Rafael barely opened the door when Alejandra was there to greet him.

“Um, hey,” he said.

“I need your help.”

He slid into the front door. “I’m starving. Can we talk while I eat?”

“All I need is for you to roll some dice, because I want to ask Ezekiel a few questions. It wasn’t working while you were gone,” Alejandra said.

Rafael shrugged as he walked deeper into the house. “Let me make a sandwich. Has Mom already left?”

“Yeah. About a half hour ago.”

Rafael walked into his room to change out of his grocery uniform. It was hard stocking the shelves when he felt so hungry, but he’d experienced worse things.

He shoved an Elmwood football t-shirt and shorts on before leaving his room, heading straight for the kitchen. Rafael pulled the fridge door open when time slowed down. He blinked, frowning.

Make an animal handling check.

“A what?” Rafael mumbled as he snatched the d20 out of the air. He shook it, and it fell on a thirteen. The +2 appeared, making it fifteen total.

Time resumed, and Rafael glanced behind his shoulder at Alejandra and Ezekiel. “Can you at least wait until I have a sandwich?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Alejandra waved away his concerns as Ezekiel placed his book to one side and started talking to her.

Rafael took out the peanut butter and jelly, then grabbed two slices of bread. He then changed his mind and grabbed two more slices.

“…it might last without its mother, but it needs that warmth. I read that drakes rarely hatch unless they feel completely safe in their environment, and that usually means sensing some sort of protector out there. Sand drakes need warmth. And to be partially buried in it. At least… I think so.” Ezekiel tapped his finger against his chin, closing one eye. “Pretty sure.”

Rafael slathered peanut butter on two slices of bread. “What are you two talking about?”

His little sister ignored him. “So… there’s no way the egg will hatch out there?”

“No. Not if you killed its parents. I’m sorry, Alejandra,” Ezekiel said.

Rafael watched, confused, as Alejandra nodded, her face morphed into sadness and yet determination. Rafael finished putting the jelly on the two slices and began eating the first sandwich. It tasted amazing.

Ezekiel patted her hand. “I don’t want you to worry too much. The Great Lady of Light has a little sister, the Lady Zwitera. If any animal dies before it grows into an adult, that goddess takes care of them in the afterlife until their parents pass on. Then she finds them and gives the child over for them to continue raising them.”

Alejandra looked at Ezekiel. “That’s… actually quite sweet.”

“It brings a lot of comfort to a lot of people.” Ezekiel went for his book again. “The little drake will be reunited with its parents soon.”

“But…” Alejandra paused, organizing her thoughts. Rafael stuffed the last of the first sandwich into his mouth before reaching for the next one. “But aren’t Drakes considered evil? Will they be going into the next life? One of peace?”

Time slowed down again. Rafael frowned.

Make a religion check.

Rafael rolled a twelve. Since Ezekiel was a cleric, he had a nice +4 to bump it up to sixteen. Time resumed.

Ezekiel shrugged. “There is a place for all creatures. The Great Lady of Light has many family members, all full of compassion. The Lady Zwitera will take on any creature that was killed before its prime, regardless of what that creature’s parents did.” Ezekiel patted her hand again, which was kind of awkward, but Alejandra looked as though she didn’t care. “I promise you, Alejandra, as a cleric of the Great Lady, her little sister will take good care of that drake baby before handing it over to its parents.”

Alejandra nodded, then noticed Rafael watching them. He was starting on his second sandwich, figuring he wasn’t allowed into this conversation. He couldn’t help but notice Hraktar was nowhere to be seen.

Rafael took a huge bite of his sandwich. His stomach grumbled, which meant it was smart to make a second sandwich. “Any other questions?” Rafael asked.

“Yes, um…” Alejandra began fiddling with her hair. “Tyler’s been talking about beings he thinks are the game master.”

Ezekiel almost opened the book again but closed it. “Game master?”

“It’s the best way we can understand it,” Alejandra said.

Ezekiel shrugged. “Alright.”

“Have you heard of… it’s a woman he sometimes refers to as order. And a man that he thinks is… chaos?” Alejandra asked.

Ezekiel stared at her, blinking. Rafael couldn’t understand that facial expression, but a d20 popped in front of him.

Make a religion or history check.

Rafael frowned. Both had bonuses of +4, so he figured he’d choose the religion one. He rolled the dice, watching it fall and land on a ten. He glanced up as time resumed, wondering what the answer would be.

Ezekiel leaned back, confused. “It’s…” he gave a little laugh. “I mean, it’s a fable. One they don’t bother teaching anymore. I don’t….” His brows furrowed. “I read a book about it once in the library. At the temple where I lived. This was ancient, ancient religion. So far back in time, it was almost…”

“Do you know who they are?” Alejandra asked.

Ezekiel focused on her, shrugging. “They’re just… beings.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Like Gods? Goddesses?”

Ezekiel shook his head. “No, more than that. I mean,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s hardly even mentioned anymore. Just that there were, as far as we can tell, two eternal beings at the beginning of time who…” Ezekiel dropped his hand. “It’s just a fable, Alejandra. It’s like if… if you asked questions about the wolf in little red riding hood.”

Rafael took another bite of sandwich, watching as his sister looked perplexed. “But… but Tyler said…” Alejandra trailed off, glancing at Rafael, before turning her focus back on Ezekiel. “He talked about chaos and order. Without knowing about this fable you knew. If he talks about order and chaos, when he didn’t even know this, doesn’t that imply there’s some truth to it?”

Ezekiel shrugged. “We can’t be sure.”

Alejandra looked defeated. Ezekiel glanced over at Rafael, who was half-way done with his second sandwich.

“Well, thanks. Thanks for your help.” Alejandra got up and headed toward her room. Rafael finished his sandwich and seriously considered making a third. Practice was rough today, and going straight to work didn’t help. Ezekiel grabbed his book and stood up. “Are we going to do any combat today?”

A pit formed in Rafael’s stomach, like he’d swallowed a stone. “I… don’t know, man. We’ll at least… two weeks. On the sixteenth.”

Ezekiel nodded. “Yeah. Yeah alright.” There was silence between them, and Rafael regretted eating his sandwich so fast. Ezekiel was looking at his library book, which was a collection of fairy tales. “It’s just I’m a bit worried I’m not getting the training I need.”

“I know.” Rafael glanced at the countertop, then found he no longer had an appetite. “We’ll… figure something out.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

He walked toward his room, feeling sick to his stomach. That was the phrase Jack aways said before completely bailing on him. He tried not to think about it too hard, but then again, how could he not?

***

Derek turned off the car, thankful for the early morning as the heat already crept inside. It was beach day for spirit week, so he was decked out in his brightly floral shirt he got on his last trip to Puerto Rico. He turned to Milo. “Ready?”

“Are you sure Akshi isn’t around?” Milo asked.

“No. But that’s the door farthest from the office. So we go in with another large group of students, wait for the bell to ring, and pretend you’re another student going to class. Luckily, this school is built like a rock. Which means there is enough thickness in the walls that it should keep Akshi from noticing any magic if he casts detect magic.”

“Unless he walks through the door. Or runs into me while I’m disguised like this,” Milo said.

“Yeah. Unless that happens. Which hopefully, it doesn’t.”

Milo shrugged. “I’ve worked under more stressful conditions.”

Derek opened the door. “Alright. Let’s go.”

Milo held his magical wrench, and his body gave off a faint glow. His clothes rippled before changing into a more modern outfit. Milo was already a young man at twenty-four, but the magic de-aged him a good five years and gave him a backpack and scruffy hair. It even included the “beach day” themed outfit to blend in with other students who wouldn’t be able to see him. He also wore shorts and sandals, and the shirt he had on was brightly themed, with miniature men surfing on waves.

“You look fantastic,” Derek said.

Milo beamed. “Thanks!”

They got out of the car and headed toward the door with a surge of students.

“Don’t forget, the lab will protect you from magic detection, but it won’t protect anyone’s ears if Akshi hears an explosion,” Derek said from the corner of his mouth. He probably should have said that when he wasn’t surrounded by people. He didn’t want a bomb threat called on the school. That wasn’t lying low at all.

Milo nodded as students happened to give him space, even though they didn’t understand it. Derek waved at some of his drama friends by the cafeteria, and they waved back. They were in deep conversation about something.

“What’s going on?” He tried hard not to sound paranoid, but he couldn’t help himself.

Baily, a redhead junior girl, gave him an incredulous look. “How long will it be before you don’t have try out jitters?”

Derek frowned, then checked his phone. “Shit. Is that today?”

“Of course it’s today. Mr. Jensen is torturing us by having school try outs the start of spirit week so we can be miserable with nerves for a few days before posting the cast list,” Eric said, Baily’s best friend. At least, they were best friends this week. Depending on whether one of them gets into the play, and what part they got, could derail the entire friendship, as it did every audition. Their frenemies was a saga fit for its own sort of play.

“Try not to get your hopes up,” Jeff said. “It’s Clue, meaning it’s a super small cast. And Emma is obviously going to be cast somewhere in the play.”

Baily and Eric both scoffed. “Of course.”

“And you, too, Derek. I guarantee you’ll be one of the men,” Jeff said.

Derek shook his head. “Nah, there’s some tough competition this year. Besides, I completely forgot about it. It’s a memorized monologue and a cold read, right?”

Jeff nodded. “Yep.”

Derek pulled up a monologue on his phone he hadn’t done since middle school and started refreshing his memory.

“Thanks for not being a drama queen about this. Honestly, Emma is such a pain to be around a few days after cast lists are posted,” Baily said.

“Ugh. Remember when she got Ariel two years ago?” Eric asked.

“Yes!” Baily groaned.

Eric rubbed the edges of his eyelids. “I swear she was singing every other sentence. Being scuttle was such a nightmare.”

Baily’s eyes flashed, and Derek remembered how she was in the chorus for the Little Mermaid. Not even one of the sisters. Just in the chorus. Despite the way they could bond over their mutual disdain for Emma, there was definitely some fighting going on between those two behind the scenes.

Derek needed to change the subject to one they were more comfortable with. “At least it’s distracting her from flirting with Caleb.”

“Ugh, poor Caleb. He never knew what hit him,” Eric said.

“No, Caleb just doesn’t know how to play the game,” Derek said.

“Flirting? Relationships? All of it a game?” Baily asked.

Derek kept scrolling through the monologue. “With Emma it absolutely is. She likes torturing guys and keeping them guessing. If she was flirting with me, I’d straight up kiss her to confuse her back.”

Baily scrunched up her nose as Eric raised an eyebrow. Jeff shook his head. “Never kiss crazy, Derek.”

He snorted as Milo remained quietly beside him. “Crazy is all she knows, and what’s crazier than randomly kissing her to keep her from pulling a person along just to torture them?”

His friends talked some more as he refreshed his memory of the monologue. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being in a play. He already felt sick about the idea of adding yet another obligation to his plate. If he got in the play, he’d have to give up some of his after-school activities for practice. And he wasn’t sure how he’d juggle it on top of CCNC. Taking drama meant he was required to try out, since it was part of his grade. And he couldn’t intentionally mess it up, either. He enjoyed having an A in drama. He needed a no stress A to get through the harder classes, like AP Bio.

The bell rang, and Derek glanced at Milo.

“I’ll see you guys later,” Derek said.

“Yeah. Good luck with Mr. Anderson,” Jeff said.

Derek waved as he headed toward class.

“Are you a bard?” Milo asked.

“God, no.” Derek read through the monologue again. “I just… really like being in plays. And musicals. They’re fun.”

“That’s what a bard does, isn’t it?” Milo asked.

“No. A bard sleeps with anything that has a pulse,” Derek said.

Milo snorted. “I mean… it’s a bit stereotypical. Not all bards are like that.”

“Maybe not. But I’ve seen the memes.” Derek opened the door to Mr. Anderson’s class.

“So, you mean like kissing a girl for no reason? Wouldn’t that be bard-like behavior?”

It caused Derek to freeze, then he shot Milo a glare. “Completely different.”

Milo shrugged. “Do you know how to play a musical instrument?”

Derek didn’t answer, his glare still on his face. He used the excuse of being in a class, so he really shouldn’t be muttering to himself. In truth, he knew how to play the piano. And the guitar once when he was younger but didn’t want to give Milo the satisfaction. His mother made him play the piano, and he did have a pretty good singing voice. He was kind of sad he couldn’t take choir this semester.

Mr. Anderson glanced at Derek, then his eyes flickered toward Milo before giving Derek a questioning look. He gave a small nod and watched as Mr. Anderson steeled himself. His teacher looked again at the mana fusor, then gestured with his head toward the lab door. Milo didn’t bother hiding his smile as cracked his knuckles, then shook out his shoulders. Mr. Anderson sighed, then rubbed the bridge of his nose as the door to the lab closed. He mumbled something to himself before dropping his hand.

“Alright, well… thanks Mr. Anderson,” Derek said as he turned toward the desks. He settled himself in, straining his ears to hear Milo working. Today it worked. And hopefully, their luck would last.