“I figured out a way to help you.” Sebastian announced when Obsidian finally answered his door.

The dragon raised an eyebrow in doubt, but at least their attention was caught.

“So – last night, I consulted with the artefact, and found some resources about training dragons–”

“I don’t need to be trained.” Sid interrupted.

“If you want to get back to where you were, you do.” Seb replied before pressing on. “I’ve worked out a plan for some of the basics you might want to cover. Depending on how well you do with this, we can adjust the plan.”

“I don’t know why you think this is going to help, but I can’t train without powers.”

“You said last night that your powers are different – that’s because you haven’t used them outside of the pocket dimension. Your power, as a dragon, comes from the territory you protect. Since you have no territory – nor have you ever had any on earth before, your powers are nowhere near what you’re used to. They’ve regressed to what you might have been capable of as a hatchling.”

Sebastian paused for a moment to allow Obsidian to absorb that information. The first, and possibly hardest, step in this plan was convincing Sid to trust him. Even if the dragon had admitted their weakness, accepting what Seb was telling him would mean letting down his guard, especially with the training plan Sebastian had in mind.

“What exactly do you want me to do for this ‘training’?” Obsidian finally asked.

“You need to build up physical strength first, and since Edmund could do with some training in fighting, I’ve recruited him to help us.”

“You want me to spar with the wolf?”

Seb nodded. “Exactly. Nick made breakfast. So, we’ll eat first – come on!”

“I didn’t agree to–”

“Look, you want to be stronger, I want to help you. I’m not doing this to gain anything in return. And, right now, it’s your only option – apart from wallowing in self-pity, which isn’t really an option since I won’t let you do that.” Sebastian stated firmly.

There was a moment of silence as the pair stared each other down. Finally, Obsidian broke eye contact by closing his eyes and sighing resignedly.

“You really are your father’s son.”

Seb grinned triumphantly. “I am. Now, come on, breakfast won’t wait forever.”

He turned around and headed for the dining room without bothering to check that Sid was following him. With this first step finished, things would go smoothly.

Or he’d thought so.

Training turned out to be far more… chaotic than Sebastian had intended. At first, he’d just planned on getting Edmund and Obsidian to spar with each other. But then Emily decided to tag along to coach them, and the elves, minus Victoria, also decided to join.

For the sake of simplicity, they’d agreed on hand to hand combat. At first, they’d been sparing in pairs. Then someone – Sebastian wasn’t sure who – suggested fighting in teams. So they did a match of the elves vs Emily, Ed and Sid.

“I can’t tell who’s winning.” Luke said, Sebastian shrugged.

“Me neither, honestly.”

“Perhaps we should have laid out some ground rules.” Aurora said, wincing as Emily fell out of the fray, only to jump up and run straight back into the fight.

Aurora was the only one of the elves that, apparently, wasn’t an elven warrior. Seb didn’t really know much about the elves, and hadn’t made an attempt to learn more mostly because it felt… weird. He knew that Victoria was his grandmother, but she didn’t seem all that pleasant, and there had to be a good reason why his parents decided on going no-contact with this side of the family.

The other elves were even less approachable perhaps because they didn’t seem to know how to act around him either. They’d all come from an alternative dimension that – as far as Sebastian was aware – was socially built like a mediaeval kingdom. They knew for sure they had to follow and respect their queen, but Seb didn’t have any titles or standing – even if he was Tristan’s son – and those rules didn’t really apply to this world.

Back on the subject of rules though–

“Is this how training would have gone in Kerkenstar?” Sebastian inquired.

“Well, they would have been using dulled weapons and we’d have a healer on standby, but more or less.”

“We’ll probably need a first aid kit by the end of this.” Luke suggested.

“Or perhaps I could help.” Hayden said as she and Persephone suddenly appeared.

Seb jumped. “Gah! Did you two teleport here or something?”

Persephone scoffed. “I wouldn’t willingly teleport if I was dying.”

“You’re already dead, love.”

“Still not touching that shit.”

Hayden rolled her eyes fondly. “Sorry for startling you. Um, why are they all fighting anyway?”

“Training. Or that’s how it started.” Seb explained, flinching sympathetically as he saw his boyfriend take a punch to the stomach. “Okay, I think we need to break them up now.”

Hayden nodded. “I have a few healing potions on me. And then we should get into planning tonight’s fight.”

“We’re fighting the leviathan tonight?”

Persephone grinned. “Didn’t you pay attention to last night’s plans, kid?”

“To be completely honest with you, I had something else on my mind.”

“Well, cliff notes version – we’re fighting the leviathan tonight. The sooner it’s gone, the better. This unfortunately pushes back the ritual that Nick wanted to do during the new moon since we don’t know how much of your magic is going to be drained from expelling the leviathan. That’s also why you’re not at school right now.”

Sebastian nodded, then paused. “Crap, I forgot it’s Monday.”

“You’ll probably want to skip tomorrow too. Spells like this take a lot of energy.” Hayden explained.

The sound of a war cry brought everyone’s attention back to the fight just in time to see Obsidian throw one of the elf warriors off himself into a nearby tree.

“Sora!” Aurora squeaked.

“I’m okay!” Sora yelled back. “Uh, I don’t know how to get down though…”

Seb grimaced. “Yeah, next time, we’re setting ground rules.”