"… I don't get what you mean."

He stands up and– then there's another one of him.

There are two Talors. Thars. Whatever they are.

One didn't appear from the other, they didn't pop out of existence from nowhere, they just– one moment there was one, and the next moment that one was two, without any obvious… shift.

And then the door opens and two new people – both seeming to be Luna – walk into the room.

… And Rashel– Rashel falls unconscious.

A few minutes later, Kay gets another text from Rashel's phone: Actually, I'm not feeling too great.

Sick?

Who knows? Apparently not Kay, because he's not getting another text anytime soon.

The bell goes for afternoon classes! They've got History – Ev's in one class, one that Rashel would be in but is not, and Kay and Krian are in the other, the one that Thar would be in.

After that, they have gym.

Are you okay? Kay texts Rashel.

Still no response!

Does Kay get in another text before gym starts?

Nope! He isn't that worried yet and maybe Rashel is just being a rebel with Thar or something.

Not really like her to do that, but it's not as if Kay would necessarily know that.

Gym: proceeds! People get changed into their gym stuff, class happens with lots of sporty activities, and then people get changed back out of their gym stuff, and now it's the end of the day.

Ev looks like he'll talk to a few people and then disappear homewards, in case Kay wants to talk to him about anything.

Not quite that.

"Rashel didn't show up," Krian comments to Ev, "and she comes off as the responsible type."

"She said she wasn't feeling that great. Not sure if she is sick or just wanted to skip class."

He frowns. "Yeah, that's really not like her. Have you texted her or anything?"

"Yes, twice and there hasn't a response since..." Kay checks and tells Ev the time.

"That was… basically the end of lunch, wasn't it?" He gets out his own phone and texts her, just in case, and then says, "She was here this morning, right – do you know when she left? Before PSHE, but…?"

"Maybe she is still here, just not going to her classes," Krian offers, "we wouldn't know. Maybe she is at the nurse's office or something."

"Last time I saw her she was worried about Thar, said she had a bad feeling or something."

He raises an eyebrow at that, squinting a little. "A bad feeling? … Was she any more specific than that?"

"No... just that her feelings are obviously correct," Kay says glancing at Krian.

Krian rolls his eyes.

"She… I mean, yeah, it sounds stupid, but she is usually right about things with her weird feelings. Not that there have exactly been very many opportunities to test this or anything, but she is."

Krian bites down things to the effect of "confirmation bias".

Ev looks around the room a bit, then says, "I've gotta get going now – things to do – but I'm sure she'll be fine, yeah?"

It's at least marginally convincing, if not much more than that.

"Sure."

They depart and after a while Kay remembers something.

"Oh, I didn't tell Eivar, but Rashel was confused because Thar was at school but his dad said he was somewhere else."

"Where?"

Kay shrugs. "She didn't tell me. Or I don't remember if she did, but by the way she spoke, it was very weird. Like, Thar got several people to lie about where he was or something."