After the red-haired girl stepped out of the carriage, another girl joined her. The second girl was also attractive, but she had the same dark hair and olive skin that the majority of the other girls had.

Like the other newly-arrived mages, the red-haired girl looked around the square, appearing slightly nervous but at the same time expectant.

“Fila daughter of Haljala?” someone said loudly.

One of the other mages in the group stepped forward. Xerxes' attention shifted to her briefly, and he noted her fine garments and thick coat of makeup.

“Here,” she said.

“You come with me,” one of the school staff said. “The rest of you, form ranks over there.” He gestured. “The admission process will begin shortly.”

The girl Fila, who was obviously the ‘Purattu’ of the new group, hurried away, while the group wearing traveling clothes hurried to the spot indicated to join ranks.

The girl in the red hair walked with them, her eyes sweeping across the gathered students, and for a very brief moment, stopping on Xerxes.

Their eyes met.

At least, he was fairly certain they met. No. Absolutely certain.

Their eyes locked onto each other, and he could see deep into her soul, and she into him. Everything he had thought about before was confirmed. He was meant to be with this girl. He was meant to marry her.

Then her eyes moved past him, and the connection was broken.

But the feelings remained.

High Archon Kingallu started his speech over from the beginning, but Xerxes wasn’t paying attention. He kept looking out of the corner of his eye at the red-haired girl. Unfortunately, there were too many other students in the way to get a good look at her.

After a short time, High Archon Kingallu said, “Dismissed!”

As the students scattered, Gandash leaned over and said, “Are you ready?”

“Ready?” Xerxes said, looking over his friend’s shoulder as the travel-worn Dumusi mages hurried away to begin their admission process.

“Were you even listening?” Gandash said. “Hey. Xerk. Hey! What are you…?”

Gandash looked over his shoulder and saw the Dumusi mages. “XERK!”

Gandash’s yell finally snapped Xerxes out of his reverie. “Sorry. What now?”

“What the hell were you looking at?”

Xerxes cleared his throat. “Nothing. I was just thinking. What are we doing now?”

Groaning, Gandash grabbed Xerxes by the elbow and pulled him into a walk.

“We have a lecture to attend. Come on, we don’t want to be late.”

They went to a large hall with desks set up, where they attended a lecture about basic magic theory, but Xerxes couldn’t pay attention for more than a few seconds at a time. Occasionally, the teacher would ask questions, and whenever Gandash raised his hand and got called on, he answered correctly.

Halfway through the class, the teacher called for a short break.

“Can you believe this?” Gandash said.

“What?”

“Did you ever think about how Balatu and Hasasu could be used like that on the battlefield? We were always taught Hasasu wasn’t for combat!”

“Oh, that. Right…” Xerxes said, although he had absolutely no idea what Gandash was referring to.

His friend looked at him. “You weren’t listening, were you?”

Xerxes flashed a glare. “I was listening! Just not to that part.”

Gandash rolled his eyes. “You’ve been acting weird since those Dumusi mages showed up. What happened?”

Xerxes hesitated. Looked around. Then lowered his voice. “Did you see that one girl with the red hair?”

Gandash’s brow furrowed. “Red hair? I think so. What about her?”

Xerxes sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I wonder what her name is.”

“That’s what you’re thinking about? Instead of listening to the lecture?”

“I was listening!”

“Come on,” Gandash said, sounding as if he were hiding disgust. “At a time like this, you should be paying more attention. Not getting distracted.” He stood. “I’m going to get some water.”

A moment later, Xerxes was alone. What’s bothering him? he thought.

A minute or two passed as he sat there with his thoughts. Then he vaguely realized two figures were looming over him.

“You’re Xerxes, right?” one of them said.

He looked up to find the two male mages from Jehannaemid standing in front of him. One of them was tall, with a wide smile and small head, the other short, with thick hair and a prominent nose.

“Yeah, I’m Xerxes. You’re…” he thought for a moment before saying, “Jad, right?”

The tall one nodded. “Yeah.”

Xerxes looked at the short one. “And you’re… Enusoth?”

“Close. Enusat.”

Xerxes shoved his hand into his hair and grinned. “Right, Enusat. Sorry, I’m really bad with names.” He extended his hand to the shorter man. “No hard feelings?”

“Nah, it’s fine.” The young man gripped his hand, and he shook it.

Xerxes then offered his hand to Jad, who took it. Another handshake.

“I noticed both of you had longswords,” Xerxes said. “How long have you been training?”

“A couple of years for me,” Jad said.

Enusat shrugged. “I started a few months ago.”

“That’s why we came over,” Jad continued. “Longswords are pretty rare, but we saw that you used one. Just like Purattu. We were thinking… maybe we could get together and trade some tips?”

For the first time since glimpsing the red-haired girl, Xerxes’ interest was piqued by something else. “Sure!” he said. “As long as you promise not to laugh at my sword. It’s a bit beat up. Well… more than a bit. It’s borderline junk.”

Jad laughed. “I’ve seen yours. It looks better than mine.”

“And probably an ‘undred times better than mine,” Enusat said. “I think mine might fall apart at any moment.”

It was Xerxes’ turn to laugh. “Alright, noted. You know, there’s another guy from Humusi that knows longsword. Kashtiliash.”

“The guy with the beard?” Jad asked

“That’s him. He’s pretty cool. If we add him, we’ll have even more sparring partners.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

“If there’s time after the lecture,” Xerxes said, “maybe we can all meet up. Or if not, after dinner.”

“Agreed, Xerxes.”

“Just call me Xerk.”