"Why Fallen High?" Isaiah asked on the big screen.

Okoro folded his arms over his chest while he lounged back on his seat, doing his best not to swivel as swivel chairs were designed to.

The conference room was filled with those who were actually in charge of making the final decision of which students were going to be fully admitted into the school and which students were going to be advised to transfer out to a less preferred school.

Among those in the room was Delet, the vice principal.

Sitting in front of the panel of interviewers on the screen was Patience, daughter of the famous Dragon Knight. The school had high expectations of her. Having grown up around a dragon, it was difficult to imagine that she did not get some kind of training from the dragon or at least lose some kind of fear for the powerful. It was like owning a dog, you would react to the presence of a dog differently from someone who grew up with no relationship with a dog.

For all the importance of her parents, Patience had been on her best behavior the entire interview. Then again, Travis was the only one who hadn't seemed to care about stepping on her toes. He was the only one who didn't really care for these interviews.

"Fallen High is a good school," she said simply. It was her answer, there was nothing more to it.

"And what if we do not accept you?" Isaiah asked.

Okoro watched the girl fight the physical urge to shrug. She had really done her entire best to be civilized throughout the interview.

"If you don't accept me, it will be unfortunate, but I will have to find another school," she said in the end.

Travis' ears perked up at that. "Unfortunate for whom?"

"The polite answer is me," she said. "But personally, I think it will be unfortunate for the school. I can see myself becoming one of the best Delvers the world has ever seen."

One of the decision makers at the table looked at Okoro. With a gesture, the video paused. Okoro gave her his attention. She was an aging woman, somewhere in her sixties. She wore glasses that she needed. At some point in her past, she'd lost most of her eye functions to a Chaos Run. Not having ever been anything but an educator, she had simply been a victim of wrong place at the wrong time.

Unable to fully heal her eyesight, she'd been crafted special glasses, glasses that she currently wore. Glasses that made her look more like a stern headmistress.

"Confidence or arrogance?" the lady asked Okoro.

"I would lean towards confidence, Mrs. Talwort," he answered simply.

Mrs. Talwort made another gesture and the video resumed.

"Now, then," Travis continued, "I'll take the last question, then you can be on your way."

Patience nodded. "Okay."

"What would you do," Travis asked, "if you could either watch your family die to save the world or save your family and watch the world burn?"

This question was canon for this exam, all the intakes had been asked this question. For the Lockwood brothers, however, after their online activities and their relationship with each other through the tests, Travis had taken it upon himself to modify the question.

Okoro could feel everyone in the room pay extra attention.

"I actually don't know," Patience answered, being one of the handful of intakes to actually admit to not knowing what decision they would make. "I'd like to think that my family would want me to save the world. And I'd like to think that I would do that, but I can't say for certain. It's a tough decision for me."

"Between your family and the world?" Jack asked, seemingly confused. It was part of the reason they had put Jack to be one of the interviewers. He wasn't the best adult at concealing his opinions and he had opinions that were… problematic, in a way.

Patience looked at him. "To give you some perspective, sir, my family is my world."

Jack opened his mouth to say more but Travis stopped him with a raised hand. "That will be all," he said.

Mrs. Talwort made a gesture once more and the video changed to something else. A blank screen.

Okoro and the others present turned away from the screen to face the conference table. It was time for them to make finalized decisions.

"Let's not waste our time," Delet said. Being the vice principal, he was not supposed to be present, but the principal had other more important tasks to attend to, so he was sitting in for the principal. "We are not here to debate if all the intakes get to stay or not."

Heads around the table nodded.

"I say that Patience obviously gets to stay," Buddie, head of the combat department said. "She's an above average student, academically, and she has shown good combat skills."

"I remember watching her lose to your student," Felin, the lady in charge of the school gym pointed out.

"Even in the combat team, Devin is something of an unstoppable force," Buddie pointed out, unbothered. "His presence there was designed to ensure that none of the intake won."

Felin made a sound in agreement and understanding.

Okoro was more than happy to play the farce. There was nobody present that did not know why exactly they were here. There was no one present that did not know who exactly they were here to deliberate on.

"What about the Pelumi girl?" Louis asked. He was in charge of interschool relations. He handled the transfers. "She seemed nice enough. She also answered that she didn't know what she would do if faced with her family and the world."

"I found her to be fun," Akah, head of student psychology said. "If I'm being honest, for the entire test, I found her to be the best behaved."

Okoro hadn't paid too much attention to her. The people currently present were the ones here because they knew everything about admissions as well as the plans surrounding the new program called 'The Promise.' As for the reason the new program was created, only he, Mrs. Talwort, and Buddie were aware of that.

"I don't see why we need to be deliberating on her," Buddie said. "I believe she has the [Invoker] class. She's already a part of the [Invoker] section of The Promise program."

"A program that the school decided to create out of the blue with no real explanation," Delet said, showing a rare sign of being passive aggressive. "But yes, you are right. I do agree that we should begin investing in our [Invoker]s. With the disappearance of the portals happening at the same time as the sudden increase in the mysterious [Faith] stats of all [Invoker]s, it is worth paying attention to."

That was something of interest in all the countries. If Okoro wasn't mistaken, the highest recorded increase was by eight points. Apparently, it was also a stat growth that occurred among those with the [Priest] class but schools weren't really in a hurry to admit those with the [Priest] class, mainly because everyone was under the agreement that the Seminaries were the best places for them. The Catholic church somehow held the only secret that allowed them to turn a class as non-combat and all-round weak into a powerful combat class.

"So the [Invoker]s get a free pass," Akah mused. "I normally would argue this when you consider that one of the [Invoker]s quite literally asked why should he care if the world burns or his family dies."

Mrs. Talwort shook her head in dismay. "Kids these days."

Okoro remembered there being kids just like that when he was a child, but he did not point that out.

"So," Delet said, "does anyone have a student that they believe should be sent off to another school for whatever reason so far?"

Everyone at the table shook their heads.

"Did anyone get a sponsorship?" Mrs. Talwort asked. She had an occasional habit of sponsoring students anonymously. She picked from the students with the lowest financial background and sponsored them.

Why? She had been asked several times in the past. The answer had always been the same. She did it because she could.

Delet paused to think for a while before answering. "One of the Lockwood brothers was sponsored by Mr. Callum."

Mrs. Talwort paused. "Now why would he go and do that? The Lockwood students have a very sturdy financial background. I don't even think it is possible for them to have a financial problem of any kind." She looked at Okoro. "Am I right?"

"Yes, ma'am. You are."

She returned her attention to Delet. "I take it that it's the younger of the two since we already have the first on a scholarship."

"Can someone remind me of why we gave a scholarship to a [Demon king]?" Buddie asked, curious.

"The [Demon king]," Mrs. Talwort corrected. "As far as we know, there's never been any of his kind in history, and he's currently the only one of his kind. Until a time when we find out otherwise, he is the [Demon King]."

Buddie frowned but did not argue. "Is there a reason we're giving the [Demon king] a scholarship?"

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Okoro was also very curious to know that. The order had come from the inner circle of those who lead Fallen High. Mrs. Talwort was a member of that inner circle. A long standing member, at that.

"We are Fallen High, people," she said, as if it explained everything. "Emphasis on Fallen. We redeem those who might be evil or a problem and we mold those who are too good so that they can be proper."

"Again," Delet asked, "what's wrong with being too good?"

"Too much of everything, my dear vice principal, is not right," Mrs. Talwort told him with a smile. "Humans should be one part good and one part evil. Only then can they learn to do what they must and do it right."

Okoro was fairly certain that the woman had thrown in a few lies in her replies.

"So, we picked the [Demon King] so that he can be turned into a proper human being?" he asked.

"Of course not," Mrs. Talwort chuckled. "That's just silly, Mr. Okoro. There is no such thing as an evil class. Just because his class answers [Demon King] does not mean that he's evil. If someone turns up with a class called [God] would you start bowing down and worshipping him?"

Okoro noticed everybody in the room stiffen. People did not think about things that deeply. The thought of a person being given the class of [God] was not a thought that crossed people's minds normally. It begged the question of how often it had crossed Mrs. Talwort's mind. Was it something that crossed her mind just because of the situation or was there more to it?

Was it something that crossed the minds of the inner circle? Was it something that they actually thought about?

He tried to look past her amiable elderly woman expression but could not decipher anything behind those eyes.

"The [Demon King] is not automatically some monster just because of the name of his class," she said, as if she had not just given everyone present a lot to think about. "Let's try to keep our religious prejudice out of raising these kids. Okay?"

Heads nodded.

"Now," Okoro said, "on to the Lockwood brothers."

"I say Melmarc Lockwood be offered a place in another school," Felin was quick to say.

Buddie gave her a confused look. "Why?"

"He's a danger to the students we are sworn to protect."

Okoro did his best not to sigh. It was the same thing that Fenti had said.

"I already have a few schools in mind," Louis, head of interschool relations, said.

"I don't see how he's a danger," Buddie said. "If anything, he's simply strong. We are a school that pride ourselves on raising powerful Delvers. We have a potential powerful Delver and you're asking us to kick him out?"

"Did you not see what he did to your student Devin?" he asked.

Buddie rolled his eyes and dismissed the argument with an unbothered gesture. "Devin's a little shit and got what he deserved. Did you not see what he did to the other kids?"

"I thought that was part of the plan," Louis said, confused. "For him to basically ruin them to motivate the others to fight harder. You wanted to know how they reacted in the presence of evil."

Buddie sighed. "Did you ever wonder why we chose Devin for this task not any of the other members of the combat team?"

"Why?"

Buddie wasn't the one to answer. Akah, the head of student psychology answered for him.

"It's because he is the one that would enjoy it the most in the combat team," she said. "Devin has been known to display narcissistic and tyrannical tendencies during any and all forms of combat."

"The prick smiled when he was doing it," Buddie spat. "Piece of shit kid."

"I will ask that you mind your language, Mr. Buddie," Mrs. Talwort said with a friendly smile. "That is no way to talk about a child under your care."

Buddie paused. "My apologies, ma'am."

"Thank you."

Okoro watched the brief exchange. Buddie hated bullies, but before he had been hired by the school, they had made certain that his personal and professional life were independent of each other. Ever since he'd been working for Fallen High, he had continued to prove that he would train anybody as required of him. How he felt about them played no part.

Once upon a time, he had said that teaching the students how to fight fairly against opponents and how to beat enemies and kill monsters was his job. Teaching them how to be better human beings was the job of almost three other departments in the school. He trusted them to do their job just as they trusted him to do his job.

Buddie would train a monster that killed his family if you offered him money and he agreed to do it. If he wasn't going to keep to his word, he would not give it.

"I still say we send the kid off," Louis said. "I say he's dangerous not because he's powerful but because he might be too powerful for himself."

Buddie looked like he was in the presence of people who were talking out of their butts.

"I saw what became of Doctor Donovan," Akah said, her voice low. "It was not pretty."

Mrs. Talwort adjusted to look at her. "Please explain."

"Doctor Donovan is worried that he might now belong to the boy."

The funniest thing happened. All brows present furrowed in confusion. It was the perfect unity of confusion that Okoro had seen in a while.

"I'm sorry, what?" Mrs. Talwort said.

Akah nodded very slowly. "I had a lengthy conversation with him about how he felt, and while I could not necessarily get much out of him, I got the fear that he thought he might belong to the boy. So, I went into his mind and tried to find out."

"Like he thinks of himself as a subject to the boy?" Buddie asked.

"No." Akah shook her head. "He thinks that he might be the boy's property."

"Do we know why?"

"The best I could get out of looking into his mind is that he thinks that the interface thinks he's property."

"Does the interface think that he's property?"

Akah shrugged. "No idea."

"How bad is it?" Mrs. Talwort asked.

"Not too bad," Akah said. "It's not as if he can't function properly. It's more like knowing who your father is because they've told you he's your father all your life and you've come to know him as your father. It will be next to impossible to stop seeing him as your father since you also have a DNA report."

"Oof," Louis muttered.

"But it doesn't affect your life in anyway," Akah added quickly. "It's there in the back of his head that he's Melmarc Lockwood's property, but he's still a normal fully functioning Gifted. He's not lesser and he doesn't think he's lesser for it."

"Well, that means—"

"Oh, before I forget," she interrupted Mrs. Talwort. "He's also forgotten something important about his mother and has no idea what it is."

Delet looked at her. "Still?"

She nodded slowly.

Mrs. Talwort waited for a moment, as if making sure nobody was going to interrupt her before she spoke again.

"And all this from connecting with the boy's mind?" she asksed.

Akah nodded. "He said that the brother advised him to be careful."

"The brother that hid memories from him intentionally?" Felin asked.

"Yes. He told them to be careful because Melmarc was strong." Akah massaged her forehead with thumb and forefinger. "Then he advised me not to try and look into the boy's mind."

"You are not supposed to look into the boy's mind without permission," Okoro pointed out. "It is part of the school rules and doing that is also illegal."

"True," Akah agreed. "But he said not to look even if I was given permission."

Everyone fell silent again.

Okoro didn't think there was anyone who could do that. There were [Telepath]s that could pull something like that off when given enough time. The problem was that Melmarc had done it without even trying. The bigger problem was that someone like Akah could not fix it.

A mental effect that could not be healed was a real problem to be dealt with. The only experience like that the world had was mental effects gotten from inside a portal.

"See?" Louis said with pride. "He's dangerous."

"Just don't enter his head and he'll be fine," Buddie said.

"What about the kids?" Felin asked. "What happens when they make the mistake of going into his mind?"

"It's an offense punishable by expulsion to use mind skills on a student, with or without permission," Okoro said.

"And if a kid loses their mind breaking that specific rule, I say good riddance," Buddie added with a shrug.

Okoro was unable to hold back his sigh this time. Buddie's inability to give kids the benefit of doubt when it came to right and wrong was tough to follow. He really hoped that the man didn't apply the same rules to kids that were younger than high school.

"Mr. Buddie has a point," Mrs. Talwort agreed. "Some sins are almost unforgivable, and we here at Fallen High believe that intentionally tampering with a person's mind is one of such sins."

"And if it was unintentional?" Felin asked.

Mrs. Talwort smiled. "Most sins are sins because the actions were committed with intent, dear. Starting a man hunt for an unintentional sin that could not be avoided is like hating a person for the color of their skin. They did not have a say in the matter."

"Now," she continued. "If your students get into trouble for trying to enter young Melmarc Lockwood's mind, then it is a sign that we have failed to educate them properly. It is a stain on our abilities and theirs, not a stain on the young Lockwood."

"There's also the fight with Devin," Louis pointed out. "It was savage, can we trust a student like that?"

"My job is to teach him how not to be savage," Buddie said easily. "So far, I've been good at it. Also, like I said before, Devin had it coming. He was there to motivate the strong to put in more effort to punish him and motivate the weak to grow out of their fear. He played his role just as we intended."

"And what if you can't stop him?"

"We have his brother. He has shown that he will listen to his brother."

"There is the part about watching the world burn, though," Delet mused.

"I think his response along with his brother's was a good one," Akah said.

Louis groaned at that.

"What?" Akah gave her an annoyed look. "A child who will choose the world over their family is not a child I want to trust. It says that you don't love your family."

"And Patience who wasn't sure?" Louis asked.

"That one is because you can guess that her upbringing has taught her the importance of the world. Those who said they would save the world were most likely giving us the answers they thought we wanted to hear."

"Or are living in delusions of grandeur," Buddie snorted. "I was a Delver for a very long time, and I'll still want to choose my family first. And that's saying a lot since I know for a fact that the world is more important."

"You worry me every single day," Felin muttered under her breath.

"No need for that," Mrs. Talwort said. "It is also our duty to teach them how important saving the world is so that they can understand that there is no family without the world. The greater good is a thing that exists for a reason."

She looked around, meeting everybody's gaze. "I trust we now know the final result on this and our intakes?"

Heads nodded. Okoro couldn't blame them. There was no one present who did not at least have an idea of how much power Mrs. Talwort had. Their presence here was as nothing more than voices of reason. Ultimately, the decision came to her, not them.

"Now," Mrs. Talwort said. "May you all give me, Mr. Okoro, and Buddie the room."

Everyone flocked out of the room with different expressions while Okoro prepared himself for the conversation he knew they were about to have.

When only the three of them were alone in the room, Mrs. Talwort took her eye glasses off and placed them gently on the table.

"An Oath made sure that we could not refuse Melmarc Lockwood's admission," she said simply, "and I am glad that we did not because the boy has proven quite interesting for someone of his class and rank."

Okoro could not deny that. Buddie was certainly in agreement.

"What I want to know now is this," she said. "What is so special about Melmarc Lockwood that an Oath has intervened in his matter. Even Pain has chosen to sponsor him. What is his relationship with the Oaths. Why have they chosen to do the one thing that they do not do and intervene on his behalf?" She made sure that she had their attention. "Why do they care for him? Why does he have their attention?" Her voice grew slowly menacing, gone was the loving and smiling elderly woman. "And why does all this make me begin to wonder how we can make him the heart of The Promise program when I wanted it to be his brother?"

Buddie looked confused. Okoro was not a stranger to this side of Mrs. Talwort.

"I don't understand," Buddie said.

Mrs. Talwort took a moment to look at him before explaining in a simple sentence.

"Who," she said very slowly, "is Melmarc Lockwood?"

…

In a small house hidden in an out of place location in Bucharest, five men knelt on the floor in a daze, confused and unable to gather their wits.

Alright then, a man in a suit said, getting up from the dining table and walking over to the first man. Without any hesitation, he drew a knife from his pocket and slit the throat of the first man. Blood sprayed from his neck as if from a geyser. It took a moment for the spray to subside as the man's lifeless body fell to the ground.

Cleaning the blade on the corpse's cloth, he turned to the others.

"You," he said, pointing to the man at the end, knowing very well that none of them could move or answer. "You alone will survive the events of today. When you do, I will like you to pass a message on to your superiors."

The man adjusted his coat and slowly proceeded to take his time, slitting the throats of the remaining men present. He performed the task with a smile on his face. It was a jovial thing, as if he was playing a game.

With the floor covered in blood and bodies lying in it, the man walked back over to the dining table and picked up a hat from it. He placed it on his head, adjusted it so that it settled in place.

In his three-piece suit, he turned to the last man with a flourish.

"Tell your masters," he smiled happily, "that Naymond Hitchcock is in Romania."

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