Listen to the audiobook of this chapter:

  You are my light in the darkness

  You are the candle to my flame

  Though the shadows try to take us

  Together we stand through it all

  When I was lost, you found me

  When I was broken, you made me whole

  With you, I don't feel sadness or fear

  With you, life feels complete

  Fate brought us together

  Though we are a world apart

  A one in a million chance

  But destiny held true

  I would swim across oceans to meet you

  Battle beasts of jungles forbidden

  No mountain can ever be too tall

  Or dragon too strong to overcome

  If magic is the soul of one's being

  Then my magic yearns for yours

  I didn't know I was lost 'till you found me

  Now my heart is in your hands

  I liked to write poetry, but I hated trying to make it rhyme. I knew this was pretty cheesy even as I was writing it, but it was the best I had for now. You’d think after all the literature classes I took, I’d be a better writer. Oh well. I knew Mikael would appreciate it anyway… whenever we started talking again. It had been over a week and a half since we got into the fight, and no matter how many times I’d tried apologizing, he hadn’t said more than a dozen words to me, mostly along the lines of “I don’t want to talk yet.”

  I saved the page in my notebook and pulled out the short story I was supposed to be studying for my Brasílian Portuguese class. It was about a priestess who’d fallen in love with the second son of the king, but her religion demanded she remain unattached to anyone until her training was complete and she was put in charge of her own temple. It was also written in Portuguese, no translation included. That’s what I got for testing into Brasílian Portuguese 2, using my previous term’s European variation as a shortcut up the ladder.

  I double-checked the time again before diving in. Ten minutes before class started. I’d already spent half my pre-class free time writing the poem. Fortunately, Fridays were Lit History, not Portuguese. Unfortunately, the three-hour class was the reason I didn’t get to start my weekend until after six.

  Five minutes later, I’d re-read the same two paragraphs three times without remembering anything they said. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I couldn’t focus on anything with this Mikael-issue hanging over me.

  I gave into the inevitable, packed my gear into my bag, and headed upstairs to my Western Literature class. There was a decent size group already in the room, about a third of the forty or fifty people who would fill it up in the next five minutes. On my way to my seat, I dropped the essay I’d spent two weeks writing, The Influence of Society on the Story of Cinderella, on the pile of other essays on the teacher’s desk. I glanced at the title of the paper below mine, How Society Shapes Science Fiction, and nodded to myself. That could be interesting.

  In the first month of class, we’d covered stories from the eleventh through fourteenth centuries, including Beowulf and multiple versions of King Arthur. The class seemed to be set up to cover one major story or theme per century per week. I was sure that the closer we got to modern day, the more classes we would use per century. This week, we were talking about La Divina Commedia, otherwise known as Dante’s Inferno, Purgtorio, and Paradiso, which we had been assigned to read the previous week.

  We actually had a pretty great teacher for this class. He had a witty sense of humor, entertaining visual presentations, and encouraged us to talk with each other and ask questions. Despite the larger size of the class, it never got out of control.

  At the end of the day, the teacher announced that we would spend the next two weeks on Shakespeare. I heard some quiet groans scattered around the room. I laughed wryly. I already knew most of his plays backwards and forwards, having taking a course specifically dedicated to Shakespeare the year before. It was going to be easy, but also annoying to sit through all over again.

  “Zoe,” I heard the teacher call as everyone filed out the doors. I turned to see him gesturing me over. I stepped out of line and walked over to his desk.

  “I have a message for you from your guidance counselor. It says she’d like to talk to you after class if you have time.”

  I glanced up at the clock. “You sure she’s still around? It’s after five.”

  The teacher shrugged. “That’s just what the note says. Someone dropped it off during the break, so I assume so.” He handed the note to me.

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  I scanned the two lines and read exactly what I’d been told. I nodded and turned to leave.

  “Another thing,” he said and I turned around again. “I’ve been informed that you’ve already taken the Old English Shakespeare class.” I nodded again. “If you want, I can excuse you from class for the next two weeks if you write a three-thousand word essay comparing any three of his plays of your choice.”

  My eyebrows shot up and I grinned. “Really? That’d be great. Thank you.”

  The teacher returned my smile before reaching over to take the pile of essays off his desk. I turned and made my way down the stairs and across the school grounds to the administrative building. I was mildly surprised to still see my guidance counselor in her office.

  I knocked on the door before peeking my head through the open crack. “Hello?”

  Tina looked up from her computer and smiled at me. “Hello, Zoe. You got my message. Good. Come in.”

  I took a seat in the chair across from her at the desk. She pulled a file from a table beside her and flipped it open. Since I had such an odd set of degrees in mind, we’d been meeting every couple of months since I started college to make sure I was on course for graduation.

  “How are your classes going?”

  “Pretty good. The Portuguese is a breeze. Western Lit has me writing a bunch of essays. In fact, the teacher just said I don’t have to go to the Shakespeare classes the next couple weeks if I write an essay on his plays instead.”

  Tina nodded. “I made sure to let him know you’ve already taken a number of literature courses.”

  “Thanks,” I replied, honestly grateful.

  “So have you thought about what you want to do next term?” She flipped through the papers in the folder, seeming to look for something in particular.

  “What? No, not really,” I felt taken aback. Spring term had only started a month earlier, and I still had three more to go. “I mean, we talked about some stuff last month when we were planning this coming year, but I don’t know what I specifically want to take next.”

  Tina stopped on the last page and read it over. It was the list of courses required to graduate. I only had about half of the core classes done, mostly of the writing, language, literature, and artistic varieties. I’d been putting off math as long as possible, and I knew I also still had to do some sort of health or physical education class, a couple of science classes, and public speaking.

  She flipped all the papers back over and handed me the top sheet. It was a flyer for a study abroad program. “Have you ever thought about going out of the country for school?”

  I took the paper and read it over. There were three different study abroad locations listed: Spain, Brazil, and Antarctica. They were all scheduled for eight weeks, only half of the next term, July through August.

  “No, I hadn’t considered it before.” I said and looked at the locations more closely.

  Obviously, the Spanish program was for people interested in the science fields and was going to be hosted at Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Madrid, one of the six unique cities on Earth where magic never worked but classical technology always did. The Antarctica location, on the other hand, was for the magic-minded folks who wanted to spend time in the 24 hour night that was winter at Aotearoa University, located on the southern continent on a small not-island called Roosevelt Island.

  Brazil didn’t have any international colleges, though.

  “I can understand Spain and Antarctica, but why Brazil? The Amazon is there, but no schools that I’m aware of.”

  “It’s something we’ve been trying for a couple years. We have a program set up in Belém, on the outskirts of the Amazon. The science students who study magi-tech like to go there.”

  “I see,” I murmured, then looked up at Tina. “And you think I should go to one of these places?”

  “I was thinking you might be interested in it.”

  “I’m not studying magicus or science,” I countered, but I couldn’t completely hide my excitement. World travel! I’d been wanting to travel for as long as I could remember.

  “Well, if you’re interested, I’m sure I can work with the staff in charge of the program and explain that it would be a good experience for you to learn about the stories and histories of the places first-hand.”

  I hesitated. Spain was next door to France. Even thinking about being in the same time zone as the terrorist attacks was anxiety-riddled. And I didn’t really like the idea of spending two months in sub-zero temperatures. Also, not much culture down there. Brazil would be my best choice, but since nobody knew why the terrorist attack happened or who did it, I didn’t know where it would be safe to travel, if anywhere.

  “I’ll… have to think about it,” I finally replied, disheartened. Traveling would be a dream come true, but the realities of life had to be considered, too.

  Tina nodded. “There’s only a limited number of spots available. If you want, I could put a hold on one of them until you decide. But you’ll have to let me know by the end of May, or they’ll give it to the next person in line.”

  I nodded, thinking. “I guess you can hold a spot in the Brazil program for me. If I choose to go somewhere, that’s where it’d be.”

  “They offer Portuguese classes in Belém, as well as South American history and literature, along with other basic courses.”

  I felt my eyes light up. Learning the language and stories from the locals! But images of a disappearing building clouded my daydream, and I couldn’t help but sigh.

  “I’ll have to think about it,” I said again. “The world’s a scary place right now, and traveling sounds… somewhat risky.”

  Tina nodded. “I understand your concerns. I’ll go ahead and place that hold for you, and you take the time you need to decide if it’s something you’re up to.”

  “Let’s see how the next few weeks go,” I said, frowning. “I’d love to go somewhere, as long as I know I won’t get killed when I do it.”

  Tina nodded again. “Ok, then. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”

  I stood and picked up my bag from beside the chair. “Thanks,” I said, smiling. I read over the flyer at least a dozen times on the way to the bus stop and on the ride home, trying to talk myself out of fear and into adventure.