Lyle spent his journey home thinking about how to tell his mom that he’d quit his job and been Kindled—he would probably leave out the part about Tiamat. After what had happened with his father and brother, he wasn’t sure how she’d take the latter news. Abe drove him, unfortunately shortening the span of time he had to think about how to break the news.

In the middle of the drive, pain hit him. A burning feeling in his chest made him groan and double over as he clutched at his heart with his fingers. Sweat broke out on his forehead.

“Dude, you okay?” Abe asked immediately, glancing at him with concern.

“Yeah, just—ah, fuck, this hurts. Like bad heartburn, only I can literally feel the heat emanating from my chest.” He groaned again, but suddenly the pain lessened.

“Do you need me to take you to the hospital or something?”

“No, no,” Lyle said, sitting back up straight and taking deep breaths and a sip from his water bottle. “It passed. I don’t know what that was.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll talk to someone if it keeps happening. It felt like this a bit when I woke up this morning, too. Not sure what the deal is, but it goes away after a minute.”

Soon they reached Lyle’s family’s house. After thanking Abe and telling him they’d talk soon, he made his way up the walkway. It was small, but enough for the three of them as long as they could make their payments. Lyle liked to think it was cozy, and, to be fair, Delylah Margrave kept very good care of it even despite her busy work schedule. Lyle’s and Helen’s mother was very industrious.

He knocked on the door before walking in, and called out once he was inside. As he was taking his shoes off, he heard footsteps. He quickly lifted a hand to his head, where he’d struck Thomas, but the small section of split skin had already healed.

Ah, but the wonders of being an Ember.

“Lyle!” exclaimed Helen, his sister, who looked unusually bright-eyed with excitement. “We got visiting rights for dad!”

“We… wait, really?” Lyle asked.

“Yeah, come here,” she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him along. The day before, he might have stumbled from her yank, but now he barely budged. She rolled her eyes. “Are you going to stand here all day? Hurry it up.”

They both walked into the kitchen to find Delylah on the old family laptop. It was a miracle the thing was still working. Well, not so much a miracle—Abe had fixed it up six or seven times at minimum. Delylah herself was average height with brown hair and, despite getting on in her fifties, still maintained the beauty of her younger days, which she’d passed on to the shorter haired version of herself that was Helen.

“Helen says we’re visiting dad?” Lyle asked, noting the slight downturn in his mom’s lips and the concern in her eyes as she looked at the screen. The expression melted away as she looked up and smiled at him.

“Maybe,” she replied. “Nothing’s set in stone yet.”

“We have to,” said Helen enthusiastically. “We have to be there for him. We have to let him know that someone outside still believes him. That he’s still on our minds.”

“Right, honey, of course,” Delylah said, standing and hugging her daughter. “I’m sure he would appreciate that.”

“Why now?” Lyle asked.

“I’m not sure,” Delylah replied before releasing Helen and turning back to the computer. “It might be that he requested it and they finally relented. I got an email that just says he’s available for visitation.”

“Nothing else?” asked Helen.

“That’s it,” confirmed Delylah. Both her children looked over her shoulder at the laptop screen and scanned the email. It only had the bare necessities that deemed it official and conveyed what Delylah had already told them.

“I guess we’ll have to go to Chicago,” Lyle said. Helen smiled but Delylah’s face bore a hint of a grimace.

“I’m not sure we can afford a trip right now,” Delylah said. “It’s tough enough just keeping up with mortgage payments and Helen’s school.”

“Can’t we go when the school year ends?” Helen asked. “We could even drive.”

Helen was a junior at the University of Minnesota. It was nearly May, so she’d have her summer break soon, but she would likely have to get a job and it was unclear whether any of them would have the necessary vacation time.

“Maybe, sweetie, but that still means paying for gas and hotels,” replied Delylah. “And even if we go on a weekend, that’s at least a day off of work for me and the Café is understaffed as it is right now. Lyle, what about you? Do you have any vacation days?”

Lyle cringed. This was the moment he’d have to come clean.

“Um… so, I don’t want you to worry,” he began, raising his hands in a placating gesture. Delylah looked at him sideways.

“The way you say that immediately makes me worry. What happened?”

“They—er, I… uh… I quit,” Lyle mumbled.

“What!?” Delylah cried out as she stood up again. “You quit? But—but—but you were going to get a promotion soon! I thought you were happy working there.”

Lyle couldn’t help but notice that her concerns had nothing to do with the loss of his paycheck, and that she still believed he had been near a promotion. “Mom, I made my choice. It’s okay.”

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“It’s not okay! Why—”

“What are you going to do?” Helen interrupted.

“I’m going to try to work directly for a guild,” he told them. “I already have an in, and I’m going to a party tomorrow night at Moonlight Sonata.” It wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t related to him getting a job. Not that it necessarily couldn’t be... but he didn’t want to share the other shocking events of the last two days with Delylah. As much as he wanted to be happy about becoming Kindled, he knew his mom wouldn’t see it the same way. He didn’t want her to think of him as living on borrowed time.

“What will you be doing?” asked Delylah, still clearly shocked. “What guild needs a poli-sci dropout?”

“Mom!” Helen said. Lyle frowned and felt a lump in his throat. He knew he shouldn’t have dropped out, but even if he hadn’t, he probably would have flunked after the news of that day three years ago. The day that Carson died.

“Shit,” Delylah said. “Lyle, honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“I know.” Lyle cut her off. “It’s okay. Maybe you’re right. But I’m going to try, anyway. I owe it to you guys. I owe it to Carson. Just give me a couple days. I’ve got a good feeling about this. And, if it doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll get a job at a restaurant or something and finish my degree.”

“I’m sorry,” Delylah said again. “It’s been hard, I know. I still believe in you. We’ll get through this.”

He nodded and turned to go, but Delylah grabbed him in a hug and Helen joined them.

“It’ll be okay,” Delylah said again, seemingly to convince herself.

“I know,” replied Lyle. “We’ll be fine.”

They stood there together for a minute before breaking apart. Delylah grasped the faces of both Helen and Lyle.

“I love you both,” she said.

“We love you, too, mom,” they said in near unison. Then they grinned at each other and Delylah let out a half chuckle, half sob, before pulling them back in for another hug.

A few minutes later in Lyle’s room, Lyle and Helen spoke more openly.

“She’ll be alright,” Helen said reassuringly. “And don’t worry about me. Worst case scenario, I pick up more hours and contribute more to my tuition.”

“Yeah, but then you won’t have any time to actually do your school work.”

“Like I said, don’t worry about me,” she repeated. She started inspecting his bookshelf and picking up the little knick knacks and figurines atop the books to look at them closer. “Did Thomas do something shitty again?”

“Honestly, Helen, it wasn’t any one thing in particular, even if he did have some of his idiot friends mess with me,” Lyle replied with a sigh, leaning back onto his bed with a thump. “Nothing I haven’t dealt with before, anyway. Jokes in poor taste. Stupid, worthless grunt work. Some insults here and there. He just enjoyed finding creative ways to make my job difficult and soul-crushing.”

“So you put your foot down?” Helen asked with a figurine of their brother held delicately in her hand. It had been hand carved by a local woodworker shortly after Carson’s death and the fall of New York.

“Something like that,” Lyle said. “Straw that broke the camel’s back, I guess. I just hated the juvenile bullying and the fact that my career within DOER depended entirely on him. The entire thing was just a cluster. I ran into him this morning, actually. Him and his two friends, of course. They wanted a fight.”

Helen cringed. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“Nah, not in the literal lobby of the DOER Building. That’s a bit too brave for anyone. They grabbed me, but I don’t think it turned out like they wanted it to. I… I might have broken Thomas’ nose.”

Helen snorted. “Nice. And escaped none the worse for wear, too.”

“Yeah, mostly—just annoyed,” Lyle said. “Anyway, that’s all done now.”

“Did you quit this morning?”

“No, two days ago.”

“What were you doing back there?” Helen asked.

“Just grabbing some stuff.”

“Ah.” Helen put the statuette down and leaned against the bookcase. “Well, sounds like quitting is for the best. You’re a smart guy. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“Aw, thanks, Helen,” Lyle said with a smile. “That means a lot.”

“You really think you’ll get a job at a guild?” she asked.

“Maybe. We’ll see. I got other irons in the fire, too, so we’ll see what happens.”

“Ooh, intriguing,” Helen replied jokingly. “Being all enigmatic now, huh?”

“Hey, nothing’s set in stone. Don’t want to disappoint anyone again.”

“Oh, don’t talk like that. You’ll do just fine and everyone will be amazed at how great you are.”

“Is that so?” Lyle said with a laugh. “Once we get you through college, I think mom and I will just retire and live off of you.”

“Oh, no!” Helen said in mock horror. “Anything but that!”

“You’ll be rich and famous, I’m sure,” Lyle said speculatively. “You won’t miss what little money we manage to squeeze out of you.”

“As if. You’ll be rolling in dough by then, I’m sure of it.”

“I admire your confidence, although I’m really not in it for the money.”

“I know, I know. Well, it’s getting late. I gotta go do some work or I’m going to hate myself in class tomorrow morning. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”

“Later, Helen,” Lyle said. He smiled again as she skipped her way out of the room, pausing only to spin and made finger guns at him.

Helen did a good job of putting everything in perspective for him. He loved his supportive family, had a few good friends, and that was all he really needed. He rolled that thought over in his mind for a minute and realized eventually that it wasn’t quite right. He still had a drive to make a difference, but he wouldn’t put the ones he loved in harms’ way to do it. That would be a poor tribute to Carson’s memory.

Maybe he really would end up working at Moonlight Sonata. Unlikely thought it was, that would be a step in the right direction. Either way, he was confident he would figure it out. The first and most difficult step had already been taken.

His thoughts returned to his father, another Ember in the family. Visiting Stephen would be nice, but Delylah’s hesitation made Lyle worry. They’d left Chicago because of the stigma around his name. He was closer to infamous than famous, though, ever since he—a powerful Ember in his own right—been accused and convicted of murder. Only his family still stood by him. Only his family knew he would never do something like that, and the people who believed them were few and far between.

Emily had been one of them. She had believed Lyle when he told her his father was innocent. Lyle pulled out his phone and tried to turn it on again as that thought crossed his mind, but the blank screen simply stared back at him, completely unresponsive.

“Ah, damn it,” Lyle said to himself, realizing he had only given his phone number to Trent and Liv. He ran downstairs and used the laptop to send a quick email to Abe, asking him to let them both know Lyle’s phone was broken and that email was a better way to contact him.

While he was sitting at the kitchen counter, there was a knock at the door.

Who could that be? he wondered. It was getting on in the evening, and the Margraves didn’t get a lot of visitors. He walked over to the door and opened it.

Before him stood a beautiful woman with shoulder length blonde hair with braids forming a crown on her head. An aura of power resonated with the air around her, if the fox and butterfly tokens weren’t enough to give her away as an Ember. Lyle could feel the pressure rolling off of her in waves, now that he himself had been Kindled.

“Uh, Camille, right?” he asked, remembering what Tiamat had called her.

She nodded tersely, apparently unimpressed that he knew her name.

“I have something for you,” she said begrudgingly. “A gift from Tiamat.”