"So what do we do now?" Lexie asked Naem, tension leaking through her pores. Now that he'd explained it like that to her, she was dreading the possibility of starting her own soul line and being stuck as an Eldritch forever. "How do we stop it from happening?"

"I do not know," Naem said. "That's the problem."

Those were the most terrifying words he'd ever said to her.

"There has to be something we can do," Lexie said. "We can tell my dad. He said he was working on something that would help me, and he was on the verge of a breakthrough."

Naem shook his head. "Telling your father might lead him to make some hasty decisions that would jeopardize his life."

"What do you mean?" Lexie asked, and though Naem met her eyes, he was reluctant to tell her.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it."

"I gave you cookies."

"That is not enough compensation to reveal this secret."

"Hold on." Lexie held up her hand, putting the pieces together. "Does whatever plan my dad is concocting…does it involve him risking his life?"

Naem stayed silent for a beat, then repeated. "I'm not at liberty to discuss it."

"Oh my God!" Lexie exclaimed, taking a step back as wrath assailed her. "Are you serious? He was going to kill himself for me, and none of you were going to tell me? How do you even consider that a viable option? What, did you think I was just going to allow it to happen? That I wouldn't feel like shit after I find out why he died."

Naem watched her rant for a few seconds, his dark orbs moving through the air like he was trying to figure out how to misdirect his way out of this one. He clearly couldn't, so he gave a resigned sigh. "I think the plan was for you not to find out."

That only made Lexie more furious. Her head threatened to blow off, and she glared at Naem.

"For the record," he said. "It wasn't my plan."

He had a point.

She couldn't exactly yell at him if it wasn't his idea, although he had colluded with Aiden to keep it from her. He didn't have a choice, for sure, but still.

Regardless, she wasn't going to take it out on him.

Her father would definitely be hearing from her when they finally met up, though.

She blew out a breath. "You two are unbelievable."

"I take that to mean you're not amenable to his plan."

"Of course I'm not." But that brought her back to square one, which was no plan. "There's no other way?"

Naem rubbed his chin. "There is a way, but it's one that we very much don't want to have to take. It might result in mutually assured destruction."

"And what way is that?"

"It involves a visit to my brother Neqal. We tell him everything and ask for his help."

Lexie's eyes bugged out. "Hang on, haven't you been trying to keep my existence from Neqal this whole time?"

He nodded. "Yes. I thought it was better that you not meet him, so he would not take an interest in you. But in this situation, you are more similar to him than you are to me. He might be able to better navigate this transition of yours, and as an Eldritch Hybrid Lord, he might better explain to us the signs to watch out for."

"It feels like he would be trying to make me into a better Eldritch rather than turn me human."

"Perhaps. The problem is also that he might try to incorporate you into his soul line instead."

"He can do that?"

"Not easily, but maybe."

Lexie blew out her breath. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. "Okay, maybe we're jumping the gun a little bit here. I mean, you said that it might be a fluke."

"Yes. I might simply be misunderstanding your skill as something more powerful than it was. Everything happened so fast that it was hard to tell, but perhaps when I dissect it into its barest measures, I'll find that your skill isn't all that unusual after all."

"Okay, then, can we try to figure that out first? Because it would be a real shame if we go through all that trouble and meet your brother only to find in the end that it was nothing to worry about after all?"

Naem blinked slowly, the darkness at his feet moving, reaching out. "Do you recall exactly what happened when you touched the soul of the creature and created that card?"

Lexie thought about it and shook her head. Much of it was still a haze. "I just remember I wanted to help her. To take her pain away and to stabilize her. I combined three intents I already had to do it."

"Those thoughts were not Eldritch in nature. They're human."

"So maybe it was just a fluke like you said."

"Maybe." Although he didn't sound so sure. "For now, we can continue with the training. The more we do, the more we can figure out if you're deviating from my soul line or not. If we are, then we may have to visit Neqal."

Lexie nodded. She was certainly apprehensive of meeting Naem's brother, her Uncle, technically, but given how many downright menacing creatures she'd dealt with for the past few weeks, she wasn't as worried.

"Alright. Are we going to do that now?" she asked.

"No, not now," Naem said. "I think you might be having company soon."

"How can you tell? Is that one of your mysterious powers?"

"It's not a mystery. While your soul is in the dream world, I can monitor the conditions of your body. I can use your sense of hearing to note that someone has walked into your room."

"Huh. So like a possession."

"No. A possession is a different thing. We'll meet tonight."

Lexie didn't get the chance to figure out exactly what made possession so different before she was shepherded back into the land of the living.

She groaned as her eyes opened and an unfamiliar voice at the end of her bed said, "Oops. I didn't mean to wake you. I was just checking that you were comfortable."

Lexie slowly opened her eyes to see a stout, shorter man in a red and blue suit at the end of the bed.

"Hello," he said, giving her a formal bow. "My name is Pollock. I am the butler here on the estate. Again, forgive me for awakening you."

"It's no problem." Lexie sat up in bed and yawned. "I was about to wake up anyway."

"I regret not being here to welcome you adequately," he said. "I was attending to a fairly serious problem with the squashes in the garden."

"The squashes?"

"Yes. They were not growing in the right orientation, but no worries, we have rectified that." He cocked his head. "Would you like to see them? Madam Stella told us you were quite fond of gardening as a child."

"Oh no, that's alright." Though Lexie might be regaining some of her memories, her hobbies and personality traits, like being a green thumb, hadn't quite made it back. Which was a shame because it would have made herbology a lot more enjoyable for her. "Maybe another time."

Lexie wanted to spend the free time she had now working on completing her defense deck, especially the void card. That would be super useful, but the pathway still stumped her to the point where she almost wished she'd befriended Shadowsbane just so she could figure it out.

Currently, she was trying to extract what she thought was the void effect from the other soul card she'd made, but it wasn't as clear-cut as she'd hoped, as the pathways for the three intents were tangled in with each other.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Of course," Pollock said. "We're hosting a dinner in your honor this evening. The whole family is going to be there and we'll be having a meal filled with all your favorites."

"Oh. Nice." Her father must have given them a list.

Speaking of her father, she noticed a system alert that indicated that she might have gotten a message from him, but it would be rude to open it while the butler was still talking.

"Oh, and just to inform you, Master Theo has returned. He's downstairs playing with the twins, Miss Tamsin and Master Thor."

Lexie guessed those were his little siblings. "Okay. I'll go say hi."

The butler nodded his approval, like she'd made a wise choice.

When Lexie stood from the bed, she blinked twice and noticed that the butler had large feet, like comically large, so much so that his shoes resembled clown shoes.

Perplexed, she stared at them for a while, wondering if she was hallucinating until Pollock cleared his throat.

When she looked back up, the tips of his ears were pink, and he avoided her eyes.

"Well, we can get going." He turned and walked quickly away from her, and Lexie finally realized that she'd probably just embarrassed him with her intense staring.

Damn. She didn't mean to.

She wanted to apologize, but she didn't know how to do it, without making it worse by drawing more attention to how big his feet were, so she decided to keep it to herself and make a point to just never look at them again.

As she followed behind him, she also noticed a few more things that suggested he wasn't strictly human. There was some dramatic wrinkling of his skin where his collar pressed against his neck. He also had a bowlegged walk whereby he swung from side to side, and scratched his knuckles at intervals.

Could she ask what species he was, or would that be rude? She didn't want another foot-in-mouth incident like she'd had with Professor Gianstbane, but she was truly curious.

Nevertheless, her curiosity wasn't worth hurting his feelings again, so she kept quiet.

As they descended the spiral staircase, Lexie began to hear the sounds of childish laughter and masculine chuckling. When she got low enough to see what was going on in the living room, she spotted Theo Firebringer holding a little red-haired boy upside down, while a little girl scrambled up his back.

"Me next, Tee-Tee," she screamed. "Do me."

"Ah, you dastardly fiend," Theo declared in a grandiose tone. "You dare to mock me while you attack from behind."

Faster than Lexie could track, Theo spun and snatched the girl by her ankle, holding her up and swinging her around, probably faster than a human should tolerate.

To his credit, the little girl seemed to be loving it.

She squealed her joy as she was turned into a human whirlpool, and she even laughed after she collided with her brother, who was being spun in the opposite direction.

"Oops," Theo said. "I think we gave Thor a concussion."

"I'm okay," Thor declared.

When Theo stopped spinning and put him on the ground, Thor stumbled around like a drunk while holding his head between his hands like he was trying to get it to stop moving.

Then he spotted Lexie and pointed, flashing his gummy smile with missing front teeth, and announcing, "You're sideways!"

That of course drew Theo's attention, and when he spotted her, he grinned widely. "Well, if it isn't the Great AFC Fighter and Hero of the Hour Lexie Sparrowfoot gracing us with her presence."

Lexie blushed and waved, "Hey, Theo."

"Hey, yourself. It's been a while. How have you been?"

"Oh, you know, hanging in there."

Theo dropped the little girl on the floor, and she did something odd. She dashed behind Theo instantly with a little squeak, peeking out at the side of him to stare at Lexie.

Lexie figured the girl was shy, so she said, "Hello. Tamsin, right? It's nice to meet you."

The girl only squealed again and ducked her face behind Theo's back entirely, leading to Lexie giving Theo a quizzical look. "Did I scare her?"

"No. You'll have to forgive Tam, she's a little star-struck."

"Because of...me?"

"Yeah. She's a big AFC fan, and she's watched all your matches. She was a fan of your mother's matches, too, and my mother might have indulged her a little too much in talking about the two of you to the point where you became like her idols. Unfortunately, we've talked you up too much, and she's a little scared to meet you now."

"I'm not!" Her brother declared, pumping his chest out. "I'm not scared of anything."

"Except spiders and weirdly shaped broccoli," Theo pointed out wryly.

Thor's confidence faltered, and he nodded. "Yup. Except that."

"This is This, by the way," Theo said, jabbing his finger at his brother wryly. "Tam's twin brother."

"Nice to meet you both." Lexie wasn't necessarily good with kids, despite being a kid herself, and she wasn't sure how to relate to ones that were much younger than her.

Well, there was Evan, but Evan already pretty much knew her. To these kids, she was a stranger, and she didn't know how to put them at ease.

They were maybe six or seven years old, and in her opinion, that was lightyears away from Lexie's mature twelve. They were about half her age.

She would have offered them cookies if not for the fact that she'd already given them to Naem. But luckily, she was saved from having to figure out what to do next because Thor, bored of staring at the new guest, turned to Theo and said, "Can we go train now?"

"In a second, buddy," Theo said. "Lexie just got here. Let's make her feel welcome."

"I don't mind," Lexie said and grabbed onto it like a lifeline. "In fact, I'd like to watch if that's okay."

Theo raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Yeah. I've always been curious about how Firebringer powers worked."

"I remember. You asked me a hundred and one questions about it."

"It wasn't that many," Lexie grumbled, making Theo chuckle. "And there's nothing wrong with wanting to know things."

"Of course not." He swung his sister onto his hip, came closer, and ruffled her hair before walking past her through the other doors. "Follow me then."

Thor shot past Lexie like a bullet to follow Theo directly, leaving Lexie to bring up the rear. Pollock had already gone, but Lexie didn't mind. She felt comfortable with Theo, and maybe when they were in private, she could ask him about what species the butler was.

They were led into what seemed like an open summer hut behind the home with silver rings in the grass surrounding it, and metallic pillars holding up the roof.

"In case a fire goes out of control," Theo explains. "The pillars expand into walls to contain the fire so it doesn't spread."

"Neat," Lexie said, and she went over to sit at the bench at the side to observe.

Tamsin was staring at Lexie, but the second Lexie looked over, she froze.

"So can you use fire yet?" Lexie asked to break the ice.

"Not yet," Thor answered for his suddenly mute sister. "But I will in a year. I'm going to pre-awaken when I'm eight like Torin."

"Torin pre-awakened at eight?" Lexie's eyebrows went up. "That's young."

"Yes. It's the youngest ever recorded." Theo stood across from the other two and said, "Get in position. Quickly."

"Yes, sir!" They parroted as they scrambled to stand a few inches away from each other, facing Theo.

Theo continued his explanation to Lexie. "Right now, we're teaching them control and use of proper breathing techniques so that when they do awaken powers, they're not overwhelmed. Usually, Master Hua does the job, but he's on vacation with his fiancé, so it's on me. Okay, kids, are you ready?"

"Yeah." They announced and got into their stance.

"First position!" Theo said, and in unison, they snapped straight and closed their eyes, arms thrust wide, and breathed in. Then they breathed out.

"Second position!"

They shifted one leg behind them, lowering their chest slightly, and inhaled again, then exhaled.

"Third position."

This time, they squatted lower and brought their hands back to their body in a flowing motion, again inhaling and exhaling.

Lexie wondered what their pathways looked like.

She closed her eyes and psychically reached out to Theo's pathways, trying to figure out how they were changing in response to his breathing exercises.

She saw them shift as he changed position, and it moved fluidly when he exhaled, and she wondered how that would work when he was actually using fire.

"Good job." She heard Theo say. "You meditating too, Lexie?"

"Sorta," she said, and opened her eyes because they were now standing still.

"Alright, why don't you guys show Lexie what you learned in your last combat session with Master Hua?"

"Okay!" The twins parroted and hurried to face each other.

As they went through a choreographed fight–that seemed more like a dance than anything–without hitting each other, Theo settled beside Lexie.

"So how is the first year at Victoire treating you?" he asked.

"It's weird," she admitted. "And hard in an unexpected way."

"That's one way to put it. I definitely remember what that was like. Having Torin as your mentor has to make it worse."

"He's actually not so bad," Lexie said, and Theo gave her an incredulous look, until she added "when he's not being a giant pain in the ass."

Theo snorted. "Yeah. Mentorships can be like that, but they often turn into lifelong friendships too."

"Were you friends with your student mentor?"

"Something like that." His face darkened, and his expression turned fierce, stormy, and painful.

"You remember the arithmancer I told you about years ago? Lucy Frank?"

"Yeah." Lexie had a sinking feeling she knew where this was going.

"She was my mentor and one of my closest friends since I graduated. She's gone missing now, and no one can find her."

"I'm so sorry," Lexie whispered as her stomach bottomed out. She already knew Lucy Frank was missing because her father had told her, but it didn't really affect Lexie much then.

Sure, she'd felt sympathy on a human level, but she'd been too concerned for her own life and her father's, and she'd been able to maintain some distance from the news then because she didn't really know Lucy.

But seeing the pain it brought to Theo put another spin on it, made her feel terrible for ignoring that the Pirate had succeeded in hunting down someone that wasn't Lexie or her father.

For all intents and purposes, Lucy Frank was probably dead right now. The Pirate would have no reason to keep her alive. However, she couldn't tell Theo that.

Lexie wanted to say more to offer comfort, but she heard a voice coming toward her from across the courtyard, and a crew of adults turned the corner.

In the center was Stella Firebringer, who was talking to someone, a handsome older man with a swarthy complexion and luxurious dark hair with streaks of silver, which he tied up in a knot.

Luther Firebringer was beside Stella as well, looking surly as always.

And then at the other side of the man was…

"Dad!" Lexie shot to her feet, forgetting everyone and everything else, and ran to her father like he was a lifeline.

She flew across the grass and barrelled right into him, much to the surprise and amusement of everyone.

When he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, she breathed in his familiar scent and forgot that she was ever angry at him in the first place.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.