Niko was reading in the second-floor lobby of their department building when Shane walked right up to him, a friendly smile on his face.

“Hey!” He greeted.

Niko managed a smile of his own. 

“Hey. Done for the day?”

“Yep. You?”

“Yeah.”

Niko stood up and stowed his book back into his sling bag. He managed to get through four chapters while waiting – which was amazing, because for the last few months, he’s only been able to make about one or two pages worth of progress in a week. 

Maybe it was the nerves…?

It was definitely the nerves, he decided. He couldn’t remember anything from the pages he had read.

“Should we get going?” Shane asked.

“Yeah – oh, unless you have other things that need doing? I can wait.”

Shane glanced over his shoulder. Niko noticed the way his shoulders tensed, the way his hands curled into fists at his side. He immediately wished that he hadn’t said what he had said. It didn’t seem like the right direction to take their conversation in.

“... Nah, I’m good. We’re good” Shane replied with a noncommittal shrug.

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

So they went.

Niko didn’t have much to say, so he mostly kept quiet and to himself the entire way. It wasn’t a comfortable silence by any means; he could feel a visceral sort of discomfort in the air, the kind that lingered in clinic waiting rooms and classrooms filled with parents ten minutes before the general PTA meeting was set to start. It felt like Shane wanted him to say something, anything.

But he didn’t want to say anything. He didn’t have anything to say.

He didn’t know how he was going to talk to Shane because they haven’t had enough conversations for him to know when to joke and how to joke and how to hold a simple civil conversation. They weren’t there yet. He didn’t know how to get there. 

“Ah,” Niko winced, holding a hand up to his chest. He was breathing too hard and too fast again.

“Does it hurt?” Shane asked. It sounded equal parts concerned and awkward, as if he didn’t know if he should be asking that question.

“Yeah. Sometimes.”

“Oh…”

“Are you doing okay?” 

Niko didn’t want to continue the conversation, but it seemed like the only thing he could say that wouldn’t result in uncomfortable silence.

“I’m okay. Ish. My injury doesn’t bother me unless I accidentally forget it’s there and like, stretch a little too vigorously.”

“Mm. I feel you. This morning I tried stretching my arms and hurt myself twice over.”

Shane laughed. Then he stopped and slapped a hand over his mouth, an embarrassed bit of red biting into his cheeks.

“Sorry…”

Niko smiled. “It’s okay.”

I think it was meant to be funny, he wanted to say. But it sounded so dumb in his head that he decided against it.

He tried to think of something else to say, but nothing was coming. The quiet between him and Shane returned with a vengeance, and it stayed firmly in place all the way until they reached their destination.

“Um,”

Shane stopped walking and met his unsteady gaze.

“Yeah?”

“Do you, um… Do you want to get a drink, before we go up? We could stop by Moonshine.”

Shane looked confused for a moment. He glanced around, as if in search of something. Niko glanced around too. There wasn’t really anything worth noting around them – except, perhaps, for Eden Floristry, the shop that Shane worked at. It was sitting quietly along the corner across the street, a batch of freshly-picked flowers sitting in a row of vases displayed in the store window. Niko could kind of see Agila bustling about from where he stood. There was another worker too, one with blonde hair and baby pink highlights. Niko didn’t recognize them. Maybe they were new?

“Do you want to go say hi?” He offered.

Shane shook his head. “Kuya Agila is working. I don’t want to disturb them.”

“Okay.”

“I’m good on drinks too, by the way.” He added quickly. “I mean, I’m okay. I’m not thirsty or anything. We can go up to the office right away.”

Niko nodded.

The office of the Hunters’ Guild trainees was on the third floor of one of the many red-brick buildings that sat along Indie Lane. It sat above a first-floor bakery and the second-floor café called Moonshine (where Niko worked). As they made their way up the stairs, the smell of fresh bread and coffee followed them the entire way. 

“... Niko?” Shane called out.

“Hm?”

“Is – Apart from your supervisor, who else is going to be at the meeting?”

Good question.

Niko stopped, taking a moment to consider. Was there anyone else who would be coming…? No one had said anything in their group chat, and there wasn’t any urgent summons for the other trainees, so it was unlikely that any of them were actually invited to this meeting.

“Maybe Kuya Fletcher and Gray,” he replied.

“Oh.”

Niko tilted his head to one side. “Don’t want to see them?”

“No, no that’s not it…” Shane sighed. It sounded a little heavy. “I mean, I don’t know. Maybe I don’t. It feels kind of weird.”

Niko felt like he should have said something then. But what was there to say? He didn’t couldn’t really sympathize with the situation (even though he always felt like his interactions with everyone fell under the “feels kind of weird” spectrum), and it seemed a little pretentious to openly say that he could understand where Shane was coming from. So in the end, he kind of just hummed and continued walking.

He felt like such an asshole for that, but it was preferable to feeling like an asshole because he said something awful. One evil or another, or something.

“Are the other trainees coming to the office?” Shane continued.

“Mm… I think Ferrell’s off school now, so he might be there. And I think Peach said she was going to try catching up with Mikael.

“Ah. Okay.”

The office sat at the furthest corner of the right-hand corridor on the third floor. A brass panel with the words, “Prometheus Private Detective Agency” was screwed onto the door just above a small frosted glass panel. Niko could see the silhouette of someone moving around inside the room – and he could hear them, too. He could hear violin music creeping out from under the door. Slightly muffled, but definitely there.

“Yeah, Ferrell’s in.” Niko proclaimed.

Shane arched an eyebrow. “You can tell?”

“Yep. That’s him playing.”

Niko knocked twice before opening the door. 

The music came to a gentle stop as they walked in.

“Hey, Gee.” Ferrell greeted as he hoisted himself up to sit on top of his desk. It was one of eight tables that had been set up in two neat lines along the main office space. His black-dyed hair was pushed back and damp, like he had just finished taking a shower.

“Hey.” Niko waved.

“Hey Fer,” Shane smiled.

“Hey. Doing okay?”

“More or less.”

Niko closed the door behind Shane before making his way towards Ferrell.

“What’re you up to?”

“Messing around.” Ferrell replied. “Eliza asked me to do some backing instrumentals for the new song she’s working on.”

“Which one?”

“The one with the funky bass.”

“Very descriptive.”

Ferrell got into position and played a few notes in quick succession. They were lively and fast, the kind of melody that he had always been fond of playing. It sounded like the beginning of a sea shanty. Niko somewhat recognized the melody he was playing, but it wasn’t enough for him to actually be able to tell which song Ferrell was talking about. 

“I think the working title was ‘Falling Out’.” Ferrell said. He set his violin down on his knee and put his bow on the table.

“Ah. Yeah, okay. I do know that song.”

“Are you writing for it?”

“No.”

I told Eliza I wouldn’t write anything until our thesis issue was resolved, he was about to say.

But he didn’t really want to talk about it at the moment. So he decided to just leave it at that and hope that Ferrell didn’t ask any further questions. 

“Anyway,” he quickly continued, “has Miss Maeve arrived?”

“Yeah. She got in like half an hour ago. I reckon you can go see her now. She’s in the conference room with Kuya Fletcher.”

Niko turned to Shane. “Want to go? We can wait a little longer,”

“Nah, let’s go. It’s fine.”

“Alright.”

“Catch you later,” Ferrell waved. 

“See you.”

Shane followed behind him as he wove past two other empty desks and walked up to a side door that had been left slightly ajar. He knocked twice, then he pushed the door open.

“Excuse me,” he prefaced.

“Oh! Niko, I was just wondering when you were going to arrive.”

Sitting at the head of a long conference table was Maevis Sarangerel, his training supervisor. She was still wearing her traveling cloak, and the bun she was keeping her curly blond hair in was starting to come apart, several stray locks framing her face and clinging to the sides of her neck.

“Good afternoon, Miss Maeve.” Niko ducked his head politely. “Hey, Kuya Fletcher.”

“Hey.” Fletcher waved. He was standing by one of the windows and staring at the maundy gray sky outside with a frown.

“Take a seat, we were just talking about the arrangements for your trip.”

“Trip?” Shane blurted out.

Maeve turned to her, an apologetic smile gracing her face. “Oh, hello Shane. I didn’t see you there, I’m terribly sorry.”

“Hello…”

“Yes, I’m afraid the person who can give you the cure won’t be able to make the trip up to Sibol. You’re going to have to meet them down in Nethervane.”

“Nethervane?” Niko and Shane blurted out at the same time.

There was a sudden pause. Outside, the rain started coming down. It was the first time it had rained since the incident. It came gentle this time, like the quiet hiss of a middle schooler trying to quiet down their friend as they sat gossiping in the school library.

“... Grief.” Fletcher clicked his tongue in dismay.

“Please, sit.” Maeve gestured to the many empty chairs that were waiting at the table. “I can explain to you in detail what’s going on.”

Niko drifted over to the nearest chair and sat down. Shane chose the seat next to him – which shouldn’t have felt strange, but it did. JHe just resolved not to let it obviously bother him in case Shane noticed him squirming.

“After hearing news of the incident, I immediately contacted Gray’s associate in Nethervane.” Maeve began, sorting through the documents that had been laid out on the table in front of her. “Theo, who also oversaw Gray’s treatment, was willing to cooperate with us. However, the actual person with the cure is currently on leave from the Xientha and won’t be back for at least another two months.”

“... Oh,” Niko could feel the color draining from his face.

“I tried to ask if there was any alternative to sending you to Nethervane, but Theo said that he had no way of contacting this person while they’re away, and to make the journey out to Ahal to meet them would take no less than four days. If they were to journey out there just to bring them to Ahal, it would take a little over a week.”

“But the trip is shorter if we go directly?” Shane sounded dubious.

“There’s a fissure just outside of Pamana’s city limits that leads to the outskirts of Ahal.” Fletcher explained. “From there, it’s apparently just a three-hour trip to wherever you need to go.”

Niko did the math as quickly as he could. He wasn’t very good at math, though. Even simple math like eight plus three.

“So if we went… It would take us less than a day?” Shane said.

“Definitely less than a day.”

“But perhaps not less than fifteen hours.” Maeve pointed out. “Traveling through a fissure isn’t the same as going by silkway. You’ll have to manually navigate the path down.”

“Does… Will Gray be coming?”

Maeve nodded. “They’re the only one who knows how to traverse that fissure.”

“I’m coming too. For moral support.” Fletcher added.

Shane leaned back in his chair – but he clearly wasn’t relaxing. He was still sitting rigidly in his seat.

Niko took the whole thing quietly. He didn’t really know how to react; of course it wasn’t great that they were going to have to travel all the way down to Nethervane, but considering how it would take them less than a day to get to where they needed to go, he supposed it wasn’t that bad. Or at least it didn’t seem that bad. Niko’s standards for awful were very hard to meet even in the worst of times, though. So he didn’t think his opinion on the matter meant anything.

Shane glanced at him, almost as if he was waiting for Niko to say something. Niko looked back. He didn’t have anything to say. He didn’t know what Shane was expecting from him.

What? What is it?

“... At any rate, things aren’t final yet.” Maeve interjected. “We’ll wait a few days before sorting everything out. Then we’ll just call you back to the office to confirm everything.”

“Wait. Am I allowed to make a request?” Shane asked.

“Of course. What is it?”

“Can we… please hold off the trip until after exams?”

There was a jilted pause.

Niko looked between Maeve and Fletcher. They both looked taken aback by what Shane had said, as if it was the last thing in the world that they were possibly expecting to hear. He wasn’t sure why that was. He thought it was a perfectly reasonable request, all things considered. Finals were a delicate time for all students at all levels.

“... Um, so you’re willing to wait a week to seek treatment?” Maeve clarified.

“I am.” 

“I am too.” Niko agreed. “If that’s not too much to ask.”

“It isn’t. Actually, it would give us a bit more time to make the arrangements, so waiting until the end of the week is all right.”

“Are you sure you[‘ll be alright until then, though?” Fletcher arched an eyebrow.

Niko and Shane glanced at each other.

“... I think we’ll be fine.” Niko replied.

And he meant it. Maybe. He meant it as much as he could mean it, at any rate. (Which wasn’t much, but it had to account for something.)

Maeve glanced behind her. Hung up on the wall was a monthly calendar. The first three numbers of the month had already been crossed out with black marker.

“So… I’ll expect you two to be back by the tenth, is that right?”

“Yes.” Shane nodded.

“Alright, then.” Maeve smiled. It seemed more like a polite gesture than anything. “See you then.”