As if stirred by an echo, whispers rose inside the lightless shack.
"Who is Annan Reeves?"
"Who's here?"
The voice continued, "Annan Reeves is going to save Blackwatch."
"Who is Annan Reeves?"
"Who is Blackwatch?"
"Who's saving whom?"
At last, the voice said, "Do nothing. Keep watching."
The whispers faded, and the shack fell silent again, still coated in a thick layer of dust, as though nothing had happened.
Annan was still on his way to the Judgment Hall.
Royal Magic Academy, Curses Institute Lounge.
The boys and girls who had once competed with Annan were adults now. Those who had stayed in occasional contact with him gathered to discuss his arrival at Montreal Mountain.
"Should we help?"
"Help? That's the Judgment Hall!"
"We can't just watch Annan march to his death..."
"Well said. How do we help?" the brown-skinned young man sighed. "Use our necks to smooth down a rough noose so it's more comfortable when they hang him?"
"We could warn Annan not to provoke the Judgment Hall."
"You think he doesn't know that?"
After a long discussion got them nowhere, someone said in frustration, "We can't do this, we can't do that. Are we just going to watch and do nothing?"
"Mary, isn't your uncle a cleric at the Judgment Hall...?" someone asked the young woman leaning against a pillar.
"You think my uncle will listen to me and let Annan off?" Mary retorted.
They turned instead to the blonde girl on the Sofa in the middle of the Lounge. She wore a Mage Robe, and her brilliant golden hair marked her as a member of the Montreal family.
The blonde girl said calmly, "Annan left us behind long ago. Besides, the Old Ancestor and Sister Olin are helping him. He doesn't need us getting in