“I don’t care what kind of Beast it is,” Tadg snapped. “I want to get rid of it. Mar-Mar is difficult enough. I don’t need this one just popping out whenever it feels like it. Can’t you remove the Mark? You have two Mythic class Beasts.”

Cyril hesitated. “I imagine Codric and Tati are higher class, but I don’t think I should… You should ask Runa….”

Cecily groaned. “I’m bored. I’m going to find myself a skull.” Then she scampered farther into the bog.

To her right, Hasu had wrenched a long reed from the ground and wielded it like a sword, its roots dripping mud all over her clothes. Across from her, Shazi drew one of her actual swords. She swiped it, slicing Hasu’s reed in two.

“No fair!” Hasu whined. “I don’t have metal Lore.”

Shazi ignored her and continued practicing her swordsmanship. She was very good, her movements graceful and quick. If she controlled her prosthetic using Lore, that meant she was using her powers all the time, which must’ve taken a lot of skill and concentration.

Cyril rubbed his temples. “Leopold assured me girls would be better behaved. But look at them.”

While Shazi hacked at the reeds with her saber and Hasu squeezed the mud out of her pants, far in the distance, Cecily shouted, “I found some bones! I found some bones!”

“Gross!” Hasu called back, but then that same golden, hexagonal light glowed around her, and she vanished and reappeared at Cecily’s side in the distance.

Maybe Cyril is right, Barclay thought. Girls are terrifying.

“It’s a skull!” Cecily yelled gleefully.

“It’s not a skull! It’s a box!” Hasu called.

“Now w-wait a moment,” Cyril blustered. “I’ve prepared an entire lesson on Thunderlarks, Keelinewts, and Moorbits. There are some very interesting Beasts that only exist in these bogs. Fossils that Scholar Keepers travel from all across the world to study—”

“There’s goo inside it!” Cecily shouted. She didn’t seem at all disappointed that it wasn’t full of ancient Beast skeletons. “It’s yellow!”

“That’s not goo,” Tadg said. “It’s butter.”

“Butter? Like for bread?” Barclay asked. “Does the bog keep it… fresh or something?”

“No, it just gives it a boggy flavor.”

While Shazi and Yasha went off to investigate the bog butter, Tadg, Viola, and Barclay lingered with Cyril. Cyril looked like he’d given up on corralling all the apprentices, so he launched into his lesson just for the three of them. Barclay paid close attention and took careful notes, knowing he needed to learn as much as possible. Viola kept glancing at the girls across the bog, probably because she was curious about their goopy discovery but didn’t want to admit that. Tadg, meanwhile, was distracted by his toad Beast. Whenever he ordered it to return to its Mark, it croaked at him louder.