Calming Felin down from his despairing sadness almost took too long as he stopped being entirely talkative, simply glaring off into the distance at something only he could see.

"Nothing changes, does it not?" Amy asked, petting his back. "We already knew he was a victim of whatever claimed the rest of them. Even if you've Forgotten his name..."

"...It changes enough," He finally spoke back, for the first time in almost fifteen minutes. "Regardless, your meeting's soon, no?"

"It is but I can hold it off if you want."

"No, it's just..." Felin trailed off, an odd expression flashing across his face. "It doesn't make sense. I haven't Forgotten his existence or anything about the other things you've discovered and yet I can't remember his name. Why?"

"I... I don't know."

"Never mind, go on. Leave this old Fae to his musings," He smiled half-heartedly at her, his eyes still that same radiant green. "You've got friends to meet, yes?"

"...Yes, I do," Amy sighed.

"Just go."

Reluctantly, looking behind her as she went, Amy left, leaving Felin all on his own in the room. With his apprentice departed, he no longer had to hide the incandescent rage from his face as, all at once, all the mana in the room glowed with blinding viridescence.

* * *

Despite it being a few years since they had last seen each other, none of their appearances had changed much. Rose was still a startlingly tall lady with dirty blonde hair cut short, and George a similarly tall man with longer black hair. In fact, if she could even imagine the fact, Amy could even say they had grown even taller in her absence. That was proved true when Rose brought her in for a warm hug and her face was nuzzled in a lower area than she remembered.

"It's been so long!" Rose practically screamed in excitement, George, the much more sedate of the two, happy to sit back and watch. Leaning back, she smiled down at her, saying, "You look so different!"

"...Different? Hopefully not the bad kind," Amy chuckled nervously, double-checking the mana filter for her 'nascent Skill'.

"Not at all. I- I don't mean to be rude, but you didn't look the happiest the last time I saw you," She smiled awkwardly. "You seem to be doing much better now."

I do? With everything going on? Amy frowned slightly, although the movement was so small she doubted they even saw it on her face. Especially since, as she had expected, none of them were even Apprentices. Of course, there was a chance her judgement was off - she wasn't an Archmage after all - but the way the mana seemed to linger around them didn't match what she expected for someone of that Tier. In spite of the fact the couple were always near the top of the class, casting Tier 3 Spells before Amy had fully mastered Tier 1, they were still only Magelings. What a failure of a School system.

"Let's at least get seated before we start talking," George said, gesturing to the café beside them on the street. It seemed to be a somewhat quaint establishment, the kind visited by regulars in the know, not tourists like herself. "The menu's nothing much but the coffee is amazing. You've got to try it."

"I'll see, I'll see," Amy smiled, letting the couple lead ahead.

Soon enough, they were seated on one of the outside tables, all facing each other with the spare chair moved to the side. While the seats weren't the most comfortable, it wasn't like she expected anything fancy. I really should've gone back to that fish restaurant Beatrice brought me to. It was really good. Amy thought with a pang of sadness. I still need to find her.

"So how's life been treating you then?" George asked, having just ordered some water for the table to start. "You were doing a government contract, right. You couldn't mention details about it before with it being confidential, but can you now?"

"I... I'm not sure," Amy considered. If this was before, Amy would've hesitated in talking about it, but with it all but confirmed she never had to return to Triesen again, she honestly couldn't care less about the Ward programme. No offense to Jones. "Eh, it doesn't matter that much. I'm pretty much on the tail end of my contract anyway so I doubt it'd do any harm."

Just in case, as she spoke, a trickle of Unknowable tinted her words, in an attempt to make it both less audible to eavesdroppers and less likely to be picked up as a contract violation in the case it was reviewed. "I was basically put on guard duty for a non-magical town which meant I had to keep everything pretty hidden. It was all quite a shock coming from the School and all of that to somewhere so deep in the countryside. For the most part-", with the exception of the Tower and all that nonsense, "-it was pretty uneventful. There was an outbreak of a plague nearer the end of my tenure though."

"Oh my god!" Rose gasped. "Were you okay? Did you get infected? Was it magical?"

"Yes, no, and yes. I was lucky that I contacted my supervisor as early as I could so some people got called down for it. I got to see Mages from the Holy See and the Weaver's Web all working together for it. There was even an association enforcement squad called down to deal with the source of the plague."

"I couldn't even imagine that," George said, wide-eyed. "Did they catch who was causing it?"

"It ended up being a dead monster body polluting the river water. Some kids played in it and spread the plague to the rest of the town after that."

"That sounds horrible," Rose shook her head, while the waiter came around with their drinks. Taking a minute, they all ordered their drinks, taking George's recommendation for the espresso, much to Rose's annoyance. "You always go on about the damn espresso and it always tastes like piss."

"Don't trust Rose, Amy, she doesn't know what she's talking about," He said as Rose rolled her eyes. "The espresso is absolutely to die for."

"I'll take your word on it... For now," Amy said with a small smirk, one that became less and less as she sensed a bit of tension grow between the pair. Ah. Maybe I made a mistake asking to meet George too if they've broken up. She did say they were amicable though and it's not like it's my fault I didn't know about it.

"What happened after the plague then?" George changed the subject, glancing nervously at Rose, while he poured himself some more water.

"Well, I couldn't really stay in town with everything going on so I left and took my remaining holiday time and used all of it at once. With how much I had stored up, I don't need to return to Triesen until the contract's over."

"Lucky you," Rose said.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"After that I started heading back home and I was leaving from Harth and remembered about you two in Evyria so-"

"You've been to Harth!" George suddenly yelled, Rose also on the edge of her seat. "How was it?"

"What... do you mean?"

"You know, with everything that's been going on there?" Rose smiled eagerly.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about," Amy muttered, as sweat began to gather on the back of her neck. Please tell me they're not talking about what I'm thinking they are. "I didn't stay in Harth for too long so I might've missed something. What happened?"

"First of all, there was a big heist in the news that riled up a bunch of people," George began to explain. "All the higher-ups at my work were really up in arms about it but wouldn't really explain why. Then, an Archmage was killed just yesterday! You can't tell me you haven't heard about it, it's in practically every newspaper. I remember you buying one practically everyday in School. Do you not do that anymore?"

"I still do, I just haven't had a chance these last couple days. I've been busy travelling," Amy deflected, unable to suppress her anxiousness.

"Apparently, some Mage who's calling herself the Witch did it," Rose mentioned casually, missing the way every muscle in her friend's body tensed up as she sat very still in her seat. "Made a big name for herself with the heist and now killing this guy. Her picture's all over the place."

"Picture?" Amy muttered helplessly.

Mistaking her strange behaviour for confusion, George elaborated, "A big bounty has been placed on her and her poster's been printed in basically every newspaper at least in Evyria. I don't doubt that it's the same elsewhere too."

"What- What does she look like, this Witch?" Amy tried to act calmly, rubbing the back of her neck.

"You know how these printing companies skimp out on ink, so it's not very clear, but she looks very generic, let's put it like that," Rose laughed. "I doubt she's getting caught anytime soon with a poster like that."

"Haha!" Amy laughed forcefully, her mind desperately scrambling for a way to shift the conversation away from the Witch. "So what have you two been doing? I know George got snatched up by that anthropology place, but what about you Rose?"

"I went job-searching for a bit, but nowhere good would accept someone with my affinities so I ended up in a law firm," She said with a sad smile. "I've gotten over it but it hurt pretty badly to get rejected from everywhere for the same reason."

"I thought your affinities were decent though!" Amy protested.

"Not decent enough," Rose sighed. "I mean, we were all from government Schooling, so our affinities are all less than stellar. I just aimed a little too high."

"Are you at least enjoying your job?" Amy frowned.

"I am, I am, it's just not what I wanted," Rose waved her off. Looking to her side, she nodded at George who began to speak.

"For me, I never aimed to get somewhere magical so I was glad when I got a job as fast as I did. It's slow but I'm moving up the ladder and the work is even slower. Just so much analysis, all the time, and half of it gets scrapped when another person comes along with more evidence or another theory."

"What sort of things do you even work on in anthropology?" Amy asked, trying not to sound rude. I mean, with century-old Mages hanging around, what use is there to studying human history when you can just ask the ones who lived through it. I suppose the Forgetting might've messed with that though. I wonder if George has come across it then, without knowing the proper things about it. His superiors certainly sound like they do.

"I work in the magical department so it's mostly Identifying and Analysing what archaeology brings us, and occasionally we get brought to sites for things too delicate to transport. At the end of the day it is a mundane company, so the magic I know and use is limited compared to what some place better could teach me. It's what I've always wanted to do though so I'm at least lucky in that aspect."

George didn't exactly make the dig at Rose subtle, so even Amy could tell something from the hostile looks the couple exchanged. Somewhere in the back of her mind, as she spoke, she drafted a message.

"Any interesting cases then, Rose? Or is the law firm you work for more the boring stuff?" Amy once again changed the subject of the conversation, just as the message was sent off to.

[Amy Wachlund: Is everything alright with you and George? You two have been pretty weird with each other this entire time.]

Rose's eyes widened as she spat out a bit of the water she was drinking back into her cup.

"Sorry, sorry, just went the wrong way," She was quick to make an excuse, and yet she couldn't help but look slightly at Amy as she wiped at her mouth. George seemed concerned as she sat there in silence for a bit. Although, while he assumed she was merely collecting herself, a notification popped up for Amy that told a different story.

[Rose Spencer: I didn't know you used Mage Messenger enough to message like that. I use it constantly and can't even focus on both it and speaking at the same time. And, no, not everything is fine with me and George but we're both putting up with it while we meet you. Don't worry about it.]

"Are you okay?" George spoke up after the prolonged silence dragged on a little too long.

"Yeah, I should be fine," She coughed a little. "Sorry, Amy, what was the question again?"

"No problem," Amy smiled gently. "I asked about work at your law firm. How it is and the like."

"Oh, it's mostly patent work. They don't get me working on any of the interesting stuff until I get a lot more experience and training. I have caught the eye of my manager a bit though so he may be recommending me for a promotion soon."

"Congratulations!" Amy grinned, while George gave a half-hearted smile.

"Him? Is it the same manager you were always complaining about?" He asked with a strange inclination to his voice, leaning in.

Oh no, Amy grimaced to the side. If I knew this was how they were going to be I would've met them separately. Fuck me.

"Yes, George," Rose smiled coyly, a bit of sass in her voice, "It is the same manager as before. What about it?"

"Nothing," George backed off quickly, finding the rest of the café suddenly a very interesting thing to look at. Surprisingly, he did end up finding something of note. "Oh look, I think that's our order coming."

With the conversation thoroughly derailed from anything to do with Amy, they didn't end up speaking for long after the coffees arrived. And, as Rose had said, the espresso tasted the exact same as every other espresso she had in her life. George asserted that it was something special despite being ganged up on two against one. There was a certainly unique quality to it, Amy ended up acquiescing, but it wasn't something she particularly cared for. She imagined someone more into coffee than her would appreciate it. Amy herself, as any good practitioner of herbalism should be, was far more into her teas. Unfortunately, her personal collection was still at home and she was limited in what she had brought to Triesen in the first place, let alone the small supply that was imported into the village.

In the end, Amy made an excuse about having to leave early, the small comments and pettiness between the broken-up couple getting worse until it wasn't something she felt comfortable handling. Amy wasn't even lying either, as she'd rather try and catch Beatrice as early as possible in case she had left shortly after she had arrived or was about to.

Ultimately, she couldn't help but be disappointed that such a reunion was soured by their relationship, but Amy was glad it happened nonetheless. She waved them a warm goodbye, and went off to find the inn Beatrice was apparently staying at on 'Garven' street.

* * *

"You complete idiot!" Rose yelled at George as Amy had gotten out of sight. "You just had to make it awkward, didn't you?"

"It's not my fault you're so sensitive," He shook his head, leaning back in his seat casually.

"You're such a dick, George. Couldn't you tell she left because of you?"

"I'm fairly certain it was because of the both of us, though she did try to be polite."

"Ugh," She groaned, unable to deny that. "She seemed well, though. I was worried about how she was doing with how long it'd been since I had seen her."

"She did seem a bit... off."

Cuffing him on the back of the head, Rose frowned at him, "Don't say that about our friend!"

"I'm just saying! She looked good, but you could tell she was a bit strange. Did you not notice how stilted she was trying to talk to us?"

"Oh, she 'looked good', huh? Of course that was what you focused on," She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"I didn't mean it like that and you know it," He grumbled, glaring at her. "You're telling me you didn't find her a little off?"

Although Rose wanted to brush George off, she couldn't deny what he was saying. All throughout the conversation, there had been a glint in her friend's eyes, one that felt alien and even repulsive. It wasn't like she hadn't seen that look before, either, it's just not one she had expected to see on such a person like Amy: the way she looked at them, as if searching through their every move; the way she sat perfectly still in her seat, no longer fidgeting like she used to; or even the measured way she spoke each word.

"It was like..." George struggled to find the proper way to phrase it, but Rose did.

"It was like she was a Mage."

"Yeah. That."

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