The storm hits Gimma hard this night.

It had been brewing all day near the mountains, just looming, piling up and getting darker by the hour... before it plunged into the valley like an avalanche.

The storm rattles the doors and the blinds like a drunk trying to get in by any means. There’s wheezing and moaning and the occasional creaking, and Benji hates it with all his might.

He moves quickly and checks every nook and every room, but there’s nobody to be found.

“Where is he?” he mutters, and flits to the next room near the rear stairs.

The Fledglings are huddled in the calefactory with some mages and the Headmaster. There’s crying and shushing, and Benji knows they try really hard to be brave, but it’s difficult for the little ones when the outside world seems to be tearing your home apart.

The Pages aren’t allowed to roam the cloister, especially now, when debris can strike you in the open corridors, but he’s desperate and beyond worried, so he keeps on moving. Benji sticks close to the inner walls and flinches at the occasional rumble of thunder. The bizarre shadows cast on the walls by the accompanying thunderbolts resemble the monsters of his worst nightmare.

When he’s finally able to pry his eyes away from the walls, he sees people in long cloaks running his way. They yell something but he can’t hear it through the deafening screams and rumbles of Mother Nature. Just when he’s close enough to see their worried faces, he thinks it might have been better to run the other way.

Aik immediately shoves him into a corner and stares at him with brown and blue eyes.

Angry.

Worried.

But most of all, furious. “The fuck are you doing out here? Why aren’t you with the Fledglings?”

He is fuming and Benji gets it, but… “I can’t find him!”

His brother’s eyes soften, and he shakes his head. “Go up and stay with the Fledglings. Em’s gonna pick up Kuo.”

Benji looks behind Aik to see that the other Mage has already vanished into the thundering storm.

Aik’s grip doesn’t loosen as he drags him to the outer corridor towards the stairs. And then Benji sees them. Outside of the monastery, drowning in rain and hail, stands Embry, unmoving and tightly wrapped around his Page like a shield.

It’s almost... peaceful.

Sometimes Kuo is weird. Like he’s never seen things before. Snow, hail… certain plants. And then he does weird things.

Like walking around in the snow in wonderment with bare feet or standing in the middle of a storm.

They probably all new things for the Page from the south, but the way he approaches them will likely kill him one day.

Aik tugs on his jacket, dragging him along. “Don’t worry. They’ll be fine.”

When Benji glances back, the odd pair is still standing in the rain, unmoving and unwilling to give in. “Yeah, I know.”