I was wrong! I was so horribly wrong!

Leaping up the stairs in a full sprint, I launch my body onto the wall in front of me, absorbing the impact with my legs. Once crouched on the wall, I extend my legs and leap off to the left slightly, performing a hastily crafted u-turn while conserving as much momentum as I could.

I am running for my life. Presumably. She wouldn't kill me, right?

Two steps out of the leaping turn and I have my answer to that question as a ball of fire slams into the wall at the top of the stairs I'd jumped onto.

Nodding, I renew my determination and continue my sprint towards Garrett's office.

"Get over here you little prick!" A demon shouts from behind me.

I chance a glance back and see death incarnate. Six-year-old girl, white hair, red eyes, fire in her hands... and her eyes.

That's new.

Looking back forward, I cry in relief that the door to the study is slightly ajar from my practice this morning.

Barreling into the corner of the door, I crash it open and continue my mad dash for the other side of the room. Using my left foot, I launch my body into the air to land on the step ladder with my right foot where I once again launch my body upward to land on the desk. One more step and with all the momentum I'd built from the hallway till now, I position my arms in front of my head and send my body rocketing towards the window behind the desk, obliterating the shutters and leaving me fifteen feet high in the air without a plan.

How did it come to this? I'm glad you asked, let's go back a bit to this morning.

Stretching his arms above his head, Vistiel had begun his morning like every other. However, unlike usual, he'd been granted the privilege of sleeping in. Vanessa would be coming by later that day with her niece so his caretakers didn't want him looking tired. Presumably, she'd chided them for overworking him last time she'd visited, so now whenever she came over they'd made sure he was well rested.

Vistiel didn't particularly mind either way. He enjoyed the practice with mana. Since he'd learned to manipulate it two months ago he'd taken leaps and bounds forward, surprising both Garrett and Emily. It had taken him nearly a month before he had enough finesse with his mana to be comfortable enough to begin the process of rumination and for this last month, he'd been steadily improving his bodies constitution and control of the mana inside himself.

In the beginning, he could feel the difference in leaps and bounds. His strength, speed, and senses were improving by almost a quarter what they'd been at the start in just a few days. After the first week, the differences became less pronounced, and now he barely felt he'd even spent a day meditating. The first few days had made this last week lackluster in comparison, but he was getting stronger and it was foolish to think it would stay at so drastic a pace. If it did, he could become nothing less than a superhuman within a month, let alone a year.

Now, he was sitting around a little more than one and three-quarter times what he'd been at the start. He knew this because he'd been testing himself daily with weights and other various means of measurement. How far can a rock be thrown, how fast can he go from one side of his yard to the other, how long did it take before he tired out, at what point could he hear Emily coming up the stairs to drag him to dinner... etc.

'You get out what you put into it,' Emily had said, and he could already tell she'd been right. If you took someone who cared little for getting stronger and someone whose life depended on it and had them compete to see who would come out stronger after a year of rumination, who do you think would come out on top?

He didn't know it yet, but most who chose the path of a Combatant didn't meditate nearly as fiercely as he did. Manipulating mana in either form increased your lifespan with diminishing returns similar to increases in strength, to an upper limit of on average 400 years for a human with the oldest recorded death being 512. Celestial's hadn't been around for long enough for one of them to die of old age yet, but by the looks of their oldest members that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. Due to this most didn't see the benefit of committing so intensely throughout the years of their practice. If by the age of 300 most everyone would be around the same strength anyway and in a war-torn land where living that long was a feat in and of itself, why bother?

Due to this, the averages he'd gotten from Emily were definitely not catered toward someone who threw everything they had into it. And throw he did, as he spent almost every waking moment meditating.

It wasn't only the practicality of it that drove him, though. It was the sheer wonder of it.

Mana.

Something he'd never had in his old life. Never seen. It was a fairy tale.

But not here.

His guardians worried at first for his health but quickly fell into line with his approach, even increasing the amount of time they spent practicing for themselves. His zeal surprised them and renewed the determination they'd recently forgotten.

It wasn't only his body strengthening he was focusing on, however. Those weeks he spent familiarizing himself with outward mana gave him control over enough mana to refine his outward practices as well, taking time to understand how mana created different phenomena such as electricity, fire, water, air, and others.

It was hard to understand, how he could exert control over an element by using mana, but he was slowly getting better and better at controlling it by the day.

Done stretching, Vistiel pushed Jasper off his stomach and fell into the forms without manipulating mana externally. He did this in place of his old routine as the forms were meant to stress all muscles evenly throughout his body. He'd learned that was very important if he wasn't specializing as a certain type of Combatant. Exercising or straining your muscles in a certain way repeatedly drew the mana in your body to those parts, slightly enlarging them and increasing their output at the cost of lessening the flow of mana to other areas. He found this out when he checked his body during meditation and found some areas of it holding different densities of mana compared to others.

Once finished with the forms, he closed his eyes and pulled some mana together, drawing it into his body before sending it out as a pulse of throughout the room. Similar to sonar but closer to standard vision, the mana gave him a simple understanding of the room by allowing him to feel the location of everything it touched. Covering half the room in mana was as far as he could control with the limited practice he'd had in outer manipulation before he'd changed to meditation, but he'd heard some Mages could span entire villages.

The mana could be felt by everyone who knew how to manipulate mana though so it wasn't a very stealthy way of checking a room.

Locating Jasper, his clothes Emily had picked out for the day, and the few other things spaced throughout the room in this method always made Vistiel giddy. Magic truly would never cease to amaze him no matter how mundane his parents made the basic scan out to be. So simple a magic that almost all Humans could do it without a spell matrix.

Finally, he trotted over to the door and pulled it open. Emily had taken to leaving the door ajar for him of late so he was able to come and go as he pleased. Garrett still closed his office up but had stopped locking it since that was where Vistiel enjoyed practicing.

He took four steps forward and turned to the right before proceeding to jog down the stairs into the kitchen for the breakfast Emily had left out for him.

He hopped up onto a chair and pulled his plate closer to the edge so he could eat. Some toast, eggs, and a jam of some kind. A simple breakfast so he'd have room for lunch with their guest.

Once breakfast was done, he walked into the shop to watch Garrett manipulate the elements into the armor he'd been tasked to work on. The man nodded to his son then focused back on his task.

An hour later and still no closer to understanding what Garrett was doing, Vistiel bored and ran back upstairs to put his clothes on and start meditating. Emily had told him not to since he had a tendency to lose track of time, but he was sure it would be fine. If anything, someone could come get him.

At least he was dressed.

What felt like 10 minutes later his suspicions were confirmed as Vanessa walked into the office and tapped him on the shoulder.

"It seems every time I come here I have to break you out of a trance little one. When are you going to greet me downstairs properly?"

The jump scare from having her touch him and speak made him lose concentration on the ball of mana he'd been condensing, but it didn't matter. Once he'd realized who it was that interrupted him, Vistiel shot to his feet and leaped into her arms.

"Haha, looks like you still love me. Come on now, I have someone I want you to meet. If you treat her at all like you treat me I'm sure she'll just adore you."

Laughing out loud at his enthusiasm, Vanessa gave him a big hug before letting go and turning around to walk downstairs.

Vistiel tilted his head at her sarcasm then shrugged. She'd let him go but he hadn't. Instead, he began climbing around her stomach over to her left wing, climbing up that while she said some things he wasn't listening to. When he was just about to reach her shoulders, her wing shot down and out to the side. She plucked him off her and held him out in front of her by his armpits and he hung there limp, like a sad cat.

"Stop climbing on me and say hi already," Vanessa said to him.

Glancing around the room, the shop's reception room had been turned into a regular living room, with two couches sitting across from each other and a table in the middle. Sitting to one side was Garrett and Emily, fidgeting and looking uncomfortable. On the other side of the table was a girl staring at him open-mouthed, standing, and pointing an angry finger in his direction.

'How cute.'

And really she was. About three feet tall, long white hair, piercing red eyes, and a rather fair complexion all came together to create a doll of a child. Or it would have except dolls usually didn't look so surprised.

Vistiel waved and smiled which placated Vanessa, who dropped him back down on the middle her outstretched wing where he latched on and frustratingly tried to crawl back to the top so he could see her niece again. It was the first time he'd met a new person in a while, so his curiosity was piqued.

"You let him climb on you?!"

A venomous sounding question made its way over the top of Vanessa's wing and into Vistiel's ears. He stopped his climbing momentarily, wondering if it was worth getting involved anymore.

"Yes, and?" Vanessa asked back as he continued climbing, reaching the top and peeking over.

"Why do you permit that?!" the child continued, not at all how he'd expect a six-year-old to act.

"Should I not? He enjoys it and I rather love this little child. He can do whatever he wants to me, Alexa."

Starting with a cold tone and ending with a mischevious one, Vanessa ignored the light smack of a reprimand Vistiel gave her while addressing her niece.

"But he's a Human!" she shouted, animosity clear in her voice. "You'd kill me if I jumped on you, let alone a- a Human!"

"What is wrong with him being a Human, Alexa? Does that make him any less than a Celestial?"

"They're... They're not eq-"

"You think yourself better than him by accident of birth?" Vanessa interrupted. "Better than these two, who kindly let you into their residence and fed you?"

Vistiel's eyes glanced to his parents and back, the awkwardness of the situation unfolding causing him to want to leave immediately.

Her niece didn't respond, only looking as if she couldn't understand her aunt's response.

"Your views are not shared off that island my dear. Fix your attitude before I am forced to fix it for you," Vanessa finished.

Opening her mouth to retort but then closing it after a glare from her Aunt, Alexa sat back down on the couch and was followed by Vanessa, Vistiel in tow.

He watched as the girl looked to be struggling with something for a few moments before finally opening her mouth to speak to his parents sitting across from them.

"I am sorry if that came out rude," she said to the two sitting across from her, surprising Vistiel at once again blatantly not acting as a child so small should. "It's just that I was... unprepared to see my Aunt so familiar with anyone."

Nodding to the girl, Garrett immediately spoke up in a light joking manner.

"No no, it's quite alright. I completely understand. If I didn't see it myself daily I wouldn't believe that she could ever claim to love something. She's even been kinder to me recently and lets Emily hug her without pushing her aw- ow! What was that for?" Garrett asked, turning to his wife who had just lightly hit him.

Vistiel silently thanked her for doing that as Vanessa had once again started glaring and glancing at the roll she'd picked up.

"Dear, that's rude. Vanessa has always been this kind. Why, back when we used to travel the lands and adventure, she and I even used to share a bed. One time when we were lonely she e-"

Quicker than Vistiel could sigh, the roll had left Vanessa's hand and made contact with Emily's forehead, bouncing upward.

"What are you talking about, might I ask?" she asked with a strained look on her face. "I certainly don't remember any of this so if you'll stop making lies now I'd-"

"It's not a lie, though?" Emily interrupted tilting her head and reaching out to the side to catch the roll. "Remember when you were hurt from that tier 3 dungeon we did? Well, after healing, you were passed out for a few days so... In the interest of saving money I graciously-"

"She begged us-"

"-Ehem, graciously gave up my room to sleep in yours and take care of you! I kept you warm for a few days, healing you with my body," Emily explained, glancing at Garrett partway through for interrupting then finishing off by wiggling her eyebrows at the Celestial.

The room seemed to drop a degree or two as all eyes turned to Vanessa. Even Vistiel stopped clambering around her, terrified of what she might do next. Contrary to what he expected though, her face went from its stern complexion to beat red in an instant and her niece immediately began laughing up a storm while the two on the other couch began chuckling.

"I don't, ahahaha, I don't think I've ever seen, hahahaha, my Aunt show this much emotion, let alone actually get embarrassed, in my, ehehe, in my entire life!" Alexa exclaimed while laughing, clearly enjoying every moment her Aunt spent uncomfortable, made even more pronounced by the fact the girl had just been scolded by her.

Shifting to her niece, Vanessa's face bore a chilling expression.

Eased by the fact that her ire was clearly directed to someone else, Vistiel rounded the top bend and tried to burrow into her feathers as far as possible near the inner top side of her wing. The feathers were so soft and warm in that corner, he could only imagine how heavenly it would be to actually fall asleep in them.

He made a mental note to beg for it one of these days.

A poke to his side interrupted his thoughts and attempt at napping. He turned his head and saw Vanessa looking at him with an evil grin on her face.

"Damien, did you know? Feathers of Celestial's wings are softest in the younger members of our species. In fact, they should be nearly twice as sof- and he's gone."

After taking a moment to process what she'd said, Vistiel immediately jumped from her left wing onto the top/back of the couch with the agility of a cat, landing on all fours before leaping off the couch and landing behind Alexa, reaching out and hugging her right wing to his body, pressing it to his face using his right hand that he'd reached around to the inside of said wing with.

Rubbing the inside of the wing and scratching the outside near the top with his left hand, he had a contemplative look on his face as he ascertained the truth of Vanessa's words.

Alexa was frozen in place for about five seconds, a shocked look adorning her face.

Once he'd started rubbing the inside of her wing she let out a purr of contentment before all hell broke loose, the sound she made seemingly shocking her out of her frozen state.

Vanessa lied to me!

That's all I can think as time seems to slow and I hurtle out the window of my home, shards of wood embedded in my arms.

It wasn't even worth it. It wouldn't have been worth it if she hadn't been lying! Extremely painful electrical shock followed by fire, fire, and more fire.

The little she-devil is insane! I had to create my own negative charge to counteract hers long enough to throw myself away before my body began convulsing. She could have left me comatose!

Looking down I see I'm aiming right for one of Emily's thorn plants, of course. She planted them here because the flowers and fruits they grow are beautiful so she'd wanted Garrett to enjoy looking out his window, but now her son is going to be impaled on the six inch long spikes.

Only one thing to do then. Hopefully, my eyes survive this and I'll see the day they no longer show me these weird colorful streaks of light I keep seeing by the bush. Or maybe it means I'm going blind.

Mentally shaking my head to focus back on the issue at hand and with only about a second to work with, I throw my arms out to the side and create claws with my hands then push them forward, gathering as much air as I can with my mana and pushing it down into a pocket in front of the bush I'm set to collide with.

Gathering and funneling the air is easy, condensing it correctly was always the tricky part. I'd been practicing this specific air maneuver before I started meditating and this was one thing I could never quite control the effect of. Usually, it ended with a rush of air when something went wrong but that's because I would only use about five percent of all the mana I could, so this was going to be interesting.

The condensing came much easier this time at least since I wasn't going to be trying to keep the air contained for long.

Out of time and this being my last hope before colliding with the physical manifestation of the word pain, I move a tendril of mana forward to poke the air I'd compressed, swearing I hear the giggling of someone nearby right beforehand.

"So what are your plans with her? How long is she staying?" Garrett asked, inquiring about the fiery young lady who'd just left the room chasing after his son.

"She'll be with me for a while. I don't know when her mom plans to have her go back home. It's... complicated there," Vanessa responded.

The adults still sat in the reception area, ignoring the random blast sound here and screaming there.

"Do you think they'll be ok?" Emily asked, the only one seemingly concerned about the situation.

"Alexa wouldn't actually try to hurt him. She's probably just trying to scare him a little," Vanessa responded.

"I wonder if it'll work? He's more curious than any boy his age I've ever heard of. A little caution would do him well."

After responding, Garrett stood up and made his way to the door of the room. He reached forward to open it and just as he opened his mouth to yell at them to take it easy, a boom unlike any he'd heard before echoed throughout the house. Splinters of wood stuck in his arm as he shielded his eyes on instinct, the smell of dust and fresh air from outside mixing as he slowly lowered it to survey the scene.

Through a haze of brown, the first thing he saw was his wall blown inward from a very large blunt impact. Something had struck it with enough force to tear through the wood, leaving a couple of the planks shattered and bowed inward. Sunlight streamed in from outside as the sounds of Emily and Vanessa standing up quickly entered his ears.

Garrett scanned the house to make sure his son was safe from whoever might be attacking them or whatever spell had gone awry and in doing so, he found the projectile that had caused all the damage.

"A little... help."

Garrett's heart sunk.

"Vanessa get in here!" he yelled, the soft voice reaching his ears just as he began dashing for his son.

Lying in a crumpled heap in the far right corner of the room by the front door, opposite the hole, was his son.

After a couple of steps Garrett was there, flinging debris off him as fast as possible.

"You're fine, you're fine it's ok," he called out, hoping to ease the boy's mind even a little.

It seemed that wasn't necessary though, as when he finally met his son's eyes he didn't see fear as he expected, but relief. Not even a hint that he'd start crying from the immense pain he must be in.

"Vanessa!" Garrett shouted over his shoulder, picking Damien up and laying him on a countertop nearby as Vanessa arrived and began healing him.

"Not bad at all considering. Some bruising and impaled wood on his back where he impacted the walls. Broken leg. Cracked ribs and the scrapes on his arms from whatever hit him," the Celestial mumbled under her breath as her mana took stock of the boy's injuries.

"Any chance it was your niece?" Garrett asked, relieved she was so level headed even in a moment like this.

Vanessa shook her head.

"No, she uses fire mainly. Whereas she could do this kind of damage, it would leave scorch marks at the very least. The damage to his ribs looks more like a concussive injury, like sound or... didn't you say he was working on his air manipulation?" she asked, glancing up.

"Ye-yeah but not anything that could do this. He was just trying to make a breeze, I thought. Every now and then he'd make a gust, but nothing near this destructive!" Emily responded, coming through the hole in the wall from outside.

He gave her a thankful nod for scouting their home first to try and find out what had done this before she came rushing in. As much as she loved their son, she knew to act accordingly before coming to his side.

Footsteps from the stairs sounded out as the girl joined them from the kitchen to look at the destruction.

"That was with small amounts of his mana, wasn't it? He hasn't communed with Air, how did he -back up Alexa- how did he create a gust in the first place? That should take all the control he has, not just a little- Alexa Sial! I care not if you're concerned, go wait in the room and stop getting in my way! Now!"

Garrett watched on as the girl flinched from the older Celestial but turned back to his son when Vanessa continued speaking in a murmur.

"A gust with minimal... what could he do if he put everything he had into his cast?"

The question needed no answer as the result was scattered all around the room.

'I didn't mean for this to happen.'

Alexa sat on the couch, trembling, her forehead resting on her knees.

She truly hadn't wanted this, either. Sure she'd wanted to scare the boy. Punch him, maybe burn him a little... but this?

The girl sobbed with her hands wrapped around her knees and body, wishing she knew healing magic.

This wasn't supposed to be how her first day with her Aunt went. The one she looked up to the most in the family. She'd protested leaving but if she was being honest, she didn't mind going to see Vanessa.

But from the moment she saw the boy acting like she was a rock to climb on and seeing her Aunt smile when he did hit a nerve she never knew she'd had. All the politeness she'd been employing for Vanessa's Human friends disappeared.

She got mad.

She got scolded.

Her emotions were already in turmoil so once the Humans made her Aunt blush like that, she laughed hard to cover up the jealousy in her heart.

And the boy... Her Aunt sicced him on her like a dog as a joke. Yet, when he began massaging her wing, it felt like she could melt into that feeling forever. Comforting, soothing, peaceful. She'd always been told having her wings touched would feel repulsive, but it had calmed her more than she'd ever been in her life. No one was supposed to touch your wings and everyone knew that, but he did it so casually it had taken her off guard and she hadn't resisted.

Then she'd moaned in content and it broke the spell. Jealousy, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, and fatigue all came crashing back at once and her mind lashed out at the one thing that had made her feel something close to happy for the first time in months.

She wasn't too strong of a mage yet but she was definitely leaps and bounds above her peers. It was the only way she passed her time, practice her form. She didn't play with others her age, her parents were always busy, so she trained and it paid off. But she'd used that training to shock the boy as hard as she could.

Thank Elaria he'd gotten away somehow, but that only embarrassed her more. Seeing the way the adults reacted to her shocking him as if they expected it and expected him to get away. Fueling the fire further, she'd chased him through the house throwing mana and curses after him.

After a two-year-old.

And he was quick. He was supposed to be a two-year-old Human, yet he moved faster than a Celestial of her age.

Once he went upstairs she thought she had him cornered, only to see the boy jump from a two-story building through wooden shutters. When she reached the window to look down a half second later in disbelief she saw him finish clapping his hands in front of him and then, as if a bomb had gone off, all things from a point in front of the boy were blown away. It wasn't particularly destructive two feet away from the center, but everything in the area of it had been blasted into its surroundings, including the boy. All her emotions instantly gave way to fear in that moment. No child could survive that.

And yet he had. She saw him from behind the adults and he looked like he'd fallen down a flight of stairs riddled with rough, sharp edges; but that was it. She'd walked forward to apologize to him and help in some way, any way, but her Aunt wouldn't let her. She'd tried again thinking maybe if she just tried to heal him...

She needed to say sorry to him, tell him it was her fault and beg her Aunt to fix him, but her Aunt had turned and yelled at her again, going so far as to use her middle name. The name she hated. The name they both hated.

The other woman took her to the room with the couches they'd been in just minutes before, sat her down, and returned to her son.

Head on her knees, she trembled and sobbed to herself, not allowed to do anything else.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't mean to I'm so sorry..."

Alexa cried.

Well, that was the dumbest thing I've done.

"A little... help."

Lungs screaming in protest, I weakly call out for assistance.

Dumbass, now they know you can talk. If they didn't already, which I doubt.

Finally, Garrett reaches me and pulls the heavy things off my chest.

Air!

Sweet air fills my lungs that aren't restricted anymore.

I really need to get better at not suffocating.

With that last depressing thought, I'm whisked up onto a countertop and soon I feel foreign mana wash over my body and begin to patch things up. I watch how it works and try to help where I can with my own, but it's so complicated I'm only making things worse in my delirious state, so I stop.

I hear them talking about what happened, Garrett asking if it was the girl's fault. Before I can tell him off Vanessa comes up with a much more reasonable response than 'piss off' and he seems satisfied.

I must have piled enough air in that pocket for a mini compressor. It launched me through a wall. I need to be more careful with my experiments. If my body wasn't hardened I'd probably be paste by now.

Lifting my head slightly gets it pushed down and held down by Emily, hands muffling some of the sound coming to my ears.

She keeps cooing at me through tears about how I'll be ok, her baby Damien will be ok. That sets me off and then I start crying.

I know it will be ok. I can feel it getting better; that's not the problem! It's that I'm not Damien. I've been trying my damn best to ignore it, but every time they call me by that name it hurts. It doesn't belong to me. This affection isn't mine. This family, this house, it's not supposed to have me in it. And now they know for a fact I can talk. I won't be able to say what they want to hear.

Right as I was beginning to really fit in.

My tears seem to allay her worries somehow and she lets go of my head. Once she does, I hear clearly again. Sounds of people shouting outside, Garrett walking to the door, wood dislodging and falling to the ground, and sobbing. The sound of someone crying, but not from me or the two girls around me.

My leg finishes healing and I move to get up. Emily tries to hold me down again, but a quick zap from my mana causes her to let go immediately, looking shocked.

Nice one, me. Gotta laugh in these dark times... I think.

Probably never considered her baby would ever zap her.

Sliding down off the countertop, I groan in pain as I feel my ribs shift uncomfortably and my tailbone tingle. I slowly make my way across the rubble into the reception room with the two adults left in the room hovering around me, bewildered. Once inside, I move over to the door and close it on them. Finishing that, I once again make my way toward the girl who caused all this, yet wasn't the cause of any of it.

I pull my body up onto the couch and drag my battered self over to where she is sitting. Finally, I move her face away from her legs and crawl into her lap to curl up, putting my arms around the girl as my own tears fall soundlessly. She begins crying even harder and hugs me back, apologizing over and over.

She doesn't get it, but that's fine. It's not her fault. She's supposed to be here. She belongs with these people. She doesn't understand that this wouldn't be happening to her if not for me.

Finally, in a place away from those three who cherish me, in a place where the only other person here just chased me down and tried to barbecue me, in a place where I don't have to feel guilty, I cry.