Boy of Light and Dust

Ica

Ica woke up, startled.

He could feel a rush of tense energy throughout the room. He slowly sat up and glanced around. The room had no lights but was lit in dim golden light. Ica blinked his eyes. Was this... Dayin?

He kicked the covers off his bed and made for his door after grabbing his thin cloak that would cover up most of his nightclothes. As he crept toward the front door, he noted it wasn't even light outside yet. Max wouldn't be awake for another hour or two. He thought about writing a note for Max but decided he'd rather not let him know what he was doing, or else his little brother would just follow him.

He closed his door quietly behind him and glanced down the hall, hoping nobody else had noticed the surge of magic. From what he could tell, nobody else had. He knocked quietly on Dayin's door a few times before unlocking the door and slowly walking in. He didn't want to spook Dayin if he was asleep, but from what he could tell, Dayin wasn't in here anymore.

Ica closed his eyes and relaxed, allowing his own magic to reach out and search for other forces nearby. He couldn't sense Dayin. He opened his eyes and looked around, searching for anything that might tell Ica where he might have gone. When he found nothing, he sighed and grabbed the armour Dayin had arrived in off the counter and quickly cast a tracking spell on Dayin. Immediately, a dim trail of blue led to Dayin's door and to the hallway. Ica set Dayin's armour down and quickly set off, following it.

His biggest worry was that Dayin had managed to hurt himself from the surge of magic and now he was wandering the school with no help. Ica sighed. Hadn't he just been told he was in danger? He followed the trail as quickly as his legs would let him down the stairwell. Ica wondered where Dayin had gone, especially this early in the morning. It wasn't like there was much open to students this early...

As he crossed the clearing that the tracking magic led him to, he realized someone else had already beaten him down here. He could see Dayin talking to the other person, Jensen, he realized when he cast out a detection spell. If Jensen noticed the spell, he didn't give it away as he led Dayin in the other direction.

Damn it, Ica swore as he watched Dayin slowly follow Jensen. He really didn't want to start his morning off by fighting with Jensen, but he hated the idea of Dayin being alone with him. He was never sure of how Jensen would behave around anyone but Chloe, Finn, and himself.

So, he silently followed as lightly on his feet as he could manage. He was sure if Jensen wanted to, he could tell that Ica was nearby, so he kept his distance, but close enough that he could occasionally pick up what Jensen was saying. He tried not to pay attention to what Jensen said because he knew it would only annoy him. But, for the most part, he was being surprisingly helpful. Ica supposed that whenever he wasn't nearby, Jensen was relatively well-behaved, unless it had to do with Samantha.

Jensen and Dayin paused outside the building that housed the library and the shops, causing Ica to panic. There wasn't anywhere to hide if they noticed him...

"I thought I could feel someone following us," Jensen said as he turned.

Shit.

Shit.