Memory Bonds

Friday meant three classes for Harmoni. While she and Fleck headed to Basic Magic, Cooper and Moon went back to the library.

It was a normal class. Harmoni took her seat, with Fleck beside her.

They’d reached a point where everyone in class was at a different level. Some students still struggled to feel magic, while some were starting to narrow in on a focus, a specialty. Rasha, for example, had her purple staff, and was showing signs of healing magic. Ava had apparently already introduced her to Tolith, and they were setting something up so Rasha could learn from him.

“Just once a week, or a few times if you like. We’ve got an expert on healing and shielding. It would make sense if you learned from him.”

Book girl, from the fungus incident, was also being offered an expert, a teacher in Edinar who knew mind magic. Harmoni thought that sounded kind of creepy.

‘Isn’t mind magic what’s effecting you?’ Fleck asked. ‘Maybe we should talk to that teacher as well.’

Harmoni filed away that good idea for later, and focused on her own training, namely strengthening her magic connection, and looking for a good enhancer. Couldn't get much farther without an enhancer.

~~~

They did have Potions today. A glass cabinet was conspicuously missing inside the potions classroom, but aside from that, there were no obvious changes.

The teacher didn’t show up right away. There were a few whispers about if he would.

Then someone new swept in. She was an elf. She had the long face and fingers, and Harmoni spotted pointy ears beneath her wavy red hair. But she was a bit short for an elf, might actually be shorter than Harmoni. And she looked young. Harmoni had thought she was a new student or something, until she stood at the front desk, putting the books she was carrying onto it.

"Right. Hi everyone. I'm Mirra. I'm from Edinar. I'll be taking over Potions Class." She held her hands up. "Just for a little while. But, I know a good bit about potions, and I've been looking over what you've covered so far. So, so let's get started. I've got an idea for today."

Harmoni frowned. So she was temporarily taking over the class. Were they looking to get the old potions teacher back still? Or were they just getting someone older?

The last thing Harmoni had heard about the old potions teacher was that he was missing. There was no word if he'd been found, or if they'd found out anything about the nefarious deeds he'd been doing. Not that the teachers were updating the students or anything. Harmoni heard things through rumors and eavesdropping.

Some of the other students seemed doubtful as well, but that was for a different reason. It went away when Mirra explained what they'd be doing that day. She'd brought a list of "fun" potions they could make. Ones that changed their hair color, made their eyes glow, let them walk around with multi-colored bubbles spiraling around them. Things like that. Each table could pick one to work on for the day, though she'd go around and check them before any student was allowed to apply one. That got people excited.

Harmoni turned back to her table, frowning at the open seat across from her. Wesles would've liked this. Seemed unfair that when they were finally doing something interesting, he wasn't here.

Then Rasha took a seat across from her. Rasha smiled. Not too wide. It seemed she understood what was on Harmoni's mind. But it was kind.

"Well Harmoni? What do you think we should work on?"

~~~

Harmoni and Cooper sat outside, on a low tree branch. Cooper was eating an egg sandwich Harmoni had brought out for him. The dragons chased each other below. They were facing West. The castle was behind them. If Harmoni turned around she would see it. The forest wasn’t dense, and they were still close. But they were far enough no one from the castle would immediately notice them.

For a while, Harmoni was content with silence. She was spending time with an old friend, and that was all that was required.

“So, what have you been doing in Xentron?” she eventually asked.

Fleck and Moon had gotten the chance to catch up, but they hadn't talked much about what Cooper had been doing.

“Since you left? Nothing too different. I sold the old rocket boots. But don’t worry! I’m working on a new, less clunky pair.”

“Yes, he brought his work here,” Moon added.

Harmoni supposed that was good. Something else to work on while she had classes.

“I’m working on a few other projects as well. People really seemed to like the rocket boot idea, when I sold it, so maybe they’ll like my other ideas?”

He took another bite of his sandwich. Suddenly, his face lit up. His spine straightened, and he swallowed in a hurry to keep talking.

“Oh! You know that visiting colbber? The one who made potions for the magic exposition?”

Harmoni nodded. “She helped rescue me. Traced my Link.”

Cooper’s face flickered briefly, at the reminder. But it passed. He pressed on. “She helped me too! She found out my eyepiece was broken.” Cooper’s enthusiasm disappeared and he shifted his weight. Sheepish, maybe? “I mean, I could still do things like use a night vision lens, and binoculars. But I couldn’t create my own internet signal, or any of the more technologically advanced things eye pieces are supposed to do.”

Harmoni nodded along. She was pretty sure Cooper had mentioned something like that before. “And she fixed that for you?”

That was kind of a big deal. She hadn’t known it could happen, though she felt a little silly for never considering the possibility now.

“Well not completely,” Cooper said. “I can’t like, create my own internet signal the way most colbbers can. So it’s not very useful here on Iva. But I can connect to anything else that’s in the area. It's how I traced your Link." That explained it. "So that’s pretty neat.”

“That’s . . . true.” Seemed like an understatement to her.

“And, there’s a reason I’m telling you.”

“Oh?”

“You don’t know where you’re from, yeah? I could help you find out now. I could scan your face, and go looking for if there’s any matches. But only if you want?” He held up his hands, clearly trying to be as disarming as possible. He was even risking his balance to do so. The tree branch they were on wasn’t that thick.

Which meant Harmoni must’ve looked worried.

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate your offer,” she quickly assured him. “I do. Thank you for that. And for visiting.” It was so good to see him again. It wasn't just that she appreciated having him as a friend, though that was certainly true. Just having him here reminded her of the good things on Xentron. Nostalgia. In a way. “It’s just, something I want to find out on my own.”

She had to find out about her past, whether she wanted to or not. But what if she didn’t like what she found? How could she let Cooper find out first? Or maybe she was just a coward, putting off the inevitable. Maybe that was the real reason she couldn’t break the magic barrier on her memories.

Cooper shrugged. “Fair enough. I promise I won’t look into it then. But if you ever change your mind. . .”

Suddenly, Moon shot up, body tense, staring without blinking at the bushes ahead.

“What’s wrong?” Fleck asked.

Moon didn’t answer, and instead roared at the bushes, and dove towards them.

And based on Cooper’s expression, he was OK with that, which didn’t seem like him.

Then there was the sound of cursing.

“Evin!” Harmoni shouted.

She’d recognized that voice immediately. She jumped off the tree branch, ignoring Cooper’s surprise as she ran for the bushes.

Fleck didn’t like Evin, but he’d helped them out twice since getting to Iva. And, if he was being honest, working together to scare the potions teacher had endeared him to Fleck a bit more. He couldn't tell the exact words Evin had been saying, but from the sound of it he'd been having fun.

“Moon! Knock it off!”

Fleck jumped through the bushes, breaking a few of their branches. On the other side, he could see Moon growling at Evin, back arched like a cat. Evin had grabbed a thick branch, arguably a log, to keep her back.

“Hey! No fighting!” Fleck urged, jumping between the two of them.

Harmoni burst through the bushes a moment later, Cooper on her heels.

“Mind calling off your attack dog?” Evin bit out.

“I’m not a dog!”

“She’s not a dog,” Cooper said, at basically the same time.

“I’ll call it as I see it,” Evin said, glaring at Moon.

Moon returned the favor, but did take a step back, her lips going back over her teeth. It was probably thanks to Fleck’s urging.

“Harmoni? Why are you two defending him?” Cooper asked. “Isn’t he, like, terrible? And what is he doing here?”

Harmoni was clearly having a bit of trouble keeping track of Moon, Evin, and Cooper, so Fleck helped out a bit.

“Evin stowed away on the spaceship we came in. Seems to live by the pink ocean now. And he hasn't been causing us any trouble. In fact, he's been helping us. And we shouldn't have to say that, might I add," Fleck said, tilting his head in a sharp, aggressive motion at Moon. "Attacking someone first is a dick move."

“I’m sorry about that,” Harmoni said to Evin. “She’s not going to hurt you. She hasn’t already, has she?”

“No,” Moon sniffed.

Fleck couldn’t smell any injuries on him.

From the way he was glaring at the dragons, Moon hadn’t hurt him, and he knew he couldn’t lie about it.

Cooper had grimaced when Fleck said Evin had followed them from Xentron. That had, admittedly, been a little creepy. Thankfully, Cooper didn’t seem angry, maybe just confused.

“But . . . if you’re usually at the pink ocean . . . what are you doing here?”

“Oh? I didn't know I was imprisoned at the pink ocean, and needed your gracious permission to leave,” Evin said. He shrugged. “But right this second, yes. There's a weird magical item out there that I thought the weird magic users could check. Make sure it’s not about to explode or turn us all into frogs or something.”