Fleck woke up with a throbbing pain in his head. He shifted, slowly getting up and shaking his head. That didn't help his headache. It did help him get his senses more in order though.

Cooper was saying something, but Harmoni wasn't here, so Fleck didn't understand it. He was still with Cooper and Moon, but they were no longer in Ovant. Instead, they were getting close to the school. Cooper was carrying Moon, and two elves from Ovan were coming along. One of them was clearly using magic to carrying Fleck along, floating him above the ground.

"What happened?" he asked, voice still blurred from sleep. And where was Harmoni?

Moon, looking annoyingly peppy for someone who'd also just been asleep, lifted her head and fell into step beside him, no longer being carried by Cooper.

"Well. Apparently, that cloaked man used some kind of magic to put us to sleep, and then buggered off. So Cooper's going back to the school to meet up with the others, and these elves are coming with to see if the school needs any help."

But while Moon was explaining, Harmoni was also giving him an answer. Mostly against her will. He was just catching up with her knowledge.

Fleck abruptly lurched from where he was floating in the air. They were regrouping with Rasha and Wesles, but they wouldn't be regrouping with Harmoni. Because she wasn't there. Because she was at the Hidden Cult's spaceship, with the Hidden Cult. Even as they spoke, drifting peacefully towards the school, someone was scolding the cloaked man for picking a fight he couldn't win.

'Don't chase after them yet,' Harmoni thought, because she knew he wanted to. 'They have to get off the planet. They need to leave these people alone.'

And Fleck had his own things to worry about, even if he disagreed. The two of them had different definitions of 'drifting peacefully' for sure.

'And what about you? I should just let them take you?'

He knew what her answer was without her saying, knew if before he even asked. But he disagreed with her. She wasn't some martyr, an acceptable sacrifice so others may live. He wouldn't go along with that.

And he was about to tell Moon and Cooper, when a familiar smell hit his nose, and he went stiff.

That smelled like Asplenium, but that wasn't all. His scent mingled with another now, and Fleck was familiar with it, mostly from when Aqua brought back dinner for the two of them. That was the scent of death.

Fleck bolted to the left, wiggling from his floating position like a child trying to escape a ball pit. He either beat the magic, or the elf let him go. Either way, he hit the ground and ran through a few burning trees, and found Asplenium lying on his side. The dirt built up behind him suggested he'd been pushed against the ground for a while. He was clearly injured, blood staining parts of him, but no longer flowing out. And his chest wasn't rising or falling.

Fleck ran over and nudged him, but it was more force of habit than anything. He felt embarrassed for trying a moment later. He was. . .he was gone.

He stepped back so he could more easily see all of Asplenium at once.

His eyes went wider than what was strictly comfortable for a dragon. He fell onto his haunches, and his tail and wings drooped. Asplenium had been . . . well, friend wasn't the right word. He was his superior after all. But he'd been Fleck's teacher, a confidant, and one of the few people Fleck could talk to here. Even when Asplenium wasn't training him, they slept in the same cavern, and usually ate together.

He should maybe stop looking. Part of him wanted to drop his head. But it was outweighed by the part that wanted to stare.

"You should go with Copper."

Moon was behind him. There was her scent, but even more so, he'd heard her come up.

She had to be here for Fleck's sake. She'd only met Asplenium once.

"Copper and I don't need to be attached at the hip. We can connect from far away just like you and Harmoni. You, on the other hand, I can't do that with. And you seem like you could use some company."

Right. Harmoni. Unfortunately, this had worked in her favor. He could tell the Hidden Cult's spaceship had just taken off. They were gone, and even if he got help, and they went as fast as they could, he probably wouldn't be able to reach Harmoni until she landed.

He could be upset about that, but he just felt tired. Moon came up beside him, and he slumped against her, head on her shoulder.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

~~~

It was a grim sight, when Cooper and the elves arrived at the school. Not the grimmest he'd ever seen, but worth a mention. Holes had been blasted in the walls, windows shattered, fire still burning in places. There were dead bodies in the open headmaster's office, some looking bad enough that Cooper flinched and looked away.

And he wasn't exactly faint of heart. He'd seen a lot. He just knew what sort of things would haunt him, if he took in too much.

He and the elves continued on. Cooper was dragging his feet by now, his injuries and the strain of the fight catching up to him. But if anyone noticed, they didn't call him out on it, and that was good. He had things to do.

The living people seemed to be in the cafeteria. Tolith was healing the injured. The haggard headmaster explained to the elves that they'd sent most of the students away using the teleporting rock. Some of the teachers and adult students had stayed behind to hold the cult off, and make sure they didn't see how everyone was escaping. Otherwise they could just follow.

Cooper wasn't exactly good at guessing elf ages, but the people who'd stayed behind did seem mostly older, capable of fighting back.

"We got some of those monsters though," the headmaster snarled, with more energy than he'd said anything else. "Their bodies aren't here, with those we should honor."

"Only two of them died," a teacher chimed in. Cooper was pretty sure he was the history teacher? Harmoni had said? "And then mostly thanks to the headmaster. Not everyday you truly see the magic he's capable of."

"Is now the time?" the headmaster asked. "Ava died."

"Yes. I wish the old potions teacher was here. He would've been more useful in the fight," the history teacher said.

A woman in the corner shifted her weight, arms crossed and looking at the ground. Was she a teacher? Cooper had thought she was one of the students.

"Asplenium's gone too," Tolith said, voice completely flat.

Cooper tensed. He knew what had happened to Asplenium through Moon. Cooper couldn't imagine it. If a dragon or rider died of old age, they'd technically have to live without the other for a little. But not very long. If one half of a soul bond was snapped by a violent death? He couldn't conceptualize it.

"Are you OK?" he asked Tolith. An instinctive question, and possibly a stupid one.

'Very stupid,' Moon agreed from where she sat with Fleck.

"I'll live," Tolith said, not looking away from the person he was healing. "But I wish I wouldn't."

Tolith finished who he was healing, and turned to help Cooper. He had just started when Rasha and Wesles came in, both also looking tired and a bit beat up.

"Oh thank God you're here," Rasha gasped, slumping against the doorframe.

"Rasha. I'm glad you're alright," Tolith said.

He didn't sound glad. His tone didn't change at all. He simply finished healing Cooper and moved on to her.

"Where's Harmoni?" Cooper asked, eyes darting between the two and the empty doorway. Maybe not the most tactful question, but she obviously wasn't here, and that was important.

"That's why we came looking for you!" Rasha cried out.

"Well, we were goingto meetup anyway, but yeah," Wesles agreed.

Rasha kept trying to peer around Tolith, or move around him. But he held her in place as he healed her.

"Harmoni's been kidnapped!" she bursted out. "By the Hidden Cult!"

"What?!" Cooper exclaimed.

"What?!" Moon echoed.

"What?" Fleck asked, genuinely confused, as he couldn't know what they were talking about.

"Kidnapped by the cult? That is highly irregular," the headmaster said.

"Forget irregular. It doesn't happen," the history teacher drawled. "The cult kills everyone it contacts. And even if it didn't, why take someone with them?"

Rasha pursed her lips together for a moment before pressing on. "Well they did. They've taken her, and she was still very much alive."

"Oh yeah. I was going to tell you about that soon," Fleck said, as Moon explained. He sounded far too casual about the whole thing.

He was probably. . .dazed? In shock? Something along those lines.

"What are you talking about? You mean you just let this happen and didn't say anything?" Moon asked.

"Well I didn't have much choice! They were already on the spaceship by the time I woke up. We can't catch them until they land on Morivon. Do you think I don't desperately wish that was different?"

"You're sure that's where they're going?"

Fleck nodded. "Positive."

"Then we need to go to Morivon," Cooper concluded with a nod. The sooner they got started the better. "Are any ships going there?"

He was met with a, temporary, less than promising silence.

"Young man, there aren't many spaceships on the planet at all. And that says nothing of cost," the headmaster pointed out.

Cooper wanted to be angry that anyone could think of cost at a time like this, but he knew it was true. It was lucky he'd gotten to Iva in the first place. And that ship was just going back to Xentron.

He wanted to be angry that no one else seemed to have the same urgency about rescuing Harmoni as he and Rasha had. And that one was fair. But he couldn't show it. It wouldn't help.

"What about magic? Can't someone use magic to get us there?"

The answer was also no. The headmaster was the only one who could teleport, and if he could teleport to another planet, it couldn't happen more than once. Teleporting that far apparently had pretty large limits. It would be impossible to take all of them.

Cooper was about to suggest splitting the group when the headmaster continued. "What we need to do, is heal who we can, put defenses back around the school, and hold funerals."

That was understandable and all, but it sounded like he was already writing Harmoni off as a lost cause. At best.

"Maybe Evin can help you," the headmaster suggested.

"Evin?" Cooper asked, both shocked that Evin could be helpful, and shocked the headmaster knew about him.

The headmaster nodded. "He's been near the school for a while, apparently He helped us evacuate the school, as one of the few people who knows where the teleporting crystal is."

Right. Still a little crazy, but right. Made sense. Cooper didn't think Evin would be much help for getting off planet though.

Then Wesles raised his good hand. "If it helps, I'm . . . I think inStandard, my family's royalty. Icould arrange aship."

Cooper and Rasha stared at him for a moment. Even Moon and Fleck seemed a little surprised at that one.

"You're what?" Rasha asked.

"Wellyeah. Why d'you think they gaveme a valuable magic armport? They wouldn't givethat tojust anyone."