End of the School Year

The rest of the school year remained quiet and solemn. Very few events even caused a slight breeze throughout the campus grounds. Extra security guards patrolled the streets, but they remained mostly out of sight.

In any case, the days flew by quickly. The third round of exams were a breeze, and the finals were even more brutal than the semester before. Afterall, the students had the entire summer break to rest and rebuild their confidence.

Over the remaining month, Daren spent as much time with Aayla as he could. Well, when she wasn't working on some project with her godmother. Weird looks from the other students slowly became looks of curiosity then boredom when neither acknowledged that they were dating.

Finally, the school year was over. The final exams ended earlier that morning. The exam and election results would be released during the awards ceremony that night. All those who were nominated or had the potential to get an award would be summoned to the main stage. Everyone else would watch the proceedings from screens placed around campus.

Daren knew that he had to do something. Who knows if his aunt would settle his engagement over the summer? There would be one final party that evening at the Residence Hall. The awards ceremony would be broadcasted live during the party, but Daren couldn't stay since he was going to be in the ceremony.

He had to talk with Aayla before Chris dragged him away. He didn't know if he would be able to talk with her properly when everyone checked out and scattered the next day. Daren nervously tightened the cravat around his neck as he went down the staircase.

Other young men excitedly dashed down the stair case carrying wooden barrels of a sloshing liquid. The logos on the sides had been crudely painted over. Someone decided to break out the good stuff for their last night on campus.

Drunken laughter and wild dancing filled the lounge and dining hall. Gremlins happily scampered around. A few tipsily hiccupped and staggered around while trying to keep up with their companions. Daren smiled and politely refused the several drinks offered to him. He could not afford to get drunk that night.

His search took him all over the residence hall, but he couldn't find Aayla anywhere. Which was very odd, since she would normally supervise any parties in the residence hall. The office was empty. So was the medical ward and security office. None of the residents had seen her in the Women's Wing or outside on the grounds recently.

With nowhere else to search, Daren snuck down into the basement to search. As he slowly walked down the cold, stone hallways, a familiar chittering emerged from the darkness. Tens of glowing gremlin eyes stared at him as he walked towards the far end of the basement.

The door was faintly cracked with several fuzzballs stacked on top of each other trying to listen in. Just as Daren was about to push them away and open the door, he heard the conversation inside.

"Really?! Are you sure that would work?!"

"Probably. I've spent the entire school year researching this. As long as what you've told me is correct, this plan to send you home should work."

"I can really go home?! I can see my family again?!"

Those voices belonged to Aayla and Deputy Heston. Sobs gently fell into Daren's ears. Tiny paws held him back from entering the room.

"Even then, we'll still need to find it and a large enough energy source. That's not including the location and the time limit. We need to make sure that you can survive where exactly you are sent. Arriving in solid rock or the bottom of a lake could kill you.

"The first window should have a few more years before it closes completely, if we open the portal in the southern most landmass on the planet. The next window for travel to Terra would open in at least fifteen years after that. Dear, I'm not sure if we can open the portal at all, let alone before the first window closes."

The sobs eventually came to a halt.

"It's fine. A little bit of hope is better than nothing. How can we find the spatial coordinate plotter?"

Daren slowly backed away and ran to his room. He splashed water on his face to wake himself up. When Aayla said that she was from 'abroad', she meant a completely different dimension, not just a country. He had his suspicions before, but Daren didn't believe them. Even for magic, dimensional travel was impossible.

Several little details popped up into his mind. She appeared out of thin air and didn't have any sort of history. Her habits, manners and accent were very strange in the beginning. Aayla's chronic 'medical conditions' and lack of common knowledge. Headmaster Marin and Deputy Heston's strange behaviors.

Honestly, Daren didn't care if Aayla was from another world. What he cared about was that she wanted to go back. Once Aayla did, then Daren would never see her again. That was her home, where her family was. Should he just give up if Aayla would never be happy here?

He balled his hands into fists as he stared at himself in the mirror. If what Deputy Heston said was correct, then Daren had time and the plan probably wouldn't succeed. As long as he won her heart, then Aayla wouldn't necessarily want to go back anyways.

A knock on the door pulled Daren from his thoughts. A young man with a cheeky grin entered.

"You're here? I thought that you went to the party already."

"I needed to calm myself down a bit."

"Did you go out wearing that?! That's just so… formal. Even for the awards ceremony. If you want to catch a certain someone's attention then you should wear something different. I'll help you. Here, put these on."

Several minutes later, Chris happily dragged Daren downstairs into the now very, very drunk party. The young wizards were making full use of Dormi's temporary allowance of alcohol on the grounds. Jacki silently appeared and started pushing them into the dining hall.

"Aayla's not that busy right now. You can find her near the buffet tables."

Daren looked very confused. "How did you even get in here? I thought the party was for residents only."

"Never mind that. Do you want to chat with Ms. Glowery or not? It's almost time for us to go to the awards ceremony."

Jacki waved and yelled as soon as she saw Aayla. She and Chris promptly dumped Daren next to Aayla then ran off to 'go handle some drunk residents or something'. Their excuse was so vague and unbelievable that Aayla was dumbfounded. Without any time left, Daren gritted his teeth and decided to be direct.

"So, what are your plans for this summer?"

"Eh? Oh, I'm planning on staying here, or wherever my godmother is going to be. She's hasn't decided what we're going to do yet."

"You could always come to Halcyon. No, well, I would like it if… *cough* I mean Jacki, Chris, the rest of the Halcyon students and I would like for you to come visit Halcyon City sometime. Down south. We'd love to show you and Deputy Heston around a bit."

The stuttering finally stopped as soon as Daren got his main point out of his mouth.

"We're not near the ocean, but we have a pretty nice stretch of beach near the Kiaux and Turquoise rivers. There's plenty of things to do, like concerts and musical performances."

"I don't know. I'll have to check with Deputy Heston."

A frown appeared on Aayla's face as she thought about her summer plans. She didn't really have any, mainly since she didn't want to travel and expose herself. Also, Aayla's funds were extremely limited. An idea flashed into his mind.

"Halcyon has one of the longest histories of any city on Tellus. The architecture is like slices of different times, and there are several well-known libraries open to the public. They even have obscure books on things from the Light Period, like spatial coordinate plotters for example."

Aayla's eyes lit up. She was obviously very tempted.

"That… I'll talk about it with my godmother."

"There's no rush. Just come on down whenever. Here's my address, and here's Jacki's. You or Deputy Heston can send messages there. My family heavily screen incoming messages, so its better for Deputy Heston to send any messages to me. Jacki's family is normal, so you shouldn't have any problems sending a message to her."

Pretending to be so nonchalant and unworried almost killed him. Daren wrote down his and Jacki's address on a piece of paper before handing it to Aayla.

"Let me know in advance and I can arrange a tour of the libraries. They have good sections on spatial magic."

"Hey everyone! It's time to go! The Student Council has sent out the official summons for the awards ceremony."

Before Daren could continue, the partygoers grabbed their drinks and rushed towards campus. Chris rushed him towards the award ceremony before he said goodbye to Aayla.