"You know Elionis, right?"
"Yes, he is the one who creates the mini gods, who then give people their powers. That's atleast what we learned at school."
"Correct. The people with mini god powers have become evil. Which means the mini gods have become evil. Which means—"
"That Elionis has become evil…"
Rhuven slowly nods his head.
"But why?" Noen asks.
"Nobody knows. And we will probably never know, since the mini gods and Elionis himself cannot directly communicate with us humans."
"Yes, in Sacred History we learned it exactly like that."
In that moment, Noen notices a small beam of light shining through the skylight. He runs over to the window.
"Speaking of school, what time is it???"
Rhuven, with a sundial: "7:30 a.m."
"It starts in ten minutes! I have to go!"
Noen opens it and jumps out of the small window onto the roof. He leans his head back down through the open window one more time.
"Nice talking to you, even though you had me chained up."
A small, honest smile escapes Noen. He is just about to leave when Rhuven says to him:
"Wait a moment! Could you please come back here after school?"
"Sure!"
Now Noen has a very big smile on his face. And with that, he jumps away.
He arrived. "Hey, Noen…" said a student who had been waiting for him in front of the school entrance.
Noen stopped. "Hey, Thel."
"We heard about it…"
"About what?"
"About… about Lyra…"
Noen's eyes widened, but then he looked down at the ground.
"I'm… really… so sor—"
"It's okay," Noen interrupted. "It's not like you could have done anything about it."
He tried to smile a little, but a tear still slipped out.
"Yeah, but— wait, Noen, what kind of clothes are those?"
— I better not say what really happened… —
"They're clothes that I… um… am wearing in honor of the good mini god bearers from back then. You know, we learned about it in Sacred History."
"Since when where you interested in history?"
"Umm… since the weekend."
"What?" Thel said, then shrugged. "Well, whatever, let's go in. Class starts in two minutes."
"When a field is three-quarters of a morgen in size and a second field is half of that, what matters to us is not what it looks like, but what the—"
— I can't even take these clothes off… — Noen thought.— And for some reason, they don't get dirty. Not at the grave. Not at the old man's place. Not when I jumped from roof to roof… not even when I landed right in that big puddle. Not a single stain. Nothing. And the fact that I cant take it off... Strange. —— It's actually pretty crazy that I'm suddenly interested in gods and history—
"Noen!"
The teacher's voice tore him out of his thoughts.
He flinched and struggled to his feet, looking exhausted.
"Could you please pay attention? I know the death of Lyra, your girlfriend, has affected you… all of us. But at least try to focus in class, okay?"
— Why does everyone who sees me have to remind me of this horror? —
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Ashmere."
— Class is my lowest priority right now. Not like it was ever that high before… —
"So, that's it for today."
Noen packed up his things, pushed his chair back to the desk and left the classroom without looking back once more. The hallway was already almost empty, only a few scattered footsteps and voices echoing faintly through the building.
In the locker room, Thel was already waiting for him.
"Come on, let's walk home together."
Noen gave a short nod and followed him outside.
They walked side by side through the narrow backstreets of Halmswick. As always, they avoided the normal roads. Instead, they took shortcuts through backyards, over low walls, old fences, and even across rooftops that they knew almost as well as their own rooms by now.
Their shoes scraped softly against the tiles as they balanced across an old roof, then dropped down into a narrow alley.
"Come on, let's talk for a bit," Thel said.
Noen nodded. "Sure."
For a moment, they walked in silence, until Thel suddenly let out a breath and shook his head.
"I swear, Halmswick is so damn awful…" he began. His voice grew darker, harder. "I swear… that damn Beldrin!"
He practically spat the name.
Noen slowed down a step and looked at him in confusion.
"Why are you bringing up the mayor all of a sudden?" he asked.
Thel scoffed and kicked a small stone on the ground.
"Because thanks to Beldrin, nobody is doing anything against the mini god powerbearers anymore!" he said, disgusted, disappointed and furious all at once.
"My parents voted for him too, but back then he was still a nice good guy.
Only because of his damn—"
"Mini-god powers?" Noen cut in.
Thel nodded vehemently. "Yes. Exactly! And nobody dares to oppose him because that son of a bitch is so insanely powerful that no one dares. I swear, if I ever get my hands on—"
"But there are people who go after him. " Noen snapped.
Thel frowned, confused. "What? Who?"
Noen hesitated for a moment.
"Well… the Black Synod right?"
Thel stopped walking.
"What is that supposed to mean? Who are you talking about?"
— Aha… so nothing publicly known huh… —
Noen slowly exhaled. "Forget it.
Wasn't your brother Edric an officer here in Halmswick?" he asked carefully.
"Yeah… emphasis on was," Thel's voice suddenly broke. "He was killed by Beldrin…"
He fell silent. Closed his eyes. His head lowered.
Tears slid soundlessly down his face.
Noen took a step back. "Oh… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up painful memories. Please forgive me."
For a moment, there was complete silence.
Then Thel snapped his head up.
"What the hell are you talking about, you idiot…" he muttered.
"What?" Noen asked, completely confused and shocked by his response.
"I ASKED WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"
Thel raised his hand.
Something glistened in his palm — a single tear that had only just run down his cheek.
But it did not remain what it was.
It twisted. Thickened. Darkened.
A soft, metallic click echoed as something sharp began to take shape.
A… knife.
Thel pulled his arm back.
And…