Kael looked in the direction of the voice and saw a golden head before a face. A girl who was young enough to have a face full of innocence but old enough to have a well-developed body stood in front of him, blue-ish green eyes shining.

“Such a depressing voice, I knew it was you, Sir!” The young maiden chuckled.

She was smiling.

She did not know.

Kael saw that she was donned in the morning training attire, the pale grey robes that all clan members wore before they came of age. She had probably fallen asleep thinking that there were no casualties after the demon invasion, that both the villagers and clan members were all fine, that repair costs were the only concern.

“Pela.” Kael said, meeting her eyes. The snake on his hand also turned to look at the young girl, azure eyes glistening.

“What is it, Sir?” Pela tilted her head and asked. She tried her best to keep his gaze, but her eyes kept wandering to the snake on his hand, looking at her as well. She clenched her fists, resisting the urge to ask about the snake. She knew that he was in a bad mood from the demon invasion and did not want to get a standard “mind your own business” from him.

“Forget it.” Kael said. He did not want to break the news to her before the formal announcement. Seeing the girl’s eyes wander between him and the reptile, he sighed. “While I was out in the mountains last night, I found this thing. It somehow remained conscious despite the demons’ barrier, so I picked it up.”

Pela shook her head. “This snake looks familiar. I’ve definitely seen it somewhere.”

“Where did you see it?” Kael asked, expression deadpan but voice containing traces of curiosity.

“Hmm…I think I saw it drawn in a data log I borrowed from Master Thalorin. I think he’d be able to recognise this creature. You should ask him, Sir.”

Thalorin

The words pierced Kael, making his scalp go numb. While Kael was not paying attention, the snake in his hand was shaking its head slowly. Pela saw this, and felt a surge of emotions for some reason. She felt puzzled by so many things; Sir’s excessive solemness, the mysterious snake, and most of all…

“Anyways, why were you in the mountains after the invasion, Sir?”

Kael could not answer that question, for he did not want to lie to his own student.

“...I do not know myself.”

He sighed and trudged towards the deceased Thalorin’s residence, leaving Pela even more perplexed as she just stood there. After a brief moment of contemplation, she called out to Kael’s back.

“Sir! If you’re looking for Master Thalorin, he's not here right now.”

“I know.” He said, not loudly, but loud enough for Pela to hear.

Pela brushed the ominous response off as the Sir being on edge due to the previous night’s events. She was about to make her way to the assembly grounds, when she felt a gaze on her. She then turned around in Kael’s direction, only to see two azure beads glowing in the distance. As its stare slowly faded away, Pela could not shake the feeling of unease, even as she walked further and further away from the Sir and the snake.

Kael walked as fast as possible to the deceased’s residence. It was still raining, but the famous herbal garden was especially cold, having lost its owner’s warmth. Kael was about to walk out into the rain from the shade when he felt something rub against his shoulder.

The snake looked at him and held his gaze. It shook its head vigorously, slapping its tail against his skin.

“That’s a bad idea.” It seemed to be saying.

But Kael could not care less. He just wanted to get in, borrow a few of the Spellmaster’s books, and get out.

As he took long strides, he braced himself to face the downpour. However, he was met with a mere drizzle. For the first time in a while, Kael thought himself lucky.

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He walked hurriedly, eyes deliberately unfocused in a way such that the famous Spellmaster's herbal garden was all but a multi-coloured blur, and that the mahogany door was the only thing in sight.

The moment the flat wood shone in front of him, Kael came to a halt. He was about to reach for a doorknob or hack open the door when he realised- the door, just like everything in that accursed man’s residence- was enchanted.

‘Why did everything here have to be enchanted?” he thought.

He paused. The question seemed extremely familiar, and he found another memory seeping into his mind against his will.

“Why did everything here have to be enchanted?” he asked.

To that, the dark-haired man who stood by his side simply shrugged- his shoulders lifted up and fell down in his usual carefree manner, his shoulders light from carrying no burden. His blue eyes teared up as he stifled a yawn.

“I just felt like it- I am the spellmaster after all.” he chuckled.

Kael wanted to gauge the cocky bastard’s eyes out.

“You do realise that even Lord Felt can barely get through the enchantments right? What of the students who you keep sending on needless errands?

The man pouted dramatically, looking rather silly and extremely immature- but that was how he always was. “You barely speak, but when you do, every one of them stabs through my beating heart like daggers descending from the divine. You barely spare me any sight but when this poor soul meets your eyes, meteorites-the pebbles thrown by the deities blind me with no regrets-” he was abruptly cut off by a sword glare.

Kael was planning to let him ramble on with the first half, but seeing that his blabbering had taken the form of spontaneous poetry, he could not help but lift the sword almost an inch from the hilt.

“Ah, being able to keep even me in check with but an inch of a sheathed sword- you truly are the Swordmaster.” Thalorin chuckled. “And for one, the old man does not struggle getting through my enchantments. Do you know how many times I’ve seen him sitting in my house? Spiritmaster my ass! He’s definitely a master sorcerer in disguise!”

Kael shot him a glare and sternly said, “Do not insult Lord Felt like that.”

To the Swordmaster’s dagger-like words, even the cheerful Spellmaster could not help but sigh.

“Anyways, I know your magic ability is pretty bad-“ Kael sent him a glare, but it was ignored. “- Sojust in case you ever find yourself unable to break my enchantments-” Thalorin put his hand on his head and yanked. He then opened Kael’s palm and put something inside, guiding Kael’s fingers to close around it. “-keep a lock of my hair on your person at all times. All my students have one too…wait, don't look at me like that, don’t worry I won’t go bald!”

Whenever Kael had any business to do with Thalorin, he would bring the small pouch that contained the singular brown lock of hair. But in the flurry of emotions and with all the snake business, it had completely slipped his mind.

He kicked the door in a fit of anger, but then felt rather embarrassed and turned his back on the wooden door that stood there, laughing at his stupidity and forgetfulness. For some unknown reason, the laughing voice was rather similar to Thalorin’s.

Creak

Kael immediately turned around, and could only stand in silence.

The door had opened.

He did not have Thalorin’s hair, blood, or anything related to him.

How the hell did it open?

All he had was the ghost of a prodigy and a snake on his shoulders.

Wait…his shoulders?

Something pricked the back of his neck. It was the snake’s neck. It seemed like the snake had gotten comfortable with him, making its way up from his arms to his shoulders. It was slapping its tail against him as if to say, “snap out of it and just head in.”

Perhaps Kael was imagining it, but he was able to perfectly understand what the reptile was trying to convey…or perhaps he was just assuming things in his jumbled up mental state.

Kael muted his thoughts, blanked out his mind, and headed into the house with no second thoughts. He had no time to spare for the useless pondering either.

The door shut behind him the moment he entered, and Kael wished nothing more than to open it once more and leave.

The layout of the house was similar to his own, with a living space, a bedroom, a kitchen and a washroom. However, the decoration was vastly different. Kael spared no effort into aesthetics, simply placing the necessary furniture and calling it a day. The Spellmaster, however, took it upon himself to meticulously design the house, with luxurious carpets and rugs made of animal fur, paintings adorned on the wall. The scent of old parchment and a whiff of scented candles made the residence look so warm even though its owner had gone cold. It had only been half a day, after all.

The snake was coiled around Kael, squirming around, as if wanting to look around. This action applied pressure on his neck, strangling him. Kael tried to suppress the itch that grew, taking a few gulps and trying to shift his tongue. However, one could do nothing against nature, and Kael ended up coughing awkwardly, sounding forced and in inconsistent intervals.

The snake seemed to notice this, and quickly stopped squirming, uncoiling itself slowly. It turned its head away from Kael, refusing to look at him or even move anymore.

Now that Kael’s airways were unblocked, he decided to carry out his purpose, not willing to sniff the dreaded scent of artificial lavender for even a second longer. He spent no time in reminiscence, and scanned the room for books that could aid him.

However, the residence was truly way too messy. Kael could guess that the Spellmaster was researching something before the demon invasion, engrossed in his research and had left his residence without the chance to tidy up. Books were left everywhere, half-opened and the ground was littered with metre-long scrolls.

Books that would never be finished, scrolls that would never be kept with the same hands as the one who had procured them. A house that will never be cleaned, frozen in time forevermore.

Kael sighed, and decided to take a seat at Thalorin’s desk, considering tons of scrolls were piled up on the left corner of the desk. At the centre of the table was an unrolled piece of parchment and a, neglected and leaking ink. The spellmaster probably did not even have time to return the quill into its inkwell before running off to his own demise.

Kael was ruffling through the unopened scrolls on the left, sparing no thought to the half-written words on the scroll. However, he then heard a light tapping sound on the wood. Turning to see its origin, Kael saw the snake slapping its tail against the table impatiently, right over the half-opened scroll.

Kael paused. When had the snake slithered off his shoulders? He eyed the reptile as it squirmed a bit, as if fidgeting. He gazed deep into its azure eyes, as if it would give him answers. The snake stared back, undaunted, “You…want me to read it?”

To that, the snake moved its head down then up. A nod.

Kael squinted and tilted his head. “I seriously need to find a book or two about this thing…”

He diverted his attention towards the half-opened scroll with ink smudges where the quill was left. Words were written on it in the odd handwriting of the spellmaster. His handwriting was sometimes pleasant to look at, the words big and clear, but sometimes utterly illegible. It usually depended on his mood, but really, he had a really unique handwriting that one could recognise at a single glance.

His eyes scanned the familiar letters font in the midnight-black ink.