"Why did I accept being Grand Mage in a Sanctuary full of children?" Corrival asked Bliss. Bliss lifted an eyebrow, but he was looking at China with an oddly inscrutable expression even though it was Corrival he answered.

"Quite possibly because you're insane. There is a reason why I refused the posting the first time."

"And if you had another choice?"

"I'd refuse it again, and this time not be convinced otherwise as I almost was previously. The last thing Ireland needs is a Grand Mage who cannot die."

That was true. Sorcerers lived for long enough without having a leader who could never be deposed for any reason, which Bliss now was. Change was kind of necessary to life being worth living. Even still, Dexter grinned, his eyes closed as he listened to Erskine and China plotting. He had to wonder just what China would ask for if Solomon actually did go to her to ask for help. He'd spent nearly all his time with the man since he'd arrived in Ireland, and he could easily say that they were underestimating his control.

"If he asks, I had nothing to do with it," he said. Kenspeckle sighed.

"Children have to blow off steam somehow, I suppose. So long as no bodily harm occurs, I had nothing to do with this either."

"I wonder if I can get in his good books if I tell him how many of us threw him under a bus," Dexter mused to himself. "Leaving myself out of it, of course."

"Of course," Corrival echoed. Dexter could hear the eye-roll from here.