Damien gently closed the door to the storeroom behind him and snuck out into the dust-encrusted hallway. Looking left and right, he saw no one and heard nothing. Taking a deep breath, he slowly entered the hallway and turned right, following Terren's large footprints while making as little noise as possible.
Damien followed the prints and counted his lucky stars. If it weren't for the dust, he'd almost certainly be lost. Right turn, left turn, staircase, right turn... it was a maze and the darkness wasn't making it any easier to traverse or mentally handle, but he was handling.
"Noooo other noises except myself down here, that isss a good thing..." Damien nervously muttered as he strolled along at a healthy clip.
Five minutes later, he found himself standing in front of a wall with nowhere to go.
"This..." he said, staring at the blank surface. "Terren?"
When no response came, Damien rested his hand upon the surface of the wall and found it solid.
"Not false, oh boy. Ohhh boy," he mumbled, glancing over his shoulder into the darkness. "[Light]"
With that, the area behind him lit up in a self-sustaining manner.
Lifting his hands, Damien spread his mana out over the wall and his surroundings, finding that it was magical in nature. Enchanted and under someone else's mana's influence, he tried exerting his own mana in an attempt to override theirs to no avail. Whoever had created the wall was using a sizeable mana stone and an advanced alteration.
He looked to the left and right and found the right wall had a painting on it about five feet back into the darkness he'd just come from.
"Excuse me," he asked, walking up to it. "Could you get Terren for me?"
Looking into the painting, a large group of Centaurs were parading through a forest together. None even looked in his direction.
"Hello?" he asked, waving his hand back and forth.
Still, none looked toward him.
Damien tried a few more times a bit louder, but still received no attention. He sighed and moved back toward the wall.
"Well, I could try to break-"
Damien froze mid-sentence, swearing he had heard the sound of a footstep far off. After listening for another few moments and hearing nothing, he began to slowly create a battering ram made from stone.
"No sense in staying here any longer, anyway," he nervously chuckled out, glancing over his shoulder constantly to view down the hallway.
He only had about ten feet of vision before the walkway T'd off. He couldn't see down either side, relegated to watching the wall and praying nothing else was here with him.
Just as he finished creating a battering ram, five feet long and one foot wide in diameter, he heard another footstep, followed by another. Heart racing and not eager to meet whatever it was still down here, Damien slammed the ram into the wall.
The stone ram contacted the wall and let out a deafening boom, shattering into pieces while the mana before him remained completely unharmed. Damien did his best to keep his composure as he kept ahold of all the pieces of the ram and slowly put it back together, listening all the while for more footsteps. Ten seconds later, the ram was back as one and Damien was aiming for the wall once more.
A second loud boom sounded out as the ram shattered against the wall, again leaving no mark. This time, the footsteps returned, no longer an unhurried walking pace but running. Running, and accompanied by other footsteps, characterized by the clinking of what sounded like nails against the tile floor.
"TERREN!" Damien yelled out, creating stone and piling it between himself and the T walkway as an impromptu wall. "TERREN I COULD USE SOME HELP I AM LOST!!"
The clinking of feet and potentially hands muffled once he'd filled the hallway up with stone, but was still getting louder by the second. Damien filled the floor in between him and his wall with water and began to charge his body with extremely volatile electricity.
He condensed his stone as much as he could and piled more into his wall. Sending out a pulse, he felt a hoard of smaller creatures, perhaps the size of a teenage female, scurrying along the ground on four appendages and just getting to his wall. A few seconds later and they were running past it, having completely missed his hiding spot.
He let out a sigh of relief and chastised himself as one stopped, looking and moving towards the hastily formed barrier immediately after the noise. He held his breath as it raised one of what he assumed was an arm and extended it to the wall. Then, he watched with his natural vision as a claw sliced its way through the stone as if it were butter, creating a small hole.
Moments later, a yellow eye met his own from the other side.
A tense five seconds passed where he and the creature stared at each other. Finally, all hell broke loose when it let out an inhuman and piercing screech.
"TERREN!" Damien screamed in reply as the thing began to shred through his wall as if it were paper mache.
More holes appeared and more eyes looked through, the rest of its hoard returning from running past. Damien kept his back to the impenetrable wall and did his best to repair his own in a losing battle against the monsters. One had one of its black, mangled, gangly, and very hairless arms through and was using its other hand to cut a hole for its head.
He stared at it as the creature seemed to smile, showcasing razer sharp yellow teeth as it slowly pried its way through his constantly regenerating and self-healing wall. Shooting a bolt of lightning at it caused a screech so loud and demented in nature that Damien had to fight to keep himself from covering his ears and cowering, but it did give him time to close the gap as the thing had bucked its body backward due to the unexpected clenching of its muscles.
Suddenly, as another monster began to get its bald head through, Damien felt his left arm grasped. He screamed at the top of his lungs and let loose an electrical charge on whatever had grabbed him, but it was for naught as he was yanked backward. Within an instant, he lost the connection he had to the mana controlling the wall and was met with the usual lighting found in the school's hallways.
"Terren save stupid Dwarf from Spectres. Dwarf try to zap him. Ungrateful."
Damien spun around and let out a huge sigh of relief as the gigantic knight-golem came face to face with him. It was surrounded by Damien's electrical charge trying to ground still and seemed indifferent to the attack.
Damien tried to hug the golem but it held him at an arm's length away. After struggling for a few seconds, he turned around to look back at the wall and saw nothing out of place and heard no sounds of a struggle.
Terren set him down and he moved toward the wall, resting his hand on the hard surface but feeling nothing strange or different.
"I think I'll... find elsewhere to practice from now on," he stated. "Thank you for grabbing me out."
"Fine. No trouble. Terren thought special Dwarf wouldn't mind Spectres or Terren not have brought him. Not supposed to bring students there anyway..." the Golem trailed off as it walked away.
Damien stood, watching Terren move away for a few moments and thought to call out, ultimately deciding to let him go.
'Better to just pretend this never happened. Never.'
He instead stayed in front of the wall for another minute studying it. It looked the same as any other section of the building and was in the center of a suspiciously long hallway. From what he knew about the building and where he suspected he was, this wall should be bordering the rear side of the building. Bordering it, and dropping off a cliff into the ocean below should you go through it.
Damien jotted down where this location was in his mind, not because he had plans to come back to this spot to explore, but because he wanted to avoid this location in the future by any means possible. If there was even the slightest chance he'd accidentally slip and fall through that wall, he didn't want to risk it.
'I need to make sure I tell those two to avoid it as well,' he mused as he turned right and began heading for the cafeteria.
Speed walking down the hallway led him to a set of spiral staircases where a few other students were descending, headed toward lunch. A few gave him strange looks as he emerged from the hallway, and a quick glance backward revealed the reason why.
"Mental Health wing huh..." he muttered, moving away from the corridor and toward the staircase. "At least that explains why it was so vacant."
He took his first few steps down the staircase, falling into line with the other students when a hand landed on his shoulder, causing him to jump.
"Hey man, how's... wow you are a mess," Ranger stated, removing his hand as Damien looked back in time to see his friend wiping his hand off on his shirt. "What the heck were you up to?"
"Hey man," Damien said with a nod of his head, looking down at himself. "Well, that also helps explains the looks..." he said as he noticed a familiar-looking Elf walking with his friend, carrying three textbooks. "Hey... Sunder right?" Damien asked, eyes wandering behind and up the stairs to the hallway he'd come from.
"Nicholas," the Elf said, extending his right hand, stumbling down a step, losing the precariously balanced books in the process. "We have- Ahhh,"
"Watch it!" Ranger called, reaching forward to grab the Elf by his shoulder.
Damien stumbled backward as the waterfall of text landed into his chest and shoulders, catching himself from falling down the staircase with a quick cushion of raw mana. Pushing off with his mana, Damien turned his body to the left and managed to grab hold of the railing going down the steps. Ranger steadied Nicholas and Damien bent over to collect the books that had dropped to the floor after righting himself, standing tall afterward to continue on as quickly as possible to avoid irritating those above them.
"I'm so sorry," Nicholas immediately stated, attempting to kneel on the staircase toward Damien.
"Stop stop," Ranger chided, keeping him standing as he moved forward after Damien. "We are holding people up. Damien, are you doing alright?" he asked. "You look distracted; you let a couple of books take you out."
"I'm... ok," Damien stated, pausing briefly while scrunching his eyebrows to think as he looked past his friend once again to the hallway.
The three reached the bottom of the staircase and started walking side by side down the wide hallway.
"Just a strange day, I guess..." he muttered, more to himself than anyone.
"What?" Ranger asked.
"Nothing. So what were you saying before all of that?" Damien asked, glancing over at Nicholas to continue a long-dead conversation.
"Before all of... Ah, I'm Nicholas. I... Not Sunder. Well, that's my last name. We have Advanced Manipulation together," he stated, causing all sorts of things to click in Damien's head as he remembered the flashbacks throughout the year of rogue spells, attacks, and control practices going awry and nearly injuring him on multiple occasions.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Nicholas must have seen Damien's face pale slightly because he immediately looked away and muttered another apology under his breath.
"Ah, come on, it's nothing man," Ranger said with a smack on the Elf's back. "I met Nick here a few weeks back. Turns out we have Herbology together. Real nice, I invited him to sit with us."
"Fine, yeah," Damien said, glancing over his shoulder again.
His mind was replaying the past thirty minutes over and over again, unsure about how to react with this information he'd been gifted. On one hand, it changed nothing. The school year was ending soon, he'd be returning home, and his decision to attend had been rewarded with tangible improvement. Operations normal, don't tell anyone, don't do anything with this information.
On the other hand, it was dark. It was clear that the school was intentionally keeping that room and section of the building hidden from the general attendees; he just didn't understand why. Nor was he sure he wanted to. If understanding exactly what was going on down here led him to being tied further to the school and Lemshire...
"Damien?"
His thoughts, dragging him down a rabbit hole once again, were broken, and his attention resurfaced by a hand on his shoulder and a voice in his ear. He looked around and realized he was standing right by the entrance to the cafeteria and Alexa, Kastra, Piper, and Emra were all looking at him inquisitively.
Or, three of them were, and one small long-eared creature was just hungry for mana.
His face adopted a smile as he leaned in for a hug.
"Hey you, how was-"
"No no no," Alexa said, backing up. "You're covered in dirt and... absent. Why are you so sweaty?"
'I was watching cops,' he thought, scoffing at himself as a bit of nostalgia ran through his person.
"Just doing a little physical activity outside. I probably looked silly to other people in any case. How was your off period?" he asked, reaching down to pet Emra instead.
The Sylphen had increased in size to that of a fully grown dog and was still growing further. He ran his hand over her soft, white fur and scratched behind her ears. Long snout, thick hair, and silvery blue eyes seemed to pur back up at him. Her ears were like little triangles that settled down on top of her head as he ran his hands near them. Her tail trailed along behind her body, nearly as long as it and seeming to float rather than be held up by any kind of bone or muscle structure.
"It was alright," Alexa said, glancing at Damien strangely then leading him inside as Kastra flit around and cleaned him up. "What kind of activity?"
He nodded and smiled at his favorite Fae and followed after his favorite Celestial, wondering how to keep his surprise a secret.
"He was trying to incorporate backflips as a dodging mechanism!" Ranger called out as he began moving his arms around in animated gestures. "I was helping him. Well, I tried to talk him off of it, but I was definitely helping him... It was a lot of fun actually, did you know that if the projectile is moving slow enough it actually is a decent form of-"
"Backflips?" Alexa interrupted, looking at Damien as she tried to stop Ranger's rattling on from gaining traction.
"It's a personal thing," Damien responded, shrugging his shoulders.
They took their seats and began to order up their food as Damien gave Ranger a thankful nod. Ranger grinned and sat Nick further down the table, integrating with some of Gallion's fine group while placing him right next to Jasmine. Damien began to understand just why Ranger invited the kid to join them. Perhaps it would help her come out of her shell a bitas well, anyway.
"Damien, Kastra, Lexi... So when is that beautiful siren of an aunt showing up then?" Gallion asked from the head of the table, regal as he greeted them.
"She wouldn't give you the time of day," Gianna whispered under her breath from the other side of the table, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Damien pet Emra who was sat down by his legs, her head between his thighs as she purred in content with her eyes closed. He glanced looked over at Kastra just as she finished cleaning him and sat with a content look on his shoulder.
"You know, you spoil me," he whispered as Gallion began to spout off at Gianna, the regular occurrence taking place.
"You're worth spoiling," she said back.
"She should be arriving tomorrow morning!" Alexa interjected loudly causing the two bickering and others around the table to snap their heads in her direction. "Rightttt around the same exact time my parents will be," she whispered, her head dropping down into her hands. "Both of them, at least."
"It'll be... ok, I think," Damien stated with uncertainty. "At least I know we'll always find a way to be together."
"Yeah, unless she kills you," Alexa said.
"Haha, yeah," Damien responded, gripping her hand under the table and smiling lightly. "Wait, that was a joke, right?"
When she didn't answer, Gallion spoke up.
"Well, my father will also be attending if that will help in any way. Perhaps he can distract Petrina's anger with pleasantries; the man loves to talk."
"Mine too, actually," Gianna followed, earning a genuine scowl from Gallion. "He and our maid will b-"
"Him and his lover, you mean. Liar and a fool," Gallion interjected coldly.
"Go to hell," Gianna responded with a glare.
"Tomorrow, apparently I'll be there. Not only you but your bastard father. I've lost my appetite," he said, standing up and throwing his food, plate and all, harshly into a trash receptacle.
"Why are you so gods dammed-"
"You know why!" Gallion shouted, turning back to glare at Gianna as Damien noticed most conversations in the immediate area silencing. "I'm done here."
Damien watched him move toward the side entrance of the cafeteria with lifted eyebrows and wide eyes for a few seconds, then further scrunched his face as he glanced down to his lap, avoiding everyone else's eyes. Suddenly, his worries about Alexa's parents seemed a lot less concerning. He'd never seen Gallion exhibit so many genuine emotions, let alone rage like that.
Alexa loosened her hand on his under the table.
"Well-"
A chair screeched back over the floor, interrupting Alexa's attempt at rekindling a conversation. Gianna stood up with a vacant expression on her face and left in the opposite direction Gallion had in a hurry.
Damien continued looking around with still wide eyes at the silent table and chuckled a little nervously, unsure of what the hell to do or say. Something soft bumped his leg and he realized that Emra was still trying to obtain pets. He silently thanked his wonderful companion and focused all of his attention on petting her as best as he could.
The best petting job in the world. Nothing would distract him from loving his Sylphen.
Piper got extra attention, mana, and love as well.
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A gathering of sorts was taking place in a room that held no doors. The occupants were lit by a multitude of mana lights above their heads, showing off the faces of ten people, several of which were present for Damien's training.
"Have you finished with him yet?" Minerva asked, staring at Ezra from across the table.
"Just did the other night. He's taken the conversion well, as usual," Ezra responded. "The wings always just fall off around the first month. It's astounding that-"
"I don't want details," Minerva interrupted with disgust present in her voice.
"We've talked about this now, Minerva. It is more efficient to use them as a means for protection, war, and experimentation, than to simply burn them and be done with it. Not to mention, they are all criminals in some way or another," Tresil spoke up, leaning back in his chair with a giddy smile across his face.
"I don't oppose that you two do what you do, but that doesn't mean I have to like it and I'm certain that I'm not the only one here that dislikes it, necessary or not," she responded with a bite in her voice.
"If it weren't for executable idiots like him, how would Erzy get any practice in though you know?" a bubbly female spoke up, goggles present as usual.
"Belinda..." Minerva started, sighing and rubbing her forehead. "Nevermind. Anyone have anything to add before we come to a close here?"
"The intrusion into the Northern wing," Tresil called out, abruptly standing. "Any idea who? Reinal?"
The Werewolf responded with a shake of his head.
"Then-"
"Terren did it," Ezra interrupted. "I checked with him earlier, as I said I would. He was in there. It's part of his patrol route, but typically, he doesn't step out of the paintings. The Spectres were agitated when they saw him, but nothing came of it."
Tresil glanced toward Ezra and narrowed his eyes before ultimately nodding.
"Ask the Golem not to come out of them anymore in the future, then. It's hard enough for us to control our pets without them getting excited. Terren is an excellent help for when your other... creations get agitated, but if he were to accidentally put a student in there-"
"It won't happen, I've already made sure he understands to never bring someone with him to that portion of the school. I'll impress upon him not to step out of the paintings in the future."
A silence permeated over the table as the two stared at one another before Tresil grinned and nodded, raising a glass of wine up where he stood.
"Sounds good then. We'll talk again next week, once the students are all gone. Remember, aggressive recruitment this time around."
With that, he disappeared from his spot. Following him, the rest of the room popped out of existence one by one. Soon, only Ezra and Belinda were left, the latter staring intently at the former.
"Yes?" Ezra asked.
"Li-aaaar," she replied in a teasing manner. "Liar liar liar."
He sighed.
"The boy would only get himself killed or be scared away, agreeing to participate at this age. I scared him off."
"If Tresil knewwww-"
"He won't know. Or find out," Ezra said, resting his head in his palms. "It's clear Damien doesn't need the school for a second year anyway. I'd hope this would keep him away. Emra would be safer as well, wouldn't she?" he asked.
"True," Belinda said with a shrug of her shoulders from her side of the table. "But not if he dies before he finishes growing her," she whispered from behind him this time, breath brushing against his neck.
Ezra glanced slowly to his side to see Belinda smiling widely at him and looked back to see her seat vacant. When he looked to his shoulder again, he was alone.
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"Oryen and Petrina. Oryen likes sound magic. Is the best at it. Petrina likes fine things, is strict, cares for structure and discipline, appearances. Oryen doesn't. Appeal to Petrina at all points in time and her husband will see I'm a smart man that is worth keeping around. Get on his good side. The mark's name is Ory-"
"Stop it," Alexa agressively whispered, nudging his right side hard with her elbow. "You're making me nervous! More than you already are," she said, referencing the bond.
"Me too," Kastra nodded. "And I'm not even going to be visible."
Damien glanced around the plaza and then back forward to the circle where families had been arriving for the past hour. It was fast approaching, the hour of his demise.
"Well I can't help it, I am nervous! Take some of my nervous energy. Take it all, I'm sweating for Christ's sake," he responded, looking down to his right at her.
"Keep your weird sayings in check too," Alexa demanded. "You give her a reason to ask questions and you'll have to start lying. You start lying and she'll chase you down it until you have to tell the truth. Then what?"
"Right, right," Damien said, nodding. "Thank you. No speaking in my normal habitual way, no lying, no forgetting names, no missteps..." he muttered, turning to his left as his anxiousness mounted. 'I'm so screwed.'
"Carlile and Shreila Zimmer," an announcer yelled out seconds before two Halflings appeared and walked out of the circle.
"They're next," Alexa stated, taking one last look at him.
Damien nodded and put on his best smile.
"Stop smiling like that!" she scolded while trying to grab his hand. "You look insane."
"I feel insane," he said through gritted teeth while dodging her. "Thank god we planned Vanessa to show up after them."
"Godsss," Alexa corrected with a hiss.
"Oryen and Petrina N'moran," the announcer yelled, followed by the appearance of an older version of Alexa and a Greek god.
The woman was everything he'd imagined her to be and more, having lost the youthful expression and pudge her daughter carried and gaining a maturity only years can bring. The man...
"Jesu-" Damien started, receiving an elbow into his ribs.
Chiseled jawline, piercing blue eyes, golden hair, huge, luscious white wings, and a body to make any woman swoon. His wings fanned out on either side of him as if displaying his majesty, even if it were just because he'd tripped a little upon reorienting himself after the transfer magic. Damien paid that little detail no mind as he considered switching teams.
"Stop staring so hard and smile normally this time," Alexa said in a harsh whisper.
Damien ignored her and continued to stare at the man.
"It's just unfair," he mumbled, Oryen chuckling as they approached causing Damien to regret his words as Alexa pinched his side and finally grabbed his right hand tight, almost crushing it despite his many attempts to avoid capture until now.
Her mother's eyes narrowed as their fingers interlocked.
"I thought you said she'd be civil in public," Damien whispered.
"I miscalculated how much she'd hate seeing you," Alexa said back. "Stop trying to let go of me. We are a unit and if I die you die too dammit."
"Don't drag us down with you," Kastra interjected into their minds from Damien's shoulder, having decided it was better to get them comfortable with the idea of her being around before introducing the more... modern tone of their relationship.
"To-geth-er," Alexa pieced out as her mother continued to glare.
The two approached in step, Oryen holding onto her waist from behind and Petrina leading with a purpose. The man smiled in an aloof manner, seemingly enjoying Alexa and Damien's conversation while showcasing his woman. Petrina seemed to have forgotten all her usual desire to put off an air of acceptance while in public.
The couple arrived before them and stood at about the same exact height they did, Oryen standing just an inch taller than Damien. Their wings gave them a gravitas that he couldn't match up to though, not to mention their positions and power. Damien felt like an ant meeting gods.
"Well?" Oryen finally asked after an eternity of a staring contest. "Introduce us to lover bo- oof," he started, receiving an elbow to the rib cage that immediately stopped him in his tracks.
Damien fought back a smile at the all too familiar exchange.
Petrina squinted her eyes in his direction at his slight facial expression change and he made the huge mistake of making eye contact.
'Go for broke.'
"I'm Damien Tearen it is a pleasure to meet you Alexa has explained so much about how magnificent and cunning you are you are as good looking as she explained and young," he droned out, attempting to lift his right hand that Alexa was clasping to shake her hand as he fought the urge to bow, vomit, and make things fifty times worse than he already had.
His insides screamed at him and Alexa audibly sighed, letting go of his hand from where he'd extended it. Damien fought through his urge to disappear underground and stared back into Petrina's eyes hard, owning everything while keeping his hand extended.
"Oh, this. Is. Pricelessssss," Oryen hissed out with a smile.
"Vanessa N'moran, Garrett and Emily Tearen, Marciela... Pirate," the announcer called out.
'No.'
"No," Alexa mumbled, mimicking his thoughts.
"Yessss," Oryen responded again, face lifting in an even greater smile as Damien kept his body taught.
"THERE HE IS! And Lexi! Where is Kastra? Guys, we made it!!" Emily screamed, running over and tackling Alexa in a hug faster than humanly possible.
"Kastraaa!" a squeaky voice called out as a Fae tackled Kastra off Damien's shoulder at the same time, Vanessa and Garrett following the two after about ten seconds of walking.
Damien couldn't see what was happening with Alexa but he could definitely hear her trying to pry herself free while Emily hugged and rubbed her face against her, squealing in delight while mentioning how much she missed her favorite daughter in law.
Damien simply held firm, staring into eyes that told of a fiery oblivion soon to come as his world crumbled to ashes around him.