The next morning when I wake up, it is late. Briareth is gone, and didn’t wake me. Strange. He’s always woken me before, and most of the time, it isn’t even on purpose. I hear the fifteen minute bell and jump out of bed, rushing to get changed and sprint down to the Great Dining Hall for breakfast. It is mostly deserted, so I skim the buffet grabbing things that I know I can eat in a hurry, and maybe on the go. I drop into my usual seat and notice Briareth sitting next to me, his plate untouched.

“Why didn’t you wake me this morning?” I ask him.

“Forgot. Sorry.” He mumbles, his customary donut in his mouth. Then after he chews and swallows, “I got up around five minutes ago.” His plate looks surprisingly full for someone who is in a hurry and started eating five minutes ago. I’m rushing too much to question him about it though. I don’t want to be late to our last couple classes.

Magical Diction soars by. Our ST seems very distracted, and more intent on listening to students talking about last night then teaching. Apparently she isn’t well connected to the rumor mill, and has only heard bits and pieces of what went on last night.

When we arrive in the runes classroom I am confused. Instead of Master Vaeril floating in his customary position, Master Kolvar is taking a look at the magic weapons rack on the back wall. Briareth and I sit in our customary seats near Erryn and Eldrin, and I ask them why Master Kolvar is here.

“Don’t you remember?” Erryn responds.

“Well he might not, you two have been busy after all.” Says Eldrin.

“Killing monsters and whatnot.” Erryn finishes his brother's thought, and then adds his own. “Why didn’t you invite us along? We could have helped!”

“Don’t listen to him, he’s just mad that his name won’t be going down in rumor history for defeating an Aberration.” Eldrin says. “You asked about Master Kolvar being here, yes? We have a scheduled dual class with him and Master Vaeril-” He is cut off by the bell ringing. Master Vaeril walks in through the doorway, and to his customary position in the center of the room.

“Since everyone is here now, we will get started.” He says, abruptly. I frown slightly, Folas isn’t here, perhaps he and Adamar are still recovering. They did have broken bones after all. Then again, shouldn’t magic help hurry up the healing process? I redirect my thoughts back to what Master Vaeril is saying as he continues. “A quick side note though, If any of you ever need to borrow any of the magical weapons or artifacts in this room, there is a signout sheet in the second drawer of my podium. Although I would prefer it if you just asked me, especially when I’m in the room.” He says dryly. Muffled giggles spread across the room, and Briareth blushes.

“Now if any of you were listening yesterday,” Master Vaeril continues, “you would know why we have a visitor. I know some of you definitely weren’t listening yesterday, and some of you probably forgot, so I’m going to introduce him again. This is Master Kolvar, he teaches art. He is here because someone- I’m not going to name any names -set their desk on fire last year because they were just that bad at drawing runes. We were supposed to start carving runes today into blocks of wood, and carving is technically art, so here he is.”

Master Kolvar smiles, and says, “If I might add something Master Vaeril?”

“Of course.” Vaeril says.

“Basically, I’m here to help control the class and take note if anyone needs any extra help with their rune-work and carving skills. If you need any advice or help with art skills, come to me. If you need permission to do something, or want to add some complicated runes to your carving so it does something specific, go to Master Vaeril. If you set your block of wood on fire, just shout in general, and one of us will help douse it.”

“There are carving knives and blocks of wood by the door.” Master Vaeril says, finishing the preliminary instructions. “Get to work.”

“Try not to stab anyone or cut off your fingers please.” Master Kolvar adds. “That would be very inconvenient for all of us.”

After we all have grabbed our wood blocks and knives, Briareth, Eldrin, Erryn, and I begin to plan our runes out.

“I want mine to set stuff on fire when I tap it's top!” Erryn says excitedly.

“I think I want mine to be able to allow the user to fly.” Eldrin says. “What about you Briareth?”

“Hmm.” Briareth says. “I want to figure out how to make a lightning arrow, but I can’t really do that in the classroom, so I'll probably just set some sort of alarm. What are you going to do with yours Faladel?”

“I don’t know.” I say. “I’m not even sure mine will work properly because I can’t imbue them with magic. I should probably go for something easy to test, not too time consuming, and harmless in case anything goes wrong.”

“How about trying to make it glow in the dark?” Briareth suggests. “No danger there.”

“Good idea.” I say. Neither Eldrin or Erryn seem to have noticed the time consuming part. I wonder if they expect us to be leaving soon, if the thought has even crossed their minds. Soon the ambient chatter dies down as everyone focuses on their work. Master Kolvar’s music fills the air with a sense of serenity. No one has set anything on fire (yet), and Briareth and I are hard at work. Eldrin breaks our small group’s silence by murmuring to himself. “I never thought Lyra would go crazy like that. She was so smart.”

“It’s hard to believe she won’t be coming back.” Erryn responds.

“Well she did break the law, she got what she deserves.” Briareth adds.

“True.” Eldrin says.

“But she had the right idea, spreading out the energy intake like that.” Erryn says thoughtfully. “Maybe if she had more sentient subjects and a larger population to work with, then she could successfully raise someone without putting everyone into comas.”

“And how would you regulate the amounts taken so that they don’t go into comas?” Breaks in a soft voice. I jump in surprise as I realize that it is Master Kolvar. He is right in front of us, staring at Erryn with cold, stern eyes. “Experimentation? That would be unethical, illegal, and exactly where Lyra went wrong. Now could you all stop talking over the music and focus on your work? I want to continue with mine, but I can’t while you all are spoiling the atmosphere with your little gossip over here.”

“Sorry Master Kolvar!” Erryn and Eldrin chorus in unison.

I don’t finish my carving by the time class ends, but we are allowed to keep working on them. Master Vaeril says they will be due in a week, and then shoos us out the door. My next class is Maths, and it will also be my last class at this school. It’s ironic, the school for the most powerful Elven wizards, and my last class here will be Maths.

They do integrate magic into the class of course, but we don’t actually do any magic. Instead we memorize formulas and learn how to use them. I’ve actually already learned all this stuff before. Probably because I was homeschooled with tutors. The only interesting thing in this class is how they use magic to help teach and draw 3-D diagrams. Sometimes Master Arae has us race to see which table can solve a difficult problem first. He makes the problem float in the air above each of our tables and puts a stopwatch at the front of the classroom.

The equations and problems don’t stick though, they just swim slowly through the mire of my mind. Eventually class ends. I can’t even remember if we won any of the challenges or not. One thought keeps bubbling to the surface of my mind. Time is running out. Each move I make is the last of something. I am running down seconds on a quickly decreasing timer. I need to double check that I packed everything, see if I can figure out where the infirmary is with Briareth so I can say goodbye to Adamar, Folas, and Valkallyn, check out my sword from storage, and probably a score of other small things such as grabbing my bag and packing food for the journey.

Grabbing my pack is easy. After checking out my sword, I go to the lunch hall, hoping to catch Briareth there, but he isn’t anywhere to be seen. Erryn and Eldrin say they saw him leaving about five minutes ago, so I grab some food from the buffet to bring with us on the road, and head out after him.

After around five minutes of wandering I find him, or rather, he finds me.

“Faladel!” He says “There you are! Come quickly! I have something to show you!” He grabs my arm and starts pulling me along after him as he hurries to the nearest gate to the outside.

“Actually,” I manage to get out as he drags me along. “I was looking for you, do you know where the infirmary is?”

“The infirmary? Why would you want to go there, Faladel? Are you sick or something?”

“No, I’m looking for Adamar, Valkallyn, and Folas.”

“They left the infirmary recently. You won’t find them there.”

“Darn it, now I’ll have to track them all down.” I mutter, then ask “Where are we going Briareth?” as he drags me outside of Mossblossom Central’s walls and across a bridge. “If this is something stupid, I really don’t have time for it now that I need to find them all separately.”

“I promise it’s not something stupid. It will be worth your time and it might even help with your problem.” Briareth says, leading me along the moat's outer bank. He then pulls out a blindfold. “Now cover your eyes.”

“What?” I’m completely bewildered. “Why?”

“Just do it!” Briareth says, “Please?”

“Fine,” I concede, putting on the blindfold, and tying it behind my head. “Although I don’t know how this is supposed to help me with finding…” My voice trails off as I connect dots in my head. “Wait, did they prepare a surprise farewell party? And they roped you into it so that you could surprise me?”

I can’t tell Briareth’s expression with my eyes covered. But he stops walking, so I add, “I guessed it didn’t I?” Briareth groans in response.

“Why do you have to be so smart Faladel?”

“I don’t mean to, it just happens. Why did they rope you into it? Did you figure them out before me?”

“No, it was actually my idea in the first place, so I roped them into it. We were all really looking forward to catching you unawares with this, so can you at least pretend to be surprised?”

“I’ll try my best.” I promise. I somehow feel slightly guilty for figuring them out. Briareth continues walking me forward for a while. When he stops us again, I hear a faint rustling of leaves.

“Why are you so tall?” He mutters, messing around with the blindfold’s knot behind my head.

“I’m average height Briareth.” I say smirking slightly. “Don’t blame me because you're sh-” I stop mid sentence as the blindfold falls off my face, and I see our surroundings.

My first thought is that they really worked hard on this. A simple brown picnic blanket lays spread out on the grass, covered by food that must have taken ages to carry out here. They’ve even hung up a banner on two nearby trees that says, “Safe Travels!” The three of them are sitting on the edges of the blankets, surrounded by food. There is salad, a stew of some sort, baked potatoes, a bean salsa and chips with sour cream. There are different drinks as well: water, juice, a bottle of what looks like wine, and a teapot. Then there is a desert section in the middle of the blanket. It consists of: Cake -with the message Fare thee well written in the frosting-, brownies, jello, and lots and lots of donuts.

“Good luck Briareth, Faladel!” Valkallyn shouts toasting us with a cup of what I hope is grape juice.

“Don’t follow Briareth into any more swamps, you hear me?” Folas calls, munching on a baked potato.

“I expect to see that you are miraculously alive in the news sometime soon Faladel.” Adamar adds, placing his teacup on a flat stone. “Welcome to your farewell party by the way.”

“We wanted to make your last meal here special and get a chance to say goodbye and give you guys your gifts!” Folas says grinning.

“You didn’t tell me about the gifts!” Briareth exclaims indignantly. “If I’d known I would have gotten you guys something!” He plops down on the blanket and taps the spot next to him for me.

I settle down beside him. “Wow! this is amazing you guys, thank you so much! How long did it take you to do all this?”

“About an hour.” Adamar says. “Having magic really helps prepare for parties apparently.”

“You guys did all this while we were still in class? With broken bones?” I say, surprised

“The broken bones are long gone Faladel.” Folas explains. “The infirmary doctors are excellent healers. They were gone when we woke up this morning, but they had to keep us in there till ten because they were afraid of complications.”

“It helps that Valkallyn did most of the party planning and set up of props.” Adamar says.

“Yeah, since she was the least wounded of us.” Folas adds.

“It’s not that I was the least wounded, I had some of my life force sucked out you idiot! It was because I listened to the doctors orders when she said that you guys had to ‘take it easy for a few days’.” Valkallyn says indignantly. I smile as Valkallyn and Folas start up some light bickering.

Briareth grabs both of us plates, and we start loading up on our favorite dishes. For the next forty-five minutes I relax, laughing and chattering with my friends about days gone by. There are a couple of upsets, like when Folas tries to sneak a swig of wine and Adamar caught him, and then Briareth tries to stuff some of the donuts into his pack for the road and I catch him, but they only add to the laughter and joviality of our reminiscing.

Each of Folas and Briareth’s pranks and stunts reminds them of some misdemeanor that they had committed in the past, which leads to both of them charging down the ‘do you remember when’ path and regaling the whole group with vivid stories of past adventures, each one denouncing some part of the other’s telling as lies, and then trying to take over the narrative. Eventually of course, they would finish their tale. And then our topic of conversation would move on to other things, but as soon as the two start to get bored, they would start up their capers again.

All too soon though, the lunch hour is over, and our friends have to get going to classes, and we need to get going on our journey. Adamar mutters a spell waving his fingers, the food disappears and the blanket curls inwards on itself, floating off to the nearest entryway into Mossblossom Central. Valkallyn takes down the sign, and sends it flying back to the school as well. Folas collects the cups and plates, and then sends them off in a similar fashion to the food. We are left, a small party of five, standing by the banks of the moat where it is closest to the forest.

I hear the five minute bell. “You guys should probably be going.” I say. “You don’t want to be late.”

“There was actually one thing you appear to have forgotten Faladel.” Valkallyn says. “We haven’t given you guys the presents yet.”

“They are actually the same present, but there is one for each of you, and they are from all of us.” Adamar says, slightly awkwardly, and hands us each a small box tied with a green ribbon.

“It was Adamar’s idea though, and he did most of the work!” Folas says. “Don’t sell yourself short, Adamar.”

“Thanks, all of you.” I say smiling and untying the ribbon. Briareth does the same on his, but I open mine first. Inside is a small beetle. It is silver, and has soft blue swirls woven throughout it’s carapace. I look over and see that Briareth’s is blue with silver inlay.

“These are different from your normal bugs, Adamar.” He comments. “What do these do?”

“These are emergency contact bugs. Press down hard on the carapace, and they will activate and come find me. Their range is larger than the world is, so they can find me anywhere. Then I can follow them back to you.” I see the tips of his ears turn pink. “The next part of the speech that I had prepared for this is rather cheesy, but bear with me please.” He takes a deep breath. “You and Briareth saved me from a dark place when Lyra put me into Brainshock. I didn’t know who I was, what I was, where I was– I didn’t know anything. I probably would have stayed like that if you two hadn’t rescued me. If either of you ever find yourself in a similar situation, lost, alone, despairing, if you ever need help and you feel like your world has turned upside-down and you don’t know who to trust, you only need to call. We will come.”

Briareth closes his box and slips it carefully into a pocket, and then claps. “That actually sounded really cool Adamar.”

“Told you so! I told you they would like the speech!” Folas says, nudging Adamar. Adamars ears are still flushed, and he is looking at his feet, but I can see his smile.

“When you said ‘we will come’, does that mean that Folas and Valkallyn agreed to this as well?” I ask.

“Yep, we did.” Valkallyn says, “that’s why it’s from all of us instead of just Adamar.”

“Any reason to skip school!” Folas says. Valkallyn whacks him on the back of the head. He rubs at it, frowning at her. She gives him a stern look.

“We should probably get going.” Says Valkallyn, but still lingers.

“Surely we’ll cross paths again.” Briareth says, smiling hopefully. “Without having to use the bugs I mean.”

“Unlikely considering your jobs. One of you is always on dangerous undercover missions, and the other in bureaucratic briefings.” Adamar says. “But one can always hope.”

“Goodbye hugs?” Folas offers, and we all hug for a bit. The bell rings, but no one mentions it.

Eventually, after staring at each other for a while, Adamar is the one who says “I guess this is it. Goodbye, Briareth, Faladel. Goodluck. Mossblossom Central won’t be the same with you gone.”

“Goodbye.” Valkallyn and Folas echo.

“Goodbye.” I answer.

“Goodbye.” Briareth says, smiling sadly. “Invite us to your graduation, okay?”

“Will do.” Folas says sniffling.

Our small group separates into two smaller groups. Two figures heading away, the other three heading back. Occasionally we turn and wave at each other.

Soon though, we can’t see each other anymore. They have gone inside, and we are at the edge of the forest. Myrddin is waiting for us there.

“Time to get back on the road I guess.” I say, as the forest opens up a path to the outside before us.

“Not too much longer till we reach Heronmal. Couple days at most, especially since we have Myrddin.” Briareth says.

With that we set out again.