Erik cursed under his breath and raised his hands, “I’m not do—!”

“I SAID GET AWAY!” Van roared as he charged, shoving Erik hard, forcing him back a few feet. “Filthy murderer,” Van seethed, his eyes gleaming. He moved to strike at Erik again, when Alexander reached up and grabbed his hand.

“Van! Don’t!”

Van looked down at Alexander and then back to Erik, “Princess, he’s just a killer,” Van growled.

“He’s not hurting me, I told you already,” Alexander pleaded weakly. He found he was having trouble standing up. “Please.”

“Can’t you just go to the hospital?” Van growled, turning his attention quickly back to Erik as the hunter moved slightly. “I said stay away!” he ordered, raising one hand up towards Erik. “Alex isn’t a witch, got it. If you or your goons come anywhere near him a—.”

“I’m cursed!” Alexander blurted out and Van turned to look at him in horror, unconsciously pulling his hand away.

“Cursed?” Van balked. “Princess…” he knelt down hesitantly, “What do you mean, cursed?”

“He means,” Erik began, but Van snarled—almost literally snarled at him, standing up in a flash and putting himself between them.

“Van?” an unfamiliar voice called out from where Van had come. “Van did you find your friend?” A man in a police uniform appeared at the bend in the path, the same shocking white hair, high cheekbones, and wide mouth as Van, but his eyes were a darker almost midnight blue, his nose-bridge a bit wider and sharper.

“Guillory,” Erik said in a flat greeting.

“Walker,” the officer offered in kind.

Erik grimaced. “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” he said, dropping his hands from where he had raised them in an attempt to quell Van. “And, Ludwig, can you tell your son that it’s generally a bad idea to attack armed and dangerous witch hunters?” he added.

“Hrmm,” Ludwig Guillory surveyed the group, rubbing his chin slightly. Van was in a defensive position between Erik and Alexander. He still hadn’t looked at his father, his gaze glued to the hunter. “Van,” Ludwig started, his voice calm but stern, “I need you to step back now.”

“I won’t let them take anyone else from me,” Van growled, his chest rising and falling as he strained to control himself.

Ludwig walked up to them, coming up behind Van and wrapping one of his large hands over his son’s eyes, his other arm coming around to hug Van. “Listen, he had nothing to do with that, you know it,” he said softly. He pulled Van around and made him face away from Erik, “Stay,” he ordered, now letting go. Ludwig then turned to Alexander, kneeling down to his level, “And you must be Princess Alex,” he said, smirking that same way that Van did.

Alexander watched everything go down, catching a brief glimpse of Van’s face as he had been turned away—he looked like he was about to cry. However, he was drawn away by Ludwig. “I—I—,” Alexander stammered. “Please, just call me Alex,” he said, his voice strained, exhausted.

Ludwig smiled warmly, “Alright then, Alex. Could you do me a huge favour?” he asked.

“Y-yes sir, I suppose I could try…” Alexander replied. He found himself unable to look away, drawn in by that eternally deep blue that was like the night sky in summer.

“Could you please take care of Van? He’s,” Ludwig made a side-glance in Van’s direction, “He’s had some problems of his own, as I’m sure you have,” he said quietly and knowingly. Clearly Van had talked to him about last night.

Alexander opened his mouth to speak, but instead a deep growl interrupted him. He snapped his mouth shut and flushed a deep red and looked away sheepishly. “I—yessir—I’msorrysir—Iwilldomybest…” he stumbled, stammering everything out at once.

“Are you hungry?” Ludwig asked.

Alexander shrank nervously and nodded.

“When was the last time you ate?” Ludwig asked.

“Err…” Alexander bit his lip. “I had some water—.”

“A proper meal, Alex,” Ludwig interrupted.

“I—I haven’t had a chance to… and I was too nervous…” Alexander mumbled.

Van turned in horror, “Are you saying you haven’t eaten since you got to Iropa!?”

Alexander hunched up, wrapping his arms around his waist more tightly, “I was too nervous, and I didn’t have a chance to find any shops… a-and I don’t know where the cafeteria is…”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Van asked, frowning when Alexander shook his head. “I was sure I mentioned it. There’s one on the first floor of the dorm that’s open till nine.”

“Y-you didn’t…” Alexander said.

“Oh, Princess, I’m sorry. That means you didn’t have breakfast either…” Van rubbed the back of his neck in shame. “Didn’t you read the handbook like you said you were going to?”

“He passed out,” Erik offered, making Van stiffen. “I found him on his balcony at four-thirty this morning, he said he passed out just before lunch.”

Ludwig frowned. “Alex, are you alright?”

Alexander bit his lip again, “I’m scared,” he said finally. “Bad things always happen to me. And just now, I—I think I did that thing at the school.”

“Princess, you realize this guy is a witch hunter, right?” Van said, gesturing at Erik. “He’s a cold-blooded killer that will wipe out your whole fam—.”

“I don’t have any family!” Alexander barked. “There would be no reason to hurt Evan—and if I’m a witch, I don’t want to live! I don’t want to hurt anyone. Witches are monsters!” he tore off his bandage displaying the full burn eating away at his flesh. There wasn’t a spot left between the black bands that wasn’t blistering and bright red. “I don’t want to end up doing this,” he gestured his arm, “to someone else. It’s excruciating!” he cried. “I don’t want anyone to end up like me!” he covered his face with his hands, sobbing into them. “I—I don’t want Evan to know I’m a monster…”

Erik carefully approached and knelt down beside Alexander, putting his hand on top of his head, “Alex, I don’t think you’re a witch,” he said as reassuringly as he could.

“W-what about the ice?” Alexander hiccoughed.

Ludwig arched an eyebrow at Erik who shook his head. “Look, my team was protected by it too. It could have been another witch,” he said. “Besides, in my experience, young witches aren’t nearly as strong as the adults. There’s no way that magic could have been something from you,” he offered.

“Y-you say ‘another witch’ so casually,” Alexander sniffled, “I know they’re insanely rare…”

Erik looked to Ludwig who sighed, “I’ll take it from here, Walker,” he said.

Erik grunted at the use of his real name and stood, “I’ll be checking up on the kid regularly, Guillory, make sure to have a chat with your boy so he doesn’t get himself in trouble.” With that, Erik left back up the path towards the school on his own.

Ludwig looked to Alexander who was sniffling and rubbing at his eyes with his good hand. “Alex, I need to have a chat with you about something important,” he said finally, carefully taking Alexander’s arm and re-wrapping the bandage.

“There are more witches here, aren’t there?” Alexander mumbled, watching Ludwig with an increasing numbness.

Ludwig drew in a long, deep breath through his nose. “Yes,” he said finally. “And it’s not just North Covehunt—all of Iropa shows a greater concentration of witches per capita than anywhere else in the world,” he explained.

“That wasn’t in the brochures…” Alexander mumbled bitterly.

Ludwig smirked, “No, not it’s not. It would be detrimental to trade and commerce if the world knew. Iropa struggles enough on the global market as it is,” he said.

“Of course it comes down to money,” Alexander responded. “But what does that have to do with me?”

“I don’t know what happened at the station—Walker and his team don’t fill us in on everything they do or see—but from what I got there, it sounds like another witch might have protected you and his team.”

Alexander’s brow furrowed and he fired a glance at Van who looked away, looking a bit sick himself—but it was clear he knew. “A-are you saying that there are witches with just… that aren’t insane maniacs?”

Ludwig shook his head, “We don’t know for certain,” he sighed, “But we’ve seen some evidence of it over the years. If there are sane witches, they don’t show themselves very often—for obvious reasons.”

“But what about the school?” Alexander asked.

“What about it?” Ludwig arched an eyebrow.

“Princess,” Van began, his voice strained, “Princess got really upset at me, and then the lights blew,” he said finally, refusing to look at either one of them.

Alexander also looked away, “And I have a history of electrical things going crazy around me…” he explained.

“Could it be a coincidence?” Ludwig offered.

Alexander frowned deeply, “Pretty frequent coincidence if you ask me…”

“Well, knowing how many witches might be around, I’d say you’re probably fine,” Ludwig smiled. “Electricity seems to be one of the more common powers witches have too—not all that surprising considering how much our society relies on it,” he added thoughtfully.

“Maybe you just have really bad luck, Princess,” Van offered next, a tentative smirk returning to his lips. “I mean, you drive me crazy—but that’s not a bad thing?”

“Van,” Ludwig sighed, “That doesn’t help any,” he chided when Alexander went pale. “He’s scared enough as you can see.” He stood, holding out his hand for Alexander. “Come, I have something in the car you can eat,” he said.

With some reluctance, Alexander reached out and took Ludwig’s offer, standing shakily and rubbing his eyes with with the wrist of his good arm. “T-thank you, sir,” he mumbled.

Ludwig grinned in a way that only a Guillory probably could and clapped Alexander on his back, “That’s a good boy,” he said, now leading the way up the path. “Van, could you go and find out what’s happening from Ariel please?” he requested as they exited the park and made their way back up the stairs to the school grounds.

“Righto,” Van grinned, his usual self again, as he gave his father a mock salute and dashed off somewhere.