Kassius couldn’t contain his news for much longer. He anxiously waited for the day to end to tell Fenris what he found out. As soon as he and Fenris broke off from the girls, he pulled him towards the boys dorm and up to their room so that no one would hear them. The entire time Fenris was confused and wondering what had gotten into Kassius. He couldn’t tell if this was exciting news or bad news. Kassius paced back and forth, worrying both Fenris and Ashe, watching him in his anxious state.

"Kassius, what the hell is going on?!" Fenris shouted, bursting from anxiety of watching Kassius. "I found it!" Kassius yelled back.

Silence filled the room as Fenris tried to understand what Kassius was talking about. Kassius stood still, appearing grim, as if he had just done something terrible. "What do you mean you found it?" Fenris asked.

Kassius took a deep breath to compose himself, before he sped through his time in Miss Irene's office and his chat with her. He explained it as best he could, trying his best to explain it without suddenly bursting from the overwhelming feeling of worry and dread building up in him.

As he finished explaining everything, they both sat in silence, trying to comprehend it all. Fenris stared into blank space for a long while, and Kassius sat down on his bed contemplating and fidgeting his thumbs. Fenris stood up and started to pace, just as Kassius did.

"Well.......shit." Fenris tried to get more words out but he stood there speechless. The rest of what came out of his mouth were barely even words. Only "So" and "Uhh", and "Umm", were coming out, and frankly who could blame him. After all, he just found out that the one thing that a very scary and dangerous group of people want more than anything is in the school.

"What do we do?!" Kassius yelled, breaking his silence. "What do you mean "what do we do?"?! There's only one thing we can do, nothing!" Fenris yelled back.

They began to yell at each other, panicking over what was going to happen. "Shouldn't we tell someone about this? Especially Miss Irene?" Kassius suggested.

Fenris sighed in frustration. "Like they would believe us, Kassius. We're just kids."

"And even if they did, how do you expect us to explain how we know about all this, would they even believe us then?" Fenris raised excellent points that annoyed Kassius as it seemed like they couldn't do anything.

"We have to at least try, if they do try something, we should at least let one of the teachers know. They might attack us here." Kassius said.

"We have guards around the island, Kassius. That's more than enough to handle the group that we saw." Fenris said, trying to reassure Kassius, and himself that they would be safe.

Kassius wasn't calming down at the thought however, he remained stressed and fearful. Fenris took a deep, deep breath before sitting Kassius down on his bed. “Look, no matter what we do there will be a lot of problems later.”

“We have no idea what we can do, so for now let's sleep on it and talk to the girls about it tomorrow.” Fenris sat on his bed, turned off the lamps and got into his sheets and did his best to sleep soundly.

Kassius sat there staring blankly, still contemplating it all. He wanted to follow Fenris and try to get some sleep but his mind always trailed off to the thought making him restless each time. It took all of his effort to shut his eyes enough to be able to fall asleep. Because he spent his energy all in a short amount of time he fell asleep almost immediately. He didn’t dream anything through the night, and for that he was grateful. He would rather have no dreams than risk seeing the same nightmare again.

—-

The next day had come, and the mid-year tests were almost upon them. As it was the first major tests of the year, every student used this free day to study non-stop, especially the first years. Students would be found crowding the library or the dining hall. There were even some students seen in the field, preparing for some practical tests.

Away from all the clamoring of the school crowds on campus, Kassius and the others went to their spot in the forest for a more peaceful place to study and practice. While the other students were only worried about their upcoming tests, Kassius and his friends had other more urgent matters, involving the radical group the Forgotten, and their prize the Catalyst. Just as Kassius did the night before, he explained what had happened in Miss Irene's office and his talk with her, to Eva and Gwin. Most of the time they were listening intently, although their faces showed that they were as shocked as Fenris and Kassius were.

"Of course we should tell one of the teachers!! Are you kidding me?!!?!" Gwin yelled as loudly as she could. Eva, on the other hand, was a lot calmer than any of them, you would think she had faced this sort of situation before.

"You don't need to yell. I'll be lucky to even hear an explosion after that." Fenris said, slightly annoyed.

"If you weren't such an idiot, I wouldn't have had to yell then!!!" Gwin yelled again, earning a more scornful look from both Kassius and Fenris. Eva put her hand on Gwin's shoulder, calming her down a lot.

"Why didn't you tell Miss Irene, Kassius?" Eva said, breaking her silence.

"Where do I start? And Fenris is right, we're just kids who would believe us?" Kassius answered.

He truly believed that these were the reasons that he didn't outright tell Miss Irene about the Forgotten, although deep inside, the reason was something else entirely.

"We're kids, for all they know we could be playing a joke or call us too young for something like this, which we are." Kassius explained.

Fenris nodded along with Kassius. Eva and Gwin stood silent, not being able to argue with Kassius, Eva gave Kassius a skeptical look, however, as if accusing him of something. "I understand but, don't you think that if we told someone they would be more prepared..and.....and....." she said, her voice fading as she went on.

The group stood silent, not knowing what to say or how to change the topic.Eva spoke to break the awkward silence.

"They're right."

"So for now let's worry about our tests, which should be our more immediate concern right now." they all nodded, agreeing with Eva, and sighed.

She maintained her skeptical look towards Kassius, and Gwin remained concerned about the whole situation. Fenris would usually lighten the mood with a joke or two, but even he stood silent, seemingly worn out from the discussion.

"Gwin, you and Fenris can start with Magic and the other written tests, Kassius and I will go through our pointers for the practical tests." Eva suggested, and Gwin nodded. Fenris groaned in protest but was then dragged by the ear, by Gwin.

As the two moved towards their books and began to review, Eva pulled Kassius slightly farther aside, as if she wanted the other two out of ear shot.

They stopped, and Eva looked at him, hardening her expression. "You want to deal with this by yourself don't you?" Eva said bluntly. Kassius looked at her confused, but he had a feeling he knew what she was talking about.

"Don't try to bullshit me." she said, keeping her hardened stare on him, weakening him by the second. "Fine, yes I do want to deal with it, and yes I know it's stupid." Kassius said with a big sigh.

"Is this because of that altar?" Eva asked. It took Kassius awhile to be on the same page as her.

He had forgotten that the weird altar that the Forgotten had gathered around had his name on it. His mind was mostly thinking about his dream. Knowing both, had made his curiosity and desire to know more grow stronger.

"You said it yourself, Kassius, we're just kids, if all four of us can't handle something like this, what do you think you could do?"

"I don't know, ok?! But when your life changes one after the other after one day, you want answers right?!" Kassius said, enraged and frustrated, nearly boiling to the point of screaming.

He had never been so easily frustrated by anything before. His sudden outburst shocked him, he had never been one to turn to anger so easily, after tolerating the kids from the orphanage. Eva stood shocked, as she had never seen Kassius very angry and frustrated.

“I understand being scared, but why does this matter to you so much?” Eva asked. Kassius contemplated whether to tell her about the dream.

She didn’t want anyone to worry about it, especially because it was just a dream. The fact that the same figure showed up in the dream is pure coincidence to him, not worth mentioning in a serious situation.

“Better to just say it, buddy.” a voice said behind Kassius.

He turned to see Gwin and Fenris listening in on the conversation, further cementing his notion of not telling them about his dream.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“You do remember how we got to know each other right?” Gwin pointed out. From this, Kassius remembered their first heart to heart, when they first met Eva.

It was the first time he felt that he wasn’t alone about how he felt. It was the first time he felt someone understood him, in this case some people, bringing a warm feeling in his chest.

This memory calmed him down completely and helped him muster the courage to tell them. He told them about his dream and what he had seen in the smoke when he met Auralius and about Miss Jean. He ended up telling them about most of his time in the orphanage and how there were so many questions around his birth and his arrival there, as well as his treatment there. The others remained quiet and listened intently, not showing any obvious expression on their face.

After finishing his explanation, the others stood and sat, contemplating and processing what they heard from Kassius. “Well…shit.” Fenris said. The other two remained deep in thought, speechless. “Well that changes everything then.” Fenris said, with a renewed energy about him.

“What do you mean?” Kassius asked. “Well now we definitely have to do something about it right?” Fenris said bluntly.

“What happened to “we can’t do anything, we’re only kids.”?'' Kassius responded.

Fenris put his arm around him and hit his head. “It matters to you, that's a good enough reason for me to do something. And besides, no one even thinks I'm a normal kid, being Farathore and all.” Fenris said with a smile on his face.

Kassius felt another arm around him and saw Eva next to him. “Same goes for me, if it matters to you, then I’m with you.” He smiled at them both, happy for their support. They all turned to Gwin still contemplating the dilemma before her.

They gave her a begging look to try and convince her to join. She does her best to resist but succumbs easily. “Ughhhh, fine, but if we get into trouble I will blame all of you.” Gwin said, frustrated. They pull her into their huddle, laughing and smiling together. Kassius was happy that he had friends like these.

They pulled away after a while and began to think about what they should do next. “I still think we should tell a teacher, at least a sentinel.” Gwin said.

“They’re the only ones who could actually do something about this.” “But who would believe us? Miss Irene?” Kassius asked. They all thought of who they could go to about this problem. “How about Auralius?” Eva suggested.

“That’s a great idea!” Fenris said, enthusiastically. It took Kassius a moment to have the same realization as Fenris, the one teacher that Kassius could go to and could trust, Auralius.

“Are you sure?” Gwin asked, concerned. “Why not? Auralus was the one who got Kassius out of the orphanage, Kassius is also his favorite.

“He’s also one of the most important people in the school, and a great fighter.” Fenris said, keeping his enthusiasm. While all his points made sense, it didn’t seem to convince Gwin.

“What’s wrong?” Kassius asked. “I don’t get a good feeling from him.” Gwin said, grimly. Kassius looked confused, wondering about what she meant. “Remember his first class? We all had a serious beating from him but–”

“It was combat class Gwin, we’re bound to get hurt from it.” Fenris interrupted Gwin. Gwin hit the back of his head for interrupting her.

“Let me finish you idiot!” Gwin yelled. She sighed and continued.

“Out of all of us, Kassius was the one who received the worst of it.” Gwin finished, causing the others to become silent.

“I always wondered why he singled Kassius out.” Gwin further explained. “Did you see what Kassius did to him? Kassius demolished him.” Fenris responded.

“Almost in the same way he demolished Adonis and his team right?” Gwin pointed out.

This gave Kassius pause for a moment. He might have guessed that Auralius might know something about him, but now he found himself wondering how much Auralius knew about him.

“I think our best option is Miss Irene, she is in charge of the entire school.” Gwin suggested.

“Who knows if she’ll believe us though? But fine, we'll try to tell her first.” Fenris said, reluctantly agreeing to Gwin’s suggestion. Kassius and Eva didn’t object, seeing the sense and logic in Gwin’s suggestion.

As they finished their discussion, they went back to actually studying and preparing for their exams, as best they could at least. They were able to get a lot of work done, being able to go through the materials that would come up on their written tests, which is most of their subjects, even though Kassius still struggled slightly on magic. On the other hand, the practical material took awhile to get the hang of for everyone, where Kassius struggled on magic, and Fneris and Gwin struggled in combat.

As they wrapped up their session, they gathered their things and walked back towards the castle, with the intent of telling Ms. Irene about what they know.

They neared the entrance to the field when they saw Hazel and a group of other students from their class, huddled up, discussing something in whispers. They walked faster to see what was going on and why they were whispering. When they got closer, they noticed the other group bearing frightened faces, pale with worry.

Kassius hastened his pace to get to them. "What's going on?" he asked. The group turned to him, their expression becoming more apparent. "Kassius? You came from the forest?" Hazel said, with great worry. It was a surprising and terrifying sight, since Kassius had almost never seen Hazel show anything but great joy and optimism.

"Yeah we were studying, why are you guys so serious?" Kassius asked, earning surprised stares from the entire group.

"You didn't hear?" one of the boys in the group said.

"One of the Union Sentinels is in the infirmary right now, hurt badly." the boy said. "So? It could've been one of the creatures here." Fenris said, joining the conversation.

Another boy was about to speak, until Eva and Gwin joined behind Kassius. Upon Eva's appearance the other students became mesmerized and distracted by Eva's beauty, nearly forgetting the whole conversation. Gwin rolled her eyes disgusted, while Eva remained calm, even if she found it a little annoying. "I think it's time for you guys to go." Hazel said, urging them to go back to the castle. While they protested, Hazel wasn't listening, eventually convincing them to leave.

"Anyway, we heard some of the older students talking about it. They said that the Sentinel that was attacked was in the school when it happened." Hazel explained. Kassius and the others focused their attention on the conversation.

"They also said that the Sentinel was seen outside of the headmistress' office." Hazel continued. Kassius' face widened, realizing what this could've meant. He turned to the others and saw that they too, had the same realization.

Before Hazel could finish, they ran towards the castle in a rush to find Ms. Irene. They ran through the halls and up the stair maze as fast as they could until they reached the hallway leading to Ms. Irene's office until they bumped into someone at the end of the stairs.

Kassius fell and looked up to see Miss Cobbes looking down at him with a stern look. "What do you think you are doing running around here?" she asked loudly with a strict tone.

"We have to see Miss Irene, it's about something important." Kassius said hastily. "I'm afraid that is impossible, Miss Irene has gone away to meet with the heads of Union for an urgent matter." Miss Cobbes answered calmly. The group groaned in frustration.

"She is already aware of the incident that has occurred in the school so--" she was quickly interrupted by Fenris. "This is about the Sentinel! We need to see her!" he yelled.

"They're after the catalyst!" Kassius blurted out loudly, urging Ms. Cobbes to harden her expression even more and silence the group. "That is enough!". The group fell silent but quietly frantic.

"I do not know how you came to know this information but I suggest that you kids think about what you do before you get yourselves into serious trouble." she said, keeping her gaze on them, keeping them silent.

"Now, all of you proceed to your dormitories silently, and wait for an announcement from the school, otherwise, I will have to punish you severely." Miss Cobbes said, threateningly.

The group nodded and shuffled back down the stairs and stopped at the entrance of the library. They looked back to see if Miss Cobbes was following behind them. When they saw no one, they began to talk.

"What were you two thinking?!" Gwin said, simultaneously hitting Kassius and Fenris in the back of their heads. "What are you mad for?! We told a teacher, she just didn't listen." Fenris said contently.

"YOU OVERWHELMED HER! OF COURSE SHE WON'T BELIEVE US!!" Gwin yelled even loudly.

"It doesn't matter now does it!? She didn't listen and now the one person we absolutely have to tell is away!" Fenris began to yell with Gwin, arguing with her. Kassius and Eva stood silent, deep in thought as to what they should do now.

"You kids need to quiet down." a deep voice said from behind Kassius. He and Eva turned and saw Auralius standing behind them. They nudged Fenris and Gwin, still in the middle of their argument, to tell them to shut up. They both turned and immediately silenced themselves at the sight of Auralius.

"What are you kids arguing about?" Auralius asked.

The group stayed silent, partially due to Auralius' overwhelming authoritative presence, but mostly due to the fact that they still had reservations about him due to Gwin's speculation about him. He was the second best person to tell about the catalyst and the Forgotten but on top of the fact that they were unsure about trusting him, they weren't sure if he would listen after what happened with Miss Cobbes. They stood silent for a long time before Auralius spoke again.

"Kassius? Something you want to tell me?" Auralius looked at Kassius, raising his eyebrow. Kassius knew that Auralius already suspects something, despite his growing distrust, there was no point in hiding anything with him.

"Um well sir......" Kassius struggled to get the words out. Before he could get the next word out, however, Auralius finished his thought for him.

"I already know, you kids argue pretty loudly." Auralius said calmly, as if it was a trivial issue.

"You kids should not get yourselves involved with such things, whoever was capable of this, likely has no for the innocent." Auralius said, eyeing them with suspicion.

“Before you do anything reckless, the one who did this is most likely capable of more dangerous things than a simple injured guard. Having said that, STAY AWAY from anything or anyone you may think are involved.” Aurelius said, with great urgency in his voice.

The group nodded in response to the warnings. “Now, one more piece of advice before I let you all go. Watch out for each other, you are stronger as one than you are apart.” Aurelius said gently, different compared to how he would usually speak to students.

The group nodded once more and proceeded to the stairs.

“A moment, Kassius.” Aurelius called. Kassius stopped and turned as his friends continued on. He walked back towards Auralius, and Auralius leaned in to quietly speak to Kassius.

“You especially, boy, should practice extreme caution. However, at the very unlikeliness that you will heed my warnings, remember ignorance is your enemy. Don’t be blind to what may be your best asset.” Kassius didn’t know what he meant before he could ask, Auralius left in the direction of the library.

Kassius left wondering about Auralius’ advice to him. What did he have that Auralius knew but he didn’t. This gave more merit to Gwin’s suspicion about Auralius and yet Kassius didn’t feel anxious about it, on the contrary, he felt relieved and reassured, whether it was because Auralius knew something about or the advice was generally helpful, regardless of what he meant.