“Then the students are lying!”

  “Students, staff, cleaners, visitors… and I’m sure you’re aware of your son’s popularity among the student body—there is no reason for anyone to withhold information.”

  “Someone must have had something against our boy. He wouldn’t just disappear.”

  “You say three days, now climbing to four, but we’ve worked day and night per your request, spreading our force across the grounds and beyond. If there was something to find, we’d find it by now. It’s as if your son planned his disappearance days beforehand, distancing himself, students claiming that he refused to do his usual tarot readings at all. He attended class and left soon after. He cleaned up after himself so we wouldn’t come looking.”

  “He still could be alive. If he’s so clever, then how in the patrons’ names could he get tangled in some mess where he—he…” The mother shrunk into a disarray of sobs, and mumbles of the father’s comfort floated through the door.

  The scrape of a chair, a solid slam of two hands against wood. A voice younger than the father but notably more mature than Tychon’s finally joined the conversation.

  “If you don’t find my brother in the next week, we are pulling every single coin and dollar from your shit-eating face and this institution will crumble just as your Excavan administration did in the past. We know you; we know your history. We are not afraid to use it as precedent to ruin you.”

  And in reply, even more familiar, was Headmaster Doallan Excava, “Stelios Galacia, one of our best.” Veaer vaguely remembered Stelios, an academic prodigy in his senior year when she had just started at the academy. “You should be aware of how much we value our benefactors, deeply so. And one that has been with the academy since—”

  “I will not forget that you took this from my ancestors. The quartet in the age of The Separation deserves to reclaim their position, yet when one of us goes missing, that is your chance to hide the past, isn’t it?” Silence for a few beats. “I was one of your best, so you should know my prowess is not to be reckoned with, nor the connections we have to the Boudreaus, Carrashs and Thawans.”

  Veaer held her breath at the mention of each name. She knew them, knew them well. One enough to call friends, others in familiar passing. There were webs of history that took the Galacias, Boudreaus, Carrashs and Thawans back to The Separation era. She swallowed the possibility of her family being involved, but she was far from the noble line that the Rosells once had.

  The further silence that followed was enough to even hear Elise hold her breath.

  “Okay,” the headmaster said.

  “Okay?” Tychon’s mother, father, and brother said at once.

  “We will find your son. We will return him to you.”

  More scrapes of chairs, a group of people standing in a rush. Veaer peeled away from the door and the corridor spun. The utter sorrow of the mother coated her thoughts, the panic of the father stabbed through her heart, and the unbridled rage of the brother overtook her senses. She could feel the lies that wrapped the headmaster’s words and the false comfort the detective provided.

  Someone’s footsteps approached the door and Veaer froze. She knew too much, and she was going to burst. Her arms were shaking so much they were going to fall off. Her feet were cemented into the carpet and the world was incredibly heavy on her shoulders.

  “So much to gain, too much to lose.”

  The last words she heard on the other side were whispers of Tychon’s brother. “If it’s just his body you turn up with, if he’s dead by your hands, then I will kill you next.”

  Elise forced her into the headmaster’s office and shut the door behind them.

  CHAPTER 17

  A TEST, OR A PROMISE

  If Veaer had the face of a guilty person, then she wondered what one would describe Elise’s as. The princess refused to meet Veaer’s gaze and, instead, stared at the map they needed on the wall. Veaer sat in an armchair in the corner, counting her breaths, tapping her thumbs to fingers, opening and closing her fists. Grab and let go, grab and let go.

  The door to the office opened and the headmaster burst in, causing Veaer to jump and turn to Elise for what she should do, but the princess had no such reaction, continuing to eye the rulers of coordinates at the top and left edge of the brown map.

  “Ter and Mian above, bring peace upon me,” the headmaster grumbled and raked a hand through his dark blond hair bespeckled with grey before focusing on his daughter. “Elise, dear. Did the reception not tell you to wait outside? I’m rather busy today.”

  “It’s nice to see you too, father.” Elise weaved her hands together behind her back.

  He walked up to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, looking at the map as well but unknown to her intentions. He failed to acknowledge Veaer in the room, and she didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t seen her yet, or because he didn’t bother to. She was still a scholarship student after all, her position in the academy was charitable and to emphasise that charity.

  Watching with a sidelong gaze, she could see that Izot got his hair and eyes from his father, and for Elise, the shape of her nose and chin. Their other parent must have supplied Izot’s face, and Elise’s hair and eyes.

  “I’m just about to grab afternoon tea with Mirelli. If you want to chat, how about this evening instead? After dinner?”

  Veaer earned a glance from Elise though the princess didn’t offer a choice from her expression. Now that the map was here, they were going to stay.

  “Thank you, father, but Rosell and I just wanted to stop by to take a look at this map.”

  “What for?” He patted her shoulder two times before walking around the desk to place some paperback down, and then open a drawer to pull out some fresh papers.

  “Reminiscing, I’d say.” And Elise left it at that as she gave herself permission to take a blank paper and a pen from her father’s desk.

  Headmaster Excava nodded solemnly, with some empathy for his daughter, but he was quick to straighten his tie and make his way out.

  “Lock it up when you’re done. I don’t want any others to be prying around.” His gaze briefly swept over Veaer sitting in the corner, though she didn’t feel the need to shift like she did under Elise’s stare. Instead, she got up and looked at the map herself, now with a critical eye that wondered where on Syriphia a secret society would meet. The school was huge—good for Tychon to have chosen a location, bad for Elise and Veaer if they didn’t manage to find what they needed here.

  Outside, an engine came to life and rumbled for a few moments, loudly taking over the atmosphere and prolonging the silence hanging between Elise and her father. Then wheels moved against gravel, and a car only the rich could afford appeared in the window frame.

  Veaer stared at the tinted windows that shielded the faces of the Galacia family. Even if her eyes didn’t see through, her mind could. The devastation of a soul lost forever, life twisted from this material plane with no knowledge of Tychon’s demise. No control—only confusion and anger. Trapped within one’s mind relying on one decision at a time to cope. The decisions she made spat at the feet of the Galacia family’s grief.

  “Protect Elise. My closest friend, my soulmate.”

  Do you really think that of her, Tychon?

  The vehicle disappeared past the gates soon after.

  The headmaster closed the door behind him, and they were left to their devices, Elise taking a seat in her father’s large chair and scratching a few notes down. Shortly after, she pulled Tychon’s journal out of her pocket and held it towards Veaer.

  “Hold onto this for me. I don’t know when we’ll need it again, but I find it an ill reminder to keep it.” Elise kept her attention to the paper and Veaer took it as she peered over the desk to see the equations being written on the paper. “Looks like we’re working with some fractions. Maybe rational equations?”

  “How about I do one and you do the other?” Veaer suggested, her arms tensing by her sides.

  “Here you go then.” Elise held up an index card and passed another paper and pen. Veaer stared at the numbers and breathed a sigh of relief when they seemed easy to work with. “Do you need me to run through how to do it?”

  Veaer took a seat opposite from Elise and tapped her pen against the table. She didn’t have a clue on where to start, but she shook her head. There were only a few numbers and letters.

  Elise got to work on hers, writing LCD in small letters on her paper. She started solving hers in a mess of fraction lines and brackets, filling up the height of the page and needing to start again from the top until she reached x=18.

  Veaer followed along, with fewer steps to the other equation.

  “Negative fifty-three over negative fifty-three… Negative three hundred and eighteen over negative fifty-three. That’s positive six!” Veaer beamed, spinning her paper around and shoving it towards Elise. “Our coordinates are x18, y6, right?”

  Elise stared at the paper in silence before shaking her head and gently guiding the paper back. “No, that’s not right.”

  Veaer’s cheeks flushed with a burning heat, and she had half a mind to sink under the table and disappear. Her confidence just a moment ago rivalled her younger self, eager to be correct, never quite to her expectation. She should’ve known, only being taken back to her primary school years—she didn’t belong with numbers and sometimes letters.

  “What did I do wrong?” Veaer more so breathed out than said, slowly bringing her working out page to her chest.

  “Nothing.” Elise stood up and walked around the table to take the paper from Veaer. She flattened it out on the table and pointed, reassurance coating her words. “Just that your restriction is positive 6 and your answer is positive 6. That means this equation has no solution.”

  Veaer swallowed her spit. She was merely a kid now, being taught how to solve numbers, having to fix her mistakes because maths was something that did have right answers. How could she have let her excitement to impress Elise over something like this get in the way of realising the simplest solution—that there was none?

  She sniffed and leaned into the paper to hide the slight water in her eyes. The failure weighed heavy on her back, but if Elise were in her place, she likely would’ve taken it in stride. Nothing bothered her, not even her best friend being gone.

  The both of them turned to the map at the same time.

  “It seems we’re at a standstill,” Elise noted, vocalising their thoughts.

  “Maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bad idea to bring that other card…”

  Veaer stood up and eyed the entire line down x18. It slashed through a couple buildings and the courtyard. Several possibilities, many wrong answers. Even if they had the y coordinate, every point it could’ve been was too large, too general. They would need a map of individual buildings, or even the central courtyard if one existed, and would they need another set of coordinates then or would they use the same?

  One step at a time; she had hope in her card. She could salvage this.

  “Elise, we’ll need a map of the learning centre, the courtyard, the main library… just those.” She let the newfound adrenaline flow through veins. “Even though we don’t have our y, we have an x to work with. This really narrows us down, though we’ll need to get even more specific.”

  As if Veaer’s request was an everyday ask, Elise strolled over to a cabinet on the other side of the room and pulled out a folder, smacking it on the table as she returned to the desk.

  “Maps of Adraredon Academy’s sectors.” Elise tapped the top. The folder wasn’t huge, but it was thicker than just a few sheets of paper. “I only remember it from before I attended, having spent some evenings here as father finished work. Maybe you’ll find something interesting.” She slid the folder closer to Veaer—it felt like a test, or a promise.

  Veaer picked up the folder and held it close.

  “Leave this with me.”

  CHAPTER 18

  A WARNING

  Year 2, Semester 2, Week 1

  “Please stop staring at my sister.”

  A voice came from behind Veaer as she approached the stairs to the learning centre.

  “Izot, I have a class to get to.” She didn’t turn around and busied her hands with readjusting the satchel across her chest. She also decided to wrap her blazer tighter as the winter chill bit her skin.

  “I appreciate the persistence in you. No student at Adraredon Academy is without persistence.” The boy was like a walking advertisement. He trailed Veaer up the stairs and met her at the double doors. “Veaer.” He grabbed the door handle before she could, trapping her in his presence. She looked up at him and his frown. “I hope you’ll listen to your student president.”

  CHAPTER 19

  GRIEF (LOVE)

  Year 3, Semester 1, Week 9

  The autumn wind rushed through Veaer’s hair, and she spat out the strands that wanted to make friends with her mouth. She stumbled up the front steps of Miriam Manor, balancing the folder of maps and Tychon’s journal in one arm, shielding them from the prying gust as she reached for the doorknob.

  From the other side of the foggy door window, a shadow moved across and the door opened, revealing Haiwrin, changed into slacks and a turtleneck, with a look of surprise.

  “Oh, Ve, what’s up with you?” He gave her one of those lopsided smiles that looked just like his sister’s as he stepped back to hold the door open. Veaer noticed a butterfly brooch made of metal wires hooked on his sweater.

  “Gathering research material. I’m working on something big.” Veaer stepped through, grateful and ready to get rid of the cold attacking her legs. Just as sleeves bothered her arms, stockings did for her legs, but sometimes she wished that wasn’t the case. “Can you help me with something? Wait, do you have somewhere to be? I could ask someone else too.”

  Haiwrin hummed for a few seconds with a wandering look, but the way he shut the door without leaving seemed to answer her question already. “I can do something quickly, what have you got? I hope not a problem Adair usually deals with.”

  A light red dusted Veaer’s cheeks but she knew it was all in jest. While his sister didn’t acknowledge gender when it came to her attraction, Haiwrin preferred romance with boys.

  “Of course not. It’s something much easier than that—maths.” She strode over to her dorm and burst through the door, slamming it hard by accident and earning incoherent yelling through the walls. She elected to ignore it and waved for Haiwrin to follow behind.

  “Maths and easy in the same sentence, that doesn’t sound like you.”

  She dumped Tychon’s journal and the folder of maps on her desk then forced the angel book open and slapped the index card against Haiwrin’s chest.

  “True, but I’m sure your mind is perfectly capable.” She pushed everything to the side, continuing her charade. She didn’t think of the strange scrunched coded journal entries, or the journal that belonged to a dead boy. She didn’t think of how she was letting someone into her mystery, even though he didn’t know it himself.

  Haiwrin took a seat at Veaer’s desk and picked up a pen with a click.

  “Okay yeah, I can do this. Rational equation. But what has this got to do with you?” He turned his head, but Veaer grabbed the sides of his face and turned him back.

  “You obviously have somewhere to be and I’m entirely grateful for this, so I can explain another time.” Another time when I can think of an excuse.

  “You make a lot of excuses these days.”

  He mumbled something under his breath, but she’d picked up on Haiwrin’s mannerisms for long enough that she trusted herself to step back and sit on her bed as he worked away.

  “Can I have your brooch?” Veaer said so suddenly, she didn’t realise until the metal wires were placed in her palm.

  “I have another one in my room, so sure.” He went back to the equation without a question or a flinch, which only served to make Veaer feel more guilty about taking his pin.

  She listened to the strokes of the pen, the way he drew brackets and fraction lines. There was a sense of confidence to them that was different from Elise. He wrote like he played the piano. Elise spent more time doing her lines, like she was perfecting a painting. Even though maths wasn’t a subject offered at Adraredon, Haiwrin liked to keep his mind busy with his puzzle books and newspapers.

  She wondered what it would be like if Haiwrin, instead of music and performance, engaged with the fine arts. She imagined him working on sculptures of clay and metal, taking a block, straight edges with a lack of character, and turning it into something so purposeful that it may as well have started that way.

  Then she blinked as Haiwrin held out a piece of paper towards her.

  “There we are; y equals 4. Hope this helps… whatever you’re doing.” He laughed and then sat down beside her.

  Veaer appreciated that about him. He didn’t just leave because he had somewhere to be. He took time with his actions and allowed others in. Perhaps that very same admirable trait would one day be what caused hurt for Haiwrin. But she knew when that day came, she wanted to be there to help—for all the times he had and was going to continue to help her.

  She leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder, and Haiwrin instinctively brought his hand to her hair.

  “Haiwrin, I need help with something else,” Veaer whispered, and Haiwrin gave her room to continue. “Or maybe… I’m concerned about something.”

  “Let’s hear it,” Haiwrin whispered in return.

  “Everyone keeps everything from me!” Elise screams and Veaer covers her ears.

  “I need to know my best friend is safe.” But the way her body moves isn’t right.