Luna snorted. The news. Those words they sometimes used, those headlines. Si laughed at that, right, but really?

  “Tell me, shrimp, what bothers you?” Taj suddenly asked, making her jump.

  He materialized right next to her without a sound—he was getting better at it!

  “You! To surprise me like this! Take a look at the news; why do they write it like this? It was like this before, remember?”

  Luna handed him the screen; she had multiple papers open.

  “O? Shadows Lady, the Leader’s wife, is busy with the morning press review.”

  Taj laughed loudly, but he didn’t stop talking. “Let me see… Luna, this time I see they are flattering you; in the past you were mostly involved in scandals, no?”

  What Taj said made her both snort and laugh.

  “Me and scandals. I’m glad they didn’t mention anything of this sort when Lukai—” she suddenly stopped.

  There was silence for a moment.

  Luna cleared her throat slightly and steered the conversation elsewhere. No point in talking about old romances.

  “Avery is late,” Taj noted.

  That was surprising—he never was. It was mostly Luna who was late.

  She laughed. As if Taj thought about the same, he added.

  “Shrimp, he is spending too much time with you; clearly, he is absorbing your customs…” he said, and they both laughed.

  “No, no way, something had to stop him; he is not… Taj, here are the materials. How nice, you agreed for him to join our lessons.”

  Luna was talking, but Taj interrupted.

  “O, I know why you are so happy about it; it means my attention will be divided into two students, and you could avoid my comments.”

  “Taaaaaaaj, how could you?” Luna pretended to be shocked. “But, Taj, you are better, right? I see you laugh. You look tired, but…?” she asked.

  “Thank you for asking. I am better,” Taj said.

  The answer was short, which surprised her.

  “Because I believe you! Not detailed enough; tell me more,” Luna said, looking at him. Was it all right or not? Did Taj need something, or not?

  What she said made him smile.

  “To tell the truth, I thought I would die. It felt like back then; to describe the feeling is… it felt like dying, and it was the second time in my life. It is quite a lot.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Taj stopped for a moment.

  “These notes… Luna, you read them. Commenting on some remarks, I think, is not necessary anymore; we talked about it for hours. I am still processing the information about… Luna, to be honest, I am torn. I understand what I read. I am afraid, though. To have hope? I haven’t had any in a hundred years. To have it and then not find it? How will I survive then? I still haven’t found a way to die, Luna, so to harbor hope and be disappointed now seems more difficult than no hope whatsoever. I think having hope is dangerous; is it somehow…?” he asked.

  “What I want to say is, it won’t be organized, but Taj? I need to repeat it: this Anders, brother or not, he was unfair. I do not believe Song could cheat on you. And you? Not possible; you are incurable; you were in love even when there was no hope, so… this Anders, he can kindly eat his words!”

  Luna almost shouted the last sentence.

  It was outrageous! When she read these notes, she had no words for some parts.

  Her reaction made Taj laugh.

  His laughing was a good sign. Luna felt reassured.

  “Thank you, shrimp,” he said. “Thank you. Luna? To be serious, I need time to think about how to approach it. I need to train more and learn how to manage the energies I have, so it will be easier. During the epidemic, it worked, but the costs were… not to mention the moral concerns. With the lake, it worked better, no? I think it is amazing.”

  Taj stopped; he looked behind him and said a bit louder, “Avery? Come here; we are waiting for you.”

  Luna nodded. There was nothing more to add.

  Avery entered their room—looking disturbed.

  He didn’t explain, but he was late by only a few minutes, and the lesson was about calligraphy. Nothing truly serious.

  … And Taj was used to her being late.

  “Amusing to have two students who are interested in the Sect’s language,” Taj started. “Avery, it is your first time; let me then briefly explain…”

  Hearing this, Luna snorted.

  Briefly, right.

  “Brace yourself, Avery,” she whispered.

  The look Taj gave her…

  “I won’t teach you exactly how to speak or read this language, as I assume you won’t ever need it. But the language itself is very fascinating to experience. Let me show you…”

  Saying this, Taj went to one of the three pillows and showed how to sit on them so that Avery would know how to position his body comfortably.

  He spread large sheets of paper in front of each of them. Then Taj explained how to hold the brush and how to use the ink so as not to splash around.

  Something that Luna had never mastered.

  She got her favorite ink, shimmering. Avery got a black one. Taj, as usual, red.

  “Luna, show your colleague how you write your favorite word.”

  Taj instructed, and she laughed.

  She took the brush and began to write with a flourish, strokes in the right order so that it came out pretty. Never mind that Taj winced twice—it truly came out quite pretty, her favorite word: ‘food.’

  Avery watched and smiled as she told him what it meant. It was quite new to see him smiling, so she commented on it.

  “Really?” Taj asked then. “Quite similar to—”

  He stopped, but Luna knew whom he meant. She also knew that Avery insisted on discussing only work topics, so this stop was not strange.

  They continued with their lesson.

  Taj was writing in the language beautifully. Luna noticed that Avery was watching, as if he was under a spell.

  … By the end of the lesson, he was better at it than her, despite her years of practice. She snorted.

  The most important things Luna noticed were two.

  One was that her life had changed significantly. Si was the Leader, and it could never be reverted. She was still learning all the nuances of the implications. But it seemed more stable than when Lukai was in charge.

  She thought about it at that moment, observing the lesson, and realized that Taj was freer. With Lukai gone, Taj was no longer surrounded.

  Surely, no one would have wanted this kind of end for Lukai. About what happened? There were no words. But it had happened, and there was no coming back.

  The second thing Luna noticed was that Taj was talking more. She snorted again. Not that he hadn’t talked before, right?

  It was that Taj started to talk about Song. In the past, he told her their story, but he was then as if in pain. It changed, and it looked like it was for the better.

  Luna was glad. It could be good.