By five pm, I had been called down to the Alchemy Lab to help Professor Quimby unpack boxes of glassware.
This was normally the type of work that would be relegated to young lab assistants like Simon, but who was I to reject a direct request from a professor? This was part of my job description after all.
I was the gopher that handled all direct requests big or small, from the Head Professors of every Discipline. Unfortunately, there were seven of them and only one of me, so my day was a constant gopher this and gopher that.
At the moment, I was gopher-ing for Professor Quimby. We were in the storage area behind the lab, restocking the shelves.
The built-in shelves covered all four walls and ran from ground level all the way to the top of the ten foot high ceiling. At the center of the room there was a counter island made of some dark non-reactive material. It was currently stacked with at least a dozen boxes of varying sizes and shapes.
As I was pulling out the glassware from their carefully packed boxes, the professor was levitating them up into their designated spots.
Professor Quimby didn't do levikinesis with tiny modest flicks of the fingers. Oh no. He used his entire body, with ostentatious flourishes of his arms that made him look as if he was conducting a huge full-scale orchestra.
His unruly shoulder-length salt-n-pepper hair against the white lab coat he wore every day didn't help to improve his crazy mage image either.
"Inanna," Professor Quimby's suddenly spoke up. "Has Marcus Mocchus contacted you yet?"
Here it was finally, the real reason why I was called to help unpack boxes of glassware.
"You mean the obnoxious white-haired freak wearing the cornmeal sack?"
Professor Quimby's flourishing arms faltered for a second and I heard a crash along with the tinkling of broken glass.
He sighed and did a quick "Mashangsholi" repair Command before levitating the glass retort into its spot at the very top shelf.
"I was talking to your Father about Marcus Mocchus yesterday. Has your family designated the date for the wedding yet?"
"Professor Quimby, there's not going to be any wedding. I disowned my family last night."
I heard a sharp intake from Professor Quimby. "Inanna. What have you done?"
"What do you mean?"
"You were their last hope."
"Last hope for what? I'm not a piece of property to be bargained with and exchanged for whatever price they are hoping to get for me."
"You don't understand Inanna. We are in the middle of a war."
"Are you saying I'm a war prisoner to be exchanged for some dubious gain?"
"No," he shook his head. "Not war prisoner. War bride."
"Same difference!"
"Big difference, Inanna. A war prisoner goes into shackles and is tortured and starved. A war bride gets taken to her husband's castle and enjoys the protections of the winning side. In a war, you as a woman are either the war prisoner or the war bride."
"Professor Quimby…have you actually talked to Marcus Mocchus?" At Professor Quimby's slow shake of the head, I scowled. "The man is a pompous jerk! I don't think I could last more than half a day before I bash his head in with my Mage Staff!"
Professor Quimby sighed. "Nevertheless, you need to try. Things are going to be really hard for you and your family in the next few days if you don't." He rubbed a tired hand through his frizzy salt-n-pepper hair causing it to become even frizzier.
"Perhaps it's not too late." He snapped a finger. "Maybe we can schedule a time where you and Marcus can just talk between yourselves, without others present."
"That's not going to happen, Professor Quimby. I'm not going to offer myself up as sacrificial lamb just to save the Imara House."
"Inanna. It's truly not just for your family. It will also benefit you." He sighed. "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do in order to save as many people as possible."
I twirled around and faced him, arms akimbo. "Is that why you voted in favor of the Mage Elites taking over Professor Quimby?"
Professor Quimby gave me a guilty look.
"Ugh! Professor Quimby! What do you think is going to happen to us once you send the entire Topaz fighting force into their hands? I'll tell you what'll happen. We will be sitting ducks with no way to protect ourselves from an invasion!"
His hands dropped uselessly to his side. The glass beaker that had almost reached its location at the top of the ceiling fell with a crash.
Professor Quimby did not even bother to fix it this time. He wrung his hands. "Nana, my life's work is here. I cannot just abandon it to the disruptions caused by all these demons…"
"We don't have to abandon anything. We can fight back."
Professor Quimby shook his head. "It's too late, child. The only ones who have any way of solving this is the Mage Elites and we didn't have enough buy-in from all the mages involved to make it happen."
"The price they ask us to pay is far too high." I grounded out.
He put a hand out. "I'm not trying to convince you of anything at this point. The votes have been counted. Lines have been drawn into the sand. The only thing left we can do is try to survive through this. Now," he paused.
"I need for you to do something for me. It will be a favor I'm asking of you, but we've known each other since you were in primary school and I'm hoping you will think highly enough of me to grant me that favor."
"Of course Professor Quimby. I will do my best."
He nodded with a sigh of relief. "I told your father I would try to get you to give Marcus a final chance to meet you and talk with you, alone and without everyone else around."
He shrugged. "Perhaps that is what the two of you need in order to see eye to eye. You two never had the chance to actually meet and just talk."
I sighed. Professor Quimby had always been kind to me. Perhaps I could accommodate his request.
"If you think I need to talk to him once, then I will. But!" I held up a finger. "I refuse to dress up like a doll to talk with him." I looked down at my dusty Overlord bodysuit that Maggie had given me. It had been another dirty bloody day of work, as always. "This is going to have to be good enough for him."
Professor Quimby nodded. "Let me see if I can reach him with the scrying glass."
It didn't take long to get a scri-visual up with Marcus from the Alchemy Lab's glass globe in the corner. The two of them spoke in quiet tones for a few minutes and then Professor Quimby cut the connection.
"He will be here in a few minutes. I'm going to be in my office. Just wait here for him."
I looked up from unpacking another box. "We still have a dozen boxes left to open."
Professor Quimby waved a dismissive hand. "Leave it. I'll have Simon put those away when he gets here in the morning."
I nodded. Never let it be said that I took work away from those who deserved it.
While I waited for Marcus to show up, I wandered around the lab storage area looking at all the various glassware. I wondered if this was what Professor Quimby meant when he said he could not abandon his life's work here at the alchemy lab.
"Inanna."
I turned towards Marcus' voice coming from the doorway.
Gone was the white-haired arrogant mage I met last night. Marcus' hair was the deep slate blue that many mages are born with due to some fluctuation of genetics.
"Hello." I waved a hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Restocking the alchemy lab store room." And to prove that I wasn't just standing there waiting for him, I went back to the boxes, pulled out my little switchblade and ripped into another container.
"Need help?"
I glanced up at him. Was he joking?
He was not.
"Do you know how to levitate stuff onto shelves?"
Marcus gave me a look as if to say, 'Really? You're really asking me a question like that?'
I laughed and handed him the erlenmeyer flask and then pointed to a spot in the corner about 8 feet above ground. "You think you can get this up there? I have a box of these, and I can hand them to you one at a time."
"Put them on the counter one at a time. I'll get them up there."
One thing I have to give Marcus. He was actually a competent mage, at least for levikinesis.
He also didn't have to conduct an entire orchestra with his hands to do the work either. It was quite basic for him. A flick of the finger was all it took.
"So I came by today because I wanted to do a clean reset. Start over again with you." Marcus talked as he worked the levikinesis with one lazy hand.
"We really got off on the wrong foot, and I have to admit it was my fault. I was not thinking about how I would come across to you. My only excuse is that I was running out of time." He fitted the last of the erlenmeyer flasks into place.
"I don't understand Marcus. What exactly are you trying to say to me?" I opened up another box and began lining up the graduated cylinders on the counter.
"I'm running out of time—WE—are running out of time. We don't actually have the necessary time to do the normal courtship routines. I have only a couple of days left to take you away from here."
His fingers moved the various cylinders until they were lined up by height. It wouldn't have been such an impressive feat if it wasn't for the fact that he wasn't even looking at them and was mostly doing them by feel. They were also eight feet off the ground on shelves that were behind him.
"Why? Are you leaving Topaz?" I tore into another box that contained round dropper bottles.
Marcus looked at the round bottles and sighed. "Yes. I have to be out of here before the end of today. I want to take you with me."
"Why? You don't even know me." I gently placed the round dropper bottles on the counter.
He flicked his fingers sending the bottles into place. "I know enough about you to want to protect you from the troubles that are immediately ahead of us."
At my dubious look, he continued without hesitation.
"I know you're a beautiful brave woman with nerves of steel and a heart of gold. Even in your grubby Overlord bodysuit, you still take my breath away. Come with me."
"Marcus. My family is here. My friends are here. If there is trouble, I want to stay back and fight alongside them."
"You don't understand. There won't be anything left to fight for by the time we're through. You have to leave with me tonight."
"I'm not leaving if my homeland is in danger."
Marcus grimaced. "Stop opening more boxes Inanna. We are wasting time and energy. I have a hover pod waiting outside to take you away. Just leave everything behind and come with me."
"No Marcus. I have a job to do here. It may be menial and small to you, but it's very important work to me. I'm not leaving with you."
"If you don't leave with me now, you will regret it. I guarantee you."
"You know what I will regret more? Leaving and then wishing I'd stayed to help my family and friends. I'm sorry I can't go with you but I do wish you the best of luck. Stay safe, wherever you are."
Marcus stood there with his arms folded across his chest. He had a strange look in his eyes but then he turned and walked to the door. "If you should make it out of here, come look for me. Don't forget. My name is Markel Mocchus."
I stared at his disappearing back.
I thought his name was Marcus Mocchus…