The One

An act

After Izar left, Waylon walked back into the house. He locked the door and, for a minute, stared at Feray's room. The light was still on.

Trust your sister. More than anyone. Izar's words echoed in his mind. The witch had claimed that he knew nothing of what Feray was doing, if anything; but he claimed also that he knew their "nemesis" very well.

Odessa? Could Odessa be an enemy? But if Odessa was the enemy, how in the world were they supposed to survive?

In the end, after only a moment of hesitation, Waylon raised his hand to knock. Before he knocked, however, the door opened. Feray started, seemingly surprised to see him standing right outside—and why wouldn't she be?

"I was just thinking to look for you," his sister admitted. "Come in."

He did.

"Did you want to tell me something?" Waylon asked. He sat on the chair at her desk and followed her silhouette with his gaze as she went to the bookshelf.

She took out a book she'd most likely borrowed from the academy's library and placed it on the table. "...yes," Feray answered, a bit hesitant. "Did you?"

"Yeah. Well...you go first."

Feray nodded. "I thought so." She sat on her bed, and over the next half an hour, she explained to him all that she'd discovered since the first day of school: the woman cloaked in white being Odessa, the translucent silhouette in the library.

And that same Odessa wanted me to distrust her, Waylon thought to himself. What does she want from us?

"Did you see anything else of that...spirit, or whatever it was?" he asked.

Feray tilted her head. "I thought you'd tell me to stay out of it before anything else."

"Would you have stopped if I asked?" Waylon asked, smiling a bit wryly.

She shrugged with a slightly guilty grin. No verbal answer was needed. "No, I didn't see anything else."

"I did."

With that said, Waylon recalled his experience that night in the garden: receiving a note from Odessa's familiar, being summoned into her office, what she showed him with the crystal ball, and what she advised him to do.

"Hm... she must really hate me," Feray noted, "I wonder why."

"Do you trust Izar?" he asked.

She nodded. Feray gave no explanation, but Waylon did not require one. He was merely making sure that she felt the same way about the man.

"He told me to trust you no matter what. Do you think he might know something about what she's up to?"

Again, she nodded. "Especially when what he says and what she told you are completely different. Oh, but..."

"Mm?"

"She showed you what I was doing in a crystal ball. Did you hear what Zanna and I were saying too?"

"No, it was more like a colored version of your regular surveillance camera. If she's watching now...she probably just sees us talking."

"Then just pretend you don't trust me for now." As if to signal the beginning of their act, Feray lay down in bed and rolled over, facing the wall now rather than her brother. "Turn the lights off when you leave, thanks!"

"Alright." Waylon stood up too. However, before leaving, he eyed the book on her desk. "I'll have a look at this."

"Yep."

When Waylon opened the book in his room a few minutes later, he discovered that one of the pages was bookmarked. It was a chapter called "Sorcery and rankings". In particular, one paragraph was marked with a light line drawn on with a pencil.

Feray didn't know I had something to tell her too, but when she took this book out, she was prepared to tell me what she'd found. If this is about sorcery...it must be about Odessa, he thought.

The paragraph read: One does not only climb up the ladder of power; one might descend as well. If a sorcerer is weakened to such an extent, for instance, he may lose his ability to summon his staff and be lowered to the rank of a witch. This rarely happens, but in unique circumstances, it is entirely possible. Sorcerers are not invincible; they are merely more proficient at the types of magic that they use. Regardless, should they have weaknesses as witches, those weaknesses will remain even as they become sorcerers. As a matter of fact, weaknesses prove to be fatal as sorcerers are ordinarily more well-rounded. A sorcerer with a weakness, if found out, may not last long as a sorcerer.

Waylon read the paragraph a few times. Feray...she's ambitious, isn't she?

Same words, different interpretations.

Feray came across a resourceful book and let Waylon take a look too, in case he would come to a different conclusion—and after their conversation that night, she was certain they would arrive at different conclusions. When she read those words, the first person who came into mind was Izar. If Zanna's guess was right, he could not use protective magic on anyone other than himself. If he were to become a sorcerer, then...at the very least, he could never work in teams.

Not that sorcerers often worked together, but it was a downside, nonetheless.

She still remembered his frustration when she let herself fall from his bridge, and his relief when she decided not to push further on her second visit. At first, she thought his frustration was at her eagerness to do anything it took to achieve her goals; in hindsight, it might also be at his own inability to protect someone with simpler means.

Why couldn't he, though?

She shook the question away. Simply standing there would not give her answers. If she was curious about it, she would have to take action to find out the answers.

"I'm here!" came a cheerful voice at the door.

Feray had just finished getting dressed, and as if on cue, Zanna arrived—as she usually did on the weekends. Just as she stepped out of her room, Waylon went to open the door.

"Good morning, Zanna," he greeted their friend—as he usually did.

"Morning!" Zanna called with a wave, despite their house being small. "Today, we—"

"I won't be able to join you today," Waylon said. He began to head back into his room. "Have fun and stay safe."

He passed by Feray but did not look at her. She, too, looked the other way. This did not escape Zanna's notice. She tilted her head in confusion but decided not to ask just yet.

"Of course. Which familiars do you want to know about?" Hayes asked, sitting behind the counter as usual.

This day, Feray and Zanna decided to pay Familiar Place a visit. The plan was made the day they saw Izar's familiar, but now, Feray had one more animal to ask about.

"A dark green tiger, and a white cuckoo," Feray answered.

"Cuckoo?" Zanna asked.

"The former represents persistence. The latter..." Hayes lowered his gaze for a moment before looking back up at Feray. "Did you see the cuckoo for yourself?"

"No, just asking." In a sense, she wasn't lying; it wasn't her who'd seen it.

"The cuckoo represents loneliness."

Feray spent the night at Zanna's that night. She updated her friend on the events of the previous evening.

"Things just got more complicated," Zanna remarked with a sigh.