Damien lay on his old, lumpy bed, legs crossed, staring at the ceiling. Dinner had been an interesting sort of awkward. He and Dad had no idea how to react to each other. Jen had tried to fill the silence, but only sounded pained. They ended up eating without conversation and after he helped Jen clean up Damien retreated to his room. It would be a long visit if he and Dad couldn’t figure out some way to get comfortable with each other.

He closed his eyes and found himself floating beside a beautiful, naked Lizzy. He sighed at the sight of her. They stared at each other for a moment then came together. The feathers of her wings tickled the back of his neck and her tears soaked his shirt. He held her, her body soft and familiar in his arms. Damien had dreamed of this reunion for three years.

When they parted she wiped her eyes. “I wasn’t sure you’d ever come back.”

“You didn’t think I’d forget about you, did you?”

She sniffed. “Not really, but we were so far apart. You might have found another girl.”

Damien grinned. “As though a girl exists that could compare with you.”

She smiled. That appeared to have been the right thing to say.

“In fact I used you as the model for my shaping final. The masters seemed impressed with the little statue I made of you.” He concentrated and a replica of his final project appeared in the air between them.

She flew around the statue, looking it over. “Not too bad.”

She lashed her wings and flew away. Damien let the statue vanish and chased after her. They played the old game, racing through the endless sky. When he caught her this time, she made his clothes vanish and wrapped them both in her wings.

Later they drifted together, her wings around them like a blanket. Damien had always known this day would arrive, but now that it had, it felt more perfect than he’d dared hope. Lizzy rested her head on his chest and he put an arm around her. Not for the first time Damien wished he could stay with her like this forever. It would certainly be preferable to having to try to talk to his father again.

“He regrets having been so hard on you.” Lizzy’s glowing red eyes looked up at him. She must have read his thoughts.

“He just doesn’t know how to fix it. Emotional matters have never been Fredric’s strong suit.”

Damien laughed, short, bitter and humorless. “No kidding. After the Solstice I’ll head back to The Tower and he’ll be free of me again.”

“Do you have to leave so soon?”

He stroked her hair. “I’ve got to start my fieldwork. I wish I could take you with me.”

She sighed and nuzzled his neck. “I can’t project myself more than fifty feet, and I know of no sorcery that would allow us to connect over such a distance.”

“I can try to visit more often. Maybe me and Dad can figure out some way to talk to each other that doesn’t resemble pulling teeth.”

“I think he would like that. I certainly would.”

Lizzy’s head lifted off his chest and listened to something beyond his perception.

“What is it?”

“Someone came to the door and now your sister’s getting dressed.”

“Trouble?”

“It’s after midnight, so I assume so.”

Reading his mind again Lizzy returned him to his body. Damien rolled out of bed and went to the door in time to see Jen walk out of her room, her sword strapped to her back. Just inside the door stood a tall, broad-shouldered boy with a maul over his shoulder. “What’s up?”

She turned back. “Goblins. They burned a farm eight miles north. I’m taking my squad to investigate. Go back to bed.”

“Be careful.”

She threw a wave over his shoulder and walked out with the stranger. Damien went back to bed and sighed. Goblins, so close to The Citadel. That was certainly strange. Usually they kept to the wild lands. The green-skinned monsters were stupid enough, but he thought they had more sense than to hunt near a cluster of warlords. He fell asleep still musing on what had prompted the little brutes to do something so foolish.