Enter Severin

He didn't look like he was anyone who would be hiding something. Famous only for his amusingly bad temper and possibly his surprising compassion, Severin Lochgren was nothing out of the ordinary. He was the oldest of 10 children, though he was certain it could rise to 11 and beyond at any time. Like most families living in Jadali, and certainly those of the pure Lochgren line, a large family was nothing new at all and it was considered perfectly normal. In fact, the only thing anyone found odd about his family was the lack of twins.

Severin had decided to become a music major and attend school in Kiillaana so he did what every child wanting higher education on the mainland did and started high school in the port city of Taleah during the year which he would be turning 14. Lucky for him, his birthday was in April and not in November like his younger sister's, and therefore fit in a bit better with the locals. The Jadali school year started on January 1st and not on September 1st like Kiillaana did, but all students of Jadali upbringing were waived from the August 31st cutoff date, leading sometimes to very young students in the class- more than a year younger than a few of their peers. However Severin hadn't had to worry about this and it no longer mattered anyway as he was in his first year of college, just a couple of cities south of Taleah, at Attlefort Coastal University.

He thought he would like it here, but deep down, he didn't. There was something wrong about this place. He had no problem with the huge city- he had been down enough times to be plenty used to it, and being from Leena Eithre Resa he had always had electricity so he was far more used to college dorm life than a couple of his Jadali friends who had set foot in Kiillaana only a handful of times before high school and were still not exactly "technologically savvy." His teachers were decent, and he passed all of his classes good enough, but he just felt out of place. He had been mulling over this for quite some time now before it finally dawned on him that what was missing was his younger sister Moira.

Moira was the second oldest of the Lochgren 10 and was easily Severin's best friend. They were a year and a half apart and while most siblings spent their time fighting the two of them rarely fought, instead sticking very close together and inventing all sorts of their own games. It was Moira who had convinced Severin to pursue music and join her at Taleah High School. She had found her instrument of choice, the flute, in the very unlikely place of a secondhand shop. Shortly after that, Severin had taken up percussion, as it gave him an excuse to pound melodies furiously on marimba keys, doing something productive to take his mind off the thoughts that troubled him. He also played the flute in his free time, having been taught by his sister almost as soon as she finished a lesson. Almost immediately after his first day of high school, he had received several compliments on his musical talent.

Today didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. Severin was in his dorm room, practicing an etude on the marimba which sat in front of his large window, blocking most of the free space to his bed and desk. The view outside, which normally showed a very rivaled view of the ocean with its blue waves rolling up to the white sandy beaches, was obscured by thick gray clouds and heavy rain. It was just another tropical storm that was making its way through, and while they were benign and commonplace, Severin felt like having nothing to do with going outside and down to his professor's office, which he had been putting off for days. He put down his mallets carefully and stared out of the window again. The beaches were all deserted, of course, and that meant that he could freely look without a second thought.

He lived with three other roommates, two of which were also from Jadali. The room was divided into two sides of two beds with a central bathroom, closet, and small kitchen. Severin shared the right side, whose windows faces east over the water, with Keith Ardin, a good friend of his who had pure blood but a rather untraditional first name, as his father was very much in love with all things Kiillaanian. Keith already knew that Severin was not coming back to ACU(NA) after the spring term ended, but the two other roommates on the other side still did not. The left side of the room was the opposite of Keith and Severin's neat and tidy living area (minus the giant marimba taking up most of it) and there were clothes, book, papers, and everything else that might be brought into a dorm room laying everywhere. Sitting lazily at his desk, his tall and thin body sprawled across the typical wooden chair as if he were a ragdoll being thrown on it, a bottle of soda in one hand and an outstretched finger slowly hammering away on his keyboard which had to be three feet from any comfortable length from the other, was the unmistakable form of Danil Burloch, a class clown figure from Cobh de Via. Nearby was Elston Ellis, who was trying hard to make his radio work. He too was from Jadali, and failed miserably with any sort of electronic device.

The four of them got along very well and would often do fun things together. However all three of them noticed that Severin refused to look at the coast at sunset or on days when the beach was dotted with loads of people congregating to celebrate festivals and holidays- people congregating and roasting food over small campfires, body surfing on the warm waves, tanning in the sun, and the like. He always told them, maybe a bit too loudly, that he just didn't like seeing all of those ladies out there (they reminded him of his sister who he missed greatly) or that the beach at night was unable to be seen ("so why bother keeping the drapes open?") but nobody was keen on arguing with him, with his temper, and let him close the drapes that covered the window completely. It was just an unspoken fact that Severin didn't like the beach when it was crowded or dimly lit with the streetlights and dull fires along the beach and did all he could to block the image out completely. However today they definitely noticed that he was watching the ocean, completely void of anybody, with almost total normalcy. They often wondered what was so upsetting about people on the beach but were too afraid to ask.

The silence in the room of Severin drifting off into thought was suddenly broken by a loud grunt of frustration or possibly annoyance. Severin suddenly grabbed the mallets so forcefully that he nearly dropped them and after scrambling to catch them set off furiously playing his etude louder and faster than ever, his narrow eyes now barely open, being nearly swallowed by his now heavily furrowed brow. That was another thing that his roommates had noticed. He was like this all through high school too and though at the time they just accepted it as a little quirk he had, now that they lived with him they began to notice it more and more. He would be off in thought and then suddenly let out some sort of low growl and continue with what he was doing at a furious pace. He didn't appear to have any sort of ailments. He was certainly not depressed and didn't appear to be afraid of really anything. When asked about it, he quickly told them that he was missing his family back home, but that was a lie. While he did miss them, it was not what plagued his mind. He refused to tell them any more than that and they did not pursue the topic.

One day, he would be able to talk directly and not avoid the question, but that would only come when he was around someone with a strong aura of trust and while he got along great with his roommates, he didn't feel like he could trust them with that burning reason. Besides, he was leaving them in a year for a school even further away and would never live with these three fine gentlemen again. He and his little sister would be going to college together! She had applied for several schools and after painfully reviewing them all had finally chosen the one that was right for her, and more importantly, one that was right for Severin too. They both had scholarships and it seemed like everything was set. The most comforting thing about it all was the fact that there was at least one teacher in the music department that was from Jadali and therefore he or she would be able to speak Keòen with at least somebody. If only Severin had actually read the list and realized who that person might be...