Not a single one of the students or beasts objected to any of this. They were still too tired. And they were all very well aware that they’d actually broken the school rules and possibly a law or two in a rather spectacular way.

After breakfast, Mina met with Professor Dano in his library. To him she told the entire truth. And he put his face in his hands and began to cry. When he finished, he was smiling.

“You did beautifully,” he told her. “Go rest more, and I’ll find out what has come of your actions. I’ll tell Vira and the other teachers that you all have been confined to your rooms as extra ‘punishment’ until dinnertime—​no training today.”

She went back to her room. Jyx, Chauda, and Pixit were already there, asleep. They woke before dinner. Mina finally felt like herself again, though she ached everywhere.

“Ugh, Chauda, Pixit, you still have mud in your scales,” Jyx said. “We’d better fix that before we show up in the dining hall.”

They shooed the beasts out the window, then met them outside and scrubbed them clean. Pixit sighed happily as the last of the filth was wiped away. Feel better?

«Much. Do you think Neela, Eione, and the others are all right?»

I hope so. It will take them a while to fix the outpost, but at least Dern still exists. And even more important, they won’t need to dig any new graves.

«You know, it’s funny—​we did something big. And yet it still feels like the world is exactly the same. It’s an ordinary day. The sun is shining. Birds are chirping. Shouldn’t something have changed?»

Mina looked up at the sound of footsteps. A dozen students were running out of the school toward them—​a mix of those who had handed out copies of Mina’s essay and those who had fought against them in the dining hall.

They skidded to a stop in front of Mina and Jyx. The one in the lead asked breathlessly, “You have to tell us: Did you see them?”

Mina and Jyx looked at each other.

“Who?” Jyx asked.

“The agitators!” The student waved her hands in the air for emphasis. “Everyone’s talking about it. A group of agitators crashed into the middle of the festival, disrupted the entire thing. The prime minister suspended the festival because of it! It was supposed to be terrifying. You were there, right? You were the ones who snuck out to watch, weren’t you? Was it terrifying?”

Mina and Jyx tried hard not to look at each other.

“Very terrifying,” Jyx said. “But also kind of exciting.”

Another student pushed forward. “What happened?”