Ruins In The End (We Three Mages, Book Two)

Chapter Four: Revealed

The mages ended eating with their friends from the Academy. Questions after questions were thrown their way and after an hour the three let Calvin just deal with them.

"Is it dark aboveground?" Jared asked Summer.

"Yes, it has been for about an hour or so now," Summer saw the disappointment. "Sorry."

"No, I guess we'll just have to leave first thing in the morning," Jared sighed.

"Why're you so eager to leave? Sick of my face already?" Tess raised an eyebrow from across the table.

"Ross...she sacrificed herself so that the rest of us could escape a Demintrean camp," Jared couldn't meet anyone's eyes. "She betrayed the army, she stayed with us which she didn't need to, she sacrificed so much for us. We need to find her and if she's in trouble, rescue her," Mari, Nadia, Calvin, and Devin all heard Jared and soon dropped their conversations.

"Jared, we all decided to go in on that encampment. It's not your burden alone to carry," Mari placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"We all made mistakes during the invade," Calvin encouraged.

"Wait, you five invaded a Demintrean camp??" Tess looked at them all in awe. "Why the hell would ya do that?!"

"Because we thought we had the power to do so," Nadia explained when no else did. "Which we did, or do now. It's a mistake we'll never make again."

"So now you all want to go and find her? What's your plan afterwards?" Summer wondered.

"One step at a time," Calvin spoke before the other three had a chance. If they had said anything else, it wouldn't have been long before someone put two and two together and found out who the three were. "We're taking this all one step at a time."

"You seem to enjoy talking for them," Tess leaned forward toward Calvin. "How long have you know them?"

"I don't really think length of time matters, what matters is what we've been through together," Calvin leaned forward as well.

"So then what? A month? Two?" Tess kept pressing.

"Let's see, I first met you all about a month after the attack that scattered the Academy students so...I think roughly seven months?"

"That sounds about right," Jared agreed.

"For you two," Mari scoffed, "but for Nadia, Devin, and I, we've only been with him for like what? One month?"

"Wait, you guys weren't together all the time?" Summer started to get confused.

"We all wanted to get stronger," Devin filled in the blanks, "we just all found different ways to get what we wanted."

"It was the right move to make in the long run, Devin is a prime example of that," Nadia smiled. "The old him would have never been able to stand up to Buddy like that."

"I can second that," Devin sheeply smiled.

"Hmm, well I suppose that's a good thing on your part!" Rocco walked up to them. "Hey Summer, why don't you show these kids around the Republic a bit before they head off to sleep?"

"Sounds awesome!" Summer stood up. "Oh! I'll show you guys how we expand the city, you're gonna love this." He didn't wait for them to follow and bounded off.

"Catch ya later Tess," Jared waved.

Summer pointed out multiply places and things on their march to the Expansion. The closer they all got, the less buildings and more rock face they saw.