Meeting the three after years felt... surreal. Adrian, Ash and Darius were Patrick’s school friends, and so naturally they eventually became friends with Irene as well. Besides that, since Patrick hung out with them often, it meant that so did Nero. In fact, even Wendy would recognise them.
Naturally, since they were friends with Patrick, but Nero and Patrick spent much of their time undergoing their parents training, the three of them had on many occasions accompanied them. While it was not to the extent of the Grant brothers, the three of them had also been influenced by that mentality of intense training and extreme zeal for the army!
Thus, it was also natural that when the incident with Patrick happened, they were also affected by it. In fact, early on when thoughts of revenge ruled Nero’s brain, he had worked alongside them to concoct his plans.
Training though he may have, he was still young back then. The three of them were older, but their experiences were limited too. The plans that they made back then now seemed so immature - but the foundation was still solid.
There was a reason Nero was thinking about all that now. He observed the three silently as Ash still controlled his body and brought him floating along. In his memories all of them had towering figures, but now he was slightly taller than even Darius, the tallest of the group.
They looked older, and stronger too, and still carried the towering prestige they had of being his older brother’s friends. Yet they also didn’t seem nearly as out of reach as they used to.
Darius was the tallest, and instead of the typical blonde hair seen among Kolari’s who didn’t have elemental abilities, he had light brown hair. Moreover, his skin tone was also slightly darker than normal, and his facial features were also smoother than of a typical Kolari.
It made sense that he looked different since his mother was of Cretan descent. They had smoother expressions, darker hair, and were actually generally shorter than Kolaris. Darius’ height was inherited from his towering father, who boasted a height of 2.1 meters (six feet eight inches).
Darius’ innate ability was a passive that had something to do with his eyesight. Nero did not know the exact details, but he knew that it was not too spectacular an ability, causing Darius to complain all the time.
Speaking of innate abilities, one would expect that the silver haired Ash, who boasted a formidable telekinesis like innate ability would have the strongest innate out of the three. Unexpectedly, that honour did not fall to her, but to the unassuming Adrian!
Ash Dahi stood at 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, and her fair skin and silver hair gave her an ethereal appearance, winning the hearts of many. On top of that, she seemed to have a sweet and tender demeanor - a rarity in that day and age. Yet both her appearance and delightful personality were just a cover, hiding the actual brute underneath.
Both Nero and Patrick had taken many beatings from her just because she never followed the rules of a spar, and always used her innate ability to bully them.
Of the three of them, Adrian was the most unassuming, unsuspecting and non-serious, always preferring to crack jokes and keep the mood light. He was also the most powerful of the three, regardless of which aspect was looked at.
Just because he had fallen easily to Nero did not mean that he was weak at all. That, instead, was because no matter what, he had never fought Nero seriously, for fear that he might accidentally harm him. That’s not to say that he was so absurdly strong that Nero could get hurt by him easily, but that he was incredibly sensitive about such matters - at least that was Nero’s assessment.
Adrian’s full name was also Adrian Sailor, and he was Darius’ adopted brother. There was no record of who his parents were - they had likely died during some incident, and Adrian was rescued and moved to an orphanage.
Darius’ father, Gilbert Sailor, had adopted Adrian when he was a baby. Over the years, Mr. Gilbert had adopted many more kids as well, and they had a very large, very noisy and very cosy family back in Aetherpeak.
Adrian’s innate ability was quite unique. Just in the way that Nero could summon flames, Adrian could summon Aetheric Jade. As for what was so special about that jade, Nero was not sure, but just based on what he had heard from Patrick, beating Adrian in a real fight would be incredibly difficult for any of them - Irene included.
It was just that Adrian never sparred or fought them seriously, always joking and taking things lightly which was why none of them had tested the extent of his abilities. That was years ago, so maybe that had changed by now.
After all, a glance was all it took for Nero to see that the three of them had changed tremendously over these past years - much like himself. Not only did they all maintain a more confident and self assured presence, their bodies exuded all the qualities of a honed soldier and officer.
Though they had hardly spoken, Nero was observant enough to notice many things. From the certainty of their gait, the decisiveness of their actions, to the unspoken formation they had while walking and the perfect synchronisation they all seemed to have, it was obvious that they had been through a lot.
That late at night, the mess was practically empty, but there were still a few people about. Many noticed Nero, and could tell that he was out beyond lights out. What that would result in could only be determined later, for they did not attempt to bother them. Fourth and fifth year cadets held a very special place in the academy, and were afforded a few privileges.
Utilizing exactly one such privilege, they entered a private room within the mess, allowing them to be able to talk freely.
Ash dropped Nero without warning, though Nero landed perfectly on his feet.
"Look at you, little Grant, making such a big scene as soon as you enter the academy. Being lowkey is not really an option for you, is it?" Darius asked, studying Nero’s well built physique. He did not like to admit that the little pipsqueak he used to play with was now taller than him - and damn, those deep blue eyes! This little boy was born to be a lady-killer!
"It’s not my style," said Nero with a smirk. "Besides, things have changed, and my strategy needs to change with it. Being lowkey was not protecting me nearly as much as we imagined."
Darius’ smile slowly faded, and he nodded.
"It’s a good thing you’ve realised that on your own. There’s been a lot of developments on our end as well. One of the reasons I was in such a rush to see you was so that we could update you, lest you do something less than ideal."
Adrian groaned upon hearing the exchange.
"Can’t we catch up a little before doing this? Exchange a few stories? Why is it always just work with you guys?" the green haired cadet lamented. Unfortunately for him, all of them were already used to him so they directly ignored his complaints, not even dignifying it with a response.
"We’ve learned a lot these past few years, and the situation is much more complicated than we expected," said Ash as she took a seat and rubbed her temples. She was already exhausted from the long day she had experienced, so now she was running on fumes.
"Over the past few years, we’ve been exposed to a lot more than we imagined, and now our understanding of Kolar has deepened," Darius continued with a grave expression. "Let me ask you a question. How many of your school mates had grudges against each other? How many of them even had fights?"
Nero raised an eyebrow, not sure of how that was relevant to anything, but he answered anyway.
"Quite a few. My own batchmates had fewer disagreements, but it was quite common amongst my seniors and juniors," he said.
Darius nodded, as if expecting that.
"That was only one school, and it involved only kids who were, at most, Neophytes. Now imagine a whole country, with hundreds of thousands of men and women capable of fighting, and many of them at the ranks of Arcanist or even Mystics and Ascendants. How many fights and disagreements do you think they would have? How many fights?"
Nero understood what Darius was implying, but did not jump ahead. Instead, he simply answered once more.
"Well, I hope not as many because they shouldn’t be teenagers anymore. But, I see your point. When such powerful people have fights, the result would be a lot bloodier and harder to control than the fights between kids," he answered.