"Oh, he's growing up so fast." Xalier couldn't keep the smile off his face as he watched his son crumple into a woman's waiting arms.
Elah spun toward him, and whatever expression she had a moment ago hardened into something far more dangerous.
"You!" The fault for all of this landed squarely on her husband, and she remembered it now.
"Y-yes...?" His stutter came fast, betrayed by the weight of her glare.
"If you ever again try to teach our son something that could get him killed, I swear you won't be siring any more children."
Silence.
Pure, stunned silence.
"UNDERSTAND!?" She wasn't willing to let the quiet stand.
"Yes, ma'am!" The answer came instantly.
He'd learned, like any man with a wife worth keeping, that some battles weren't worth fighting — you just let the dragon win.
"Good." Satisfied, Elah turned on her heel and stormed toward the great tree that marked the path home.
"...what did I even do?" Xalier muttered, mostly to himself.
Dragons, unfortunately, had excellent hearing.
"Did you say something!?"
"Nothing — nothing at all." He threw his hands up in surrender the moment she rounded on him again, looking less like his wife and more like something that ate armies for breakfast... Looking exactly like his wife...
She let out a short breath and turned to Antanasia instead, her anger cooling as she took in her son's condition.
"Heal." Then, softer, she cast one more spell over his wounds.
Once Elah had used Transcendence to get back to the house, Xalier followed — because that was simply what a husband did when his wife was upset.
"Hm?" He paused at the doorway and glanced back toward Antanasia.
"Bring him in," Xalier said. "After someone this young burns through all their energy, even healing won't wake him for a while. He'll be out cold."
"Oh — right," Xalier remembered something else. "I worked things out with your sister. She should be waiting outside the forest in a few days."
"...Can I meet her?"
Something shifted in Antanasia's expression, and Xalier caught it — but said nothing.
Also, she wasn't his to command anymore; that decision belonged to Temorsth now.
"Ask your master, not me. Serve him well and let him decide." He turned and walked inside.
"My love, I just remembered — I brought your favorite sweets."
"Do you want some?" The lie came smooth and immediate the second he stepped through the door.
He always had some prepared.
Fortunately, if this excuse failed, he had roughly a thousand more waiting in reserve.
Antanasia watched the exchange in silence.
'Like father, like son.' The shift in his tone, the sudden charm — she understood where Temorsth might have learned it.
'Dad noticed.' Unconscious as he was, part of Temorsth's mind still caught every word.
Different fragments of him handled different things; even with the body shut down, one or two were always listening.
'Doesn't matter. We were never going to change her memories that much anyway. It was only ever an experiment.'
In the oath, Antanasia had been promised she could see her sister whenever she wanted — and it was Temorsth himself who'd made her forget that clause even existed.
'But it was her fault to begin with.'
The memory surfaced clean and sharp: the day the oath was made, when Antanasia had tried to slip in extra conditions of her own.
'This oath will not be broken until my sister is protected. I will not be ordered to harm her. I may see her whenever I wish. I will not be sent to my death. My memories will not be altered.'
'The last two.' Xalier had been the one to catch it — to stop her from cheating the terms before they ever took hold.
'Damn it. The last two conditions are void!'
'Yeah. Her fault.'
If Antanasia hadn't tried to push the oath further than it should go, Temorsth would never have learned how easily its wording could be twisted.
Or how easily he could alter her memory.
'For fuck's sake, feel guilty in silence,' Feral snapped, done listening to the noise.
...
A day later, in Temorsth's room.
'Ugh...' "My head..."
Antanasia, seated beside the bed, straightened at the sound. "Do you need anything?"
He blinked hard until the room stopped swimming, then focused on her.
"Hmh... Come here." He raised his arms, beckoning to Antanasia.
"Uh... you just woke up and-" A thought shut her up.
"Oho?"
"I didn't expect you to comply with a joke."
"If it's just a-" She tried to raise her head.
"Nope, you are staying like this now."
Temorsth stroked her hair.
The uncomfortable feeling made her silent.
"What do you need?" Temorsth spoke up after a while.
"...?"
"If you are so obedient, you must want something."
"I don't..."
"Just say it."
"My sister — she's coming in a few days. Can I see her?"
"...No. Not yet." He held her gaze, and despite the protest rising in her eyes, he continued. "I need to learn my mother's Unique Ability first. Then I'll go with you myself. Just wait a little longer — can you do that?"
She didn't answer right away.
"Yes," she finally said.
"Good."
...
A few minutes later, Temorsth made his way out to the living room, where only his father was waiting.
"Where's Mom?"
"Taking a bath to cool off. Yesterday really rattled her — someone tried to take her baby away." Xalier didn't bother hiding the grin.
"Ah. Sorry for the trouble."
"Don't sweat it. I'm getting good at calming her down."
A short laugh escaped Temorsth first, then Xalier caught it too, and for a moment the two of them just laughed together, easy and unguarded.
"Dad." Once it settled, Temorsth pulled out a chair and sat.
"Why were my steps different the second time I used Shadow Step?"
"What do you mean?"
"The first time, I teleported straight into the forest. The times after that, I had to use it many times for the same distance."
"Did you say its name out loud the second time?"
"...No. Why does that matter?"
Xalier's face went blank. "We never explained this to you?"
"Explained what?"
"...We really didn't." The realization hit him harder than he expected — he'd forgotten to teach this, too.
"To put it simply: if you announce what you're about to use before you use it, the effect gets stronger."
"...!"
"The same goes for attacks. The more you reveal about a skill to your target, the harder it hits."
"How does that even work?"
"Remember what I told you — the more people know your name, the more famous you are, the stronger you become?"
"Yeah?"
"It's the same principle. The more a skill is known, understood, and recognized, the more power it carries. And if your enemy knows exactly how to counter it and still gets hit anyway, the damage is even worse."
"That's insane."
"The world rewards the strong and the clever. It's a kind of punishment built in for everyone else."
"..."
"So if you're ever unsure you can win a fight, tell them more. Explain the skill. It might be exactly the edge you need."
'This... this sounds suspiciously like the actual reason villains always monologue before the final blow,' Temorsth thought, unable to shake the feeling.
...
Less than an hour later, Elah and Temorsth stood together on the training ground.
"Baby, are you sure you don't want to rest a little longer?"
"I want to learn your ability as fast as I can. Then we won't even need this training ground anymore, and I can finally head out."
"...Alright." She still sounded uneasy, but after a slow breath, something in her shifted — steadier, more focused. "Sweetie, let me show you mine first."
"Umu." He nodded eagerly, curious what his mother could possibly do.
A ball of flame bloomed in her palm. "This is just an ordinary fireball."
"Umu."
"But with my ability—"
The fire twisted, and the shape held.
"Now it's..."
"Water?"
"Yes. And now earth. And now lightning." One after another, the sphere shifted through elements as she named them, each transition seamless.
Temorsth tilted his head, eyes wide with confusion.
'So cute,' Elah thought, fighting to keep her expression composed.
She cleared her throat. "Ask if you're confused."
"Didn't you teach me that a technique's element is locked the moment it's cast?"
"I did. And this is exactly that — this is my ability."
"Uh?"
"I can restructure magic after it's already formed. Change its element, its nature, its form, even after the cast is complete."
"..."
"And it doesn't stop there." She lifted a hand. "Under the barrier, the weather seldom changes — but with my ability..."
A gust swept the clearing.
"Wait — this feels like winter." Temorsth felt the temperature drop as snow began to fall from nowhere.
"I converted the raw energy around us into cold. The environment followed."
He went quiet, turning the idea over. 'But isn't this... kind of useless?'
Then something clicked. "Mom — can you do this anywhere?"
"Not everywhere. But wherever there's enough ambient energy, yes."
"Could you do it in a volcano?"
"You mean cool it down?"
"Could you freeze the lava?"
"Yes."
"..."
"That's absurdly overpowered. You could reshape an entire battlefield to whatever favors you."
"I can, though I rarely bother. Holding a region large enough to matter like that costs an enormous amount of energy — and if not border strong enough, most enemies would just run rather than fight in it."
"Oh."
"But Baby, I think you're still missing something." She caught the disappointment creeping back into his face. "You think I can only alter my own things?"
"...Yeah?"
"Thought so." She smiled — she could always read him.
"I can change any spell, any skill, any element, any mover or attack — mine, an ally's, even one aimed straight at me."
"...!"
"That's basically cheating."
She laughed. "Your father said the exact same thing the first time he saw it."
"Ah, that face, I can never forget that."
"You should forget that," Xalier commented on the side.
"No, Mom, tell me, tell me!"
*Hmhmh* Elah giggled.
"At that time, we were still young, still enemies."
"As I turned his most powerful firestorm into enchantments, that stunned and shocked face."
"It is so vivid. As he ran away with this tail behind his legs."
"That's not true..." Xalier lowered his head... it was the complete truth.
*Hahmh* Temorsth followed her mother's example.
"Later, mommy even learned that time's loss was what motivated your headstrong father to create his own Unique Ability."
"..." Xalier no longer wanted to listen in.
"Then..."
"Hmh? Yes?"
"How do I learn it? Are you going to give me tips like Dad did?"
"Ah, you don't need tips."
"Huh?"
"Baby... you already know my ability."
"...I already know?"