"Silence!" shouted Quinten, and his divine aura spread out across the room.

Daniel shrugged it off as best he could. “We were just tested! Amy died! I died! The King wanted everyone to die! What the fuck just happened?"

Daniel knew the King was in the audience now. He was one of the two smiling men he had seen earlier. When he looked over, he saw the King look startled by what he had said. The man sitting next to him, Daniel now knew as Sylvan. He focused on Quinten. He could see the little smirk in the corner of his mouth.

"Nonsense!" shouted Quinten. "Your test is about to begin!"

Daniel had heard enough from Quinten. Whatever divine entity was feeding him was a shithead, he was certain of that. Whatever had just happened to them was because of Quinten, he was certain.

"You can always tell truth from lie, can't you, Quinten? Test us all now. Ask us what just occurred and let us tell the tale! I demand it!"

"You can demand nothing here! I am the headmaster! I..."

"SILENCE!"

All eyes turned to see the King had stood. All rose to bow to him.

Daniel and his ladies remained standing. They remembered how the King had been an asshole wherever they had just been. They didn't trust him.

"What have you done, Quinten?" demanded the King.

"Your Majesty, I assure you I have done nothing that isn't permitted as headmaster of the Academy. I am allowed to test candidates as I deem reasonable. The One God demanded the extra trials."

"And what were those trials?"

"It does not matter. They have failed."

Daniel roared. "Failed? We have failed nothing! We are here to be tested for our ability to control magic! Those tests... those tests were horrible! We died in them! It was..."

"Enough!" shouted Grace into the noise of everyone speaking at once.

She vaulted out of her seat and landed gracefully near Daniel. She looked around the audience members and spotted a small man sitting near the front, trying to hide. "Bill? Get over here, now."

Bill was looking around to see if she was referring to some other Bill. When he looked back at Grace, he went white and hurriedly climbed over the railing. He landed mostly on his feet, dusted himself off, and trotted over to Grace.

Grace reached Daniel and stood before him. She looked him over for a long period. "What happened to you?"

Daniel was at a loss for words. Amy joined him and spoke instead.

"We were taken into strange worlds. This one, but different. Bad things happened. I died. Then Daniel died. It's too hard to explain.

It was so real. But we couldn't remember anything. Where we were, how we got there. It was a nightmare!"

Grace turned and glared at Quinten. Bill arrived at that moment. She turned to Daniel and the girls. "Okay, Bill here can read minds and project what he sees. He's a phantasmologist. It's pretty remarkable.

He'll need your permission to do what he does. It can hurt a lot.