“Eugene wants to talk to you.”

  She raised her voice as much as she could without it turning into a shout. She clearly wanted to draw as much attention as she could without making it look like that’s what she was doing.

  Felix’s heart dropped.

  ‘Indeed, what would come would come.’

  He knew that there was no avoiding it, but that didn’t mean he had to play the game they wanted to play. Nothing he could do would make the fallout any worse than it already was.

  Felix made a show of looking around dramatically. He easily noticed the eyes on them. Some people had the decency to pretend they weren’t paying attention, but most didn’t even bother.

  “How strange, I thought knights only got one spell at the beginning of the year. Why did it give Eugene a remote communication spell? Didn’t he have a fire affinity?”

  Felix kept looking around like Eugene was hiding somewhere.

  “Eugene! Eugene! Can you hear me, Eugene?”

  After waiting for a moment, he shrugged and started walking up the stairs, forcing Irene to get out of the way before he walked into her.

  “Looks like he needs more practice. Try again another time.”

  Just as Felix reached the landing at the top of the stairs, he heard the doors swing open with a dramatic bang, followed by a loud yell from across the room.

  “Felix!”

  The word was filled with so much suppressed rage that it left little doubt about who’d arrived.

  Agrona apparently decided she’d like to mess with their little display of power, too, as a second Eugene started his march towards the stairs, with the eyes of the entire room on him. She slammed her presence into him, causing him to stumble.

  “Young man, I don't care if you want to put on a little performance with your friends. I’m a fan of the theatre myself, but if you slam my door like that again, I’ll have you spend your last couple of weeks here washing the dishes. Do you understand?”

  “Y-Yes mam.”

  “Good, now get back to your performance, add a little more swing to the arms and pull those shoulders back. A good villain needs to look confident.”

  Eugene stared at her with an open mouth. For a moment, he looked around the room as if hoping the answer would jump out at him. When none did, he started walking towards the stairs again, no longer stomping. He just tried to rush to them as fast as he could, with his head down. Still, he didn’t have the nerve to ignore Agrona’s demands, so he pulled his shoulders back and swung his arms.

  The combined performance made him look a bit like a top-heavy cross between a penguin and a gorilla. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he awkwardly cleared his throat.

  Felix had to admire his ability to ignore the snickers from all over the room and continue his charade. Even though he had an awkward performance, Felix could still feel the boiling rage. There was no escaping his fate. He’d take every opportunity to ruin the moment as much as he could for Eugene, but he knew that it was ultimately futile.

  The only thing he could do was minimise the damage and make the best of a bad situation.

  “Still trying to run?!”

  “Huh, you gave up on your new spell, that’s no good. Practice makes perfect.”

  Eugene was immediately thrown off again.

  “What?”

  “Irene here told everyone about your new remote communication spell. Go ahead and cast it, we’ll wait.”

  “What are you talking about?” Eugene looked at Irene in confusion.

  “That’s not– I– Stop trying to change the topic!”

  Felix shrugged.

  “Anyway, as you can see, I’m in desperate need of a shower. I’ll be down in twenty, take your time and practice some more.”

  Without another word, Felix continued walking back to his room.

  “Wait! I challenge you to a rematch!”

  “Yeah, yeah, just wait down there, we can talk after my shower.”

  Felix casually waved them off.

  When Felix came back downstairs forty minutes later, he wasn’t surprised to find Eugene still waiting. When he saw Felix, he quickly got up. Through gnashed teeth, he barely stopped himself from yelling.

  “You said twenty minutes.”

  Felix just shrugged, ignoring him entirely and moving on.

  “Right, you wanted a rematch, two days from now, three hours before sunrise. See you then.”

  “What! You can’t do that!”

  “Course I can, check the rules. The challenged party sets the time.”

  “But you set the time when you challenged me!”

  Felix shrugged and walked away.

  Felix managed to say hello and order some breakfast before Eugene and his lackeys finally managed to figure out that Felix couldn’t actually schedule the duel for the middle of the night.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He managed to make them look up the rules two more times before a time for the duel was finally scheduled for the following morning.

  When Eugene wanted to keep putting on a performance to draw attention, Felix simply made up a rule about him not being allowed to speak to Felix within twelve hours of the duel. By then, Eugene was so drained from the experience that he just gave up instead of continuing to argue.

  Felix was able to enjoy the rest of his breakfast in peace, just idly chatting with Agrona.

  “You know you can’t actually avoid the duel, right?”

  Felix nodded.

  “You’re going to lose.”

  Felix nodded again.

  “No helping it, at least I got to vent a little beforehand. I’ll just try to minimise injuries, I don’t have time for a lengthy recovery.”

  Agrona looked at him with pity, but there was nothing that could be done. He’d bought himself time by beating Eugene in their original duel. Now it was time to pay his dues. As much as Felix didn’t want to, he couldn't see how he could have done any better with the skills he had so many years ago, or was it months…

  “Doesn’t matter I guess, hopefully time will make sense again after I’m away from the Ways for long enough.”

  A glare from Agrona told him that he’d talked to himself out loud again.

  After all his training on the Ways, he now realised there were better ways to handle the situation with Eugene. He also realised that there was no way he could have known about them back then.

  Maybe years from now he’d realise there was a better way to handle his next fight with Eugene as well, but right now he couldn’t see any.

  The next morning, when Felix found himself back in the gym. The crowd was much smaller than the first time, duels had long since become commonplace, and much of the excitement around them had worn off. Add in the fact that Felix had still requested it for as early as possible and given them as little time as possible to spread the word, and it was a rather underwhelming stage for Eugene’s great comeback.

  When Felix entered the ring, he didn’t do so with a bunch of tricks planned. He would try to win on principle, but when he stepped into the ring and stood in front of Eugene, he realised that he now barely came up to his chest.

  ‘Yea… I’m definitely in for a bad time.’

  The fight was over mercifully quickly. While Felix hadn’t tried anything to enrage Eugene on the day of the fight, he’d apparently done enough the previous day. Eugene was so enraged that he forgot to hold back.

  Felix did everything he could to roll with the blows and minimise the damage. But Eugene had waited until breaking past his physical limit to challenge Felix again. He might as well have been a newborn facing a grown man.

  He could see every flaw in Eugene’s technique. He’d come a long way, but he was still leagues behind Felix. Felix could see every blow and know exactly how to take apart the move. Only Eugene’s physical abilities were so overwhelming that he never had a chance.

  In a scant few seconds, Felix was knocked to the ground. Instructor Grendel quickly intervened and stopped the fight just as Eugene tried to stomp on Felix’s face. Physically, he emerged from the fight with only a few injuries. It would take a couple of days, but he’d recover fully without losing too much time.

  That was what he was aiming for. He should have been happy to accomplish his goal. Yet he couldn’t forget the feeling of Eugene stepping on his face as he lay helpless, waiting for the instructor to save him.

  Since he couldn’t forget it, he decided to remember it instead. In a corner of his memory garden, a little bush grew, holding the memory. He had no grand ideas of taking revenge someday.

  He wanted to remember how it felt to be trampled under another’s boot. Because he’d do everything in his power to never find himself in that position again.

  Two weeks later, Felix sat on his path, just in front of the courtyard with his final gate. He’d managed to clear the last three gates with time to spare, thanks to his injuries being light enough to recover quickly. He even managed to squeeze in one last rest day.

  That might have been a mistake, he’d quickly gotten news that Eugene and Irene had both passed the trial. He’d waited for Irene to break her limit so they could pass at the same time. As soon as they exited, they kissed in front of the Ways, announcing their relationship to the entire Crossroad.

  Most of the aspirants hadn’t had the displeasure of knowing their company, and so many young girls thought of it as a great romantic gesture.

  It quickly set off a tide of couples, each announcing their relationships in equally grand and spectacular ways.

  It had nothing to do with Felix, though he caught his thoughts drifting towards Aster more often than he’d like to admit. He didn’t have time to let his thoughts wander, so he reigned them in. He didn’t really think of Aster as anything more than a friend. He just thought she was cute, and her deadpan way of showing emotions was a little endearing, and the way she looked out for him, and Lara was kinda cool. Ok, maybe he had a little crush on her, but that was all.

  At least he’d managed to clear up one point of confusion. If Lara’s parents seriously hoped the two would end up merging their families, they’d be in for a rather unwelcome surprise.

  Felix would always love Lara. She was family. But he now knew that she would never be more than that.

  “It’s a little funny that the whole business with Eugene came about from wanting to keep him away from her.”

  Felix frowned.

  “Nah, the thought of that asshole with Lara is still infuriating.”

  Felix spent a little while ranting as he grew irrationally angry at the thought of anyone approaching her with impure intentions. But he realised that he felt protective rather than possessive. Besides, the whole ordeal with Eugene had proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that his instincts were right. Anyone who took an interest in Lara had to be evil.

  Felix shook his head. He could figure out where to get Lara a cat later.

  His problem was still right in front of him. He’d already sat in front of the plaza for hours. He knew the second he stepped onto it, he’d have his answer, and he doubted it would be anything good. If he stepped on it only to find that the final gate still promised his death, then it was all over. He’d have spent the last seven months driving himself to the verge of collapse for nothing.

  With a sigh, Felix managed to pull himself onto legs that had long gone numb from sitting.

  “Best get it over with.”

  As he walked into the square, he could feel it, the overwhelming dread emanating from the gate.

  Not wanting to believe the cruel reality, Felix slowly walked towards the gate and placed his hand on it as he had so many times before.

  Near certain death.

  He was stunned, near certain. It had changed. It was faint, a sliver of a chance to live in an ocean of death.

  Felix bit his lip. After everything he’d done, that was all he could get, the faintest ray of hope.

  He stared into the gate with a knot in his stomach. Perhaps it would have been easier if that sliver hadn’t been there. If his death were certain, his path would be certain too, but that sliver had put an impossible decision in front of him.

  He could risk everything for the faintest hope that he could become a Traveller, or he could spend centuries toiling to make up for turning his back, for choosing the safe option.

  As he stood in front of the gate, he remembered everything that had happened over the last thirteen months. He remembered his steadfast grandmother breaking down in worry, he remembered the promises he made to Lara, the ones he couldn't keep and the ones he’d yet to fulfil.

  He remembered everyone who’d helped him along his way to bring him to this moment. One by one, he thought of everyone and asked himself what they would want him to do. One by one, he realised that everyone would want him to turn around.

  Only one voice told him to walk through that gate, and that was his own. He tried connecting with his path to see if he could get any guidance from it, but it was silent.

  The choice was his and his alone. Would he turn his back on all the kindness he’d been shown to selfishly push forward? Or would he accept the setback and fight to make up for the time he lost?

  In the end, he dropped his hand from the gate and stared down the long and lonesome path that brought him here one last time. A tear rolled down his cheek.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I can’t spend centuries regretting my decision.”

  Felix stepped through the gate.

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