Theodric was woken up by a bright beam of sunlight directly on his face, which had somehow gotten past the curtains by a small gap. Groggily, he lethargically raised an arm and blindly reached for his cloak on the clothes-chair next to his bed, a special chair (and his only chair) that he piled high with cleanish clothes that he could wear for a second time without washing, but not clean enough to store in his wardrobe.

The veteran tottered over to said curtains and flung them open, immediately blinded by the bright light. Blinking as his pupils contracted, Theodric marveled at the brilliant rays of daybreak, as the sun began to peek over the horizon.

Stretching out his muscles, he turned back inside to get started for the day. After a few minutes of brushing his teeth, he wiggled into his normal robes, musing as he did.

It had been a week since Kira had summoned a Night Warden and Theodric had bonded with Valendor, and it had so far been relatively uneventful. He opened his door and headed off through the empty halls.

After that council meeting without the council members, where he had his outburst of which he was still ashamed of, Valendor had immediately jumped into Theodric’s shadow and promptly fell asleep, of which he had not awoken barring that one time Theodric bought a bag of donuts for his class which was immediately sacrificed as a donation to the Night Warden.

Theodric’s fingers twitched with annoyance as he stuffed them in his pockets against the chilly morning breeze, while he followed the brick path through the woods.

Theodric was fairly certain it was him since the bag had popped out of existence with a darting streak of darkness, and he could sense that the Night Warden was awake via the familiar bond, but sadly Theodric didn’t get the chance to even protest before Valendor’s consciousness dropped off again with a delighted little whoosh.

Theodric sighed in defeat as he found himself in front of the crime scene once again. With the sun fully up in the sky by the time he got into town, he greeted Dominic Dougherty Da Donut Dealer behind his donut stall, with its name painted on the side: Drizzling Donut Dealership.

Inwardly laughing at the nametag every time he saw it, Theodric bought four full bags of donuts, and waited as Dominic struggled to meet his demands so early in the morning.

Midway through filling the second bag, the dreaded donut bandit himself showed up, but this time he at least had the decency to show his face, his very smug and very punchable face.

“Good morning, Theodric,” Valendor flashed his fangs in a smile, which materialised right next to Theodric’s face. “Any chance there’s a donut in there for me?”

“Good morning, Valendor,” Theodric gritted his teeth, refraining from punching the smirk off the Night Warden in surprise, catching his automatic reflexes before disaster struck in the shape of his fist.

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He handed over the still warm bag the size of his torso in his arms. “Here, it's all yours, I’ve ordered two more bags for you after this one,”

“What’s the special occasion?” Laughing in delight, Valendor immediately pounced on his sugary feast without a second word.

“To stall you long enough so I can pass along a message before you could fall asleep again,” Theodric watched his familiar inhale donuts like a drowning man.

“Is it about the Headmaster?” Valendor managed to force out, mouth stuffed with fried dough and icing.

“Yeah, he said he would like to meet you again in three days and I wasn’t too sure I could wake you without donuts,” Valendor nodded sagely at that. “I also woke you up early because it’s my students’ turn to hunt, so we’ll have go on their school field trip as supervisors,”

“Since…well, you flattened a bunch of professors, so we’re a bit too short handed for safety reasons,”

“Fair enough,” Valendor shrugged. “So what does the headmaster want me to do?”

“Oh, it's my idea actually, I hoped we could get a better scope of your abilities and how the four of us can fight as a unit,” Theodric admitted. “While you also get to eat the monster corpses left behind to refill your mana,”

Valendor perked up immediately, already looking forward to the feast that awaited him.

“The materials are split evenly between all the professors and their familiars, that’s why I’m warning you before you go chomping on the pile that’s not ours,” Theodric said in his strict, no-nonsense teacher tone. “If you got me banned from the hunts, you’re never getting donuts again,”

“Good to know,” Valendor laughed aloud, and choked on a donut.

Whilst the Night Warden fought for his life against a half-chewed donut, Dominic plopped the last bag of donuts on the counter and Theodric reached to hold two while thanking the man.

“Help me get the last bag,” He called over the small mounds of deep fried goodness. “Wait, could you store them in my shadow?”

Valendor finally stopped sputtering, winning the fight by a hair, and snapped his gloved fingers. Three paper bags disappeared in the shadows.

“Oh, and leave the last bag, they’re for my students,” Theodric gave one last warning, eyebrows raising. “Are you up for walking back together, if the sunlight doesn’t bother you too much?”

“Sure, what’s up,” Valendor started on the next bag of donuts as they headed back to the castle on foot. Wondering what Theodric had in mind as he scooped a bunch of sprinkle donuts and a bunch of icing ones, dropping the bag into the warrior’s shadow, then stacked and squished them together vertically, effectively making a dozen-layered donut sandwich, just to see how the unholy cloy amalgamation would taste.

“So I’ve been thinking, during the meeting,” Theodric scratched his chin awkwardly. “You said the Dark Lo-sorry- the Lord of Night has all the memories of all the people who ever died?”

“I did, the Ancestral Memorials are records of soul history,” Valendor inspected the saccharine brick between his fingers, preparing to take a bite. “Why? Do you wish to trade information?”

“If he knows all the experiences of the dead people from the war, how does the Shadow Pillar not know about the war itself?”

The Lord of Night froze in shock, jaw comically wide mid-bite, whilst the situation was anything but. Ice shot down his spine, and his heart filled with dread.

“Holy shit,” Something was terribly wrong.