"I was able to find Ezra's presence - his soul, if you will," Professor Bruce said without preamble. "It is fortunate I have worked with him long enough to be able to identify his signature."

  "And you've confirmed he is fine?" Aida asked, slightly breathlessly. "Why doesn't he want to return to his body?"

  "Unfortunately, I am not privy to his motivations," Bruce said quietly. He peered at her. "Perhaps you can enlighten me?"

  "I don't know either," Aida said indignantly. "He just disappeared during the Fire Festival. Things were going well, so it's completely unexpected for him to do that."

  "You didn't get into a disagreement? Any discussions about the future, or any unpleasant subject he broached?"

  "No!" Aida was getting annoyed at Bruce. She already didn't like him (she didn't dislike him as much as Havi, but she certainly didn't like him as much as Kozu), given how he always seemed like he had better things to do than care for the students in his charge. But his attempt to address her delicately was just plain patronizing, and she was even more irked to realize her response made her sound just like the petulant teenager he was treating her as. She took a breath to reset herself. "I invited him to the Fire Festival, because he didn't have plans. We already agreed it would be just as friends, to enjoy the last event before we graduated school and went to work. Because it would be different once we were adults."

  Bruce continued eyeing her skeptically. Nothing in his expression gave it away, but Aida had a feeling he was less listening to her actual explanation and more trying to catch an inconsistency, an oddity, in her narrative.

  "We were with Lily Moon, Edward Sparks, Pritchard Spoak, Shon Yanomo, Myk Chy, and Dev Flau. You can ask them if they noticed Ezra acting strange as well. But we were having a good time, until we separated from each other to watch the fireworks."

  Aida continued recounting what happened in Shale Port that night, answering Bruce's questions about specific details until she got to the part where the villagers brought his unconscious body out to the main path.

  "No signs of struggle, and no evidence that he may have been distraught," Bruce murmured. He looked up at Aida. "Tell me about your dream."

  Aida told him about her dream, describing how real and vivid it was when it came to seeing Ezra, while at the same time noticing how the environment seemed to take on the characteristically abstract details consistent with a dream.

  "I don't remember much else," Aida said, faltering. She pressed her face into her hands, trying to recall what she could. "I just remember that he seemed...lucid. And he did try to communicate. We couldn't talk, but we could see each other."

  "Did you touch?" Bruce asked sharply. He exhaled when Aida shook her head. "Thank the skies."

  "Is touching bad?" Goosebumps rose on Aida's arms. This was the first time she had seen Bruce be anything other than calm or resigned. He was downright agitated, his smooth, ageless brow wrinkling as his normally serene smile turned down in an indisputable frown.

  "It is exceedingly dangerous, if you do not know what you are doing," Bruce said severely. He glared at her with all the disapproval of a parent warning a child not to do something, and the child doing the thing anyway. "If you are not prepared properly, being touched in the spirit realm - especially when one unintentionally crosses over, such as in deep sleep - is asking to be trapped. There is a reason why dreams are much more tempting than reality."

  "Is that what happened to Ezra?" Aida asked, ignoring Bruce's lecture. "Did he decide to take a nap in Shale Port, ascend to the spirit realm, get touched in a dream, and get stuck?"

  "Unlikely," Bruce said, annoyed. It was mildly amusing how much easier it was to talk with Bruce now that he shed his spiritual guru persona. "His spirit is still mostly intact, which indicates he has learned his meditation lessons well. From my observations and attempts to bring him back to the waking world and your vision of him, I believe my hypothesis that he believes he has some reason to be in the spirit realm is much more likely."

  "So if he's refusing to return...then what do we do?" Hearing that Ezra was ultimately fine brought Aida great comfort, though now she was starting to feel more lost. She hadn't thought about what would happen after talking to Bruce; she had only been focused on getting a meeting with him, and hoping he would give her answers that gave her a clue as to how to proceed. Like a straightforward game. "Can we talk to him, somehow?"

  Bruce eyed her warily, looking her up and down as she sat upright in the bed. As if he was evaluating her, and didn't have hopes for what he saw. "I have tried speaking with Mister Riolt, but unfortunately, he was not able to respond coherently." After a brief pause, he reluctantly added, "Communicating in spirit form was not deemed a priority in our lessons."

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Aida sank back in the bed, feeling hopeless again. What now?

  "So do we just wait for Ezra to be ready to return to us?" Aida asked dully. "Will he just...lay here at school?"

  Professor Bruce twitched at the suggestion, clearly unhappy. "I have a suggestion, however impractical it may be. Since you two have successfully made contact, albeit limited, perhaps we could arrange training for you to learn to communicate in the spirit plane."

  It took several seconds for Aida to catch up to what Bruce was saying. "You think I can learn this?"

  "Not through me," Bruce said hastily. "But as times are quite desperate now, perhaps we can convince one of the remaining Masters to come teach you what you need to know."

  "But...how long would it take?" Aida asked blankly, feeling hope begin surging in her heart. There's still a chance.

  Unfortunately, Bruce shook his head. "I am unable to offer a concrete timeline, as we will need to first make contact with a Master, and convince them to take on the job." He glanced at her, pursing his lips. "Please understand, this is an unprecedented task. We do not have an established protocol on how to develop this kind of working relationship."

  That's right. Only extremely powerful families have easy connections with Masters.

  "In the meantime, you have a pending offer, yes? I encourage you to take it. If we find a Master able and willing to take on a pupil, we will provide your details, and they will arrange contact with you."

  "Why me?" Aida asked slowly, her mind still slowly piecing together the logistics of it all. "Why can't you just have the Master make contact with Ezra?"

  Bruce looked at her with exasperation, though his voice had finally gone back to his usual unbothered tone. Perhaps he found Aida's ignorance comforting, a return to normal. "A Master may be able to traverse the spirit realm with ease, but that doesn't mean he or she may successfully engage an unwilling spirit. Furthermore, you are most likely to be the only anchor to the mortal realm for Mister Riolt, so would have the greatest chance of success."

  Everything in Aida's brain stuttered to a halt. So many words she wanted to say to him - how did he know? What evidence did he have for that? What kind of play was Bruce attempting?

  Was it really true?

  "Regardless, do not think too much about this prospect yet," Bruce said, clasping his hands in his lap as he leaned back with a certain finality. "The training will likely take longer than anticipated to arrange, if at all. You should continue to focus on your final match tomorrow, as well as doing your best at your new job."

  Professor Bruce stood up after delivering the impersonal words, smoothing his hands down the front of his shirt as he gave her a quick bow, leaving her in the Healing ward with only a thin sheet of fabric separating her from the boy who supposedly was still attached to her, despite so wholeheartedly refusing to let her in.

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  Sue poked her head out of her room as soon as Aida approached the door of her own room, a bright smile on her face.

  "Welcome back!" She stepped out to greet Aida with a hug, Caleb sheepishly following her out.

  "We would have stayed with you, except Healer Luk insisted that we leave," he said apologetically, though Aida didn't even ask. "Are you well?"

  "Yes," Aida said softly. She didn't know if she wanted to talk about her conversation with Bruce; there were too many things for her to think about, and she didn't have the energy to keep details straight between Caleb and Sue.

  And as much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't in the mood to be a third wheel.

  "I'm going to prepare for my match with Lyn tomorrow," Aida said abruptly. Sue tilted her head, looking at Aida askance, as if she was really questioning whether Aida had to prepare for a match against Lyn. "Lara pushed me to my limit today, so I'm going to rest a bit, and do some light training."

  "Well, if you're sure," Sue said uncertainly. "Do you want company?"

  Right as Aida shook her head, Sue said in a rush, "Did you want to talk about your match with Lara? It looked like she said some not really nice things..."

  Aida barked out a laugh. "No, it's fine. She was just being herself."

  "It was a shock to see her return to her prior behavior," Caleb said softly as Sue nodded. "I really thought she had changed."

  It's because she was trying to suck up to you guys. Aida bit back the retort. It wasn't Caleb and Sue's fault that they were too nice to see when they were being manipulated.

  "Yeah, well, that's okay. I'm used to it," Aida said shortly before forcing a smile on her face. "I'll see you guys at dinner."

  Waving at Sue and Caleb, Aida slipped into her room before shutting it firmly, pressing her head on her door.

  It might be stupid of her, but she didn't want to look at the window - it reminded her too much of Ezra. Why were the window memories so much more painful than, say, cafeteria memories, or library memories?

  Heaving a shuddering sigh, Aida flopped onto her bed, head turned towards the wall; successfully avoided looking at the window.

  She really didn't know how to feel about being offered a chance to receive training for meditation. It sounded far too off in the future to be able to make concrete plans around - and who knew how long Ezra had in limbo before he was permanently exiled to spirithood, no longer able to return to his body. She cursed herself for not asking Bruce about Ezra's survival rate; she had placed too much trust in the confidence with which he spoke, trusting that he would bring up any severe issues.

  The good thing, she supposed, was that she didn't have to make the difficult decision about whether to swerve off the path of being a Healer/Poison Specialist in order to receive training for meditation - she didn't have to decide whether she should choose herself, or choose to save Ezra. She could just imagine the disappointed look on Healer Bokar's face if she had to decline his offer, especially so close to graduation.

  Nothing has changed yet. My career plan is still the same.