***

  [Lorelei]

  Tuesday evening, one of the academy’s common lounges was buzzing with rowdy adepts seeing off the di Vern-Rodinger brothers. Neither Siriniti nor anyone else from Armarillis leadership even tried to quiet the noisy crowd. First, it would have been pointless, and second, it was tradition at Armarillis to send off those completing their official training at the academy with noise and celebration. Of course, we’d all cross paths again one way or another on Armarillis business, but that would be a different chapter of our lives.

  Training at Armarillis couldn’t be called easy, carefree years, but there was a special atmosphere during this period of every Fortemin’s life that couldn’t be replicated afterward. And everyone would look back on this time with particular fondness.

  It was getting close to one in the morning when they finally started breaking up our noisy group. Everyone had already said goodbye to Dayon and Delson, and I decided to walk with the brothers to the main teleportation gates in the Armarillis courtyard. Well, ‘walk’… I’d already gone ahead, leaving Delson kissing Margarita behind me.

  “Aren’t you ashamed to be stringing that girl along?” I teased, poking Delson in the side when he caught up to me later, having left Margarita in the castle corridor.

  “You don’t give a damn about her, but she’s got hearts in her eyes.”

  “What is shame, and what does that delicacy taste like?” Delson blinked theatrically with the most innocent expression.

  “Apparently they don’t serve that delicacy at your palace,” I snorted.

  “You have no shame and no conscience.”

  “Maybe I’m going for a world record in breaking hearts?”

  “Obviously,” I laughed.

  “Heartless.”

  “Nah,” Delson drawled lazily with a wide smile.

  “I just have a very spacious heart, and it desperately wants to embrace everyone who’s willing. My heart just can’t bring itself to reject a beautiful lady.”

  I laughed and turned around, looking to see where Dayon had gotten held up. And to my surprise, I saw him at the castle exit kissing… Margarita. Well, she’s got quite the setup.

  At first I thought the girl was smoothly playing both brothers behind each other’s backs. But Delson surveyed the kissing couple with an indifferent look, as if he couldn’t care less — as if it was a familiar sight to him.

  “Um,” I said thoughtfully, pointing at Margarita.

  “Is that… normal?”

  “How should I put it,” Delson said thoughtfully.

  “She hasn’t decided… Neither have we…”

  “Perverts,” I muttered, rolling my eyes heavenward.

  “We’re merely advocates of free will, seeking to bring light to the masses through insemination… oops, I meant inspiration of beautiful ladies, yes,” Rodinger finished importantly to the accompaniment of my laughter.

  “And anyway! Look who’s talking about perverts, huh?” he asked with narrowed eyes.

  “Tying certain guys to beds is just the height of innocence and angelic behavior, right?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said in as even a voice as I could manage, feeling my heart start beating fast.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Oh come on, we already know it was you hooking up with Cal at last year’s masquerade ball,” Delson laughed, winking cheerfully.

  “He didn’t tell us, we figured it out ourselves,” added Dayon, who had just walked up, noticing my stunned expression.

  “What, we don’t know Cal? He’s our best friend, we know him inside and out. And we can see he’s become a thousand times calmer, stopped frantically searching for the mystery girl he’d been looking for all year, and it happened right when you showed up at the academy… We can still put two and two together.”

  “Plus the way you two were both, hmm, all flustered gave you away completely, even before Cal decided to publicly ‘mark’ you with those kisses.”

  “Hey, don’t freak Lora out,” Dayon elbowed his brother.

  “It wasn’t that obvious, it’s just that we judge by ourselves and immediately notice these things.”

  “And considering the way he looked at you…”

  “How did he look at me?” I immediately asked.

  “Just like you said about Margarita,” Delson smirked.

  “With hea-a-arts in his eyes.”

  “Oh please,” I laughed.

  “That description definitely doesn’t fit him. Calypso’s not like that.”

  “Not like what exactly?” came a curious voice from behind me.

  I jumped, not having noticed Calypso approach our group. He probably hadn’t heard our whole conversation, but I was still flustered, momentarily at a loss for what to say. Delson saved me by exclaiming loudly:

  “Not such a player as us, right Cal? Lora went into a bit of shock watching us with Margarita. Help her snap out of it. You're good at helping people get out of certain states and into the right ones, yeah?”

  “First I’ll help you get out of the Armarillis dimension,” Calypso smirked.

  “Since you can’t seem to leave.”

  “You don’t love us,” Dayon sniffled theatrically.

  “You’re kicking us out,” Delson added with equally theatrical sadness.

  “You two have no filter,” Calypso grumbled.

  “I’m amazed your mouths haven’t gotten you into trouble yet.”

  “It’s just the calm before the storm,” I said with a sweet smile.

  “I’m sure they’ll make up for it, they’ve got plenty of time ahead.”

  “Well, thanks, Lora!” Delson snorted.

  “We love you too,” Dayon added.

  The brothers said their warm goodbyes to Calypso, waved at me one more time, and stepped toward the teleportation gates. The gates were tall stone arches standing on low stone pedestals around the academy perimeter. The only way to enter the Armarillis dimension was through these gates; they served as a kind of security system: only a Fortemin could pass through them. No other mage, no other living being, and certainly no dark creatures could penetrate the safe dimension of Armarillis.

  “I’m going to miss those goofballs,” Calypso sighed, watching Delson and Dayon approach the stone steps.

  “Me too,” I said.

  “You hung out with the Rodingers more than anyone at the academy, right?”

  “Yeah. I can easily call them my best friends. We raised a lot of hell together,” Calypso said with a broad smile.

  “It’s kind of sad that things will be different now.”

  “Well, you’re not saying goodbye forever. The Rodingers are obviously busy with political games on their territory, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have opportunities to meet up with their best friend.”

  “Yeah, obviously we’ll stay in touch,” Calypso waved dismissively.

  “It’s something else. It’s just always a little melancholy when a chapter of life you’ve gotten used to comes to an end. And that’s what’s happening now. From here, the Rodingers and I will go our separate ways, each of us has our own destiny. Of course we’ll keep in touch, but it’ll be from a new chapter of our lives.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  “It’s life,” Calypso smiled.

  “And life is an endless movement forward, down one path of the future or another. On that path we meet lots of people, some just once, some periodically, some we want to see more often, some we only glimpse briefly but they teach us something…”

  “Which category do I fall into?” I asked with a smile.

  I actually wanted to turn the conversation into a joke, but Calypso looked at me with unexpected seriousness and quietly answered:

  “You’re the kind of person I don’t want to let go.”

  I smiled shyly, couldn’t find anything to say that wouldn’t come out as some mushy nonsense, so I turned away to watch the Rodingers take their final steps through the Armarillis gates.

  But the di Vern-Rodingers didn’t manage to step through the gates that evening. Because at that moment, the portal rippled early, flashed with a bright blue vortex, and a Fortemin tumbled out right at Delson and Dayon’s feet. The bloodied, torn robe, the matted hair… I couldn’t even tell right away who it was.

  “The Men… tor…” the figure slurred in a terrifyingly familiar voice.

  “Ur… gent…”