Reunion Under the Moonlight

I stepped out from the shade of the trees.

My footsteps made a soft crunch on the training ground's yellow earth. Fitz didn't notice me and continued practicing healing magic.

I stopped ten paces away from him.

The moonlight cast his long shadow on the ground behind him. His white hair was almost translucent in the moonlight, and the wind gently lifted the collar of his uniform. His eyes were closed, and his lips moved, but he made no sound.

That stance, that gesture.

His fingertips curled slightly inward, his palm facing himself. Back in Buena Village, that was how she'd done it when I taught her her first spell. Her hand had been so small then that her fingertips couldn't reach her palm, and she'd been so frustrated she'd nearly cried.

"Sylphie?"

His body went rigid.

The light in his palm shattered, scattering into tiny motes in the air. She didn't turn around right away, but her shoulders trembled slightly.

Then she turned around.

And took off her sunglasses.

The moonlight fell on her face. Her red eyes glistened with tears. Her pointed ears peeked out from between strands of white hair, trembling slightly.

I knew that face. Her hair had changed color, and her features were a little more mature than I remembered, but how could I possibly mistake those red eyes and pointed ears?

Sylphiette.

The first friend I made in Buena Village. When I was five, I saved her from a group of kids who were bullying her, then taught her magic and how to write. When I was seven, I was sent to Roa to work as a tutor, and she hit Paul with a water ball when I left. That was the first and only time I ever saw Sylphie lash out, and she started crying herself right after she did it.

I thought she was dead. After the Teleportation Incident, I searched everywhere I could, but there wasn't a single word about her. Paul's search party spent over a year searching the Begaritt Continent without finding a trace of her.

"Your hair..."

"When I was teleported, I fell from really high up. I used up all my mana just to stay alive, and my hair turned like this." Her voice was soft, a little lower than I remembered and slightly hoarse. "It's been five years, and it still hasn't changed back."

She looked down at her hands. There was a scar on her right palm, from when she'd burned herself on the stove at home in Buena Village as a child. She'd come running to me in tears, and I'd used the healing magic I'd just learned to heal half of it, but I couldn't heal the rest, no matter what I tried. Master Roxy later told me that healing magic didn't work on old wounds that had already healed.

That scar was still there after ten years.

"Sylphie."

I said her name. My voice was a little hoarse, hoarser than I'd expected.

She looked up. Tears slipped from her red eyes and down her cheeks, but her lips were curved in a smile.

"Rudeus."

She said my name. Not "Rudeus," but "Rudeus." That was what she'd called me when we were little, always with a little hesitation in her voice, as if I might disappear if she said it too loudly.

"For five years, she'd lived alone in the Asura royal palace, protected the princess alone, dressed as a boy alone, and secretly practiced magic alone in an out-of-the-way corner like this, while I'd thought she was dead. I hadn't even managed to find her."

We stood five paces apart in the moonlight. The wind rustled through the grass at the edge of the training ground. A night bird called twice in the distance, then all was quiet again.

"You're alive," I said.

"Yeah." She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand. "You're alive too."

"I always thought you were dead."

"I thought I'd never see you again, too." Her voice was still trembling, but she tried to keep her tone steady. "When I heard later that you were alive, I cried all night in the palace. Princess Ariel thought someone had been bullying me."

We sat down on the grass at the edge of the training ground.

The moon was high, its silver light illuminating the entire training ground. The school buildings in the distance were completely dark; only our side was lit by moonlight. Dew from the grass soaked our pant legs, and the chill spread from the soles of our feet to our knees.

She told me what had happened after the Teleportation Incident.

She'd used up all her mana while falling from the sky and barely survived. She landed near the Asura royal palace and just managed to save Princess Ariel. Ariel took her in, and she became her guardian mage. Later, after losing a political struggle, she went into exile with Ariel in the Ranoa Kingdom and enrolled at the Ranoa University of Magic.

"Why dress as a boy?"

"There were too many informants around Ariel. If it got out that I was a girl, a survivor from the Fittoa Territory, and that I knew you from before... her political opponents could have used it."

Her tone was matter-of-fact, as if she were talking about someone else. But I noticed her fingers tightening on her knees, her knuckles turning white from the force.

"You were watching me the whole time," I said.

"Yeah."

"Starting with the entrance test."

"Yeah." She lowered her head, her white hair falling over her knees. "I thought you recognized me, but you didn't."

"Your hair changed color, you were wearing sunglasses, and you were dressed as a boy... How was I supposed to recognize you?"

"True." She gave a short laugh. "I wanted to tell you the truth all along, but you kept coming up to me looking wary, so I thought..."

"I was trying to say hello, but you ran away every time. I thought you were scared of me."

She stared for a moment, then laughed out loud.

It was a small, quiet laugh, but it was definitely Sylphie's. It was exactly the same as it had been eight years ago in Buena Village, a little bashful, and she cut it short halfway through, as if she thought laughing too loudly might disturb someone.

"So you got married," she said suddenly.

I hadn't expected her to bring that up first.

"Yeah."

"When?"

"Last year."

"To who?"

"Eris."

She fell silent for a second. Her smile didn't change, but something flickered in her eyes for an instant before she quickly concealed it.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"When I was in Millis, I heard that a strong red-haired girl was always by your side. I always thought you were just friends." She turned her head to look at me, moonlight reflected in her red eyes. "I thought you two wouldn't end up together."

"Eris chose me when she was at her most desperate. I always thought she would leave me. I love her very much."

"Yeah." She looked into the darkness ahead, where the moonlight blurred the outlines of the distant school buildings. "She didn't leave you. That's good."

"That sounded simple enough, but I couldn't help feeling there was another meaning behind it. Sylphie had always been like that, never saying everything she meant and keeping the other half to herself for you to guess. But at least she was willing to speak now, and that was more important than anything."

"Thank you for not running away this time," I said.

Her lips curved in a smile, but she didn't answer.

An owl hooted in the distance, low and steady, one call after another. At some point, a thin cloud had covered half the moon, and the light on the training ground had dimmed. The dew on the grass was growing cold, and the wind had picked up, blowing her white hair across her face.

Sylphie stood up and brushed the bits of grass off her skirt.

She was no longer wearing her uniform, but a long, light-colored dress that looked soft in the moonlight. I didn't know when she'd changed, probably while I was walking over.

"There's something else." She looked at me. "Princess Ariel wants to meet you."

"Meet me?"

"She's very interested in you. A user of chantless magic, a special student, and... your relationship with me."

She said those last words very softly, but I heard them clearly.

The moon emerged from behind the clouds again, shining on her face. White hair, red eyes, and pointed ears just like they had been ten years ago.

She stood in the moonlight, looking at me.