Heir

Elka’s my first actual friend from the same year. I don’t know why we clicked. Same dorm? Same year? Who knows. We didn’t plan it. We didn’t try. But sometimes, friendships just happen. And that’s enough. “So… what brought you to Azmere?” “They say this is where the best mages train. If I’m learning, I want to learn from the best.” Elka replied. “I mean, we’re in the same year. I want to know about the future… Like you learn magic to become something for me, I want to master it to develop my city.”

“Ashfall? I’m not much different. I’m not even sure about the future. I spend most of my time trying to figure out the past. We left our hometown to chase something to grow, for ourselves and the people we care about.”

“Sure, aren’t you kind, Elka, you would get along with Emil well.”

“Emil-Senpai is the best. Then what about you and Ruri?” Elka replied. But before I could answer... I could feel everyone's eyes as we walked toward the classroom. I just stayed quiet. Elka didn’t seem to be bothered and sat beside me. “Psst… are you sure you want to sit next to me?” “Why? You'd rather sit alone?”

“I don’t know.” I still think Ashfall means something to everyone. But people are too caught up in their lives to care about anyone else. A side of my eye, seeing Caelis step into the class. My brain commands me to act normal, watching the other thing. “Hey, I saw you in front of the Aeter-Senpai dorm.” Caelis approached, his gaze steady. “Oh, hey… Me? You need something?” Elka replied. “How did you come here?”

“We fly with a bloom?”

“Are you in a witch club?”

“No, my Senpai is.” Elka, quick on her feet, covered for us. I wouldn’t think that Caelis would come to ask us a question. He hasn’t done anything wrong, but I already have a bad image of him as a rival, as the one training with Aeter. Yet the real surprise wasn’t Caelis. It was Elka. She’s quick. Too quick. Like she already saw the whole conversation coming. Quick note: Elka might be more dangerous than she looks. “Whatever, can I sit here?” Caelis asked. “Sure… No friends?” Elka replied. “Friends? Never really needed one… Not yet, anyway. And from the look of it, you don’t have any either, right? I’m Kael. Please call me by that.”

“Aren’t you named Caelis?”

“Please call me Kael.” Elka nodded, already acting like a dorm ambassador. “But I have a friend.” She nudged me… “Hi,” I said awkwardly, waving at him. “Auron? One more thing… If you choose another instructor, can you stop keeping Aeter-senpai on your own?” I froze. Is that how I look? Possessive? My chest tightened. I knew he was watching. That wagon wasn’t even my idea. Not that I complained, but who would sit on that? I couldn’t deny it to him. I liked having Aeter close. “Don’t worry, you will have the opportunity to train with her for a year,” I said.

“I want to master as fast as possible,” Caelis replied. We all want power. We’re all chasing power. But is being good ever enough to change anything? I want to keep them near. The way things are now. The world I see isn’t what I want it to be yet. It’s not enough… Aeter is supposed to train with Caelis. Maybe the relationship between instructor and trainee, that whole senpai-kouhai dynamic, must be closer. I’ve seen it between Elka and Emil. Surely, it will benefit Ruri and me too.

*

The idea kept coming back to my mind the whole morning. Even after the lecture ended, I kept hearing Caelis’s voice. Aeter, huh? Am I really that obvious? Everybody is heading out of class. “Elka, wait, you’re gonna meet Emil Senpai?”

“Maybe… but I don’t want to bother her during lunch. I’ll go if we happen to run into her.”

“I’ve been thinking… maybe I should find time with Ruri-senpai, and she’s always with Emil, so why don’t we go together?”

“Why don’t you start by calling her Ruri? You don’t call other Senpai when they’re also a Senpai.” I almost tripped on her words. I’ve never told anyone. Not even Emil. Elka sees too much. Manner? Distant? It’s just natural. “Aren’t you quite observant? I… I'm a bit afraid of her.”

“That may be your boundary because from what I see, you look close to all of them.“

“I don’t know how close we are… We just met at the start of the semester.”

“Huh, why don’t you have lunch with me instead?” Elka is leading me to the campus cafeteria. We didn’t say much on the way there. When we stepped inside. Yellow lanterns glowed overhead, spilling golden stripes across tables. A blue tank shimmered in the corner. A waitress in red greeted us—it was the Kharvad restaurant. “Have you ever tried Khanvad food?” Elka asked.

“Nope, but I’ve seen it a lot… What’s your recommendation?”

“Too bad it’s just the two of us. I wanted a full group feast. Dish for a newbie? Dumplings, Fried rice, Mapo Tofu.”

“The tofu in spicy sauce—Mapo Tofu, right? That’s the one I want.” We waited. Elka lit up when the plates arrived. I get it. There’s nothing like the taste of your hometown. Mixed up of garlic and spicy. The food lit something in her. Simple. Pure delight. Then, out of nowhere, she started to talk about where she came from. “You know… I’ve never had this kind of freedom. Just choosing something for myself.” Elka said.

“You mean… something as choosing food? How could that be possible? Were your parents strict or something?” She dropped her chopsticks. Her body froze. Eyes widened. “It’s fine, Elka, you don’t have to bring up anything you’d rather forget.” We paused our conversation to eat. I was enjoying the food so much, I hesitated to order more.

Elka stared at her food for a long moment, her expression wavering as she absentmindedly nudged her food around. “I was raised in a palace.” She said. I slowly put my chopsticks on the plate. Was it just me, or did Elka suddenly look elegant? “Wait… like, actual royalty? You’re joking, right?” I said. My hand was cold. “Relax, I’ve got like fifteen siblings. The throne’s not even in sight for me.” “Don’t be like that. Don’t tease me. That sounds like something out of a storybook…” Elka looked at me steadily. “Are you serious, Elka?” I added. “Yeah, like I said. I grew up in a palace. But I was never meant to be queen.”

“Wait, should I have bowed or something? Did my manner annoy you?”

“Oh, shut up. But Caelis is some kind of heir, right? You did say he’s a noble.”

“In this country, nobles are either powerful magicians or filthy rich.” Seriously, what kind of dorm are we running? Royal heirs? Top students? Am I the only normal one here? “What about you? I’ve heard people talk a lot about Ashfall… What’s it like?” She asked.

“I’m a normal person if you wonder… I mean, Ashfall used to be called Keryndale. But after the incident—Heaven’s Judgment—it became Ashfall. A once fertile and green city, full of innovation and life, turned dry… a place barely livable now.”

“That’s why you came to Azmere?”

“No, even after the incident, my family stayed in the city. Some people left, but my parents always said—‘It’s our home. Our city.’ We are farmers, it’s tough. It changed, sure… but the memories are still there. And they couldn’t walk away from that. Now we have lived for around eight years.”

“Eight years? What a coincidence… They trained me to take my sister’s place the day she disappeared.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. So that’s why you said you want to learn everything?”

“Have you heard of the forbidden spells? I heard they are forbidden, but I don’t know if it is allowed to talk about it here.”

“You can talk about them. Just don’t try casting one.”

“You need a scroll, right?’

“Sure, most of the spells require a scroll. But through the training alone is possible.”

“There’s one spell I’ve always looked for. The one people say shouldn’t exist. A time spell.” I froze, chopsticks mid-air as if time paused, afraid of what might come next. Her smile vanished, her eyes drifting somewhere I couldn’t reach. The air shifted. Heavy. I know that look people wear… when they lived in the past. How would she react if she knew a time spell user was sitting right beside her? But even if she did… it wouldn’t do us any good. Time spell… She has no idea. She might be hoping for a time traveler, but the truth is, no one’s ever figured it out—never in any generation. And I don’t have the heart to tell her… I was the thing she’s looking for…