Damien found Sylph in a small clearing, although the area hadn’t been one before she’d started training. Destroyed trees littered the ground, their trunks still peppering the floor around her.

She was locked in a blindingly fast fight with Havel, who had abandoned his form to become a blob of gray matter that lurched unnaturally around the field, easily keeping pace with Sylph.

Henry stood in his humanoid form at the edge of the clearing, watching them with crossed arms. If it wasn’t for all the eyes and mouths covering his body, Damien might have mistaken him for a human using some sort of Dark spell.

As Damien approached, Henry’s spun.

“Stop fighting! There’s a Void creature here,” Henry yelled, gathering energy around his hands. Sylph and Havel skidded to a stop, their blades at each other’s throats, and shot to stand beside Henry’s side.

Damien emerged from the foliage, a bemused grin on his face. Henry’s eyes narrowed as fury rippled across his entire body.

“Taking on Damien’s form? That’s bold of you, creature. Which one are you? I don’t recognize your signature.”

“You forgot me that fast, Henry?” Damien asked.

“That’s Damien,” Sylph said, but the suspicious look didn’t completely fall from her face. “At least, I’m almost certain it is.”

“How can you tell?” Henry asked. “Taking on a mortal appearance isn’t impossible, but he’s full of Void magic. If that was Damien, the amount of Void magic in him would have torn him apart already. Mortals can’t handle it.”

“I’m not just mortal anymore, Henry,” Damien said. “What proof do you need? Come back inside my head. It’s getting a little lonely without you.”

Henry studied him for a moment. A flash of purple smoke shot from his hand and Damien did nothing to stop it as the magic entered his body. He felt Henry root around in his mind for a moment.

“What in the Eight Planes?” Henry asked. “What did Mel do to you, Damien? Are you okay? Why are you full of Void magic?”

“I think you’re asking the wrong person those questions,” Damien replied, looking at Havel. “But I’ve got control of it now.”

“Complete control?” Henry pressed.

“No. Not even slightly,” Damien admitted. “I don’t know how to use it, but won’t go rogue on my anymore, though. It’s as much a part of me as Dark or Space magic is. Just… much more volatile”

Henry’s many eyes narrowed. “I see. I trust you haven’t made the inside of your head too inhospitable. I’d hate for my living quarters to be all messed up.”

“I’ll do what I can to keep things normal there,” Damien said, his lips quirking up in a grin. “Feel free to check them now. It would save me a lot of explanation.”

Henry blurred into a stream of shadow that shot back into Damien. While Henry inspected the changes, Damien approached Sylph and Havel.

“It worked, then?” Havel asked, his normally cheery voice uncharacteristically serious.

Sylph gave him a confused glance. “What worked?”

“Havel has a lot to fill us in on,” Damien replied. “Henry, could you get rid of the noise in the area? I don’t want anyone overhearing this.”

A purple pulse ripped out from him, stretching out to surround the clearing. Havel’s form shifted into a featureless gray man and he sat down on a stump. Sylph, still watching Damien with worry, sat down beside him.

“Havel isn’t just some artifact or fragment from some old time,” Damien said. “He’s a Void creature. The first one – or the second, I suppose? The first would be the thing I spoke to in my mind.”

“The Faceless,” Havel said. “The first of the Void. Or, more accurately, the Faceless is the Void.”

“And you are too?” Sylph asked, a blade sprouting from her forearm. “Then you’re our enemy.”

“Don’t,” Damien said. “We can’t take him. If he’s the original Void creature, he’s incredibly powerful, and I don’t think he himself is against us at the moment.”

“But…”

“Don’t get me wrong, Sylph. He doesn’t have our best interests in mind,” Damien said. “He isn’t our friend. But he’s trying to stop the Corruption and keep the current Cycle going.”

“Damien is correct on all counts,” Havel said, his featureless face rippling slightly as a mouth formed to frown before fading away once more. “I truly do apologize for all the deceit. I cannot fall this Cycle. Telling you any more would have almost certainly ensured you would fail.”

“Hold on,” Damien said, raising a hand. “I’m not going to debate you about this until Sylph is completely filled in.”

“That is not required. She was instrumental in getting you to this point, but Sylph is no longer required. We can accomplish our goals without sharing any more information than needed with mortals,” Havel said, a blade forming in his hand.

Damien’s hands crackled with Void energy. The staff shimmered at the edge of his vision, waiting for him to grab it. Sylph lowered into a fighting stance, shifting to cover Damien’s side.

“You try anything against her or any of my friends and I’ll kill you before tearing the Corruption apart,” Damien snarled.

Havel raised his hands, the sword vanishing. “Forgive me. Another test. I had to ensure it was truly you that returned from the Void. The other Void creatures – well, you know their fate. They can fake emotions, but not perfectly.”

“I am growing tired of you very quickly,” Damien warned. “Sylph, before I fill you in on what happened, I need to know one more thing from Havel. What in the Eight Planes are you aiming for?”

Havel let out a weary sigh. “The same thing you are, Damien. I am to Delph as Henry is to you. I don’t want him to die, and I love the current Cycle. My goal is not shared by the other Void creatures. I’ll do anything to protect both of those – just like Henry would. Speak with Sylph. I know you don’t trust me right now, so I’ll leave you alone for a few minutes. Expect me back shortly.”

A gray portal traced itself into the air behind Havel and he stepped backward, vanishing through it. Damien pressed his lips together, considering the air where the companion had stood for a few seconds, before he sat down beside Sylph and told her everything that had happened.

“That’s… horrible,” Sylph muttered. “But does that make Henry some other dead guy?”

“He’s still just like my brother,” Damien said with a laugh. “But we need to remember that the Void isn’t on our side at all. Havel might have slightly aligned interests, but the rest of it is working against us.”

“Then we can’t play around anymore.”

Spines sprouted from Sylph’s body, running all the way down her arm and beneath her shirt. “I can manipulate my entire body. That’s what Havel and Delph have been teaching me. Every single part of me is a weapon.”

Damien blinked. “I thought you were waiting until I won a fight to show me what your new ability was?”

“I don’t know if we can take that risk anymore, Damien. You need to know what I can do in a fight, just like I need to know what you can. We’re a team, right?”

“We’re a team.” Damien nodded. “I wish I could tell you more, but I really don’t know what I’m capable of. The Void is still largely a mystery to me. I’ll have to study. Again.”

“Well, that’s nothing new,” Sylph said with a small grin. It faded and she put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “But… are you okay? Henry and Havel told me what happens to mortals that get exposed to the Void, and now you’re steeped in it. You better not be hiding some sort of problem from me that’s going to pop up right after a vital fight and kill you, leaving me alone.”

Damien burst into laughter. “Have you been reading more of Henry’s novels?”

“Maybe a few,” Sylph admitted. “But you aren’t hiding something, are you?”

“I’m not, I swear,” Damien replied, raising his hand solemnly. “You know everything I do. The only thing other than the Void that’s still a mystery to me is what memory I lost. I have no idea where to even start looking.”

Sylph’s face darkened. “I can’t believe Mel did that to you. I thought she was a good person, but messing with anyone’s mind is unforgivable.”

“Henry is thinking the same. He’s already trying to figure out what I lost by lining his memories up with mine,” Damien said, his brow tightening. “But I’m alive and not in any immediate danger. That counts for a fair bit. But what about you? You seemed really confident in your new ability, but I’m not sure I’m seeing the full extent of how useful it can be.”

“I’d be more than happy to show you,” Sylph drawled, amusement dancing in her eyes. “But I’ll keep things to explanations for now. When I said every part of me, I meant it.”

Her finger sharpened into a blade and she drew it across her wrist. A single drop of blood managed to escape before the wound sealed itself back shut. As the droplet fell, it sharpened. Spikes shot out of it, flashing in the sunlight before it bit into a tree stump. Damien carefully lifted it with telekinesis. The blade end of the droplet had cut clean into the wood.

“Sharp,” Damien said with a whistle. “And you can do that with everything?”

“Everything,” Syph said with a nod. “I can also reinforce my blades with Ether so they go through magical defenses. It doesn’t take much Ether to do, so I can actually hold my own against Havel for a fair amount of time. I won’t be holding you back.”

“You’ve never held me back,” Damien said, shaking his head. “I still don’t know where you got that idea. I’ve always been playing catch-up with you, not the other way around. Your lack of magical energy has only made you more dangerous since you know your limits and strive to surpass them.”

Sylph swallowed. “I don’t know, Damien. I’ve had such a head start on everyone else, but you’re all catching up to me. If I stop working for even a little, I’ll get surpassed. I don’t mind it when its you, but Nolan and Mark are catching up too.”

“Sylph, even if they somehow caught up to you, I still wouldn’t swap you for any of them,” Damien said, putting his hand over hers. “I trust them, but you’re… well, I want them by my side, but I need you. And this is a moot point. You’re incredibly strong. Nobody is going to catch up to you.”

Sylph squeezed his hand. “Thanks, Damien. It’s just that I spent so much of my life training to make sure that I was the strongest so I could do what I was ordered to that, now that I’ve been confronted with the truth that I might not be anymore, it’s shaking me up a lot.”

“You shouldn’t tie your self-worth to your ability to fight,” Damien said. “That’s not why I like you, and it’s not what matters in the end. We fight so we can live. You don’t need to live to fight any more. That’s the past.”

“I – yeah. I’ll try to remember that,” Sylph said with a small smile. “Thanks, Damien. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I am too,” Damien said with a slight smirk. “Now we just have to deal with Havel. And the Corruption. And Mel. And Whisp. Ah, screw it. We’ll get around to all of it eventually.”

Sylph laughed. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. “Just in case the memory you lost was the one next to the waterfall.”

Damien’s cheeks flushed. “It wasn’t, but I’ll keep that one too.”

They stood and the air thrummed. A gray portal split open and Havel stepped out from within it.

“Done?”

“Just finished. How’d you know?” Damien asked.

“Henry prodded me. Sylph, are you certain this is the same Damien that left us?”

“Absolutely,” Sylph said with a nod. “If it isn’t, the Void is so good at copying him that I’ll never figure it out.”

“That’s all we can ask for,” Havel said. “But we can't rest. We’ll have to juggle keeping the Void in check with defeating the Corruption. If we push too hard in either direction and overextend, the balance will collapse and the Mortal Plane will be no more.”

“I gathered as much.”

"And thus, that leads us to the first thing we need to take care of.”

“It Who Stills the Seas, right?” Damien asked. “It’s been free for a while, and I’d be willing to bet that whatever plan it had is probably underway.”

Havel nodded once more. “I agree. I still haven’t noticed anything obviously out of place, which is a massive problem. If I can’t predict what it’s going to do, we can’t react in time. But, now that you’re fully in the loop, you can help me figure out how to take care of the rest of the Void. Let’s put ourselves in its shoes – if you were going to end the world, how would we go about doing it?"