Alexander Moltus had his birthday in late spring, but like the previous years, the family didn't make it into any significant event. This year, he’d turn twelve, though Alan’s mental age was a lot higher. He was completely fine with the small celebration that the family planned, only inviting Marissa to join them for a slightly more fancy than normal dinner in the evening. They had tried inviting the rest of her family several times in the previous years, but they always had an excuse. Apparently, her father, Benjamin Crow, often worked odd hours as the captain of a prison guard team, and her mother wanted to have dinner prepared when he came home, tired from the long shifts. That explained why Alan had never met him when he visited their home, though he admittedly hadn’t been there all that often. He might be slightly too fond of staying at home, though he contributed that mostly to not having the same adventurous spirit as most other children.

Having Marissa over for dinner was actually quite a common occurrence in the Moltus household. It wasn’t just Alan that had taken a liking to the vibrant and endlessly talkative young girl, as both his parents often catered to her wishes as best they could, and generally seemed to enjoy her company very much. He suspected that they had always wanted a daughter, especially Naida, with the way she was doting on Marissa whenever she had the chance. He could understand that, as he hadn’t really ever behaved as a normal child, and through that denied something important to his parents. The woes and joys of raising children were often due to all the crazy things they would do, and him being a quiet and secluded kid had robbed them of most of it. Sometimes he wondered why they hadn’t tried for more children, but every time he’d wanted to ask, he’d remember friends from his previous life who had tried for years and years, and how sore a subject it was for them. He always held back his questions in the end.

This year’s birthday was planned to be the same as always, though Marissa seemed slightly reluctant to accept the invitation, which was a first. When she failed to respond for even a few minutes, squirming in her spot next to her favorite tree in their hideout in Rosewoods, Alan finally connected the dots. She’d been visiting him far less frequently recently, and not just because they just moved their training spot out into the woods. But it had actually started after they found their little hideout, and Alan finally realised that it could be connected to the promise that he’d had her make.

“Look, I promise you that Alexar won’t be mad at you if he finds out what we’ve been doing out here. Even if he does find out, it is my responsibility in every way, and I will deal with it one way or another. Don’t worry about it, okay? Whatever happens, happens, and we will deal with it when it does.” Alan tried to sound reassuring, but wasn’t sure if he was succeeding or not.

“But what if I can’t stop myself from talking about it? I do things like that all the time, because I talk too much. And if I’m stressed, I talk even more, and then I get scared I’ll say something by accident, which makes me talk even more, and then I’ll be even more stressed, and then-” Marissa was rambling at this point, and Alan stopped her by pulling her into a tight hug.

“Sshhh now… It’ll all work out fine in the end, one way or another” Alan said, voice low and soothing, or at least, that was what he was going for. “My parents love you, they’d never be angry with you no matter what, you know that, right?”

With Alan’s small growth spurt lately, he was about a head taller than Marissa now, which made the embrace feel very familiar to him. It brought up feelings of home, his old home, and again he almost couldn’t make out the difference between the girl he was embracing right now, and the daughter that he so desperately wanted to embrace again, just one last time. The feelings almost brought tears to his eyes, before he managed to suppress them.

“And you won’t be mad at me either? Even if I mess up?” Marissa looked up at him, pleadingly.

“Of course I won’t be mad at you! I love you too, you know,” Alan responded automatically with warmth in his voice. He would never not love his own daught-….. Oh...

A tiny squeak escaped Marissa’s lips as she immediately hid her face in his chest, trying desperately to hide her reddening cheeks.

“Y-You can’t just say things like t-that!” Her muffled voice was barely audible, her hands clinging tightly to his jacket, refusing to let go.

They stayed that way for a while, calming down and relishing the closeness. At least Alan was, he was a bit unsure of what was going through Marissa’s head, if he had to be honest. And he had absolutely no idea what to say anymore, feeling like he’d just slip up again if he tried to open his mouth.

After another few minutes, Marissa’s vice-like grip finally relaxed, until she eventually let go, and separated herself from him.

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“I need some time to think.. but I’ll come to the dinner,” Alan barely heard her mumbling, her face hidden behind her flaming red hair. “I have to go home now,” she said, more clearly this time, and started heading out of the clearing. Alan just stood there, dumbfounded for a few more seconds, before hurrying after her and falling into step next to her on their way back. They didn’t speak anymore before separating outside of Marissa’s home, and she mumbled a hasty goodbye before entering the refuge of her home.

Alan was left standing outside for a long time, completely lost in thought, before he finally remembered he should get home before dinner was ready. I have an entire life of experiences before this one, and I’m still acting like a freaking idiot, he thought to himself, still having no idea how to extract himself from this delicate situation.

The birthday dinner was an awkward affair, with Marissa being far less talkative than usual. Alan saw that both his parents suspected that something was up, but he had no way of broaching the subject, and just tried to keep the conversations going on his own, which was also completely out of character for him, which probably only made his parents even more suspicious. They luckily didn’t press the issue, and the only positive aspect Alan could take with him from the evening was that Marissa had apparently completely forgotten about her fear of revealing his secret.

The next few days of school were also a bit out of the ordinary. Marissa was still talkative and energetic between classes, though she mostly kept to a small group of female friends lately. Every interaction with Alan seemed to make her fidgety and awkward, and Alan tried to avoid forcing them on her when he could. On a positive note, she didn’t seem to be deliberately staying away from him, which at least reassured him that he hadn’t alienated her completely.

On a far less positive note, Catherine had taken an interest in Marissa and her small chatting group lately. The thought was enough to send shivers down Alan’s back, as the girl was way too perceptive not to notice the change in behaviour for the class’ favorite little bundle of joy. His fears were confirmed when Catherine one day suddenly took hold of his arm and practically dragged him into a secluded spot in the library.

“Okay, you have a few things to answer for, young man.” The menacing look on Catherine’s face did nothing to alleviate Alan’s fears, which was probably the intention.

“I’ve been meaning to look into your “activities” in Rosewoods park for a while, but now you’ve forced my hand. What did you do to Marissa?” The glare in her eyes almost seemed to be magical, as he felt himself being pressed even further down into the chair.

“I didn’t do anything to her! And what do you mean you’ve been meaning to-” Catherine cut him off, before he managed to formulate his question.

“Good, then, if you didn’t do anything to her, I expect that it’s no problem at all explaining exactly what it is you two have been doing out in the woods two days a week for the past several months.” Her tone was non-negotiable.

“How do you even know that? Are you having me followed?” Alan asked, incredulously.

“The proper terminology is shadowed, and of course I’ve had you shadowed. Ever since our little conversation about possession, if you can even remember that.” Catherine answered, calmly, as if she’d have anyone followed that she deemed interesting enough.

“You’ve had me shadowed for a year? How much money does your family have, if you’re able to have any random kid shadowed for years?”

“That’s not relevant to this discussion. What have you been doing in Rosewoods?” Catherine had a hard line to her voice now, almost sounding angry that Alan didn’t just answer her questions, like this was some sort of police interrogation.

“We’ve been practicing magic. What else would we have been doing?” Alan answered, not understanding where this was going.

“There are a number of conceivable things two teenagers could be doing out in a hidden spot in the woods, yet I am loath to describe them to you. Why do you need metal pieces to practice fire magic?”

“Of course you know about that as well. Why don’t you just answer your own questions, you seem to know everything else about me already.” Alan said, with a tinge of anger in his voice. Being finally told that he had a good reason to be paranoid was not on the top of the list of things he enjoyed experiencing.

“Because I honestly don’t know what you are doing with them, and I am intrigued by the possible applications you’ve come up with, since I haven’t managed to come up with a good reason for using metal for fire magic practice.” Catherine’s hard face finally betrayed her, revealing a deep curiosity behind the facade of being angry.

“You knew I hadn’t done anything to Marissa, didn’t you? This whole interrogation was just to get me to explain in detail what I’m working on..” Alan finally relaxed somewhat into his chair, having gotten a modicum of understanding of what was going on. “I’m not telling you. It’s a family secret.” It was one of the safer bets, as family secrets and legacies were quite important in this world.

“Your family doesn’t have any secrets that interesting, I can assure you. I’ve been looking into them, and they are lacking, to say the least. No, what you are doing has nothing to do with your bloodline or heritage, and that has gotten me quite invested in this, you could say.”

“You can be as invested as you like, I’m not going to tell you anyways. And stay away from my family, they’ve got nothing to do with this.” Alan already felt the cheesy line had been the wrong choice, but it came to him automatically, and he didn’t have time to think it through.

“Sure, I’ll stay away from your family, as you wish.” Catherine said, getting up and preparing to leave. “..But remember, the world is a dangerous place, and shadows are everywhere. It would be tragic if anything should happen to our precious little Marissa, wouldn’t it? All it would take to guarantee her safety are the right words in the right ears…” She let slip, almost in a whisper, as she left their hiding spot with a slow gait.

Alan was fuming, he did not enjoy being threatened. Not. One. Bit. It was time to introduce this world to the concept of railguns.