At Kassis's rise, Davin was already ready.
The great pale sun had barely emerged over the horizon, stretching cold light across the village rooftops. Mira was not yet visible. The air had the damp freshness of mornings before noise, before dust, before shouting.
Davin wore his clean clothes, his new saber at his belt, two remaining gold coins well hidden, and a minor awakening pill he had no intention of wasting.
He reached the west gate.
The group was already there.
A cart waited for them, harnessed to two massive beasts that vaguely resembled horses, if someone had decided normal horses lacked muscle, short horns, and eyes. Their golden coats gleamed in the dawn. Three black eyes lined their foreheads, motionless and far too intelligent.
Davin stopped for a second.
A fantasy world. Yes. Thank you for the reminder.
Sylvia noticed him first and waved.
She wore a clean travel tunic, a short cloak, and her dagger at her belt. Her face still held a discreet fatigue, but her eyes had regained sincere warmth.
"You came."
"I was paid."
She blinked.
Then smiled.
"Obviously."
Tim leaned against the cart, arms crossed, looking determined to judge the entire universe before breakfast. He had a short sword at his hip, an overstuffed bag on his shoulder, and a poorly tied bandage around his forehead.
"You bought a blade," he said.
"You have eyes."
Thomas choked back a laugh.
Tim narrowed his eyes.
"Do you know how to use it?"
Davin placed a hand on the pommel.
"Enough to know I don't know how to use it yet."
Math, already seated at the back of the cart, finally raised his eyes.
"That's more honest than half the people with weapons."
His voice was low, calm.
Davin looked at him more closely.
Math was quieter than the others, dressed in dark leather armor, his brown hair cut short, a collapsible spear attached to the side of his bag. His gaze rarely settled on the same place twice. He observed without making noise.
Dangerous, perhaps.
Or simply less exhausting.
Thomas, meanwhile, was loading the last bags. The colossus wore partial plate over a thick gambeson. His movements were calm, precise, almost gentle despite his size.
Tim was a fire.
Thomas, a wall.
Math, a shadow.
Sylvia, a debt with green eyes.
Balanced group. Potentially unbearable. Useful.
They climbed into the cart.
Thomas took a place near the driver. Tim settled in the back without stopping his glances at Davin. Math wedged himself into a corner, already silent. Sylvia sat between her brother and Thomas, hands clasped around her bag.
The cart started moving once Kassis had fully cleared the horizon.
The wheels creaked over the cold earth.
The village slowly receded behind them.
Mehian awaited them forty kilometers west.
And beyond it, Aethelgard Academy.
For the first half hour, no one spoke much. The morning cold, the wounds from the day before, and Davin's presence made the atmosphere cautious.
Then Tim, incapable of staying silent any longer, cracked.
"So where are you really from?"
Sylvia sighed.
"Tim."
"What? It's a normal question."
"The way you ask it makes people want to throw you off the cart."
Thomas nodded.
"A little."
Math added without lifting his eyes:
"A lot."
Tim ignored them magnificently.
Davin looked at the road.
"From a place that no longer matters."
"That's vague."
"That's intentional."
Tim opened his mouth.
Sylvia pointed at him.
"No."
"I didn't say anything!"
"Your face was about to."
Thomas burst out laughing.
Even Math smiled.
Davin observed them in silence.
There was something here he had not yet seen since his arrival.
Not charity.
Not contempt.
Not only danger.
Simple camaraderie, worn by arguments, injuries, habits, and shared fears. They bickered because they knew each other well enough to know where to strike without truly wounding.
It was almost pleasant to see.
Almost.
After a while, Tim launched into the story of a goblin hunt that had clearly gone wrong a few weeks earlier.
"…and then Math trips on a root, falls right into the middle of the group, and the goblins look at him like lunch just delivered itself!"
Math closed his eyes.
"You don't need to tell everyone that."
"Yes, I do. It's historical."
Sylvia was laughing, one hand in front of her mouth.
"I forgot! Math, you almost had tears in your eyes."
"I did not have tears in my eyes."
Thomas smiled.
"You shouted 'not the face.'"
"Because they were aiming for the face. It was a tactical remark."
Tim collapsed with laughter.
Even Davin felt the corner of his mouth move.
Very slightly.
Tactical remark. I'm keeping that.
Thomas eventually cleared his throat.
His gaze slid toward Sylvia.
Then toward the horizon.
Then back to Sylvia, too briefly for someone trying to be discreet.
"By the way, Sylvia. Do you already know which sector you want to choose at the Academy?"
Davin noticed everything.
The tone too composed.
Thomas's fingers tapping the wood of the cart.
His posture trying to look relaxed with the desperate energy of a man who had forgotten how his own body worked.
Oh.
He studied the colossus more carefully.
Thomas avoided interrupting Sylvia. He went silent when she spoke. He looked away right after looking at her.
This mastodon is in love with her. Or falling into it with the elegance of furniture down a staircase.
A memory crossed Davin despite himself.
An intern, back on Earth. Years earlier. A girl with black hair who worked three desks away. It had taken him weeks to say a sentence to her that wasn't about an Excel file. He had spent hours tapping his desk exactly like Thomas was tapping the wood.
Universal.
Even in a world of magic.
The memory faded quickly.
Sylvia clasped her hands on her knees.
"Alchemy. I think."
Tim rolled his eyes.
"Obviously."
"What do you mean, obviously?"
"You've been talking about pills since we were twelve."
"Because pills are useful, Tim. They keep people from dying stupidly. You should like them. You're the target audience."
Math coughed to hide a laugh.
Sylvia continued, more serious.
"My grandfather has been a veteran Adept for decades. He's never managed to reach the rank of Mage. I heard certain superior pills can help fully cross the first gate. If I become an alchemist, maybe I can help him."
A silence settled for a second.
Her voice had trembled at the end.
It was her dream.
Not a whim.
Not a teenage fantasy.
A goal tied to someone she loved.
"That's a good goal," Math said softly.
Thomas nodded.
"Yes."
Tim crossed his arms.
"I don't care about potions and powders. I want the martial sector. Close combat, blades, instinct. No calculations, no complicated magic. Just efficiency."
"You confuse efficiency with charging while screaming," Sylvia said.
"That's a form of efficiency."
"No, it's a form of noise."
Thomas smiled.
"I'll probably choose the martial sector too. Heavy weapons, shield work, body reinforcement. Something solid."
He had said it while looking at Sylvia.
Not Tim.
Davin looked away out of mercy.
Math shrugged.
"I don't know yet. Maybe scouting. Maybe the bestiary. I like understanding how creatures move."
"You want to raise monsters?" Tim asked.
"I want to avoid being eaten by them. The difference is important."
Davin let a silence pass.
Then asked in a neutral voice:
"What are the main sectors, exactly?"
Sylvia turned to him.
Surprised.
Then understanding.
She remembered the amnesia.
"There are several. Alchemy, for pills, powders, elixirs, and treatments. The martial sector, for weapons, the body, and reinforcement techniques. The arcane sector, for spells, circles, and long-distance mana control. The bestiary, for magical beasts, taming, and monster components. There are also formations and runes, I think, but that's more theoretical."
She hesitated.
"And the occult."
The word changed the atmosphere slightly.
Even Tim fell silent for a second.
Davin noticed.
"Why that reaction?"
Sylvia looked at the road.
"Because almost no one chooses the occult. People say it's dangerous. Not just physically. Students who enter it become… strange. Some stop attending common classes. Others change sectors after a few weeks and refuse to talk about it."
Math added calmly:
"My uncle used to say the occult studies what the other sectors prefer to lock away, burn, or forget."
Tim grimaced.
"That's why I'm taking a sword, not cursed books."
Davin did not answer.
All the options were interesting.
Alchemy: resources, pills, autonomy.
Martial: immediate survival.
Arcane: real magic.
Bestiary: monsters, components, terrain.
Runes and formations: systems, structures, logic.
Occult: unknowns, danger, secrets.
The occult resonated with something in him.
Not because it was dark.
Because anything this world refused to look at might contain a flaw.
And Davin was already alive thanks to a flaw.
Keep that in mind.
He said nothing.
The cart continued west.
Kassis climbed slowly into the sky, pale and immense. Farther away, Mira began to appear, a small golden spot at the edge of the horizon. The two lights mingled across the road, one cold, the other warm, drawing double shadows beneath the wheels.
A comfortable silence settled.
Thomas bit into a dry ration.
Math watched the fields.
Tim was still muttering something about useless sectors.
Sylvia looked at the road with an expression full of worry and hope.
Davin closed his eyes.
Mehian.
The Academy.
Aethelgard.
Nothing else mattered.
Not yet.