Snippet from The Trouble with Demons -- Raine & Sora Niabi

Starke Hall, which housed the Conclave College's demonology department, wasn't chaos, but it was close.

The students were either grim-faced and determined or wide-eyed and excited. The former were probably graduate students or upperclassmen who knew what was happening; the later were merely young and clueless. Those grad students knew that during the next few hours or days, they were going to get a nasty taste of what working in the real world was like. The young ones would be told to hide.

The sight of me, Vegard, four massive Guardians, and four leather-clad goblin dark mages in the corridor didn't help the situation. If anything, grim turned grimmer, some of the wide-eyed ones added open mouths to their expressions, and several students decided they needed to be somewhere else.

But most of them were looking at me. From the looks I was getting, they knew who I was and what I had done at watcher headquarters.

The crowded corridor suddenly got a lot less crowded.

Professor, and now demonology department chairman, Sora Niabi was standing at the far end.

I was armed for ogre. She was armed for everything else.

The professor had a couple of bladed and blunt weapons that I could see, but it was the talismans I sensed on her that would ensure the instant regret of anyone or anything who had the poor judgment to mess with her. If what I sensed was any indication, anything they started, she could finish. Permanently.

Talon saw the professor. "Damn." He sounded disappointed.

"Damn what?" I asked.

"We have to go to class and you and the prof are off to kick demonic ass."

"You want to kick demonic ass?"

"Anything's better than Demons for Dummies."

"What?"

"Demonology 101," Piaras clarified. "It's an introductory course. It gives the non-demonology major some practical experience. It's a general college course, so everyone has to take it."

Talon snorted. "After what we did yesterday, you'd think we'd get bumped up a level or two."

"Master Nathrach, do you know the name, type, and classification of the demon that by some miracle you actually managed to hold on to for two minutes?" It was Sora Niabi, her arms were crossed, and her expression severe.

"No, ma'am," Talon said. "But we--"

"It was a Volghul, Master Nathrach. I would advise that you look it up in your textbook. And while you're at it, you may want to pay special attention to a Volghul's preferences in terms of captives/food, and precisely how they play with, and eventually prepare and consume that which they have caught." She leaned forward and lowered her voice. "You meet every last one of its preferences, and no doubt it would have enjoyed you immensely. So before you mistake the miracle that enabled you to survive your encounter as skill, and think that it qualifies you to move up to a more advanced course, you should think again."

Talon swallowed with an audible gulp. "Thinking's good."

"It's very good. In fact, we highly encourage it here. Now you and Master Rivalin are dismissed."