Chapter 193: Chapter 193

Damien woke up the next morning feeling more rested than he had in a long time. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Delph had been right about needing a break. Now that he’d actually paused for a little, he realized just how exhausted he’d actually been.

His bed was warmer than he was used to it being, and he didn’t even feel like opening his eyes. It was also a fair bit warmer than he recalled. His mind, which had still been half asleep, finally caught up to the present and he realized that he’d turned over in his sleep.

Sylph was snuggled against him, her head pressed against his chest. One of his arms was slung over her shoulders. He froze, unsure of what to do. To his later shame, the first thought that came to his mind was that he was glad Henry didn’t seem to currently be watching.

He considered moving his arm before Sylph noticed it, but another thought struck him. She never woke up after him. Damien shifted his gaze down without moving. Sylph’s head twitched and glanced up, meeting his gaze for a moment. She closed her eyes and lowered her head again. Damien decided that his hand was fine where it was.

They remained there for nearly another hour before Damien heard footsteps outside from around the kitchen. He and Sylph moved at the same time, both sitting up and glancing at the door in unison.

“I, uh–” Damien started, a stammer worming into his speech.

“Not now,” Sylph said. She squeezed his hand briefly, then slipped to her feet. “Where’s the bathroom? I should take a shower.”

“The door right outside my room,” Damien replied, sounding slightly lost. Sylph flashed him a grin and slipped out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

A few minutes later, a shadow slipped through his window. Henry unfurled to his normal shadowy form and flopped onto Damien’s bed, crossing his hands behind his head in a remarkably human expression.

“What’s with that dumb grin on your face?” Henry asked. “I’m not going back into your head until you wipe it off. I don’t even want to consider what disgusting little human things might be dancing around in there.”

Even Henry’s complaints weren’t enough to get rid of Damien’s smile. “It’s nothing. What were you doing last night?”

“I believe I already mentioned,” Henry said. “Your neighbor’s goats will never be the same. What amusing little creatures. The more scared they are, the longer they don’t move. Did you know that?”

“I never measured it,” Damien said suspiciously. “What exactly did you do?”

“I stacked goats,” Henry replied. “My highest goat tower was four. Pretty decent, if you think about it. Might be a world record. Tomorrow I’ll aim for five. Those stupid little bastards were terrified, but I’m sure I could do better.”

Damien racked his memories to see if he could remember who had goats, but he came up blank. They must have been a relatively new acquisition.

“Just don’t get caught. Especially now that we’re trying to help Mrs. Hubbard out, we don’t need people thinking I’m working against the town or something.”

“Bah. Any self-respecting person would trust someone who could stack four goats on top of eachother. By the way, you were right.”

“About what?”

“Goats don’t taste like cheese at all,” Henry said. “I double checked after a few modifications based off information in your memory. They taste more like cooked beans.”

“That’s… still completely wrong,” Damien said. “I’m not sure they could be much farther from that, actually. Then again, it’s closer than cheese. I guess.”

“Are you sure?” Henry asked, squinting at him with several dozen eyes. “I’m pretty sure it was beans.”

“Yes, I’m – wait. How are you tasting goats without killing them?”

“Tiny nibbles.”

“Just to make sure, would you classify the bite you took out of my mom’s alcohol bottle as big?”

“Bah. I just wanted to see what it tasted like,” Henry said. “The glass felt like it might provide some interesting texture. Frankly, it tasted better than the stuff inside the bottle. I also tried to simulate what I expected an oversaturation of alcohol would do to a human, but I can’t say it was very enjoyable. Why do humans like it?”

“Don’t ask me,” Damien replied. “I’ve never drank. Mom wouldn’t let me, and now I just don’t feel any need to. Getting drunk wouldn’t be terribly conducive to relaxing or training.”

Henry grunted. “I don’t understand how you see an experience you’ve never had and don’t feel any desire to try it. Novelty is fascinating.”

“Maybe I will if I get to your age,” Damien said with a chuckle. “I just hope my sense of humor evolves with me.”

“Hey!” Henry snapped. He started to form a reply, but stopped mid-sentence and shot back into Damien’s shadow.

A moment later, Sylph pulled the door open. Her wet hair hung low past her shoulders. She raised an eyebrow. Damien cleared his throat and grabbed a change of clothes.

“My turn,” he said, slipping past her. Damien took a moment to appreciate the fact that this bathroom didn’t have any rug inside the shower before washing up and heading back outside.

“Good morning, Damien,” Hilla said cheerfully. “I’m making pancakes. There’s some fruit and milk on the table already.”

“Thanks, mom,” he said. Sylph was already seated at the table, but she’d yet to take any food. Damien sat down beside her, trying to keep the flush from his cheeks. He was pretty sure he did a decent job at it, too.

“Stop that,” Henry complained in his mind. “I amend my earlier statement. There are some things I don’t want to experience.”

Damien gave him a mental flick and claimed some berries for himself. Sylph followed suit a moment later.

“So, what are your plans today?” Hilla asked.

“There are still a few places around town that I haven’t shown Sylph,” Damien said. “We’ll probably drop by those. We’ve also got to go on a run and make sure we don’t get too out of shape. Delph wouldn’t be happy if we did.”

His mom paused. She glanced back at them, an unreadable expression on her face. “Who?”

“Our teacher, Delph” Damien said. “Why?”

“Oh,” Hilla said, shaking her head. She slid a pancake out of her pan and onto a large plate which she brought over to the table. “I misheard you. I used to know somebody with a similar name.”

“In the town?”

“No, one of your father and my acquaintances while we were on the frontlines together,” Hilla replied. “I haven’t heard anything about him in a long time, though. He was part of a pretty specialized unit that certainly wouldn’t have been spending time teaching at a college.”

“The Inquisitors?” Sylph asked. Her voice barely shifted tone, but it was enough for Damien to notice.

“No, not them,” Hilla replied. She sat down and set the large stack of pancakes down in the center of the table. “I don’t know if they even had a name, but they reported directly to the Queen. Scary people. Their job was retrieving artifacts that were very far beyond the frontlines. They were some of the best mages I ever knew.”

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“Better than dad?” Damien asked, serving himself a pancake as Sylph relaxed slightly.

A smile played across Hilla’s face. “Some of them were, but he used to place pretty well amongst them. They sparred frequently. I haven’t seen him fight seriously in a long time, though. Who knows how things would stack up now.”

The conversation trailed off as they all polished off the food on the table. Damien and Sylph thanked his mom once they’d finished and helped wash the dishes.

“No town council meeting today, so I’ll just be doing chores around the house,” Hilla said. “Make sure not to come home too late, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt. And don’t antagonize the mayor too much. He’ll accuse me of sending you after him or something.”

“We won’t,” Damien promised. “Not too much, anyways.”

Hilla sighed, but she gave them a wry grin. “Well, so long as you aren’t traced back to me and don’t leave any bodies lying around…”

“We’re not going to kill him, mom!”

“Just go have fun,” Hilla said with a laugh, putting one hand on one of his shoulders and another on Sylph before pushing them toward the door. “You really shouldn’t be worrying about your mom’s problems while you’re on vacation. If things get to the point where words are no longer working, I’ll ask your father to drop by. That should take care of everything in an instant.”

Damien nodded and waved goodbye. He and Sylph started down the road toward Ardenvale.

“Just who is your dad?” Sylph asked. “Is he really that strong? I’m not an expert of sensing magical energy, but I’m good enough to know that your mom is a pretty strong mage.”

“She is,” Damien said. “And honestly, I don’t know how strong my dad is. I haven’t seen him in years, and he never really did magic in front of me beyond small tricks. He works for the Queen, though, so he’s got to be up there.”

“Huh,” Sylph said. “That’s interesting. I wonder who he is. Someone that strong must be at least a little well known.”

“His name is Derrod, if that means anything to you.”

Sylph shook her head. “Nothing. He must go under a different name while he works.”

“Speaking of different names,” Damien said, slowing to a stop at a wooden bench at a small outcropping along the hill. It overlooked the majority of Ardenvale. He and Sylph sat down in it. “Do you think that my mom knows Delph? Going out and collecting artifacts… that sounds exactly what he did.”

“It would be just like him to use a slightly different name, wouldn’t it?” Sylph asked. “Either that or Delph is the slightly different name.”

“I wonder if he knows my parents,” Damien mused. “That would be weird. He’s never given me any indication that he knew who I was.”

“He’s a good liar,” Sylph pointed out. “You can try asking when he shows up to pick us up. I know what tells to look for when someone lies. If he does, I might be able to spot it.”

“Good idea,” Damien said. There was a short pause as the conversation ran out of topics. Damien’s mind drifted back to the morning.

“Stoppit!” Henry hissed, poking him with a mental finger. “How would you like it if I slung sludge around your room?”

Just stay in my mental space or something! I’ve seen you change things in there.

“It’s more comfortable in your normal head, so long as you don’t do weird things. Oh look, you’re doing it again.”

“Talking to Henry again?” Sylph asked with a smirk.

“Yeah,” Damien said, rubbing the back of his head. “My, uh, I’m a bit distracted. He’s just overreacting.”

A tiny mouth sprouted from Damien’s shadow. “I most certainly am not. If you had to live with someone else’s weird thoughts assaulting you while you tried to relax, you’d be mad too!”

Damien squished the mouth with a finger.

“About this morning,” he hedged.

Sylph raised an eyebrow. The tiny grin tugging at the corner of her mouth told Damien that she was enjoying this. “What about it?”

“Are we dating?” he finally managed, forcing the words out before his nerves could stop him.

“Do you want to be?” Sylph asked, the smile fading away as her tone turned serious. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I like you, but I’ve got a lot of baggage as well. Do you want to get any more involved in that?”

“I think I’m carrying around at least a bit of baggage myself, and he’s a sarcastic asshole that wants to destroy the world,” Damien said, finding a bit of confidence with her confirmation. “And I like you too.”

Henry rose from Damien’s shadow, taking on his three tentacled spherical form. “Perfect. It’s done now, right? So please–”

Sylph reached out and tapped Henry. He vanished with a pop, banished back into Damien’s mind.

“Sorry, Henry,” Sylph said. “I owe you my life and then some, but please give me a little more personal time with Damien. My Corruption antimagic works on that manifestation you make since it’s using Dark magic. I know you don’t like listening to this, so we’ll make it quick, okay?”

Henry let out a mental grumble and sank deeper into Damien’s mind, letting of the faintest sense of agreement.

“Did he agree?” Sylph asked.

“Yeah, actually,” Damien said. “I’m a little surprised that worked.”

“I think he just likes talking,” Sylph said. “It’s too bad the other Void creatures are less reasonable than him. You could collect them and give him something to do other than ride around in your head all the time. It probably gets boring.”

“I honestly didn’t think about it,” Damien said, a frown crossing his face as he put himself in Henry’s place. “I guess I should probably go get him a bunch of books to read, at the minimum.”

“That can wait,” Sylph said. “I bargained for a little time without him, so we’re not wasting it on that.”

“I’m not sure you can call that a bargain–”

Sylph leaned in, cutting his words off midsentence as she slipped under his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. Damien relaxed, letting the words die on his lips as he pulled her closer and let his eyes close.

They were still sitting there about thirty minutes later, when Princess Yui strode up the road toward them, flanked by Gaves and Bella and with a determined expression on her face.

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