Aria stuffed the final set of clothes she felt she would need into the small bag on her bed. Normally it carried books and other items she was supposed to use at the local school, but for now all of those items were tucked under her bed. In their place were four days worth of clothes, a small knife she had gotten found on the ground one day, and a few pieces of food that should last a bit, mainly jerky and water.

She could hear her parents talking in the main room of their house. Soon the main door to the house opened and closed in quick succession. Peaking out of her window, Aria saw her father walking away from the house. He seemed to be walking to the farms in the northern section of the rad-town.

A knock sounded at Aria’s door, sending her scrambling to hide the bag on her bed before the door opened. When her mother peered her head in, Aria was in an awkward position on her bed, the bag hopefully covered enough by the blanket she was pulling over it. Her mother gave her a questioning look before speaking.

“Aria, why are you still in your normal clothes? It’s getting kind of late, you would normally be wearing your pajamas at this point. Or at least something a bit more comfortable to laze around in.”

Aria looked down at her clothes and realized what her mother was talking about. She had never changed out of her clothes she had been wearing that day. Normally she would’ve but today she hadn’t given the promise that Nic and her had made just a couple hours earlier.

“Oh, um, I got distracted with some stuff and forgot to change, I guess.”

“I see. Well, can I open this door all the way? I want to talk to you about something.” Aria nodded her head and her mother opened the door all the way. Unlike Aria, she really was in her nighttime clothes. Aria sat up and straightened herself out as she sat on the edge of her bed.

“What did you want to talk about, mama?” Her mom sighed as she leaned on the door frame.

“Do I really need to say it out loud? You skipped school again for the millionth time.” Aria flinched a bit as her mother’s tone sharpened. “I assume you were with that boy again?”

“Mama, you already know that this town’s school just doesn’t do anything for me! The school I went to in Sanum already covered everything that this school is teaching to even the oldest kids there.”

“I know, I know. But you can’t keep skipping like this just to hang out with that boy all the time.”

Aria bit her lip. The things being said weren’t foreign to her, though they usually came from her father, not her mama. Aria wondered if this was her father’s idea to get her to finally listen to him.

“This… Father set you up to this, didn’t he?”

“Aria, stop this. I know you don’t like your father saying these things, but he’s only doing it because he wants you to be safe.”

Aria’s fist clenched itself in her lap. She was done with how her parents were trying to control who she was with.

“Stop trying to force me to stop my friendship with Nic! I don’t care if you two try to force me to go to school, or even try to do something else. But stop trying to control my friendships!”

Aria’s emotions ran freely as she shouted at her mother. She didn’t care how her parents felt. She just wanted the freedom to make her own choices.

A pained expression sat on her mother’s face. She slowly opened her mouth to say something but quickly closed it. She took a step back and halfway closed the door. Before she fully closed it, she left Aria one last message.

“Your father is going to be gone for another hour or so. And I think I’m going to stay in our room for a bit, relaxing.” Aria froze at her mother’s comment. She silently watched her mother close the door.

As soon as she was alone again she grabbed the bag sitting on her bed, her hands shaking uncontrollably. She peeked out of the window, making sure no one was around before hopping through it. The second her feet hit the ground, a far too familiar man rounded a corner of one of the houses nearby. Her father instantly saw Aria and gave a shout, but she was already rushing off towards the fence that encircled the town.

Nic threw the bag over his shoulder, the black book inside hitting him on the back. As he moved towards the boarded up window, he quietly pushed one of the planks back, letting it fall to the grass below with a muffled hit. He pushed a second one off, then a third, both of which also fell and hit the ground with a muffled hit.

At that point, Nic had a hole big enough for himself to fit through. Squeezing through, Nic found himself outside, the setting sun covering him in its orange glow. Barely 10 mer away was the dilapidated fence that acted as the boundary for the rad-town.

Nic quietly walked over, tossing his bag up and over the fence. Once he heard it hit the ground on the other side, he backed up a few steps. The fence wasn’t too tall. At least for Nic. Only about 2 heads taller than him, he could easily climb it.

And that’s what he did. With very little noise, Nic was dropping down to the other side of the fence. Picking up his bag, he quickly made his way to the edge of the nearby forest. He thought he heard his mother’s voice behind the fence, but he ignored it and pushed on.

Once in the forest, Nic sat down and got ready to wait for Aria. Unsure of when she would arrive, he planned to make sure that everything he would need was in his bag. Two shirts, an extra pair of pants, the black book that belonged to his ancestor and a poorly made knife sat in it. Nodding to himself, he closed the bag and quietly waited for Aria.

It didn’t take long for her to arrive. She arrived in a bit of a panic and out of breath. Once he saw how she looked, Nic was instantly on his feet.

“What happened? Is everything good?”

Aria shook her head.

“Let’s get going, quickly. My dad saw me leaving and gave chase. Although I’m far faster than him, it would be best if we lost him in the forest.” Aria explained her predicament through labored breaths.

Hearing it, Nic simply gave her a single nod of his head before the two began making their way into the forest. Aria led in front. She constantly was using her magic to tell her way through the forest.

Nic was grateful for that. If he had been in charge of leading them through the forest, he knew he would have gotten lost. Almost everything looked the same to him. A part of him wondered if they truly were going in circles.

The sun quickly set, further obscuring Nic’s vision as it quickly became only lit by the barely visible moon and the stars in the night sky. Because he was barely able to see Aria, he quickened his pace until the two were moving through the forest side by side.

Aria finally stopped when the two came upon a small river cutting across their path. By this time the moon had risen fairly high into the sky. Nic was starting to feel tired himself, and one look at Aria showed she was pushing herself through the tiredness to still be walking at this point.

“Go ahead and sit down, I’ll make a small fire.” Nic motioned to a nearby rock as he told Aria to sit down. She quietly followed his instructions and watched him as he picked up some small twigs and put them in a pile in front of her. After gathering enough wood, Nic grabbed a rock and his beat up knife from his bag. Scraping them together, he was able to create sparks. The sparks caught on the twigs and the small fire started.

Seeing his work done, Nic sat back on the opposite side of the fire from Aria, letting the heat be absorbed by his body. It wasn’t until he let that happen that he realized how cold the early spring wind had made him.

“Thanks for that.” Aria held her hands up to the flames. Nic realized that she was also probably cold and was loving the heat from the fire.

“Oh, uh, no problem.”

Nic and Aria sat there in silence, letting their bodies warm up. Nic started fidgeting a bit, uncomfortable with the silence. He never felt like this and wondered why he felt this way now. He wondered if Aria also felt uncomfortable with the silence.

“I-”

“Hey-”

The silence was broken by both of them at the same time. Nic quickly backed off from trying to initiate the conversation.

“You go first.” He motioned to her with his hand as he spoke.

“Um… well. I just kind of wanted to know. Why are you so against going to Sanum? Wouldn’t that be the best route for you to achieve your dream? About wanting a better life for your children than what you have had?” Nic sat there quietly listening. When she brought out the dream he was confused for a minute before remembering. He had made up that lie when she first started trying to teach him magic.

Looking at it from that perspective, Aria was completely right. It would be far better for him to go to Sanum with her if that was his ultimate goal in learning magic.

But it wasn’t. Not even close. If he went to Sanum, they would find out who he is. Nic was sure he would be arrested at least, if not executed, for trying to learn magic after what his ancestor did.

“That would be true. If that was the only factor. Sadly, my family isn’t allowed in Sanum for various reasons. I would probably be arrested on sight if I had to hazard a guess.” It wasn’t really a lie in the end. Nic had just left out most of the details.

“Your family isn’t allowed into Sanum? Why? And why didn’t you just tell me that earlier…?” Her voice started trailing towards the end. Aria was slowly nodding off in the middle of their conversation.

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“It's the dark blot on the family. None of us like bringing it up.”

“I see…” Aria continued to slur her speech more as her eyelids grew too heavy for themselves. With a final wave of her hand, she finally fell asleep. Nic was unsure what the final wave had been for, but he assumed it was fine.

As he watched Aria sit there against the rock, her eyes closed in sleep, he couldn’t help but feel like it was wrong for him to keep lying to Aria like this. Ever since the two of them had gotten to know each other, she had always been open and free with Nic. Yet besides that, he always withheld the truth from her.

As Nic’s eyelids began to grow too heavy for him, he let out a small sigh. His mind drifted to sleep as he debated whether or not he should tell Aria the truth.

Crack.

Nic’s eyes flew open. The sky above him was starting to grow light. The pit that had once housed their small fire had been reduced to burned twigs. Not even a small amount of smoke had been left. Aria was still asleep on the other side of the twigs.

The sound of something nearby stepping on a branch had woken Nic up. He quietly grabbed his old knife and stood up. Holding the knife out in front of him defensively, he took a step forward, making as little noise as possible.

As he came up to a bend in the small river, he found the source of the noise. Sitting in front of him, lapping up water from the stream, was a pack of seven small foxes.

As he came into view of them, the largest of the group turned its orange face to look at Nic. Its beady orange eyes stared into his soul like it was searching for something. Nic was paralyzed, unable to move until the fox averted its gaze.

It felt like an eternity, but when the fox finally did look away, it quickly led the pack across the river, away from Nic. The breath he had been holding finally escaped his lips. The moment it did-

“What’s up?”

Aria’s sudden voice behind Nic caused him to jump out of his skin, dropping the knife to the ground as he flew to the side.

“Bwahaha!” Aria burst out into laughter as Nic jumped. She clutched her sides as she doubled over, the laughter continuing to pour out.

“What! What was that!?” She was barely able to say a sentence before bursting out laughing again when she looked at Nic’s face. He could feel it burning up.

“You scared me! Is this not a normal reaction to being scared shitless?” Nic bent down and picked up the old knife.

“Why, Hahahaha, why are you even over here? I woke up and you were gone so I came to find you.” Aria was struggling to talk. Unlike the previous night, this time it was because she was having trouble breathing in without continuing to laugh.

His face getting even hotter, Nic pushed past Aria and reached their makeshift campsite. He quickly grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He was too embarrassed to stay in the area.

When Aria saw that he was ready to go, she scattered the burnt branches to the wind and grabbed her own bag.

“We’ll be walking most of today. You ready to go?” Aria had finally gotten herself under control, causing her speech to go back to normal. Nic simply nodded and the two set off into the forest once again. Nic still had no idea where Aria was taking him, and had fallen into step just a couple steps behind her.

The two walked in silence the entire day. They only stopped to eat when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. A distance had grown between the two in the past day. Nic was unsure if it was the fact that he had refused to go to Sanum or something else. But neither Nic or Aria found themselves able to initiate the conversation with the other.

Before Nic had realized it, the two had started ascending a large hill. It was only as they neared the top of the hill that he realized the sun was about to set. It had already been close to an entire day of walking. Nic readied himself to ask Aria if they would need to take another break for the night when the two came upon a large clearing that led to the top of the hill just a few mer ahead.

“We’re here.”

Aria finally spoke up, letting Nic know that they had arrived at their destination. She quickly dropped her bag off next to one of the trees before walking up to the zenith of the hill. Nic followed her lead, wondering why they had come to a hill of all places.

“What is this place?”

“It’s where I first used my magic.” Aria looked back and smiled at Nic as she answered him.

“Huh? Wait, how long ago was that?” Nic rushed forward to walk by Aria’s side as they reached the top of the hill.

“Five years ago. On our way to the rad-town from Sanum.” Nic looked over at Aria, shock covering his face. This caused her to chuckle a bit. “Surprising, right? For twelve years I was like you, unable to use magic. It wasn’t until I sat on this hill one night that I was first able to control the wind.”

Nic’s voice caught in his throat as the two reached the peak of the hill. In front of him, the sky was a brilliant golden orange as the sun set behind a mountain in the distance. Outlines of the many large buildings on the mountain were visible, even at this distance, because of this.

Sanum, the largest and oldest City-State in all of Kronul, sat on that mountain. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in that city. It would be bustling with life, even as Nic and Aria watched over it from afar.

“You brought me here because of what I said yesterday, didn’t you?” Nic had said it himself, that the only thing left for them to try was changing where Aria taught him magic. This was most likely her last attempt. If Nic failed here, Aria would give up.

“Mhm. That’s right.”

Aria put her hands on Nic’s shoulders and pulled down, telling him to sit down. Nic did as he was asked and sat down on the grass. Folding his legs over each other, he got into his usual, comfortable position for when he tried to use magic.

“Close your eyes.”

Aria was leading him through the usual stuff. He closed them like she asked. What he wasn’t expecting was to feel her leaning against his back.

“Do what I say, okay?”

Barely a whisper entered his ear. He nodded. His heart was beating a million times a minute. He felt her hand grab his and turn it so that the palm was facing up.

“Open your hand.”

Nic barely heard her over his beating heart. Why was his heart beating so much? Why was his face extremely hot right now? Was this nerves? Or something else entirely. He didn’t know.

“Aria, you’re-”

“Nic. I want to be free to make my own decisions. That’s how I’ve always lived since I moved away from Sanum. I want that freedom. That's my dream. My ideal life. It’s similar to yours, isn’t it? And that’s why I want to help you so much. I want you to be able to be free as well. No matter who you are, or who your family is. I want you to be free.”

What she said struck the walls around his inner self. He had struggled and debated whether he should reveal everything to her. Unsure of whether she would accept the truth. But every word she said had struck away at those walls that surrounded him.

“Aria, I…” He wanted to tell her everything. Every part about him. But pressure had stopped him. A strong pressure in his throat stopped his voice from coming out. At the same time, he felt pressure on his hand, as if he was pushing on something.

“... -ic. Nic! Open your eyes!” Aria shouting in his ear brought Nic back to reality. When he opened his eyes, the sight of his hand stunned him.

“Is… Is this you?” Sitting just a few cer above the palm of his hand was a twig, floating in midair. It looked just like when Aria floated things with her magic. Aria quickly moved around to a kneeling position in front of him. Her eyes shone brightly as she looked him in the face.

“Nope. That’s all you.” She gave him a pristine smile as she answered. Nic looked back at the stick. He tried stopping the pressure on his hand, to see if that changed anything. When he did, the stick fell down onto his palm.

His eyes widened. He was finally able to use magic. The past two years had been worth it for this one moment in time. He tried applying pressure from his hand onto the stick. It floated back up. He put more pressure, causing it to float up a bit higher. Even more pressure. It stayed where it was.

That was the downside to learned magic. While Aria’s was strong because it was natural to her, Nic had learned his second hand. It was far weaker than Aria’s because of that.

“It’s not as strong as yours, but it will be enough.” Nic let the twig fall to the ground. He stood up, or at least attempted to stand up. Mid standing up, he had been tackled back down to the ground in a hug.

“I’m so happy that it worked! I would’ve never thought about bringing you here before! Nice idea!” She was giggling as she talked. Her arms were wrapped around Nic’s neck in a hug. The two of them were laying on the grass for a few minutes, enjoying the moment. Eventually, Nic forced himself up, and Aria finally let go of him.

“Let’s eat some dinner. I’m starting to feel the pain of having not eaten all day.” Nic was really starting to feel hungry. Aria readily agreed and the two set up camp on the top of the hill. A small fire was started and food was gotten out.

Nic watched Aria eat her first bite. He had made up his mind after learning that he could use even the tiniest bit of magic. He felt bad that it was going to end this way, but Aria would have to wait to learn the truth about him. Tonight, he had plans with his ancestral past. Taking a bite of his own food, Nic looked back out towards the city of Sanum.

Just down the hill they were on, sitting between Sanum and them, was a portion of the forest that was wrought black with decay. Sitting in the center of that section of the forest was a house. It was sure to be broken down and falling apart. That was Nic’s destination.

After the moon rose and night set in, Aria quickly fell asleep. Nic grabbed the black book out of his bag and opened it to its last page. There he read the sentence left by his ancestor that had guided him throughout his life, and had led to him asking Aria to learn magic from her.

“Sleep soundly, Aria. I’ll be back by the morning… Hopefully.” Barely a whisper escaped Nic’s mouth as he set the book back under his bag and stood up. With barely a sound in the night, Nic had disappeared from the campsite.

An anomaly in her makeshift threat detector she threw up before heading to sleep woke Aria up in the middle of the night. The fire in front of her was still going strong. But on the other side, where Nic should have been, was empty air.

She looked around, seeing if he was anywhere, but saw no one. He had disappeared. Looking into his bag, Aria found an old black book. She could tell it was old by how beaten up the cover was. She didn’t want to snoop around his personal belongings, but this was the only clue she had. He had always been secretive about his family. She knew that something was up, especially when he mentioned that they had been banned from Sanum the previous night.

She learned the truth the second she opened the book in her hands. Sitting right on the front page, faded but not gone, were the words “This is the journal of Noah Verilo”.

Nic was a Verilo. For some reason, that made complete sense to Aria. Of course, the Verilo’s would be banned from Sanum, considering what Noah had done three centuries prior.

Aria was sure of one thing though. She didn’t feel any differently about Nic. A normal person might have felt differently about him upon learning the truth, but to Aria, he was still simply Nic. Sure he was cagey around those that he didn’t trust. He even still hid things from her. But he was still kind at his core. He always tried to give her the easy way out. He was always thoughtful during their conversations. When she was happy, he was happy (or at least pretended to be to keep her happy).

No matter what she learned in this book, none of that would change.

She flipped to the next page and read it. Then the next. And the next. Without an ounce of sleep, Aria soon found herself facing the morning sun as she read the last lines of the book.

She closed it and put it down on the ground next to Nic’s bag.

She thought no differently of him. Not even after realizing the lies he had told her about his dream. None of it had fazed her. After all, she simply wanted him to be free as well. She looked out over the forest between Sanum and her. In it, her eyes locked onto the decayed portion. That was where he was going.

As Aria stared at it, something felt off. The tension in her body was at its snapping point. Unable to stand it, she started running.