The buildings were already full of people. They were mostly students coming out of their dormitories and making their way toward the university, or at least so they seemed as they were all carrying bags and heading in the same direction.

I decided to follow them and take in as much of the university experience as I could. There were so many things in the university grounds that I couldn’t understand before. Why somebody would spend time and mana to create waterfalls that flowed from the ground to the sky was beyond me, nevermind making an island float in the air.

I remembered asking Seika about it. Her answer was that people liked creating things that didn’t exist and because things like that were as fine a piece of art as any mana wielder could create. Walking among the wonders of the campus, I now understood what she meant.

I kept following the swarm of young adults and soon I was facing what seemed like the biggest entrance ever created. The two pillars that framed the entrance of the university were thicker than anything I had ever seen and it seemed as if they supported the whole structure. I was pretty sure that it would take more than thirty people holding hands to surround each of them, while the main university building reached even greater heights than the two colossal statues in the entrance to the grounds.

The main structure was rectangularly shaped with hundreds of towers protruding from all sides, the tallest of which reached high enough to be lost in the clouds. I turned my gaze back to the pillars themselves and saw that they had no carvings or color on them. They were made from the same white marble as the sculptures at the entrance, but were almost half their height.

The entrance itself had the relative shape of a door, but no physical door was present. I could see, from where I was standing, that the inside was bright, probably by magical means. I preferred not to enter yet, as I wanted to avoid being asked questions or even worse having to answer them. So, I found a series of trees and decided to wait there until I had thought about what to do next.

The temperature was fine enough to justify someone spending their morning by sitting idle and watching the clouds, though at that time I was the only one doing it. It seemed that not many people woke up this early to do essentially nothing, so I decided to start making rounds of the university buildings until some more people had gathered.

Once I felt a little less conspicuous with a greater number of students present outside the university, I took a seat on the grass lawn with my back to a tree trunk and my eyes on the university entrance. I was determined to find my sister and I would wait for as long as I needed.

The first couple of hours were rather slow, with only a few students entering and exiting the university, but right when I was having my breakfast, a great many people came out of the university at once.

They were casually talking to each other and didn’t seem to notice me, so I didn’t get alarmed though I had to put down my food and stand up in order to be able to search the group properly for my sister. Unfortunately, I couldn’t spot her, but as the gardens in front of the massive building became more crowded, I gathered some useful information about what had been happening in the world while we were isolated in our tower. All from a group of young students that sat close to me.

“I am telling you,” a passionate young man was saying to a group of teenage students. “My aunt has friends in high places in the Order. The Divine is dead and The Order is hiding it.”

“Well then, your aunt has been lied to,” replied a woman with short blond hair that was about the same age. “The Divine is simply displeased with us and It has denied us more mana for that reason.”

“Why is it displeased with us then?” asked another woman who was obviously enraptured by the conversation. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I guess you’ll have to tell him to ask his aunt,” replied the blond woman mockingly. “She might know, since she’s apparently so well connected.”

The rest of the conversation continued in the same tone, but it was clear that the state of The Divine was very much in question. Many of the students swore that their family had insider information that proved the death of God while just as many of them were confident that The Divine was just displeased with us and that was why it had disappeared.

In any case, all they could do was speculate, and those who believed that The Divine was dead did so only because of the fact that people saw It bleed and fall to the ground before it disappeared and the angels fled.

More hours passed and the sun was at its highest, but there was still no sign of my sister. Traveling all night started to take its toll on me as more cramps shot needles of pain through the muscles in my lower body and my eyes felt heavier with drowsiness. But this was not the time to rest. Not yet.

Failing to spot my sister would mean that I’d have to look for a place to spend the night and just thinking of how difficult this would be for a manaless like me, opened my eyes wide and made me focus once more. I went through the same cycle of drowsiness, realization, and alertness once more right after I had my lunch. Thankfully, I received a pleasant distraction around the time my eyelids were becoming heavier again.

My left earlobe became itchy and as I scratched it, I realized that I was still wearing the earring. As soon as I touched it, I was able to hear a very welcome, familiar voice.

“Adel, I just had the best sausages of my life,” Kard said enthusiastically.

“Sausages? And here I am eating bread and dried meat,” I said, in a hurt tone. I held my hand in front of my mouth so that people would not think I was speaking to myself.

“Yes, sausages. It looks like Man has procured some crates filled with all kinds of delicacies,” Kard continued.

“Ask him if he found Seika!” I heard a female voice say in the background.

“Krysha is asking if you found Seika yet,” Kard transmitted. “We can see that you haven’t moved for a while.”

“Not yet,” I replied. “I’m waiting outside of the university entrance and will definitely find her before nightfall.”

“That’s good to hear, Adel,” Kard said. “Other than that, is everything okay so far?”

“Yes, mother Krysha,” I said mockingly. I knew that Krysha was silently making him ask me things as soon as I heard Kard suppress a laughter. “Everything’s fine. I’m safe and sound.”

“Why are you laughing, you dumbass,” came her voice from the background again. “Is everything okay?”

“Tell her that everything is fine!” I continued. “And tell her that I will try to be back before dawn.”

“I will,” Kard replied. “Stay safe, brother.”

“You too.” I felt the itch in my ear dissipate.

I waited a few more hours and I saw lots of people come and go but the topic of their discussions was pretty much limited to what I had already heard.

“Our professor said that The Divine is dead,” said a young man, “and that we should make sure to use our mana to provide for the next generation.”

“Was it Professor Lipun?” asked the young woman who was walking next to him. “Our master professor told us not to burden ourselves with inaccuracies and assumptions.”

“He didn’t deny it though,” the man retorted, as they walked away from me.

Another pair of students walked by me and I managed to hear their conversation, though it was more of the same.

“I’m pretty sure I failed today’s exam,” said a young male who had a rather large Carta Magica strapped on his back.

“I was sending you the answers that whole time,” replied a woman with long brown hair who was accompanying him. “If only your pride would let you accept help!”

“That’s not fair,” the man replied, visibly annoyed. “And you know it!”

“Enough about the exam.” The woman caught the man’s arm. “Are you going to ask her out at last?”

Once more the students moved away from my hearing range, but by that time I knew the topics of their conversations by heart: the fate of The Divine and what that meant for us, some very difficult exam and the occasional romantic problem. And there was still no sign of my sister.

At this point, I began to seriously think that I may soon have to backtrack and try to find shelter for the night. Even though I was equipped with protection against the elements, I didn’t like this idea at all.

I could definitely protect myself from the cold, rain and even the local wildlife, but it would be difficult to avoid any potential patrols.

And then I saw her.

Seika had come out of the university and was slowly walking down the stairs with her head low. I was flooded with happiness as I saw her familiar long black hair with a hint of blue shining in the light of the setting sun.

It took everything I had not to shout her name as soon as I saw her but I managed to control myself and simply stood up to follow her. Instead of taking the path to the dormitories and inns where most of the students went, she walked toward a very scenic path that led to a great view of the sea—or at least that was what I had heard from numerous young couples that followed it right after they were done with their lectures.

Did this mean that she was meeting somebody? I had the chance to approach her while she was on her way there but I decided against it as I was too curious to see who my sister was meeting. After all, she’d never told us about anybody she was seeing. Eventually, she reached a tree on a hill that overlooked the ocean and sat beneath it by herself. I waited a little longer assuming that this was the place of their rendezvous.

Nobody came for quite some time. Instead, my sister sat alone and watched the sea. It was getting late, and I decided that I should make my appearance before night set in.

As soon as I got a little closer, I realized that the side of her face was wet with tears.

“Seika,” I said, my heart pumping with anticipation.