“They aren’t a council of elders, but tyrants and puppeteers, and they plan to continue it or worse.” I smiled when there was a loud—but muffled noise—most of the people flinching. “And if I needed to prove my point, we have uninvited guests.”
“What are you talking about?” Edelman demanded.
“You set spy traps, didn’t you?” White asked, looking like she might throttle me when I smiled. “Any member of any council may step onto any campus at anytime they want and—”
“That’s true, but their aides and employees have to check in with security and schedule an appointment to meet with the headmaster,” I cut in with a bright smile. “I don’t think any of the headmasters have other meetings for right now, and those sorts of guests would have security alerting the headmaster they were here.” I glanced at Edelman. “Has your phone rang?”
He pulled it out of his pocket and shook his head. “No, and the portals at the student union and faculty lounge are both locked, given we’re all here.” He gave me a long stare. “How did you specify traps for that?”
“Trade secret.” I shrugged at the shocked looks and upset murmurs. “I went through a lot of old books, grimoires, and journals to put those together. And put a lot of power into them. I’m not handing the answers over to anyone as I keep needing to use them.”
Edelman immediately understood what I was saying and backed off. “Who did you catch?”
“I have no idea, but they’re council stooges, since I specified persons who were here against the rules. The council members can always come on campus, so it’s not them.”
“Smart, very smart,” the nice guy praised. “How would you set up this continuing education program?”
“The point of this meeting is to discuss that, as I’m not the right person to tell all the exceedingly qualified and experienced people in this room how to do that. I can tell you how human programs work, but you could learn what I know, and more, fast. What we wanted for this meeting is to bring you the ideas and make it clear we need at least half the schools to join in for this to work.”
The jerk interjected before I could continue. “We’d be willing to discuss helping your plan, but in exchange, you attend our university next year.”
I snorted and then chuckled, letting it build into a full laugh. “I’m sorry you thought I would whore myself out like that to so you would help my plan, but no. No, I won’t sell myself to make your job easier by giving you the key to getting the parents and councils off of you, and out of running your school.”
“You need us to make this work, and you’re a student, Ms. Vale, so I’d remember that.”
“Yes, but I’m not your student, so you’re just anyone on the street to me.” I held up my hand to silence whatever he would have said next. “We only need half the schools to make this work well. And it’s a good plan. Half won’t hold out for your selfish desires. So be an asshole, and we won’t let you in. Your school would be left out of the progress, and you’ll lose new students each year.”
The voice in the back spoke up again. “It’s clear half of us would jump at any chance to get the parents off our backs and less bullshit in our schools, but how would we divide the responsibility? The backlash?”
That sparked a lot of heated debate. Everyone was mostly calm and reasonable, but passionate on what would work… Or the jerks wanting a bigger share of the pie and credit.
I wasn’t shocked in the slightest. Listening to them gave me all the parts to the answer that would work, and when Craftsman jumped in with his thoughts, I changed my mind slightly. It was mean, but not wrong, and he more than deserved some crap from me after everything he’d done.
Or not done really.
“Time out!” I bellowed, holding my hands up in the sign for it. People quieted down, and I looked around the auditorium. “Most of you are right in the parts you are suggesting. You need to blend them up better.”
“Who are you to tell us what to do?” the jerk sneered. “You said yourself you’re not qualified for any of this.”
“That’s not what I said, and as an educated man, I would have thought you were more adept at understanding words. And I’ve been sitting here for twenty minutes in a removed position as I’m not fighting for my school and paycheck and sanity, but for supe education and progress overall. You need pieces of all of your schools.”
“How?” Edelman sighed.
“Name a new school something like Chimera College and have the list of established universities it’s a branch for. That’s common in human education, like a charter school. It gives equal parts for flack and credit. You also want this to be as non-scary as possible, so someone established like Professor White, a dean, won’t be one of the teachers.
“No, you have the newbs. You’ve all said your potions curriculum lines up with each other. Fine. Which is the youngest teacher of all of the schools wanting to do this, that teaches potions, and is the least threatening? That’s more time working to be better for the pompous elite kids. It’s also showing—”
“This isn’t a power play to take from the elites or councils, but a move as educators to do better all around,” the voice from the
