I Became the Bully Extra in a Novel I Hate

The room they gathered in was smaller than the war room, warmer, a fire going in the corner. Solenne sat at the head of a plain wooden table, Thalon standing at her right with his arm still in a sling, Cael across from her, Theodore beside Arthur.

"I already know what happened at the academy," Solenne said, before anyone had a chance to open with anything softer. "Vak named you as his accomplice. The Council heard it before your father’s letter even reached Creslan."

Arthur didn’t say anything.

"You should turn yourself in," she said. "Voluntarily. Before they come looking for you."

’I’m against this,’ Vexis said, quiet, in the space only Arthur could hear. ’Every part of me wants to say run. Fight it. Something. Anything but walk toward them with our hands out.’

I know.

’But we don’t have a choice here. Do we.’

No. Arthur turned it over once more, slow, making sure he actually believed it before he said it out loud. Running makes it worse. It makes us look exactly like what Vak’s accusing us of being.

He looked at Solenne. Then at Cael.

"Alright." His voice came out steadier than he expected. "I’ll turn myself in. But you already know I’m opposed to—"

"We know," Cael said, before he finished the sentence.

"I’ll speak for you," Solenne said. "I can testify to your actual contribution in this. If we frame it right, the narrative isn’t complicated — an eighteen-year-old student, manipulated by an adult with resources and reach, who left the operation the moment he understood what it actually was."

"Which is exactly what happened," Arthur said. "The moment I learned kids were being killed for this, I got out. That’s why Vak sent people after me. He thought I was the one who tipped the Council."

"Then that settles it." Solenne sat forward. "Vexis Lestilaut. I formally attest that you completed the task assigned to you by the Elercross Empire, and that your conduct throughout was consistent with someone acting against the trafficking operation, not in service of it."

"You’ll still likely go to trial," Cael said. "This isn’t a pardon. It’s a foundation to stand on."

"So am I going back to Ishkral, then?"

"Yes." Solenne shook her head slightly. "But not yet. The storms this season are bad enough that even the master mages are wary of the roads north. We wait it out. When it clears, I’ll escort you back myself."

She stood, chair scraping against the floor.

"Finish your trial. Come out the other side of it clean, and I’ll grant you an Elercross crest personally." She looked at him, something almost warm under the formality. "I think you’re a good person, Vexis. Maybe after you graduate, you work for me."

Arthur’s eyebrows went up. "Aren’t you only two years older than me? Princess?"

"Yeah."

"So that’s supposed to mean something?"

"It means I outrank you regardless of the math." Solenne’s mouth curved, sharp and pleased with itself. "I’m still your princess. You don’t get a say in who your princess is. That’s sort of the whole point of the title."

"That’s a terrible argument."

"It’s not an argument. It’s a fact. Facts don’t need to be good arguments." She said it like she was doing him a favor by explaining something obvious.

Arthur opened his mouth to push back on that and found he didn’t actually have anywhere to go with it.

"Anyway." Solenne turned to Thalon before Arthur recovered. "Report."

Thalon straightened, favoring his still-healing shoulder. "Tomorrow we depart for the Emerald Kingdom. Objective is to establish contact, meet with the king or an authorized diplomat, and present our findings on the trafficking operation directly. If it goes well, we open the door to an alliance — proper communication between our people and theirs going forward. That’s the best outcome available to us. It’s also the only path that avoids a war."

"And Sable?"

"Still in Council custody. Being questioned, not charged — yet." Thalon’s jaw tightened slightly. "The Knights and master mages are working to locate his family. No results so far."

"Keep me updated." Solenne turned back to Arthur. "While you’re waiting out the storm — come with us to the Emerald Kingdom."

"I thought the storm was too dangerous to travel in."

"For two mages, sure." Solenne shrugged. "We’re bringing master mages. They’ll handle the worst of it, and it makes the whole trip faster regardless of weather. You wouldn’t be traveling alone with Theodore and hoping your aetheric reserve holds out over open country."

"So you’re saying you weren’t going to have us escorted at all if I hadn’t asked."

"I didn’t say that."

"You basically said that."

"I said what I said." Solenne’s grin didn’t budge. "Are you a princess?"

"No."

"Then you don’t get to tell me what I basically said."

Arthur stared at her for a second, decided there was no version of this argument he was going to win, and let it go.

"Dismissed," Solenne said, sitting back down. "We leave early tomorrow. Eat something. Sleep if you can."

Outside, the snow had picked up, coming down thick enough to blur the far end of the street.

Arthur walked between Theodore and Cael, none of them saying much. The quiet sat comfortably enough at first, then less comfortably the longer it went on.

"Cael," Arthur said finally.

Cael looked over. Didn’t answer yet.

"I’m sorry. For earlier." Arthur kept his eyes forward, watching his own breath fog in front of him. "The way I snapped. Calling you a loyal dog. That wasn’t fair."

Cael was quiet for a second.

"It’s fine." His voice came out even, but not cold. "I understand where it came from. From your side of it, I probably look ignorant. A fool who’s chosen to serve someone blindly. Maybe you even think I’m competing for a place in your father’s attention that you never wanted anyway." He paused. "But it isn’t that."

"I don’t actually think that."

"Okay." Cael accepted it without pushing. "But I have decided to give my loyalty to the Archmagus. And somehow, in my mind, that’s tied to serving the Lestilaut family as a whole. It’s not separate from you. I know that probably doesn’t make it feel any better."

Vexis stayed quiet in the back of Arthur’s mind, listening.

"Maybe you’re thinking right now," Cael went on, "that the only reason we’re friends is because I’m devoted to your father. That I show up because it’s expected of me." He stopped walking. Cold mist left his mouth in a slow breath. "That’s not it."

"I was with you since we were kids," he said, "because I found you peculiar."

’Peculiar,’ Vexis echoed, somewhere between amused and touched.

"Peculiar?" Arthur asked.

"Yes." Cael’s expression eased into something Arthur hadn’t seen from him before — not the flat professional calm, something looser. "I’ve spent most of my life caring about other people’s approval. Especially the Archmagus’s. Every room I walk into, I’m calculating what’s expected of me before I’ve said a word." A beat. "I never felt that around you. Not once. You never expected anything from me. That was — easy. Light, in a way nothing else in my life has been."

Vexis was looking at him now, and slowly, quietly, smiling.

"I’m not just loyal to your father, Vexis." Cael held his eyes. "I’ve always been your friend too."

Arthur felt something loosen in his own chest that he hadn’t noticed was tight.

"You’re my friend too, Cael."

A hand grabbed both of them at once and yanked them together, nearly knocking all three off balance.

Theodore was grinning ear to ear. "I’m so glad you two made up!"

Arthur laughed despite himself. Cael let out a short breath that was almost a laugh too, quiet, but real. And Theodore was grinning like crazy.

The three of them walked the rest of the way together, snow falling harder now, until the building they’d been staying in came into view — half the front wall still caved in, a vine still hanging dead and frozen out of one broken window.

"Oh yeah," Arthur said. "Our home is wrecked."

"Ah, crap." Theodore scratched his head.

"Guess we’re staying up late fixing things, then."

"Yeah. For sure" Arthur said.

Theodore glanced at Arthur. "Hey, Vex. Can we add Cael to the Misfits?"

Arthur looked at Cael, who was already surveying the wreckage of their front room with the same flat professionalism he approached everything with.

"Nah," Arthur said. "He’s too obedient for that word."

Theodore laughed. "Yeah. Fair."

"But somehow." Arthur glanced at him again, something almost fond in it. "He’s kind of a misfit too."

"Huh?" Cael looked over. "What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing."

Cael narrowed his eyes slightly, clearly not buying it, and didn’t push. He stepped through the broken doorway first, already reaching for a fallen beam to move it out of the way, and the other two followed him in out of the snow.