Edited by: Wesley Au (Paradox)

The boys and girls had split up as they went back to the dormitories. They were all going to see Lance off tomorrow but they also decided it was best to get a good night’s rest. They still had to beat their assigned opponents.

While they were at it, Ragnar arranged for Theo, Lance and Ariel to sleep in the bunks next to him and Ymil.

“Hey guys,” said Ragnar to the children lying in the beds next to theirs. “Would you mind giving us these bunks? We’d really appreciate it.”

“Who do you think you are? Ordering us out of our beds like this?!”

“See my hair color, you don’t want to upset a Noble, now would you?” Ragnar revealed a sly smile.

“Urgh,” said one of the boys. “Alright… Stupid Nobility….”

“What was that?”

“I mean, off course, my liege…”

“That’s better, now off you go.”

When the three boys walked away with their things packed, Ymil whispered in Ragnar’s ear:

“I really hope this won’t bite you in the butt later.”

Ragnar turned round and said, “If I’m going to be a Noble, I’ll have to act like one. Being a pompous ass is a necessity.”

“Sure, but what if they find out you’re not?”

“We’ll see when the time comes.” Ragnar turned to his friends and said, “Here, take these bunks. Those gentlemen were nice enough to warm them up for you.”

Theo, Lance and Ariel looked at each other and nodded. Theo and Lance crept into the same bed while Ariel lay on the bottom bunk.

“Why not take your own bed?” asked Ragnar as he looked at the empty bunk.

“Habit,” said Theo, “Lance and I have always slept in the same bed, we tend to prefer it this way. It reminds us that we will always have each other.” As he said that he tightened his embrace around his brother. Small streams of water fell down Theo’s face as he looked up at the ceiling.

“I-it’s going to b-be all right,” said Lance, seeing his brother weep for his sake. “W-we always said I-I’d go to Kipos School i-if this didn’t w-work out.”

“I know, it doesn’t mean it makes this easier. I should come with you! I’ll drop out and…”

“No, Theo, you really shouldn’t. D-don’t give up your future for my sake. You’ve already done s-so much for me.”

“But…”

“No buts, I-I can handle myself. Kolimpri c-can’t find us here.”

“It just isn’t fair! Why must this happen to us?! I Swore I’d protect you!”

“Wait,” said Ariel, “did you just say Kolimpri? Does that mean…?”

“You recognize the bastard’s name?” Theo got angry at just the thought of Kolimpri again. He released his brother, sat up and cleared the tears from his eyes.

“I guess that means you know where we’re from. Could you keep that a secret for now? We don’t want our past to start haunting us.”

“I understand,” said Ariel, nodding understandingly.

“What are you guys talking about?” Ragnar had no idea what was going on.

Ymil could understand Theo’s point of view. “We should really get some sleep. Tomorrow will be an important day for us. Theo can explain it to us some other time.”

“But…”

Ragnar looked at Ymil and was met with a pair of eyes that said to shut up. He immediately understood and dropped the subject.

“I guess sleeping sounds like a good idea….”

“Thank you. I’ll tell you about it some other time. Let’s sleep for now.”

“Good night!” they all said and then lay on their beds hoping to fall asleep.

Ragnar was imagining how he was going to beat his opponent of the next day while Ymil was wondering what Kolumpri could actually mean. Theo and Lance, on the other hand, tried to think of happy things to drown out the sorrowful memories from their childhood.

It took a while but soon everyone was sound asleep. Well, almost everyone.

“Pshh, Ymil,” whispered a soft voice.

Ymil turned around and found that Ariel was standing next to his bed.

“Hey mister sleepyhead, we got something to discuss.”

It took Ymil a moment to realize what was happening, but as the words came through he sat up.

“Oh, you’re going to explain the Night Course test, aren’t you?”

“Shhh, yes, I already told Rena to wait for us outside. We should discuss this where no one can hear us.”

Ymil nodded and got out of bed. He placed his pillow underneath his sheets and checked to see if anyone was watching. To his relief they were all asleep.

“Alright, let’s go.”

***************************

A world of white and silence.

Ragnar was floating in this familiar space. The vast white surroundings made even Ragnar’s pale skin look dark. He was stark naked again, as always, and eyes were staring at the back of his eyelids.

As Ragnar opened his eyes he noticed something was wrong.

“Djinn?” he screamed.

No reply.

“Hey Djinn, are you there?”

There was still no answer.

It was then that Ragnar remembered how his bracelet had shaken when the headmaster and her husband looked in their direction.

“Hey Djinn, don’t tell me you’re afraid of two humans?”

“Those were not mere mortals,” answered the Djinn at last. He didn’t appear, his voice just resonated through the air. “Now could you please leave me be? I need to re-evaluate our strategy.”

“What are you talking about? Are they really that powerful?”

But there was no answer. The Djinn’s presence had completely vanished.

“You’re useless, you know that?” said Ragnar passively. He looked around and realized that the Djinn hadn’t called him there. He’d always assumed that the Djinn summoned him to the white world, but judging from the Djinn’s reaction just now it seemed unlikely that he did.

He looked down and saw that he was still floating in the air.

‘What if I could fly?!’ Ragnar thought. He was already hovering in place, how hard should it be to fly in this world?

So he tried. At first he tried to swing his entire body. He swung his arms back and forth and hoped that he could use the momentum to propel himself forward. Sadly enough, that didn’t work.

He extended his arms and flapped them really hard. He felt like an idiot, but he knew nobody was watching. That didn’t work either though.

Ragnar stopped for a moment and thought of other ways to fly. He was certain it was possible, this was the dream world, after all.

He extended his arms again but this time he didn’t flap them. He imagined his feet propelling him upwards through some magical force.

*sigh*

‘What do I have to lose…’ thought Ragnar as this attempt failed as well. He started to flap his arms again as wildly as he could and said:

“Tweet tweeeet tweeeeeeeeet.” (Read this as bird noises)

He could have sworn that he moved for a moment! So he tried again.

“Tweeeeeet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweeeeeeeeet!”

Nope, he didn’t move an inch. And so he tried it again and again, but all attempts resulted in failure. A normal human being would have stopped out of shame and humiliation, but Ragnar had none of that. Although he was stark naked and looked like a nutcase, he also knew that nobody would be watching. Apart from maybe the Djinn, but who cared about him?

****************************

The entire area was dark and mysterious. The usually bright white buildings were dimly lit by the two moons in the sky. The vivid green gardens cast mysterious shadows onto the ground, creating a spooky atmosphere. Howls and hoots resonated through the area, cicadas were chirping loudly in the summer night.

And in this darkness a girl was leaning against one of the marble pillars that supported the architectures. She was quietly observing her surroundings, ready to hide herself when a stranger would pass by. If she were to get caught at that hour, she’d have been in a world of trouble.

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“Hey, Rena,” whispered a voice next to her.

“Eek!” She shrieked at the sudden noise besides her and immediately took a step sideways. When she looked at the source of the voice she realized that Ymil and Ariel had arrived. It was a good thing it was so dark, or the boys might have noticed how hard she was blushing.

“Geez, I didn’t mean to scare you,” said Ymil, sighing to himself.

“Pfft, I’m getting a sense of Déjà vu here,” said Ariel was he tried to stifle his laughter. “Anyways, this place isn’t entirely safe, let’s go find ourselves a classroom.”

Ymil and Rena nodded and followed the black boy as he led the way. The hallways were dimly lit and shadows made the path look like a pathway to the underworld. A normal eleven year old would have run to their parents to seek the comfort of their love.

*tug*

Ymil turned around as he felt something tugging at his shirt. To his surprise he found Rena holding onto his clothes, hiding behind Ymil as to hide herself from the spooky scenery in front. It reminded Ymil of this one time Mia held onto him the exact same way, it made him feel kind of fuzzy inside.

But he ignored that feeling. “Hey Rena,” he whispered as softly as he could. “If you can’t handle this then I don’t think you should do the Night Courses. You’ll be surrounded in darkness if you enroll there.”

Upon hearing that, she let go of Ymil’s shirt. It is true that the Night Courses would be a lot scarier than this. She’d have to be stronger than that if she wanted to follow them.

“Yeah…” she said quietly, “thanks.”

And so they quietly walked until they reached a classroom they recognized. Ariel checked the door and looked around the room before entering. He then turned back and motioned the other two to enter the classroom. They quickly walked inside and Ariel locked the door behind them.

The classroom was even creepier than the hallways. The moons shone light through the windows, creating countless of shadows in the classroom. The chairs and tables were dimly lit and the back of the room was shrouded in complete darkness.

“Alright,” said Ariel, “it should be safe to talk here.”

“Why take such precautions,” asked Ymil as he looked around the room.

“That’s because this is some sensitive information. Remember that thing I told you about family names having meaning?”

“Erm, yeah,” said Rena. “You said my name meant Second, and Amalia’s name is Burning, or something.”

“That’s right,” said Ariel, “What I didn’t tell you is that every, literally every Halram surname follows this principle. Katharos means clean, Chrysos means gold, et cetera.”

“And this is relevant because…?” Ymil didn’t understand.

Ariel smiled at his impatience. “Well, it kind of singles out the ones whose names don’t have a meaning. It means they are from a different heritage.”

“Oh,” said Rena as she realized what he was getting at. “That means that, if their names aren’t Halramian, they are most likely of Xenth heritage.”

Ariel nodded. “That’s right, this means that casts suspicion on anyone with a different surname.”

“That’s great!” said Ymil. If they could identify outsiders this easily then the Night Course test was going to be easy. “Have you found anyone that qualifies yet?”

“Well, therein lies the problem. I’ve found a few candidates but they’re not all viable.” Ariel looked Ymil right in the eyes. “Sir Snores-a-Lot is one of them.”

It took Ymil a while to realize who he meant. “Ragnar? Like hell! We’ve been friends since we were babies! There’s no way he’s a spy!”

Ariel shook his head. “I assumed you’d react this way. But that’s not all.” Ariel took a step away from Ymil. In his hands appeared a bright scimitar with pink gem and he aimed it at Ymil. “Your name also doesn’t match up.”

Upon seeing Ariel’s actions, he immediately summoned his own soul and also took a step back. The two silken gloves appeared on his hand and he assumed a defensive position.

“What the hell is this about?” Ymil suddenly understood why Ariel had led him to a remote location.

“You see, your name doesn’t have a meaning in the language of the Ancients. This means that you’re either a spy or the son of one. Either way, you’re not from around here.” Ariel’s eyes were focussed entirely on Ymil. He was ready to react to anything.

This was the first Ymil heard of this though. He’d always assumed his parents were normal historians that worked in the Great Library until their deaths in the Great Fire. Uncle Max had told that story countless of times and the villagers had all told him the same. He was the son of your standard Halramian family, right?

But that didn’t matter right now. “That’s a retarded reason to suspect me,” said Ymil from behind his gloves. “If I were truly a spy then I wouldn’t have taken a name that is so easily recognized. Any Xenth spy should know about this name thing, or else we’re fighting an empire of morons.”

“Hay guys…” Rena tried to interject but Ariel just talked over her.

“Cool story.” Ariel didn’t let his guard down. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re so apt at fighting. I saw you fight little Miss Kyra. Did you know she’s heralded as the greatest hand to hand combatant of our generation? Did you know that she could single-handedly beat any disciple twice her size?”

Ymil hadn’t known that. As he came from a small remote village he didn’t know a lot about the world, much less the people in it. He’d just assumed the girl was decent in a fight.

“And you were leisurely beating her. Sure, you made it look like she hit you, but I’m no fool. You left a few openings for her to make it seem as if she were winning. It’s suspicious, I tell you. Why on earth would you do something like that?”

“Why, you ask?” Ymil spat on the floor. “I thought you’d understand. ‘Knowledge is power,’ these are the words I live by. I don’t want people to know my full potential, I don’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention. But apparently, I appeared on someone else’s radar….”

“That’s nice and all, but….”

*SNAP*

“Shut up!” Rena’d summoned her whip and lashed it into the air. She walked between the boys and was prepared to hit anyone that wanted to attack.

“You’re being such a retard!” She turned to Ariel and stared him in the eyes. “Ariel, why are you so set on him being a spy? Hasn’t there been enough proof that said otherwise?

“But….”

“No buts. Ymil was with us in the room when Master Wux killed the two spies in the room. Wux didn’t target him, so it must mean he’s clean. Think about it, would the head spy of the Halram Kingdom make such a rookie mistake?!”

Master Wux was the head spy? That was the first they heard of it. This wasn’t readily available information.

“How did you…” Ymil wanted to ask how she knew this, but she just talked over him.

“We’re all allies here, so please, stow away your weapons. We need to discuss this test we’re facing.”

Ariel thought about what Rena had just said. It is true that Master Wux had mercilessly disposed of any spies in the crowd, and obviously he’d spared Ymil’s life. This meant that either Ymil was a really good spy, or not a spy at all.

“Alright, Missy, I concede.” Ariel dropped his arms to his side and his weapons disappeared into thin air.

Upon seeing that, Ymil’s pose also relaxed and the two gloves vanished. He walked forward and extended his hand to Ariel.

“I think you’ll learn to trust me over time,” said Ymil.

Ariel took the hand and shook it. “Don’t worry about it, Miss Second over here made a fair point.”

Rena looked at the boys and smiled. “Now that’s better. Shall we talk about the things we actually came here to talk about?”

The two boys nodded and sat down in on the nearest chairs around. Ariel decided to take the lead:

“Well, there are a few other suspects that fit the bill. Let’s see, we got….”

The trio kept talking into the depth of the night. It took them almost two hours to decide upon their next course of action. Once they were done, they silently crept back into the dormitories and slept for the remaining time. They each had a few hours of sleep, but they didn’t mind. This wouldn’t be the first, nor the last time that they’d be skipping out on sleep.

Only when Ymil lay in bed again he realized Ariel never intended to hurt him. Why would he have brought Rena along otherwise?