Classes were canceled the next day. Students were recommended to only leave their houses when going to meals and to always travel in groups of three or more.

The House of Gia students hid in the caves, pretty sure that nothing was going to go all the way down there to get them. The House of Kenna stayed secluded to their common room, only appearing for lunch. The House of Leith wasn’t seen at any of the meals and The House of Erion was doing their best to stay together.

“Dinner’s over already. Do you think they’ll cancel class tomorrow as well?” Alexis and Hailee hated missing class; Parker and Caleb weren’t very heart-broken over the matter.

“I heard the masters talking and the fact that a student was taken within fifty feet of them without their knowledge is really bothering them. So, I would almost guess that it will be canceled again but we’ll just have to see.”

“I want to talk with Master Sora,” Parker said. “Will any of you come with me?” No one responded right away. None of them wanted to leave the common room.

“They told us to only leave for meals Parker!” Hailee was never big on breaking the rules, and Alexis and Caleb agreed with her this time.

Parker let out a loud huff; frustrated that no one would go with him. “I want to ask him if they’ve found anything out or if I could help somehow.”

Alexis scoffed at him, “Don’t you think they would come tell us if they figured something out?” He shrugged his shoulders at her and then stood up and walked to the balcony.

Hailee stood up and followed him. “Are you okay Parker? You seem really bothered.” He stared out over the courtyards, illuminated by the moon and stars from above. Hailee put her arm around him and squeezed. “It’s going to be okay. They’ll figure this out, make sure everyone returns and that nothing like this happens again.”

Alexis appeared out of nowhere and Hailee jumped, pulling her arm from around Parker’s shoulders. “What are you guys talking about? Please tell me it’s something happy. The mood in there is so sullen.”

“I was just telling Parker that everything is going to be okay.”

Alexis agreed with Hailee and said, “I’m sure everything will be fine. They’re masters for a reason, if anyone can fix this, it’s them.”

Caleb joined them on the balcony and started to talk about the next Aether match that was in a few days. He did anything he could to keep the mood light and their focus on other things. “I hear The House of Gia is a tough team this year. They lost to The House of Kenna in their first match but it was super close, like five to eight. Are you ready for the match? Do you guys have any new strategies that you’ve been practicing?”

Alexis told Caleb and Hailee about some of the formations they were using and how their communication worked in the moment. Parker dismissed himself to use the restroom quickly. “So, when I’m running down the field with the ball, Cassidy is always on my left and Gwen is always on my right. We created a play where they cross in front me and I hand the ball off to Gwen. She immediately turns and lobs the ball over to Cassidy. Then, Cassidy drops the ball and runs in front of me. She’ll pretend to go for a goal and miss the ball then jump to the right. I’ll be right behind her; ready to kick the ball to the side of the goal that the goalie doesn’t jump to. We tried it in practice and tricked Evelyn every single time.”

Hailee and Caleb were enthralled by the strategy that Alexis was talking about. They loved hearing about Aether, both a little jealous that they couldn’t play. Over the past two weeks, they’d asked Parker and Alexis to play with them a little in the courtyard and try to help them, in the hopes to one-day play. Hailee would make a decent blocker but Caleb wasn’t very good at handling the ball and he didn’t have his elements mastered enough in order to fool everyone into thinking he could only control air. It was still risky for him, especially doing something in the moment.

“Parker sure has been in the restroom a while. He left like ten minutes ago. Caleb, why don’t you go check on him? Make sure he’s feeling all right. He didn’t look too good when I came over here.” Hailee was worried about Parker. Everything going on with this robed figure was really starting to take its toll on him. Not everyone knew, but it was starting to take its toll on her as well. She was doing everything she could to keep a straight face around her friends. She didn’t want them to worry about her too.

Minutes passed before Caleb returned. “He’s not in there. I looked in our room and he wasn’t there either. It took a moment before everyone realized where he had gone.

“That idiot! I can’t believe he went by himself!” The three of them sprinted toward the entrance to their common room.

Parker sent a ball of air through the hole next to Master Sora’s door. The familiar whistle sounded and then the door opened. “Come in,” the master’s voice whispered in his ear.

He walked in to talk to the master but was met with a yell. “What are you doing here by yourself? We specifically said don’t go anywhere by yourself!”

Parker held up his hands in defense, “I need to talk to you sir. I want to help…”

Master Sora stopped him mid-sentence, “I understand that you want to help, but you put yourself in serious danger by coming to my chambers alone. Especially if we are to believe that once you’ve seen this figure you might disappear. Look at poor Abby, she was even with Camille when she was taken.”

Parker dropped his head, understanding that Master Sora was correct. “I know it was dangerous, but there has to be something I can do to help. Maybe we could use me as bait to try and catch whatever it is.”

Master Sora sat rigidly in his chair shaking his head. “I could never do that in good conscious. I would never place a student in harm’s way, especially on purpose. So, that’s absolutely out of the question.”

They remained silent for a few moments, looking at each other trying to think of what to say next. A faint ding sounded. “Who else is here?” Master Sora waved his hand in the direction of the door. Parker could hear it swing open and the footsteps of those entering the chambers.

“There you are!” Alexis ran to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. “We thought you got taken! How could you just leave like that?”

Parker’s face grew red, “Well, you said you wouldn’t come with me and I wanted to talk to Master Sora about it, so I went on my own.” She slapped him on the arm; clearly mad at the stunt he had pulled.

“All of you!” The room became silent and tense as Master Sora yelled. “What are you doing? We told everyone to stay in their houses except for meals!”

“But master, we had to go looking for Parker. He just disappeared from the house without telling anyone. We were afraid he’d been taken.” The concern in her voice made Parker feel terrible for worrying her.

Master Sora looked at them disapprovingly. “What would you have done if he had been taken? How would you have helped?” Everyone dropped their gaze to the floor. “All you did was put yourselves at risk. If we think of a way for you to help, we’ll be sure to let you know. But until then, please just follow our directions and stay put.”

Everyone nodded, ashamed for not following the directions given by their master. They turned around and made their way back to The House of Erion common room. “I’ve never seen him so mad or disappointed,” Hailee said.

A corner in the common room was free with a couch and an armchair for them to sit in. Most of the other students had teetered out at this point. Many were on the balcony while the others had gone back to their room for the night.

The sun had set hours ago and the moon sat high in the sky. “When are we supposed to hear about classes tomorrow?” Parker asked, determining whether or not he should go to bed soon.

Hailee said, “We won’t hear until the morning, so we should probably crash for the night.” Everyone agreed. Parker and Caleb said good night and made their way back to their bedroom. Alexis and Hailee started to head back to their bedroom but Alexis grabbed Hailee by the arm to stop her.

“Um… Hailee, can I talk to you about something?” Hailee enthusiastically nodded her head.

“Of course you can!” Alexis wouldn’t meet her eyes. Whatever she wanted to talk about, Hailee knew it must be a little personal.

“Well… how… would you know if someone likes you? Like… there’s a guy I know… and I know I like him but I can’t figure out if he likes me. So… how are you supposed to know? Should I just ask him or would that scare him off?”

Hailee smiled, “I’m pretty sure that Parker likes you but right now I don’t think I would just go up to him and ask. He’s got a lot running through his mind.”

Alexis stopped her at the end of her sentence. “I never said anything about Parker.”

“Oh… Sweetie… it’s written all over your face. I’m not sure if the boys have noticed yet but I knew it pretty much from the time I met the two of you.”

Alexis’s face went scarlet red. “Just let things happen naturally. Don’t try to rush it.” She thought about Hailee’s words as they continued down the corridor to their room. Hailee slept in a room with the first year girls since she was the only student in her year.

The girls crawled into bed and said their good nights. Hailee lay in her bed with her eyes wide open. She’d been finding it difficult to sleep ever since she saw the figure. When she did finally doze off, her dreams were always filled with images of it, slowly walking toward her, trying to tell her something.

Hours passed before Hailee was finally able to fall asleep. It wasn’t long before she started to twitch and fidget. Parker hadn’t found it any easier to fall asleep.

“What do you want?” Parker screamed. “What did you do with the others? Where did you take them?” The figure approached him slowly, looking like it was gliding across the ground.

Parker began backing away from it. He could hear whispers coming from the figure. “What do you want with me?” Parker kept backing away, keeping his distance from the figure.

“Parker,” the figure said. The voice came and went so fast he couldn’t tell if it was a man’s or a woman’s voice.

His head shot off his pillow, drenched in sweat. His heart was pounding and he was breathing heavily. He asked himself if the dream could be connected at all to everything that was happening. Did anyone else have dreams like this?

He got out of bed to dry his sheets off. They learned last week how to dry themselves off if ever wet. Parker swirled his hands in front of him. His sheets started to blow around and then lay back in place. Then he dried his clothes and crawled back in.

It was long before he fell back asleep. The dream seemed so real, as if the figure was trying to reach out to him specifically. He would have to talk to the group in the morning about it.