Hours passed since his return to the surface, but Quin’s eyes still weren’t adjusted to daylight.

  Three windows to his left offered their help as they brightened the room he occupied. They gave Quin a clear view of the multi-colored books shelved across from him.

  A long table stood in between with intricate carvings that popped to his eyes along with leather cushioned chairs he chose not to use.

  It made for a pleasant scene compared to the view he had the past few weeks. The purpose of his presence was far from pleasant.

  Just ahead of him laid spiral stairs that wound their way up to an important room and important man. The top cloak, the founder, the leader. The Aerviv of the Cosondera.

  His name was Ypro Fyful, veteran of a war that ended before Quin even existed.

  Neither born nor raised in Sirqu, it was he who changed the city in its aftermath when he created the Cosondera. The effects of that decision have spread far and wide ever since.

  Quin never expected to meet him in person, least of all, under conditions like this. No doubt, word of his activities the past evening traveled to the Aerviv’s ear.

  It gave him fits. His heart sank like a stone at every prediction.

  For the brief moments he wasn’t consumed with dread, Quin noted the silence of the room, the cuts on his face, the tranquil view of morning as it bursts into a quiet and serene room.

  But then his thoughts were filled with dread as he looked on to what came ahead. In the end, his mind drew a blank at what fate had in store for him.

  The light noises heard through the windows reminded him of the activity outside and that he couldn’t just leave, as much as he wanted to.

  The doors upstairs opened and out came a handful of blue cloaks, Arelis among them.

  She briefly made eye contact with Quin as she descended the steps. She had no expression on her face and said nothing as she and the rest walked past him as if he and the table were one and the same.

  “Enter!” a voice from upstairs commanded. The moment had arrived.

  Quin paced up the coiled stairs; his first step inside sent a jolt to his senses as well as his nerves.

  The sounds outside became muffled as the door closed. His body felt heavy and moved slower. He felt the noticeable chill in the air through his cloak.

  Though darker than the room below since the windows were veiled, it still had enough brightness to show the corners.

  The only thing that calmed him down somewhat were smell of incense as it pierced through his mask.

  Before him sat three people, a lady and two men. Only one of them was unfamiliar.

  The lady in the left was the leader in charge of the whole city, Ruth Moner. A middle aged lady in a black robe with white stripes around the sleeves, she sported a formal smile.

  The man in the right was a red cloaked Cosondere, the Deraviv. They were a rarity for Quin’s eyes. Seen less than the blue cloaks, they only appeared before Quin twice (he first met one on the night he stood out).

  He personally had no clue about the identity of this Deraviv and the only thing he could note about the man was a single earring that hung from his right lob and his beady eyes.

  The man in the middle though had a renown that spanned the Sexené Bay.

  The oldest of the three, his gray hair and leathery tanned skin paired up with his stern look and simple brown robe to give an impression of wisdom and life experience.

  Quin stood across from the three as they silently took stock of him.

  “So you’re the one?” the red cloak asked, named Tchay Cosane. “A little smaller than I thought for the trouble caused.”

  “Destroying city property, assaulting other trainees, a troublemaker is a troublemaker no matter their size Mr. Cosane.” Ruth said with her eyes closed.

  “Yes, yes. As always, you make a succinct point Lady Aerviv,” Tchay responded as he rested back on his chair. He looked at Fyful. “So. What do we do with him?”

  That question hung over Quin’s head like a noose. His breaths began to quicken as the room appeared to spin around him.

  It’s not like he didn’t do those things and both times, it ended with him caught in the act. The first punishment forced him to be a cloak, this new punishment might do more than just force him out.

  “Hmmm,” Fyful hummed before seconds passed in silence. “Well let’s hear what the kid has to say for himself.”

  Quin didn’t know what to say. He never meant to aim for the statue, he couldn’t say the same for Wordy.

  How far could he go if he told them Wordy deserved it? Perhaps further than if he just bounced and fled.

  “Breathe boy-o,” Fyful advised with no ounce of anger on his face. “Take off your mask and breathe. We simply want to know what happened last night.”

  Quin pulled off his mask. Sweat, stress, and shifty eyes revealed themselves. He closed them and took a long breath. He only had the truth with him, he hoped that was all he needed.

  “I was on my way to rest after my watch,” Quin began.

  “I heard some noises and checked it out. One of the trainees, he kept picking on people the entire time I knew him and he was doing more of the same in this large room.”

  “Is this the space where you were later apprehended?” Ruth asked.

  “Yes, and it’s where I found this trainee beating up some poor guy. He was defenseless and I couldn’t just look away and turn back.”

  Tchay made a smirk. “Funny. What you’re telling us now was exactly what we were told about you when you were found.”

  “I...uh...well...” Quin’s eyes widened as he struggled with a response.

  “Keep going,” Fyful insisted. “What happened next?”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Well...I got mad at him, especially when he used his ghost arts on me, so we went at it.”

  “So what you are stating is that this trainee who you ambulated towards, he started the fight?” Ruth asked.

  A side of Quin’s face curled at the question.

  “Um...Yeah.” He had no time to figure out what “ambulated” meant. “When it was over, Ner. Arelis and the others found me, and here I am.”

  “Hmm. Seems like that trainee is the real trouble. Beats up one Sentar’i, then tries to pick a fight with another,” Tchay surmised before his face rose with a revelation.

  “But wait, we were told only two trainees were at the scene. Who was this third trainee?”

  “There wasn’t.” Quin answered.

  “Wait. So this ‘defenseless’, ‘poor guy’ was not a trainee?” Ruth asked “Who else sojourns down there besides trainers and...a Yerp?”

  Her face dropped in disbelief. “Have we been confabulating about a Yerp this whole time?"

  Tchay burst out laughing. His guffaws filled the room until he abruptly stopped and raised an eyebrow at Quin.

  “You don’t really expect us to believe something like that, do you? Somebody gets mad at a Yerp and you consider that ‘starting a fight’?”

  “What else was I supposed to do?” Quin blurted out.

  The amusement on Tchay’s face evaporated. “You can’t be serious.” He leaned toward Quin from his seat.

  “It would be one thing if you were lying to me alone, but both Aervivs are right here to listen to this nonsense.”

  “Lies won’t do you any favors son.” Fyful interjected with a wrinkled brow.

  “They’re not lies. It’s all the truth. I asked him what happened but I already had a feeling, then Wordy jumped me with his ghost arts. I had to defend myself, and I had to defen-”

  Quin remembered his accidental attack and realized the next thing he’d say would have been the lie.

  “What? Were you going to say you ‘had to defend that Yerp’ but realized how ridiculous that sounded?” Tchay asked.

  “It was my intention,” said Quin. He looked down at the floor. “I did a terrible job, but it was my intention.”

  “Well I believe we have discerned enough here.” Ruth stood from her chair then turned to Fyful. “This seems pretty open and shut to me and frankly sir, I do not know why we had to partake in routine disciplinary affairs.”

  This didn’t bode well for Quin. The three judges weren’t convinced with his answer at all.

  In fact, he might have possibly made it worse; they seemingly perceived the whole matter as a waste of their time. Quin had to think fast, but what else could he say?

  It felt like whatever Quin said or did left him worst off than before. He wanted to use his Sentar’i powers to make a change in the world. The world however, appeared set to make a change in him.

  Quin didn’t want to change though. He couldn’t see a life where he treated the Yerps like dirt. Not after the treatment he received.

  Tradition dictated he bless his luck that he became a Sentar’i and shed away or outright reject his Yerp ways while he forevermore scorned his new lessers.

  The failure to follow that script, ostensibly meant a wretched existence, perhaps even worse than a Yerp’s.

  “Well it does seem like there’s nothing more to this,” Fyful said with his hands over each other.

  “There is one thing we’ve yet to touch on. We’ve heard something about...red aura. What can you tell us about this red aura son?”

  Quin’s eyes went to a corner. “Well, I’ve only seen it a couple of times myself. It was there last night, but I really wasn’t thinking about it at the time.”

  “When was the first time you saw it?”

  “Right when I stood out.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Roughly a month ago.”

  “What about now? Can you show us right now?”

  “Sure. I can try.”

  Quin spread his feet and slightly bent his knees. He connected to that all familiar warm feeling, and in moments, he produced the aura that once upon a time eluded him.

  The red aura however, didn’t show up and there were no means Quin knew of to access it.

  Tchay squinted his eyes as he watched. “Looks like the red aura was a red herring sir.”

  “I concur with Mr. Cosane sir,” Ruth added. “I would have expected you to outright dismiss such faulty observations.”

  “Hmmm. Well what were you feeling at the time when you saw this red aura?” Fyful asked.

  “A bunch of things I guess,” Quin answered. “Anger, helplessness, I felt like I had to do something.”

  “So frankly, you felt like you had to beat somebody up because they pissed you off,” Tchay summarized before he faced Fyful.

  “I think that’s all there is to it sir. He got so mad, he was seeing red. Just another hothead with no regard for the consequences.”

  Quin had nothing to say. In the end, that was the long and the short of it. Fyful sat with his arms crossed, he pondered his next move. Quin had to do the same.

  His brain ran laps for a solution as he kept his head down, eyes glued to the blue carpet; it kept the sweat off those same eyes as he sweated his fate.

  All he could think of were the stings his nostrils received from the incense and the faint chirps produced by the birds outside. At that moment, he would have given anything to be as free as them.

  Fyful leaned forward and looked Quin in the eye. “Well son, looks like there’s nothing else to ask except one thing, what do you think your punishment should be?”

  “Huuuh?” Ruth uttered with a double take. “Is it not obvious sir? Trainee or not, he struck another Cosondere, an infraction you yourself composed.”

  “I am well aware Lady Nomer.” Fyful replied.

  “Then surely, you would know how unorthodox it is to ask such a question.”

  Now new thoughts danced in Quin’s head. If not even the truth could relieve him of his troubles, then nothing would. Resigned to his fate, he took another deep breath.

  “Everything I said, was exactly how it happened,” he said plainly. His eyes stared directly at Fyful.

  “I know it doesn’t put me in a good light, but there’s no other version of what happened. So I’ll take whatever punishment you think is right, even if means giving up my cloak.”

  Quin felt he did nothing wrong, but the higher ups felt otherwise. Maybe he wasn’t cut out to be a cloak, so he looked ahead to a future without one.

  He might end up like Desmon, a failed Cosondere with little hope of social mobility. But unlike Desmon, he had no intention to snatch up Yerps. Instead, he aimed to help them which might be easier if the cloaks weren’t involved.

  In any case, he had to endure this new punishment first, then he could move on.

  Fyful leaned back and sighed through his nose. “So you only started the trouble because in your eyes, you saw trouble?”

  Quin nodded his head in response.

  “This wasn’t some excuse to fight somebody you disliked?”

  “If he never did it, there’d be no fight sir.”

  “Okay, so what if he struck a Yerp? They’re Yerps,” Tchay said with a shrug.

  “It’s not like they’re pets, they’re replaceable. What does it matter what happens to one when there are thousands of others?”

  Those words struck a chord with Quin. Such line of thinking was all too common. As Lymon would have said, “It was a dye that ran deep in the fabric”.

  Fyful stood out from his chair. “This is a rather odd case boy-o. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anybody starting a fight over the welfare of some random Yerp.

  “That said, it doesn’t appear like you had any ill intentions, so I’ll look past your transgression this time.”

  Ruth was nonplussed. “Wh...ar...sir! Whatever his intentions, he still struck down a trainee. Over the welfare of a YERP no less. Are you really going to let him go after that?!”

  Fyful looked at his colleague with a straight face and responded with silence.

  Ruth’s eyes widened in disbelief, she turned to Tchay. “Don’t just sit there Mr. Cosane, say something!”

  “I’ve said all I had to say Lady Nomer,” Tchay answered. “If it was up to me, I’d have a different verdict. But it’s not.”

  Quin couldn’t believe his ears. He steeled himself for the storm ahead, but the dark clouds appeared to vanish.

  “Whoa whoa whoa everyone,” Fyful said with his hands at shoulder height.

  “Don’t get any ideas of this being nothing but absolution. I said this time. But I don’t want to see a next time, so a little supervision is in order.

  “You’ll be left under the charge of my son. He tends to be...intense at times, so he won’t have the same patience if you decide to repeat your offenses.”

  Ruth closed her eyes in bewilderment. “But sir, he did not complete his training, he has not gone through the final test, and he is still in his training attire. What you are saying heavily insinuates he will bypass everything.”

  “Ah, good point Lady Nomer,” Fyful recognized. He pointed to a table. “Leave your cloak here boy-o, we have to get it changed.”

  “In-con-ceivable! Aer. Fyful, in all our years working together, this is HIGHLY irregular! Mr. Cosane, please tell me you are not in agreement with all this.”

  Tchay simply stared at Ruth from his seat. “Well in all honesty Lady Nomer, if anyone is out of character here, it’s you. Usually you’re quick to approve our Aerviv’s decisions.”

  “This. Is. Different Mr. Cosane!”

  “You’re right Lady Nomer, this is different.” Fyful said. “Son, we need a moment to hash some things out. Head on outside and I’ll arrange you a guide to get you used to your new environment.”

  “Yes sir,” Quin affirmed.

  More than ready to leave, he took off his cloak, placed his mask back on, and exited the room before a change of heart occurred.

  As he walked out into the open air of Sirqu, Quin had to pinch himself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.

  Just minutes ago, he felt nothing but convinced that his life would take a drastic turn south. But thanks to some unexpected amnesty, he ended up among the birds.

  The dread, so present throughout the morning, faded away entirely.