Seasons passed by in the blink of an eye as the world continued its rotation, bringing them to the year 5'658 at the beginning of the fourteenth month. Damien was nearing six on this planet while looking like a nine-year-old from Earth, aging at a speed that was too slow for his tastes. Knowing Humans aged faster than the other races physically, he'd been hoping he'd look like a young teen or at least catch up to Alexa, but was barely as tall as she had been two years ago.

He'd followed in his father's footsteps, keeping his straight black hair around two inches in length most of the time while praying he could grow a goatee just the same. In his old life, he'd been a big fan of the Robert Downey goatee look, and his father definitely had the genes for it. Damien could only hope he'd have the same genetic blessing.

To his body's credit, his facial structure had begun to mature slightly and he lost most of the pudge off his cheeks. His eyebrows were growing in thick as a prominent feature, framing his eyes which, similar to the girls' eyes, had become the cornerstone of his looks. They maintained the same beautiful swirls they had the day of the ceremony. Still a base color of dark grey, silver and vibrant red wisps trailed back and forth over the top, like a never-ending lava lamp.

He and Alexa had restarted their usual daily routines a few days after they'd gotten back. Damien would wake up and scratch her wings to begin the day, followed by them stretching, running through the forms, eating breakfast, and sparring. Occasionally, something would change as a wrench was thrown into this routine, whether on purpose to allow them to enjoy a day off or by accident, and they'd do something different. Usually though, the days were passed in this methodical manner.

He spent his time practicing the finer details of his lightning magic during the forms, able to manipulate it long and easy enough to make it a feasible switch from air. The increased difficulty of being inside the house and around metal objects only served to add to the training. Over weeks of this, his fine control of the deadly element reached new heights, giving him greater trust in himself wielding it around members of his family.

Truly, a magical world. Electricity never flowed so smooth or obediently in his old world without pathways, yet here all he had to do was exert his will over it and it became a third arm.

When they'd returned, Damien and his mom sat Garrett down and explained a few things to him regarding Damien's history. Credit to Garrett's earlier outburst from their first talk, the man had actually expected something like this to come up again and maintained his stance of Damien being their son. Instead of making a big deal about the past, he began asking questions about Damien's world, eager to hear of its accomplishments. When the conversation eventually branched to technology and science, they both expressed hesitation in trying to recreate any of the inventions into this world. Such information falling into the wrong hands could be the cause for a much more deadly war to break out, rather than the passive skirmishes that existed currently. The need they had for anything from Earth was minimal anyway, what with mana providing a solution instead of technology, so the matter was put to rest.

Kastra was the same as she'd been at the lake, if not a bit less reserved and more worldly. At first, she had been a bit of a hassle to deal with. She'd always clung to him, never knew what to do outside observing he and Alexa, and assumed most things around them were a threat. Eventually, this petered off, and she began to develop interests outside of protecting her two bonded. One lay in the forms, something the Fae never had to practice to strengthen their control of magic. She enjoyed the way it felt to move about similar to Damien while controlling her mana around her body. He also knew she loved the way it looked, which was most likely the main draw as she'd chosen light magic to practice with.

Another interest she'd picked up was drawing and painting. One day she'd been watching as Damien and Alexa had been moving through the forms together and instead of joining them she began to draw what they looked like in the dirt nearby. By the end of the hour, a veritable masterpiece had been formed as Damien and Alexa looked at a carved out depiction of them moving through the forms, Alexa looking like an overly serious practitioner of martial arts who had no room for mistakes or carelessness in her movements while Damien was depicted more free-flowing and abstract. Alexa hadn't liked how it made her seem so stern while Damien had expressed his sadness that it would disappear after the rain and natural elements got to it, imploring Kastra to draw it upon paper with charcoal or some other substance. Ever since then, she'd taken a day or two off every week from their usual sparring matches and moving through the forms to work further on her drawings, each one more detailed than the last.

Finally, Kastra had also begun practicing movement techniques with them, using her own body as the goal as the two sprinted about trying to catch her. They chose never to spar with the Fae though, as Alexa had no means to fight a stronger opponent of yet and Damien's only means were lethal.

As far as her body went, Damien had been given a great boon with regards to their usual baths. Citing the lack of space, Kastra had begun bathing in her miniature form rather than the one their size, saving him from future complications as his body and mind developed further. Alexa agreed that they were getting a little big to have three in the tub at once and Kastra didn't mind as long as she'd been allowed to join in, taking pleasure in bathing. Fae usually cleaned their bodies with magic, so bathing had been quite interesting to her.

Usually, she spent the time swimming around in the tub as if it were a large pool, likely missing the time she'd spent in the lake. Living with them was a huge change of scenery, and after realizing she could be potentially homesick, Damien was more than willing to stop complaining about her joining them. It also helped that he found it impossible to do anything but laugh at the sight of her doing laps, saving his pure mind from further corruption.

Alexa had continued as always, practicing water and ice manipulation mainly, with water the focus. Damien had lectured her on everything he knew about the properties of water, from its makeup to the temperatures it froze and boiled. He expressed to her certain aspects of air as well, but for some reason, she couldn't comprehend how to make something pressurized. The idea of condensing air into a ball to make it harder was difficult for her to understand, and she had yet to do anything similar to it. She made leaps and bounds forward in her water magic though, able to freeze, melt, and vaporize it. One thing she was working on was the time it took to do all of that, but it was steadily getting quicker. If she managed to learn how to vaporize ice instantly, the results could be catastrophic.

He'd impressed on her the importance of keeping the things he told her a secret, citing the problems that would arise should it fall into the wrong hands. Sure, like his technology, it could be a great help with war efforts and protecting towns and cities from monsters while increasing quality of life, but they were doing just fine without an increase in power. Damien didn't want to be the reason someone he didn't trust became stronger and used that strength to hurt others.

Alexa had become a bit more clingy of late, citing that she'd be leaving soon as the reason, though Damien had other suspicions. Ever since returning and Kastra had explained that proximity increased the speed of the pact's maturation, she had made it a habit of almost sitting directly in his lap during meals and anytime they weren't sparring. She was even trying to keep Kastra around her more than him. No matter how often Damien reassured her, she kept up the practice, sometimes causing him to wake up completely entangled in the girl's limbs. He didn't mind it much, but he hoped she would be fine when they had to leave her at the Academy. The sooner the pact matured, the sooner they would be able to influence each other's states of mind slightly at least, hopefully allowing him to ease her if she began having bad times while away.

The rest of the family went on with their lives as usual. Vanessa visited and stayed the night on rare occasions, Emily continued ruminating to increase her strength while assisting Garrett with deliveries and the easier aspects of his work, and Garrett provided the income. His work had taken a sharp increase in quality once Marciela had moved in, the little Fae constantly criticizing his work while explaining how to improve it in her eyes.

Marciela was more than a little upset when she found out that Kastra preferred to sleep with Alexa and Damien rather than her and had tried sleeping with them on more than one occasion but couldn't stand how still she had to keep or how long they took to wake up. She'd tried to convince Kastra to sleep away from them with her at that point, at least once a week she'd pleaded, but Kastra wouldn't budge on the issue and refused to spend that time further from them than immediate contact.

Life truly had felt normal again, yet that was coming to a close as the time to begin travels to Eleram academy for Alexa was nearing. The trip there would take approximately two and a half months, and Emily would use the Academy's teleportation matrix to travel back to Hathen, a large city just below where the mountain ranges met in the center of the continent and to the west of Carlon. While an expensive method of transport from any other large city or town, the teleportation array leaving Eleram was rather cheap, costing only a few silver per person. They had the continents most dense population of strong mages along with the highest quality mana stones mined from dungeons around the world, making teleporting folks away a simple matter. The array was usually how most families left once they dropped their children off, hoping to avoid traveling through the high passes of the mountains during the perilous winter months.

Emily and Alexa would be the only two going on the trip. Damien had wanted to go along with them but ultimately decided against it. Where spending more time with her would be nice, he would be unable to do any form of mana manipulation while traveling. The two would be joining a caravan headed east once they reached Hathen and would be constantly surrounded by other sentients, making it impractical for him to go along unless he wanted to squander roughly three months of practice.

Vanessa had been planning to take three more months off her work to make the trip, but Emily had interfered, begging she be allowed to spend the time with Alexa instead. It made more sense to allow Emily to take her, what with her not having a schedule she absolutely had to keep, and Vanessa acquiesced in her decision. In the future as well, whenever the children needed a ride to the school, Emily had been declared as the one that would take them. She fought for it like no other, clearly excited about the prospect of being allowed to travel again. Whereas Vanessa and his parents all were content for the most part to stay rooted in the village, his mom missed traveling the most.

The two would be leaving in the morning and a goodbye celebration of sorts would be taking place this afternoon, though it was less of a celebration and more of a barbecue. They had slept in and hadn't practiced mana all day, instead spending the time clearing out the center of Garrett's shop for a table, setting candles and more formal dinner placements on it. They were planning on having a long family dinner, unlike usual, to speak and enjoy each other's company before sending Alexa off into the unknown.

It was thus that they all found themselves sitting at the table together, eating and giving Alexa more than enough advice to last her a lifetime at the Academy. Though she already would be going in among the top rung of students, Garrett and Vanessa left no room for anyone else to speak as a veritable monsoon of lectures from first hand experience continued streaming from their mouths well into the night, overwhelming Alexa while amusing Damien, Emily, and the two Fae.

The look on her face told him she was going to miss their home a lot.

"The girl leaves tomorrow, sir."

Carien looked up from the report he'd been reading at his desk to meet his scout's eyes before glancing back down.

"I already know this, why are you reporting it again?" he asked.

He'd known for some time that the N'moran's daughter would be headed to the Academy soon, and it was relieving that they would be handling her protection once there. While she was in the Academy, he wouldn't need to spare any of his scouts to keep an eye on her, able to instead utilize them on other more important things. The Elves were moving behind the Emperors back, the Hellials were unnaturally quiet, and the Nivari had begun to quiet down as well. The situation was changing, most likely not for the better, and he didn't have nearly enough information to make solid decisions.

"You haven't told us how you'd like us to configure for the trip," came the reply.

Carien sighed. That explained why his scout was here. He had forgotten to send a letter detailing their orders and didn't expect them to decide themselves, either. He'd been too busy of late.

Carien mentally thanked himself for not berating the scout more than the slight amount of snarkiness he'd had in his tone at his earlier question. After all, even he could make mistakes.

"You're right, I haven't. I want you and the Shade to take watch over the girl and mother. Leave the other three to protect the home. This will be an opportunity for you to learn what you can about the goings-on in that house as the Fae should be with the boy. Make sure you use it," he ordered before looking back down to the paper he'd been reading. "Once you get to the academy you and the shade are to spend a few months getting any and all information you can on Elven movements, whether by staying at the academy or infiltrating their home directly," he finished.

Ever since the family had returned from their trip, the Fae had granted them rights to surveil them again, if only to keep them safe from harm. They wouldn't let his scouts or his Shade anywhere near the house, demanding the family be allowed its privacy, and had gone as far as to set up a series of wards that hid the entirety of the homes inside from view of even the most well-reputed scries. They were obviously hiding something, but until they were gone, he wouldn't be able know what it was and that was that.

Carien knew the boy was just a bit younger than his daughter though, and if he could win him over with her, he'd try it. Regardless of what the other Families believed, Humans were not inferior to their kind. If it helped them trust him to think that he believed they were, he would pretend, but he would never forget that it was Human sorcerers that had created both Celestials and Hellials.

"And what about the mother?" the scout replied.

Carien paused a moment to consider before he answered.

"Have one of the three from the house report to Hathen to escort her home after two and a half months pass."

"Is she that important?" his scout asked.

The truthful answer? No. Carien couldn't care less whether or not the Human died, but they couldn't let her die without some kind of attempt at saving her any longer. The Fae knew who they were and knew they were involved in the families protection. If the N'moran girl learned of it, he may very well lose that entire houses cooperation when she took over.

"Unfortunately, she became too important to lose once the Fae became involved," he stated.

His scout nodded.

"Have you learned anything of what the small Hellial camp is doing northwest of the town?" Carien asked.

"No, sir. They continue to be silent save a few raids on smaller hamlets in the area, only razing one or two in its entirety," his scout replied.

Another oddity. The Hellials were everywhere in the mountain ranges and some were hidden throughout smaller Villages as well, yet all caused havoc and destruction as their main goal with the exception of this detachment. They stayed in a mountain cave system and kept to themselves mostly, only occasionally murdering civilians. It was much unlike a Hellial's usual modus operandi and suspicious, but he had not the time nor resources to bother with it. He could only hope whatever they were up to was of no importance to the immediate war efforts.

"Very well," he eventually said to his scout. "You are dismissed. Do not report again until you've reached the Academy or something truly urgent comes up."

"Sir," the scout said, pounding his right fist onto his chest before dissipating into small motes of light.

Carien leaned back into his large office chair before glancing back down at the report in his hand, delivered just moments before by a different scout. The Elves had decided to support the Dwarves in their efforts and were slowly relocating their major families across the border to their sister tree up north. That they would go so far as to abandon the one below Hylyu was a show of how strongly they supported the cause, and how far they were truly willing to go to see their kind survive.

A few detachments of Demi-Humans across the continent likewise were seen acting similarly, traveling north and braving the high mountain passes to escape the Human's land. The threat the Nivari and their own Emperor, should they rebel his tyranny, was too much for many to stand, causing them to make the mad dash for salvation. The movements did not bode well for the Empire.

If he could convince the major Families to abandon their holdings in the Empire he would have already, but he knew they'd not listen. Too long had they been buttered up by the Emperor's gifts and too reliant had they become on his luxuries. If things continued as is...

Carien looked up as his door opened and his assistant entered the room, carrying a tray with food and hot cocoa on it. Then tension in his shoulders seemed to ease slightly as a genuine smile spread across his face, all other thoughts vanishing.

"You are truly an angel, Sriel. How you always know when the best time to feed me is, I'll never know," he said.

"If you are so thankful, perhaps you should take a break from work and share a meal with me," she responded, feigning irritation.

"Nothing would make me happier," he responded. "Unfortunately, I can't. It's not my happiness I'm after here, Sriel. It's the people's."

"Well, one of these days I am going to drug you and take you away from your 'people.' They don't care in the slightest for you, yet you give your all for them. You are wasted on them," she said, setting his tray down while glaring at him.

He smiled back, slowly melting the glare off her face. Soft eyes looked back into his as short red hair fell from her head, fiery as the woman herself. Truly he was blessed. She'd been by his side since before his wife had died and stayed by his side still. Perhaps one of these days he actually would run away with her and his family. How nice would it be, free of responsibility? A nice dream.

He removed his gaze from hers and looked back down to the note in his hands, demanding he do something about the complicated situation across the continent. He took a drink of the cocoa she'd brought him as she turned and walked out the door slowly.

A dream was all it would be. He had work to do.

"You'll be fine," I say to the night sky, sitting on the back steps of our home.

We'd finished dinner around an hour ago and took a bath before bed, ending as usual with me getting out first after helping Alexa with her wings. No matter how long I waited though, the two girls never showed up to sleep. Then, anxiety had begun to flow through our pact, and I got out of bed to bring Alexa to it. Following the pull of the bond, I ultimately found her on the back steps, sitting with her chin resting in her hands and Kastra on her shoulder.

We'd been sat side by side looking out at the stars for about ten minutes now. It was a cloudless night, making it that much cooler during the last of these fall months. I began to shiver.

Alexa noticed the trembling from my shoulders and apologized as she wrapped one of her wings around my shoulders but stayed put, mostly unspeaking.

"At least you'll have Gallion up there too, right?" I say, breaking the silence with a chuckle and getting a sigh out of her.

Progress.

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing," she says, glancing at me and then looking back out across our yard.

I laugh at that. As true a statement as any, the man was a hassle when we'd met him. I could only guess at how much worse he'd become.

"Hopefully he won't harass you with Kastra there to scare him off," I say to her, as much as to the fairy.

"He was handsome you know? Maybe I'll let him," she says back with tired eyes.

"Please," I say with as much sarcasm as I can, imitating the pompous ass, "we both know you've got it bad for me. Plus, he's not any of our type," I finish.

She laughs and looks back at me with an awkward smile.

"Don't worry so much about it all Lexi. All you have to do is be yourself and I know people will love you. Just... don't beat them up as much as you do me, alright?" I say with as much sincerity as possible.

Four years almost we'd been together now. Four excessively long, constant years by each other's side and now she is disappearing to be the new kid on the block. The poor girl has been an anxious mess the past few days and it had begun wearing on me as well as Kastra, no matter how much comfort we tried to push through our end.

"Not to mention you'll have me with you, kind of," I say when she doesn't laugh.

Noticing her starting to tear up a bit, I wrap an arm around her and pull her closer to me.

The bond had matured earlier than Kastra had predicted, making Alexa a permanent addition to our Equals pact. She had been so happy when Kastra had told her that it had made me giddy even though I hadn't even been around them at the time and had no idea what was going on. Unfortunately, or fortunately, this was right as her anxiety had begun to flare up. We had gone a long way towards helping it since then, but it wasn't easy to fix something like this when you were the main cause of the problem.

My statement seems to ease her stress a bit and she smirks.

"Plus, you'll have Kastra. If anyone is going to need help sleeping or being comforted, it'll be me with you both gone."

We had decided it would be best if Kastra went with her, at least for the first year of the Academy. Kastra had initially been against it, wanting to stay with me instead, but when I pleaded, she gave in. Obviously, Alexa was going to need her presence much more than I would as a source of comfort. Hopefully she would, at least. I still wasn't sure how I was going to be able to sleep at night without them.

Stop, stop. Positive thoughts only. Reassurance.

She looks at me with a smile, tired red eyes reflecting the moonlit sky above and face turning slightly red from crying.

"Are you at least going to kiss me before I go?" she says, wiping at her face and sniffling while asking.

Shy about the most random things yet not at all about others, my Lexi. Seems about right... It still boggles my mind that she refuses to listen to reason when I explain it's an action meant for lovers. She doesn't even get embarrassed, just tackles me to the ground and tries to pin me down while demanding that it is a show of familial affection.

Well, at least this once it wouldn't kill me to let her have her way.

"...fine," I say, "but just once."

Her smile turns genuine as she rests her head onto my left shoulder and Kastra flits to my right, resting her head on my neck. The Fae still likes me more, but the fact that she is willing to go be with Alexa shows how much she has come to love the Celestial as well.

"I'll miss you," Alexa says.

"I know," I reply.

"You're supposed to say it back," she says.

I don't respond and she lifts her head to look at me.

"Are you going to miss me?" she asks in a dangerous tone.

I smile at her implied threat, turning on my butt and laying my head down onto her lap. Kastra flits to my stomach and lays across me, looking up at Alexa.

"You know I will, Lexi. Every minute of every day."

Her face breaks out into another genuine smile as she stares down at me, a tear falling from her cheek. She reaches down with her hands and runs her fingers through my hair as I close my eyes, doing my best to hold back the anxiety I'm now beginning to feel at them leaving.

It would be a long fifteen months before I saw them both again.