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"I wish you would've told me sooner." My voice is soft, and I know no one outside of this room can hear me. Zeph is a great high priest, and I know I ask a lot of him. It seems like I have neglected my duties as his God, though.
It should be my responsibility to ensure his mental well-being.
"When was the last time you did something that wasn't related to being my high priest?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.
Zeph gnaws on his plush lower lip and shrugs. "Probably a while ago."
"Get up." I circle the table and grab him by the arm, pulling him to his feet. "Let's go, come on."
He protests, but I drag him out of the house. He barely struggles, quickly resigning himself to follow me intowhatever I have planned. His feet are bare, and he wears olive green trousers and a billowy white shirt that puffs up in the breeze as I haul him across the town, through the keep, and out onto the other side of the walls.
"What are we doing out here, Viola?"
I point towards a flat point on the hill, a short walk from the keep. "Follow me." When we arrive, I kick off my boots, sinking my bare toes into the grass, grounding myself. He stands in front of me with his arms crossed, looking confused and a little frustrated with me.
"What is this about, Viola?" Instead of answering him, I throw a ball of snow at him, which crashes into his nose before he can react to it. "The fuck, Viola!"
"Don't you remember, Zeph, when I almost hit you with ice, and you melted it before I could?"
A nostalgic smile crosses his face. "After the gala. You nearly killed me. But what does that have to do with now?"
"We're using magic, Zeph," I say, lobbing another ball of snow at him. He sees it coming this time and melts it with a well-placed flame. "Practice with me."
He laughs, shaking his head, but still chucks a ball of fire at me. I pull forth Water and douse it. He quirks his head to the side. "I just realized you can answer the question that has plagued Ytopie since the beginning. Which season does Water fall under?"
Wrinkling my nose, I try to focus and see which part of my magic Water comes from, going as far as conjuring it in manydifferent forms to test my theory. "I can't tell," I say after a minute. "Feels like all of them and none of them."
"That's of no use," he says with a laugh. A bright flash of Light assaults my eyes, and I quickly smother it in Shadow.
"Did Morrow tell you about what we've learned about Light?"
"The extracting truth and Illusion functions? Yeah, briefly."
"Want to make an Illusion?" I say, letting my Shadow magic seep out of me and swirl around my feet like fog. Zeph's grin is childlike in excitement, and he gathers the particles of it that float around us.
As they pile in his hands, he looks at me curiously. "I can't hear your magic."
"I couldn't hear Himureal's either," I respond.
"Strange, I wonder why that is?"
"He never told me." Zeph contemplates it for a moment and then shrugs, drinking down my Shadow magic as his eyes flutter closed. I almost forgot the others have to drink to combine their magics.
Almost immediately, we're plunged into darkness, and then when the light returns, we're standing in the middle of his apartment in Ytopie.
He laughs, looking around us with awe. "Wow, it really looks like we're here."
"Just don't touch anything," I say. "It disappears when you touch it."
Zeph yanks his hand away from the chair that is pushed into hispolished dining room table. "Damn. It looks so real."
"Why did you bring us here?"
"It'll never be like this again, you know?" He looks around the space, eyes lingering on throw pillows and dishes in the basin. This must've been how it looked when he left. "I can't move back here again. I'm not that Zeph anymore."
"I understand that. When I went to my home in Dalery, it was such a strange feeling. Like I knew it was my home, and I was supposed to be comfortable there, but I didn't fit within it anymore."
"Exactly," he says, turning to face me. His eyes are shiny as he gestures around him. "This Zeph would go out on that patio over there and drink with Loris and Plume. He would sit at that table with a human from the Lowlands and fantasize about what it might be like to wake up next to her." His sheepish grin and flushed cheeks are only visible for a moment before he continues. "I guess I just wanted a chance to say goodbye."
