#jamil

[myavvka]

Jamil bestie, ngl I drew a blank on those pigtails, dynamic hair is not mathing rn fr 😭

broken bg game too, empty space goes crazy. fr tho it's kinda basic but i lowkey cook'd, lowkey proud of it (◡‿◡✿)

[sn4ke-whisper]

“They’re all like “Just kill the bug by stepping on it!” It’s not that easy. THAT THING IS FAST AND IT HAS MALICIOUS INTENT”

[into-the-daniverse]

Actually let me expand on that because I remember all of them have estranged sisters and I go a little more insane (yes I technically did that no it wasn’t on purpose)

Something something Alec is Jamil, Camia, and Leon’s surrogate younger sister but the former two are absolutely aware of this because they left their sisters behind for various reasons meanwhile Lee has no idea he even has a sister out there because she was born years after he was abandoned

Eufemia, Viviane, and Fu you are all haunted by the ghosts of your siblings in one way or another

Me when the trope is estranged/tragic siblings

[virtuallghosts]

Está até com olheiras. — Sabe quem eu queria que tivesse morrido? — Ele mesmo.

[animeomegas]

Imagining being at Jamil's birthday party and Kalim shoves his alpha onstage to give a speech. And alpha just starts talking about how amazing and wonderful Jamil is and meanwhile he's trying to hide in the corner while blushing BRIGHT red and he can't make eye contact with his alpha for the rest of the night

Awww! This is so cute!! But you're also going to make Jamil try to permanently meld with his hood, he's so embarrassed!

That direct, public praise, the feeling of all the eyes, positive or not, will make Jamil so incredibly flustered.

I love Jamil with an unabashedly in love MC. They can't be a moron, because he likes competent people, but just someone who is so blatant about their desire for him, and to be honest, they definitely do it in public just to tease him hehe.

...

"Never do that again!" Jamil hissed as you came off stage to find him hiding in the corner looking like he was trying to disappear into the floor.

"Aw, what?" you pouted, hiding your grin and tugging on his hoodie strings. He slapped your hands away. "But I love you and I want the whole world to know! I would shout it from the rooftops if I could Like this-"

Jamil slapped his hand over your mouth. You immediately started trying to kiss his palm and he snatched his hand away again.

"You've said enough," he muttered, crossing his arms and turning away from you.

"You're so right, darling!" you agreed. He eyed you with suspicion, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "It's time to move on from words and progress to birthday kisses!" Jamil's eyes went wide. "Come here!"

"Not in public!"

...

"I was a bit sad that you didn't accept my birthday kisses in the common room, but I'll be honest, this more than makes up for it!" You grinned up at Jamil from the space between his legs. "These are the best kind of birthday kisses anyway."

"Do you ever stop talking- hnng, fuck..."

[nerdyotaku9]

He came home in one 10 pull! 🥳 I was worried I'd have to tap into my Skully savings...😅

[hyliansunflower]

Arabian nights? I just love drawing Jamil and Kalim together ♡

[toastymoshimanju]

Time [Kalim Al Asim X Reader]

The day I had been praying for since the second I dropped into Twisted Wonderland had finally arrived. The portal home was open, shimmering right in front of me. I was finally going back to my world, leaving behind the magic, the overblots, and the constant chaos of Ramshackle Dorm.

But as I took a step toward the mirror, a desperate cry cut through the room, stopping me dead in my tracks.

It was Kalim.

He was trembling, his face pale and completely overwrought with panic, looking at me as if my departure was a physical blade piercing his chest. "Prefect... Please, you can’t just walk through that mirror! You can't leave!" he sobbed, his voice cracking in a way I had never heard before. This wasn't the bright, carefree dorm leader of Scarabia. He looked entirely broken, weeping so violently he could barely catch his breath, begging me to stay to the point where the entire room was shifting uncomfortably. The other students were staring, whispering that he was completely losing his mind.

"Kalim, let go of them. You're making a scene," Jamil's voice cut in, sharp and commanding. I watched as Jamil grabbed Kalim's shoulders, his grip tightening as he tried to forcibly drag him back to save what was left of his dignity.

But then, the unthinkable happened.

"No! Jamil, let go of me! I said let go!" Kalim screamed. For the first time since I had known them, Kalim violently threw Jamil’s hands off him. He completely refused to submit. He didn't care about decorum, he didn't care about Jamil's warnings, and he didn't care that everyone was watching him unravel.

Wrenching himself free, Kalim stumbled toward me, reaching his hands out through a downpour of tears.

"Look at me, please!" he begged, his eyes locked onto mine with a terrifyingly raw desperation. "If you step through that light, you'll forget about us, won't you? You'll forget about Ramshackle, and Grim, and... and me. I won't ever get to see your smile again!"

I stood frozen at the threshold of my freedom, watching him fall apart.

"Please, Prefect... I'll give you anything," Kalim choked out, dropping to his knees, utterly defeated by the thought of my absence. "I'll give you all the gold in the Asim treasury! I'll build you a palace right next to mine in the Land of Hot Sands! You'll never have to worry about magic, or overblots, or dangerous beasts ever again. I'll keep you safe, I swear it! Just... please don't step through that mirror. Don't leave me behind..."

My voice was barely a whisper, but in the sudden, heavy silence of the room, the words felt as loud as thunder.

"Kalim... I have to go."

The moment the words left my lips, it was like watching something physically shatter inside him. His desperate pleading cut off mid-breath, and for a second, he just stared up at me from the floor, his tear-filled eyes wide with a horrific, crushing realization. My words had pierced right through the panic, leaving behind nothing but pure, unadulterated heartbreak.

"No..." he breathed, his voice dropping to a fragile, broken whimper. He reached out, his fingers weakly brushing against the hem of my uniform, gripping the fabric as if he could physically anchor me to this world. "No, please don't say that. Don't say it like there's no choice..."

Behind him, Jamil stood frozen. The shock of Kalim defying him was still written all over Jamil's face, but as he looked from Kalim’s devastated form up to me, his expression hardened into a complex mask of tension and grim understanding. He didn't try to pull Kalim back this time. No one moved. The entire chamber felt suffocatingly still, everyone holding their breath as they watched us.

The portal behind me hummed, a gentle, pulsing warmth that reminded me of everything I had been fighting to get back to. My family, my home, my entire life was just a step away. But looking down at Kalim—seeing the absolute agony on the face of the boy who had only ever tried to bring joy to everyone around him—made my feet feel like they were cast in lead.

"You don't have to," Kalim cried out softly, his tears spilling over fresh as he squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his forehead against my shoes in a gesture of complete, agonizing surrender. "We can hide the mirror. We can tell the Headmage it broke. I'll take care of everything, Prefect, I promise... Please, just don't step away from me. Don't go where I can't follow you."

The silence in the room stretched so tight it felt ready to snap. As I stood there, frozen at the threshold of the mirror, the weight of his despair seemed to shift the very air between us.

"Kalim... I have to go," I whispered again, the words tasting like ash.

He didn't scream this time. He didn't throw another tantrum or threaten to buy the school. Instead, a new kind of cry broke out of him—a quiet, breathless sob that seemed to tear straight from his chest. He looked up at me, his eyes wide and completely stripped of any defense, and in that agonizing, breathless second, the truth hit me with the force of an overblot.

He didn't just want his friend to stay. He didn't just want to throw another banquet.

He loves me.

The realization rippled through the entire chamber. I could see it mirror in Jamil’s sudden, sharp intake of breath behind him, and the way the murmuring crowd grew completely, deathly still. Kalim’s feelings weren't just the attachment of a lonely boy; they were deep, consuming, and fiercely real. He was completely bare before everyone, weeping on the floor of the mirror chamber, breaking his own heart in front of the entire school just for a chance to keep me near.

"I love you," he choked out, the words finally breaking through the dam of his tears. He didn't care who heard it. He didn't care about the rules of his family, his status, or his future. "That’s why... that’s why it feels like I’m dying, Prefect. If you go, you take everything with you. My heart is going to leave through that mirror, and I'll just be an empty shell."

His fingers trembled violently against my shoes, clutching at me with a terrifyingly beautiful, tragic desperation. The portal home vibrated against my back, pulling at my soul, but Kalim’s gaze held me pinned to the spot. The bright, sunny boy of Scarabia was completely gone, replaced by someone who was begging me to choose him over my entire universe.

"Don't make this harder than it needs to be!" I cried, the tears finally spilling over my own cheeks, hot and blurring my vision.

My voice cracked, completely betraying the resolve I was trying so hard to hold onto. The warmth of the portal was pressing against my back, practically begging me to step through, to finally return to the life I had spent months fighting for. But looking down at him, my heart was being torn completely in two.

When my shout echoed through the chamber, Kalim flinched as if I had struck him. His quiet, breathless sobs choked off for a fraction of a second, his wide, ruby eyes gazing up at me through a thick veil of tears. He looked completely shattered by the realization that his confession, his raw layout of his soul, was hurting me too.

"I-I'm sorry," he sobbed, his grip on my uniform tightening even as he apologized. He shook his head frantically, his silver hair unravelling from its usual neat style. "I'm sorry, Prefect, I don't want to hurt you! I never want to make you cry! But how can I just let you walk away? How am I supposed to just stand here and watch my whole world disappear into a mirror?!"

Behind him, Jamil took a slow, heavy step forward. The shock on his face had hardened into a deeply painful solemnity. He looked at Kalim on the floor, then up at me, seeing the agonizing conflict tearing me apart.

"Kalim..." Jamil’s voice was remarkably quiet this time, stripped of all its usual harshness or irritation. It was just heavy. He reached down, placing a firm, stabilizing hand on Kalim’s trembling shoulder. "Let them go. If you really love them... you can't force them to stay in a world where they don't belong."

"No! No, I can't!" Kalim wept, burying his face into his hands, his shoulders shaking violently as he completely broke down. He refused to let go of my clothes, anchoring himself to me with a desperate, tragic strength. "If they step through, they're never coming back! Jamil, please, you don't understand... I can't breathe without them!"

Before I could even process Jamil’s words, Kalim’s grip shifted. With a sudden, desperate burst of strength born out of pure panic, he pulled forward.

The force of his tug dragged me right off balance, pulling me down from the elevated dais where the mirror stood. My knees hit the stone floor right next to him with a sharp thud, pulling me away from the glowing threshold of the portal.

"Please... please, just look at me," Kalim pleaded, his face inches from mine now. He didn't care that he was completely unraveling. He grabbed my hands, his palms burning hot against my cold fingers, squeezing them so tightly it almost hurt. "Don't look at the mirror. Look at me. Am I really not enough to make you stay? I'll change, I'll be whoever you want me to be! I'll be stronger, I'll be smarter—just don't leave me!"

The sound tearing out of his throat was no longer just a sob; it was a raw, agonizing wail of a boy watching his entire universe crumble in front of him. It was a sound so heavy, so entirely stripped of the bright, cheerful Kalim everyone knew, that a suffocating weight dropped over the entire chamber.

Around us, the atmosphere shifted from shocked curiosity to sheer discomfort.

“Man, this is... I can't watch this,” someone muttered in the back.

I heard the rustle of uniforms as several students uncomfortably shifted their weight. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ace and Deuce completely look away, their expressions strained and grim, unable to bear the sight of the Scarabia housewarden utterly destroying his own dignity on the floor. Even some of the more hardened students turned their heads, staring fixatedly at the walls or the floor, the sheer heartbreak echoing through the room becoming too intensely personal, too tragic to witness.

But Kalim didn't see any of them. His tear-blinded eyes were locked entirely on mine, his chest heaving as he drowned in his own grief, completely begging me to choose him over my home.

"I'll do anything," Kalim choked out, his voice dropping into a ragged, breathless whisper that vibrated against my skin. "Anything you ask! Just... please..."

Slowly, reverently, he brought my trembling hands up to his face. Through the blur of my own tears, I watched him press his trembling lips against my knuckles, over and over again. His kisses were frantic, desperate, and wet with the tears streaming down his face. It was the most heartbreaking thing I had ever felt—a boy trying to pour a lifetime of unspent love into the back of my hands, begging me to feel how much he needed me, trying to physically tether my soul to his world before the mirror could swallow me whole.

The raw intimacy of it made the entire room feel dead silent, the remaining students completely freezing in place.

Then, a shadow fell over us.

I saw Jamil’s boots step into my field of vision. Slowly, deliberately, Jamil knelt down beside Kalim. His expression was completely blank, but his eyes were filled with a profound, heavy sorrow. He reached out, his hand settling firmly onto Kalim’s shaking shoulder.

"Kalim," Jamil said, his voice terrifyingly gentle. "It's time. Let them go."

The moment Jamil's fingers tightened, trying to gently but unyieldingly pull him away from me, Kalim stiffened. A fresh wave of panic seized him. He clutched my hands even tighter, his nails digging slightly into my skin as he fought against Jamil’s upward pull, refusing to let the last anchor to his happiness be torn away.

"No! Jamil, stop! Don't take me away from them! Don't touch me!" Kalim shrieked, his voice hitting a frantic, terrifying pitch.

Instead of letting go, he threw his entire body forward, abandoning my hands to wrap his arms completely around my waist. He buried his face into my chest, locking me in a fierce, suffocating embrace that pinned me right there to the stone floor. He cried out loud, a raw, unbridled sob that echoed violently off the walls of the mirror chamber, completely shattering whatever silence was left.

"Please, Prefect, stay! You can't leave me, you can't!" he wailed into my uniform, his hands clutching at my back so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Jamil, make them stop! Tell them they can't go! Don't pull me away from them!"

As Jamil’s grip tightened on his shoulders, trying to forcibly break the embrace, Kalim only held onto me harder, fighting with a desperate, wild strength he had never used before.

For his entire life, Kalim had been given everything. He was the treasured eldest son of the Asim family. If he wanted a toy, a feast, a palace, or a magic carpet, it was handed to him before he could even finish asking. He had never known the agonizing, hollow ache of wanting something he could not have. He had never felt the agonizing reality of a door closing in his face.

And now, the first thing he truly, desperately wanted with all of his soul—the one thing his family's vast wealth and power couldn't buy for him—was about to step through a mirror and vanish forever.

The sheer shock of that powerless, suffocating feeling was driving him completely frantic. He was drowning in a wave of grief he didn't know how to navigate, sobbing uncontrollably against me as Jamil slowly, relentlessly began to pry his locking fingers apart.

"Kalim," I called out, my voice trembling as the tears finally spilled over my own cheeks.

He didn't hear me. He couldn't. He was crying so heavily, his loud, ragged sobs completely filling the space between us as he buried his face deeper into my chest. His entire body was wracked with violent shudders, his fingers clawing desperately at the fabric of my uniform as if he were trying to merge his very soul with mine so the mirror couldn't separate us.

"Kalim," I called out again, louder this time, trying to pierce through the deafening haze of his panic.

Slowly, I unlocked one of my arms from his suffocating embrace and brought my hand to his back. I began to rub broad, steady circles between his shoulder blades. I kept the strokes slow and grounding, pouring every ounce of tenderness and reassurance I had left into the touch, trying to offer him a lifeline in the middle of his emotional drowning.

The moment my hand began to move against his back, Kalim caught his breath. A tiny, choked gasp escaped his lips, and his frantic screaming at Jamil suddenly died down into a series of breathless, hiccuping whimpers. He didn't let go of me—if anything, he squeezed my waist even tighter—but the wild, thrashing tension in his muscles began to give way to a heavy, exhausted trembling.

He leaned entirely into the warmth of my hand, his head resting heavily against my chest as he listened to the frantic beating of my heart. The room around us remained deathly quiet, the students watching in stunned silence as the boy who usually brought nothing but sunshine and laughter to Night Raven College slowly wept himself to a fragile, desperate calm under my touch.

"Prefect..." Kalim called out, his voice a fragile, broken whimper against my chest. The frantic, wild energy was gone, leaving him completely drained, his forehead resting heavily against my collarbone as my hand continued to rub steady, calming circles on his back.

He took a ragged, hiccuping breath, his fingers still clutching weakly at my uniform. "I... I don't know what to do anymore," he confessed, a fresh tear soaking right through my clothes. "My head hurts so bad, and my chest feels so heavy... I've never felt like this before. If you leave, I don't know how I'm supposed to wake up tomorrow. I don't know how to go back to Scarabia. I don't know how to be me without you."

He let out a weak, self-deprecating sob, pulling back just enough so he could look up at me. His face was completely red and stained with tears, his ruby eyes wide with a painful, agonizing regret.

"Why didn't I realize it sooner?" he wept softly, squeezing his eyes shut as if the thought physically pained him. "I'm so stupid. I was always so focused on planning the next party, or laughing, or just being happy that you were around... why did it take me until the very last second to realize that I love you? If I had just noticed it before... if I had told you sooner... could I have made you want to stay? Could I have made you love this world enough to choose it over your old one?"

He shook his head frantically, fresh tears flying from his lashes as he looked at me with pure, unfiltered sorrow.

"I wasted all our time," he choked out, his voice cracking with the heavy weight of his realization. "I had you right here next to me for months, and I didn't even understand what my own heart was trying to tell me. And now it's too late... isn't it?"

I looked up from Kalim, my eyes tearing away from his broken expression to scan the room.

I looked at Jamil. His hand was still resting on Kalim's shoulder, but his grip had gone slack. The usual guarded, calculating mask he wore was completely gone, replaced by a profound, heavy sorrow. He looked at me with an unspoken, painful understanding—he knew the choice I was facing, and for once, he wasn't trying to control the situation.

Then my gaze shifted to Ace and Deuce. They were standing a few paces back, completely frozen. Deuce had his fist clenched so tightly his knuckles were white, biting his lower lip as a single tear escaped and ran down his cheek. Ace had his hands shoved deep into his pockets, staring aggressively at the floor, his shoulders tense as he tried to swallow down the lump in his throat. They were my first friends here, the ones who had caused so much trouble with me, and seeing them like this cut through me like a knife.

And then, I looked down near my feet.

Grim was there. The loudmouthed, arrogant monster who always insisted he was going to be the greatest mage in the world was uncharacteristically quiet. He was sitting on the cold stone floor, his back turned slightly toward the mirror, his tiny paws tightly gripping his blue ribbon. He was sniffing loudly, his shoulders hitching, his face buried away from everyone because he was still too prideful to admit he was breaking down. But the dark wet spots on the floor beneath him told the whole truth. He was silently crying his eyes out.

The portal behind me hummed, its light washing over my back, offering the escape I had desperately craved for months. My old life, my real home, a world without danger or magic—it was right there, just one step backward.

But for the first time since I had tumbled into this twisted world...

I wanted to stay.

The realization hit me so hard it knocked the breath from my lungs. This world was chaotic, dangerous, and completely insane—but it was full of people who loved me. People who needed me. Looking at Kalim’s tear-stained face, at Jamil's heavy gaze, at my best friends, and at my ridiculous, prideful partner, the pull of the mirror suddenly felt completely empty. I didn't want to go back to a world where they didn't exist.

"Prefect, please... the mirror is already beginning to fluctuate. It will close in a matter of minutes, and once it does, the alignment will be lost forever. You must make your decision now."

The Headmage’s voice cut through the heavy air of the chamber, stripped of its usual theatrics and playful cadence. For once, Crowley sounded entirely serious, his glowing eyes fixed on the shimmering, unstable light of the portal.

His words felt like a physical strike. A few minutes.

The realization that my time had expired crashed down on me, turning the suffocating atmosphere in the room into pure panic. The gentle, warm hum of the mirror behind me was growing erratic, the edges of the light flickering violently against the stone walls. My home—my family, my room, the peaceful world I had spent every single day fighting to return to—was slipping away like sand through my fingers.

Beneath me, Kalim heard it too. A sharp, terrified gasp left his throat, and his head snapped up to look at the mirror, then back at me. The absolute terror in his eyes intensified tenfold. He knew, just as well as I did, that the countdown had officially begun.

"No... no, no, no!" Kalim panicked, his voice rising into a breathless frenzy as he scrambled closer, his arms locking around me even tighter, as if he could physically shield me from the portal's pull. "Don't listen to him! Don't look at it! Prefect, please! Just a few minutes? That's not enough time! I can't let you go yet!"

I looked past him, my eyes darting frantically to Ace and Deuce, whose expressions had completely shattered at the Headmage's warning. Grim let out a sharp, choked sob, his pride finally cracking as he turned around and clutched at my pant leg, his small body shaking violently. Even Jamil's hand tightened on Kalim's shoulder, his knuckles turning white as he stared at the dying light of the mirror.

The portal was closing. My heart was pounding frantically against my ribs, trapped between the world I was born in and the boy weeping on the floor, begging me to stay.

Kalim’s grip on me became entirely frantic, his loud, ragged sobs echoing off the stone walls as the flickering light of the mirror began to dim. "Don't go! Please, just let it close! Let it close without you!" he wailed, burying his face into my shoulder, his tears soaking right through the fabric.

But then, the sound that completely broke me came from down by my feet.

Grim’s pride finally shattered into pieces. He couldn't hold it back anymore. With a loud, heartbroken screech, my small monster partner ran forward and threw his weight against my leg, his tiny paws clawing into my uniform as he wept at the top of his lungs. "You can't leave me, henchman! You can't!" Grim sobbed, his usual tough-guy act completely gone. "Who's gonna give me tuna?! Who's gonna share a room with me?! Don't leave me behind, please!"

I looked up through my own blinding tears, and the sight of my first friends was just as devastating.

Deuce was sobbing openly now, his shoulders shaking violently as he took a step toward the dais. "Prefect... please..." he begged, his voice cracking completely, stripped of all his usual delinquent toughness. "Don't go. We finally made it this far together. It's not right for you to just vanish!"

"Deuce, shut up! Don't make them feel worse! Don't cry!" Ace yelled, his voice raw and furious. But even as he tried to snap at Deuce, Ace was crying harder than any of us. Tears were pouring down his face, streaming past his collar as he aggressively rubbed at his eyes with the back of his sleeve, trying and failing to hide how utterly destroyed he was. "You're a moron, Deuce! Stop begging! They're... they're finally going home..." Ace choked out, though his own trembling hands betrayed him, clutching at his shirt over his chest.

"I don't care!" Deuce yelled back, fresh tears spilling over his cheeks as he ignored Ace completely, looking directly at me with pure desperation. "Please! Just stay! We need you here!"

Surrounded by the people who loved me, pinned to the floor by Kalim's desperate embrace and Grim's clinging paws, the ticking clock of the portal felt like a death sentence. Every single one of them was unraveling in front of me, and the choice to leave was tearing my soul completely apart.

Through the deafening chorus of Kalim’s wails, Grim’s frantic screeches, and Deuce’s raw begging, a calm but deeply strained voice pierced through the panic.

"Headmage."

I forced my eyes up to see Silver stepping forward from the crowd. He was usually so stoic, so unshakable, but right now, his pale violet eyes were wide with a fierce, protective urgency. His hand was resting tightly on the hilt of his sword, his jaw clenched so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek as he looked directly at Crowley.

"Is there truly no other way?" Silver demanded, his voice carrying a rare, commanding weight that silenced the murmurs of the students around him. He looked down at where Kalim was completely unraveled against me, then back up, his expression tight with an agonizing empathy. "Can the mirror not be summoned again at a later date? There must be another spell, another alignment, another relic in the vault. Surely the great Night Raven College has the power to open this door again when they are ready. They cannot be forced to choose like this."

For a split second, a heavy spark of hope ignited in the room. Kalim’s sobbing hitched, his tear-soaked face lifting just an inch from my shoulder, his ruby eyes fixing onto Crowley with a sudden, desperate hunger for a lifeline. Down by my leg, Grim stopped his screeching, looking up with wide, watery eyes, his ears twitching as he waited for the answer. Even Ace stopped rubbing his eyes, his breathing ragged as he stared fixatedly at the Headmage.

The portal behind me gave another violent, erratic flicker, casting long, dancing shadows across the stone floor. The clock was still ticking, and every eye in the room was now pinned on Crowley, silently praying for a miracle.

Crowley sighed heavily, the usual dramatic flair entirely absent from his posture. He looked down at the floor, his crow mask casting a long, somber shadow across the dais.

"I am a generous man, truly I am... but magic has its limits," Crowley explained, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. "To connect two entirely different worlds—worlds with no shared history, no tethering ley lines—takes a catastrophic amount of magical alignment. It is a lifetime of work. It takes centuries to calculate, to gather the relics, to weave the spells."

He looked directly at Silver, then toward the back of the room where Malleus stood in silence.

"Such a feat is possible if we had a lifespan like Lord Malleus," Crowley continued, his hand gesturing vaguely toward the Diasomnia housewarden. "Fae can afford to spend hundreds of years chasing a single spell. But for a human? If I were to start trying to open this door for you again from scratch... by the time I found another chance, you would already be old. Your life in your own world would be long over."

The spark of hope that had just ignited in the room was brutally extinguished.

A collective, suffocating dread settled back over the chamber. Kalim let out a sharp, broken gasp, his face losing all of its remaining color. He understood exactly what the Headmage meant. There was no 'next time.' There was no 'we'll figure it out later.' If I chose to stay with him, I was abandoning my family, my future, and my entire world forever. If I stepped through that mirror, I would never see him again.

"No..." Kalim whispered, his voice trembling so violently he could barely form the word. He clutched my uniform even tighter, burying his face back into my neck as he sobbed with a devastating, crushing finality. "No, that's not fair... that's not fair!"

To be continued... because even I am so torn on what to do. period brain is dramatic af so I guess if you've reached this far and still interested, vote on staying or leaving.