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Wow, I’d scored an inquisition in my first week as an Apprentice Knight. Mom would be so proud.

“Miss Winters, at approximately 14:18, you were seen skulking around a back alley in the Magic Emporium.”

He really did have eyes everywhere. But, seriously,skulking?

“Why did you abandon your team in the middle of your Discovery Quest?”

“I didn’t abandon them,” I protested. “A bunch of bandits caught me in a teleportation trap, sending me to that alley.”

His lip twitched. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying. The bandits used the teleportation trap to get me away from my teammates, so they could steal the bag of magical ingredients we’d bought from Miss Christie’s.”

“And yet you returned to the Castle with every magical ingredient on your list.”

“Because I got the bandits to back off.”

“They had weapons. You had a cloth shopping bag.” The General lowered himself very stiffly onto his chair. “So how exactly did you get them to ‘back off’?”

I told him the story about the Never-dragon that I’d invented to scare away the bandits. He didn’t look impressed.

“Nonsense!” he hissed. “No one would fall for that ridiculous story.”

I shrugged. “The bandits were pretty stupid.”

“So are you, Miss Winters, if you expect me to believe your lies,” he said tightly. “After the bandits left, you were seen speaking to a Dreamweaver girl.”

“Her name’s Violetta. She asked me to help her find some missing kids.”

“Dreamweaver kids.”

I frowned. “And?”

“They aren’t from Gaia. They aren’t human.”

“Neither am I. None of the Knights or Apprentices are human anymore,” I added quickly, before the General thought I was confessing to being an alien. He’d probably throw me into a prison cell on the spot.

“But your loyalty is still sworn to Gaia. And Gaia alone.” His voice was low, menacing, like a dog growling.

I knew a threat when I heard one.

“I was just trying to do the right thing,” I told him. “They’re kids.”

He obviously didn’t care about kids, whether they were human or supernatural. All he cared about was controlling people. The man wasn’t just unpleasant; he was cruel.

“What happened next?” he prompted me.

“Are you sure you want me to continue my story?” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. “It sounds like you know everything already.”

The guy with the notebook stopped writing for like half a second. I guess that was as shocked as Watchers got.

“You, Miss Winters,” the General said, his voice scratchy like sandpaper, “are a perfect example of why the Choosing exists. To sort out the bad apples.”

I didn’t point out that most of the Knights hadn’t gone through the Choosing because it hadn’t even existed until a year ago. I knew the General wouldn’t appreciate the comment. The thick vein in his neck was already pulsing dangerously fast, and I didn’t want to be responsible for giving him a heart attack.

“Continue your report, Apprentice.”

‘Report’ sounded so much more serious than ‘story’, so I tried to sound serious too. I told him everything I could remember about helping Violetta and saving the Dreamweaver kids from the invisibility flu.