The man approaching them was clad head to toe in material dyed to look the color of fire. Different weapons peeked out at odd places when he moved. His hair was long and greasy black, tied back in a ponytail. He wasn’t as tall as Fabien, but his muscular build seemed to make up what he lacked in height.

“Why is a stranger asking about our technology,” the man demanded in a harsh and hateful voice.

Ravick shot a warning glance at Fabien before he said, “He’s working under me, Zarif. No need to go off the deep end.”

“Yeah? And how many of your underlings have dropped out since you’ve worked here?” Zarif asked in a mocking voice.

“How does that apply to this situation?” Fabien asked, his tone low and cool.

 Zarif’s eyes flew to Fabien’s. “It has everything to do with it.” 

Fabien raised an eyebrow as he felt a smirk tug up one side of his mouth. “Did your technology fail? Or was communication blocked in trying to inform the different teams that several wards were breached?”

Ravick hid a smile as he watched Zarif flounder for an answer. His gaze slid back to Fabien. Perhaps he could befriend this man rather than sticking to protocol.

“His technology failed.” Ravick interjected, cutting off Zarif’s response. “The sensors didn’t pick up interference until after our teams arrived at each ward. Lance told me that three different species of demon entered this time.”

Zarif narrowed his eyes at Ravick before looking at the ward and the mess that surrounded it. “What happened here?”

Fabien gave Ravick a warning look. 

“We’re not sure,” Ravick replied in a tired voice. “There is the possibility that the ward protected itself and Aleta was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Can wards do that?” Fabien asked in excitement. 

Ravick forced back a frown when he said, “It depends on how the ward is set up. This one was programmed to do that. However, judging by the breach in the barrier and leak of magic from the city, it would be next to impossible to find out if that’s what happened. It would take a very powerful team to sort through all the layers after convincing the magic to work with them. There doesn’t seem to be a point in going that far since the demons were stopped and the ward protected.”

Zarif let out a grunt. “The others should be here soon.” 

“Excellent,” Ravick replied. “I’ll have Fabien take Aleta back to campus for medical attention.”

“No.” Zarif snapped. “He needs to stay here for questioning.” 

Ravick let out an amused laugh. “Why? To waste our time? Fabien was with me when the interference happened and we can’t very well ask the unconscious man what happened. Protocol hasn’t been broken and Aleta was just doing his job. There’s no sense in keeping them.”

Zarif let out a huff before striding over to Ravick and standing inches from him. “I don’t like your attitude.”

Ravick let out a taunting smile before stepping around him towards Fabien. “I enchanted the water to become solid and movable so you shouldn’t have any issues walking back to campus.”

“I should hope not.” Fabien responded with a sly glance at Zarif. He then proceeded to gently prod the makeshift bed up until it floated at his waist before carefully pushing it away from the mess behind them. Just before they left the safety of the barrier, Fabien looked back and asked, “Can you create a barrier for us? I’d hate for Aidan to die because the rain tore his wound open.”

~~~

Once they were hidden from watchful eyes, Fabien used his own magic to get them clear across campus grounds and back inside the relative comfort of their new home. He was already hard at work safeguarding Aidan’s safety.

Zarif hadn’t noticed the severity of Aidan’s wounds and Fabien doubted Ravick would say anything at this point.

Fabien let out a long sigh after he situated Aidan on his bed. Taking a closer look at his wound, he knew he wouldn’t be able to completely heal him without giving anything away. Shaking his head, Fabien set a gentle hand on Aidan’s stomach and concentrated on healing the wound from the inside out, stopping short of healing it completely. Now it only seemed as if the demon’s claw had grazed Aidan rather than splitting his stomach open for the world to see.

Fabien sat down on his own bed and closed his eyes, concentrating. He reached out with his aura and was slowly working on hiding the trace Aidan’s magic left. It was as simple and easy as breathing. All he had to do was dissolve the components of Aidan’s magic and shift the other magic until it filled the gap.