Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 12 | Day 3

It honestly feels like I’m confusing them more and more with every word I say. Which is kind of sad, to be honest.

The commander and the leader of the intruder party walk back over to the city gates and begin chatting as if I can’t hear them.

I’m starting to be very thankful for my sense of hearing.

“What do you think?” the leader asks his superior officer. “Should we bring out the mayor?”

Mayor?

Guessing that’s the leader of this little city?

I ignore the soldiers in front of me – I’m just going to settle on calling them all soldiers from now on – who are still pointing their guns at me as I focus on the conversation between the two.

“Probably. I think there may have been a misunderstanding about the vampire at some point. That or he’s trying to trick us,” the gate commander guy answers while rubbing his stubble of a beard in thought. After a few seconds he looks up at me and tenses up slightly.

The leader of the soldiers from before asks his superior, “Do you think we can even take him? He’s shrugged off who knows how many bullets and only seems to be worried about his clothes getting damaged…”

No, you really can’t.

“It’s probably that we can find a weakness of some kind-” no it’s not “-but I would rather not test it against him. Especially knowing that he could likely take out a sizable portion of our men in the process,” the commander says after turning his gaze away from me. He then pauses for a few seconds, lets out a sigh, and orders, “Go inform the mayor that we have an emergency on our hands. And explain the situation to him before he gets here.”

“Sir!” the other one shouts before heading off into the city while the commander returns to us and says, “My apologies for the wait.”

I’m starting to feel awkward having listened to everything they just said and now seeing him return to me as if that hadn’t just happened.

Although it doesn’t help that over half a dozen rifles are still being pointed at me.

“I just sent lieutenant Bracken to find and bring the mayor here, as I’m not a high enough rank to discuss our dealings with you,” he tells me, surprisingly telling the truth in the process.

Interesting.

I honestly expected him to tell some sort of lie or just stall for time while the mayor came with reinforcements.

Maybe something will come of this instead of conflict after all? When I came over here I wasn’t really expecting much success in my endeavors. But that might not be the case after all.

The Arcane Academy

Year 2849 | Month 12 | Day 3

A destitute silence fills the academy as academy students – each magicians in their own right – wander from one place to another, not saying a single word. Meanwhile, in one particular place, a building that serves as a restaurant to the more privileged and wealthy, or in the case of Nathan and his friends, family and friends, one group can be seen sitting at a table not saying a word. Amongst this group are the former members of Nathan’s team from his time at the academy, along with Amelia Marshall.

None of them say a single word. Instead, they all simply sit there eating mint ice cream. The type of ice cream that they all knew Nathan loved.

Eventually, after nearly ten minutes of silence, Aidan Hawkins finally speaks, asking the question each of them is wanting to know to Amelia.

“Did you find his family?”

All of them but Amelia hold their breath as they look at her, only for tears to start forming in many of their eyes once she slowly shakes her head in the negative. “We couldn’t find any traces of them. They’re most likely dead at this point.”

The previous silence returns with a vengeance, joined only by the occasional sniffle from the gathered magicians. But this one is almost immediately broken again by the arrival of Sophia’s sister, who is carrying a round of alcoholic beverages.

Everyone turns to her in confusion when she sets them down on the table for them, and when someone tries to speak up, she just raises a hand and says, “Ah ah ah, no declining. I don’t care if you’re technically still just a year away from being legally old enough to drink on your own. You need these.”

She then walks away, leaving each of the students to brew over whether or not to drink the beverages in front of them, as the drinking age in the republic is at the age of twenty. And none of them are twenty yet.

However, it only takes the silence brewing for another minute before someone gives in.

Everyone looks at Amelia, who is already chugging down a bottle of beer before they share a glance with each other and join her, starting with Aidan, and then Cyria, followed shortly by the rest.

After everyone takes a deep pull of the beer, Aidan raises his beer to the air and shouts, “To Nathan! The best friend a guy could ever ask for!”

It doesn’t take long for the others to join suit.

“To Nathan! The brother I never had!” Amelia shouts after him. Followed by the others silent nods, each with tears falling down their faces.

Sophia’s sister can’t help but smile just a little bit at seeing the group finally begin to

Meanwhile, in a certain classroom, two instructors can be seen staring blankly at a screen. One that had just been cut off after the doctor finally bothered to tell them about his losing Nathan’s whereabouts.

“Who would’ve thought he’d lose that psycho,” Leo mutters, a faint smile spreading across his face as he stares at the screen. And Anabel can’t help but nod next to him, too shocked to form any words right now. Because they both understand clearly how powerful the doctor is.

And to get out from under his thumb would take a miracle.

Which some might consider what happened to be a miracle. Others?

Not so much.