---
It had been a few days earlier than the Edda's return road scene, back when the jungle mud was still drying in the seams of John's boots and the academy courtyard still felt too clean for someone who had spent a night turning beasts into cores.
John did not go to Professor Snake's tower with pride in his chest. He went with a list in his head.
He needed a legal way to leave. He needed a way that did not start rumors. He needed a way that would not hand his enemies a handle to grab. Most of all, he needed a way that did not turn him into the kind of person he hated, the kind who solved everything by borrowing someone else's power.
Fizz floated beside him, unusually quiet for the first ten steps, then he ruined the silence like he always did.
"Polite voice," Fizz reminded him, wagging a paw as if he were conducting an invisible orchestra. "Eyes respectful. No threatening the walls. No sucking anyone's hat into the void, even if the hat looks at you funny."
