Elio Freyr: Burn Thy Wounds

Chapter 4: Old Friends

Another day had started in the Academy. 

Elio Freyr was enjoying his lunch alone in the Academy's cafeteria when a group of students entered the hall, and sat on the next table across from him. 

They were all quiet, and it seemed like there was a tension in that circle of students in front of him. 

A woman in a black blouse and with silver hair named Thea caught up staring straight at him as soon as she found her own seat. Her eyes were beaming with longingness, and concern registered all over her face. 

Her sudden action caught everyone's attention, and one by one, they followed where her gaze was fixed. 

The quiet and heavy atmosphere in their circle has become even more obvious, and got a lot heavier. Everyone knew what had happened between Ayden and Elio a day before, but no one had ever spoken about it since. 

Elio Freyr and Ayden were quite famous back then. They were friends, the best of the best, and no one could separate them once they had started doing something together. But everything changed suddenly in a blink of an eye when the attack happened two years ago. 

They never had the chance to meet after that. While Ayden was trying to cope up with the changes on his own and got back to the Academy to continue his life, Elio Freyr was doing the same thing, but away from everyone. 

They never heard about him for once. No one knew where he was for the past two years, but then he appeared again in front of them like nothing happened, and a big gap between Elio and them started since then, and no one knew the reason why. 

It just happened, and no one has dared to talk about it for once, except for Ayden who had dared, but ended up not being able to control his own emotions and accidentally poisoned Elio with his wind. 

Their gazes didn't affect Elio at all, even the tension was too high not to notice. However, his gaze was fixed on the vacant chair across from him, in the middle of the people in his past, where they had left empty. 

Furrows formed in between his brows as he analyzed what he was seeing there. 

"Esther." He said quietly in his mind. He couldn't bring himself to eat his food as he couldn't stop staring in front. 

The people on the other table were dumbfounded at what he was doing, and without asking, one by one, they looked back on the empty chair where Elio was looking. No one didn't see anything there, and that alone made them feel both uncomfortable and worried at the same time. 

"What are you looking at now, dude?" Xandros, a caller and user of Lightning and Thunder asked, frowning. He was seated on the nearest chair from Elio. 

"I was just intrigued with you pulling a chair from another table when you still have one empty seat there." Elio's attention was still fixed on that empty seat and didn't even bother to give Xandros or any of them a quick glance, as he put a playful smirk on his face. 

"We're giving Esther a seat, that's why. Even though she's not here, we still value her as a friend, unlike others there who are physically present but didn't want to be with us anymore." Cassiopeia said, rolling her eyes as she looked away from Elio. 

The smirk on his face didn't leave him and became even wider. 

"Esther is not here." He said playfully, with a slow nod. "Anyway, enjoy your lunch." 

He placed his utensils on his tray of food, and pushed his seat backwards before standing. 

All of them were looking at him in disbelief with furrows in between their brows, watching his every move. And to some extent, they couldn't understand what he meant with the words he just said along with his gesture. 

"What the hell was that?" Cassiopeia asked in her very irritated voice as soon as Elio went out of the Academy's cafeteria. 

"Let's just not mind him. He might still be suffering from his loss." Atlas stated as he crossed his arms on the table and placed his head on them, closing his eyes under them. 

"We can't force someone to do something he's not ready to face. Let's wait for him to heal." He added. 

"If we only just wait for him to heal, nothing will change. He will just suffer over and over again, and will likely live the rest of his life in the dark." Ayden sighed. 

"Is that why you forced him to fight you? Look what you have done Ayden. You almost killed him. And if he just didn't control his anger like you did, you would be dead by now." Aislah said who was seated in front of him. 

"And now Madam Loury is also suffering because of him." She added. 

"What happened to her? Why is she suffering?" Thea asked, looking at her with a deep lining in between her brows. 

"Elio has a great mind and we all know that. And knowing that he hasn't healed from his past wounds yet, Madam Loury was afraid that if he let Elio come inside the Infirmary, he might summon darkness that could affect the whole Academy." Aislah heaved a sigh and crossed her hands over her chest as she leaned her back flat on the backrest of her chair.

"And as you all know that the Infirmary uses the subconscious mind of people, it scared her more. So she used her light to alter that, but it consumed her energy too much and now she's a patient of her own Infirmary. I will go there later to help Nurse Viv." 

Ayden was left speechless after hearing what had happened because of his actions. Guilt ran through his blood, as he bowed his head, avoiding everyone's eyes. 

"I didn't know." He said, and closed his eyes. "I'll come with you Aislah. I will help you with anything there to pay for what I did." He added as he raised his head to meet Aislah's eyes. 

"Alright. We'll leave after lunch."