When Damien woke up the next morning, Sylph was already gone and Henry was missing. He got ready and headed out of the room in search of Delph. While the others were busy, he had to follow up on his promise to Nolan.

The campus was still waking up when he got down the mountain. A few people milled about the streets, talking in hushed tones or eating breakfast at small restaurants along the pathways. Most of the shops were still closed, although the general store’s doors were wide open.

Damien was tempted to stop by and grab a snack on his way, but eating right before meeting Delph felt like a terrible idea. Granted, he didn’t actually know where he was supposed to find the professor, but Delph had a habit of popping up whenever someone was looking for him.

“Looking for me?” Delph asked, materializing in the air behind Damien, causing the boy to swear and spin, raising his arms defensively.

“E – seven Planes, Professor,” Damien snapped. “Why and how do you do that?”

“It’s funny,” Delph replied with a smirk. “And you were wandering around campus like a lost puppy. Who else could you be looking for?”

“I’m more interested in finding out exactly how you knew that was what I was doing. Are you always watching me or something?”

“Pretty much,” Delph replied, his face straight. “With the amount of trouble you’re consistently involved in, it’s not a bad call. Whenever you head out on your own, something happens.”

“Hey, that isn’t true,” Damien defended. “Wait, are you actually watching me all the time?”

Delph cocked an eyebrow, making no effort to answer the question. “Name one time something hasn’t gone wrong.”

“I went on vacation back to Ardenford, nothing happened.”

“The princess of the kingdom chased you down and you found out your father was Stormsword.”

“The princess is your fault,” Damien said.

“Never said she wasn’t,” Delph replied with a shrug. “But let’s cut to the point. Why are you looking for me? Training?”

“Not quite,” Damien said, still all too aware that Delph had yet to actually tell him if he was under constant surveillance. “I need to speak with Derrod.”

“Stormsword?” Delph asked. “Why not just speak to him yourself? You don’t need my help there.”

“I’ve got no idea where he is. Unlike you, I don’t stalk people.”

“I don’t stalk everyone,” Delph said, affronted. “Just those of importance. And as it happens, I do happen to know where he is. He’s also quite busy, but I think he can probably make some time for you.”

“This won’t take long,” Damien promised.

Delph traced a circle in the air, leaving gray energy in his wake. It snapped into a portal and hummed to life, motes of magic churning within it. Damien stepped into it and Delph followed after him.

They emerged onto a grassy field. The bodies of half a dozen Corrupted monsters littered the ground around them, and Derrod was leaning against his sword, which had been planted deep in the ground.

Aside from the corpses everywhere, there wasn’t a single sign of a fight. Even the grass was largely undamaged by the acidic blood characteristic of the Corrupted monsters. The only burnt sections were directly under the monster’s bodies.

“Dove, Damien,” Derrod said, cocking his head as the portal closed behind them. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m just bringing your kid over for a chat,” Delph said. His right eye twitched slightly. “And I go by Delph now.”

“Right,” Derrod said, waving his hand. “I’ll be sure to remember that. Shouldn’t you be at Blackmist, Damien?”

“I just wanted to chat with you for a moment,” Damien said. “I’ll keep it short.”

“Go for it,” Derrod said, yawning and pushing the hair out of his eyes. “I’ve got a minute to kill.”

Damien bit down an annoyed retort. “I recently found out that the Queen plans to have Yui marry Nolan Gray.”

“Your tone tells me you don’t approve.”

“I don’t,” Damien said. Derrod’s eyes focused on him, poised like those of a snake coiled to strike. Damien’s lips thinned as he met his father’s gaze.

“Why not?” Derrod asked. “Take a fancy to Princess Yui?”

“What? No,” Damien said, taken aback. “Not at all. It’s more Nolan than her. He’d be a terrible match, and the kingdom needs the rulers to work together well. Nolan and Yui hate each other.”

“No they don’t,” Derrod said. “Nolan dislikes Princess Yui, but Yui doesn’t mind him. In fact, she rather enjoys his company. He’s got a powerful noble house backing him and he’s decently talented. With enough time, he’ll become a good mage. He wouldn’t be the strongest king we’ve had, but he doesn’t need to be. Princess Yui will be strong enough.”

“It doesn’t matter if Nolan is capable if he doesn’t want to be there,” Damien replied. “Anyone forced into doing a job they don’t want to do isn’t going to be as successful as someone who actually wants to be there. I suspect he doesn’t even want to lead the Grays. What would happen if it was revealed that the Princess’ betrothed got kicked out of his own home?”

Derrod didn’t respond immediately. He studied Damien for a few moments, allowing the silence to stagnate in the air. Finally, he stood up, pushing away from his sword.

“You don’t care about the kingdom.”

“What?”

“It’s fine,” Derrod said. “You don’t have to. It’s not your job. But you don’t care about the kingdom. You never have, especially considering your girlfriend.”

Damien’s eyes narrowed. “Keep Sylph out of this.”

“Why?” Derrod asked. “Do you know who she was? What she’s really capable of? I saw what she could do long before she arrived at Blackmist, Damien. She’s not just a wronged student.”

Ether flickered in Damien’s core, threatening to leap to his palms of its own volition. Damien repressed it and clenched his hands into fists. “She was raised as a slave. How can you blame her for any of that? She told me about all of that. Unlike you, she hasn’t tried to hide anything, and all of that wasn’t even her fault.”

Derrod snorted. “She told you what she wanted you to hear. She’s a skilled manipulator. If she told you everything, then you’d know she spent some time with the kingdom’s soldiers after her rebel master was killed.”

“You mean you kept her prisoner,” Damien snarled, his composure starting to crack.

“I did what I had to for the kingdom’s safety,” Derrod replied, his voice not changing from its usual tone. “She might not have had any deigns against the kingdom, but she certainly has ulterior motives.”

“I think that’s quite enough,” Delph said.

“Stay out of this, Dove,” Derrod said. “This is between me and my boy.”

“Clearly not, since you’re bringing Sylph in,” Damien said, starting to draw Ether into himself from the lines around them. “She hasn’t done anything that would be even remotely bad for the kingdom. All she’s done is tried to survive. What does she have to do with any of this?”

“That’s what I’m keen to figure out,” Derrod said. “This newfound interest you have in the kingdom’s future concerns me, especially since I can tell you’re hiding something. Perhaps I should go check myself.”

“Stay away from Sylph,” Damien said, his voice lowering. “You’ve done enough.”

“Are you going to make me?” Derrod asked, the corner of his lip quirking up in a taunting smile. “You couldn’t even scratch me when we last fought and I wasn’t even trying. The son of Stormsword, unable to keep up with his crippled roommate. I expect more than that from you.”

“Is that what this is about?” Damien asked, trying and failing to keep the fury from reaching his face. “Your ego? Because I lost in a fight against her?”

“It’s about the kingdom,” Derrod snarled. “I keep it protected, and you galivant around like you have no responsibilities with a girl that’s probably just sleeping with you to get closer to her assassination target. You–”

Damien whipped a Gravity Lance forward and teleported, driving two spheres of destructive Ether toward Derrod’s back. His father spun, crackling blue light flaring around him and deflecting the spells.

Derrod flickered and Damien teleported into the air, narrowly avoiding getting grabbed by the collar.

“Ah, you do have a backbone,” Derrod said. “Unfortunately, it isn’t even for something that matters.”

Damien snarled, drawing on as much Ether as he could handle and shaping it as he warped toward Derrod. He grabbed the ground beneath his father with telekinesis and hurled it into the air, sending dirt and stone flying everywhere.

Derrod flickered, avoiding the attack. He appeared before Damien just as purple energy hissed to life around the boy. Dozens of miniature scars flared around Damien as he cast storm, grabbing the debris around them and whipping it around himself.

A thin line cut across Derrod’s face before he blurred to safety a few feet back. Damien sent several Tears after Derrod, forcing him to dodge farther backward. As he cast, he ripped up more of his surroundings, adding them into the howling wall building around him. At the same time, he bound a small gravity sphere in place at his foot, keeping it readied with his mental energy.

Derrod flashed forward, shielding himself with a thin layer of blue magic and pushing through the storm. Damien teleported, yanking all the debris down on where he had been standing with all his might. It formed a stone tomb around Derrod, crushed into one single piece by the sheer pressure.

A loud crack split the air and Damien’s spell shattered along with his tomb. It crumbled around Derrod and he stepped out, largely uninjured.

“That’s all?” Derrod asked.

The gravity sphere that Damien had left behind detonated. Derrod’s eyes widened and he blurred. When he reappeared, jagged cracks up his armor from where the Gravity Sphere had caught him.

Damien didn’t give his father a chance to speak again. He tore up the ground beneath him once more, launching as much into the air as he could. Derrod blurred for him, but Damien shut his eyes and teleported several times in rapid succession.

He opened them again and reached within his mind for the gate of runes that connected him directly to the Ether.

“Shatter,” Damien commanded. The word ripped from his lips and the Ether thrummed in response. The grassy field erupted as hundreds of black dots flashed into being, blanketing the ground in an enormous radius around all of them.

They detonated as quickly as they had arrived, filling the air with countless loud snaps as stone, dirt, and the corpses of dozens of Corrupted monsters were torn to shreds. One of the spells caught Damien’s left hand, nearly ripping his entire arm out of his socket and shattering the bones in several of his fingers.

He forced the pain away, blanketing the area with telekinesis and thrusting all the dust down to clear the air. Derrod stood in the same place where he’d been standing before, his sword drawn from its place in the ground. Pops of electricity coursed along his skin, but his armor had been shattered and he was heavily favoring one of his legs.

A hand fell on Damien’s shoulder, stopping him before he could cast again. Delph stepped up to stand beside him, his eyes stormy.

“That’s quite enough, Derrod. If you push this any farther, I’m going to throw my own lot in. I’ve never been known for my good temper.”

Derrod studied Delph for a moment. Then impassive expression fell off his face, replaced by a bare toothed smile. “That’s more like it.”

“What?” Damien asked, the Ether still dancing at the edge of his lips as if it were begging for release. “What in the planes are you talking about?”

“He’s testing you,” Delph said, his voice level and measured. “He did it to everyone in his teams. Find out something that drives them and harp on it until they get pissed off enough to go all out. It’s a tactic only used by a scumbag leader that doesn’t think about anyone’s feelings other than his own.”

“It’s effective,” Derrod replied, driving his sword back into the ground and leaning on it. “I had to see how strong my son really was, and he wasn’t going to show me everything unless he had sufficient motivation. Isn’t it a father’s right to see how his boy is growing?”

Fury welled within Damien’s chest, but he tied it down and buried it. He wasn’t going to give Derrod the pleasure of seeing any weakness, and the pain in his fingers was more than enough to distract him.

“What do you want, Derrod?”

“I just said,” Derrod replied. “I wanted to see how strong you are, and people don’t put it all on the line until they’re fighting for something that matters. Wipe that expression off your face. I won’t touch your girlfriend. Won’t even talk to her unless she approaches me. She’s off the kingdom’s list.”

“That’s it, then? You threatened her just to screw with me?”

“Don’t take it so harshly,” Derrod replied. “I might have been the first, but I won’t be the last. Your control over your temper could be improved. If it helps, I’ll take care of your little request. I lied about Yui liking Nolan. She tolerates him, but if he truly doesn’t want to be king, we’ll need a better candidate. I would have taken care of that regardless of the outcome of this fight.”

“Of course you would have,” Damien said tightly. “The kingdom comes first.”

“Exactly,” Derrod said. “I’m glad you understand. You’ve done very well for yourself, Damien. The power you showed me today is incredible. More than what I wielded at your age, that’s for sure. You’re becoming a very powerful mage.”

A small smile crossed Damien’s face. “Thanks, dad.”

He walked up to Derrod, extending his hands for a hug. Derrod’s eyebrows twitched up, but he wrapped his arms around his son. Damien reached up, resting one of his hands just behind Derrod’s neck, and drew a mote of Ether into his finger, forming it into a thin claw of destructive energy and driving it into the other man’s skin and drawing blood.

“Touch someone I care about again and I swear on the planes that I’ll kill you, Derrod,” Damien hissed. Within him, It Who Heralds the End of All Light shifted, allowing the faintest amount of its power to seep out.

Damien pushed away from Derrod and strode over to Delph. “I’m done here.”

“You deserved that,” Delph informed Derrod, waving his hand and forming a portal. Damien stormed through it and Delph followed after him, snapping it shut behind them.