As the day went on, the boys returned to their studies at Zouken Monastery, but something felt off. During class, the absence of Liefro was noticed by the boys at first and then the mage masters, and then concern began to spread. He hadn’t shown up for his lessons, and no one had seen him since the morning.

Zelnard, Abah, and Gavid exchanged worried looks. They hadn’t meant to upset Liefro, but now it seemed their rejection might have driven him away.

Long before that day, Liefro had learned how easily laughter could turn sharp.

It had happened during a morning lesson in basic shaping spells. Liefro had been placed at the front of the class, mostly because he was the smallest and the teachers believed confidence grew when you were seen. The task was simple: shape a small ribbon of air into a steady arc and hold it for five breaths.

Liefro tried. Truly tried.

But his hands trembled, and instead of a smooth arc, the air twisted wildly, puffing into a lopsided knot before collapsing with a dull thump. For a heartbeat, the room was silent.

Then someone snorted.

Another boy laughed.
Someone else whispered, “Is that it?”
A voice from the back added, “Even my cat could do better.”

The laughter spread quickly, bouncing off the stone walls like it had been waiting for permission. Liefro’s face burned. He tried again, but his magic fizzled uselessly, his eyes blurring with tears he refused to let fall in front of them.

The teacher corrected him gently, but the damage was done.

At the end of the lesson, while the others rushed out laughing and shoving, Liefro slipped away and found a narrow space behind the stairwell near the eastern hall. It was dark there, dusty and forgotten. He curled in on himself and waited.

And waited.

By the time the bells rang for the evening meal, his stomach ached with hunger, but the thought of walking into the dining hall ...of being ridculed all over again ... felt worse than the ache. Only when the halls grew quiet did he finally emerge, wiping his face and pretending the day had never happened.

No one noticed.

No one ever did.

So when Zelnard’s words came .... This game’s for those who can keep up ..... they didn’t land alone. They landed on top of every laugh, every whisper, every long hour spent hiding where no one would look.

And this time, Liefro didn’t wait behind the stairs.

He walked away.

By afternoon the teachers, now deeply concerned, organised a search party. They combed the river bank along the road to CQ city, the western cliffs of Karaz that lined the beaches, the forested areas, and they sent four older boys lead by Dunstor to check on the bustling streets and parks of Crystal Quay City, calling out Liefro’s name, but there was no sign of him. They even summoned Riders of Vay to assist in the search from the air as they mountain areas were too hard to scale. As the sun dipped low in the sky, casting long shadows over Karaz, the search seemed hopeless and everyone was starting to fear the worst. The teachers worried that more boys may be lost or be hurt in the growing darkness and called off the search. They asked the Watch from QC city to be on the lookout for the young boy while the boys returned to the Monastery. 

They all returned, all but Zelnard, who was feeling a growing sense of guilt. He refused to give up. As the others started to head back. Zelnard decided to walk along the muddy trail by the cliffs to see if he could see Liefro on the beach or in the water. He was finding it harder to see but as he walked the trail, slipping in the rain soaked mud, he noticed something...broken branches in a short bush and footsteps near the edge of a high cliff overlooking the sea not 500 metres from the monastery. 

How did Liefro's past help you predict what was going to happen next? Answer in Thy Quests to move forward.

E10 Q2 United