Constantine, who had just been discharged from the hospital, was studying a magic circle in his office. Books of all kinds lay scattered across the floor, the open space had been scribbled over with a chaotic mess of diagrams, and all sorts of materials were piled haphazardly around him. The wall beside him was lined with jars containing strange biological specimens.
When Schiller and Shivan entered, Constantine did not even look up. "Whatever it is, go find Professor Zatara. I'm busy."
"Is your leg any better?" Schiller asked.
Constantine jumped in fright. As he turned around, he plopped straight down onto the floor. Seeing that it was Schiller, he let out a breath, remained where he was, and brushed the hem of his Magician's Robe. "What are you doing here? Don't you have classes lately?"
"Most of the students are moving dormitories, and too many have taken leave," Schiller said. "So I simply took a few days off as well."
Constantine nodded without saying anything and put the runes in the magic circle, which he had disturbed in his fall, back into place.
"How many days has it been since you slept?" Schiller asked.
"Only two, I guess." Constantine yawned. "I need to finish this part quickly. I can't put it off any longer."
Schiller turned and saw Constantine's notes on the desk. He casually picked up the notebook and glanced through it, discovering that it contained records of rune conversions.
The entire magical world's rune system had been reconstructed. Many magic circles Constantine had developed could no longer function after Bruce's reconstruction and had to be converted before they would work properly. Constantine had been busy with that all along.
Schiller noticed the small wooden stick Constantine had tossed aside. "Why did you get one of these too?"
Constantine