Ryan rubbed his eyes.
"Good morning, lazybones."
Jas’s energy was back.
"Morning, sore loser."
"Seriously? Had to go for that?"
Ryan smiled and looked around the room. It was light out. He’d slept in. It was the first ti since arriving here, that he hadn’t woken at dawn.
Jas had already taken his bandage off. The burn looked dramatically better.
The angry red had faded to rosy pink. Most of the blisters were gone, replaced by new skin—still tender-looking, but healing.
"Damn," Ryan said, sitting up. "That healer wasn’t kidding."
Jas flexed his fingers experintally. Winced slightly, but the movent was controlled. "Still sore. But usable." He looked impressed despite himself. "I’ve never seen healing work that fast."
"Academy healers are the best in the kingdom," Jared said from his bed, still half-asleep. "Have to be, with all the training accidents."
Jas rewrapped his hand carefully. "I’m glad. Because we’re going to the festival today."
"Your hand?" Eleanor said.
"Is fine." Jas’s tone left no room for argunt. "Today’s the best day. The Champion’s Exhibition. I wouldn’t miss it even if my hand were still on fire."
"Champion’s Exhibition?" Ryan asked.
"Biggest event of the festival," Jared said. "They bring in the kingdom’s top knights and mages. Tier 4, Tier 5 fighters. Literal living legends."
Ryan blinked. "Tier 5?"
"Yep." Jas pulled on a clean shirt. "Three years ago, Sir Brennan of Berkberry fought a giant war beast. He’s a tier 5 knight. Killed it in under three minutes."
"You’ll see," Jared added. "It’s incredible."
Eleanor stirred behind her curtain. "Are we all going?"
"Unless you’d rather stay here and read by yourself," Jas said.
"I’ll co." Eleanor responded.
Ryan reached for his bedside table.
His hand found only wood.
He froze. The bracelet.
I swear I left it here last night. He was sure.
Ryan sat up properly, checked the floor. Under his pillow. His pack.
Not here.
"You alright?" Jas asked.
"My bracelet." Ryan’s voice ca out tight. "It’s gone."
"What?"
"I left it on the table. Right here." Ryan pointed. "Now it’s not."
"Maybe that’s a good thing, it was kind of ugly." Eleanor chuckled.
"Are you certain you left it there?" Jared said siting up.
"Yes." Ryan checked under the bed again. "I rember taking it off. Putting it down. Right there."
Jas and Jared exchanged glances.
"Could you have knocked it off in your sleep?" Jared suggested.
They searched. Under beds. In blankets. Behind furniture.
Then Ryan realised.
The religious psycho. Marcus, yesterday.
I’ll save you myself.
"That psycho," Ryan muttered.
"What?" Jas asked.
"His na’s Marcus, Eleanor knows him, he ca in preaching about ons in one of our mage lessons. Yesterday he grabbed and said sothing about the bracelet being cursed. Begged to take it off." Ryan looked at the door. Closed and Locked. Unlikely he ca through here. "He said he’d ’save himself.’"
"You think he ca in here and stole it?"
Ryan then moved over to the window. Unlocked. But this isn’t ground floor. Ryan opened the window, and looked out.
"Dirt. There’s fresh dirt here, did he climb up the building?"
"That’s insane," Jared said.
"He’s insane," Ryan shot back. "You’ve seen him. Always ranting about ons and blood moons and the end of the world."
Jas’s expression darkened. "Want us to help you look for him?"
Ryan considered. He liked that bracelet. But hunting down Marcus right now might take hours. And it only cost a few coppers, it wasn’t very special...
He’d deal with it later.
"No," Ryan said. "I’ll talk to Principal Helena about it later. Maybe she can do sothing." He closed and locked the window. "Let’s just go."
"You sure?" Jared asked.
"Yeah. It’s just a bracelet." He sighed. "I’ll get it back later."
They dressed quickly, ate a hasty breakfast in the hall, and headed into the city.
The streets were packed.
More than any day before. People stread toward the arena—students, townsfolk, rchants, nobles in fine clothes. The air buzzed with excitent.
"Everyone cos out for the Exhibition," Jared explained, navigating through the crowd. "At this rate we might not even get a seat."
They turned a corner, and Jas stopped dead.
It wasn’t hard to see him, Navius. Standing near a side street, half-hidden by the crowd, but his hair exposed him.
Beside him, an elf. The one Navius and his dad had sat next to in the arena.
They were talking. Close. Intense, just like before.
They edged closer, trying to eavesdrop.
Navius’s voice rose slightly. "—all of them will—"
The crowd shifted, drowning him out.
Then, clearer: "—fire—"
The elf said sothing inaudible.
Navius gestured sharply. Another fragnt: "—dead—"
Then Navius looked in their direction.
His eyes locked on Jas for a long mont.
Then he smirked, said sothing low to the elf, and walked away into the crowd.
The elf went another way down a side street.
"That’s the sa elf he was talking to in the arena, isn’t it?" Eleanor asked.
"Yea—"
Jas interrupted, "What if he’s part of that terrorist group? The one Gregory ntioned?""
Ryan chuckled. "I think I misheard you, what did you say?"
"The LRE, the field marshal said they might target sowhere soon, wouldn’t the festival be perfect? And Navius is talking to a shifty elf. I just heard him say fire and death right before the biggest event—"
"Jas, no," Jared said firmly. "You can’t seriously—"
"Why not?!" Jas’s voice cracked with frustration. "You heard what he said! Fire! Dead, All of them!"
"You’re jumping to conclusions," Eleanor said, her tone sharp and cutting. "Just because he cheated in a duel doesn’t an he’s a terrorist."
"But—"
"Nope." Ryan shook his head. "That’s insane. Navius is clearly a noble, there’s no way he’d be with an elf terrorist group."
"Then what were they talking about?!" Jas demanded.
"I don’t know," Ryan admitted. "But accusing soone of terrorism because we overheard two words? That’s mad."
Jas opened his mouth to argue, but Jared put a hand on his shoulder.
"Let it go," Jared said quietly. "You’re angry that he burnt your hand. But co on, a terrorist?"
Jas’s fists clenched at his sides. "Yeah... I—I don’t know what I was thinking."
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