce was already turning back, one foot sliding on the stones, his whole body leaning in the direction he'd come from. "Please, Professor, I can't explain, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, but we have to go now, Riddle's lying there, and I can't stay here, I can't, I have to get back..."

"Spade!"

The sharp crack of Crewel's voice made him freeze.

Deuce stood there with his chest heaving and his heart slamming against his ribs, one hand clamped over his side where a cramp was starting to bite. His vision swam. His throat was dry, and every breath came out as a wheeze.

Beside him, Silver was barely in better shape. He had pressed a hand to his mouth, and his shoulders were trembling.

Crewel looked from one boy to the other. The anger drained out of his face, and something sharper replaced it. When he spoke again, his voice was low and firm, the way it got when he wanted to be heard the first time.

"Listen to me, pup. Both of you." He stepped closer, his gaze fixed on Deuce. "Rose maze. Heartslabyul. Is that where Riddle is?"

Deuce nodded frantically, still gasping for air.

"And he is unconscious. Bleeding from the head."

"Yes! Yes, Trey-senpai's with him, and Ace, and..."

"That is enough, Spade. I have what I need." Crewel turned to Silver, and his expression softened by the smallest degree. "Silver. Breathe. I heard you about Lilia and Sebek, and we will deal with that, but Riddle comes first. Do you understand?"

Silver swallowed and nodded, though his hands were still shaking.

"Good." Crewel gripped the handle of his whip and straightened, every trace of hesitation gone. "Then lead the way, the both of you. You know where he is, and I do not. Run, pups, and do not stop until we get there."

Deuce didn't need to be told twice. He spun around and took off down the path, with Silver at his side and Crewel's footsteps pounding right behind them.

Headmaster's Office

Yuvin had been in Crowley's office more times than they could count, and it had never felt like this.

Grim hadn't come. He'd been told to stay at Ramshackle, and he hadn't even argued, which was worrying in its own way. 

Malleus walked beside them without speaking. He had been quiet like this ever since the messenger found them, and Yuvin hadn't wanted to ask why.

Most of the others were already there, and nobody was talking. Vil and Rook stood together near the wall. Kalim sat stiffly in one of the armchairs with Jamil behind him, and Idia was half hidden behind Ortho, gripping the back of his jacket. Floyd stood alone in front of the desk with a crumpled paper bag hanging from one hand.

Yuvin's eyes went to the empty space beside him. Floyd was never without his brother.

And he wasn't smiling.

"Ah, Prefect! Mr. Draconia!" Crowley spread his gloved hands. "Thank you for coming. We are only waiting on one more."

Nobody answered him. Yuvin took a place against the bookshelf, and Malleus stopped beside them, close enough that his sleeve brushed their shoulder. Neither of them said anything. The silence stretched on until it started to feel like a held breath.

The door opened behind them, and Trey came in.

His uniform was wrinkled, and both cuffs were stained with dried blood. He had flour on his cheek and didn't seem to know it. 

Kalim glanced at the cuffs and then looked away quickly, like he'd seen something he wasn't supposed to. Vil's eyes lingered on them a little longer.

When Trey spoke, his voice was steady in the way of someone who had been holding it steady for hours.

"Sorry I'm late, Headmaster. I wanted to make sure he was settled."

"Of course, Mr. Clover." Crowley's tone softened, as much as it ever did. "How is Mr. Rosehearts?"

"Stable. He's in a coma. They don't know when he'll wake up."

Nobody said anything. Kalim's shoulders dropped, and Jamil's hand tightened on the back of the chair. Rook let out a slow breath, and Idia's grip on Ortho's jacket went white at the knuckles.

Trey took a place a few steps from the others, and for a moment he just stood there, looking at nothing.

Crowley cleared his throat and started pacing. "At approximately five o'clock, a thick fog settled over the campus. The elemental fairies were unable to disperse it, and the cause is not yet known. During that time, a number of students have been, ah, unaccounted for."

He paused, as if the next part needed a moment to be worked up to.

"Mr. Kingscholar and Mr. Bucchi of Savanaclaw. Mr. Ashengrotto and Mr. Jade Leech of Octavinelle."

Floyd's expression didn't change. But the paper bag in his hand crinkled slightly, as though his fingers had tightened on it.

"Mr. Silver reported that Mr. Vanrouge and Mr. Zigvolt of Diasomnia have not been found either. And there are several other students whose names we are still confirming."

Malleus didn't move. Yuvin only noticed because they were standing next to him, and saw his hand close slowly at his side. Somewhere outside, very far away, something rumbled.

"Now, I'd like to stress that there is no reason to assume the worst," Crowley went on. 

"The fog was dense, and I am confident that most of these students will turn up by morning. Given that, I see no need to alarm anyone. The school will handle this quietly, and I would ask that none of you discuss it with the other students."

For a moment, nobody reacted at all. It was as if the room hadn't quite caught up with what he'd said.

"Excuse me?"

Vil hadn't raised his voice. He didn't need to.

"Mr. Schoenheit?"

"You said the school will handle it quietly." Vil stepped away from the wall, unhurried. "Does that mean you will not be reporting this?"

"Well, there is no need to involve outside parties at this stage. The Ministry, the families, the press, it would only cause panic over what is likely a misunderstanding..."

"A misunderstanding." Vil's smile was thin and perfect. "Students are missing, one is in a coma, and you do not intend to tell anyone."

"I did not say that, precisely..."

"Then what precisely did you say?"

"Mr. Schoenheit, I assure you the matter is..."

"Do not tell me it is under control, Headmaster."

Crowley stopped. Behind Vil, Rook had gone quiet in a way that Yuvin recognized, the stillness of someone watching prey.

"I would like to know," Vil said, each word placed carefully, "what exactly the school is planning to do. Since you intend to keep it from the Ministry, and from the families. Will you search the campus yourselves? Will you question the staff? Or will you simply wait?"

"We are, of course, considering several options..."

"Name one."

Crowley's mouth opened, then closed. "These things take time, Mr. Schoenheit. One must not rush into..."

"I fought two of them." Vil's eyes narrowed. "In the fog. They were carrying one of my dormmates, and my magic did nothing to them."

That got the room's attention. Crowley's mouth opened and closed again, and this time nothing came out.

"Shadow-like things," Vil continued. "Black, shapeless, and immune to spells. They broke apart when struck, but they were not the only ones. Whoever sent them knew what they were doing, and I will not accept being told it was a trick of the fog."

"I did not say..."

"You were about to."

Crowley coughed.

"Riddle's spells did nothing either," Trey said quietly. "The first-years who found him said his staff was broken, but there wasn't a single scorch mark on the hedges."

Heads turned toward him. He didn't look up.

"Jamil and I saw something too," Kalim said, and his voice was steadier than Yuvin expected. "Every corridor in Scarabia led back to the kitchen. We couldn't get out."

"We hid in a storage room," Jamil added. He kept his eyes on Crowley. "Someone walked past the door. They weren't lost. They knew exactly where they were going."

"And they did not call out," Kalim said. "Not once."

A silence fell. Idia muttered something unintelligible into Ortho's back, and Ortho patted his hand without turning around.

Crowley opened his mouth again, but Trey spoke before he could.

"Headmaster."

It was the way he said it that made Yuvin look up. There was no anger in it yet, only a terrible, exhausted politeness.

"Yes, Mr. Clover?"

"Riddle was found in the rose maze with his head split open." Trey's hands were folded in front of him, perfectly still. "He was out there alone. Nobody knew. Nobody could have known. The only reason anyone found him is that two first-years wandered into a wrecked lounge."

"Mr. Clover, I understand that you are..."

"If they'd stayed in their room another hour, he'd be dead."

He said it without raising his voice, and somehow that made it worse. Kalim's face had gone pale.

"Ace took off his jacket and pressed it against Riddle's head, and stayed with him until I got there." Trey's voice thinned, and he kept going. 

"Deuce ran across half the campus to find a teacher. Two sixteen-year-olds, who had no idea what they were doing, and that's the only reason he's alive."

"That is a most fortunate..."

"He almost died!"

The word rang off the walls.

Kalim flinched. Jamil's eyebrows shot up, and he glanced at Vil, who looked just as stunned. 

Even Idia had stopped trying to hide, and was staring at Trey with wide eyes over Ortho's shoulder. Rook's hand had drifted halfway toward Trey before he seemed to think better of it.

Trey had never raised his voice in front of any of them. Not once.

For a few seconds nobody dared to breathe. Trey stood there with his chest heaving, and he looked, for the first time, like he didn't know what to do with his own hands.

"And you're telling us there's no need to alarm anyone." He was shaking now, though his words came out clipped and cold. 

"At least six of our classmates are gone, and more we don't even have names for yet. Someone walked onto this campus, knocked out a housewarden, and took them. And your plan is to wait until morning and hope they turn up?"

"Mr. Clover, please, lower your..."

"I was in the kitchen." Trey laughed, short and ugly. "The mixer was running, the radio was on, and I was making tarts. I'm his vice housewarden. I'm supposed to notice when something's wrong, and I was making tarts."

"Trey-senpai," Kalim said softly.

"Clover," Vil said quietly.

"Don't." Trey didn't look at either of them. "I'm not done."

"Wow," Floyd said.

Everyone turned. Floyd was looking at Trey with his head tilted, and for the first time since Yuvin had walked in, there was something like interest in his face. "I was going to say that, but you did it better."

"Mr. Leech, this is not the time..."

"Listen, stupid bird."

Floyd set the paper bag on the desk, slowly. His voice was soft and flat, and nothing about it was playful. Crowley actually stopped talking.

"My brother and Azul went to Sam's shop today. They never came back. I went to look for them."

He tipped the bag out. A crushed box of tea leaves spilled across the desk, followed by a cracked glass bottle and a handful of flattened mushrooms. Nobody spoke as it landed.

"This was on the path outside. Everything scattered. Syrup all over the ground." He touched one of the mushrooms with a single finger. "Jade bought three kinds of these. He'd never leave them in the dirt. And Azul would never leave tea."

Crowley stared at the desk and said nothing. Yuvin saw Jamil's gaze drop to the mushrooms, and something flicker across his face before he looked away.

"So when you say they'll turn up by morning," Floyd said gently, "I'd like you to think very carefully about what you say next."

"Floyd," Jamil said. "Don't."

"I'm just asking."

"Mr. Leech." Crowley's voice wobbled. "I am only saying that it would be premature to..."

"Premature," Trey repeated, and something in his face broke.

The windows rattled.

It started as a low hum under the floor, then rose until the lamps shivered on their hooks. Outside, in a sky that had been clear a moment ago, a single bolt of light split the stars. Thunder rolled across the campus, and the whole room shook.

Yuvin flinched hard. Their shoulders jerked toward their ears before they could stop them, and for a moment all they wanted was to be somewhere quiet. Their heart was pounding, and their ears rang. Then they looked up.

Malleus stood perfectly straight with his hands behind his back. His eyes had taken on a faint green glow, and his face was blank. He said nothing at all. 

The curtains behind him were lifting in a wind that had no source, and a teacup rattled off the edge of Crowley's desk and shattered.

"Mr. Draconia," Crowley said faintly. "Perhaps you might..."

Malleus didn't answer. Another rumble rolled across the grounds, closer this time, and the glow in his eyes sharpened. Nobody in the room dared look at him directly. Even Floyd had gone still.

Yuvin didn't say anything either. They reached out and took hold of his sleeve, lightly, the way they might touch a skittish animal. He didn't react. After a moment, they slid their hand down until their fingers curled around his.

Malleus's head turned. The glow in his eyes wavered.

Yuvin kept still. Their hands were shaking, and they let him feel it. He looked down at their joined hands for a long moment. The wind in the curtains hesitated, as though it was waiting for him.

Then, very slowly, his fingers loosened and closed around theirs. The curtains settled. The thunder drew back, and the next rumble was so far off it barely rattled the glass.

Yuvin let out a breath they hadn't realized they were holding. Malleus didn't look at them, but his thumb moved, just once, against the back of their hand.

Behind them, the argument hadn't stopped.

"If you tell the students to keep quiet about this," Trey was saying, his voice raw, "I will personally..."

"Mr. Clover, I'm merely suggesting discretion! The school's reputation..."

"Reputation?" Floyd laughed. It was a soft, pleasant sound, and he was already moving around the desk. "Ehh, that's what you're worried about?"

"Mr. Leech!"

"Floyd." Rook's voice was low and serious as he caught Floyd's arm.

"Let go."

"I'm afraid I can't."

Floyd tried to pull free, and Rook's grip shifted to his shoulders. Floyd's smile didn't change, but his eyes were fixed on Crowley with an intensity that made the Headmaster edge backward behind his desk.

Ortho stepped in without being asked. "I can assist in restraining him if necessary," he offered, and Idia hissed, "Ortho, don't volunteer," from behind his back.

Trey took a step toward the desk, and Jamil was in front of him immediately.

"Trey-senpai. Please. Riddle wouldn't want this."

"Move, Jamil."

"No."

"I'm not going to..."

"You're not going to do anything," Jamil said, quiet and firm. "Because then there would be one more person in the infirmary."

Trey's jaw tightened.

Kalim had gotten to his feet and caught Trey's other arm with both hands. He didn't say anything, just held on. Trey stared down at him, breathing hard, and his whole body was shaking. 

For a second Yuvin thought he might pull free anyway, and the room waited.

Vil moved to Trey's side. "Clover," he said, quiet and clipped. "You've said what needed saying. Not here."

Trey's jaw worked. He didn't answer, but he didn't move forward either.

"That," Crowley said, in a voice several octaves higher than usual, "is enough! This meeting is adjourned! Out! All of you, out of my office! I will address this with the staff in the morning, and I will thank you not to break any more of my furniture!"

"Headmaster," Vil said icily.

"Out, Mr. Schoenheit!"

They filed toward the door. Rook and Ortho steered Floyd out first, with Floyd looking back over his shoulder and smiling at Crowley in a way that made the man take a step back. Jamil and Kalim guided Trey after them, one on each side, and Vil followed without a word. Idia scurried out behind Ortho with his hood pulled low.

Malleus was the last to go. His shoulders were rigid, and his free hand was clenched at his side, but he walked steadily, and he didn't let go of Yuvin's hand. 

The door swung shut behind them, and for the first time all evening, the corridor was quiet.

Trey leaned against the wall with a hand over his eyes while Kalim hovered beside him, not quite touching. Jamil stood a few steps away, arms folded, looking at the floor. Floyd was still held between Rook and Ortho, humming something under his breath, and nobody had the energy to tell him to stop.

Vil stood a little apart from them, looking down the long dark corridor toward the infirmary. He didn't say anything, and neither did anyone else.

Far above the school, the thunder rumbled once more, softer now, and then went quiet.

Yuvin didn't let go.

Corridor outside the Headmaster's Office

The door had barely shut behind them when Trey started muttering.

It was quiet at first, so low that Yuvin thought they'd imagined it. He stood with his shoulders pressed against the wall and one hand over his eyes, and the words came out in a steady, bitter stream.

"F###. F###ing useless. Reputation. S###, I can't believe that f###ing..." He dragged a breath through his teeth. "F### him. F### the whole f###ing, S###ing, brain-dead..."

"Trey-senpai?" Kalim said, very softly.

"...D### it all."

Kalim looked at Jamil, wide-eyed. Jamil gave a tiny shake of the head and didn't say a word. Kalim hovered at Trey's side with his hands half raised, clearly wanting to do something and not knowing what.

"F###ing tarts," Trey added, to no one. "I was making F###ING tarts. While some S###head was, was hitting him, and I was standing there with, with f###ing flour..."

"Trey-senpai, do you want some water?" Kalim tried.

Trey went quiet. He lowered his hand and looked at Kalim for a long moment, as though the question had come from very far away.

"...F###. Yes." He closed his eyes. "No. S###. I don't know."

"Okay!" Kalim said, as though this was a perfectly reasonable answer. "That's okay! You don't have to know!"

Across the corridor, Idia had wedged himself behind Ortho again, and he was whispering fast and low.

"It's the hidden boss. I knew it. The nice ones are always the hidden boss. You keep poking and poking and then, then there's a cutscene, and suddenly the dialogue changes, and the music goes weird, and..."

"Nii-san," Ortho said, "Trey-san can probably hear you."

"He can't, he's busy being, being that..."

"I can hear you, Idia," Trey said, without lifting his head.

Idia made a small strangled sound and disappeared completely behind Ortho's shoulder. Ortho patted his arm without turning around.

Malleus stood a few steps from the door. He hadn't spoken since they came out, and his hand was still wrapped around Yuvin's, but his gaze was fixed on the dark window at the end of the corridor, and it didn't look like he was seeing anything. His shoulders had dropped. 

The stiffness from inside the office was gone, and what was left looked a lot heavier.

Yuvin didn't try to say anything. They moved a little closer and stood where he could feel them there, and that was all.

From where they stood, Yuvin could see everyone at once, and it was strange how much they noticed when nobody was talking to them. 

Kalim's fingers kept twitching toward Trey's sleeve and pulling back. Jamil was watching Kalim, not Trey, with the look of someone keeping count. 

Rook's grip on Floyd's arm hadn't loosened once, and Floyd, who could have broken free at any time, hadn't tried very hard.

"Ehh," Floyd said at last. "Seagull, you can let go now."

"I'm afraid I do not trust that smile, Monsieur Malfeasant."

"It's the same smile."

"That is precisely why."

Floyd tugged once against Rook's grip, lazily, as if testing a rope. Rook didn't budge. "I'm calm," Floyd said. "I'm just going to go back in and say one more thing."

"Floyd," Jamil said.

"One small thing."

"No."

"A very small thing."

"Enough."

"Tch." Floyd slumped, and let his head tip back until he was staring at the ceiling. 

"Everyone's so boring tonight. Goldfishie's in a bed, Azul's gone, Jade's gone, and I'm not even allowed to squeeze one tiny, tiny bird."

Nobody answered. Rook's hand shifted on his arm, a little less like a restraint and a little more like something else.

Vil's voice didn't rise, but everyone stopped. He had been standing apart from the group with his arms folded, looking down the corridor, and now he turned. His expression was cool and level, and for the first time since the shouting began, it felt like someone had taken hold of the room.

"All of you. Listen."

Trey lowered his hand. Kalim straightened, and even Floyd's humming faded.

"The Headmaster has made his position very clear," Vil said. "He will not be reporting this, and he does not intend to act before morning. I would not be surprised if he does not intend to act at all." He let that sit for a moment. "So we will."

"We?" Kalim said.

"Yes, Kalim. We." Vil's eyes moved across the group. "I spoke with Professor Crewel on my way here. He is in the infirmary and will remain there. Professor Trein and Professor Vargas are going from room to room, checking on every student who was affected. Sam has opened his shop and is providing whatever the dorms need, to speed up repairs. Heartslabyul's lounge will not fix itself."

Trey's jaw tightened at the word, but he stayed quiet.

"Professor Trein also told me that several of my own dormmates are missing from their rooms," Vil added, and his voice was very even. "So I have my own reasons for not waiting."

"Roi du Poison speaks truly," Rook murmured. "The adults have their hands full."

"Exactly," Vil said. "That leaves us with the part nobody else is doing. We need to find out who these people are, how they got in, and where they went." He turned. "Shroud."

A small noise came from behind Ortho.

"Y-yes?"

"You and Ortho will look into the intruders. The camera feeds, the fog, anything that might tell us how they moved across the campus."

"Why me???" Idia's voice cracked, and he leaned out just far enough to glare at Vil with wide, panicked eyes. "I-I mean, there are other people, there's, there's the entire school..."

"Who else, then?"

"Th-the, the..." Idia looked around desperately. His eyes landed on Trey, then Floyd, then Malleus, and he stopped.

"Exactly," Vil said. "Draconia, Clover, and Leech are in no state to help with anything tonight. Kalim and Jamil have their own dorm to see to. Rook and I will speak with the students who saw the shadow creatures. You are the only one whose dorm kept a clear view of the campus."

"B-but that's, that's not fair, I didn't, nobody asked..."

"Aww, come on, Firefly Squid," Floyd said cheerfully. "You're the only one who can do it."

"Don't encourage them!"

"Nii-san," Ortho said gently. "We should help."

Idia stared at him. Ortho's eyes were bright and steady. Idia's shoulders slowly sank.

"...I hate this," he muttered. "I-I'll pull the logs. But if anything weird shows up, I'm not, I'm not going near it."

"Nobody is asking you to," Vil said, and for once his voice was almost gentle.

Idia tugged his hood lower. "...Also, nobody ever tells you how to, to stop being the one who always ends up..." He trailed off, and Ortho took his sleeve.

"We will begin immediately," Ortho announced, and the two of them set off down the corridor. Idia's muttering faded as they went, until even the echo was gone.

That left the rest of them standing in the quiet.

Nobody moved for a moment. Kalim looked at Trey, then at Jamil, then at Trey again. Jamil sighed through his nose, very quietly, and Yuvin understood that he had already made his decision and was only waiting for the right second to say it.

"I'm going to the infirmary," Jamil said.

Everyone looked at him.

"Trey-senpai and Floyd are headed there anyway, I assume." He kept his eyes on a spot just above Trey's shoulder. "I'll go with them. Someone should."

Kalim lit up. "Me too!"

Jamil closed his eyes briefly. "Of course you are."

"I want to see Riddle!"

"I know. I wasn't going to leave you alone anyway."

"Aw, Jamil!"

"Don't start."

Trey had been watching them with a look Yuvin couldn't quite read.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Kalim blinked. "Huh?"

"For snapping in there. And here." Trey rubbed a hand over his face. His voice was rough. "You were trying to help, and I told you not to. I shouldn't have done that. None of you deserved it. Or the language. S###, I'm sorry about the language. I don't, I don't normally... F###, I swear a lot more than I've ever let on, apparently."

"It's okay, Trey-senpai!" Kalim said at once. "Really, it's okay!"

"It isn't, but thank you."

"I think you were kind of cool," Kalim added, and Jamil muttered, "Kalim," under his breath.

Trey's mouth twitched. It wasn't quite a smile, but it was the first time all evening that his face had done anything like it.

Jamil didn't say anything else. He only stepped to Trey's side and started walking, and after a second, Trey fell into step next to him. Kalim hurried to catch up on Jamil's other side, still glancing anxiously at Trey as though checking he was still there.

"Ehh, wait," Floyd said.

They paused. Floyd had finally pulled his arm out of Rook's hand, and Rook let him, cautiously.

"I'm coming too."

"Floyd," Trey said, tiredly.

"I want to see Goldfishie." Floyd rolled his shoulders. His smile was back, but it was smaller than usual, and his eyes weren't quite in it. "He's sleeping, right? He never sleeps. It's weird. I wanna see."

Trey looked at him for a long moment. Then he nodded once. "...Okay."

"Okay!" Floyd bounced forward and fell in behind the others, humming under his breath. 

This time the tune sounded less like a threat and more like something he didn't know how to stop. He glanced back once, over his shoulder.

"Shrimpy. Look after Sea Slug. He's got that sad face."

Then he turned the corner, and the four of them were gone. The echo of footsteps faded, and it was quiet again.

Vil watched them go. He exhaled slowly and pressed two fingers against his temple, and for a moment he looked tired in a way Yuvin hadn't seen before.

"Rook."

"Oui, Roi du Poison."

"We have a lot of students to speak with."

"I am ready, mon ami."

They started walking too, and Rook paused only long enough to glance back at Malleus and Yuvin. He tipped his hat, solemn. "Chéri," he said quietly, to Yuvin. "Take care of him."

Vil didn't look back, but as he passed, he said, without slowing, "Stay with him, Prefect."

Yuvin nodded, though Vil was already gone.

Then there were only the two of them left in the corridor. The window at the end showed a sky that had finally gone clear again, the stars very bright and very far.

Malleus hadn't moved. His hand was still in Yuvin's, loose now, almost forgotten. Yuvin waited. They had learned a long time ago that some people needed silence more than words, and that it was better to be there than to say something wrong.

After a long time, he spoke.

"I was at Ramshackle."

His voice was quiet.

"Lilia was taken while I sat in a room and watched the fog." He didn't look at them. "I did not go out."

Yuvin squeezed his hand. They didn't have an answer for that, and they didn't try to find one.

They stood together in the empty corridor, and neither of them moved.

Infirmary

The infirmary was too quiet.

Ace had been in it plenty of times, usually with some excuse about a stomachache that got him out of Magical Physiology, and it had always been a boring place. Now it felt like the inside of a held breath. 

Professor Crewel moved between the far beds with his sleeves rolled up, murmuring spells over students who hadn't woken up yet, and every few minutes the nurse's footsteps crossed the floor and faded again.

Crewel had carried Riddle here himself. He'd come tearing through the rose maze and lifted Riddle as though he weighed nothing. 

Trey had stayed at his side the whole way, one hand clamped on Crewel's sleeve. Then the nurse had finished, and someone had come to say that Trey was wanted in the Headmaster's office, and he had stood there for a long moment looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Stay with him," he'd told Ace, and Ace had said yes before he'd thought about it. That had been more than an hour ago.

Riddle's bed was by the window. Someone had drawn the curtain halfway so the lamp wouldn't be in his face. He lay flat on his back with a bandage wrapped around his head, white and neat against his red hair, and his hands rested on top of the blanket like someone had arranged them there.

He'd never slept like that in his life. He was always curled up weirdly or frowning at something.

Ace sat on one side of the bed with his elbows on his knees. Deuce was next to him, stiff as a board, hands clamped between his knees. Neither of them had said anything in a long time.

On the other side of the bed, Silver sat very straight on a stool. He had come with them from the maze, and he hadn't gone back to Diasomnia, and nobody had asked him to. 

Ace had stopped wondering why somewhere around the third time the nurse walked by.

"The flamingos are going to be hungry," Silver said suddenly.

Ace looked up. "...What?"

"The flamingos." Silver's eyes were on the blanket. "Deuce mentioned them earlier. They were supposed to be fed."

"Oh." Ace blinked. "Yeah. They, uh. Probably."

"Someone should do it."

"Yeah, I guess."

"If you don't, they will not eat until tomorrow."

"I know."

"It would be unkind."

"Silver," Deuce said, very carefully. "Are you okay?"

Silver was quiet for a moment. His hands were folded in his lap, and Ace noticed that he was turning one thumb over the other, slowly, around and around.

"I do not know," he said. "I thought if I talked about ordinary things, it would be easier."

Nobody said anything. Ace looked at Deuce, and Deuce looked at the floor.

"Is it?" Ace asked.

"No."

"Yeah." Ace rubbed the back of his neck. "I figured."

Silver gave a small, tired breath that might have been a laugh. "You are very honest."

"I'm normally really bad at it."

"That is not what I have observed."

"Well, I'm bad at it when it matters. Mostly." Ace shifted in his chair. "So, did you want to talk about the flamingos some more? Because I've got opinions. One of them bit Cater once, and he's never gotten over it."

Deuce made a strangled noise. "Ace."

"What? It's true. He was screaming."

"That is not helpful."

"I'm distracting him!"

"I think," Silver said, "that it is working a little."

That shut them both up. Silver's mouth had actually moved, barely, in the corner. It wasn't a smile, but it was close enough that Ace's chest eased a notch.

"See?" Ace said. "Told you."

"You did not tell me anything."

"I'm saying it now."

They fell quiet again. The lamp hummed. Ace stared at Riddle's hand on the blanket. 

His fingers were thin, with a few faint pink marks on them where he'd been gripping something too hard.

"I heard footsteps," Ace said.

He hadn't meant to say it. The words just came out, flat and sudden, and both of the others turned to look at him.

"In the corridor. Before we went down to the lounge. I was bouncing a ball against the wall, and I heard someone walk past our door. Really light and quick. I figured it was just a dormmate." He swallowed. "I didn't even look."

"Ace," Deuce said.

"If I'd stopped for a second, I would've heard more. Maybe I'd have gone out and, I don't know, seen them." His voice was getting tight, and he hated it. "Maybe he wouldn't be..."

"I heard them too," Deuce said.

Ace stared at him.

"The footsteps. I noticed them, and I figured the same thing. That it was someone going downstairs." Deuce's hands tightened between his knees. "I was standing right there, and I didn't think anything of it. So don't say it's only you."

"But I was making all the noise..."

"And I was scolding you. Which was also noise." Deuce's voice cracked slightly. "So if it's anybody's fault, it's both of ours. Which means it's not, because we're idiots, but we're not, we're not..."

"Nobody could have known," Silver said quietly.

They both looked at him.

"I slept in a courtyard for two hours while two people I..." Silver stopped. His mouth worked, and he tried again. "While two people I care about were taken from my dormitory. I woke up in the same place I fell asleep. I did not hear anything either."

He lifted his eyes, and for a second they were very bright. "If it was anyone's fault, it would be mine, and I do not believe that. So I do not believe it about you."

Ace opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

"Lilia," Silver said, after a moment, very softly. "Would say the same thing. He would say we cannot carry what was never ours." His voice caught on the name, and he looked away.

Ace pretended not to notice. So did Deuce.

"Okay," Ace said, hoarse. "Okay. Yeah."

Silver nodded and went back to staring at the blanket.

A long minute passed. Ace let his eyes drift to the window, where the stars were very clear now. For some reason that made it worse. It felt wrong that the sky could look so calm.

Somewhere out in the hallway, there was a crash.

All three of them looked up at once. Footsteps were pounding down the corridor, fast and uneven, with something clattering and sliding along the floor behind them. The nurse said "Excuse me, you cannot..." and was cut off.

The infirmary door banged open.

"Riddle!"

Cater stood in the doorway.

Ace barely recognized him. His hair was a mess, and his jacket was half off one shoulder. His phone was clutched in one hand, and the screen was cracked across the corner like he'd dropped it on the way. His face was completely white, and he wasn't smiling.

Ace had seen Cater smile at everything, at stupid jokes, at bad news, at near disasters. The smile was always there, even when it was fake.

It wasn't there now.

"Where is he?" Cater's voice cracked, and he stopped. His eyes had found the bed.

He saw the bandages.

"Cater-senpai," Deuce said, standing up so fast his chair scraped. "He's okay, he's..."

Cater didn't seem to hear him. He crossed the room in a few unsteady steps and stopped at the foot of the bed, and his hands came up halfway and froze there, shaking. His phone slipped from his fingers and hit the floor. He didn't look down.

"No," he said, barely audible. "No, no, no. No."

"Cater-senpai," Ace said. He'd gotten up too, and he didn't remember doing it. "He's stable. Trey-senpai said. He's breathing, and his heart's okay, and..."

"Stable?"

Cater's head turned. His eyes were wet and wide, and there was something in them that made Ace's chest go tight.

"He's in a coma," Cater said. "Someone told me in the hall. Nobody said that part before. Nobody said that part."

Ace's mouth had gone dry. "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't..."

"I was in the library."

It came out so flat that none of them knew how to answer.

"I was in the library." Cater's hand pressed hard against his mouth, and then fell away. 

"The fog came in and I thought, oh, weird weather, and I stayed where I was. I was reading a stupid magazine. I had my phone on silent. I didn't even look up."

"Senpai..."

"I was supposed to be there." His voice broke. "Do you get that? He asked me, he asked me this morning, and I said, 'After, Riddle-kun, I'll come after.' I said after." He laughed, and it was horrible, wet and cracked all the way through. "I always say after. And he just, he just nods, he never even complains, and I..."

"That's not..." Deuce started.

"He was alone out there! He was on the ground, bleeding, and I was sitting in a chair!"

Cater's shoulders were shaking now, and he dragged a sleeve across his face and didn't stop. "I'm his friend. I'm supposed to know when something's wrong. I'm the one who always knows everything, I know about everything on this whole campus, and I didn't know this."

"Cater-senpai," Ace said, and his own voice wobbled. "That isn't..."

"It is." Cater stared at him, and his face crumpled. "It is, Ace-chan. It's my fault."

Nobody spoke.

Cater sank slowly onto his knees beside the bed. His forehead came down against the edge of the mattress, right next to Riddle's hand, and he didn't take it. He just stayed there with his shoulders curled and his breath coming in short, ragged bursts.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Riddle-kun. I should have been there. I should have come."

Ace looked at Deuce. Deuce was gripping the back of his chair with both hands, white-knuckled, and his eyes were red. Ace had never felt so useless in his life. He wanted to say something, anything, and every sentence in his head sounded stupid.

It was Silver who moved.

He stood quietly, and he circled the bed and crouched beside Cater, not touching him, just close. "Cater," he said. His voice was low and very steady. "I do not think you could have known."

"You don't understand," Cater said into the blanket. "You can't, you can't just..."

"I fell asleep in a courtyard," Silver said. "While the people I love were taken. I do not understand what you are feeling either. But I know that being sorry will not make it hurt less, and that he would not want it for you."

Cater didn't answer. His shoulders shook harder.

Silver stayed where he was, and after a moment, very carefully, he laid a hand on Cater's back.

Ace looked away. His throat hurt. On the floor, the cracked phone was still lit, a dozen notifications stacked across the screen, all unread. He had never seen Cater ignore his phone before.

Ace didn't know how long they stayed like that. Long enough for the worst of it to pass, and for Cater's breathing to slow from sobs into something ragged but even. The only other sounds in the room were that breathing and the faint scratch of Crewel's quill from the far end of the infirmary.

Silver who spoke first.

"Cater." His hand was still resting on Cater's back, light and steady. "I think we should step outside for a little while."

Cater's head came up so fast that his hair fell across his eyes. "No. No, I'm not leaving him."

"We are only giving him room." Silver's voice didn't change. "The nurse will be in and out, and Professor Crewel still has other students to see. It is crowded in here, and he needs quiet."

"He can't hear us. He's, he's..." Cater's voice cracked on the word. He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. "I don't want him to wake up and have nobody here."

Silver was quiet for a moment. He looked at Cater's face, and something in his expression softened.

"Then you may stay," he said. "A little longer. Ace, Deuce, and I will be on the other side of that door. If anything changes, you only need to call."

Cater looked at Riddle, then at the bandage, then at Silver. His eyes were bright, and Ace could see him fighting it, his jaw working, his lashes wet. He looked like a kid trying to hold back a sneeze. It would have been funny if it wasn't so awful.

"Okay," Cater whispered. "Just, just a little. I'll be quick."

"Take as many minutes as you need."

Cater pushed himself up off the floor and dragged a stool closer to the bed with shaking hands. He sat down on it, and for a moment he only stared at Riddle's face.

He didn't take his hand. He didn't say anything dumb or cheerful to cover it, either. He just sat there, small and hunched, with his sleeve pressed over his eyes.

Ace didn't want to leave. His feet felt glued to the floor, and Deuce had the same look, half turned toward the bed. It was Silver who tapped his shoulder.

"Come," he said, very softly.

Ace looked back once as they reached the door. Cater was still sitting beside the bed, with his head bowed.

At least Riddle wasn't.

Then the door swung open, and they nearly walked right into two people coming the other way.

"Ace?" Epel's voice. "Deuce? What are you..."

He stopped. Ace looked up. Epel stood in the corridor with his hair in a messy ponytail and his sleeves pushed up, and next to him, Jack. Jack was in his school uniform with the jacket hanging open, and his ears were pinned flat against his skull.

"Epel," Deuce said. "Jack."

"We came as soon as we..." Epel's gaze moved past them, toward the infirmary door as it swung shut. "Silver? Why are you all out here? Is someone in there?"

"What happened?" Jack's voice was low and rough. "Is something wrong with Rosehearts-senpai?"

Ace opened his mouth, and found that he didn't know how to say it. Deuce got there first.

"He's in a coma," Deuce said. "Somebody hit him on the head in the rose maze. He's stable, but he hasn't woken up."

Nobody spoke.

Epel's face went white. "What?" He took a step toward the door, then stopped himself. "Riddle-san? But, but how, who would..."

"We don't know yet," Ace said. His throat was tight. "We found him. It was bad."

Epel's hand pressed against his chest. His fingers were shaking a little. "Is he, is anyone with him?"

"Cater-senpai is," Silver said. "He asked to stay a little longer. We thought it would be better to leave him alone with Riddle for now."

"Oh." Epel's voice dropped. "Is he okay?"

Ace and Deuce looked at each other.

"No," Ace said. "Not really."

Epel's eyes went back to the door. For a second Ace thought he might go in anyway, but he only wrapped his arms around himself, and nodded slowly. "Then I'll wait. I didn't know. Nobody told us."

"You didn't know?" Deuce said slowly.

"Professor Trein came to check on us," Epel said. "He knocked on my door and said there'd been some incidents, and that he wanted to make sure everyone in the dorm was accounted for. But I wasn't really listening."

"We weren't," Jack said. His jaw was set. "We had music on. Epel was making me try one of his face masks. I wasn't paying attention to what anyone was saying."

"A face mask?" Ace said, before he could stop himself.

"It was green and it smelled like cucumber," Jack said flatly. "I didn't want to talk about it."

Despite everything, Epel's mouth twitched. It faded at once.

"The Professor was talking," Jack went on. "I was only half-hearing it, and then he said Leona-senpai's name."

His voice dropped, and for a moment Ace thought it might break. It didn't. Jack's hands curled at his sides, and his ears flattened even more.

"He said Leona-senpai and Ruggie-senpai were missing. That nobody could find them." Jack's jaw tightened. "I asked him to repeat it. He did. Then he left to check on the next room."

"I'm sorry," Silver said quietly.

Jack looked at him. "Silver. Did anyone from your dorm go missing?"

"Lilia and Sebek have not been found."

Jack was silent for a second, and then he nodded once, sharply. His fists stayed clenched.

"Wait," Deuce said. He had been frowning for a while, and now he looked from Epel to Jack and back again. "Wait, hold on. How did you two not know about the fog?"

Epel blinked. "What fog?"

"The fog. It covered the whole campus. It was so thick we couldn't see across the courtyard. Everyone in Heartslabyul saw it. Everyone in Scarabia, everyone in..."

"I didn't see any fog," Jack said.

"Neither did I," Epel said. "I mean, we knew something was happening, because the professors kept coming by, but..." He stopped, and looked down the hall, and then his expression changed. "Oh. Right. The dorm."

"What about the dorm?" Ace asked.

"Pomefiore has all sorts of charms on it," Epel said. "Vil-san put them in a year ago. Against mist, and damp, and anything else that might get in the air." He lifted a hand and made a small, vague gesture. 

"He says it's bad for the skin. So if there was fog outside, we wouldn't have seen it. We wouldn't have smelled it either."

"It keeps everything out," Jack added. "The windows don't even fog up in winter."

Ace stared at them.

"That's actually kind of terrifying," Deuce said slowly.

"It's very effective," Epel said.

Ace's mind was racing now. "So the gas, whatever was in the fog, never got inside Pomefiore. That's why you weren't..."

"I guess so," Epel said.

"And you were in Pomefiore," Ace said, turning to Jack. "You, a beastman. In one of the only places the gas couldn't reach."

Jack went still.

"If you'd been in Savanaclaw," Deuce said, and didn't finish.

Nobody finished it for him. Jack's gaze dropped to the floor. For the first time, something flickered across his face that wasn't anger, and Ace wished he hadn't said it.

"I know," Jack said quietly.

"Hey, that's not..." Ace started.

"I know."

There was a heavy pause. Epel moved a half-step closer to Jack, almost casually, until their shoulders touched.

"Professor Trein said something else," Epel said, after a moment. His voice was lower now, careful. "About our dorm. Some of our students are missing too, not just the ones in the other dorms."

Ace looked up sharply. "From Pomefiore? But I thought the wards..."

"The wards keep out fog," Epel said. "They don't keep out people. And most of the ones who disappeared, they hadn't locked their doors."

Silence.

"Their doors?" Silver repeated.

"Their dorm room doors." Epel's fingers curled in the hem of his sleeve. "Vil-san makes us lock them every night. It's a rule. But during the day, nobody does. Nobody's thinking about it. We all go in and out, borrowing things, leaving things, it's... it's just normal."

"So whoever it was," Jack said, "just walked in."

"That's what Professor Trein thinks." Epel's voice wavered. "He said the ones who locked their doors were fine. The ones who didn't, they were just, gone."

Nobody answered.

Ace thought about the unlocked door of the Heartslabyul lounge, hanging open, with mist curling in through the gap. He thought about the way the whole dorm had been so quiet. He thought about a pair of light, fast footsteps passing his own door, and how the door had been shut but not locked.

From the other side of the infirmary door, very faintly, came a thin, broken sound.

It was only a few seconds long. It cracked in the middle and stopped, and then started again, quieter, muffled, as though someone had pressed their face into a blanket to hide it.

Epel flinched. He took a step toward the door, and Silver gently shook his head.

"Let him," Silver said, so quietly that Ace almost didn't hear. "He needs it."

Epel's eyes were bright, and he pressed his lips together hard. He nodded, and he didn't move again. Deuce stared at the floor. Ace found that he couldn't look at the door at all.

Nobody said anything for a long time. Somewhere down the corridor, a clock ticked, steady and indifferent. Jack stared at the door with his ears flat and his jaw clenched, as though if he looked hard enough, he could see through it.

"Leona-senpai wouldn't have gone quietly," he said, almost to himself.

Nobody told him he was wrong.

Eventually the sound behind the door faded, and the corridor settled into a different kind of quiet. 

Ace couldn't tell if it was better. Epel had finally given in and sat down on the bench beside the wall, with his knees pulled up, and after a minute Jack leaned against the doorframe next to him with his arms crossed. 

Nobody asked whether they should go in. It felt like the sort of thing that would be decided for them.

So they talked, because there was nothing else to do, and because it was easier to say it all out loud than to keep it in.

Ace did most of the talking, with Deuce correcting him every time he skipped something, and Silver adding small, careful details when they got stuck. 

They told Epel and Jack about the lounge, the open door, the wrecked courtyard, and the broken staff half hidden under a rose bush. When they got to the part about the blood, Epel pressed both hands over his mouth, and Jack's tail went rigid against the back of his legs.

By the time they finished, the clock down the hall had ticked off a long stretch of time.

"Who would do that to him?" Epel asked at last, so quietly that it barely carried.

"We don't know," Ace said.

"But why him?" Epel looked up. "Riddle-san's human. Everyone who's missing, Leona-senpai, Ruggie-senpai, Lilia-senpai..."

"None of them are human," Jack said.

The word hung there. Ace felt it settle in his stomach like a stone, and from the way Deuce went quiet beside him, he'd felt it too.

"Then why would they hurt him?" Epel whispered.

"I don't know," Ace said, and it came out sharper than he meant. "Maybe he got in the way."

No one answered. Behind the infirmary door, everything had gone silent, and Ace tried not to think about that either.

Then he heard footsteps.

They were coming from the far end of the corridor, steady and unhurried, and there were a lot of them. Ace turned.

Kalim came into view first, with his usual cheerful stride cut down to something small and careful. Jamil walked right behind him, and a few steps back, Floyd, hands tucked in his pockets, humming something low. And in front of all of them, ahead by half a pace, was Trey.

Ace's stomach dropped.

He had seen Trey in a lot of moods. Trey had laughed at him, scolded him, bribed him with tarts, and once taught him to hold his breath underwater for a dare. But he had never seen this.

Trey's jaw was set so hard that a muscle jumped in his cheek, and his eyes were fixed straight ahead, red-rimmed and cold. The cuffs of his uniform were stained dark, and his hands hung at his sides, loose and tense at once, like something coiled.

He was also muttering. It was too low to catch the words, but Ace caught a few. F###. S###. F###ing…

"Is that," Epel whispered, "Trey-senpai?"

"Yeah," Deuce breathed.

"He's..." Epel swallowed. "He's swearing."

"I know."

"I've never heard him swear. Not even when Cater dropped the cake."

"I know."

"He looks like Vil-san when someone touches his cosmetics," Epel said, still whispering.

"That's worse," Ace whispered back. "That's way worse."

Jack's ears flicked. He had gone completely still, his nose lifted very slightly, and his expression tightened. "He's got blood on his sleeves."

Deuce's face went pale. "Housewarden's."

Jack nodded once and said nothing else.

The four of them pressed closer together without meaning to. Silver, who had been standing quietly beside the door, took a half step back to make room.

"Hi, everyone!" Kalim called, in a voice that tried hard to be bright and only half managed it. He waved. "Ace! Deuce! Oh, Epel and Jack are here too!"

"Kalim," Jamil said, very softly.

"I'm just saying hi."

Floyd glanced around the group, and the corner of his mouth twitched. "Ehh. It's so crowded out here. Why is everyone standing in the hall?"

"Trey-senpai," Deuce said, stepping forward. His voice cracked a little. "Housewarden's, he's okay. Cater-senpai's inside, he's been..."

Trey walked past him.

He didn't stop. He didn't turn his head. He didn't even slow down. It was as though Deuce had been a lamppost, or a piece of the wall, and Trey's gaze never left the infirmary door.

"Trey-senpai?" Ace tried.

Nothing.

"He's, he's not mad at us, right?" Epel whispered.

"I don't think he sees us," Deuce said.

Trey reached the door and put one hand flat against it. For a moment he didn't push. He stood there with his head slightly bowed, and Ace saw his shoulders rise and fall once, slow and deep.

When he opened the door, he did it carefully, as if the hinges might wake someone.

Silver moved aside without a word. Jamil caught Kalim's sleeve before he could follow, and shook his head. Floyd made an interested noise and leaned in, and Jamil caught his sleeve too.

"Give them a minute," Jamil said.

"Ehh," Floyd said. "I want to see Goldfishie."

"You can, in a minute."

Floyd pouted, but he stopped leaning.

The door had been left open a crack, and from where they stood, Ace could see inside. 

The lamp still burned over Riddle's bed. Cater sat on the stool beside it with his shoulders hunched and his face turned away, one hand pressed against his mouth. His shoulders were still trembling.

Trey stopped just inside the room.

He didn't look at Cater first. His eyes went to the bed. They traveled over the bandage, the pale face, the hands arranged on the blanket, and something in his expression slipped.

It was so brief that Ace almost missed it. The hard lines around his mouth loosened, and for one second he looked like exactly what he was, a tired eighteen-year-old looking at his friend in a hospital bed.

Then Cater lifted his head.

He must have heard the door. His eyes were swollen and red, and his hair had come loose over his forehead. He stared at Trey, and his lips parted, but he didn't say a word.

Trey stood very still.

Then Cater stood up so fast the stool nearly fell over, and crossed the room in two steps, and threw his arms around Trey's neck.

Trey staggered slightly. 

For a moment his arms hung stiffly at his sides, and Ace saw his hands curl, uncertain, like he'd forgotten what to do with them. 

Cater pressed his face into Trey's shoulder and shook, a thin, wet sound caught somewhere between a sob and a laugh.

"Trey-kun," Cater said. His voice broke. "Trey-kun, I wasn't there, I wasn't, I should've..."

"I know."

It was the first thing Trey had said in minutes, and it came out rough and quiet. His arms came up slowly. 

One hand settled against the back of Cater's head, and the other wrapped around his shoulders, firm and steady, and Ace watched the tension go out of Trey's frame like a rope being cut.

"I know," Trey said again, lower. "Neither was I."

"That's not..."

"It is." His fingers moved gently through Cater's hair. "It's not your fault. And it isn't mine either, even if we both feel like it is. We'll fight about that later."

Cater made a small, broken sound and buried his face deeper. His fingers clutched at the back of Trey's jacket, knuckles white. Trey held on, and his cheek came to rest against the top of Cater's head. His eyes closed.

"I've got you," Trey murmured. "I've got you, Cater."

Ace looked away. His eyes were burning, and he had no idea why.

Beside him, Epel had curled his arms tighter around his knees, and Jack stared at the floor. Kalim's lip trembled, and he wiped quickly at his eyes with the back of his hand, and Jamil gave him a handkerchief without being asked. Even Floyd had gone quiet. He leaned against the wall with his head tilted back and his smile fading to something much smaller.

"Ehh," he said, so softly that nobody answered. "That's nice."

Silver quietly pulled the door closed to a narrow gap, and they all stood in the hall, listening to the muffled sounds from the other side. Nobody spoke. Nobody left.

Deuce leaned close to Ace's ear. "I thought Trey-senpai was going to hit someone."

"Me too," Ace whispered back.