It wasn’t a dream.

Thankfully, his friends were still out when he got back to the dorm room, so he was able to open his packages and put all the new clothing away in private.

Then he climbed up onto the top bunk and lay there, staring at the ceiling but not seeing it. Instead, he was reliving what felt like the most perfect afternoon he’d ever experienced.

She likes me, he thought. She actually likes me.

He visualized eating dinner with her. Her hand touching his arm. Their conversations. The shopping.

It was really, really perfect.

When his friends came back, he made it seem like he’d spent most of the day at the One Faith temple. It helped that Enusat had won big at a gambling hall, and was so excited that he didn’t permit much else in the way of conversation topics.

Kashtiliash seemed to notice Xerxes’ being a bit distant, but he didn’t press for details.

Xerxes had heard that coffee was good for staying awake, and now he learned that those rumors were true. Long after his friends were snoring, he lay there wide-eyed. Normally speaking, it would have been maddening to be unable to fall asleep. Given the circumstances, he was fine with it. He just kept thinking about Katayoun. For hours. Eventually, when he wasn’t sure if it was still night, or actually early in the morning, he dozed off.

And then Firstday came, and lectures and training started anew.

He was already sitting in the back row when Katayoun walked in. The first place she looked was toward him. He caught her eye and smiled faintly. The corner of her mouth twitched up in response.

The day flew by, and though he felt a bit sleepy, it wasn’t bad enough to interfere with class.

The next morning, the Swordsmasters crew ran late because of Enusat, and Katayoun was already at her place when they walked in. She and Xerxes exchanged another very vague greeting.

Ten minutes into the lecture, Kashtiliash leaned over. “Kat, huh?”

Xerxes stuck his tongue into his cheek to prevent himself from smiling. He didn’t say anything in response.

And he didn’t need to. Kashtiliash just nodded gravely.

There was one thing Xerxes really liked about the bearded mage, and that was how untalkative he was. Thanks to that, Jad and Enusat remained clueless about what was going on.

Unlike before, when his deep longing to simply talk to Katayoun had left him distracted for weeks on end, her sudden affections became something that gave him further focus. Although he ached to be close enough to touch her again and smell her perfume, the fact that those things were assured to happen became a comfort.

On Fourthday, she slipped him a note in passing. It was written in swirling cursive, and contained two lines of poetry praising him. At the bottom was a heart, but no name.

He folded up the note and kept it under his pillow to look at during the following days before falling asleep.

He performed his eleventh Flush on Sixthday evening. I almost can’t believe it, he thought.

One more Flush, and he’d be a High Seer. Given that tomorrow would be the first day actually interacting with the Cult of the Eternal Father, he wished he could reach that level immediately. But such things couldn’t be rushed.

That evening, he managed to get back to the room early and pack his ‘disguise’ clothing into a bag.

The following morning he had no good excuse to be going off alone.

“Hold on, what?” Jad said. “You’re ditching us again? Are you serious?”

Enusat narrowed his eyes. “Did someone else die?”

Xerxes cleared his throat. “I, uh… have to, you know, I have—”

“He’s got something to do,” Kashtiliash said.

Jad and Enusat looked at Kashtiliash with open astonishment.

“You know something,” Jad said, grinning. “Don’t you? Xerxes is keeping a secret and Kash is in on it!”

Enusat slid down the ladder, put his hands on his hips, and loomed over the bearded mage as he lay on the bottom bunk. “Lay it out, Kash. What’s going on ‘ere?”

“I’ll lay you out,” Kashtiliash said. Then he yawned.

Xerxes shouldered his pack and opened the door. “I’ll be back later.”

As he walked down the hallway, he heard more chatter from behind him.

“Tell us, Kash!” Jad said. “We’re brothers. You can’t keep secrets from your brothers!”

“Fuck off.”

Xerxes chuckled.

Once at Gula Bazaar, he found a shadowy corner where he could change clothes. Off went his mage attire, and on went the disguise. After he was done, he shoved his bag into a narrow alcove between two buildings, covered it with a bit of trash, and continued toward the coffee shop.

This time, Katayoun was waiting for him.

Remembering how disgusting the coffee was, and how it had made it impossible to sleep, he chose to drink herbal tea instead. Sitting down across from Katayoun, he said, “Hi.”

“This week was torture,” she said, scooting around the booth until she was next to him. “I missed you so much.”

Not quite sure what she meant, he just replied, “Same here.”

Then her head was on his shoulder and his heart was pounding so madly he worried it might pop out of his chest. Instead he slipped his arm around her and they sat together in the booth saying nothing but feeling wonderful.

Eventually, she pulled away. “I guess we should get down to business.”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t believe we’re actually going to go talk to some cultists.” Her expression turned serious. “It’s going to take effort not to kill them where they stand. Oh, guess what? I made High Seer.”

“What?” he said reflexively. “That’s amazing!”

“Thanks. I didn’t tell you, but I actually mastered the Balatu Sebum rune before I even left my home starisle.”

“Wait,” he said, turning his head up in thought. Katayoun was a Balatu mage, which made her a healer. But as Purattu had demonstrated when fighting the Abhorrent on Mannemid, Balatu mages weren’t just healers. And if she’d mastered the Balatu Sebum rune, it meant she’d unlocked the second line of spellcasting to which Balatu mages gained access. The same line that led to Instant Death. “You can cast Slow Death?”

She grinned in a way that looked almost malicious. “Exactly. And I already have a spell component pouch full of anisfire sand.”

“Holy shit,” he said. “So you can… kill someone by just touching them?”

“Well, in theory, at least. It’ll kill an Unsighted in less than an hour. And a Seer in a few hours. I swear to the Pontifarch, if I get a chance, I’m going to use it on one of the cultist bastards.”

Somehow, he found this vengeful version of Katayoun… attractive. “Alright,” he said. “If that’s what you want, then we’ll find an opportunity.”

“But first things first, we need to go to this meeting. Are you ready?”

“Not really.”

“In that case, you play the reluctant boyfriend.” She reached out and took his hand. “Can you do that?”

Suppressing a grin, he said, “I can.”