“I thought we were sneaking around because you finally had a date.”

Zach ignored Torvik’s pout as he carefully measured out the needed ingredients. “You say that like I would have trouble getting a date. Women are easy enough to come by.”

Jeremy snorted. “Yeah, if all you want to do is watch them study. Don’t you ever want to kiss them? Hold them? Sneak around with one?”

“You do that enough for the both of us,” Zach snorted. “Besides, I’ve sampled from that well. It’s not as grand as everyone claims.”

“Heartless,” Jeremy muttered again.

Well, Zach was about to find out if that was true.

“What are you doing, anyway?”

“None of your business,” Zach said as he tapped his wand against the side of the pot. Most wands were smaller now than they were in the past; advances in magic and technology had made them roughly the size of a mage’s hand, embellished simply with stones or gems. Zachs was even smaller, easily hidden in the cuff of a sleeve or as part of a bracelet. Rather than embellishments, his wand carried small etchings.

Most of Zach’s power came from himself; it wasn’t channeled through a tool.

The liquid in the pot bubbled for a bit as magic seeped in. Then it stilled and settled as harmless as water.

Now to test it.

The spell to test for Zach’s heart wasn’t in the book he had. Getting permission to visit the palace and look through the library would take time and make others suspicious. So it was rather fortunate that he’d stumbled across this potion while taking notes for his law and government class. Rather than a truth spell, which was unreliable and required the subject actually know the truth, this potion was ink and it measured fact.

It was wildly expensive, but that didn’t matter much to Zach. Money was easy to come by if you knew the right people.

He pulled out a piece of paper and an old-fashioned ink pen before starting with a few tests, making sure to adhere to the rules of the spell.

Fact: My name is Jeremy Torvik.

He watched the words for a few moments, waiting to see what would happen. The ink glimmered for a moment, wavering, and then vanished.

Fact: Jeremy Torvik is in this room.

Again he waited. Again the ink glimmered. Zach’s eyes darted up to see if Jeremy even had a toe outside the threshold. The other man was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and a pout across his face, looking dreadfully bored. Zach looked back down at the paper. The words had stayed.

Fact: My name is Zachary Torvik.

A glimmer that Zach was beginning to recognize as magic “testing” the truth of the statement. And this time he got a new result: with a partial truth only the untrue words disappeared. ‘Torvik’ vanished from the paper leaving only the words ‘Fact: My name is Zachary’.

Zach ripped out a new sheet of paper and started fresh.

Fact: Zachary keLeigwark’s heart is no longer in his body.

Truth.

Fact: Zachary keLeigwark’s heart is in his ring.

False.

Zach tried again. And again. And again. He ripped up the paper and threw it in the trash and set it on fire, making Jeremy jump and shout in surprise. The answer didn’t change. Each time the words disappeared.

With a scowl and a fresh piece of paper he tried again.

Fact: Zachary keLeigwark’s heart is in this room.

False.

Fact: Zachary keLeigwark’s heart is in this school.

False.

Fact: Zachary keLeigwark’s heart exists on this continent.

Zach heard his teeth grind together as words disappeared and revealed what the potion accepted as truth: Zachary keLeigwark’s heart exists.

What. The. Hell.