Chapter Twenty-Six.

"Before you two go," Adam said once their lesson had finished. "Is your match still on for tonight?"

"Will there be a crowd that'll make it worth it?" Eden asked.

"Yes," Adam said. "If you come. I know there wasn't much of one yesterday, and that we've been pretty empty since the attack, but if you two are rumored to show up for a fight against each other, you can bet that more people will show up. You've both already shown up individually on your usual marks, and everyone already suspects the fairies were there specifically for the two of you. By showing up like normal, you've shown that you aren't scared of the fae. A fight between you two will draw in a crowd, it'll show them that we're not going to let the fae take us out without a fight. A really huge fucking fight. There are other reasons, but that's one of them."

"Yeah," Eden said. "We'll be there."

"Great!" Adam grinned. "What time?"

"Probably our usual," Eden frowned. "Why are you asking?"

"It's Halloween!" Adam told him. "Aren't you two going trick-or-treating? Especially you, Cam?"

"No," Cameron responded. "I don't trick-or-treat. I hate Halloween."

"Yeah," Eden said. "He's been very adverse to the idea of it, and just wants today to be over with."

"Why?" Adam looked at Cameron again.

Cameron refused to elaborate, but his mentor and his friend pushed until he finally told them the truth – that it was his birthday, and no one ever cared for it, preferring to celebrate Halloween instead. And so, he hates Halloween, because it's more important than his birthday, which he knows, because everyone else gets birthday celebrations.

"What the fuck?" Adam asked. "I officially hate everyone who had custody of you on your birthday. Hold the fuck on."

Adam walked upstairs, returning a few minutes later dressed in a sharp suit, holding two more suits.

"I got these for you a bit ago," he said. "For something special. Try them on, they should fit just fine. We're going out for food, and you're not fighting this. We are celebrating your birthday."

Cameron glared at the suits.

"Only if we can fight in them tonight."

"With your masks?" Adam asked.

"Nah," Cameron said. "I just wanna destroy those things. Who the fuck cares if people know my face? I killed a fucking Fairy Lord."

"By luck," Eden punched him in the arm.

"Maybe," Cameron said. "But I still hate suits."

Adam snorted, then said that they can fight in them at another time, in the penthouse, and that it was better if they kept up their masked appearances.

"By the way," Adam turned serious. "I'm working on a project that requires the ring that opens a gate to the Fairy Forest. If it works, we can destroy the entire thing. I'm expecting to be able to finish it by the end of the year."

"Two months," Eden nodded. "How sure are you that it'll succeed?"

"Extremely," Adam answered. "It mixes up several powerful magics I've seen or used in my life. If I can get some certain godly stones, similar the love stones I used to summon Sebar – well, Ulrima – then it's pretty much guaranteed to work. Even without them, I might be able to pull it off in that time frame. By Valentine's Day, for sure."

"And exactly what'll it do?" Eden asked.

"Destroy the Fairy Forest," Adam grinned. "I won't go into more details than that, but if it works, they'll lose the source of power for all of their gates. It will take them a long time to recover, and meanwhile, if we catch them by surprise with this, they will be scattered in their various realms. And do you know what that means?"

"No?" Eden responded.

"Yes," Cameron said, and Eden looked at him. "Aren't a lot of those realms supported by the Fairy Forest? They'd die, unable to leave. And without the power of the Fairy Forest, the others would be undefended. Spatial mages could open gates into them for armies to move through. We could kill every last Fairy in their realms, and they'd be powerless to stop us. We could take our time doing it, too, because it would take them time to recover, and the fairies need others to move between worlds, if they aren't using their gates."

"Exactly," Adam said. "The Fairy Monarchs are rarely together in more than pairs, and there are six of them total. We also know where they're usually located at all times. I have a few allies across the various worlds and realms that are as powerful, if not more so, than me. And I'm only one of the five most powerful mages on Earth. There are a few stronger than me here. A joint effort between the various worlds, after the forest is destroyed, would permanently eliminate the threat. Sure, some might escape, but they'd never be able to build up their power again. The only real risk would be the Fairy Empress and Fairy Emperor, but with the forest destroyed, they'd be manageable, if they aren't in a realm supported by it.

"So," Adam smiled at the two youth. "Change into your suits. We're celebrating your coming into the teenage years, Cam."

Cameron resisted, but the other two talked him into it, and the three went out for dinner at a very expensive restaurant, making him nervous. Adam assured them they'd face no problems and that he'd pay for everything as a birthday treat.

It took awhile, but Cameron relaxed and enjoyed the fancy dinner, though he felt out-of-place, especially since Eden and Adam both seemed able to pronounce everything on the menu and him unable to pronounce even half of it.

What he did know was that the steak was delicious and that Adam had tried secretly telling them about the birthday.

"Hey, Adam?" Cameron said when the waitress had begun to grab the dessert after they finished eating.

"Yeah?" Adam responded.

"You do know that their minds aren't blocked to me, right?" Cameron asked. "And that I'm in the habit of using telepathy when I'm eating with you."

Eden laughed as Adam blushed, which caused Cameron to crack a smile. Adam called attention to it, claiming he'd never seen Cameron smile before, and Eden agreed, watching the younger boy's face redden, which sent the older two into laughter.

The waitress showed up to them attempting to calm down while Cameron was fidgeting in his seat, his smile gone. She almost turned back, but Adam mouthed that they were ready, so she set the plate with the slice of seven-layer chocolate cake drizzled with caramel and chocolate in front of Cameron, before setting down the parfaits in front of Eden and Adam.

"Happy birthday," she told Cameron, who just nodded, and she left.

"Thanks," Cameron said.

"We're going trick-or-treating," Adam told him. "After we finish eating."

"I don't have a costume."

"I can get some quickly."

"I'm not going trick-or-treating."

"Uh-huh," Adam said. "We'll see about that when we finish."

Cameron grumbled under his breath, but dug into the cake. By the time he'd finished eating, he'd become a lot more willing to go along with Adam and Eden and their desire to go trick-or-treating. The promise of lots of candy helped with that.

Adam paid the bill, then they left, and teleported to Adam's home, where he gave them earpieces.

"What are these for?" Cameron asked as Adam handed out opaque, black-framed sunglasses.

"We're going as secret agents," Eden snorted as he fixed his things into place.

"Yep," Adam said, putting his earpiece in. "Come on, Cam, and I promise, the earpiece is new. Never been used before."

"I can actually hear you," Eden looked at Adam. "These are real earpieces."

"Makes it more authentic," Adam nodded.

"Why do you have real earpieces sitting around?"

"Just in case," Adam responded, then looked at Cameron. "Come on, put yours in."

Cameron let out an aggravated sigh, then push the earpiece into his ear and popped on the sunglasses, before giving Adam an unhappy look.

"That good?"

"Yep!" He said.

"I know the suits were part of the costumes."

Adam laughed in response.

"They're expensive suits," Eden said as he realized what Cameron was saying. "You bought us suits worth thousands of dollars for a costume? Wait – how did you know we'd get Cameron to agree?"

"Cameron hides his sweet tooth well," Adam said. "But he's a thirteen-year-old boy. Of course he's going to like his candy."

Cameron blushed in response. He hadn't been able to eat much on the run, but he did enjoy it. Especially chocolate, which makes him wonder if that comes from his father being a god of love, especially since he particularly liked chocolate-covered strawberries and blueberries.

Adam headed upstairs again, returning with three plastic pumpkins to put their loot in, and Cameron reminded him that trick-or-treating didn't start for another hour. The ancient mage shrugged, then pulled them into a game of cards until it was time to teleport to the bottom of the apartment complex.

The three of them worked their way to the top of the complex, filling their buckets by the time they'd made it back to Adam's suite. Dumping their candy into separate piles inside, they then teleported to a nearby apartment complex.

Over the course of three hours, they tackled seven different apartment complexes and a small neighborhood, amassing three massive piles of candy, with Cameron receiving the most. Eden didn't expect to receive as much as him, as he was technically the 'chaperon' in the eyes of the people giving out the candy.

Cameron wanted to sort through his winnings, but Adam said they needed to head to the warehouse, then teleported out. Eden teleported the two of them to his apartment, where they changed into their usual arena garb, then brought them to the warehouse, which had more than a hundred spectators.

The matches were already in the mage set, which lasted another thirty minutes before no one else wanted to spar.

Then, the ref stepped into the arena as the two battlers left.

"Before we move on to tonight's big fight!" He called out. "There is a change to announce! Starting next Friday, there will be a ten-dollar cover charge for anyone wishing to watch the match between Cam and Eden! This can be paid upon entry or during the betting period, though the match itself will not begin until every viewer has been checked for the wristbands that will be given to show paid attendance for the match! All other matches will remain free!"

Cameron knew it was a bold move, considering their reduced attendance, but he'd been informed about it during the card game. Their matches would have that cover charge to help make up for the smaller margin with some of the betting – it would be split sixty-forty between them and the warehouse. That way, the arena could focus on giving the betters at least as much as they'd won, if they won something.

Part of the reason the change was happening for after just six rounds, however, rested with the need to assure people that the warehouse was keeping itself together, despite the attacks. That things were going to continue, no matter how bleak things seemed.

That attacks on the warehouse wouldn't put them back.

"Now that that's out of the way!" The ref called. "Betting for Cam and Eden, Round Six, ends in five minutes!"

Cameron and Eden entered the arena and faced each other, waiting for the ref to step out and call the fight to start. As soon as he did, Eden teleported as Camerom began his assault, only to find Cameron having teleported at the same time.

Eden's rudimentary mental barrier fell apart immediately under the force of Cameron's assault, and he attempted one more teleport as he began to buckle under the onslaught. The moment he appeared, he found Cameron's fist moving towards him, the younger boy having predicted his arrival without the voices.

Cameron had convinced the voices to shut up during the matches between the two of them.

As Eden went to dodge it, his mental resistance to the attacks broke, and he collapsed to the ground. Cameron didn't let up until Eden squeaked out a yield, then the younger boy helped him to his feet.

They left the arena to the cheers of people, and from what Cameron could tell by sensing thoughts, no one had expected their fight to end in under thirty seconds. The last couple hadn't. He did sense one mind that had an air of confidence, suggesting they'd won something, but there was only one.

Eden cleared his throat, and Cameron looked at him.

"What?" He asked.

"How did you know where I was going to teleport to?" Eden asked.

"You always teleport in front of people."

Eden groaned as he realized how easy his fighting style had been to read. Cameron knew where he was going to be because he always teleported like that. It wasn't an intentional thing, just something he'd built up. Making a note to work on changing up his pattern, he walked with Cameron to the counter to collect their earnings for the night, then teleported back to Adam's apartment to secure their candy before the ancient mage hid it from them.