“Listen, I don’t know either, and it’s not like the thought processes of spirits are particularly easy to comprehend, right? Maybe she just really favors the lake spirit, or maybe it’s a random whim of hers. It doesn’t really matter, either. What’s more important is that the Shadows are going around this city infecting spirits with corruption.” Ryan walked past his uncle, pulling open the door. “If I hadn’t acted fast, everyone would have seen what was going on, and sooner or later, they would have realized that a spirit attacked them. It’s exactly what they want, right?”

  Panicking slightly, Runar looked at his nephew with a confused expression. “What are you doing?”

  “What I should have done from the very beginning,” Ryan said, walking into the living room, where his mother and Liam were currently sitting. “Mom, I’ve got to tell you something.”

  “Ryan, don’t you dare …” Runar tried to stop him, but Ryan didn’t care anymore.

  “Honey, what’s going on?” Concerned, not sure if something was going on with her son, Mary looked at her son, and Runar quickly intervened.

  “Nothing, he’s just feeling a bit loopy from earlier; let’s just—”

  “Shut it. Mom, the Aglecard family that we’re a part of is actually that extremely powerful, rich Aglecard family. Runar is its current head. But that family is also—” While Ryan was speaking, he could see Runar writing something in the air with runes. Before Ryan could react, the runes were activated, and Mary was frozen, as if someone had pressed Pause on her. Taken aback, Ryan turned his head toward his uncle. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  “No, what do you think you’re doing? Didn’t we agree on not telling your mother about all of this?”

  “Yes, we agreed, but now we don’t agree anymore. I have the right to tell her what’s going on, and you can’t stop me. Now unfreeze my mother before I clock you.” With what was close to a snarl, Ryan stared at his uncle.

  Runar closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Liam, go to your room, please.”

  The young vampire stood up and nodded. He looked at Ryan and Runar nervously as he silently left the room. He lingered by the door for a while, just glancing in. Ryan could feel his heart drop into his stomach for acting that way in front of Liam.

  “Dude, just stop fighting it. I’m going to tell her, and you can’t do anything about it.”

  “First of all, just slow down a second. What exactly are you going to tell her? You know that you will have to tell her everything, including things about your father that she might not want to hear.” Runar walked across the room, pacing slowly. Thinking for a moment, Ryan nodded.

  “I know. But she also doesn’t deserve to not really know the person she married, right? Rather, it’s kind of shitty of me not to tell her. Plus, if things keep being this dangerous, then I want my mom to know what’s going on. I don’t want her to suddenly get a call and hear that I’m dead, being told some kind of lie that I … I don’t know, got in a car crash, or killed myself, or whatever shit you guys use for excuses.”

  “I don’t know where this hostility is suddenly coming from. I thought we were all on the same page here—”

  Ryan groaned loudly, stretching out his left arm. “This is why! Yes, you guys … We are keeping people safe, sure. But at the same time, we’re basically trapping them. Still forcing them to hide even in the best-case scenario and, in the worst case, keeping them trapped in a cave or some kind of tank.” As he spoke, Ryan could feel Tiar slowly moving on his skin. “Especially with the symbiotes; can’t you do something else than just introduce random people to them? You’re not treating them like living beings that deserve to live; you’re treating them like … tools to exploit.”

  “Okay, hold on; I don’t think that’s fair.” With a scoff, Runar turned to his nephew. “You weren’t complaining when I told you that they could make you stronger.”

  “You didn’t actually tell me shit before I met Tiar. You made it sound like we’d be picking out some kind of medicine, not a living being that is now forever bonded to me. It is literally impossible to separate us now without at least one of us dying; do you understand how fucked-up that is? And don’t get me wrong; I love Tiar, and I know they love me, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have just waited until I understood all of this a bit better.” Stepping up closer to his uncle, Ryan ground his teeth. “But that’s not what all of this is about right now, anyway. While I don’t feel great about the way that the Aglecards do things, fact is … you’re the best option around right now, and I know you just want to help. But that doesn’t mean that this is a good world I found myself in. This is dangerous, and my mother deserves to know what she was unwillingly dragged into by my father.”

  Runar tapped his foot on the ground. He grumbled slightly, then snapped his fingers. The runes freezing Mary in place were undone, and she looked up at Ryan, blinking confusedly. Ryan hadn’t moved much, but it was still different from what she could see a moment before. And looking around, she saw Runar was in a completely different place and Liam was gone. A bit dizzy, Mary held her hand to her forehead. “Sorry, I think I’m feeling a bit light-headed … What were you saying?”

  “Mom.” Ryan pulled up a chair and sat down in front of his mother. “My class isn’t a unique class. Dad was also a Spirit Keeper.”

  With a slight laugh, Mary shook her head. “No, no, your father wasn’t an Awakened. He was just an accountant; that’s all.”

  Ryan shook his head. “I mean before that. Before you even met him. Back then, he was supposed to be the next head of the Aglecard family.”

  Not sure if she was understanding right, Mary looked over at Runar. She thought that Ryan was joking somehow, but seeing the two of them be so serious about it all, it was clear that she just had to listen for now.

  And so, Ryan explained the situation of things as far as he personally understood them. The reality of the Aglecard family, the species that were kept hidden from the general populace, the truth behind Ryan’s class, and most importantly, the history of Hayden and the consequences of his actions.

  Mary listened silently, not sure what she was supposed to say. “I … Is this some kind of joke? A prank for one of those Loops?”

  With a long sigh, Ryan looked over at Runar. He had sat down on a chair and was watching everything, clearly nervous.

  “What?”

  “Do your thing, like, the rune stuff,” Ryan said, and Runar rolled his eyes.

  “Fine, might as well just lay it all out.” As he replied, Runar pulled his pen out of his jacket’s breast pocket. He looked around and finally spotted one of Ryan’s figurines that he had moved into the living room to make space for all the new things he had had to buy as practice. He picked it up and wrote a sequence of runes into the air in front of the model, and the small orcish warrior slowly woke up. Runar placed it onto the ground, and all three of them watched as the model walked around the room, swinging its plastic axes at the air. Mary was staring at it, utterly confused. “I’m a Rune Mage, and a powerful one at that. Listen, I never wanted to involve Ryan in all of this, but when he suddenly Awakened because of the spirit core in Hayden’s toolbox, I—”

  “Wait, wait, toolbox?” Mary interrupted Runar as she tried to follow along with the conversation. “What do you mean? The toolbox I sent Ryan?”

  Ryan and Runar looked at each other for a moment. Ryan nodded. “Yeah, I found Maximus’s core in there, and that’s how I awakened.”

  “What does a spirit core look like, again? Like … like a gemstone, right? There wasn’t anything like that in the box.”

  “There definitely was, though—”

  “I cleaned the box and all the tools before sending it to you; I know for sure there wasn’t anything else in there,” Mary explained. “Are you sure that’s where you found it?”

  Looking over at his uncle with a slight stare, Ryan tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Runar didn’t seem to understand all too well either, though.

  “Okay, uh … Runar, please, look into that, maybe … But more importantly, Mom, does that mean you believe us now?”

  Mary thought for a few moments, placing her hand on her cheek. “Well, not quite; it does all seem a little off to me … but it’s not as though I didn’t know your father had a secret or two.”

  “… What?” Ryan narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, he’d always be a bit mysterious. It was part of his allure, you see? Of course I couldn’t have ever imagined something like this, but I figured he had a past,” Mary explained. “He’d always get these mysterious-looking visitors.”

  Runar jumped up and stepped around the couch. “Visitors? What kinds of visitors?”

  Mary thought about it for a moment. “They were usually different people, but … There was one that came regularly. I remember him because he came by a few days before Hayden passed, actually. His name was … Finnegan … something.”

  “White hair, almost-glowing blue eyes?” Runar asked, and Mary raised her eyebrows.

  “Yes, actually, now that you mention it. Is he involved in all of this as well?”

  Runar looked toward the hallway nervously. “Yes and no, but … that’s not important. Ryan, show your mother the basement for a while, okay? I’ve got something I need to check on.”

  Taken aback that Runar was practically pushing the two of them downstairs now, though he was so apprehensive about letting Mary learn about all this, Ryan slowly nodded. “Sure; I guess that might be a good way to explain things a bit more. It helped me, at least.”

  Ryan stood up and walked toward the door, with his mother following behind curiously. “Well, what’s in the basement?”

  “It’s … kind of complicated. But it’s beautiful down there. There’s a lot I want to show you,” Ryan explained, guiding his mother downstairs. Once Ryan left, Runar immediately dropped to the couch, snapping his finger to pull the magic back out of the animated plastic model. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

  “Aye, boss. What can I do for ya?” Anders quickly answered, and Runar wrote another rune into the air to block out the conversation from leaking out of the living room.

  “Get me a report on Finnegan Azure, right away.”

  “Azure? I thought Liam was the last of the Azure clan,” Anders replied, and Runar let out a long sigh.

  “Yes, he is, as far as we know, at least. That’s exactly why I need to know why the Azure clan’s former patriarch visited my brother after he left the family.”

  “… I’ll give ya that; every time ya call me, I hear somethin’ I don’t expect … I’ll look into it right away. Ah, though that reminds me. We made sure that all images taken of the corrupted spirit were deleted earlier. We’re still lookin’ into if there were some aquarian folk that saw or heard somethin’, but as far as we can tell, there’ll be no leaks of today,” Anders explained, and Runar quickly breathed out a sigh of relief.

  “Alright, at least we’ve got some good news,” Runar grumbled. “Oh, and get some people working on some kind of permit to let us visit Goria’s shrine.”

  “Aye, aye. Got any reason you want me to tell them?”

  “I guess just say that there’s someone on our side that got an invitation from her, though if they ask any questions, try to play dumb.”

  “Hah, don’t worry; I can do that.” Anders laughed loudly into the speaker, making Runar pull the phone away from his ear for a moment.

  “Right. Call me when you have an update for me on any of those things, and make sure that the watchers we have stationed around the city do their job well. Make sure they watch any and all known location-bound spirits. I don’t want something like today to happen again.”

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  S.C.S.

  Okay, so, am I understanding it right? That wardrobe you were trying to show me was actually an animal?” Mary whispered to Ryan, who nodded with a smile.

  “Yep, that was Kindly, he’s a mimic. Technically, it wasn’t the wardrobe itself; Mimics live inside of objects. I don’t know why he was so shy yesterday, though; usually, he’s pretty outgoing,” Ryan explained with a slight laugh. “But then again, he’s only recently been around people again.”

  “Oh, really? What happened?”

  “He was infected with corruption. I only cured him the other day, using the copper flowers.”

  “The copper flowers that … were grown in the dungeon you went to, because a fragment of Gaia was in there?”

  “Right. I believe that the White Shadow Society tried to infect Gaia’s fragment as well, but she was able to fight it while she was turning into a dungeon.”

  Mary placed her hand on her cheek in thought, trying to take it all in. Though in the end, she just let out a long sigh and shook her head. “I don’t think I fully understand, but it was lovely to meet all of them, anyway. Especially that cute little pixie. Penny, was it?”

  Sitting in the front of the car, on the passenger seat, Runar let out a long sigh. “Do you really have to discuss all of that right now? We’re nearly there,” he pointed out. Ryan rolled his eyes in the seat behind him, glancing over to Yamada. He was pretty jealous that she didn’t have to hear Runar’s complaining the whole way to the Channel.

  “Well, why are you complaining?” Mary scoffed, slightly tapping Yamada’s shoulder from behind. “Your friend here hasn’t said anything about it, so it can’t be too bad, right?”

  Runar groaned. “It’s not like she knows about it, anyway.”

  Confused, Mary looked over at Ryan, who quickly explained. “Yamada is deaf; she didn’t hear anything we said the whole way.”

  “Oh?” Mary widened her eyes in surprise, leaning forward to get a better look at the demon while raising her voice and patting Yamada’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t know.”

  Yamada glanced around, a bit confused, not sure what to think. She looked at Ryan through the mirror, and he let out a slight sigh. “My mother apologized for not knowing you’re deaf,” he explained, signing to her as much as he could. Yamada laughed slightly and shook her head, signing with one hand.

  “She’s saying not to worry about it,” Ryan translated as he pulled out his phone. His mother looked at him, surprised.

  “You know sign language?”

  Ryan shrugged. “Yeah, a little bit, I guess. I study with this app on my phone; it’s pretty good for that.”

  Before the conversation could continue, while Mary was still quite surprised to learn so many new things about her son, the car came to a halt. By now, the celebrations for the day of Kars already started. Kars, the spirit of technology, was celebrated by showing the big technological advancements that had been made in the past year. Basically, it was a massive science fair. Kars’ day was also generally used by companies to launch new products and to advertise those new products to the masses, so it was no wonder that more than half the stalls belonged to established tech companies just trying to sell the newest, slightly changed version of what they had shown off last year.

  However, there were a few exceptions to that. Taking advantage of the nature of Kars’ day, the Magic Tower tended to show new research as well, even if it didn’t technically fall under the umbrella of technology a lot of the time. New standard spells that could change the way people lived their everyday lives, old spells used in an innovative way or with improved efficiency, or the part that Ryan was most excited about: the new discoveries.

  While the Magic Tower had some of the flashiest things to show off during Kars’ day, a lot of the time, their new discoveries were just shown through boring presentations: theoretical situations presented in a way that seemed like they were the next big thing. Ryan figured that Modak’s presentation was going to be similar to that, but since it was his best friend showing off something he worked hard on, Ryan wanted to show his support the best way he could: by being extremely excited about something he understood nothing about.

  “I’ll get out here and try to find Modak,” Ryan said, tapping on his phone to text the orc, while Mary smiled at him broadly.

  “Alright, honey, we’ll catch up soon,” she responded. Ryan quickly got out of the car and went on his way, while Mary turned toward Runar, staring at him intensely. “And you— You will explain to me everything about Hayden that I don’t know yet, right now.”

  While Runar was getting ready to be grilled, Ryan made his way through the crowds of the Channel. He pushed past the random salesmen who tried to come up to him, skillfully ignoring them, and headed toward the area designated for the Magic Tower. Most of the stands looked pretty boring, with who Ryan assumed to be just other mages or professionals standing in front of them, but deeper in, he got to the part that people were most curious about:

  The practical displays. People were watching the butterflies made of light and toy trains riding on floating tracks, things that caught the eye of almost anyone. But as Ryan continued walking, he got to the end of the row, and right next to a wall was a stand that wasn’t ready to go yet. Modak’s stand.

  Ryan pulled away the tarp and peeked inside, though he was soon stopped by a large hand grabbing his collar from behind. “Sorry, that’s off-limits. We should finish setting up soon, though.”

  The middle-aged cyclops looked at Ryan with an apologetic, kind smile, and he immediately shook his head. “Oh, no, I’m sorry, I’m just looking for Modak right now. He told me to meet him here?”

  The cyclops raised her eyebrow, “In that case, I’ll call him right out. Just wait here for a second, okay?”

  “Yes, of course, no worries.” Ryan nodded and stepped to the side as the cyclops walked into the small tent. Just a few moments later, Modak practically tore the tarp to the side and quickly pulled Ryan into the tent.

  “Perfect, you’re here!”

  Ryan looked at Modak nervously. “Is everything alright? Did something happen?” He glanced around and leaned toward the orc, whispering, “Is it the Shadows doing some weird stuff again?”