The Midlian Empire, while cruel and evil in countless ways, was on to something with its experiments to develop primals of the Illusian races. While the Flood devastated the world, it is likely the Midlian Empire would have inflicted far more cruelty long term if they hadn’t been destroyed by the waves.

Lidian’s Manual to Magical Fauna, 283rd ed

—

The next day, Kole was much more well-rested for his training with Zale. They kept sparring, keeping themselves fresh for the conditioning they’d have in class.

Martial 101 was much the same as it had the week before with one notable exception. Kole and Zale stayed after class to practice more and allow the locker rooms to clear out before they went to change.

“So, this ones with you?” a booming voice said from behind Kole.

Kole froze, recognizing the distinct tone and accent of the giant teacher.

“He’s not so bad,” Zale joked, looking up above Kole’s head to the man behind him.

“He looks pretty bad—no offense.”

“None taken,” Kole said, lowering his weapon and turning around to face Tigereye. “I am pretty bad.”

“That is the purpose of the class after all. But I heard you fared well against that goblin creature attack. If Zale doesn’t give up on you, I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually. Carry on.”

When the Iron Vein tribesman had left, Kole whirled on Zale.

“What was that all about?”

“Didn’t I tell you?" Zale asked, biting her lip.

“Tell me what?”

“Oh, well, he trained me. My mom wouldn’t so I asked him to. He hates deception and tricks, and took it as a point of pride to help rid me of her dishonorable ways.’”

Before Kole could follow up, their conversation was interrupted again.

“Zale!” Kole turned to see Gray and Harold making their way towards them.

Kole noted that Gray wore a training rapier on his hip, not the staff typical to wizards. He’d seen him use it but thought maybe he’d learn a staff in class—in hindsight, that had been dumb. Harold had training versions of the large and short sword he’d had at class on Friday.

“Ugh, I don’t want to deal with this today,” Zale whispered to Kole and then shouted louder “What do you want?”

“You’ve been avoiding us,” Gray accused.

“Ha! Me? Avoiding you? You’ve been avoiding me for months!”

“We haven’t been avoiding you,” Gray said. “It’s just taking us a while to come to grips with the revelation of… what you are.”

“That sounds a lot like avoiding,” Kole interjected.

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“Shut up,” Gray snapped at him. “You’re why I’m here. You are going to get our friend Zale killed with your incompetence and I won’t sit around and let it happen.”

“Oh, we’re ’friends?’” Zale asked, feigning cheer. “You hear that Kole? We’re all ’friends’. I thought Kole was my only friend, since you know, he’s spoken to me, and not shunned me, and stood up to my old ’friend’ when they came back trying to tell me how to live my life.”

“He can’t even do magic!” Gray shouted, not willing to let Zale change the topic. “I heard you were knocked out first on Friday. If he were a real wizard that wouldn’t have happened. You’re too good for that. He’s dragging you down.”

“He’s the only one besides Rakin in this whole flooding school that will talk to me. Except of course for you, who will only talk to me when no one else is around, and only because you want to tell me how to live my life.”

“That’s not f—“ Gray began, but Zale cut him off.

“I think that’s pretty fair. Harold, what do you think? Should I listen to Gray? Ditch Kole? Can I come back and hang out with you guys then? Or will I have to wear the illusion bracelet for you all to allow that? Did you know Gray told me to just put it on and keep pretending?”

Harold looked down, ashamed.

“Yeah, I knew. We thought it would just make everything easier. You, know, if things just went back to how they were.”

“Well, maybe things weren’t as great as we all remember them. Let's go Kole.”

Zale threw her training sword at the rack, where it bounced off and fell to the side, and then stormed off to the locker room.

Kole followed, but Zale outpaced him. He rushed to change and wait for Zale outside, but she never emerged.

Kole paid for lunch and killed time doing classwork until Wiz 105, where he snuck in just before class began and snuck out right as it ended to avoid running into Gray.

***

The next morning, Zale wasn’t at the martial training yard, and Kole jogged around the field for a while before giving up and sitting down.

She didn’t show up for either class that day, and Kole went back to the library alone. He’d lived most of his life alone and had thought he’d grown numb to it. He’d been wrong. But, he mused, his sadness wasn’t for himself, but for Zale.

He’d been betrayed by kids before. Occasionally his classmates would try to befriend him, but they always eventually gave up and joined in with Corbyn and his pack of bullies. But, he never expected it to last and was never that surprised when it ended. Zale though… she’d been friends with them for years. He couldn’t imagine being betrayed like that. Though he supposed, Gray and Harold and the rest must have felt a bit betrayed too. Finding out your friend had kept such a big secret must have been tough.

No, he chastised himself. Don’t show sympathy for them. Their initial reaction could be excused, but they had months to make it up to her.

Kole spent the evening working on the next version of Shield, only stopping to go sit in on the divination class.

He arrived a few minutes late, with the professor mid-lecture.

“—are useful for much, but not for rapidly changing divinations.” She paused and smiled. “Oh good. Today I hoped we’d get an opportunity for a more hands-on exercise and it looks like we’ll have the chance. We have a guest.”

The professor waved at Kole where he sat invisible.

Oh no…

“Someone is spying on this class under a veil. Whoever can find and capture them will get to skip the midterm.”

The students, second and third-year students all, looked around at each other confused. The professor let out a sigh.

“Find the invisible boy and catch him!” she shouted, spurring Kole into motion.

He ran, not sparing a glance behind him, but he heard the beginning of spells being cast.

Suddenly, he was visible once more, but it only took a quick effort of Will to recast the spell, resulting in curses from those he fled.

He ran. Not sure where to go, his feet led him back to the library. Once inside, he fled into the depths, though he had the presence of mind not to head towards his home within it.

Sometime later, Kole lay in a corner of the library panting for breath. He’d found a section of shelves that formed a sort of maze. As he ran deeper, the place lost the neat concentric rings of shelves and became a bit of a mess. Taking all the books off of a few shelves, he took the boards that served as shelves, propped them up over the entrance to disguise it, and then infused it with some of his primal magic in the hope eyes would bounce off the strange makeshift wall. He retreated deeper in and lay resting in the middle where eventually he dozed off into sleep, using the contents of his torn bag as a pillow.