“I told her to keep out of trouble, but she just doesn’t listen to me,” said Logan.

He sunk into the chair and fretted his face until dead cells came off his pale skin.

Thousands of thoughts bugged his mind and needed to be addressed, but all the headmaster could think of was his daughter.

Aria sighed and leaned against a bookshelf across the desk as she observed her brother. An uneasy feeling crept upon her.

It wasn’t like Logan to be this devastated and miserable, although they had been through a lot of suffering together. Even so, her brother was not the type to cry for help.

Most of all, she felt sorry. Not because she was the cause of his despair, but because she wasn’t there to help Logan raise Elise after her mother’s passing.

She should’ve been present more than she was. Even though Elise never whispered a word of longing for her deceased mother, Aria knew her absence ate the poor girl’s heart out nonetheless.

They were not lookalikes, she and Elise. Elise was the carbon copy of her father. The only thing her niece inherited from her late mother was her upturned nose.

Their personality, however, was similar. That was why she knew there was no way Elise would listen to anyone but herself.

Although she wanted to make up for her absence now and lend a helping hand to her brother, she knew lies were all she could offer him.

“I’ll talk to her. Do you know where she is?”

“Probably in class. She’s just like you, Aria. I don’t know what to do anymore! As if the missing children were not enough as is, now I have to worry about her too!”

Aria nodded. A pang of ache spread through her chest upon seeing her brother in such distress. Again, it felt as though it was all her fault.

“I know, brother. Don’t sweat it, hmm? I’ll talk to—”

Their eyes wandered to the rattling doorknob. It twisted and turned time and again, yet no one knocked on the door.

“Are you expecting someone?”

Logan shook his head as the doorknob kept moving up and down. There was no way anyone could enter through the door without his permission. The door listened to him like its lord and never let anyone in unless Logan told it to.

“Not that I know of,” he muttered, before shouting. “Come in!”

The door creaked open. Beyond it stood an uninvited guest that neither of the siblings had seen for many, many years and expected not to see for another thousands of years.

Logan sought Aria’s eyes and raised his brows, asking her what was going on without uttering a single word. Aria shook her head, just as at sea as her brother.

Then again, this wasn’t the first time her brother accused her of something she had not done.

When he finally verbalised what went through his mind, she rolled her eyes in disbelief.

“You called him here?”

“What do you take me for Logan?”

“I don’t know, you tell me! Why’s he here?”

The divine siblings were more concerned about who invited him rather than what brought him to the last place he should be.

They didn’t even greet him back. Back and forth, like doves with broken necks, they made faces and accused one another of inviting him.

Gwydion stared at them in turns and sighed. How long had it been since he last saw those two?

He even managed to forget their never-ending bickering, so it must’ve been a few thousand years by now.

It wasn’t like he didn’t want to see them or be part of their lives like back in the day – before the Alfen Wars.

Rather, it was because he was too ashamed to face either of them. Keeping his distance and leaving his old friends alone was the best he could offer them in return for the pain he caused them.

Aria met his eyes first. Her plump lips were as red as blood, her jaw so sharp it could cut through the air with just a nod.

The passage of time had been gentle to her. Like her grandmother, Lady Urius, she possessed a beauty only challenged by the Elven girls.

Logan, on the other hand, encompassed such femininity that you’d think he was female himself.

Yet whenever he flared up like a fiery ball when provoked, his features and mannerisms turned masculine. Even he looked the same as he did back in the good old days.

Their personalities were vastly different from one another, though. So different that it was a mystery that they had the same mother and father.

Aria was calmer in nature, although there were times when she too was blinded by anger and let her feelings take over.

No sane person dared to evoke her wrath and no man alive escaped her claws when the damage was already done.

“What are you doing here… druid?”

A bitter smile escaped from his lips. Druid, huh? She didn’t even want to call him by his name. How ironic.

To think that he’d one day be nothing but a druid in Aria’s eyes… Then again, after what he did to her, wasn’t it expected?

“I’m sorry for barging in without sending word first. But there’s something I must discuss. Something only you can help me with…”

Logan, “What good comes from someone like you? Be gone!”

“Logan! Let the man speak!”

The headmaster crossed his arms over his chest with a grunt upon hearing this and turned his face away.

“It’s an important matter, Logan. I didn’t come here for old times’ sake or to stir up what’s in the bygones. I know better than that. But Lady Urius wouldn’t help me. I thought she might listen to her grandchildren. Please…”

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Logan finally met his gaze and let his arms rest to the sides. Although the headmaster did not look the part, he was one of the strongest deities alive. Not to mention one of the most powerful druids after Gwydion himself.

“Ogres,” he said, pausing deliberately for the divine siblings to process what he was about to say next. “They are hunting in Aderbaal without permission.”

“Hunting?” repeated Aria, visibly concerned.

“Aye. I’m not sure, but it looks like Isaldor has fallen too.”

Logan, “Isaldor? And you’re saying the Council did nothing about those brutes?”

“They’re siding with Sál.”

“Why would they side with the beasts who fail to adhere to our rules? Are you sure—”

Gwydion interrupted her. “Go ask your grandmother if you don’t believe me. But I didn’t come here to tell lies. Not after this many years. I fear that something very terrible is in the offing. It’s a bad omen.”

“In that case, we’ll see what we can do,” said Logan. “But don’t expect anything. You know Lady Urius better than either of us do.”

“Yes, I indeed do. I know her temper. But I also know that she puts the two of you on a pedestal.” He paused, hesitating before adding. “She even let you off the hook and allowed you to run this place, remember.”

Aria stood up in a jiffy as her brother was about to do something he’d regret.

“Know your place, Gwydion! Do you think I’m helping you because I care about your stupid humans? You’re mistaken old friend!”

“Brother, calm down—”

He shoved his sister away and drew closer.

“Don’t ever provoke me. Again. Or I won’t promise your safety, druid…”

Something was off. Sure, Logan had a bad temper and would get worked up for no reason. But not quite this badly.

Something else was going on, something that bore him down and consumed his entire being.

Even if thousands of more years passed by, he still would be able to tell what was going through in his old friend’s head just by looking into his eyes.

He faced Aria. “What are you two hiding?”

Aria glanced at her brother with a nervous look on her face. He was right. They were hiding something from him.

What was it? What could have caused such an obscure reaction from someone like Logan?

As if he knew what went through the druid’s head, Logan relaxed his shoulders and looked away briefly, contemplating whether to disclose what bugged his mind or forever remain quiet.

“You said the ogres weren’t following orders?”

Gwydion nodded to confirm him.

“Well, seems like something big is going on.”

“What do you mean? Logan?”

Aria, “If you tell him, brother, there’s no going back.”

“I know Aria. But…” He looked at the druid out of the corner of his eye. “I hate to admit it, but Gwydion is the only person I can trust with this.”

“Then I won’t stop you, brother.”

Gwydion, “Can someone tell me what’s going on? Why do you two look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

“Something bad happened in Lárhus, druid, that’s why.”

“Something… bad?”

“Murder.”

“What do you mean murder? Lárhus is guarded by heavy spells! There’s no way—”

“Someone’s breached off our spells hundreds of years ago. We only noticed it a few months back.”

“H- hundreds of years ago?” Gwydion looked at the siblings in order, utterly confused, before his eyes finally rested on Aria. Her soft-spoken voice was laced with distress.

“Three children went missing on the same evening a few months ago. That’s when we noticed something was off. We ran through everything at hand, sought every nook and cranny. No traces were found of any kind of intrusion…”

Logan continued, “Someone murdered inside Lárhus for the past hundreds of years. Unnoticed. We have records of at least five hundred missing children as of now but suspect more victims off record.”

“Why would anyone murder the apprentices?”

Aria, “We don’t know. I can’t even understand why a murderer would break off our spells when there are so many orphans living outside Sawoldor.

“Not that I think they deserve to be murdered, but you get the gist… Breaking into Lárhus is not an easy task – it’s too much work.”

“Does the Council know?”

“No,” Logan said. “We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on. It’s too early to involve the Council.”

Gwydion looked away. This was no longer about humans being hunted down by the ogres.

Someone actually dared to enter Lárhus, the most guarded place in all of Fayr, and threaten the lives of unsuspecting children. The Council had to know. The sooner, the better.

“You can’t keep this from the Council! I’ll speak to Lady Urius myself if you don’t want to be involved. But it can’t wait, Logan! If not for the apprentices’ sake, then for the sake of Lárhus and its legacy, you must—”

Logan pulled him up by the collar. His eyes were red. “Do you believe I’ll kill you if you speak to the Council!?”

The deity’s knuckles turned white with no intention of loosening his grip, determined to finish what he failed to do a thousand years ago.

Yet again, it was his sister who came to the druid's rescue.

She lurched forwards and shoved them both away, her chest rising and falling with each passing second. Like déjà vu, it seemed as though they all went back in time.

He wants to kill me, Gwydion thought, he wants to finish what he failed to do back then.

A gnome stormed in through the open door amidst the chaos. It took its green hat off and wiped the sweat off from its forehead with the back of its hand.

Its chest moved up and down in an irregular beat as if it was chased by wolves on the way up the stairs.

It looked apologetic, he thought, as if it was here to deliver some sad news and didn’t know what to say or how to begin.

The fury in the headmaster’s flickering eyes most likely didn’t make things easier for it, either.

“S- sir, it seems like the young lady and- and a pupil are missing.”

Logan’s face hardened. His fiery red cheeks lost colour in the blink of an eye. There was not a hint left of the fury in his eyes, only shock.

This was the first time he saw this side of Logan, this helpless and devastated look etched on his drained face. He finally looked his age.

Aria, “What do you mean? What happened? Speak!”

“O- one of us saw them outside Lárhus a few days ago and—”

Logan, now over the initial shock, raised his voice so loud that the poor creature’s legs almost gave under it.

“A few days ago!”

Aria, “Are you sure?”

“I’m- I’m afraid it’s- it’s true…”

“And the other pupil? Do you have a name?”

It paused for a few seconds to gather its thoughts before answering the beautiful deity.

“What was it, again? Right! Someone called Har—no, that wasn’t it! Maybe Hayes… No, that wasn’t it, either. It was…it was, uh…”

“Hain.”

Aria looked at her brother first then at the druid. They said the same thing at the exact same time, as if they had planned to do so all along.

“Ha…in?” she repeated. The confusion in her voice built up with each syllable.

“Oh, that’s it! Yes, indeed! Hain! Well, then, I’ll take my leave…”

The gnome scampered out the door as fast as lightning, as if it were aware of what was about to happen next. Not even Aria saw it coming.

The familiar yet forgotten name occupied her mind and sent a whirlwind of memories and emotions through every fibre of her being and muddled her mind.

Logan, seeing red, leapt forwards and held him in another chokehold.

“You sent him here on purpose, didn’t you!? I bet you told the kid to—”

“If that makes you feel better, then my answer is yes. But if you want to hear the truth, it isn’t.”

A smirk crept on the headmaster’s lips. His delirious eyes were no longer focused.

“I ought to kill you now, old friend! It’s time you paid for your sins—”

Logan never finished his sentence. They both turned to face Aria, whose wrath, which had been hidden for thousands of years, was unleashed.

Her voice turned hoarse as she bawled her heart out. But that was not why they flinched with fear. Along with her voice yelled a hundred more voices in turns – like they were all her echoes.

It was so loud that even those outside of Sawoldor heard it as clear as day and baulked in their journeys.

“ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!”

Logan released his grip. Gwydion doubled over and coughed in place. That was a close one.

He thought this would be the end. He even anticipated it. He wanted it…

If he were to die by his old friend’s hands, maybe the pain he carried in the deepest chamber of his heart would cease, at last.

But that fateful day had not come. Not yet. He was bound to breathe another day.

Aria looked at them in turn. “You two, you better listen to me and not breathe a word! Do you understand?”

They both nodded.

“They must’ve got lost in the woods. Our only chance of finding them is to keep calm and search the forest. We don’t have time for this, all right? I need both of you to help me find her. Brother?”

Logan dropped his head briefly. “Only if that jerk keeps his distance.”

Aria looked at him next. Gwydion blinked to confirm her. She breathed out in relief. Her shoulders relaxed as if a huge weight lifted off her shoulder.

“Get ready in half an hour,” she said, adding before either of them could protest. “And if I catch you two fighting again, know that things will get ugly.”

As she headed out and went downstairs, the headmaster lingered behind and uttered the very words Gwydion feared he’d hear upon entering Lárhus.

Nothing had changed. Even his feelings for Aria he thought he’d got over.

How come Logan could see right through him? They were indeed friends, even after all these years.

“Keep your distance from my sister too while you’re at it. Druid.”