Leaving Farewell Letters (Again?)

He had seen it...

Even after a few hours have passed, I could still remember the examiner's heavy words, "Keep that from others' eyes, boy. When you arrive at the Academy, head first towards my office, and nowhere else. Tell no one, are we clear?"

I had simply nodded my head. He was already gone with a flutter of his robes before I realized I didn't even get his name.

"Therion, are you listening to me?"

I looked up at the speaker and saw Joren's worried face. Internally slapping my cheeks awake, I said, "Y-Yeah, I mean no. Sorry, I wasn't listening."

He sighed a bit before repeating his words again animatedly while we walked down the street, "I said, Ma and Da don't have to know about this, okay? We'll just slip out by sunset and catch up with the parade of Cameli-elephants."

I immediately denied his wish. "No, Joren. We shouldn't keep this from your parents. They'll only die of worry if we just leave like that."

"But I don't know what t'do!" he screamed in frustration, and then crouched down at the side of the street. He glanced up at me miserably. "They won't ever allow me to go, Therion! I'll never be able to go to that school! I'll probably work as an innkeeper and die as one... Oh, Therion, that life just sounds so bland!"

I almost wanted to laugh, but I knew he was wholly serious. Children can get entirely focused about something if they wanted to. And who was I to judge anyway? I chose to die rather than allow myself to be married off like a pawn piece on a chess board. So, I can somehow relate to the child's desire to seek for greater things.

Bending down to grab at his arms, I helped the boy up. "Come on. Let's talk about this more while we walk. Your parents will only get more suspicious if we're even later than we already are."

He reluctantly got up. He tried to hide it from me, but I clearly saw how he wiped at the sides of his eyes.

"... You really want to go to the Lunar Academy, don't you?" I asked him quietly, and our footfalls were the only sound that came from us for a long time.

And then, he finally replied, "It's been my dream since I was young."

'You're still young,' I wanted to tell him, but deemed it wasn't the time to say such things.

"When... When I was really little, I used to play a lot around my Da's study. I'd play wid some toys and Da would just mind his own business. A few times, though, when my Ma was away, he would always get these magical transmissions from her. Da probably didun think I'd understand them, and I kinda only did understand a few li'l things... but anyway, my point is that I pieced some things together, and now I'm pretty sure my Ma was a student from the Academy once, and she's probably still real connected wid them even now."

I stared at him in shock. "And now you want to follow in her footsteps?"

His cheeks slightly blushed when he answered, "Yeah. That, and because I wanna know what she's up to, why she always leaves and comes back all gloomy-like... And she never tells us anything about her side of the family. I don't even know my own grandda and grandma. If possible..."

I didn't let him finish and quickly gathered him into a hug. He shouted out in surprise. But I kept my hold on him, and said, "Don't worry, friend. I'll help you out, too. I'll make sure we get there no matter what."

Then I finally released him, to find him blushing even more. 'How cute.'

"But," I told him firmly. "We'll still have to tell them either way."

He groaned in defeat.

~~

I took a deep breath before pushing on the storefront's doors, expecting two, angry adults staring down at us. Unexpectedly, even though the relatives' store was closed for the day, the general shop was filled with chattering strangers. If I hadn't been sure about my bearings, I could have sworn we had barged in an entirely different place.

"This...?" I looked around and found a few faces turn towards us.

One of the people standing around called out to Joren. "Monty boy, what're ya standing der for? Get in!"

"U-Uncle Fredrick," the boy stuttered, obviously surprised by the visitors. "Why are-"

"Joren? You there, son?" we heard Tabitha's voice through the chattering of the many adults and even some children. Her voice seemed like it had come from inside the actual house from behind the storefront.

Joren and I looked at each other in confusion, and then slowly made our way towards the house. He made hushed whispers as we went, "I don't know why my Da's siblings are here, ah! Even my grand-grand-grandmama is there... but, we can use this as a distraction, ye? The more my parents are occupied, the easier we can sneak out."

"Or the more eyes there could be to see us leaving," I whispered back realistically.

He was about to rebut me, but we had already arrived inside the main house. A shout came once again, "Joren, Eleftherion! Come up to the dining area now!"

We both sighed after exchanging some nervous looks. I told him, "Leave the talking to me."

"No!" he shouted through his teeth. "We could just leave, ya know! Or give them letters. Yeah, like you'll do with Farseer, right?! Let's do that!"

I sighed a bit and seeing his pleading look, I was about to agree when a tall figure appeared in our corridor with a flurry of her skirts. I managed to exclaim with a forced smile, "Aunt Tabitha, hi!"

Joren, unfortunately, was frozen stiff. His reaction didn't go past his mother's sharp eyes. "You boys seemed to be having quite an interesting conversation."

"Ah, hahahaha..." I let out an empty laugh, my right eye twitching.

"Well, don't just stand there," she said, smiling down at us with squinted eyes. "Come on in."

On our way, Joren kept pinching at my sides and kept giving me warning glares. He mouthed out, "Letters! Letters!".

When I've had enough of his panicking, I trudged on ahead of him and into the dining room.

A loud bang greeted me, and remembering the bandit's attack, I had poised myself to defend and fight back. Even though I haven't been practicing much with notes for almost a year, the instinct came upon me like a long-lost friend, and before long, I had conjured up a pure white ball of fire in between my hands.

'Tabitha?' I looked for her in a hurry, searching through the multi-color blasts of light... 'Wait, what?'

Finally getting a good look at the room, I realized the room was glittered with harmless lights, and standing around the table were Tabitha, Freud, and a young girl, who looked like she might be around 12.

No matter where I looked, there were no signs of danger. I soon saw the looks of surprise from the three when their sights set on my magic. Figuring my error, I immediately dispersed the magic into thin air.

I felt Joren come into the room and I was about to apologize when Tabitha thoughtfully carried on with whatever they were up to. She clapped a single time, and our attention turned towards her. "Congratulations in passing the entrance exams, Joren and Eleftherion!"

We stared as the three smiled and waved their hands about excitedly, as though nothing was wrong.

And, like a pin drop falling, Joren finally let out a loud sound from behind me— "EEHHHHHHH???"

He couldn't have portrayed my own surprise any better.