Luke was glad Nellie didn't break up with him. He thought the conversation was going to go down that route, but the hugging and kissing leading up to their reunion didn't foreshadow such a drastic course.

Luke let the argument die. He didn't want to waste his limited time with her fussing over something. He wanted to just hold her as long as she was there. They hiked up a small distance to a ridge within the campus, where some smokers usually went. They sat down on a rock cleared of snow and just watched the movement of the campus below. Nellie's head rested on his shoulder and his head on her red hair. The two of them should've been spotted like a chocolate stains on white pants but he didn't care. Nothing was going to ruin this moment he had with her.

He pointed out the houses. Orifiel's looked like a tree house since it was a house built in the midst of a small clump of trees.

Michael's house was made from marble and resembled a rotunda reminding Luke of the Jefferson Memorial back in D.C.

Anael's house looked like a giant igloo and Luke heard the place was kept below freezing at all times inside—just the way Anael students liked it.

House Raguel looked like factory with chimneys spewing smoke and solar panels covering the roof. The smoke came from the smelting chambers where Raguel students typically experimented making new weapons.

House Raphael looked like a giant chair that was missing a person in it—almost like someone had kidnapped Abe Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial. It had a glass elevator and staircase that rose in a spiral outside the armrests.

House Gabriel looked like an observatory, a round dome on top with a massive telescope and satellite dish as well. Luke heard from Jordan many of the students in House Gabriel study the stars and are seeking to expand their powers to eventually lead to faster space travel.

Finally, House Uriel was probably the oddest one. It was shaped like a scroll unwrapped down two stories but coiled with rims of parchment on top as if the potential to grow taller was there. Luke explained that's what he lived in, and Nellie laughed at the fact that he lived in a piece of paper. She started mocking him in song, "Who lives in a paper where people go ski?"

They laughed. When the sun started to set below the rim, casting an orange glow on the sports fields, reflecting upon a lake in the distance, and casting a shadow of the huge cross that rose stories atop the cathedral like the tower of Babel, they decided to head back down the ridge.

When they reached the bottom and headed back to the fountain of St. George, they found Kevin waiting with a backpack and a snowmobile. Luke didn't like the idea of Nellie riding behind Kevin, but at the same time he knew Kevin wouldn't make a move on her—he just didn't flow that way.

Luke gave Nellie one final kiss goodbye and she extracted a promise from him that he would write more often and find a way to get reception on his phone which he has since never used after finding out the school lacked unrestricted access to the internet.

They waved their final goodbye, as she promised to be back to visit him again and Luke hoped he'd get the opportunity to visit her as well. He returned to his house feeling like he was properly relieved of all his stress.

***

Two weeks went by. Things got back to as normal as things could be after an invasion of the campus. Jurgen was being guarded by Tempest students and regular soldiers. The Dean thought a 40 day fast was in line for Jurgen, along with turning off the heat in his cell throughout that time.

Luke was no longer hated as much as he was before. Many of the students greeted him and invited him over to their table at lunch or dinner. The invitation always included Sirius and Alpha, because they were a squad, and many people welcomed the new change in Alpha, although sometimes, Luke missed the old Alpha. The new Alpha looked more lost than the old Alpha ever was.

The Dean had modified the rules for House Uriel when it came to combat training. They allowed them to fight other students from different houses more often, which meant Alpha and Sirius didn't fight as much as before, and Luke was still anxious about having to spar with either of them. He had fought Alpha before, but that was pre-Garden Run—pre-Tree of Knowledge. And he has never fought Sirius, nor did he want to.

Because he knew they would both give it their all when the time came.

It was when Luke was in the middle of late morning mass that the Dean did the classic finger-nod that summoned Luke to his presence. He led Luke outside of the cathedral and only when outside did he begin to tell him what was going on.

"We found a new student," the Dean seemed to select his words carefully.

"Found?" Luke repeated as if this student just fell from the sky.

"He's being held in the JUG facility."

Luke laughed. "Not a good way to greet him."

"We had to take some precautions. He's obviously dangerous."

At that moment, Luke wanted to return back to mass. He had his fill of dangerous people. He wanted normal. He wanted safe. He wanted calm.

"He was discovered just outside the school, not too far from where you were rescued. He was found with a girl, a former student from the school who managed to escape a couple of years ago. That was before we started stationing 24/7 guard posts. We never thought students would be foolish enough to leave the safety of the grounds, but apparently they are."

He led Luke to a colorful building with a red onion shaped dome that was towards the right of the main gate. The building was beautiful for a jail. The inside ceiling had turquoise tiles that ran along in a curve almost like a flowing stream. It was as if Luke was walking in a water tunnel in an aquarium painted with fishes, rays, and eels. Luke was too hungry to notice such details when he left this building after he himself served a week of JUG for nearly killing Jurgen.

"This student is going to be living with you three in House Uriel. He'll be Alpheus's new roommate."

"So he's unidentified?" Luke assumed. "Does he have the Nef chromosome like me?"

The Dean stopped besides two normal guards holding shotguns and wearing shades indoors. They stood almost as still as the two statues outside the gates of Eden. "In that regard—he is like Sirius. He lacks the Nef gene but somehow possesses special abilities, or so I've been told by Dean Kay." The Dean seemed to take the information Dean Kay passed onto him with a grain of salt—either that or he really didn't want to accept the reality of the situation.

Luke thought back to something Kevin last said to him. Kevin knew Jurgen was bad, but he allowed Luke to figure it, because even Kevin didn't want to pass his bias of someone onto another. "How do you know he's dangerous if you haven't met him yet?"

The Dean adjusted the waistline of his pants. "Because Dean Kay interviewed the girl he was with, and if what she says is true, we have reason to believe this child is the most volatile student we'll ever take on."

"Then shouldn't Sirius be greeting the kid?" Luke wondered. If he was like Sirius and possibly dangerous, then shouldn't Sirius handle this? He had a larger set of tools to deal with a situation, including his ability to expel demons with a single word in the case this kid was possessed.

"As much as that would make sense," the Dean fiddled with his tie. "It was you who sensed that Jurgen was bad-blooded. Of course, if Kevin was here and not out on a mission, I'd send him in, but you have a good sense of smell when it comes to these things as well."

"So you want me to feel him out and then keep an eye on him?"

The Dean nodded. "If he becomes a problem, if you think he can become another Jurgen—or worse—you let me know."

Luke nodded and the Dean placed his handle on the door and then stopped himself. "Wait outside. I'll signal when it's time for you to come in."

Luke waited fifteen minutes. The room was soundproof, so he heard nothing but the fluorescent light bulbs buzzing like an electric beehive in the hallway. The guards weren't quick to strike up conversation either, no matter how much Luke commented on their awesome shotguns.

Luke really didn't want to do this. He didn't feel like he was a leader of any kind. Kevin was a Tempest student, the best of the school. For Dean Ammon to make Luke his second choice out of all the people in the school meant he placed a lot of faith in a single dove.

He tried to calm his nerves down. He was just meeting the guy. After all he was still the newest student at SGA—at least for the boys as far as he knew.

The Dean opened the door and whispered something to the closest guard and then shut the door again. One of the guards twitched his head in a signal to call Luke over to him. The guard knocked on the door. He heard a muffled voice that might've been the Dean's voice. Luke opened the door and went in.

He tried to play it cool, as if he hadn't known about the student at all. If he was to judge this guy, he would do so with as open a mind as possible. "You wanted to see me Dean Ammon?"

"Luke," the Dean played along easily. "I want you to meet your fourth. Introduce him to your suitemates, keep an eye on him, he's your new back buddy."

So much for an indirect approach. He basically just gave away their plan to keep tabs on the newcomer. What kind of code phrase was back buddy anyway?

Then the Dean added something he didn't see coming. "I think you two may have many things in common. Luke was like you," he turned to the boy who kept his head down in the low-lit room. Luke could barely make out much besides brown skin and black short Spanish-fro hair. "He's one of the newest recruits, and is a special case, just like you."

So not only was he similar to Sirius, but somehow, he shared things in common with Luke as well? But that was impossible. He was Uriel's only adopted child—unless Uriel has changed his position. Even so, archangels seem to adopt children at a young age.

Luke stepped forward and reached out his hand. He tried to put on the best smile he could, a welcoming smile, a smile that would get the newcomer to trust him. "Welcome to SGA. Sorry for the not so glamorous entry. We just take extra precautions here. I promise you, it isn't all that horrible." The kid kept his head in the shadows. Then Luke just decided to ask, "So, what's your name?"

The kid reached out his hand and grabbed it. It felt cold, as if his body was freezing. Dean Ammon did have a way with ice and Luke wouldn't much notice the low temperature in the room since he was normally pretty warm with his fire abilities.

Then the kid looked up and Luke caught himself before giving away his pure shock. He capped his eyebrows from rising, clenched his mouth from bursting open like a collapsed dam, and blinked once to prevent his eyes from expanding.

This was the kid he saw in Sirius's memory—the sixteen-year-old who was with the mother of Sirius when he was a baby. The boy who hadn't aged a day since Luke saw him through baby Sirius's eyes—which should've been impossible since they looked the same age as one another. The boy with the brown eyes who looked harmless in the vision, but apparently could dreamscape like Mongollon.

Luke knew Nefs could live longer than normal humans and even maintain youthful appearances, but this kid had not gained a wrinkle in what—over 16 years? This was impossible, something was wrong. And if what Sirius's mom said was correct, those who can dreamscape have a special connection to God, and from what Luke has seen with the Iumenti, they can be either good or corrupted.

Both hands were grasped, the beginning of a relationship that for good or bad would decide the fate of SGA and with that the entire world....

***

I remember feeling a sense of relief shaking Luke's hand, the kind of relief one gets from seeing someone he knows in a crowd of foreign souls. Luke had seen me in a piece of Sirius's past, and I had heard of Luke from his dying father.

And so I introduced myself. "Nathan, but you can call me Nate."

And that's how I first met the man who would determine whether the cycle of evil shall be stopped or broken.