Modak walked down the stairs with a loud yawn and immediately headed into the kitchen. Every morning when he woke up for the day, Ryan would brew a pot of coffee for everyone. And whether it was because he just had an eye for it, or because he picked up some things from working at Café Runic, it always tasted better whenever he brewed it.

  So, he quickly poured himself a cup and grabbed the carton of oat milk out of the fridge, quickly adding a splash of it in.

  As he stood there in the kitchen, just silently basking in the silence of this way-too-large house, the orc relaxed for a moment, just sipping his coffee. Today was his first day back at work. He had specifically moved his classes around so that he could have his entire class-load on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. On Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday, he would go to the Magic Tower and work. It did mean that he had to take one less class this semester than intended, but his professors were extremely accommodating about his circumstances.

  Frankly, after inventing a machine that could synthesise spells, his magic engineering professor felt extremely awkward trying to talk to him about his assignments and gave him a massive amount of leeway.

  Anyway, today was Friday. Yesterday he went to a doctor's appointment to get a sign-off on the fact that his arm was healed now, and he actually completely stunned them when he showed that he had basically fully recovered. They knew that he couldn't have used healing items, so this was a complete oddity to them. But they were very happy to see it, and now Modak didn't have to return to any more follow-up appointments, unless he suddenly felt his injuries get worse.

  While he scrolled through his 'Loop' feed, moving past random short clips referencing one of the latest meme'd-to-death movies. But as he stood there in the kitchen, he heard the doorbell ring. He quickly walked over to the door and checked the intercom. There was a camera outside with the gate, and standing there was a car. His dad's car.

  Modak's heart sank and he picked up the intercom's phone, "Uh... hi, dad? What are you doing here?"

  "Modak, son? Is that you?"

  "Yes, it's... it's me. Just... come on through," he said nervously, pressing the 'open gate' button. Modak opened the front door and could see the gate open up automatically. His dad's car pulled in and slowly came to a stop right out front.

  Brog stepped out of the car and he could feel his heart almost give out.

  "Dad. How are you doing? No, what are you doing, why are you here?"

  Clearly nervous, Brog cleared his throat and took some steps forward, "What, I can't even come see my own son?" he asked with that slight grumble that always seemed to be laying under his voice, "Your siblings miss you a ton, you know?"

  Modak was perplexed at his father's statement. It almost sounded insulting. Brog was acting like Modak just abandoned them completely, "I'm sorry, but what are you talking about? I see them all the time. I stop by every other day to pick up Zigg and Mogh and bring them home and help them and Gilik with their homework while you and mom are at work. Pock and I just went to this arcade near his school on Wednesday, and Kora is coming over for dinner this Saturday night. I see all of them almost more than I used to when I lived at home with you guys."

  "Well, I..." Brog placed his hands onto his hips and shook his head, "... I did not know that."

  "Why are you here, dad? You guys haven't called me, texted me, or anything since I moved. Hell, you both completely ignored me for weeks. Just because I love magic."

  "Son, you know that it's not that easy. Your mother is just extremely traditional when it comes to these things, and you know that."

  Modak stared at his father, biting his own tongue to stop himself from saying something that he would regret. Instead, he took a deep breath and considered his words a lot better, "You know... For years, you used to let yourself get pushed around by everyone. At work, with your 'friends'. Hell, even by mom. That was your business, you're a grown man. You're making your choices. For a long time, I thought that you're just a really 'nice' man. Too nice for your own good, really. But now, I know it's not about being 'nice'. You're just kind of a coward."

  He stared his father in the eye. After nearly dying, confronting his father wasn't nearly as scary.

  "Son, that's not..."

  "Why couldn't you stand up for me? Just once. I didn't really ask for much, now did I? All I wanted was some surface-level support for my dream. A dream that I'm in the middle of accomplishing, I might add. I discovered something monumental. I'm breaking new ground in the field of magic engineering that can change lives forever. And all you guys can think of is that I'm not deserving of my orcish blood? Seriously?"

  "I don't believe that, that was your-"

  "No, it wasn't just mom! You stood behind her, silently. If that's not you basically echoing the things that mom has said, then I don't know what it is."

  Brog opened his mouth, trying to figure out what to say, but he stopped himself. Modak rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Listen, dad. I'll ask you again. What are you doing here? Are you trying to apologise? Are you here to... I don't know, lecture me? Tell me how much of a disappointment I am to you again?"

  His father immediately shook his head, almost panicking, "No! Of course not, you're not a disappointment! I just... Modak, please just come and move back in with us."

  Taken aback, Modak almost laughed in his father's face, but he managed to stop himself, "Seriously? And why would I do that?"

  "Well, just look at this place! You live in the middle of nowhere, it takes forever for you to get to school. Plus, as I said... your siblings really do miss you, still. And so do I, son. Just... how big is this place you moved into? How many flats did they turn this rackety old building into? Are you eating well enough? Do you need any help buying groceries?"

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  This time, Modak was just stunned.

  "You... didn't even listen when I told you, did you? Dad... I didn't move into a flat," he started, "I moved into this house. This is my house. And just to add, though I don't like to throw this around, I make a lot of money at the Magic Tower, okay? I'm fine."

  "What? How do you... you moved into this house? This entire house?"

  "Yes. Ryan's family is stinking, filthy rich and they got us this place, okay. Seriously, dad, I love you. I do, and I absolutely hate how things are between us. But I didn't start this. That's why I can't be the one to end it either. Accept that I am who I am, that I love to do what I love to do, and that I'm going to be one of the youngest first circle wizards in history." Modak closed his eyes and turned to go back inside, "Just please leave, okay?"

  "Your mother and I are getting a divorce."

  Modak turned around, startled, "What?"

  Tapping his foot angrily, Runar stood in the middle of the abandoned amusement park which used to be a dungeon this time last week. In the process of returning back to its former state, a huge portion of this dungeon had collapsed in on itself. Most buildings had crumbled, and the ones that hadn't were overgrown and only propped up by trees or plants that had grown through this place.

  "Yes, it's been closed. Fully," he said to the person on the other end of the phone, "You're asking what kind of idiot would do that? It's me, I closed it. I found out about the history of this place and closed it down. So now I'm asking you to hand over all the fucking files."

  Runar began to pace around the old cobbled road, "No. It can't wait, I've already been waiting for three full days since I first called you guys about this. I am the gods-damned patriarch, and you're going to do what I say. Give me those documents you lot hid away from me already!"

  He hung up the phone and almost crushed it in his fist, but Yamada came up to him and pulled it out of his grasp. She looked into his eyes, and Runar groaned, pushing his phone into his pocket.

  "Sorry," he signed, "I'm just so pissed-off. As it turns out, the Garling branch completely locked away all documents related to your father even from me, by command of my father. And that includes everything about this place. I already told some Kaiza folk to look into this place independently, but this is just getting so annoying."

  Yamada signed back, "We already know that my father did quite a lot of dirty-work for yours. Frankly, this all seems quite up his alley."

  "... I know, it also sounds like what my father would try to do," Runar replied, "Anyway, what about you? Have you managed to reach Anders?"

  The demon shook her head, "No, his wife also hasn't heard anything from him in a few days. He completely disappeared."

  "Do you think something happened to him again? He seemed pretty shaken up after being attacked at bonfire plaza."

  For a few moments, Yamada seemed extremely anxious, like a certain idea passed through her mind.

  "What?"

  "You don't think that... Anders is the mole, right?" Yamada could barely even sign it, and was half-hiding her hands because she was quite embarrassed to even think something as horrible as this.

  But Runar just scoffed, shaking his head, "No, no, there's no way something like that would be possible. Anders would never betray us."

  Runar wasn't being totally honest here, though. It would be a lie to say that this very same thought hadn't been stuck in his head all day. Of course, there were some parts that wouldn't make sense. Why was Anders beaten half to death? It would be a pretty damn weird way to buy time or distract people. But then again, Christopher Blanchard clearly had abilities that allowed him to manipulate others. He had done the same with that Vanda girl. If Anders had fallen into some kind of trap, then...

  "Let's go."

  "Where?" Yamada asked, surprised. Runar had turned around quite suddenly and was half jogging to the entrance.

  "We're going to pay a certain lamia a little visit. It's much easier to find Christopher Blanchard than other high-ranking shadows, and he's clearly at the centre of all this."

  Without hesitation, Yamada nodded and pulled out her phone. She quickly started sending texts to some individuals that they employed to specifically search for that lamia. It seemed like a dead end, but surprisingly, they managed to find him pretty easily. But right when she opened the chat, she was shocked to see something else. She had already gotten a message from them, just five minutes ago. It was an emergency message.

  Her face went pale, and she tried to reach out to Runar, but he had already built some distance between them and had run out of the gate, trying to get to the car. But Yamada soon caught up to him, and showed Runar the phone's screen.

  "What? What's going on, why are you-" he stopped himself, looking up from the screen.

  He was in absolute disbelief, shaking his head, "There's no way... how would he be..? Why would he be..?"

  Yamada got into the car and turned it on, while Runar was still standing outside and trying to figure out exactly what was going on. He slowly dropped inside as well, and the demon quickly drove him all the way through town into the Channel.

  As they approached, lines of police tape were already drawn in front of the alleyway. It was the alley right next to one of the Bluesky buildings. Almost before the car even came to a stop, Runar jumped out and rushed to the tape. As he leaned down underneath, he was, of course, stopped.

  "Hold it, stand back! What do you think you're doing?" one of the police officers asked, and Runar just groaned.

  "Oh please," he pushed past the officer who immediately placed a hand onto his holster before being waved off by the detective standing by the corpse.

  "He's good to go, don't worry about him," the detective said, looking over at Runar as he approached, "Mr. Aglecard. To what do we have the pleasure?"

  But Runar didn't respond. He just stared at the dead body that was hanging off the brick walls in front of him. Thick metal spikes were pushed through his arms, throat, chest, and along his tail to turn it into a spiral hanging off the wall around the lamia's body.

  "This is... Christopher Blanchard," Runar whispered, and the detective looked up at the body.

  "Mhm, did you know him?"

  "Not... not personally, but I was aware of him. He was involved in Bluesky."

  The detective clicked his tongue and shook his head, "Bluesky again? Of course it was related to them."

  "... Can you just give me one moment alone with the body?"

  Though it was clear the detective was a bit apprehensive, he had worked with Runar quite a lot in the past. He knew that he wouldn't do anything that would jeopardize this case, and so he agreed and stepped out of the dead-end alley.

  When alone with Christopher's corpse, Runar immediately drew something into the air. He could see that there was some particular magic attached to the lamia, and knew what he had to do to unlock that magic. As the rune faded, a small piece of paper seemed to take its place. A note was magically attached to the corpse.

  Before it fell to the ground, Runar snatched it away and started reading the note.

  "A gift to the Aglecards - One of our own had gone rogue. We apologise for the inconvenience," he read with a whisper. 'Gone rogue'? What was that supposed to mean? In what way did Christopher Blanchard, brother to the current head of the White Shadow Society, go rogue?

  Runar turned around and rushed out of the alley, not even acknowledging the detective again. Instead, he just sat back down in the car, showed the note to Yamada, and tried not to tear out his own hair.

  Check out the Patreon! Read up to 15 Chapters ahead!

  Join the Discord!