New Friends (2)

The dining hall lay snuggled on the borders of the North Wing, a stone hall, with open rafters above and lofty placed windows which admitted soft dusk rays of light. The students were there at scattered tables inside the school building, there was much idle talking and the clashing of dishes.

Kaela and Rion fell into a queue at the wall and picked at trays of stew and roasted vegetables and some sort of weird flat bread and a huge dish of grilled meat that was steamy with spices.

Kaela picked up a serving of everything without hesitation. Rion… quietly avoided the meat.

At first she did not speak, but just stood watching in the background making a slight movement of her head. Their trays were carried to one corner where there was a small table, and they sat down a little distance aside, out of the centre of the hall.

Once seated, Kaela once looked over at him a little before she started to chatter in casually.

"You don't eat meat?"

Rion glanced up. "No," he said. "Just don't like it."

"Really?" She leaned in, curious. "That's rare. Especially for someone at a combat academy."

He shrugged, stirring his stew slowly. "Always felt off. Doesn't sit right with me."

She nodded without judgment. "Huh, knteresting." A pause, then she smirked. "Not judging, just surprised. Most beast mages I grew up around tried to eat entire goats by themselves."

Rion chuckled faintly at that. "Sounds terrifying."

"It was," she said, grinning. "Especially during festival season."

They had just begun eating when a voice interrupted them from the side.

"Is this seat taken?"

Rion looked up and blinked. The speaker looked almost exactly like Leon from combat theory. Same sharp bone structure, same intense eyes. But the expression was warmer, more open.

"Uh--take it", Rion, pointed to the vacant place.

The student thanked and sat down setting his tray next to theirs.

He gave them each a slight nod. Said, "I am Kyren."

"Rion," he said with a smile. Kaela wave with smile and then said, "I am Kaela, nice to meet you."

Kyren nodded and they began eating quitely. Eventually Kaela broke the silence.

"So, Kyren. Where are you from?"

He gestured vaguely northward. "Vallese. Forest ridges near the outer woods. Lots of mist, lots of rain. Not much to do but hunt and get lost."

"Sounds peaceful," Kaela said.

"Mostly." He glanced at her. "You?"

Kaela leaned back in her chair. "Southern isles. Coasts and weaving guilds. My family makes regalia."

Kyren raised a brow. "That's rare. You trained with them?"

Kaela nodded. "Sort of. I… wanted something else, though. Still do."

Then her gaze slid toward Rion.

"And you?" she asked, quieter this time. "Where're you from?"

Rion paused. He kept his eyes on his tray for a few seconds too long.

"Nowhere special," he said eventually, with a half hearted shrug. "Just a small village outside the Blackring Valley. Really humble roots."

Kaela didn't look away. "Still worth hearing about."

There was something in her voice. Curiosity, not politeness. A soft persistence, like wind tugging at a shutter.

Rion sighed lightly and sat back, running a thumb along the rim of his bowl.

"Alright," he said, after a moment. "It was called Rubsleum. Just a scatter of homes with muddy streets, a crooked little stream that ran through it. The kind of place no one visits unless they're already lost."

Kaela smiled. "That sounds… oddly peaceful."

Rion nodded faintly. "It was, in a way."

He went quiet, then added, "I was raised in a orphanage on the south side. Big square building with ivy creeping up the back wall. The caretakers were strict, but kind. We used to sneak out at night just to lie on the roof and count stars, like that somehow meant something."

Kaela rested her chin in her hand, listening. "How many kids were there?"

"Eleven of us. For a while, anyway. We had our own gang. Stole apples, got into trouble. There was this old fence out back, we used to take turns trying to vault it. Whoever scraped their elbow the worst won."

She laughed quietly. "That's a strange way to win."

"I know. I always came in second. There was this girl, Mira. She could clear the whole thing without touching it. Used to call herself 'sky foot.' Thought it sounded mystical."

Kaela grinned. "It kind of does."

Rion chuckled softly at that. "She used to make us line up like she was a queen or something. Had this wooden spoon she called her staff. We'd march around the yard and call her 'Lady Mira the First.'"

His voice started to catch.

Kaela's expression softened. "Sounds like you were close."

"She was… yeah." He looked down at his hands. "They all were."

There was a long pause. The memories were too close now, tugging at places he usually kept sealed shut.

"And then… well," he said quietly. When the pictures came in his voice died out. Dirty lanes, the noise of childrens playing, the sagging fence in the back of the orphanage, the kind hand ruffling his hair, smell of bread, and folk tales by it.

He closed his eyes, his throat constricted and his voice broke.

He closed his mouth and grith his teeth. At last took a long breath, but that failed.

"I, I...," he said while pushing back the his seat, his voice hoarse. 'I am sorry, but I must go to bathroom. Just for a sec."

He didn't wait for reply. Rion stood and walked quickly away, leaving the half full tray and the warm light of dining hall behind.

There was silence in the corridor.

He reached an empty alcove and leant his back against the stone wall and closed his eyes. His heart was beating irregularly. Not from panic, just memory.

He pressed his palms into his eyes until the burn passed. The weight of it always came when he wasn't ready.

The worst of it was over when he had come back to the dining hall.

Kaela looked at him very guiltily.

"Sorry," she said softly.

Rion shake his head and offer little smile. "It's okay."

He cut it short, just in there without proper explanation. Kaela also just nodded and made no further comment.

They ate in silence and awkard, but thankfully Kayren break it by asking about how their previous class. From there conversation start flowing more on the class or experience as mage.

On the outside evening had become deep. A gentle air passed over the academy courts just fluttering the lamps in hanging lanterns there.

They reached the crossroads between dorm halls.

"Well," Kaela said, slinging her satchel over her shoulder. "Thanks for the company And the food review."

Rion gave a tired but genuine grin. "Anytime."

Kyren nodded and waved as he turned down a different path.

Kaela hesitated for a moment, then turned as well. "Night, Rion."

"Night."

---

Rion spent more than the usual time in bed on that night. He fell asleep somewhere after midnight and that is when the nightmare came unexpectedly.

The orphanage appeared in the dark frequented by black rot through floorboards. Screams echoed down the hall. Children ran, their bodies breaking, faces twisting with Draughnir infection. There is smell of smoke and wet ash in the air.

He was out there, with his hands smouldering, and his eyes all open, and the fire, which had burst out of his hands, was ruining everything.

Wood broke, building turned to ash and screams to silence.

He couldn't move.

Couldn't look away.

The fire rose high above the treetops.

Rion came awake with a sudden gasp.

His sheets were wet with sweat. His hands were shaking against the bed.

It was not yet dawn outside.

He went to bed again, breathing heavily, and looked up into the blackness till the daylight crept in.