A Broken Home   

With chill autumn rain I... hide my tears… with chilly autumn rain I hold back my furry… with the changing leaves I begin anew… with changing leaves I changed… through the blowing winds I stayed, through the blowing winds I held… but… through the dying butterflies she grew… through dying butterflies her eyes changed!...

→→→→→→ Excerpt from Lanthios

1 week later

[ Good… Yes, very good! So, you can learn! But remember mongrel, no matter how strong you are, you are but a means to an end…a servant to us Elvis! So, if you want to keep your "current" way of life which is mockery somewhat relaxed, you better thank my sister when she returns...

For if you had any other master, I doubt you would be treated with such… "care", if you catch my meaning.] said Jesthenis with a lecture tone. But while he was giving his lecture at the behest of Lanthios a guard gestured to Jesthenis to come talk to him.

With Jesthenis gone, Lanthios was finally able to breathe a little and let go of some of the tension he had been holding throughout combat training. When Layla came to him, while being surrounded on all sides with beautiful scarlet gold butterflies flew all about her. She said concerningly

[umm. I see you improving in the way you use the light but why do I find it different from the way adults do it? Does your head still hurt after receiving M'uru "gifts"?]

{No, that pain is long gone… it's just that… when I get going my inner instincts try to take over… I know they can be an asset when I learn to control them, but it is hard to keep it in check along with fighting at the same time.

It's like my brain wants to do two things at the same time, but it is not just my brain, but my body as well. It's like wanting to run forward and backward at the same time if that makes sense.} replied Lanthios through sweaty brow.

[I... Think I get it…] replied Layla with a visible confused face.

While shaking his head, Lanthios said with a cheeky smile {Enough about my training, I see you're finally able to keep four butterflies around you now! Congratulations! Your mana control must have improved a lot since a week ago!]

With a puff! Layal responded by stomping her foot and yelling [they're not butterflies! Their baby phoenix's!]

To which Lanthios just gave a slight chuckle, which of course didn't go unnoticed by Layla, and when she saw his smirking mug, she sent her four fire "butterflies" at Lanthios, causing him to scream and roll around in the dirt before his fur got burned.

But as Jesthenis was watching the kids playing he had an unsettling expression plaster on his face, for what the guard told him made him not only angry but worried for the future of his niece.

[Sigh... how will she take hearing about what happened to her mother… I already noticed that she is beginning to act out more during her training… No doubt, she is worried about the fact that she hasn't seen her mother in an unusually long time.

If she didn't have that mongrel, I'm afraid she would have already thrown a full tantrum. But putting that aside, what makes me more worried is the fact that I didn't hear about this till after a whole week! Just what is the information network doing… or was it on purpose…

after all her mother has a long list of enemies in and outside our ranks… if that is in fact the case then… we have a lot more things to worry about than finding my sister, who at this point is probably already dead!] thought Jesthenis to himself.

But just as Jesthenis was going over how to tell his niece the bad news and guard came to him and said [Sr Jesthenis effective immediately you have hereby been reassigned to train the new generation of paladin in Sunstrider isle inside Sunspire building! That is all!]

The knight then proceeded to bow and leave the room almost as quickly as he arrived.

When Jesthenis heard this, he immediately became alarmed and was about to yell out when loads of knights came storming in and removing his personal belongings!

At his wits end Jesthenis quickly reached to pull out his sword to stop the rampaging knights when he heard [Tsk... Tsk... is that how an infamous "Sunstriker' behaves himself?

And a paladin no less? By pulling out a weapon against his fellow knights... Tsk… and here I thought a teacher of the blood knights would know better!] said the stranger with the most amused expression.

[Why? Why are you here Necrolord Azael! Someone of your strength should be fighting in the front lines, why are you being stationed all the way out here in some two-bit settlement?] ask Jesthenis with a shocking expression

[ Sigh, why this, why that, it doesn't matter why… besides I think we both know why… did you really think it was fair that your family gets to hog all the new things… But don't worry I will take good care of the children in your absence said the "necrolord" with great smugness showing off bright yellow teeth from ear to ear.

Visibly pissed off Jesthenis was going to really going to draw his sword when,

[Now, now… don't do something stupid now Jesthenis, you don't want to do something you regret later right… I mean what you do here doesn't just affect you, you know! but your whole family as well…

your action will reflect back onto them and I do say not only would that help the nobles go against what you're trying to protect, advent weakly if I may say, but your other sibling as well! Now... why don't you put that sword down and walk away peacefully...] said Azael with frightening glee!

[Fine but I want to at least see the children off before I leave... After all she has the right to know…] said Jesthenis defeatedly for he knew he couldn't win against Azael physically or mentally.

[umm...] thought Azael for he was really debating in his mind if he should allow it… for Azael knew Jesthenis would surely warn the brats... But then again what can a couple of 5 to 6 years old brats really accomplish! But in truth what Azeal was really thinking wasn't what the children could do against him, but rather which option would make them suffer more! Tell them the truth now!

Or later reveal it at a critical time at their most desperate or maybe even weaponize it to get the kids to do what he wants… so many dark thoughts such as these ran through his mind in all but a second before finally deciding to say...

[very well, I will allow this but on one condition! And so, you better remember this kindness of mine, Jesthenis!] he said with a dark smile.