Burning their bridges was a mild way to put it.  They were going to storm the front gate, set it on fire as they went, take no hostages, and unless Brin could find some way to talk them out of it they’d probably shave the chairman’s cat bald out of spite.  Thankfully, he had Dog on his side.  Him and Dog versus two very angry Stormrider twins.  Well, he always figured the day he broke his friendship with the two would involve copious amounts of fire and probably an unmarked grave or two as well.  

“So tell me again how this all started,” Brin panted.  Dog was walking in his usual pace, which meant his strides could outdistance a loping greyhound and the chronomancer was having trouble keeping up.  Especially after sprinting halfway across campus to find Dog and then find that they’d have to go back to where he’d started.

“I merely warned the twins that the Cadre was taking an unnatural interest in the two as potential officers after graduation,” Dog said calmly.  Students scattered to get out of his way.

“Uh-huh.  And then what happened?”

“The twins started taking an unnatural interest in how students got recruited into the Cadre from the Academy.”

“And?”

“And Langley stumbled across an older professor that was willing to break the unofficial vow of silence about how the final inspections go in these situations.”

This was going from bad to worse.  Brin licked his lips nervously.  The twins wanted their degrees and had wanted them for some time.  Nothing would stop the two.  When they found out that the class they wanted filled up with upperclassmen one year they stormed the library, checked out a bunch of books (politely and according to the rules, of course) and then threatened to burn them all in front of the registrar’s office in protest.  It didn’t work, of course, as they’d simply sent the local police force to clear them off, which resulted in a nice chase where Langley leisurely led them across campus while Sabreur snuck into the building and changed the records so that they were enrolled in the class they wanted.

Or there was that other time…

“I suppose I have to break the vow of silence myself now if you’re going to help save the twins from themselves.”

Dog’s comment broke Brin from his ruminations on the various tactics the twins had used to get their way.

“I guess.”

“Look, Academy certification as a ‘mancer is part skill and mostly politics.  Most students pass on skill alone because they’re too low on the politics radar to matter. The twins aren’t.”

“I know their connections,” Brin said.  He probably knew them better than the twins did.  His family made sure he knew, after he mentioned the name Stormrider in one of his first visits home.  He was the son of a wealthy family with strong political connections.  He had to know.  The Stormrider twins were the only respectable children of the dominant branch that controlled the Pinnacle harbor.  Furthermore, they were from the far north part of Alannis, where the Stormrider hold was strongest.  If the Cadre could get them into their fold, even for a few years, it would be a strong message that even the Stormriders had to submit to their authority.  It would also cause more than a little trouble for Pinnacle, as no self-respecting Stormrider would allow former Cadre to inherit the dominant position among their family.

“The Cadre wants them bad and I’m sure you’ve already figured out why.  They’re both smart, talented, and have the guts to do the kind of things the Cadre needs people to do.  They’re just not very cooperative and so the Academy is once again siding with the Cadre and giving them the exact carrot they need to dangle on a stick.”

“Their certification.”

“Exactly.”

Brin whistled low.  This was going to be an ugly mess.

“Where you think we can find them?” Brin asked.

“I asked Tremanis to cover their dorms.  She’s sympathetic to us right now and everyone is too scared of her to interfere.”

“That’s… the avatar’s champion, isn’t it?” Brin asked in a small voice.  

“Eyup.”

Brin swallowed hard and hoped that they wouldn’t run into her at any point during this.  It wasn’t that she was dangerous like Dog was or that she was prone to fits of pyromania like Sabreur was.  She was just… an agent for one of the rulers of the Underworld.  That had all kinds of scary connotations attached.

“So we’re going to check the main building,” Dog said, “Cause if they’re going to do anything stupid it’ll be there.  Besides, that’s where all registration for final inspection happens.”

The main building was quiet.  The pristine marble pillars had only the scorch marks of cigarette stubs being extinguished by students.  The main doors, steel-reinforced wood, were intact.  The only damage was a patch of flowers where a girl of small stature was sprawled on her back, a gray three-cornered hat over her face and a pistol on her stomach.  Brin carefully walked over.

“Langley?” he said tentatively.

“Taking a nap while I wait,” she said in reply, her voice muffled by the hat.

“But where’s all the fire?  The chaos?  The threats of expulsion if you don’t break your ‘mancy off right this instant?”

“Isn’t worth it this time.”

And for some reason, Brin felt that this was even worse than anything else they could have done.

“Sabreur is inside filing our withdrawals from the Academy,” she continued, “After that’s done we’re headed back to the dorms to pack up.  Got a hold of one of our cousins and will be getting a lift back to Pinnacle on his skimmer, leaving tomorrow morning.  From there we’ll figure out what to do with the folks.  Mom and dad can finance us for a skimmer and I can get a license as captain up there as well.”

“But… the certification?”

Dog was keeping a polite distance away.  Brin wished he’d come closer, say something.  Make this right somehow.  Because as much as he was afraid that things would end badly he didn’t want to see it end like this.  After all these years the twins were always the ones that refused to quit, even when Brin thought it was no longer worth it, and now they were the first to give up.  It didn’t seem right.

“Isn’t worth the price.”  She sat up suddenly; putting her hat back on her head and leaving crushed flowers in her wake.  “Dog, thanks for the warning.”

“You really just going to walk away?” he asked quietly.

“Five years in the Cadre?” she replied, “That’s the least amount of time someone has to put in before they’re allowed to resign.  Not so bad to some people, right?  Five years of swallowing our Stormrider pride and taking an oath of loyalty to the Alannian emperor first and foremost.  Not so bad.  Stormriders have done it before.”

“Then why?” Brin protested.

“And I thought you’d be one to talk us out of doing something rash.”  She grinned at him.  “Our Stormrider pride is a bit too much to swallow.  We’re from Pinnacle, Brin, a stronghold of Stormrider power.  We’re from the dominant family there, no less.  Pinnacle has been our city for generations.  It was our grandmother’s, it belongs to my mother and father now, and one day it’ll be ours.  Or Deeah’s.  Whoever gets to it first.  But if we join the Cadre we forsake Stormrider loyalty.  We’re the Cadre’s.  Once a Cadre, always a Cadre.  They can call you back into service at anytime.  We wouldn’t be able to take care of Pinnacle with that hanging over our heads.”

“You actually intend to stay in one spot?”

“You kidding?  Our grandma is never going to off it.  We’ll have at least forty years before we even need to think about it.  Plenty of time to be a skimmer captain.”

The doors opened and Sabreur walked out.  He looked rather respectable for once, wearing the Academy uniform jacket and his hair was pulled back and his pistols were tucked neatly in his belt.  

“We’re good,” he said, “The person handling the withdrawal just looked at me funny, filed the forms, and we are now officially out of the Academy.  We’ve got three days to move off.”

“Not a problem.”

Langley leapt to her feet.  

“Don’t look so worried,” Dog said to Brin, slapping him on the shoulder, “They’ll be fine.  Skimmer captains don’t need to be certified ‘mancers.  Those just get you the really nice jobs and well, I think the twins won’t be wanting those kind of jobs anyway.”

“Can’t get that respectability on us now,” she agreed, “We have a reputation to uphold.”

“But… the certification…”

“Is a symbol!”

“One you worked for!”

“Still a symbol,” Langley said quietly, “And one we don’t need to prove that we’re good.”

She started walking away and Sabreur followed.  Brin stood there, Dog at his side, and his mind swum.

“I was hoping they’d do this,” the professor rumbled.

“That they’d quit?” he asked softly, “Why?”

“No, that they’d beat the Cadre by walking away.  They can’t be recruited without Academy certification and if they never get it, the Cadre can never pressure them to enlist.  Brin – they still fought back.  And won.  It just didn’t involve fire.”

“I thought they’d find a way to get what they wanted and the certification as well.”  Still didn’t seem right.

“Can’t happen.  Some things just can’t happen.  Cheer up.  This isn’t going to be the last you see of them.”

“But they’re leaving!”  This was the matter, then.  He thought he had another semester of having them around.  Or that maybe the final inspections would never come and Langley’s dream of getting a skimmer and going far, far away would never come true.  He didn’t want things to change, not now, not so quickly.

“Oh, they’ll come back,” Dog mused, “And they’ll leave things for us to remember them by.  In your entire running around this morning trying to find out what was going on you missed the statue of the Academy’s founder catching fire at the first rays of sunlight.  It was gorgeous.  I’m sure those two have a solid week’s worth of that stuff prepped and ready to go.”

“I-I guess I’ll go help them pack then.”

And Brin staggered off down the walk towards the direction the twins had taken, where their rooms were waiting to be cleaned up and dismantled.

“That’s more like it,” Dog whispered.

His eyes slid over to where Langley had been laying in the flowerbed.  There was a piece of coal there, near where her elbow had been.  It was pure, a perfect ‘mancy component.  Strangely enough though, it hadn’t been prepped for any ‘mancy working.  It was just a plain component, left there by Langley for someone else to finish with.  Dog grinned, stooped to straighten a flower, and traced a circle around the piece of coal as he did so.  Then, whistling, he walked off, and ten minutes later the flowerbed burst into flames that quickly spread and devoured the carefully arranged garden until panicked groundskeepers could put it out.  There would always be a bit of the twins here, no matter where they went.