Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Twenty-Three: Bonds Reforged

Jubilee was a different story in Jay's eyes. Jubilee had been a cooperating party in a Fearbringer group many centuries ago, and she hadn't been involved with the Hanilia faction in a great many years. It would be ridiculous of Jay to remain petty with Jubilee because of her grudges against the modern group of Fearbringers when Jubilee hadn't ever been involved with them in the first place. She knew that she couldn't allow her feelings of negativity to get in the way of finding the truth. She was going to have to be careful, and she would keep from being too petty or snappish when the final member of the Skylian Mages did show themselves. 

Jay's eyes fell upon Lana in particular, and she resisted the urge to scrutinize every small crease on the girl's face. If she didn't know any better, she never would have guessed that Lana, as kind as she was, could hold such terrible secrets. It wasn't that Lana was a bad person; that was far from being the case. The two of them wanted to get to know each other better, and Jay could sense it from a mile away. However, their differing thought processes on Jay's past issues were what drove them apart, and Jay couldn't help but cringe at the idea that she would one day have to give in and tell everybody what she knew. Lana was going to make sure that she did it so that the group of traveling fighters would be able to rely on one another. 

It was going to have to wait until after Colt appeared though. Jay wanted all of the Skylian Mages to be together when she told the story so that she wouldn't have to be involved with all of the emotional aggravation that came with telling it all over again when a new member joined their ranks. It would be a story that she told once, and then she would refuse to acknowledge it ever again. That was what she believed would be for the best, and she wasn't about to back down from such an assertion. 

But for the time being, all she could do was wait. It was frustrating that she had nothing to do but simply sit there and wait for Lana or Jubilee to find something that they could use to track down Colt, but she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. They knew what they were doing, and Jay was sure of it. All she could do was be careful and continue looking to the future hopefully. Heaven knew that they were going to need all the optimism that they could get if they were going to get out of this mess with their sanity intact. 

~~~~~

Jayler tapped the eraser side of his mechanical pencil against the paper in front of him, willing his brain to shove him through his geometry homework. Math had never been his forte, and he was perfectly fine with confessing that it was his least favorite subject in school. He enjoyed reading and writing for the sake of being taken to faraway worlds that reminded him in some way, regardless of genre, of Hyperion and the fact that he seemed to live a fairytale each day. He loved science out of a basic curiosity to understand how the world worked, and his connection with history seemed to be similar to how he felt about English. 

Math, on the other hand, had never made sense to him. Who gave a damn about finding out the measure of congruent angles? Jayler knew that he certainly didn't care about it, and he didn't know how this was going to be relevant to him in the slightest. After all, it wasn't as if he was going to be looking into any careers on Earth. He had everything that he could have possibly wanted in Hyperion, and he was positive that the other dimension was all too eager to accept him for what he was. After all, he was a Hanilia, and it was his job to keep the realm safe. Jayler wanted to embrace such a position fully, and homework simply seemed like a buffer between his true goals and what he was being forced to live through day in and day out. It was pointless. 

Jayler hadn't actually spoken to any of the Clan Leaders yet on their thoughts regarding the future. He knew confidently that he was going to turn his attention to Hyperion in the future because he wanted to do everything that he could to help those who needed it. If the others were more attached to Earth than he was, then they hadn't said anything about it. He figured that the topic would come up sooner or later, and they could address it collectively when the proper time came. After all, they were in high school, and that meant that it was only a matter of time before teachers began to pester them for information on what they were planning on doing with the rest of their lives.