The Next Day
Alex stepped out of the carriage dressed in a white shirt and white coat with a yellow lapel, a silver star pinned to both sides of his shoulder boards, his white trousers pressed neatly above polished black shoes.
His hair was loosely tossed back, and his eyes were slightly red, the veins clearly visible within them, a clean sign of having not slept properly through the night. Dark circles sat beneath his eyes that only further proved the point, and his lips were drawn into a straight, expressionless line, betraying neither joy nor happiness.
Ariana immediately jumped out of the carriage with a thud and nearly stumbled had Alex not caught her hand in time. She looked up at him apologetically, and he only nodded, saying nothing to reprimand his little sister.
His voice had died from crying the entire night before, and he had been forced to rise early, on time, as he had received his admission into the academy.
A dream that should have made him leap with joy. Yet standing before the grandiose gates and towering walls of the academy, he did not react in the slightest, not even a small smile crossed his face.
The world felt hollow to Alex. The rhythm and music it had always carried felt as though it had been stolen away from him, and the colorful surroundings that had once felt so vivid now appeared dull and lifeless before his eyes.
"Son, you should not be late on your first day. Come and visit us during your holidays." Alex was drawn out of his thoughts by his mother's voice. She had already stepped out of the carriage without him even noticing, so deep had he been in his own mind to not notice it even a little bit.
Alex turned toward her and nodded. She looked so sad and torn apart at the thought of not seeing him daily, for the academy had its own dormitories and everything a student required within its walls, and students stayed inside, leaving only on rare occasions or during holidays to visit their families.
"Big brother, I will miss you." It was his little sister's voice that pulled him back once more, soft and trembling at its edges. She looked up at him with eyes that threatened to spill over into tears, looking nothing like the girl who had been overtaken by the Goddess of Darkness just some days ago.
Alex had learned yesterday that she had been chosen as the goddess's vessel and would be able to draw upon the goddess's power as time went on and as her body grew strong enough to bear it. Despite the fact that she was, in every measurable way, more gifted than him, she had never once taunted or mocked him for his lack of powers.
Alex bent slightly at the waist and patted her head. Her azure hair fell like a waterfall down her back, and her eyes had already grown moist at the corners. "I will miss you too," he said quietly, and then with a light flick of his finger against her forehead, he added, "I will come home to visit often. So don't cry."
Ariana clenched her fists and nodded, doing her best to suppress her tears. Despite the flick to her forehead, which on any other day would have earned him a full tantrum, she said nothing of it.
Instead, she reached into the small pouch of her dress and produced a piece of paper, crumpled far beyond what paper ought to be, its contents hidden within its folds.
Alex raised an eyebrow in quiet question.
With a lowered head and flushed cheeks, Ariana slowly unfolded it and held it out to him. It was a drawing she had made herself, a depiction of their whole family, Shane, Sera, Alex, and Ariana, all standing together before their home, the great white palace.
The drawing was not beautiful by any conventional measure. It was rough, made with colorful crayons, the kind that a stranger would struggle to interpret at a glance, but he understood it immediately and completely, for he knew every face within it.
His mother stood on the right side, drawn with azure hair and a blue dress, her face rendered in such an unintentionally funny expression that he might have laughed on any other day. His father stood on the left, dark eyes staring straight ahead, black hair above a black suit that was little more than black crayon rubbed with great enthusiasm across the page.
Alex himself stood before them on the left, drawn at roughly half their height, the tips of his hair touched faintly with blue crayon and his small figure dressed in a black suit much like his father's.
And beside him stood Ariana, wearing a wide grinning smile, azure hair, and a blue frock, with the great white palace drawn behind them all, its lines haphazard and swaying as though the building itself could not quite decide which direction to lean.
Alex looked at the drawing for a long moment. "Did you make this?" he asked.
"U-umm," Ariana said, biting her lips, her voice small, her hands twisting the fabric of her dress. "I thought you would miss us, so I made it for you."
It almost made Alex tearful seeing her concern for him. She had sat down with her crayons and had drawn it so that he would not feel alone.
"Thank you," he said softly with a voice that threatened to break down at his sister's love for him.
He placed the drawing carefully inside his dimensional space and then pulled her into a hug, holding her for a moment and patting her head gently before turning to face his parents, who had been standing quietly, watching the brother and sister's duo.
"Son, enjoy yourself, and do not flunk your classes," Shane said, his face composed and carefully set, the kind of expression that was well practiced in concealing everything it felt, though the concern beneath it betrayed itself all the same in the steadiness with which he held Alex's gaze.
Alex nodded. His mother, standing close beside his father, clenched her fist and stepped forward, reaching up to pat his head with a light and tender hand.
"Do your best and get good grades. We will find a way to cure the abnormal status effect on your status window. I promise you that." she said, her voice carrying a burning, unshakeable determination, the kind that suggested she would walk into the depths of hell itself if it meant Alex could one day level up.
Alex bit down on his lower lip. The reminder of why the princess had been taken from him settled over him like a heavy burden making his chest tightened and breathing harder, and the floodgates he had spent all morning carefully sealing threatened once more to burst. He could not stand still any longer without breaking, so he turned without another word and began walking toward the academy gate, which stood wide open before him, revealing the grand crystalline white academy beyond. Its enormous domes and soaring spires rose so high into the sky that they seemed, from where he stood, to almost pierce it entirely.
***
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