This one's a shorter part, sorry about that (or you're welcome, if you hate long things). Had to chop off it's rear end, because that scene sat better in the next chapter~
Also, as always, thank you to all my extra lovely readers that provided critiques and some great questions to pop up possible plot holes. You guys get some non monetarily valued kudos from me, since I love me a good shredder of a critique~
Keep up the great work, and I hope you enjoy this part as well! Cobs has nearly doubled in views since being featured, and just hit it's 700 votes marker (yes this is a celebratory chapter)! So I'd like to thank the mysterious editor for somehow finding my 3 months dry on updates novel, and absolutely everyone (even those of you that seemed to only love my table of contents) for giving this book a chance!
I'm done rambling, here's the last part - of the chapter-
—————
Káel had himself awkwardly sprawled across the bed, arms stretched to flatten a spare scrap of parchment on the corner of his nightstand. Aimlessly tapping his lip with the butt of his pen as all the ways he could have worded his letter escaped him. He had briefly recapped his stay at Cobalt to his self proclaimed uncle, but before he could end the note with a sagging signature, Phantom popped up the idea of begging for illicit artifacts again.
Now, torn between the unlikely chance of getting what he wanted, and banking on the bliss of ignorance his uncle would tack to him when he asked for the object, Káel was at an utter loss for what to write.
He tried to imagine the situation as if he was back home. Opening his front door to face the towering man, his flowing clothes just as colourful as his personality, and the little blue car he swerved about the roads on parked right on the lawn. What would he do if Káel opened that door with a stiff smile and asked for drug money?
Káel bit the butt of his pen, bouncing it up and down like a wonky spatula. He'd never seen his uncle on a bad day, in fact, he barely saw him at all. Which made for the sinking realisation that even if the person receiving his letter wasn't in fact the uncle he'd seen so many times, it wouldn't make a difference.
Allowing the heavy air to fill his lungs, Káel told the truth.
No matter what, he didn't know the person at the other end of his letter. He didn't know how to use a zodraic battery, or what it even was. He didn't know what Ray was going to do with an illegal artifact.
But what he did know was that he wanted to go home.
Jeremiah leapt onto the bed as soon as Káel finished up the letter, his permanently disapproving meow pulling Káel's attention as the cat weighed his judging eyes upon the human.
"What?" Káel said, trying to mimic the cat's scowl.
"Letter..." Phantom started, making a couple motions with his hands as he focused on the cat's back. "Collar? I think that's what he said, but his tail is everywhere."
Káel squinted at the man, slipping the small paper into his cat's collar for the sake of humouring his ludicrous tail reading claims.
But Jeremiah chirped at the action, slipping away to rake his claws across the door. As soon as Káel cracked the door open, his only piece of home slipped away again, tearing down the hall to slip through another door before the wandering student closed it.
Káel paused, too tranced with confusion to call his cat back.
Was Jeremiah going to run the letter to his uncle?
Káel avoided the stress of thinking too hard, slinking back into the privacy of his room where a wheezing snore filled the air. Puff had passed out in a nest of Truvius' pillows, purple tongue snaking out of a cave of white fangs and drool as the travel sized dragon played his nightly tunes to an unappreciative audience.
Káel made a note to swap his pillows before Truvius came back, sparing his roommate the torment of breaking out into an allergic reaction mid snooze.
The cuff, now scorched and beaten better than a punching bag, was on his cluttered nightstand. The faint doodles bright enough to pull through the black, but they looked more like black monsters barfing up rainbows than the cutely drawn flowers that were once there.
Káel watched Puff and smiled, his chest tingling with a dash of happiness for the dragon. Puff had gotten his happy ending, and with his side of the deal done and dealt, all that was left to focus on was home.
The word rang in his mind, flashes of his house and the boring town reeling through his mind like scrapbook of memories. But instead of fueling his excitement, it dampered it in the worst way possible, the scope of what Káel had done, and where he now stood huddled into one horrible question.
What would happen when he left Lumi?
He couldn't take Puff back home with him. Keeping a giant white fluffy dragon in your basement was a Hollywood plot that fractured reality to cater to imagination. Káel knew taking his friend back with him simply wasn't an option.
Would they send him away then?
His heart clenched. All the effort in keeping Puff with his friends would be wasted for the sake of Káel's selfish desires. If homesickness could even count as selfish.
His hopes sank deeper, clogging up his throat with an anxious wave of nausea. Freeing his friend simply wouldn't do, he had to find a home for Puff too.
"What's with the face?" Phantom cooed, swinging into Káel's line of sight. "What does it take to make you happy?"
Káel gave Phantom a hard stare, another problem dancing itself into the equation. Would Phantom haunt him forever? Or simply disappear to the eternal solitude of being stuck in a generic rock?
He didn't like either of those options.
Káel put his smile back on, but he couldn't hide the worry in his eyes. "No, I am, I was just thinking about something..."
—————
Polearis was slowly dipping below the horison, the small star casting all objects into its usual blue glow. Vera skimmed her company, satisfied with Truvius and Talli's attention as she dropped into one of the lounge chairs, eyes drawn to the velvety red cushions in pensive silence. She had practically dragged Truvius out of the library without a word of warning or why, and definitely had something she deemed important glued to her mind the entire way.
After paying Talli the smallest glance of disaproval, she straightened up, motioning for her two friends to sit and listen.
"I'm going to get it out now," she started, wincing at her own tone and dropping it to a whisper. Despite the complete lack of company snooping in the silver house lounge, she wasn't going to take chances. "I think there's something seriously wrong with Unicorn Boy."
Every bit of Truvius rose at the sentence, his eyes wide with near excitement at the sound of his own thoughts falling out of Vera's mouth. "I do too. He keeps doing weird things, like staring at the wall... and talking to himself... I thought it was a-" Truvius glanced at Talli, a heavy swallow chaining back his words. "Just something people from his part of the Mizer Islands did. But it can't be."
"M-maybe he's stressed a-a-about something," Talli said. "I talk to myself as a r-reminder sometimes."
Truvius sighed. "Yeah, that could be it."
"Or it could be something."
Talli looked at Vera questionably. "H-he doesn't seem c-crazy to me."
"Not like that Talli," Vera replied, waving her hands to try and catch an answer. "Not in the head crazy... probably. Haven't you guys noticed he looks over his shoulder? It's like he sees something. And you said he was having a one sided conversation, not to mention he rarely comes to us for help on any homework, it's like he knows the stuff."
"He sh-should understand it, th-that doesn't seem weird to me," Talli replied.
Truvius looked to Vera fearfully, hanging off the edge of his seat with far too much excitement for the gravity of her claims. "You think there's something there?"
Vera sighed, staring at the fancy blue rug beneath their feet while she pinched at her hands. She didn't like teaming up, but Káel was more likely to slip the beans to Truvius than her. "After the exams we got lost in the school, and while we were looking for someone with directions we found this corridor... It didn't look right at all, and I admit we shouldn't have gone down it, but I was curious, and because I was too... unmotivated... to go alone, I dragged him with me. And we found a room." She locked onto Truvius' twinkling eyes, her already fragile trust in him dwindling. "And he was attacked by something I couldn't see."
"A ghost?" Truvius said.
Vera nodded. "Probably, but why would it only show itself to him? And why would he be so calm about it following him around? They don't talk either, it doesn't make sense."
"Well why don't we go look at the room?" Truvius proposed, catching a timid look from Talli, who fearfully shook her head.
"We can't. It disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Truvius's face twisted in confusion. "Rooms don't just disappear."
"I know, but it did," Vera sighed, stroking at the lump curled under her jacket to make sure Cinder hadn't fallen asleep.
And then it clicked, the brief fight she had welcoming itself into her train of thought.
"He said something before! About figuring out a new thing about that room, but he never told me because he was being a skat!"
"Well maybe you can get something out of him now," Truvius replied, rising from his chair with far too much purpose for his stature. "I'm gonna go to back to my room and 'study'." He winked. "I'll watch for that shoulder thing you were talking about."
Don't forget to:
COMMENT/CRITIQUE/(VOTE IF YOU WANT)
Quality Quip #9:
'I tried being normal once, worst two minutes of my life.'
~ Google (cause people need to claim their damn quips)