Tera looked at John for a moment. The way that he'd spoken the word, 'Friend' seemed to carry strange connotations. Soon he began to speak once more. She listened closely as her master regaled her with the tale of friendship and growing love that he developed with the Hunni. He was young and impressionable. She was the only person who ever seemed to give a damn about him.

They spent several months meeting in the back garden in secret. It was a golden time for the youth.

"My life was one spent in constant training. My magical powers were formidable, but my control over them was greatly lacking," said John.

Tera tilted her head to the side and made a curious noise. "I've heard you say that you have little magical power, though."

"Ah, yes. It is certainly a strange thing to me, and equally baffling to my father. The older I became, the less potent my magical abilities proved to be. As things stand now, I maintain the same level of power that I've had for the last six years."

"That's just weird," said Tera. "Doesn't magic usually grow stronger with age?"

"Typically, yes," agreed John. "None of the experts that my father brought in to discuss the matter could ever explain it. It was almost like the well-spring of magic within me dried up for some reason."

"I see," said Tera. "So, back when you were younger you had a friend?"

"Yes," said John. "We became quite close. I even told her about some of my secret places to hide from father."

"You had secret hiding spots?" asked Tera, a slight smile on her lips.

"Yes, at times when his punishments for my failures were more severe than my childish emotions could handle, I would escape for a time," said John. He took a deep breath then released it slowly while considering the past. His voice measured, and lacking in emotion, he said, "Of course, that sort of thing typically led to even harsher punishments once I returned."

Tera winced slightly at the way he so blithely mentioned punishments. "You sound like being punished didn't matter..."

John glanced at Tera then nodded. "The only way to teach and unruly child is with harsh physical discipline. The same is true for Demi-Humans, which are beneath any human child in their reasoning capacity."

She snorted in annoyance at his additional statement, but something about the way he spoke unsettled her. "What sort of punishments did your father give out?"

"Punishments?" asked John.

Tera nodded to him, and he acquired a thoughtful expression. It did not take long for him to begin to relate a few anecdotes about his early disciplinary sessions. "Well, the most memorable ones for me were the ones where he used fire."

"He used... fire?" asked Tera slowly.

"Yes, though usually that punishment was reserved for when I took too long to get ready in the morning, or to attend to him when called upon," said John.

He snorted then continued, "If I spent too long getting dressed, he called me vain and told me that my appearance mattered little most of the time. To prove his point he typically branded the words 'overly vain' on my body somewhere, or had one of his fire types burn my face."

Tera stared at him, her mouth hung open. "Y-you're not serious..."

"He always had me undergo regeneration the next morning if I arrived at breakfast on time. It was an efficient method, really. Over time I became quite punctual," said John as though it made perfect sense to be trained in such a manner.

"That... that's just not—" Tera could not properly speak the words to express what she thought of that sort of thing.

John looked at her curiously for a moment. "What an odd coincidence. The Blazine my father employed to punish me on occasion wore a similar expression whenever she had to burn my face. What does it signify?"

Tera averted her eyes and shook her head slowly. "I... don't even know what to say to that..."

"Ah, something personal I suppose," said John.

"I— I guess, so," said Tera.

"Well, as far as other punishments it was the usual sort of thing. If I forgot to make my bed in the morning, he would sometimes make me sleep outside," said John.

She considered his words for a moment. That sort of discipline seemed harsh, but at least he was not set of fire.

"Though, that punishment was a little strange. He made certain not to bring it up until the next time that rain was forecast," he said, before Tera could ask another question. "Sometimes it would be several weeks from the time of my latest infraction before that happened, and he always knew about my failures at proper housekeeping."

John snorted then said off-handedly, "There is a right order and place for everything, everything must be maintained properly for a well-ordered society to exist. If you can't take care of your room, boy, you can't prepare your mind for true magical study."

"Beyond that sort of thing the punishments usually fit my crimes. Whippings were common if I talked back to any of my instructors. I took an apple from the back garden once, and to show me the importance of law, he had my hand cut off."

"Seriously...?" asked Tera, her expression haunted.

"He refused to allow it to be regenerated for an entire month, but to this day I have a healthy respect for the laws of the land and have not stolen again," said John. "The rules exist for a reason, and everyone should abide by them."

"C-can we talk about your friend some more, instead of this...?" asked Tera. She swallowed reflexively as her mouth had gone dry for some reason.

"Ah, yes my friend..." said John.

He looked at Honey for a moment, his face held a hint of nostalgia. "She was a sweet and attentive girl. Much like Honey, she insisted on hugging me whenever she could. It was strange, but not unpleasant."

"So, what happened? She's not with you, now is she?" asked Tera.

His eyes narrowed and he sighed. "Obviously not. One day all of that changed.”

“What happened?” she asked, her curiosity rising once more.

John shrugged. “My father, the archmage, found out about my friend.”

Tera did not like the tone of voice that John had used. Something about that seemed disturbing.

“My friend and I made plans. When I was a little older, I would take her and be her master. It seemed logical. I was the heir to the family estate," said John.

He laughed in a deprecating manner. "We were foolish youths. She was not quite old enough to need to be tamed at the time, but would be within another month or two. I could have done what was necessary to keep her tamed despite my age, or so I believed. We thought it would work.”

“What did your father do?”

John shook his head, and then a moment later his face became an impassive mask. “He set me straight on the nature of Demi-Humans.”

There it went; the wall of ice that he had kept around him from the day that they had met. Tera looked at him as the joy left his face and his cold, dead, mask of detachment returned.

“My father came to me one morning and bid me follow him. I did so, and we arrived at the small garden house that I often worked at when I trained or studied magic.”

Tera listened closely. She felt that something important was about to occur.

“I heard strange noises, and my father bid me to look in the window. I did so. The moment I looked inside, he struck me with a spell of paralysis so I could neither look away nor even close my eyes.”

“He paralyzed you?!” she asked. "He'd even go that far?"

“He did that frequently as a means of punishment. If I did not perform proper incantation movements; he would do that while citing that those who moved improperly should not move at all.”

“Why did he paralyze you this time?” Tera asked with a bit of heat in her tone. She should not have been surprised. From what little she now knew about the so-called archmage, it sounded exactly like his other reasons to punish John.

"Are you sure he didn't hate you?" asked Tera incredulously.

"Of course he hated me. Children are a burden and a drain on society. The only proper way to ameliorate the issues caused by their existence is through harsh discipline, and careful instruction," said John in a matter-of-fact tone. "Otherwise they are of no use to their parents, and undeserving of either love, affection, or their name. I was not a worthy son and caused him many burdens in my youth."

Tera stared at him, hard, and tried to find a hint of sarcasm in his tone or demeanor. In growing horror she realized that there was none. John's words were something he believed. "And... and the reason he paralyzed you this time?"

“Oh, that was to force me to see what my friend was really after,” said John.

“What was she after?” asked Tera.

John shrugged then spoke candidly. “A rich master. She was in the garden house whorishly servicing the cock of the town chamber of commerce's minister of finance.”

“Maybe they forced her to do it?” asked Tera with a hint of hope in her voice.

“I had thought so too at the time,” said John.

“You don’t now?” she asked.

John sighed deeply then exhaled slowly. “It’s hard to believe that someone is forced to do something when they see you watching, smile at you, then keep looking at you while they kneel down and present their ass to their new master.”

“She threw you aside for someone else?” asked Tera, her emotions flipping to one of anger. Treating a kid who'd been raised in that way so cruelly was disturbing on many levels.

“Again, I thought so at the time. That was not the case, though,” said John casually.

“It wasn’t?” she asked.

“No, I learned a few years later that she was told that if she serviced the minister that she would be released from duty and given to me,” said John.

“Your father lied to her?”

“Yes. He lied to her, and to me.”

Tera could barely process betrayal of that level. What kind of man was her master’s father? “What happened to the Hunni?”

“I found her in the backwoods about two weeks after she serviced the minister. Sometimes I would escape the compound and pretend I was free,” said John. "A childish notion of course."

“Did you talk to her?” asked Tera.

“No, that was impossible.” said John, Frankly.

Tera felt the hair rising up on the back of her neck. “Why?”

“She had been partially eaten by an Alraune of the pitcher-plant variety. I hated her at the time, but not enough to wish that on her,” said John.

“She was eaten!”

John looked at Tera. “Yes, I learned only two years ago that my father told her to go wait for me there. He'd known that I treated it as one of my safe places to hide.

"When she arrived, she was attacked by a higher level wild Alraune that had been put in place to ambush her," said John.

"What... What happened?" asked Tera.

"After I warned the house, the Alraune was killed,” said John simply.

The horror story that he unleashed on her made Tera feel sick to her stomach. What sort of person does that to people?

“Are you unwell?” asked John, without a hint of concern in his eyes.

“Aren’t you? How could you stand growing up like that?” she asked.

He blinked. “How else does one grow up?”

She did not have an answer for that. However, she now knew that she would not be getting a taming session today. Her overall level of lust had plummeted. She did have to ask a burning question, though. “So, you dote on Honey because of that Demi-Human?”

John looked away for a moment then back to Honey. “If I do dote on her; then yes, that would be the reason. At least, it is the only one that I can think of at the moment.”

Tera bit her lip. She could not leave well enough alone. “If you cared so much for your friend, why do you treat other Demi-Humans so badly?”

John shrugged. “How am I supposed to treat you? Are we friends?"

He continued, "No, we are not friends. I had thought that I had a friend. It might even have been true, but after another few lessons about the true purpose of Demi-Humans I lost interest in friendship or any other equally useless triviality."

"Are you serious?" she asked him, her eyes wide.

"It was made abundantly clear to me what nature of such creatures as you truly are, and also the purpose for which you exist," said John. He looked into Tera's eyes and casually said, "Friendship is merely a means in which another creature can take control of you. A human must always show their true dominant nature or a Demi-Human will mistake their place as being one commensurate to that of an actual human being.”

“What did that man do to you?” asked Tera, a tremor in her voice.

John looked at the Blazine, a curious expression on his face. He knew that her question was rhetorical, but part of him wanted to try and answer it anyway. “Why do you care to know these things?”

Her eyebrows pressed together slightly then she closed her eyes. “I hate you, master. I really do.”

He nodded at her, as though she had said the most natural thing in the world. He was quite surprised when she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him. Was she trying to strangle him? No, after a moment he realized that she embraced him tightly but showed no signs of furthering the unwarranted assault.

Tera made soft sniffling noises and held the man tightly. Her master, thoroughly confused, raised one hand and lightly patted her on the back. What had gotten into the girl? Was she sick? After he started to pat her on the back, her soft cries and tears rose in volume.

John, unable to grasp just what her issue was, decided to default to what he considered to be the proper social protocol in this situation. He wrapped his arms around the girl and let her do as she wished. Maybe it was some sort of passing emotional trauma. He'd dealt with such things frequently during his early life. They could be quite bothersome.