The next morning, it was the quietest day in Rotler's history. With animals being afraid to go anywhere near the city and all life that used to occupy its streets now extinguished, the place fell completely silent. That was, at least, until a young aquatic dragon dropped his freshly acquired loot on the floor.

"Got some treasure," Surdi whispered when he finally reached the warehouse again.

"Speak louder. You're barely making a sound," Alma moved her mouth without saying a word. During the night, Glavas kept tossing and turning, and when she attempted to calm him down he turned to the side and let his arm rest on her. Every time she attempted to move, a quiet "Hrrmmmm" left Glavas' lips and did not stop until she ceased her escape attempts. Because of that, Surdi agreed to go out and look for anything worth taking. Mostly, however, they desired food. Any food. During lunch the previous day, they were trapped inside the chronospheres, and dinner was also nowhere to be found with them fighting for their lives and saving Glavas. Now, it was time for breakfast, but supplies had been long depleted. Both of them could scare a bear away with the sounds of their stomachs.

Surdi settled down the bag, which he had been carrying over his shoulder, and turned to sign language instead. [I found treasure.]

"And food?" Alma once again moved her mouth without making a sound. Her hands were pinned to her body by the hunter, and therefore unusable.

[No food. But with this, we might be able to buy some.] He picked up the bag and lifted his leg, ready to take the first step toward the girl, but he froze in place when the spoils on his back greeted him with a loud "KRRRRRRR".

Everything he had stored inside began falling out through the large hole that suddenly got torn open. Ornate chalices, silver candlesticks, and practically everything made of even a remotely valuable metal poured out of the bag, landing on the ground with loud metal clinks. Surdi closed his eyes and scrunched up his face. There was nothing that could stop it now. The mess was already made.

After many decades of hunting, Glavas had an incredibly keen sense of danger. When something bad was about to happen, he could simply feel it. The silent footsteps of an approaching predator, the sound of a drawn dagger of an assassin, or even the faintest muttering of an incantation. All these were things that would instantly trigger his fight response and urge him to defend himself. Back then, however, with his mind hazy with the aftereffects of dark magic, his response to such potentially dangerous phenomena became even hastier. Glavas' eyes snapped open, and he sat up almost instantly. With his one arm, he pulled Alma closer, ready to protect her from any threat. Meanwhile, his other hand reached into the holster and pulled out his gun. The magic output was, thankfully, still left on the weaker side of the spectrum, so when he instinctively fired, the bullets that shot out were far from lethal. Surdi jumped away just in time and his heart sank all the way to his stomach when he saw the projectiles perfectly hit each and every one of the objects that had dropped to the ground. Only after firing about eleven projectiles did Alma manage to calm Glavas down.

"GLAVAS! That's Surdi! It's fine, it's fine!" her shouting eventually made it past the gunshots.

"Surdi..." he muttered and for a few seconds, his eyes darted around the room like crazy. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Glavas carefully let go of Alma and ran up to the young dragon, gently grabbing his shoulders. "Are you alright? D-Did I hurt you?"

[It's alright, you didn't hit me. Sorry for scaring you.]

Glavas briefly glanced over to the dropped treasure and then back over to him. "No no, I'm sorry. I..." he sighed, "I messed everything up." he fell to his knees. His head slumped down as his sight returned to the ground.

"No! You didn't!" Alma patted him on the back. "You destroyed a city of people who had been causing nothing but pain and suffering for decades. You..."

"I killed them all..."

Surdi gently nudged him to get his attention. [They were terrible people. You can't feel bad about that.]

"Exactly! On our way out of the city, we ran into Ismaya. She was injured, then got even more injured, and... I actually think she lost her mind. She was willing to cast her life away just for a chance to kill me and Surdi. Everything about her was rotten to the core. The people out there could not have been better with everything they've allowed to happen here over the years."

"Where is Ismaya now?"

[Dead. I killed her.] Glavas' eyes widened as he heard it.

"Surdi, I'm..."

[Stop. I know what you want to say. Honestly, I...] he took a moment to think. [I don't feel any different. I killed a person yesterday and yet, I feel nothing at all. It did not make me happy, but I don't feel like a murderer either. She had it coming. She was trying to harm Alma over and over again. I know why I did it. So you don't have to worry about me handling it. I'm fine. The more important question is, are you?]

Glavas stayed quiet at first. He stood up, walked over to the nearest crate, and sat down. For a few seconds, his eyes kept staring into the ground before he finally lifted his head. "I owe you both an explanation."

"Only if you feel like it."

[Yeah, you shouldn't force this kind of stuff.]

"That's alright. Yesterday you saw me... well, I never wanted anyone to see me like that."

"But now you're better. I can tell."

"Sort of. You two are..." He clenched his fist. For a moment his eyes slid over to the wooden board with their names written down on it. "This... feeling is best conquered when you have something you care about. Something like..."

[Something worth living for?]

"Yeah. And... well, you two are... God, fuck! This is so hard!" he lowered his head into his hands. No monster ever gave him as much trouble as simply telling them the truth.

"Hey, it's fine, if you are not ready to talk about this then..."

"NO! Just... Give me a moment!" he growled and took a few deep breaths. "Right, so, let me just say this: I've been alone for a very long time. When I was younger, I was surrounded by my family and friends. But I left my hometown when I was forty. Now I'm 124 years old. For more than sixty years, I've never had a travel companion. And that was fine. I was always a bit of a lone wolf. Never liked company too much. But you two... You changed that. You grew on me. And I... I care about you. Which is why I'm... UGH! I don't even know what I'm doing, honestly. I guess I just want to apologize for yesterday."

[No, that would be wrong.]

"Exactly! Something happened to you and... We were afraid we'd lose you."

"You saw the noose hanging from the ceiling."

[Yeah. Did you put it there?]

"I did."

"For..."

"Myself."

[Why?]

"Well, how much do you know about this?" he reached back and pulled forth a strand of his ebony hair.

[It's so greasy projectiles probably slide right off.]

"Yeah, I didn't have time to wash them recently. But that's not it. I mean in general. What do you know about elves and their hair? Or simply, what do you know about magic?"

Alma straightened her back and like a proud student, she recited her knowledge. "To cast a spell, one needs to perfectly pronounce the magic words out loud, or think the pronunciation in their head. To tell the magic what shape to take, one has to have a clear image of the desired effect in their head. And finally, one has to pay for the magic with mana, which is a life force inside all living creatures."

"Nice theory, but that is not what I meant. As you probably know, every species works with magic differently. Elves have enormous supplies of mana stored in our hair, but the amount is finite. The more we use it, the shorter our hair becomes and the weaker we are. But when it comes to our innate magic, we are quite similar to dragons."

[You are?]

"Yes. Dragons are born with an innate element as well. Like you, Surdi. Your scales are green because the element you were born with is associated with toxins. If an elf had the same power, they would have the hair the color of your scales."

"But your hair is black. So, dark magic."

"Precisely. But there is more to that. When we use magic, we... It alters our emotions. The emotions of an elf are slaves to their magic. Dragons have the exact opposite phenomenon. Their emotions directly control their magical powers. An angry dragon grows more powerful but easily loses themselves in the process. This can lead even to a mindless state called "The dragon's wrath" - when a mind becomes so furious that it sees nothing else and the magic swells to enormous magnitude."

[That is... not at all a scary revelation.]

"Don't worry, it is not that common. But it is generally speaking a great catastrophe. And, well, something similar can happen to us elves, except that it is the other way around. Instead of our emotions bringing the worst out of our magic, magic brings the worst out of us. And based on the element we are born with, the overuse of our innate magic can make our emotions volatile. Fire wizards rage, ice wizards fall into a state of deep melancholy..."

"And dark wizards?"

Glavas felt his eyes watering. "They lose their will to live," he squealed and quickly started wiping his tears away. "Yesterday I... I used up way too much of it. It consumed me. It still does. Without you here, I..."

[But we are here. And if this effect comes from magic, then it means it can be cured, no?]

"Not really. I can only wait it out. Usually, it takes a few days at best. But like this... I can't tell how long."

"Well, let's just take it one day at a time, alright? We will stay by your side and make sure you don't give in to whatever your magic is telling you."

"But we need money! I need to hunt. Without it we..."

[Don't worry, we got that handled.] Surdi smiled and nodded towards the pile of loot he brought from the palace. [And that is only what I could grab with one bag. If we go together, we can take even more of it. We sell it all, and until you recover, we'll be living like kings.]

"Surdi is right. You should take it easy. You've done enough. For now, we will take care of you. If you want, you can think about it as us paying the debt for all the times you helped us out."

Glavas went and picked up his hat, immediately putting it on and pulling it into his face to hide the tears in his eyes. "I'm grateful to have you. Really."

[Likewise,] Surdi signed and suddenly got interrupted by the horrendous call of the abyss coming out of his stomach.

"You haven't eaten much, have you?"

"Neither have you!"

"I am used to not having money for food every once in a while. Don't worry though, I will get us something to eat."

[Here? I already looked. Not much food survived.]

"I have my ways. But... let me just apologize to you right away, it's not going to be the tastiest thing."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Have you ever eaten a Humi?"

At the memory of the giant rodents, both children replied with faces full of disgust.

"I see you have not. Alright then. I suppose you'll get to try something new for breakfast."