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Hey guys, sorry about the long spell of silence. As you can see, I'm not as dead as you might think, just relieved to have finished four midterms in a row, and completely overhauling this scene.

Enjoy, I'll probably be able to update a little faster in the next two weeks.

    —————   

          Truvius rubbed his eyes, clenching his jaw to keep a yawn from escaping as he blankly stared at the text of his book. He didn't know when Káel planned to wake up, and not wanting to miss his chance at taking a step closer in debunking the mystery of his roommate, he hadn't slept a wink.

          A shuffle broke his dreamy trance. Káel was shifting in his sheets with a tired stretch.

          This was it.

          Truvius straightened, quietly placing his book to the side as Shriek waddled off his pillow to hop onto Káel's night stand, two sets of eyes drilling into the drowsy teen as he leaned up. 

          "Morning," Truvius blurted, a delayed smile curving on his face as Káel struggled to register his roommate, giving him enough time to notice a stretch of bandage covering his hand. "Sleep well?"

          Truvius kept back a grimace as Káel scrunched his brow in confusion.

          That sounded creepy.

          He waited for his roommate to lazily slip out of his covers, grabbing Shriek before the bird could fly at Káel's exposed back. "So... any plans for today?" 

          Káel squinted over his shoulder, lingering on the hissing blue bird Truvius was restraining with a hug. "I'm going for a walk." 

          "Sounds like a great idea, I'll come with you."

          Káel scooped some clothes into his arms, shooting the wall a quick glance before sizing Truvius up with a tired tone. "I'm going to run as well."

          Truvius went a little red at the jab. Although he hadn't shown the best endurance during combat class, a lack of exercise hadn't been the source of it. He just couldn't breath sometimes, especially when it came to Cobalt's merciless stairs.

          "I can run... kinda." Truvius folded his arms as Káel sized him up again, suddenly wondering if there wasn't a ghost tailing him at all, and he just had a problem with keeping his eyes still. "Seriously, you'll get lonely running outside all alone."

          He mentally slapped himself again as Káel's eyebrows dropped.

          That one sounded even worse.

    —————   

          Vera watched as Cinder dive bombed off her head, doing a loopity loop for the hundredth time as she patiently sat in wait for Káel. It was Latos custom to arrive early, which obviously didn't translate into whatever earthly customs Káel was running on. He was five minutes late and counting, and she was getting tired of sitting in the grand hall staring at the massive pillars and vibrant paintings of warlords. 

          Her nose scrunched as she stared at the emerald eyes of her least favourite warlord. Poised on the back of a massive griffin named Fauce, with a carved silver plaque garnishing its feet. She couldn't make out the curving letters from her distance, but she knew exactly what it said nonetheless.

          Cilvren Acadrius, crowned ruler of Latos.

          How ironic that it sat a few feet from the Garaean Emperor's painting, the closest the two would ever be to each other.

          Vera breathed out a sigh, bouncing her feet to kill some more time.

          Six minutes late.

          Her eyes travelled along the other paintings, their names easily jumping into her head like a quick and useless review. 

          Kerris... Elisious... Mystral.

          She cranked her head up when the line of paintings across from her ended, nearly jumping at the close proximity of Lady Samanthra's permanently disappointed smile. Although her eyes were purely pigmented strokes of green, she still felt like the painting was judging her for jumping on board with Káel's insane ideas.

          Her lips twitched to a smile at the thought of getting caught by the head administrator. The worst that could happen was getting kicked out of a drudgy school she didn't want to attend in the first place.

          A soft clatter of footsteps quickly lifted her spirits, a playful scold on meeting mannerisms dangling off her tongue until she saw Truvius standing beside Káel and nearly choked. There was a drawn out silence as the gears worked in her head. Truvius looked confused, and Káel certainly wasn't holding his irritation well.

          She laxed her shoulders, glaring at them both cautiously and shooting Truvius an especially judgemental stare. "What are you two doing here?"

          Her icy gaze drilled into Truvius, perfectly blotting out her secret pleasure in dancing a secret around the nosy know-it-all. It would be an easy enough feat, so long as Káel could keep up his end of the game.

          Truvius tensed a little when Káel allowed the silence to hang, flicking his gaze between the two of them to find a link that neither intended to show. "We're going for a walk." He squinted at Vera's scowl. "Why are you up so early?"

          "I was going for a walk, but you followed me," Káel bitterly replied.

          "Well, I was going to check something." Vera looked at Truvius with false disappointment before rolling her eyes. "But now that's kind of hard given the circumstances. Where are you guys walking to?"

          "Around the school...?" Truvius said, glancing at Káel for assurance.

          Káel shrugged. "Anywhere I guess, did you need to go somewhere?"

          Vera nodded, relieved that Káel had caught on to her plan so quickly. "I was thinking of going to the town to get some new clothes, since the ones I brought with me are distasteful. My family needs to learn how to pack."

          "Great! Let's go there, I've got some money with me," Káel blurted, not even sparing a little more acting with a solution at his fingertips.

          Vera scrunched her nose. Idiot. 

          She watched the suspicion grow in Truvius' eyes again, a sprinkle of it now spared entirely for her. Even if it was small, Truvius had a knack for pulling straws, and she didn't want his wild theories to somehow reach a correct conclusion that she was now working with a kid she'd called insane just a week ago.

          With a wave of staged suspicion she locked onto Káel, her tone so perfect he nearly bought the act. "Don't you need a Ceptrum?"

          Káel blinked, feeling a double dose of suspicion as his friends weighed him down. "I uh..." His gaze flicked to the right as he pulled a little white rock out of his pocket. "Got one from my uncle..." 

          Vera smiled as Truvius' suspicion for her died again, sitting in its proper place entirely focused on Káel's strange habits.

          Now she just needed to give him all the wrong straws to pull. 

    —————   

          The crunching leaves filled the forest, and Truvius' mind as he watched his boots crumble the dried scales to ashen shards. He had stuck to matching Káel's pace, but every attempt at catching his roommates attention bounced off his forwards drawn glare. He wasn't enjoying his company one bit, and Truvius couldn't blame him.

          With a discomforted sigh Truvius glanced over his shoulder at Vera for a hint, his pace slowing as the red head nudged her chin for him to join her side a couple meters back. When he'd melded himself away from Káel's side without being overly suspicious, he stopped in wait for Vera to come upon his side, matching her casual stroll as Cinders smoky aroma struck him. 

          "You were trying to catch him too?" he whispered, giving Vera a timid cringe as she rolled her eyes again. "Waiting like that to trap him isn't a very effective method you know."

          "Yeah, and following him around the school all day like a creeper isn't one either," she growled, cautiously watching Káel as her whisper nearly scattered with the rustling leaves. "Did you figure anything out?"

          "Yeah, a few things I'm still studying up on," Truvius replied, watching as Káel bounced his shoulders again in a small shrug. He was talking to something, and his silent cues often screamed louder than words. "There's definitely something there."

          "Maybe," Vera whispered, her face washed with doubt at Truvius' confidence, until a thought caused her to snicker. "Or he's nuts."

          Truvius shook his head at her theory. "Why would Ray kidnap a crazy person from Earth? That would be a bit of a waste." 

          "Who's to say Ray even went to Earth?" Vera replied, her words striking a sinister cord in Truvius' heart. The one fact they had all simply glossed over, was perhaps the hardest to swallow. 

          How did Ray get to Earth in the first place?

          "He can use lumience and everything," Vera continued, smiling as Truvius nodded to her words. "Ray obviously doesn't have an ancient portal and Káel was nearly acing his classes until he got a lot of attention."

          Truvius allowed the theories to run wild. Earth wasn't an unfamiliar subject on Lumi, especially after the war when theories started to fly around the ancient portal. Alta Staar had even jumped on the bandwagon and popularised a mass of strange inventions they claimed to be earth inspired.

          If Káel was insane, dillusional fantasies about being from the planet would lead to a world of efforts in cementing his fake persona. A few books, a slew of gibberish terms and a strange magic box were hardly a hinderance to a dedicated professional.

          "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Vera said, trying to keep from laughing at how her fake theories were hitting Truvius. "I don't think he's real."

          Truvius stopped nodding as his perfectly woven story crashed into a wall. "What?"

          "Alta Staar has been working on realistic false soul enchantments, they've already done it to golems," Vera said, motioning to Káel's exposed back like a display. "Would you expect a confused lanky teenager that runs around saying its from earth to actually be a high grade lumience wielding killing machine?"

          Truvius watched her like a deer in headlights, the words drying in his throat while Vera continued her story.

          "Lady Samanthra let him into the school without a fuss. You know what I think?" Vera smirked, a dark gleam of entertainment flickering in her eyes. "I think she's in on it with Alta Staar, and letting the empire test out its capabilities in selling an act to a school full of Lumi's future militia. Just think about it, he told us he was from earth and all we needed was Ray's word on it and we were completely fooled!" She tossed Káel a cautious glance when her voice rose more than she'd intended, finally controlling her whisper as she held Truvius' flabbergasted silence at the throat. "He's not real."

          "But..." Truvius gave the air a panicked skim as his straws went everywhere, desperately trying to recollect the perfect picture Vera had shattered. "But he talks to himself, and looks at things..."

          Vera leaned in on his ear with a spearing chill, sealing the final bite on her discombobulated prey. "That's just what it wants you to think."

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Quality Quip #20:

'Many an actor does the stage more harm than good.'

~ Anon