***Tirnanog, Old Camp***

***Magnus***

I entered the infirmary of Conla's flagship and checked the area with Second Sight. Within a moment I could make out Mark's energy signature beyond a wall and made my way over to the door. I knocked and gave it two seconds before I opened the door with a wide grin on my face.

“You got your own room? No fair, I have to share all my quarters!” I joked as I made my way over to Mark's bed.

The subject in question lifted his head and gave me an exhausted wave. Someone had cleaned him up and hooked an IV drip with a clear liquid to his arm.

“Hey, Tulkas. I heard you are something akin to a prince now. Do I even deserve the honour of you visiting me?”

I dismissively waved a hand. “Call me Magnus when we are alone. Tulkas was just an alias I assumed for security reasons, though I still use it in public. And forget the whole 'prince' thing until you know what you are talking about.”

He frowned. “At some point, you will have to tell me why an alias would be necessary. Anyway, so Astra isn't the daughter of two elders who could point a finger at me and have me thrown overboard? And the most anyone would do is ask how hard they should throw me?”

“Well...”

Mark rolled his eyes. “So you are a prince now.”

“If you keep it up, I will shock you and feed you to my pet dragon,” I threatened. “Besides, you already look a lot healthier.”

“Thalia told me those drakes of yours only eat plants – though I don't understand why they would need those dagger-like teeth for plants.”

“There are plants, and then there are plants in this world. Some shrubs are more dangerous than the animals,” I pointed out and shuddered upon thinking about the treemonae or the spiketrees which ended most unknowing exiles. “Are we going to continue the banter for long? If so, I will go and get myself something to drink.”

“Touché!” Mark sighed. “No, I guess I am done for now. Thanks for checking in on me by the way.”

“Certainly, just wanted to make sure you are recovering.” I gestured at my head. “Some things in this world just mess with you.”

Mark's eyes took on a haunted expression for a moment, but he caught himself quickly. “Yeah, I am a little surprised about it too. It has been just a single night, but the last months already... feel distant. I can't explain it. Maybe it's having four secure walls around me? The bed? People to talk to?”

I grinned. “Are you sure the nurse doesn't have anything to do with it?”

He gave me a deadpan expression. “That woman is plain evil. Yesterday, she kept poking and prodding me till late in the evening, trying to quantify my new mutation. Instead of letting me sleep. I can't put into words how much I missed a real bed.”

“Oh, yes. Don't worry. I also went through Thalia's medical examination.” I dismissed the matter with a wave of my hand. “Be glad that you aren't at Mount Aerie. On this ship, she doesn't have access to all of her torture devices. What did you get anyway?”

“Some kind of sub-dermal armour which makes me stronger and faster, though not as fast as you if Thalia is to be believed. Apparently, it synergises with my Precognition, making the ability much more powerful. It’s like having the proverbial sixth sense. Thalia said something about the cartilage tissue acting as my armour functioning as an extension for whatever affects Precognition in someone's skin. Even though it shouldn't be possible. Overlapping mutations not affecting each other negatively is extremely rare, which is why I became her new science project. According to Thalia, I won the genetic lottery with two overlapping mutations amplifying each other instead of turning me into a monstrosity.”

If he hadn't already told me of his fight with the night beast, I would have asked him which devil rode him to risk eating some unknown creature's flesh.

Instead, I raised an interested eyebrow. “Are you stronger than me now?”

“He might be if you let him sleep and recover,” Thalia chided as she entered the room with a tray laden with food.

“Truly?” I asked, surprised at her confidence.

“There are different types of 'strength',” Thalia explained. “Muscles, by their very nature, can't be good at everything. Countless factors influence the functionality like fibre density, heat build-up, nutrient supply and waste expulsion after acid build-up. There are no advantages without trade-offs. Some tissues are optimized towards delivering short bursts of explosive speed – like yours. Others might be perfect for endurance exercise. And in Mark's case, it's slow power.”

“Slow power, eh?” I scratched my chin. “Like Gurney's? I remember him testing me after I got my mutation. Thought to myself there was no way he could overpower me, but that man's hand was like a vice. Slow and steady wins the race.”

Thalia nodded and placed the food in front of Mark.

“I still don't believe I am as strong as Gurney,” Mark said while eyeing the food with watery eyes. “Oh, you have no idea how hard it was. The only thing I could securely eat raw was starfish. My other mutations can't be hunted in abundance anywhere in the region. And getting to the lake was almost impossible with Thich in the air and on the ground. Making fire to cook was a risk because of people smelling the smoke. The few times I tried, I had a patrol on my heels no less than ten minutes later. I was so hungry. After some time, you consider eating some raw plant just so-”

Thalia took a piece of starfish and shoved it into Mark's mouth. “Just eat and stop pitying yourself! By Gaia, your doom and gloom is hanging over the room like a cloud.”

She looked at me with an exasperated expression. “I swear, I don't know whether this guy has the most willpower I have ever seen in a person, or whether the self-pitying is a survival mechanism to cope with hunger. This is what I had to deal with since yesterday. The emotional abuse I went through is unacceptable.”

“No am urf mech...” Mark tried to explain with a full mouth, but Thalia shoved another piece into his face to shut him up while she unloaded her woes on me.

I stayed for a while longer to make sure Mark was fine. Well, he was obviously not fine considering the emotional backlashes he suffered whenever something reminded him of the time spent alone in the wilderness.

Thankfully, his nurse seemed to have things well in hand.

Thalia using her ability to stabilize him was a topic of contention for me. I wasn't a fan of using psychic abilities on anyone. But they existed. Telling psychics not to use their abilities was like telling me to stop using my own mutations.

And I had seen the mess Mark had been before Thalia shoved his emotions back into the right place. No idea how long it would have taken Mark to recover on his own, or whether he would have recovered at all. In the end, I only knew Thalia was a trusted friend. And I had never seen her abusing her power.

Once Thalia assured me that Mark was on a path of recovery, I used my jaunt ability to return to Mount Aerie where I ran right into a medium-sized family drama.

“And I tell you, you have to be firmer with Isaac. If he does something bad, there have to be consequences.”

“And I tell you, I can't punish Isaac for being curious! Nobody told him he can't leave our quarters!”

“I told him not to leave the estate while he was in my care!”

I entered the corridor connecting our private quarters and found Astra arguing with Maria – a move I honestly wouldn’t have the balls for.

“While he was in your care. Do you expect him to remember a rule forever? He is a kid, Maria,” Astra said.

“Which is why you have to set boundaries for the child, Astra. You are his mother. A part of being a parent is to consider possible dangers and prevent them. And if it is not possible to prevent danger, then you have to set some ground rules,” Maria reciprocated with waving hands.

Still smiling, I was about to turn a one hundred eighty and leave just as silently as I entered the scene when the two women noticed me.

“Magnus, what's your opinion?” Astra asked, clearly expecting me to be on her side in her argument with Maria.

I kept spinning on my heel until I was facing them again. Depending on the predator you were facing, it was sometimes better to flee and other times it was better to stand your ground. Unfortunately, I had to learn early on that it wasn’t possible to just run away from an argument with your wife. She would bring it up again and again until she was satisfied either way.

“Aehh…” Unsure which side to take, only an eligible sound escaped my throat. Astra was my woman, so getting on her bad side wouldn't be pretty. But Maria was a damn scary old lady and the only capable babysitter we had. If my admittedly fairly limited understanding of Aerie's society wasn’t wrong, she was also a major political power should she ever decide to take the reigns again.

Astra waved a hand at me. “Just spit it out!”

“Without knowing the whole story, I must assume Isaac ran off again and got himself into trouble? Astra, while I may be lenient if it happens once or twice, you have to admit it's turning into a theme with the boy. Maria might be right about us having to limit him somehow. It's simply different if a rule is given by a parent instead of a caretaker. My parents always used the carrot and the stick with us. Mom was the carrot, Dad the stick. If you want me to, I can be the bad guy.”

Astra opened her mouth to answer when we heard a loud crash from the living room. All of us quickly went down the corridor to see whether everything was alright, only to find Isaac balancing on top of a chair and Astra's music player on the ground with a broken touchscreen.

I winced, knowing very well how much Astra loved the valuable device. “Ouch!”

The boy looked between us and the broken device, but before he could say anything, Astra flash-stepped in front of him, her fingers closing around the crown of his head as she picked him up. “Isaaac! We have to talk!”

“Ow! Uaaaah!” Isaac began to wail as his feet left the chair while his hands held onto Astra's arm in a futile attempt to pry himself loose.

“Astra, you can't pick a child up like that!” Maria complained.

“He is my son and has our strength mutations!” Astra retorted. “I can pick him up any way I want if I deem it necessary!”

I massaged my temple and went over to rescue Isaac. Maybe it was time to deliver some fatherly authority. “Astra, give me Isaac. I will have a talk with him while you clean this up.”

It didn't take much to extract Isaac from Astra's grip. Then I left the room, carrying the naughty boy at the scruff of his neck to somewhere where we could talk in peace.

“You are in big trouble, Isaac,” I chided the boy while rounding a corner.

“Mom’s scary!” the boy retorted while holding his head once he had calmed down.

“She will be even scarier if the music player is no longer working,” I forewarned.

“But it glowed so prettily,” he replied with a pout. “Where are we going?”

“Everywhere,” I said ominously while leaving our quarters. “You will get the full tour.”

I was sure the women would give me heat for this later on, but I was certain it would prevent more problems than it created in the long run. Isaac just wasn’t a normal child. The abnormal growth surprised everyone. Now that he had reached the physical appearance of a toddler, his physical growth had slowed down. Nonetheless, mentally he was already far ahead of any child his age. In part to the memories he inherited from us and in part to his speech abilities.

And therein lay the problem.

“Are you mad too?” he asked.

“About the music player? No. About you getting yourself into trouble at every opportunity? Yes,” I tried to explain. “The issue is, I don’t believe you are doing it intentionally. You probably already figured out that you are way smarter than a kid your age should be, Isaac. We adults don’t know how to deal with it, which is why I am taking a leap of faith here. The others are probably blind-sided by your capabilities. You know far more than a kid your age should and they are subconsciously expecting you to act according to this knowledge while simultaneously treating you like a real toddler. They tried to shelter you, but your abilities make it hard or next to impossible.”

I turned down the corridor towards the treemonae garden.

“Despite your maturity, Isaac, you obviously lack the life experience expected to come along with it. You know things, but you haven’t learned how to judge a situation and consider the consequences of your actions. You see a pretty, shiny thing and immediately want to touch it when you could have just asked any of the adults to show it to you. If that’s how it is, then the only responsible thing I can do for you is to show you the dangers of this world so you may choose on your own not to engage them.”

That day, I took my boy on a tour through all of Aerie’s horrors. As tame as the clan’s residential cave system was, there were still plenty of dangers which would snack on a toddler without a second thought. From the estate’s treemonae watchdog system to molerat carriages and Maria’s garden of poisonous plants. I didn’t hold anything back – including the live-feeding of some Isaac-sized animals.

When we returned from our little outing with Isaac riding on my shoulders, I was in for another surprise.

“Look at who decided to show up again!” I commented with an ambivalent smile upon meeting Iv and Hector in the estate’s lobby. They were still decked out in full survival gear, showing they had just returned from their little outing. “Three weeks in the wilderness without telling me anything.”

My sister looked chagrined, but of course, her character didn’t allow her to back down.

“Look, Magnus-” she began, but I interrupted her, deciding to follow Astra’s advice and not mention anything about her relationship with Hector. Which didn’t mean I had to approve of her actions either.

“Why don’t you greet Isaac at least?” I picked the boy off my shoulders and held him out to a stunned Iv. “Isaac, this is your aunt, Ivonne. Ivonne, this is your nephew, Isaac.”

Isaac waved shyly.

“I- ah- how?” was the only thing Iv managed to get out.

“A lot of things can happen in three weeks,” I answered. “Why don’t you bring him to Astra’s quarters while I have a word with Hector? Isaac was a little naughty lately and together we affirmed he would have some apologizing to do.”

For once, Iv didn’t argue and simply took the boy from me and departed. She was probably too shocked by the situation to refuse.

Once she was gone, I turned to Hector. “Judging by your appearance, you two didn’t partner up?”

Hector shook his head. “I didn’t believe it to be appropriate, even if Iv wanted to.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and studied the man from head to toe before I met his eyes again. “I would have expected you two to return as a partnered couple. So, is my sister not good enough for you?”

Hector’s expression turned blank. “What?”

“Do you have second thoughts about becoming serious? Is it her looks?” I asked. “Too skinny? Her boobs not bouncy enough?”

He pretended to clean out one of his ears with his little finger. “I am sorry? I thought you disapproved of our relationship and would be jumping with joy if we returned unpartnered. Ivonne is a wonderful woman, but I also don’t want your hands around my throat again.”

“I would have been very upset,” I admitted. “But now I have to ask myself whether you are serious about her.”

Hector threw up both hands. “Then what am I supposed to do? You dislike me partnering up with your sister. And now I get questioned for not hooking up with her! Sounds like there’s no way to make it right!”

I grinned. “Welcome to the real world.”

He raised a warning finger. “You are messing with me!”

“I am,” I admitted. “But seriously…”

I placed a hand on his shoulder.

“… I got advised that there isn’t much I can do if Iv really wants to hook up with you. And after some introspection, I have to admit that is true. But I have sacrificed a lot just to find the last remaining members of my family. Even got myself exiled on the mere hope of Iv and her sister still being alive. It’s probably the biggest miracle I could have asked for to have her here with me now. I won’t compromise this opportunity.”

I patted his shoulder and smiled, hoping I got the message across as cheerfully as possible. “But if you hurt her, or fail to protect her, know I will find a way to end you.”

***Tirnanog, The Ancient Grove***

***Vanya***

I entered the observation platform with Anajed at my side, though right now I wished Tianna was with me. Unfortunately, she had gone with the task force to liberate the Old Camp.

Skye Rumen turned around and nodded at me while the airship broke through a low cloud cover, revealing the disaster awaiting us. Jeng’s Ancient Grove was burning and Thich airships were circling the area like a flock of vultures its corpse.

“Are we too late?” I asked.

Skye studied the scene and shook his head in dismay. “I honestly don’t know.”