Lucas knew something was wrong when Fay continued to pull him along down the hall and away from the Guild Master's office. The complete lack of her cheerful and enthusiastic attitude was a pretty big clue, especially after she’d been so excited about his affinity test.

  It was clear that something was bothering Fay, but she wasn’t saying anything as she sped down the hall. She wasn’t running or using her magic, but she was walking a lot faster than normal.

  “Fay? Are you alright?” Lucas asked.

  The blonde didn’t respond, instead she tugged Lucas along down the hall, passing the various trophies of the past and practically shoving the door open to get back into the main room of the guild.

  “Oh! Hey Fay. How did things go?” Clara called out as she saw the two walking out of the backroom.

  Fay didn’t answer the older girl either, and she kept her swift pace up as she dragged Lucas through the room and out the front doors of the guild. He could feel Dusk’s claws digging into his shoulder as she tried to hold on and stay still. The blonde likely would have kept going, but Lucas started to resist once they got outside.

  “Fay. Stop.”

  His voice was firm as he pulled back on the girl’s arm, forcing her to stop. Gently, Lucas squeezed her hand, and he tugged her towards a bench outside the Hunter’s Guild. He got her to sit down with him, his hand still holding hers as she hadn’t yet chosen to let go.

  “Fay, what’s going on? You just went silent and you were almost pulling my arm off back there,” He questioned.

  For a few seconds, Fay was silent, and Lucas began to worry. It was like the cheerful blonde had just shut down completely. He couldn’t say that he liked the cold silence that he was getting from his new friend. But after a bit, she relaxed her grip on his hand and met Lucas’ eyes.

  “I’m sorry about that,” She apologized. “I just had to get away from that. I know what dad and the Guild Master are going to be talking about and I just can’t listen to them talking about that anymore.”

  Lucas wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t know enough about the situation to actually offer any sort of comfort, and asking was like walking into a potential minefield with how Fay had acted.

  “… Do you want to talk about it?” He finally settled on asking.

  “No, I really don’t,” Fay replied. “But you should probably know about it. You’re going to be staying with us for a month, and it’ll be hard to avoid hearing about it.”

  She pulled away slightly, pulling her hand from his and settling both hands in her lap. For a bit, Fay just stared off into the distance before she took a deep breath.

  “My dad used to be a hunter for the guild, the best one in Helstrum other than the Guild Master himself. He was amazing, and crazy strong, strong enough that he made a name for himself. Dad’s always been really creative with his magic, and while most people with an affinity for Fire and Metal magic would go straight into the Trade Guild to work as smiths of some kind, dad always wanted to be a hunter. Apparently, his dad was a hunter, too. Though grandpa died before I was born.”

  “I thought your dad ran the shop with your mom. When did that all happen?” Lucas asked.

  “They opened the shop around two years ago. Dad stopped being a hunter three years ago,” Fay replied. “Mom came up with the idea for the shop. She had always wanted to run her own store, and she convinced dad to run it with her to get him out of his slump.”

  “His… slump?” Lucas repeated.

  “Yeah. Dad… he wasn’t in the best state when he quit being a hunter. Mom was right, though, the shop did help and dad went back to being more normal after a while.”

  Lucas felt a pit growing in his stomach as he listened to the story. Fay’s father seemed like such a kind man, fun loving and wise. It wasn’t hard to see where Fay got a lot of her attitude from when the two were together. So, the idea of the man in a depressive state felt really wrong to Lucas.

  “What happened?” He asked softly.

  “There was a mission,” Fay began. “You need to understand, dad was really strong, he still is. He’s a master with his Metal magic, and he used it to create any weapon, tool, or item that he could need in an instant whenever he was doing a job. Pair that with his Fire magic that could light his weapons on fire, and dad was really good at being a hunter. He was so good at it that people called him ‘The Armory’.

  “He had a best friend, Markus. They’d grown up together and joined the guild together when they both turned eighteen. Markus had an affinity for Strength and Earth magic. With him and my dad working together, they were pretty much unstoppable. He wasn’t as good of a hunter as my dad, but he was still really good. So, most jobs weren’t a big issue for them when they worked together.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Fay was rambling a bit, the words spilling out of her mouth as her eyes stayed focused upon her lap. But Lucas didn’t interrupt or stop her.

  “They were so close, they always hung out together. I even called Markus ‘Uncle Markus’ a lot of the time when I was a kid. He would always find something to joke about or find a way to make someone laugh. He just found a way to make things so unserious. Him and my dad were the big reason I wanted to become a hunter for so long. I wanted to be super strong like my dad and my uncle, to make them proud…”

  All the usage of past tense made Lucas dread what was coming. He had a sinking feeling that Markus wasn’t around anymore, though he hoped that he was wrong.

  “So, one day the two head out on a job. It’s a simple mission to clear out some Direboars that were harassing a town. It was a huge herd, and the town was asking for help from the Hunter’s Guild. Dad and Uncle Markus were more than strong enough to handle that, so they thought it was easy money. And the job was easy. They managed to track down the boars quickly enough and took care of them. Uncle Markus trapped them in an area with his magic and then he and dad slaughtered the whole group…”

  Fay hesitated, her hands balling up and her fingers digging into her palms. Lucas didn’t know what to say, so he just moved closer to the blonde, resting a hand upon her fists.

  Fay took a slow, shuddering breath, and then continued.

  “As they were finishing up, an Earth Elemental showed up. It had been sleeping somewhere nearby and got disturbed by all the fighting and Uncle Markus’ use of his Earth magic. If it had been a normal one, that would’ve been fine, but it wasn’t. The Earth Elemental was pretty old, and it was really powerful. Dad and Uncle Markus didn’t figure that out until after they’d started fighting it.”

  “It was a horrible match-up from the start,” Fay explained, turning her attention towards Lucas. “Elementals have massive amounts of control of their respective type of magic. A mage can overpower them if they’re strong enough, but the older the Elemental is, the harder it is to overpower them. Uncle Markus couldn’t overpower the Earth Elemental, so it would turn his magic against him. All he had was his Strength magic and whatever weapons dad could create for him.”

  Fay’s words painted a grim picture in Lucas’ mind. Fighting a creature that could use your own magic against you seemed like a horrible idea.

  “Did they run? They had to realize that it wasn’t a good fight, right?” Lucas asked.

  “They couldn’t,” Fay replied. “Every time they tried to get away, it would block their path. It was pissed at them and wanted to fight. So they were forced to fight it. And… things went badly. Uncle Markus managed to land a good blow that really fucked it up, but he left himself open. The Earth Elemental retaliated, and it hit him hard. Dad said that he watched Uncle Markus get sent flying through multiple trees. But dad managed to hit the Elemental too. He hurt it, bad enough that it ended up running off to lick its wounds before dad could possibly finish it off.”

  “And your uncle?” Lucas didn’t know why he asked, he had a feeling he knew the answer.

  “Dad ran after him. It wasn’t hard to find him since the trees he’d crashed through made an easy path to follow,” Fay replied. He could see her eyes shining with unshed tears as she forced herself to keep talking. “But when dad found him, it was bad. He said that it looked like most of Uncle Markus’ bones were broken by the impact. He was still alive and breathing, but just barely. Not even a higher end potion could fix it. Dad tried to carry him back to town to get a healer to save him, but he wasn’t fast enough.”

  A few tears fell, slowly trailing down Fay’s cheeks as she recalled the story. Not knowing what else to do, Lucas pulled the blonde into a hug, wrapping his arms around her and trying to offer some kind of comfort.

  “Dad said Uncle Markus died in his arms before he could get to town. He brought his body back so his wife and daughter could bury him in Helstrum. I just remember sobbing in my mom’s arms when Dad came home and told me that Uncle Markus wouldn’t be coming home anymore.”

  Slowly, things began to click together in Lucas’ mind. The conversation from before at the front desk of the Hunter’s Guild, the way that Magnus and Fay had been acting around the girl at the desk, and the way that she’d even called Magnus her uncle at the end. Magnus had said that his relationship was strained with Clara and her mother, but not her father.

  “Clara… is she…”

  Fay just nodded against Lucas’ shoulder, burying her face into his shirt.

  “She used to babysit me when I was younger. Before Uncle Markus died. But after that, we all split apart. Clara never blamed dad, but her mom did for a while. She apologized later, but by then we just never fixed things. I just tried to bury it all away, to try and forget about it. It wasn’t healthy, I know, but I just didn’t want to think about it. I still miss him so much.”

  Lucas was silent, just hugging the blonde as she calmed herself down. After a minute, Fay pulled back, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry,” She apologized. “I got your shirt wet.”

  “It’s fine. Now, come on, your dad mentioned something about teaching me mana exercises and I want to learn how to use my magic,” He replied, hoping to distract the blonde from the dark topic they’d just talked about.

  Luckily, it worked, and Fay’s mood brightened a little bit at the idea of teaching Lucas about magic. She was quick to grab his hand and pull him up from the bench they’d been sitting at with a smile.

  “You’re right. Let’s go, we have less than a month for you to learn, so you’ve gotta work hard.”

  Lucas laughed a little as he let the blonde pull him along back in the direction of her home. He knew that there were some issues that Fay and her father were no doubt dealing with. Fay seemed cheerful and back to normal, but Lucas noted how her smile wasn’t quite as big or bright as normal. She put on an act, but he could tell that she wasn’t as happy as she wanted to make him think.

  He wanted to help, but he wasn’t really sure what he could do, especially since he was only going to be in Helstrum for a month. He could at least try, though. And Fay’s broken relationship with Clara seemed like a good place to start.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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