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Suddenly Jaral, his faithful cat, jumped on his bed and purred.
Sand gave him a pat on the head; his thoughts went back to her again.
"You remember her, right?" he looked into Jaral's eyes.
He meowed, a little sad tone in his voice.
"Of course you do."
Sand looked a little disoriented after her. She ran away as if hellhounds were at her heels, and he didn't even manage to look into her eyes, as she avoided eye contact the whole time. Come to think of it, even when she stood up to answer his question in class, she kept her stare downwards. She was so strange… she was dressed in brown, ragged clothes, her small leather shoes seemed holey and used. The orphanotrophy, she said? But why was she so scared?
He had no time to go and investigate, though. He had to prepare for next day's class – he would see her anyway. And oh, he would need drastic measures to hammer some knowledge in the heads of those morons…
"So" he began, while the class paid no attention at all, as usual "today… oh, but why do I waste my time?"
He looked at the back row, but couldn't see Rustyn.
Oh well. Maybe she's sick.
He sat down, pretending to read his book, while the merry chit-chat continued uninterrupted. Then, after about two minutes, he jumped up at the speed of light.
"Balagarn's Iron Horn!" he casted the spell right in the middle of the room.
"Owww!" cried the pupils in unison, covering their ears.
Most of them fell from their chairs.
"Whoa!" the boy in fancy clothes stopped blowing his – this time, dark blue – bubbles "that was amazing, man!"
Sand grinned.
"Gust of Wind!" a powerful wind lifted all the children and placed them back in their chairs.
"Color Spray!"
"Wow!" said most, as rainbow-coloured sprays of color darted across the room; Sand was careful enough to cast it close to the ceiling, not to harm any of his pupils.
"Mirror Image!"
The students' eyes widened as six Sands appeared.
"Want to know how to do that?" they said in unison "well, then you'd better listen to me!"
Not the slightest interruption was made until class ended.
"Sorry!" Sand said to the bubble-blowing boy once everyone was leaving, as he seemed the brightest one, apart from Rustyn "do you happen to know that short, black-haired elven girl who was here yesterday?"
He shook his head.
"Sorry, I don't. Ooh, ooh! When will we learn all that fancy stuff you showed us today?"
"That's a long way… but might shorten if you pay attention."
"Oooh! I sure will!"
Sand smiled to himself. If they wanted drastic measures, they'd get them. Nobody would like him simply reading from a book and telling them about spells. They needed to see – and then, they would want to know.
Sadly, he didn't see Rustyn the whole week; he only got really worried when she failed to show up even the next. He wondered why a bright, attentive child like she appeared to be would want to stop studying, when she would undoubtedly have a great future as a wizard.
After asking around, Sand finally found his way to Darromar's orphanotrophy: merely the sight of the building gave him shivers, though he wasn't a very easily scared type. Tall, grey and with thick walls, it appeared more like a graveyard's high fence.
He approached the door when he heard a child's voice nearby. His keen hearing led him to a narrow dead end, right next to the orphanotrophy. He recognized her immediately. But something told him he shouldn't walk right up to her – he quickly drank an invisibility potion he recently mixed, and watched in silence to see what she was doing.
Barefoot and wearing the same ragged clothing he had seen her in previously, Rustyn sat on the dirty cobblestones cuddling a sad, mangy kitten.
"You're my only friend, you know" she smiled, and gave the kitten a piece of ham "I saved this from my portion today…"
Sand's eyes narrowed; he noticed something really strange. The little girl never seemed to look directly at the cat: instead she looked either at the wall, or the ground. Even more strange was that, when she gave him the piece of ham, and thus had to look at the animal's face, she covered her eyes, just enough to barely see between her fingers. Come to think of it, she avoided eye contact also when they first met – Sand could not tell what color her eyes were. The he made a horrific discovery, something that made him forget that the effect of the potion was wearing out.
Rustyn turned her back on him for a few moments, as she knelt down to caress the kitten, obviously still covering her eyes with one hand. Sand watched with horror the red streaks on the back of her dress, he immediately realized it was blood.
"Rustyn!" the effect of the potion wore off.
"Uh?" she looked at him, keeping a hand over her eyes, but must have recognized him from the narrow gap between her fingers "oh… teacher."
"What's happened to you?"
"What do you mean?" she looked at the ground.
"Your back."
She gasped.
"No, no, no, it's nothing! Don't worry about me!"
"Rustyn, come on… and what's with you? Why don't you look at me?"
"I mustn't look at people… the nurses told me that…"
"Why?"
"I give the evil eye, they say… that it's better if I don't look…"
"Oh, Rustyn" Sand knelt down and caressed her hair "do you really?"
"I don't know… I just don't want to run risks, to hurt people…"
"Look at me" he said gently.
"No, teacher! I don't want to hurt you!"
"I casted a protective spell this morning" he lied "nothing will hurt me."
"You… you sure?"
"Yes."
She lowered her hand and looked up hesitantly.
"Oh, but Rustyn!" Sand smiled brightly.
She was most likely the result of the union between a moon elf and a sun elf, though her incredible eye color must have been rare even among them. She was beautiful, with her pale skin, jet black hair with a slight tinge of blue, and those amazing eyes, which reminded Sand of the several sunsets he had witnessed over the Sea of Swords during his journey.
A few minutes later, leaving the mangy kitten outside (Rustyn assured him they would be back) the two of them entered the orphanotrophy.
"Where were you?" shouted one of the nurses.
The little girl pulled closer to Sand
"My name is Sand, I am one of the teachers at the Wizard's Academy" he began, ignoring the question "and this girl…"
"What did you do?" suddenly the nurse tore Rustyn from Sand and shook her violently "of course, that's where you have been!"
"But… but… b-but you wouldn't let me and I… I just wanted to s-study…" tears began rolling down her cheeks.
"Hold it!" Sand ran up to them "what's wrong with her studying?"
"She always causes trouble, that's what's wrong! First, she was left here with a note written in elvish, and we managed to translate it only approximately, but it clearly warned us that her eyes will cause a hail storm and…"
"Did they actually do that?"
"Who knows?" the nurse shrugged "not yet, but we mustn't let her powers get loose! Then there was her name, it was written on the note too… who heard of such one? Then, she'll be our burden for a hundred years! Look… her eyes are evil…"
"Let me see that note."
"We can't, we burned it. We had to take the child in, though, she was our responsibility, but those eyes…"
"I must ask you to let her visit my classes."
"We would, but she will discover her powers and…"
"…and learn to control them, as a wizard should."
Sand raised his hand; energy began forming between his fingers, making the nurse back up. Rustyn watched fascinated.
"And don't hurt her again. If she causes any trouble with her presumed evil powers, I will take the responsibility upon myself."
Sand was perfectly sure Rustyn had no evil powers whatsoever, though her eye color was certainly extraordinary – even sun elves were mostly known to have golden or black ones, not sparkling orange.
Walking home, he began to wonder whether he should have left her at the orphanotrophy, as it was clearly one of the worst choices. Also, the hail storm…? He had strong feelings it was no more than a mistranslation, he just had to figure out what could have been there instead of ice and destruction.
"Huh?" he turned around when he senses something brush against his robe.
The kitten had followed him, and now sat down, meowing at him.
"She was your first friend" Sand caressed Jaral, who looked at him sadly "why, oh why did I let her go?"