As the room went spinning Davis lost his orientation and stumbled backwards falling over the backpack. Gerrit knelt by his side at once, putting a hand on the back.  

“What’s wrong, Davis?” A hint of worry came through Gerrit’s voice, raising the blond guy’s eyebrow.  

Instead of answering directly Davis began rambling incoherently, with the occasional word being recognizable. While Gerrit squeezed Davis’s shoulder once more the Professor and his son observed quietly. After a few minutes and a lot of head shaking Davis finally got his nerves together to stop freaking out when looking at Loran.  

“Dad, who is this weirdo?” This was the first time Loran spoke up, not only looking almost exactly like his best friend but having the same voice too.  

Confused, again, Davis stood up from the ground and took a few steps to get closer. His right hand moved towards the face of his best friend, getting stopped when Gerrit realized what he was about to do.  

“Are you okay?” Their hands linger on each other a bit longer than comfortable for Davis. 

Not wanting to complicate the whole situation the boy tried to compose himself. It was only fair to explain it all to Gerrit later, when they were alone again.  

To break the uncomfortable silence that hung heavy in the room the Professor took the opportunity to take over the conversation.  

“As I have mentioned earlier, I am planning to have you share a room with my son Loran. He’s one year younger than Gerrit and a grade below. A rather fine student if I may say so myself. I’m getting sidetracked, though. We only have one more day of school followed by a two-week long break during which we will celebrate new year's. After those two weeks the headmaster wants to see that you understand the basics of magic and can perform like a fourth grader. Ideally, you’ll be placed in the same class as Loran. I talked to Loran already about helping you out, giving you a crash course during the holidays. He agreed...even though it took some time getting him on board.”  

Loran crossed his arm still not being entirely convinced about this. “What you didn’t tell me is, who is Davis? Why has he to stay in our guest room during the holidays?”  

Falling silent the Professor contemplated telling his son the whole story, how Davis had landed in this predicament. Thinking he wouldn’t believe it all, he came up with a different story.  

“Davis’s father is a good friend of mine who asked me to take care of his son and have him enrolled in Academia while he is away on a long journey to Unith.”  

Eyeing the newcomer suspiciously Loran nodded towards the door. “Let’s go then, roomie. I still got some homework to do. I’ll see you tomorrow, dad.”  

Speaking up again the Professor looks at Davis and tells him to come see him first thing in the morning after breakfast. Sensing the severe dampener on his friend’s mood Gerrit smiles and asks him if they want to eat breakfast in the morning together.  

While Davis swung his backpack over the shoulder he smiled back at Gerrit, nodding affirmative.  

Outside of the office, Loran immediately set a brisk pace, making sure he was always one step ahead of Davis. During the time it took them to get down one floor Loran didn’t say a word, opting for the silent treatment. It was rather obvious that he was unhappy about this sudden room arrangement.  

Compared to the rather oppulent office door of Professor L’Ordore this bedroom door looked boring and ordinary, considering the building it was in. One thing that stood out to Davis, though, was the beautifully carved room number. For most of the students it was just something like ‘floor 1 room number 84’ but to Davis the number had a different meaning. 18th April happened to be Maron’s birthday. Both of them made sure to celebrate each other’s birthday differently each year.  

Loran went inside the room first, leaving Davis smiling and tracing the eight carved in wood, following after racing his finger one round around the number. Seeing Davis being weird for the third or fourth time in the last ten minutes Loran just had to ask.  

“So what’s your deal, man?”  

Following into the room and closing the door, Davis took a look around the room. It was almost exactly like he had expected a boarding school room to be. Two beds, two bedside tables, two dresser, two wardrobes and surprisingly only one desk. Despite the first impression, everything seemed a bit more older, just like the rest of Academia. What surprised Davis the most about his new bedroom was the black and white photograph of little Loran and his family in front of an old villa looking building. Seeing the face of his best friend this young, memories came back when they were both that age. The most important one of that time was of one particular warm summer day, spent playing soccer in the park in a big group of random people. Back when just going up to other kids and asking to play soccer together brought you a whole afternoon of fun and shouting and joy. During the last match they played, Maron shot the last goal with Davis’s help. Overcome with joy both boys smiled and gave each other a bear hug. That was the day Davis fell in love with his best friend’s smile.  

While his new roomie spaced out, Loran grew a bit impatient. He crossed his arms, examining the dreamy look.  

Confused about some sudden throat clearing Davis turned around.  

“What do you mean? Your dad told you my story.”  

Laughing Loran could only shake his head in disbelief. “Your clothes don’t fit the least. Look at them. Those weird blue pants? Never seen them before.”  

Chuckling nervously, it was hard to think about a new lie. Way easier to just deflect with a sarcastic answer.  

“And you, the fashionista of Capitol, have seen every style of clothing that exists, am I right?” 

It almost felt like back home, shooting shit while playing games, pulling each other’s legs. 

"Of course I've seen every style of pants," Loran said, puffing up his chest and pointing up his nose, joining the playful banter. "I've lived in Capitol my whole life; this is the center of cultural exchanges!"  

“Oh really,” snorted Davis. “Tell me more, Mister Worldwide.” 

“People from all over the world come to Capitol. Either by ship or air ship. It’s also not a rarity to see someone fly in with a tamed gryphon. Wish I could fly on one some day. Can you imagine how awesome that would be?”  

In fact, Davis was already imagining loads of this. Seeing air ships for the first time, meeting his first magical animal, going on adventures with some elves. “I’m getting even more and more excited to see the big city.” 

“So only one more day of school. The day after tomorrow we go to your house?” Davis was genuinely curious how a boy’s room in this world looked like.  

“That’s what dad said,” Loran shrugged dismissing the thought of that.  

It was painfully obvious that they weren’t the best friends that grew up together, that fought and then talked it out a day later. Davis was just a stranger to Loran, someone who intruded into his life; his family. Loran knew exactly how his mother would react to some ‘stray’ boy that needs a place to stay.  

“It would be nice if you show me the city.” Hoping to reignite their friendship for a second time Davis tried to be as friendly as possible. “We got some time to get to know each other.”  

A small smile spread slowly across Loran’s lips. “Got to make the best of the situation.”  

During the pause, while they tried to figure out what to say next, Davis sat down his backpack on the free bed. Only one of the beds looked like it was made in the morning, the other like someone had just jumped out of it.  

“What time is it anyways?” Davis yawned, stretching his back.  

Pointing to the only desk in the room, the quiet tick tock of a mechanical alarm clock could be heard. It was almost seven pm on the spot while the seconds ticked by.  

“Lights out at 9. Unfortunately I was serious about that homework. My teachers love giving work for the holidays.” Loran rolled his eyes almost hard enough for Davis to think he might get dizzy himself.  

This made him chuckle a bit. “If it helps, it’s the same in my school too.” 

Curious, though, how homework in this world looked, Davis walked the two steps over to the desk where Loran just sat down. Surprisingly enough a math book was open.  

“You guys do math?”  

An incredulous sigh filled the room. “Duh. Of course we do math. Some of us still want to be architects or engineers.” For Loran this conversation was like speaking to a pre-school student.  

For some reason Davis was getting stumped by that revelation even though it should’ve been obvious that not every student would become an adventurer or a researcher of some kind. In the end it made a lot of sense.  

“Do you have engineering classes then? Gerrit told me your air ships run on crystals. I bet that bird dude is your teacher.”  

This caused Loran to let out a loud a hearthy belly laugh. “The only numbers that Mister Zieth can keep straight are dates and years. He’s history teacher. For mechanics our headmaster actually got a dwarf to plan the curriculum. If you’re lucky mechanics can be the most interesting lesson. There are also two human teachers.”  

“Is the dwarf teaching your class?”  

“Oh gods, yes. I’d fall asleep every class, if I had to listen to an old white haired guy explaining the way an airship keeps afloat. Dwarfs have a way to make every whirr and whiz exciting.”  

Not wanting to indulge in in boring math problems, Davis backed up to the headboard of his new bed, grabbing the basic spells book from his bag.  

When he saw, though, what his roommate was reading, Loran snorted out loud. 

"It’s true that you never had magical schooling. Didn’t you ever show signs of aptitude and got tested?”  

Putting a finger between the pages Davis looked over.  

“Never. I went to a regular school. Math, language, history, art and music. Nothing special like you do.”  

“Heh, learning art in school. What a weird concept.” 

Thinking it was cute for Loran to think of art classes as such an outlandish topic, Davis thought to himself, that there are much weirder concepts in this world. While Loran went back to concentrating on his homework, the boys fell into some light chatter.  

They talked about their families, what they liked to do outside of school and favorite foods. For Davis it proved hard to not drop videogames, sushi and chinese food or his father’s job in IT. When he kept on deflected Loran began prodding more and more.  

“Why won’t you talk about your father? You dislike him and his work too?” Loran asked smiling. “Shocking, I know. I absolutely detest his research”, he continued seeing Davis’s confused face. “Why won’t he just drop it alltogether? All that time he spent with Gerrit, his weird nickname and it never amounted to anything.”  

While talking, Loran got more agitated with every word. Thinking it would calm him down Davis tried to make the research more interesting.  

“Maybe he’ll get some results soo. Imagine how awesome those portals would be. You could hop into one and visit your mom in a second.”  

“Do you know for how long he is tried to make it happen?” spat Loran. “He can be glad my mother smuggled him into their barn all these years ago. I’m surprised he had time to fall in love with her to begin with!”  

The sudden outburst was rather startling. Up until this point Loran was a normal calm and collected teenager, just like Maron back home. This detest for his father’s work was exclusive to this version, making Davis curious about further differences in personality.  

“Sorry, I can’t say that I know how you’re feeling.” Not wanting to further this particular conversation Davis just kept reading about arcane constructs. Things made or conjured with arcane energy, like Gerrit’s butterflies or the clone.  

Stretching out his hand he started to imagine a one dollar note. The feeling of the material and as many of the details. Feeling beyond the air again there was a tingling in the palm of his hand. Unfortunately it was the same as with the mist in the glass. A barely visible shimmer appeared in the air, as if he was looking down a road on a particular hot summer day. All of the concentration dropped immediately when a gargantuan yawn announced itself. Davis had to yawn so hard that stars appeared in his vision.  

“Oh god, I’m tired.” 

Up until now his mind was always too occupied to even waste a second on thoughts of sleep.  

Getting up and stretching his back, Loran nodded to the door again. “Let me show you the bathroom.” 

Seeing a communal shower area was rather surprising. “Where do you get the water for showers?” 

“No worries, what do you think who built this place? I told you most dwarves are geniuses, except those who aren’t.” Loran’s laugh echoed in the tiled room.  

Back in their room Davis flopped on the bed, fixating his gaze on the ceiling. It felt so weird not being at home or at Maron’s, however many miley away from any part of the world he knew. Thinking about what happened that day tired his mind even more, whirling thoughts soon being replaced by a fitful sleep.