Chapter 43: Chapter 41 – Personal Trials (Day 24)

When he woke up the following morning, there was a note on the floor - it looked like it had been slipped under the door.

I asked Echo to deliver this. I’m sorry I couldn’t say it in person.

I’m sorry.

I hope you’ve recovered.

  - Rissa

Serenity looked at the note. What, exactly, was he supposed to do with that?

He set the note down. Maybe he should ask Echo about it. She’d been the one to tell him to leave Rissa alone, after all, and she’d apparently been the one to deliver Rissa’s message.

He hadn’t even realized it had been weeks since he’d done more with Rissa than caught a glimpse of her. Usually at the Trials - that was good, right? Maybe she was well along in the Trials too?

He wasn’t sure what he thought.

Oh, there had been moments, a passing thought, a flash of anger … more of those early on. He probably hadn’t thought of her more than once or twice a day, recently.

Had he really just … forgotten about Rissa? Did she mean that little to him?

Or was it time that meant so little to him now? On the timescale of the Final Reaper, a few weeks meant nothing. He did think of her, just not all the time.

Maybe he shouldn’t have followed Echo’s advice. If he hadn’t … what would he have done?

Serenity didn’t have an answer. Perhaps he should think more about Rissa and less about himself, though, if he wanted to win her back.

He wasn’t even sure he wanted to. Maybe it would be better to win her as a friend. As the “brother” of her former lover, perhaps.

It would be safer for her.

He just wasn’t sure he was willing to give her up to keep her safe.

That morning, Serenity noticed that his eyes were glowing even though he wasn’t looking at anyone. It made it easier to catch and realize he needed to be more careful at how he was seeing, but he didn’t know why it had changed.

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Admittedly, he didn’t know why he was able to make them glow in the first place. All he could figure was that it was something so native to the Final Reaper that he still knew how to do it, even though it wasn’t on his Status anywhere.

It had never been on the Final Reaper’s Status, either. It had been something that happened to him when his Species changed - when he became undead after the first time he died. He’d always assumed it was associated with his new Species - it was really common for liches to have glowing eyes, after all - but maybe that wasn’t the reason.

Perhaps the death was the reason, not being undead? He certainly wasn’t undead now. Maybe undead were just more likely to learn how to use the ability, since many types of undead don’t have functional eyes.

Not that it mattered. No, what mattered today was the Trials. It was the second Strategy Trial Day, and the countdown had already started.

He’d just have breakfast in the breakroom.

It was the timing that meant he wouldn’t meet his other friends at the dining hall. Really! He wasn’t avoiding them!

Serenity snorted at himself. He was avoiding them - or more accurately, avoiding the conversation about what to do with the prisoner Entherys, and whether or not the other instructor archer had been caught.

Whoever it was, he probably knew and liked them. Yet they’d tried to kill him.

The actual Trials that day were not bad - except the time they gave him to think. If he’d been in the Trials as a student, perhaps he’d have been too busy to think, but an instructor could only watch.

What WAS he going to do with Entherys?

He needed to know why the man had decided to kill him. He’d only kept the man alive to find out who the missing attacker was, but perhaps there would be a reason to save his life.

He didn’t really want to kill Entherys, but he couldn’t leave him alive to be a threat. He’d taken Moira as a follower, but she seemed to have good traits - and with the oath she swore, she would never be a threat again. It was unlikely Entherys would swear such an oath, and Serenity wasn’t sure he wanted Entherys as a follower anyway.

Entherys was simply too arrogant to be a good follower.

What had happened to Moira, anyway? He hadn’t checked on her in … had it really been weeks?

Serenity didn’t notice that his eyes were glowing again, but all of the students did.

None of them said anything. By now, they’d all heard about the third murder attempt and Serenity’s walk back to his room afterwards. Echo made sure of that.