Chapter 110: The System Apparently Doesn’t Believe in One Crisis at a Time

Emily and Dash stayed with Alex a few minutes longer after Jordan marched Magnus out, reassuring her they were just being professional and weren’t taking sides. Alex probably didn’t believe them, but she didn’t challenge it, either.

Then, they finally left the infirmary per Alex’s request. Emily headed toward the front desk to get the doctor while Dash went looking for Magnus and the others again.

“You okay?” he asked when he reached them.

“As good as I can be,” Magnus said, staring at the floor tiles, “considering my amnesiac girlfriend has just dumped me.”

“She doesn’t mean it,” Jordan said from where she stood against the wall, arms crossed. “She’s just—”

“She doesn’t remember me. I know.”

“Give it time,” Sofia said, nudging his shoulder with hers. “It’s Alex. She’ll fall for you all over again in no time.”

“Thanks for the well wishes, but somehow, I don’t share your optimism—”

A phone buzzed, interrupting them. Dash pulled his out, glanced at the screen, and grimaced. “Sorry, I gotta take this.” He stepped a few paces down the hallway and answered. “Yeah, Hannah? What’s the emergency that you’re calling me at this hour?”

He listened, one hand coming up to rub his temples. Whatever he was being told, it seemed to be quite a headache.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” he said finally. He was about to say something else when his eyes widened and his gaze flicked between the infirmary and Magnus, who was standing a few feet away. “Actually, I’ll introduce you to—wait! Are you still at the archive right now?” A brief silence followed as the other side said something, then Dash sighed. “Go back to your dorm, Hannah. I’ll introduce you to some helpers tomorrow.”

He hung up and walked back to the group.

“So,” Dash said, “do you have any plans going forward yet? Regarding this whole winning Alex over again thing, I mean.”

Magnus blinked. “Not really. Why?”

“Well, since you’re both joining the Student Council, Emily and I were thinking we could assign the two of you to work together. It would at least give you proximity.”

“Good idea, Dash!” Sofia looked up.

Dash nodded. “And there just so happens to be a crisis that could use both of you, actually. Normally, Emily and I would deal with this kind of thing ourselves, but we’re swamped with our senior theses and everything. This is perfect as practice for you two. And it’s the kind of things that could potentially get her to see the guy she fell for all over again.”

“You sure?” Magnus asked. “You don’t have to go out of your way to help me with my problems. And this sounds serious. I don’t want to mess anything important up.”

“You won’t. And we’re not going out of our way. We were always going to assign you two stuff like this anyway. The only real change is now Alex doesn’t—” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, Hannah will fill you both in on what needs to be done. Emily and I will introduce her to you and Alex first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.” Magnus nodded. “If you’re sure, then okay.” But he still didn’t sound particularly confident, much less convinced.

Dash patted his shoulder once. “We are.”

Emily rejoined them a moment later. “The doctor’s performing a final check-up. If she clears her, Alex will probably check herself out and go back to her room next.”

“I should probably go with her,” Sofia said. “Keep an eye on her and make sure she’s okay and everything.” She turned to Magnus. “I’ll see if I can help jog her memory anyhow, even if it’s a long shot.”

“Thanks,” Magnus said quietly.

Jordan punched his arm, not gently. “Oh, cheer up, Chane. She’ll be back to draping all over you in no time.” But she didn’t sound all that convinced herself.

“Anyway,” she added after clearing her throat, “don’t be late for training tomorrow. I won’t go easy on you just because your girlfriend has forgotten who you are.”

Sofia checked the time. “You should probably go back to your room, too, Cinderella. Don’t think any one of us wants to deal with another one of your quest notifications before we’ve all gotten a night of rest.”

Magnus glanced one last time at the infirmary. “Yeah, probably should get out of here before she does…”

He turned and headed toward the exit, shoulders hunched, his lonely figure slowly dissolving into the darkness of the path toward his dorm.

The other four watched him go.

“Do you think everything will be okay between them?” Emily asked quietly.

“Of course it will be,” Jordan replied.

“It’s Magnus and Alex. It will be. It has to,” Sofia added.

Dash, though, simply frowned and didn’t say anything.

***

Jordan hadn’t been kidding about not going easy on him. By the time Magnus was dragging himself to the cafeteria for breakfast, he felt like he was dying. Every muscle was filing its own separate complaint against him, several were actively drafting resignation letters, and his ribs ached in a fresh and creative way. The one upside to the brutal session was that his brain was too exhausted to spiral about the whole Alex situation. It was lurking somewhere behind the tiredness, patient and polite, waiting for him to finish being sore so it could properly ruin his day.

He reached the cafeteria entrance and plopped down onto the wooden bench out front. It was the same bench where he and Alex would wait for each other, where she’d often throw herself into his arms while bystanders groaned. But he wasn’t here for her today. Dash had texted him earlier: Wait for us at the cafeteria entrance. Don’t go in yet.

A few minutes later, Magnus was still trying to decide whether he had enough energy to pull out his phone when he noticed someone approaching: Alex.

She slowed as she neared the entrance, a small crease forming between her brows, as if she were trying to recall a habit or a word that sat just out of reach. Then she saw him, and the crease deepened. She stopped about five feet away — he’d measured it with his eyes and re-estimated it at least three times in the next two minutes, which he knew was a sad thing to do, but he still couldn’t help himself — and looked pointedly at a nearby tree, crossing and uncrossing her arms as she checked the time on her phone.

Neither of them said anything. The silence stretched out awkwardly, and Magnus could practically feel the attention gathering around them.

It started with a passerby who blinked in confusion, probably someone who’d braced themselves for PDA and was hit with awkward silence instead, then rippled outward like a stone hitting a pond’s surface. Two students slowed down on the path, a group of four stopped in their tracks, then more and more people paused what they were doing to openly stare at them. Whispers spread out in waves while phones came out, pictures were taken, and forum threads got updated in real time.

Did Raccoon Boy and Alex Reyes break up?

What happened between them?

Somewhere online, people were probably betting on whose fault it was and how long it’d last this time.

Magnus wondered if he should just turn invisible, right then and there, and give the crowd something to really lose their minds over. He resisted that urge just as he resisted the urge to check the forums. He really didn’t want to look at how other people documented his misery.

This is gonna be a long and emotionally painful week!

Dash and Emily rescued him a few minutes later, walking up the path with a girl Magnus had never seen before. She had a tote bag crammed with folders and the very specific frazzled, attentive look of someone operating with too much responsibility and too little sleep.

“Magnus, Alex,” Dash said, “this is Hannah Coburn. Hannah, these are the two I told you about.”

“For this week,” Emily continued, “your duty is to assist Hannah with whatever she needs. Consider it your first official assignment.”

“Hi!” Hannah smiled. “Big fan.”

Magnus wasn’t sure which one of them she’d meant, but either way, he had a feeling this was going to be even more of a long and emotionally painful week. And, of course, the System, with its impeccable timing, chose that exact moment to chime in his head.

He stiffened for a moment, then instinctively glanced toward Alex before his brain caught up and he closed his eyes with a pained expression. Normally, Alex would have noticed the flicker across his face from three feet away, and by the time he’d collected himself enough, he’d just need to follow her lead with whichever play she’d already be setting up. Today, she was politely examining Hannah’s folders. Magnus had never taken Alex for granted, not really, but he’d never realized how much he’d gotten used to — and would miss — their silent understanding until it was gone.

He took a few moments to compose himself as the introduction wrapped up.

“I’ll text you both the details later today,” Hannah said, pulling out her phone. “Can I get your numbers?”

Magnus gave his. Alex typed hers into Hannah’s phone with the same polite neutrality she’d used on him last night — which was totally understandable, but nevertheless still felt like salt in his open wound — then Hannah waved and hurried off, her tote bag bumping against her hip.

Alex watched her go, frowned at the cafeteria doors, and said, to no one in particular, “I have class soon.”

She hesitated for a fraction of a second, frowning at Magnus with the specific expression of someone wondering whether they’d forgotten to lock the door or turn off the gas before going out, then walked inside without another word.

Magnus stared after her, rooted in place.

“Not to be rude or insensitive,” Dash said, clearing his throat, “considering the situation, but you two look like you’re shooting Titanic or something. Everything okay?” He sighed, then added, “Besides the obvious, I mean.”

“No.” Magnus shook his head slowly. “Everything is definitely not okay! The System has just pinged Hannah as my target this week.”

Emily’s head snapped in the direction Hannah Coburn had just walked off, then toward the cafeteria door, while Dash rubbed a hand down his face.

“Fantastic,” he muttered. “Just what we needed right now.”

“Hey, guys!” Sofia’s voice came from behind them, with Jordan right next to her. She paused to take in their expressions, then added, “Okay, what did we miss?”

***

The five of them ended up at a table a few rows away from Alex. Magnus was forced by the others to sit with his back to her so he couldn’t look in her direction without actively turning that way. Dash sat down next to him while Sofia, Jordan, and Emily sat opposite them.

“So, lemme get this straight,” Sofia began, pointing her fork at Magnus. “Your target this week is someone you and Alex have to work with? The same girl whose emergency—” She moved her fork between Emily and Dash. “—you two planned to use to keep them working together?”

“Yeah.” Dash shrugged. “That about sums it up.”

“You know, under normal circumstances, it’d be almost too easy. But right now…”

Silence settled over their table as the obvious required no stating. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t even need to have this conversation right now. Under normal circumstances, Alex would already have the week mapped out to somehow simultaneously deal with Hannah’s emergency and get close to her to broach the subject by the weekend. Under normal circumstances, no one would worry more about Magnus’s continuing survival than Alex. But things were anything but normal right now. And none of them actually knew for sure if things would ever be normal again.

“You know,” Dash began, “Aaron and I were talking. We don’t think the System does things randomly. Would be too big of a coincidence if that were the case.”

“That’s kinda obvious, isn’t it?” Jordan said, pointing her fork at Magnus. “I mean, I haven’t known about this whole thing for that long, but it feels like it’s just one crisis after another ever since he’d gotten it.”

“Thanks,” Magnus muttered. “Knowing this thing has a grand scheme to make my life miserable on purpose is so reassuring.”

“That’s not—” Dash cleared his throat. “What I meant was, the target selection, the quest objectives, there might be more to it. There’s probably an underlying goal we’re missing. And if we can figure out what it is, we might be able to get ahead for once.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll have to figure out how I’m going to get through this week first. Because I can’t—Alex doesn’t even remember me, and I have only thirty days to win her back, and I’m not sure I can seduce and sleep with someone else without her help even if I wanted to, and I’m not sure I want to do that even if I can. It feels wrong. Like, what am I even going to say to her afterward, assuming she gets her memories back? ‘Oh, sorry, I slept with someone else while you didn’t remember me, but it’s the System’s fault!’ Even if she could forgive me for that, I don’t think I can forgive myself, and—”

Jordan stood up and slapped him across the face. “Snap out of it, Chane!”

That drew several gazes, including Alex, who was clearly pretending she wasn’t looking. Jordan stared everyone down. “What? Never seen a guy get slapped before?”

She sat down as people went back to their business, crossing her arms. “Sorry, Chane. But you needed to calm down and breathe.”

Magnus rubbed his cheek and stared at his food.

Sofia, meanwhile, set her fork down and tapped her fingers on the table. “You know what I think?” She exhaled. “You should go see Harper, right now. We’re holding another emergency meeting with everyone, like the one about Professor Marquez two weeks ago.”

“But I have class—”

“—in less than an hour?” she finished for him. “Yeah, I know. Skip it!”

“Sofia, I can’t just—”

“God, Alex’s right! You’re such a goody-two-shoes sometimes!” she groaned. “Your next class is Intro to Film Studies, the one you share with Alex.” That shut him up. She continued, more gently now, “Look, it’s supposed to be an easy-credit course. And it’s just week three right now—nothing you can’t catch up with later. And do you honestly think you’re in any headspace right now to sit through a lecture with Alex also in the room?” She put a hand over his on the table. “Don’t put yourself through that right now, dude.”

Magnus considered it. He turned slightly and glanced in Alex’s direction while the others pretended they didn’t see him do that.

“Jordan and I will stay on campus,” Sofia said, “to keep an eye on Alex, make sure she’s okay. We’ll join the meeting online from here.”

Jordan nodded in agreement.

Magnus looked at them for a long moment, then finally conceded. “Okay. You’re right. Let’s do that.”