---
Fizz continued, "I got some money from John for the party."
Snake raised one brow. "You took money from John?"
Fizz tried to look innocent. "Borrowed. Briefly."
"Return it after you misuse it," Snake said, not unkind. "Be back by the seventh bell."
Fizz stood on the sofa cushion like a captain on a good ship. "I will be back by sixth and a half," he declared, and saluted again because it made his heart feel tidy.
Snake's eyes twinkled. "Go, Professor Fizz," he said. "Plan mischief that keeps to the rules."
Fizz popped up, bowed toward the hat by accident, remembered not to stare, and zipped out into the hall, high on permission.
He ducked into an empty stair mouth and pulled the communication stone from his fluff. It was the twin to Edda's — flat, smoky, veined like an old egg. He put both paws on it, closed his eyes, and breathed the way he'd seen John breathe when the world needed to move. He pushed a thin stream of his own mana into the stone.
