1.3 L.u.c.a.

L.U.C.A.

Last Universal Common Ancestor. Magic. Or possibly the being that created Magic.

The brief was staring at me like it had a grudge against me. And honestly? I was starting to take it personal. My Antiquities class homework on L.U.C.A. A two page research paper on what it was and my theory on if it was Magic Itself or if Magic Itself was actually created by something else.

It was turning out to be something else to write at least. The blank page in front of me felt more insidious the longer I stared at it. Like an executioner staring at a pretty neck.

The silence in the library weighed on me. My neck bent lower and lower under the weight. Sitting on a table with my research books and crumpled intro paragraphs taking up a seat beside me, I at least looked as if I could be making progress. If you didn’t stare too long.

“I always had a feeling LUCA came from a being,” Bri mused across the table as he lathered a fresh batch of lotion on the side of his scaled cheek. Smoke tendrils curled around the top of his elongated snout. There was a bit of residue leftover on his index finger. He studied it under the desk lamp in front of him. I felt the need to interrupt the intrusive thought I could feel brewing.

“Don’t eat it. It won’t taste good.” I twirled my fountain pen between my fingers. Eyeing him.

Yarael snickered beside me. Her elbow rested on one of the unopened books on L.U.C.A. “Your head is too big to have intrusive thoughts, Bri. Don’t start now.”

“Hey!” Dark smoke flared from his mouth. Sharp canines slicing through the dark clouds. “That’s offensive!”

I shook my head. “Now, now children. If you aren’t here to do your work then you should leave the library. Besides,” I nudged Yarael with my knee. “Not everyone can be as beautiful as our Goth Queen, here.” I smiled at Bri. “Some of us are simply ordinary.”

The incredulous look left his face and his head tilted to the side. “Elida, you have no room to talk.”

Before I could get more sidetracked, Yarael brought us back to my homework. “LUCA is Magic. You can feel it in the soil, in the air,” she twirled her hand in the space between the three of us. As she rotated her hand in a circle, a small wisp of smoke curled around her fingers. It was gone as soon as it had appeared.

“The Veins of Magic is the most popular theory,” I looked at the two textbooks in front of me; L.U.C.A. Everyone’s Favorite Ancestor and Threads of Fate and Magic. The Mycelium Network. “Veins of magic can be pulled from realms, therefore they are more favored to be studied and written about. But the age old question still remains- are the veins simply there or did someone—or something—create them?” I scratched my head.

Yarael pulled a drawstring bag out of her black satchel. A bundle of bones pooled into her hand. “If the veins were created it couldn’t have been from a single being. It had to be a collective. Maybe an entire realm.” She cradled the bones together in her palm. Click clack. “A single person couldn’t have that much power. For my sanity, I have to believe that.”

“But why? How?”

Bri snorted. His large nostrils flaring. “It’s a single being. Look at religions across all realms, even in Mundane. They all draw on one powerful being. That is LUCA.” His forked tongue slipped out of his mouth. “Bones, Yaya?”

“Yarael, you reptile.” Yarael loosely cupped the collection of small bones and gave them a shake. “Let’s ask the bones.” She dumped them in the middle of the table. The three of us leaned forward as if we could read them.

“Hm…” Yarael gingerly touched a cluster of bones that gathered to the left side. “A knuckle bone, a couple of scales, and the spine of rodent. Interesting.”

Bri, entranced, leaned closer. “What do they say?” The bridge connecting the two tables pressed into his chest. His long nails dug into the edge of his side of the table.

“It says…” Yarael squinted for a moment before she leaned back and groaned. “That I need to study my Osteomancy text more.” She blew a loud raspberry into the air and turned to her black book bag. A quick sshh sounded somewhere as she pulled out a thick tome and hastily flipped through the pages. “I can’t wait until we get to specialize at the middle of the year. Going to swap my two useless classes for a divination course and maybe even another Nocturne one.”

“The Goth wants to be a Death Witch.” Bri rolled his yellow eyes. “Who would have guessed?”

“Want me to dangle a shiny coin for you to covet?” She teased.

A small growl sounded low in Bri’s throat. Yarael started to snicker.

“Guys!” I leaned back in my chair and hissed. “I need perspectives, not drama. If I go the vein route, I can have more material to fill in the paper with. But it’s dull. Imagining a single being, or a coven, or an entire realm creating magic would be more interesting to write about. So help!”

“Is Antiquities what you are going to specialize in, Elida?” Yarael carefully put her bones back in her drawstring bag.

“Mmmm…” I shrugged. “I think I’m leaning more to Apothecarie. But I still have some time to decide. I don’t know if I’ll choose my specialization at the six month mark. I can always do it at the start of next school year.”

Now the pressure of specialization and the brief started to make a knot in the middle of my neck. You are assigned a broad range of classes at the start of your first year at Bogarts. For those that know what they want (everyone but me it seems) you can ‘specialize’ your studies after the first six months and trade out any classes that don’t align with your speciality. But, if you don’t have a clue what you like, you can take the entire first year as a practice run. When they pin that second star on you though at the start of your second year, you gotta decide. Then you’re stuck with it till it’s complete. Not knowing anything about magic, other realms, or even this academy before I came here really didn’t do me any favors. The people—beings, whatever—that went to Bogarts all seemed to know what they were coming here for. I kind of stumbled here on a whim….

Not a whim, I told myself. So I can find Esti. Magical exposure to travel to other realms. Travel to Folklore.

“If you aren’t specializing in Antiquity then I would choose the easier topic for your paper. Get it done and out of the way.” Yarael put her textbook back in her bag and stood up. She swung it over one shoulder and flipped her black hair back. “I gotta go. I have to nap.”

“Lunar study tonight?” I asked, trying not to get distracted by the appealing angle I had now. Don’t look, don’t look, don’t….Well…. My eyes flickered downward for only a moment!

Yarael’s smile warmed my chest. Chest… My eyes flickered again. Two books from a bookshelf behind her flew into the air and towards a waiting table across the library. “Yup! Full moon study. If you’re awake by the time it’s over, you want to read me your paper?”

I laughed, blushing at myself. “Hopefully I’m not up all night writing it! But definitely!”

Yarael waved her goodbyes and walked out of the library.

Bri scratched a hole in one of the papers he was supposed to be grading for his work study class. The stack of ungraded papers next to him had not budged since he took them out of his folio. “You really want to do a deep dive on LUCA?”

I shrugged. “I woudn’t know what books to look for. These two were all the librarian said they had.”

“Had here,” the Dragonborne grinned.

My head perked up. “Is there another library?”

Bri folded his arms across his broad chest, smug smile plastered on his predatory face. For a moment, I felt like a rabbit staring down a boa. “There’s the Mundane Anthenaeum.”

Sometimes I hated not knowing a thing about other realms before coming to this school. There was always something new to learn. I sighed, already feeling exhausted. “… Which is?”

“The Anthenaeum is a floating library in between realms. It’s holds every book ever written. When new books get published, a copy appears waiting to be shelved. Think of it like….A universal backstock of books. Mostly the high class, elite society types have full access to it. They end up creating their own portals in their houses most of the time. But all magical academies have a branch that connects to it. Aaaaand,” Bri opened his arms and held his hands up. “Transfers from other schools get temporary access while they are out of their home school. Part of the ‘sharing knowledge’ initiative that forces students to travel to other schools in the first place. I could let you use my temporary card. You can’t bring a plus one so, one card equals one body. You’d go alone.”

⊹₊˚‧︵‿₊⊱·✶·⊰₊‿︵‧˚₊⊹

Which is how I found myself standing outside of a pearl doorway with a silver wolf head as a handle. Bri told me to give his card to the wolf. I didn’t understand at the time, but now I’m even more confused. I showed the library card—a square piece of titanium—to the door handle and looked around in case someone was going to jump out of a corner yelling “gotcha!”

The wolf sunk his teeth into the card and the door swung inward. I chased after the card and when the door fully opened the wolf released it. For some reason, I felt obligated to pet the door handle. So….I did.

When it didn’t react, I slid the curiously unscathed card back into my pocket. Lame.

To say the Mundane Anthenaeum was an enormous library would be an even more enormous understatement. Easily twice the size of the library at Bogarts which could have been the size of a regular university back home. The walls and ceiling were made of the same pearl as the door. The light shining from the windows cast an iridescent gleam across the white marble staircases. A pair of them on either side of the room. They twirled upwards to a second level.

There were no flying books like at Bogarts. The entire atmosphere was still, calm, quiet. I thought I could hear the dust drifting in the sunlight. The only sound other than my thoughts racing was the turning of pages. A comforting scratching sound coming from all directions in front of me. It was also the only indication that I wasn’t here alone.

I walked along the first floor looking for a librarian or some kind of help desk. A place this massive I wouldn’t want to waste time searching for a book. The only thing I had come across were white marble coffee tables and grey plush seats. In a corner was a small fountain of a mermaid. Her hands were running through her hair. Her smile smug. The water rushed underneath her tail and shot in streams behind her as if she were putting on a performance. Part of me wanted to toss a coin in. I peered into the water but the bottom was clear. Lame.

I risked breaking the still air. “Hello? Excuse me?” I looked around, but not a soul answered. Not even a hush. My voice seemed to dissipate in the air like walking into a mist of perfume. Seemingly there but gone almost instantly.

I walked up the staircase on the right. As I ascended, the iridescent glow made the banister shimmer and sparkle. My fingertips danced on the edge as if I was playing the piano. For some reason it made me giddy to be here. Like I was sneaking into a mansion I had no business being in. Whatever treasures awaited, who could say?

On the second level were endless pearlescent bookshelves filled to the brim with books. Spines of brown, black, red, and green stood out against the expanse of white. They stood at attention, waiting for someone to peruse their contents, and I hoped they had a sign or something on the ends.

There was nothing.

Sighing, I started to feel the weight of my paper bearing down on me. Excitement turning into dread. Maybe I should just go with the easy choice? I could bullshit two pages….

I walked down a random aisle and casually looked at the titles on the spine. I couldn’t read the titles! Panicked, I quickened my pace to another aisle and realized all the titles on the spines looked like swiggly nonsense. I took a book off the shelf and flipped through the pages. Same swiggles. As if someone just filled a book with random pen lines and called it writing.

“What the hell…” I replaced the book and drifted into another aisle. What kind of place was this? No help and unable to read the books? I was starting to think Bri was pranking me. Dread flared into panic. It fluttered around my head like a bird kamikaze. I felt my pace quicken to every bookshelf I could find. There had to be something I could read…

Distracted, I ran into the shoulder of someone in an aisle. “Oh,” I took a step backwards as he turned to face me. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

The first thing I noticed was the winged dragon tattoo on the side of his neck. When he turned I got a good look at it. It was a dragon eating it’s own tail with a single wing. The second thing I noticed were his shrewd black eyes.

He flipped a black lock of hair out of his face and raised an eyebrow at me. “Careful,” he warned. His voice was honey in a warm cup of tea, but his gaze was a poisoned dagger.

Embarrassed and out of place, I tried to smile to ease my anxiety. “You can actually read that?” I looked at the open book in his hand. More gibberish to me.

The man smirked and instantly I felt foolish. He snapped the book shut and held it near his head. His cheekbones were as sharp as his jawline. “First time here?” The pretentious tone in his voice pricked under my skin.

It felt like a trap so I raised my head. “Do I look like a first timer?” Could I get into trouble for using Bri’s card? I didn’t think to ask before…

The man cast his discerning gaze up and down my frame. “You’re nervous. You don’t seem to know where you’re going.” He leaned towards me. His eyelashes caught the sunlight. A devilish grin pulled his lips back. “I can pluck the truth out of you if you don’t want to answer.”

Seeing I had made an error, I laughed shakily and shrugged. “Well! You caught me. Yup! First timer, for sure!” I snapped my fingers awkwardly.

The man’s smirk softened into a genuine smile. “No one taught you what to do?”

Another shrug. “Only how to get in.”

He opened his free hand in front of me. “Card, please, dear.”

“Um…” I hesitated. How much trouble would Bri get in if I lost this?

The man tsked and straightened. “I don’t have time for this.” He raised his hand into the space above my head and plucked at the air. As if he was playing an invisible harp. He moved three fingers back and forth at nothing.

Instantly, my fear was gone. My anxiety, nervousness, indecision. The only thing I felt was calm and confident.

The man smiled again. “That’s better.” He offered his hand again.

I casually handed him Bri’s card. “How did you…”

The man unbuttoned his white collared shirt and pulled it back to reveal another tattoo. A single open eye with a swirling iris right over his peck. He rebuttoned his shirt. “I’m an Aquinas. Manipulating energy is what I do, darling.” He flashed the card at me. “Now, pay attention. Here you will find every book ever written. But they are warded. So someone can’t casually walk by their own book and spoil their ending. How do you get past this ward?” He waved the card. “This baby. This is your assistant. Tell it what you’re looking for and it will guide you to the aisle it’s in. You’ll also be able to read the books relating to that topic. When you’ve found it, you simply walk out with it. A return date will be stamped on the back once you exit. If you don’t return it in person by the date, it will simply return itself.”

He handed me Bri’s library card and adjusted his collar. “I’m such a Good Samaritan.” He grinned at himself. “I deserve a monument.” He flicked a black lock of hair over his head.

Even though I was thankful for the tutorial, more questions swirled in my head. Own book? Manipulating energy? I couldn’t help myself from asking at least one. “What’s an Aquinas?” The man raised his eyebrow at me again. That smirk was devilishly delicious. “I’m Elida, by the way. And…Thank you. For your help.” Maybe it was the lack of anxiety. Maybe it was that I felt confident in front of him. Maybe it was just me. But I flashed my own smile which I hope was just as enticing. “Can I get your name?”

“Student at Bogarts, I assume?” The man placed his book back on the bookshelf and turned to face me fully, stamping his hands on his hips.

“We are in the Mundane branch, so,” I shrugged noncommittally trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about.

“Vale Voel. Deal Maker and Aquinas. At no one’s service but my own.” He took my hand and kissed the back of it. The way his hair gracefully fell across his eyes should have been a crime. “Originally from Westorburgh but I pray I never see that dreaded realm again. If you’re specalizing in Antiquities I might be your professor. Being an Aquinas, I have a unique perspective on the veins of magic.”

“LUCA?” The excitement oozed out of my voice. “I’m writing a paper on it! That’s actually why I’m here. I want to dive more into the single being theory. What’s your take?”

Vale crossed his arms across his chest. “Being an Aquinas I can feel and see the veins of magic around us. I can look at a person and make them feel how I desire simply by cutting away a few strings and tugging on a few more. I can manipulate the energy to nearly anything I want. That leads me to lean more on the veins of magic as a mycelium network theory rather than LUCA being a person, or collective. If everything is energy and that energy can be manipulated and changed, magic is simply energy that has had time to transform into something. The more we tamper with it, the more it changes. Adapts. Like a living thing. It’s simply too vast for one person or beings to create themselves. To be able to hold the entire network at once, why it would be impossible.”

“I can see why you’re a professor at Bogarts.”

“Only temporarily! I’m teaching a course but only until I decide what realm to make my fortune in. My home realm won’t cut it.”

“Is that what you’re reading about? Other realms? Trying to run away and start anew?”

It was meant as a tease, but Vale’s smile faded. His eyes slowly drifted over my shoulder as if he was remembering something and the wince that passed across his face made it seem like it was a painful memory. He looked back at the shelf forlornly.

“Actually…” Softly his fingers trailed across the spines of the books in front of him. “I was hoping to find a cure.” He turned back to me and placed a closed fist over his heart. “Short of cutting it out I’m not sure there is anything to be done for this.”

“A cure for a broken heart. They must be in Westorburgh, huh?” When he didn’t answer I tried to smile. “I’ve had my fair share of broken hearts. The best revenge? Succeeding without them. Make yourself something and go back to your home realm. Show them what they missed out on!”

Vale’s eyebrows lifted. The forlorn look in his eyes faded. I looked at Bri’s library card. I better get going.

“Something given for something gained,” Vale said softly. Our eyes met and he smiled. “That’s the Dealer’s motto. I gave you information and you gave me my next steps.” He bowed his head slightly. “Thank you, Elida. I hope you find the answers for your paper.”

I walked out of the aisle, waving at Vale as he fished for something in his pocket. “You too!”

You too? I slapped my palm against my forehead as I rounded a corner. “Card,” I groaned to the little peice of metal. “Show me where the books on LUCA are. I want to find any that talk about the theory of LUCA coming from a being, not as a network.”

The grey metal turned golden and warmed my hand. I pointed it in a direction and it grew colder, the opposite it grew warmer. I smiled. “Aaah!”

A harsh shush came from one of the bookshelves I passed. My shoulders hunched over. I walked through the middle of the second floor and crossed a large round table. Multiple chairs were facing around it but only one was occupied. A woman with long, straight red hair and orange freckles scattered across her face was nose deep in a book about flowers. I imagined it was about flowers since there was a giant golden flower on the cover.

I passed her and turned into a forest of more bookshelves. The card getting slightly warmer with every step until it was nearly burning my hand. As I stepped into an empty aisle, I realized I could read the titles!

L.U.C.A. A Study of Magic, The Last Universal Ancestor, What Is A Universe? L.U.C.A. In its Entirety, and even my two textbooks from class— L.U.C.A. Everyone’s Favorite Ancestor and Threads of Fate and Magic. The Mycelium Network.

I hadn’t noticed the card turning back into its grey titanium until I dropped it in my pocket. The entire aisle was filled with books I could read about L.U.C.A. But which one would be the theory I wanted to read about?

Excited simply to be able to read the pages, I grabbed random books and started to flip through them. They all seemed to favor the mycelium network. L.U.C.A. was simply an organism that happened to exist when the universe was formed. As more realms created themselves, the organism morphed and adapted to it’s surroundings.

After grazing through four books I started to fear the writing on the wall. Was I the only one who thought this could have been created? Maybe I should have looked into religious texts instead?

Stubbornly, I grabbed one last text from the shelf; The Secret of L.U.C.A.

I opened the cover and my breath caught in my throat. There. Above the title of the book, was handwriting I thought I’d never see again.

If you’ve picked this one up, you are an interesting being. Don’t mind my notes. Just a girl bored with her studies. I love making my tutor upset by writing in books.

I’m convinced Luca was created by a single person and this is the only research text on the subject. I begged my tutor to obtain it. I might be young and foolish as my father says but I hope you don’t mind the additions I’ve made. I have access to a lot of beings, knowledge, and privilege. Which I’ve used to learn as much as I can about this subject to include here.

If you’re still reading, you must not hate beings who write in books.

Esti of Eldaine

I knew it was her handwriting but seeing her name signed on the page still made my heart flip. My mind flipped through the memories of another book she had written in. The correspondence of two women in between the margins that led to the greatest kiss of my life and coming to Bogarts in the first place. I closed the book and held it close to my chest. I could feel her breath on the back of my neck. As if I turned right now her arms around be wrapped around me. I’d flick her long ears just to annoy her.

Suddenly, my heart ached too much to think about it. If you’re still reading, you must not hate beings who write in books. I smiled.

“You have no idea,” I whispered into the book.

I ran out of the Anthenaeum faster than I knew was possible. Just like Vale said, as soon as the door closed behind me, a two week return date printed itself on the back of the book.

Over the course of the next few days, I found myself obsessed with the words written in the margins. The text itself wasn’t that long and it wouldn’t have taken me long to read it if I wasn’t distracted by every comment Esti made.

She seemed younger. Her handwriting was a little more messy than I remember and she kept mentioning her family as if she didn’t really know anyone else. When I met Esti, she rarely spoke about her family or where she was from. In fact, she only really told me to educate me about other realms in general. Why had I never thought to ask more about her family? Her home life?

“Why don’t you try visiting Eldaine?” Tayla said as she twirled a small marble of fire between her knuckles.

“We do have a break coming up! Every three months we can choose to leave Bogarts for a bit of ‘fresh air’,” Celaya dealt her and Tayla a handful of cards each and placed two facedown in the center.

The three of us sat at the dining table in the Hearth Tower. We were waiting for Sophie and Yarael to finish their classes so we could grab a late dinner together at the Dining Hall.

I traced over a note Esti made about a woman she had heard of who could create things without manipulating any energy. I smiled. Always on the search for something. You haven’t really changed.

“Traveling costs money,” I said softly. “And I wouldn’t know the first thing about going to Eldaine, where it is, or how to travel to another realm in general.”

Out of the five of us I was the one with the least amount of magical exposure before coming to Bogarts. “I tried to go to Folklore once and the woman who was going to take me told me I couldn’t cross the border because of my lack of magical experience. Then she enrolled me here to fix that.”

Tayla and Celaya flipped the cards in the center at the same time and started piling on their cards on top as quickly as they could. When they both couldn’t drop a card, they paused.

“Folklore?” Tayla sighed dreamily. “I’ve always wanted to go!”

“Your guide was right. Exposure to magic changes our DNA. Some borders are harder to cross than others. Folklore, being a middle realm, is a pretty tough one to cross. Being in the middle means it’s at the center of everything. Closest to LUCA. Their borders aren’t the hardest to cross, but it’s fairly up there.”

I turned a page in my text and laughed at a comment Esti made about her tutor.

Wingless faerie. Doesn’t understand the importance of what I’m trying to do here. Waste of immortality, if you ask me.

“Im…” I stuttered. “Immortality?” How had I not noticed that before?

Tayla slapped her remaining five cards on a single pile and threw her hands in the air. “I won!”

Celaya’s head whipped in my direction. “Esti is immortal?”

“I…” I shook my head. My brain spinning. “I don’t know. She at least knows someone who is. Her tutor.”

Tayla smugly laced her fingers behind her head. “You said she’s an elf, right?” I nodded. “There are different races of elves. Some immortal, some not. So she could be or she could be taught by someone who is and isn’t immortal herself. It never came up?”

“I don’t think they did much talking,” Celaya winked at Tayla across from her.

I blushed. “We did! But…” I fiddled with the corner of the page. “We didn’t spend that much time together before…” Before I left. Before she didn’t meet up with me. Before I came here.

I felt two hands grab my shoulders and start to massage them. The palms were warm and the heat soothed my muscles. “Whoa, El, you’re tense!” Sophie increased the pressure. “It’s just a paper! And it’s a paper based on opinion! Thats eaaaaasy.”

Tayla frowned. “It’s Esti.”

Her hands stopped as I leaned back. “Oh.”

“Nose still in that book?” Yarael sat at the table with us. She held a bundle of papers in her hand and she started to organize them at the table. “How many times have you read Esti’s handwriting?”

I groaned and covered my face.

“Too many times,” Celaya answered for me.

Yarael laughed. “You’re obsessed.”

Tayla shoved her elbow as I pulled my hands away. “She’s in love.”

“She’s pining,” Yarael deadpanned.

“She’s yearning!”

“She’s right here.” I stood from the table, face burning. “And she’s hungry. Can we go?”

At dinner I was criticized for bringing the book by Yarael. True, it was silly, and I had read over the book a few times now, enough to write a paper on my opinion of L.U.C.A many times over, but I couldn’t part with it. When I looked at her handwriting it gave me the same rush it did when we first met in the margins. She felt closer somehow, even if I had no idea where she was now. Was she seeking me out too? Missing me?

So I’ll say it in all caps.

You always write in all caps.

I LIKE YOU.

The memory of us writing back and forth kept playing in my mind. How I teased her about that for a few pages and in person when we met again. Her stubborn smile. The way her pointy ears blushed at the tips.

“We should probably all get jobs,” Tayla said as she munched on a fried chicken finger. I flinched, caught. “If we work and save now we will be more prepared for when we leave Bogarts.”

Sophie sighed. The squash soup nearly finished in front of her. “I dont know. Six years of study is a long time. Why rush things?”

“In three we will be traveling to different schools.” Yarael waved a fork full of steak and rice. She popped it into her mouth and spoke as she chewed. “What if you want to explore the realm? You’ll need money then.”

Sophie cried out and pushed her soup away from her. It dissapeared from the table. “I came to this school so I wouldn’t have to work.”

“You came to this school so you wouldn’t burn your house down,” Tayla muttered.

We laughed and universally agreed. I tried to imagine Esti sitting at the table with us. Would she get along with everyone? Would she be criticizing the food? As Sophie stole the last chicken finger off Tayla’s plate and threw it over her shoulder, I laughed a little louder. She would love them.

“What if the coven or collective idea is all the blood in the ground from magic users who have died?” I tapped my fingers on a page that Esti had only written ‘burial rites’. Which got my head spinning a bit. I didn’t have time to rewrite my entire thesis, but this was still nagging me.

Yarael waved her fork in the air as if she were spelling the words. “It could be…Most burials are in ground across the realms. I’ve hardly read any magical being that was cremated. All chose to decompose.”

Tayla frowned. “And we just keep…Recycling it? Their ‘dead’ magic? Until we die and give it back? Over and over?”

An eerie silence stretched over us. Suddenly the chatter around the table was loud enough to deafen our ears. Laughter, complicated conversations, study tactics melded into a chorus of white noise. Eons seemed to pull apart around us just to snap back into this moment. As if it had all been part of the plan. Like we had, had this discussion before. Many times over.

“Repeating…” Sophie said softly. “The same fate…”

We finished our meals in silence. After that, no one wanted to hear about L.U.C.A or Esti.

A few days later, my paper was written and my book companion disappeared from my nightstand. It had returned itself to Anthenaeum, I suppose. When I woke and found it missing, I felt the hole in my heart tear a little more.

But Esti helped me get an A. Although Yarael joked that I could have written anything and still received an A. It still made me proud. Maybe I’ll get to tell her one day. That would make me even prouder.