Rising Shards

“I’m sorry.” Ovie said, her left eyelid twitching. “Can you repeat that please?”

“It’s just,” Chellsi said. “Like.”

“Like, Chellsi and me, Mikeila-Keila.” Mikeila-Keila said.

“Chellsi-Mikeila-Keila!” Chellsi added.

Ovie sighed. Her two closest friends had just given her terrible news and trying to have them explain it probably made matters much worse. Ovie tried to swallow her food but the burning anger made it harder. How did I have an easier time recruiting Aira and Laenie than my actual friends?

“We like we love you and we missed you babe.” Mikeila-Keila said.

“Don’t call me babe.” Ovie said.

“The new hair is hot, it's so hot that I can't even handle the new look. And we like kinda like it here, we guess.” Chellsi said. “But like. Your mission deal?”

“It’s the spooks, hun.” Mikeila-Keila said. “Very scare. Greatly.”

“Like a lot.” Chellsi said. “So like we’re gonna…pass.”

“What do you mean, pass?” Ovie asked. “You’re not going to be stuck in the void for weeks on end, it’ll be the same as at Shards, there will be checkpoints and regular class and—"

“And like scarier stuff. So no.” Chellsi said.

“If there’s like anything we can do here while you’re doing all that like travel on a dangerous void mission stuuuuufff, just like tell us, babe.” Mikeila-Keila said.

“Don’t call me babe.” Ovie said.

As the two rambled on about how scary Ovie’s mission would be, Ovie spotted Kitty Kilander enter the cafeteria. Practically everyone turned to look at her, which made her beam and start posing. Elisa Burwell was with her, following along like a puppy if a puppy looked like a dragon wearing bear pajamas.

“That’s how you can help me.” Ovie said, subtly pointing in their direction.

“What, the door?” Chellsi asked, squinting and holding a hand over her brow as if there were a spotlight in her face. “The door to the cafeteria?”

“No, Kitty,” Ovie said. “Keep an eye on her, get in good with her. Ovie watched Elisa prance around Kitty as they made the rounds in the cafeteria. Elisa had been following Kitty around since they’d gotten here, trying pathetically to get Kitty to get her in touch with her favorite pop singer Osiris. Kitty apparently loved sycophants, so she had taken on Elisa as her personal favorite student already.

“And make friends with that Burwell if you have to.” Ovie said.

“We can do that! We’re good at friendship.” Chellsi said as Mikeila-Keila nodded proudly.

“Yay, we made Ovie not mad at us!” Mikeila-Keila said, pumping her fists in the air.

“Babe, this is the best day ever.” Chellsi said. “And you too, babe.”

“Don’t call me—you know what, sure. Thank you two. Glad to have you back.” Ovie said.

* * *

Aira had a lot of dreams about Laenie rescuing her during the void trip. When Aira had been taken by jetpack drones, Laenie had transformed into her Exa beast form and jumped all the way up to get her down. The dreams had a bit more nuzzling after they landed, but the general mood was the same.

That warm and fuzzy dream did not reflect Aira’s current reality at Wildfire Hearts, even with Laenie as her roommate still. It felt strange to think that Laenie’s beast form felt more welcoming than she currently did in her base form.

“So, that thing for Ovie, huh?” Aira asked as the two sat on their beds.

“If it’ll get me a chance to talk to Rem, it’ll be worth it.” Laenie said. “I’m gonna go look for him again.”

Laenie abruptly got up and left. Aira had toured the school at least three times looking for Laenie’s brother Rem but had no luck. The staff had told her she’d get to see him “when she’d earned it,” which Aira obviously didn’t buy. But Laenie couldn’t see through their key jangling as easily given that it was family. Family she’d been separated from for months. But how could they keep them apart in school? Where was Rem if they were keeping him somewhere else, anyways? It didn’t make sense to Aira. She decided to walk around the Wildfire Hearts dorms instead of joining Laenie again.

The Wildfire Hearts dorms were bleak and unwelcoming. They shared the obsidian walls of the main building, so it barely felt like she was leaving class when she got to her room. They had none of the charm or good vibes Rising Shards’ had. Combine that with a mostly miserable and cruel student body and it was a recipe for a bad time. Even spotting familiar faces wasn’t great, as everyone she’d been exiled to the school with were dealing with the burden in their own ways, all isolating themselves. One example was Nikki, who Aira spotted playing a sad song on guitar in an otherwise empty hallway. Normally, Aira wouldn’t interrupt her playing, but Nikki stopped when she noticed her standing there.

“Hey dude,” Nikki said.

“How have you been, Nikki Maerin?” Aira asked.

Nikki shrugged. “S’been alright. Pretty suckass, really.”

“Uh huh, agreed,” Aira said. “I’m reminded of some of the hardships some distant cousins of mine faced that all worked in the cereal industry, which is surprisingly harsh.”

“That…sounds like a cool story. Cooler than anything here.” Nikki said. “I kinda hate it here. A lot.”

“Same,” Aira said. “But…we have to try, don’t we?”

Nikki shrugged again. “I think I might just be like done with this place, dude.”

“What do you mean?” Aira asked. “That sounds scary.”

Nikki smirked and tapped her temple. “I thought of a really great plan.”

“What’s that?” Aira asked.

“I…” Nikki looked around, then beckoned for Aira to get closer. “Am gonna drop out.”

“What?” Aira asked.

“They can’t stop me from dropping out!” Nikki said. “It’s foolproof. Nothing good can come from staying here, you know? I learned everything I need to learn at school, anyways.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea,” Aira said. She personally couldn’t even entertain the thought. What would happen to Laenie if Aira left?

“Well, see, for me it’s like,” Nikki said. “If I drop out, I’ll miss out on trying beam chasers, but I don’t wanna try that here. So like I can just drop out, get really big in music, then just live off that. I’m calling my dad later today to tell him.”

Aira remembered that she should probably call her own family. She’d been in as much contact as she could given the circumstances. Unfortunately, her family didn’t find the Wildfire Hearts situation to be as big a deal as Aira felt they should’ve. Some families she’d heard were working to get their kids back already, like Rain Adagio. Aira didn’t have royal family backing her either, so she was pretty much stuck.

“Oh, snap,” Nikki said, looking at her phone. “My dad’s calling right now. Weird timing, right?” She chuckled. “I’m gonna tell him right now. Wish me luck, dude.”

“Good luck, Nikki…” Aira said as Nikki left, slinging her guitar over her shoulder before answering her phone.

Aira checked her own phone, and saw she’d received a message from an unknown number. Normally, Aira would dismiss that as a spam message, but something about the wording told her it wasn’t. She stared at the message, and despite not knowing who it came from, it gave her a small spark of hope.

“Please call me as soon as you get this.”