The first week of the term was a strange and exquisite kind of limbo for Magnus. Syllabus week was supposed to be a joke — a campus-wide celebration of doing absolutely nothing, a sacred window where students were still trying to remember what they were supposed to do when they weren't on break anymore while professors read off a piece of paper, told you not to plagiarize, and dismissed class forty minutes early.
What this meant in practice, though, was that Alex and Naomi, after their discussion on Monday, had come to him with a very careful plan which was deliberately less ambitious than Magnus would have preferred. They weren't going to chase Professor Marquez around campus. They weren't going to manufacture reasons for him to be in her office every day. The goal was to slowly build a normal image of Magnus in Elena Marquez's mind over time, taking advantage of opportunities when they happened naturally, or at least could look that way, and leaving them alone when they didn't.
Mia was happy to help, even if she didn't know the full reason behind the request. She trusted Naomi and Alex, and as far as she was concerned, helping Magnus become less awkward around Professor Marquez was hardly an unreasonable request.
"Wait," he said. "So I shouldn't circle her and try to run into her paths as often as possible?"
Both girls stared at him with the kind of horrified look that made Magnus shrink a little.
"Babe, no!" Alex said. "Was that how you did it before I—before I got involved?"
Naomi shook her head. "Magnus, no! That behavior borders on harassment. I mean, I know you wouldn't actually harass anyone, given how nice you are, but it would still be bordering on it."
"Wait. Really?" He looked mildly alarmed. "I guess I shouldn't have trusted dating-sim logic and applied it in real life."
He visibly recalibrated this in his head, then looked at Alex, puzzled. "But wasn't that how I managed to win you over? I mean, I did think it was a bit weird that it actually worked on you, but I didn't think I was harassing anyone…"
Alex looked at him with exasperated fondness. "No, babe. That was not how you got me to fall for you."
"Then how?"
"It's my secret." She waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, let's get back to strategizing how not to let you become a creep around Professor Marquez."
Naomi raised a hand. "Sorry. I need a minute to recalibrate. I've just learned you—" She pointed her pen at Magnus. "—came this close to harassing women. And you—" The pen swung toward Alex. "—just let it happen—"
"In my defense, it was early on in our relationship and I didn't fully believe in the System at the time—"
"—This shattered my image of you guys in my head."
Alex immediately pivoted. "Yes! You're absolutely right! There's no excuse! No defense! We are just normal humans who make mistakes just like everyone else, and you should remember that about us from now on!"
Naomi's eyes sparkled again. "But you two were under so much pressure, and the relationship was still new, and the situation was impossible. And now that you've realized your mistakes, you're striving to make amends and do better—"
"No! Stop making excuses for us!"
"You two are inspiring even when you make mistakes! I'm sorry I've ever doubted you even for a second!" Naomi concluded, completing the very natural process every true fan must go through of hypnotizing herself with idol-justification.
Alex stared at her, mouth opening like a fish, before blinking in utter defeat.
Magnus, sheepish and struggling to keep up with the conversation, cleared his throat. "Can we just get back to the plans regarding me not being a creep?"
Naomi nodded, snapping back into focus. "Right. So… no circling. No manufactured run-ins that happen too often to be believable. It's syllabus week, so the tutoring angle doesn't work — nobody's behind on anything yet, and she would see through that immediately."
"So what do we actually do?" Magnus asked.
"Slow," Alex said. "That's the whole plan. Not immediate results. Groundwork! You exist near her orbit occasionally, in ways that make sense on their own without needing an excuse attached. Let her see you just… being you, naturally. It's…" She swallowed. "I know it's not ideal. And that this means you're unlikely to complete the quest this week. So you'll…" She cleared her throat without finishing the thought. "But you're unlikely to do it anyway. At least… at least this way is better in the long run."
She bit the inside of her cheek and looked away.
Magnus took her hand into his and squeezed lightly. His free hand turned her toward himself. "Hey, I get it. This is not your fault. We'll get through this. And I'll still be here next week."
She nodded, but she didn't say anything back.
***
The plan was sensible. The goals were the right things to do — the things that wouldn't cross any lines, the things he could live with. Which meant, Magnus spent most of his free time dreading Sunday because he knew exactly what was waiting for him then, while the week passed by him way too fast when he wasn't paying attention to it and unbearably slow whenever he was.
The Substitute Doll meant he would come back to life after he died. And that knowledge was comforting in exactly the same way knowing there was a parachute was comforting when someone told you the plane was going to crash. Fortunately for him, between Jordan, Tony, Alex, and actually doing something within Professor Marquez's vicinity, he didn't have that much free time to spiral. Still, every morning, he would wake up hoping today would be the day he might somehow find a miraculous way around the problem, and every night he would go to bed knowing that he was one day closer to Sunday.
The first opportunity came Tuesday. Mia was talking to Professor Marquez in one of the hallways when Magnus "happened" to walk past. Mia waved him over, and the three of them exchanged a few words before Magnus excused himself and continued on his way. It had lasted maybe two minutes. Professor Marquez had praised his work last term. Mia had "joked" about maybe asking him for help later in the term if she had trouble following the course, an idea Professor Marquez didn't seem to particularly like or hate. And yet, it had also been enough to make Magnus spend the next half hour wondering whether he had sounded like a normal human being or had seemed too nervous. Or worse, sketchy.
On Wednesday, Alex had said running into Professor Marquez two days in a row might seem too suspicious, especially since Mia had a family thing that day, so she and Sofia had spent most of lunch planning ahead and trying to scout the professor's schedule. They had been interrupted by Jordan approaching them, but that had been a blessing in disguise. For a few hours, Magnus had been able to breathe — just being in his room, hanging out with friends, and playing Mario Kart like a normal college student. He hadn't realized how badly he'd needed that until it was over.
Thursday involved Magnus and Mia at a coffee shop Naomi and Sofia had somehow found out Professor Marquez frequented. Magnus had wondered — genuinely, for a moment — whether Naomi and Sofia were truly just normal college girls his age or secretly running intelligence agencies behind everyone's backs. He had wisely chosen to keep the opinion to himself, on the off chance of the latter and they would kill him for knowing too much. The chance encounter didn't last long: Mia did most of the talking while Magnus tried his best to seem normal. It didn't particularly go better or worse than the meeting on Tuesday. Marquez was polite, professionally distant, the same careful neutrality she'd always worn, which was expected.
After the two run-ins, her Interest in him was sitting at eighteen percent. Then, Alex and Naomi agreed they had done enough for the time being. If they kept trying to create opportunities, they would stop looking like coincidences and start looking like a pattern. Which would raise all kinds of red flags for someone with a sharp mind like Elena Marquez. And that was exactly what they were trying to avoid.
By Saturday, Magnus had stopped pretending the week was going to produce a miracle. There was, understandably, no sudden change in Professor Marquez's behavior. And there was no reason to believe the System was going to decide to be merciful. So, by Sunday morning, he'd made his decision — the same decision he'd floated at Harper's at the start of the week. He was only half-joking at the time, but entirely serious now: he would spend Sunday night alone, lock the door, and let the doll do what it was there to do, without any audience.
There was no reason to put Alex through that again. She couldn't stand the thought of watching him die any more than he could the one of making her reexperience it. Neither of them had exactly discussed this with the other directly. But it didn't need saying. Alex stayed in her own room that night. He stayed in his. They'd both quietly, separately, avoided the conversation about what tonight actually was.
***
Magnus had brushed his teeth early that night, and was now lying in bed, with the light off, staring at his ceiling.
He felt stupid just lying there doing nothing. But lying in bed when it would eventually happen seemed like the least destructive option.
There wasn't any point in trying to sleep — the pain would wake him up anyway — but staying awake counting down to it was in its own way a different kind of torture. So he closed his eyes and started counting sheep.
And Jordan chose this moment to blow up his phone.
Magnus nearly jumped out of his skin. He bolted upright, grabbed his phone from the nightstand, and stared at the screen for a long moment before answering.
"Hey," Jordan said immediately as the call connected. "Quick question. Is my earbud charging case in your room?"
Magnus blinked. "What?"
"My charging case. Black. I think it might have fallen out of my bag when we were at your place Wednesday."
He reached over to turn on the light. "And you didn't notice it until now?"
"My earbuds were still running until earlier tonight. When they died, I went to charge them and realized I couldn't find the case."
"Uh…"
"I've already retraced my steps and checked my room, my gym locker, the cafeteria, and everywhere else I've been this week. Your room was the one place I went that wasn't part of my normal schedule." A pause, faintly accusatory, like this was somehow his fault. "So, is it there?"
"You left your bag on my desk that day, right?" He got out of bed and walked toward his desk, glancing around.
"Yeah."
"Hang on." He put the phone on speaker and set it down on his desk while he looked.
It didn't take long until he spotted it. The small charging case was black and blending perfectly into the shadow of the bookshelf on his desk — impossible to notice unless you knew exactly what you were looking for.
"Found it!"
"Great. I'll drop by your room to get it."
Magnus glanced at the clock.
23:48.
"Wait, now? I can just bring it to you when we meet tomorrow morning for training."
"I'm already nearby on an errand. Five minutes, tops. I'm not waiting till tomorrow when I'm already almost there."
"Jordan—"
"Five minutes," she said again, and hung up before he could argue further.
Magnus closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.
Of course! Of course she was! Because once Jordan Hale decided something was happening, not even the universe itself could change her mind.
He sat down in his chair for a moment, staring at his phone on the desk and doing math he didn't want to do. Five minutes put her here around 23:53. That left seven minutes of margin before midnight — tight, but workable, if she actually left the second she had the charger. He'd just have to make sure she did.
The knocks on his door came at 23:55.
He opened the door by a single foot and handed the charging case through the gap while keeping his body angled to block the rest of the room from view. "You said five minutes."
"I got held up." Jordan took the case. "And this is just a social call, Chane. It's not like I'm ever late to training, unlike somebody."
"That's only because you kept moving our session time up!"
He exhaled. His eyes darted quickly to the phone in the hand he kept behind the door to check the time: 23:56.
"You know what? Whatever. You got your charging case. See you tomorrow!" He started easing the door shut.
She caught it with her foot before it closed.
"Hang on!" Her eyes narrowed, moving over him with the same assessing focus she used during training. "Why are you trying to get rid of me?"
"I'm not—"
"You absolutely are, Chane." She pushed the door open wider, stepping past him into the room and looking around before he could stop her, because stopping Jordan mid-decision had never once been a viable strategy for anyone. "You're acting weird."
"You said I'm always weird."
"You're weirder than usual—nervous, panicky—" Her eyes narrowed into slits when he glanced at his phone again. "—and you've checked the time twice since I got here. What's going on here, Chane?"
"I'm fine. I'm just tired."
"You're a terrible liar, Chane. Just spit it out—whatever you're hiding that makes you this nervous."
Magnus stared at her. Jordan stared back. Neither of them moved.
"I'll explain tomorrow," he finally said. "Just leave, please—"
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Jordan, please!"
"What the hell is going on?"
"Nothing."
"Bullshit."
Magnus risked another glance at the clock: 23:59.
"Jordan, I really need you to leave—no, I'm begging you, please leave!"
Her brows furrowed. "Fine. But you'd better have a really good explanation tomorrow."
She finally turned and walked back toward the door.
But before Jordan even passed the threshold, the clock struck midnight.
[Time's Up! Quest failed!]
[Conquest Quest Failed. Penalty Initiated.]
He doubled over, a sound tearing out of him that he didn't have time to be embarrassed about, and the last thing he registered before the pain and the darkness swallowed everything else was Jordan's face — confusion collapsing into something closer to panic — as she lunged toward him.