He was so shocked to see the boy finally present in class that he momentarily halted in his tracks, standing like an idiot in the middle of the classroom. Then, after a moment’s thought, he set off towards the likely cause of his predicament.
His first instinct was to immediately march up to the boy and drag him away into some forgotten corner to clear everything up, but Zach’s subdued appearance gave him pause. Zach’s skin was pale and bloodless, and he was breathing a little too quickly and shallowly for a healthy person. He looked sick. Thinking about it a little more carefully, approaching the boy so directly would be a reckless and possibly dangerous course of action. His loss to the lich aside, Zach was vastly more powerful than Zorian, and Zorian had no idea how the other boy would react if he knew there was another person tagging along in his time traveling adventure. He’d need to confront him sooner or later, though, so he fully intended to make at least tentative contact with the boy. He scanned the front of the classroom, looking for a free seat near Zach that would allow him to study the boy during the lecture.
He didn’t have to look hard — Zach was sitting very close to Briam, and every seat around Briam was empty. The cause was easy to divine: people were reluctant to get close to the angry-looking fire drake he was holding. As someone with future knowledge, Zorian knew their fears were well founded. While the young fire drake didn’t torch anyone (and sometimes Zorian wondered how much of that was thanks to the drake’s youth and lack of ability, as opposed to having self-restraint) it didn’t hesitate to bite and scratch, and it was hard to tell what would set it off. Fortunately, it seemed to tolerate Zorian better than most people, so he simply plopped down into the seat next to Briam, silencing the lizard’s hissing with an annoyed glare. He stared at the fire drake’s slitted yellow eyes until the reptile turned its head and left him alone.
«Wow, you shut him down in an instant,» remarked Briam. «I wish I could control him that easily.»
The fire drake snapped its jaws at the air in front of Briam’s face, causing the boy to flinch back. Briam huffed in annoyance and apparently let the matter drop. Not for the first time, Zorian wondered just how smart that creature really was.
Then, doing his best to appear natural, Zorian turned to Zach sitting a bit further away from him.
«You look like hell,» Zorian remarked.
Zach groaned and buried his face into his hands. «I feel like hell,» he moaned. «What did that pile of bones do to me?»
Zorian’s heart quickened. Zach no doubt expected his comment to be disregarded as a weird metaphor, but to Zorian it was definite confirmation that Zach was also a time traveler. No points for guessing who or what the mysterious ‘pile of bones’ was.
Now… how could he get Zach to talk more without revealing that he knew more than he should?
«Pile of bones?» Zorian asked, his voice curious.
Zach opened his mouth to respond but Ilsa chose that exact moment to walk into the classroom and Zach dropped the issue.
Zorian had to restrain himself from glaring at Ilsa as she smiled at him. Couldn’t she have waited a few more minutes?
Ignorant and uncaring of Zorian’s internal grumbling, Ilsa accepted the list of present students from Akoja and began introducing herself and her class. It wasn’t anything that Zorian hadn’t heard eight times already, so he mostly ignored her in favor of keeping an eye on Zach and plotting how to extract time travel related information out of him.
Suddenly he realized that Ilsa had stopped talking and was looking in his direction. After a few moments he realized she was looking at Zach.
«Mr. Noveda, you look quite ill. Please tell me you didn’t come to my class with a hangover.»
The class erupted into laughter and Zach winced, either because loud noises bothered him in the state he was in or because he noticed the undercurrent of agitation in Ilsa’s question. Either way he recovered quickly.
«It’s not a hangover,» protested Zach. «I just woke up like this, I swear.»
«And you thought that coming to class like this was a good idea… why?» Ilsa prodded.
«Err… I honestly didn’t think it would last this long. I figured it would pass in an hour or two,» said Zach sheepishly.
Zorian frowned. If the sickness was a consequence of the spell the lich had targeted them with that evening (and Zach certainly seemed to think so, if his previous comment was any indication), that would mean Zach had been suffering its effects for the past 8 months or so, as Zach had been absent for that long. Why would Zach expect a condition that serious to pass ‘in an hour or two’?
Why couldn’t there be any simple answers in all this?
«Well it didn’t,» Ilsa concluded. «While I appreciate your dedication to your studies,» Zorian distinctly heard Ako snorting derisively in the background, «I must insist you go home or, better yet, visit a healer. You look like you’re going to collapse any moment.»
Before Zach could say anything, Zorian rose from his seat.
«I’ll get him home, teacher,» he said. Zach gave him a surprised look, but Ilsa just nodded and shooed them away.
Zorian picked up his bag and left with Zach in tow, very pleased with himself. He got a legitimate excuse to talk to Zach in private and a permission to skip a class he had already attended 8 times by now. Could a victory be more complete?
«You didn’t have to do that, you know?» Zach remarked, trailing behind him. «I can get back home on my own. I don’t feel that sick.»
«But if I hadn’t done that, I would’ve had to sit through 2 hours of boring review,» countered Zorian.
Zach laughed, but his laughter quickly collapsed into a painful sounding cough.
«Damn,» he wheezed. «He really did a number on me.»
«Who is this someone you keep mentioning?» prodded Zorian.
«It’s not important,» Zach mumbled. He took a deep breath and fixed Zorian with a speculative look. «Hey. Want to go to the cafeteria and grab something to eat?»
«You think your stomach can handle it?» Zorian asked.
«You bet,» Zach nodded. «I’m starving!»
Zorian shrugged and gestured for Zach to lead the way.
That was how Zorian found himself sharing a table with the cause of his time traveling problems, trying to think of a good opening for a conversation he wanted to have with the boy. Or should he wait for a few days to make Zach get used to his presence? Hmm…
«You know, I find this whole situation very amusing,» Zach said between mouthfuls, shoveling noodles into his mouth and attempting to talk at the same time. Now that was very amusing. His mother always insisted he should aspire to behave ‘like a noble’. She would have a heart attack if he ever adopted Zach’s eating manners. «A good little student like you, skipping class to have lunch with a class delinquent… what is the world coming to? What would your mother say if she saw you now?»
«First of all, I’m not skipping class — I’m escorting you home,» Zorian pointed out, ignoring a snort from Zach. «We just stopped for a meal so you wouldn’t collapse from starvation before we get there.» Another snort. «And my mother would go all sparkly-eyed at who I’m having lunch with and promptly forget I’m supposed to be in class.»
«Ah. A social climber,» Zach said, a sour expression on his face. «Say no more. At least you’re male so she wouldn’t try to pair us.»