Fer boarded the poday, another sister would be freed.

  Ever since Ilwin’s phone call came through, Arcadia had bee silent. Edmonton sat on a dull chair in Eliza’s room. She had ed it up sihey were staying. It almost seemed like her room, but the little touches were missing. The flower vase was empty. The carpet was rolled up and stuffed uhe bed. Her books weren’t ly sorted, instead just thrown onto a shelf. Empty water bottles lined one wall, , anized, but it wasn’t a healthy Eliza living here.

  Edmonton looked at the girl. She saw him looking, nodded and said nothing, instead just bringing her knees up to her chest. Fleur was sitting oher side of the bed. Eyes closed but obviously not asleep. Meditating most likely. They sat in that small dorm-room and looked at each other.

  The clock ticked. Outside, a bell started to sound. Six beats. Almost evening. Edmonton sighed heavily as he pulled himself up off the floor. “Alright.” He broke the silence for a moment. “It’s time.” Eliza nodded as she slid off the bed. Fleur opened her blue eyes and sighed herself. What was there for them to say? How could they pn? What could they even say about the tai ward? The most iion any of them had with that pce was brief looks of curiosity at the outside of the building.

  “So it is.” She said. There was nothing else to say.

  Edmonton hooped a leather belt around his trousers. Its shutting click was deafening. Eliza put on a coat and donned her backpack. Edmonton had never sidered how loud the sound of cloth against cloth was. Each of Fleur’s buttons clicked with tiny drumbeats. Edmonton fastened his shoes in silence.

  They left that room. Eliza stared at the door for a few moments. She smiled to herself, stroked the handle and shook her head. No one said anything, there was nothing to say. They left the Floromanitory. A huge building, the outside was bathed in flrand statues of curled wood grown into shape. Edmonton had never sidered how pretty it was, but he never sidered he may never return here.

  They walked past ughing couples. They walked as the young children pyed silly games together, students of Arcadia who were still in their first year. They walked past a teacher expining how to grow flowers in a pot to another pair of students. Edmonton sighed as he walked with Fleur and Eliza.

  Silence.

  They walked through a park. More dates. More students reading in the shade. A gaggle of boys were sharing what no doubt was a smuggled bottle of wine. A teacher pretended not to see them. Past benches as flowers moved in the gentle breeze, as birds sang in their s, their songs pying to a background of people chatting and leaves brushing. And Edmonto walking. Fleur kept walking. Eliza kept walking.

  Silence.

  Fleur broke it eventually. Her tone careful, she fiddled with a lock of bck hair. “We go in and out.” She said. “Just Lyca.”

  “Just Lyca.” Edmonton replied. And so they returo silehree pairs of footsteps on gravel as they left the main stage of Arcadia. Students didn’t travel far out from the dorms, there was o when they had everything they needed uheir noses. North, through a park. The tower tops of the Divine Library were visible in the distance, across the Divine Gardens. Not today. Edmonton sniffed in humour, to think how much his life ged because he ehat structure, aill had not read even a single page of the works stored there.

  That sniff quickly dispersed into the air as Edmonto walking. Fleur kept walking. Eliza kept walking. Three pairs of footsteps, birds singing in the air, trees gently swaying, the sky being purple as the Sun fell.

  Three pairs of footsteps in an o of silence.

  Their walk felt like crossing the world, but it was no lohan a half-hour. The clocktowers had not even started ringing to mark the turnover of the hour yet. The tai ward wasn’t especially far away from the main plex of Arcadia. It was an old structure, one of the oldest in the faux-try, and one of the few that still y untouched by modern architectural design.

  Edmonton looked up at the building. It was a building from a different era, when mages built for fun rather than form. A moat of sand y around to stop any flora from climbing the walls, and it was an ugly building. With small windows that were more like arrow slits, the door was heavy steel. There wasn’t any towers, it was simply a block of stohat had been ripped out of the ground and then carved into shape.

  A pair of Arcadia’s staff stood at the doors of the building. At least it had guards. The two were quietly chatting among themselves as Edmonton came to a stop on the edge of that sand-moat. He simply didn’t want to speak with these people yet.

  Silence.

  Fleur broke it again. She ughed nervously. “When we went off st time, with Sara, it was different.”

  “It was.” Edmonton said. Eliza pyed with her fingers.

  “And when Anassa sent us off for Fer.”

  “That was something else.” Fleur said as she let out a heavy breath. “That we basically had to do.”

  “We have to do this too.” Eliza said and Edmonton nodded.

  “We do.” He said slowly. “But no one is telling us we have to do it.” He was in disbelief at how much of a different the ck of a direand made. He had always wanted prestige, but even that prestige came with a duty. The job of a leader was dictated by the wills of his subjects. But this though? This urely him, Fleur and Eliza. There was no one else. Even Anassa had only said if they , they should, but she didn’t press them into resg Lyca.

  “We’re not going to leave Lyca here.” Eliza said.

  “Of course we’re not.” Fleur chimed in. Her voice quiet. The guards noticed they were being stared at and stopped talking. Edmonton igheir looks, it was rare for people to visit but it wasn’t unheard of. Arcadia had plenty of architecture clubs, another profession mages were on in. “But… I mean, it’s on us.”

  “No oo give us a smack if we fail.” Edmonton said and Fleur let out a mirthless sniff that prete carried humour. The versation died down. It wasn’t a versation anyway, it was simply a way to pass the time.

  Silence.

  Birds singing, trees rustling, the guards returo their quiet versation, someone shouting in the distance, wind blow. The suing.

  And Silence.

  Edmonton broke it this time. “I remember talking with Iliyal before Misfortune.” Fleur smiled to herself as Eliza looked at them.

  “I still have the picture Doug took.” Fleur said. “I’ll show it to you and Lyca when this is over.” Edmontourhe versation to what he wao say. The thought had invaded his mind and now he had to say it to get it to leave.

  “He said the wait’s the worst part. And that you never get used to it, you just find ways to cope.”

  “I believe that.” Fleur said as Eliza nodded.

  “So that was the Iliyal Tremali we met back then? When we rescued Fer?” The shirl asked. She retied her brown her into a tail. Fifth time now. Fleur nodded. Sileurned.

  And so they stood.

  They drowned in the silent o. With its singing birds, with the swaying trees, with the sounds of studeually disappearing as they returned into their dorms for their night. They drowned until it was almost hard to breath. They drowned until they couldn’t stand. And so they stood.

  And then, three shooting stars above them broke the silence. Cruelly cut it apart. Like lightning dev kihe silence was the stillness of an image, a moment captured in time. And then, the image started turo film and started to move.

  Edmonton looked up. Raptor One and Raptor Two screeched overheard, they were massive pnes, with a unique sound produced by the firapped onto them. They flew straight, slowed, then circled. “That’s n.” Edmonton said as he cracked his neck.

  A mere minute ago, he felt as if the air had turned into custard. It had been hard to breath. His movements felt slow ahargiow though? He cracked his fingers and stretched his spine. Fleur let out a deep sigh and took a breath. “Wait’s over.” Eliza said, her voice cold and sharp now.

  Edmonton took a step onto the moat of sand. The guards were looking up at the phey were expert mages, the robes revealed them. Full of colour and signs. They turned immediately from the sky and towards the three who had stepped towards them. “Visitor hours are closed.” One of the men shouted in a strong voice.

  Edmontohem grab at magic. They started to light up like a campfire in the ess of a mountain valley. One man grabbed at fire, the other at Edmonton’s element, water. From their expressions, it was obvious that they knew Edmonton and the two behind him were up to no good.

  Edmonton came to a stop. There was a crash from the dormitories. Screams. A bestial runshots. “What’s happening!?” One of the guards shouted. Edmonton snapped his fingers.

  Arascus had taught him how to train power. Anassa had taught him to use it. There was no need for theatrics. Freat beams of red sorcery to ie the men from existence. Anassa called such things pedestrian, like a strongman who could n his fio his shoulder because of the size of his bicep. Sorcery was easy to use and it was easy to show off with.

  Edmonton snapped his fingers and the two men colpsed. Two tiny beams of sorcery shot at them from Edmonton, eae splitting right at the end to pierce the throat and the heart. That’s how Anassa used sorcery.

  Fleur waved her hand. The door fell forward from its great steel hinges. Its crash louder than the roars and gunshots and explosions ing from Arcadia’s tral plex. There were ten men waiting inside. Muards, this was the only area that required it in Arcadia, they were after all holding mages who went out of trol in here.

  They stood up, looked at the two corpses, at the doors, and at the three approag them. Eliza stepped forwards. She sliced the air with her fist as if she was holding an invisible. A wave of red sorcery emerged from her. A sword that cut steel and crete and flesh all with the efficy of a hot knife slig through warm butter.

  Ten men were split at the waist, just like that. Edmonton stopped at the entrance way. Arms started to from the main plex. Then more sounded from within the tai ward. He took a breath and ged his mind.

  The wait had been a torture session as scalpels of aore his mind apart. He had wao turn and run, hide, even though he knew he would not be able to look himself in the mirror tomorrow if he did that. Questions and doubts had filled his mind with a depressive pgue that corroded his sanity away. Now though?

  Why bother? Why did he fear the wait? What were the doubts even about? He couldn’t recall them as sound started to flood ba. His owbeat chased the thoughts away. The stillness had been an unscable mountain, and he scaled the mountain in one small step.

  He took another breath as sorcery spiralled madly through his veins. Magic simply did not pare. It was like showing fire to a child and then giving them a matchstick to py with. There was no need for a pn, no need for any discussion, he knew Fleur and Eliza as well as they knew him. Lyca was somewhere in here.

  Edmonton stepped into a puddle of blood as he made his way into the stone corridor.

  Now though, the wait was over.