Truvius slipped into the study room, a home of books and perfectly filed notes that he had made his own. The only essence of Káel to ever grace the shared space was a bottle of strange smelling liquid he had sprayed the desk's legs with, but Puff still gnawed at them.

          Other than that, he never visited the space.

          Not once.

          He went at a stack of textbooks he'd tucked onto a shelve, pulling away the pile to reveal a neatly tied and folded package of loose paper. It was the perfectly lined and cut parchment Káel had brought from Earth, immaculately white spare the scrawls of writing he had tainted them with. A collection of sorted one sided conversations Truvius' had been busting his brain over deciphering.

          He carefully placed the stack on the desk, tugging out a few iron bound books tucked under the desk to drop next to the papers with a crunch. Káel had left again, nowhere to be found for hours on end and completely out of range of his sender. 

          Ever since the incident in the ruins he'd made a habit of vanishing, mostly after ranting for a few minutes about Mr. Lightwood's weekly defense lessons Lady Samanthra had involuntarily coaxed him into. It all seemed a little extreme to Truvius. The word was he'd run into another unicorn at the edge of the forest, there was nothing unusual about the incident aside from Káel's horrendous luck. At least, nothing unusual enough to prompt extra defensive training.

          He sighed. The one thing that bugged him to no end was when things didn't add up. There was pieces missing to everything, Cobalt's oldest books barely had anything on The Red Phantom, Ray was a lost cause in understanding, and Vera's theory was matched in ludicrousy to his with the lack of evidence he had.

         He grabbed the first book on the pile, pulling back its metal skin to stare at the white symbol painted to its front page. Káel's ceptrum had brought him to the book, the symbol of Whitecrown was an unmistakable mark of Cobalt's history and added even more confusion to the piece. The only mention of a Phantom sat near its end, a vaguely mentioned demon that had been blamed for Zalius Whitecrown's patricide of his father. But the only proof he'd been charged on was a long lasting hunch of bewitchment stemmed from his support of magic. 

          Truvius furrowed his brow as he mindlessly sifted through the pages. None of this could possibly connect to an Earth boy that had been kidnapped by Cobalt's top elite. 

          He pulled up his sleeve, whispering Vera's name into the sender to start a call. Perhaps if his theory had no merit, she had found some evidence towards her crazy idea and was willing to share it.

           The sender didn't even start up, sitting in dead silence on his wrist.

          She was out of range.

          He frowned in confusion, whispering Káel's name into the ceptrum with the same response.

          A coincidence?

          With a stiffening expression he whispered Talli's name into the sender, watching the white orb rise after a couple shakes. "H-hello?"

          Truvius relaxed at Talli's voice. It was easy to tell when she was hiding something, so if she knew anything about Vera and Káel, he'd be able to squeeze it out of her in a matter of minutes. "Hey Talli, is Vera there? I can't get her on my sender."

          "N-no. She d-disappeared an hour ago."

          Truvius checked the time. Káel had left about an hour ago too.

          Talli didn't let the silence linger, "D-did they go to, to the village?"

          "Maybe, I don't see why though," Truvius replied.

          "D-do you think they were?" Talli said, swallowing her words in fear of speaking further.

          "What? What do you think they're doing?" Truvius said, scrunching his nose as a silent fear leaked through the other end.

          "W-well... Um... Do y-you think they're... re-really good friends?"

          Truvius paused, trying to piece together what she was saying, but when he finally got it his face warped into that of an aghast child. "Ew! Talli!"

          "No! I mean- I-I was just thinking... I'm sorry!" she squeaked, the familiar pitch forcing Truvius to stifle a laugh.

          "Who knows, maybe you're right," Truvius replied, his gaze flicking to an inked sketch of 'The Red Phantom'. "It makes more sense."

          "M-more sense than wh-what?"

          He smiled in silent mischief. "What do you say we hunt them down and confirm the theory?"

-----

          "Ray will be back from his mission before dinner, don't browse all day."

          Káel dusted the last film of cobwebs off his chosen book, paying Vera a curt nod as she dropped the dinted helmet she'd been toying with. "These spells look a little easier, there's even instructions."

          He could feel a wash of judgement as Vera raised her gaze to his hair, still reeking of scorched ends from the lumience shield he'd accidentally combusted while practicing. He had hoped the secret room held a few tricks in getting back at Mr. Lightwood and although it did, he now knew it took more than saying the spells and crossing his fingers.

          "Well I suppose if you incinerate your enemies with messed up spells that would be one way of protecting yourself from lumience," Phantom cooed.

          Káel snapped his finger. "Precisely." 

          "Mr. Lightwood can't just be tormenting you, I'm sure there's some reasoning to his training," Vera said, waving away the strings of smoke on his hair. She bit her lip in suppressed disgust as a bit of charred dust smeared her finger. "At least your hair's already black."

          "And I'm sure Ray didn't just kidnap me for a bet. There's totally a shred of reasoning in his pea brain."

          "He couldn't have just kidnapped you for a bet with Draven. Guys are dumb, but that's stretching it."

          Káel hummed in disagreement, sticking his arm through the illusive wall at the top of the steps to make sure he'd opened the path. "You'd be surprised."

          He watched her vanish as he slipped through the illusion, quickly giving the wall some space for Vera to blindly pull through. She hugged herself with a shiver as Puff passed their legs, locking onto Káel with a flat frown. "I hate that, it makes me all tingly."

          "You'll get used to it," Káel said, waving Puff along as he went for the hall. With a quick stop he swiveled on his heel, staring down Vera to figure out what had grounded her feet. She didn't seem to realise she'd locked gazes with him, her pensive gaze blinded by a deeper thought that Káel couldn't help but snap. "You coming to Puff's flying lessons?"

          She snapped to, the present pulling her feet forwards with an anxious smile. "Wouldn't miss it over a test."

-----

          Puff sat on the thick branches he'd come to hate. Káel had dragged him up a little higher this time and was trying to shake him off his arm, which only made the angle funnier as Vera watched him from below.

          "Come on Puff, act like a real dragon, it's not gonna hurt if you mess up!" Alestra called, sighing when the dragon shot her a terrified look.

          Vera stifled a laugh as Puff mocked her tone. He usually spent most of their makeshift lessons hanging from Káel's combat suit, immune to the spare group of students that lingered for some entertainment. This time, Truvius and Talli had been the only ones to join the audience, with Truvius lingering beside Vera with an aura that itched to ask a question hanging in the air.

          Vera watched Káel finally shake Puff off, a short and warbling yelp cutting the air before a flapping mess struck the bed of leaves below. Truvius was the only one too distracted to chuckle, snapping her patience as she tossed him a cautious squint. "You need something?"

          "Have you figured anything else out yet?"

          Vera's face dropped, pressing Truvius to elaborate on the question.

          "About the investigation."

          "Ah." She forced on a smile, the gears quickly grinding out a digestible lie. "Notice the smell? I had Cinder 'accidentally' toast him while his guard was down."

          Truvius gave her a sidelong stare, pressing his eyebrows with concern as Vera snickered.

          "Combat golems have fast reflexes. He was a bit slow, but as you can see, all in one piece."

          "That's..." Truvius swallowed the rest of his phrase, squeezing out an alternative that had seemed better in the moment. "Not really evidence."

          She scoffed, pressing her voice down to a harsh whisper. "Better than whatever loose strings your paranoia scratched up thinking an ancient Novan is tailing Káel."

          "Paranoia? You're the one that brought it up, what about that thing in the room? Are we forgetting about that?" Truvius argued, cringing as Vera's expression turned hostile.

          "That was probably a ghost. There's no cold spots around him or anything, and if he was possessed we'd be able to tell by now."

          Truvius softened, looking up at Káel climbing the tree with a struggling dragon tucked under one arm. "You knew about his Ceptrum... that's interesting."

           Vera was about to snap at him again, but no words came out and she had to think up an excuse quickly. "Yeah... I thought you did too, he got it a couple weeks into school..."

          "What? And you didn't see the symbol on it?"

          Vera narrowed her eyes, the irritation returning to her face. "You're being paranoid, and if you want to keep him as your friend I'd stop."

          Truvius kept his calm nature, smiling to himself. "I guess I am, but I look out for my friends. Better suspicious than sorry."

          Vera slowly straightened herself, a soft sigh hissing through her teeth as she continued to fix her gaze on Káel. "Friendships are built on trust, not suspicion." Her gaze dipped to Truvius, its condescending effect perfected by the way she'd propped her chin and iced her gaze. "You can count me out of your little investigation."

-----

          Truvius squeezed the heavy iron book to his chest, creeping through the dimmed halls like a timid assassin. Vera's words hadn't ceased to haunt his mind, a part of him now itching to stop the investigation all together. 

          Was what he was doing to Káel wrong?

          Was what he was going to do even worse?

          Truvius stared down his path, a couple turns from its destination. He checked over his shoulder, half expecting Vera to be staring daggers into his back like he was a scheming criminal. 

          But she wasn't. Fate wasn't so kind as to decide everything for him, it enjoyed watching his repetitive failures far more. 

         Truvius bit at his cheek, continuing to tip toe past the groups of oblivious students. Too engrossed with chatting about their successful mission to notice the fearful sway to his eyes. The little voice in his head grew louder to turn back.

          Was he making the wrong choice?

          He found his feet still moving as his mind pulled back and forth between his plan. He had done everything on a hunch, worried that his new friend had somehow fallen under the influence of an ancient Novan. To outside eyes, it was an indigestible tall tale that even he would have shrugged off under most circumstances. He had nothing to prove it and certainly had no plan if it came out to be the truth. It was nothing but worry for the safety of his friend driving him on his path, with every passing second seeding his doubts more and more.

          Truvius finally stopped as he rounded the final corner, skimming the thickened pillars supporting Cobalt's main entrance for one person in particular. When he saw them rifling through their bag at the doors he sucked in a breath, willing his body to freeze over the nerves shaking his hands and approach them.

          Whatever Vera had said was wrong, along with the little voice.

          He was doing this for Káel. 

          If he was wrong, then no harm would be done.

          If he was right, the person he was rigidly approaching would certainly have a better solution than him.

          He almost flinched when Ray caught his gaze, the confusion in the man's squint causing him to hug the book so hard it was digging into his collar bone. 

          The silence was strong between them and he could hear his feet clapping against the floor as he closed in, every conversation starter he had cooked up on his way falling from his mind as Ray's confusion morphed into a suspecting frown. 

          Truvius finally stopped, a footslength nearly too much for him to endure Ray's stare. He knew he was up to something, it was as if he could hear the fear pounding in Truvius' chest and smell the guilt choking his throat.

           He smiled at Ray, unblinking as he opened his mouth to speak. "I..."

           He was doing this for Káel.

            There was no harm in it.

          "It's Káel," Truvius said, the weight biting into his shoulders slipping as Ray's frown softened. "I need your help."

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Quality Quip #30:

'Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.'

~Leo F. Buscaglia