Aldrich found Saldrich. And by some stroke of coincidental luck, Fiona was with her when he did.
"I guess it's no surprise I found you two sitting together," Aldrich commented, standing before the two girls with silver and blonde hair who had occupied a table.
"Al! Didn't think you'd be the type to attend something like this!" Saldrich exclaimed, clearly surprised.
"I'm not. I'm here on behalf of a friend."
Aldrich answered, trying to slide into one of the empty seats.
"You mean Fiona?" Saldrich teased.
"Hey now, don't sell your brother short. Fiona's not the only friend I've made in the past few weeks," Aldrich quickly defended himself.
He felt the need to clarify lest he is branded a complete outcast or worse a stalker.
"Is the Pendragon guy the friend you're talking about?" Saldrich asked, her eyes narrowing with an amused smile, clearly recalling the time she saw Dante and Aldrich together.
"Nope. Like I said, little sis, my friend list is wider than you can imagine," Aldrich chuckled.
"I'm surprised, Al. Didn't know you were the type to make so many friends in such a short time."
Saldrich was teasing him, but Aldrich, unfortunately, did not get the gist quickly enough to know he was being made fun of, sarcastically.
"Yeah, that's true," he said proudly, before quickly steering the conversation elsewhere. "But enough about me. What are you and Fiona doing together? That's a combo I never expected to see out in public."
Saldrich wouldn't usually be caught dead with Fiona in public, not when it could draw unwanted attention from Selina.
That she is willing to be seen out in public meant Selina's grace was involved one way or the other.
Aldrich did not like the sound of that.
"Ah, I was just catching up with Miss Fiona here, for old times' sake," Saldrich said, a conniving smile creeping onto her face.
"What 'old times' are you talking about? You and Fiona have barely interacted, and when you did, it was so brief not even a noodle could cook in that time," Aldrich said with a raised eyebrow. "Come on, sis, what's really going on here?"
It was family, and Saldrich shouldn't be hiding anything from him, not even if it was an order from Selina.
"It's nothing you need to worry about, Aldrich," Fiona suddenly interjected, standing up with a wine glass delicately held between her fingers.
"Saldrich and I were just talking about some irrelevant things. You don't need to be bothered by it."
She flashed a smile at Saldrich before turning to Aldrich. "Thanks, Saldrich. I'll take your advice to heart."
Without so much as a glance in Aldrich's direction, Fiona turned and exited the scene.
"Okay, that was weird," Aldrich muttered, watching Fiona leave without any explanation.
"Sal, is it just me, or does it seem like Fiona's avoiding me? Like she doesn't want to talk one-on-one with me?"
The feeling had been nagging him for a while, but he had dismissed it as unnecessary paranoia.
But after Fiona's odd departure, Aldrich was now certain that his suspicions were correct.
Fiona was indeed avoiding him, and he couldn't figure out why.
"It doesn't seem that way to me," Saldrich reassured him, picking up the wine glass from the table.
"No, it definitely is," Aldrich persisted. "Even that one time after I almost drowned, her reaction to my safety seemed... meek. And I'm sure she avoided eye contact with me."
"Almost drowned?! When?!" Saldrich panicked, her glass halting halfway to her mouth.
"It's nothing you need to worry about," Aldrich quickly replied. "It happened during the final test assessment to validate our credibility as official students of the Institute."
The mention of the Institute assessment seemed to put Saldrich at ease.
She knew how rigorous the tests could be, having been through one herself.
And despite how extreme the assessments could get, Eldora Institute would never let their students die.
They might push them to their limits, but they'd never push them off the edge.
"Speaking of tests and trials, Al, there's something you need to know about today," Saldrich began, but then stopped mid-sentence. "Ugh! It's starting already!"
Aldrich was engulfed by a blinding light, a sensation he had experienced once before.
His body froze as he became helpless as to what was happening next.
...
"Alright, time to—"
Something was wrong.
The light faded, and Aldrich, knowing what would happen next was calm for someone who had just been abducted against his will.
The assurance of knowing what would happen next brought about that calmness, an expectant a familiar sensation he had read, but instead, something strange happened.
Not what he knew of, rather it was outside the scope of the initial description of what was supposed to come next.
After the light passed, Aldrich tried to process his thoughts.
Then he was interrupted by a rush of air that blasted into his ears, mouth, nose, into any open part of him.
His face was stretched wide by the force of the wind, and he had to shield himself with both palms just to get a grip on it.
'This isn't right!' Aldrich thought, fighting against the relentless gusts that threatened to obscure his vision.
As he struggled to gain control, something else caught his attention.
His body was moving against his will.
The oddest part was that it wasn't moving forward or backward or even up or down.
It was simply accelerating... no, decelerating, as though he were falling from an impossible height.
Aldrich squinted through the space between his hands, trying to peek through the force of the wind.
When he did, what he saw made him curse in disbelief.
"Fuck!" he muttered, his voice filled with despair. "Curse the LORDS!"
There was a reason for his frustration.
As he peeked through his fingers, Aldrich saw something far below him, tiny objects, resembling stars.
They were distant, but they felt close at the same time.
Then, he realized where he was.
Surrounded by white, wind, and people falling just like him.
Worst of all? They were all plummeting from an unfathomable height.