I opened the door to my apartment and let my boyfriend in.

Home sweet home.

A few moments ago, I had refused the big bad wolf like it was nothing, while, at the same time, successfully finishing my task with the Great Fay.

I refused to think this was simple and easy. But I felt happy regardless, and since I was home with my boyfriend, tonight was a really good night. Very few things could bring it down.

“What’s this note?” Martin bent down as he entered the apartment. “Cyrillic? No. Hold on, this is Greek. Incredible.”

My heart almost jumped out of my chest.

“Hey, it’s for you. I can read your name right here.”

“Ah! Give me that!”

Few things could turn my alone night with my boyfriend into crap like the bloody stupid Cabal!

“Blazing—why tonight?!”

I pulled my hair as I read the letter, walking away from Martin, hoping he wouldn’t read it if something horrible was written on it.

Wizard Avarez, Edwhite, 43rd official of Al Patreck.

I officially summon you to the Round Table for a mission, as entrusted.

Refusal is not an option.

Present yourself before me the day after when you receive this letter.

Bring your alchemist friend along with you, his assistance will be important to you.

Do not talk about this with anyone inside or outside the Cabal that isn’t the people referred to within this letter or the Council of Senior Arch Wizards of the Round Table.

Senior Arch Wizard Plattan, Ravan, 67th official of Foijan Ruh, member of the Council.

S.A.W. Ravan always signed her letters as her official position and then as a member of the Council. Normally, Council members only sign with their member title, not their official position within a city. That’s just one of the many reasons I respect S.A.W. Ravan above all Council members, including the Merlin, who only signs his letters with his name, starting with his title as the Merlin.

The pretentious prick— I never liked him as a Merlin. If only I had been a Council member when he was chosen, I would have stopped him and voted for S.A.W. Ravan as the Merlin. She probably doesn’t have that many years before she gives up her position as a member of the Council. She’s been a wizard for over a century, and she was beginning to dislike the responsibilities that come with it. Or maybe she’s beginning to weigh the bad things within her responsibilities higher than the good. An exhausted woman or man in the same position would want to move on. The only problem is that there are no good replacements within the upcoming Arch Wizards hoping to be elevated into their High Seniority.

Despite the trouble that comes with this letter, being summoned by S.A.W. Ravan made the hit softer. She was an upstanding wizard that I looked up to.

“What was it about?” asked Martin. “You don’t look pleased.”

“As with anything Cabal-related,” I explained. “Remember how I was almost executed and only let go for good conduct?”

“Good conduct?”

“Well, they are asking me to go on a mission,” I said this knowing perfectly well I had gone against the orders of a member of the Council, by my respected Member nonetheless.

“Right now?”

“Tomorrow.”

“What about work?”

“We’ll have to leave it to the kids. Tedet was summoned along with me.”

Martin looked pensive after I told him that I’d be hanging out with my friend again. I imagined him thinking that I was once again going to leave him alone. He had just come back from work and now I was leaving to do something else — I was leaving for work.

“I wanna go meet the Cabal. Sounds interesting,” he finally said.

“I’m already on thin ice, I don’t think they’ll appreciate you coming along.”

“I won’t break anything, I swear. I’ll keep my hands to myself. I just want to see.”

I looked at him; I analyzed him. I believed him when he said he was curious, but I was sure he wanted to stay with me for longer. I knew there really was no problem with bringing people to the Cabal, there was no rule against it, but it was widely accepted that it must only be done in case they were invited, summoned, joined as a student or recruit, or for an emergency. Martin would be following us as a tourist.

The Council had already seen me bring people with me, bringing another one shortly after the last time would only mean I didn’t care about their authority.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said. “You could stay in the car, but I can’t take you in. Not unless there’s a good reason. I’m not on parole, but you can look at it as if it was something similar.”

My boyfriend nodded dejectedly and said: “Okay.”

I kissed him on his forehead and told him to head for the shower while I prepared dinner.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“What are we watching today?” he said when he turned and walked back from my room, taking my towel with him into the bathroom.

I was so distracted by Uderach, and now with the Cabal, that I forgot I was going to think of a movie to watch. I set the cooking utensils on the pan and placed my arms straight onto the counter, letting my whole weight rest on my arms.

When I took a couple of seconds to answer, even a mere grunt to clue my thoughtfulness, Martin peered back from the backroom, missing his shirt, and asked again.

“I’m thinking,” I said. “Is the one with the murder case on an asteroid out yet?”

From within the bathroom, I heard a negative response.

“Damn. I wanted to watch that one.”

Martin mirrored my response empathetically.

I finally grabbed the food from the fridge and started organizing the kitchen all the while trying to come up with new movies from the trailers I remembered.

“What about ‘Bramvery Case’? That’s the one with Fri-Duat Carrhaul.”

“The one about the prostitute?”

“That one. I heard good things about it.”

While I started chopping, I waited for Martin to answer me. I heard the shower open.

“What about ‘A Light a Million Years Home’?” he proposed.

I felt a sense of nostalgia that made my body hair stand up. I rubbed my arms and thought about the movie, about returning to Earth. Back home. The movie was about hope, about finally turning heads on to our failures and settling back on the planet we destroyed. It was about leaving behind Sovail, giving back their planet to the radera and the rest of the Sovalians. Hope, responsibility, and prosperity.

“Sure,” I answered.

All the while I cooked my food I was distracted by the movie’s theme. I didn’t think about anything else but the movie. I forgot about Uderach and the Cabal.

My thoughts revolved around Earth.

I was so distracted that Martin finished showering and I was only halfway done.

“What’s with the markings on the bathtub?” he asked.

“Oh, those ones,” I huffed a laughter. “Misa and I summed a Great Fay. Galavant, actually.”

“The one that asked you to refuse the torviela?” He asked and I nodded. “That’s cool. When are you going to take me on one of your adventures?”

“They’re nothing fun, Martin. We almost died… several times. I’m not even exaggerating.”

To that answer, Martin hugged me lovingly. I felt his remorse and reassurance. I felt his loneliness. Through his warmth, I knew I heard him ask the same question he audibly would only a moment later.

“I don’t want to see you fight this alone. Not without me. I want to be there for you. Fight with you; fight for you.”

I turned to give my love a kiss he would never forget.

I thought of what to say. This was something I felt was troublesome between men. I would not want to put him in danger, but Martin would definitely not take a no for an answer. He was determined to put his life on the line for me. Maybe if he was a woman, he would not be as stubborn on this matter. Alas, we were both men and we were both stubborn to the bone.

“I’m going to ask Ted to train me like he’s with Misa,” he said before I could even utter a word.

My protective instincts wanted me to refuse his proposal. I was going to fight to push him into admitting it wasn’t a good idea. But I knew Martin, and I knew damn well that’s a hill he would die on. So, all I did was hug and kiss him, and whisper to him my concerns. To which he would only answer with more reassuring whispers.

“Go take your shower,” he told me while taking my silicon spoon from my hands. “I’ll finish up here.”

“Thanks.”

I ruffled his damp hair and set off to the bathroom while hearing Martin complain about his hair. Inside I found my wet towel stinking of Martin. I went on to take a cold shower and then stepped out while giving the towel a big whiff while I dried my face. I exhaled, satisfied, swearing not to wash my towel in a very long time.

When I opened the door of the bathroom, I could smell the food. There was no longer the sound of pan cooking and boiling, so I knew everything was done. Looking at the coffee table in my living room, I spotted the two plates waiting for us to be eaten — except Martin could not wait a second longer and already gave himself a forkful of the plate.

“ ‘A Million Years,’ is it?” he asked.

I sat down and confirmed it.

We ate our dinner and then cuddled to watch the movie. Martin complained about the physics presented in the movie. I ruffled his head and encouraged his preaching. On the other hand, I complained about the engineering problems of the different vehicles and machines. Martin on the other hand shut me down, because I was expecting too much of a movie. We laughed and kissed and continued watching.

The movie finally got to the main plot and began unwrapping its philosophical argument. The crew that was sent to investigate Earth had finally returned to Sovail to bring incredible news of a recovering Earth. If Man were to set off for Earth that instant they’d be back to a mostly healed planet. And so, humans returned home, along with every animal and plant they brought with them, leaving Sovail and the radera behind.

After the first section, the movie broke into the two perspectives of humans and radera, and how humans had just decided to abandon the planet after using it as a place to board. Radera society promptly broke into chaos when half its population disappeared into space and there was nothing else they could do. On the other hand, humans began turning on themselves due to ethical problems. People wanted to stay back or bring their radera friends, but they were forcibly stopped.

The ending had a shot of the Earth, in front of the generational ship, as a brilliant, blue ball adorning the star-speckled black of the cosmos. The shot changed as it peered into a distant winking star, Haihei, and humanity's new forgone home that orbited it. Was Earth really the hope of humanity, or simply a new place to settle and abandon like they did twice before? If we’ve done it before, we can do it again. Was Earth really humanity’s home?

“I wouldn’t leave,” said Martin. “This is my home now. Sovail. With all my friends and family. I would not give it away for a trip to a planet that I no longer consider my home. That’s our past. But is it our future?”

“I’d go there,” I countered. “I want to know what it is like. Our birthplace. The cradle of humankind.”

“You’d leave me?”

“Of course not. If I could travel there instantly, I would. But I would not leave you just to set off for Earth… I know I won’t even get there in time. If we could teleport there, would you go?”

“Definitely. Just out of curiosity. Like a tourist attraction. Then come back to Sovail, where I belong.”

“You know you’d make a lot of radera mad for that sentence.”

“It’s as much my home as it is theirs now. I was born here. My parents and grandparents as well. Only our great, great, great—” he cocked his head “—great grandparents had non-sovalian parents. It’s already too late to fight over whose property it is.”

I hugged my boyfriend and watched the credits scroll up.

“You think Ted would cry if we went home?” I asked.

“That emotionless prick?”

I turned to watch him in surprise after he insulted my best friend.

“Yes. No doubt about it,” he concluded.

“Yea, you’re probably right. He can be a crybaby sometimes.”

The credits rolled out and the main menu of the movie platform appeared. It was already night, as the movie was almost three hours long. Martin and I shared one last kiss to conclude our movie session. And I hoped that this was something we get to do more often.

“I do want to go to space though,” Martin said out of nowhere while I turned off the screen and he stood up to clean the dishes. “It’s been my dream.”

“That’d be nice.”

“When are you taking me to space, spaceship mechanic?”

“Easy there, space cowboy. First, we need a pilot. Neither I nor Ted can actually fly the things.”

“I can,” he said nonchalantly. “I just need the ship.”

“You’ve never been to space. How do you know how to fly?”

“I took a course?”

‘Isn’t that obvious?’ I imagined him saying behind that question. It made me feel stupid. I used the several seconds of silence to let the thought sink in. I had no idea what to say, and, so, I settled for a little joke as I hugged him from behind.

“From space cowboy to a bona fide rocket man.”

“I’m full of surprises.”

“That, I know,” I said and slapped him on the butt. “Come let’s go to bed.”

My simple comment and gesture had sparked something in Martin that I hadn’t noticed when I said it, and only realized my mistake when I turned to finish my thought.

“I’m really tired today.”

His face went from sparking with love to one of confusion, followed by ultimate disappointment.

To that, all I could do was wince and cringe, and ask for forgiveness.

All in all, at least, I had the best rest of my life.