Alistair picked up his pace as he ran up the stairs that led to the Wraithen Archives. He reached the door and quickly took the path that wrapped around the Archives, the one that eventually spilled out into the Ephemeral Garden.

“You can do better than that,” he told himself as a cool breeze picked up, one that whipped a few freshly fallen leaves into the air. “Come on.” Alistair sprinted even faster. He reached the gardens and summoned Noctarii. “Ready?”

“The question is are you ready? I’ll beat you just like I did yesterday.”

“You aren’t actually running,” Alistair reminded the shadow fae.

“So? Last one there is a stinky slime!” Noctarii buzzed away and Alistair rushed after him. He bolted past the seating area near the dining hall, where he spotted Lauren in the same place the girl had been yesterday morning.

This time, he decided to stop.

“Hey,” Alistair said, quickly catching his breath.

“Racing your fae again?”

“Heh, yeah.” Alistair scratched the back of his head. “But he sort of cheats.”

“Do you work out every morning?” Lauren closed a book, one that she clearly hadn’t been reading judging by the fact looked to be opened to a random page.

Alistair decided to tease her about this. “What are you reading there?”

“Oh, this?” She showed him the cover, some book called Proxima Legends that looked like fantasy. “Just something Lorcan recommended.”

“Is that a goblin on the cover?” Alistair asked. “With pink hair?”

“Yeah, he’s one of the main characters. A bit of a fucker, really. Or ‘ficker’ would be the better term because that’s what he calls himself. Anyway, I haven’t gotten that far into it, if we’re being honest. I should be studying.” She blew a strand of hair out of her face. “But I’m waiting for Dawn.”

“Yeah?” Alistair glanced around again, not able to contain the smile on her face. “Too early for her to be out, isn’t it?”

Lauren’s cheeks reddened. “She gets up early; we get up around the same time.”

“Like Juno, yeah?”

“You’re teasing me.”

“I’m not, I swear.”

Noctarii appeared. “What the hell, Alistair? You stop to talk to the ladies and totally skip out on your race? What part of morning calisthenics do you fail to comprehend?”

Rather than reply, Alistair summoned Ziggy, who jumped onto the table and over to Lauren. She petted the slime on the head. Squish… he purred. Squish…

Noctarii scoffed at the slime’s behavior. “He just thinks you’re going to feed him.”

“Maybe I will,” Lauren told the fae that she produced a small biscuit, which she handed over to Ziggy. “Here ya go, little guy.”

Squish! Ziggy wolfed down the biscuit and wagged his rear like a goose, which drew Noctarii’s ire.

“You’re such a suck-up…”

“Anyway,” Alistair said. “I should finish. I still need to hit the gym.”

“Your muscles are really starting to show.” Lauren placed her hand over her mouth. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Noctarii burst out laughing. “Didn’t mean it like what?”

Alistair touched his chest and the fae and the slime both disappeared. “Sorry about him.”

“It’s fine. Before you go, um, Alistair?”

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if you had some time a little bit later.”

“When?”

“Breakfast? I mean, we could technically have it right now, but you still have to work out.”

“I can’t do breakfast today,” Alistair said, as he glanced down at his shoes, the ones he had purchased for exercise. They were still holding up, but the sole of the right shoe was starting to peel back. “I have to meet with Juno and Zola.”

“Don’t you have to meet with them every day?” Lauren asked, the girl barely able to hide her disappointment.

“Yes and no. We have a thing with the Provost later,” Alistair said. “An important one.”

“About what?”

Alistair went with the lie they had all agreed upon: “We skipped out on classes last week for a few days and, it’s mostly about that.”

“Everyone is saying you guys took some crazy quest, and then you got stuck or something. Did you have something to do with Tarnis? Finnian mentioned Tarnis.”

“Not exactly, no.”

“And just so you know, Laertes is saying you guys were actually expelled for something. He’s making up lies.”

“I’m not worried about him,” Alistair caught himself just-in-time before saying what he had really thought.

Those kinds of thoughts, the ones that instantly jumped to vengeance, were remnants of the assassin that once lived in his head. Alistair knew it, and he knew that he shouldn’t give voice to them.

But if he had, if he had been so bold, he would have said something about paying Little Laer-Laer a visit and having Ziggy suffocate him while Alistair delivered a few choice punches. Or worse. That, or, calling upon Lionel to scare the living shit out of the other boy, preferably in front of other students just so the humiliation really stuck…

But that wasn’t who Alistair was, or at the very least, it wasn’t who he was trying to be.

“Well, it’s nice seeing you,” Lauren said after he grew silent.

“Tonight,” Alistair told her. “Let’s head to Lumina. I’ll take you to a place I know. It’s nice. How’s that sound?”

“Should I dress up?”

“Sure—”

“Wait, before you go,” she said as he was starting to turn away. “Kanda.”

Alistair felt a sudden tenseness roll over his shoulders. “What about her?”

“Have you heard from her? No one has seen her around campus for a week. I only know because I started volunteering at Verdant Hall, and some of the Skywards were talking about her. Melissa was one of them, Juno’s sister. She said no one has spoken to her.”

“I haven’t heard from Kanda in a while,” Alistair said, “but if you do see her on campus sometime, I would say just avoid her. She’s crazy.”

“I knew it,” Lauren said with a snap of her fingers. “Dawn was saying the same thing about her, and Zola didn’t say anything, but I could tell by the look on her face that she agreed. She’s not really good at hiding what she’s feeling, your friend, Zola. Anyway. Bye. And tonight. Where do you want to meet?”

“The front gate is fine. I’ll see you then.” Alistair took off and eventually reached his dormitory. He headed down to the weight room and started working on his chest and shoulders. As he lifted weights, he thought about some of the ways that Ghost would have scolded him:

“Lift like you mean it. Slow down. Push until failure. Take this seriously, Alistair.”

Alistair repeated those words as he finished his last set. “Take. This. Seriously.” He dropped the weights and stared up at the ceiling. “What would you say if you could see me now?”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

He had thought about this a lot over the past week.

Sometimes, it made him incredibly sad that Ghost was no longer with him, that all of this was over. Alistair also knew that it was far from over, that if he stayed on his current path, that things were just getting started. There were bound to be curveballs, and when they came, because of the man who had once inhabited his body, he might just know what to do.

He might just survive.

But still, the chapter that started all of this, that changed his life in ways that he couldn’t yet fathom, was over.

The edge never left.

Be it moving around campus at night, or coming into a new room. A sudden wind. A whisper. The sound of something in the distance. It didn’t matter. As much as Alistair didn’t want to admit it, he now thought like an assassin, like someone capable of stalking their prey, like a person who would never get a restful night sleep knowing that there was always the possibility of an ambush, Alistair never able to quash the paranoia in him that noted all the exits and prepared numerous contingencies for a variety of situations.

Kill or be killed.

If Ghost hadn’t said this, he had certainly ingrained it in him.

In the grand scheme of things, Ghost hadn’t been with Alistair for all that long, but the impact he’d had on his life was one that would extend all the way until Alistair himself died.

A part of Alistair hoped that he would never have contact with anyone who ran in Ghost’s circle again. But he knew this wouldn’t be the case. Kanda was now the leader of the Baronblades, and while no one had heard from her as of late, he had this itching feeling she would pop up again at some point in his life.

It was at that point that he would have to do what Ghost had done so many times, kill or be killed. Fight no flight. And if Alistair was smart about it, deal with his future enemy before they finally got around to dealing with him.

All the trauma, all that happened, had taken its toll.

Alistair knew that.

Yet he also knew that focusing on what was to come, in getting as strong and as well-rounded in terms of his future profession as a battledeck mage would be his saving grace. This was why he had buried himself in his studies upon returning to campus, why he asked Professor Yuber for an apprenticeship, and why he spent late nights in the Resonant Rooms training with his wand and his swords.

There were paths for many, and his peers would move on to all sorts of roles, from academic to political. Yet Alistair was destined for one thing, and one thing only.

The front line.

He had gotten a taste of that along the border, and the further away from the action he was, the more he noticed that he craved it. He would always have his friends in whatever role they took in the future Dawncrestian society, but Alistair knew that if he was truly to be happy, he would need the type of life he had before with Ghost, one with ups and downs, extremities mixed with great rewards.

He finished with his lats, stretched, and headed up to his dorm room to find Juno eagerly waiting for him.

“Bro, I thought you’d never come,” the other boy said, who sat on the couch and bent forward, elbows on his knees. It was clear he was nervous about his father coming to campus.

“I’ll shower, then we can meet Zola for breakfast.”

Juno leaned back as a smirk appeared on his face. “She’s already there waiting for us. Bet.”

“Of course, she is.”

“But let’s make her wait. It’ll be funny. She’s kind of cute when she’s flustered, but don’t tell her I said that.” Juno laughed nervously like he often did when he felt pressure. “Take your time, Ghost.”

“Will do, Wraith.”

Alistair didn’t take his time with the shower. He cleaned up quickly, changed into his best clothing and freshest overcoat, and rejoined Juno. Together, they headed to the dining hall, where they found Zola standing out front, her arms crossed over her chest, the silver-haired girl scowling at them. “It took the two of you long enough.”

“Relax,” Juno told her. “My boy Alistair here isn’t going to get swole if you rush him.” To illustrate what he meant, Juno squeezed Alistair’s arm. “Dang, bro. Zolgerie, have you checked out our boy’s muscles over here?”

“Yes, Alistair works out. Yes, you have mentioned that numerous times now. Yes, I’m aware that he is getting bigger. What is with guys worshiping other guys who have muscle? I’ll never understand it,” Zola said as they entered the dining hall and got in line with their trays.

“Because muscles are badass, Zola, it’s not hard to figure out.” As usual, Juno filled his with a sampling of pretty much everything; Alistair stuck with mostly protein, which Ghost had suggested several times; and Zola only got a few things, the majority of which were fruits and vegetables.

They found a table away from everyone and Zola fired off a message to Alistair.

Zola: We need to tell him, now. If we tell Juno in front of his father and the Provost, he won’t be ready for it. It might be a little too shocking, and will take away from what we actually need to explain to them to keep our asses out of trouble, and, I don’t know, not get expelled. I really don’t want to be expelled, Alastair. If I get expelled—

Alistair: You won’t. I’ll tell him now. And maybe you’ll learn more about what happened too.

Alistair smiled at Juno as the other boys shoveled food into his mouth. Juno kept doing it until he noticed that both Alistair and Zola were looking at him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, crumbs spraying from his lips.

Finnian appeared with a tray. “Hey, guys—”

“Can you give us a moment?” Zola asked him. “Sorry.”

He snorted and Juno did the same. “Yo, Zola, it’s just Finn—”

“Juno, Finn, I’m serious,” she said.

“No big deal.” Finnian winked at Juno and moved on.

“He is such a cool guy,” Juno said when he was gone, “a cool guy that doesn’t deserve to be treated like trash. What’s wrong with you?” he asked Zola.

“Alistair, tell him.”

“Ghost,” Alistair began.

“And Wraith,” Juno told him in the voice. “And…” He nodded to Zola. “Do it…”

“Haunt.”

“Yes! Ghost, Wraith, and Haunt. Our codenames.” Juno grinned. “What about them?”

“Just let him finish before you interrupt,” Zola said. “Seriously, Juno. This is about what we need to tell the Provost and your dad later.”

“Okay… what’s up?” he asked Alistair.

Alistair looked his friend over, the first person at the Lumina Battledeck Academy to be kind to him. “Do you remember when we first met?”

“Yeah, in the woods when you got Ziggy. Shit was wild.”

“Well, that’s not the only thing I got that night.”

“You say that like you picked up an STD.” Juno couldn’t help but snort. “Sorry, last one, I swear, Zola.”

Alistair decided to just come right out with it: “Ghost was real. He was an assassin killed by the Unknown Souls because he wouldn’t go along with the conspiracy they had to use Dracolich zombies to invade the Dawncrest Kingdom. Up until the moment you dragged me out of the dungeon, Ghost lived in my head. Whenever you heard that voice, it was him, speaking through me. He is also the one that helped us numerous times. And he is… no longer with us.”

“This is the part I don’t understand,” Zola told Alistair. “You were never clear about that.”

“I had a card that allowed me to come back from death. Not quite a rebirth—”

“Hold up,” Juno said, “hold the frick up. You can’t drop all this on me and not explain a little bit deeper. Ghost was real? How was he in your head? And seriously, bro, what the fuck?”

Alistair circled back around to the main explanation, the Card of Rebirth, the true issue with Professor Dreadwell, all of which seem to put the pieces in place a little better for Juno. Finally, he got back to what he had just been telling them about how Ghost died, and how Alistair should have, but did not.

“He did it for me,” Alistair said, finally coming to grips with it, finally understanding what the assassin meant in the last words he ever spoke to Alistair. Good luck…

Zola’s face paled. “So Ghost knew that Plague Bearer would kill you, and by extension, him, but you had the Phoenix card, which brought you back to life, but not him? Huh. That makes so much more sense than I thought it would.”

“You really knew the whole time?” Juno asked her. “You knew he was possessed? Why didn’t you—”

“Not the whole time, no. I only figured it out in the end, Juno, like right before Alistair and Ghost went for Dreadwell. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is we are telling you this because we are going to tell the same thing, the entire story again, to the Provost and your dad. We didn’t want you to be surprised.”

Juno took a bite of sausage. He chewed it for a moment as he looked from Alistair to Zola. Finally, he laughed. “Well, I guess it makes sense. Fucking weird sense, but sense. And I will probably have more questions later. And I’m already starting to wonder about other little details, like did he watch you poop and shit?”

Zola nearly spit a strawberry out that she had just eaten. “Poop and shit are the same thing.”

“You know what I mean.”

“He was silent during times like that,” Alistair said. “But he did comment on a lot of things, and he told me what to say sometimes if I didn’t know how to handle something.”

Juno cleared his throat. “Did he… like me?”

Alistair felt a smile lift his cheeks. He knew Ghost was going to hate this answer. “Yes, Juno, he thought you were funny, talented, and that you were a good friend. He complimented you often.”

Juno puffed his chest up a little. “Hell yeah, he did. Well, the real Ghost sounds like a badass, and judging by all the things that we did, and all the things that, well, you did, he was definitely a good influence.”

“He was definitely… something,” Alistair finally said.

“And for the meeting later today, I think this only makes our case even better,” Juno told them. “How can you be expected to control an assassin living in your body? Wait, was that with your golden eye was about?”

“I think, yeah.”

Juno laughed this off as well. “Like I said, how can you be expected to control and influence like that? It’s a wonder you didn’t murder everyone.”

Alistair wanted to tell them that he sort of did, but decided against it. “Ghost just wanted to handle the people that murdered him and save the kingdom. Those were his only goals.”

“Such a frickin’ badass.” Juno wiped his mouth with his arm. “But now that I know this, I do have one request for both of you? And now it’s my turn to be serious.”

“What’s that?” Zola asked Juno.

“Ghost, Wraith, and Haunt. I want those to continue to be our codenames. We don’t have to do the voices, but we keep the nicknames. Even when we’re adults. Even when you two are famous battledeck mages and I somehow got myself into a cushy government job through sheer nepotism. Heh. You two act like I don’t know what I am and where I come from.” He rubbed his hands together. “But I know, and that’s beside the point. We keep the nicknames no matter what. Deal?”

“Deal,” Zola said. “Alistair?”

He smiled at his two best friends. “Deal.”

The end.