Before she could sum up the will to leave her spot in the center of the darkness, wondering how her mother had felt that day to see her in the woods, someone spoke from afar.

  “You left in a hurry.”

  She started turning her head until she recognized the voice.

  “I thought maybe…something had happened.”

  “I’ve got to go to the library,” she mused loudly while staying rooted, fidgeting with her hands. The cold was getting to her now.

  He walked closer as she looked back up at the night sky, the empty void. “What spell was that?”

  “It’s a secret.”

  “Here, put on your cloak. You’ll catch a cold.”

  Ty turned to look at Theo and the dark fabric in his hands. Instead of taking it, she scanned his face. His features were stark in her mind, even in the night. Its creases, its folds, the eyebags under his eyes from always staying up grossly late. The sickly pale complexion he had from avoiding outdoor time as much as possible. The severe expression he usually had on when talking to her. The look of sorrow in his face from her dreams. “Why is it always you?”

  Frowning, he lowered his hand. “I can go, if you’d like.”

  “No, it’s not that.”

  A pause. “Then what?”

  “It’s always you,” she repeated, staring at him. Trying to figure it out. “Why you, out of everyone?”

  “I’m your physician.”

  She looked back up at the starless sky—that wasn’t the answer. She would have known. “No, it’s not that,” she started, feeling emotions bubble up within her, a truth only she could control this time. “For once, I feel close to understanding something. You remember when I told you about my dreams, how I think there must be a bigger purpose to everything? How I think there’s a reason why I’m here?”

  “I do.”

  “When I finally cast that spell, I could feel it. There was something that felt right about it. Like it was supposed to happen. Like there really is a reason why I’m here, and part of it was to see that. To have cast that spell. To be here.” She lowered her head to the ground. “So there must be a reason why you are, too.”

  “It wasn’t just me who saw you there, watching the stars rain down around you.”

  “That’s true.” She hoped for a moment that the sky would be illuminated with stars once more when she returned to gaze at it. But there was nothing.

  “Then it only makes sense to say that everyone else must be here for a reason as well, not just me.”

  Ty could only nod. “But you’re the only one who knows.”

  “You could have told others, too.”

  Clenching her fists, she faced Theo. “I know. I know, Theo. I could have told everyone everything. I could have given myself up, stopped pretending all this time to be normal. There are so many decisions, so many choices I wish I could take back. There are so many things I regret—my existence, my parents, deciding to come to the Academy—but I…now, here, suddenly I...” She wanted to yell, but all she could manage were tears. “Why do I not regret all of this? The class? That duel, telling you my secret, being summoned to the Headmistress’s office, having dinner with everyone, casting that Starshower, explaining all this to you?”

  She sat down on the field and covered her crying face. “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I just be normal like everyone else? Why do I keep getting these dreams where I’m responsible for everyone dying? I don’t want to hurt anyone, I’m not a monster, I’m just...I’m trying to live, trying to do my best, I’m trying…I’m trying.”

  Theo watched her silently for a while, and then put down her bag on the floor and draped her cloak over her shoulders. He knelt on the ground beside her and waited.

  When she didn’t say anything after a long time, he took out a silvery blue pocket tome from his cloak and opened it up, whispering a few words before finally speaking.

  “Here, give me your hand.”

  Wiping her face with the base of her palms, Ty looked up at the tiny dancing lights in Theo’s hand. Then at Theo, and then back at the lights. After a little more hesitation, she complied, and he gently let the magic fall into her palm.

  “It’s warm,” she whispered, using another hand to cup the light.

  The next time she spoke, the light was gone and there were no more tears. The words she had always been afraid of hearing poured out of her lips. “It feels like I’m trapped in a room with a book in front of me that’s all written out, that’s supposed to tell me how my life is going to play out. Others know what’s written in it, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t make sense of the letters. I just have to correctly guess what’s going to happen next, or I can’t turn the page. And if I…” She faltered, searching for the right words. “If I can’t turn the page, if I can’t finish the book, then I die alone in that room, trapped forever.”

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  Silence.

  “Well,” Theo started, taking in a breath of fresh autumn air. “Let’s find a way out, then.”

  * * *

  “Are we going to the workshop?” Theo asked not ten minutes later as she opened the door to the Great Hall. “If not that, then it’s the village.” He pulled his cloak close. “Which would be a bad idea, because it’s supposed to rain tonight.”

  “Yeah,” whispered Ty quietly, walking down the side stairs to get down from the raised stage where the Headmistress usually made her announcements. The hall was dimly lit, and she could barely see the color in her own hands. One did not spend much time in the ornately—and unnecessarily lavish—Great Hall, which was more of a thoroughfare than anything. Academy-wide announcements were rare, and welcoming ceremonies only happened twice a year. There was no reason to keep it fully lit and maintained past dusk, not that any students had the time to admire the building’s artistry when it was lit, anyway.

  “You’ve been to the workshop?” she asked after opening the next set of doors, this time leading back outside.

  Theo nodded, eyes trained on the several rows of small workshop cottages from afar. “Several times. Darius is a fountain of knowledge even Emrys wasn’t privy to.”

  “Ah. Your teacher.” There was slight bitterness in her voice, but Theo didn’t seem to notice. Another unanswered question. “If you have some time later, I’d like to hear that story.”

  He hummed. “We’ll see.”

  When they finally arrived at the workshop, Ty breathed a sigh of relief to see the wise Ancient sitting at his usual bench in the back, eyes glued to a book with scattered papers all around.

  “Dark, you two.” Darius spoke without looking up, before any of them could even open their mouths to greet him.

  Taking that as an invitation, Ty walked inside and up to Darius’s bench while Theo pulled up a stool.

  “Problem?” the Ancient finally asked after putting down his reading. He scanned both Ty and Theo’s faces, one at a time. “No,” he answered himself, turning around to fetch a kettle sitting by the fire in the back. “You want something.”

  “I’d…like to hear that story,” spoke Ty tentatively, feeling like an open book in front the Ancient.

  Darius didn’t miss a beat, turning around with a kettle and placing two cups on the workbench between them. “Tea.”

  “Thank you,” nodded Theo courteously as he took a cup. He turned to Ty before taking a sip. “Story?”

  “Yes, there’s a story he wanted to tell me,” she explained, feeling a pit in her stomach where her resolve had been not a few minutes earlier.

  Darius shook his head. “Is not good idea.”

  Ty gestured her head at Theo. “He knows.”

  Again, the Ancient shook his head. “Theo special, but not why.”

  The gears in Ty’s mind came to an abrupt halt.

  “Oh?” asked the physician with an interested smile.

  “It…” struggled Darius, a faraway look in his eyes. “It is aura.”

  Ty finally began to process the words. Though she had learned quite early that she couldn’t discern the aura of other humans like the Ancients could—including Theo’s—she was pleasantly surprised to see that she could see Darius’s warm golden glow, which hadn’t changed since they had first met.

  He looked up, straightening his posture on the comically small workbench stool, and then looked at Ty gravely. “Is different from Ty. Her kind easy to see. Changing. Not normal as well,” he said slowly, reading her mind, emphasizing every word. “You do not understand. You do not control. Not even aura.” A mixture of sorrow and pity was written all over his face. “Why your kind do not live long. No control. Cast without sacrifice. Break.”

  Ty watched Darius steadily, but Theo seemed unaffected, eyeing Ty from the corner of his eye while propping his head up on his hand. Curiosity had taken him, and he could not help himself. “Okay, so how does one understand?”

  This made the Ancient pensive, observing the students compassionately. “It is not time for our lost child, our Child of Hope.”

  That was the story, Ty was about to say when Darius began speaking again.

  “But if give title…you, Theo,” Darius shook his head, continuing to speak with a smile on his face. “You are my friend across time. Always.”

  Theo felt something in his chest stir.

  “Ty is Hope,” Darius repeated again as if Theo did not understand. He patted his chest lightly with his hand. “But you are Love.”

  Had someone been looking into the workshop, even if it were from the top floor of the lecture building, even if was Theo himself looking back at himself many, many years later, anyone would have remembered exactly how remarkably beet-red his face was at that very instant.

  * * *

  After Theo downed a few more big gulps of tea and finally recovered from the embarrassment of being called something like that, the young Ancient sighed and got up from his seat.

  She could not help herself. “Wait.”

  “No,” Darius replied immediately, turning around to put the kettle back by the fire.

  “Please.”

  There was sadness in his voice. “Regret. It will always be regret. For me and for you.”

  “I know.”

  Sighing deeply, the Ancient sat back down. He started distractedly gathering the papers on the table and then began to speak.

  “My colony is not big, the Ancients are few left. Our kind, peaceful. We abide by Earth Mother. We do not waste, we create in moderation. It is tradition. It is how we live.” He smiled weakly at the stack of papers in his hand. “But magic, many outside do not like. So, many fight. We lose, because to kill is to be judged by the Earth Mother and her Graces. To kill for nothing is no question. Others do not understand. They hate because they are ignorant. If only they understand. We try to help them see.”

  Darius shook his head. “There is too much history. Our people suffer long time to now. I am here because we suffer. I realize, something must change. I leave my family, my home, so I can help fight. My father tell me, very young, that tradition cannot save my people. Tradition will kill us. It is killing us.”

  His expression contorted, and he closed his eyes as if in pain. “I am no longer child. I have lived many year, over and over. Sometimes it feel like forever. Fight never end. There is more blood. Always. Always hate, always ignorance. Problem is not only tradition. Problem is magic. Magic kill us. Magic will kill all. Fault is ours. The world’s. We abuse the bountiful Earth Mother, the Graces. Doom will arrive. No matter how much we try to hide. Deny. The end, it arrives without mercy.”

  A chill ran through Ty.

  “We have known long time. But we Ancients cannot do much. We have tradition. We cannot fight. It is impossible. We have power, but cannot use. Outsiders, humans, they can fight. But weak. Never enough.” His eyes finally shifted away from the desk as he nodded to Ty. “But you. You are not Ancient, you are not Outsider. You have power. You have choice.”

  He put down his papers, glancing at Ty’s wide eyes, her distant expression. “When I was child, Elder allow Outsider into colony. Association send many Outsider to watch us. But this Outsider, very different. I hear her story. Her, and the impossible—an Ancient who can love. Their child, who escape with friend. Who survive, unlike others.

  “I remember well. ‘She is our Child of Hope. They must not find her. We must keep her safe, she is the only one with the gift who they do not know about,’ she say. You see, I did not understand what ‘Hope’ was. I was small. But now, I understand. I know what to do with Hope. How to help Earth heal. I understand what must happen.”

  Staring at the tactician, Darius said, loudly and clearly, “You must do what we cannot: you must destroy magic. You must destroy us.”