One Week Later
Five wizards sat in a restaurant in Wizard City, sharing an appetizer while they waited for their food to come. They all wore plain robes in the colors of their primary schools of magic, having no need to wear their battledress for now. Malistaire had been defeated, and there were more students to tackle other threats in the Spiral.
But what should have been a relaxing, laughter-filled lunch was weighed down by a proverbial helephant in the room, and none of their eyes met. Silence was only defeated by the crunch of tortilla chips being eaten by two of the party. It wasn't long before even Kane grew uneasy, violet eyes glancing towards Miguel at intervals. Miguel's own brown eyes were fixed on Kane with disgust. It wasn't long before his temper got the better of him.
"Will you stop staring at me already?" Kane snapped, grabbing another chip. "What's gotten into you?"
"I am fairly certain you know why I stare at you, traidor," Miguel softly rebuked, his arms remaining folded over his chest and his dark complexion only serving to darken his expression.
"And if it is the reason I think it is, then you have no reason to be staring at me like that, Alia," Rowan remarked, but Alia just huffed, brown eyes and frowning visage disagreeing with her sister's claim.
"She has every reason to be staring at you like that, Rowan, and you know it," Tasha suddenly snapped, looking possibly more furious than Alia. That fact alone made her more frightening to Kane right now than her husband beside her. "And here we thought Talon knew already, or you four had made some sort of… arrangement," she cringed with disgust, "which in itself would be terribly inappropriate."
"But preferable to una relación amorosa," Miguel added, "which is wrong even by your standards, amigo."
"Look, it's not an affair!" Kane shouted back, making a couple of other patrons to the restaurant look in their direction. He swiftly lowered his voice. "It's just a no-strings-attached deal, alright? If Talon can't handle that, that's his problem, not mine."
"Do you even care that he has been absent for a week since we visited Grizzleheim?" Miguel asked, "Even a little?"
"Nope!" Kane replied without hesitation. "In fact, I'm rather enjoying being able to study my work uninterrupted. Until you two," he pointed at Tasha and Miguel, "pulled me out for this ridiculous luncheon discussion."
"Well I am, at least, a little worried," Rowan admitted, frowning deeply. "It isn't like him to play hermit."
"Nice to know you have a semblance of a heart," Alia snorted, looking out the window to the shoppers on the street, not at her sisters or friends. From her tone, it was obvious it was meant to insult. Normally, this would have solicited a prompt chide from Tasha; it didn't.
"That was rather rude of you, Alia, I'm hurt," Rowan stated with the thinnest of sarcastic layers. She could tell that this time, Alia meant it.
"Join the club," Alia snarled back, not once looking at her older sibling. Sparks crackled over her robe.
"It was also rude of you, Rowan, to not inform Talon of this," Tasha responded, quelling any sort of argument between her sisters. She put a hand on Alia's arm, stroking it gently in a comforting gesture. "You should have discussed it with him, after the first time."
"We did discuss it, in a long and drawn out argument in which I told him I loved him but wasn't willing to marry him because I don't feel that sort of commitment is right for me," Rowan explained harshly.
"Doesn't mean you had the right to sleep with his friend behind his back," Miguel reasoned, looking at Rowan now, "Marriage commitment, perhaps not, but you were still una pareja."
Rowan put her head in her hands, sighing with frustration. How did everything go so wrong so quickly? This lunch was quickly degenerating into a talk with her mother, and she already had dealt with that.
"We were never friends," Kane growled from the back of his throat, "I've been wanting to be rid of that ridiculous pyromaniac clown since he met me."
"And that makes it better how?" Miguel stressed, unfolding his arms to point a finger straight into Kane's face. "And have you forgotten how many times Talon has been instrumental in our fight with Malistaire? How many times he has saved each and every person at this table from muerte?" Rowan raised an eyebrow. "Or major injury?" He added.
Kane frowned, groaned, and lowered his head, muttering that he had tried, hard, to forget the oaf's fleeting bouts of usefulness. Rowan shook her head.
"The way I see things, amigo, Talon is the bueno amigo you never asked for, and you ought to be thankful to have," Miguel concluded.
"Well, I see things differently, Miguel, but thanks for your unsolicited insight," Kane retorted, growing even more annoyed with every word those two do-gooders spoke. He rose from his seat just as the food was arriving, having not really been interested in eating with them to begin with. "Now if you will excuse me, I have some really intriguing texts on the mythical history of Avalon to read. As to Talon, I'm sure he'll get over it in a few more days, and frankly I don't care. But if any of you want to go check up on him, be my guest."
Without another word, the conjurer left, slamming the restaurant door behind him. The moment he was outside, he burst into a shower of gold and blue sparks, disappearing.
"I… should probably take that as my cue to leave as well," Rowan stated, and Tasha and Miguel narrowed their eyes at this. The waiter set the food on the table, pausing at hers and Kane's plates. "Just give them to someone else, my treat," she told the waiter, before pulling out some coins. "Here's our tab," she said without thinking, placing the gold on the table. The others were silent as she left.
When she was outside she finally realized that the 'here's our tab' probably didn't sound any better in her sister's eyes. Way to prove you aren't a couple, she thought, before disappearing as well in a shadowy mist.
"Meals were a lot more fun with Talon around…" Tasha sighed, picking up her fork.
Unlike Kane, who went straight home, Rowan instead teleported to Talon's Spiral Door, intent on checking up on him and possibly try to patch things between them. Tasha and Miguel were right, and she did feel bad about it. But probably not as bad as they thought she should. And she was honestly worried about Talon. It wasn't like him to be gone for so long without telling someone. And he rarely traveled alone. I hope he hasn't hurt himself…
When she arrived at the Spiral Door of his tree house sanctuary, her fears were not eased. While the sanctuary was surrounded by an earthen wall, it did end on each side of a cobble pathway leading to the Spiral Door. But that pathway was currently blocked by a towering, thick wall of vines, whose leaves obscured the view of the other side. However, she thought she could smell smoke coming from within, and that worried her. He loved his tree house and his gardens more than anything in the Spiral. Something had to be seriously wrong for him to be burning them.
She reached out to touch the vines, hoping to make them recede with her Death magic and clear the way. The leaves began to wither, but she went no further as a vine suddenly lashed out, whipping her across the wrist.
"Oww!" Rowan exclaimed, stepping back. Some of the vines parted, making a small hole at the base of the wall, and a small unicorn walked through.
Until now, Rowan never could have claimed to have seen a unicorn glare at someone. But this little unicorn, likely the stallion of Talon's personal herd, was very much not pleased with her presence, and lowered his horn, stamping his little hooves on the ground.
"Alright, fine!" Rowan shouted through the vines, "If that's the way you want to be, then good riddance!" She promptly became engulfed in smog and disappeared.
