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“…No way. No fucking way.”
“Language.” Timaeus smirked. “Usually you’re the one to remind me.”
“Shut up.” Critias tossed a pillow at his roommate. “Come here and look at this.”
Timaeus dodged the pillow and leaned on the back of Critias’ chair to look over his shoulder. “What?”
“This.” Critias pointed at a picture in the book on his desk. “Looks familiar?”
“Sure does.” Timaeus rolled up his left sleeve and compared the mark on his arm, an outline of a three-headed serpent, to the drawing in the book. “That’s the same as ours. What does it mean?”
Critias closed the book. “It means we are chosen by certain spirits. The Dragons, to be exact.”
“What?!” Timaeus almost jumped at that. “No way! That’s amazing!”
“Define ‘amazing’.” Critias sighed and stood up. “It means trouble, that’s what it means.”
“And it means there’s a third” Timaeus added. “That’s probably why it hasn’t filled in yet. We don’t know our third, or our third hasn’t been chosen. Wait, before you put that book away, can you look up what our other mark means?”
Critias rolled his eyes and sat down again. “Fine. But I bet that’s just a regular one.” He opened the book again, leafing through it until he found something that resembled the mark on his right arm, which looked like a silhouette of a jumping dolphin. He rolled up his sleeve to compare the marks. “As I thought, a regular friendship mark, just an uncommon one. It should be grey when it’s complete.” He closed the book again.
“Hey, think our third is going to be the one to fill in the friendship mark, too?” Timaeus asked, curiously tilting his head.
Critias shrugged. “Probably. That’s how I’d expect it to work.” He stood up and put the book back on the shelf. “Remind me to take that back to the library tomorrow.”
“Will do” Timaeus answered absentmindedly. “Damn, chosen by the Dragons, that’s crazy. I’m hoping we find our third soon…”
“I hope not. Like I said, the mark of the Dragons means trouble. As far as I could find, the Dragons only choose hosts if they’re expecting disaster to strike within a few decades. The fact that we’re chosen as two of the three means we’ll probably find trouble even if we’re actively trying to avoid it.”
“That’s a very creative way to put it” Timaeus laughed. “In all seriousness, you’re right, it’s probably not a good thing. But as long as the third doesn’t show up, we’re fine, right?”
“We should be.”
“You don’t sound too sure.”
Critias sighed. “I’m not. I just hope we’ll have enough time to prepare before trouble finds us.”
“I hope so, too” Timaeus said with a smile.
The next day, they found the third Dragon.
One of the new trainees approached Timaeus after practice. Timaeus smiled at him. “Hermos, right? You did well today.”
“Thanks.” Hermos gave a nervous grin. “Ehm, if you don’t mind me asking… You or your roommate got the book about unusual Soulmarks, right?”
“Yep, Critias has it. Why do you ask?”
“Think you can help me figure out what mine mean?”
Timaeus smiled again. “Of course! I just figured out my own yesterday. Turns out mine’s just an uncommon friendship mark, but hey, doesn’t hurt to check.”
Hermos laughed at that and followed him inside and up the stairs. “I bet mine are like that, too. Though I’ve never seen anything like ‘em on anyone else. One didn’t even show up until a month or so ago.”
“A month ago?” Timaeus stopped. “That’s when you came to the castle, right?”
“Yep. Think there’s a connection?”
“Maybe. Depends on what it means. I’ve never heard of one showing up later…”
“Fate marks do that.” Critias had overheard part of their conversation. “At least, sometimes they do. Depending on what kind of fate they represent.”
“That sounds far more threatening than it probably is” Timaeus said with a laugh. He opened the door to their rooms and glanced at the desk, then at the shelves. “Critias I swear to all the gods- Stop putting important things on the high shelf where I can’t reach them!”
“Sorry.” Critias’ mischievous smile said that he definitely wasn’t sorry. “I didn’t think you’d need this.”
“Shouldn’t you have brought that back to the library anyway?” Timaeus asked as his roommate took the book off the shelf and put it on the desk.
Critias shrugged. “As long as it’s back before sunset, it’s fine.” He curiously looked over Hermos’ shoulder as the younger trainee leafed through the book. “Anything in particular you’re looking for?”
“This one.” Hermos stopped on the same page where Critias had stopped the previous day. “The dolphin. What does that one mean?”
“It’s right there on the page” Critias said impatiently.
Hermos blushed, embarrassed. “I can’t read” he admitted.
“You can’t-“ Critias shook his head. “Sorry. I forgot not everyone knows how to read.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Hermos’ voice was a bit strained.
Timaeus noticed and felt sorry for him. “I can teach you, if you want.”
Hermos immediately perked up. “You’ll help me?”
“Of course, else I wouldn’t have offered it.” Timaeus grinned. “Either way. To answer your question, the dolphin is a friendship mark, and I’ll bet it’s partially coloured now. We have that same one.”
“Really?!” Hermos rolled up his sleeve, and sure enough, his mark was partially coloured in. “Wow, what are the odds!”
Critias frowned. “What does your other mark look like? Don’t look it up, describe it.”
“A snake.” Hermos hesitated. “Multiple heads, don’t know how many off the top of my head, it didn’t show up until about a month ago.”
“Can you show us?” Critias asked. He knew he and Timaeus were thinking the same thing – Hermos might have the third Dragon’s mark. “Wait, no, I have a different idea. Let me see…” He rolled up his left sleeve, and sure enough, the three-headed serpent that had been an outline until a few minutes ago was now a silhouette. “No freaking way. Did we seriously just find our third?”
“What?” Hermos looked completely lost.
Critias sighed. “That’s the mark of the Dragons – You know the myth, right?” When Hermos nodded, he continued. “It means we’re chosen by the Dragons.”
“What the hell?!” Hermos almost jumped. “No way! That’s awesome!”
“No, it’s not!” Critias sighed and rolled his eyes. “The mark of the Dragons means that they’ll be needed soon, and since we’ve all found each other already, that might mean it’s closer than we expect.”
“But it’s still all black” Timaeus countered. “Fate marks become more colourful the closer the fate they represent comes, and I bet the mark of the Dragons is no different from a regular Fate mark.”
“I’m missing half of the point here” Hermos said dryly, making the other two laugh.
Timaeus chuckled and shook his head. “We’ll explain it later. The important part is, Critias is making a big deal out of this, but it’s really not as bad as he’s making it sound. Plus, we’ll be able to help each other out, no matter what happens. That’s what the friendship mark means, right?”
“Close enough” Critias shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to put up with you two for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, shut up!” Timaeus grabbed a pillow and tossed it at him.
Critias caught the pillow and tossed it back at him, smirking when Timaeus ducked to dodge it. “Are we done being stupid?”
“Hey, you started it!” Hermos called him out. “Sheesh. Is he always like that?” he asked Timaeus.
“Yeap.” Timaeus couldn’t help it, he laughed. “Get used to it, you’ll be stuck with us for the rest of our lives.”
Hermos laughed as well. “Could be worse.”
“Could be better, too” Critias said dryly.
“Maybe.” Timaeus shrugged. “But this is already pretty good, if you ask me.”
“…Shut up.”