The ride home was silent. The charge of Nick’s glare filled the entire car, and Evelyn was terrified to break it. She distracted herself by glancing at the options for her third level druid. There wasn’t too much for level three. The big one came from level two, choosing her druid circle. Clarissa now had access to two level two spells, and four level one spells. More spells were always nice, and she’d also have to roll for hit points. It would feel nice to have over twenty hit points.

Evelyn didn’t dare move. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she prepared for a screaming match between Nick and Walt when they got home. Clarissa was taking a quick nap in the back. Grizzizzik was still doing whatever he needed to around Elmwood.

They pulled into the driveway. Nick barely turned it off before shoving the door open and getting out. He slammed the door before heading toward the garage. Evelyn’s eyes grew warm. She didn’t want to go inside. She knew what would greet her there.

Clarissa sat up, straightening her tiara. “Shall we go inside?”

The first of the tears fell. “I suppose.”

The druid heard the tone in Evelyn’s voice. “You’re scared?”

Evelyn watched as Nick walked through the opened garage door and inside the house. “Terrified.”

Clarissa followed her gaze as she noticed Nick. “Ah. You did not get your father’s permission to do this adventure.”

“You could say that.”

There was silence again, then Clarissa unbuckled her seatbelt. “Worry always does more harm than good. The situation is happening. Worrying about what might happen is silly when we can go see what’s happening.”

Evelyn closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. Her fingers fumbled over the door handle before she opened it and got out of the car, the shouting already drifting out the door. She made sure the car was locked before moving into the garage. After another moment of readying herself, she opened the door.

A wave of sound hit her. Lydia was nowhere to be found. Evelyn felt a powerful urge to sneak across the wall and hide in her room.

“This isn’t a joke, Nick. You can’t leave this house! You are grounded!”

“I have spent years doing absolutely nothing! My record is squeaky clean! I have been perfect! Why isn’t that enough for you!”

“You know the rules of being grounded! I am not budging one inch until you turn eighteen!” Walt held up Nick’s phone. “Tell me right now why Tyler called you.”

Nick glared at Walt. “I don’t know. As you can plainly see, I didn’t answer it!”

“It was my fault!” Evelyn found herself saying.

Nick and Walt ignored her.

“You really think I’m going to take that answer?”

“It’s the truth!” Nick shouted.

“It was my fault!” Evelyn shouted even louder. They finally looked at her. Evelyn walked over to stand in front of Nick. “I called Nick. I wanted to come home early. He was kind enough to take me for ice cream. Is being a good brother such a punishable offense to you?”

“Why didn’t you call me?” Walt asked.

“Because you were on a date with Mom. It seemed silly to call you when Nick was already available.”

Walt narrowed his eyes, studying Evelyn closely. “I know he’s been using your laptop to look up rental places.”

“I don’t care,” Evelyn said, a statement of its own. But that, too, was a tiny lie. Nick wasn’t using her laptop; she was giving it to him. She fully acknowledged she wasn’t brave enough to say this to her father’s face, and she hated how it felt like throwing Nick under the bus.

Nick took the moment of silence to escape, heading down the hall and slamming the door to his room. Walt glared at his retreating form before glaring right back at her.

“You are not helping him at all. In fact, you’re making it worse. He needs to learn his lesson,” Walt said.

“He already has,” Evelyn said in a brave way she did not feel. “And since you clearly can’t see that, you’ll learn your own lesson when he turns eighteen.”

Walt shook his head, then left for his own room as he slipped Nick’s phone in his pocket. Evelyn was left alone in the kitchen, feeling her knees tremble. She’d confronted Walt before, but it was always when he was in a good mood. She had never done that in the middle of a screaming match.

“Are you alright?” Clarissa asked.

Evelyn brushed her sweaty palms down her dress. “Yes.” She began walking toward her own room. “You have a few more spells to choose, then we need to roll for more hit points.”

“Sometimes you act like a princess, and it’s so fun to see.”

Evelyn frowned, finally giving Clarissa a good hard look. Her druid, with her sapphire tiara and gorgeous, if bloodstained, blue dress. “Me? A princess? What did I do?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“You stood up for your brother.”

“That’s… not acting like a princess,” Evelyn said.

“Then what is?”

Evelyn shrugged. “You.”

“And what do I do?”

“Um… you’re an elf. And you get things done.”

Clarissa laughed, the sound light and airy. “Perhaps I have a limited idea of what a princess does since I spent a century staying with my parents, but someone who stands up for those who are less fortunate would make a great princess.”

Evelyn wasn’t sure what to say. She was pretty sure there was more to being a princess than that, but it did feel like a good basic idea.

Clarissa motioned her over, her face serious. “Now come. If you’re comfortable enough, I’d like to check you for any of these gray marks the other two have. That Tyler boy is right. We need to monitor this.”

Evelyn nodded, once again absently touching her stomach. She didn’t feel anything, but she still remembered the grey marks on Nick and Derek’s stomachs.

“Alright. We’ll bounce spell ideas off each other while we do it, too,” Evelyn said.

***

Nick tried to sleep, but he couldn’t. Grizzizzik wasn’t back yet, and he was uncomfortable about that. True, severing the heads off fifteen orcs had to be time consuming, let alone strategically placing them over the town. But the dance was undoubtably over. Akshi was… who knows where? Maybe he should have leveled Grizzizzik up before allowing him to do this.

At least he got more hit points. That, apparently, could be done from a distance. Grizzizzik now had twenty-five total, a nice bump from eighteen. But choosing the rogue subclass he couldn’t do unless Grizzizzik was there.

Level three was the big one. Once Grizzizzik was back, he’d go through the mastermind subclass so they could get more familiar with it.

Also, he really needed the distraction from his fight with Walt.

Nick didn’t realize he was sleeping until he heard the window sliding back. He sat up, rubbing his eyes as Grizzizzik slipped through the window. Nick checked his glowing alarm clock to see it was almost four in the morning.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” Nick said, resting his elbows on his knees.

Grizzizzik glanced at him. In the moonlight, he saw his rogue still covered in blood. “I thought you were asleep.”

“I was.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Nick didn’t expect Grizzizzik to apologize. It was weird and out of character, which caused his suspicions to flare. “Did everything go okay?”

Grizzizzik picked off an orc tooth from his clothes. “Yeah.”

There was another silence. “Alright, so, I wanted to talk to you fast about your rogue subclass. I don’t know why it won’t let me choose this until you’re here, but are we good with everything about mastermind? The class you had before?”

Grizzizzik folded his arms, giving Nick a blank stare. “No.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “No?”

“No.”

He waited for his rogue to explain, but it was clear he wasn’t going to. The silence stretched on as he stared at his rogue, who stared blankly back. “So… what do you want to do instead?”

Grizzizzik didn’t answer. The blank stare turned into one of resign. Nick realized he couldn’t choose mastermind because Grizzizzik didn’t want it. He wanted something else and was hesitant to say for some reason.

“Scout?” Nick asked. Grizzizzik remained silent. Nick mentally scrolled through the other options given to rogues. “Assassin? Thief? Swashbuckler?” Grizzizzik rolled his eyes, unfolding his arms and unclasping his cloak. “Are you going to tell me? Or are you going to keep secretly judging me because I can’t read your mind?”

Grizzizzik shot him a glare as he started unbuttoning his vest. Nick’s character sheet shifted, and one option filled his vision. Nick stared at it, pretty sure he was still sleeping.

“I’m sorry… what?”

Again, Grizzizzik said nothing. He simply eased himself out of his blood covered shirt before tenderly holding his shoulder where Milo accidentally shot him.

“You hate magic. And mana. You don’t understand any of it. You… no. This isn’t you. Why do you want to be an arcane trickster?” Nick asked.

“It is what it is.”

“That is the stupidest answer I’ve ever heard. I created you, and this makes no sense, other than some deep desire to be a complete rebel and not listen to me.” Again, Grizzizzik answered with a blank stare. Nick read through the requirements. “Look at this. It uses your intelligence modifier to cast spells. You’re… an idiot. Your modifier would be zero. Zero! Which is how much sense this choice makes.”

Grizzizzik gathered his cloak, shirt, and vest. “I’m going to go wash these.”

Nick watched his rogue leave, jaw slack. What had happened to Grizzizzik? He hated magic. Hated mana. Considered it the coward’s form of fighting. Despised it because of how much his father relied on it.

Nick stood up and silently left his room, walking down the hall until he got to the bathroom where Grizzizzik was washing his shirt and vest in the bathtub. The rogue barely glanced over his shoulders before focusing again on cleaning. Nick folded his arms and leaned against the door.

“You are Grizzizzik, right? Not some enchanted clone Akshi created to ruin his son’s life by making him choose a magic based class?” Nick asked as quietly as he dared.

Grizzizzik dropped his head, his shoulders slouching. “Seriously, kid, didn’t you create me? Don’t you know how stupid a question that is?” The rogue stood up, facing Nick. “You honestly think if I really was Akshi in disguise, I’d tell you that? Even if you asked nicely?”

“That’s the only way any of this makes sense,” Nick said.

“It’s me, Nick. Doesn’t your little magical dice tell you it’s me?” Grizzizzik wiggled his fingers in Nick’s direction.

Nick narrowed his eyes, but Grizzizzik was right. The character sheet was still up, still showing him all the things he would need to choose for arcane trickster. That couldn’t be possible unless it was Grizzizzik making the choice.

“Stop playing games with me. Tell me why you’re making a choice so out of character,” Nick said.

Grizzizzik still stared at him, then turned around and kept cleaning his clothes. Nick sighed, rubbing his eyes again. He should go back to sleep. None of this made sense.

Nick paused. Grizzizzik was his character. What made sense was doing something that seemed out of character and not telling anyone why. But there was always a reason. So… what was the reason?

Nick watched as the rogue kept cleaning clothes. Saw the occasional scar on his back from his time spent with his father. Realized how deep Grizzizzik’s hatred for Akshi was.

“You… heard. That we don’t have a spell caster strong enough to kill him,” Nick said, all of it clicking into place. “And you… want to be the one that does it.” Grizzizzik stopped, holding perfectly still. “We might not find a magical weapon on Earth powerful enough to keep Akshi from coming back. You need to find out how to get rid of him permanently. Despite years of sticking your nose in the air, you need to study the magical arts to figure out how to kill your father.”

Grizzizzik said nothing. He didn’t have to. Nick knew he was right. With a mental click, Nick chose arcane trickster. Grizzizzik stiffened, a tiny hiss escaping him. Nick watched as the rogue gripped the edges of the bathtub.

“We’ll choose your spells later. I’m tired.” Nick got up from leaning against the doorframe.

“Don’t…” Grizzizzik trailed off. Nick paused, glancing behind him. Grizzizzik was still hunched over the tub. The rogue turned his head ever so slightly. “Don’t tell anyone. That I’ve… made this choice.”

Nick frowned. “They’re going to find out, eventually.”

Grizzizzik focused back on his clothes. “We’ll see how long I can keep it a secret.”

Nick fought the urge to roll his eyes as he went back to his room.