Classes started and the five of them began their “private” lessons with Master Sora. After only a week, Parker could use the air behind him to help him rocket around places basically invisible to the naked eye. If others were paying close attention they would be able to notice but if their focus was anywhere else, Parker could move about nearly undetected.

Caleb was having a little trouble at times trying to multitask using both his Air Imperial and Earth Imperial simultaneously to move around quickly. Moving at such fast speeds with only half vision was incredibly difficult, especially if any obstacles were to come into play.

The three girls were having no problems with it. Being able to move in and out of groups of people undetected came as second nature to them. Master Sora had them practicing during the lunch hour by moving through students’ tables and stealing food without getting caught. Everything went smoothly until they tried to snag some Element Bars off of a House of Erion sixth year who knew the “trick” all too well and was able to steal it back within seconds.

They sat around the fire sprawled out on the couches, floor and hearth. Being in five physical classes was exhausting in and of itself but having the amount of homework tied in on top of it made it dreadful.

Exams came quickly as they weren’t sitting in class bored out of their minds. Between their classes, homework and Aether practice, Parker felt lucky to even get sleep. He couldn’t be happier that he and Alexis had been asked to join the team once again but it didn’t help him gain any free time, plus they were working separately with Master Sora for their new missions as he’d begun to describe it.

Everyone had made their way to bed as Parker finally began wrapping up his homework. The fire crackled loudly next to him. He loved feeling the warmth the fire put off and the sounds it made. When the common room was filled it was hard to hear, but being by himself in the middle of the night made it extremely peaceful. He pondered briefly what it would be like to always have this level of peace.

At that moment, thinking about the peace he would love to have, Lara appeared sitting on the hearth in front of him. He stared blankly at her for a moment trying to understand what he was seeing. When it finally registered that she was truly in front of him and he wasn’t seeing things after working hard for so long, Lara started to speak.

“Good evening Parker.” She adjusted on the hearth and smiled. “How’s the new school year been so far?”

Parker blinked a lot, taking in the fact that she was now sitting in front of her like they were best pals. He couldn’t believe that she was trying to small talk him at this point. After everything she’d done to them, he never would’ve thought that she’d have the audacity to simply sit to have a normal conversation.

“What did I do?”

Lara looked at him confused. “What are you talking about?”

“What did I do to make you only seek me out? You always show up to me and none of the others.”

“I feel like we have a connection. Don’t you?”

“Not even a little,” he said as if he had something awful tasting resting on his tongue.

“You don’t think we have a connection?” Lara raised her hand to her chest in mock surprise. “I’m hurt.”

“How could I have a connection to someone who has almost killed me and my friends on more than one occasion?”

Lara looked at him puzzled. “Twice?” She said it as though she couldn’t believe he accused her of it being twice.

“Yes twice. Once in your other realm and once by destroying the House of Erion almost killing Caleb. He’s lucky he only lost an eye.” Parker grew more and more frustrated the more he thought about it. He had to do everything he could not to start yelling at the top of his lungs remembering that everyone was still asleep.

“I won’t deny the first one but I did nothing to your house. Well, this house. I did show up at your parents’ house and make a mess of your room but at least I cleaned up after myself.”

Parker stared at her, seething. “You’re going to lie straight to my face after everything you’ve put me through?”

“I have yet to lie to you about anything. I’ve made you come to your own conclusions before, but I’ve never lied. Besides, I’ve been far too busy as of late.” Lara stood up and took a few steps toward Parker. He slowly backed away matching her pace for pace. “Let’s take this somewhere else.”

Before Parker could do anything, they were standing on the side of a mountain, ankle deep in snow. “Where are we?”

“We’re just outside of a small city in Norway.”

“Norway?” Parker yelled. “How is that even possible?”

“This is where I live.”

“You live in Norway?” Parker asked surprised. “No, that’s not the point! How did we get from Lancastre to here? That’s not possible.”

Lara looked at him perplexed with an eyebrow raised. “How would it not be possible? You have the Space Imperial now, you know how it works.” She said it so matter-of-factly that Parker felt like he was doing everything with his Imperials wrong.

“I can only go to a separate space that I’m currently in and walk to wherever I’m going.”

She looked at him for a moment without saying anything. “Hm… I would’ve thought you’d be further than that already but I’m sure you’ll get there!” He couldn’t believe how enthusiastic and supportive she sounded. “Anyways, I’ve been working on creating my new world. That’s why I live here. There is barely anyone around to distract me from my work.”

“I thought you’d given up on that,” Parker said frankly.

“Given up? Oh heavens no. Why would I give up? It’s the only chance I have to save my daughter, your friend.”

“Save her? Save her from what?” Parker was starting to raise his voice, not worrying about waking anyway up at this point. “You’re the only threat to her!”

“I’m no threat to her,” she snapped back. “Her father is the monster!” She took a deep breath after shouting. “Sorry about that. My temper escaped me a little.”

Parker was taking in everything she was saying as the sun dipped below the peak of the mountain. The sky started to darken quickly, and Parker couldn’t believe the view of the sky as the stars showed themselves more and more. He realized after a moment that he hadn’t said anything back to Lara after her little outburst.

“How is her father a threat?”

“All he wants her for is her abilities. He doesn’t love her.” Parker could hear her hatred for him as she continued. “He’s searched and searched for more power ever since I met him. He loved my different abilities and tried to even learn how to do them himself but never could.”

“Who is her father? Maybe if we just stop him, then you don’t have to go and kill the majority of the world.”

“If we could stop him, I’d more than happily leave this world alone. But with the threat of what he might do to her, I can’t risk leaving them near each other.”

“Near each other? He’s at Lancastre?” Parker’s eyes went wide with shock and fear. “Who is it?” All he wanted was a name. Neither Lara nor Master Sora would drop the name of who Hailee’s father was.

“I’ll tell you, on one condition.” Parker was tired of being held to conditions by others. “If I tell you, you cannot tell Hailee.”

“How will you keep me from telling her? Or for that matter, how will you know if I even tell her?”

“If you tell her, he’s going to be aware that she knows, putting her at a greater risk.”

Parker thought about that for a moment before deciding if he wanted to know his name. It was a tough decision. If he knew, would he be able to keep it secret? If not, would her dad get to Hailee and hurt her?

“Tell me.”

Lara looked at him with a cautionary look before speaking. “There’s no going back from this. Once you know, you know. You’re sure that you want to know who her father is?”

“Tell me. I want to help protect her.” He puffed his chest up and stuck his shoulders out to make himself appear broader.

She could tell that Parker wanted nothing but to help his friend. “You’ve met him already. Several times in fact.” Parker looked at her, eyes wide with shock. “Her father is Warwick Terra.”

The next thing Parker knew, he was lying in bed as the sun peeked over the horizon. Caleb sat up in his bed and looked over at Parker who was staring out of the window with a puzzled look on his face. “Everything okay Parker? Not sleep well?”

Parker continued staring out of the window ignoring Caleb’s question. Had it all been a dream? Even if it was, he knew that Lara could speak to him there too if she wanted to. “Did anything happen last night?”

Caleb tilted his head confused. “Happen? I finished my homework and went to bed. I never saw you come in, so you must’ve stayed up a bit later.”

Parker continued to ponder everything that had happened with Lara showing up out of nowhere. Had it all been true? Was Master Terra Hailee’s father? Or had he just dreamed all of that because he wanted to know so badly. “Caleb, don’t freak out.” He could see the look on Caleb’s face saying, freak out? Why would I freak out if you start the sentence like that?

“What’s wrong?”

“Lara showed up last night. On the hearth in the common room and then she took me to some mountainside in Norway.”

Caleb’s jaw practically hit the floor. “What?” he asked much louder than he intended to. “How is that even…” he stopped himself knowing that it seemed like Lara was capable of practically anything at this point. “What did she want?”

“Let’s find the girls and I’ll tell you everything. I just don’t want to have to explain it over and over.” They finished getting ready and made their way to the common room where the rest of their housemates were moving about their morning business before breakfast. It seemed quieter than normal but Parker figured it was just because of everything on his mind.

They were sitting on the couch when the girls made their way into the common room. Parker’s eyes darted to Alexis when she walked into the room and his heart raced. Then he looked at Hailee and remembered what Lara had said. He promised to keep it secret, but how could he? Hailee was one of his best friends. She deserved to know who her father was. But would that put her in more danger than she was already in?

He couldn’t believe that Master Terra was a threat to Hailee. He seemed so friendly with them when he wasn’t being strict in their lessons. Nothing he’d done had ever hinted that he wanted to hurt Hailee in any way. At this point, he’d had ample opportunities to kill her, so why hadn’t he tried?

“Everything okay?” Alexis asked, placing a hand on Parker’s shoulder.

The room turned a hazy gray color and Parker gestured for everyone to follow him out of the common room. He explained everything to them, at least everything that he was allowed to explain.

“She’s able to just snap her fingers and boom be in a different place? I thought the separate space worked but you still had to travel there by yourself, it just took less time than it normally would.” Alexis was trying to figure out how something like that would even be possible. She considered combining it with the ability to freeze time but there’s no way she’d be able to freeze the whole world.

“Well, apparently once you’re strong enough anything is possible.” Parker was trying to keep a poker face so no one else would think he knew more than he was letting on. But there was no reason anyone would suspect that he’d be holding back information so he shouldn’t be panicking.

Parker was surprised that Caleb hadn’t said anything. It wasn’t like him as of late not to offer up his opinion, especially on something as important as this.

When they got to the dining hall Parker pulled them out of the separate space and they made their way to their normal table. Not much else was said as they sat to eat their breakfast. Everyone’s minds raced through everything they thought was going to happen now. Lara saying that she had nothing to do with the house collapsing. Who could it have been then and would they try it again?