Thank you all for your reviews. Thank you so much for taking your time to read my fanfic, and for following it and favoriting. :D

I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's kind of shooting off from here, hopefully it won't be that boring anymore. I just love Sydrian so much...

Thanks to my Beta, CherrySlushLover, for revising my fanfic! :')

DISCLAIMER: RICHELLE MEAD OWNS EVERYTHING IN LIFE. okbye

SYDNEY'S POV

I woke up to the annoying ringing of my cellphone- honestly who calls in the middle of the ni—wait, the sun was out. I almost swore as I quickly unscrambled myself from the sheets to look for my cellphone. The irregular schedule of Moroi and Dhampirs was taking it's toll on me. I couldn't do anything in my schedule, because none of the Moroi I had to work with were awake, so the most effective way for me to be able to leave Court quickly was by adapting to their schedule to work faster.

I ran to the table where my purse was, and looked for my cellphone. The person calling was Stanton.

"Miss Sage, as you must know, the official Coronation is taking place in a few days from today. You must stay there for the time being and report back to me everyday." said Stanton in her typical business tone.

I cleared my throat before speaking. "Absolutely Ma'am, I'm currently working on the documents I was asked to bring back to the Headquarters, there's nothing out of the ordinary to report back. Hopefully, in a few days I'll be out of this place once and for all."

"Good. Once your mission is over, you will report to the St. Louis's HQ on the Detroit incident. It is very important that you don't omit any details and explain thoroughly what you said at the interrogation. It would be a shame having you off field missions for a while. Take care, Miss Sage." she said as I shivered. What if she was talking of re-education when she said "for a while"?

"Of course, Ma'am." I ended the call and sat down in one of the white chairs next to the window where the sunlight could hit my face.

The thought of having to face the Alchemists back in St. Louis was terrifying. Re-education was meant for Alchemists that spent too much time with vampires, and had their views changed in a way that wasn't the Alchemist way. I still held Alchemist views, I still thought of Moroi are unnatural, though not the worst,asthey didn't kill to obtain their blood. Strigoi, the undead vampires, were the worst. They were blood-sucking creatures of the night, with no sense of humanity in them that would kill just for the thrill of it- at least Moroi still had feelings and self-control.

That reminded me of a Moroi- Adrian Ivashkov- actually. He broke down in front of me a couple of days ago, and although I shouldn't even feel sorry or worried about a vampire, I did. The way he cried and the pain in his crying was too deep. I didn't know what happened to him after I left; I hadn't seen him all this time. It wasn't fair for anyone to feel that pain, not Moroi, not humans, not dhampirs. No one.

I shook my head at myself and my thoughts and stood up to go back to bed. But sleep never came. I rolled around unable to close my eyes. I was too terrified of what Stanton had told me to be able to try sleeping. Instead, I rolled out of bed again, and looked through the window. The sun was still out, maybe I could try looking around at the architecture of Court. Since I couldn't sleep, and the Moroi were still asleep, maybe I could do something for myself in this time.

I took a shower to clear my head a bit. After I got out, I dried my hair, and styled it in a bun. The Alchemists sent my bag of clothes the day I got here, so I checked it and put on a white chiffon shirt, a black pencil skirt that reached the knees and sand-colored ballerinas. I was ready to check Court architecture. I still carried around my chemistry set, because you never knew what you might encounter.

I exited my building- it looked like a very modern hotel from both inside and outside- it was like finding a city within a forest. The sight was beautiful, to be honest. Court was surrounded by woods, so their identities could be better protected from humans and it could make our job easier. It was a mix of the modern and nature, my building being one of the newest looking buildings around. The dominant style of Court was Romanesque and Gothic, which I knew was the style back in Romania, where most Moroi families come from. This place had the marvelous advantage of being able to have both modern and antique buildings in one place where both complemented each other.

The walk around Court took me about 3 hours, and I wasn't anywhere near finishing, but I was exhausted. I sat down on one of the benches facing the gigantic place in front of me, where the shade of a tree covered me from the last rays of sun. The place where I ended was the Royal Palace—the biggest and most astonishing building at Court—it had huge, black gates surrounding it and there were guards all over the property. If my guess was correct, this is where Lissa must be living now, and Rose too. I wasn't able to continue admiring the palace's architecture for too long, because a voice brought me back to reality.

"Sage? What are you doing here? Are you following me?" asked the voice behind me in a mocking tone.

I turned around to on the bench to find Adrian Ivashkov hidden behind the tree. I was surprised to find him frowning, despite the mockery in his voice; he quickly changed his expression to a softer one, but it was still hard. He was lying down on the grass, arms behind his head. He had his arms and head laid on the bottom of the same tree giving me shade, where the shade of it hid him too. I hadn't see him when I sat down here.

"Why would I follow a Moroi? It's a mere coincidence that you're here the same time I am." I quickly answered, standing to leave. He chuckled. It was true, why would I follow him? We both stayed silent for a while.

"Sage, stay. I need to tell you something," he said as he stared at me, almost begging. He looked completely honest, and any person that cries in front of me, should have my time. I sat down next to him on the grass, a considerable amount of space separating us. "Um, about what you saw a few days ago, I'm sorry that you had to see that. It almost never happens—hell, it has never even happened with anyone before—and... and you were there." he said as he closed his eyes. The way he did conveyed such sadness, I felt sorry for him again. He opened his eyes and looked at me, "Please don't feel sorry for me, Sage. It's just me going crazy because of magic. I can see it in your aura; you have dark spots on it everytime you see me. That, or you hate me."

I gave him a questioning look. "I don't hate you or any other Moroi or Dhampir. I just dislike being near vampires, to be honest. You guys are unnatural, and that magic you can do—with fire, water, earth and air—it is just evil."

"You forgot spirit," added Adrian with a smirk, ignoring my comment on vampires being unnatural. "The best and worst of all elements."

"Spirit?" I gave him one my questioning looks. "Alchemists have no records of such element, we really don't know what it does or how it works, and the only Moroi who can wield it are the Queen and Sonya Karp. That we know of." I said, expecting him to come out with a witty response on how I was staring at another spirit user.

"Hm, yeah, but you are staring at another spirit user," said Adrian, "There are not many Spirit users out there. Lissa's one, I am one, Sonya's another. So far, I only know of us." He straightened up to lean on the tree, flexing his right leg, and added with a cheeky smile, "I can volunteer to help you to study spirit. I'm sure you must be... anxious to study and learn more about... these things. Because, you like learning, don't you?"

I stared at him, speechless. I did want to learn more about spirit, but only because it frightened me, not because I was genuinely interested in it.

"Volunteer? You want to be like a lab rat?" I asked, incapable of formulating a smarter question than that. He caught me off guard by saying that. He smiled at the fact that he had caught me off guard, something in my aura must have given me away. He got closer to me so he could whisper.

"No Sage, I volunteer to help you and your Alchemists so they can learn more about Spirit," said Adrian, changing his smile to a frown, "Maybe even I can learn about it and eventually control it."

I frowned at the last part. "So you say you can't control it, the Spirit?" I asked, suddenly interested in the change of expression on his face as he said 'eventually control it'.

"Barely. It takes a great amount of concentration and mental strength to control it, otherwise you go crazy. I try to control it with my stupid vices—drinking and smoking. You had a glimpse of it a few days ago, I was not being me," he said with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "When you use too much spirit, you are using your own mental and physical strength, unlike the other elements, which come from the Earth. That is why, we Spirit users have to be extremely careful when using it. It is addicting, and we get caught up in the craziness it brings if we use too much of it." He then paused a bit and continued, "It brings too much darkness, and you start feeling like nothing is right and you just feel like the weight of it is pushing you down, and you would do anythi—sorry, Sage. I'm rambling a bit now." He said supporting his arm on his knee and placing his hand over his eyes as he smirked.

"Does it hurt?" I whispered to him.

"Does what hurt?" He removed the hand from his eyes and stared at me.

"When spirit is taking it's toll on you... you broke down that night, Adrian." He blinked at me several times as if astonished, and cocked his head to the side, faintly smiling.

"Sage, you just called me Adrian, you just said my name... are you alright?" He asked laughing; it was a genuine laugh. His eyes crinkled as he laughed out loud, his chest trembling at the laughter. It made him look his age and jovial for a change.

I couldn't help but smile, it definitely wasn't my intention to call him by his name, at least not out loud, but it felt good to make someone smile after that someone had been gloomy the whole time.

"And you're smiling, Sage. I think I deserve a prize for it," Adrian said smiling as he began standing up, "Come on Sage, it's getting dark, we should go in." It was getting dark, how long did I stayed here with him... alone? He offered both of his hands to help me stand up. I took them, and I couldn't help but feeling tingly where his skin touched mine. Moroi were supposed to be unnatural, how could they be this warm? I quickly dismissed the thought from my head and thanked him for helping me.

"So Sage, how's the secret 007 mission going?" He asked as we headed back to the main building, brushing the dirt off his pants and shirt. I was surprised by how 'casual' he seemed to be with me. Maybe one does earn someone's trust when you have seen them cry.

I couldn't really reply back to his question, because suddenly an explosion blew off at the east side of Court.

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