Amber was granted enrollment through the Redwall family, with the expectation of her working for them and paying them back before she was allowed to find work elsewhere.

Though what really got her in was good luck, with the limited number of students allowed in each year even after the campus was expanded she was being directly compared to someone else with a nearly identical set of talents, and so a coin was flipped, the final spot was hers.

She wanted to learn war magic, single combat magic, and then the new beast magics class, the confederation gave over unique magics like telekinesis in order to be allowed into the academy.

Her last class was officially magical cloth weaving, in reality it was an unlisted illusions class, something the countries and the academy kept a close eye on, most assassins and thieves learned their craft in such a place. And they very much wanted assassins and thieves on their side.

She was also offered something called soul enchanting during her 3rd year, but she was told she should drop another course if she wanted it, and it came with a long list of warnings about not giving the information to anyone outside of the kingdom.

She also just thought it sounded unsavory, more so than her other classes teaching her to kill.

Amber had received a letter from home, another one of Harlan’s friends had showed up at the farm, and was staying until the start of the academy’s new year.

Amber was glad that Harlan had managed to make friends, he didn’t really fit in with the other children even during the few times other farmers brought them over for a visit.

And even more so that he made a friend who was a girl, Amber thought about teasing him over it, if he even understood.

But these thoughts were broken by her friend, a Tytoan girl, Ibery, same age, slightly taller but thin.

Her face was concave, bright white feathers with a dark ring framing it, like she was wearing a mask.

Her back was speckled brown, with even smaller green spots denoting a wind alignment. Her front a bright white like her face.

Since they started letting in beastkin during Amber’s first year things had been tense with the students from the theocracy, and to a lesser extent even from the kingdom.

So Amber ended up with her friend group full of beastkin, Adelwulf the Canis with his thin black fur, brown around his face and hands, Amber rarely failed to mention how funny a dog person with wolf in their name was.

Tau the Minos was shockingly cowardly, He loved healing and crafting, wouldn’t hurt a fly. His size dwarfed everyone but Bojana the Ursa, who was a stereotype of a warrior, gruff, hard headed, kept trying to fight Tau who always refused. She took only classes for combat, and also basket weaving, which was surely some other unlisted class.

Ibery was talking to her about getting hazed by someone or another again, without hands quickly tying her beak closed with string was always an easy and embarrassing prank the others seemed to love, though she had gotten quite good at untying it with telekinesis without breaking the string, she even started collecting them.

She eventually decided it wasn’t worth trying to fight them, without a noble house backing her the others had a right to refuse any duels, and fighting outside of one carried harsh punishments.

“I think I have string of every color I can think of now, what about a sweater made from them? I don’t really use clothes but it would be a neat reminder to keep my rage alive.”

“How about a bag? You could store your books in it, help carry them around. I have gotten pretty good at weaving with my magic now.” Everyone looked at her like a crazy person for a moment.

“Yeah, sure, you and your magical weaving classes, weird that I’ve never seen you actually weave anything since I’ve known you.”

“I think you should make a rope, find the ones who messed with you, hang them.”

“Yes of course you would think that Bojana, can’t you just forgive and forget? Sometimes I think we should all just have a sit down and try to talk heart to heart with them.”

“Hang on, I think she has a point on this one Tau, but you can’t hurt them, there are too many issues involved in such a solution. You could use a rope for a tripwire, as long as it can’t be linked back to you its fine.” Adelwulf loved his tricks and traps, his people were known for being able to rig together a snare from anything you gave them.

They went along with their grim humor for their entire lunch, Amber invited them to her room for a private chat after classes were done for the day.

“I… I got a letter. from my brother's friend. She said he is still doing well, he has friends where he is. I don’t know how I feel about it, I started learning all this magic to try and either save or avenge him… I held onto that anger for a long time, and I can’t bear to let it go. If he just came back one day, would I just fall apart?” her friends were shocked, they had each made the mistake of asking if she had any brothers at one point, leading to a flash of pure rage and then an awkward apology, the start of all their friendship in one way or another.

“I lost 3 cousins to theocracy incursions, I have let that simmer and push me for a long time too, I think you will be fine, hold that fire, don’t get burned. Even if he is alright you must remember what has happened, we have a tradition of remembering every wrong, and trying to right them if possible.”

“I am sure you all know my answer, but I think you should let go, before you see him next, give yourself time to handle it slowly. And you should listen as well Bojana, killing and anger is poison for the soul and mind.” Tau was always trying his best for peace, never once fighting back when others bullied him, eventually some stopped when they couldn’t get any reaction from him.

“I… I never had siblings, but my grandfather’s stories about fighting the theocracy have stayed with me, he lost his father to the fighting, and so he joined the fight when he grew up, and it never really left him I think. I don’t hold that hate like you two, but sometimes I think about all the pointless suffering caused by retaliations, you should just keep it in mind. If they hurt him then find a way to make it right, but if he doesn’t hold it against your kingdom, then you shouldn't either.” Ibery didn’t like conflict, being put between Tau who she thought was overly naive and Bojana who she thought was always too extreme, she went with a middle road of finding out what happened first, then plot revenge if needed.

Adelwulf was silent, he had a story but he wasn’t about to tell it. His eyes told her revenge was his suggestion though.

“I don’t like any of these answers, I don’t know if I could, I don’t want to think about this more, I’ll just let it sit for now. Bojana, I want to fight, how long will it take to get ready for the dueling rings?‘

“I’ll be there in 15 minutes.“

And so time passed, Amber never really got an answer to her question, but when the academy break started and she met Zella her mind cooled down some, it helped that Zella was old enough to tease and she got to see what Harlan looked like, hear stories about what they all did.

Amber was kicking herself for not taking soulsmithing, it was a direct connection to him in a way.

The 3 girls all bonded over telling stories and sparing, Zella was untrained but stronger than Ava because of age and her hair, and she was on a level close to Amber due to her time at the facility.

They also tagged along with Ava for her training hunts.

When Redmond came back on leave and showed off all his fancy gear now powered by mimic souls Amber was distraught all over again, his sword could do all the basic ball spells without straining him at all, it helped him to push back against stronger people, his shield had similar features.

She decided to ask if it was possible to switch from illusions to soulsmithing still.

“Alright, I think that is enough of a show.” Redmond then proceeded to use his boots to walk on the air over a small puddle on his way inside. The show was never really over during the rest of his stay.

“Wait… so Harlan did this?” Redmond asked Zella while pointing at his armor, since he got it his life had been saved no less than 3 times, close calls had been avoided innumerably.

“Yes! he will be ecstatic when he hears you like it so much!”

“Right, yeah…” he was conflicted, he did REALLY like his new equipment, but the cost was all the pain everyone else had felt for the last 2 and a half years.

“Do you want to see him?”

“What?”

Aida had to step in before Redmond got too disappointed realizing what she actually meant.

“She can show you what he looked like the last time she saw him.”

“How?”

“Soul speak is what he always called it. He taught me everything he knows about it. But uh… don’t cry on me, you guys have all done it.” Zella had grown confident in her time at the farm, she hadn’t really had any family other than Rosewell and Relly since she got her powers, and it did wonders to soothe her lonely spirit.

“I’m a big kid, I’ll be fine.” he was not.

Amber felt her rage slip farther away the longer she was at home, the more stories she heard, the more she realized how much good Harlan had done, if his armor saved Redmond’s life then was that fair? For him to be gone for a long time so that she could see Redmond again? She started to feel guilty trying to quantify suffering and loss like it was adding up marbles.

But, she had the best nights sleep in a long time that night.