"Two months have passed since the weird and scientifically unprovable seismic activities occurred on the west coast of our vast and ever-growing country, Eldermere."
A remote suspended in the air, with an index finger reaching for the power button.
"Mom's been gone two months, Lily. Two months."
"And it's ok, Zane. School's begun, reconstruction of the coast is underway, you've not set foot outside for two months as well. And you've been pushing your friends awa-"
A knock sounded on the door, heavy and proclaimed.
Lily sighed. "Who is it?"
She flung the door open without listening for a response.
"That's right! It's the full gang," Marcus said before stepping inside.
"Finally got inside, nice place I must say." He noticed Zane sitting on a couch looking depressed.
"He's been warming that spot for months, hasn't he?" Sam walked in and asked rhetorically.
"Sam!" Lily said with excitement and reached out to hug him. Well, made Marcus feel weird, considering.
Danielle walked in too, holding a plastic bag. Lily looked around and realized they were each holding something. Before she could question anything, an eerie wind pushed against the door, as if welcoming the queen. A foot in a black slipper took a step into the house, followed by the other foot. Yuki.
"You're all welcome, I suppose," Zane said with a sadistic look on his face.
They spent quite some time watching movies and setting up camp, as Marcus and Sam called it. A two-bedroom apartment, quite spacious at that.
She sat beside him, her long, silky silver hair rubbing on his arm.
"You know, I never knew my siblings." She began. Zane looked at her, while she stared at the television.
"I was born in Varenthos with them."
"Varenthos? The great country of the south?" He asked.
"You know of another?" She chuckled a bit. A self-conscious character, she adjusted parts of her pyjamas that felt revealing.
Zane grunted and looked forward to give the lady her privacy.
"There was a seismic activity of a great magnitude when I was born; I heard it was due to the cause and effect of the war ongoing. I'm a daughter of war after all." She smiled.
"Is there somewhere private we could take this to?"
"Come with me." He took her to the upstairs balcony; the wind blew and the night showed the beauty of Eldermere and the province they resided in, Caelvorn.
She leaned on the railing, looking out at the city lights bleeding into the dark coastline.
"My mother was Varenthian, my father was from here, Eldermere. They met during the border conflicts, fell in love at the worst possible time, as people tend to do." She almost laughed at that.
"When the war peaked, my father brought us all back to Varenthos, thinking it was safer. It wasn't. I was barely three. The seismic activity that hit the southern coast that year, they called it a natural disaster on the news. It wasn't natural. I know that now."
Zane said nothing. Just listened.
"My siblings were older. My brother tried to get us out; he was fifteen. My sister stayed back trying to help neighbors." She paused. "Neither of them made it out of that district."
The wind passed between them.
"My father carried me on his back for two days straight until we crossed into neutral territory. He never spoke about it, not once. But I'd catch him sometimes, just standing still, looking at nothing. I understood later that he was replaying it. People do that, replay the moments they couldn't change."
She turned and looked at Zane properly.
"You've been sitting on that couch replaying the moment your mom disappeared. I recognize the look."
He didn't deny it.
"My father told me something once, when I was old enough to ask him why he didn't break." She looked back out at Caelvorn. "He said, the ones we lose don't need us to stop living. They need us to live loudly enough for them to hear it wherever they are."
Zane was quiet for a moment.
"How old were you when he told you that?"
"Nine. I cried for an hour after." She smiled. "Then I went outside and played until it was dark. Best day I'd had in years."
He laughed. An actual laugh, quiet and a little rusty from two months of disuse.
She looked at him when he laughed, surprised. Then she smiled wide, the kind that reached her eyes properly.
"There he is."
He shook his head, still smiling. She opened her arms, and he walked into the hug without overthinking it, resting his chin on the top of her head while she held on.
"She's not gone, Zane."
"You don't know that."
"No. But neither do you."
"Aww, isn't this a lovely couple?" Danielle said while giggling. The others were standing and watching them, grinning ear to ear.
"How much did you oafs hear?" Zane asked.
"Oh, we just got here, bro." Marcus inputted, rubbing the back of his head with his other hand on his waist.
"Sure you did," Lily said from the back, arms folded, smirking.
They all moved back inside, the night settling properly around them. Someone put on something lighter on the television, the mood in the room shifting from the weight it carried earlier.
"So school starts Monday," Sam said, dropping onto the couch like he owned it.
"Already registered us both." Marcus pointed between himself and Zane. "Same class, same row, same chaos."
"Swimming trials are in three weeks," Sam added. "You two better not embarrass us."
"We're fish." Zane and Marcus said simultaneously, then looked at each other.
"That's unsettling," Danielle said.
"The competition's bigger this year, apparently; four schools from the northern district are entering." Marcus continued. "Which means Ghost actually has to try for once."
"I always try."
"Fifteenth place for six years says otherwise."
"That's academics."
"And the equation you solved in one minute that's been unsolved for a decade?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
Zane had no answer for that one. The room laughed.
"Speaking of which." Yuki looked at him. "Professor Deen has been asking about you. He wants you back in that classroom."
"He can want."
More laughter.
Lily was quiet for a moment, picking at the sleeve of her sweater.
"Must be nice." She said eventually.
"What?" Marcus asked.
"All of you in the same class, same competition, same everything. I'm two years below, in case anyone forgot."
"Lily," Zane said.
"I'm not complaining, I'm just saying." She shrugged. "It's fine."
It wasn't entirely fine, and everyone in the room knew it. Sam threw a pillow at her from across the room.
"You're the only one here Danielle actually listens to. That's more power than any of us have."
Danielle gasped. "That is not true."
"It is absolutely true," Marcus confirmed.
Lily laughed despite herself. The tension broke clean.
"We're staying tomorrow night as well, by the way," Danielle announced.
"Did anyone ask you?" Zane said.
"My dad's company is handling the coastal reconstruction," Sam said, leaning back. "So technically I'm the reason your apartment still has running water, so."
"He has a point," Marcus said.
"He really doesn't," Zane replied.
The night stretched long and easy after that, the kind of night that doesn't announce itself as important but stays with you anyway.
On the way to school the next day, the bunch went as a family, laughs and joy echoing from them. Zane and Yuki walked behind the others; he had finally warmed up and started appreciating life again.
"This peace you have right now is the best you'll have for a long time to come. You would see that being the Apex Sovereign isn't roses and green grass. Now, the world and reality itself are about to start trampling on you, because you, Zane, are an anomaly."