After Red was gone I took a moment to just think. Something was going to happen. Something that Red was claiming was not my fault. But it was still a bad thing. Her death? Something to do with the Wraith?

What was I supposed to do with that information? Could I even do anything?

Another thing I wasn't going to be enough for.

"Who were you talking to?"

I looked up to see Fethris sitting across from me. I hadn't even noticed him come in.

"Red was here a little while ago. We talked. She didn't say anything particularly useful."

I pushed the teapot towards him, a silent invitation. He could have some if he wanted, if he didn't that was fine. He looked between me and the cupboard where the cups were stored. Then he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A small puff of smoke in his green and then a mug was in front of him.

"I'm not bothered by magic usage," I told him.

He poured himself a cup and was looking at the tea like I was going to poison him or something. "It should," he said.

"I won't pretend I don't get jealous sometimes, but it's nothing you need to worry about," I confessed. I couldn't remember if I ever told any of them that before.

Fethris sighed, "About the conversation you had with Set earlier, you'd tell us, right? If this was getting too much? If we were pushing you too hard?"

I took a sip of tea as I tried to figure out how to explain it. "I'm…used to being relied upon. I don't mind it at all. Being Representative, going to meetings, it's not what I would call fun but it's not more than I can handle. So far."

"Do you want to know why I picked you?" He asked.

"I would love to know."

"It's…easy to pretend. To play a part. To act the way people expect of me no matter how I feel about it," he started. "When I see you, I don't see that. You don't act. We may not always see everything, but I can tell that what we do see is real. Real is hard to come by, especially in Kelpie Tower."

Real huh? I wasn't so sure about that. How could I be real when I was incomplete? "I'm…not good at this. At people. I know what I want, but I have no idea how to express it."

"Do you want to try?"

"Do you still not know what Open Sesame means?" I countered. An attempt to bridge my next point. Maybe he could understand without me having to outright say it.

"No idea. Russel does but he won't share what he knows."

I had thought as much. "There's…this old human story. About a boy from the bottom of the social ladder who gets caught up in a crazy adventure and finds himself in front of a magic door with a password he has to figure out."

"Now that does sound a little familiar," he was smirking again. I didn't know why but I smiled back anyway.

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"I said it as a joke. I never imagined it would work. I was so afraid when Dragon Tower picked me. I was scared to be alone and to stand out. In my experience, that ends badly."

"I was excited," Fethris said. His smirk turned to a real smile. "My father always told me that the best people to be friends with were the ones you find in odd places. I figured Dragon Tower would be the oddest place, therefore, the friends there would be the most valuable."

"I mean…you weren't wrong."

"I'm glad I met you that day. Keeping calm despite the situation is impressive."

"I don't do calm, I was panicking the entire time."

"I know that now," Fethris said. "I noticed it when we were talking about Death's Echo. I thought you were joking when you said that was your panicked face. But I realized it Wednesday, you were serious."

"My face doesn't always give away what's going on inside. I know I'm…hard to read."

"That's putting it mildly. But I think I'm starting to finally figure it out. Lately I've been getting the feeling that there's a lot more going on behind those eyes than any of us have given you credit for."

"Gee thanks," I hoped my sarcasm came across clearly.

"That was sarcasm for sure. See? Learning."

I sighed, "It's okay. I've…been called much worse. It took Ethan a lifetime to learn how to do it perfectly."

"Who?"

"A friend I had back home. He and I don't talk anymore. Not since I decided to come here. No idea if he even knows I'm on another continent."

"He's human."

"Yeah. Never told him about magic. He never knew. Will never know now. Probably won't even see him again. But habits are hard to break. He and I were all we had for a very long time. Now I have all of you. Even the non-Dragons."

"You're doing a better job than you give yourself credit for."

"I wish I could see myself the way you guys seem to," I told him.

"I intend to do whatever I can to help. So, since you're unbothered by the usage of magic, we'll extend the same courtesy and be unbothered by you being human."

I inhaled in a slow breath. "I don't know if it's that simple. But I suppose there's no harm in trying."

"I know you and Celica talked about this, and she's right. If you can't trust us, who here can you trust?"

"It's not about trust. It's just…I don't know where the lines between Magic Serafina, Human Serafina, and Real Serafina are. I don't know what the things you're asking of me look like. How she acts. That's still something, someone, I have to figure out."

Complete honesty was still hard. But it was still truth. A large piece of the truth, and it was the best I could give him.

"You're new to this," Fethris commented.

"I am," I admitted.

"But, you're taking this seriously."

"I'm trying to."

"What you said to the others, when we talked about Death's Echo. You were panicking, but telling us not to." He picked up the mug to take a sip of the tea.

I hadn't fooled him at all. This was going to be harder than I thought. "I meant what I said. I don't think fear will do any of us any good. Rash actions might just cause problems. I do want to wait until we know what the problem is before we try to solve it. Does that make sense?"

He set the cup down and pushed it away to fold his hands in front of him and lean forward, "It does. For now. Waiting and seeing. Again. Not ideal, but I think ideal was left behind."

"Probably. I don't like it, but I really don't see any better options."

"And you're honest about that. I respect that about you. I don't always understand, but we can both work on that."

"I look forward to it," I told him with a smile.

Understanding, huh? That was a new one. Ethan had always offered acceptance. That I was the way I was and that was okay to him. But he never did understand, did he? Why I was different. Why I never told him everything. Did he ever even suspect that? Would it upset him if he ever found out?

What was I supposed to do? How would I even have begun to tell him?

But Fethris was different, wasn't he? Different from Ethan. Heck, he wasn't exactly Mister Popular here. Probably why he was here, sitting across from me instead of in Kelpie Tower.

Maybe that was the point of the Towers. The goal. The hope. We all had something in common, and perhaps that commonality was the first step to gaining something more profound than a simple friendship.

Or maybe finally having the chance to be whole was the profound part.

Whatever the case, I wanted to keep it. I needed to keep it. What I'd found here cannot be replaced, I could feel it.

"I'm glad I came here," I told him. "To the school I mean. Regardless of everything else."

Whatever risks, whatever danger, it was worth it. No amount of scars would be too high a price to pay for finally having a place I belonged. To be part of something.

"I thought you didn't care for sentimentality," Fethris didn't look as repulsed as Celica seemed to be when things got mushy.

I shrugged, "It depends. Time and place for everything. I just figured you should know that."

"Will you still think that if someone tries to stab you?" Fethris wondered.

I couldn't tell if that was a real question or not. I answered anyway, "Yes. And don't worry, I'm not afraid of a knife."

Not even a magical one.

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