Plim. Plim.

Two sounds followed by two vibrations called Addai’s attention to his pockets. He had two new notifications. The morning train was cramped – not that it was rare – it difficulted for Addai to pick up his phone from his pockets but he managed to do so when the lady beside him moved two steps away.

“Aish…” Addai grumbled, his breath escaping in a low hiss.

His thumb brushed the screen too fast, sending the notification vanishing before he could even read it. The metal pipe in his grip had slicked his palm with sweat, making him fumble the passcode twice before the screen finally unlocked, casting a cold glow over his frustrated face.

When Addai’s eyes read from who it was, his eyebrows furrowed, bringing some new colors to his grey morning routine. With his pupils turning thin, his eyes locked on the phone screen. The notification was sent by no one else than Mr. Soleil himself in the professors’ group chat and, as it seemed, everybody was dismissed from classes, from students to professors of every class and course.

The University of Magic was plunged into chaos. At the break of dawn, the night guard stumbled upon a gruesome scene—bodies from the mortuary, scattered like discarded puppets across the hallway. But the horror didn’t end there. A thick, unnatural miasma clung to the air, slithering into the guard’s lungs. If it wasn’t for his colleague to call the police, the worst could have happened. But relief was brief. The real horror came next—bodies from the mortuary wandering the halls, murmuring in an unearthly tongue.

Mr. Soleil, Abannak, Shire, and Ajal were summoned at once. The university went into lockdown, every department sealed off, waiting for the restless energies to settle—or for something worse to emerge. No one knew the cause. No one knew what else might rise.

Quickly checking the train’s route on the screen, Addai let out another annoyed grumble. “Shit… I don’t believe it,” he cursed under his breath after seeing that it was too late to take the second stop and go home.

Shoving his cell phone back into his pocket, Addai resigned himself to the fact that he had to make his usual route and wait for the other train to finally go home. A hassle for sure, but he couldn’t just vanish into the shadows when there were too many people around him that way. It was risky, in many ways. For example, he could go to the shadows and, by chance, drag a couple of people inside it.

Hopping off the train, Addai chose the nearest bench to wait for the next train.

He grumbled, oh he grumbled, but complaining was all he could do. Well, he could look around to distract a bit and so he did it. His eyes, with pupils as thin as cats, surveyed his surroundings. The station was neither too dark nor too bright, illuminated by the rays of sunlight that insisted on entering through the glass roof – a beautiful morning wasted.

As if the morning couldn’t get any worse, Umbra had left him a lovely surprise—a dead cockroach, dry and brittle, tucked neatly into his coat. Addai sighed. Of course.

“Umbra…” Addai exhaled, and a thin, dark mist swayed around him. The mist then turned into a dense fog, then condensed into a cat-shape until two yellow marbles looked at Addai with curiosity – and maybe pride.

Addai looked at the being beside him. It was Umbra, of course. His skin prickled as he plucked the dead cockroach between two fingers, holding it at a disgusted distance. “How many times did I tell you not to put any more surprises in my bag?”

Umbra twitched her whiskers and narrowed her eyes. “Meow,” she meowed then bit her owner’s hand.

“Ouch! Don’t bite me either!” Addai argued, releasing the dead cockroach. Before he could further protest, Umbra climbed his thighs and got cozy on his lap. “You’re insufferable sometimes…” he sighed, stroking the cat’s fur.

“Mew,” Umbra meowed softly as she purred.

Addai chuckled and glanced at the station’s television, scanning for his train’s schedule. Outside, the sun beamed down, relentless in its reminder that this was the perfect morning to stay home… He sighed, shoulders sinking. At least he had Umbra to keep him company.

Time seemed to flow backward. The clock took an eternity to tick! Noticing her owner’s blue mood, Umbra lifted her chin and purred, but his attention couldn’t be taken. Addai was in a kind of blue trance, feeling everything melting around him as the bad nights of sleep finally started to collect their debts. The cat then stretched and hopped to Addai’s opened bag. She took a black, texturized notebook out of Addai's bag with her mouth, and placed it on her owner’s legs.

Addai, caught by surprise and effectively out of the trance, looked at the notebook and then at his beloved companion. Umbra looked at him expectantly, her pupils round and full, giving her even more grace.

“You want me to draw?” Addai took the notebook, looking at his cat. Umbra squeezed her eyes as if she had just given him a big smile. “Then, do you want to be my model?” he chuckled, but Umbra had just rested beside him, purring as she turned into a loaf shape. “Oh, maybe next time then,” he caressed her black ears.

Taking a pencil out of the bag, Addai let the item run on the white page, dusting new gray colors on it. Thumbs up, thumbs down, he pictured the perspective of the station, benches, and their textures and the very few people distracted with their own lives. A line here, a line there, some crooked lines, and others were quite straight. With a smudge on the corner and a smudge on the center, the pencil traveled through the page that carried more and more of the gray color than ever, already shaping the piece of view he was seeing and, still thumbs up and down – measuring distance and space – he kept letting the pencil travel and sometimes stumble.

The station was as quiet as ever. The few people had already taken their respective trains to their destination, and Addai was left practically alone if it wasn't for a tall woman appearing and sitting right where he was starting to fill in the blanks and messy lines. He decided to add her to the drawing, but her face was too hard to tell what she was like, so he just sketched what he considered a default one. Meanwhile, Umbra's fur bristled, and she took a defensive stance, emitting a low growl from deep within her throat.

“Hm? What’s up?” Addai caressed Umbra's head.

Before Addai could look at the woman’s face again—or even try—she was gone. Maybe she had given up on the metro, heading elsewhere to tend to her own affairs. Umbra glanced up at her owner, let out a soft meow, and tapped his thigh with a paw.

“I’m not doubting you,” Addai scratched Umbra’s chin. “You can come back into my shadow if you’re tired, okay?” he chuckled when Umbra rubbed her face against his hand.

The cat then incorporated herself into Addai’s shadow, leaving a trace of warmth and cat fur. Things were quiet again and the time melted as usual. Tired of drawing, Addai placed the notebook back into the bag and when he was about to close it, he heard hasty footsteps echoing in the station. He looked at the sound’s origin. At a platform, a train had just arrived and left very few people at the station. One of them rushed off the train’s door. A boy gasping for air as he caught his breath. The boy’s phone fell out of his pocket and he took it from the floor, he halted before cursing. Something in his phone surely made him sour…

Addai, observing that pitiful boy, chuckled when he recognized the character. “Hey, Mine,” he called and Mine looked at him, “I think you read the notification way too late, ya know?”

Mine, frowning his nose, huffed and approached Addai. He sat heavily beside him on the bench.

“Good morning for you,” Addai bowed, his respectfulness only on the outside.

“Bad morning for you,” Mine grumbled then yawned, visibly fatigued.

Ten minutes later. Nothing. Thirty minutes later. Nothing. Forty minutes later… a subway finally pulled into the station!! But it wasn't their ride. One hour later. Still nothing. The air was still and silent at the station, and the only sound that could be heard was the occasional rustle of leaves in the warm breeze.

“It’s so quiet that it’s making me sleepier…” Mine yawned again.

“Stop contaminating me with your yawns,” Addai grumbled and yawned.

"I got an idea," Mine rummaged in his bag, taking his wireless headphones. “Here, take one,” he handed one of the sides to Addai, who took it after yawning once again.

A soft tune started playing, making them sluggish. ~yawn~ Bad choice. Mine chose another one, a groovy and agitated one. A good choice after a brief heart attack. The first tunes embraced the duo, not letting them fall into a deadly boredom. As the grooves and rhythms took their attention from the melting clock, Mine looked at Addai, who enjoyed the song with his eyes closed and a peaceful smile sketched on his lips.

Do you like music that much? Mine caught him thinking as he faintly chuckled.

Music. Music… a memory drifted in Mine’s mind. ‘I’ll choose the place’. He said that some days ago, but he hadn’t said a word about it since then. A thought here and there, his mind drifted in and out, searching for possible connections with that statement, almost like searching for certainty.

Feeling his cheeks turning slightly hot, Mine nonchalantly said, “I chose a place.” Well, he hadn’t structured it very well, but at least he blurted it out.

“Ah? What place and for what?” Addai asked, confused.

“Duh, the place for us to go for a stroll,” Mine explained, trying to not let his system fry even more.

“I don’t follow,” Addai crossed his arms, half confused, half interested.

Mine’s thoughts, already damaged from his poor sleep, struggled to give Addai a proper explanation. So, he swallowed his embarrassment and hot cheeks, minding to not stutter or complicate himself even more.

“When you came to the university all in beggar mode, you said we could take a walk somewhere better, you idiot!” Mine fumed, his hot cheeks remaining after the embarrassment swallowing attempt.

Addai paused for a few seconds, not much than two, and exclaimed, “Ah! Now I get it, you dumbass! You speak as if I knew what it was about since the beginning, and now I must understand it at first?!”

“Of course!” Mine frowned his nose.

“I’m not omniscient!” Addai retorted, also frowning his nose, but his pupils turned rounder and rounder.

“Ah, forget it!” Mine averted his gaze. His cheeks turned even hotter.

“Now you shall say it,” Addai turned Mine’s face towards him by grabbing those round, hot cheeks of Mine’s.

Mine pouted, fumed, and groaned, but defeated, he sighed at last. “Spring Goddess fair… I think we should go there.”

“Spring Goddess fair?” Addai asked, puzzled.

“It’s… ah, lemme explain it to your uncultured ass,” Mine slapped Addai’s hand that was holding his cheeks.

The Spring Goddess was an entity that lived on the Island so far before it first existed. She was graceful and gentle; her true name was Mother Nature, but she changed her looks and blessings each season. The Goddess always made it rain petals of her favorite flower after the last fair’s hours. Some called it Raistasi or Lanikir, its beautiful orange and reddish petals released pure mana at nightfall which lasted for about five hours until withering. Among the mana, she cast blessings that imbued anybody near a Raistasi.

“And what does it have to do with my dancing skills?” Addai crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow.

“Because there’s fantastic music there, and sometimes they give prizes to the best dancers so...” Mine posed proudly, “that's why I'm determined to get you to dance with me, even if your coordination is abysmal.”

“Abysmal…” Addai echoed, in a huff. “I still see no reason for your delusional motivation."

“I’ve never seen such a terrible dancer before, and it feels like a sin to not teach you that,” Mine grinned, his tone unabashed. "And maybe this way you'll find yourself someone, like… maybe enchant a good, beautiful woman so you’ll have someone to dance with. See? It's not a waste,” he said, but his eyes seemed a bit blue and so did his tone.

Addai didn’t laugh. He didn’t even smirk. Mine swallowed, suddenly unsure if he’d said too much.

Mine didn't dare to say anything anymore and wondered if that offended Addai somehow. As he kept munching the thoughts over and over, a kind of weightiness started hitting his head by noticing that Addai didn't even smile or chuckle as he did at the café the other day when they talked about the girls sitting near their table.

When Mine was about to apologize for what he had said, Addai spoke first. “Why can’t it be you?” he voiced, looking pensive.

“You’ll get tired of me, that’s why,” Mine chuckled weakly.

But what Mine didn't expect was Addai's quick and firm reply.