Heath couldn't help but think of the words the Elvors said. If Leo had seen the Sheevra Stone already, then all of them might have seen it.

In the building of the school, or during a mission. But the truth was Heath tried to call in sick during their first missions and since Mister Tenney showed him, with a tight fist in the literal sense of the word, that he couldn't hope to sit them out, he simply pretended he was queasy, prone to passing out and out of magic during most of their missions.

One would think it would give time to Heath to look around and memorise the details of each place they visited, or do something equally useful. The truth was that it was hard to keep his magic contained, use only tiny bits of it and understand when he should sacrifice it. If it had been for the ecstatic feeling alone, Heath would have used it all the time, but it was also particularly draining.

"I'm happy that you don't get to wear suits on missions," Heath told Jack. They were both dressed in black spy attire and they were about to go on their second task: a mission.

"Put on a hat, or your hair is going to stick out like a sore thumb," Jack replied and forced a black beanie on Heath's curly hair. It was hard to cover all the pink locks, and Heath forced the hair that curled on his neck beneath the cap before Jack could do it.

Being face to face with Jack Edens was not easy, as it never was. Heath couldn't be caught dead admitting that he liked his sly smirk, his fine cheekbones or his cherub's mouth. Even Jack's nose, which was often made fun of by Leo, and looked like it had been broken, had a certain proportion in the rest of the face and it was easy to see that, had never been that accident that ruined it, it would have been straight like the one of ancient statues.

He couldn't be caught dead thinking those things, not by himself, and least of all by Mister Tenney. It was easy, then, that there was so much about Jack he disliked, and that the other man didn't seem to like him either.

"You know that this mission is not together," Heath said pointedly. "Our paths will diverge. We cannot help each other out, so, before you say anything like 'who wants your help', I'm just reminding you that you won't get to use my magic."

"So this time you get to use it?" Jack replied with a little smile. "I didn't know you finally decided to make yourselves useful."

Heath found that so infuriating that, for once, he didn't know how to reply. All the lines he wanted to use about Jack's own lack of value didn't make sense in the context of their missions. Jack Edens was smart, calculating, good at physical exercise and he knew which lines to cross and which simply would be silly to, when he wanted to. While it was very easy to get him mad talking about his garish clothes or his reckless and over the top attitude, there wasn't much Heath could say about school-work.

School was the only place where Heath would always rank lower than Jack.

"The fact that the two of us had the same grades was obviously a lie," it seemed Jack was thinking about the same thing, too. "You're the only student with an asset the others can't dream of."

"Pink hair," Heath agreed dreamily, and Jack huffed as he stalked off.

Heath took a look at the building where they where supposed to infiltrate, a huge house made of reinforced concrete frameworks and curtain walls of polished stone. Heath understood that he didn't have the slighest idea how he could get in without being seen, and that, even though they weren't meant to go together, if he didn't tease Jack endlessly, he could have had a chance to follow the other students.

Jack scoffed as soon as he saw Heath in distance. "Ugh! I should have seen this coming. Now, please, get away from my sight."

"Rough morning?" Heath asked, and he was surprised to find out that if Jack wanted to tell him about his day, he might have listened. Just to get something from it, of course.

"What part of competition don't you understand? We can't do this together. And either way, yes. Leo suggested Professor Tenney that the Rogues should go on a mission with animal masks on our faces and call ourselves Leopard and Jackall. He couldn't find animals for the Purpose so he left you guys out."

Heath almost wanted to laugh, but what he really wanted to was laugh at Leo, and Leo was not there. Jack was, and Heath didn't want to give him the satisfaction, not when Jack wasn't moving as long as Heath disappeared from his sight.

"Fine," Heath finally huffed. "Go figure! I'll open myself a portal and get inside the building. If no one's there then no one's the wiser. And if they catch me what are they going to do to the Laoch for breaking and entering?"

"Wow, you're a man of many skills," Jack said, clearly sarcastically. "I'm still waiting for you to vanish completely from my sight."

Heath was curious as to how Jack was going to break and enter, but then again there was his old saying --- never give Jack Edens the satisfaction.

"Magically," Jack Edens added. "Possibly."

Heath did not know how to become invisible and he imagined there wasn't a magical way to do it. When something was possible, he simply felt his magic pulling at him, the same feeling as his fingers prickling. 

But since Jack Edens was asking so nicely Heath had no option but to make himself scarce. He was still curious as to how the non-magical student was going to enter the building but he realized he could always ask questions later.

So, Heath opened a portal. He made magic with movements of his hands, and there wasn't a standard set for every spell. When the magic was calling from inside his veins, he simply decided to reply the call and he manifested it outside his body with these gestures. If one looked close enough, Heath's fingers glowed pink. And sure enough, with the energy he used to create a portal, he imagined more pink locks would add to his hair and the color was going to drain even more.

Jack may have been right, for once in his life, sticking a beanie on Heath's head. His hair was probably going to stay pale pink for the day.

When Heath used his magic, the same old feeling came over him. It was ecstatic, and fast. A certain numbness spread over his mind and body, like an anesthesia that worked on the outside and the inside. Once it was over, his mind was going to suffer. He would feel tired, weak and used, even more crappy than before. His body was going to tire faster until, at least, the next time he used it again.

In a blur of confused feelings and a kaleidoscope of images swirling around him, Heath found himself inside the building. He had to crawl next to the wall and use it to support his body weight. He felt like he was going to fall. He hadn't anticipated how weak it would make him, this time. Creating portals was one of the very worst spells. 

The good thing was that his mind felt elated. Heath was thrilled. He could do anything, he thought. The mission was going well. His mother was going to gather enough strength to reply to one of his letters. Everything was going to be alright.

He sighed. He needed that confirmation that things would go well once in a while.

He didn't remember what happened next. The first thing he knew was that someone with the same build as him was holding him from under his arms, trying to keep him from falling.

"Wake up!" Jack's voice said roughly. "Idiot! What are you doing?"

Then, something wet and cold splashed in Heath's face and, of course, Jack Edens had just thrown a glass of water at him.

"I don't understand what happened," Jack added then. "You were barely moving, crawling very slowly against the wall and then you just slumped down."

Heath found the situation hilarious. He couldn't tell, for some reason, the truth to Jack. Only Norma and Ken knew bits and pieces of the way spells made him feel. The idea of giving the other pupil something to possibly hold over his head... or even worse, a reason to pity him... But then, Leo knew about this, and he threatened Heath that he was going to tell Jack if the Laoch disrupted his plans once more. Since Heath thought it likely that he would ruin others of Leo's terrible schemes in the future, it would be better if the cat was out of the bag and there was nothing left for Leo to threaten Heath with.

Still, it was hard to find the words. If he told Jack that this was how his magic was going to make him feel, Jack would ask how often it would happen. And then Heath was going to have to admit that it happened quite frequently, though it was not as bad every time. And Jack was going to ask him to find a cure, because he was the type of person who thought that having a Laoch who could not control his magic well was not a good thing.

Perhaps he was right. Heath just laughed a little, and decided to settle for a half-truth. "Using magic makes me very tired. This is why I told Mister Tenney not to make me use it during the missions, now I want to take a nap."

Jack seemed to understand that it was bullshit but he didn't call Heath on it. He just said, "Good thing then that I managed to find Mister Byrne's cellular device and disassemble it." He showed Heath the components of the device. "Then," he added. "You'll remember from the lessons that if I remove this little part and then put it back together, Mister Byrne will find himself without the pictures he took on the device and, instead, Mister Tenney will be able to see them on the Data Processor. This way, we will see if Mister Tenney's slanders against the man were correct. Are you following me? I'm just telling you because I am starting to think you sleep through every class."

"With my eyes open?" Heath asked, more because he wanted to challenge Jack than for any other reason.

"Daydreaming, then. Maybe about Prince Philippos."

Heath got all fired up. "I think everyone by now already knows I like men, but I don't have your luxury, you know, to date one of them."

Jack almost dropped the black particle of the device on the floor. "Sorry? Do you call dating Leo a luxury?"

Heath almost shivered, but it was too late to turn back. He was frustrated. "My father would never agree to it," he just said. "It's likely he wouldn't like me dating in general, but it's obviously worse if it's men. I heard him say all kinds of things about it, behind people's backs..."

"Hold there for a minute," Jack said as he was uninstalling the alarms so that the two could leave without the people inside the building being warned. "I thought your father died in the Baicarian war. The war that happened when we were children."

It was true, and even though Heath simply couldn't bring himself to talk about the details of it, he'd said over and over that this simple fact made him loathe war even more than he already did. He declared it publically the few times people wanted to interview the Laoch. He kept telling the class.

"My biological father did," Heath replied, still somehow dazed. "And he's the one I think of as Dad, but it doesn't change the fact I have another father now, a stepfather. Mister Tenney was never a good father but it doesn't change the fact that he gave my mother and I a home after years of basically living on the streets, begging for spare change and he saved her from selling her body to men. Say what you want about him, but the man has money. Not like your biological Dad, I reckon, but..."

"Wait, stop!" Jack cried out. "Did you finally lose your head or is Mister Tenney really your stepfather?"

Some part of Heath's numb mind understood why Jack was so surprised but he didn't fully register it. "He doesn't want people to know. He says he will not hide the truth if it comes out, if anyone comes looking, but he doesn't want to appear biased."

"Biased?" Jack muttered. "The word I would use is probably prejudiced."

Heath knew that Mister Tenney wasn't fair on him so he was glad to hear it until he understood it was Jack that had spoken, and Jack Edens should not feel pity for him.

"Wait, wait," Jack jumped down from the table where he was sitting on, legs spread, because really, it was the most comfortable position but Jack was also a bit of a show-off. "Mister Tenney is your stepfather and the other day you asked me if I was sleeping with him!"

Heath shrugged. "I don't think he slept with my mother, not once. I think he just married her to adopt me, you know, the Laoch. He wanted to be the one to guide me and to study my magic up close. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be studying anywhere. I'd probably still live on the street and finding a way to make ends meet."

Heath was avoiding looking at Jack now, so he was looking at the room they were in because Mister Tenney said noticing the details was important. Sadly Heath was incapable of focusing on them, but he tried. The room was grey all over and the table where Jack had been sitting on was made of a polished and hard glass. There were Data Processors everywhere, their screens almost as big as half the wall.

"...He adopted you because of your powers..." Jack in the meantime was rambling. "Are you aware of how fucked up that is? And to think we're all studying in his school... Well, he was an exceptional spy, and I, too, didn't have many other options..."

"Jack," this time, it was Heath who stopped him. "Jacob. Where are the men you mentioned, Mister Byrne and the others?"

"Sleeping safe and soundly after I shot them a dart of tranquilizer in the neck. Do we even go to the same school? We learned this as first-years --- heck, no, it was the second lesson. Until yesterday, I thought you might have wanted to incapacitate them with magic but now... I am not so sure."

Heath hated that. He didn't want to be a mystery to Jack Edens.

He didn't want to be anything to Jack Edens.

But there was a very small part of him that was also boiling with rage, at the idea that the other student had seen him at one of his lowest moments, and not on the rare days where he got most things right, or was at least good at delaying other's plans. If only Jack had been there that day, with him and Leo...

He would understand why Heath never used violence. There were so many other painless ways to get the job done.

"I don't think you can portal back," Jack said. "And I already uninstalled the alarms, so it looks as if we should probably leave."

And it was when it really dawned on Heath. 

Jack had won the task, this time around, and he was a step closer to becoming best student.