28 The Council of Sages

Needless to say, they'd made a grand entrance that caught everyone's attention. For a fleeting second, Reed contemplated the prospect of living the rest of existence as a hermit in some distant region of the world. Better to live under a rock like a lowly crustacean than suffer the embarrassment he was feeling right now, he considered.

Lu'um scoffed and gave him a heavy-handed slap on the ass. Reed jumped up in surprise and scowled at her, furious that he'd been assaulted without a justifiable reason. The girl's actions spoke more than enough; she would not tolerate back-talk, much less an ounce of disrespect from him.

Reed's classmates who'd been minding their own business before Lu'um burst into the dorms watched the events unfold with bulging eyes. Many of them were having a difficult time processing what they'd seen. A select few among them were even privy to the truth; they understood what his return would signal.

Not only that, he'd come back with company. Who was she and why was she with him? What was her relationship with him? She looked awfully familiar with him if their first impressions of her were to be believed...

Rumor was that he'd gone missing in some unfortunate mishap; Many of them now felt that this theory was completely wrong. It was clear that he was fine; some would even say he was faring rather well as they eyed the mysterious, gallant girl...

Astor choked on his breakfast when he saw Reed and roughly coughed several times until he spat out the lodged piece of bread that'd gotten stuck in his throat. Horatio's eyes shot out of their sockets as he gawked at Reed; Sebastian rubbed his eyes in disbelief again and again...

Astrid and Ophelia were stunned but focused more on the lovely girl than Reed himself as their eyes flickered.

Reed rubbed his head and an empty laugh left his lips. He trembled a bit and said, "How's it going, guys... been a while, huh?"

Horatio and Astor made short work in dragging them away from the prying gazes that befell them. The dynamic duo was promptly sequestered in Astor's room once the initial shock faded away. It went without saying that celebrations were in order since their beloved friend had seemingly returned from the beyond.

They made many hugs and jokes; merrymaking was afoot in the small room — it was a special occasion.

Even the stoic Horatio broke into a rare smile as they enjoyed themselves, binging on Astor's 'special rations' — exquisite chocolates and alcohol — made by the Maotote people of the Far West, the closest relatives to the ancient Mulians, some speculated.

It was well known that these individuals were among the first to settle on Mulia's soil an undetermined number of years ago. Even now, contemporary anthropologists didn't know how far back this specific subgroup of humans had been here.

The current interpretation of the archaic language of the Mu stemmed from the contributions they made; without their assistance, it was widely thought that the first races that arrived would have suffered a great deal more than they did.

For these reasons, they earned immense respect and were permitted an autonomous reign of their own in a specific territory in the West. A sacred area of virgin land that has remained untouched for millennia — even before the four empires emerged.

Lu'um was especially delighted when Astor brought out the uncommon confections and gazed at them with a curious twinkle in her eye. She broke into a sweet smile as she savored the taste and entered her own little world, once again in her usual fashion.

Astor chuckled and slung his arm around Reed in a skillful way as if it belonged there. He could no longer hold himself in check and asked, "So, buddy... you gonna tell us how you met Maya, yet?" He pulled Reed even closer and held him a half-assed neck lock. "You sly dog, you! Heh, you acted so innocently back then, but look at you now..."

Reed shook his head and said, "It's not what it looks like, man, she's just a bit physical when it comes to horseplay. We're just good friends is all, I swear."

Astor didn't buy it all and sneered in disbelief. He released Reed and replied, "Yeah, yeah, if that's the story you wanna go with, I won't question it. I'm no boor."

Can men and women be "just friends"? An important question that received a broad range of answers from both sides of the table. Astor had a firm opinion on what his answer was; he smirked as he popped a chocolate into his mouth.

Astrid and Ophelia remained silent and glared daggers at Astor, but he played the part of the fool and acted oblivious.

Horatio took the opportunity to ask the most pertinent question and said, "Where have you been, Reed? We've heard many things about your disappearance, you know. Since we all have closer ears to the higher echelons of society if you catch my drift. Heard a lot of wild stuff about... you." He paused stiffly and let his sentence drift off into the room that'd gone mute.

It wasn't as if they wanted to force the truth out of their companion, but they still wished to know if what they heard over the last several months was true.

Reed mulled over the query with great frustration; he wished to tell them the truth, but at the same had the old goat's advice buzzed in his head. He turned to look at Lu'um and she did was shrug indifferently — either she didn't care about the topic, or was unconcerned with Reed's dilemma — something that pissed him off.

Astrid said, "Look, it's alright if you don't want to talk about it, or if you can-" Reed stopped her with a raised hand and sighed.

"Ahh, whatever. I trust you guys, so it's fine if I tell you what happened. Just make sure to not break my faith, or the old man will literally kill me — I mean it," said Reed.

Reed slowly tapped his left foot, let out a soft groan, and said, "Where do I even begin? I'll need to tell you all a bunch of other stuff in order for it all to make sense." He revealed to them many things they never knew about him: his supernatural talent with Anima, the fact he'd already reached the cusp in comprehending how to exploit space-time. His unexpected journey into the void... and the temporal displacement he encountered on the way back home...

In the end, Reed kept his mouth shut when it came to Maya; that's where he drew the line. He felt bad, but couldn't risk telling them the truth. Not even Axtorius knew the real truth. Reed fed them the concocted story that the old goat had instructed him to repeat and apologized to them inside his heart. That was all he could do...

By the time he finished regaling them with his adventure into the abyss, they'd all gone pale as the snow that lay outside. Various expressions of shock, disbelief, amusement, and joy flashed upon their respective faces.

"You're not messing with us, right? Damn, dude... you're a crazy-ass bastard, you know that?" said Sebastian, breaking the silence.

Lu'um gazed imperiously at Sebastian and said, "Careful, Redhead. The way you speak is blasphemous and I... will not tolerate that." Her gaze was frigid and penetrating, like the one a ferocious predator would have in the heartless wilderness. Sebastian instantly felt a tremendous pressure of unknown origin and shivered in response.

Reed let out a flimsy chuckle and stepped on one of Lu'um's feet. The menacing girl immediately caught on and scoffed in protest, but acknowledged his demand, nonetheless. Lu'um deftly switched her tone and said, "Gotcha! I was just messing around, relax." She snickered and threw another chocolate in her mouth. Sebastian would live to see another day.

Everyone caught on to the... odd interactions between the two and made their own judgments about it. Astor heartily let out peals of laughter as he pointed at Sebastian in derision. Some things never changed.

None of them aside from Sebastian made any comments concerning what Reed had told them. Perhaps it was because they didn't know what to say, or for a simpler reason — they didn't care. All that mattered to them was that their friend was safe and sound. Either way, they made no special note of it and instead let the matter rest after that...

Once the elephant in the room had been dealt with, the mood returned to its previous state. Merrymaking and jubilation in the air.

Reed learned about what transpired since he'd left after he asked them about their side of the story. After they completed their basic Anima training, they were all put work — live training, they called it. From what they said, it was a rather grueling affair; they'd been tasked with hunting and survival missions in some of the most godforsaken wastelands in the North.

The wild creatures that inhabited these frozen territories were not particularly amicable. They were feral, merciless hunters that encapsulated the essence of their home and of the natural environment. More often than not, they hunted civilians, with extreme ferocity when they left the safety of their protected cities.

These predators treated the empire's citizens as open game. Their metal cities? Henhouses that raised their delicious meals, as far as they were interested.

It was a tradition in the North to send rookie contenders to clear out their numbers when they grew too abundant and started threatening the smaller, less-protected cities. The purpose was two-fold; to exterminate the damned pests and also to test their youngsters with actual combat.

Horatio commented that these missions served as a prelude for the final part of their training: a "coming of age" test for them as contenders, but noted that not even he knew what that encompassed.

Ophelia remarked that he returned on a good day because they frequently weren't in the spire for very long. Violett would send them on missions every other day, so most of their time in the last three months had been out doing fieldwork.

"Now that you mention it, we'll probably receive our set of marching orders by the end of today... tomorrow's going to be truly interesting," said Astrid. She gleefully looked at Reed and Maya.

Reed shrugged his shoulders and kept silent. He was a bit ticked off with how Astrid was looking at him but kept his cool. Her inner crazy was starting to slip out, which made him uneasy. Last time he saw that face, she yanked him down the goddamned sinkhole...

He wasn't looking forward to the next day at all. His buddies, on the hand, looked delighted...

Why? What was up with them? He'd soon find out.