I wake up feeling a lot better than I have in a while. Empath induced sleep is very relaxing. At school, the entire morning is normal, right up until I find a note in my locker calling me to Magnate Leto’s office before lunch.
“I heard that you had a little adventure last night.” He says when I walk in the door.
“I did. But it wasn’t my fault. When Sophie started enhancing, I wasn’t ready for the boost that you get by just being in the room, so I accidentally went to spy on Lady Gisela.”
“Did you learn anything?”
“They’re moving the timeline up again. And she has this ‘special project’, and Keefe, and-”
“Slow down. Why don’t you just show me the memory.” I transmit what I learned to him.
“Any ideas what this ‘special project’ is?” I ask him
“No, but if it’s more important than her son…”
“It’s also a fairly simple name, so maybe she just started it recently?”
“Perhaps. I’ll discuss this with the collective. Now you should go to lunch.”
“Ok. Thank you.” At lunch, Sophie had already told anyone about what happened. They ask about my scar, and after I explain, they don’t mention it again.
“We have to find out where he is, before she can do anything else to him.” Sophie says.
“We will.” Biana promises. We talk about where his mom might be keeping him for the rest of lunch, but didn’t really mention the ‘special project’. The only time it was mentioned was when Marella thought they might be related, but almost everyone in the group thought they were separate. We don’t have much information to go off of for the ‘special project’, except that it’s happening in two days now. Then the chimes sound, and I head to telepathy lessons with Tiergan.
“Lori. Today, Magnate Leto assigned me the task of making sure your abilities weren’t affected by the breaking of your mind.” He says.
“I should have seen that coming.”
“Do I have permission to enter your mind? I want to test your blocking.”
“Ok. And good luck.” After a minute he pulls back.
“There is one way into your mind I found. But I’m pretty sure it’s always been there. I’ll see if it’s there on Sophie. It won’t let me in unless you consciously let me in though. So you should be ok.”
“Huh. I didn’t even know I could do that.”
“I didn’t push too hard, but I believe that it will always be up to you on whether anyone can get in.” We keep testing the telepathic abilities for the rest of the session, then the chimes sound. After study hall, Dex walks over to me.
“Hey, since midterms are coming up, do you think you might want to come gift shopping with me in Atlantis?” He asks. I think I start blushing, and he hurriedly adds, “as a friend! Not like a date or anything…”
“I’d love to! Friday after school?”
“Sure!” He looks so happy. All I want is to give him a giant hug. But that would be weird. He turns around to leave, and I remember that I wanted to tell him something.
“Dex?”
“Yeah?”
“I never really got to tell you, thanks for finding me, and getting Sophie.”
“No problem.” He replies with a smile, knowing exactly what I was talking about. That’s when I realized that I still liked him.  I leap home to happily report that I got through a day of school without any disasters to Edaline. I spend the rest of the day pouring over maps of anywhere the Neverseen might have a hideout with Sophie. The lack of information we have is frustrating. Ro is trying to create an enzyme that will track Keefe, and breed some that will create a way for her to find us if we ever get lost.
“Or kidnapped. Or decide to run away.” She adds.
“Not necessary Ro.” Sophie says.
“What? I’m just laying out the circumstances in which I will be forced to use these. They’ll be ready by tomorrow.”
“Whatever.” Stina comes to help me sleep again that night. The next day flies by, even though I have to sit out of P.E., where I learned that for the midterms, I’ll have to use telekinesis and other skills since Elwin never approved me to do anything physical. Then I have to go to Polyglot Lessons, which basically consisted of me and Sophie racing each other to see who could translate certain phrases faster. But we were both able to say it at the same time, which frustrated Master Cadence endlessly. She eventually decided to just give us a lecture on ogre politics, and assigned us to write, then read a paper on them out loud in ogreish as our medterms. That afternoon was the same as the previous one, except that Ro made us rub a random enzyme on our wrists. The next morning I’m really nervous. Agriculture went pretty well. But then it was time for alchemy.
“Please tell me what the midterms will be so I can study over the weekend. I’m hopeless in this subject.” I beg Lady Delmira.
“I saw what you did last week, so fine. You’re going to be turning wood to gold. It’s among the more complicated ones you’ll do here, so study hard.”
“I think I know a guy who can help.”
“Ready to go?” Dex asks me after study hall.
“Yup.” We leap to Atlantis. “How about a snack first?”
“Sounds good. Which place?”
“How about that one?” We go in and order, then sit and talk while we eat. “I actually might need to see you again this weekend.”
“Why?”
“I have to take an alchemy exam. And I have to turn wood to gold.”
“Wow. I can definitely come and help you with that if you need it.”
“I probably do.” We sit around talking some more, then Dex directs me to a jewelry shop.
“Our group does this thing where we all have charm bracelets, and we get each other charms for any events. We can get you a bracelet, and then you can start collecting charms too.”
“I already have one! We did that in my old universe too.” I say, pulling back my sleeve to reveal my charm bracelet. It’s getting a little crowded, but I fully intend to keep loading it up with charms for as long as I can.
“Wow, that’s a lot of charms.”
“I guess a few people decided that everytime I saved the world, I got a charm, and more and more people started doing it, plus all the charms I got for exams and holidays…”
“Well, we might still need to get you a new bracelet.”
“I’ve still got room for a few more.”
“Ok. Now go find charms for people.” He instructs me. I look around and carefully pick out a charm for each person. Sophie gets a heart embedded with diamonds, Tam gets a moon, Linh gets a puppy, Biana gets a smiley face, Fitz gets a gold star, Stina gets a cat, Marella gets a flame made from rubies, and after a while of looking around, I decide on a heart with light blue jewels. They almost look periwinkle. I check out, and so does Dex. We’re careful not to let each other see the ones we got for them.
“We still have a bit of time. What do you want to do?” I ask.
“I have an idea, but it’s a surprise.”
“I trust you.” He makes me close my eyes while he leads me to a quiet square, away from most of the people.
“I actually wanted to tell you something.” He says after we find a bench to sit on.
“What is it?” I ask, my heart hammering.
“I’ve liked you since you came here. And I know it’s weird because you dated me before, and you said you hadn’t decided if you liked me here. And it’s ok if you still haven’t decided, or if the answer is that you don’t. I just thought I should tell you.” Ohmygoshheactuallylikesme! I like him too! He likes me! He likes me!
“I like you too.” I reply, feeling tears in my eyes.
“Really?!”
“Yeah!” He looks so happy, I wrap my arms around him, and hold him for I don’t even know how long, just celebrating that I found him again, and that he actually likes me.
Then disaster strikes.