Lucas

4th of May, 649

Lucas felt his hands sweating at the desk in Mrs. Osoldo's classroom. They'd finished their final exam earlier in the morning, and after a short break the class had been called back to the room to pick up their final scores. Mrs. Osoldo, a squat woman from the Minervan Isles, paced back and forth in the front of the room surveying her students.

"So, how do you think you all did? No matter what the results are, you've all tried hard in your own way. Please do not take these scores as a reflection of your capabilities going forward, but as a snapshot of where you are right now in your life. Remember, growth takes time! I'm going to get these back to you now - when I call your name, take your exam and head out into the hallway. You are free to go after that. Have a wonderful summer!"

She picked up the hefty stack from the desk and called names one by one.

"Jenny Alisco..."

Nightmarish thoughts flooded Lucas' mind. His name wasn't far away, but thoughts of failure suddenly seemed very, very real.

"Peter Anderson..."

What if you failed this? What if you had to take this whole year again, and Ceres went off to the Technica Academy without you?

"Maxine Barmy...."

Lucas tried to shove the thoughts away, but he felt his hands turning clammy. He turned to Ceres, who gave him a knowing glance.

"Cleo Benson..."

What if you fail? She'll leave you for someone smarter, someone without all the baggage you have. You'd be no better than you were starving to near-death in Riamal Haven in her eyes.

"Lucas Beolou," Mrs. Osoldo called, and Lucas stood up. He looked around the room and even though it felt like all eyes were on him, no one was paying attention other than Ceres and her friend Rita.

"Have a good summer," she said to him as he took the packet and stepped out into the hallway. His anxiety reached full overdrive as his fingers went to unclasp the seal on the top of the packet, and he felt his hands trembling so hard he could barely get it off.

"I can help you if you can't get it open," Rita said, coming up behind him holding her own packet. "Whoa. You okay?"

"Just... uh. No. If I fail this, I'm fucked."

"You're not gonna fail it," Rita shook her head. "Look, aya, you're gonna be fine, okay? Mrs. Osoldo, she doesn't want any of us coming back. Bet you a million Terros that she passed you just so she wouldn't have to see ya again."

Ceres came out of the classroom and saw Rita talking with Lucas and headed over to the two. "Hey! What'd you get?"

"He hasn't even opened his thing yet!" Rita said, feigning exasperation. "Tell him it's gonna be fine!"

Ceres shook her head at him as she pushed her way between them. "If there's one thing I've told you a million times, Lucas, it's that there's no way you're going to fail this test. Don't you remember Bobby talking about how his brother straight out skipped the exam and still passed?"

"Why didn't we do that?" Rita asked and Ceres laughed.

"Because we actually want to do well? And you, Miss Valedictorian. Have you even looked at your scores yet?"

"No, because this chucklehead was goofin' off and not even openin' his own results, aya. I'll wait 'til he does it because no way I'm gonna get a perfect score if I open mine now."

Lucas groaned as Ceres took the packet out of his hands. She undid the clasp and slid out the exam, which bore a large circled 83 at the top in red ink. He'd passed?

"See! See! I told you, mm, I told you you had nothin' to worry about," Rita said, slapping Lucas on the back. Ceres eyeballed her. "All that tutorin' really did somethin', huh?"

"I guess," Lucas said, dumbfounded and relieved by the result.

"He's always been smart," Ceres said, shaking her head. "He just doesn't like to apply himself."

"Aya? That's harsh, don't ya think? I don't think that's true, Cer," Rita said, shaking her head. "He applies himself plenty. He just don't care about writing papers, y'know? I don't either, but getting out of this place means more to me than complainin' about it. Don't wanna work on my dad's farm forever."

Ceres raised an eyebrow at Rita. While Rita was the obvious brains of the duo of friends, Ceres was the queen bee - she didn't like being challenged by anyone, specifically her best friend. Lucas squirmed uncomfortably. He was aware of Ceres' behavior and tried to gloss it over, but it was increasingly more difficult to put up with. The duality of staying in her good graces and condoning her maltreatment of others left him feeling in the lurch quite often.

"Right. I don't want to be here anymore either. But I'll go to my damn grave before I admit that slut from the Teachers' Academy did anything at all to help Lucas."

"What? Why you callin' her that for? Girl's in her 20s, if she's fixin' on Lucas then she's got some issues, Cer. I think you're jealous."

Lucas could see Ceres' score - a 91 - and was surprised at himself for doing as well as he did in comparison. Ceres stewed and her face flushed. Bobby Rodriguez walked by whistling as she looked around.

"Yo! I passed! I'm outta this dump!" Bobby called, leaving the building. Their attention turned back to the conversation.

"What did you say?" Ceres said, nostrils flaring. "It's not my fault she's got her tits out all the time and she sleeps with half of the people she tutors. She can't keep it in her pants, and..."

"Whoa. I said you need to chill out, Cer. I don't think any of that is real. I think you're makin' stuff up because you're scared he's gonna leave you or somethin'. Hey – let’s be real, we ain't gonna see any of these people after graduation, aya. Besides, Lucas is your boyfriend. He ain't mine or Maxi's or Josie's or anyone's. He's your boyfriend. Take a breath."

Ceres flushed an even deeper shade of red. The anger and tension left her face and were replaced with what Lucas interpreted as panic.

"You can't say that here," Ceres said, shaking her head. "You're the only one that knows about us."

"So? Don't call that poor girl a whore and we ain't gonna have issues."

Lucas admired that Rita could stand up for herself with Ceres. He wondered how she did it. Ceres, obviously flustered, shook her head angrily.

"Look, I was wrong, okay? Can we go now?"

"Not yet. Just wanna bask in this for a sec," Rita smiled triumphantly. Lucas had heard much from Ceres about how Rita just caused her trouble, but Lucas was increasingly seeing that it was Ceres as the agitator. It didn't sit well with him at all. With a proud smirk, Rita opened her packet and then smiled widely. "Ah, what do ya know, mm?" She held up the packet - a 100 was circled at the top of the page. "Easy peasy. C'mon, let's get outta here."

"Yeah. Let's." Ceres grunted.

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"Callin' people names and makin' shit up over nothin' ain't how you should be doin' this stuff," Rita said as the three walked along the road past the Rodriguez family's orchards. "Like, c'mon, Cer! You're better than that. I know it, aya."

"Can you stop already? You've been gloating for like fifteen minutes now," Ceres said, face frozen in the same look of frustration since they left the school building.

"I just want you to get it, mm. You ain't gotta shit on Lucas like that."

"Excuse me?" Ceres said, stopping as Rita kept walking. Ceres clutched Lucas' arm, and he turned to her. Rita was right, though he knew what blazes he'd have to pay if he even as much as acknowledged it.

"You know better, Cer!" Rita turned around and put her hands on her hips. "C'mon, let's go, you're holding us up."

"Us? Why don't you go off ahead if you're in such a hurry?"

"Ceres," Lucas said, taking her hand off his arm. She turned the fire on him instead.

"What, you too?" Ceres hissed quietly.

"No. This is just getting ridiculous, though. You said it the other night that you were gonna work on it," Lucas whispered.

"Well I'm sorry I don't like it when people try to meddle with things they don't understand," Ceres whispered back forcefully. "And if you want to have a good night together to celebrate how good you did on your exam, you're going to stop this right now."

"No," Lucas said. It was a weird, freeing feeling to say no. He hadn't done it much to her, and he could almost see her deflate. He knew the lull in the rage was short at best - she'd go into stewing about it if it was anything longer than a few minutes, which was far worse. This time however, she took his hand instead of reaching for something to throw at him.

"Okay. You're right. Let's just go."

Lucas felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle up. This was unusual and unexpected. He gave her the benefit of the doubt and squeezed her hand in his.

"Yeah. Let's go."

"What's going on?" Rita called.

"Nothing," Ceres said. Lucas was unnerved by her preternatural calm, but he decided to just go with the flow on it and not question her further. He worried, deep down, that he would catch blazes back at the Leonarts' house for challenging her like that.

"Yeah? Well, you sound calm now, aya. Let's keep going."

Lucas looked up at the buds on the trees overhead as they continued past the Rodriguez's orchards and further on past some farm buildings. Spring was now in swing and the temperature outside was getting warmer - he liked that - the fresh air felt good in his lungs. Ceres stayed quiet as they continued along into Cygnus's main plaza square before Rita departed to head back to her father Carmine's farm.

Once Rita was out of sight, Ceres let out a long, shuddering sigh. Lucas looked at her - she looked strange in a way he wasn't used to seeing her. It was almost as if she had just gone through a full twelve-round boxing match the way she seemed to sway in place, and Lucas put his hand on the small of her back. She looked at him with sad eyes.

"Goddess, you hate me too, don't you?"

This was unexpected.

"What? No way, what are you talking about?" Lucas said, and Ceres pouted. He took her hand into his and motioned for them to keep walking.

"Don't you see it? Rita obviously hates my guts. You know how hard of a time I have keeping friends, don't you? Then you go and get tutored by that nasty piece of..."

"Ceres, enough. You're doing it again."

"See! I can't even stop myself. It's driving me nuts to feel like this and not be able to do anything remotely healthy with it. All it's gonna do is drive you away."

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"You know what?" Lucas said, looking at her. He could see the surprise in her eyes at the question. "I'm tired of having this conversation, Ceres. Tired of you doubting my love for you, alright? The only reason I worked as hard as I did for that final was so that I'd be able to come along with you to the Technica Academy."

"Wait, huh? You're taking the exam, too?"

Lucas was a deer in the headlights.

"I didn't mean it like that, but you know what? If it makes you feel comfortable and safe, then yeah, I'll take it too."

"But what if you don't pass? Will you still come with me to Sylva?"

"I could ask you the same thing, but I know you're going to pass. But yes, of course I would, why wouldn't I?"

Ceres eyeballed him nervously.

"What if you break up with me?"

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe you think I'm crazy or something? I just want you all to myself, is that really so bad?"

Lucas wasn't sure how to answer that.

"No? And yes? I mean when you say you want me all to myself, you know I need to have other people in my life other than just you, right?"

"Like Bobby?"

"No, not just him. I'm not saying I need to date other people either, but like... how you talk about Justine is weird. She's not into me, I'm not into her. Same with Rita."

Ceres chewed at her lip. "Yeah? Well, Rita had a crush on you, didn't she?"

"So? I didn't do anything about it because I don't like her like that."

"But what if someone had a crush on you that you were into, what would you do?"

Lucas stared at her blankly. The thought hadn't even really crossed his mind at all. Any 'feelings' he'd had for anyone other than Ceres, including Justine, were just momentary thoughts, fleeting things.

"Uh, I'd do nothing. That's what I'd do. I'm with you, right?"

"I don't know if I like that answer, but I think I understand what you're saying," Ceres sighed.

"So when's our wedding?" Lucas joked, hoping to lighten the mood. It worked - Ceres smiled at him.

"Well, probably after school's over, if we're gonna talk about that with any seriousness."

Have to be married to her to make love to her, the carnal part of his brain whispered. She's not gonna budge on that, is she?

"That's a way away, isn't it?" Lucas asked. They stopped at a crosswalk and traffic passed them by.

"Yeah, I know what you're gonna say, but don't you think it would be better to wait? I know we've been together for like three years or so now, but Lucas, it'll be better if we hold off."

Lucas wasn't sure what to say about that, but he just nodded. They crossed the road back towards the Leonarts' house, and Lucas thought it'd be a good time to change the subject.

"I'm getting kinda hungry, how about you?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, a little bit. Might make something when we get back, but I'm not sure yet."

"Oh, okay. I was going to say, maybe we should stop somewhere, get a bite to eat?"

"Do you have money with you? I sure don't."

Lucas shrugged, she had him there. As they turned onto the Leonarts' street, Lucas thought he heard a mechanical buzzing coming from somewhere in the distance and looked around, concerned. He put his hand up and they both stopped in their tracks.

"Hey, do you hear that?"

"Yeah, but... what is it?"

"I'm not sure, but whatever it is... hey! There! Do you see it?"

Lucas pointed and Ceres squinted against the sunlight.

"Uh... what in blazes is that?"

"Is that a Drone?"

It was moving far too quickly to be any regular old Drone - it gave off a deeply unpleasant purple light as it floated over the neighborhoods. It gave Lucas a sick feeling in his stomach to look up at it, and he suddenly wasn't feeling very hungry any longer. It was similar to the one he'd seen with Joel just days ago - but bizarrely birdlike. It reminded him of Riamal Haven in a way he had repressed, and he took Ceres' hand and began to pull her away from staring at the Drone flying around.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"We've got to get home, okay? Let's go, hurry up."

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Lying in bed alone in his room, Lucas' brain flickered about with thoughts of Ceres and of the Drone they'd spotted along the way home. Ceres didn't quite understand Lucas' urgency in rushing back, but he knew that any time that Drones were out and about were unlikely to be good times. He'd been trying to sleep off the thought - Ceres had went off on her own when they returned home, and Joel hadn't requested his presence at the workshop, either.

He'd passed, he thought, turning over towards the wall and taking a deep breath. Goodness, that was a relief. Graduation was just after the weekend on the 7th, and he was glad to finally be done with high school for once and for all. He closed his eyes again - he wasn't intending to be lazy today, but he certainly didn't have much energy for anything else. Besides - he'd earned it, he thought - but his mind swiftly continued its interplay of relief with anxiety.

He'd seen Drones just like that the day Lethe had been taken - unnaturally fast-moving, terrible, birdlike things - the Empire had used them to surveil Valdena and its suburbs, Riamal Haven included. His home in Mormont was not subject to this, and he wondered fearfully as to why they might be flying around here in the middle of nowhere of all places. A knock at the door startled him from the thought.

"Lucas, are you in there? Can I come in for a moment?" Espee called from the other side of the door. Lucas rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms over his head.

"Yeah, you can come in, I'm good."

"Hey, so..." Espee said, opening the bedroom door. "Ceres told me you passed the exam, and I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. Both Joel and I had been hoping that this would happen. May I sit down? I've got a few things I want to talk about."

"Sure, uh, that's fine."

"Thank you," Espee said, sitting in Lucas' desk chair. "You know, you really did work hard at the end there. You've been juggling going to work for Joel and studying for school, and while I'm not trying to come off like I'm making a backhanded compliment, I'm really proud of the work ethic you've shown as of late. It sincerely bodes well for your future."

"Yeah? Well, thank you," Lucas said, smiling. Praise from Espee wasn't exactly rare, but felt good nonetheless.

"Ceres said you were considering taking the Academy entrance exam too. Is that right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, I've been thinking about it since she told me, and I would be remiss not to say I'm a little troubled by the idea of it."

Lucas didn't know what to think about that.

"Lucas. This isn't a knock on you or anything, but I'm concerned that, well, you're not doing this for you. You're a headstrong young man. When you want something, you work for it, and you take it. This... this isn't like that. You can't just bulldoze your way into the Academy. Joel mentioned that you two had talked about it, and he said the same thing I'm saying now - I don't think it's going to work the way you're expecting. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I guess, but why can't I? Who says I can't cram and pass this thing?"

"Ceres has been studying most of the year for it, Lucas. You've got less than 10 days to get all of that information absorbed. Then there's a cost to it too - it's not cheap to take - and I know that while you've been saving what you're making at Joel's workshop, it's not a whole lot."

"Wait, how do you know that?"

Espee looked at Lucas down her nose in that maternal, chastising way.

"Lucas. What don't I know in this house?"

"Point taken."

"What I'm trying to tell you, Lucas, is that you don't have to do this just because Ceres wants to do it. Joel told me last night that he told you a friend of his out in Sylva might be able to get you in with him over at the University to work as an assistant in the Terrah sciences laboratory. He said he's mentioned it to you before, and I just wanted to..."

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well, I don't know much about it to be honest," she sighed, "but I would assume there's like geology, flora and fauna, etcetera - Joel used to work with him at the shop when we lived in Stormhill Ridge, but I guess he's over there now."

"So what would I even be doing?"

"Again, I'm not sure. Joel said he remembered how much you love those travel guides though, and what this guy does is travel around Alaeris taking readings and surveying areas. I didn't ask if he worked with that book company, but it certainly sounds more up your alley than the Technica Academy would be."

Lucas felt paralyzed with thoughts - he would still be able to be with Ceres if he took this job, but he felt nervous about how Ceres would react if he had to leave. Would she be angry with him for being away? He thought about Joel and how strikingly similar their lives would be in Ceres' eyes, and the feeling made him want to throw up.

She'd have to come with me, he thought, but Lucas knew that if she was in school that she probably wouldn't be able to go along. It sounds wonderful, though.

"I told Joel not to rush you, Lucas. It sounds like he was trying to push you into it before this, but I told him you're almost a man grown now, and I wanted you to actually put some thought into it. So... think about it," Espee said, standing up. She gave Lucas a pat on the shoulder as she walked towards the doorway. "You've got time on your side. That position opens up later in the summer right around when Ceres would be leaving, sometime in July or even August. Just... think on it, alright? I'm sure Joel would love to talk more to you about it."

"Espee?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you," Lucas said. He averted his eyes from her - he felt the tears in his eyes coming and didn't know how to process it. It was like when they found him on the roadside and took him in, even - that overwhelming sense of gratitude, he just wanted to make them as proud as they'd made him feel safe and cared for.

Espee noticed and rubbed his back. "Lucas. You're as good as family to us, you know that by now I'd hope? We couldn't adopt you but you know you're practically our son now. I'm sure Joel feels the same."

The thought sent Lucas' mind into a freefall of anxiety about his position with Ceres. Again, Espee noticed. She sat down on the bed next to him and put her arm around him.

"And you would've been family someday regardless," Espee said as Lucas felt his cheeks flush. "Like I said, what don't I know in this house? I mean, Ceres had to tell me, but you're a good young man, Lucas - just treat her well, okay?" She gave him a squeeze. Lucas wanted to disappear.

"You're not mad at me?"

"Why would we be mad at you? Better you than some of the other boys your year."

Lucas' mind raced, and it worked faster than his mouth could hold back.

"What if it doesn't last?"

Espee pulled away from him and raised an eyebrow. "If it doesn't last between you two? Are you asking me will we still love you and care about you if you and Ceres were to break up?"

Lucas nodded. It was something he'd feared since the first time he and Ceres had kissed, and to be on the precipice of knowing spooked him something fierce. He could feel Espee's eyes scrutinizing his face as she thought of an answer.

"Lucas," she started, shaking her head. "We'd have to kill you."

"What?!"

"No, no, I'm just teasing you. Is that what you thought I'd say? Lucas, I just said we care about you as if you're our own son. You might not be blood to us, but sometimes the family who loves you isn't your blood. Do you understand me?"

Lucas nodded. He wanted to cry again, for different reasons.

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27th of January, 644

Rocky's Warehouse, Riamal Haven, Noctavia

"I can't believe she's gone, man," Jamal Leclair said, his hand on his forehead. The tall, dark-skinned Cerulean man sat at the bar in the warehouse's recreation room, drinking something Lucas couldn't identify. Both Jamal and Rocky had drank a lot of it, and the room stank of sweat and booze. Lucas knew he wasn't supposed to be listening in, but he'd finally felt well enough to get out of bed - his injuries were severe enough that he'd almost died, but Felicity had seen to it that he survived that first night after the fall.

Felicity, he thought, the tattooed, tough looking nurse his angel of mercy the past few weeks. She was Rocky's fiancée, and a native of Mormont like himself. Lucas knew she'd be mad at him for getting out of bed, but his leg finally felt good enough to stand on for more than a few minutes at a time.

"I know," Rocky said, sighing deeply. He drank straight from the bottle. Most nights, Lucas had heard, both men had all but drunk themselves to sleep. Rocky, the warehouse's owner and the man who'd found and taken in Lucas after his parents' deaths, was a large, dark-skinned, gap-toothed man from Thurn in Beldara. He'd apparently traveled the world prior to settling down in Noctavia, and in his travels developed a love for helping others - at least as far as Lucas knew - and ultimately founded a place of safe haven for the orphans and cast out children of the Riamal Haven area.

How Rocky kept the lights on, Lucas didn't know. He'd assumed Rocky was secretly rich, but he truly had no idea. Every now and then, a squat man would come, and cash would change hands - Lucas would peek at that, too - but other than that, the Warehouse was a place of peace and calm for the half dozen youths it housed.

Lethe had been one of them.

It had been nineteen days now - Lucas had counted, miserably - since the train took her from him. They'd managed to stow away on it at first, but things went out of control from there. The last thing Lucas remembered was the sound of Lethe screaming, gunshots, and a ring of devastating light as the train car sundered around him. He assumed that the captors had thought him lost for dead and left his body back at the trainyard, where Cat, one of the other girls at the Warehouse, had found him.

"What are you doing?" Cat whispered, steel grey eyes flat in the pale light of the hallway. She was about Lethe's age, but the two didn't get along well. Cat had come from a working-class family in Riamal Haven, but when her mother had lost her job, her mother had tried to sell Cat into prostitution. She'd come to the Warehouse about six months prior, and Lucas hadn't talked to her much.

"I'm listening. They're talking about..."

"Lethe."

"Yeah," Lucas said. He didn't want it to be real. He didn't want her to be gone like that. He loved her. He still loved her. She isn't gone. It's impossible.

"Did you hear anything about what they've been talkin' about with that whole train thing? Didn't they say somethin' on the news about it?" Jamal said, shaking his head. He winced as he drank.

"That they think it had something to do with the Empire's Special Forces? Cybele, I don't know, man." Rocky said, sitting forward, slumping. "Why the blazes would they want a fifteen year old girl like that? I just don't get it."

Cat pulled at Lucas' shirt. "We shouldn't be listening to them."

"I need to know, though," Lucas said, leaning closer to the door.

"Suit yourself. They're gonna be mad if they find you eavesdropping."

"No they won't," Lucas hissed. He needed to know. Nothing would stop him.

"Lucas?" Felicity's voice called from down the hall. "What are you doing out here?"

Lucas and Cat both turned towards Felicity. The talking from the rec room stopped at once.

"I'm just..."

"No, Lucas. You need to rest, okay?" Felicity said, hastily making her way down the hall. "You almost died, kid. This is no time to be faffing about."

Rocky and Jamal joined them in the hallway. Both stank of alcohol, but Rocky at least seemed mostly lucid.

"Everyone okay out here?" Rocky asked.

"He was spying," Cat said, screwing up her mouth. With a shrug of her shoulders, she walked back down the hall towards her bedroom.

"Were you now?" Jamal asked, arms crossed.

"Yeah," Lucas admitted. Rocky sighed and put his baseball mitt of a hand on Lucas' shoulder.

"You heard us talkin' about her, huh?"

Lucas nodded.

"We've been talkin' about her a lot, you know. We know she meant a lot to you," Rocky said in that gentle, calm way of his. "You don't gotta spy, though. We were waitin' for you to be feeling better before we talked to you. There's a lot we wanna know that you might be able to help us figure out, but that's not for right now."

Lucas felt the tears in his eyes start to flow and Rocky gave him a hug. Cybele, how he hated feeling this weak, this powerless.

"Lucas, it's gonna be alright. Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but one day it will. Hey, Liss, c'mere a sec," Rocky said, and Felicity knelt down to Lucas' height and looked him in the eyes. She may've looked tough, but she was just as gentle as Rocky was.

"We've got to get you back in your bed now, but we need you to know something, okay? We're here for you. We know we're not your parents or your past, but we care about you very deeply. You're safe here, Lucas."

"Ain't no Empire motherfuckers gonna get you on our watch," Jamal said, but Lucas knew the cold truth.

No one can stop anything. Least of all me.