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“You can’t fix it now.” Leona stated, arms crossed.
Kalim’s face fell, his eyes dropped to the ground, staring blankly. Leona sighed, hating to treat the young heir with such harshness, but really. If no one else was going to tell him, Leona would.
“At all?” Kalim asked quietly.
“I don’t know about that, but not right now.” Leona replied.
Kalim swallowed hard, looking like he was about to cry and really? Why the fuck was Leona dealing with this? Leona sighed and sat up.
“Kalim, stop. You need to realize that Jamil has every right to hate you. Just like anyone else does.” Leona stated.
Kalim winced and his shoulders came up defensively.
“But…” Kalim trailed off.
Leona rubbed his eyes. This was cutting into his nap time.
“Kalim, you and I have been friends because of circumstances, but Jamil was never given the choice. He was forced to be your friend from day one and while you may have tried to treat him with respect, he was and still is your servant. The power balance there can not be ignored, something you have been doing for years.” Leona explained.
Kalim started to nod along, but still looked deeply upset. Leona sighed again and leaned his head back to stare at the tree above them.
“Now that you know, what are you going to do?” Leona asked and Kalim started to draw in the dirt with his finger.
“I… don’t know. I reached out to my father about the Viper family contract.” Kalim said softly.
“Ok, good start. What did it say?” Leona asked.
“I mean it was really long, but I did find a few things that I could use to release Jamil from it…I just need to be head of the family first.” Kalim stated.
“Which is still pretty far from now.” Leona said.
“Yeah…” Kalim muttered.
“So until then, until you are the head, what are you going to do?” Leona pushed.
Kalim was silent and Leona huffed.
“Kalim, what are you going to do to make this up to Jamil? You can’t stick your head in the sand about this. So what are you going to do?” Leona demanded.
Kalim just stared at the ground, shifting nervously before looking at Leona.
“Should I… leave?” Kalim whispered.
“Leave?” Leona asked.
“Jamil, he wanted to force me out of the dorm, out of NRC. Should I leave? To make him happy?” Kalim asked.
Leona hummed. Admittedly, he was sure Jamil would be over the moon if Kalim left, but plenty of people would be disappointed.
“That’s up to him, Kalim. What you need to do is talk to him and actually listen to him for once and if he asks you to leave, then you need to make the choice whether or not your education is worth more than your friendship.” Leona replied.
Kalim frowned at that. Leona hated to do this, but he knew the heir needed one final push.
“Kalim, let’s be honest, you don’t belong here.” Leona stated.
Kalim flinched.
“This is a school for mages who want to be here, want to learn, want to grow with their magical ability. Without Jamil helping you, you’re going to fail. Just go home.” Leona said coldly.
Kalim let out a soft sob, but nodded. He stood up and looked at Leona with a watery smile.
“Thanks, Leona. I really needed this.” Kalim said, but Leona could feel his own heart crying at the sorrow in Kalim’s voice.
“Any time.” Leona muttered.
Kalim left NRC that night, never to return. Leona heard the news through Ruggie and scowled.
“Real shame.” Leona muttered.