Why do the demigods fight amongst themselves? A foolish question. It is common knowledge that they fight to obtain more power. I can tell by your expression that I haven’t answered your question. You must be wondering why they seek power. Some are baffled at the greed that is seemingly universal amongst the demigods. ‘Why do they seek more power, aren’t at least some of them satisfied with what they already have?’ It is a fair question, I admit. Unfortunately, an answer does not exist, only speculation. Is it the position itself that corrupts the individual? Or are all those who are chosen to inherit the title required to possess such a trait? There is simply no way to know.

- An ancient scholar speaking to their student. Date unknown. Discovered while organizing the archives. Had been found in an unmarked box, buried under a pile of documents and records of varying age and condition.

“What do you think of all these demigods, Lloyd?” asked Von.

I set down my tea, tearing my eyes from the map of Battos I was studying. It had, among other things, detailed trade routes, Vagabond hideouts and caches, and known patrol routes. “Can you be bit a more specific?” I asked Von.

“I mean, personality-wise. They act more human than I expected. But they’re also… different. I can’t put my finger on it.”

Hm? They act like humans, huh? “Well, I want to say that’s half-true. Hm…” I mulled the thought over in my head. “The way they act, isn’t it a bit… too fitting? I mean, Cadius almost completely embodies his demigod titles. He’s cunning, enjoys messing with people, and in general behaves in a… roguish manner. Is that what you were getting at?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I dunno what that’s supposed to mean though,” said Von.

I thought it over. “Well, there’s two theories that immediately come to mind. The first is that becoming a demigod changes your personality, forcing you to act more like what is expected of you.”

“Eh, I’m not feelin’ that one. Cad’s personality is his own, I think. There are times when he doesn’t act at all like a thief or trickster. If he was being influenced, I doubt he’d had the freedom to act like that.”

I nodded. “Yes, I think so as well. So then, the second theory is that successors are chosen based not only on their capabilities, but also their disposition, personality, and temperament. I’m fairly certain that this is the case, as you are so much like Cadius that it’s unsettling. Though, I will say that the two theories aren’t mutually exclusive, and we don’t have strong enough evidence to disprove either one.”

Von closed his eyes, deep in thought. “… I see.”

What’s on your mind? I wanted to ask. He didn’t seem troubled, but I knew he’d tell me in due time, if he thought it was important enough.

It had been a week since we joined up with the Vagabond Spirits and became the Attendant and Apostle of the demigod of thieves, Cadius. Von and I had just finished warming up in the training room when he had suggested we have a sparring match. To be honest, I was thinking it was about time for one as well.

Back in our old home, we didn’t have the luxury of wasting energy fighting with each other, even if it was to try to improve our skills. Exhausting ourselves early in the day was too big of a risk. If we had been attacked in that vulnerable state, we wouldn’t have been able to protect ourselves, let alone the kids.

I was thankful to Cadius for giving us opportunities to do stuff like this. Sure, he had gotten us killed, but I had come to terms with that being the correct decision. It wasn’t that I fully trusted him, you don’t get very far as a thief by believing everything a person tells you, but since Von seemed to trust him, that was good enough for me.

“Ready, Von?” I asked, spinning the weighted wood dagger I had been brandishing.

Von stood about fifteen feet away, hands hidden beneath his cloak. He grinned. “I’m always ready if it’s you, Lloyd.”

Wolfram stood off to the side, our ref for the sparring match. He was here to call the match and critique our performances afterwards. He had decided on the rules: Dulled or wooden weapons only, hits to the face or other vulnerable areas are forbidden, and the first to land two clean strikes will be declared the victor. He held up a hand, the signal for us to ready ourselves. “Begin!” he shouted, bringing his arm down.

Von’s first move was to raise a hand out in front of him, palm forward. A large, square plane of white materialized just in front of him. It was about seven feet tall and twelve or so wide. Didn’t he say he wasn’t yet able to see through his own illusions? Is that still the case? No matter, I decided to go ahead and tear off my shadow and hold it out in front of me, using it as a shield.

I stood there for a few moments. If he wanted to try something, I’d let him. When I would watch him practice with his illusions, he hadn’t been very active; he usually just sat in the corner, experimenting. I wanted to give him a chance to show off, but it had been long enough that I could no longer wait in good faith.

“Von, what the hell are you doing?” I shouted. I had figured he’d pull something incomprehensible, but even I couldn’t understand what purpose this could serve. Part of me thought he had tried something, failed, and was currently just racking his brain for a new approach.

I put away my dagger. I wanted something that I could pressure him with while keeping my distance. This was the thing I had been working on in the three days since Von had suggested it. I then secured it to my right wrist and hid it underneath the sleeve of my shirt.

I circle around to the left, keeping my distance from the pane. The moment I get to a good enough angle to see Von, I saw something fly out of the pane straight towards me. I reacted by ripping out the shadow of my cloak, solidifying it just before impact. However, it never came, meaning it had been another illusion.

But how did he know where I was if he couldn’t see me? The most likely answer was that he had been lying.

When dealing with Von, it was better to overwhelm him and not give him time to think or set up traps. Therefore, my best course of action was to get as close to him as possible without falling for any defensive traps he might have set up.

I had a few techniques I wanted to try out, but some of them might end the match too early if they worked. Which meant I had to pace myself, unlike Von. The man was a demon when it came to conflict, but right now, he just didn’t seem to be taking this seriously.

“Von, quit messing around. This is supposed to be a sparring match. At least show me something interesting before I win.”

“… Alright. Just go easy on me, I’m not a battle junkie like you are,” Von replied.

“I’m not a battle junkie! I’m always putting myself out in front to draw attention away from you!” I really needed to stop responding to his needling.

Even though I had a practically endless number of ways I could use my shadows, my extremely limited Anima capacity meant that I couldn’t create projectiles or anything else that I would have to go retrieve. Being in a combat situation without Anima would be no different than being unarmed and unarmored. At the moment, I was limited to anything that wouldn’t leave my person. If I wanted to go on the offensive, I’d have to get closer.

So, I charged at the solid-white pane. Two more wood daggers flew out, and I used my shadow shield to block them. Both daggers bounced off the shield ineffectually. At the same moment, the pane vanished, revealing Von. He held up his hand to his mouth, like he was blowing a soap bubble, and a cloud of fog spilled forth, quickly enveloping the both of us. It thick enough that I could only see about five or six feet in front of me at best.

That’s more like it! I grinned. Finally, Von had decided to get serious.

When I ran my hand through the fog, it didn’t swirl around. The fog being unaffected by air currents meant that I couldn’t use it to track Von’s movements within the fog.

I listened for his footsteps, only to be met with complete silence.

Uh, what? Then I noticed something, I couldn’t even hear the sound of my own breathing. Von had used his Mirage blessing to deafen his footsteps. This isn’t good. It was no better than being blindfolded and having my ears stuffed with cotton.

Well, If I’m out of other options, I might as well get reckless.

I unfurled the shadow wrapped around my wrist; a long, manipulable cord of compressed shadow that could extend out approximately ten feet when pulled taught. I swept it around me at about waist level, paying attention to how the whip felt in my hands. That way I could find Von despite the lack of visibility or noise. It was a crude but effective method.

Sure enough, I felt the whip hit something off to my left. I had it immediately coil around the object and pull it in. Unfortunately, the whip wasn’t strong enough to reel. I put away my shadow shield and transferred its Anima over to the whip, imbuing it with strength. That did the trick.

Wolfram didn’t call out the hit against Von as it did not carry enough strength to even bruise, a fair assessment in my opinion.

I saw an obscure figure appear at the edge of the fog; it was Von. He held a practice sword in a two-handed grip and was crouched as if to launch himself towards me. I moved to block his charge, immediately recalling the whip and having it take the form of a shield.

Then I blinked, and Von was suddenly empty-handed. Before I could process what had just happened, Von launched towards me brandishing a wooden dagger. His first strike was a feint, and he followed up with a drop sweep, knocking my legs out from under me. I fell to the ground, and he pounced at me. But before he could place the blade to my throat, I reformed the whip into a club. I swung it at Von, who was sailing through the air, dagger in hand. There was a thud as the club hit him, and he was batted away. He was knocked off course, landing on the ground beside me. He rolled and, in one smooth motion that used the momentum from the hit, tumbled into a crouching position.

“Hit! Lloyd!” Wolfram announced. Von must have dispelled the silencing effect at some point. As he rose to his feet, the fog began dissipating.

When I had seen crouched down, I assumed he was going to rush me. I had reacted to that without considering the possibility of his weapon being fake. A deception like that shouldn’t have caught me off guard.

A voice interrupted my train of thought. “I see you’ve been working on that technique,” Von commented.

I shrugged. “Yeah. Still getting used to it. But it’s not that useful yet. I don’t have enough Anima to do anything besides move it around a bit. Unless I use almost all of my Anima, I can’t even do any damage with it. It’s not even that strong; I had to use so much Anima just to start dragging you in. How much effort were you putting into resisting that, by the way?” I asked.

“Eh, I could have dug my heels in a bit more if the floor had more traction.” The stone floor underfoot had a rough surface, so it had decent traction. Wood flooring would have better grip, though. It was a bit depressing, seeing just how little strength my shadows had, even when I used so much of my Anima. “But it’s still pretty awesome. You can make it do whatever you want?” he asked.

“Yeah, sort of. Remember how I described how it felt to work with shadows? That it was like trying to mold clay blindfolded and gloved? Now it’s like I’ve got bad eyesight and no gloves. I’m getting better at it.”

Von nodded. “Good to hear it. So, you can’t yet run me through with a twenty-foot spike while laughing maniacally, or what have you?”

“… you mean like pufferfish?”

“Yeah. You’ll just snap your fingers and anyone who has the misfortune of pissing you off will find themselves with a shadow pierced through their torso.”

“Where do you get these gruesome ideas from?” I asked.

Von just shrugged. To which I sighed and shook my head.

But the brief exchange during the previous round did give me a flash of inspiration. That idea would have to wait until after the match. It wasn’t something I could implement on the spot.

We returned to our starting positions, readying ourselves for the next round.

I could tell Von was fighting at a disadvantage, not having a lot of his tools and traps on hand. In general, his fighting style involved using pretty much anything he could get his hands on. He’d take advantage of the environment, use incomprehensible tactics and moves to confuse his opponents, as well as traps and tools like caltrops, tripwires, slippery oil, and even marbles. Using a bunch of marbles to trip up the Ratatoskr was one of the most impressive instances of ingenuity and resourcefulness I’ve seen from him.

On the other hand, Von’s illusions were currently much more useful than my shadows. His ability to adapt on the fly was further magnified by his Mirage blessing. He had already begun incorporating it into his bag of tricks, while I was still struggling to get any use out of mine.

Yet again, a voice interrupted my self-defeating thoughts. “Hey, Lloyd,” Von spoke firmly. “Quit thinking so much.”

Those words, he’s said them so many times now, yet I still haven’t changed. “… Yeah. You’re right. Thanks, Von.” I just had to go for it. I had to stop thinking and start doing.

I imbued my whip with everything I had. I could sense just how much stronger and weighty it was now. It wasn’t going to be breaking bones or anything, but I don’t think I’d have trouble yanking Von around.

“Oh?” Von raised an eyebrow, then smiled. “Being impulsive really does make you more attractive.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the sight of Von’s stupid, sweet face. VON! drawing out a mental scream from embarrassment. That feeling quickly changed to one of retribution. Not a malicious desire for payback, of course. I just wanted to return the favor. I gave Von my best ‘I’m smiling on the outside but seething with rage on the inside’ look and tightened my grip on the whip.

Von had a hand over his mouth, suppressing his laughter. What now? I looked over at Wolfram for a clue. He had turned his head away, acting as if he hadn’t been paying attention.

… Oh, for fuck’s sake! “Von, you’re incorrigible.” At that, he burst into laughter, no longer able to hold it in. I turned away from my idiot and faced towards Cadius’s idiot. “And you, Wolfram,” I barked.

“Me!?” he yelped; eyes wide.

I just shook my head and sighed. I didn’t even bother to watch his reaction. I still had my idiot to deal with.

Von was still laughing, clutch at his sides. I even thought those were tears I had spotted. This lasted for all of about ten seconds before I loudly cleared my throat. He quickly regained his composure, drying his face with his sleeve and settling back into a combat stance. I ignored his further attempts at provoking me.

Wolfram coughed, trying and failing to clear the awkward air. “… It appears you are both ready. Well then… Begin!”

Von snapped his fingers, and the air in the room began to distort, like a…

“A mirage?” I spoke.

“Bingo!” Laughed Von.

He must be using the waves to throw off my aim, so I should –

No! Stop thinking!

I ran towards him, whip curled up and behind me, posed to strike, like a scorpion’s tail. He dashed to the side, brining several stone pillars into existence scattered around the room. He used those and the distorted air to try to further throw me off.

I swung my whip towards his location, only to hit open air. He avoided the strike by stepping to the side and then immediately dashing in the opposite direction that he had been heading. I commanded the whip to give chase, and it speared towards Von like a snake.

“Huh?!” He cried out as the noticed the black cord of shadows heading right towards him.

He skidded to a stop, then twirled around the whip, the cord just barely grazed him. Before it could snake back around, he dashed towards me. He was only a few feet away, and I didn’t have time to make a new shadow weapon, since I’d have to extract enough Anima from the whip to do so. Instead, I yanked on the whip and ordered it to contract and reform at the same time. Von was bringing down his blade to strike –

I felt an impact at my side. I looked down, and saw a wooden blade pressed against my side.

“Hit! Von!” announced Wolfram.

“Huh!?” I cried out. When I looked back up at him, all the illusions had been dispelled. “How?”

He waved a hand, and he suddenly had another arm jutting from his right shoulder socket. He had used an illusion to create a crude imitation of his arm. I hadn’t noticed because I had panicked. He had been so close; I had no time to do anything but react to the blow that I thought was coming.

“I must say,” Wolfram began. “Von, you’ve become so proficient with your blessing, faster than anyone else I know of. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the power designed just for you.”

“Thanks. It does feel like the perfect tool for me, but I think that’s part of the reason why Cadius picked me. He knew I’d be able to make great use of it.” Von shrugged.

“Indeed.” Wolfram turned to me. “Lloyd, I don’t have much to say, other than to follow Von’s advice. Your tendency to overthink gives your enemies the same time to plan and act themselves. I suggest you memorize and practice a number of strategies and tactics that you can use in any given situation. That way, all you must do is select the appropriate course of action based on the circumstances.” He then gave me a serious look. “It must be so ingrained in you that it’s reactionary. It may one day save your life.”

I nodded. It made perfect sense. A part of me had already known that, but again, change is difficult. Even if you want to change yourself, even if you know what it is you must do, it still isn’t something easily accomplished. It takes time and consistent effort.

We took a brief break to check our equipment and get some water. Our lack of stamina was evident in times like these, and it was never any less frustrating. Back before we died, I’m sure we could have gone for at least six or so rounds before needing a breather. This was just pathetic.

“Well then, are you both ready for the final round?” Wolfram asked.

Von and I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then… begin!”

“Sorry about this, Lloyd!” Von said to me.

Huh? What was he-

Von clapped, and my right ear exploded in pain. No, it wasn’t physically painful, I only reacted as such. He had used his blessing to create the booming sound of thunder, full volume, directly in my ear. It hadn’t actually hurt since it was just an illusion and therefore had no physical effect. But it felt so real that I couldn’t help but imagine the pain that would have accompanied it. But I did have lingering phantom pains.

I was left stunned, mind reeling from the sudden shock.

When I regained my senses, Von a was already in striking range. I took my shadow weapon, formed it into a quarterstaff, and swept it towards him. He blocked it with his dagger. Gotcha!

I separated the staff in two and swung the now free section at Von’s stomach, still blocking the dagger with the other. Unfortunately, he blocked that one too. Von had been hiding another practice dagger with his free hand beneath his cloak.

However, I had one last trick up my sleeve. I stepped down on Von’s shadow with my foot, then scrapped it against the floor. The shadow was torn free, and I transferred a small portion of the Anima from the staff into it.

“Ah!?” Von was staggered; he had been knocked off balance by a shadow. It had slid under his right foot, gripped it, then towed it. In short, the floor moved out from under him.

I then rejoined the two sections of the staff and then swept it at Von. He tried to block, but all that moving around must have left him feeling sluggish, as the pole passed right by his daggers.

“Hit! Lloyd! The winner is Lloyd!”

“Hey, Von! You could have deafened me!” I hissed, rubbing at my ear. I still felt a few twinges of phantom pain.

“Eh, I wasn’t worried. I had already tried out something similar on myself,” replied Von with a dismissive shrug.

All I could do was grumble in response.

“But,” Von continued. “I have to say, you were pretty amazing. If you’re already this strong, I can’t imagine what you’ll be capable of once you get your Anima capacity up.” He must have known that I wasn’t satisfied with my performance. And, as he frequently is, he was correct. This was my first time sparring against Von since he obtained his blessing.

I replay the match in my head. I review each of my actions, questioning whether I made a satisfactory decision based on the situation and the information I had at the time. There were a few things I could have done better, mainly letting go of Von when he appeared out of the fog. For that, I could have yanked him around with the whip. At the very least, it would have thrown him off balance and allowed me time to prepare.

My best moment, hands down, was the final exchange of blows. I hadn’t ever thought of using my shadows to trip someone like that. The technique had been the result of necessity; both my hands and my shadow had been occupied, leaving me with only my legs. My brain took the two thoughts, shadow and footing, and smashed them together, resulting in that stun I pulled.

From an objective standpoint, I thought I did pretty well, seeing as I had to adapt on the fly to Von’s bullshit.

“I guess so,” I replied, smiling a bit despite myself. “Von, I have to say, I pity anyone who decides to mess with you, seeing as how they’re going to have to deal with your shit.” I shook my head. That was the truth, I could tell that since Von was only going to get better with his blessing, our enemies wouldn’t just get headaches, they’d have full blown migraines.

“…Am I really that bad?” Von asked, wearing a somewhat sad expression. He was just putting on airs, though. I think. Probably.

I nodded. “Yeah. And it’s only going to get worse.” I could see Von pout at that.

We returned the equipment we had borrowed and were currently making our way back to our residence to wash up before lunch.

“… Hey, you said something about an idea earlier?” Von asked, his voice echoing off the stone bricks of the tunnel.

“Ah, that. Well, I thought more about my blessing, and I think I want to take it in a slightly different direction. I thought the idea of giving commands or orders to my shadows had a lot of merit. Which reminded me of trained animals. If I could create disposable scouts, guards, spies, and more. Basically, I’d lose a bit of combat capability and gain quite a bit of utility in return.”

“Well, as long as you can still fight when we need to. I think it’s a good idea. You’ll be able to better keep us out of trouble,” he concluded.

“Yeah. It’s going to take a lot of practice, especially since I can’t get help with this.”

Von shook his head. “It’ll be fine. It’s only been a week, after all. And I’m pretty sure our progress has Wolfram spooked. After that last round, I saw his eyes were as wide as dinner plates and had this strange look on his face. I’ve got a hunch that this sort of growth is supposed to take place over years, not days,” he said.

“Bwuh?!” I yelped. “That long!? I thought we were only taking half the normal time, or a third at best. That’s absurd!”

Von nodded, a serious look on his face. “Yeah, and I think Cadius probably expected that. I figured Wolfram would have told him by now, and if Cadius hasn’t done anything yet, then that probably means he had predicted this.”

I took a few moments to think before responding. “But then, why did he not tell us? Or even Wolfram? Having Wolfram mentor us would clearly lead to him noticing our rapid growth, so why not tell him beforehand?” I ran through a few of the possibilities in my head. “What if he can’t confirm the reason? If it was only a theory…” I trailed off.

“The information on Dusts,” Von spoke. He had skipped straight to the answer, leaping over several steps in logic.

“Yep, I’m sure of it,” I agreed.

Cadius needed that information in order to confirm his theory about us. He hadn’t told Wolfram or us because he didn’t feel the need to bother us with his speculations. And by having Wolfram oversee us, Cadius would have an accurate record of our progress. I see.

Von and I bumped fists. We hadn’t been upset or concerned about the situation; we just enjoyed these kinds of discussion. Ones where we threw around speculations, theories, and evidence. Someone else might call it ‘playing detective,’ but I felt it was more laid-back than that.