The storm hit Gimma hard. It had been brewing all day near the mountains, looming and piling up, getting darker by the hour… and then it plunged into the valley come nightfall. It was now rattling at the doors and windows like a drunk determined to get in by any means possible. There was wheezing and moaning and the occasional harsh crack and Benji hated every second of it with all his might!

He moved quickly, checking every nook and every door but there wasn’t another soul to be found.

“Where is he?” he muttered in despair as he darted to the next room near the back stairs.

The fledglings were huddling up there in the calefactory with some of the mages and the headmaster. He could hear crying and shushing and Benji knew they were trying really very hard to be brave but it was so difficult for the little ones when the outside world seemed determined to tear your home apart.

Benji didn’t like it. At all. The corridors were alien territory within the monastery and running around freely without getting a stern talk about rules from the headmaster made him feel twice as uneasy.

The pages weren’t allowed to roam the cloister - especially with debris flying, leaving them in danger of being struck - but Benji was desperate and beyond worried, so he kept moving, staying close to the inner-walls of the corridors and flinching at the occasional blaze of lightning illuminating the cloister, casting bizarre, disturbing shadows on the walls.

A branch hitting the wall next to Benji brought the page back into the wretched situation.

Another flash of lightning and he spied two figures in long cloaks running his way. They were yelling something, but he couldn’t hear them over the deafening screams of Mother Nature - and it wasn’t until they were close enough for Benji to see their faces that he realised it would have probably been better to have run the other way.

The second he was within reach, Aik shoved him to the wall, tucking him into a corner and glaring down at Benji, the light throwing his mismatched eyes into sharp relief, the brown shining like copper, the blue sharp as ice.

Stressed. Worried. But most of all: furious.

“The fuck are you doing out here?! Why aren’t you with the fledglings?”

He was fuming and Benji got it but…

“I can’t find him!” he cried.

His brother’s eyes instantly softened and he shook his head. “Go up and stay with the fledglings! Em’s gonna pick up Kuo!”

Benji peered around Aik and saw that the other mage had already vanished into the raging storm. Aik’s hold on him didn’t loosen as he dragged him to the outer corridor towards the stairs - and then Benji saw them.

Standing outside of the monastery, drenched in the rain and hail, Embry’s body wrapped around his page like a shield.

It was almost… peaceful…

Sometimes Kuo was weird. There were things he’d never seen before. Snow, hail… certain plants.

And sometimes Kuo did weird things. Like, walk around in the snow in wonderment with bare feet. Or stand in the middle of a storm.

But then they probably were all new things for a page from the south… it was just the way he approached them would likely kill him one day.

Aik tugged on his jacket, dragging him along. “Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.”

When Benji glanced back one more time, the odd pair were still standing in the rain, unmoving - like they were unwilling to give in.

“I know,” he said, before following his brother to safety.

~

Beta: Rena Freefall (https://ko-fi.com/T6T4E528 )

mini glossary

cloister: "the heart of the monastery"

A cloister is an enclosed garden, usually surrounded by covered walkways. In summer it stays surprisingly cold, giving some relief from the heat.

calefactory: one of the few rooms over or with a fireplace. With the cloister and most attached rooms being open to the outside world, the calefactory is one of the "warm rooms".