"It's been a while, Shredica."
Arianne's voice carried a mixture of surprise and disbelief as she looked straight at me. Her eyes lingered a little longer than expected, scanning my face as if confirming that I was actually standing in front of her and not some weird illusion her mind decided to cook up after a long day.
"I didn't think that after not seeing you for so long," she continued, a faint smile forming at the corner of her lips, "the next time I'd run into you would be as a magic knight."
Her tone sounded half amused and half stunned, which was fair. A lot had changed since the last time we saw each other. The person she remembered probably looked a lot less polished and a lot more lost.
"Well, like you said, it has been quite a while," I replied, leaning back slightly in my seat as I spoke. "There was plenty of time for me to turn into something during those years. You know… people change."
