“You picked up on that, huh?” They both chuckled, and Cheyenne shook her head. “Magicals aren’t contained to the Border reservations anymore, are they?”
“Yes and no.”
“Great. We have time for the long answer?”
Mattie glanced at her wristwatch and pulled her pursed lips to one side. “For as quick a long answer as I can pull off. Anything else will need to wait until tomorrow.”
“Let’s table that for next time, then.” Cheyenne leaned over in the armchair and ignored the protesting throb in her hip. “Tell me what the FRoE has to do with the Border reservations.”
Mattie’s lips tightened and she cocked her head. “That one’s more straightforward. Since the portals opened—and no, I can’t tell you when that was—the humans who’ve known about us also knew that magicals coming over were a heck of a lot more powerful. Because magic, right? And they had no idea how to seal the Borders when they couldn’t figure out how they’d opened in the first place. Maybe nobody knows. Instead, what few enlightened humans existed opted for an agreement with the magicals and formed the Accord. Envoys came across the Borders to make deals, and I’m assuming it took a long time for anything to get organized. At least, a long time for humans. We on the other side have significantly more time to spend on just about anything.
“The Accord was formed, and it laid the ground rules. First, no humans crossing over. That was as much for their protection as for ours. Second, the reservations would be used as sanctuary cities, where refugees or displaced magicals coming into this realm could make lives for themselves. The reservations became something more like assimilation centers for those magicals who wanted to move into the human realm and test their fates. They would be kept open for any magical who wanted to cross. The final agreement was that all this would continue as it had as long as the magicals hid their true identities and kept magic and the knowledge of it away from humans and out of the public realm. Forever. Which is a very long time for a very old Accord to hold up, if you ask me.”
Mattie glanced at her watch. “We’ve got ten minutes.”
“You didn’t say anything about the FRoE.” Cheyenne waited for her professor to look at her.
“Right.” Bergmann cleared her throat. “The Accords did what they were meant to do for the most part, but of course, you always have some bad magical eggs in the bunch. Those who crossed over started causing lots of problems here, disregarding the Accord, disregarding the safety of humans around them and putting other magicals in harm’s way. There’s a bit more to it than that, but I’ve been here too long to stay up-to-date on all the political chaos on the other side. Frankly, I stopped giving a damn a long time ago.”
“The FRoE, Mattie.”
“I’m getting there.” The woman rolled her eyes. “The wayward magicals over here got out of control, and the humans decided they needed to do something about it because the reservations clearly wouldn’t. The FRoE was started in 2000, like I told you, because those problem magicals needed to be dealt with. Those in power on the other side where I come from have no preference as to how magicals are dealt with and punished. Humans could toss us back to our own world, and nobody would have a problem with it. Which is something I’ve come to have a problem with—call it a grudge. Either the leadership in Ambar’ogúl couldn’t care less, or they have too many of their own issues running an entire realm. The FRoE does cleanup duty on this side. For the last few decades, they’ve been doing okay, I guess.”
Cheyenne considered the best way to use what little time she had left before Mattie called it on her office hours since the woman didn’t do overtime. “So, the FRoE was started as a human-run organization?”
“Probably.”
“Then why do they have a bunch of non-humans on the payroll?”
Chapter Forty-Four
Mattie blinked at her student, swallowed, and glanced at her watch. “Four o’clock on the nose, kid. I should’ve been packing up my crap three minutes ago.”
“Mattie.”
Professor Bergmann stood and spun on her heel toward her desk. She crammed all her loose papers and random folders into the briefcase on wheels with its perpetually extended metal handle, although she did it with a lot less care and organization this time.
Cheyenne stood and moved toward her professor-turned-trainer, trying not to limp. “You realize not answering my question is a dead giveaway for not wanting to answer it, right?”
“I realize a lot of things, Cheyenne. I’m not obligated to explain them or list them for you.”
“Wait a minute. We were getting somewhere.” Cheyenne gestured to the armchairs. “A nice, relaxed, friendly conversation, right?”
“It was.” Mattie jammed the last file folder into her briefcase, zipped the thing up, and snatched the handle. “And you have to realize the kind of insinuations you’re making with a question like that.”
“I wasn’t insinuating anything about you.” Cheyenne took a step back when her professor jerked the briefcase behind her toward the office door.
“No, about you, halfling.” Mattie jerked her office door open and moved into the hall. “You’re right. I don’t want to know where you’ve been for the last few days.”
“Wait. Can you hold on a second?” Cheyenne grimaced as she grabbed her backpack off the floor and hurried after Mattie. “Please!”
She pulled the door shut, and the magical locking system activated. The office lights shut off, and the door locked with a click.
“Stop!”
Professor Bergmann turned and huffed out an indignant sigh through her nose. She bit her lower lip. “This isn’t anything new for you, Cheyenne. Office hours are over, and we can pick up our work tomorrow. If
