(one year later)

  Ral made one last desperate effort to smooth down the unruly red hairs of his head and beard before giving up and throwing on the relatively clean tunic he keeps handy for “special occasions.” Mikol was on the other side of the room pulling on his mask and gloves. The Yscian caught his disgruntled look and shook his head.

  “It is all right, Ralos,” Mikol said.

  “It’s not.”

  “I am already grateful I can be unmasked at Azure Bell,” he said. “It will take time.”

  Mikol was already well known around the Heart as a Yscian. He was openly accepted to most people, especially those who fought beside him a year ago. Yepla and Gardlo went through great pains to keep him safe, but still - still - there were people who wouldn’t think twice to curse at him if he passed by. Hence the mask and gloves to cover his skin.

  They left the inn they were staying at, the one where they permanently had a space reserved for them whenever they were in the Heart. It was one of the many perks Yepla gave them - in fact, the manus professor almost gave them a whole mansion but Ral couldn’t bear the thought of having to stay in one place too long. If he had a house here, he would feel the need to stay. Moon forbid he gets so comfortable he becomes some sort of lord.

  Ral was surprised to see the streets nearly bustling with activity. It was already such a huge difference from the ghost-town the capital was a year ago. Stalls returned with merchants hawking their wares, taverns were filled with warm light and the sounds of people drinking and talking. They made their way to the middle of it all to a large building buried between other buildings. A huge sign by the door showed an elaborately ornate bell painted in blue paint. It was one of the first and most prominent signs of change within the Heart. The very first step in changing the Gaian’s obsession with warm colors. Ral rolled his eyes at the thought. Blue paint! So shocking.

  “Laell was saying this used to be a fighting pit, can you believe that?” Ral muttered to Mikol as they went through the large wooden doors.

  “And this… book keeper is now a chef?” Mikol sounded confused. Ral had told him the Librarian - whose name was actually Lyran - had opened the restaurant.

  “I don’t think she cooks,” Ral said. “She’s like the boss.”

  “I am.” Lyran’s deadpan voice cut through the dim they found themselves in. “My knowledge of Gaian cuisine has proven useful.” She appeared around the corner, posture stiff and straight backed as she had been a year ago. Ral still found it hard to believe she was Laell’s sister. But then again, he himself was very different from his own sister.

  “Nice to see you again,” Ral said.

  Lyran, the ex-Librarian, gave the smallest of smiles. “You too.”

  “How is non-book shelving life serving you?” Ral studied the normally emotionless blond before him. Instead of the plain black robes of the Academy, she had on a very fine looking silk tunic in a newly fashionable blue color.

  “It is… much less lonely and just as satisfying,” Lyran said. “How is life as a Freerunner serving you two?”

  From what Ral could understand, such a question wouldn’t be asked by the Librarian a year ago. “It’s the same as it ever was, as far as dead professions go,” Ral shrugged.

  “We are trying to return this profession,” Mikol said behind his mask.

  “If you need to discuss logistics, I will be here,” Lyran said. “But that will be on another day. Your dinner mates are waiting for you. And you may unmask here, Mikol.”

  Ral suddenly felt a lurch in his stomach. He reasoned he was nervous about how people would react to seeing Mikol (even though everyone knows Lyran doesn’t tolerate discrimination), but in truth, he was nervous about seeing them again.

  Lyran led them to a table and he found all his anxieties were for naught. He took in the sight of his long friend Verne and the solemn looking woman next to him and smiled.

  “Brother.”

  Aris stood, ran to him rather forcefully and gave him a long hug. When they parted, she looked up at him with dark brown eyes.

  “I see that dreadful beard is back.”

  Ral rolled his eyes but before he could say anything, she had moved on to give Mikol an equally long hug. Verne clasped his shoulder and ordered a beer for him as they found their seats.

  As the three of them chatted, Ral couldn’t help but sit back and study them. Verne was looking well, almost exactly like the way he looked every day when they were regular attendees at the Academy. Aris had severe scarring around her eyes after what happened to her, but other than that she looked much better. She was no longer emaciated and her hair was long and thick like he remembered it. If he squinted he would think his mother sat there.

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  But those eyes…

  “Are you staring at me because you’ve been enthralled by Camaz’s lovely eyes?” Aris said. She mockingly fluttered her eyelashes, then laughed, making the scarring crinkle around her eyes.

  “Sorry but he wasn’t my type,” Ral said dryly. He took a drink of beer while his sister watched him.

  “Does it bother you?”

  “No,” Ral said truthfully. “I’m just… in awe sometimes, that’s all.”

  “We’ve done a lot of things that would leave people in awe.”

  “We will visit him tomorrow,” Mikol said. “At the lighthouse.”

  “I visit him every day whether I like it or not but I guess I can be there too,” Aris said. “I’ll have a chance to finish packing.”

  “We have horses ready for the day after,” Verne said. “We’re all prepared to head out east.”

  Silence fell between the four of them.

  “Thank you for handling it back then,” Aris said quietly.

  “You couldn’t even walk properly for a week after,” Ral snorted. “I hardly expect you to travel so far with me. And besides you had your own mentor to bury.”

  “I’m… I’m glad Rask got to go home. Despite all that talk about being a Freerunner I think he would have liked to go back home.”

  “When we were there last year we tried to find Nilda’s body,” Ral said.

  “And?”

  “No luck. Nilda sealed up the passage back then so I couldn’t retrace our steps. Couldn’t pass over the mountains either since I’m not sure which way we went through the tunnels.”

  “When we go back in a few days, we can try again. Then we can bury her finally. I’m sure we can find her.”

  The knotted atmosphere of thinking of their dead mentors eased slightly when their food arrived and they started talking about other things. Aris talked about her ‘placement’ at the Academy and her research on the Great Solvent and some sort of creature called a Shade.

  “They’ve become more prominent and active after what happened with Mind,” she explained. “Laell hypothesized they have something to do with the Solvent from the Gate that Mind opened and the density of it.”

  Verne went on to talk about the shift in power at the Academy and the Heart. After they had left the island a year ago, most people there weren’t spared the change including the Headmaster Kallum. There was much speculation over Kallum’s involvement with the emperor but at this point everyone agrees the point is moot.

  “Yepla and Gardlo are both essentially the Headmaster at this point,” Verne said. “Although… one of them is more keen than the other.”

  “Guess which one,” Aris said midway through a big bite of food.

  “How about no,” Ral said. “…It’s Yepla isn’t it.”

  Aris then said that Laell was head of runeology, although many people were reluctant to give her the title of ‘professor.’ “She says she doesn’t care,” Aris said, rolling her eyes. “Unbelievable. Runists really are a different breed.”

  “I thought you were a runist too,” Mikol said.

  “I like applied runeology,” Aris sniffed. “I like doing things. She likes studying runes. There’s a difference, believe me.”

  “Yeah one will bring down the wrath of a god,” Ral said and laughed when Aris flicked some water his way.

  Ral and Mikol took turns talking about their travels over the past year. Ral frequently wrote back to his sister so there wasn’t much they didn’t know about. He let Mikol tell them about how the Somas didn’t exactly welcome them back when they returned to the desert.

  “Why not?” Aris asked.

  “I abandoned them,” Mikol shrugged. “Like leaving family.”

  “You had something important to do,” Aris said. “They are wrong to just cut you off like that.”

  “We had hopes that maybe they would consider some sort of truce or some amicable agreement with Alkkes. Or any other Gaian settlement or people,” Ral said. “It’s what my teacher there wanted. But…”

  They had returned to more spiteful stares that felt so familiar to him. He doubted there would be any kind of relationship between Gaians and Somas soon. Aris gave a thoughtful ‘hm.’

  “Speaking of playing nice with Yscians… there’s something I want to ask of you when we head out east.”

  “The Munna,” Ral said.

  Aris nodded. “Yes. I’ve deeply offended them. But I can hardly communicate with them. I… I don’t know how I will make it up to them but I know I will need help.”

  “I will help,” Mikol immediately said. “Perhaps our language is different but not too different. I will try.”

  Aris gave Mikol a smile. “You don’t have anything to prove to me anymore, you know that right?”

  “Of course not. I help because I want to.”

  “Thank you.” Aris shook herself a little then grabbed her tankard of beer and raised it. “Moon have mercy, Rask would be so happy seeing us all misty eyed. Let’s stop all this sappy talk.”

  “You? Getting misty eyed?” Ral couldn’t help it.

  “Shut up, beard face.”

  “Hey, it’s a nice beard. You think it’s a nice beard, right Mikol?”

  The Yscian gave him a blank eyed stare and was only able to maintain it for two heartbeats before cracking a smile.

  Their table was filled with drink, talk and laughter after that. The night grew deep and their drinks dwindled and their talk sobered.

  “So, sister, what are you going to do after visiting Rask’s grave?”

  Aris took a long time answering. She studied his face, then Verne’s, then Mikol’,s then looked down at her near empty drink.

  “Back then when I wanted to die, Camaz told me that we could walk our own paths. He promised me that. He said I was my own person, not a pawn of the gods. He said I will lead my own life.”

  Aris looked up, brown eyes intense.

  “I intend to do just that.”

  END