4 years earlier

It was a grey, stormy, bleak day. The air felt almost dense with moisture as clouds hung ominously above. Claus felt the weather seep into his mood, slowing his steps even as he thought about how late he was for school. Gods, I’m so tired. He marched in, not a hint of the weariness he felt down to his bones showing on his face, or in his stride. He wouldn’t let anything slip, he couldn’t. As a member of the duke’s family he had to display a certain level of pride. His sister, Sicilia, seemed able to present it so easily. He found the facade of it all exhausting. At least magic class was a lovely reprieve from the shackles of noble life. They even got to spend time engaging in debate and discussion with the commoner students, how novel!

Claus’s specialty was Elemental magic. It had broad implications in war, agriculture and was popular among more elite students, anyone whose family would have an interest in keeping them in the backline - away from the glory, sure, but also away from most of the danger. Mr. Alexander, their teacher, a man with wild greying hair and the start of a thin mustache was talented in multiple disciplines of magic. He had only been at the academy recently but was the first instructor Claus’s father, the duke, approved of: “a real man, a hard man” he called him.

Today Mr. Alexander was focused on Borrowing magic, which was - to be fair - his specialty. He was an older man who had served in multiple wars with the Eastern Block. Tension had started fading between the Kingdom and the Block recently with no explanation, leaving Mr. Alexander free to teach this class. The Block was known for its internal disputes. As a group of powerful warring factions with few resources living on broad damaged lands they had the tendency to be bloodthirsty, brutal and politically savvy but they were also often divided. The Block’s internal strife was the cause of the vast majority of peaceful years. The rumours Claus had heard through his family suggested that this time the Block’s retreat was due to something else though, something more sinister.

Claus’s attention drifted. This class was focused on magic he wouldn’t use, magic his father wouldn’t really even allow him to pursue, no matter how much he respected Mr. Alexander. It was too much of a risk, to fight with one's body in a war. Still he could picture his father ranting now - one, or maybe two chalices of wine too deep and yelling at him at the dinner table. His spit flying across the feast piled between the two ends that he and his father occupied. His constant refrain, about how soft nobles were now, how weak the men were. How the lack of war had created nobles who didn’t understand their duty. He ranted less before their mother had passed. He drank less too.

During lunch Claus and his sister ate alone. Their corner of the cafeteria was beautiful. An old arching tree hung over their table, it’s body twisting and thick with branches that spread into dense green leafy bunches that provided shade. Sicilia’s friends would come by and greet her periodically over the course of lunch. Simple hellos they may be, but Claus appreciated that his sister wasn’t ostracized.

She had started wearing more concealing clothing and spending more time apart from her fellow classmates, no doubt due to his bad influence. They were habits he had picked up over the years and unfortunately she seemed to be following his lead. Claus looked his sister over, worry suddenly gripping him but on seeing her smile back, he relaxed. His calm, public face settled back in just as he noticed Mr. Alexander enter the courtyard. He seemed slightly frantic, his brow furrowed more than usual as he cut a line to the center of the space. The teacher clapped his hands together twice loudly before announcing:

“There’s going to be a drill. I’d like all the students here to stay in the courtyard for the next few hours. A teacher will come and get you when the drill is over. Until then please allow the teachers to go through the practice defensive measures we would take to protect you all without interruption. I appreciate it. I suppose… just think of it as a free period.” He laughed, a dry sort of laugh without much of a smile at all before leaving the room.

There was a brief moment of tension before the students eased into banter. Most students used the free time to relax and socialize rather than reflect on lessons. This was fine by Claus, the social atmosphere would make it easier to slip away unnoticed. Something had seemed odd about Mr. Alexander’s behaviour and he would find out exactly what it was.

“Stay here, stay safe. I’ll see you soon, ok?” He asked his sister. Sicilia nodded before asking,

“Where are you going? Are you going after William?”

“You! You’re supposed to call him Mr. Alexander!” Sicilia clicked her tongue and then stuck it out at her brother and said:

“Fine, are you going after Mr. Alexander?”

“I’m not sure. Something seemed off with the announcement. I’d just like to take a quick look around.” Claus stilled and focused his mind, taking stock of the magic that lay within him. He had stored enough electrical energy for a few serious Elemental spells, or many smaller ones. He would go to the Storm Towers every evening after school and store some of the ambient magic. He never knew when it would pay off but it felt like today may be the day. He stood up and quietly moved to the edge of the room, chasing after Mr. Alexanders’ back from a considerable distance.

Claus was shocked by how far they had gone. Mr. Alexander had actually left the school grounds, leaping over the defensive perimeter and investigating the forest that lay to the east of the facilities. The edge of the woods was marked by many stumps, trees cut for firewood, but it quickly gave way to towering pines, densely packed in a sea of sharp green. Their teacher was relentlessly searching, moving quickly in and out of the edge of the darker treeline, scanning deeper into the wood, looking for something… something that didn’t seem to-

Claus’s thought was cut off as he saw a strange shape at the edge of the woods, behind his teacher. It was a thing in a cloak, but it’s movements were… odd. The dark figure stepped forward in wobbly gliding motions, the cloth wrapped around it shaking in the wind and revealing contours that were too sharp and thin to be human.

It’s form moved forward in jerky bursts, lilting quickly and silently across the edge of the treeline, Claus felt paralyzed. A sense of wrongness filled him in seeing that thing, that creature move. He wanted to warn the teacher but couldn’t, he was frozen, terror constricting his muscles. From the corner of his eye he saw his sister appear. He hadn’t even realized she was here. She must have followed him. He should have been more careful. She should’ve been more careful! They didn’t know what this creature was and he couldn’t allow her to get hurt! He heard her yell out,

“Mr. Alexander!” and then saw her trip and begin to yelp, her foot caught on one of the stones of the perimeter. Still her warning had worked. Their teacher turned and his eyes widened in horrified shock as he saw what had been creeping behind him. His body blurred as he drew his blade, the ground seemed to be devoured under his feet and suddenly that thing, that cloaked oddity was slashed. Bisected brutally down it’s center.

Black pungent blood flowed from the cut hissing as it splattered across the grass below. The creature seemed to reel momentarily but then it's two halves began to swell, building menacingly larger, looming over the teacher. Claus pulled his gaze away, ignoring the beast to look up towards the stormy sky, searching the clouds above for something that could connect to the magical sparks that lay within him.

He felt a strange cold calm as familiar points in the sky lit up as if they were pieces he could reach out and pull down to the earth. The pulsing motes of light thrummed louder, filling his being. The massive rumble of thunder syncing with the beat of his heart, and the flow of his magic as the monster began to lunge forward.

Claus’s hand reached up towards the sky, his fingers caressing the nodes of light for a brief moment that seemed to stretch out and on - growing thinner until it snapped into an overwhelming pillar of light and sound. The creature reaching towards Mr. Alexander with a clawed hand suddenly consumed by the clouds’ fury, burned completely by the thick band of lightning that bridged the sky and soil.

The sound of it’s annihilation rang out over the empty space between the two students and their teacher. In the place where the monster had stood there was only a smouldering patch, barely a mark except for a black ashy heap where the grass had once been. Mr. Alexander seemed unsteady on his feet. His steps faltered as he stumbled towards the students, it seemed as if he could fall at any moment. He shouted out, perhaps a bit too loudly:

“My gods, that’s one way to kill a demon! You’ve left me half-deaf!” Then grinned at Claus, before frowning and speaking more quietly,

“You’re not even supposed to be here. Can you imagine if you got hurt?” He looked from Claus to his sister and his eyes went wide. His jaw clenched hard, his brow furrowed and his every breath seemed to stop.

Claus looked back at his sister too, concern filled his chest - had she seriously hurt herself somehow? Her dress had torn just slightly when she fell, revealing a stomach ladden black with bruises. The blue tinges at the edge of a black pool filling her midsection.

Claus’s stomach dropped. He knew what this was. He knew, he should have known sooner. His mind filled with the image of their father over him, those huge knuckles swollen and raw. His mind filled with a familiar dull ache as his hand idly went to his own stomach, grasping at the pain of the marks that littered him, twins of the marks covering her.

His thoughts froze but he felt something molten in his chest, a white hot sensation boiling within him. The cloud above them seemed to completely illuminate in his eyes, every inch of them calling to him in blinding light as tears streamed down his cheeks. He thought he screamed, but only thunder came out, or maybe no sound at all. Their teacher’s arms were suddenly around him, he flailed against the hug, trying to break free while screaming:

“He promised not her! He swore! He-” Before descending into incomprehensible sobbing and shouts. His throat felt raw. He felt raw. William continued to hold him.

Mr. Alexander was leaving the school for a while. Or at least that’s what Claus thought he said. He was dazed, unable to focus on the world around him. He had said something about how he would tell the king what had happened: with Claus’s family and with the demon. He said he would try to help and that he was, despite everything else that had happened, very proud of Claus for ‘dealing with the demon’.

It all seemed distant and unreal. Like someone else’s life happening in front of him. He held his sister’s hand but felt nothing, his fingers felt numb and dead. Even now she was comforting him when he should be helping her. Claus gripped his sister's hand until the end of the day, silently sitting in the classroom, as the other students went through their regular end of day routine: reflecting on what they'd learned. Today Sicillia and Claus were exempt by order of Mr. Alexander, so everyone else wrote notes around them, the familiar scratching sounds filled the room and left Claus in a contemplative daze.

Claus liked the routine of it. It felt proper. Like reveiwing was what he should do to make things normal again. Slowly he felt his sense of touch come back into his body. He felt more grounded, and sure of what he had learned. He knew things would never be normal again. After all he had faced a demon and came out on top, he had defeated what ought be the most vile thing to plague their kingdom. But he had done more than that: he had learned that there were demons at home - and he knew how to deal with them too.