24 A week ago...

"Oh Cinsa! I have fallen in love with you all over again… Let's kiss to celebrate."

Vynder folded his hands over his heart and puckered his lips. He closed his eyes and leaned toward Cinsa making the girl lean back in mock horror and true disgust. Raivi wondered how that ridiculous charade of desperation could be considered good looking on him.

"Get back, you horny monkey. I can smell every single girl in the academy on your lips" Cinsa paused as to take one more whiff and said with twice more disgust, "even some teachers."

"And besides, Raivi is the only one for me." She winked at Raivi as she said that. Like always all Raivi could do was stare blankly at the two of them. He didn't understand their jokes or see the point in them. Neither of them ever meant anything they said. Vynder behaved the same way with everyone, not just girls; flirting on cue. Cinsa on the other hand could have been the least romantic person Raivi had ever met, never showing temptation for anything that moved. Raivi at least felt attraction to pretty faces every once in a while.

"So, this job… you two has any question about it?"

Cinsa asked doing a complete change of the topic. The three of them had gathered in an old laboratory after school. Cinsa had chosen the place; she was good at finding rooms that had long been abandoned.

Raivi frowned as he thought about the matter at hand, ignoring the look of jealousy Vynder was shooting at him. "How do we find him then? For six months he was there if the details are to be believed."

It was a valid question, a lot could change in six months, especially for a slave.

"How hard can it be to find a man in a small backwater town like Meridante?" Vynder dropped his wisdom with a slap on Raivi's back. It wasn't too painful but Raivi still shot a dirty look to the bigger boy. May be he was catching some of their pettiness too, Raivi shuddered, what a horrible thought.

"A lot can change in six months." Raivi said softy but didn't press on it any longer. "And why don't they take help from the tower? It would be much easier and the cost wouldn't be more than what they were paying us."

That shut Vynder off. He didn't seem to have anything to fight off Raivi's logic.

"Why does it matter why they want us? Is the money not enough?"

The cold tone with which Cinsa spoke sent shivers down Raivi's spine. He expected Cinsa to be the wisest of the three but caring about money more than their safety was unlike her. An ominous feeling enveloped his heart. He was worried. He was certain that if the two of them said no, Cinsa would find a way to do it herself. Raivi didn't want to take that chance. He didn't contradict her anymore, for now.

Cinsa's eyes drifted from his when he tried to look at her. Vynder was in his own world, happily listing things to himself out loud that he would do once they had returned. Raivi couldn't care lesser.

Their meeting ended soon after that and they left their three separate ways promising to meet again at night. Raivi still wondered if he should have tried to stop her from taking this suspicious job of theirs.

--

They met after sundown in a dilapidated shade near the academy gate.

With their bags of personal belongings and hooded traveling cloaks, Raivi had to say, they looked very suspicious; especially on the academy grounds. But for now the small, unused chamber would hide them from any eyes.

"Are we ready? Cinsa asked, sounding very much the leader she behaved like of their little group.

"Yeah, we are ready. Raivi is studying, you are sleeping and I am not in my room." Vynder replied, still busy with his small hand mirror he was checking himself up in.

"What? Why am I sleeping? I don't-" Cinsa seemed to have other concerns as she suddenly took a sharp turn toward Vynder and started yelling, as much as possible to yell while whispering. But Vynder cut her off with an off handed reply.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Don't worry, you are naked."

"WHAT?!" Only when both of them were staring at him did he realize that it was Raivi who had exclaimed that out loud. He didn't think he really cared about who slept how, but apparently he did.

At seventeen, Vynder was a class illusionist. He was known for notoriously using his skills of creating somatic illusions. And if they had to sneak out of the Academy, they needed him to clone both Raivi and Cinsa casually lazing around in their separate rooms until the three were out of the academy walls. Vynder however, didn't need any illusion for himself, he usually stayed out late and it was unlikely that his desolate chamber was going to raise any suspicion.

Cinsa recovered first from Raivi's unexpected reaction. She shook her head and turned to Vynder with a frown, her pseudo care didn't fool anyone, at least not Raivi.

"WHY do you know that?" Cinsa asked, with more curiosity than concern.

It was a stupid question that Vynder didn't bother replying, he just smirked and winked at Raivi and turned toward Cinsa to slowly word "LOVE" with his lips.