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“Yeah.” Ryneth shivered at the thought of Daven and pressed his hands together under the bar. The thrumming had grown more insistent.

“It will get b-better.” Mirel pointed at his hands with a smile. “Your h-hands.”

“Oh, yeah. I hope it does.” He took in the blond man. He was also wearing a school uniform. “And what do you study?”

“S-school.” Mirel smiled shyly. Light, he was adorable.

“School?”

“My brother didn’t go to school, so he is still catching up. He’ll most likely enroll in Governance in a few years’ time. He already helps Kylix at the Luminary sometimes.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Helianth, no. Stop it. Damn cat. Sorry, Ryneth.” Archer picked up the cat before he could reach Ryneth’s breakfast.

“Did you name the cat after the prince?” Ryneth couldn’t help but ask.

Cyprian and Mirel both snickered.

“Um…” Archer scratched the back of his head, turning bright red. “I… may have?”

The snickers turned to full-blown laughter. Ryneth’s own lips twitched. It had been such a long time since he’d laughed.

He couldn’t help but think of his foster siblings, Tavi and the other three younger boys. Good Light, they would chuckle and play for hours.

“Hey. Where did you go?” Cyprian waved a hand in front of him.

Ryneth looked up. “I’m sorry. I just thought of my foster brothers.”

“Ah.” Cyprian smiled understandingly. “I used to have them too. Were yours nice?”

“Yeah. My foster mother was too. Mara. They were family.”

And I miss them.

“I made you something. Perhaps it will make you feel better.” Cyprian rummaged through his bag and pulled out a sheet of paper.

Ryneth watched Archer laugh at something Mirel said. His eyes widened when Kylix’s shy partner used his hands to turn water into cubes. “What the⁠—”

“Here.”

Ryneth shook himself out of it and looked at the drawing Cyprian held out. “Is that for me? You drew something for me?”

Cyprian’s smile was a little self-conscious. “I did. Though I’m not sure what it is, to be honest. I woke up last night with this vision in my head, and I just had to draw it.”

Ryneth’s eyes narrowed as he took in the charcoal smudges on the white paper. The moment he turned the paper, the static in his veins flickered.

“I don’t understand much, but I know it was for you,” Cyprian whispered. “Do you recognize it?”

“Good Light.” Ryneth’s throat felt dry. His eyes burned from the lack of blinking. “It’s…” The Ward. “A place in Düren. A place I guarded many nights.”

“From what?” Archer asked.

“You’re really precise,” Ryneth said instead of answering. His finger traced the wall that stretched across the paper in stark charcoal strokes. “And you saw this? In a vision?”

“I see things,” Cyprian explained. “They come to me. I draw them, and somehow, they make sense.”

“And that is your Dariux gift? That’s amazing.”