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Sorry for the late update! 

I'll try to get more chapters out before school starts up again.

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          The morning carried with it an overcast wash of grey, a seeping chill forcing Káel to seek the shelter of his thin covers. After Vera had returned from her father's brief tour, their conversations couldn't shake off the awkward pauses, nor the monstrous amount of questions Káel bit back asking. It was an atmosphere soured with defeat and worry that neither wanted to linger in, and so, Vera departed back to her room when she was certain she wouldn't cross paths with her father, and Káel turned in early.

          But even with the dimming weather, morning brought the usual fresh perspectives to Káel. The pounding pain rattling his knuckles was now completely numb, and his scratches were more on the itchy side of sore. He opened his eyes with a drawn yawn, turning his head to the side to meet the usual grunting warble from Puff, Phantom pretending to sit on the chair in the corner.

          Today was a good day to free Phantom.

          "Morning," Phantom chimed, making Káel aware that his stare had lasted a little too long. 

          Káel leaned up, suddenly feeling his ribs with a wince of pain. There was a crisp fold of parchment on the small bed stand, its corners fluttering in the breeze like a set of delicate wings. 

          Like a butterfly. 

          The ethereal light of the butterfly from the maze filled his thoughts. Illusion or not, it had been his hopes to look up the creature. The bugs clearly existed on the alien planet, a myriad of the usual colours, yet none even came close to the entrancingly strange creature that had lured him into a trap with ease.

          The smallest groan sounded from the floorboards, the careful and calculating step of an unknown guest tearing Káel from his thoughts to whip the door a wide eyed stare.

          Truvius flinched, a painful wince drawing his hand from the doorknob he'd nearly gotten a hold of. 

          Káel soaked in the freeze frame atmosphere. The look was uncanny.

          A cat burglar, frozen by the flashlight of his gaze.

          Truvius steadied himself, dipping his head as a strange gesture of courtesy to his sleuthing stunt. "I was trying not to wake you up."

          "Obviously."Káel replied, a smile haphazardly tacked onto his flat tone as he relaxed his shoulders. 

          He hadn't seen Truvius since Sev dragged him down to the nursing quarters, and with the utter terror Truvius was desperately trying to mask before him he had a pretty good idea as to why. It wasn't the usual nerves of being put on the spot, nor a fear to admit he was wrong.

          It was something else.

          It was horribly clear with the way it had his roommate nearly melting in fear, and a little heartbreaking to think about. Somewhere along the line of their budding friendship, Truvius had grown utterly terrified of him.

          Káel calmly checked the clock, trying to lighten the room with a relaxed smile as he stared down Truvius. "I don't bite, the worst I'll do is growl if you accidentally wake me up.

          Truvius timidly nodded, keeping his gaze cast to the floor as he inched one step closer to the door.

          Káel quickly switched tactics, swiping the paper off the desk and all at once watching as Truvius went completely rigid. "This yours?" 

          He expected the hesitant nod that Truvius paid him, his roommate chained to the ground from the binds of conversation as he dipped his head. "It's an apology."

          If there was one thing Káel hated, it was the sincerity writing ripped from words. Especially when the sender had the luxury of telling it to his face. So, ensuring Truvius was still watching him, Káel lifted up the folded paper and slowly ripped it in half.

          All at once confusion twisted into fear, the strange action throwing Truvius off his fragile guard while he searched for spite on Káel's face where there was none.

          "I'm glad you want to apologise," Káel said, allowing the two ragged chunks of paper to drift to the floor. "I don't care if you recite every sentence you wrote down, but I want to hear it from your mouth. And I don't want to hear 'I was trying to protect you', cause Lady Samanthra already dibsed that one."

          Truvius swallowed, eyes darting between the two white fragments as Puff slipped from the bed to playfully bat at one. He had hoped the simpler solution would work itself out, but Káel had easily proven him wrong.

          "The last time I told the truth like that there was a huge mess," Truvius muttered. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to be the one to hurt you."

          "Being stabbed in the back by a friend hurts a lot more," Káel retorted, tucking his legs into a fold and patting the corner of his bed for Truvius to come closer. "What were you afraid of? That I'd take it out on you?"

          Truvius moved his lips without a string of words, seating himself on the corner of Káel's bed with a light sigh. "You are kind of scary..." Truvius said, shrugging at the confused lift in Káel's eyebrows. "and I knew I made the wrong choice as soon as I asked Ray for help, but I guess I was terrified of seeing your reaction."

          "I punched Ray in the face," Káel replied, unable to fill his smile with any sort of emotion as he stared Truvius down. "He ripped me from my home and quite frankly ruined my life for no reason, but all I could do was punch his smug little face. If I can't even bring myself to really hurt him, what could I possibly do to one of my friends? One week, three months, there's no difference when you should have told me as soon as you found out, like Vera did."

          "Then why didn't you tell me about the Novan thing?" Truvius squinted as Káel's face dropped. "Vera was trying to convince me you were a golem sent from Alta Staar, I might have bought it if you at least knew what a flumigan was."

          Káel struggled past his words, letting a puff of air out of his nose when his brain flunked on a response. "That's not the same thing, I thought most of you were going to find a way to kill him on the spot! I was just-"

          "Protecting him?" Truvius hummed in disbelief, smiling at the burn of embarrassment in Káel's cheeks. "I thought our headmaster dibsed that one."

          Phantom swallowed a laugh, discreetly clearing his throat when Káel shot him a glare.

          "I'm still really sorry," Truvius said. "I shouldn't have gone to Ray, I shouldn't have even gone behind your back spying on you like an enemy, because we're friends. And I know you think we were scared of telling the truth for completely different reasons, but at least to me, losing a friend feels a lot like dying anyways. So... I hope we can still be friends, even after Vera swept through like a dragon in a field of prickle plants."

          "We are," Káel replied, sucking in his lips to mask the pain when he smacked Truvius' shoulder with the wrong hand. "No more secrets though... for both of us."

          Truvius nodded, noticeably eyeing one of the ripped folds of paper as Puff beat at the other one. "I didn't really memorise that letter, so you might want to get it before Puff's drool smudges the list of missions Ray is going to be away on." He rose from the bed, waving Káel farewell before pointing at the corner of the room with a stern frown. "Still don't trust the masked guy, so if he does anything to you I'm going straight to Samanthra about it."

          Phantom stared at the empty corner Truvius was pointing at, his shoulders bouncing in a careless shrug. "Fair enough."

         "Deal," Káel waved for Truvius to stop before he opened the door, straining to slide out of the thin covers and grab the piece of paper as his sore muscles assaulted him. But piece of torn letter in hand he straightened with success, trapping the other piece under his foot when Puff played an off smack. "No more secrets, so I just want you to know I plan on freeing the masked guy so he can hail me a supernatural taxi home."

          "I understood half of that sentence and I think that's a terrible idea," Truvius curtly replied, unfazed by the quick drop in Káel's smile as he shrugged. "But it's better than waiting on Ray to get you back. What's the plan?"

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          Vera teetered back on her chair, the dangerous stunt earning more than a few cautious stares from the studying students. What had nearly everyone's attention however, was the wheezing sigh Káel had for the thick book he was holding.

          She didn't know what he was expecting trying to find an ancient ritual in Cobalt's library, and it certainly didn't take Truvius to know the school had wiped any and all traces of the forbidden art from student possession. 

          "Was there anything in the room about the cake recipe?" Truvius whispered, the code phrase never ceasing to force a smile onto his face and a frown onto Vera's.

          Codewords had been his first insufferable idea in laying on the low. As if every student in Cobalt suddenly had an interest in eavesdropping on their conversations. 

          As if 'the secret room' and 'the return ritual' weren't vague enough to pass as the inside references they were.

          She scrunched her nose, resting an elbow on the table to support her drooping head. "Not a lot of time to check with the Big Blond Wolf on the prowl."

          "He'll be out hunting in two weeks," Truvius replied. "We can check then."

          "I'm cringing," Káel muttered, moving onto the next book of seals to skim through. "Can we just call him Blondie? Or maybe Goldilocks?"

          Vera kept pity from her gaze as Káel was the only one to laugh at his joke. The poor boy was in a world of his own for humour, but that was the least of their problems. They needed to find a ritual thousands of years outdated to free an ancient Novan she still didn't know if she trusted. To add insult to injury, they now had to do it with an aloof bookworm called Truvius.

          "I'm going to check up on Zalius again," Káel said, rising from his chair with a drained sigh. "Tell me if you guys find anything."

          Vera knew by now he took breaks to confer with Phantom. He was the final say in every tattered plan they had tried to stitch together, pulling at the strings as well as her patience. She tapped her nails against the table in tune to Káel's departing steps as she stared right into Truvius' soul with a spear of dead air.

          Truvius averted his gaze.

          As usual.

          She scoffed, continuing to tap her fingers, this time in tune to Truvius' bouncing leg.

          He raised his gaze again, a shy smile washing over her frown like a light breeze. "Are you still mad at me?"

          Vera couldn't help but chuckle at the boy who assumed her petty enough to hold a grudge, leaning over the table to force him back a little. "Everything I have against you went into my knee, which went straight into your stomach."

          Truvius held the small book in his hands a little higher, the poor shield barely covering his nervous smile. "So you don't hate me?"

          "Nope. I just don't think you're the type for stuff that'll get you kicked out of school in a heartbeat." 

          Vera watched as Truvius' shoulders relaxed, curiousity pulling her back into her chair at his calmed smile. "You're talking like we're going to get caught."

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          Káel allowed the sound of his hollowed heels to fill his thoughts, passing the towering shadows of bookshelves until he reached the desired tag. A thankfully empty corridor greeted him, flecks of dust clouding the starlit space where an arching window stood at the end of it. "Do you know if Zalius would have written the ritual down anywhere?"

          Phantom followed Káel two steps behind, not sparing a second to ponder the question. "I told you, he would have written it in his personal notebook, nowhere else."

          Káel browsed the line of books, tracing his finger along their uneven heights to feel the grains of dust tickle his skin. "What if it isn't in the room?"

          "It isn't, unless it was in that ceiling hatch I didn't get a good look at."

          "Then we check the ceiling hatch and if that's a bust we panic," Káel replied, wedging out a thinner book to prop it on his injured hand and skim the pages. 

          Phantom stared at the pages of pictures, littered with labelled sketches of butterflies from all over Lumi, a few Novan species sprinkled into the mix. Káel of course, had only one picture in mind, abruptly stopping when he caught a glance of the fur maned butterfly and sliding back the pages to find it again. 

          'Frostlights'.

          There was nothing out of the ordinary, aside from its sport drink slushy sounding name. A butterfly settled to the colder stretches of Lumi, but rare in its sightings. It had been no more than an illusion the strange creature had used its image to trap him with.

          "Why are we looking at butterflies?" Phantom muttered.

          Káel slapped the book shut, his face twisting with displeasure as he slid it back with a shower of flaky dust. "I was thinking."

          "I thought I smelt something burning," Phantom replied, humming a tune innocently as Káel registered the uncalled for jab. "I still don't think the research notes are in the secret room, Zalius had more than one hidey hole in this architectural disaster."

          "If only there was a way to just ask him," Káel sighed, waving for Phantom to follow him back to his friends. Life was hard enough having to look up answers in physical books. It turned his homework into a mile's worth of work and made anything historical nearly impossible to look into. 

          At least, anything to do with illicit ancient rituals.

          Even on Earth he could google a Molotov Cocktail recipe, this society had a stick shoved up the wrong place.

          Káel rested his sights on Vera and Truvius, the tense block between them broken as they casually chattered. They almost looked like long standing friends with the way Vera was leaning across her book, strange yet relieving to see after the drama packed week everyone had been bashed through.

          With an actual flutter of joy to fuel his expression, Káel slipped his fingers into his pockets, stood at the foot of the table to snag their attention. "He says the cake recipe might be in the room."

          Káel slipped his hands further into his pockets as Vera gave him a squint. The usual squished expression that came before she called him out on lying to her face. There was no doubt that he was stretching the truth, but without another lead to run after Káel couldn't do anything but wait for Ray to run off on a mission and search the room again.

          He felt his twiddling fingers brush the Ceptrum, its perpetual chill tickling his finger tips. But the gentle sensation struck his mind like an asteroid of epiphanies. 

          There was another lead.

          He just had to ask Zalius.

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Quality Quip #37:

'I'm sorry is the duct tape for stab wounds.'

~Anonymous