The witch had exited the banquet hastily, not wanting to prolong his magical discomfort, and had nearly made it to the end of the long corridor with its tapestries and suits of armor standing polished to a blinding gleam, when he heard the massive oak banquet doors opening and closing behind him.

“Fin!”

Turning warily, the cook peered around to see who was chasing him, half expecting one of the footmen or serving staff. Instead, a tall lithe man with a flowing long black hair, beard, and mustache, wearing long white silk robes glided over to him.

He blinked several times, then after several moments, the look of realization dawned on his face.

“It’s been a few years!” The man smiled at the redhead warmly, and Fin’s face broke out in an astonished grin.

“Holy Gods, you can say that again! How are you Jiho?” Fin took the man’s offered hand, and gave it a firm shake while folding his arms across his chest, and staring down fondly at the man.

“Been fit as a fiddle since I last saw you and your mother. How long has it been? Five years?”

“Sounds about right- you must be doing well if you are a guest here.” Fin complimented as his old friend smiled and bowed his head slightly.

“Indeed, fortune has smiled fondly upon me since our time together. I am here on behalf of Zinfera, along with a few other associates of mine.” Fin nodded as he listened. “I see that you have moved on and up if you are the cook for the King!” Jiho shook his head in amazement. “I never thought I would get to taste your food again, then lo’ and behold, I sit down to the best meal of my life thinking I finally found someone who could best you in the culinary arts.”

Fin laughed. “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone better than me someday.”

Jiho glanced at the closed banquet doors over his shoulder briefly before turning slowly back to Fin and dropping his voice.

“I see that war may be imminent for your Kingdom.” His kind brown eyes suggested his sympathy as Fin gave a small shrug.

“Probably. Not that a lowly cook would know anything.”

Jiho nodded slowly as though considering something with great care.

“You know, if you ever wanted a job in Zinfera, you would only need to ask.”

Fin laughed.

“Apparently I need to ask for a raise- you’re the second offer tonight!”

At the mention of the Earl Piereva’s recent show of force, Jiho’s face became taut.

“Yes I witnessed his offer… Finlay be wary of that man. He is not one to be trifled with, nor is his Chief of Military from what I have heard rumored.” Jiho whispered while ducking his head even closer to Fin to avoid anyone over hearing

Fin frowned, and leaned down.

“The Earl seems a brute, but there’s no reason for me to cross his path.” Fin reasoned seriously. His expression then shifted to one of minor apprehension.

“Jiho, please do me a favor though… and don’t mention about my… talents to anyone while you’re here.”

Jiho’s look of genuine surprise followed by taking a step back from Fin, confused the cook for a moment.

“You mean you got this job without them knowing?”

“The King knows now, but I got the position thanks to a referral from an old friend.”

Jiho looked a strange mix of amazed and thoughtful.

“I always said you were far more capable than anyone knew… I will be very interested to see what happens in your future.”

Fin smiled again, and held out his hand.

“Hopefully only good things for the both of us. I need to get back to work, but in my next letter home, I will tell my mother you send your well wishes.”

Jiho took his hand with a smile.

“Please do. I owe the both of you everything I have.” He then gave a small bow before turning, and walking back to the banquet.

The Zinferan had given Fin a respectful farewell deemed for an esteemed equal, and this was not lost on the witch. While embarrassed, the cook was also flattered, making him rub the back of his neck self-consciously.

Unable to stop smiling to himself over getting to see an old friend, Fin turned, and headed back to the kitchen. To think the man that had once been a poor dockworker had become a foreign diplomat…

The world really was full of wonder.

***

Fin stood stirring the pot over the fire, as his mother wound red twine around the bundle of broken willow twigs to form their new broom. It was a meager dinner that night, as had become the norm since his father had banned his mother from offering her magical help to anyone that wasn’t a witch.

Hunger sucked at his stomach as the aroma of onion and fish clung to the air. The young boy that was small and scrawny for his age, mentally divided the portions of the meal, and realized he would be lucky if he got half a bowl of his creation. His father would be home soon, and Fin already felt anxious enough without the knowledge that he would be going hungry for another stretch of time…

A heavy wet mist coated the Isle of Quildon, the warm spring air soaking up the snow into the air, and turning the thick grass a deep shade of emerald that ran over the entire island. There were near constant rain and storms that time of year as well, meaning it was a barrage of his father’s anti-element.

It was the kind of weather that put his father in a bad mood… and Fin had already been awaiting his return with cold dread gnawing through him, making his skin itch every hour of the day.

His father had been out on one of his ‘scouting missions’, and those had been garnering worse and worse results with each trip to the mainland. The ‘missions’ in reality was his father’s way of trying to claim followers that would agree to overrun the Coven of Wittica Elders.

Aidan Helmer was one of the witches that called themselves: ‘purists’. They believed that witches were meant to rule the continent as the middle ground between nature and people. They did not look favorably at mutant witches, believing them to be damaged by growing divide from the original nature of their powers.

The fire witch's efforts had not been well received however, and his anger over his disappointment was often channeled towards his wife and son when he returned home after a month or more away on the mainland.

As Fin picked up the pot holding his stew, and carefully moved it out of the flames, he glanced at his mother.

Gaunt, pale, but resilient as always, with warm bright brown eyes, and light sandy brown hair that was tied back with a white handkerchief that stood out against her faded floral dress.

Despite having a heart made of mush, Katherine Ashowan always persevered. The bounce in her step was never gone, and even when its presence bordered on delusional, there was a hopeful pep to her at all times. Her sunny outlook infuriated Fin on occasion, though he never said so, as on other days, he also found comfort in the one positive constant of his life.

The young boy dropped his stare down to the pitiful supper he had mustered up, and that was when it dawned on him;

He wanted to run away.

He wanted to run to a place where there was always good food, where he and his mom would always be safe…

The unmistakable sound of their squeaky front gate opening and closing made Fin’s head snap up. He couldn’t deny the tears that welled up when he saw his mother’s hands begin to tremble at the sound.

Fin slunk back to the corner of the small cottage that he had been born and raised in. Aside from the single room where the small fireplace and table stood, there were two separate rooms off to the left of the front doorway, his bedroom, and his parents’ bedroom, but they were too far to get to now.

The door opened, and Aidan Helmer stepped in.

While he didn’t slam the door closed, there was a rigidness in his movements that indicated that he already was a tightly wound coil ready to spring at any moment.

His eyes first rested on his wife, whom gazed up at him with a blank expression as she assessed his mood.

“Dinner is on the table, you must be chilled by the mist.” She rose slowly, making no sudden moves, and making sure not to look too long into his black eyes.

As she moved passed him, he watched her go, a dead look in his eyes before he noticed his son standing with his back to the corner. Fin froze on the spot under the cold gaze that could swallow all of Fin’s pain, all of his anger, until there was nothing left of him. He did his best not to tremble, or shiver. He knew when the man was looking for an excuse to snap.

“Kate, don’t beat around the bush. Did the boy find his element?” His voice was flat, and Fin felt the sinking horror he had felt a thousand times before as he saw his mother tense behind the table.

He glared at her, then strode over to the corner where Fin stood, desperately trying to fight off the tears in his eyes.

He wrapped his hand around the back of Fin’s neck, making the boy cry out as the blistering heat in Aidan’s fingers seared his neck.

“Why won’t you show us your element? Your Godsdamn eight years old. Proper witches show their abilities before they can walk, so why are you deficient?”

The tears were spilling down Fin’s cheeks as his hands balled at his sides.

“Aidan! Let him go, you know it isn’t a conscious decision!” Kate dared a step closer to the man, whom turned his hard stare at her, making her wince.

“Perhaps it is your fault. I knew I shouldn’t have risked a child with a mutant.” He released Fin whom trembled and sobbed silently, not daring to touch the blistering skin around his neck.

The man glowered down at his wife who shrank away from him.

“Y-Your stew is getting cold.” She continued backing away from him.

Aidan turned to the pot and wrinkled his nose, then turned back to his son.

“Look at you. Sniveling uselessly in the corner. I think it’s safe to say you aren’t a fire witch. You would actually be a man and not be hiding from your failures if you were.”

“I haven’t failed anything! M-My magic could be b-b-better than yours!” Fin felt like vomiting the moment the words had finished coming out of his mouth.

The look on his father’s face terrified him to his core, and he had the horrible premonition that he was about to die.

His father snatched his arm, and half pulled half dragged him outside where rain had once again began pounding the soaked ground.

“Let’s see it then hm? Show me your great power!”

Fin shook as the cold seeped into his bones from the water, while his father’s hands steamed menacingly instead.

“Exactly what I thought. Your tutor is supposed to be here in three weeks, and what do you have to show for it? Nothing!” The backhand that struck across Fin’s face made a roaring headache appear in his head, and he clutched his stinging cheek reflexively.

“Stop it! It isn’t his fault!” His mother came charging out of the house, and as soon as she became arms reach to her husband, he grabbed her and threw her to the ground.

Fin heard the snap, and even in the pouring rain, saw that her wrist looked wrong. He felt bile rise in his throat as his father reached down, and hauled his mom up to her feet.

“Did I tell you to intervene with the boy’s discipline?” He shook her, and she yelped at the pain from her wrist.

“STOP IT!” Fin shouted as his tears continued running down his face with the rain.

When Aidan turned his blazing fury to his son, Fin couldn’t help but weakly think…

'A home is always supposed to be safe.’

“If you want this to get better Finlay, you will show me your magic!” His father taunted while giving his mother’s body another small but firm shake. Her face was screwed tight in pain, but she didn’t make a sound that time.

“I SAID STOP IT!”

The young boy sensed something explode in his heart, as he felt a strange crackling on his skin. He couldn’t tell if he were imagining blue lightning in the air around his father, but he couldn’t focus on anything but his fury towards his the man.

“SHOW ME YOUR POWER FIRST!” Aidan bellowed while once again jerking Kate, this time making her give another small cry.

“LET GO OF MY MOM!”

The charge was building, and Fin, feeling that the buzz was going to make his brain explode, let out a wordless scream.

He screamed at his father’s wretched face.

Fin felt the explosion from within himself, and watched as blue lightening struck down all around them, watched the blue reflection in his father’s widened black eyes, all in slow motion. Fin barely saw the ancient symbol appear in front of him in the lightening, the words in the inner circle foreign to him, and yet their truth somehow became burned in his heart and mind.

He watched the symbol pulse once, and as the wave of energy released, a shield of bright blue lightening extended over their yard and cottage. The symbol rushed through his father, and as it exited Aidan’s body, dragged him into the air as though on a massive fishing hook pulling him high into the sky. Shock and ire burned in the man’s eyes as he stared at his son's shrinking form on the ground, as he was thrown outside of the shield into the mists where he disappeared from sight.

Fin’s mother watched shocked on the ground at the blue lightening bubble surrounding their land before she squinted through the rain, and saw her son’s eyes aglow with electricity, his pale battered face stretched in his ringing scream as the rain hovered just a few inches above his frail body.

Kate felt the amount of power he was exuding, felt its indomitable force, and when she suddenly felt the magic pouring out of him begin to draw away his life as well, she snapped out of her astonishment, and jumped up. She rushed to her son, wrapping her arms around him, and calling out his name over and over above the roar of the rain, the crackle of lightening, and the soul-shattering scream.

The young boy’s cry faded off as thunder rumbled above them, and suddenly Fin felt heavy with exhaustion... heavier than he’d ever felt in his life. He collapsed in his mother’s arms onto the ground with her. If it pained her to do so, she made no sound, and Fin’s eyes were already unfocused.

“Mom… is he gone?... Are we safe? Did I… Did I do…it?” His words trailed off as his head rolled onto her shoulder, his eyes closed, and his body weakened.

Kate sat on the ground breathing heavily, her exhales coming out in mists with her son in her arms. Slowly, she raised her arm with the snapped wrist, and focused pointedly. Her right hand trembled in a green glow, and the bones slowly placed themselves back together, while she fought off the nausea at feeling her insides shift and mend.

Once that had been completed, she ran her repaired hand over Fin’s neck, healing the burns.

Standing with great difficulty, she hefted her son in her arms, and stumbled back towards the cottage while eyeing the shield above them that, while fading, was still present and could be felt.

“Oh my sweet boy.” She whispered into his ear as she carried him back into the dry cottage that suddenly felt warmer, even though the fire had dwindled.

Kate managed to get him into his bed, before half collapsing at his side, and grabbing his small cold hand.

“My darling sweet boy… I am so sorry.”

After that day, Fin never again felt unsafe in his own home.

*

He awoke gasping, his eyes alight with blue lightening and his body covered in a cold sweat. Kraken sat beside him preening his damp forehead and hair- expressing his concern for his witch. With a trembling hand, Fin reached up, and pet the silky fur of the kitten.

“It’s rare for me to dream of a memory… hopefully it means nothing.” He tried to soothe his aching chest from the pain that gripped it by taking deep breaths.

Kraken, becoming more concerned for him, began rubbing his face against the cook’s cheek as wayward tears fell down the human’s face.

“Don’t worry Kraken, if I ever have to meet that man again, I will not think twice before blasting him into the sea.”

The kitten mewed in agreement.

Slowly, Fin sat up, and stared around at his kitchen that was normally organized and tidy, but was now stuffed to the brim with prepared dishes and uncooked food.

“Well, I knew I was only getting a couple hours of sleep anyway, best get cracking Kraken!”

The kitten mewed again, then crawled into Fin’s lap, staring up at him expectantly.

“…I think we have different ideas of what’s happening right now.”

Kraken’s claws extended enough that they punctured through the thin fabric of Fin’s trousers, and grazed his skin slowly, in a gentle, loving threat.

“Then again, maybe a few minutes of hanging out together isn’t such a bad idea.” Fin declared wisely.

Kraken mewed once, and closed his eyes.

It was important that his witch know that the great Kraken didn’t look after him without expecting a little bum and cheek scratch in return now and then.