Alice sighed for the fifth time since he dragged her away from studying at ten o'clock at night; Margo still had a lot of work to do with this girl. Teachers were nearly inactive after nine at night, which was how they got away with half the things they did, Margo crowning herself queen of Brakebills atop a throne of naked freshmen notwithstanding. It was the prime time, the Witching Hour (not quite). He thought they deserved the advantage. Fogg was in his robe by now, and no one better ask how Eloit knew that, because it involved a covert mission of spying. Eliot never did tell Alice about her aunt and Fogg, mostly because she might not be as ready to help him if she found out Genji Quinn occasionally got naughty with their teacher. It seemed like something that could scar her for life, probably.

Fuck, Eliot needed to know less about the staff, to be honest. One day, it would all run out of his ears or something.

"This isn't a good idea, Eliot," Alice protested in a harsh whisper, but she had yet to actually abandon him, so he took the win.

"We didn't even see anything, though. Don't you want to have a look at their notes?"

The moment of silence was clearly an admittance that she did, "We are coming back tomorrow."

"But the teachers will still be there. Harder to see what they keep scribbling when they are moving," the look on her face told him he had her, but he was very good at convincing people to do what he wanted them to, mainly because he picked his targets well and everything he asked of them was things they secretly wanted to do.

"There was a reason we agreed not to be alone with it. Very little is known about their powers, but it is fairly common in lore for them to have the ability to break the human mind. Mermaids and Sirens allegedly induce madness, which is obviously not ideal." Alice sounded like she was in a lecture hall, "Which is why visits should be conducted while teachers are in the room, as they likely have some idea how to prevent that from happening."

Eliot hummed, glancing around the corner, peering into the darkness, "And yet, here you are."

Her cute little nose wrinkled up. "I didn't say I wouldn't help, I'm only pointing out that it is possible we will regret this."

He slid his fingers through hers and pulled her along with another self-satisfied hum. It was not as if there was no chance for absolute, total, catastrophic failure. Eliot was aware this could be the worst move he ever made, which, honestly, was impressive. Even so, he just had to see that creature again. He wouldn't get too close, just close enough to get a real look.

The two of them slipped inside without much trouble. While there were wards, Alice and Eliot were more than enough to beat them. Alice could have all on her own, and didn't they all just know it too? All the powerful wards were focused less on the human element - If the madness thing was true, he could see why they were focused on that. Still, it was their mistake to assume they were dealing with average students when Alice Quinn attended.

When Alice pulled on his hand, he realized he stopped in his tracks the second he saw the tank; he saw eyes gleam at them in the relative dark like little lanterns. The sight made him shiver, like little electric eels were crawling over him. Hello there, beautiful... Did you miss me? Because I think I missed you.

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