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(Lio Meyne)

After chatting for quite a while with her father and killing time by eating out, it was already dusk. Lio felt the need to leave so he could give space for Charliette to spend time with her father, but she looked him dead in the eye and insisted that he stay at least one more night. It was dark outside and even more dangerous with undead lurking about, so Charliette refused to let him leave alone at night. So another sleepover was planned in the Glaciare household.

Carlon had trotted over to Charliettes room, slowly tugging it open and inching his head inside.

“Knock first!” His own daughter yelled at him and forced the door back shut.

“Right, sorry.” He backed up and tried again. This time he raised a hand and knocked on the finely made mahogany door that was free of any blemish, not even a shaving of wood was splintered out of place.

The door swung open a few minutes afterwards. “I was changing. Knock next time, Father.” Charliette’s eyes rolled and she turned around, the ends of her nightgown twirling.

“Where do I sleep?” Carlon stepped inside the room and nearly fell over when a cat perched on her wardrobe hopped off and jumpscared him. He didn’t feel like asking about it at the moment, he was tired. “Did you have a fold-up bed or something here I could sleep on?”

Charliette was already getting under the covers and beckoning forth her cat when her father asked that question. She didn’t waste the energy of raising her head. “No, you’re sleeping on the couch with Lio.”

“Huh? With him? But I hardly know him,” he whined, gesticulating his displeasure.

“Then get to know him. You have an entire night.” Charliette plopped down on her white pillow and wrapped her gray blanket over herself. Little Ember ran over and curled up into a neat ball right on her stomach.

“Fine, I will. You really are like your mother.” Carlon turned on his heel and walked out the door. “Goodnight, dear.”

“”Night,” a weary Charliette drowsily replied. No more than a minute later and she was drifting off into the dream world.

Meanwhile, Carlon ambled over to find Lio sitting on the couch. He had a folded blanket in his arms and an extra pillow.

“Mr. Glaciare, here.” Lio offered the blanket and pillow to him, and he took it. He scooted over to make room for Carlon on the couch, but Carlon instead spread out the blanket on the floor.

“It’s fine, I'll just sleep on the floor. It’s better for my back.”

“Uh, yes sir.” Lio was twiddling his thumbs.

The living room was dead silent and an awkward atmosphere blanketed them, Carlon could feel it. It annoyed him and messed with his sleep.

He sat on the spread out blanket with his legs crossed. “Elliott, was it? Or should I call you Lio?”

Lio was in the midst of rolling out his blanket on the couch. Hearing Carlon address him by name caught him off guard. “Uh, feel free to call me whatever.”

Carlon scratched at his cheek. “Okay then, Lio. Where are you from? You don’t seem like a native Galligarian.”

“You’re right, I’m from Chautington, not Galligar. How’d you know?”

The tired magic professor rested his hands on his knees and gazed off at the ceiling. It was another one of his bad habits, he never could make consistent eye contact with people.

“You just don’t seem like the city folk type, you get what I mean?” Carlon said.

He was tempted to take back those words, but remembered Charliette in his mind. To him, she was the embodiment of a city dweller. He just couldn’t imagine her being cooped up in a village or a farm town. She thrived off of big city accommodations, fancy cuisines being her most beloved thing to indulge in. Aside from her disdain of large crowds, she had no problem fitting in the big city culture.

Lio, on the other hand, was on the opposite spectrum from Charliette. He was quiet by nature, Carlon could already tell, which wouldn’t fly in the big city where all that was going on was the loud noises of the hustle and bustle. But he survived this long in Galligar, Carlon had to give him that.

“I… get that a lot.” Lio nervously chuckled. “What about your family? Are you Soaran or…” Lio stopped, he didn’t want to assume anything. He kept it to himself for the longest time, but he thought since meeting Charliette that she didn’t look Soaran, yet her demeanor oozed Soaran influence. He just couldn’t pinpoint why, but she looked different from everyone else, unique in a way. He thought maybe it was those dark ocean blue eyes that enraptured anyone who stared into them, since he had never seen a Soaran in his life with blue eyes.

Lio couldn’t pin down why Carlon started laughing all of a sudden. “Haha! No, we’re not Soaran, Me. my wife, and Charliette are all full blooded Dalmonian. Charliette has been in Kori Soaro her whole life, though, so it's hard to truly call her anything but Soaran culturally.”

Lio’s lips curled into a wry smile, listening to Carlon chuckle more and more. “What was Charliette like as a kid?”

Carlon slapped his knees and pointed a finger right at Lio. “Bah! You like my daughter, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. She’s a good friend, Mr. Glaciare.”

“Cut the crap, Lio! I can smell your infatuation from here. And stop being so formal. Don’t think of me as your crush’s dad, but just a fellow mage.”

“Right… I’ll try.” Lio cleared his throat and glared back at Carlon, who was still staring off into the ceiling. He was about to say something, but he cut him off.

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“Charliette, though, was too curious for my liking as a kid. The moment she could walk, she was all over the place asking ‘What’s this?’ or ‘What does this do?’” Carlon finally made eye contact with Lio and giggled. “You wouldn’t believe how much she ate! Man, that kid could munch like no one’s business.”

Looking fondly back at his past with Charliette, Lio could see that she hadn’t changed much. She was always curious to learn new things and she loved Soaran food more than anyone. It was a miracle that she had a petite hourglass figure given her previous habits. But she did mention losing a ton of weight, so maybe it wasn’t a miracle after all. Just hard work.

Carlon had sat up from the floor and pulled a mysterious object out from his pocket. It was a small coin pouch that jingled each time he shook it. He had a playful grin on his face.

“Want to see a trick? I used to street perform, so this brain is full of cool things,” he asked, pointing to his noggin.

“Huh? Oh, sure.”

Lio watched intently as Carlon held the pouch in one hand and his other one hovering a distance above it, palms facing each other. He whispered the flux spell, and the pouch immediately got sucked up to the palm above it, hanging from its surface. He flexed the wrist of the palm below and the pouch then got yanked to the bottom where his other hand was. This went on back and forth, almost like his palms were magnets that stuck to the pouch. But not one of his fingers moved, Displacement magic was doing the work, forcing the pouch from one hand to the other with quick precision.

He then ramped up the speed so much that it made an illusion of the pouch just floating in mid air between the palms. Lio gawked at it in fascination.

“How’d you do that? I’ve never seen that before.”

“A magician never reveals his secret.” He stopped the trick and stuck the pouch right back in its pocket. “You’re a mage too, no? Have any tricks?”

All Lio did was stare all around the room for a quick second and then shook his head. “No, I don’t want to risk burning down the house.”

“C’mon, surely you’re skilled enough to control the flame so that doesn’t happen, right?”

Lio grew hesitant. Sure, he was an Experienced Rank Mage—the second highest Mage rank—but that didn’t mean anything to him. It was only a title at the end of the day. He reluctantly channeled magic energy to his palm and sparks ignited from it. A fire burst to life in his hands dancing around in the cold autumn air.

It grew brighter, brighter, and brighter. It’s heat brushed against Lio’s cheeks, standing taller than before like a mini bonfire. Lio stared at it, the orange flames reflecting in his golden eyes. Something about the flame frightened him, the way it swayed back and forth like an animated figure. Almost like it was threatening him. He gasped then immediately extinguished the flame with a squeeze of his palm.

Carlon stood there with a perplexed face. He was a Fire Mage, right? Why was he so scared of using a flame, something he himself had conjured up? It was weird, to say the least, but that wasn’t the case for Lio, and Carlon caught on. He was a magic professor, after all. Noticing body language of mages in relation to magic was all apart of the job.

“What’s going on?” This time Carlon stood up. The man made his way right in front of Lio, perching his hands on his hips. “Your posture doesn’t really ooze confidence.”

Lio was mute, rubbing a finger over his palm where the flame had once been. Not even a peep escaped his mouth, and he didn’t dare show this weakness to Charliette’s father.

“Look, you doubt yourself too much. And you have no backbone. Ya know, sometimes you have to put your foot down once in a while, like telling me what you want to be called.”

Lio finally lifted his mouth only to sigh. Something was weighing on his heart. No matter what happened, even at his rank, his magic was never enough. In the Dungeon of the Dead, the Treasure Dungeon, and even the Beast Dungeon to an extent, he failed to protect those he loved and forced them to protect himself. His magic barely got them out of the scrape in the Dungeon of the Dead, but he failed to protect Charliette in all the other places. She was the one acting, the one taking the initiative, while he was on the sidelines unable to do anything.

Fire Magic was extremely power, yet there were times that it wasn’t enough. Even at his rank, Lio felt totally incompetent.

“I’m just not good enough,” he whispered. “No matter what happens, my magic never was enough.”

Lio couldn’t believe it, but Carlon have the largest smirk in the world. Those shy-blue eyes of his pierced his soul, and warmed him much more than his fire could. “What’s your rank, kid?” Carlon said.

“Huh? Uh, I’m an Expert Rank.”

“Wow! I’m only an Experienced Rank in Displacement Magic.”

Carlon plopped down next to Lio and wrapped a hand around his shoulder, just like his father had done with him when was a gloomy little child many years ago. Grandpa Glaciare was a stern yet surprisingly affectionate person, and that rubbed off on Carlon way too much. “Hey, I think you’re missing a little something. A piece to your puzzle, if you will.”

Lio and Carlon were now face to face, so close that Lio could see the black stubble on his face. But Charliette looked so much like him. He wondered what exactly did she inherit from her mother if she was a carbon copy of her father, but female. Carlon continued.

“Magic isn’t meant to be a solo thing. They compliment each other. Think of it. Water Magic alone wouldn’t be able to combat all the other magic types. Sure it's good against fire and Displacement Magic. But Mimicry? It would be like splashing a bucket of water on them.”

“Hmm.” Lio turned to the floor, staring at his own robes. He was everything a Fire Mage should be, powerful and smart, yet he still knew he was lacking.

“That’s why I believe you’re not incompetent, you just need a team that compliments you.” Carlon jabbed a finger at Lio’s heart. “It’s impossible for one mage to take on the world, they need a team. You need to find yourself someone to watch your back, a Water mage that you can compliment and that compliments you. So please, don’t try to do things yourself. Learn to lean on others.”

It hasn’t occurred to Lio that Carlon hadn’t realized that Charliette was a Water Mage. It was fairly recently that she made the switch, but he recognized his wisdom. He wasn’t incompetent, he just needed to learn to rely on people. It would be hard to completely remove that mindset, but that was okay. Not everything would be easy, he knew that. Even as a powerful mage capable of tearing buildings up in flames, even he himself had things to learn.

A small grin grew over his face, and it was contagious. Not a particular smile of happiness or love, but one of relief. His burden was still large and his heart heavy, but Carlon had lifted just enough of that weight that he could feel relief in it. Carlon saw that smile and could help but flash his pearly whites too.

“You’re getting it, right?” He nudged Lio with his elbow.

“Just a bit. Thank you, Mr. Glaciare.”

“I said cut the crap about calling me ‘Mr.’ Carlon’s fine.”

Lio nodded his head. He was falling into the same trap as his student. He’d often told Charliette to stop calling him Master, but here he was doing the equivalent with her father. He was a hypocrite indeed.

X X X

Charliette hopped out of bed at 7 a.m. sharp, only to be surprised by voices blaring in the living room. She yawned and made her way to the voices.

There she saw her father and Lio sitting across from one another and bantering on and on about a topic she didn’t quite understand. Was it magic? Finance? Taxes? She didn’t know.

“You guys are up early, and are getting along quite well,” she said, sitting down next to Lio on the couch.

“We didn’t sleep.”

“Huh? Really?”

She shook her head. These two really did get along so well, it was hard for her to imagine that only yesterday they were strangers. Life sure is strange, and so are the people in her household. That, she could not deny.