The pain yelling throughout my body and my heavy breaths meant I didn’t even hear him leave.

Jiren didn’t immediately come for me. I saw him place Velma on the ground. He walked to Gorma and kneeled beside him.

“I’d rather face the Lynta than work for that kid again.” Gorma groaned, wheezing his words.

Jiren stroked Gorma’s back, “Do what you got to do,” he replied. He helped Gorma get up, not letting Gorma struggle anymore words out and taking Gorma by the fire.

Jiren watched us all until Gorma regained some strength. After a while they agreed on Gorma watching me and setting up another camp nearby while Jiren took Velma. The whole time I listened in. Neither of them cared much for my pitiful sight. I ended up keeping my eyes on Velma more than anything else.

She looked pale, and veiny, and cold. Like she’d been left out in a neverstorm, or been living on coffee and naeroot for the last week. Her fingertips were still textured from all the books, and I swore I still smelt the old earthy hold of the tomes from her drawing me close.

Despite the mystic around Velma, she was the closest thing I had experienced to a mother. Her shameful state made me feel worse than my own. Velma taught me and Lunar more than anyone else in our lives. There may have been cloudy motives but you can’t fake the compassion, patient, and attentiveness of a good teacher.

The only emotion I’d never felt deeply was anger. But looking at her sorry state, I could feel its redness like iron.

Before the orphanage I remember little, faint ideas of a women holding me but nothing more. I’d been lonely in the orphanage before Jusuf came. Many days burdened by a meaningless sadness. When Lunar joined us, our days demanded stories, and we filled them with the lows and high of tragedies and comedies. And I learnt to care and to love. My two friends like siblings, like family. When Velma took us, now of us tried to make our relationship more than it needed to be, and time proved it needed to be a familial one.

“Stream a spark If he comes back to you first, it’ll at least give me some time to prepare myself for more of his bull.”

Gorma came and hefted me on his shoulder, my broken arm brunting all that pain- that is to say, suffering. He walked a few span away from Jiren and Velma, enough for them to get hidden by trees and bushes in the forestry. Set up a fire. And pitched a tent from nowhere. I’d been watching carefully as there wasn’t anything else for me to look at, and still couldn’t figure out where it came from. He made metal chains appear as well and they begun to glow a brilliant white. Before I knew it, I and him were laced together by it, and he was lost to sleep by the fire with me obviously nearby.

I knew few tales were a hero came at night to rescue, the dark was usually saved for bandits, thieves, and pillagers. so, when I saw a figure birthed from the bushes I thought it was Emra or Gorma. I fought the pain to instinctively curl into a ball, but It was neither.

Velma came panting, her dress slowing her run like a net. Although dark, her ruby eyes shone in the night. They reminded me of safer moments, and from that alone I wanted to cry. She looked towards Gorma, laying by the fire, nursing his arm in sleep. And I stirred to greet her, my excitement displacing my fear. It made my words come a bit too loud, a bit too precarious.

“You’re awake… what’s going on?”

I had many more questions but that one was the root of it all. It didn’t matter though; Velma slapped me across the face.

Gorma had propped me against a fallen tree trunk. Despite being the one to break my right arm, he had no decency to help me place it, leaving me to drag it onto my lap and let it lay limp. I looked like a fallen knight of war, staunching off death on the battlefield.

After the slap Velma transitioned through emotions, the most obvious ones I could tell as horror, pity and anger. I wasn’t sure if any or all of those were for me until her own question came.

“How did you get the book?” Velma spoke calm but it still felt rabbid.

Did she not know about the necklace? I began to respond, but she cut me off.

“It was Lunar wasn’t it? But how? That trule swore the oath, she’d be dead if she did. I let her know too much didn’t I? Now I’m paying for it. Sage forbid,” Velma fumed, rambling more to herself than me.

“Where’s the book Los?” the question came again cold.

I stuttered for a response. I wanted to answer. To trust her. But something felt off. This was not the Velma I knew. It felt stupid to say, but I was not sure if she was friend or foe. And from her words I realised I wasn’t just watching over my own safety, but Lunar too. And I’d never endanger Lunar.

I made a decision: If Velma didn’t know about the necklace, I wouldn’t tell her.

Velma grew impatient with my slowness. I felt the air turn tight. Her hands flashed through poses then she spat words out silently. A shroud of orange shaped around her. I leaped back scrambling on my heals to get a safe distance away.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I- I don’t know!” I finally rushed a response, still eyeing the surrounding orange hue in disbelief. Her right hand grabbed my collar before I even saw her move.

The change left me more than afraid. I tried to shuffle the beads down my neck as much as I could so she didn’t see them. Despite all I saw, I wanted to think it all a joke. I wanted Velma to give me one of her rare chuckles and say it was all a fools fest ploy done early. that Lunar somehow convinced her to participate in it,  and that we’d have to work more hours in the tomes to compensate the ones we wasted.

There was more to her grip than just muscle. I felt repelled by the shroud of orange. It felt like a small sun radiating force.

I started to struggle for breath which quickly turned to choking. I was being made all too aware of my injuries flaring up again with the violence.

“Whatever scheme you two have can’t be more important than your life.” Velma’s eyes were crazed. She still didn’t scream or shout. Gorma was still oblivious by the fire.

What was wrong with her? I had never seen Velma like this. I was too paralysed by shock to fight against her grip on me. Why would Velma do this?

It hurt but, I was sure of it now. I couldn’t trust Velma. Her eyes, her voice, her words… she cared more about the book than us both.

Whatever this ‘world book’ was, she ran the risk of her, me and Lunar being in danger from the start. And Lunar was now by herself, in more danger than me and Velma both. She could be in worst straits just because Velma involved her in all of this.

Slowly I realised how little I knew about Velma’s past. I couldn’t even attempt to guess how she got involved in all of this. No matter how much I wanted to, Velma could not be trusted. She was potentially even worse than Emra and his men.

I knew this logically. Sages! She had just threatened my life, obviously I couldn’t trust her. But slow emotions refused to let me see her as an enemy. I took control of myself, slowing my breathing, calming my thoughts, hoping I could rationalise myself.

 I realised my life couldn’t be at risk just yet, her words were just a threat. I still had the beads, and if nothing else, I knew they mattered a lot. She would need them for the world book but she didn’t know seem where they were yet. She couldn’t kill me just yet.

I swung a punch with my left arm.

Velma looked to my fists with scorn, not deigning to respond to it. “I thought you were smarter than that Los,”

The orange shroud caved to my fist, which gained a visible wind about it the further it penetrated, like a mist-born snake digging through a wall. Then I felt warm flesh rub against my knuckles. The hit was weak, I couldn’t muster much strength with only one arm. But it was enough to knock away Velma’s scorn. She became alarmed then confused. And really, I was the same.

“What did- the Qyos doesn’t teach that.” Velma was eyeing me with cautious eyes, but I was still shocked by what happened, amazed at my stupidity and the result.

“Three years with me and you never played dumb Los, don’t try and start now,” Her anger begun to rise again. “Who are you working with!” She screamed it.

By the fire I saw Gorma finally stir. Velma didn’t miss it either, throwing a few words and hand signs, sending a small purple pulse his way. He was too groggy to see it coming. It vanished to his scalp, causing his head to shake and knocking him back down unconscious.

If she could do that how’d Emra capture her? The craft seemed to be neither light nor the same as the orange shroud. I didn’t recognise it from any of the books in the tomes either. Nothing I knew attacked the mind like that. Did the book teach her that? I felt in way over my head.

“Was that sleezy Vam in on it too? Playing the long game, planting spies right into my study.” Velma was manic now. A far shot away from the busy, studious women that taught me. Her brown hair that’d be left affray after long nights of work in the tomes, researching and learning, now even more wiry. Her eyes were a familiar bloodshot, but now the red of them pulsing manic.

“Let’s see who can use wind better then, hope you were trained well,” I almost laughed at the irony. I couldn’t bring myself to feel more, my face stuck in a perpetual shock. My tears wanted to fall. My screams wanted to let loose.

Velma’s still had me gripped, my punch being too weak to have changed anything.

“Let’s see what your wind can do.” Her loose hand wound back, and she jabbed it to my tender chest. The orange that had surrounded her whole body now turned grey at her left hand, the same grey mine did. The arm came fast. Faster than anything I’d ever seen.

I heard leaves russle, but no footsteps. A tall lean man appeared between me and Velma, somehow even quicker than Velma moved. He grabbing Velma’s incoming fist,“A stranger might think you were trying to kill the boy,” he said.

When I heard the voice, I recognised it but couldn’t place it immediately. I looked carefully at the man in front of me, but didn’t recognise him. He looked young. He was dressed in a commoner’s cloak, and built sturdier and more handsome than any man I’d known from the village, his thick, lean shoulders almost regal.

The aftermath of the collision between Velma’s knuckles and the man’s palm sounded a boom, with the wind spreading outwards, blowing the man’s long blonde hair back and causing Velma to stagger, forcing her to let me free. I noticed the man’s fist was textured rocky, it had crumbled and was now moulding back into a whole.

Velma was on edge, “Who are you?” she growled.

“After all this time? well I feel a bit more than an acquaintance,” The man said.

I saw Velma eyeing the man’s hands warily, “What do you want?” she said.

“In life? That’s the kind of question you’d ask a buddy.” He actually winked. “Well I guess our friendship’s moving fast.” He threw Velma a sly smile and eased his posture, standing back. Hearing his voice again I finally realised who he sounded like: Nimor.

Velma didn’t waste the opportunity. She shaped a ball of red energy in her palm and propelled it to the man. I saw it turn to fire as it flew.

The man seemed unnerved. I thought he’d react too slow, but he didn’t react at all. Letting the fire burst on his shoulder. Velma relaxed at the successful landing, waiting for his cries of pain but none came.

The fire quickly died out on his shoulder, burning through his cloak and shirt. But his flesh was fine, although it looked tender.

“Pretty impressive, and I like em fiery,” he was all smiles, his demeanour better suited for a court ball than a fight. “You want to move on to being more than just friends?”

Seeing her being courted in front of me annoyed me, surprising considering what she’d just done. Velma was fairly young too. I didn’t know her age but she didn’t look older than twenty, I’d never questioned her age, her role cemented as a teacher in my mind.

Velma looked at him with horror. It was hard to tell if it was directed at his words or how he handled her attacks. She recovered, shaping another attack. Her hand started turning a faint wispy purple.

This time the man didn’t stand idly. He looked concerned. “You can actually use the…” he began to murmur, the last few words lost to me.