Hex was finishing up his dinner at the computer again when he heard a knock on the door. He swallowed his food and got up. He felt relieved that he was more comfortable around Din as of late, being able to hold small talk with her after he cooled down from his breakup enough was a step in the right direction.

Back then it wasn’t that he didn’t like her or that he didn’t actually want her there, it was his nasty breakup with his then ex girlfriend that made him put up a giant wall in between himself and Din. Only recently had he found that he didn’t need to protect himself anymore, and let the wall fall to the wayside.

He went to the door and opened it, Zlyena was there, and she waved at him.

“It’s about time you and your two friends, I mean- you, your friend, and the girl, started training.” She must have forgotten for a second that, back then, Din and Hex were not on good terms.

“It’s okay, she and I are friends now, I had to make up with her though.” He sighed. He had to apologize for his previous behavior before they were able to start again.

“Oh, that’s good. Anyways, you should get your friends, we are going.” She gestured for him to hurry.

Hex got everyone together, and met Zlyena at the front door.

“I need to be let inside for a bit, may I come in?” She pointed inside.

“Alright, come on in.” He opened the door wider so she could walk through.

“Thank you.” She walked inside and pulled out a purple flip phone. She opened it and started to press some buttons.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to call somebody?” Hex asked, confused.

She pointed the phone outwards, and a beam of purple light came out of the screen. A purple portal opened up, and she put the phone away.

“Through here, please.” She gestured towards the portal.

Everyone looked at each other with wide eyes.

“How did you get your phone to do that?” Din piped up.

“Yeah, that’s pretty neat, can I have one?” Owen smiled and gave a small laugh.

“I’ll give each of you one after we’re done, but first, you need to go through here.” She pointed towards the portal.

“Alright, I’ll go first.” Hex lightly pushed the other two aside and walked up to the portal.

He looked at it closely first, then poked it. He shrugged, and put a leg through. He felt solid ground on the other side. He poked his head through, and saw a large room with red walls. He got the rest of himself through and looked back at the portal. He waited a bit, then Din’s lanky hand popped out. He grabbed it and pulled her in.

“Whoa!” She said as she was pulled in.

“Welcome to wherever the fuck this is.” He smiled and let go of her hand.

Owen fell onto his face as he jumped through. He tried not to laugh and instead tried to help his friend up.

“Holy shit, are you okay?” He stifled a chuckle and lifted him back up.

“Yeah, my face hurts a bit but I’m fine.” Owen held onto his face.

“I can imagine,” Hex said.

Zlyena came through and waved again.

“Hey everyone, now that you’re all here, you should probably get your claws and wings back out as practice.” She put her hands together.

“You’re lucky that Lyserge’s new fashion trend is angel slits.” Hex looked to his back and felt the corner of the angel slit on his shirt. Angel slit shirts became popular two years ago. His was about as long as the shirt Din was wearing had them.

“Angel slits? What are those?” Zlyena was visibly confused.

“These, they go from the shoulder blade down to the mid back.” He turned around and pointed at them.

“Oh, I see. I’m not in the loop when it comes to human fashion.” She lowered her head.

“I don’t usually follow fashion trends but I liked how they looked.” He turned back with a smile.

“Alright, well that saves me time cutting holes in your shirts.” She shrugged.

“Oh, by the way, before we do this, what exactly was that box used for?” he asked.

“Oh, right, the box. It’s used in our coming of age rituals. A Zoranian needs to have magical powers before they can start puberty, so when they reach ten years old at midnight on their birthday, a Zoranian spirit will grant them magical powers,” she said.

“Oh, well I’m way past ten and it wasn’t anybody’s birthday.” he said.

“Doesn’t matter, as soon as it’s opened at midnight it will be able to tell if you’ve come of age or not. The spirit will remember your face so you can’t do it a second time.” She shook her head.

“I see, well, let’s try what worked last time.” he mumbled, and got his claws out.

“Did you say last time? Did you get accosted by demon hunters?” she said.

“No, I got accosted by a small demon girl, I think her name was Elaine or something.” he said.

“Oh… Oh my, I uh… I have something to tell you, then.” She fidgeted.

“What is it?” He perked up.

“You’re not gonna like this but, I’d rather you two wouldn’t fight. I am responsible for her as much as you.” She sighed.

“What do you mean? You know her?” He felt like he should be angry, but he was more confused than anything.

“I was the one who adopted her after her adopted parents died and she became a demon, I felt guilty because I put her up for adoption instead of raising her myself, her mother wasn’t able to raise her, she wasn’t really all there after what happened to her. It’s my fault she’s a demon, because I wouldn’t take responsibility.” She frowned.

“So you’re her stepmother? Why would I be mad, I never knew her parents were dead.” He felt a slight pang of regret for being so mean to her.

“It’s complicated, the same thing happened to her sister, the demon part, but I haven’t been able to find her sister yet,” she said.

“Also I was right that she was a demon, I half thought that she was some kind of weird vampire, what with the fangs and all.” He didn’t exactly know she was a demon before, but he had a hunch because of the solid red eyes that she was.

“I may be training you, but I will still be training her as well, I’m not taking sides,” she said.

“I don’t support her, but I realized when I was fighting her that I did need to be able to defend myself,” he said.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Get out your wings, then.” She motioned for him to hurry up.

He focused on remembering where the nerves were, and recalling how it felt to have wings. He felt the nerves come back as his wings sprouted from his back. He looked to Din and Owen, who already had theirs out. Din’s wings were light blue, like her hair.

“How did you do it faster than me?” He pouted.

They both shrugged, and he sighed. He thought he was ahead of them but in reality he was behind.

“Alright, first you need to work on your weapon summoning skills. Let me get the book, it’ll be easier for you to understand that way.” She went over to a small bookcase and took a book off the shelf. She opened it and flipped through the pages. She showed a page full of small markings that were in an alien language. She tapped the page and the words sprang from the book and morphed into English.

“I guess there’s a spell for everything.” He looked at the page, it was instructions on how to summon a weapon. He read through it, and nodded.

He decided to try, he said the alien words in his head and outstretched his hands. Dark purple sigils sprung from his writing hand, which was his left, and a sword materialized in his hands.

“How did you do that?” Din piped up.

“I said the words in my head, and it just happened.” He took a closer look at the sword, it was more normal than he thought it would be.

“Let me try.” She looked at the book for a bit, outstretched her right hand, and closed her eyes. The same thing happened, only a blue fan with light blue teardrop gems appeared instead of a sword.

“What about you, Owen?” Hex turned to Owen, who walked over and looked at the page too.

Owen did the same thing, and a giant wooden mallet materialized. He caught it before it could fall.

“I guess everyone’s weapon is different? That’s pretty weird, I thought everyone would get a sword, Elaine told me of mine, did she sense what I would get?” Hex turned back to Zlyena.

“I guess she did, she’s good at sensing other people’s powers,” Zlyena said.

“By the way, sorry for not believing you, I thought you were just tired and fell asleep while walking.” Owen frowned.

“It’s okay, I’ve already forgiven you, you’re my best friend after all.” Hex smiled

“You’ll need to train your sword wielding skills if you want to beat her, though.” Zlyena folded her arms.

“How am I supposed to beat her anyways? She has a fucking gun!” He pouted again.

“She doesn’t usually use guns, she’s more the spell caster type, maybe she got into guns more recently, I’m not sure.” She put her thumb and index finger to her face.

“She said I could block a bullet, but isn’t that hard to do with magic?” he asked.

“Not really, rudimentary spells can block bullets, but not magical weapons, like the one that Elaine has. I’m sure the gun was a regular gun with regular bullets though,” she said.

“There’s non-regular bullets?” Din piped up.

“Demon Hunters have special bullets infused with magic that can break through magical barriers of certain types. Right now they only know of Elaine, so they’ll be caught off-guard when you three show up. You’ll definitely be able to block their bullets, at least at the start, because they’d be taken by surprise,” Zlyena said.

“How do you know so much? How old are you?” Hex asked.

“Well, Zoranian royalty like me are immortal, so I’m pretty old.” She pointed to herself.

“You’re royalty? Like a queen?” he questioned.

“Yes, I am the queen of the Zoranians.” She smiled.

“Neat, didn’t know aliens had monarchies,” he said.

“Now, I think we should get Din started with using spells, since her fan is magic, and your other weapons aren’t really magic based.” She pointed to Din.

“Oh, alright, what kind should I use?” Din looked up at her.

“Hmm, possibly light magic,” Zlyena said.

“Sounds good to me.” Din nodded.

They spent the rest of their time that day training, Hex and Owen were told to keep summoning and de-summoning their weapons, while Din practiced using her weapon for light magic. They eventually went home and headed to bed, but not before Hex had to throw away the scraps that were left from dinner. They all talked about their worries of being ambushed by Demon Hunters, and agreed to install a security system so they’d feel safer.