Huddled together at the back of the school field, the group couldn’t have looked more suspicious. Even hidden under a canopy of early-autumn leaves, Kaori didn’t feel safe from the prying eyes of Godhand. She clutched Joel’s hand tighter as her thoughts returned to Phantasia and the hell she would be facing.

“I told you, it’s no problem of ours if she screwed up,” mumbled Byron as he tossed another cigarette butt into the undergrowth. “And hey, I didn’t mind the girl. She was quirky, even if she did believe in all that bullshit about love saving everyone’s soul, or whatever it was,”

“Dude, she’s our friend!” said Joel.

“Hey, I hardly know the girl,” he replied, sparking his lighter against another cigarette, “Think I’m gonna go piss off Godhand by sticking up for someone I hardly know?” He took a deep drag and looked up at Joel from beneath the rim of his fedora, “Man, I’m not going there.”

In a blur of motion and falling leaves, Lyra dropped down from her branch perch and kicked the aspiring poet in the leg with her steel-capped boots. He jumped up, cursing her as he dropped his cigarette.

“Maybe you oughta go back to sitting in a field and writing poncey rhymes about flowers,” she snapped.

“I don’t rhyme,” he stressed, “Only amateurs rhyme.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow and from her vantage point, Kaori could see her clenched fist. Lyra and Byron had never gotten on and Byron’s self-centred perspective on the world always led to confrontations like this. But still, there were more important issues to deal with right now.

“Can we stop fighting and figure something out?” she pleaded.

“You can sort yourself out,” said Byron, giving her a contemptuous look, “I’m outta here.” Somehow Lyra managed to stay her fist as Byron turned his back and walked off.

“Dude was never one for sticking his neck out,” said Joel “Can’t blame him for watching out for himself, though. I mean, we’re totally gonna get branded heretics ourselves if we try and rescue Phantasia,”

“But she’d do it for us,” said Kaori. Something about the white-haired girl made Kaori think she’d do her best to rescue her friends if they were ever in danger, and she was sure she’d had some dream or another about it.

“Who gives a crap what Godhand thinks, anyway?” said Lyra.

Kaori felt Joel’s grip tighten. “Maybe they do,” he said.

***

Chapter 15
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