The Sun shone down on the City park in a beautiful afternoon radiance as Tenral spied his quarry. It had taken him a lot of patience and extreme carefulness to finally be able to come this close after days of waiting and watching.

Wrapped in a cloak that shrouded him from all forms of detection, he tailed his quarry as the other man moved down the park with a child holding his hands.

The playground was filled with a cacophony of children's laughter as they enjoyed one form of enchanted construct or another.

Waiting for the perfect opportunity to approach, he had to patiently watch his quarry for several hours, but he didn't mind; he had been waiting for this opportunity for days now, and a few more hours was nothing to him.

Finally, he detected them leaving the park. He stood up from a bench he had been sitting on, slowly following but still keeping a good distance; his shroud was powerful enough but it wouldn't do to push his luck before the time was right.

He followed behind as they walked out of the park, stopping once as a woman called after them. She hurriedly walked up to them, one leg of a baby's shoe in her hands. She stretched it forth, handing it over to the man as he slapped his head in embarrassment. What should have just ended there went on to become a chat of more than five minutes as she struck up a conversation. Tenral huffed silently; even he could tell that she was flirting with him, but apparently, his quarry was too clueless to take notice, seeing as he only laughed gently to her jokes while his eyes roamed around, apparently disinterested but too polite to tell her so.

Eventually, the chat ended with the woman handing over a tiny metal orb that probably had a mental direction of her home address. His quarry took it, pocketing the construct without bothering to check inside as he smiled at her, politely waving goodbye as she walked off.

Tenral was intrigued; as the personality his quarry showed now was vastly different from other times. His prideful ego was legendary.

He tailed them as they walked down a crowded street, happy to use the crowds as a blockade just in case. For several minutes, his quarry branched to different stalls, purchasing sweets, dairy, and pastries for himself and the child who was now sitting in his arms.

They turned down a corner and, worried that he might lose them if he didn't catch up, Tenral hurried on. He couldn't use his perception to keep track of them for fear of detection. And he didn't want to know how protective his quarry could be if he had a child to protect.

Turning down the same corner, he slowed down as his eyes roamed around the street, searching for his quarry. While wearing his cloak he was incorporeal, so he didn't have to worry about any passer-by hitting him.

He looked on, worried that he'd somehow lost his quarry, when something slammed into him, temporarily darkening all forms of his perception.

Tenral felt a familiar nauseating feeling as his back slammed down hard on a bed of sand.

Sand.

He opened his eyes, and froze, his eyes tracking up the spear point that was inches away from his right eye. He traced the exquisite weapon down from its blade up to the strange silvery-grey metal shaft and then to the wielder, meeting those hard charcoal-grey eyes as they stared into his.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end you this instant," Damien Elason said.

****

Damien stared down at the Emperor – or should he say, no longer Emperor –of the Solaria Empire.

The man's crimson-gold eyes stared up at Damien as his grey eyes also stared back in turn.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end you this instant."

All was quiet for a while as tension filled the air, Tenral carefully keeping himself from being too threatening lest this delicate tension turn upside down. Fast.

"I came to talk."

Damien barked out a laugh, "Talk? Is that what you call trailing me down the street while a child was with me, talk?"

"I admit, I did come out as a little threatening by doing what I did, but it was paramount that I kept my presence hidden or it would be an unpleasant experience for me when I get back."

"What, Daddy isn't aware you're stalking me?"

"Yes."

That got Damien to shut up. He calmed, relaxing a little, but didn't pull back his weapon.

"Talk, what do you want?"

Tenral looked at the weapon still pointed at his face, a silent question in his eyes.

"Talk or I leave."

"Can I at least make myself comfortable by sitting upright?"

"Fine," Damien said, pulling back a little. "But nothing else. And if you try anything suspicious, this peaceful meeting would turn upside down in a non gentle way."

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"Fine by me," the other man said, pulling up from his lying position to sit comfortably on the carpet of sand.

Tenral looked around, his eyes roaming around the surrounding, "How did you get us to the desolate continent?"

Damien stared at him, his decline to answer the question plain in his eyes.

"Okay then. Let me get down to business, I approached you to ask why you hate the Empire so much. Unlike my father, I am not an overly aggressive person until given a good reason, and I know for a fact that, justified reason or not, this war can not happen – should not happen. So... Tell me what your grievance is with us so that I might remunerate."

"Your Empire has taken from me."

Tenral raised an eyebrow, "From my knowledge, so has a lot of Kingdoms on the continent, but I don't see you going after them."

"They didn't kill my family."

That brought the man to a stop.

"Repeat that."

"Your Empire took my family from me."

****

TEN YEARS AGO.

THE NORTHERN SOLARIAN JUNGLE.

CRACK!

The sound of wood breaking echoed through the dense covering of trees as a thick branch fell to the ground.

Damien stared at it in amazement, his wide eyes mirroring those of Keilan who stood close by.

"Cool! Let's do it again," Keilan said with excitement in his voice.

"Hold on, this wasn't the reason I brought you both here," Elas–Keilan's dad and Damien's adopted father, said, his suspicious eyes on them, no doubt already aware of the mischief they were about to commit as soon as they got back to the village.

Damien and Keilan had woken up that morning to an announcement from Elas that they would be taking a trip into the jungle for a lesson. At first, they had grumbled, their displeasure trailing behind them until this moment as they watched the thick tree branch that had been broken in two by a bare hand–Keilan's bare hands.

"I know what you both are planning to get up to as soon as you leave here," Elas said, his suspiciousness not buying into the innocence the two boys were trying, and failing, to project. "And that is the reason why you both are here; now that you're fully awakened to your powers, there are going to be drastic changes to your musculature."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that you both are going to have to mind how you conduct your rough plays from here henceforth, especially when your sister is involved. Your physical strengths are far stronger than what they once were, and your sister is still as fragile as before, meaning you could easily break her bones with an errant shove from your hands."

Both boys froze at that, a cold creeping feeling climbing up their spines. Leira might be annoying sometimes and liked to get into businesses in which she wasn't wanted, but they both loved her very much and would fight tooth and nail to prevent any harm from coming towards her. Hearing that they could potentially become a source of danger to her was a truth that put dread in their minds.

Seeing the drastic change of expressions, Elas calmed, "I didn't say you couldn't play with her, but you need to mind how you display your strengths when it comes to her, and any other unawakened child," He sighed. "That's why you are here, to learn control."

He picked up the broken branch, "This is a first step. We're going to be spending the whole day here until both of you learn how to control your strengths, am I understood?"

Both boys eagerly nodded, happy to learn if it meant they could continue breaking stuff.

Damien and Keilan looked at each other, a silent agreement coming to the fore, before one of them spoke up.

"Dad," Keilan raised his hands up. "Can you do the same?" He pointed at the branch.

Elas smiled, puffing up his chest, "Of course, what do you take me for? I could even do more than that."

He must have seen their dubious looks because, In the next moment, he said, "What, I can. Okay, let me show you." He turned toward the seventy-foot-tall tree that they stood beside.

"Prepare yourself to see the unstoppable," he punched, and the tree exploded into flying shards of broken wood.

CRACK! BOOM!

Around the area of impact, cracks instantly spread until they wrapped around the tree, and in the next instant, the tree fell to the ground in a cacophony of noise that sent every animal in the vicinity running away in panic.

Elas turned back to them, a smug look on his face that immediately fell when he saw the mischievous laughter they failed to hold back. He slapped his head in resignation, "Ahh, I can't believe I fell for that. Your mother mustn't know about this or else... Argh, just forget it," he gently rubbed his forehead. "Now that we're done with demonstrations, you both are going to learn how to control your strengths by manhandling any of these branches without damaging them," he waved at the dozens of branches still hanging strong on the fallen tree. "We're going to start with the thickest and then gradually move down to the fragile ones."

They spent the entire morning and then the afternoon until the sun had begun going down before they started making their way back to the village.

"You did good work today, both of you," Elas said. "I'd congratulate you both with gifts but the fact that I'm helping you avoid future problems is gift enough, don't you think?"

"Yes, Dad. Mom would love to hear how we spent our day; maybe I should tell her how you helped us learn by breaking that tree in half. Don't you think, Daddy?" Keilan said with unparalleled innocence.

"You little...." Elas grumbled. "I'll find you something appropriate when we get home. And remember, no mentioning things to your mother."

"No worries, Dad. We'll make sure to keep our mouth shut, won't we, Damien?" Keilan shoved Damien in the ribs with an elbow.

"Uhh... Yes, sure," Damien murmured, avoiding Elas's eyes.

"Dad, at the village's market, there's this spear that I saw in Mr. Bannar's smith shop. It'd be great if Damien and I could get one each, don't you think?"

Elias was quiet for some time, his eyes pinned on Keilan; when he saw that Keilan wasn't going to budge, he finally said, "Yes, I agree."

"Thank's dad!"

The only reply they received was a murmuring grumble.

After that, they all eventually devolved into silence, content to enjoy the sounds of crickets and other forms of insects as they passed by, with only a little competition as they continued to practice their strengths on any branches that they came by.

They were already within a mile of the village when they began to perceive smoke.

"Are we having a festival, daddy?" Keilan asked.

Elas was frowning as he answered, "None that I know off. Come on."

Together, they picked up their paces, turning their casual walk into a light jog, and as they came closer to the village, seeing the huge smoke rising up over the trees surrounding the settlement, they picked up into a run.

A sense of panic gripped Damien as they stepped out of the tree barriers, seeing the village in full...

...Or at least what was left of it...

....Seeing as half the village was already ablaze, with screams and metal ringing echoing from within.