Chapter 11

Argentum bows to the king and queen as the guards confiscate the dagger they find in Andromeda's boot and then lead her out of the castle (there's some sort of cuff on her leg but it's anyone's guess what it does). I guess I know where their loyalties truly lie. 

The guards lead me to a sterile room with a chair in the center. I almost laugh at the cliche, before I realize that it isn't a torture chamber. It's a type of room I know very well: a doctor's office.

I hear someone mutter, "That's the last time we activate an elementary schooler without taking into account what they might be like as an adult."

"To be fair, people don't usually become less concerned with everyone else in middle and high school."

I don't remember what happened after that. All I know is that they deactivated my powers. I guess I wasn't as much of a threat as Andromeda. 

Since I'm not really a threat and they can't get any information out of me that they didn't already, they send me home. I return to the same state of relative social isolation that I lived in last year. I talk to Fallax occasionally, but the only thing really gluing us together was Argentum. 

I still talk to Argentum in my head often. Even when the memories of their actual face get fuzzy. For more or less as long as I've known them, feeling like they were with me when they weren't physically there was comforting. Now it's just torture. 

I dream of them sometimes. Recently, I dreamt I was on a big stage in front of hundreds of people singing a song from a musical I like. A sad one. The audience claps for a bit when I finish, then suddenly they fade. Until only one audience member is left. I don't even have to say who. When I walk down from the stage Argentum smiles as if they find something incredibly funny and asks "My dear Orpheus, when will you stop looking back."

When I wake up I notice my heart rate is slightly raised, which doesn't concern me since that's always a byproduct of these sorts of dreams. This was actually one of the less stress-inducing ones. In fact, the whole "stop looking back" thing is probably my brain trying to tell me to move on. My brain definitely acts like my enemy sometimes, but there are also times such as this when it can be helpful. 

There are days when I don't think of Argentum at all, days when I remember things I didn't even know I remembered. Little things mostly, from the 3 years we've known each other.

"Think less, smile more."

Argentum told me that when I stressed before a physics test. 

"Are you happy?"

"Yes"

"Good. Stay that way."

That conversation happened during our first date, after I explained how stressful the whole Nova situation was. 

Time marches on. Summer comes and goes. The world hasn't turned into some sort of dystopia. After all, it seems that Argentum's goal was to maintain the status quo. Eventually, everything that happened  feels…dull. Like it happened to someone else. 

Yet there are days, once every few months, when I dream of them again. It probably won't stop for a very long time. 

Going to college helps a bit. After all, I'm the type of person who can't be sad when I have so much to do. I make new friends, try out new hobbies, and continue to pursue my passion for marine biology. 

One day, towards the end of the school year, I see a familiar face on the news, one I recognize even with slight makeup to prevent the lights on the TV set from washing them out, different clothes, and different hair. I once again don't even have to say who it is. Upon seeing them I get a flash of visceral disgust, which is new.  The headline is something like "Lost heir of the Nova found." 

Well. 

I guess someone stuck to the plan.