Waves Only Change Size

It was noisy inside and outside the building. People were shouting, singing and dancing in celebration. Two dozen ships were ankered before the city's port. Deeper inside the walls it was quiet. The revolutionaries had won and taken over the Amelia Opera.

The atmosphere was brighter than ever for most of the former slaves, hundreds walked around outside, quickly draining the city's breweries. A couple inns existed on the harbor. People and hot air filled the front rooms.

"Bring us three before it's all gone!" Jack laughed as he ordered a round of beer for the table. For once, he had taken off his plated armor. Despite the way he fought, he lost no one in his platoon. They were mixed in with the cluster of celebrating revolutionaries.

Opposite of him sat Alya, she had turned back to beeing a human before anybody had seen her. The magic she had learned to control embarrased her to a certain degree. There was something about running on all fours as a human that did not sit right with her. Luckily, she had not been heavily injured in her earlier frenzy. Using her arm as support, she secretely looked around the room using her blue eye from time to time.

Joy sat next to her. He had not taken a part in the fight at all, but was brought in after the gates were opened from inside. He was worried about the civilians inside the city. They could try to flee or fight back. Most of them were probably terrified, not knowing the battle had ended and cowering inside their homes. Also, the constant noise and shouting irritated him he disliked beeing amongst so many people, especially inebriated ones. The stares coming towards the table were no improvement to his mood. Both Alya and Jack just had to wear their lockpick capes. They were the center of the peoples' attention, at least of the little amount the drunk soldiers were capable of paying.

Another table nearby was surrounded by onlookers, impish laughing resounded through the crowd. Cal sat on one end of the small pub table, his opponent constantly changed from old and young, brown or black hair, the only commonality was drunkenness. Cal and his opponent exchanged a cup of dice in turns. Despite supposedly not having a source of monetary income as revolutionary soldiers, a lot of coin was changing hands at that table.

If Alya had tried to guess, she would think there was not enough space for ten more people in the inn. However the door opened and a large group of people started walking in. The kept beeing held open as more and more entered the room.

Joy stood up, "I think I'm leaving to for the warehouses, I need some sleep."

Alya smiled at him, "Good night." The room felt like a balloon about to pop, like air a lot of poeple left it before it could get to that point. Once the three beers Jack ordered arrived at the table, most of the inn was filled with the platoon. Alya spotted their leader, a silver key.

It was a tall, dark skinned man with short hair. He was the only person in the room that kept a serious look on his face throughout the last minute. Two girthier men followed him wherever he walked, but even they seemed more relaxed than him.

Seeing through her actual eyes, another person drew Alya's attention. A golden fire starkly contrasted the black and blue picture she saw. It had to have come in with the other people, since it had not been there a short while ago. Alya studied the outlines of the soul while pondering its potential magic. Then, it started moving. Not to the side, but it was growing in size, getting closer to Alya every second. She had forgotten one thing. When using soul vision, she still looked around using her eyes. She had been staring at this person for a subjectively long time.

It forced its way through the crowd. Unable to use her blue eye, Alya just put her closed hand on the table and turned her body away.

"Alya?" A woman spoke in a soft tone.

It was the golden soul, Alya turned around looked at her. First using the soul vision, then through the gaps between her fingers. It was a young woman with bright brown hair like Jack's, but longer. She still wore her studded leather armor outside of fighting, but she had no weapon on her like the rest of the people inside. A bronze key dangled on a chain around her neck. The sight of the woman made Alya feel reminiscent of the past. Like the image of her uncle, this person felt important, enough so to make Alya feel like forgetting about her seemed terrible.

They both stayed silent for a moment, but then the golden soul spoke up, "Are you drunk or do you not remember me?" Her voice appeared raspier than before.

Jack interrupted another second of silence, "She's blind."

"What?" She leaned forward to look at Alya's grey eyes, "It's me, Emily." She exhaled audibly while saying her name.

Her appearance, her voice and hair, it was enough to remember. There was another person connected to the magic academy Alya went to apart from her uncle. It was her friend, they had known eachother since birth. They had lived in the same village, planned to become magicians together and to travel around like her uncle did. They had both entered the magic academy in the same year. Like Alya had gotten the approval using her family connection to a fairly well-known magician, Emily had done almost the same. She had a noble family and it was almost only mages.