Shadow

12

Teval stares at the envelope in his hand addressed to him from Northcoast Academy. It's a little too light to have what he's hoping for in it, but he rips it open anyway.

It's been a week since his little escapade, and now he holds an overly polite apology note stating that a longer letter will follow with more details for ending his enrollment and employment with the academy. After all the years he's given to them, this small piece of paper makes his chest echo hollow.

Teval resists the urge to march back onto the campus and scream at someone—anyone. Instead, he starts tearing the note until a pile of tiny pieces sits in the center of his desk. He picks up the trash bin and swipes them all in, exactly where that entire campus belongs. He's not going to ignore his rage, though. He's going to do an independent study and exam for Level 4, just to make sure Jiyo can never attack him again, because if he does, Teval will make him regret it.

Now two weeks into his recovery, Teval starts doing exercises in his small room to build back the muscle he has surely lost from not chasing bounties. While training Lexton though, he practices with his own attribute, and just that little bit helps him build the confidence to continue his studies.

He also gets a short, sweet note from his sister that only reads, 'I am holding in my rage for when I am able to come south. I will see you soon.' Teval props it up on his desk with a grin, wondering if he'll get to witness her unleash it.

It takes Teval nearly a month to recover fully from his fall off the cliff. He did sit in on the bounty meetings despite Ista not clearing him for hunts, but at least he feels a little less disconnected now that he's ready to start chasing again.

"Hey, you," Seran says as Teval walks into the office.

He smiles, hair freshly cut and his face cleanly shaven for the first time in weeks. "Back for real this time."

"That haircut did you some good," Risol taps Teval's nose as she walks in. "You were looking a little rough."

"Thanks for that," he replies, then catches Ista. "Did you get those histories I asked about?"

"Oh, I forgot! I'll grab them when I go to my next lecture. Promise!" she tells him as they sit.

During one of his last stretching sessions with Ista, he asked her to find specific histories that he remembered had documented other alchemic users. He's not sure how they might help, but it'll at least be nice for Lexton to see that he's not the only alchemic user to have existed.

When Lexton finally looks up from his notebook at Teval, he jerks back in surprise, amusing Teval. He must have looked pretty unkempt until today.

"Nokten Umbren," Delian says as she pins the poster into the board, and Teval turns, feeling the blood drain from his face.

"Nokten is out?" he asks.

"Not for long." She sighs and crosses her arms. "His father tried to help him. Got him out, clean, and in a new job, but he went right back to gambling. And stealing so he could gamble."

Teval is all too aware of Nokten's problems. He caught the guy the first time around, and was so infuriated by the chase they'd gone on, that Nokten was the one who had caught Teval's fist with his face after being cuffed.

Teval's eyes drop to his sketchbook while Delian explains Nokten's light and darkness attribute as well as the situation to the group, and Teval can't bring himself to write Nokten's name down. He already knows too much about the guy. It almost feels like the skies and stars are laughing at him ending up with this guy as his first bounty after almost being kicked out of the team and nearly dying. The spirits are testing him.