(May 16, 2550, Tuesday)
[Aurelia POV]
The coffee in my cup had long since gone cold.
Its surface reflecting the dim kitchen light like a dark mirror.
I stared into its depths, as if the answers I sought might somehow surface from the bitter liquid.
The relentless ticking of the wall clock marked the passage of time—2:15 AM, Tuesday morning.
He had promised to be back Monday.
My fingers tightened around the ceramic mug, the chill seeping into my palms.
Three days.
Three days of jumping at every noise, of scanning crowds for a familiar head of bluish-black hair, of waking in the middle of the night convinced I had heard the front door open.
'Where are you, Kyle?'
I had tried to distract myself by making myself busy, by grading first-year combat reports, preparing lectures on intermediate wind magic, even reorganizing my spell diagrams.
But my thoughts kept circling back to that damn Bronze Rank dungeon.
It shouldn't have been dangerous for him.
