Please Remember Me Like This

I'm Ready for My Closeup

Please Remember Me Like This

Chapter 13: "I'm Ready for My Closeup"

This wasn't normal for Ian.

Barley heard the entire shouting match between him and Aeric—in fact, the whole neighborhood might have heard that argument and the very loud breakup (?). At least, Barley figured it was a breakup, or at least a break of some sort, given that Aeric stopped coming around and Ian stayed completely silent about it, refusing to speak if he or Mom brought him up. Barley tried to ask Athena if she and Aeric took a run together recently, and she said once, but he stayed relatively quiet the entire time., never mentioning Ian.

Not that Barley wanted to be a snoop on Ian's social media, but when he refused to talk, well... did he have another choice to try and find what the root of the problem was? What did he even know about all this?

Barley knew that Ian had found a group of other magical young people, led by one woman who brought them all together. He'd never seen her, but Ian had described her as tall and effortlessly stylish, with this command of magic he'd never witnessed. But how special could she really be, when he'd seen his brother in action?

Ian also mentioned that she saw something special in him, asking for more one-on-one time, and special treatment, and after what Aeric had told him, something raised a red flag; Barley's big brother instincts kicked in once he started to think it all through. Aeric might be right: she wanted something from him, and from the look of things, it wasn't good.

One thing he hated about posts to stories was that Ian could easily look up that his big brother had been snooping around, watching his day-to-day almost meticulously. But did Ian look at the metrics? Did he even care? It was the only way he could see what was going on in Ian's life, given the last time he actually posted was on his and Aeric's anniversary, and it was then Barley got it—really got it—just how much Aeric cared about Ian, and to him, this wasn't just some high school romance, especially with the very real fact that they'd probably be at Willowdale together... if Ian accepted by the deadline, that was. And that was coming up fast.

The first post that had Barley on edge was a single text post: "Vesshydar's Diamond isn't a myth—I can't believe it took me this long to realize that."

Vesshydar's Diamond? The most elusive magical assist item in the realms? The very thing that mages and wizards and historians had warned against trying to find, that brought about so much power that it only took one selfish wizard to make it nothing short of a hellbringer?

And then, it clicked completely when Ian finally posted again. Sure, he stayed downstairs to catch up with all his work, but Barley still wondered if his little brother had found another way to trick the system. Could he do staffless magic? Is that why he didn't seem as fazed when Mom demanded he hand the staff to her? He always kept the music on in his room; it was impossible to tell if he tried to cast a spell without him explicitly spying on his brother.

But is that what it had to come to?

The post seemed innocent enough, just a photo of their group with the caption, "Can't wait to change the realm with these amazing people!", but as Barley scanned the all-too-innocent faces of these promising young wizards holding up their staffs, one face stood out above the rest.

The leader. That tall, almost intimidating elf that stood above them all, despite her not being the tallest in their group. Barley knew he'd seen her before somewhere... but where? And why did the name "Victoriana Ayers" sound so... familiar when Aeric told him?