Rain began to fall from the pitch-black sky. A crack of lightning coursed through the clouds and the crowd around them rushed away to take cover in the city buildings.

Raelle took Nelena’s hand and led her over towards a building to their left to stand beneath an awning connected to a barbershop.

“Why did it have to start raining?” he said. It hadn’t rained for an entire month and right as they were heading home from the ball, it decided to rain on them and everyone else.

She freed her hand from his that held onto it. She moved her index finger urging him to follow her out into the rain.

“W-what the heck are you doing?”

With a wide smile and a head arched up towards the sky, Nelena chose for some strange reason or another to stand right out in the rain as it soaked into her black dress. She took a pin from out of her hair allowing it to fall to her shoulders and become wet.

“This is what it feels like to be liberated. Come on and join me out here!” She stretched out her slender delicate arms as the rain hit up against them sliding down and soaking more and more of her dress.

Thankfully there were practically no others around. They had either already made it back home from the ball or made it inside a building.

All he could do was watch her act ridiculous by not staying under the awning like himself.

Before he could react, however, she lunged for him grasping at his wrist. His body came hurdling forward with her arms wrapped around him. He tried to make it back under cover, but instead, she pressed her lips to his and kept him underneath the increasingly powerful storm.

The nearby aura-infused street lamps lit up her wet face and those white teeth as she smiled at him. “Doesn’t it feel liberating out here?”

“I think you and I have a different definition for that word.”

He felt downright dreary getting his suit wet, but it was too late now. He was joined by a drunken mad woman who lured him into the rain and kept him in it. He sighed to himself resigning himself away to the fact that things were too far gone now for him to stay reasonably dry. For that reason, he stayed there with her as she held a joyous look on that pretty face of hers.

“There’s no sense of us waiting around here since we’re completely drenched.” He took her hand preparing to lead them down the sidewalk. “Let’s make our way back to the academy.”

“But…but I wanted us to go someplace else right before…”

He looked at her as she appeared a little sad as they walked together in the rain. “You’re far too drunk. Let’s just make our way back for now.”

“Alright.” Her sad expression quickly shifted as she poked him in the cheek and laughed.

He shook his head and became somewhat annoyed by her silly antics. You didn’t even drink that much and you’re like this. What was he to do with someone like her? She dragged him to this ball and while it wasn’t entirely a bore or downright awful, he struggled to see the sense in attending such functions especially when so many of the people there hated someone like him.

Not everyone did of course. But many did making it an unpleasant experience. Nelena on the other hand came from a much more prestigious family than his. He didn’t get the impression that as many people disliked her despite the fact that she was with him.

Raelle suspected that they figured she would eventually get rid of him. In their minds, they would speculate and imagine her dumping him for someone else by egregiously talking down to him. Little did they know, that the two of them were as thick as thieves. Between the two of them, she didn’t care a single bit what others might think of her choices of pursuit. She did whatever she wanted and that was that.

Within reason of course. Like himself, she too was forced to attend this academy to become a renowned sorceress. In many ways, they were alike which made their connection with each other quite strong.

As they took a turn, she began to stumble around a bit. Her eyes appeared tired and he paused for a moment allowing her to gain her bearings.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

She began to grab at his upper arm to secure herself. She enthusiastically nodded her head.

“You don’t have to lie to me.”

She put a hand to her mouth appearing more and more like she was ready to throw up. Ah crap.

In a blink of an eye, she dashed down an alleyway and hunched over vomiting onto the ground. The water falling from the sky attempted its best to wash it away, but enough of the vomit remained on the ground in a rather disgusting pile.

She kept a hand to her abdomen appearing a bit out of it. “Do I need to carry you the rest of the way?”

“I…I think I can make it alright on my own two feet.”

“If you say so. Just, uh, try not to do any more of that if you could.”

She playfully punched him in the chest. “Y-you shut that m-mouth of yours.”

“What a foul display here.”

The sudden pronouncement from another person far down the dark rainy alleyway, caused her to bump up into him as she became spooked.

He began to squint trying to spot whoever it was that approached them.

“Who’s there?” Nelena asked drunkenly.

“Who do you think it is?”

“Artius?” she said.

Raelle tightened one of his fists realizing who it was. The wretched person soaked much like themselves stopped their approach from a comfortable distance away. They ran a hand through their wet hair pulling the strands away from the front of their face.

“How ridiculous,” they simply stated appearing somewhat drunk themselves. “Why do you even bother being with him?”

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Although still drunk, she managed to stand firmly beside Raelle rather than cling to him any longer. “I’m allowed to be with whoever I want.”

“That’s not it works. That’s not how it’s ever worked amongst those of our ilk. You’re supposed to be with me. And only me as expected by our parents.”

His words disgusted him. It was also like listening to a toddler that demanded things to be a certain way when rationally speaking, there was nothing logical to what was being said.

“I’ve never much cared for what Mother and Father thought about who I am to be with. I suggest you adopt a similar approach to me Artius.”

The man took a step forward. “You’ve become warped in your thinking. I suppose that is the nature of women. It’s the duty of people like myself, to ensure you stay in line.”

“That’s enough,” Raelle said.

“Shut your mouth. I’ll not be spoken to in that way by you or anyone of your ilk. In fact, I’ll gladly beat you the way I did the other night.”

“What, you think you’ll have the same success without those other two with you? Go ahead and try then.”

It came as a bit of a surprise, that he actually intended to attack him. He lunged towards Raelle sending a fist forward. He dodged the clumsily made attack and sent his fist to hit him.

Strangely, it came as a surprise as a kick landed against Raelle as it hit up against his abdomen.

Artius began to laugh. “Has someone been taking lessons?” His fist landed against the side of Raelle’s face.

Raelle stepped back taking up a stance Nelena’s uncle had taught him. His head pulsated a bit but he tried to focus rather than get careless. Artius didn’t appear as drunken as he appeared prior to now as well. If anything, it suggested that he acted that way as a ploy.

“Stop fighting,” Nelena said getting in between them. “Artius stop acting this way. None of us want this.”

“You couldn’t be more wrong. This is exactly what I want. Someone has to be willing to teach him a lesson. And listen Raelle, all you have to do is drop out. Go on your way. Heck, I wouldn’t even be opposed to you attending a lesser academy where people like you belong. But it’s time you accept that you don’t belong here nor are you worth being with her. You would only poison the blood of our lineages if allowed to continue this silly nonsense.”

Every word. Every sentence. It was all poison. It frustrated him so much as well, as he didn’t want any trouble with Artius or anyone else for that matter. But this was the way of things in these circles.

And Raelle couldn’t act as if he hadn’t earned some of their ire. He didn’t work hard towards trying to make more friendships and ease tensions with them. Instead, he took on an attitude that was likely harmful to developing more amicable relations.

Still, that didn’t justify how he was being treated.

“I don’t want to fight you Artius. Let’s just go our separate ways.”

“Giving up so easily? We’ve only just begun!”

“Stop!” Nelena yelled.

This time, when Artius lunged forward Raelle took on a different approach. He took up a new stance catching him off guard, and planted his fist against Artius’s face feeling their bones as his knuckles landed a hit.

They came again, except this time taking another hit and then another from Raelle.

Their frustrations grew as they began to fume practically. Their arm movements became more wild and chaotic. Anger made them move in ways less than ideal allowing him the chance to more easily defend and strike Artius several more times.

Artius grew so frustrated that they stumbled back wiping some blood from their lips. For a few moments before now, they managed to make him think he wasn’t drunk at all and he was entirely faking it, but it appeared they were a bit more drunk after all. Raelle hadn’t drank much during the ball so he was rather lucid giving him a bit more of an advantage along with her uncle Ciras’s fighting techniques that he crudely utilized.

“It’s over,” Raelle said taking her hand preparing to leave. He turned his back and headed for the alleyway’s exit to walk down the street, but a terrible feeling burgeoned inside of himself.

The sound of feet quickly motioning across the wet alleyway entered his ear and a spine-chilling sensation caused him to spin around spotting Artius lunging for him with a knife grasped with both of their hands.

Raelle pushed her out of the way and felt a burning sensation as he stepped backward.

A red liquid ran down their knife as he felt for his side. The cut didn’t feel deep but they had managed to cut him enough that blood freely flowed from his wound.

“What do you think you’re doing!” Nelena yelled aloud.

Artius came lunging once more fully intent on stabbing him. The fighting before this hadn’t felt so serious. Everything had changed for the worse however forcing him to fear for his life.

Nelena’s back was to the alleyway’s wall as rain kept pouring onto them all. Raelle stepped to the side avoiding another of their stabbing motions.

However, his foot got caught onto something forcing him to twist around and fall harshly to the ground. His shoulder began to pulse and without thinking, he thrust up his arms wrapping them around the Artius’s wrist as they tried to send the knife into his belly.

Every ounce of his strength went into his hands as he was pinned to the ground with the knife just a couple of inches away from entering him.

The man’s eyes were practically bulging out of their skull as they tried to plant the knife into him. He’s gone mad. What the hell has gotten into him?

Raelle grimaced trying with every ounce of his strength to fight against their own. Unfortunately, his strength began to waver and he felt completely helpless noticing the blade getting closer to his body.

As his hands began to buckle allowing for the knife to enter into him, every bit of force Artius utilized surrendered itself as an invisible energetic force moved through his neck.

Their mouth opened wide and their eyes appeared lifeless. And then slowly, their head slid off their body landing onto the ground with their body collapsing over onto Raelle.

His lips began to quiver as he scrambled to get their body off of him. He looked up towards Nelena whose hand was pointed towards him as she breathed in and out frantically.

He stood up rushing towards her to try to calm her down. She put her arm to her side shaking uncontrollably.

With a wary look over his shoulder, he examined Artius’s body as blood spilled out of their neck and head that sat nearby their body.

His thoughts went all over the place struggling to make sense of it.

“We have to go,” she said quickly. “We have to go now.”

He looked down noticing blood continuing to flow out of his side. The burning became more obvious as the fighting ended in a disaster.

“Raelle!” She said grasping onto his shoulder.

“We have to get out of here now. Otherwise—”

For whatever reason, he couldn’t stop focusing on what remained of Artius’s body. The gruesome sight horrified him and yet, he did not see any other way for things to go this way.

Perhaps if he were stronger, he could’ve taken their knife from them and prevented this. But they fully intended to stab him or straight up kill him. There was no denying that. And when there was no other choice, Nelena did what every sorcerer and sorceress was forbidden to do and that was to use magic against another student in a rather gruesome way.

Was it self-defense? Yes, but at the same time, arguing for it would be an impossibility when Raelle was just a lowly noble and Artius an immensely highly regarded one who came from one of the most renowned noble family’s in the entire country.

He looked down the alleyway and from where they had initially entered. No one was there watching and he didn’t know whether anyone had managed to spot them beside the corpse.

Raelle grabbed her hand which shook uncontrollably and led the two of them out of the alleyway.

While he felt pain, the pain was quite dull. All he could focus on was getting them away from here realizing what must be done.

It was a terrible thing that happened tonight. At the same time, he struggled to decide on what they must do. He supposed that they had no choice but to figure that out before the night was through.