He made it home just as the beginnings of night fell. As he ran the dirt roads leading out of SkyHaven and into other cities and districts beyond, day-time heroes at the end of their shifts traveled with him. Merchants in search of new clientele rolled by, rushing to reach the safe embrace of the next city.

The deserts were unkind at night.

Thankfully Claude was in a forest instead.

He pushed through the foliage and entered the forest circle. The rustle and commotion of his movements sent lightning bugs and lumino butterflies buzzing and glowing like spring-time pollen lit ablaze.

His nostrils flared as he scented the air and caught hints of sizzling meats and spices.

He rushed across the clearing and pushed through the doors of his cabin.

Gil stood in the kitchen ahead of him cooking what smelled like spiced auroch steaks. Frosty and Ray welcomed him home with howls and high pitched squawks.

"Hey guys." Claude said as he ruffled Frosty's snout and let Ray perch on his shoulder.

"Welcome home, short-stop. I just finished basting these cuts that totally didn't cost me my most recent sign on bonus." Gil didn't look up from his cooking.

"You're entering Tangents with a new Guild?" Claude questioned.

"I am." Gil didn't sound happy. His voice was low and absent of comedy as he forked the cuts of meat out of the skillet and plopped them down on polished wood slabs disguised as plates.

Claude silently watched him walk them out from the kitchen.

He no longer wore his adventurers jacket and sweater to hide his wounds. Instead he wore a regular short sleeve full of holes and dirt stains along with a pair of jean shorts and boots he cut into the shape of sandals. Visible scaring and faded bite marks covered his limbs like purple tattoo's. He smelled like pine and berries and river water.

"How was the bath?" Claude questioned.

"Better than the ones I had to take at work. You'll never know the discomfort of having to wash yourself with your nails and roll your armor in orc dung so you don't catch any new scents for orcs to follow." Gil set the food on the table and headed back to the kitchen, grabbing a pot of steamed veggies and potatoes.

"I will soon….." Claude corrected.

Gil hesitated and looked up at him as he set the rest of the food down. "I guess that's right, huh?"

Claude nodded as Frosty clung to his father like a second skin.

"How was the healing?" He asked suddenly before beckoning him to sit down.

Claude shrugged off his gear and whistled to Frosty.

The pitwolf trotted over to him and picked up his gear, carrying it to his room deeper in the cabin.

When he returned, Claude handed him a torn chunk of his auroch steak. "Good job."

Gil chuckled.

"It was good. Ms. Oracle says hi."

Gil spit out his food.

Ray hopped across the wooden table and ate it with a flap of his wings.

"The hell are you doing over there?"

"Ms. Callisto refused to heal me. And I need to enter the Infested Area event tomorrow, so I went to her. She's cool."

Gil looked like he was watching two worlds collide in slow motion.

"Wait wait wait— you went to Ms. Oracle? As in Olanda Oracle…. The Wraith-Mother?"

Claude cut a piece of steak and ate it as he nodded. "This is very good steak, dad. If we weren't poor I'd eat this every day I think."

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Frosty barked in agreement as he sat in his chair between them. It strained from his weight.

Gil took a moment to process. "Did she…. Uhhh…. Say anything about me…. Or you?"

"She's hard to understand. But she told me a story about trauma and how it shapes power. Hey dad, was I exposed to strong magics as a baby?"

"No." He stopped looking at Claude for a moment, "No."

"Ok."

"Where'd you get the money to even see her? don't tell me you put it on a tab….. if you tell me that say you're joking immediately after."

"What's a tab?"

Gil looked at the ceiling. Frosty's eyes followed as if he'd find more steak up there.

"Thank the gods. You have listened to my prayers."

"A friend gave me some money. Too much money…. I'll need to pay her back somehow."

Gil looked back down to Claude, "You have friends?"

Claude nodded, "We've been friends for two days. She's…. strong."

Gil looked to be somewhere else then. The bags circling his eyes looked deeper. The wrinkles in his forehead and crows feet around his eyes stretched like the dead awakening. Then he was all goofy smiles again as he leaned back and kicked his legs up on the table.

"A lady you say…??? So you're moving just like your father. That's great, man."

"Thanks, dad."

Gil stared for a while as if he was waiting for Claude to retract his thanks. When the silence spread and Claude continued eating he laughed alone.

"What?"

Gil took a bite of his steak. "Nothing. Nothing…. It's just, I don't know. Do you think I'm a bad father?"

Claude chewed on his food and shook his head. "I don't think we've ever argued….. you should hear how some of the kids in my class talk about their parents."

"Sure…. But some would say that's because I'm barely here. How does that make you feel?"

Claude shrugged. "It used to get lonely sometimes before Frosty and Ray. But you're doing your job. It helps people. And once I'm Reborn, I can start going to work with you. Hah…. I can be your bodyguard."

Gil chuckled, "Yea…. Yea, you could…. Haha."

An awkward silence spread as Gil lowered his head, resting his forehead in his hand as he played around with his food.

For the next few minutes Claude ate silently as Gil grunted and sniffled.

Claude wasn't stupid. He knew his father was crying. He just didn't understand why. He'd never seen his father cry. Maybe that's why he was petrified into a state of inaction. A suspended animation of sorts where all he could manage was eating in the silence.

Then— like nothing happened, Gil sat up and smiled. His eyes were barely red. Did he even cry?

"It's just so crazy."

"What?"

Gil rolled a pee across the table to Frosty. "You're really growing up. You seem like a different person every time I come back. I used to hold you as a baby and do research just like this."

Gil placed his elbow on the table and held his hand up. With his other hand, he jokingly wrote, using his fork as a pen.

"That doesn't seem safe, dad."

Gil continued eating, "This world isn't safe, kid."

Claude didn't have a response to that.

"Then, you graduated primary school. Your grades were so good. I remember how excited you were when you read the paper and learned Ronin's sons were attending the same academy as you. You remember writing that story that the three of you would save the wo—"

"Dad, come on!" If Claude was any whiter his cheeks would've visibly been as red as the myoglobin leaking from his steak.

Gil laughed, for real this time. He laughed so hard he burped.

"Then…. Then you had to spar him. And when you came home you cried for three hours."

"I was like seven. Please add that I was seven." Claude dug into his potatoes.

"You were seven." Gil nodded. "And now…. You're doing everything you can to fight real monsters."

Claude wished his growth went a little faster, but this seemed to be all his father could take.

In the silence he looked around the cabin, eyeballing all the clocks. Some were obscenely expensive as they hung over windows and chests. Others were mundane— crappy, in the wrong time-zone. Claude remembered the first time he went to primary school he was confused at their only being one clock in each room.

Gil even took a moment to eyeball his wrist watches.

"Time is precious. I wish it wasn't…. I wish it was a regular thing you could just comprehend forever. I wish…."

"Are you ok, dad?"

Gil looked up from his watches, "Of course….. I'm fine. How are you?"

Claude swallowed down a mouthful of potatoes and peas, "I'm nervous... I'm really nervous. More than I was this morning."

Gil nodded, "That's good. That means you're alive. Your human. You're aware of everything that comes with what you'll have to do tomorrow."

"Does that ever go away?" Claude questioned.

Gil shrugged, "For some. But it won't for you."

Claude grinned, "How can you be so sure? You just said I'm different every time you see me."

Frosty's saliva dripped on the table from where he sat as he watched Gil eat.

"Yea…. You are. But in a lot of ways you've been the same since the day I met you. Doesn't that sound weird to say?" Gil pondered seemingly to himself.

"It does…" Claude agreed and found himself remembering what Ms. Oracle said before kicking him out of her shop.

Something about never changing where it counted.

"Adults speak a different language." Claude thought as they finished dinner.

Night came in excess by the time they finished and Claude hadn't been so full in weeks. He was so tired he could barely make it to his room.

Maybe not that tired. But being healed completely never felt so good.

Even still, he had just enough energy to play a song on his charmers flute, lulling Frosty and Ray to bed before thumbing through the pages of his collectors edition biographies on The Nine.

He'd read them all from one to nine at least a hundred times. He could recite them by page.

He was back to the start. Well not exactly. He was on book two, fitting for the second in command. Arguably the absolute strongest of New Gloria's premier super guild.

He was brash. He was hot tempered, and he wielded one of the rarest and most powerful elements available to mankind. The Solar Element.

His name was Rory Legrand, The Red Knight of Rage….