Sister Marla stared at a charred mess of vines and branches surrounding her with a tired expression. Not far from her, a puddle of molten metal was only starting to cool, the remnants of what used to be a metallic bed.

The bed inside the cocoon of vines she’d manifested the night before had melted, the sheets and mattress incinerated to oblivion.

A little boy coiled in the corner of the room, away from the incinerated plant-like cage that had been made to contain his flames, sobbing.

Feeling her heart crack at the sight, the caretaker made her way through and scooped the boy up into her arms, “There there, Cody.”

Cody only buried his face into her stomach and continued sobbing silently.

While she soothed the boy, she gazed around with a concerned expression. The door to the boy’s dormitory opened just moments later, admitting a few concerned girls and a man dressed in elegant white armour.

Garin came in with a worried expression. His red hair had grown a bit more, giving him a richer beard and an overall older appearance. Somehow, his look of worry looked deeper this way, “I heard the… umm, explosion. How is he doing?”

Marla shook her head, then commenced rubbing circles on the boy’s back, “He’s a strong boy. We’ll figure this out. Thanks again… for reinforcing the walls.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank Alaric when he wakes up. He’s the one that left you all that money,” Garin replied.

“How is he?” the woman asked.

The man shook his head with a sad expression, “Same as always. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he’s…” Marla gave the man a stern look that silenced him before the words could leave his tongue, “In any case, he didn’t seem any different when I left this morning.”

The caretaker carried the flame-haired child out of the dormitory and to the kitchen where she started surveying his body for injuries. Lately, Cody’s abilities had been getting more out of control.

Before, his ‘episodes’ were not strong enough to cause the caretaker to worry. After all, she simply needed to place a cocoon of vines around his bed and problem solved. The bed was also engraved with fire-resistant runes that were strong enough to resist his flames.

Now, however, all of that was rendered useless. Cody’s flames blew away the cocoon entirely and shook the orphanage, burning the bed along with it.

Thanks to the now-furnished and reinforced walls and ceiling, he hadn’t blown the orphanage to bits… yet.

Even as the caretaker wiped the tears and ash from his face, his fiery hair still burned with a few feisty tongues of flame.

“And the aether wraiths?” she asked.

“They’ve been getting less and less. You know LionHeart and Gunther wouldn’t let those roam around freely,” Garin responded, “On another note, I have a message from Garrick.”

“We’re not moving him, Garin,” Marla snapped at the man.

Garin raised his hands quickly, “Don’t yell at me. I’m just a messenger. The people have been on edge ever since Alaric started his Tempering Ritual.

Don’t get me wrong, Aether crystals have been bringing in a lot of money for the Village but how long shall we be able to keep the secret of the source of this Aether from the empire?

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Just the other day an Aether Wraith nearly drained the butcher, Horst, of all his aether.”

“As long as we have to, Garin. I don’t care what Garrick thinks. Honestly, what’s wrong with that man? After everything we’ve done for this village. Does he have no heart?”

“Is Alaric going to be okay?” Cody asked, catching up with the conversation happening before him.

“Yes, dear. Alaric will be just fine. I won’t let anything happen to him,” Marla replied, finally returning her attention to the child. The clothes he was wearing were ruined with charred patches from the flame magic.

‘Pssh! Fire-resistant pyjamas my foot,’ the woman mentally scoffed.

“Go get changed, Cody. We’ll get you new pyjamas today, okay?” Sister Marla spoke.

“But…”

“No buts… Let me worry about the money. You focus on being a child for as long as you can, okay?” the woman quickly intervened.

The boy nodded diligently, “Okay.”

Marla pulled the boy into a short hug before allowing him to hop off the counter and run off. As he left, she called out to him, “Breakfast will be ready soon. Tell your brothers and sisters to stay close.”

“I will,” the boy yelled back.

Marla sighed, then went about finishing with the breakfast she’d started preparing at the time of the chaotic explosion in the boys’ dormitory.

The boy’s situation puzzled her greatly. She’d even taken extra measures to contain his flames but had fallen short.

For safety purposes, she’d switched from a single-walled cocoon of hardened vines to a triple-walled cocoon and moved the rest of the boys to the other side of the room.

Now she was thinking of walling off Cody’s part of the room… That, however, was a solution she was hoping to hold off for as long as she could.

“You think his powers are being affected by the aether, too?” Garin asked.

“Yes. That is exactly what I think,” the woman responded, “When is that boy going to wake up?”

Garin, feeling the need to get moving, started helping out as well. He went about setting the breakfast table, picking ceramic plates from the newly installed high-quality cabinets.

As things now stood, the old orphanage was old no more, having gone through a complete renovation, erasing every sign of its previous dilapidated state.

“He should wake up soon considering the aether has been getting thinner,” Garin offered.

“I hope you’re right. Still though, do humans with S-class guardians release that much aether?” the woman wondered.

Garin had thought about this before as well. He’d even sent a letter to the Tower of Seekers asking for information on the phenomena happening within the village of the Five Hills but had come up with nothing.

For an organisation with information on nearly everything, this was unprecedented. Apparently, something like this had never happened before, even among slayers with S-class guardians. At most, it was something that was only ever experienced with a human trying to raise their Temper Rank to either Stone or Metal Rank but never Glass Rank.

Glass Rank was simply too weak to terraform a village literally.

In the end, all Garin had confirmed was that they really needed to keep the barriers surrounding the village intact if they wanted to keep Alaric safe.

“Where is Gunther?” Sister Marla asked as she grabbed a baker’s peel, opened a fiery hearth and retrieved nine steaming hot loaves of bread.

Garin looked her way, admiring the golden brown loaves the woman placed by the window to cool. The wind blew an enchanting scent into the orphanage and roused the man’s empty stomach, drawing a growl from it, “Gunther? Gunther went to bring our share of last evening’s produce.”

“More unexpected yields, huh…”

“Yes. Farmers have been thinking of shipping some of the food off to Jack’s Fall and Mel’s Hollow,” Garin chuckled, “But as usual, Garrick refuses to let them saying it will be too suspicious for our little village to have this much abundance so suddenly.”

The woman sighed.

Garin, on the other hand, had made his way close to the loaves of bread. He took a good long sniff, barely containing his giddy excitement, “Ever considered becoming a baker?”

“After how much you’ve recommended it, how could I not? Along with Healer, Adventurer, Farmer, Apothecary and interestingly enough, Miner…”

“Okay okay… I hear you, O-talented one,” Garin chuckled.

The door swung open as the two laughed together, admitting a wave of aether and a familiar air of warmth and love.

The world itself seemed to grow excited in the presence of the new arrival. It was an effect only those who had lived with Alaric long enough had gotten used to even though this felt like an over-exaggeration even for him.

Marla’s laughter vanished, replaced with electrifying anticipation.

‘It can’t be…’ she thought to herself, [ Thomper, why didn’t you… ]

[ I thought it would be better as a surprise, ] the old tree guardian replied.

And a surprise it was, not just because it was so unexpected to see Alaric walk in through the door… but also because the boy that walked in was at least half a head taller and several times more handsome and refined, the air about him humming with unrestrained power.

Alaric had evolved to a new Temper Rank.

With a smile that lit up the world, Alaric said, “I’m home!”