Death, Devotion, Dissonance

From then on, it didn't take long for Evin and his family to prepare. 

Ssatsko came back with Sasha to help out. The old man seemed to find something amiss with Theor, but seemed to shrug it off pretty quickly. Evin was still worried Theor would speak, but there was no way he could keep his eye on the man forever. But Endra assured him that it was okay, considering how fearful Theor acted before. 

They decided on a time to depart for the day after; and Evin flew back to Ankelite city to meet with Rith. The Cosmic surprised Evin by gifting him a Spatial Ring. Evin marveled at the object for a bit, before thanking Rith and sheepishly asking her why. She explained that it was a gesture of goodwill from the Cosmics to Evin. She reminded him to practice his portals daily and promised to meet him in Jiha town. 

He then got to his own preparations. He went to the Academy to gather his things, to pawn some of his World Shards for enough gold coins and happily put them inside his new Spatial ring. Evin took a peek inside it and found that it definitely wasn't small. The space inside was as big as his room that he shared with Arza, yet the Ring itself weighed barely more than a bracelet, even with everything inside it.

Sure, it was a bit inconvenient, since Evin could only fit in objects that were as big as the ring itself (which was the size of a man's head), but the pros definitely outweighed that one simple con. 

Evin then tried to find Sufia again, but like in the morning, he couldn't find the old woman. He decided to leave a message with Bella. 

The Chairman came to him with te observer from the kingdom. It turned out to be a female mage with a short, military-style, red hair, and a rather dull-colored armor. She was named Melayn and looked to be in her late 30s. She had this no-nonsense atmosphere around her, which gave her a very unapproachable vibe, but of course, that wasn't a problem to Evin, who wanted to keep his distance.

Melayn assured Evin that she was only there as a simple safeguard and nothing more. But what she was safeguarding for, she didn't explain. Evin didn't ask either, since he knew the answer anyway. He just told her to be in Jiha town tomorrow morning and they parted. 

Happily, Evin sorted all his stuff and went back to Jiha town. He checked on Theor, to see if he'd said anything, but nothing seemed to have happened. Theor looked at Evin with a look of panic, but Evin decided it was because of fear for Evin. Lora and Ssatsko were acting normally anyway. 

Then, Evin went back to Bella's house, wondering why Theor was so adamant on staying behind during the flight. Evin couldn't really get it. And honestly, he didn't really care for it either. 

He found Bella in her room and soon accepted he was going to spend the rest of the day in Bella's embrace. 

At first, they played with the idea of Bella coming with them, but both of them knew that it wasn't going to happen. Talking with Bella, Evin realized that she had definitely changed. She was sad about Evin's leave, but she was definitely taking it much better than Evin expected. Piqued, Evin asked her what happened, but she just shrugged and told Evin not to worry about it. 

Out of the blue, she then asked Evin who would be a good friend for her. Evin made a few jokes of her growing out of his care, but he did his best to help her. He was always saddened when he had to leave her alone knowing she'd be alone the entire time, while he was off to have a good time with his family. 

They ended up making a list of people they knew and started ranking them on how good of a friend they would be. It was childish, but Evin felt like he needed to do something like this once in a while. Eventually, they decided Daishan and Parsh were their best bets. They were friendly, reliable and terribly fun to be with. No one from the Academy could come close to the two of them. 

They also toyed with the idea of Bella making up with her sisters, but she felt like it was too late. She did beat Arelyn in front of Olevyn, and spent the next few years trying to stay away from them. 

Endra suddenly interjected at this point, calling Evin lucky for having Bella as his girlfriend. Willing to love, willing to understand, willing to change, and most importantly, with enough smarts to succeed in her determinations. 

Evin was startled, thinking that Endra was not listening to their conversation. The latter apologized, saying he didn't feel safe, thinking of the invisible High-mage possibly listening to their conversation. He was scouring the room every few minutes to make sure they were alone.

Evin replied that he was being paranoid now, but Endra only sighed and told Evin to focus on his girlfriend, make sure she won't miss him too much after he left. Or to make sure she missed him a lot. 

Evin didn't understand it completely. He didn't even ask what Endra meant when talking about Bella. He put Endra out of his mind, and tried his best to pretend he wasn't there. It wasn't that hard, he had a lifetime to practice, after all. But he did decide to keep the kissing to a minimum.

Bella then decided to spend more time with the Mage Guards. They joked about what kind of friend Komarokh would make for Bella, but she smiled triumphantly, saying the old northerner was already her best friend. It was just that she was only now realizing the fact.

Evin smiled, and they then started talking about random topics. Then they started kissing, and at some point, they fell to slumber in each other's arms. 

*****

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