“Right. Well, the assignment is about the natural transformations… which is a totally bs assignment anyways, I know that basically nobody knows how those actually work anyways.” Compared to Mingtian, instructor Bao was… incompetent was a harsh word, but also not totally inaccurate. “Bad news, that means there’s no real right answer, and a whole lot of wrong ones. Good news, we can pretty much put down whatever we want so long as we use enough fancy terms.” That earned another snort of laughter from Avyr. “Let’s see…” she pulled up her homework sheet, and focused and—

  Time really flew.

  Almost before she knew it, late-morning sunlight was streaming in through the windows, catching on scattered wrappers and more than one empty mug of tea. Avyr, of course, had drunk his own herbal brews— which was a shame because the tea he’d chosen had actually been surprisingly good— and they were out of homework to do. Qi theory had gone by fast, history had been a slog but also pretty easy for the most part, the less said about formations the better… the only truly annoying one had been guided studies, and that was more because she couldn’t help Avyr with his homework at all. How he could keep on top of all those different types of plants, and their varieties, and their cultivars… all she knew was the difference between tree and bush, and flower. Heavens forbid she come across a flowering tree…

  She snorted to herself at the thought, leaning back in her chair and sipping some more on her fifth and definitely she swore this time for real final mug of tea. “Next…” there wasn’t anything next. Still… it was a weekend. They couldn’t very well just sit around and do nothing. “The library should be open around this time. I’ll go grab whatever Mingtian has written up for me today, and get to work on that.”

  “Wait a second, would you? So eager to abandon me here?”

  “You could come with me?”

  “And go out into the cold?” The big cat shivered— maybe a little more dramatically than was appropriate. Just a little… Lily fought the urge to roll her eyes. “No thanks. I’ll stay right here, in my toasty little room, toasting. How else do you think I get this nice, golden-browned fur of mine?” She did roll her eyes at that one.

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  “You can’t even eat bread.”

  Avyr puffed up mock defensively. “Not true!” Well, she knew it was only in jest, but she was pretty sure that sort of— hair raised, hissing, snarling— would have terrified her back when she’d first met him. “I can eat bread. It’s just… not good for me.”

  “Sure, sure, and I can eat arsenic too. Once.”

  “It’s not the same thing! I can actually eat it and everything— I just don’t get the nutrients that—” he paused, then narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re pulling my tail, aren’t you?” She just smiled back in response. Avyr flopped down, sighing. “I don’t imagine you’re going to stay here all that long? Not if you have Mingtian to check up on…” for a moment, silence sparked between the two of them. The question needn’t even be answered— “just a little, then? We barely even got a chance to catch up.”

  “We see each other every day.”

  “I’m doing good too, thanks for asking.”

  “You’re incorrigible.” She was smiling, though. “It’s weird, isn’t it? I didn’t think I’d like the mountains at all, but it was… simple, up there, in a lot of ways. Now that I’m back here, running through classes and chasing a goal that seems both closer and further than it’s ever been…”

  “I get it.” His grimace wasn’t the same as a human’s, but it was recognizable nonetheless. “The Dragonspine Mountains were… cold. And to think that I spent most of my time in a sauna and still left with the impression that they were frigid…” he shook his head, wryly. “But they were freeing, too. I won’t go so far as to say that East Saffron is wrong— there is a great deal of benefit, to living in the heart of civilization like this. Everything is so convenient to get to, so long as you have a bit of money. Out in the wilderness, though…”

  “It’s freer, isn’t it?”

  “In a sense.” He was silent for a long while, not looking her way, bathed— for a moment— in that spilled over sunlight. Long enough that Lily almost started to worry that she’d offended him somehow— “nostalgic,” he finally whispered, the faint mewl of it carrying through the small room. “It was nostalgic. I hadn’t lived in the wilds like that since… since I fled to the northern continent.” Lily didn’t make a peep— it was rare, for Avyr to talk about where he’d come from.

  She understood, she supposed. She didn’t bring up her parents. Avyr didn’t often bring up his.

  One small strange fragment of understanding, shared between them. What an odd empathy…

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