Matt had never even imagined the possibility of a city so lively.

  He and Rachel walked briskly through the artisan district, circling around the High School’s sizable grounds before plunging into the city through a small park. Children and their parents played together on the wooden play structure and in the surrounding grass, shouting and laughing boisterously. As they left the park behind, the action became more strictly choreographed - people rushing from one place to another, stopping fleetingly at occasional shops and restaurants, and generally all seeming to have somewhere to be. Rachel and Matt matched their pace, though it was still relaxed enough to allow for conversation.

  “You really think Tassel’s going to spend five hours at the library?” Matt asked.

  Rachel shook her head. “I don’t think he’ll even spend five minutes there. He’ll find an excuse.”

  “And do what instead?” Matt slipped through a closing gap between two pedestrians, forcing Rachel to skip around them and catch up.

  “I wish I knew,” Rachel sighed. She dodged an oncoming gaggle of teenagers, brushing up against Matt’s side in the process. “He did the same last night.”

  Matt frowned, turning to face her. “He what?”

  “You didn’t notice?” Rachel wondered. “I only checked once, but I don’t think he went for a midnight stroll. Something’s going on with him.”

  “Something’s always going on with him,” Matt grumbled. “I don’t like him.”

  Rachel caught his arm and steered him into a small cafe that smelled strongly of sweet pastry. Before their conversation could continue, she ordered for both of them and led him out to a little wooden table on the brick-cobbled street. Strangely, Rachel greeted the baker with a Yai, shem instead of a simple hello, but she seemed to make herself understood just fine.

  “Yai, shem?” Matt asked once they had sat down.

  Rachel smiled. “Restaurants overcharge travelers. Wherever you go in Lyrian, learn the dialects.”

  “What else should I know?” Matt asked. “You know, if we get separated or something.”

  Rachel leaned over and thanked the server, who handed them two deep-red teas in simple wooden cups. Once again, she used a foreign phrase: Lay, lay.

  “I’m assuming that meant thanks?” Matt inquired.

  “More, um,” Rachel paused, searching for the proper translation. “You have made my day.”

  “So you were hitting on her,” Matt inferred.

  Rachel laughed awkwardly. She said something, but it was lost in Matt’s sudden joy that he had found humanity in her. Maybe this morning hadn’t been a fluke - maybe she actually had a heart underneath her maximum-security skin.

  “Drink your tea before it gets cold,” Rachel insisted. “It works better when it’s hot.”

  “What is it?” Matt countered, raising it to his nose and inhaling slowly. It smelled familiar, but he couldn’t quite figure out why.

  Rachel smiled. “You’ll see.”

  Matt, having never been a tea drinker, cautiously sipped the fruity liquid. It had a sour tang to it, bearing a similar taste to ripe crabapples. It reminded him, somehow, of his first day in Lyrian, hiking in awkward silence up the Telkron River.

  “The energy berries,” Matt realized.

  “Took you long enough,” Rachel said, though her voice lacked its usual sharpness. “I figured we might need it today.”

  Matt frowned. “For a regular day out?”

  Rachel paused as the server came back to serve a pair of oblong pastries shaped like little canoes and stuffed with swirling green cream. She thanked the server again in her dialect, then turned back to Matt, leaving her dessert untouched. “You really thought we were just going to spend the day out on the town together.”

  Something crumbled in Matt’s chest, forcing him to drop his gaze to his food. “I’d have liked that.”

  “Hey, no,” Rachel breathed, softening her voice and leaning forward. “I’m sorry. I didn’t…”

  Matt sighed and shook his head. “Just tell me what we’re doing.”

  Rachel leaned back and brought her canoe to her mouth. The cream was much firmer than Matt had expected, and it didn’t dribble over her shirt at all when the front of the pastry crumbled to buttery pieces and fell like autumn leaves all over the table. Matt, assuming the conversation was, once again, prematurely over, he took a much more careful bite of his dessert and resigned his mind to wander aimlessly. Sadly, the dessert did not cooperate with him any more than it did with Rachel.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Tassel left us last night,” Rachel hissed. “He probably left Lana as soon as we left his line of sight. I want to know where he’s going.”

  Matt wrinkled his nose. “It’s always about Tassel, isn’t it?”

  Rachel took another bite of her canoe. This time, the cream hid a small reservoir of red jam that leaked out of the pastry and dripped onto her plate. “Yep. We chose the company of a wizard, we deal with the consequences.”

  Matt scoffed. “Who’s we? I don’t ever recall signing a waiver before he snuck into our hotel room.”

  “We could have-”

  “You could have,” Matt interrupted. “You chose to follow him, not me. You-”

  “Tassel would have tracked me down again no matter where we ran,” Rachel insisted. “I know when I’m outmatched. You could have left me.”

  “You made it clear that was a stupid idea,” Matt countered.

  Rachel crumpled in exasperation. “I know you have no good options right now. The whole point of staying with Tassel is to find you one.”

  You. Not us. You.

  “To find me one,” Matt mumbled. “You’re giving up on finding Jason. Already.”

  Rachel threw her hands skyward. “I’m trying to say I get it! I have a good option. Tassel can teach me more than I could ever know. I can use him to find Jason. I know enough about this world to make it alone. You just… don’t.”

  Matt, abstaining from a response that would only drive the wedge between them deeper, quickly finished his dessert. It tasted fine, but the magic of it had long since been smothered. He had known this whole thing might be a huge mistake. Leaving Fortaim, even leaving Earth - he had done it in hopes of finding his friend. He had left in hopes of finding a happier life than he had left behind.

  He had not understood how much further he could fall.

  Rachel took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Look. I really am sorry. I didn’t… I expected to have found him by now.”

  Matt did not reply. He didn’t need to.

  “He was- is- a pretty important person,” Rachel continued. “Someone you could find by asking any nobleman. At least, he was when I left. Now…”

  Matt frowned. “It’s hardly been a month. How could anything have changed?”

  Rachel cast her eyes downward. “I don’t know. I… haven’t thought to try.”

  Disappointment racked Matt’s gut. “You must even know where he lives. What the hell, Rachel? What am I even here for?”

  He wanted to cry. He, more than ever, wanted to just get up and leave. Screw Rachel and Tassel and all their stupid intrigues. He could find Jason on his own. He would.

  “You’re here because I couldn’t bear to do any of this alone,” Rachel mumbled, running her clawed hands through her hair.

  “You’re not alone,” Matt sighed bitterly. “You have Tassel.”

  “I don’t know,” Rachel reasoned. “Tassel is no friend of mine.”

  Matt pushed himself away from the table and stood up, looking back at Rachel as he turned towards the street.

  “Neither am I,” he said, and before he could second-guess himself, he steeled his resolve and walked away from the little cafe, leaving Rachel behind.

  Rachel did not follow.

  Matt gradually increased his pace, taking random turns in hopes of disappearing into the city, letting it swallow him like plankton into a whale. His mind ground to a halt as he walked, catching constantly on a pervasive darkness, disappointment, betrayal. Rachel had never cared if he found Jason. She had just wanted company until she found the first goddamn person who would rid her of his chains.

  So, no matter how long it took, how difficult it would be, how dangerous - Matt would find his friend.

  Then, and only then, would they go looking for Rachel again.

  If Tassel would let her live.

  Shit.

  Cursing himself for caring for those around him, Matt spun a one-eighty and took off at a brisk walk back towards the cafe where he had left Rachel. He bustled past a young couple looking up at a carved fountain in the shape of a flock of swans, throwing a half-hearted apology over his shoulder but not slowing down. He noticed less about the streets around him now that he had a goal. The smells became fleeting, the sights unimportant, the people faceless.

  He did, however, notice when he stopped remembering any of the landmarks.

  He muttered a curse under his breath and turned around again, searching for the last place he had known. A row of multicoloured buildings caught his eye, but the colours were wrong. He needed to find a restaurant on the left - one with green painted chairs on a sizable outdoor patio. He would turn left there, then left, then right, and…

  Great. Rachel would be long gone by the time Matt found his way back to the cafe, and then he would still have the slight inconvenience of remembering how to get back to the High School. Sighing defeatedly, he slowed his pace and strolled along the street, letting the sparse conversations around him wash over him. He heard only snippets - a conversation about birdwatching, a hushed argument between two plumbers, a joke he didn’t understand. He heard no mention of Tassel, or of Jason, or of anyone else he knew.

  Somehow, it was hard to stomach that everyone here, in this alternate dimension to his own, all led lives of their own. It was just another unwelcome reminder that finding Jason alone would be tantamount to searching for a coin in a field of wheat. Without a huge stroke of luck, all he could really do was hope.

  And, he had exactly forty-six drooma remaining in his possession. How far that would get him in a big city, he had no idea.

  So, although he hated himself for it, he set off once more in search of Rachel. If he got lost again, he still had four hours to find his way back to the High School.

  Maybe he would do that instead. Maybe he and Lana could rid themselves of Rachel and Tassel and lead a normal life for a while.

  Maybe that would change Rachel’s mind.

  Matt spun on his heel and changed course, setting off towards the High School.