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The meeting with Dimitri went by quicker than I expected. Two hours only feels like thirty minutes to me. Even though all we talked about was trivial matters from the books in Balthazar's library to his newly planted tulip garden.

But on second thought, it turns out we were only chatting about Balthazar ...

As he had agreed with Balthazar earlier, Dimitri returned home after the two hours were over. He politely said goodbye, he even managed to ignore Balthazar's sarcastic remarks who told him tobring cake for him again at the next meeting.

We watched him walk toward the forest until his towering body disappeared between the rows of dense trees. For a while Balthazar and I stood in the courtyard of his castle in silence until he finally opened his mouth again.

"What do you think?" he asked in a low voice.

"Very strange."

He nodded in agreement and then stared at the forest with narrowed eyes. "Very, very strange. What were you two talking about earlier?"

"You" I replied simply. For now