Jean walked the streets of Grim Aegis alone, the shadows of the coming night wrapping around his robes. He held his skeletal hands tucked in each sleeve of his robe, wrapped in front of his chest. Now that he had most of his body back, Jean was more conscious of his form. He wondered how people would react to his form now that they were free of the memory manipulation.

He was not self-conscious about it, but it was a curiosity.

No, he was wrapped in on himself precisely because he had to meet with Keita.

The best way to recall Keita was in the complications of their relationship. They were both born in April and both raised in the same neighborhood. They had been friends as children, and that friendship continued into the Academy.

The only thing that ever came between them was competition.

"Though, not in our studies, eh, Eliza?"

Jean had not summoned forth Eliza for this particular encounter, though. He was certain that Keita would not react well to her form. She had been both of their loves, after all.

Clack.

His skeletal foot stepped down on the stones outside the home they had lived in during the memory manipulation. Jean's gate pulsed with power, but he did not move. There were no lights on inside. The fire had gone out.

Keita was not at home.

Jean turned, walking down the street further. He had an idea of where Keita might be. Jean knew Keita could not escape Grim Aegis even with his prodigious power.

He continued walking until he reached the park, which was empty in the night—all except for one person, sitting on a park bench overlooking the amphitheater Jean had spoken at day in and day out. Jean pursed his lips as the dark man leaned forward, his fingers clasped together like he was praying.

It was Keita, the same as he always was.

His unnaturally early white hair was still frayed along his head, a rustled mess that made him look like he had just woken up. His beard had grown since Jean's previous memories of him, reaching nearly halfway down his chest. Long brown beads were wrapped around his neck, and he wore the same white robes he had when they had been roommates in their manipulated lives.

There was a nostalgia to Keita's appearance. It brought Jean back to that night when his life had changed forever. He was stabbed in the back and attacked by an unknown assailant in his home. He should have died, but instead, he returned to the world of the living to find Eliza dead beside him. She hadn't even been near when he had died.

Keita had been the one to find him in the morning, crying over her corpse.

Jean slowed as he approached Keita. What was there to say after so long of being apart? The last time they had met had been...a dark moment. Jean licked his lips, finding them dry.

"It is ironic, is it not?" Keita asked, not looking up from his hands.

"What would that be?" Jean asked.

"That this is what it took to bring us together again." Keita looked up at him, a smile spreading across his face and parting his beard. "I almost caught up to you on Aherlow, I'll have you know."

"Sayed said he encountered strange people but couldn't get your names right." Sayed chuckled. "I thought it was you, by the description, but how the dragon fell told me the truth. I knew it was you when I saw that construct."

"Magick." Keita's eyes raised to meet Jean's own. "I've come far in the practice. I am not the same man you knew back on April. I've learned so much about the manipulation of raw aether."

"As I would expect from you," Jean said. "I've also learned much of curses, including my own. Though, I must say that I am not that different from who I used to be."

"That is hard to believe." Keita shook his head. When we parted ways, you were a broken man, Jean. I say this not to demean you but as a friend."

"You couldn't stay." Jean looked away. "The opportunity to study at Magnus Hortus is not to be taken lightly. Yet, it seems to me that you threw away the opportunity."

"Have I?" Keta lowered his hands to between his knees. "My path still takes me to Magnus Hortus, just for different reasons. If only they had seen the uses of my studies. We could have brought an entirely new understanding of aether to the world."

Silence filled the park at his words, his breath short as he finished the short tirade. Jean pulled his lips tight. Keita had been given a research opportunity in Magnus Hortus based on the preliminary research he had submitted to the Academy. However, something had gone wrong. As the Academy's board dug deep into Keita's research, they found reason to censure him.

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Like they had when they had discovered Jean's death and rebirth with his curse.

"She would understand," Keita said. "You know it as well as I. She always accepted both of us, warts and all."

Jean couldn't help but smile. Keita made a good point. Through whatever they faced, Eliza had been there for both of them. Regardless of their stupid choices, she had been there for them. His fingers twitched. He could summon her right now and allow her to be out in the open with Keita. He held back. Now was not the time or the place. Maybe when the fight was over, Keita could see Eliza gain.

Maybe she would speak if they were both there.

"I never blamed you, you know," Keita said. "After the attacks, I never thought it was your fault that she died."

"I know." Jean grimaced. "Her loss pulled me forward through the pain, though. I knew I had to find a way to see her again, regardless of the cost."

"You and me both," Keita whispered. "But that's not the problem at hand. We're both stuck on this island. Even with people regaining their memories, no one can find a way out. The mist still covered the lower tiers, and the castle, the king of this island, is silent."

"I have something to ask about that," Jean said.

"Oh?" Keita raised an eyebrow.

"First, know how you regained your memories," Jean said.

"I assume it was you and your crew." Keita smiled. "You five are a basket of explosives in any scenario, from what I've read. Have you gotten a name for your group yet?"

"A name?" Jean pursed his lips. "No, we haven't yet."

"Give it time. If you don't come up with one, someone will."

"Like our own names, 'the Reanimator."

"And mine, 'Chosen One.'"

"That's a strange moniker." Jean raised an eyebrow.

"The Bounty Office has too much time on their hands." Keita shook his head. "I always wonder how they get the pictures for the bounties, but that particular study escaped my time."

"But that is another subject entirely," Jean said. "I still have something to ask you."

"That, I can also guess."

"Oh, go ahead."

"You're teaming up, or more accurately, recruiting others to join you."

"Correct," Jean said, raising a finger.

Of course, Keita would guess that already. Jean shook his head. He couldn't let himself be surprised with Keita just being Keita.

"If you know that much, do you know the trials we face?" Jean asked.

"That I cannot divine," Keita said.

"It won't be as simple as a kickball game in the streets," Jean said.

"You were always better at that anyways." Keita smiled. "What I do know is that if we don't overcome the trials, we won't be leaving this island."

"Have you tried?"

"I can sense it in the aether. This entire island is shut off from the outside."

"That would be the gate controlled by the royal family."

"When you left for the Fringes, do you recall the path out of the Core?"

"I stowed away on a ship," Jean said. "I had to lay low to keep the bounty hunters off my back. I knew we passed through a key island but didn't see the actual process."

"That is understandable. I left under a different situation and did not gain my bounty until I returned." Keita stretched and stood. "The gate is like traveling through tunnels of nothing. There is a barrier around the Empyrean that is formed by the Outside. Each key island, north, south, east, and west, uses a different element to create a path through that barrier and into the Core. This is the ultimate protection for the Core. No matter what happens in the Fringes, the Empyrean remains intact."

"Of course," Jean whispered.

"If you learned more than just curses, you would be up to my scholarly acumen." Keita shook his head. "This is why breadth is more important than specialty."

"An age-old argument," Jean smiled. "I don't think we'll settle it now."

Crick. Crack.

"Of course not." Keita knocked his head back and forth. "But I imagine it is just part of the problem. There's another disruption in the aether, further up the tiers."

"The keep," Jean said, looking up to see the full moon above. "A barrier made from an amplified curse. We have a way around it, or at least we have a plan for it."

Walls blocked sight of the higher level, just as it did with the lower. The keep rested at the highest level of the city. Out of sight, but not out of mind.

"Your crew is very enterprising," Keita said. "And you don't have to convince me any longer. You'll have my help."

"That was easier than I expected."

"You dangle the only lifeline to a drowning man and expect him to refuse?" Keita chuckled. "I have heard of some hair-brained schemes, but that is an insanity I couldn't imagine."

"You've got a good point, and I hope that bodes well for the other allies we hope to recruit." Jean joined in the laughter. "But thank you. Perhaps I can finally see the strength you cultivated to gain your bounty name."

"Oh, you didn't know?"

"You are a pioneer in that particular form of power." Jean shook his head. "You still haven't convinced me that it isn't a curse by another name. The constructs I saw you create had the single nature of curses."

"Magick is far older than curses." Keita narrowed his eyes. "But they are similar in a way. I think the main difference is how they are obtained."

"I've had my theories for some time," Jean said. "A person is pushed to their breaking point, and at the point of breaking, they are pulled into the power. Their heart is replaced with a gate, and that forms the foundation of their power. It serves as their connection between the Real and the Surreal, allowing them to bend the Real around them."

"An adequate summation." Keita held his hand up toward the moon. "However, I think something is missing. That is where curses are similar to magick."

"You're making this sound darker than I could imagine." Jean sighed. "Don't beat around the bush; just say what you mean."

"First, you must realize there is a dichotomy, but not between the Real and the Surreal. The dichotomy is between the Real and the Outside. The Surreal is the between point."

"A common idea," Jean said.

"Techniques are between the Real and Surreal. They warm the Real with ambient aether, but only slightly." Keita raised one finger and then a second one. "Curses would be within the Surreal itself, allowing for strange warping of the world itself."

"And magick?"

"Magick rests between the Surreal and the Outside." Keita raised a third finger. "It uses the Surreal and the Outside to warp the Real beyond what even a curse can do."

"That sounds dangerous." Jean frowned.

"Oh, do not doubt that it is." Keita smiled, showing all his teeth. "Specifically for my enemies."

The moonlight shadowed Keita's face, and Jean's heart skipped a beat. Doubt weighed on his heart despite the fact it had been replaced with his gate. Who was Keita now, after all these years?

Jean honestly did not know.

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