Goldvale looked different from the last time they’d seen it, but it wasn’t as bad as Maki had imagined. It had been almost two weeks since the final earthquake, so people had had time to start putting things together.

  The streets were clean and obviously newly-repaired. Buildings mostly had their outer walls standing, even if they lacked roofs and windows. Restaurants and other non-essential businesses were running on reduced staff and hours, but they were running. Near the center of the city, where all the Guilds and government offices had their place, almost all the buildings were whole.

  The group went to the Academy directly after checking in with the Guild and requesting a room for the night. To everyone’s relief, the huge building was standing and whole. Importantly, the dorms were all in one piece. On the door was a notice for revised class times, where to go to get new schedules, and a few suggestions on what to do about missing windows, but there wasn’t any mention of deaths anywhere.

  Before they’d all made it into the foyer, Mas appeared in a puff of teleportation magic. He grabbed Maeve and pulled her into a hug before reaching out and dragging Maki into the hug as well. Maki resisted for half a second just for the sake of his pride, but really didn’t mind.

  “Where the hell have you morons been?” their oldest brother hissed, not letting them go.

  Maeve sniffed. “Y’no, around,” she said, her casual tone ruined by the fact she was openly crying.

  “Do you assholes have any idea how worried we’ve been?” Mas asked.

  “Probably about as worried as we’ve been for you,” Maki answered.

  “I’m sorry,” Maeve added.

  There was silence for a few seconds, but no one let go. Maeve’s claws dug into Maki’s shoulder in the same way he was clinging to their oldest sibling. It didn’t take any kind of magic to tell they were all just relieved to find each other safe and healthy.

  Mas finally released them, then knocked their skulls together. “Frickin’ kits,” he grumbled, moving back slightly to point at Cali. “And you, miss, are possibly worse.” He turned to Luke and shrugged. “Your parents haven’t asked me if I’ve heard from you, sorry dude. And…” He squinted at Echo. “Yeah, your parents haven’t either, but I don’t know them, so that would have been weird.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Maki laughed, stepping back to take Echo’s hand. “Echo, Mas; girlfriend, brother.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Echo said, smiling shyly.

  “Likewise,” Mas said, looking her over. And then he turned back to Maki and tugged an ear. “What happened here?”

  “It’s a long story,” Maki shrugged.

  “As it happens, I have nothing planned for the afternoon,” Mas stated, glaring. Then he paused, looking at Maeve. “Oh, I got a letter from one Risa Halibut last week, requesting you visit her at your earliest convenience. Could you ask her to not send me official-looking letters directly from the bank? Nearly gave me a freaking heart attack.”

  Maeve immediately perked up, wiping her tears away. “She did? She’s ok?”

  “Yeah, go,” he said, getting a death grip on Maki’s shirt collar. Probably putting a few holes in the fabric with his claws. “I’ll get the story from this one.”

  Maeve tackled him in a quick hug, then dashed out the door.

  Cali took a step forwards, her ears back. “So, you’ve heard from my parents?”

  “By Bonnie, have I ever,” Mas said, rolling his eyes. “Come on, we can’t keep blocking this door. Want to talk in the park or the cafeteria?”

  “Cafeteria is working?” Luke asked, sounding as surprised as Maki was.

  “Yeah, it just opened yesterday,” Mas answered, turning in that direction. “I mean, the tables were all there, but there wasn’t any food. Now there’s a sign saying non-students can only get drinks, but we’re getting there.”

  “Was the building destroyed?” Maki asked, walking next to him as the rest of the group followed behind.

  “Everything was destroyed,” Mas answered, his voice hollow. “But hey, we’re all alive. That’s the important thing.”

  “What was it like here?” Echo asked. “We were in a town of a couple hundred people, so all we saw of cities was people rebuilding.”

  “And then we mostly just went to the Traveler’s Guild and straight back out,” Maki added.

  Mas was silent for a few seconds, ears back and tail twitching. “Let’s get coffee first. And then I really want to know about how you got a second magic type. After that we can talk about serious things.”

  “Sounds good.”