I chewed the inside of my cheek. As much as I didn't want to let this go, just talking about the eclipse made me feel defeated. "How did you guys get to us so fast in that cave?"

“I monitor the radios. I knew there was a threat and it was a demon woman. Odds were high it could be you. Your friends got into a nasty fight. I caught it on the radio. That's how I found them. Good thing too. I would've had to use my power to get to you if I didn't have their help. Taking on an army would have slowed me down."

"It still couldn't have been easy getting to the next passageway having to carry us."

Piercey stopped at a door and reached around me to open it. "I've made more passageways with my graduates. We also installed an elevator system to get down the mountain quickly. You were off the beaten path. That did add some time. But not so much that I couldn't hold the guards off."

He wheeled me into a small room with chairs and benches. It looked like a waiting area. "You held them off?"

"I can only manage it for so long."

I couldn't fathom the power Piercey now possessed. Surely it was far more than what I'd tapped into during the eclipse. It distracted me enough that at first I didn't notice the observatory window at the far end of the room. "Is that…"

Piercey rolled me right up to it. Nash slept on a medical bed with monitors beside him and an oxygen mask over his face. I touched the glass. My heart ached. "Is he sedated?"

"Yes. I'll let him wake up after this next treatment, though."

"Thank you, Piercey." I curled my fingers into a fist. "He has a daughter. He has to make it home."

"He'll make it home, Max. Now, rest while I do your treatment."

I closed my eyes. Peace flooded me as his healing power washed over my body like the water in the cave.

If my power was like fire, Piercey’s was more like the hot springs. Powerful, yet fluid and controlled. No matter how many healing treatments I had in my life, it never stopped amazing me. I could feel a gentle stretching inside. My bones strengthening.

Soon, the pain was only a distant memory.

I stood from the wheelchair and twisted to test out my ribs after Piercey had finished healing me. No discomfort. "You've gotten good at that."

Piercey only smiled as he sat on a bench by the observatory window.

"Are you working on Nash too?" I asked.

"Yes."

"You don't even need to look?"

He crossed one leg over the other. "His wound might have been severe, but it's a simple fix. It just takes time for the tissue to mend. I can visualize it easily."

"You're just one big hot shot now." I sat down beside him. "Hot shot healer. Hot shot director."

He rolled his eyes.

I paused. "Why did you take the job?"

"Big surprise. You don't approve."

"I didn't say that. It's just that we went through so much here."

"Change is always possible. We don’t train children or force them to come here anymore. We give them a home here if they need one, but that's all.”

I sat back. “Where do they learn to use their power?” I didn't like how the Prophets had education whereas few demons did, but that didn't mean I wanted no one to have training.

“They get to be kids. They can enroll when they’ve proven they’re mature enough to understand. And our graduates help the world, instead of hurting it.”

“Are you sure about that?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Yes. Why?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“There are people with power all over the Valley and the Flatlands. Powerful ones.”

“They aren’t mine. I know who you’re talking about.”

“So you’re letting them run wild?”

“What should I do? Start a war?”

“That’s what they’re doing. Warring against people who don’t have power.”

"We don't hold people captive here, Max. Or kill the people who can't cut it. There's more people with power because this school has changed."

He was right. I wouldn't want him to continue in the old way. "There just has to be a better way." Piercey had always been about peace. Frustration leaked into my voice. I didn’t have time to be angry with him now, but it was there, waiting for me to let myself feel it. I remembered that he was healing and cut myself off. "Sorry. I need to let you focus."

“No, no. We can get our fight over with,” he said. "You don't have to wait."

“Not while you’re healing Nash.”

“I can do both at once.”

It’d always been like this with him. No matter how upset I was, no matter how enormous our problems were, we could always put it aside.

“Why did I have to climb this nightmare of a mountain to ask for help? Why weren't you already looking after the innocent down there?"

“I am helping. I’m training people the right way. They’re going out and doing the work.”

I could hardly keep myself sitting. “You’re a few days travel from people who are really hurting. The Prophet has total control over the Valley and now he’s taken my people.”

“If I had known he had your people, I would have acted. Word hadn't made it back to me yet. You have to know that you have never been alone down there.” Piercey’s eyes looked sad. “I’ve kept watch over you.”

“Excuse me?”

“I was scared for you and once I got some power around here, I used it to look out for you. I have no regrets.”

Was that why my people had escaped the Prophet’s grasp for so long? Not because of our skills, but because I had Piercey on this mountain watching over me? “So I'm the only one who deserves your protection?"

"It seems like swooping in to save the day will solve the problems, but there’s always consequences for interfering."

It felt like he’d slapped me across the face. “You sound like the gods.”

“I have a lot of power now, Max. But I’m still just one person. I don’t have any right to alter the course of countless lives. What if I take the wrong approach? It’s better to have a multitude. That’s why all of our graduates meet regularly and we vote.”

“Oh, so did you vote to let the Prophet capture the entire Valley?” I did stand this time, unable to sit next him while he squandered all this power. “People are dying. And you’re just living on top of this mountain, disconnected from it all.”

"Says the woman who abandoned everything, her friends, her power, her responsibility." Hurt blared from his eyes. "Me."

"That's not fair. I was banished and my power was sealed."

"I'm talking about before that." Piercey sat forward. "You knew when you told them that you refused to become a Prophet that it would end like this. Your rebellion was always going to end in a curse."

"It was never about us. I'm not going to do the gods' bidding. This power is the curse. Either we all should have it or none of us."

"If you had stayed, it would be you in my position. You would have far more power. So judge me all you want. It is your own fault that you are now too weak to save your people. All because of a pointless rebellion that accomplished nothing. You thought my way was cowardly, but I've managed to actually change things."

Fire burned in my gut. I couldn't deny it and that made me want to fight him even more. Piercey rarely uttered such provocative words. He'd become bolder. Maybe he believed in the words so much, it was worth hurting me.