Thunderstorms.

Most saw them as a hassle or an obstacle to overcome as they went about their day. To Damien, old life and new, they'd always been something of a blessing. Never the most outgoing of persons, thunderstorms gave him a brief respite from the overly energetic masses as well as from questions about why he was quiet. It was seen as normal to be quiet, to hole up and read a book, or to stay inside and away from the gloomy weather. People didn't question when you used a day like that as an excuse to cancel plans.

Days like this. Like today.

'Bliss.'

Since coming to this world, he'd seen quite a few storms but rarely did they ever directly pass over his town. The cells always seemed to hug the mountains or drift lazily over the plains much further to the south. Today though, they were on a trip in the mountains and he had been blessed with a storm.

Damien couldn't stop smiling. The rest in his group weren't as excited.

Alexa seemed indifferent. She was using the rain as a way to practice fine manipulation, gathering the many droplets out of the air before they landed on her and creating multiple instances of water balls floating above and around her, continuously growing larger by the second.

Emily and Vanessa, however... well they were less than thrilled it seemed. Damien held back a laugh as he glanced at the two women looking like wet, unhappy cats. Emily couldn't do much in the way of water manipulation and had to stay in areas that were dry to stay dry, or rely on one of the mages to dry her. Vanessa just disliked things that were an inconvenience.

Now, if only he could find a way to get away from them...

Both the adults sat inside their shelter, watching the two play around in the downpour. To them, it probably looked like that's what he and Alexa were doing at, least. To him, this opportunity was nigh indispensable.

"I think I should head further away, I've got something I need to try," he said over his shoulder to the girl.

"What are you going to do?" she asked curiously.

'A fair question. How to answer it though... well, why not tell her? It is Alexa...'

"I... well, please don't tell anyone first. But I think I might be able to direct where a lightning bolt will strike within an instant instead of after preparations. I'm not too confident on the specifics of it, or if it will land where I want it to without creating a receptive point, but..."

The water around Alexa fell to the ground as she turned to him, clearly upset.

"I thought you said you wouldn't practice lightning magic during the storm."

"No, you all said I wouldn't. I never agreed. It's the perfect time to test out a theory I ha-"

"No, it isn't! Like more than half the people that use lightning magic during a storm get struck, and all of them died for it!" she said, raising her voice while waving her arms in the air.

Damien sighed as Vanessa and Emily began walking in their direction at Alexa's yelling.

"...well yeah, because they're idiots... who willingly invites hundreds of millions of volts of wild energy directly inside their body..." he mumbled.

The two adults arrived as he turned his head away.

"So why are you yelling at him thi-"

"Damien is going to practice lightning magic," Alexa said, interrupting Vanessa's question.

Without even giving them time to ask their question, Alexa had ratted him out.

'Fricken nark...'

"Dam-" Emily started before he cut her off.

"Look, I agreed to nothing. This is my element. I know way, way more about it than any of you or anyone on this planet. There is no reason I shouldn't be allowed to practice it during the most opportune moment to," he said to her.

Emily knew that look. He acted so calm and mature most days but whenever they didn't allow him something he really wanted, he turned into a spoiled, stubborn child, although one with well thought out arguments, unfortunately. More than once she had needed to pull rank as his mother to get him to stop complaining. No matter how much he talked about the cultural and economical benefits, she still wouldn't let him visit the relaxation corner.

"Regardless of how much you think you know, not a single person who has ever been struck by lightning while practicing it lived, son. It's not a good idea," Emily said, concerned.

Never once. In the past, many had tried but never once had someone lived. Without fail, every single time someone was struck while manipulating that energy, they died in an extremely gory display. No one knew why, but it happened and was considered suicide at this point.

Literally. Officials of the Association and Town Hall would mark the incident as someone committing suicide and would write it off.

She didn't want her son to be added to that list.

"It's obvious you'd die if you invited over one hundred million volts, and that's really low balling a positive strike, directly inside your body! People only live through being struck because lightning travels the outside of their skin! If you give your entire body a charge, like what everyone on Eleria only knows how to do, the lightning has a highway directly into your body. Your blood would evaporate and your entire being would explode from the trapped steam! The fact that you all only know how to negatively charge your bodies guarantees you'll be killed," he responded to her, exasperated.

It was obvious when he began to lose his patience with the talk due to the language he used. Words none of them understood would start flying out of his mouth, and confused looks would spread. He had gotten this way when they tried to talk him out of befriending the Fae, taking lightning as his main element, told him not to 'compress' air...

Emily sighed. It would be hard to convince him at this rate, even if she tried pulling rank. There was no guarantee he wouldn't sneak away to try it on his own some other day.

Vanessa tried to talk him down once more.

"Damien, can't you just give it another decade or so before you fool around with this? If you make a mistake, nothing we can do will bring you back. Nothing we can do would fix what happens."

"A decade?! That's... that's like almost seventeen years! Can't I just prove I'll be fine?" he asked.

That perked Emily's interest.

Proof would be nice to see. If he could somehow safely prove that he'd be ok, she would be much more open to the idea of him toying with death, although still not very comfortable with it.

She nodded.

"Sure, actually. If you can somehow, SAFELY, prove that you can practice it while in a storm, I won't min-"

"Great! Great. Ok. Don't move. Any of you. I've only done this a few times but it mostly goes well...." he said while moving away towards a rock.

"You've already done thi-" she started, annoyed.

He conjured what looked like earmuffs out of rock and sand on his head before continuing speaking louder than usual, interrupting her and startling her with his yelling.

"THE KEY IS TO BALANCE THE CHARGES AND KEEP THEM FROM GROUNDING AS YOU APPLY IT TO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO STRIKE. SEE, IF I INFUSE THE ROCK WITH THE BALANCED CHARGE, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN," he yelled, laying his hand on the boulder with a smile as Emily felt a mana signature, lightning in nature, coming from the rock.

Her whole body tensed when she realized that by proof, he meant just not putting the lightning on himself but was still going to use the lightning attribute. She watched as Vanessa tensed up beside her as well, both worried.

"BUT ONCE I... hold on... ONCE I ERASE THE NEGATIVE ASPECT OF THE CHARGE ALL A-"

"STOP, YELLING!"

'Thank the gods,' Emily thought as Alexa screamed at him.

"... right, sorry. Is this better?" he asked, all of them immediately nodding. "Ok. So, once I erase the negative aspect of the charge all at once and extend the, you should cover your eyes now... and ears while you're at it. But uh, extend the remaining positive energy skyward like a ladder," he said, raising his arm upward while.

When nothing happened, he stared forward for a moment, pulling his arm back down and rubbing his head.

"Huh. That should have done it."

He'd touched the rock and backed away excitedly while speaking and creating a small wall to stand behind. After voicing his doubts, they all uncovered their eyes and stared at the boy, confused.

"Not really sure what went w-"

Without warning, a sound Emily could only describe as the wrath of the gods screeched forth, booming in nature as her eyes were blinded by the purest of white light she'd ever seen. In a panic, she reached around for her family and found Alexa sitting on the ground nearby where she had been standing, the ringing in her ears making it impossible to hear anything else.

Emily's eyesight returned quicker than her hearing but both came back within a few seconds of each other, a testament to her constitution. Alexa was still on the ground rubbing her eyes, disoriented and asking questions that sounded like babbling.

Vanessa healed her and the girl stopped moaning, turning an angry expression on Damien.

"What the hell Damien?! A little warning next time!" the girl yelled.

"I did warn you! I... guess I should give you some ear protection for the next one..." he said, looking away. "At least the rock shattered away from me this time."

"Putting aside that horrible occurrence, this proves nothing. You said you'd be fine, but that rock is completely obliterated! And what was that you said about practicing this before?" Vanessa asked while waving to the rock, irate.

Emily glanced over to where she waved to see it was in fact as she stated. The rock was destroyed in its entirety. Truly, a display of raw power that brought slight trepidation and pride into her heart. Her son was very gifted, if at destroying things. He brushed the dust off his clothes before answering.

"That was only the first part of the demonstration! Now, watch what happens when- stop looking at me like that, it'll be safer this time. Watch what happens if I apply the positive energy only to the outside of the rock and insulate it with a layer of neutral charges just beneath," he said while creating a rock the size of a watermelon on the ground, touching it and backing away again.

This time, Emily and Vanessa turned around the instant the charge hit the rock and crouched, hands on their ears. Just in time, too, as a booming sound rocked their bodies moments later.

The surroundings lit up, bright as the middle of the day with the sun directly overhead.. Turning around awarded Emily with the sight of Damien covering Alexa's eyes.

"Come on, Lexi."

"WARNING! A WARNING, DAMIEN!" she shouted at him.

It seemed she remembered to heal her ears this time.

"They both knew what was going to happen," he said, pointing at Emily and Vanessa.

Emily looked at Vanessa to see she was staring forward, mouth hanging slightly open. Following her gaze, Emily's mouth also fell open in wonder. There, no further than twenty feet in front of her, was the rock. Completely and utterly unharmed, sitting in the same spot it had been after being struck by lightning. The dirt around it was charred and red, but the rock was in one piece.

"See? Completely fine. So, if I were to apply that same concept to a person, I would be completely fine too!"

Emily glanced up and mulled over his words. She'd always known lightning to be a force of destruction in nature, yet her son had proved again and again that that was a false understanding. Just the other day he had shown them a version of it that wouldn't harm and today he made the natural energies of the world bend to his whim.

She was immeasurably proud.

Emily smiled at him as he continued to chatter about, using words she couldn't understand while animatedly waving his arms around. A wonder, he was.

Once again, without warning, her eyes became blinded by light and a headache set in.

Damien rubbed the bottom of his feet as they slowly healed from the burns he'd given himself minutes before. Perhaps shoes were important after all.

The test had been perfect, though resulting in pain. In fact, it had gone remarkably better than he thought it would. He had felt the energy pass over his own on the outside of his skin as it prevented the lightning from grounding through his body. The 'ladder' of sorts he created had given it more than enough of an easy route into the ground that he probably didn't even need to insulate himself. He hadn't felt the slightest tingle of a shock.

Unfortunately, the energy had grounded just beneath him and the superheated sand gave him serious burns. Fortunately, those had been cooled instantly by Alexa who had hit him in the chest with a wave of water and sent him into the lake while yelling profanities. Afterward, she had rushed into the water to save him, realizing what he'd just done to himself and desperate to make sure he was ok.

Once they'd gotten back to land, he'd gotten an earful from the Adults about how reckless that was, but he couldn't help but be giddy.

He was Zeus.

"Alright!" he yelled, jumping up. "I can do what I want now, right? You won't get mad?" he asked, looking to Emily.

She sighed, rolled her eyes, and eventually smiled at him.

He smiled back. He knew he'd won.

"I don't see why not. Just be a little more careful than you have been, please," she said.

He nodded at her and moved about twenty feet away, finding a clear spot away from them before staring intently at a nearby bush. Before he could get any further Vanessa spoke up.

"Perhaps it would be best if you experimented further away, Damien."

He looked back to them and realization hit him.

"But don't go too far. There might not be many creatures on the ground but there are quite a few in the trees," Emily added.

He nodded at her before withdrawing his mana and walking away, up the lakeshore.

"So intelligent yet so scatterbrained when it comes to his passions," Vanessa commented.

"That's just one of his charms," Emily replied.

"There is nothing charming about blinding people mom," Alexa responded, going back to her training.

Emily's head snapped in the girl's direction but it would seem even she hadn't realized what she'd just said.

"Em, you're doing that face again," Vanessa said while sighing.

"He goes," Avery declared, wearing his usual white suit and red hair.

It helped the Humans to identify him he'd noticed, wearing the same outfit every day.

"So he does."

"Aye look how he walks away, smiling."

At once, the many fairies around him stopped their dalliances and focused on Damien.

"I will go speak with the boy, you all begin preparations," Avery said, causing an instant commotion as all the Fae dispersed. "I trust you understand why I've asked you to stay away from him for today, yes?" he said, looking at Kastra.

The Fae nodded before disappearing into an illusion, leaving him alone as he flew to the boy.

He followed Damien around for a few moments in silence, sneaking around the edge of the child's vision, but he bored of this very quickly.

"Where are you headed?" Avery asked in a lighthearted tone, losing the serious one he'd had moments before.

The boy flinched before turning around and looking up to where he sat in the air, quite literally.

"Practice. It should be dangerous and uninteresting, I'll inform you all of when... where are the rest of you?" the boy asked skeptically, eyes darting back and forth.

"Out and about! Preparing!" Avery chirped.

The boy stopped looking around and continued on his way, "Preparing for what?"

Avery gave no response, flitting back and forth while zapping the boy with ice instead to distract him.

They moved up the bank of the lake in this manner, Avery annoying and the boy trying to swat him off as he observed Damien. A good pick for their clusters chosen but a shame he had become less awed and inspired by their majesty. Understandable, but a shame. Humans didn't understand the Fae as they didn't truly understand Humans.

"Tell me, boy, do you care for your family?" Avery asked, seemingly out of the blue, yet this was a question that had been on all their minds ever since meeting him.

He said nothing for a while before looking up at Avery and responding with irritation, "What kind of question is that? Of course I do."

Avery held his hands in front of his body in mock surrender.

"Pardon, allow me to rephrase the question. Would you die for your family? Your *new* family?"

After asking such, Avery paid close attention to the boy's facial structure with no hint of mirth in his eyes. The die had already been cast; now it was time to see if they'd made the right decision all those months ago.

The child's face went from shock to anger within the span of a few moments. When the boy looked up to the Fae though, instead of speaking out in anger, his face changed to mild surprise and then quiet contemplation.

"I believe I would, yes. Actually, I know I would. They may not be the family I'd choose, but they are mine and I would do anything to protect them," he responded with finality.

Avery acknowledged his resolve with a nod of his head and a smile before speaking again.

"That is reassuring to hear, many were concerned you did not love them as your own," he said.

"Why is it you asked, fair one?" the boy questioned respectfully. "And how did you know-"

'Always knows when to flatter, this boy.'

"You will find out in time. Call it looking after one's family, if you will."

Time passed and eventually, the child decided he was far enough away, ceasing his walk. He then turned toward Avery and rekindled their conversation.

"Which of your personalities is real? The playful nuisance or the compassionate caretaker for his kind?"

Avery smiled wide at the question. A good question, indeed. Which was he?

"Can I not be both? Sometimes it is necessary for one to approach life seriously and sometimes it is important for one to realize life cannot be taken so seriously!" he said, flipping through the air sideways.

"People would like your kind more if you were serious more often though," the boy said.

"Why should we care?" he responded simply.

The young man had no answer to that, as he shouldn't. Why should the Fae care what others thought of them if they were happy in the society they had?

"Why are you still here?" he eventually asked, turning away to begin his strange movements.

Avery landed on a tree, standing sideways on it, and looked upward to the boy.

"To watch the show, of course! Tell me, Damien, is there room in that family of yours for a Fae?"

"What?" the boy asked, turning towards where Avery had already disappeared from.

Charles's eyes darted back and forth through the trees as he limped through the forest, injured beyond recognition. His wings had been cut off, his right arm had been removed at the elbow, and his right leg was a mess. He'd been trying to heal it ever since he was set free but he could not regrow bone, the scar on his shin a reminder of what was stolen. He had attached some wood to his leg, tied by a thread from one of his former squad's clothing, while he used a larger walking stick to lean on.

Not a trap set up by the Families, though now he wished it would have been. No, this was much, much worse.

He and his men had followed the trail for close to five days before they'd come upon the mountain path, jovial at the prospect of catching their prey. They made camp at the base just inside the treeline and decided to start up the next morning. No need to rush into the situation unprepared and unrested, he'd decided. They'd been moving very quickly and no doubt some of his scouts could use a moment's reprieve. He'd gone to sleep that morning without regret and woken with it.

A yell brought him out of his light sleep. Jolting awake, Charles looked to the man who had sounded the alarm only to find the spot where he was sure he had heard him a moment before, vacated.

Scanning their camp, more than half of his men had gone missing in the night.

"What is going on?" he asked, yet none responded with an answer.

After standing he ordered his men to gather on him to retreat back into the plains, yet none of his scouts knew the way. The sparse trees they had camped in had grown thick around them.

The group of twenty men had become nine. They fanned out with their backs to each other as they waited for his orders, same as Charles waited for his, but they never came. His message spells weren't reaching the mistress no matter how many he tried to send out.

Taking the advice of his scouts, Charles ordered them to move in what they all believed was a southern direction based on the sun and moss, yet the trees only grew thicker.

A scream sounded out and the men all turned to see a man disappearing into the forest, dragged by his legs by what they couldn't tell. Another scream sounded, this time from the other edge of the formation as none had been watching that side. Both men had their howls cut off at the same moment.

"Focus! Keep moving and stay together! Don't daydream or it will be your life by my hand or theirs!" Charles yelled.

They continued marching and eventually came across body parts. One by one they found hands, fingers, feet, and other pieces from their missing comrades as the foliage changed to the large Sequid trees, barkless and domineering. More of his men disappeared and more were found dead, some missing chunks as if bitten by a small carnivorous creature.

Then, they ran into a Burrow spider nest.

The monsters always stayed in the upper reaches of the trees, but for some reason a huge chunk had been taken out of the lower and upper branches, giving the spiders access to the ground level.

Charles and his men came across them as they feasted on his former squad, all piled under one tree. Some as big as a boulder, others the size of an ant, the Burrow spiders were diverse but all had one goal in mind.

To devour.

"Stay together!"

The larger spiders had pounced toward him and his four remaining subordinates while the smaller ones crawled along the ground toward the newest source of food. The Hellials had done their best not to become surrounded but it was to no avail as the spiders were much quicker in the forest. The larger herded them like sheep to the slaughter to their smaller kin, which bit their way underneath the skin, destroying their prey from the inside out. These spiders had no poison of any kind to their bite, only raw pain as they devoured their subjects. Never ending a life quickly, always excruciatingly painful as they burrowed in.

His men all succumbed and he was the last standing. Charles was the youngest of Minerva's commanders at the age of fifty and younger still than some of the men in this squad even, yet fighting to keep his skin impenetrable through fortification methods here was impossible no matter how talented a Combatant he was. The spiders teeth were infused with mana and easily made their way through to bring pain.

At that moment, he'd learned of the culprit to this disaster and tasted despair. Fire sprang into existence, devouring everything, living and dead, in his field of vision except himself and the spiders inside his limbs.

"Ho-ho so you are the one!"

"He is the best yes?"

"Definitely!"

"Avery will be happy!"

"What fun! Is he injured enough?"

"Hmmm... Should be! Should be a great fight!"

"Yep!"

Sweat dripped from his brow as Charles watched the Fae flit into his line of sight, beautiful and terrifying as they swarmed about. They smiled a bright, mesmerizing smile showcasing razor-sharp teeth, same as the spiders. His mind had gone back to the bites he'd seen in his comrades' flesh, and he noticed the blood around some of their hands and faces as it melted off their mouths from the rain.

"Should we cut off his wings?"

"Arm too, the bugs will eat him."

"Stupid mortal should have done it himself!"

Searing pain struck his body just a half second after their words as he felt his back become immeasurably lighter and his right arm disappear at the elbow, followed by a burning heat as the wounds were burned shut.

"W-'cough' Why? The Fae... they do not... interfere... so why?" he asked, coughing mid question while struggling to speak through the pain.

"We do not interfere as long as no harm comes to our own!"

"You hunt our family!"

"Our soon to be family!"

"So you will die!"

"But you get a chance."

His mind remained a jumbled mess, not remembering ever hunting any Fae, but hope returned when they mentioned a chance.

"What, what chance?"

"Cut off the bracelet and you live."

"Don't tell him that!"

"Without the bracelet, he is not family."

"Until the ceremony!"

"Oh yeah, tell him that!"

"It is your only chance for then we cannot interfere!"

"What if he succeeds?"

"No cake!"

"No party! We should kill him now! You shouldn't have told him!"

"But Avery will not let us attend if we kill him."

"Arghhh!"

Charles looked into their eyes for an indication of lies but found none. He knew who they spoke of, and he could achieve what they wanted. Hope seated itself inside his mind.

"Where is the boy I must kill?" he questioned.

"He asks more?"

"A small price for an answer, will you pay it?"

For his life? He would pay any 'small' price.

Charles nodded.

"His left arm?"

"No! His jaw!"

'That's not a small price!'

"Shinbone!"

"I like that! Shin!"

Within an instant of deciding, they descended on him and pushed him to the ground, slicing open his right leg with a single fingernail. He screamed in agony as one sliced the top and bottom of his shin with its hand and took the centerpiece out as if his body was made of paper.

"That... was no... small price!" he yelled out between strained breaths, giving voice to his earlier thought.

"Relative!"

"But it is small, see?"

"Look how small it is!"

They held his bone in front of his face as they closed the wound with healing magic, twirling it around while laughing and tossing it between one another.

"Follow the path we make for ye and you will find the boy!"

"Don't die on the trip!"

"Ye owe us for healing ye scoundrel!"

It was thus that Charles found himself traveling through the many trees, beaten and bruised, while heavily limping and searching for the boy that would be his salvation. Hoping, against all odds, the child was alone

Eventually, he saw light peeking through from the trees up ahead and slowed. When he came upon the opening, he saw the child moving through the forms, harnessing lightning as if it were air.

"...Impossible."

The boy had mana.

Moving past his initial shock, he continued observing the child before concluding that he was practicing light magic. It made sense as it was the easiest to learn for a beginner and much more reasonable than assuming it was lightning magic. He'd heard of no man or woman of any race using lightning magic during a storm and living, let alone harnessing the power like that.

It was a neat trick, but a trick nonetheless.

"Good luck, you'll need it."

The voice startled him as he jumped back, fighting the cry of pain that almost came out from jostling his leg.

A Fae with red hair and a white suit stood sideways on a tree looking down at him, waving him forward with a hand. He shuddered at the teeth-bearing smile while moving slowly nearer to the clearing.

'Incapacitate, then cut off the bracelet. Don't kill him. He'll make a wonderful gift to Erv. A Human child of four practicing magic...'

These were the limitations he placed upon himself, yet Charles could already feel his freedom returning.

He entered a stance and waited for the child to turn away from him; it never hurt to be cautious. Positioning next to a tree, he waited another three seconds before the boy finally rotated away from him. With a kick, he launched off the Sequid with his good leg toward the child and buried his sword deep inside his left thigh, running it through to the other side.

He would keep his life after all.