To my greatest relief, there were no introductions for either me or Ceres. Instead, from the moment she stepped into the classroom until minutes after the bell rang, Professor Arke Hesper did not stop talking for the briefest of seconds.

  Only when all morning classes were finally over did I finally have time to lower my quill, my hand refusing to go back to a normal stance. Beside me, Ceres was gazing at the ceiling with blank eyes.

  …I forgot how much I hated alchemy. Who was deranged enough to actually enjoy any of that? Actually, before that, who was the profane and cursed being who thought it was a brilliant idea to have three alchemy morning classes?

  Ergos, of course…It is fucking Ergos, after all.

  Because if their students were not crying tears of blood and sweating their souls out of their bodies, they were doing something wrong. Apparently, they only treated the reinforcement class somewhat worse than their regular students.

  “Hey, I’m going to eat at the workshop. You guys want to tag along?”

  The girl suddenly came back alive, a new smile bursting on her face as she locked eyes with Jaya.

  “Yes, please! If I stay a second more in this classroom, my brain will perish…”

  Before I knew it, there were two pairs of hopeful gazes burning my way. Expectant. Wistful. Pleading.

  I let out a long sigh, my head still throbbing for all the formulas, calculations, and recipes I had spent the last three hours copying.

  “Sure, why not. The air here is quite stifling.”

  Jaya and Ceres cheered at the same time, the man’s grin widening while the girl threw a punch in the air. Yet as I began to put my things away, her eyes shifted to one particular seat. One where a young boy continued to write in silence, not even sparing a single glance to the sides.

  Ceres’ joy faded for a moment, a sad tune echoing in her voice. “…what about him?”

  Jaya shrugged. “Feel free to try. Since the first day, every time anyone tried to talk to him, he just brushed them off.” The man’s expression suddenly changed, all cheerfulness dead and gone as a single frown replaced the merry glow in his eyes. And without any notice, the cold and emotionless tone in his voice was something I recognized far too well. “‘Don’t talk to me’, ‘I don’t want to listen to you. Walk away’, ‘Not interested, leave me alone’.”

  I had to turn away and bit my tongue to hold back my laugh as I witnessed one of the best impressions of Emrys I had ever seen.

  Glad to see some things never change.

  Jaya sighed, the frown melting away from his face as his voice went back to its usual vibrancy. “That kid Liber is a tough nut to crack, I’m telling ya. But hey, the more the merrier.”

  Liber.

  Emrys’ real name. A name Jackal had used only a couple of times.

  Once again my eyes shifted toward the fourteen-year-old boy, my thoughts conflicting with one another. If there was anyone I owed a lot to, it was him. Not only had he provided me a fortune back in Jackal’s glory days, I was able to pass the entrance exam thanks to Liber.

  Yet how many had noticed already? The connection between Jackal’s treasure, Emrys, and the boy sitting alone by the window? Sure enough, Emrys was a mask. Almost all ringleaders knew the importance of keeping their riders' and mounts' identities a secret—especially the ones who made the most profit. Underground racing was an illegal sport, after all.

  And even if Emrys had been scouted by Ergos Academy, a talent like his was not something people could usually mistake or forget. So how many? How many professors and students who watched illegal races behind closed doors recognized Liber as Emrys?

  How many would be able to link him back to me?

  Alas, I was not given that much time to make up my mind.

  “Hello! You want to eat with us?”

  Ceres’ enthusiasm was met with a glacial wall that did not even bother to shake.

  “Not interested. Leave me be.”

  Jaya let out a soft sigh, as if that was exactly what he was expecting. The girl’s smile, however, did not falter.

  “I’m Ceres, that one is Vex, we are the new students from the reinforcement class.”

  For the briefest moment the boy’s eyes wavered, his gaze shifting to the side, my side, before going back to his notes. “I know. This is not something to be proud of.”

  While Ceres laughed it off, I flinched. His tone a bit too close to Coach Emrys.

  Come on now, Vex, he is five years younger than you.

  “I remember you from the highlights! You must have placed really high in the entrance exam, right?”

  He scoffed, not meeting any of our gazes. “That goes without saying.”

  The girl bit her lip before taking one step closer, some of the eagerness and excitement in her voice getting weighed by uncertainty. Reluctance. “Are you sure you don’t want to eat with us? It will be fun!”

  “Again, not interested. Now stop bothering me, I’m busy.”

  As Ceres turned away, dragging her body in defeat, Jaya put his hand on her shoulder in consolation, both making their way out of the door.

  I stopped a few steps behind, looking back at the empty classroom.

  Thinking.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  Pondering.

  “Vex? Are you not going?”

  Ignoring Ceres’ words, I walked back toward that one seat. The single chair that wasn’t vacant, the spot where the air almost seemed to be colder and stiller.

  “Liber, is it?” Those eyes shifted toward me for half a second, sharp as a frozen blade. “The way you maneuver through obstacles without dropping your speed—can you teach me?”

  “Don’t want to,” he replied without looking my way.

  Then I lowered my gaze, a spark lighting up in my eyes as I saw what the boy had been writing so diligently for the past minutes.

  “…I know a store nearby that sells some exotic ingredients, and last time I checked, they had quite the vast inventory of uncategorized recipes.”

  His quill stopped moving.

  “If you help me with my maneuvers, I’ll take you there—I can even let you pick three things you want.”

  A few seconds passed, silence covering the room in a thick veil.

  “Your flight skills are horrendous. Make it six.”

  I smiled, amusement filling my eyes as I replied. “I may be older, yet I’m a student as broke as you. Four.”

  “You appear to be oblivious to your current situation after succeeding a few times. Three ingredients and three recipes. If they are too expensive, I will be content with two recipes, only.”

  This smug little…

  “Fine. Deal.”

  The boy stood up, taking the notes and quill with him, and passed by me without uttering a single word. When he reached the door’s threshold, both Ceres and Jaya were beaming.

  And I still was debating how much I was going to regret what I had just done.

  “I never imagined you liked alchemy! What I hear most from folks in our class, about the classes I mean, is how much they loath the thing!”

  As the man’s laughter echoed through the space, I found myself perplexed.

  “Well, fair enough, you and I never spoke much, but hey! Now that I know, I can fetch you some tools and flasks—you also use them a lot, don’t you Vex? Potions.”

  “…o-oh, yes. I use them.”

  “Splendid!” Jaya’s smile was like a small, contained sun. One that would send its shine and warmth to his voice, eyes, and every little thing he did. “Thinking about it, I’m quite sure I had some prototype I was working on that could be useful to you…where was it?”

  I did wonder at first. What exactly Jaya had meant when he said ‘workshop’. Ergos did have a few, yet they were usually locked during breaks, and only a few selected students had permission to enter. Something I was pretty certain did not apply to a first year like Jay.

  “…was working on it two nights ago, where did I put it…?”

  Yet, apparently, what the man considered to be a ‘workshop’ was also his very own room—located at one of Ergos’ dormitories. And to my most profound amazement and shock, I could see how anyone would consider the same.

  For there were many things the space lacked to be considered a “student’s room”.

  Such as a bed.

  “Hah! Knew I had seen it somewhere—there you go.”

  The object was thrown my way, and I only had a few seconds to organize my thoughts before my fingers almost failed to catch it midair.

  Around us, there were three different workbenches—each with its own “theme” going on. The one on the right was filled with leather, threads, and needles. On the left, the workbench was covered with scrolls and papers, alongside lost screws, springs, and metal pieces. Finally, the third one seemed to be dedicated to any work that demanded a…rougher touch. Screwdrivers, hammers, saws, heating devices…

  Indeed, this is a workshop.

  As I took a better look at what the man had thrown at me, I realized it was a leather belt. One with a lot of pockets and separations to store not only potions, but also tools like the hooks I had used in my last race. Not only was the material a lot better than the one I currently owned, it also had a lot more storage space.

  I blinked a few times.

  Why…is he even giving this to me?

  I had known the guy for less than four hours.

  “Did you make all this stuff?” Ceres’ voice matched the admiration and surprise in her expression, which somehow made the man laugh.

  “Sure did! You may say it’s a hobby of mine.”

  A hobby?

  This man had an equipment shop in place of a normal bedroom, and he said it was a hobby?

  “Liber, this one’s for—”

  Wonder boy was, at that precise moment, gazing at a half-finished gear placed at one of the corners. From the design alone, even if incomplete, I could tell it was a sleeve—gear specifically designed for wingless dragons. It usually protected the mounts from their necks and faces up to where the saddle would be.

  Although I hadn’t given Liber any of Blue’s usual gear—since they were all Jackal’s property, and I was already losing my top rider—the boy did get a sweet deal with Ergos through his scholarship. So he shouldn’t be lacking any equipment.

  That said, he always loved to spoil Blue…

  “Do you also make gears?!” Ceres’ voice echoed around the room, bouncing with an enthusiasm of its own as the girl started to pay more and more attention to the objects cast to the sides.

  Jaya laughed as his hand brushed his hair, a hint of embarrassment echoing in his words.

  “Oh, I make pretty much anything that tickles my fancy. Finishing them, however, is a different story. In any case, here.” The man extended his hand to Liber, revealing a pair of dark leather gloves. “I saw Arke using something similar during the lab sessions, so I tried to make something similar. Obviously, it’s not the same as hers, yet it can still help out when handling the dangerous stuff, right?”

  I saw Liber’s eyes widen for half a second, sparks and all, before the awe and wonder got replaced by a frown.

  “Why are you giving me this?”

  Jaya raised his eyebrows, his gaze reflecting the confusion in his voice. “Because I want to.”

  “I have been ignoring everyone in class since the beginning of the term. You have no reason to be nice to me.”

  “Must there be a reason?” The warm smile continued to shine on his face as Jaya turned away for a moment, putting some of the tools spread on the floor on top of a workbench. “I enjoy making stuff, yet I rarely have any use for most of them. And truth be told, I actually need to clear out some space here.”

  That was an understatement.

  To this moment, I was still asking myself where the man even slept.

  With reluctant fingers, Liber took the pair of gloves, his eyes still attentive—suspicious. “This is stupid of you. You should sell them, at least.”

  The boy’s words made him laugh, the sound earnest, warm. Yet when Jaya ruffled Liber’s hair, I swore for a second the man was two seconds away from getting bitten.

  “Where do you even sleep in this mess?” As I took a step forward, Jaya’s eyes shifted to me.

  “Oh, this is just a workspace. My room is in a different unit.”

  I blinked. Then I blinked again.

  He rents two rooms?

  At Ergos’ Dormitories?

  There it was. The explanation of why the man had little interest in selling his designs. Either his sense of finances was absurdly distorted, or he was born with a fucking diamond spoon in his mouth.

  Perhaps even both.

  “What else do you have here? Would you have something for Connie?!”

  At that point, I couldn’t say whose eyes sparkled most; Ceres or Jaya himself. And as he began a tour, showing one thing after the other, their voices never ceasing, much less losing their vibrancy, I could only thank the fact our next class was the only self-study session we had in the week.

  There was only so much socialization I could take in one single morning.

  I stepped away, taking my time in admiring and paying closer attention to my new belt.

  Then, a presence. A whisper.

  “You did it again.”

  My eyes glanced toward Liber for a split second before turning back to the belt, my whisper matching his own. “Did what?”

  “It’s one of Jackal’s greatest talents, is it not?” A faint smirk touched the boy’s face when he turned my way, the warning burning in my gaze not even one bit discreet. “Surround yourself with resourceful people you can use.”

  At that moment, I recalled Angus’ words. Luck is also a skill. The luck of attracting talented people, the luck to be in the right place at the right time, the luck of being different enough to spark their interest. To make them curious enough to exchange favors.

  Perhaps Angus and Liber were right—perhaps that was Jackal’s talent. Vex’s precious skill. And in order to get to where I wanted, to achieve what I wanted…

  Luck could favor me as much as It wanted. I would even tolerate entire days alongside people like Ceres and Jaya, slowly draining my peace of mind. Because ever since I started riding, I not only saw but understood deep down what it felt like to have a view from the top.

  And this feeling…

  I never wanted to lose it again.