A chill swept across Darcy's body rattling him straight to his core. He pulled the only blanket he had in his prison tighter. Flipping on his side he gazed up through the arched window high in the wall. The night sky was clear and thousands of twinkling stars peppered the sky above. He watched in simplicity for a long while. Sleep didn't return for the man and so he sat up, leaning against the wall behind him. He took in the image of himself. Clothes tattered, singed in some places from the events back at the library. Pulling his right sleeve back he examined the two massive scars that remained.

The memory flashed into his head once more.

Sweat fell from his forehead. Scanning the main area of the library. Darcy shook his head as he watched his life's work be engulfed in flames. A deep chuckle grew in the air around him. His eyes darted from place to place trying to pin point the location. It was difficult with the roaring of the flames. Wood crackled from below the flames as he slowly turned. There just on the other side of a small fence of fire he saw the attacker. The creature stood about 13 feet tall and despite all the light this fire provided his attacker showed no describable features. It's figure bore the deepest, void like, blackness. It's head held two perfectly circled orbs where eyes should be. The creature walked forward.The flames that stood between them parted, as if repelled, they combined and climbed higher in the air. The creature passed through them as an archway of flames and as it made it closer to Darcy the flames fell back into their old position.

"Hello Darcy." the were low and taunting.

"Hello there." He replied coyly. "I don't think we've had the pleasure."

The creature let out a chuckle.

"Too true." The creature moved a step closer.

Darcy noticed that the figure didn't move with the motion of walking but rather the creature glided forward.

"How can I help you?" He stood stoic, ignoring the state of the library as he clutched the handle of his cane.

Another laugh. "You really do live up to what they say about you."

"Oh?"

"A 'gentleman' in all scenarios." It was hard to tell any movement this creature made. It'd head, however, was easy to spot as its white orb eyes always matched where it turned. The creature turned its head left and right. Darcy replied with a slight bow, keeping the creature in view.

"Of course. It's a bit hot though isn't? What say we have a change of scenery and begin our discussion?" Sweeping his arm across his body his fingers snapped. A cool, winter like, breeze pulsed from the many and swept across the library. The icy blast doused many flames. The few that posed more strength were extinguished, but the ice entrapped them in a design that would make you think the very flames were simply frozen.

The library no longer illuminated from the dancing flames was now dimly lit with the coldness of refracted light through the ice.

"The rumors continue to exceed expectations." The creature spoke in a laugh.

"Happy to oblige." As he finished he planted his cane firmly in front of him. Crossing his right leg in front of the left with both hands pressing into it. Mentally wincing at the pain he just discovered in his right leg. He smiled at the creature hoping his bluff would buy him additional time for Godwin's escape.

"You see Darcy I'm in need of a particular set of texts."

"Well you've come to the right place my friend."

"Indeed." The creature' white eyes grew larger for a moment as the words were spoke. "It's a book, or maybe a set of books, that pertain the creation of our world."

"Well that would seem to be a rather rare set of tomes indeed."

"I have it on good authority that these golden texts found a home here."

"Ahh, well maybe. But as you can see we're having a slight inventory problem at the moment. It would be quite difficult for me to find them now."

The creature chuckled in reply.

"Perhaps you could come back in a month or so. Give us some time to thaw out a bit." He smiled.

"He he he." The creature taunted.

"Something funny?"

"Enough games Darcy. You and I both know these library has a forbidden section lurking deep underground."

He matched eyes with the creature saying nothing.

"Not willing to speak?"

Darcy's left hand griped the handle of his cane tightly in preparation.

Silence feel between the pair. The tension tight in the air. The creatures eye's widened and then a thick solid black mass launched from its chest. Darcy twisted his wrist and unleashed his hidden blade from within the cane. Moving just to the left he parried the mass. It clanged against his blade continuing its course unbothered and crashed into a frozen bookshelf behind where Darcy once stood. The mass returned just as quickly as it had came before attacking again. Darcy jumped, flipping, forward into the air away from the attack. At he peak of his jump the creature sent a second attack of the same kind right at Darcy. Swinging his blade he countered the strike deflecting it to his right. He caught himself on his left leg and gently planted his right onto the ground finding himself about 10 feet away on his attacker's flank. The masses retreated back to the creature and his jaw slowly opened. That's when Darcy noticed it wasn't a jaw, but a beak opening. While he didn't know who his attacker was he could be certain of one thing, this was a beastmen-kin.

"Where do you hail from beastmen?"

The one eye he could see shifted, staring at him as his mouth stopped opening. It slowly turned to face him.

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"Come now, don't be shy. Even in this day and age plenty of peaceful Beastmen cities stand tall. Where do you hail from?"

The creature remained motionless, as if thinking, and then replied.

"Cawmerce."

"Cawmerce. . . but that kingdom. . ." It then dawned on him why this creature's image had left an incurable itch in his head since it arrived.

The creatures mouth beyond what should be possible and let out a deafening screech. The decibel and volume of forced him to stagger off balance, wincing at the assault on his ears. It was just enough of an opening the creature hoped for as it unleashed another attack. This time Darcy was only able to react to the attack in it's final second. Throwing his arm up to block a translucent gold began to shimmer over his arm only to be interrupted by the slash of a massive talon. It's claws destroyed the minuscule magical barrier Darcy had began to conjurer and sliced across his forearm. Darcy flinched at the pain and made an attempt to jump backward. Only to find himself leaping into the grasp of another talon. It wrapped around his body, his cane falling from grasp, and the claws pinched against him. He struggled to free himself but it was no good. When he brought his gaze up to glare at the creature, it had already bought its full body towards him. The white empty eyes starring hard at him, inches from his face.

Darcy shook his head returning to the present. His once clean and refined attire long since damaged. The scar was a reminder of his failure that day.

"If I had your strength Minerva." He closed his hand into a fist and starred up at the starry night sky once more. A dry, unproductive, cough forced its way suddenly out of him. He leaned over pull his cup up for a small drink. The coolness of the liquid brought him momentary peace and he let out a sigh.

He laid back down and rolled over to face the stone wall again. He shivered beneath the blanket, but it was all he had. As he bordered on the edge of slumber a loud pop echoed throughout his chamber. He quickly turned over, leaning on his elbow, and his opened wide in disbelief. The wall that was once there was no longer. And in it's place was that of a cave. A large waterfall far off on the opposite wall. The floor and walls of this cave gave off a faint light. The image wasn't clear but watery. But inside this image was an person traced with a thick purple outline. And then he heard it's words.

"Father. . .Father. Father Help me!"

He rose to his feet at the sight of him. He was on the ground, one hand in front of his face calling for him. And just above him was a massive Kin-Eater. He looked down at the boy once more and walked closer.

"Oliver? Is that you?"

Oliver's eyes opened, he flipped around onto his hands and knees and there he saw him. Forgetting all sense of what was happening he sprung to his feet and ran to his father.

"Father you came!" He leaped forward arms open to hug his father who opened his arms to do the same. The held tight to one another. Darcy planting gentle kisses against the boy head.

"Ahh it's good to see you my son."

"Father I missed you!"

"And I you." Another moment passed and Oliver released his father. "But, what's going on kiddo. I was pretty sure I left you at home." Oliver smiled and scratched the back of his head.

"Aha ha, yeah. You did. But. . ." And Oliver gave him a quick recap of his journey so far. Darcy nodded along trying to not interrupt. He finally raised a finger gesturing for the boy to pause.

"Apologies son, but I think we are running on limited time." He motioned to the shared, blended, reality. "Tell me, how do I appear to you?"

Oliver glanced around for a moment. "You're outlined or illuminated in a purple color and wherever you are feels hard to see, like if I was looking through a glass? Wait where are you?" He turned in every direction trying to figure out where his father was.

"Now isn't not the time for that Oliver. I can't help but notice you seem to be on the receiving end of a rather large Kin-Eater. When next we meet I will be most eager for you to regale me on your escapades. But I think right now I better try to help you out."

The pair nodded at each other.

"Right, I'm in a pretty bad spot right now." Oliver turned back towards his current enemy.

"Lucky for you, I know a thing or three about monsters." darcy began to roll up his sleeves, or what was left of them. "A regular bestiary I am." He shot his son a smile before walking over to the creature.

"The Kin-Eater isn't all that different from any other spider, or beastman-kin. Their weakest points tend to be along these lines here." Darcy walked around the creature with Oliver show casing where the monsters weakest points of defense are and what they do. He went over various weaknesses and strengths adding in notations here and there commenting on the various differences across the species.

"What you'll want to do is enchant your blade with the essence of fire and then pierce it in these weak points. Here look at this." He walked over and retrieved his cup.

"If you concentrate on the object in your hand and the type of element you want to imbue it with you'll soon see that it has temporary adopted those properties." He held the cup out for Oliver to see as it now had a red sheen to it. As Darcy waved the cup about a red light and head waved off the cup.

"Enchanting objects is fine and all, but it doesn't change the fact this cup isn't a weapon." He tossed it at the wall beside it and while it sparked with a light fire scorch against the wall, but no damage left behind.

He motioned for Oliver to give it a try.

Oliver gripped his blade and did as his father instructed. A fire ball emerged over his closed hand.

"Nope, not like that. You're close though. Put it out and ill show you again." Oliver nodded, canceling the spell.

"You're not far off. You were able to summon magic while occupying your hand, that's pretty impressive. Not a lot of people can do that. But for this you're not trying to create a ball of fire. You're trying to. . .oh what's a good word. . ."

"Cover?" Oliver supplied. Darcy nodded and pointed at him in agreement.

"Yes, cover! You want to cover the blade in the idea of fire. What would that look like, what would that feel like." Oliver nodded at his father's expanded instruction and tried again. This time fire engulfed the blade. He was now holding a burning blade.

Darcy cocked his head to the side and shook it.

"Not quite. That's a literal fire sword. The heat of that fire is very much alive as you can already tell." His father was right the heat coming from his weapon was increasing in intensity by the second. He canceled this too.

"You're getting closer though. You'll need. . ." The world around each of them began to shake and static rippled through the lines of their shared reality.

"Ahh, it seems we're out of time. It's fine Oliver use the Burning Blade, but don't conjure it for long you hear?"

Oliver nodded and ran over to his father. They embraced each other once more.

"Oliver, don't worry about me, all right. Focus on yourself and your journey." He planted a firm kiss on his forehead.

"Dad, will I see you again?" Oliver eyes swelled with tears as he looked up at his father. Darcy just smiled.

"Of course we will. Good luck." And the their worlds began to separate. The threads that tied them together unwound and Oliver was slowly forced back to where he began. He looked back once more to his father and gave him a smile and a wave.

His father returned this.

"Always remember how proud of you I am my son. And no matter what happens you are always such!" And with that the two realities once shared ended. A loud pop rang through Darcy's chamber forcing him to close his eyes in recoil. When his eyes opened again his old stone prison had returned. He stepped forward, placing his palm against it. As he stepped back he dropped down onto his bed again. He turned his attention back to the sky. He swallowed hard. As dread filtered into his body. There was no starry sky to greet his gaze. But instead he was met with the those hollow white orbs starring back at him.

"Well, well, well. You know, it is said only the goddess is supposed to be capable of projection."

Darcy starred back at the fiend saying nothing.

"Oliver was it? Perhaps I'll pay him a little visit the next time I'm In Zophia."

Darcy's eyes widen at the threat as the beastmen fled from the window.

Darcy dropped to his knees.

"Goddess, please watch over my son." His head fell as he softly shook his head in fear.