Chapter 4: Courtroom Defense: I Didn’t Look at Her Tail

"You were going to keep me talking?" Dante pointed at the message under Anika’s hand. "That thing was in my house."

Anika moved her hand and laid the tablet flat. "I just learned that. I should have shown you. The appointment’s real, but we didn’t send the ad or authorize that visit."

Dante looked through the hall at students carrying drinks between classes. Blackwell was real, and so was his appointment. The job ad and the woman who had entered his home were the parts the school had not approved. He still didn’t know who had sent them, but at least he knew what he was trying to find out.

Anika handed him a cereal bar and showed him the next message. "Miss Vale handles these magic checks for new students. She’s sending Rhea, a second-year medical student, to walk you to her office. You can talk to Vale, or I can get you outside right now."

Beyond her, a student tried to steal chips from a vending machine with a floating hand. A yellow grid stopped the fingers at the glass, and the student sighed and took out his debit card. Dante found himself smiling despite everything, then opened the cereal bar. "I want to know what came out of my fingers, and whether it could happen again when my mom’s near me."

"You can ask Miss Vale about that without agreeing to another assessment," Anika said. She turned the tablet toward him, leaving the message open while he ate. "She’s expecting you, but I’ll tell Rhea you want an explanation first."

"Does everyone get the thing in their bedroom, or was I particularly good at the interview?"

"No, Dante. I help new students find classrooms and replace lost keys. I haven’t had anyone show me a recording like yours."

He finished chewing before asking whether Rhea had been told about the box. Anika added it to her message where he could see, then sent it. Having someone believe him helped, although he would have preferred her to recognize the problem and know exactly how to fix it.

While they waited, Dante checked that his phone still showed Mom’s number and the recording from home. Anika noticed him checking and kept her hands away from it.

"I’ll send Rhea the messages you’ve seen," she said. "You can read anything else that comes back before we act on it."

"You could have started there." Dante folded the wrapper until the sticky edge stayed shut. He wanted her to argue so he could keep being angry, but she agreed with him instead, which left him holding a cereal bar wrapper and waiting for Rhea.

Rhea arrived with a gym bag and dark hair tied back, her fitted black shirt showing that somebody here actually used the gym. A long red tail caught the door before it hit a student carrying coffee, then released it without interrupting her introduction.

"I’m Rhea, and I’ll take you across to Admissions," she said, showing Anika the message on her phone before turning to Dante. "I study medicine here. Today I’m mostly making sure you reach the right door."

Dante pocketed the receipts and wrapper, reclaimed his invitation, and left the empty bottle by the maps. He stood and followed Rhea through the courtyard doors. She pointed out Admissions across the paving and explained that Miss Vale’s assessment rooms were upstairs. Glass walkways joined the buildings, and charging sockets lined the benches; at the cafe, a kettle poured itself.

The kettle hovered over a paper cup until the barista tapped its handle, then settled on its base. "That has a spell built into it," Rhea explained when Dante slowed down. "Enchanted things can keep doing a job without someone casting over them every time."

At an outdoor table, a woman drew a small shape in the air and said words Dante could not follow. Spilled coffee rose from her notebook into a floating ball, then dropped into an empty cup. Rhea explained that people drew the shape to form a spell and spoke Korean words to make it work. Dante thought of the box catch moving when he had only pictured it, but she was already pointing out the Admissions entrance.

Rhea stopped to adjust her gym bag. Dante noticed where her tail passed through her jeans and, against all hope of appearing normal, started thinking about the underwear.

"There’s a zip, and no, the bookstore doesn’t sell an illustrated guide." Rhea moved her bag while Dante tried looking somewhere a gentleman might. "You could try looking at my face."

"I was wondering how you sit down, which felt like a practical question until I said it." Dante briefly missed the invisible threat, which at least could not watch him fail.

"With less thought than you’re putting into it." Rhea shifted the bag. "I’m 22, Dante. You aren’t the first man to discover pants."

The invitation burned his palm. A red ring spread beneath the crest, and Rhea caught his wrist before he could rub it.

"Hold that away from you, and don’t peel it," Rhea said. She set her gym bag on a bench and took a white card from the case at her belt. "Something has been sealed inside your invitation. The spell keeping it flat is opening."

"The box is locked up at the cleaner," Dante said, keeping the paper out at arm’s length. "I specifically got a receipt because I wanted to stop having this conversation."

"This is something else, tucked flat into the paper." Rhea slid the card beneath the crest as a black dot pushed through it, unfolded six tiny legs, and jumped onto Dante’s sleeve.

Dante slapped his sleeve and missed. The thing shot under his collar.

Rhea caught his fist before he punched himself in the chest. "Open your shirt."

"In the courtyard?" Dante asked, checking how many people were looking.

"It has six legs and it’s heading down, so pick a concern," she told him, keeping the card ready.

Dante got two buttons open so quickly that one scraped his chin. Rhea stepped between him and the passing students, using her shoulder to block their view.

He held the fabric apart while she pressed a card against his bare skin. A pretty woman was finally undressing him, and he couldn’t enjoy it because something else was getting there first. ℯℯ𝘭.

"If this is part of orientation, I’d like to skip the group exercise," he said, feeling the creature scrape near his ribs. Rhea moved the card lower, and he discovered a reason to stand still.

"Keep the fabric clear and save the complaints until it’s outside." She pressed the card flat, waited for the scratching to stop, and lifted it with a black shape trapped beneath its surface.

Dante checked his collar twice before buttoning it. An old burn spread along the card’s edge until Rhea pressed her thumb across a pale line and stopped it.

"They call these witness devices," Rhea said, keeping the card beyond his reaching hand. "Think of a tiny camera that can crawl. Someone hid it in your invitation. Mine is a trapping card, and it needs to stay whole if we want the thing to stay inside."

"Your concern for my reputation means a lot." Dante picked up her gym bag with his free hand as an image appeared beneath the trapped creature.

"Does our little camera record sound too?" Dante asked, looking at the trapped legs. Rhea told him to assume it did, which made him regret their entire conversation about her pants.

He looked at the six trapped legs. "Then I’d like the record to show I was asking about chairs, not her underwear."

"I’m sure that will hold up beautifully." Rhea turned the card so he could see.

Dante photographed the image: a white desk, a clear cube, and himself sitting opposite a woman in a green blouse. Rhea identified her as Miss Vale, but Dante was looking at the loose thread on his cuff, copied down to the small loop his mom had missed while ironing.

The image began to move as the woman took a silver pin from her hair and reached across the desk. Dante pulled his own hand back, but the version inside the card left its fingers where she wanted them, smiling as the pin pressed into the skin.

Blood dropped onto the cube, and the picture went black. Dante held his untouched hand beside it.

"Rhea, that hasn’t happened," Dante said, showing her his unmarked finger. "I haven’t even met the woman yet, so how am I already in her recording?"