Prologue

The embers were like stars in the night sky. Ash floated to the ground like tainted snow and choked Eli. Flames burned all around him. The heat stung his face but he ran through the crowd, searching. “Ajax!” he roared. “Aja--” someone bumped into him and he fell hard. The stranger gaped at him, his face black with smoke and slick with sweat.

“What’re you doing kid? come on!” The man reached for him.

Eli pulled away.

“Hey!” The man lunged again but Eli ran faster than the other could have anticipated.

He could hear the man shout in the distance even amidst the screams and shrieks of the people around them, but he ignored it. “Ajax!” he roared again. A lone child, searching for his friend. Then he heard it--a scream. “Ajax!” He ran against the crowd, weaving between legs, avoiding the grabs of passers-by wanting to help an insane boy.

He ran until he found his friend. “Ajax!”

“Eli!” Ajax said from the ground, further up the street.

He approached.

Ajax stared at him, his blue eyes wide with terror. “Eli, It hurts!” he cried.

Eli fell to his knees. “Ajjy.” Tears welled when he saw Ajax’s leg twisted under a fallen lamp-post. “D-don’t worry,” he stuttered. “I’ll g-get you out!” He tucked his arms under Ajax’s shoulder and pulled.

Ajax shrieked. “Stop! Stopstopstop--”

Eli fell back when he let go. He stared helplessly then shook his head as he made for the lamp post. He hooked his arms under and pulled.

“Eli...you cant--”

He didn’t listen and pulled with all his strength. Pressure built in his face. His back groaned. His eyes were about to pop. But he pulled. He pulled until lights filled his vision and he collapsed.

“Eli--”

“No!” Eli roared, his voice one break shy of a sob. “I’m getting you out! Remember? we’re going to be Maestros together! You and me!” He pulled the light post again. “Help!” he screamed out. “Help! Please!” he cried, but no one came. He glanced back and saw the crowd in the distance. “Help!” he yelled.

No one approached.

“Please!” he stared at them. Then, one stepped forward. Maybe it was the man from earlier, he thought. Maybe--

They froze.

What? He thought. Why?

“Eli,” Ajax said.

He glanced down at his friend but Ajax only stared past him, wide-eyed.

“What?” A shiver ran from the tip of his pale-furred tail and up his spine before a growl made his skin crawl. He gulped then turned.

It stared at him. Fire-like eyes burned in a dark face. It was like...a lizard but also a dog, and larger than both...large enough to eat him whole.

“Eli!” Ajax screamed. “Run!”

He almost did—until he glanced at Ajax’s leg.

“Forget about that! Get out of here!” Ajax yelled.

Eli glanced at him then back at the monster that approached one leisurely step at a time. Like death. Slow...but inevitable.

“Eli--”

Eli grasped his cheeks, tears streaming down his face. “Me and you, Ajjy...we’re going to be Maestros together.”

“What are--”

He stepped towards the monster.

“No! Eli! Run! Get out of here!”

He stood in front of Ajax, arms held wide. Staring into the creature's black and snarling maw.

“No!” Ajax sobbed. “Eli! Please! Get out of here!”

Ajax was so strong...Always so brave. Eli wished he could be as brave...but he wasn’t. Even then, as he stared at the fiery eyes of the monster, the uncomfortable warmth and wetness of pee streamed down his leg. He trembled and bit his lip. The creature almost grinned at him. Then, it launched. He closed his eyes.

“Eli!” Ajax roared.

He waited for the jaws to lock around him. But they never did. Instead, he heard the sound of thunder and felt a sudden gust of wind on his face. Ajax went quiet.

Eli peaked with one eye, that was all he dared to do. Then he looked with the other, gaping at the figure that stood before him. Where was the monster? It was nowhere to be seen.

The man turned, golden blonde hair glowing in the dying flames. He kneeled and put one large hand on Eli’s shoulder. “You’re brave, Eli. But don’t throw away your life so easily”. He smiled a wide, white smile.

Eli heard cheers from behind as tears welled in his eyes. He fell to the ground.

The man stepped past him and, with one hand, lifted the lamp-post. Ajax gaped at him as well. “Ajjy!” he grabbed his friend and nuzzled his neck.

The man walked towards the cheering crowd, waving.

Then, from somewhere, Eli heard a buzzing. “What’s that?” he asked.

“What’s what?” Ajax asked as the sound loudened into a ringing.

“That!” All Eli heard was the ringing, endless, dreadful, ringing. Then, he woke.

He peeled his head off of the desk and wiped drool from his cheek as he gazed at the empty classroom. What? He thought as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Why would I be remembering that now? He thought as he leaned back in his chair. Now that he thought about it...Penitulus would never have known his name. He sighed before he froze. What time is it! he looked at the clock and his heart sunk like a stone.

“Oh no.” School was already over. He always left school early but he spent all of last night watching the heroics of Penitulus Ren and now--

Voices echoed from down the hall. The last voices he wanted to hear. He looked around for a way out. The door was out of the question—it was where they were. The window was his safest bet. He grabbed his satchel and dashed but stopped when the strap jerked at him causing all its contents to fall and his chair to clatter to the ground. He froze.

“Any of you hear that?”

That voice made his heart skip a beat. He scrambled for his things but was too slow.

“Well, if it isn’t the tailed bitch.” The voice scraped him.

Eli glanced up. “H-hey Ajax.”

Ajax stepped forward, expression dark. Blue eyes, hard.

Eli stood as the other glanced at the books and papers on the floor.

“What's all this?” He asked as he reached for a book.

“No!” Eli grabbed for it but Ajax whipped his hand back. One of his cronies shoved Eli in the chest. Why’d it have to be that one!

Ajax grinned as he flipped through the pages but it faded. “Corin Academy?” Ajax narrowed his eyes at Eli. “You think you can go to Corin Academy? You still think you can be a Maestro? You barely have enough magic to keep you alive.” He scoffed as he glanced at his two lackeys. He turned back and frowned before there was a flash and crack. He dropped the burning book to the ground. “Looks like I’m gonna have to beat some sense into you.”

Eli swallowed then whipped his tail at Ajax’s eyes before he dashed for the window. The jump was perfect and he almost seemed to glide through the air, but that was before the world was lit for a fraction of a second by a screaming bolt of electricity that struck him, jamming his muscles. He fell less than gracefully and clutched at his twisted ankle.

“Don’t just stand there!” Ajax roared. “Grab him!”

Eli glanced at the window in time to see the lackeys jump through. He hauled himself up and limped for the fence of the school compound. It rankled as he started his climb. He was almost at the top when his entire body shuddered with pain as another bolt struck him.

He fell to the ground, hugging himself.

“As pathetic as ever.” Ajax chuckled. “Still think you’re going to be a Maestro?”

Eli didn’t look at him.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” Ajax grabbed his platinum blonde, almost white, hair and turned his gaze to meet his.

“No.” Eli answered, staring into his eyes.

Ajax grinned.

“I’m going to be the best Maestro.”

Ajax sighed and balled his hand.

***

The tasty smell of his mother's stew met Eli as he limped through the front door of his home, clutching his side and holding his head down in an attempt to hide the blood and bruises. He hoped she was distracted.

“Kitten!”

That wasn’t the case. “Hey mom,” he muttered.

His mother’s stew-covered ladle clattered to the ground when she saw him.

“I’m fine, I just...fell.”

“Yeah, Sure.” She rushed to him. “It was Ajax, wasn’t it?” She held his cheeks and examined his face. “Come on,” she guided him to the couch and laid his head in her lap. Her soft, emerald gaze soothed him. “What happened to you two? You were such good friends.” She rubbed her hands together.

“Were” Eli echoed. He winced when his mother pressed her then glowing hands on his sprained ankle.

“Don’t worry Kitten, you have the entire summer to plot your revenge.”

Eli grinned at the thought as his mother’s healing lulled him to sleep.

***

Ash swirled through the air as a monster’s carcass vanished in warm gusts of wind.

Penitulus Ren stared at it with narrow eyes and a furrowed brow. It cant be.

“Manifestation magic.”

He turned to the man he didn’t hear approach.

“Powerful at that.” Victor Vex was a tall man that was nine parts muscle one part fire and he spoke with a rough voice through a wild black beard. “It reminds me of...back then.”

Ren returned his gaze to the monster. “They’re getting stronger, Victor. More...solid...” he lingered on the last word.

“Easy enough to solve. Just hit them harder. Barring that, you can retire and make me number one again.”

“Is that really how you want it to happen?” Ren grinned at Victor.

“Of course not,” the other gruffed. “And if you did retire I’d make sure to kill you for it.”

“You forgot to make that sound like a joke.”

“It wasn’t meant to.”

“Ah,” Ren said as he turned back to the carcass that was nearly gone. The street lights lit the edges of his blonde hair, a warm but somber outline. His mind worked.

“So,” Victor started. “You think this has anything to with the kid?

Ren glanced at him.

“The one with the tail.”