The academy had a decent cafeteria for students and staff. William wouldn’t say it was the most amazing food he’d ever had, but it was quite decent. He could go eat elsewhere for variety, or make his own food, but that was too much of a bother. On his way to breakfast, he ran into Matfey.

“Good to see you’re back, Josef.” Matfey narrowed his eyes, the orange-brown skin around them wrinkling. “What do you do here? You used to teach but you haven’t been around for that in… a while.”

“Research. Either here or in the field.”

“Uh huh. I’d ask, but I doubt you’d tell me.”

“Sometimes there’s nothing to say. Any good rumors lately?”

Matfey scratched the back of his head. “Well, let’s see here. The local lords are up to something… but you might already know about that? The headmistress complains about it a lot. Meanwhile the Archmage doesn’t say anything she doesn’t mean to. Ah, speaking of which, how about the rumors that you’re lovers with the archmage? Are those true?”

William nodded, “They are.”

Matfey nodded seriously. “Of course not. I don’t know how such rumors get started. Plus…” Matfey stopped talking and blinked, “What did you say?”

“They are. True, that is.”

“Ah. Right. Of course.” Matfey breathed out, slowly, then back in. “Seriously?”

“Do I sound like I’m joking?”

“No, but sometimes you’re too good at keeping a straight face. But, okay, you’re not joking. How did that happen?”

“Well, Matfey, when a man and a woman love each other…”

“Yeah okay just stop there. Does she even like people? She just seems so tied up in her work. Plus she’s… very old.”

“Does that even matter? I remember someone being being interested in the headmistress.”

“That was just a phase.”

“Plus she doesn’t like you.”

“And she doesn’t like me.” Matfey shrugged, “Actually we get along fine now, but she’s definitely not interested in anyone right now. Still though, the Archmage is… the Archmage, you know? She’s the only one. She’s been the Archmage since the… Eternal King appointed her, a long time ago. Umm… I don’t know when, but a number of lifetimes ago.” Matfey frowned, “Why don’t we have better records on that?”

“Someone probably does, but people occasionally go around fighting and trashing libraries.”

“Who would do that?”

“Upset lords, mostly. The Archmage has only taken residence here somewhat recently, so it didn’t always have her protection.” William was surprised how easy it was to fall into a gross and a half of years feeling like ‘recent’. He knew Lorelei had mostly stayed away from cities until she took Lila as a student- though she still kept her secret until after the Demon King’s death.

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“Right. So, going back to the topic at hand…”

William shrugged, “The age doesn’t matter so much. I’m as old as when my parents started having kids, and if I was a human I could be a grandfather. Not that we intend to have any kids any time soon...”

“Right, well…” Matfey patted William on the shoulder, “Don’t feel bad when she gets tired of you and dumps you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

-----

William sat next to Lorelei, looking up at the stars. “You’d think you’d be able to see more stars from inside an observatory.”

Lorelei shrugged, “People like a roof over their heads.”

“Yeah. You can’t really see the stars directly above that way. Though, there are design with rotating tops…” William frowned, “Is this talk ruining the romance of this moment?”

Lorelei looked over at him. “Why? Do you think so? Personally I like to hear your thoughts. It’s better than sappy junk like comparing my eyes to the stars.”

“Lorelei, have I ever told you how your eyes are like gigantic burning balls of various elements, hot and dense enough to cause nuclear fusion into new elements?”

She grinned, “Why no, you haven’t. What’s this about nuclear fusion?”

“Well, I can’t say I know that much about it. I told you about the periodic table and stuff? Nuclear fusion is when several nuclei become one, becoming one of the other elements.” He stuck a hand to his chin, “They must also turn into neutrons and stuff because otherwise that wouldn’t work. Anyway, there are lots of changes in very high temperature and pressure situations.”

She nodded, “Makes sense. I heard Lila talked to you about her showing you Jelia. Are you taking me on recycled dates?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, that wasn’t a date!”

“Hah, I was just kidding anyway. I wanted to talk about that. You were saying we could go there?”

“Well, if we didn’t have unlimited lifespans… I would say it’s definitely too much progression to get there. But since we do, we certainly could.”

Lorelei nodded, “I’d like to do that someday. There’s still a lot here to learn about first, though. Did the humans where you were from ever get to another planet?”

“Well… we got to the moon. We sent things to most of the other places in the system by the time I had died. Most things involved big rockets. They weren’t exactly energy efficient, but it was what we could do.”

“Hmm. Magic might help there.”

“Or better technology. Is there even mana in space though?”

“Well, mana likes high places. Isn’t space high?”

“Perhaps, but maybe it needs an atmosphere still. It might not function outside of gravity wells, or it might be even better.”

“... Can you keep gravity in a well? Is it a liquid?”

“I see it’s time for more half-understood explanations… Well, you know every planet has its own gravity. Gravity wells are just the word used to describe the area close to any such thing, because of energy and.. Stuff.” William shook his head, “I wish I had access to the internet.”

“The internet is… the repository of knowledge you have talked about before?”

“It sure has a lot of knowledge, but it was a public place where people could write whatever you want so…”

“So it was full of a lot of stupidity too, then,” Lorelei nodded.

“It’s like you’ve seen the internet.”

Lorelei shrugged, “I know people. Some of these things sound great, but if we want to really understand them better, we have to develop better. The Demon King is a huge problem for that… I can’t imagine how many libraries he’s burned. Sure, humans could learn and use the information against us, but if he wasn’t so focused on wiping them out it wouldn’t matter. I wish people would just stop fighting so I can see advancements in knowledge instead of just stagnation!”

William didn’t think that was the most noble reason to want peace, but he accepted it for what it was. He knew what Lorelei was like for a long time now… and what he liked was her, even if they wouldn’t agree on everything.