Chapter Text
"I've never seen anything like this before..."
"No wonder he's the golden guard's protégé..."
"Future coven leader"
Praise and recognition rained heavily upon Darius following the successful conclusion of his experiments and the rumors spreading through the palace. Of course, he left out how he had managed to summon his abomination form. He realized he didn't need adrenaline, anger, or fear. Just feeling like himself.
Word had it he would even write his own book on abomination creations. Now more than ever he crushed his competitors, and Colmet reluctantly acknowledged him as his successor.
For now he had managed to understand how to summon the Abomination. Virel said he needed to strengthen his gallbladder in order to extend the duration of his transformation. He explained the different methods, the future plans he needed to follow, and what everyone expected of him. It was necessary for him to practice every day to master this new power.
With that idea in mind, Darius managed to transform part of his hair into Abomination. Just a couple of locs hanging beside his ears. It was charming, elegant, and helped him practice maintaining his Abomination spell in a natural way.
Meanwhile, Alador felt very happy for Darius, and even agreed to dissect his Abomination arm to examine the chemical differences between the natural substance, the artificial one, and the one created by his partner. They were very similar to the first two, but with something unique, no abomination witch could manipulate Darius's substance. Which was very strange.
"It must be incredible to have such a talented boyfriend. Isn't that right, Asher? Too bad you can only live in his shadow"
They were at a coven gathering when Adrian intercepted him. Darius was talking with Colmet, laughing with Terra and the healing coven leader, leaving Alador in a corner. Even Eberwolf was mingling with his coven.
Alador, for his part, preferred not to get close to the others. He feared that doing so would make him vulnerable and that eventually someone would find out who he was, anyone could sell information about him to his father. He also hadn't grown accustomed to the feeling of being surrounded by people, it made his skin crawl.
Even so, no matter how much rejection and distaste he showed toward Adrian Gray, nothing would make the witch leave him alone. On the contrary, he enjoyed getting under his skin. Adrian believed that provoking him to his breaking point was a good way to see who was hiding behind the mask.
Adrian circled him, swishing his tail behind his and even brushing one of his arms. Alador stepped away in disgust, ignoring Adrian's words. He didn't care that Darius stood out more than him in some areas of magic. He was fine being who he was, he was fine being the one who fell behind, he was fine not being good enough.
"I'll be honest with you, Asher. I don't think you deserve him. He should be with someone on his level"
Deserve? He had never felt like he deserved anything. He hated that word. His father had always told him he wasn't worthy of being a Blight, had drilled it into him his whole life that he didn't deserve even half of what he had. His mother said they were being charitable by letting him be their son. Otherwise, no one would want him. That was why he was so protective of the things he had, his inventions, the gifts he was given, his palisman, or Darius. Having grown up believing he deserved none of what he had, he guarded everything he owned with possession and a constant fear of losing it.
Since leaving, he had been working on pushing his parents' words out of his head. That didn't mean they never came back, years and years of wounds don't heal easily. Even less so when they come from those who were supposed to teach you what it meant to be loved.
He wanted to hit Adrian in a way that would make sure he could never smile again.
That wasn't something he could do in front of so many people. They would all see him as someone savage... Someone Darius would be ashamed of.
So he chose to leave the room, letting Adrian think he had won his strange little game.
"That arrogant brat. He thinks he can be a better leader than I am" an old man was muttering in the hallway where Alador found himself. He had been ready to leave the gathering and hadn't expected to run into Colmet also walking out of the room.
The man came down the hall grumbling in his direction, too caught up in his own irritation to notice Alador standing in his path.
It was only when he was right beside him that he became aware of his presence. The poor old man jumped when he noticed him.
"By my Titan! What in the world is wrong with you! Standing there like a statue!"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Colmet, I was just looking at the stained glass" he said, gesturing behind the old man, where an enormous stained glass window depicting the covens glowed under the palace lights.
"You're... Ash?"
"I'm Asher, sir"
"Ah, yes, Asher, Asher what?"
"I don't have a last name"
"No last name and hidden behind a mask. How curious, but I won't judge you, whoever you are behind that mask, you chose to serve the Titan. At least you're sane" Alador shifted uncomfortably, as he always did when someone paid him a compliment "You're the witch who fixed the elevator last week, or am I wrong?"
"Ah, yes... Yes, sir"
"The abomination mechanic witch... What is your goal in merging magic with technology?"
"Well, sir, I'd like to do away with all limitations for average witches or those who don't belong to our coven. Abomination has an endless number of unexplored uses"
"Hmm, I'm far too old a witch to understand all of this, kid." The old man laughed "But I think you could be of use to me... Would you be interested in being my apprentice?"
"Wh-what?"
"I never had one, and I need someone to leave all my knowledge to. Not just books no one will ever read"
"I think the most fitting person to be your apprentice is Darius, Mr. Colmet"
"Oh, by my Titan! Don't speak to me about that arrogant brat! Do you want to be my apprentice or not?"
Alador fell silent. On one hand he was intrigued by Colmet's distaste for Darius, and on the other he wasn't sure whether to accept the offer or not.
Him? Apprentice to a coven witch?
"He should be with someone on his level" Adrian's smug voice played in his head like a thousand loudspeakers. Being Colmet's apprentice might give him enough of a foundation to be just as talented as his boyfriend. It would make him someone worthy of him, wouldn't it?
"You're taking too long to think about it, by my Titan! We start tomorrow at noon. I'll be waiting for you in my study"
He didn't even get the chance to give an answer. He was going to accept either way.
Darius came back from the gathering about two hours later. Alador was in his small workshop when he returned.
"I'm home, Al. Why didn't you let me know you were leaving?"
"I didn't want to interrupt you, you were talking with the coven leaders"
"Hmm, alright"
"Did you know Colmet doesn't like you?" he asked, still with his back to him. He was working on a blueprint at his desk.
Darius was somewhat surprised, unsure what had prompted that. "I... I figured as much" Colmet tended to give him some odd looks "What makes you say so?"
"I ran into him when I left the gathering. He wants me to be his apprentice"
"What? Why? Did you accept? Okay, that's too many things at once, explain yourself"
Alador turned in his chair to face Darius. He gave him a brief account of his exchange with the coven leader. To Darius's surprise, Alador had agreed to become his apprentice.
"Why did you accept?"
"He's the leader of my coven. Besides, he didn't wait for me to answer"
Darius stood in the doorway, watching him with curiosity "Well then... Good luck with that. I'm going to shower, I'll see you in 20 minutes, Alador. Not a minute more, not a minute less"
"25"
"Don't try to negotiate with me again" The last time he let Alador talk him into something, he woke up to find him still working. It was still a struggle for Alador to accept taking care of himself properly when he became fixated on something, leaving it unfinished caused him real stress.
Darius tried to help him understand that everything would still be there tomorrow. Alador feared losing the thread of things if he let too much time pass. That was why he kept a stack of notebooks beside the bedroom dresser, at Darius's suggestion.
Once he hit the bed, it was only a matter of minutes before exhaustion took over.
"Colmet wants Alador to be his apprentice? Why?"
"If I knew, I would have told you already" Darius answered Virel. "I'd appreciate it if you shared any relevant information you come across on the matter"
"You didn't need to ask, I would have told you. Setting that aside, how is Alador taking all of this?"
"Being Alador. I think he was a little excited this morning"
"I hope Colmet doesn't disappoint him" he laughed bitterly, giving Darius a couple of pats on the shoulder "Over the years he's grown more and more erratic"
Alador felt more like a bundle of nerves than a witch thrilled by a great opportunity that anyone else would have dreamed of. He couldn't shake the mental image of Colmet regretting having offered to be his mentor.
He did everything he could to arrive at the man's office on time, only ending up ten minutes late, and only because he got lost among the enormous identical hallways.
When he entered the room, the door was a little stuck. He made a mental note to fix it later, and only hoped he wouldn't forget. The place was a disaster of abomination, paperwork, books, artifacts, and half empty tea cups scattered everywhere. The lighting was poor, only the light from the large window and a few candles around the room made it possible to take in the space. The air was thick with the scent of tea, a blend of red berries, herbs of every kind, and a hint of frog liqueur.
In the center of the room he found Colmet surrounded by a cluster of magnifying glasses, a desk lamp, and a set of paints. Under the light and lenses, Colmet was painting a porcelain cup with skilled delicacy. On the cup, half of the Titan's skull was finely rendered, thin, perfect, tiny brushstrokes. Alador looked again at the cups scattered around the office. Every one of them was hand-painted. They were beautiful. He couldn't help thinking that Darius would buy thousands of these tea sets for their lovely illustrations alone.
Colmet set down the cup after finishing one last stroke, pulling back from it and rubbing his eyes from the effort. When he looked up he found Alador standing in front of him. The man shouted, threw himself back in his chair, conjured a magic circle, and launched a handful of abomination that Alador barely dodged, by inches.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"
"Forgive me, sir. I thought you heard me come in with the noise from the door"
"I was focused" He summoned an abomination, one with an unusual reddish tone, uncommon among its kind, and the servant cleared the desk and placed the cup on a shelf beside a handful of other cups and a teapot. "What are you doing here?"
"Sir, you asked me to come"
"I did? What for?" With every passing moment Alador understood a little more why they were rushing to find the next abomination coven leader.
"You offered to take me on as your apprentice, Mr. Colmet"
Colmet looked at him for a few seconds, searching his memory "Ah! Of course!"
The old man came out from behind the desk with a wide smile "Come, come, there's far too much to talk about"
Colmet took Alador by the arm and led him toward a side room off the office.
The place was just as full of bookshelves and abomination, with the difference of several armchairs scattered around and an elegant coffee table where more cups and teapots adorned the surface. It was a shame the dust wouldn't let you appreciate the beauty of the gleaming wood.
"If the mess bothers you, that's your problem. Once a month I have my abominations clean it, but it's not the end of the month yet. Besides, all of this gives the place character"
Alador didn't complain. He took a seat as if nothing were wrong in one of the chairs, whose back was covered in abomination.
Another abomination servant appeared with a large tray holding many different tea flavors.
"What do you like?" asked Colmet, drawing a kettle of hot water toward him with another abomination.
"I don't usually drink tea"
"I figured as much. I'm sure you'd like the arctic ice blend with a citrus touch" Colmet prepared the cup and, without asking, dropped in a sugar cube. He handed it to Alador, who accepted it out of politeness.
Colmet watched him expectantly, almost impatiently.
With no way around it, Alador lifted his mask slightly, he had modified it some time ago so he could raise the lower half without trouble, revealing his strong jaw, the shadow of his growing beard despite having shaved that morning, and his lips. He took a long sip of the tea, letting the warm liquid settle down his throat. It tasted good. He liked coffee, it was Darius who usually drank tea, never with sugar, only honey. Even so there was something about the light, sharp, full flavor that he liked.
"I knew you'd like it. I can easily guess what kind of tea suits each person"
The old man sat beside him at the table. The abomination that had brought the tea selection earlier set down beside them a variety of cookies and miniature sandwiches cut into circles "In other news, yes, I want an apprentice. I'm choosing you above all others because my options are limited and, as you may have noticed, I'm good at reading people. I'm confident I can develop your magical abilities with ease"
"If you say so, sir" Alador answered, taking a cookie from the tray beside him.
"Tell me, Ash"
"Asher"
"Yes, yes, Asher. Have you ever thought about becoming a coven leader?"
Alador choked, coughing up the cookie in his mouth.
"What?"
"Coven leader" Colmet repeated calmly, handing him a napkin.
"No, sir, I stopped thinking about that a long time ago" When he was a child he had owned a book written by Colmet on abomination, back then the man was his idol. Of course he had dreamed of being like him someday. That dream had faded over time. Dreaming was a privilege. Since then he hadn't had that kind of dream, he only thought about his future projects involving abomination and science.
"Ah, but what would you say if I told you that you could be one? I only have to make a great witch out of you"
"Why? There are plenty of candidates for the position, Darius above all. I thought the decision was practically settled, even" He had come to be Colmet's apprentice to become as strong as his boyfriend, not to take away the position Darius had been dreaming of since he was a child.
"I told you not to mention his name in my presence" Colmet scolded him, pointing his finger at him, ready to launch more abomination "And no, the decision is not settled. In nine months we'll have a meeting with the emperor to determine the successors. For now we're only putting the possible candidates on the table. Many mentors are trying to get the best out of their apprentices right now, so I'm sure we still have a chance"
"What is your problem with Darius? He's a great witch"
"What did I tell you?!" Alador shrank in his chair "Let me make one thing clear. I don't want Darius to be the next coven leader. I think he's arrogant, he acts like he knows everything, and he walks around in those ridiculous high boots acting like he's the best. And that stupid cape!"
"Mr. Colmet, I'd rather you not speak that way about-"
"Yes, yes, yes" he interrupted "Let's drop it. The point is I want my own candidate for the next coven leader, and with any luck we'll keep Darius from becoming one. What do you say?"
"No"
Alador stood up from the chair, setting the now empty tea cup down on the table.
"What?! I am the leader of your coven! How dare you say no to me?!" He grabbed Alador's arm with abomination, keeping him from leaving.
"I won't join you if your only intention is to harm my partner"
"Your- what?" May the Titan swallow him whole right now
"Thank you for the offer. Now let me go" Colmet loosened the abomination whip around Alador's arm and let himself fall back into his chair. He looked like he had aged ten years.
"Listen, kid, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were his... For the love of the Titan... Regardless. It's not... It's not only Darius that's the problem, you know?" Alador stopped walking, still not looking at Colmet "The problem is that seeing that boy is a constant reminder that everything I've done in my life will disappear. I have no legacy, no children, nothing. I tried to teach Darius my methods, but he already had a teacher and his own methods, completely opposite to mine" Something cut into Colmet's pride at having been turned down again and again by Darius "The other candidates for coven leader rejected my offer too, they said it was a lost cause... I'll die and never have anything to leave behind beyond my portrait hanging in the palace hallways"
Alador turned around, looking at the old man.
"You can go now"
Alador stood still in the room, weighing whether he should leave or not. Not every day would an opportunity like this one come his way, though on the other hand, he wasn't going to do anything that would hurt Darius and his career.
"I want... I want to become a witch as strong as Darius. That's why I came. I don't want to be just his shadow. I'll agree to be your apprentice, but I won't compete to become coven leader"
"Seriously?"
"As long as you respect that condition"
Colmet sighed dramatically, giving in perhaps "I don't have much of a choice"
Darius and Virel were already waiting for Alador near the hallways leading to Colmet's office, after two hours without hearing from him.
Alador came out unharmed, to the surprise of both witches, though he reeked of herbs.
"What are you two doing here?" Alador asked when they tried to hide upon seeing him come out of the coven leader's office.
"We just wanted to see how it went" they both answered.
Alador considered telling them what he had discovered something that could lead to any number of outcomes. It might make both of them angry with Colmet, sparking a conflict, it might cause Darius to no longer be comfortable with the idea of him as a mentor; or Virel might even try to push Colmet out sooner.
"It went fine"
"But tell us what happened. What did he say? Why does he want an apprentice?" asked Darius.
"We drank tea, he asked for my blueprints, and he said he's interested in my work" he murmured, walking past them.
"Uh-huh. And what else?" Virel pressed. Both witches followed close behind him.
"Why does he want an apprentice?"
"Because he's old, lonely, has no children, and wants to leave his knowledge to someone. He says he didn't seek out Darius because he didn't think he could offer him anything"
The two witches walking behind Alador exchanged a glance, not entirely convinced by Colmet's intentions.
Colmet was a man of strange methods, somewhat archaic and traditional. Alador was a man of science, and putting up with Colmet's methods was difficult. Not to mention showing him his work; when he tried to do so, Colmet said it was all unnecessary, arguing that abomination magic didn't need to be enhanced with metal.
"Your connection to the isles is important, the stronger it is, the more natural abomination you'll be able to summon. The more, the better" Colmet extended his hands, creating two summoning circles at once. Abomination was drawn up from the forest floor, growing beneath the witch's feet, and growing, and growing.
Alador watched breathlessly as the enormous abomination conjured by the old man rose before him, made entirely of natural matter. It was insane. He had only ever read about this in magazines and books. Colmet, the abomination giant. A witch with an unmatched command of the island's natural matter. It was said he summoned giants to fight for him. At the height of his career he was known as one of the most loyal and powerful witches in the empire.
Colmet dissolved the abomination, returning to Alador's height.
"Well then? Ready to learn?"
Alador nodded.
That day Colmet taught him how to carry out a mindful meditation that would help him connect with the isles. He didn't make much progress, trying to clear his head was nearly impossible for him. At least learning the method itself was interesting.
Meanwhile, with the nine-month race now underway, every coven leader hopeful was desperate to prove their abilities before the emperor. Among them was Eda Clawthorne's older sister, competing for one of the most coveted positions, leader of the emperor's coven.
For many it was a race against time. For Darius, it was entertainment.
"Don't get too comfortable, Darius. In another four months there'll be a meeting with the most notable candidates"
"Come on, Virel, lighten up"
Virel rolled his eyes behind his mask with a small smile.
On occasion, Virel found himself wondering how much longer he would get to live moments like these. Watching his protégé shine, training soldiers, practicing his magic freely.
Something told him that his brother was close to finding out, he could feel it gnawing at his bones.
"Again!" Colmet shouted at him from an abomination chair off to the side of the training field.
A massive abomination conjured by the coven leader had Alador trapped in one of its hands. The abomination set Alador down on the ground, leaving him breathless and covered in purple matter.
"Come on, Asher! It's just a mid sized golem!"
Alador got to his feet on shaky legs. Colmet measured his abilities largely through combat. He said there was nothing like a fight to push every skill to its limit, it always took you to the edge.
Colmet noticed Alador's hands trembling as he tried to summon his abomination matter, and so he dissolved the golem.
"Alright, lower that hand"
Alador bowed his head, bracing for a scolding, shouting, or even a blow
"Your problem is that you need to sharpen your fighting style. You're used to sparring with mediocre witches, you have to be better. You keep your distance and that's fine, but you need to act more" Colmet summoned abomination matter, raising tall pillars around him "The battlefield isn't always going to favor you, but you can shape it" The old man, with an agility no one would have expected, ran across the pillars, jumping and sliding between them with ease.
Alador couldn't understand how he didn't sink into the abomination matter. Colmet said he had to control the rigidity and viscosity of the substance at the same time, to say nothing of the sheer amount of abomination this witch could move.
By the end of the day Alador was exhausted.
Darius was already home when he arrived, lying on the bed with a face mask on, reading a book.
"How did it go?"
Alador dropped onto the bed the moment he peeled off most of his clothes.
Darius sighed, wiped off the face mask with a cloth, and drew Alador to his side. By instinct, Alador wrapped himself around Darius, clinging to him like a magnet.
"That old man is going to break every bone in your body"
Alador didn't answer. He just pressed his face further into Darius's chest. His boyfriend held him, running a hand slowly along his back.
"Hey, Darius... What does it feel like to be an Abomination?"
A small laugh escaped the dark-skinned witch "Well, it's... Like being wrapped in wind. Everyone thinks it just feels viscous, but it doesn't. It feels like every barrier you thought existed shattering..."
Darius had offered Alador some time ago to teach him how to transform into Abomination, something Alador had refused. That was a skill Darius had spent years achieving, no one else should be able to do it.
Once Darius fell asleep, Alador slipped quietly out of bed, went down the stairs, and turned on the lights in his small workshop, which felt smaller by the day with everything piling up.
He needed to finish adjusting a pair of boots.
The next day, after trying to hide his dark circles from Darius, he got ready for another grueling session with Colmet.
To try to help him with his control of the substance, the field was packed with abomination and obstacles built from the same matter.
"Very well, Asher, let's run it again. You have all these obstacles and abomination to use to your advantage. Remember, shape the field" Colmet announced from the edge of the field, settled on his usual sofa with a cup of tea.
Alador checked his boots for the fifth time. The mechanism had been easy to conceal, he only hoped Colmet wouldn't be too put out with him for it.
Once again the field was full of abomination. The day before, when he tried to use it to walk across it, he either sank or got stuck. It was easy to let the abomination surround you and carry you along, but that wasn't going to work against Colmet's golem, since the golem absorbed it. He had a plan that involved climbing up the golem itself.
The golem emerged from the abomination matter spread across the field, enormous as ever. It launched itself at him, ready to crush him underfoot. Alador used the opening to jump onto its leg. He ran up its body, using the grip his boots gave him over the abomination substance. He began to climb, conjuring an abomination whip that latched onto the creature's neck. The golem tried to crush him with one of its hands, Alador swung from side to side, using the giant as a pendulum.
"Ohh" Colmet murmured. He couldn't understand how Alador was shaping the composition of his golem in a way that let his boots grip it like that. When two abomination witches faced each other, they couldn't always control the other's enchanted abomination, it would come down to the power of each user to determine whose magic was dominant. In time, the abomination would be absorbed by the stronger of the two. Alador couldn't have learned to manipulate Colmet's abomination overnight.
Once at the top, Alador summoned an abomination fist, striking the golem's head and destroying it in the process. When the golem lost its head it began flailing its arms, confused by what was happening. Colmet undid his spell, leaving Alador on the ground of the field, gasping. He had to lift part of his mask to catch his breath.
"How did you do that?"
Alador turned to look at him.
"You couldn't have learned to control my abomination overnight, Asher"
Alador still said nothing. He stood up, stepping easily out of the pool of abomination surrounding him.
"I made an adjustment to my boots. I made them repel abomination up to a point. I can walk across it easily without sinking, but it still adheres"
He braced for a scolding from his mentor, or perhaps a punishment for using methods Colmet had dismissed. Instead, the old man's eyes lit up.
"I would have given anything to have that when I was young"
Alador shifted uncomfortably, trying to make himself smaller.
"Well, maybe your machines are good for something after all. I liked the use of the abomination whip, work on perfecting it. Every good mage has something up their sleeve that defines them" He took a long sip of his tea "Right then. Time to practice handling natural abomination"
Something stirred inside Alador at receiving that recognition from his mentor. Knowing he had done well, that he hadn't failed, and that Colmet had even said his inventions were useful, it sparked something in him. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for what came next.
And so the days passed, then the weeks, and eventually the months.
Alador, unlike Darius, was going through a brutal training regimen, intense physically, mentally, and thoroughly filthy.
Darius meditated every day in the palace towers, perfecting his new fighting technique with his abomination form as though it were a kind of dance.
When they weren't training or carrying out coven missions, they only had time for each other in the evenings or the mornings, rarely managing to cross paths in the palace itself. Not that it was a problem. Anyone else might have thought that seeing so little of your partner could sour things, but when you were the other half of each other, even when you stopped spinning in step, you still fit together.
At night, when they returned, they talked about their respective days, complained about their missions, or simply had lazy sex. Whatever the activity, they found belonging in it, a warm home to come back to.
"Colmet isn't so bad. He's strange, but we're all strange in our own way" Over the past few months Alador had come to appreciate Colmet more than he ever said out loud. Watching the old man, sharing afternoon tea with him, or listening to him talk about his painting techniques was pleasant. He told Alador about his exploits in his youth, his old romances, and offered the occasional piece of advice. It almost felt paternal.
"You say that as if he didn't try to get everyone drunk at Iris's birthday"
"Mistletoe tea is very strong"
Darius lay back at his side without another word.
"Are you worried?" asked Alador, turning on his pillow to look at him.
"I suppose a little... Things are moving very fast. Out of nowhere we're in the final selection phase and... Everything feels strange"
"I thought you were overflowing with confidence. You have no real competition and you've been sharpening your methods. What's going on?"
"I'm not even sure. I suppose this is just what it feels like when you're about to see a dream come true. It's like... When you can't quite believe everything is actually going as well as it seems"
"Well, you deserve it, you know? Recognition for what you've put in"
"I know you'll have your own recognition soon enough too. You've been working just as hard, you know Virel said the emperor was interested in your Abomination Ferry blueprints"
"Don't worry about me, Darius. I'm fine the way I am. I have an incredible job, I get to invent what I want, I have a perfect partner, and no one yelling at me to stand up straight" Alador curled into Darius, wrapping both arms around his torso.
Darius buried his fingers in Alador's hair, he really needed to convince him to cut it, at least a little.
The boiling rain lashed against the palace windows, forcing everyone caught under the open sky to take cover. Nobody wanted to be dissolved by acid rain.
Alador's mission was cancelled, he had been supposed to help with a supply shipment. With the boiling rain coming down, he was confined to the palace. With no excuse to do anything else, he chose to visit Colmet.
He knocked at the door and Colmet shouted from inside. Even when he tried to be careful, he always ended up startling the old man.
Without waiting for an answer, he walked in, he had fixed the door long ago.
Colmet glared at him. One of his abominations picked up the handful of brushes that had slipped from his hands, and another had set the water to boil for tea.
"I wasn't expecting you. You're interrupting my session with this four eyed fellow" Colmet said by way of greeting, turning his attention back to the ceramic plate he was painting, where a four-eyed demon sat half finished. It was unusual to see him painting anything other than cups, something newly added to his repertoire. He said he wanted to complete a full dinnerware set.
"My mission was cancelled. It's raining"
"Is it?" Colmet murmured, uninterested in the recent development.
Alador sat down across from his desk all the same. One of the abomination servants placed a cup in front of him, another poured the tea, just the way he liked it.
Alador looked at the ceramic plate, painted with delicate strokes, gentle touches of the brush. It was a ridiculous sight knowing it was Colmet who had painted it, as though the day before he hadn't spent the entire time firing abomination at him.
"This demon species has a crooked nose. How silly. It's never easy to paint it" he remarked suddenly.
"I've never seen a demon like that before"
"They went extinct many years ago. Probably because of their silly noses" Colmet scoffed, loading up his tiny brush with paint "Do you have family, Asher?"
Alador's heart lurched, not in a good way. He hadn't expected that abrupt change of subject. He didn't particularly like it either.
"No. It's just Darius and me"
"What a silly nose..." he muttered to himself "I don't talk to my family either" Alador's stomach twisted into a knot that kept pulling tighter "They only hold you back and complain about you"
Alador drank his tea and let the man talk. It wasn't that he wanted to discuss the subject, nor was it common to hear Colmet say anything about his past beyond his accomplishments.
"Though I did have a sister. She died a long time ago... After she was gone, I never spoke to anyone in my family again"
Alador wasn't sure whether he was allowed to ask. He tended to keep things to himself, his doubts, his questions, so as not to bother anyone. He found it hard to tell which subjects were sensitive for others and which weren't. Some witches could talk your ear off about a painful breakup; others wouldn't let you so much as mention their ex's name in their presence. People were strange.
"I know you're wondering why. The answer is simple, I was a difficult witch, and they were boring witches, where being normal was a requirement for a seat at their stupid dinner table" He frowned, picked up a silk cloth, and rubbed it against the ceramic plate, wiping away some of the still fresh paint and leaving a blank space where the creature's nose had been "It's not easy to love me, ask anyone in this palace... This nose is awful"
"It looks fine"
"You're lying" the old man scolded "You're a terrible liar for someone who has spent months hiding more than half of their life"
The tea cup hung suspended in the air. In that moment he lost all taste for the steaming liquid.
"I can tell, from the way you bow your head when you make a mistake, that your family wasn't very kind to you"
Perhaps it was the comfort of the moment, the tea cup loosening his tongue, or the rain falling outside, whatever the reason, he answered "My parents had a very rigid idea of who I was supposed to be. I never fit, not even a little"
"And your belief that you didn't fit taught you to try to make yourself smaller every time someone walks into a room?"
"I learned that if I couldn't be what they wanted, at least I could stay out of the way"
"Your talent is obscured by the shadow of people who are no longer here... How absurd, Asher" at last the demon's nose was painted onto the plate, far too crooked to look natural "This nose is going to be crooked forever. There's nothing left to do but accept it" he declared with a long, dramatic sigh "How old are you?"
"I'll be turning twenty-one this year"
"A child, then. A child raised in a bed of thorns who threw himself into the boiling sea" Alador trembled, the pounding of his heart against his ribs echoing in his ears. It might have been a coincidence, or did Colmet know more than he thought? "I'll tell you something I wish I had known at your age, but that only seventy years of life can teach you. You are doing the world no favors by trying to make yourself small. You owe nothing to anyone. You're not humble or selfless for stepping out of other people's way. No one made room for you among them, so why would you give up yours?"
There was a knot in his throat, suffocating, cathartic, bitter, painful. There was noise, so much noise, in his head, in his bones.
"Ah..." Colmet sighed "I think I'll go back to painting cups. Plates aren't my thing. How is your invention coming along, Asher?"
"I think I'm close to getting the electrification function to work"
"I'm very eager to see it"
"I never thought I'd be making a weapon..." When Colmet told him to perfect his Abomination whip, a spark of inspiration had led him to draw up blueprints for an Abomination whip fused with his technology, a whip with far more functions than a conventional one. He liked to fight with his fists and brute strength. Colmet said that was fine, but that it wasn't particularly remarkable.
When he realized what he was doing, panic flooded through him. He could feel his father watching him from behind, sneering.
He left the project untouched for a month.
One day, curious about the things Alador talked about during their afternoon breaks, Colmet asked to see some of his sketches, so Alador threw a pile of papers and notebooks into his bag. Colmet's eyes lit up when he came across the whip prototype. He said it was brilliant, very bold, and that it would command a great deal of respect.
Alador felt uneasy about making a weapon, something Colmet noticed. He didn't say much, just a brief remark about feeling unsettled by it.
"It's alright if you don't want to make a weapon. But do things for yourself, not out of fear or anyone else's beliefs"
Colmet always said you had to grab life by the horns, with both hands, and spit back at it no matter what it did to you. Only then could you prove that no one leads your life but yourself.
Afternoons like those, when Colmet made him laugh or said things like that, held a special place in his memory. For a few moments, he let his guard down. He talked a little about his life before the palace, about his relationship with Darius, about his passion for science. Colmet smiled watching him speak so animatedly about the things he loved.
One ordinary day, after finishing training, Colmet didn't return to his palace chambers as he usually did. He had a pending meeting with the coven leaders.
Several mentors gathered in the grand throne room, where a large table had been set before the emperor. Spread across it were names, photographs, projects, and the records of each witch under consideration.
They weren't looking to fill an entirely new generation of coven leaders, as several still had a great deal left to give. Only five candidates were being sought, for the Illusion coven, the Emperor's coven, the Beast coven, the Construction coven, and of course, Abomination.
The room was alive with arguments and debate. Choosing a new coven leader was always tedious, too much work, too many evaluations, too many trials.
"Adrian has shown far superior control compared to Grecia, please" complained the mentor of the witch in question.
"Yes, but with that dreadful temperament he won't get anywhere" argued Grecia's tutor.
Colmet made his way through the witches gathered around the table with a handful of papers in hand. Terra was the first to ask with great curiosity what he had brought.
Terra was one of his closest friends in the coven, she somehow always managed to find every herb he needed for his teas.
"Oh, well, it's a surprise I've been working on. I know it's somewhat late to introduce it at this stage of the selection process. Even so, and given that there aren't many candidates to speak of, I'd like to present my apprentice" he set down his papers, photographs of Alador, several of his blueprints, and his coven record.
Virel, who until that moment had been standing beside the emperor showing him some document, snapped his gaze up the instant he heard Colmet speak. As though he couldn't quite believe what he had just heard.
"Your apprentice? Since when do you have an apprentice?" Terra laughed, looking through Colmet's materials.
"For six months, my dear Terra"
"I thought the Deamonne boy had already secured the position" said Osran, leader of the Oracle coven, stepping closer.
"Yes, I thought the same, actually" Virel said abruptly, cutting through the witches gathered around the table, who fell quiet and stepped aside to let him through.
Colmet smiled at him, with a hint of innocence and a touch of smugness.
Virel picked up one of Alador's blueprints. He had no idea any of this had been happening.
"What is your intention behind all of this, Colmet? We're in the final stages of selection, and you come here offering a candidate who hasn't even spent five years in your main coven? This is not a game!"
"I would never play games with something like this, Golden Guard"
Virel was about to reply when a chill ran the full length of his spine, leaving him speechless. He stepped aside, allowing Belos to approach the table.
"What is going on here, Colmet?" Belos asked, looking over what the coven leader had brought.
"My emperor" Colmet greeted him with a subtle bow "I know my proposal is bold, brazen, even. With everything at stake, I want to present my apprentice. Asher, whom you may have already heard of. For those who haven't" he raised his voice, making sure everyone could hear him clearly, "this is a talented witch who has managed to fuse abomination magic with science. Few mages achieve such advances, this would be of enormous use to you, my lord. To the coven, to yourself" Colmet's words were full of pride, the likes of which no one had ever heard from him before "He has been training to take his control beyond what science alone can offer. I can assure you he is easily a match for his competition" He glanced subtly at Virel.
Belos picked up several of Alador's blueprints, where sigils and ancient spells intertwined with machinery, not so different from his own inventions.
"Most interesting, Colmet"
The coven leader smiled at him, releasing a breath he had been holding.
"What leads you to want this witch as a coven leader?"
"Why wouldn't I? He is a capable witch, and my apprentice at that. I took him under my wing when I found him without direction" that was partly true "I have only been drawing out what he had already planted in himself"
"Very well, then we'll consider it. Tell your apprentice he has some competition, Virel" Belos concluded, returning to his throne.
The Golden Guard stared at Colmet. The witch only smiled, arrogant as ever.
When the meeting ended, Virel intercepted Colmet in the hallway once no other witch was around.
"What is your intention behind all of this?" Virel asked, addressing the coven leader's back.
Colmet stopped walking and turned to face the Golden Guard without a flicker of doubt "There are no malicious reasons behind it, if that's what you think. Well, not anymore. That's in the past. I simply want my work to be recognized"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Only a friendly competition. Without motivation you'll never get the best out of your protégé, Golden Guard"
Virel didn't answer. Instead, he raised his staff, ready to point it at Colmet as a warning.
He took one step toward the old man, and Colmet vanished using his abomination magic. Virel was left alone in the corridor, unsettled and full of questions.
The following day.
Darius and Alador were both out on individual missions outside the palace, and Virel had no chance to speak with either of them.
It wasn't until midday that he ran into Darius, who had just returned from his mission. Alador still hadn't come back to the palace.
"I need to get a new cape, by my Titan" he complained, looking at the scorched edges of it.
"Darius, there's something I need to tell you. I need your discretion and I need you to look into this"
His disciple turned to look at him, with a mix of concern and curiosity.
"Not here, come with me" Virel said, pulling Darius away from the main corridor.
He led him to a separate room, behind a closed door, where he told him what had happened the night before.
"He came out of nowhere, wanting to put Alador forward as a coven leader candidate"
The disbelief on Darius's face was plain to read. He shook his head, unable to believe what his mentor was telling him. Something like this, Alador would have told him. They didn't keep things from each other. They always told each other everything.
"Alador couldn't have known about this. H-he must have done it without his knowledge or consent" Darius said.
"Of course I considered that. That's why I'm telling you, I need you to look into it with him. I don't think he's going to like the idea of his mentor throwing him into the fire like this without his knowing"
Darius nodded. They both left the room after that, agreeing to discuss the matter further once they had more information.
Alador reached the palace as the sun was setting on the horizon. He finished some paperwork about the mission and then headed home.
He was desperately hoping for a day off soon. According to reports, wild witches had been causing disruptions all across the island over the past few months, summoning beasts, casting curses, all in an effort to spread chaos across the isles. Or so the reports claimed.
Alador had never had the chance to encounter a wild witch himself, he only ever dealt with the aftermath. On one occasion, talking with Darius, he had mentioned the time Virel let a group of wild witches escape, something he had never seen him do before.
He was the Golden Guard, one of the finest mages in the empire. He never would have let a group of wild witches go free. But Darius hadn't intervened or questioned his decision either, because he hadn't wanted to capture them either.
There was something about the capture of wild and rebel witches that made Alador's stomach turn, the cruel treatment, the justifications used to apprehend them, their petty supposed crimes.
They couldn't help but question whether what they were doing was truly right.
Sometimes Alador thought about his friend Eda. Now known as one of the most powerful witches in the Boiling Isles, and a criminal for choosing wild magic.
In the palace they said wild witches were beasts, cruel bearers of magic who dishonored the Titan. Alador knew that Eda had been none of those things when they were children. And he didn't believe she was now, wherever she might be.
She had always been chaotic, but kind. She loved taking care of the people she cared about, like the time Alador was about to end up in detention for the fifth time that week. Principal Fausto had told him that one more punishment that month and they would be calling his parents.
He had lost track of time looking at a display in the plants class and was running late. The hallways were already empty.
Just as Fausto was making his morning rounds and was about to find Alador, Eda suddenly pulled him along with her, leading him through a hidden passage in the school all the way to his classroom.
Something he had been grateful for for a long time.
After getting home, he found Darius sitting at their small dining table, with Ratador sleeping peacefully in his lap.
"Hey. You have no idea what Fosna did today. Kikimora was in charge of the mission and almost buried her" He laughed, setting his mask down on the table.
A bag of enchanted crisps was already waiting for him in the pantry.
Darius didn't answer, trying to figure out how to bring up the subject.
"Is something wrong, or why are you so quiet, dearest?"
Ratador stirred in Darius's lap, seeming to sense the tension in the air. He jumped down, leaving them alone.
"So, uh... Virel told me something interesting today"
Alador looked at him with a slight frown, trying to work out where this was going.
"Al... Did you know that Colmet wanted to put you forward as a coven leader candidate?"
...
He had asked one thing of her. One single condition. One request.
"Mother... Could you stop putting Ratador outside? It was raining last night, he almost couldn't find shelter. He could have-" The slap across his face silenced him, leaving the echo of the blow as the only sound in the room.
"Don't ever tell me what to do. I don't want your disgusting rat in my house. I don't know why I didn't make you throw it in the trash. Titan, why couldn't you have chosen something normal?"
He never asked for anything, never set conditions.
He accepted everything without stopping to question whether it was what he wanted.
That was when he was at home. But it seemed that even away from it, he had no right to ask for anything.
The past months had been nothing but lies.
Every afternoon he had shared with Colmet, every achievement and every word.
None of it had been to make him into a great witch. It had all been to feed his ego. Leave a legacy? Of course not, he wanted things to keep going his way even after he was dead.
He knew he shouldn't have trusted anyone, and he had opened up to the old man anyway, who had only used him for his own ends. Just like Edric, just like Emira. He was nothing more than a tool. Was he ever anything more than that?
He had even caught himself wishing his father had been more like Colmet.
A tree fell. The sound split through the air, sending birds scattering in every direction.
"Al" Darius called again. Traces of abomination covered the fallen tree.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." only a thread of a voice came out, tense, choked, carrying a silent rage he was forcing himself to contain.
He felt as though he had been caught committing a crime.
It was absurd. He knew it. There was nothing to confess, nothing to justify, and yet the apology was already out before he could stop it. A reflex carved in by years of being sorry for existing. An instinctive apology. That was the first thing he had ever learned, don't get in the way, don't disappoint. What good were Colmet's words now, if they carried no weight?
His only purpose was to stay out of the way of Darius's growing career. Touching it, interfering with it, felt like a desecration. How could he have done that after watching him dream of it for years?
"Alador, stop! I just want you to explain what happened!" Darius took hold of him, pulling him out of his deafening thoughts.
"He promised he wouldn't do it. It was... The one thing I asked of him. I suppose it wasn't as important to him as it felt to me"
"Come on, I need you to tell me what's going on"
Darius led him back inside to the living room, pressing Alador down onto the sofa.
"He didn't want you as coven leader." Alador started with that, and Darius felt his chest tighten "He wanted an apprentice who could rival you, not many people were willing or interested. When he proposed it to me, I said no. He insisted... He said, he said his real intentions were to leave a legacy, that he wanted to pass everything he knew on to someone. And I thought, why not? I just wanted to feel like I deserved you. Even inside the palace you shine wherever you go, and I'm just here, with nothing. Anyway, he promised me he would drop it. He told me he wouldn't put me forward. He lied, and he used me"
The dark skinned witch didn't answer right away. Alador was afraid to look up, uncertain of what he might find if he did. Anger? Blame? Disappointment? Whatever it was, he wasn't ready to face it from Darius.
"Alador, why didn't you tell me any of this? Why did you hide things from me again? Why did I have to find out about all of it through Virel, again?" The weight of reproach in that last question shook the brown-haired witch to the core.
"I thought I had resolved it. I didn't see the reason to plant a dispute or create tension"
"Resolved?!" Darius was raising his voice. "How could you not tell me that Colmet doesn't want me as coven leader?! He could have been pulling strings to make sure I never got there! ...and in fact, he did"
Alador wanted to make excuses for him, wanted to say that Colmet had nothing against him directly, but was that even true? What guarantee did he have that the old man hadn't been lying to him all along?
Darius ran a hand over his face. He was exhausted. Exhausted of the same thing, the same pattern, the same problem.
"For months... Months you've been training with him... And it never once occurred to you to say something" The dark skinned witch murmured, pacing back and forth in the living room in front of Alador.
"I thought-"
"What? What did you think, Alador? You turned down the offer, you knew his intentions. You disagreed with all of them, there was nothing to be ashamed of. So there was nothing to hide from me" And yet you did. He had hidden information that could harm his career, his dreams, years of work. Colmet might have been planning something far bigger, and he would have simply gone along with it. Perhaps they had both already fallen into it.
Alador didn't answer. He bowed his head like a child.
"I'm not asking you to tell me everything, just the things you know matter to me. The things that matter to you" He paused, a pause that felt like hours to Alador "Why do you keep not trusting me?"
"You know that's not true" he answered immediately, stung by his boyfriend's words.
"No, Alador. I don't know that. I assume it"
A dim silence settled through the room. Ratador appeared in the kitchen doorway, looking at both witches. The tension, the silence, the look on both their faces, it was something he had never seen before. He went on his way.
"The position is yours. It has been for months, it was yours before I even joined the coven. I'll speak to Colmet. I'll have him withdraw me" Alador said without hesitation, as though he had been turning the words over and over in his head.
"That's not the point, by my Titan. It's not what I asked you"
"I'm sorry. I didn't know how to tell you. I wanted to..." Before he could finish the sentence, doubt took root. What had he actually wanted from being Colmet's apprentice? Just to become a great witch? He could have asked Virel for training. He could have asked Darius.
"Whatever it was you wanted, it doesn't matter anymore. The emperor told Virel he's looking forward to seeing you compete for the coven leader position"
"What?... No, no, I- I didn't even want to..." He was beginning to hyperventilate.
"I'm tired" Darius said quietly, putting a distance between them that had never existed before. The words came out like a statement of fact, or perhaps the reproach of something more.
Alador got to his feet intending to follow him. Darius moved quickly toward the door, leaving Alador with one hand outstretched in his direction.
He didn't have the courage to go after him.
Darius had drawn his line. There was nothing he could do now.
He sank back onto the sofa, his body numb.
Darius closed the door without meaning to slam it, no matter how much frustration he felt. He asked himself, over and over, what it was he was doing wrong. There wasn't much left for them, one of the few things they still had was each other.
Alador slept in his workshop.
Both of them sat in the chairs across from Virel's desk, side by side, not looking at each other. Alador kept his shoulders hunched forward, Darius had his legs and arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the window behind Virel.
"So, Alador" Virel began, uncertain of every word he was about to say. He hadn't asked anything when they arrived, the air around them was palpably sour.
"You don't want to compete to be coven leader?" Alador shook his head "Very well. It's a little difficult to withdraw you now that Colmet put you on the table and Belos liked the idea... But we can remove you from the upcoming evaluations. I'll speak to Colmet and put an end to-"
"I'll speak to him" said Alador.
"You speak to him, Virel" Darius added "We can't rely on his honesty" he said through his teeth, looking in the opposite direction from Alador.
The brown haired witch pressed his fists into his lap, stung.
Virel's crimson eyes moved back and forth between them, disbelieving. Never once, in all the years he had known Darius, or in the time he had spent with both of them, had he heard or seen anything like this. They were playing with fire.
"Given what I'm seeing, we'll both speak to him" the blonde witch said firmly.
"What?" they answered in unison.
"He should be in his office right now. Let's not waste time" he stepped out from behind his desk, with the pair falling into step behind him.
If Darius had anything to say, he kept it to himself. He walked out, his cape billowing behind him.
Virel placed a hand on Alador's shoulder. He had been staring in the direction Darius had gone.
"I'd like to know what's going on between the two of you. It's not entirely my place..." he said to himself "But let's sort this out first. Come on"
Alador followed behind him, with nothing to say.
The closer they came to his coven's wing, where purple drapes adorned the walls, the more his anger returned, he felt it in every bone.
He could shout at Colmet as much as he wanted afterward.
When they reached the hallway leading to the coven leader's office, Virel stopped.
"Go ahead. I'll wait here"
"You... You said we'd both speak to him"
"I did, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Go alone"
Alador didn't argue. He walked on down the long hallway. He didn't bother to knock, he just took a deep breath.
The mask felt suffocating, no matter how well ventilated it had been designed to be.
He took the handle and pushed the door open with more force than necessary, the sound ringing off the walls of the dim room.
Colmet was not painting that morning.
He appeared absorbed in the view from the window behind his desk, as dark and dreary as it was. The landscape around the palace was always the same.
An endless grey storm.
"It's a cold day today. Strange for this time of year," he said by way of greeting.
Alador didn't answer. He walked until he was standing directly in front of the desk.
"Sit down" Colmet said.
"I'd rather stand"
"Suit yourself, but your legs will get tired" the old man laughed, settling back into his seat behind the wooden desk.
Alador remained standing, in the middle of the familiar chaos not so different from his own, in the middle of the room he knew like his own boot. He had been told the story behind every photograph, the origin of every stain on the carpet, why the wallpaper had been chosen. He found himself wondering how much of what Colmet had told him was true.
"I had one condition for agreeing to be your apprentice. One single thing I asked of you"
"Yes, that's right" Colmet answered, crossing his legs calmly.
"You gave me your word" Alador pressed.
"I am aware of that" the old man's words left him cold. How could he be so brazen?
"You used me" The words dragged out of his mouth, barely recognizable "You manipulated me into believing your intentions were genuine... You made me empathize with you. I believed in you! Every word you said, every piece of advice, I followed it all. And it was all a lie?!"
Colmet, with the composure of a bird waking in the morning ready to sing, placed his elbows on the desk and laced his fingers together, letting his face rest between both hands "I deny all accusations"
Alador stepped back. He was losing control. He could feel the heat of his face behind his mask, no matter how well it was designed to regulate his temperature.
He moved toward the desk and struck the surface with both fists. A cup sitting on the edge toppled to the floor "Why?! Why did you do it?!"
"You broke my cup, Asher..."
"Stop ignoring me! I asked one thing of you! You made me believe in you!..." He stepped back. "You made me believe you cared"
"I do care about you, child"
"Your actions say otherwise! As far as I can tell, all you ever wanted from me was to keep Darius from becoming coven leader out of your own stupid pride. If that's not the case, then explain it to me! Tell me, for once, the truth!"
The abominations in the room burst. Every golem resting patiently in the corners, waiting for a command, exploded, collapsing into purple puddles that stained the carpet and the furniture even further. His own eyes blazed violet.
Colmet glanced sideways at the new mess. He didn't flinch. He barely blinked.
"You want the truth?" he asked, making no effort to hide his amusement "You're an idiot."
Alador's tense shoulders dropped.
"You're an idiot in every sense of the word. Now sit down"
"I'm not going to-"
Colmet summoned a new abomination from the remains of the old golems and forced Alador down into the chair in front of his desk.
"Do you know how many apprentices I've had in my life?"
Alador didn't answer.
"I asked you a question"
"None" he answered reluctantly.
"Correct. And do you know why? Because they all lacked talent, lacked nerve, none of them believed in themselves. If you hadn't impressed me, I would have turned you away a month into your training, you know"
"Get to the point"
Colmet pressed his lips together, looking at him steadily.
"I know it isn't easy to break the ideas about ourselves that someone else forced into our heads... I've watched too many witches waste their lives believing they only deserve to stand two steps behind everyone else. I see how afraid they are to want the same things, because they don't believe they're good enough, because they've already decided they'll fail. And you..." something in the weight of those words lodged itself in the brown-haired witch's mind "Do it with an obsession that irritates me more than most"
"I don't-"
"You are more talented than I was at your age..." He cut him off again, glancing sideways at the shelf where photographs from his youth lined the wall "You are just as talented as Darius, just as strong and capable as every other competitor" He rose from his seat, nearly knocking the chair over behind him "I don't care whether you become coven leader or not, Titan! You wanted to be recognized as a great witch? There it is! Lose, fight, show everyone what you can or can't do! I don't care! I gave you what you wanted! I gave you the tools, what you do with them is no longer my concern. But I am not going to apologize for giving them to you"
"You don't know what I want!" Alador shot to his feet with the same forcefulness as his mentor.
"You think I don't notice? Do you think I'm a fool?! I've watched the way you look at the podium! You convince yourself you don't miss it, that you don't want to share in the same triumph and recognition. Maybe I don't know what you want, but neither do you. You've convinced yourself that you're fine with your dull, flavorless life. Tell me are you, Asher?"
Alador said nothing.
"I didn't think so. Do whatever you like, leave, never speak to me again. But if you ever figure out what you want to do with your life, you'll find me here" Colmet dropped back into his chair. The abomination that had forced Alador to sit reached out without ceremony and pushed him out of the room.
The door closed behind him with a force that rattled the paintings lining the hallway. He stood still, unable to remember how to breathe.
He tore the mask from his face, he couldn't breathe properly. Everything was spinning. He didn't want these feelings in his eyes, the sting, the trembling. The inevitable tide.
"Al" Virel took him by the shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts.
How long had he been standing there? Had he heard everything?
"Come on" Virel took the mask from his trembling hands and placed it back on his face. He pulled Alador along, he was stumbling over his own feet, and out of the wing.
Virel left Alador in his own palace quarters. Then he returned to his office, where Darius was already waiting.
When Alador had gone to speak with Colmet, he had wanted to give him the sense of independence. Of course he didn't believe he had bad intentions, someone like him couldn't. The one he didn't trust was Colmet. He had stayed close enough to hear the entire conversation, telling himself this was a disaster. Again, it was always a disaster with Alador and Darius.
"Well?" Darius asked, sitting in the same position as before.
Virel tossed his own mask aside. He ran his hands through his blonde hair, avoiding his apprentice's gaze.
"You still haven't told me what happened between the two of you yesterday"
"There are more important things to deal with" He didn't want to talk about it, Virel gathered.
After a sigh he said "Do you think removing Alador from the competition is the best option?"
"Is there another?" Darius almost took it as a joke.
"I don't know. Maybe he could take the race seriously. You two used to love competing when you were children"
"What are you saying? What happened?"
"Have you ever asked yourself what Alador wants to do with his life? What his reason was for joining the coven?"
"He... It was his childhood dream. We wanted to join together, Edric wouldn't allow it. Explain it to me, Virel. I'm tired of people hiding things from me"
"What is Alador's dream now, Darius?"
He was about to answer that it was living among his machines, but even he hesitated when he heard how hollow that sounded.
"I think Alador deserves the same chance you have to prove his worth as a witch"
He didn't know what to say to that.
"I'd like to tell you what happened, but it has to be Alador who explains it to you. Whatever is going on between the two of you, fix it" If he did everything for them, nothing would ever change.
"But- "
"I've said what I have to say. Now go find him. He should be in my quarters... I think"