Iscah rapped on the intricately carved door, wincing and shaking her knuckles out before taking a slight step back.

Muffled voices behind the barrier, until it opened and a tall young man was staring back at her with widened dark blue eyes.

"Hey, Ugly Duck," Iscah tried, voice cracking slightly from nerves. His eyebrows rose as he took in the stylishly coiffed hair and black cotton dress trimmed in matching lace and turquoise ribbons.

"Well well," He leaned against the doorframe casually, as if he didn't notice her red, puffy eyelids. "And here I was thinking you had forgotten about me, Pillips," he responded, using her nickname in return.

As children, he had once teased her about her full lips, claiming she had been kissing bees to prepare for her Prince Charming. Ialda, who was then a teenager and going through a bout of romanticism, had tried to defend her younger sibling, calling them lovely pillows instead. Jalen and Iscah both had laughed themselves silly at the absurd description, and 'pillow lips' had devolved into 'Pillips' in their mirth.

Iscah gave a lopsided smile at the childhood taunt that had become a joke between them. "Like I could forget about my best friend."

"Is that Iscah I hear?" an older masculine voice called, and the reason for Jalen's nickname stuck his head out from the kitchen.

His father was so ridiculously handsome that most of the girls they had grown up with had not-so-secret crushes on the gentleman. Lazy curls the same deep chestnut as his sons was barely held in check in a low queue, his wide mouth crowned at one corner with a perfect black mole. Jade eyes edged in laughing lines always seemed to sparkle with joy and vitality. Where her father had let age round his belly, Darl still was as fit and trim as men half his age.

Jalen had been on the pudgier side as a child, but was finally beginning to grow into his looks as Iscah had always told him he would. The baby fat hiding his jaw and signature Wrighter cheekbones had started to melt away, and Iscah knew young ladies everywhere were taking notice. He had been so used to being overlooked however that he had grown more comfortable with books and numbers than people. Having practically been raised together with their fathers being close friends and business partners, it had helped both of them were social pariahs.

"Iscah! We thought you had run off and eloped," Darl teased. "Or have you been tearing it up at the U?"

"Father," Jalen cut in, deadpan. "None of that sounded anything remotely like how we speak. Stop trying, for both of our dignities."

Darl gave a wink, so much like her own father Iscah couldn't help but laugh.

Jalen grabbed his cloak, and she gave a wave to him before following her friend down the hedge-trimmed street.

"Jalen, I'm sorry."

He paused, looking back at her for a moment. Pointedly his eyes dropped to the box she had resting on top of the book in her arms, reading the name of the bakery stamped on the brown paper neatly tied with pink and yellow string.

"That's not even remotely fair," he shot back, tossing his hands up and nearly taking out the hat of a woman walking past. Iscah bit her lips to keep from laughing as he apologized profusely to the lady before looking back at her.

"You can't just go vanishing for months and then try to con me into forgiveness with pastries."

"Chocolate ashbuns, to be exact," she supplied for him, and he kicked out a leg and canted his head with a guffaw.

"Raspberry filling?"

"Nuh, double chocolate," she teased.

He tapped his foot, crossing his arms over his chest as if he was seriously struggling to make a decision.

"That's blackmail," he finally objected with an accusing finger pointed at her, and Iscah felt her tension ease.

He slowed his pace, and together they walked to the nearby park to sit on one of the benches beneath a budding maple tree.

Another lovely feature of the city Iscah adored; the multiple oasis's of nature that had been planned out. While some areas had used the extra land as community gardens, or even filled it with buildings for art or education, the neighborhood Jalen and his father lived in had developed the plot into an outdoor sanctuary. A crushed gravel path made a winding loop through a small grove of maple and blue gum eucalyptus, the rest an open field of compact grass where children played, and adults lounged together to share the latest gossip. In the summer they even hosted musicians to play at sunset, neighbors bringing bags with citronella candles inside to light the park and picnic as the music drifted across the sun-warmed lawn.

Iscah untied the bow on the pastries, handing the peace offering over.

"So, who is the lucky beau?" Jalen took one of the confections, giving it to her before taking two out for himself.

She gave a derisive laugh, looking down. "You know that's not how my life works. I don't get to choose my outfit much less who I'm going to marry. So what's the point of giving my heart to anyone?" she blinked rapidly, and bit into the sweet without really tasting it.

"Sorry Pillips," he bumped his shoulder with hers. "It's just— you literally disappeared out of our lives, and anytime I'd run into you, you'd mumble some excuse and take off again like it was inappropriate to be seen with me any longer."

"It's my fault," she finally confessed, gaining control of the burning in her eyes before looking back to him. "Father is pulling me out of the University. They've decided it's time for me to follow in Ialda's footsteps."

Jalen's eyes widened at this news, his features softening from defensive to sympathetic.

She licked her lips, gaze darting around them to make sure they were alone. "There's something I have to tell you."

"If this is where you tell me you've been secretly in love with me all this time, I'm gonna have to stop you there," he interjected. "No offense, but your father is scary enough that I already pity whoever gets chosen to marry his favorite little girl."

"What? No, no! I—" she shook her head, huffing a laugh as she eyed his sly half grin.

"You jester, no. I, umm," she fiddled with the ashbun nervously, trying to pull their conversation back on track. "I've been having this dream for the past six months."

"Recurring dreams aren't all that uncommon," Jalen offered, shrugging. Now it was Iscah's turn to give him half a smirk.

"Every night, without fail."

"Oh. Well ok then," he nodded, taking another bite and smearing ganache in the corners of his mouth inadvertently as he chewed around the mouthful. "About what?"

"I'm floating in the dark. There's this warm sense of peace, and I can hear my heartbeat," she recalled hesitantly, unaware Jalen had fallen still next to her. "But then it changes, and I'm no longer alone. There is another there with me."

Jet black hair fanning around broad shoulders, swirling across the wide expanse of a pale chest and vanishing into the darkness surrounding him like tendrils of ink.

"Iscah?"

Not realizing she had stopped speaking she drew in a breath. "A Cambion."

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"You've been trying to find out why," he offered for her, and she nodded. "Why didn't you tell me before? I could've been helping you all this time."

"Because," she reached up with the tiny kerchief tucked in her sleeve to wipe the chocolate off his mouth before returning it. "It sounds so insane, saying it out loud. I was afraid you'd tell me I was out of my mind. Or worse, tell your Dad about it."

"My Father doesn't know everything about me, Pillips," he returned, undoing her work as he stuffed the remainder of both puffs into his mouth, words muffled but comprehensible. "Like the fact I have that same dream."

The pastry fell from Iscah's fingers, and Jalen dove for it. "Hey! No reason to be wasting my hard-won buns!"

He dusted it off, waiting for her laugh at his pun. When it didn't come he looked up to catch her staring in shock at him. "I forget it as soon as I wake up apparently, but now that you've said it, yeah. I've been having those dreams for a long, long time too, minus the halfling hunk."

She spluttered indignantly. "I did not say anything about what he looked like, much less it being a he!"

"Yeah but, your cheeks and ears turned bright red right before you mentioned the Cambion. So I'm assuming there's some heavy stuff going on in that repressed little mind of yours."

"Oh my gods, I'm never going to speak to you again." She reached up, covering her ears self-consciously.

"Uh oh, looks like I touched a nerve. So it is dirty dreams about the sexy enemy after all."

"Because I'm going to kill you," she followed up, glaring at him.

"If you tried to kill me we'd both end up dead, along with a random dog. At least four spoons would probably be involved somewhere along the way. Half the city would get burned down on accident, because your reflexes and sense of balance are even worse than my own, and that's saying something, Pillips."

"Are you done?"

He crowed with laughter, garnering the attention of two ladies their age who had been leisurely strolling around the park. Iscah shook her head again, unable to keep from smiling.

"Honestly, is that what you're learning about in your classes?"

"Yes, in Business Mathematics, no less." He slid down the seat, stretching his long legs out and draping his elbows over the back of the bench.

They had enrolled in the magic division together, but when Jalen had failed the scrying, he had immediately turned his studies to being able to help run the family accounting business. While the University focused heavily on training Mages, over three quarters of the students were in non-magical branches, ranging from art to recovery and development of science.

His dark blue eyes tracked the two girls who now had their heads tipped towards one another in conversation.

"Balancing budgets, record keeping for audits. Theorizing how your best friend is planning on murdering you."

"So this means we're friends again?" She asked hopefully, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Just because you shunned me like I was a pauper, and ran away, and ignored me anytime I'd try to contact you?"

She grimaced at his recollection, and he grinned sunnily back at her. "We never stopped being best friends, goof. So I'm guessing you found some sort of answer in that book you've been hovering over ever since you graced my doorstep?"

"No, actually. Do you have somewhere we could go that would have complete privacy?"

"Oh, yeah I know just the place."

The two girls fell silent as they passed their bench, giggling to one another when Jalen tossed them a quick smile over his shoulder. Iscah observed the exchange, wondering if leaving him on his own for the past six months hadn't actually been that bad for him after all.

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"Come on, let's go."

"Jalen, this isn't secluded. At all," Iscah groused, stopping as he turned off the sidewalk towards their favorite coffee and tea shop.

"Of course not, but it was months of shunning, and chocolate ashbuns have been proven to be better with a cup of tea and cream. So," he trailed off, opening the door and bowing extravagantly. "M'Lady owes what's due."

[https://i.postimg.cc/ht3bqpkV/blue-moon.jpg]

"So yeah, I'm on track to be finished in a little under a year," Jalen surmised, wriggling the key into the lock of the door. A sign above the window marked the shop as Wrighter's Accounting.

"My Father has already started pushing some of the work at me, small accounts to help relieve the pressure on him so that he can focus on the bigger customers. Which means I got the extra key to the office."

He didn't bother flicking on the lights until after he drew the thick curtains closed, illuminating the moderately sized room with neatly organized shelves of record books. While most of the businesses on the street still used oil lamps or candles, Darl made enough to have mote lights installed. The steady light was easier on their eyes in the darker work hours of winter, or when customers came to call in the dead of the night.

Iscah glanced around at the office she had visited often with her own Father before heading to the oversized desk and setting the tome upside down upon it. She pulled the two chairs close, and turned to Jalen as he joined her.

"How much do you know about the Day of Darkness, or about Warlocks at all?"

"Besides what we both learned in class?" He followed up, shaking his head. "Not much at all. Is there something more to the story?"

"Apparently, a lot more," Iscah replied, picking up the sharpened letter opener and holding it out to him.

"Prick your finger."

"Uh."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, mustering her courage before sticking the very tip of the blade into the side of his finger.

Jalen hissed, but said nothing after an accusing glare from Iscah before she pressed the tiny wound to the top of the book, both watching as the blood set off a chain reaction. The brown of the cover darkened, shallow creases in the leather growing deeper and separating further apart until it was shining black keratinous pebbles.

Both of them gasped, Jalens chair jerking as all the lights stuttered.

"Pillips?" He asked, voice catching on the question as it began to grow dimmer in the room.

"What if everything we were told was a lie?" Iscah opened the cover to the title page, letting him read it before he looked back up to her.

"But, that's impossible. The history books said—"

Iscah nodded, and turned the page. Involuntarily his eyes fell back to the writing, catching on the bloody fingerprint.

"Touch it," she encouraged, and he exhaled a forced laugh.

"Feel like there's a joke in there somewhere," he managed, finger hovering over the imprint. Sucking in a breath, he pushed down.

Iscah watched as his eyelids fluttered closed, the silhouette of his corneas rapidly flicking behind them nearly too fast to track as the rest of his body stilled.

The wall sconces guttered out, and in the darkness she heard him curse, the lights flicking back on the same time as his eyes opened.

"Gods above," he whispered, all humor leeched from his expression. "Naon, Isenius, Saraf— this changes everything if it's true."

She nodded, letting him flip through the journal to see that the rest of the pages were empty.

"You saw the conversation on the mesa?"

He reached the end, or what was the front of the book since it had to be flipped over to be read. "Yes; Orias' dagger. There has to be more records of this. Wait— how did you even find this?"

"I've been camped out in the library for months, have probably reread this one book five times. Then last week one night I accidentally cut my finger on a page and every light went out like now. When I got back to my rooms the tome was gone but this journal appeared. It wasn't until the next day I figured out the imprint was the key to unlocking the memory."

"I've spent the last dredges of my free time combing the library in historic recollections, and even children fairy tales for any other details on what we saw. There's nothing. Whoever she was and whatever really happened has been completely erased and covered over with Naon being the one who saved the day."

She closed the book and turned it back the normal way. "I don't know if this is linked to my- our- dreams,"she corrected watching as his attention invariably drifted down to watch as it slowly morphed into Athrioclites tome once more. "But I'm out of time."

"Mother has filled my schedule with tutors of every kind, leaving me no freedom to go to the library, let alone study for classes. I had to skip out on four lessons today to come see you, and I'm going to pay dearly for it.

"She's strong-arming me into having to drop out even earlier than promised under the excuse of the King's Spring Ball next week, and that can only mean one thing."

"They're expecting to find you a suitable husband at it, if she hasn't already," he surmised, looking up as she pushed the book over the desk to him, tears wetting her cheeks.

"I need your help. I've been looking for answers, but at every turn all I'm finding is more questions. With your schedule and now helping with your Dad's business—"

"I'll tell him I need a break," he cut in. "I'll tell him theres a report due for one of my classes, he won't think anything of it. Education first, and all that."

Iscah's smile was tenuous at best, but she still gave him a hug which he returned.

"Don't worry Pillips, we'll get to the bottom of this."