The Fourth Dimension

And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.

Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars 

Gorgug remembers his first day of highschool. 

He remembers showing up, clutching a tin flower in his hand. He remembers Dayne Blade laughing at him, and he remembers Ragh Barkrock pushing him into a trash can and calling him a fucking loser, why would anyone want your stupid flower.

He remembers feeling suddenly, violently like something was wrong. Like something that was supposed to happen didn't.

He doesn't think too much of it. After all, he's a high school outcast with no friends. He eats his lunch under the bleachers on his own and tries not to make too much noise when he cries in the bathroom. 

Pretty much everyday feels like that.

Figueroth Faeth takes pride in her reputation.

There's a reason she was voted life of the party every year in middle school, and she intends to carry that record forward to Aguefort. She's popular, she's cute, and she's crushing her spot on the Owlbears Cheer Squad. Her home life is perfect and her boyfriend is hot.

She has everything, and everyone knows it.

So she pushes down the niggling persistent feeling that something is missing, and goes about her life. 

There's nothing missing, obviously. Her life is about as close to perfect as it could be. She braids her hair for cheer practice with Penelope and ignores the weird migraines she keeps getting. Nothing is missing. 

She struggles to trance, but her mom says she'll get it soon. She dreams in flames, bottomless pits and brilliant orange feathers and the sound of heavy metal thudding in her ears, and wakes up certain that she's not who she's supposed to be. That's probably normal. She really needs to learn how to trance.

It's not like Riz doesn't have any friends.

He does.

He has Penny. Penny is all he needs, really, despite what his mom says, even if they're both small enough to get singled out by most of the bigger kids. They're sneaky, and fast, and can wriggle out of Ragh's grip most of the time without getting dunked into a trashcan.

Riz has Penny, and they're best friends (even if she is technically his babysitter), so he doesn't need anybody else.

He was excited to make friends when he started highschool and it didn't happen, but he doesn't need it. He's older now. Wiser. Wise enough to know that trying to make friends is only gonna get him made fun of, best case scenario. Worst case— well, worst case he gets beat up and thrown in a trash can and called The Ball.

He's already experiencing the worst case.

So he keeps to himself, and eats lunch with Penny, sometimes, and on his own, the other times, and ignores the fire burning in his stomach that's desperate to make more friends. He pushes down the pull he feels to try and talk to Fabian Seacaster or any of the other kids cooler than him (because they're all cooler than him) the same way he pushes down the disgusting mystery meat sandwiches the school cafeteria forces them to eat— because he doesn't have a choice.

Someone cheated on Adaine's Hudol entrance exam.

It wasn't her. She'd been too busy having a panic attack, which is how she knows for certain that there's no way in hell she could have passed that test. Someone cheated for her. Her score got changed, or someone edited her paper, or something.

She doesn't know who would do that, or why.

At first she assumed that her parents had probably bribed someone to have her admitted, but that didn't make any sense when she thought about it. Her parents would definitely have told her, if they had. There's no way in hell they wouldn't take the opportunity to hold something like that over Adaine's head for the rest of her life.

So she has no idea why she passed. All she knows is that it's incredibly suspicious. The deep roiling feeling of anxiety that is ever present in Adaine's stomach keeps churning, telling her over and over that this is wrong, but she doesn't know what to do. She can't bring it up or she'll get kicked out, and she can't get kicked out. 

She keeps her mouth shut, and pushes her anxiety down, and breaks down in the bathroom stalls in between her classes.

Something weird is going on.

Fabian Aramais Seacaster is a king, and the Aguefort Adventuring Academy is his kingdom.

Not that it's a surprise. This was always going to happen. He's built for greatness, just like his father. Papa says he's proud of him for how well he's doing at Aguefort, which, of course he is, but he's never been quiet about the fact that he strongly dislikes Fabian's adventuring party.

That doesn't matter. He doesn't need his father's approval (even if he would do anything for it). He's an Owlbear, and he's friends with Dayne Blade and Ragh Barkrock, which makes him cool, and he's crushing freshman year. 

Figueroth thinks so, too, and that's the opinion that really matters. She's his girlfriend, after all, and he loves her. She's his best friend, and he trusts her with his life. 

Of course he loves her. He does. So what if when he dreams about getting his kisses in, it's never with her? That's probably super normal. Just his brain getting out the urge to explore other options so that he doesn't have to. Sow his wild oats without having to actually sow them.

He dreams of kissing a beautiful blonde elven girl, he dreams of kissing the weird religious corn girl, he even dreams of kissing Ragh (a lot, actually); he can feel in his heart that he and Fig are supposed to be together, though. What does that mean if not that they should be Agueforts premier power couple?

Detention on the first day of school consists of Kristen Applebees sitting in a room, alone, with only Mr Gibbons to make conversation with.

So much for breaking convention.

She misses the forming of adventuring parties but Daybreak tells her not to worry, that he knows some kids with an opening that would love to have her as a member of their team, and she doesn't have another choice. 

They're all humans, and they're all Helioic. When she tells her parents they cry and tell her they're proud of her. 

She's never been good at knowing things about herself. Kristen is a chosen one, Helio's champion, but she's not good at knowing what she feels.

Even she can tell that something feels wrong.

FIG

Her head hurts.

This happens a lot these days. For some reason Figueroth keeps getting this weird feeling, like her brain is trying to break through her skin, but she's not sure why. Her dad says it's nothing to be worried about, but her mom had given her a ring of pain relief and told her to wear it as often as she could to combat the feeling. She also said that Fig has to let her know if it gets any worse, so at least someone is taking it seriously.

The cafeteria is loud and bright and a little too much for her right now, so she convinced her friends to eat lunch outside on the quad today. They don't mind. Penelope is happy to sit in Dayne's lap wherever they go, and Ragh just follows them around like a lost puppy. Dayne is hard to read, but Fig isn't sure she's ever seen him actually like anything, and then there's Fabian. Fabian has his arm around her, as usual, leaning into her space and laughing along at whatever Dayne and Ragh are talking about. 

Fabian is a good boyfriend, she thinks. She's never had another one to compare him to, but he's handsome, and good with a sword, and quarterback of the bloodrush team. She probably loves him. She feels drawn to him, and she cares about him so deeply she has to love him. She doesn't feel that way about Penelope, or Dayne, even if she does feel weird when he tries to kiss her. Romance isn't supposed to be easy, and she knows she loves him. Probably.

She feels a sharp pain in her head, again, and brings her hand up to her hair, rubbing at her scalp like it could stop the pain. It doesn't, and her head feels the same as it's always been; she pushes down the feeling that there's something trying to escape from her skull.

Fabian narrows his eyes at her. "Fig? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She nods, smiling at him. "I'm just having one of those weird headaches again."

He furrows his eyebrows, looking concerned. "Do you want something for it? I'm sure Penelope could spare a heal. She's hardly maximising her spell economy when we've been cutting class all day."

She pats him on the shoulder. “You're sweet, but I'm okay. I just don’t know why I keep getting these fuckin’ headaches.”

“You totally need to go see the nurse, Figueroth.” Penelope says, though she doesn’t look up from the yearbook mockup she’s got open on her crystalbook. “It’s so not normal to be having super bad migraines everyday.”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I saw a doctor over summer, but my mom said that he just said it was nothing.”

Fabian brushes her hair behind her ear, but she can tell he’s concerned. “It doesn’t seem like nothing. Are you sure there’s nothing we can do to help?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so, but I love you for trying to help.” 

She’s smiling and Fabian smiles back, lifting his hand for a fist bump. Fig gives it to him, making a little minor illusion explosion when they pull away, which makes Fabian laugh.

Penelope looks up from her crystalbook and looks directly at her. "Oh, Figueroth! You have to join prom committee. I'll be totally lonely without you there."

She nods, smiling at her. "Of course, Pen. You'll need my great expertise for decor, anyways."

Penelope laughs, her hair flowing behind her. "I don't need any expertise. I'm fucking perfect. I could use the moral support, though."

"Sure," Fig smirks, "and I can bring my mom's good whiskey."

She squeals . "Figueroth, you are a crazy bitch and I fucking love it."

"Oh, you know it." She winks at her, and Fabian laughs.

Ragh barks a laugh, and slaps a hand on Dayne's shoulder. "Yeah, she's a crazy bitch! A crazy psycho bitch!"

Fig rolls her eyes, because for some fucking reason Ragh is always like this in front of Dayne, but her pushes Fabian's arm off her shoulder when he starts laughing.

"Fabian!" She says, and he just makes eye contact with Ragh. 

"Ragh, my friend, you are so lucky you're single. The cost of getting your kisses in is far too high, if you ask me."

That makes Dayne and Ragh laugh, but Fig pushes up from her space next to Fabian, standing up above him. 

"What the fuck, Fabian?"

He rolls his eyes. "Oh, will you relax. It was only a joke."

She turns and storms away.

She's walked almost all the way back to the school building by the time she hears Fabian's footsteps catch up to her. He tries to grab her arm to stop her, but she rounds on him instead.

"You know I don't like it when you're an asshole to me in front of our friends!"

"What am I supposed to do, Figueroth? Simply let our friends go on thinking I'm not the alpha in this relationship?"

"Do you think you're the alpha in this relationship?"

He scoffs. "Someone has to be! Honestly Figueroth, I don't know why you're being so difficult."

"You are such an asshole." There's people around; she's making a scene, and she should care, but she doesn't. "Get over yourself for once and just be genuine instead of trying to impress Dayne and Ragh!"

He laughs. "You telling me to be genuine? That's ironic."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I know you, Figueroth. I know when you're pretending to be something, and something has been off with you. I don't know why you can't just admit it!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The heavy metal music? The bass guitar sitting in the back of your closet like it's a dirty secret?" She didn't think he knew about that, and she can tell her eyes must betray it from the look on his face. "I know you have something going on, Figueroth, but you don't see me being an asshole about it."

She pokes him in the chest. "You literally are being an asshole about it! Right now!"

"Only because you started it!" He shouts, but she's already turned around to stomp away from him.

He's an asshole, sometimes. He's so fucking desperate to impress the other Owlbears that he can be— difficult. It doesn't help that the other Owlbears are assholes too, really, even if they are kind of her friends. Well, at least Ragh kind of is. She doesn't know if Dayne gives half a shit about her, but he's in their party, and he's Penelope's boyfriend, so she has to make nice with him. 

He gives her a bad feeling, though. She's not entirely sure why; other than generally being an asshole, he's not actually done anything wrong, at least nothing that Fabian and Ragh haven't also done, and she trusts them. Just sometimes, when she catches his eyes across the lunch table, she gets this terrible lurch in her gut like he's going to do something, which is very weird. 

She told Fabian. He told her she was being paranoid, but he worships the ground Dayne walks on, so he would say that.

She hasn't said anything about it to Penelope. She's cagey about her relationships at the best of times— Fig thinks it has something to do with what happened to Sam. Penelope puts on a brave face, but Sam's disappearance has really rattled her. She lost her best friend, and they don't even know why. No wonder she doesn't like to talk about it.

She's halfway to her third period when Penelope catches up to her, tossing her hair over her shoulder and matching the rhythm of her steps. 

"Hey, oh my god, I heard what happened? Are you, like, doing okay?"

Fig shakes her head and clenches her jaw, pushing down the feelings bubbling in her chest. "I'm fine."

"You totally don't seem fine." She says, and Fig shivers as her eyes crawl over her. She's so sharp , it feels like she can see right into Fig's brain. "What was all that, like, weird stuff Fabian was saying? About you having a secret?"

"Nothing!" She says, attempting to force a smile. She can tell from the look Penelope gives her that it doesn't convince her, so she drops it. "It's basically nothing. I don't wanna talk about it."

"Jeez, okay." Penelope laughs, grabbing Fig's arm and turning her so they're face to face. "You can tell me, you know. If you have something going on. You're my best friend."

"I— I don't know." Fig mumbles. Ever since Sam disappeared, she supposes they are best friends. For some reason the thought settles heavy and sour in her stomach. "I'm just feeling weird, that's all. With the headaches and everything."

Penelope narrows her eyes like she doesn't believe her, but after a second the look passes, and she throws an arm around her shoulders. "Well, then you're lucky your best friend is the most powerful sorcerer at this school."

Her hand glows with pale pink light as she touches it to Fig's forehead, and the pain eases. "Thanks, Pen."

"Lemme walk you to class, okay? We've spent so much time hanging around with the boys, it's been way too long since we've had our, like, girl time."

Fig smiles, and pushes down the weird uncomfortable feeling in her chest. It's fine.

It's all going to be fine.

She's coming out of her third period Performance and Imitation class, talking over her shoulder to one of her classmates, when she feels something huge and heavy make contact with her back, hard enough to send her crumbling to the ground, hitting her head. Hard.

"Oh shit, Figueroth! Sorry!"

Ragh comes over to help her up but she shoves him away, too pissed off to deal with him right now, and looks over to see what hit her; there's a half-orc boy sitting next to her, looking like he just hit his head pretty hard too, and she rounds on Ragh.

"Why do you have to be such a dick, Ragh?"

"Woah!" He holds his hands up. "I'm sorry, okay? Jeez."

"Asshole." She mumbles, loud enough that she knows he can hear it, and stands up to dust herself off. She wobbles, a little, when she gets to her feet. Ragh puts a hand out to steady her, but she swats it away. "Fuck you. If you've chipped one of my horns, I'm gonna be so pissed."

Ragh blinks at her, confused. "What?"

She opens her mouth to snap at him again, but her words catch up to her, and she stops, thinking. She doesn't have horns, obviously. She's an elf . In the moment, if felt so clear, though; she knew with a clarity she rarely experiences that she had horns.

Her head throbs. Maybe she has a concussion.

Ragh is still staring at her like she's gone crazy, and she shakes her head, waving him off. "Doesn't matter. Just leave me alone."

He hesitates, looking like he wants to check if she's okay but doesn't want her to push him away again. "Are you sure? I could walk you to the nurse."

She shakes her head and turns away from him, hoping he'll take the hint and go away. The boy that knocked into her is trying to gather all his stuff off the floor where it's gotten mixed up with Fig's things, and she feels a pang of guilt that one of her friends did this to him.

"Hey," she says gently, "are you okay?"

The boy is shaking his head as she helps him up, scrambling to grab some of her textbooks and pass them to her.

"Oh. Uh— Hey. I'm really sorry—"

She shakes her head. "No, it's okay, don't worry about it. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry, it was Ragh. I mean, it was me. I'm always in the way."

"No. No, you're— Ragh's an asshole. Don't worry about him."

He smiles at her, quick and awkward and warm, and she feels something in her light up, like something in her heart just clicked into place.

Okay, weird.

"Uh— anyway—" She stutters, trying to shake off the strange feeling that's settled into her chest, warm and soft. "I, uh— I'm Figueroth, I don't know if we've met—"

"I know," he says, then blushes, cheeks turning dark green, "I mean, we've never met, but I know who you are, because I've seen you around."

"Right, right." She says, unable to break eye contact with this boy with kind eyes and floppy hair and a tin flower tattooed on his shoulder and—

She's never seen him before and he's wearing a hoodie. She doesn't know how she knows that, but she does.

"This is gonna seem like a weird thing to ask," she says, because they just met, so obviously she's mixing him up with someone else, "but do you have any tattoos?"

He looks shocked that she even asked him that. "Uh— no?"

She smiles, feeling awkward. "Of course, you're a freshman, you're fourteen, why would you? That would be crazy."

"I don't think it's crazy." He says with a small smile, and passes her her Bard History 101 textbook. "I'm just not that cool."

"Hey, that's not true." She says, because he's cute and kind and she has this feeling about him. "You're a really cool guy, Gorgug."

He looks touched for a second, but then his eyebrows furrow in confusion. "How'd you know my name?"

"Oh. That's weird. I just... knew." She blinks. She's not sure. "I probably remember you from orientation."

"Yeah." He nods, but he looks like he doesn't believe her. "Probably."

His hair is falling in his eyes again, and he’s smiling at her, and she’s suddenly watching him onstage, pounding a drum kit and smiling up at her through the white streaks in his bangs as the music roars in her ears. 

It’s gone as soon as she feels it. The Gorgug she’s looking at now couldn’t be further from that; he was all tattoos and power and stage confidence, and this Gorgug is apologising for letting Ragh push him around. They don’t feel different, though. She can feel it in her heart; this Gorgug and her Gorgug are one and the same, and she knows with more confidence than she’s ever known that they are meant to be together, in some way, somehow .

Her Gorgug. Huh. 

“Figueroth?”

She turns, fast, heart racing, feeling like she’s gotten caught doing something illicit. Fabian is standing in the middle of the hallway looking guilty, and it takes Fig a second to remember that she’s mad at him, not the other way around. No matter how much she feels like she just did something bordering on cheating by having weird thoughts about the school weird kid. 

She sees snippets again; a tin flower, late nights in a tour bus, the gift of an orange. She sees an Owlbears jacket thrown over her shoulders on a cold night, but it’s too big to be Fabian’s.

She sees Fabian, standing in front of her, now, not inside her own head, and feels like she’s betraying him somehow.

He takes a deep breath, stepping forward. “I wanted to say that you were right, and I’m sorry for being an asshole to you about it.”

"Fabian!" She tries not to sound like a deer in the headlights, but she's surprised to see him. He looks... sorry, which is not a look she's accustomed to seeing on Fabian, and it catches her off guard enough that she's stunned into silence for a few moments.

He takes a step closer, reaching for her wrist and linking their fingers together. "Who was that strange gangly boy you were talking to?"

"Oh, this is Gorgug—" She turns around to gesture to him, but he's gone. "Oh, he left. Bummer."

Fabian hums, thoughtfully. "He seems extremely familiar. Perhaps I've punched him before?"

"Why would you do that?"

He scoffs. "Figueroth, I have punched many people. I can't be expected to keep track of every single one."

She rolls her eyes, punching him in the arm. "You're such an idiot."

She grabs his hand again and turns to walk away, just wanting to go home, but he rugs her back, pulling her closer than before.

"Fig," he says, quieter, in a voice that's a far cry from the grandiose performance he puts on in front of everyone else, "I'm sorry."

“It’s okay,” she whispers, and it is okay, because even if she did get weird thoughts for Gorgug, she gets them for Fabian too. She sees him dancing in a forest, beautiful and skillful, twisting around an elven sheet like that's what he’s been training to do. “It’s okay. I know you don’t mean it.”

He shakes his head. "I don't know why I do it. I keep feeling like I have to impress Dayne and Ragh, but I don't know why I care. You're my girl. I should prioritize you more."

"I mean, they're your friends, I get it. They're just boneheads."

"I know." Fabian says, furrowing his eyebrows. "I know they're shitty, but I just— I feel like— do you ever just like, have... feelings about someone? Like, you just get this feeling that you're supposed to be together?"

She nods, eager. "Yeah, for sure. I feel that for you." 

I felt that for Gorgug, she doesn't say.

He nods, slowly, and Fig knows he gets like this when he isn't sure what he wants to say. "I feel that about you too, Figueroth, of course I do. But— I mean— I feel that about Ragh, too. I know he's an asshole, but I just feel like we're supposed to be— I don't know, together. I suppose."

Figueroth keeps nodding, slowly now, trying to understand. "Ragh, but not Dayne?"

"Sure," he says, looking conflicted, "Dayne too, maybe. I'm not sure. I don't know."

This is a lot, and she doesn't really understand what's happening to them but she does, she has to because that sounds almost exactly like what she felt when she lost herself in Gorgug's eyes, so, for lack of anything else to do, she throws her arms around Fabian's neck and pulls him into a hug.

"Today has been exhausting," she mumbled into his neck, the pressure on her forehead slightly easing the pounding pain in her head, "let's just go home and watch a movie."

She feels him smile, and she knows that no matter what weird stuff happens, they have each other.

KRISTEN

Kristen knocks way harder than she was intending to, knuckles rapping against the wood grain of the office door frame, and she winces at the brief pain in her hand as the principal looks up at her. 

"You wanted to see me?"

Principal Aguefort smiles at her, and gestures at her to sit down. "Ah, Kristen, good to see you. Please, take a seat."

Kristen does, quickly throwing herself into the plush chair on the opposite side of Aguefort's desk. "Principal Aguefort, am I in trouble?"

"No, no, no, nothing like that, Kristen." He says, gesturing to a piece of paper on the table. It's covered in scribbles, hand written notes presumably by Aguefort himself, but it's basically unintelligible. "Except, in a much more real sense, yes, you are in grave danger. We all are."

"Oh. That sounds really bad, actually."

"It's much more dire than that, Kristen." He leans forward, a grave look in his eyes. "The timestream seems to have been... unravelled."

Kristen just blinks. "Excuse me?"

"Yes, it's very puzzling."

Kristen shakes her head, trying to understand. "Uh— what exactly do you mean by 'the timeline is being unravelled'?" 

"The timestream, Kristen! The timestream, and it isn't being unravelled— it's already happened."

"And that's— bad?"

"It's terrible!" Aguefort shouts, gesturing enough that some of his papers fly off of his desk. "I'm still not sure why it's happening at this juncture, but my mindprint leads me to believe that the timeline divergence has something to do with the passing of the Eleven Oracle. That seems to be about the time the diversion in the chronology begins."

Kristen squints at him. "Can I be honest with you, Professor Aguefort?"

"I would be saddened if you couldn't, Kristen."

"I didn't understand, like, any of the words you just used."

"Ah, of course," he nods, "Well, the Eleven Oracle is an important figure in Fallinese society due to their role as an ambassador for the elvish people and divinatior for—"

"I do actually know about the Oracle. Just the other stuff."

"I see." His eyes widen at her. "A mindprint is a memory from a different timeline that is so powerful it stays with you even though the events didn't happen in your current timeline. Like a— an imprint left on your mind by something important."

She nods, slowly, trying to grasp what he's saying. "Okay."  

Aguefort shakes his head. "Someone has used chronomancy to change the past, Kristen. I don't know who, or how, or why. All I know now is that if this leads to the undoing of a landmark event, the damage will be irreparable."

"A landmark event?" Kristen asks, nervously picking at her cuticles.

He nods. "Yes, a landmark event in the timeline. Like the defeat of a great evil, or the death of a significant figure, or perhaps an important invention. Important things. You get it."

"Uh. I guess?"

"These events are so important to the flow of time that if they've taken place once, any attempt to modify them could end in catastrophe." He looks back down at his notes, deep in thought. "If the past were changed enough, the entire space time continuum could collapse in on itself irreparably."

"Professor Aguefort," Kristen interrupts, sighing, "why are you telling me this? This seems like it's maybe a problem for someone slightly more experienced than my party—"

"Of course, Kristen." He says, taking one of her hands and grasping it in both of his. He looks her in the eyes. "Your adventuring party is garbage."

She wants to disagree, but he's her principal, and he's also right. Her adventuring party is pretty weak, and they're unwilling to work with any teacher that's not Daybreak, who's nice to Kristen but also kind of a creep. That's what she gets for having an adventuring party made up of all human Helio worshippers.  Being unwilling to engage with people different from you doesn't lend itself well to improvement.

"Sir, I don't really know anyone outside of my party."

He shakes his head. "That's fine, Kristen. I believe you will come together in due time. I know that you are a key part in fixing this, but your party, the— what's your party called again?"

"Helio's Angels."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "God's, that's a terrible name."

"I mean, I didn't come up with it, I just went along—"

"Kristen—"

"Okay, I lied, I did come up with it, but they all said it was funny!"

"Kristen!" She snaps to attention, her eyes meeting his again, and he reaches into his breast pocket, pulling out a pocket watch. "You're party can't fix this, but I believe there's a party that can. This is my pocket watch. It can control the flow of time."

Her eyes go wide. "Oh, wow, really?"

He nods. "I want you to have it."

"What?" She squeals, but he's already pressing the watch into her hand. "Sir, I can't take this, I don't— this seems very important, and I—"

"I believe in you, Kristen! All will end up right. If it doesn't, then the entire universe will be forcibly turned inside out and shredded into microscopic pieces, left to fall forever. Okay?"

She shakes her head. "Principal Aguefort, I'm a freshman?"

"Ah, yes," he mutters, "that reminds me. Fixing space-time will be seventy five percent of your grade this school year. So you better get to it!"

"I, uh— okay?"

He smiles wide, nodding. "That's the spirit, Kristen! I'll speak to you when there's more news. I'm working on uncovering some things myself. In the meantime, start within your own mind, perhaps. Mindprints are very powerful, Kristen. If you find yourself remembering something impossible, follow that lead."

She nods, grasping the stopwatch in her hands, though she still doesn't have a clue where to start.

"Oh, and close the door on your way out, won't you, Kristen? There's a horrendous draft."

“Hi, honey!” Her mom says the second she gets in the door, looking up from where she’s trying to get a stain out of Bricker’s good school shirt. “How was school?”

Kristen shrugs, frowning. “It was okay. Something kinda weird happened, and I don’t know that I fully understand it? But other than that, it was normal.”

“Something weird?” Her mom says, putting down the shirt and turning to face her fully. “Like what, sweetie? Is it to do with a boy?”

She shakes her head. “Gross, mom, no. It’s not about a boy.”

Her mom shrugs, but smiles at her, raising her eyebrows. “Well, you know sweetie, someday your gonna meet a boy you like, and settle down, and have kids—”

“Gross, Mom! I told you already, the only boy I’m interested in is our lord and saviour Helio. I’m too busy for that.” She says, pushing down the weird feeling clawing up her throat at the idea of settling down with a man. She's just not ready to settle down yet; she's too busy with her responsibilities to Helio.

"Someday, honey! You'll find the man of your dreams." 

Kristen is already halfway down the hall towards her room by the time her mom finishes talking, but she doesn't want to hear it anyway. It's the same everywhere, from everyone. She doesn't want that. She's— she's just not ready, that's all. Even if her mom and her dad and Pastor Amelia and Coach Daybreak and everyone from church are always telling her that she deserves a good man, as the chosen child of Helio. 

She shakes it out of her head. She doesn't want to think about it.

It's exhausting.

Kristen dreams about a girl in an orb.

The dream is hazy, because Kristen’s dreams always are. It’s muffled like she’s watching everything unfold from underwater.

But she sees a girl in an orb.

She’s incredibly beautiful; elven, Kristen can tell, even through the dream fog. She thinks for a second that she might be a princess; she’s a pretty girl locked in a high tower, that’s how the stories she remembers from her childhood go. She looks tired, and messy, and fucking pissed. She’s not anyone Kristen has ever seen before, she knows, but in this dream she has a crushing urge to save her. In this dream she feels like she’s special, and not just because she’s clearly a high elf in a castle or something. Kristen watches her, this beautiful girl she's never seen before, hurt and worn out but alive, and thinks thank god she’s okay. She thinks I don’t know what I’d do without Adaine. She's like a sister to me.

Figueroth Faeth is there, too. Kristen isn’t friends with Figueroth Faeth, but she goes to the bloodrush games. She’s seen her cheer. This is not that Figueroth Faeth. 

She’s dressed as a tiefling, for some reason. Leather jacket and fishnet tights, with a bright red guitar slung over her back. She’s with someone else— like a bird-person made of fire. Kristen is certain she’s never seen them before, even though in the dream, she’s astonishingly unalarmed by the bird-fire.

It ends suddenly. The orb bursts, and Kristen wakes up in a cold sweat.

It’s a mindprint, her brain whispers, unhelpfully, in a little voice that sounds a lot like Arthur Aguefort. You have to find her.

She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes tight, trying to commit it all to memory. Adaine. It’s not much to go on, but it’s a start.

ADAINE

Breakfast is always a showcase in psychological warfare.

It's often the only time of day Adaine even gets to see her family; her parents are extremely busy always, and they don't care much for Adaine at the best of times, and Aelwyn seems like she only likes being around her when she can humiliate her in front of their parents.

It's horrible every single day. Adaine makes herself sick just thinking about it.

At least today there's pancakes.

She tries her best to be as unobtrusive as possible; be quiet, don't take up space, and don't get noticed. It's fruitless, every single day, because even when backed into a corner, she's not good at keeping her mouth shut, but she tries.

Aelwyn smirks at her from across the table, teeth bared like she's ready to pounce. "Say, Adaine," she starts, and Adaine just knows she's about to tear her to shreds, "how are things going at school? Ace any exams, lately?"

Adaine scowls at her, because she knows that somehow Aelwyn knows she only got a C+ on her Arcane History exam (she panicked in the exam hall; again), and she throws a Ray of Sickness at her under the table.

She counterspells it easily, grinning at her.

"Girls, please!" Her father says, not even looking up from his newspaper. "No casting at the table."

Aelwyn looks so smug.

Adaine picks up a handful of pancakes, sticky with maple syrup, and throws them at her.

She ducks under, easily. "Honestly, Adaine, you're a terrible shot. I don't know how you've ever landed a spell."

Her fists clench under the table, and she thinks about punching her sister in the face. It makes her feel a little better.

"Oh, that's terrible." Her father announces, mostly into his newspaper.

He doesn't elaborate. He never does.

"Well?!" She barely makes it ten seconds before she loses her patience. "What is it?!"

Her father shakes his head. "You are in a positively foul mood this morning, Adaine. Are you quite alright?"

She drops her head into her hands. "Just tell me what was in the paper."

He watches her for a second, but quickly goes back to his paper, unperturbed. "The investigation into the death of the elven oracle has declared there was foul play involved. Terrible business. This will be a terrible sleight on Fallinel."

"Are you happy now, Adaine?" Aelwyn smirks, leaning across the table. "Was that the great news you were hoping for?"

She grabs the pile of eggs with her bare hands and hurls them at Aelwyn, but she blocks them easily with a mage hand, scooping them off to the side.

Her parents don’t notice when she doesn’t come home on time.

Her parents don't notice, and Aelwyn doesn’t care , so some days after school lets out when she should be walking home, she walks in the other direction. She walks as far away from her house as she can tolerate, before she starts to panic and has to turn around. Some days, she runs, and imagines what it would be like to just keep running, to never stop and turn around and head back to a loveless house and parents who don’t care enough to notice her. 

The furthest she’s ever made it is Little Branch, but usually she gives up somewhere around the Strongtower Luxury Apartments. She feels drawn to them, in a strange way; the flickering “Luxury” on the sign is weirdly endearing. She sits on a bench across the street and just watches the people come and go, and dreams about having her own apartment, away from her parents and her sister and a life of false pretenses. This is a worse part of town than Hudol, or her house, or any of the other pre-approved locations that she isn’t supposed to venture outside of, but no one cares enough to keep track; she can barely stay for long enough to watch the flock of birds pass before she starts to feel the anxiety claw at her throat, panic rising, and wishes not for the first time that she wasn’t so fucking scared all the time.

She tries to shove everything she can into her bag before the panic sets in, but it's futile; her giant, stupid orb has never fit, and she can’t carry it around while her hands are shaking so badly, so she’s stuck here, having a panic attack on a public bench for anyone to see. There aren’t many people around— there are cars on the road, but the only people she can see are a group of teen dwarves with skateboards and young half orc, crossing the street— and she feels herself start crying, tears falling from her eyes in spite of her attempts to push them back.

She tries frantically to remember any of the tips she read online for what to do when this happens, but it's so hard to remember when she feels like her heart is going to explode . Breathe in for two, breathe out for four, maybe? Or maybe it was in for four, out for two. God, she can't remember, and she's just going to end up doing it wrong and making everything worse—

“Hey, are you okay?”

The half orc is standing right in front of her; she didn’t even realise he’d made it all the way across the street, let alone over to her bench. She tenses up and curls in on herself, not wanting him to see her cry, but he takes a step back like he’s trying to put space between them.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you. I was just trying to help. You seemed like maybe you needed it?”

She shakes her head, trying to shake away the tears with the motion. “You didn’t scare me,” she says, looking around. “At least, not more than everything else around here does.”

He nods, looking a little awkward, then sits down next to her on the bench, leaving as much room between them as he can without falling off. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” she says quickly, but then rethinks her answer. “Everything’s wrong. I hate my life.”

“Oh. That sounds bad.” He says, and it startles Adaine so much she laughs. “Why do you hate your life?”

“God, I don’t even know where to start,” she says, letting out one final sob, wiping her eyes on her sleeve, “My parents don't even love me. They're so busy being obsessed with my stupid perfect sister.”

He wrinkles his eyebrows, thinking. “I’m sure your sister isn’t perfect.”

“Well, no, she’s an evil bitch,” Adaine says, and this makes the half orc laugh, “but my parents think she’s perfect, which is enough of a problem.”

“Shit, I’m sorry.” He says. His eyes are so soft and kind, and for a second Adaine is convinced she knows this man. Not just knows him; loves him. “That really sucks.”

"It's okay." She sniffles. "I mean, it's not, obviously. But it is what it is. I just wish someone cared."

She sees him move in her peripheral, and suddenly he's staring at his shoes. "I care?"

"No offense, but you just met me. You have no idea what I'm like. I could be an evil bitch."

He smiles, and he's so cute that Adaine is struck with a potent rush of familiarity, watching him giggle from behind his floppy hair. 

He smiles at her again, and she feels lighter than she has in her whole life. "I don't think you're an evil, uh, bitch. I think you're funny, and nice."

He whispered the word bitch, which is so endearing Adaine fully stops crying, and when she smiles at him he looks relieved that she's stopped openly weeping.

"Thanks," she says, because she's too awkward to think of anything else to say, "you're very sweet."

He blushes a dark green that dusts his cheeks, and pushes his hair behind his ears. 

"Thanks." He smiles. "Oh, hey, one sec."

He pulls off his backpack and starts digging around inside, Adaine watching him with narrowed eyes, curiosity itching up her throat. He finds what he's looking for at the bottom of his bag, and pulls out a beautiful, shining rose made from a silvery metal, and dusts it off before presenting it to her.

"Sorry it's, uh, a little dusty. It's been in my backpack for a little while."

"Oh." She moves a little closer to him on the bench to get a closer look. It's impeccable; the Abernant home is full of only the absolute finest elven craftsmanship, but she's never seen anything like this. "It's beautiful."

He smiles again, and holds it out towards her. "Do you want it? It might make you feel better?"

Her eyes dart up to meet his, but he's serious, his kind eyes so honest and sincere Adaine almost feels like he can't be real. She reaches out a hand to touch it and hesitates before her fingers make contact, the fear of being vulnerable enough to accept holding her back, and the boy falters.

"You don't have to take it." He says in a rush, his eyes hiding behind his hair again. "I don't wanna like, force it on you, or whatever, I just thought—"

"I would love to have it." She says, smiling as she takes the thin stem from him, their hands brushing and a distinct feeling of something settling deep in Adaine's chest. "Thank you."

"Sure," he says, and his smile is wide and bright, "I'm happy you like it. I'm Gorgug, by the way."

"I'm Adaine Abernant." She says out of instinct, and then realises that he didn't say his last name so she's probably made it weird. "I mean, I'm just Adaine, fuck my stupid parents, you know?"

The boy, Gorgug, laughs, and she laughs too. "Yeah. They suck, it sounds like."

"Yeah." She smiles, and it isn't until she starts to feel raindrops on her forehead that she realises how long she's been sitting here. "Oh, I should probably go. It's a long walk back, and It's gonna rain."

He looks up, surprised, but the clouds are hanging heavy and grey above them, and the rain is starting to fall. "Uh— Will you— can I walk you home? I could carry your, uh— ball?"

She instinctively wants to say no , because accepting help is a sign of weakness and also he's still basically a stranger, so maybe it's a bad idea, but it's starting to rain, and her arms are still shaking too much to carry her giant fucking orb, and she's never had a friend, really, but she feels like she can trust him. It's wildly unlike her; she always feels some level of anxiety around people she doesn't know, but she knows with certainty in her heart that she doesn't need to be nervous around him.

She nods. "Okay."

He smiles, and picks up her orb as she puts on her backpack, reaching into it to pull out an umbrella. She opens it and holds it above them both with one hand, reaching up to keep it over his head, still holding the metal rose.

"Oh, thank you." He says with a shy smile, like he's surprised that she made the effort to protect him from the rain.

"No worries." She says. "Thanks for walking me home."

"I, uh— I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You seem— you seem really cool."

"I think you're really cool." She says all at once, the words tripping over each other to get out of her mouth in a jumbled mess. "And I would really like us to hang out again because I like you and I don't really have any other friends but I don't have a crystal because my stupid parents don't let me have one, so I don't know what to do."

He frowns, looking deep in thought for a second. "I mean, I walk home from school this way everyday. So if you're here again, then I would see you? Or you could come to my house, but you just met me, and I don't wanna be, like, creepy—"

"I would love to!" Adaine says, because Gorgug is the sweetest person she's ever met and also she has no self preservation skills outside of have an anxiety attack about it. "Where do you live?"

He points behind them. "I live over in Littlebranch with my parents. Number twenty two. It's the only willow tree."

"Oh. Cool."

"I'm adopted." He says without prompting, and from the way he brought it up, Adaine assumes he gets asked about it a lot. "My parents are gnomes."

She smiles at him, looking down at the rose again. "That's cool."

"Yeah." He says, nodding. "Uh— if you want to come over, ever, just come over. I might not be home if it's during school, but it probably won't be, because you also go to school, I guess, but I'm home like, all of the rest of the time."

She nods. "Okay."

"And if I'm not, which I like, probably will be, then my parents will let you hang out for a while. They're super cool and nice. Not to, uh— not to, like, brag, or anything—"

"It's okay," she laughs, "thank you, Gorgug. I really appreciate it."

The rain starts hitting the ground around them, the sound soothing Adaine's anxiety, and she starts to feel more grounded. This is nice, she thinks with a smile.

"So," she starts, still looking at the flower, "you go to the adventuring academy?"

He nods, frowning. "Yeah, it's, uh— it's an okay school, I guess. There's— I don't like it, that much. It's whatever."

She watches him, framed by the falling rain. "Why don't you like it? It always seemed so fun to me."

"I guess I just, uh— I don't have too many friends, and the other kids are kinda, like— they can be pretty mean, is all." 

Adaine bites her lip. She hadn't wanted to upset him. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. I suppose school is just shit no matter where you go."

Gorgug laughs, and Adaine is happy to see that the mood is lighter again. "Yeah, for sure. At least you seem like you're good at school. I'm failing all my classes."

"All of them?" She says with shock and horror it doesn't even occur to her to conceal until it's too late. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound so—"

"Yeah, all of them." He smiles, and it makes Adaine giggle. "My teacher scares me so I, uh— I skip class a lot. Even when I don't skip, I don't feel like I get it. I'm not— I'm not booksmart."

Adaine nods considering. "I could help you, if you want. What do you—"

"I'm a barbarian." He says in a hurry, like he's ashamed of it. "It's all pretty— it's a lot of stuff about like, anger, and I don't— I'm not—"

"Hey it's okay," Adaine smiles, "we all have things we're not good at. I'm not good at meeting people I don't hate, but I did a good job at that today."

He smiles, and it makes Adaine giggle to herself, the happiness running through her veins like a drug.

She closes the front door behind her as gently as she can, but, unfortunately, nothing she ever does is enough, apparently.

"Gone and got yourself a little boyfriend, have you?"

She whirls around as fast as she can, hand raised and ready to cast, and Aelwyn is standing at the bottom of the staircase, leaning against one of the railings.

"Fuck off, Aelwyn." She spits, moving to shove her umbrella back into her backpack. It's soaking wet, but she doesn't really care. 

Aelwyn watches her like a shark. Eyes sharp, cunning, tracking her movements. Ready to pounce. She looks dressed to go out, even though it's storming outside; not that Adaine cares much what happens to Aelwyn. She can catch a cold and die from it for all she minds.

"Well?" She says after a long beat of silence, gesturing to the door past Adaine, outside. "Who was he, then?"

"Like I'm going to tell you fucking anything." 

Aelwyn shrugs, like that's what she was expecting her to say. "Very well. I will have to tell our parents that I saw a particularly drab looking orcish boy loitering outside the estate. They'll likely do something about that."

She huffs, and before she has the will to stop herself she's throwing a ray of sickness at her sister, who counterspells it easily. " Why do you have to be such a fucking bitch all of the time?"

"Unnecessary , Adaine." She says, but she's still smirking like she's got the upper hand in the conversation. It makes Adaine furious. "Isn't this what sisters are supposed to do? Talk about boys?"

She shakes her head, moving to shove past her on the stairs. "Fuck you, Aelwyn. If you really want to talk, we can talk about where the fuck your going in the middle of a huge storm on a Thursday night, but I have a feeling you don't want to get into it."

Aelwyn laughs, but doesn't answer, just lets Adaine push past her and up the stairs, but grabs her elbow at the last second, turning her so they're face to face.

"Just so you know, Adaine, if you're up to something, I will find out about it."

She furrows her eyebrows. "What are you talking about? You see me with one person one time and suddenly I'm plotting against you?"

"I never said that, now, did I? Just something to bear in mind, sister."

"What would I even do that I haven't already been trying to do for the last ten years?" She says, her hand crackling with arcane energy and itching for Aelwyn to give her a reason to hit her with a spell.

She just grins, in that infuriating, I know more than you way she always does, and shrugs, letting go of Adaine's arm in the process. "I don't know, Adaine, perhaps a bucket over my door? You always manage to surprise me with how juvenile you can be."

She casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Aelwyn barely even lifts her hand to counterspell it away, laughing to herself, and that's when she sees the flower.

"What is that hideous thing you have, Adaine?"

She pulls back, holding it behind her, just narrowly avoiding when Aelwyn reaches out to try and grab it from her hands. "It's nothing, and it's mine. Leave me alone."

She makes a face that's far too smug, with something akin to bitter pity in her tone. "Aw, did that boy give you that?"

She backs up a few stairs, eyes narrowed. "Fuck off."

"It's perfectly fine if you're seeing some half orc boy from the adventuring academy, Adaine. I'm sure mum and dad will be thrilled when I tell them."

She can feel her cheeks go red with anger, and moves forward to poke her in the chest. "Don't fucking say anything to them. I'm serious."

"No promises, sister."

Adaine storms up the stairs to her room and can hear Aelwyn laughing behind her, cold and callous, and throws her back against the door, holding the flower to her heart. 

Gorgug.

For the first time in her whole life, Adaine feels like she's not alone.

RIZ

“Think fast, The Ball!”

Riz feels Fabian’s shoulder connect with his back before he even hears his voice, and barely has the time to catch himself on the inside of his locker before he feels the locker door slam behind him.

"What the fuck, Fabian?" He shouts, but it sounds like Fabian's already gone, laughing down the hall and high giving one of his other brain dead jock friends. Typical.

Riz is small, so he manages to wiggle himself around to face outwards to the door, but when he moves his arms to push the door open, it doesn't budge. Fuck. Fabian must have locked him in. 

Great. The bell hasn't even rung for first period yet, and he's stuck in his locker. Awesome.

He starts banging on the door, hoping someone will hear and at least come to see what all the commotion is about, and after a while, he hears a voice on the other side of the door.

“Uh— hello?”

“Hello. Could you let me out of this locker please?

“Sure!” He feels someone tug on the door and winces at the echoing noise, the clanking metal right next to his ears in the confined space. The rattling stops, and the person speaks again. “You wouldn't happen to know the combination, would you?”

“It’s 2455. It’s a new lock, I just set it up this morning, so you might have to really force it.”

There’s a moment of silence and more rustling from the other side of the door, before the person speaks again. “Hey. So I tried that. It isn't working?”

“What do you mean it isn’t working?” He hisses. “Could you maybe try it again please? I'm sort of trapped here until you get me out.”

He can hear them sigh, and he doesn't know what they're doing but he can feel them roll their eyes. "Okay, well there’s no need to take that kind of tone with me. I’m trying to help you."

"I’m not taking a tone, I’m stuck." He's trying not to sound desperate, but he's not sure how well it's working. "Can— can you just try the code again, please?"

There's some more rattling, and he can hear the lock clinking against the metal, but after a few moments it stops again. 

"It’s still not working, man." The voice comes back, closer than before. "Let’s hope Helio is smiling down on us, because we’re gonna need a miracle."

Fuck, it’s one of the weird religous kids. This is not the crowd he was looking to get in with.

"Could you please do something?" He asks, slumping forward against the cool metal door. "Don’t you have a spell that can get the door open?"

"Uh— I’m a cleric, dude. I don't really do spells like that? I mean, I can— wait, hold on—"

The locker door starts glowing, brilliant and bright and right in his fucking eyes.

"That's fun, right?" They ask, and he slams his first against the door.

"I don’t need fun right now! I need freedom!"

There's silence for a second, and he thinks maybe the person has left, until they speak again, more determined than before. "I’ll go find a teacher. Maybe someone else has an open door spell, you know?"

He hears their footsteps leaving, before they start approaching again.

"Oh hey, I'm Kristen Applebees, by the way. No relation to any other apples or bees you might be familiar with."

"Okay," Riz sighs, "I’m Riz Gukgak. Unlicensed private investigator."

"Unlicensed?"

"Could you please get someone to come and help me?"

"Oh, yeah, for sure, dude. Gimme two minutes."

She runs off, and Riz waits, praying she’ll come back, hopefully with someone a little less chatty and a little more competent.

He waits. He's used to this, being quiet and alone, so he tries to adjust. This is just like being on a stakeout, except significantly less fun and productive and also his mom isn't here. Kristen's gone now, too, though he thinks she's coming back. She seemed pretty genuine.

Riz can hear her from down the hall when she comes back, talking away to whoever she'd run to find.

When they reach his locker he hears them sigh, and realizes with a jolt that it's Vice Principal Goldenhoard that was currently investigating his locker.

He clears his throat before he speaks, tapping lightly on the locker with what Riz can only assume is one of his claws. "Is someone in there?"

“Yes, hello, I’m Riz Gukgak, unlicensed private investigator, I’m stuck in my locker—”

“Okay, okay,” he mumbles, and Riz can hear rattling on the other side of the door.

“He’s using big bolt-cutters to try and get the lock to—”

Goldenhoard huffs. “I could do with less of the running commentary, Miss Applebees.”

Riz tries to lean as far back from the door as possible. “I actually liked the updates, it’s important to communicate.”

He feels the locker rattle, and then the door break open, and suddenly he's staring Vice Principal Goldenhoard right in the face.

"Uh. Hi?"

He shakes his head. "Gukgak, get out of the locker."

He scrambles out as fast as he can, and Kristen claps him on the back, smiling wide. "Alright! Good teamwork, dude."

He smiles at Kristen, then looks back at Goldenhoard, only to see him looking between Riz and Kristen, eyes narrowed, looking somewhere between angry and nervous.

Riz clears his throat. "Thank you, Mr Goldenhoard."

He snaps out of it, looking right at Riz, and scowls. "Detention, Mr Gukgak. Right now. Go to Mr Gibbons classroom."

"What?!" Kristen shrieks, looking indignant. "But Professor Goldenhoard, he didn't do anything—"

"Disruption of my valuable time is punishable by detention." He shakes his head, pointing down the hall. "Now go."

Kristen shakes her head. "But if anything you should give me detention, because I'm the one who came to get you—"

"Miss Applebees, I need to see you in my office now. Gukgak, detention."

"Shit." Kristen says, turning to face him. "I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

He smiles at her, brushing himself off. "Hey, it's okay—"

"Detention! Now, Gukgak!"

He gives Kristen an apologetic hand wave and takes himself off to Mr Gibbons room for detention.

Fuck, that's so not fair.

He's in detention, alone, Mr Gibbons trying his best to get Riz to talk about his big feelings, when the door slams open.

"I'm here for detention!"

It's Kristen. Of course it's Kristen.

Mr Gibbons gives her a look, then motions for her to sit down. "Please, take a seat. Let me know if you wanna talk through any big feelings."

She shoots him a thumbs up. "I sure will!"

She practically falls into the seat next to him, and he leans over to whisper to her. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I felt bad about letting you get detention on your own," she whispers, very loudly, "so I came to hang out."

"Detention is literally almost over!"

She nods, a serious look in her eyes. "Yeah, Goldenhoard kept me in his office for so long, like, it was honestly way overkill, and he kept being like 'dont go to detention!' and 'youre a good kid, Kristen, don't hang around with trouble makers', but the second I got out I came to see if you were okay."

His eyes narrow, and he can feel his ears flicking like they do sometimes when he's nervous. His investigator instincts are telling him this is a trap, that there's no way Kristen can just be like this, but she looks so open and honest that Riz has to trust her. "Thanks, Kristen, that's— sweet, I guess."

"Thanks." She says, finally leaning back in her chair, but still stage whispering towards Riz. "Goldenhoard was acting super weird, too. I've never seen him so rattled."

Riz furrows his eyebrows. "That's weird. Maybe you should try figure out what his deal is? I could help. That's kinda my whole thing."

She shakes her head, huffing. “I’m super busy right now. I’m, uh— I’m kinda bogged down with solving a mystery?

He knows his ears just perked up but he’s suddenly too invested to care. “A mystery?”

“Yeah.” She says, but she doesn't seem happy about it. “Principal Aguefort told me a whole bunch of confusing but important sounding stuff, and I kinda don’t know where to start.”

Riz digs around in his briefcase, and pulls out a business card, handing it to Kristen. “Well, you know, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I am an unlicensed private investigator.”

She nods. “Yeah, you mentioned it a couple of times, actually?”

“Right, well,” he says, gesturing to the card, “if you’re in need of someone to help you solve a mystery, I would love to offer my services to you.”

“Oh,” she says, looking between Riz and his card, “would I have to, like, pay you? Because I don’t really have any money, man, I’m a freshman—”

Riz smiles. “Hey, I’m a freshman too! No payment required, although I will be accepting tips in friendship.”

“Sure thing, man.” Kristen says, distracted, and Riz can’t quite read her expression, but she seems like she’s considering something. “I feel like— I feel like we’re supposed to work on this together. Like, it feels right.”

Riz tilts his head. “I guess?”

He hadn’t really thought about it up until now, but listening to her talk, he realises that she’s right. It feels right to work with Kristen. He knows he can trust her, and he doesn't trust people. He has the sudden weird image of Kristen waving around a ribbon dancer in front of a bunch of piratey looking orcs, and the feeling of familiarity and warmth that spreads through him at the— memory? dream? He isn't even sure. It feels so real, but he met Kristen for the first time while he was stuffed in a locker this morning.

Interesting.

"What exactly did Aguefort tell you?"

GORGUG

It's not new for Gorgug to be plagued by nightmares. 

He always is. The rage that lives deep inside his heart comes out at night when he's asleep; the only time he's not actively fighting it, and it gives him the worst dreams. He always wakes up in a cold sweat, mouth full of the taste of blood, scrambling to escape the darkness of his own psyche. It sucks.

Sometimes he remembers them, sometimes he doesn't; the dreams feel like sand slipping through his fingers, and he can only remember snippets, like photos in an album. Tonight's was a dream he has a lot; a dark forest with sharp leaves that slice his hands until he can't stand the sight of the blood anymore.

He reaches out to turn off his alarm, and feels his bedframe shift in two with the movement. Shit. He's broken the bed in his sleep again. That's the second time this week, and every time it happens he worries that his dad is going to say that he doesn't deserve to have it fixed again, that he has to face the consequences of his own actions and sleep in his crooked broken bed, but he never does. He wouldn't, really, Gorging knows, but that doesn't stop the fear that one day he's going to finally prove himself too much for his parents and they're going to snap.

"Mornin', bud!" His dad chimes, knocking twice on the door and waiting for Gorgug to grunt in affirmation before pushing it open. He eyes his bed immediately, and pulls his hammer off his belt. "Aw, pal, did you break your bed again?"

Gorgug sighs, standing up and moving over to where he left his hoodie hanging over the back of a chair. "Yeah."

Hi dad sets to work fixing it before Gorgug even has to ask him to, and he pulls his hoodie over his head, shaking the sleep out of his eyes.

"Bud, you have a friend downstairs." His dad says from under his bed, hammer clanking so loud it almost covers up the noise.

Gorgug narrows his eyes. "A friend?"

"Yup!" He pokes his head out to smile at Gorgug and give him a thumbs up, which he halfheartedly returns. "A fancy lookin' elven girl. She's downstairs with your mom right now. She's mighty sweet."

Gorgug smiles. "Oh, that's Adaine. She goes to a different school."

"That's great, kiddo!" He smiles, ducking back under to continue his fixing. "It important to make friends with people from all walks of life, even if they go to a different school!"

"Sure, dad." He mumbles, not mentioning that he doesn't really have any friends that go to his school. "I'm gonna go see Adaine." 

He's already out the door when he hears his dad yell, "sure thing bud!" from under his bed, and makes his way downstairs to the kitchen. Their house isn't very big, just barely big enough to accommodate a half-orc, so he finds Adaine straight away, in the kitchen being fed ants on a log by his mom while she chatters away.

"Well, speak of the devil! Good morning, sleepyhead!" His mom cries when she notices him, and he ducks down to give her a kiss on the head. "I was just talking to your friend here about when you were a baby. You were such a handful!"

Adaine giggles through a mouthful of celery and peanut butter, and Gorgug can feel himself blush, face going hot. 

"Mom!" He whines, and Adaine giggles even more. "We gotta go. I'll talk to you later."

"It's okay, sweetheart, I'll go help your father. You stay here and have some snacks, you've not had any breakfast and you're a growing boy." She reaches up to pinch his cheek, and he tries not to blush again. She turns back to Adaine. "Honestly, he just shoots up like a bamboo shoot. Every time I look away it's like he's grown six inches!"

"Okay, mom! " He says, face hot, and his mom finally heads out of the kitchen with a wave. He sighs, turning to Adaine. "Uh— sorry about my parents, if they said anything, uh— weird. They can be a lot."

She shakes her head with a smile. "No! They're so adorable, I love it. Your mum made me snacks."

She waves the remainder of the stick of celery she's eating in front of his face and he laughs, sitting down next to her and grabbing one for himself. It's so good, and he was so hungry.

"So," he starts, swallowing hard to try and avoid talking with his mouth full, "you're here. At my house."

"What, you're not happy to see me?" She says, and she's smiling like it's a joke, but he can't tell from the look in her eyes that's she's genuinely worried she's overstepped.

He shakes his head. "Of course I'm happy to see you! I always am. I was just— I've never seen you on a Saturday before, and you've never actually come to my house, so— I just. I mean. Is everything— is everything okay?"

"Yeah, obviously," she says, in a tone that heavily implies that everything is not fine, "why wouldn't it be?"

He shrugs.  "I dunno, I guess. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want. I just— I thought picked up on a vibe, maybe, with you."

She looks down at her hands, taking another bite of her celery. She takes a deep breath before she speaks again. "I just had a bad morning, is all, and I— I would've called you or something, but I don't have a fucking crystal, and I just felt really shit. So I wanted to see you. I hope that's okay."

"Yeah, it's okay. I like seeing you. I never do anything on a Saturday anyway." 

"Really?" She asks, eyes wide.

He nods. "Yeah. I might help my parents with something if they need it, but I, uh— I kinda don't really have many friends? So, I mostly just hang out by myself, and draw, or listen to music, or something."

"I don't really have any friends, either." She sounds bashful, but she looks happy to talk to someone about it. "My parents force me to do, like, a thousand extracurriculars on the weekend, but they don't check if I go to them, because they don't give a shit about me."

He nods, because she's told him about her parents before, and he fucking hates them. "So what do you do instead?"

"I don't know," she says, eyebrows furrowed, "nothing, I guess. I just wander around town and try to find something interesting to do."

"Is there anything interesting to do?"

"In Elmville?" She says with a giggle. "Not fucking likely. Most days I would end up having a panic attack and going home."

He smiles, thinking back to when they met, and finishes the plate, moving to put it in the sink behind them. He runs the water on instinct, washing up, and hears the clattering above his head of his parents finishing up their tinkering.

Adaine looks concerned. "What are your parents doing?"

"They're fixing my bed." He answers, eyes tracking his hands as he washes the plate.

He feels her move to stand next to him. "How'd you break your bed?"

He finishes washing the plate and she takes it out of his hands before he can even protest, rubbing it dry with a dishcloth and passing it back to him to put in the right cabinet. When he turns back around to face her, her eyes are locked on him, bright and sharp, and he leans back against the kitchen counter.

"I, uh— I have— I get nightmares, a lot. Sometimes. It's— my parents say it's my orc heritage. That Gruumsh has blessed me with his divine rage, or something. I don't know. I don't think I understand it, and, uh— it seems like people are too scared to explain it to me, I guess."

Adaine puts her hand on his arm, eyes wide, but she's looking at him with kindness. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but— what's it like? The rage?"

He tries to hold back a shiver, but even thinking about it makes him taste iron and acid on his tongue, and he swallows hard, pushing the feeling down. He does want to talk about it. He never gets to, really. There isn't anyone he knows that would understand.

Adaine might not relate, but he has a feeling she'll understand.

"It's like—" He cuts himself off, considering. "It feels like every inch of my body is on fire, and that the only way I can make it stop is by destroying as much as possible. Like I'm drowning, but I'm on fire, and I can't breathe or feel or hear and all I can think about is—"

He cuts himself off before he can get worked up, feeling the rage clawing up his throat and trying to take hold. 

Adaine is watching him, but not in a way that feels scary, just enough to make him feel seen.

He shakes his head, trying to get rid of the feeling. "I don't know. It's difficult, I guess. The dreams don't make it any easier."

Adaine picks at a thread on her sleeve, not meeting his eyes. "I had a really weird dream last night. I don't really understand it."

Gorgug furrows his eyebrows. "I didn't know elves could have dreams."

"We can't, really, at least not while trancing." She tilts her head, curious. "That's what's so strange about it."

He goes quiet for a moment, thinking, before he speaks again. "What was the dream about?"

"We were at this... club, or bar, or— one of those dark places with drinks and loud music, and I was in a group of people I don't know, aside from you."

He can feel his eyes widen, but he doesn't care. "I was there?"

"Yes!" She says, smiling at him. "You were there and we were in this big group of friends, and there was this werewolf that was trying to kill me. He bit me."

"Oh, woah." Gorgug says, eyebrows furrowed. "Where was everyone else?"

"I don't know," she mumbled, "it was like watching a disjointed memory. It was— it was weird."

"It sounds weird." He nods, placing a hand on her shoulder as gently as he can, hoping it feels comforting for her. "It sounds scary."

She shakes her head. "It... wasn't. I knew I was scared, in the dream, but it was like I was watching it and it was okay. Like I knew he wasn't going to hurt me."

"That's crazy." He says, looking down at his shoes. "I don't know that I've ever had a dream that wasn't scary. At least not that I can remember."

She looks so sad that he has to look away, hiding behind his hair like he always does when he can't handle the intensity of a situation, and she sighs, kicking out with her legs.

"Fuck," she says, and he can tell from the way her eyes narrow that she's thinking about her parents, "I wish I had a crystal. It's not fair that Aelwyn has one and I don't. I hate knowing that you're having a nightmare and not being able to talk to you."

Gorgug thinks, for a second, and reaches into his pocket to feel for his own crystal. He pulls it out; it's a little old now, and the picture of him and his parents they set as the lockscreen when they gave him it states back at him, unchanged. 

He holds it out to Adaine. "You can have mine."

She scoffs. "Don't be ridiculous, Gorgug."

"I'm serious." He holds it out to her again and she takes it from him on instinct, holding it in one hand, warily. "I don't really have anything on there that I care about, and I can probably ask my parents to make me a new one. I'm sure they won't mind."

"I can't take this, Gorgug."

"Hey, sure you can." He smiled and tries to be casual, but he really hopes Adaine takes it. "It means we can talk, and I, uh— I get worried about you, sometimes. It'd be nice to know that you have some way to call someone if you were in trouble.

"I'm always in trouble," she mumbled, but Gorgug knows she understands what he means, "I— I can pay for you to get a new crystal. I just need to think of how to—"

"No, Adaine, it's okay. Just take it. Please."

She looks hesitant, but nods, slowly, and Gorgug lights up. This is much better. At least if something happens to Adaine she can call someone other than her shitty parents or her mean sister.

She clicks the home button and the crystal lights up, the picture of him and his parents smiling wide outside the tree on Gorgug's last day of middle school filling the screen. She smiles down at it, and he's not sure what's going through her mind, but she looks back up at him after a second, eyes wide.

"You're sure? A hundred percent sure?"

He pushes it into her hands more, shaking his head. "One hundred percent, Adaine."

She puts it in her pocket and smiles at him. "You're a really good friend, Gorgug."

He feels himself blush again, eyes on the ground. "Thanks. You're a good friend too."

By the time Adaine leaves, it's well into the evening; his mom and dad insist on giving her a ride home in their beat up junker van, which she tried her best to refuse, but it was already after dark and it might not be too far on foot, but that meant it was even less by van. 

He and Adaine spent the whole day just getting to know each other better. Gorgug showed Adaine the music he likes, which she politely pretended to find palatable even though she did like the anger behind it, and she showed him the books she was reading, which he poorly pretended to understand while she patiently talked him through it. They might not have tons in common, when it comes down to specifics, but they spent the day smiling and giggling and it was nice to feel like, for the first time in a long time, he's not so alone.

He pulls out his laptop and, in a random bout of curiosity, searches music venues in my area. Adaine had mentioned seeing a place in a dream, and he knows dreaming isn't common for an elf. He's not sure what it means, but it feels like it could be important. Maybe, like, a memory. Or a premonition.

Maybe she's the elven oracle, he thinks as a joke, but then something clicks in his brain and all of a sudden it's like he just knows.

Elmville is, unsurprisingly, not a bustling hub for bars and venues. There's only two in town, and then a couple further out, up towards the Dune Forts. He pulls up the website for the one that sounds most like the place in Adaine's dream; The Black Pit. The website is ill maintained and the pictures make it look like shit, but there's something weirdly familiar about the place, like he's been there before. Not just like he's been there before; like something happened there.

There's no indication of any previous events on the website, and Gorgug is about to hit exit on the tab and call the whole thing a bust, until something catches his eye in one of the pictures. It's a picture of what he presumes is a gig; there are bright lights flashing and the dancefloor is jam packed with bodies, people dancing and moshing and just generally being packed in tight like sardines. There's a pretty high percentile of werewolf attendees, and what looks like a handful of vampires, all drinking and dancing and existing fairly amicably.

And there, in the centre of everything, was Zayn Darkshadow.

He's unmistakable; he has a rat on his head, and he looks happier than Gorgug had ever seen him in real life, eyes bright and skin glistening with sweat as he swings an arcane ball of light around. It's— unexpected, to see him, but not entirely out of place. Zayn always loved seedy clubs and back alley joints.

It's what got him killed.

Zayn Darkshadow was murdered in the first week of the semester. The school held a remembrance assembly for him, but it seemed like most of the student body was eager to forget. Zayn hadn't been popular, when he'd been alive. He'd been kicked out of the theatre department, for one reason or another, and after he died it didn't seem like anybody really mourned him.

It's a weird coincidence to see him at the Black Pit, but it makes sense. It seemed like the kind of place he'd hangout.

Gorgug shakes his head and closes his laptop, placing it down on his bedside table. He's gotta stop overthinking everything.

FABIAN

"Honestly, Ragh, Jasmine was practically throwing herself at you after our last game. I don't know why you don't ask her out."

Ragh shrugs at him with a smile, and shoves some more of the mystery meat Fabian refuses to eat into his mouth. "I told you, dude, I just don't like her like that. She's nice, but I'm not, like, into her, bro."

Fabian shakes his head, laughing. "You're always saying that. I'm trying to help you get your kisses in, Ragh! You're the only single member of our adventuring party now."

Dayne looks up from his crystal. "Maybe he, like, has a crush on someone else. That would be so crazy." 

"I don't have a crush on anyone, bro!" Ragh shouts, throwing his fork down like he's prepared to fight about it. "I'm just not interested in dating anyone right now."

"Ragh! Calm down, okay, my guy? No one is accusing you of anything." Fabian puts his hands on Ragh's shoulders to calm him down, but he's looking to Dayne like he's waiting to see what he has to say.

After a few seconds, Dayne speaks up. "For real, Ragh, bro, it'd be cool if you started seeing someone, man. Right now it's like, you're the only one not coupled up. People might start to talk, dude."

Fabian feels Ragh tense up under his hands, looking at Dayne with wide eyes, panicked. 

He narrows his eyes. "What are you talking about, man?"

Dayne holds eye contact with Ragh for a second, but then he just shrugs, going back to his crystal. "I don't know, bro. It's just, like, weird that you haven't dated anyone, even though you're, like, Owlbear MVP."

Ragh relaxes, slightly, and Fabian feels like something just passed between them that he doesn't understand, but Ragh's eyes are shining. 

"You really think I'm the MVP, man?" Ragh says, voice quiet and eyes wide.

Fabian claps him on the back, smiling. "Of course you are, Ragh! We wouldn't be the Owlbears without you. You're the best vice-captain a team could have, and the best player on the team—"

"Woah, easy." Dayne mutters, eyes narrowed at Fabian. "He's good, sure. He's not the best fuckin' player on the team, though."

Ragh nods, turning to face Fabian. "Yeah, bro! Dayne's the best! Anyone with a brain could see that."

"Exactly, man." Dayne says, not even looking up from his crystal. "There's a reason you're vice-captain and I'm captain, right?"

"Right, Dayne." Ragh says, and Fabian feels a sudden fire flare in his stomach because Ragh is the best player on their team, and Dayne is an asshole for keeping Ragh wrapped around his little finger like that, and he wishes he could make Ragh see that.

It's no use. It never is. No one stands a chance against Dayne Blade. No one can go up against him. Highschool is his empire, and no one can challenge him. It's not worth it.

Ragh would never go against Dayne, anyway. Fabian just wishes he could show him that he could.

He finishes up his lunch— cucumber sandwiches and kippers that Cathilda prepared for him so he wouldn't have to eat the disgusting lunchlady food— and looks around the cafeteria, taking stock. Fig is at a yearbook meeting with Penelope, so they're having a "boys lunch", which always consists of Dayne being big headed and Ragh backing him up no matter what. 

Fabian used to look up to Dayne; thought he was cool, especially among all the freak losers the Aguefort Academy had to offer, but the more he got to know him, the more he realised that he's just a dick. The worst part is, Fabian knows that they're not even that different.

For some reason, Fabian can't shake the urge to impress him. That's probably how he got so popular in the first place; people want Dayne Blade to like them. Not to mention, they're friends, even if Dayne is a jerk that takes any affront to his perfection as a personal attack. They're an adventuring party; the rest of his friends would disown him if he turned on Dayne, especially Ragh. He doesn't really like Penelope that much, anyway, and Fig thinks he's an asshole, but Ragh— Ragh is important to Fabian, and he'd never forgive him. So, he pretends.

The cafeteria is as busy as it always is, but his eyes still catch on a pair of students in the corner; The Ball is sitting at a table with Kristen Applebees, one of the weird religious kids that Coach Daybreak is always talking about, and they have a huge piece of paper spread out across the table, both chattering away and scribbling things on the paper, every so often pausing to look at something on their crystals.

It's suspicious.

The Ball is weird, definitely, but he'd never taken him as someone to get in with the ultra religious kids. He's never seen them hang out before. The one thing about the cliques at Aguefort is that they're predictable; he didn't even know that they knew each other.

Something is going on.

"Dude, you okay?" Ragh nudges his shoulder, concern in his eyes. "You totally zoned out."

"The Ball is sitting with Kristen Applebees today." He says, eyes narrowed.

Ragh shrugs. "And? So what, dude? Weirdos stick together, or whatever."

"It's just— it's unusual, is all. You don't find that strange?" Fabian takes his eyes off of them just long enough to make eye contact with Ragh, and it's obvious he doesn't think much of it.

He shakes his head, putting a hand on Fabian's shoulder. "Bro, I think you've been pushing yourself too hard at practice. Why's it matter what they do?"

Fabian narrows his eyes, then shrugs, looking back towards them. "I don't know. It doesn't, I suppose. I have much better things to do than concern myself with what The Ball of all people is doing."

Ragh grins. "Yeah, exactly! Who cares what The Ball does?" 

Fabian nods, and then, before he can even think about it, he's on his feet and storming over to Riz and Kristen's table, Ragh scrambling to be his backup.

They both look up at him when he gets there, and he slams his first on the table, right in the middle of their papers, and Kristen jumps like she's seen a ghost.

"What, pray tell, are you two up to?"

Kristen looks to Riz, like she isn't sure what they've done to draw his ire, and when he shrugs, she turns back to him, hands up. "Hey, man. Can we help you?"

"Yes," he starts, leaning over them, "you can tell me what you're up to that's got you all buddy buddy with each other."

"Uh— we're friends, man." She says, with a look towards Riz who looks alarmingly touched. "We're just eating lunch and working on a project?"

"A project?" He echos, and they nod. "Oh, sure."

The Ball leans up to meet his stance, eyes narrowed. "What exactly are we being accused of?"

He hesitates, because he's honestly not sure, and Kristen takes the opportunity to start talking. "You know, man, if you're looking to learn to be more trusting, my church has a great sermon about learning to have faith in others through the grace of Helio. You should look it up, I have a feeling it could be really helpful for you."

"I don't need a sermon!" He hissed, narrowing his eyes at her. "Why would I want that?"

She just shrugs like he's not getting it. "Helio heals, man. If you give him a chance, he could bring you closer to the light."

"I do not want to be brought closer to the light!" Fabian hisses, and he feels Ragh behind him mumble to the affirmative. "What is this? What class would even partner the two of you together?"

"It's a special project," Kristen says, and her eyes glisten in a way that makes Fabian feel oddly protective and familial towards her, "Principal Aguefort specifically asked me to handle it, and I've brought Riz onto the team to utilise his detecting skills."

Riz nods, firmly, and beams at her.

Ragh pipes up from his side, moving forward to tower over Kristen. "Oh, you got a special secret project? Well, so do we, except our special project is that we, uh— we have to beat up losers who also have secret projects, but like— like, different secret projects to the one we have."

He lets it hang in the air for a second, and he knows it's terrible, but he's never gonna not backup his boy. "Yeah!"

At least The Ball has the good grace to look slightly threatened, even if he mostly just looks confused. Applebees just looks sad.

"Ragh, man, I could totally get you in at my church—"

"What is your project, Kristen?" Fabian grumbles. He's done with this, and he should really let it go, but the more they talk about it, the more it seems important. "And why are you doing it with The Ball?"

She thinks for a long moment, looking like she's sizing them up, before she seems to settle things in her head, leaning in and ushering them to sit down. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you. It's top secret, though."

Fabian looks around the cafeteria. It's full of people, which, duh, it's a highschool and it's lunchtime. "If it's top secret, then why are you talking about it here?"

She seems to realise what he's talking about all at once, springing up to roll up their batch of papers and stuff a lot of it into her backpack. "You're so right. We should meet somewhere more secret."

Riz looks furious. "Why are we telling them?"

There's silence as Kristen looks at him, and they seem to have a conversation he's not privy to, which is weird because he doesn't think either of them can cast message, and Riz slumps, relenting.

"Okay!" Kristen smiles, cheery as ever despite seemingly having a dark secret mission. "We should meet somewhere after school, to plot."

"I didn't agree to plotting." Fabian grumbles, but Riz just sits back up, looking at Kristen.

"We could meet in the AV room?" He says, head tilted. "Biz wouldn't mind, and I could get him to give us the place to ourselves."

She smiles, turning back to Fabian and Ragh. "Perfect! Meet us in the AV room after school, and don't mention this to anyone."

He nods, and turns to Ragh, who nods in agreement, and Kristen holds out both her hands to shake on it. Ragh takes one, and Fabian hesitates, eventually slipping his hand into hers and trying not to wince at how strong her handshake grip is.

He turns to go back to their table, feeling— well. He doesn't really know how he feels, but he feels drawn to this, somehow. Maybe it's just the mystique.

Kristen shouts at them as they're walking away, over the noise of the cafeteria. "I'll pray for you, Fabian!"

He turns back to shout without stopping walking. "Please don't!"

He just barely makes out the hiss of The Ball in response. "Asshole."

"I don't know why we're even doing this." He whispers to Ragh.

Ragh just shrugs in response. "You were the one who was obsessed with The Ball, man."

"I am not obsessed with The Ball! " He hissed, and it echoes off the empty corridor walls.

Ragh laughs. "Sure, bro. Then why are we here?"

Fabian doesn't answer, just sets his jaw and starts walking a little faster towards the AV room. The truth is, weirdly, he can't stop thinking about The Ball. Every time he sees him, he has a weird urge to go up to him like they're best friends, which is crazy. His hand goes to his neck, to fidget with his necklace but he's not wearing a necklace. He never does, which— weird.

He can unpack that later.

Ragh knocks gently on the AV club door once they get to it, and they hear Kristen's voice loud and clear, even thought she's putting on a weird gruff affectation. "What's the password?"

Ragh looks at him, and Fabian just shrugs. "You didn't tell me I needed to know a password, Applebees!"

He hears a scramble on the other side of the door, and suddenly it swings open, Kristen smiling wide and Riz sat at a computer desk. "Ragh! Oh my gosh, and Fabian's with you. Perfect."

“Perfect.” He echos.

If she notices his sarcasm, it doesn’t seem to dampen her enthusiasm.

Fabian rolls his eyes. "Can you please tell us what this whole... song and dance is about?"

She nods, ushering them in and closing the door behind them, gesturing to Riz by the computer. "So, basically, Arthur Aguefort told me that someone or something has jumbled up the spacetime whatever and now me and Riz have to like, solve a mystery to fix it or else the universe implodes. Or something."

"Or something." Fabian echos, brow furrowed, and Ragh is shaking his head from beside him.

"Wait— so, we gotta— what?"

Kristen gestures over to their expansive conspiracy board, red string connecting a series of pictures and notes. It's— sparse, which is a generous description, really. There are a series of names and dates, along with a few printed out screenshots of news articles and fantasygoogle searches. 

One of them catches his eye, though; there's a big piece of paper with ADAINE written in large letters, and then just underneath it, smaller but underlined— FIGUEROTH FAETH. 

“Why is my girlfriend's name written on your— your— whatever this is?”

Kristen looks confused, before following his gaze over to the wall, her eyes lighting up in recognition. “Oh, I forgot you two are dating. I, uh— this is kind of awkward, but I had a dream that I think is a mindprint and she was there, so— yeah.”

He shakes his head. This can't be happening. "Kristen, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"Things aren't how they're supposed to be, because someone changed them with time magic." She nods towards their conspiracy board, like that should clear everything up. "Arthur Aguefort told us to investigate."

Ragh scoffs, but Fabian feels his eyebrows shoot up in disbelief. "Aguefort told you to fix the universe?"

The Ball finally looks up from his computer, making direct eye contact with Fabian. "More or less."

Kristen keeps nodding, like they're really getting somewhere, even though Fabian feels like he has more questions than answers.

Fabian turns to look at Ragh, mostly to gesture for them to get the hell out of there, because he has no idea what he thought Kristen Applebees and the Ball were up to but this was clearly not it. When Fabian meets his eyes, he has his brow furrowed, and is looking back and forth between all of their "evidence" (a list of names and a few pictures of places, shameful to call it a conspiracy board, really) and Fabian.

"Bro, I think we should help them."

"Yes!" Kristen squeals with a fist pump, rushing over to where Ragh was standing. "That's great, Ragh. I'd love to talk to you and see if we can determine any mindprints you've been having. This is seventy five percent of our freshman year grade, so we—"

"Wait." Fabian holds up a hand, and Kristen looks over to him, eyes wide and curious. "Seventy five percent?"

She nods. "That's basically a guaranteed A, because if we fail then everyone will die anyway, so our school grade would be irrelevant. That's kinda fun, right?"

Fabian nods, slowly, eyes darting back and forth. "Guaranteed A, huh?"

Riz looks skeptical. "I mean, it's not literally—"

"I'm in!" Fabian shouts, and Kristen jumps a little in surprise. "Fabian Aramais Seacaster is at your disposal!"

"Awesome!" Kristen beams, moving to high five him.

Riz shakes his head, echoing Kristen with none of the same enthusiastic sentiment. "Awesome."

Fabian dreams of dancing with flames.

The Ball is there, of all people, and that lanky emo kid Fig knows, but all he can feel is the burning along his skin as he takes the flames into his arms. They're dancing, and it's beautiful; he's twirling an elegant elven dance sheet, something he has only ever seen in his mother's hands a few times, when he was very young, and the fire swirls around him, the elemental leaning to him and letting him guide the movements and they embraced.

It's beautiful, in a way Fabian doesn't know he has the capacity to be in his waking life.

They kiss, and for a moment, the world stops, and he can see everything all at once. The world narrows to a single point, and he takes in all of it. The elemental, dipped deep in his arms. Riz and Gorgug, watching on in worry and confusion and pride. Adaine, trapped in Calethrial Tower, being saved by the rest of the bad girls. His Aelwyn, up there with her, fucked up and scared and alone.

Suddenly, like no time has passed, the world moves again. The elemental merges with him, becoming one, and he jolts awake with a scream, clawing at his throat. It had hurt, in the dream, but he hadn't been scared. He knew this was how it had to happen.

It takes his racing mind a few seconds to catch up with him, breathing heavily in his darkened room. It was a weird dream, but he had weird dreams sometimes. It happens.

Except he'd known things, in the dream. He knew people's names. He had seen a magical pylon more elaborate than he's sure his brain could conjure up on its own, and it doesn't feel like his own head just filling in the gaps.

He leans over to grab his crystal and sends a text to Fig.

He sends it off, and looks at the clock to check the time. It's just after two in the morning, which would be an inappropriate time to send a text if he didn't know Fig's sleep schedule was basically non-existent.

She replies quickly.

He needs to talk to The Ball.