It took very little imagination to guess who the mystery man was. Harmoni and Fleck had finished in the cafeteria as quickly as possible, and headed for the pink ocean.

Fleck felt kind of bad. They’d left with barely another word to Rasha, not even an excuse. He’d looked back at her and shrugged, but there wasn’t much more he could do. She couldn’t understand him.

But, no time to worry about that now. He put the thought out of his head, and focused on finding Evin’s scent. It wasn’t hard.

He led Harmoni through the trees. He could hear waves to the left, and smell salt and sand. But the ocean wasn’t visible from where they were.

They were getting close. There were visible patches of slime on the ground, or droplets on the leaves.

Sure enough, Fleck jumped through some bushes and there was Evin, leaning against a tree. He might’ve been sleeping, but he stirred when Fleck dropped to the ground with a thunk. He was completely awake by the time Harmoni stepped through.

“You two again,” Evin griped, standing up. “What do you want?” Bits of slime spat out with the words.

Evin made Harmoni nervous ever since their first meeting.

Considering how their first meeting went, that was fair.

The point was, Harmoni might’ve turned right around and left if it was about herself. But this was about Rasha.

“Another student says she went fishing with you?”

“She did mention she was a student,” Evin chuckled.

“Why?”

“Why did she mention it?” Evin stroked his chin. “Well, it’s a bit boring to sit in silence. Mentioning your “career” is one of the first things people usually talk about.”

Harmoni was not amused by the antics. She could tell Fleck was even less so, and tried to soothe him through their mental link.

“I mean, why are you fishing with her?”

“Oh what, you think I always have some nefarious reason for what I do?” Evin put his hands to his chest like he was offended, or at least surprised.

Harmoni didn’t answer.

It didn’t take long for Evin to keep going. “Fine. I wanted to find out how to spear fish. She seemed a lot more knowledgeable, and had more supplies. But I got what I wanted, and I’m still glad when she comes down here.”

Fleck didn’t buy it.

Harmoni did. Maybe she shouldn’t, but she remembered when she'd refused to talk to him. He didn't have anyone to talk to, and that seemed to bother him. And he was less slimy than usual. Maybe not by much, but she could see both his eyes and his breathing was less ragged. And while she couldn’t see the skin on his hands, she could make out the individual fingers, like when he’d stroked his chin.

“And you know, funny thing,” Evin said. He leaned in with too wide of a smile. Though strangely, he didn’t seem to tower over her like he had on Xentron. “She mentioned that school was kind of lonely. That her two roommates were a bit weird, and neither of them talked to her that much. That’s you, right? Maybe, you should care less what I'm doing, and more about how you're being cruel.”

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~~~

“Rasha, come up front, would you?”

Rasha swallowed thickly, but joined the potions teacher at the front of the room.

Said teacher’s impassive face broke into a smile as he stood up and gestured to her. “Congratulations. You had the best potion in the class.”

Rasha blinked. “Really?” she asked, quietly.

At Harmoni’s table, Wesles leaned forward slightly, looking at the surface. He fingers twitched.

The teacher smiled proudly, and he gave a single nod. “This is an excellent sleeping potion, for a first try.” He turned to the rest of the class. “You all did well, but I’ll be leaving this potion up here with my own for comparison, if you’d like a look.”

Wesles ran a hand through his hair. He pulled kind of hard, too.

“Are you alright?” Harmoni asked.

“I’m good at potions too,” Wesles muttered. “I know I am. Thewholereason I came to the school was to learn morepotions. I didn’t care thatmuch about the otherstuff.”

Yes that tracked with everything she'd seen. Harmoni wondered if there wasn’t a better option for someone like Wesles. Maybe coursework just focused on potions. Because she could tell he didn’t care about the other classes as much. Maybe she should ask?

Before she could decide, Wesles ran his hand down his face. As he did, his expression changed. “Let’s go look at those potions,” he said. “I want to compare.”

He grabbed the vial of their sleeping potion off the counter, and headed for the front.

Harmoni looked around. Class was officially over. The teacher was still in the room, but was reading at his desk. Rasha had left. Harmoni had seen her pass their table, trying to suppress a proud smile. And she wasn’t the only one who’d gone.

Well, this was important to Wesles. She didn't have to follow him, could've gone to meet back up with Fleck instead, but she did.

This was the first potion they’d made in class. A sleeping potion, apparently helped you get to sleep fast, and would prevent nightmares. Maybe not one of the easiest potions to make, but one of the safest.

Harmoni looked at the two potions up front, and the one in Wesles’ palm. The biggest difference was that he and Harmoni had made a white potion, while the vials up front were blue. An extremely pale blue, like where the sky faded into the surrounding area, but blue none the less.

“Ready to go, Wesles?”

"Not yet.” Wesles leaned in a little farther. He tucked a notebook into one arm, jotting down a few things with his other hand. “You don’t haveto stickaround though. I think youhavea class later? Idon’t.”

~~~

It was early. Very early. It was 5AM on the clock when Harmoni first woke up, which was still early even with this planet's odd hours.

She sat on the roof of the tower, eating a stuffed croissant. It had been too early for the cafeteria to be officially open, but it had been unlocked, and there had been some pastries. She had grabbed two before making her trip to the top of the building, where she could eat and watch the sun rise. Right now, most of the sky was dark, but she could see orange and a pale blue between the branches for the trees. It was slowly spreading out as she finished breakfast.

It was quiet. Even with her excellent ears, she didn’t even hear bugs. Just a few birds. Sometimes the wind would come and lift her hair or rustle the trees, but it wasn’t strong enough to create much noise. There was no sound of people moving down the halls, or talking to each other. No crackle of fire or creak of floorboards. Just her and the fading stars.

And she was glad. She’d been keeping herself busy. Even when she wasn’t in class, or working the stables, she was running to a store or reading or any other thing she could think of. And she lived in a school with two roommates. There was usually someone close by.

There was nothing wrong with her keeping herself busy. That was nice, in fact. And the company was . . . fine, she supposed. But it was nice to take a break from all that.

There was nothing happening. Nothing and no one demanded her attention. And while there were plants inside, and the windows were often open, there was a difference between inside the castle and out here. The air was nice.

She had time. There was only History of Magic later today, and she’d woken up early.

She’d finished breakfast, but she watched the sun rise a bit. When she felt a bit more daring, she dangled her legs over the side of the roof, and swung them back and forth. If Fleck was awake, he might be concerned. But right now even he was asleep, tucked into Asplenium's cave.

The stars and orange light faded from the sky, as more of it became a pale blue. Iva had more than one moon, but you rarely saw both at once. They were on such different cycles. The one that had been visible last night was still visible in the morning sky, but only because Harmoni knew where to look. It certainly wasn’t glowing anymore.

Well. She stood up.

That had been nice. Time to face the day.

She went back to the trapdoor she’d found to the roof, slid through it to the ladder below, and started down the tower.