Morningstar

“It seems like months ago when we started coming here,” Xeon says as he enters with Hakea to Draconic 23. Icarus is already there, sitting on top of the desk. He is once again looking at the green apple that he is holding.

Rin, Zanna, and Phoenix are on the back of the room. The only one sitting is Zanna while the other two are standing. Xeon looks at Zanna. He wishes that she would look at him the same way that he looks at her, but she does not. She does not even look at him.

Agrion is also in the room, sitting on the front. Xeon makes his way towards him, hoping for Hakea to be following. “Morning,” Xeon says. “I heard that you left early this morning.” He sits behind Agrion and Hakea sits beside Xeon.

“Training,” Agrion says. He looks through the corner of his eye to see if Icarus is looking at him. “If it could be called training. He only made me run miles. He at least ran with me.”

“Well, you have to start with something,” Hakea says. He sounds a little shy as if he is afraid of what he could say. “You cannot expect that he will teach you to kill on the first day.”

“Yeah,” Agrion says, cutting him off.

At the entrance of the room, Xeon sees Lexan enter, followed by Wither and Vil. They are an odd group, Xeon thinks. Lexan is always smiling, while the others aren’t. Lexan seems lively while Wither and Vil don’t.

Xeon sees Lexan walk past Icarus, high-five him, and walk to the back of the room. Wither and Vil follow. Wither half-smiles at Icarus as he manages to move with his crutches and Vil ignores him. When they reach the back of the room, Lexan high-fives Rin, Zanna, and Phoenix.

Then, Xeon sees something that makes everyone around open their mouth or eyes wide. He sees Zanna stand up and kiss Wither right on the lips. Wither smiles, and Xeon can see his white cheeks turning red.

Xeon turns around to look at the front of the class.

“Xeon–”

“Don’t,” Xeon interrupts Hakea. He doesn’t want anyone to cheer him up. Right now, he wants to get through the day.

***

Shin is sitting on a chair with his legs on the table while he twirls one of his axes in his hand. He and his group were the last to arrive to class. They ended up sitting in front. Shin ended up sitting next to Agrion, who eyes him every time the ax swings close to him.

He thinks about Ollie. Why did she leave him? Shin does not want to admit that he knows why. He remembers what happened when Ollie left after breaking up with him. Jas had quickly grabbed her ass. He does not want to admit it, but he knows that she left him for Jas.

“What’s the second trial going to be about?” Tilray asks.

“I don’t know,” Icarus answers.

“They haven’t sent you a hint like last time with the chessboards?” Shin asks. He wants his mind away from Ollie.

“If they did, I have not found it,” Icarus answers.

“How are you going to train us then?” Rin asks.

“We’ll do a general training,” Icarus says. “We will train on every aspect. We’ll start by running.”

“Again,” Shin hears Agrion whisper frustrated.

“Running? There should be something more efficient than that,” Tilray says.

“Running builds stamina, Tilray,” Icarus says. “Let’s do fifteen miles.”

“Fifteen miles?” Phoenix asks.

“Are you crazy?” Tilray asks.

“Fifteen miles is too much,” Killam says.

Icarus shrugs. “It is not opened for discussion. Now, you can leave your weapons here, unless you want to run with them, and let’s get started.”

Shin jabs his axes on the table in front of him and he is the first person out of the door. He will train until his body aches. He will become better every day. He will win the trials. He will graduate. And he will show Ollie who she left behind for a worthless piece of trash.

***

“Where were you going to tell me?” Rin asks. They are jogging around the campus. She waited to be away from everybody to ask.

“Oh, are you talking about me?” Zanna asks.

“Of course,” Rin says, “unless Phoenix has something important that she has not told us.”

“Um, about that,” Phoenix says. Rin turns her head to face her. “Icarus and I are officially something.”

“What? Since when?’ Rin asks. “How do you know?”

“Since yesterday,” she answers. “He told me that no one, apart from you two, can know about it. And he showed me his face. He removed his mask in front of me.”

“What?” Zanna is the one to react.

“What does he look like?” Rin asks.

“I won’t say,” Phoenix says. “That’s something personal that he shared with me. I won’t go sharing it with everybody.” She smiles a little. “But he is hot.”

Rin smiles, wanting to mock her, but she doesn’t. “Fair enough.” She knows when not to cross the line, even though they all share everything. “So, Zanna, since when you and Wither?”

“I don’t know,” Zanna says.

“Come on, tell us something,” Phoenix says. “Is there something between you two?”

“I kissed him yesterday,” Zanna says. “And I did not saw him until today.” She looks away from them. “I don’t like talking about it.”

Rin knows very clear. Zanna does not talk about feelings. She hardly says when she is happy or sad, and she never says when she likes someone. The most that Rin and Phoenix have been able to pull from her is to mention if someone is cute or not. One of those moments was with Xeon. He does not hide very well his crush for Zanna, and when they learnt about it, she only admitted that he was cute.

“So, are you guys something or are you just testing the waters?” Phoenix asks.

“I guess that we are something…” Zanna says.

Rin raises an eyebrow. “Does he know that? Have you talked to him about it?”

“No,” Zanna says. “But he should know, shouldn’t he?”

Rin looks at Phoenix for backup. “How would he know if you haven’t told him?” Phoenix asks.

It takes a while before Zanna says, “I’ll talk to him about it.”

***

Icarus is standing in front of Draconic. He told the students the route that they would take in order to get the fifteen miles. He is going to join them, but he wanted them to have a head start. He has always been fast, even when he was a student at Nightlight. That’s why he decided to be a rogue. One of his instructor was one and invited him to join his group of students that wanted to be rogues.

“Icarus,” he hears someone say. He turns his head to his left and finds Quin walking towards him. She is wearing clothes that resembles the uniforms of the students, but instead of being brown with grey armor is white with grey armor. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“This is Draconic,” he says. “It should not be a surprise that the mentor of Draconic is here.”

“Charming as ever,” Quin says. She stops next to Icarus and brushes her ginger hair with her fingers. “I saw your students running. Did you put them up to this?” Icarus nods to her obvious question. “My students are also running. It helps their stamina, but you know that.”

“What do you want?” Icarus asks.

“Don’t you want to talk to me?” Quin asks.

“I have told you many times before that I do not want to see you,” Icarus answers.

Quin forces a laugh. “What happened to you? You did not use to be this arrogant when we were at Nightlight.”

“You know what happened,” Icarus says. “What do you want?”

“I wanted to see if you made it through the second trial,” she says.

“Of course, I did,” Icarus says.

“Of course,” Quin answers. “I would not expect any less from one of the best students of Nightlight. Anyway, what would happen if we have to face each other on the last trial?”

“You know what will happen,” Icarus says.

“Really?” Quin says. “I will kill you, that’s for sure, but I don’t expect you to even try to kill me.”

Icarus decides to ignore the last part of the sentence. “You have made it clear that you will do anything to get to your goal.”

“Oh, yeah, haven’t I?” Quin smiles. “Well, time for me to join my students. Are you coming?”

“No,” he lies. He will join the running when she is gone.

“Suit yourself,” she says and begins to run.

Icarus cannot wait for the trials to be over and not see Quin anymore. He shakes his head. Somehow the world always merges their paths. It is as if the saints have bigger plans for both of them.

***

Phoenix is running alongside Zanna and Rin. They are not running as fast as they can. Even East and Slier have passed them. She does not care. At her pace, she won’t get fatigued before the fifteen miles.

She looks at her side to see if Zanna is keeping up. She does not even look tired. Then Phoenix sees that someone is making their way towards them. She is tall with orange hair like Phoenix. Phoenix knows her to be one of the mentors, but she does not know who. The woman run past them, but then slows down and waits for Phoenix, Rin, and Zanna to catch up.

“Ah, Icarus’s students,” the woman says, but she is looking at Phoenix. “Phoenix, Rin, and Zanna. Am I correct?”

“Yes,” Rin answers.

“Yes, sir,” the woman corrects her.

Rin tilts her head. She must be thinking many insults. “Yes, sir,” she answers.

The woman smiles as her eyes return to Phoenix. “I am Quin, mentor of the Angelic team.” That is not why Phoenix knows her. She knows her as the woman who got into Icarus’s nerves.

“Pleasure, sir,” Phoenix lies. If Icarus does not like her, Phoenix won’t either.

Quin smiles again. She looks up and down at Phoenix. “No wonder why you are Icarus’s newest kitty. He has a type and you fit his categories.”

“Excuse me?” Phoenix asks. She sees Quin rise her eyebrows. “Sir?”

“What?” Quin says. “Oh, did you think that I did not know? I have seen you come several times on the past week to the mentors’ dorm. Don’t get too comfortable, dear. Icarus is an ass. He will jump to the next woman that meets his criteria as quickly as he became interested on you.” She proceeds to run faster in order to leave them behind.

“What was that?” Rin asks after Quin is gone.

“I don’t know,” Phoenix admits. “Just another mystery of Icarus.”

***

“You don’t need to run with us, you do know that, right?” Fey asks Kobo. She knows that Kobo is the fastest of them all.

“I know,” Kobo says, but he doesn’t accelerate his pace.

Minutes pass of them not talking, only running. “So…” Beta begins to say, wanting to create a conversation.

“I…” Kobo says but he trails. He looks down, but then looks up to continue running. “Thank you.”

“For?” Moneo asks.

“For sticking up for me,” he says. “You all took down one of my…” Fey knows that he is going to say bullies. “You did not think twice.”

“It was nothing,” Moneo says.

“We will do anything for you, Kobo,” Beta says.

“Look, Kobo, they messed with you for years,” Fey says. “If you would have let me, I would have broken their legs or arms years before the trials.”

“I know, but that would have gotten you in a lot of trouble with Morning,” Kobo says. “And they would have returned angrier than ever.”

“But it would have been worth it,” Fey says. She notices that Kobo is not looking at her. She places a hand on his shoulder and slows her pace. When he notices that she has slowed his pace, he does too until they come to a stop. “Listen, Kobo, you are one of my best friends. I am here for you; we are all here for you. I will hit, drown, torture, kill, and whatever else to whoever threats you badly, and I am sure that I am not the only one.” She sees Moneo and Beta nod. “Just promise me that you will let us help you if anything else happens.”

Kobo looks down, but eventually nods. “Can I hug you?”

“Of course,” Fey says but she is the one to start the hug. She feels his arm surround her waist. He is smaller than her. When he lets go, she says, “Come on. Let’s get this over with.” And they return to running.

***

“I hate running,” Vil says.

“Come on,” Lexan says. “It is relaxing.”

“What about being covered in sweat is?” Vil answers.

Lexan knows that he, Vil, and Wither are on the end of the line, because Wither is going slow with his crutches. Everyone else is ahead of them. He doesn’t mind, though. Life shouldn’t be about stressing over everything.

“You haven’t asked about Zanna,” Wither says.

“I didn’t know if you wanted us to ask,” Lexan says.

“I… I wanted you to ask,” he says. “I do not know what is going on. She kissed me twice, but we haven’t talked about it. I want to know what is going on.” He looks at Lexan. “Is this normal? I-I-I mean, I haven’t had any experience with… women…”

“Every relationship is different,” Lexan says. “The question is: Do you like her?”

“I-I think so,” Wither says. “I didn’t give it much thought until she kissed me… Yeah, I guess that I like her.”

“Then that’s what matters,” Lexan says. “There is no reason to stress over. I am sure that the next time that you see her, everything will be made clear. You have so much on your plate. Let it all play out.”

“Yeah, and now with Yenta,” Vil says. Lexan looks at her with wide eyes. He did not want to mention the ghost of Yenta to Wither. After they saw him last night, Wither did not want to talk about it.

“Yeah,” Wither says, sounding sad. “Seeing him and not being able to talk to him is the worst.”

“If it makes you feel any better, spirits only come out at night,” Vil says.

“It does-”

“Lex!” someone says. Lexan looks to where the voice came from. There are four people running towards them. Lexan recognizes them. The first person is Radon. He is about Lexan’s height with blond hair. Behind him is Jibe, Soar, and Asper. “I knew that it was you.”

“Oh, hey,” Lexan says.

“What are you doing here, Lex?” Soar asks.

“Our mentor, Icarus, is making us run,” Lexan says. He wants to cut the conversation, but he knows that they won’t let him.

“Our mentor, Quin, is making us too,” Asper says.

Lexan nods. “Well, our route forces us to take a turn here so we’ll talk later.” He takes a turn to the right and Vil and Wither follow. The others continue on their route.

“Who were they?” Vil asks.

Lexan sighs. “My old friends.”