“You… You mean you knew our plan all along?” Planos spluttered. Aurelie smiled at him, and it was the scariest smile he had ever seen.

“Of course I did. Did you really think your bad acting fooled me?” The day after the forest incident, when she had visited the guests from the Seven Heavens Academy, she had sensed a slight killing intent around Cailysi and Planos. Mrs. Dreslin wasn’t aware of it, and Cailysi and Planos hadn’t realized they were leaking it, but Aurelie had been incredibly sensitive to killing intent directed towards her ever since she was five. She had immediately figured out that Cailysi and Planos had something to do with the murder attempt the night before.

“In fact, the only thing that was surprising about what’s happened is your uncle, Planos.” Aurelie said, consideringly.

“I knew he was there, and I was trying to draw him out, but I never expected that a harmless bit of flirting would do the trick. I wasn’t faking my surprise, at that point in time. Also, I didn’t expect him to be a second stage Elemental Apprentice. I knew Gradas’ energy levels, and I knew that he was far more powerful than Gradas. I had Mrs. Dreslin call for Elder Raotin because I thought that Tanor was at the third stage of the Elemental Apprentice Realm. I underestimated the gap between stages.” Aurelie smirked. Tanor went red with anger. It was as though she were telling him she had overcompensated for his presence, that he wasn’t good enough to bring her plan out fully,

“So, Elder Raotin, are you leaving with them now, or are you going to stay for a little while longer?” Aurelie asked.

Raotin sighed. “I’ll leave soon. I need to turn these three in, as well as ferret out the enchanter who had the guts to attack future members of the academy.” He said, his face stormy.

Aurelie laughed. “I’m honored you think that highly of us, Elder, but us entering the school isn’t for certain.”

Raotin studied the two of them seriously. “I have a feeling you’ll make it.”

Though his contributions seemed slight, as compared to Aurelie, fact of the matter was that Farn had needed to separate Cailysi from the mercenary group, threaten her, and bring her here. Cailysi was an entire Realm above Farn, so it was probably incredibly difficult to do so. The gun helped, but he would have needed to have his guard up the entire time. Farn couldn’t be underestimated either.

Aurelie just giggled and turned away. “We’ll leave you, then. After all, there are Spirit Fruits with our name on them somewhere here!”

Raotin watched them walk away, then turned towards Mrs. Dreslin. “You really found some little monsters this time, Elviay.”

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Elviay Dreslin smiled slyly at her husband. “That was my job, wasn’t it Raotin? And how did you get here so fast? Don’t tell me you were following me again.” She added, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not! I was assigned to the region near the Wenrey Mountain Range for the past month.” Raotin protested.

“Then is it really okay for you to be stepping away from your duties?” She asked, her eyebrows still raised.

“I was assigned to come back right around now.” Raotin replied, an angelic look on his face.

“Uh-huh. And, when I go back and ask my friends, are they going to tell me you went around begging the Headmaster to assign you to this region for however long I’m here again?” She asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Not unless they break their promise to keep their mouths shut.” Raotin said seriously.

Elviay laughed. “Stupid.” She said, shaking her head.

Beside them, the trussed up bodies of Cailysi, Tanor, and Planos thought, ‘Idiot couple.’

~~~~~~~

“So… do you have any idea where we should even start to look?” Aurelie asked as she picked her way through the jungle. Truthfully, she had been so focussed on what was happening with Tanor, Planos, and Cailysi, she hadn’t even thought about the Spirit Fruit, other than to rejoice at the opportunity it created in terms of being able to finally put the plan into action.

Luckily, Farn hadn’t been as single minded.

“Cailysi’s mercenary group said that there was a cliff. On one side of the cliff, there’s a waterfall, and on the other side there’s a jungle, as well as a cave. The Spirit Fruit is inside the cave. I know the general direction it’s in.” Farn replied.

Aurelie whistled. “Nice info. But how does a fruit grow in a cave? Isn’t there a problem with the lack of light?”

Farn shrugged, and for an instant he looked like the same carefree boy she’d met when she first came to Sorainella.

Quietly, the two continued to walk.

~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Gallo wondered whether or not he was still on the same mountain as the others. He looked down at a rather steep cliff. It was more like a sheer, smooth rock face than a jutting cliff. It was as though someone had cut through the stone with one move, and this was how it was left. He couldn’t see the bottom, and when he threw in a stone, he couldn’t hear the echo of it hitting the ground even after five minutes. It was like a dark, bottomless pit just waiting to swallow him up.

Then he looked to the right and saw practically impenetrable forestry. The tangle of greenery was so dense, even the blazing noon sun couldn’t penetrate its depths. Behind him was the forest he had just exited. To his left was a dark cave. It, like the cliff/bottomless pit before him, was dark, and, strangely, scared Gallo more than the drop did. Across from the rift, in front of him, was a waterfall. The water was a clear, crystalline blue. He could see small, brightly colored fish swimming in the river which was formed by the waterfall.

He raised his head and looked up at the bright blue sky, wailing, “WHERE AM I?!?”