“She left without you. How was your lesson at the academy?” 

Quinn owned the shack and luxury hidden home Gust stayed at. She was one of the five heroes of the rune wars sixty years ago. She’s a Faver that has lived here in Berkan all her life, and she taught at the academy. She taught the class Gust was in today. She knew exactly how the lesson went.

“I’m pretty sure you want your entire class to fail.” Gust said.

Quinn was the master tactician of the war and was the leading scholar on runificery at Berkan’s upper academy. She was famous, and ruthless, but she took him in when Gust and his best friend, Heron, left Perth.

“That’s only partially true. I want some people to fail my class. You won’t, but it’s amusing to see even you struggle.” She cleared the table. “Vera should be back soon. You are very late.” Gust gulped. He hadn’t missed a run with his sister, Vera for months.

“Quinn, you ever heard of the temperature changing when someone enters an area?”

She raised one wrinkly eyebrow. Quinn was approaching eighty-four and sharply intelligent. “I’d expect a more difficult question. You should know this.”

Gust sighed. “I’m not talking about entering a room with a rune specifically heating or cooling an area. I’m talking about outside.”

“It’s impossible for a single rune to control the temperature in one area. Perhaps extremely localized, or a specific surface, but there are too many factors to temperature control outdoors to properly syntax that out. Only an Eruli could control an area, but they would have to actively be using their affinity.

Lucifer was sleeping. “So, you’re saying it’s impossible?”

“As far as I’m aware.”

How did Lucy do it then? It had to be him. There was no one else in the area. His pale skin matched with other Eruli, but then why was he with Ferek? 

The door slammed open. Gust jumped so high he thought he would hit the ceiling.

“GUST!” He began running, but he was not warmed up. Vera caught him just before he made it to the stairs. “Backyard. Now.”

“He has a project this week. Don’t be too harsh,” Quinn called out as Vera dragged a reluctant Gust into the yard.

Vera was barely shorter than Gust. Their matching black  hair was wavy, but hers was tied into a ponytail. In her running top and bottoms, her muscles and scars showed. She worked as a Guide, a state pseudo-mercenary program. Guides were both soldiers and area guides. They were often assigned an area and hired to navigate merchants, individuals and people through any dangers present from one point to another. Back in Perth, Gust ran in the mornings and had a decent body work-out. Here, Vera forced him into her regimen.

“Where were you.”

Distracted by a beautiful boy, I fell asleep and thought I was going to be killed by a massive Horimir. “I lost track of time.”

“Well, since you lost track of time, you are going to find time to be my practice partner.”

“Please no, can’t you wait for Heron?” Heron was officiated as a Guide soon after we arrived in Berkan.

“Nope. He’s gotta work for approval. You though,” She tossed protective gear his direction. “Get the joy of practicing with me.”

Gust’s forte was not hand-to-hand. Compared to Vera, he didn’t have a forte. She was built for this. Gust was distracted during his thrashing. Instead of blocking, dodging, and trying to strike at Vera’s non-existent weak points, he was wondering how best to find that boy again. 

Vera knocked him onto his back. Instead of yielding he asked, “Vera, do you know of any Horimir in the city?”

She scoffed. “If you’re trying to get me to spar with one of the Horimir, you really don’t value my life.” 

“So there are a few in Berkan?”

“There’s always a few at least. Mostly an envoy or a random traveler. We do keep track of the other races that enter, or at least the Guardians do.”

Guardians were new to the Berkan soldier line-up. Guardians ‘guarded’ specific points in the world and were the Guide’s back-up. They were the best of the best in Berkan. 

“What about a big one with pitch black scales, very curly hair, a permanent scowl and a sword no one this side of the mountains would have?”

“Horimir are still human, Gust.”

“Right, sorry.”

“Also, we don’t keep that in depth a description. Sounds like they’ll be easy to spot though.”

“Yea. Can we be done.” He didn’t feel like taking another kick. 

“You seem off. I can be done kicking your ass. Don’t miss another run, ok?”

“Ok.”

-

Earlier that afternoon

-

“Why were you so mean!.” Lucifer shouted at Ferek as they walked away from the fountain gardens. 

Ferek rolled his eyes. “Cause you can’t avoid trouble and haven’t realized that people here don’t like us.”

“But he was so cute,” Lucifer pouted. He couldn’t stop thinking how cute Gust’s stutter was, or that his body felt strong and toned. His skin was cool to the touch, but then again, everyone’s skin was cool to the touch for him. Still, Gust’s olive skin felt different somehow. “He seemed kind too.”

“And like he’d use you,” Ferek countered. “Finding you when you walk-off somewhere is hard enough. Last thing I need is for me to rescue you from some punk.”

Lucifer knew Ferek meant well. Since they’d crossed the mountains and arrived in Berkan, they were constantly treated as outsiders. Horimir aren’t often seen on this side.  Back home, at least, only Lucifer was strange. Here, both of them were foreigners.

“The people here aren’t so bad,” Lucifer said. “They’re just scared. You barely speak their language.” Language wasn’t the main reason Ferek stood out. Amongst the Horimir, Ferek was considered small. Here, he towered over the Faver on the streets. His scales were pitch black and shined. He was no Guide or Guardian and carried a sword wherever he went. Wherever they went together, Ferek scared everyone away. It didn’t help that Ferek worked as a hired guard to keep a roof over their head. 

“I don’t like it here,” Ferek said, shyly. “I thought it was bad at home, but here I don’t even understand what they’re saying.”

Lucifer smiled up at him and hung onto Ferek’s arm. “We’ll work on it.” Lucifer made the area around them warmer. He felt a chill on his spine and held it there. The discomfort was worth making Ferek more comfortable in the heat. It would feel more like home to him. “I found this really good book at the Academy, but they wouldn’t let me…”

Someone bumped into him. He switched languages seamlessly/ “Oh, I’m sorry I’ll…”

“Silver hair,” Ferek said and stopped.

The silver haired man did not stop. He seemed to be in a hurry.

“Ferek, did you catch his face, did you see if he looked like..” Lucifer stopped. Ferek was crying. “We came to the right place then, didn’t we.”

“Yes, we did.”