For the second time in minutes, Damien's eyes opened. The first thing that registered in his mind was that the old man was no longer there, and so were the chairs. It was like he'd never been there at all. The second thing that then flashed through his mind was that he knew what Daimen had been referring to— at least a guess. And if what he thought was correct, then he sure had a world of pain in his future.

  With a huge sigh, Damien moved towards the bed, plumping onto it with another great sigh. He looked down on his brother's sleeping form, the peaceful, happy look on his face. With a sad smile, Damien placed a palm on Keilan's foot.

  "Get well soon, Kei. We've got a long, hard road in front of us, and I need your help to keep from stumbling."

  There was a beat of silence, and then Damien's eyes widened when another voice said.

  "Hmm, is that so?"

  Damien slapped a palm over his face, praying with feverish gusto that the floor might open up and swallow him. With reddened cheeks, he looked down on the lying form of his brother, meeting the bright, ocean-blue eyes that stared back at him in turn.

  "You heard that, huh?" Damien eeked out.

  "Yup," Keilan smiled. "Louddddd and clear. Wait till I tell Gray about this."

  Instantly, Damien's expression changed and he gazed down at Keilan with a look that had once made kings and powerful beasts quiver in their boots.

  "If you so much as whisper a thing to Gray," Damien growled. "I'll strangle you in your sleep."

  Instead of feeling threatened, as he should have, Keilan's eyes twinkled with mirth. "How do you plan on doing that, huh?" He smiled. "I barely sleep, remember?"

  Trying again, Damien leaned down a few inches off Keilan's face and then growled again. "Don't test me, Kei."

  "Now you just look like someone with constipation. Are you constipated, Dame?"

  Damien blanched and then snapped backward in horror. "You're evil."

  Keilan chuckled. "No argument there."

  Damien's only reply was a grunt. "How long have you been awake?"

  "About the time you were still standing over there—" he pointed over to Damien's previous location. "—looking into the distance like a brain dead person. I was somewhat surprised you didn't react when I woke."

  Damien sighed and then pushed his brother a little bit to the side. "Scooch," he said and then crashed back first onto the bed, side by side with Keilan. Ignoring the grunt and scathing look his brother sent his way, Damien explained.

  "Yeah, I wasn't in the present at the time. By any chance, did you see another man when you woke? Ancient looking, with tiny whisps of white hair on his head. Height somewhere around the short side and making heavy use of a walking stick. Did you see him?

  Keilan turned his face to Damien while his body stayed facing upwards.

  "No," he frowned. "Why?"

  Damien sighed. "I think I've just met my first immortal— no, not think. I'm pretty certain I've just met my first immortal."

  Keilan's eyes turned dangerously sharp, and Damien forced down the shiver that almost crept up. He hated it when Keilan did that.

  "Explain," his brother said. More like commanded than a request, but Damien didn't mind.

  "Well, you remember the portal Merak conjured for us when he sent us here?"

  Keilan nodded.

  "Well..." And then Damien proceeded to explain how the old man had picked him out of the spatial gateways without the awareness of Gray or even the man himself who'd conjured up the portal.

  He explained completely how the man had in no subtle way told him against inquiring his name, and then revealed how the man had revealed his knowledge of Damien's father.

  Damien didn't leave out anything. He explained how his second meeting with old man Tesulsn had gone and the short story he'd given about the background of his dad, and then he ended it all with the explanation of Daimen and what they'd talked about. When Damien finally finished, a little bit over half an hour had already passed, and his breath was almost gone."

  Keilan was silent for a while, his eyes focused on Damien but also far away.

  "So, about this Daimen," Keilan said slowly. "He awakened when I was ambushed by the mad triplets?"

  Damien nodded. "Yes."

  "I'm still confused. Where did he come from? How did he possess your body? And not only did he possess you, he unlocked two new affinities you didn't know about. How?"

  Damien grimaced. He didn't know what to feel about the answers in his head. "I think Daimen stems from a part of me that would have been, had I not known—" he coughed. "—your family."

  "Our family," Keilan said firmly. "And I think I agree with the explanation."

  Damien frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Let's not pretend you're a good person, Dame," Keilan snorted. "Left to your own devices, you'd erase anybody that so much as looks at you sideways."

  "That's untrue!" Damien protested with a full turn, facing Keilan.

  "I love you, brother. I truly do." Keilan smiled. "But I will not lie to you to pamper your ego. Compared to most people, your morality bar is below average. And I accept you despite it all."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Damien, feeling subdued, could only murmur. "I didn't think I was like that."

  "Yeah, you sure about that?" His brother smirked. "Okay. Tell me, Dame. What do you feel when you think about the millions that died at your hands back in Xeris?"

  "Sad?" Damien said, unsure. He could admit he'd felt a great deal of sadness and regret right after that horrendous event, but now all he felt was a mild sense of sadness when he thought back to it.

  "You see?" Keilan said. "Sadness, and probably not a great deal of it, also."

  And then he flicked Damien on the head.

  Damien yelped and rubbed his forehead. He glared at Keilan. "What was that for?!"

  "Nobody our age commits a massacre like that and only feels a tiny bit of sad sadness in less than a week, Damien!"

  "What do you want me to do, then?!" Damien shouted back. "I can't force the sadness, it'll only be a great insult to those people!"

  Keilan sighed. "I can't tell you what to do, Dame. But don't just let your new alter ego lead you into accruing so much negative karma you die from a knock to the head by a child. You need to atone for this, Dame. You know that, right?"

  "Yeah," Damien nodded. "I do."

  "Good," his brother smiled. "You won't walk alone; I'll be by your side. Like you said: "I need you to keep me from stumbling"."

  Damien groaned. "What would it take for you to forget that sentence?"

  "Nothing," Keilan replied. "That sentence is priceless."

  "I'll kill myself."

  "And leave me alone in this hungry world?" Keilan glared at him. "Don't even think about it."

  Damien huffed. "Fine," he said quietly. "You wouldn't survive without me, anyways."

  Damien waited for a witty comeback, but instead, Keilan changed the topic.

  "So, about this old man," he said slowly. "Tesulsn?"

  Damien nodded, while he stared straight up at the plain, white ceiling.

  "How sure are you that he's immortal?"

  Damien took a deep breath, shifted a lock of gray hair away from his eyes, and then opened his mouth to—

  [You have a visitor,] Gray's voice interrupted just as Damien began to speak.

  Before Damien could react, the room brightened just as a black line appeared in mid-air, and with sharp swiftness, it parted right from the middle, transforming into a circle with a mix of blue, black, and purple colors shining at the round edge, twining around each other like mating snakes.

  From the purple-black screen that made up the inside of the circle, Damien watched as a black booted foot—with a metallic-looking material wrapped around the soles—stepped through.

  They didn't have to wait long for the rest of the body to come through, and when it did, Damien laid eyes on the form of a male youth in his early twenties or late teens. The young man had a shock of deep black hair, and his eyes were the color of deep sapphire, though thankfully without any runes this time.

  There was a beat of silence as Merak took in everyone in the room, glancing past Gray with nothing but a nod, and then doing the same to Damien, though without the nod. He focused on Keilan, and with a narrowing of his eyes, he spoke.

  "We need to talk."

  Damien reckoned Keilan also detected the severity in the man's tone because they both rose into a sitting position the next instant.

  "What is it?" Keilan asked.

  "The thing you took from the Aveanii outpost," the other man began, surprisingly ignoring Keilan's apparent lack of respect, "I assume Gray has informed you of what it is?"

  Keilan nodded. "A fragment, a piece of a Celestial."

  "No, not a piece," Merak shook his head with a look at Gray. "Saying the word 'piece' implies the Celestial essence itself was destroyed. No, that is impossible. What you're carrying is a piece of the authority required to claim the Seal of Air."

  Daimen frowned. "If a Celestial can't be destroyed, then how did its authority shatter?"

  [A Celestial and their Essence are two different things entirely,] Gray answered. [They command the essence, becoming it partly, but that's temporary. If a Celestial is sundered, the entity holding the power is destroyed and their authority is severed and then scattered into the cosmos in physical form.]

  "A Fragment," Damien nodded alongside Keilan, understanding finally.

  "Yes," Merak continued. "And the next person who gathers all the fragments of that Essence gets to become the next Celestial Aspect, hence the gold rush that's happening right now in the wider cosmos."

  "Wait," Keilan said. "Gold rush?"

  "Yes, gold rush," Merak confirmed with a nod. "Did you think people didn't want them? Boy, this is a Fragment."

  Beside him, Damien felt it as Keilan closed his eyes and then took a deep breath. When he opened it, he asked. "So, how doomed am I?"

  "Good that you asked," Merak said. "As of this moment, you only have the Aveanii Supreme Primarch after you, though he doesn't know you're the one who stole his prize."

  Damien already knew who a Primarch was; a Supreme Primarch, on the other hand, was a new thing to him. He assumed it was probably a higher-ranked title than the ordinary Primarch, though it didn't hurt to ask.

  "Yes," Merak nodded. "A Supreme Primarch is a being on the cusp of the next realm: The Transcendent Realm. We're the equivalent of the Divine Kings, and as such, our powers are more powerful than the average Ascendant."

  "I didn't know it belonged to someone like that," Keilan whispered with a tone of resignation.

  "It doesn't matter. You've made your bed and will have to endure the rocks you find under it. For the moment, Primarch Ty'ranth doesn't know who exactly consumed the fragment, and so he's fallen to the person with the most influence amongst the escapees."

  "Vanis," Damien said with shocked realization. "We have to warn him!"

  "Worry less about the Verrille Scion and worry more about your brother, boy," Merak said with irritation. "The Verrille boy has two powerful Ascendants to protect him. You, on the other hand—"he turned to Keilan, "—have none."

  The silence that followed was such that Damien could have heard the dim bump bump of Merak's heartbeat. It didn't last though, as his face morphed into a deep, angry scowl, and then he stood—

  "Oh sit yourself back down, child," Merak said, this time with a subtle tug of his lips and a little twinkle in his eyes. Weird. "You're always so fiery when it comes to people you love, which could be a failing someday, but for now, I approve."

  The young looking Ascendant turned towards Keilan. "I have chosen to place you under my protection, same as your brother. Is that okay with you?"

  "Are you joking?!" The relief in Keilan's voice made Damien smile. "Yes! Yes! How many times should I say it?!"

  "Once is enough," Merak said with his hand raised in a calming gesture.

  "So," Damien said excitedly. "Now that Keilan is under your protection, when will you destroy the Aveanii Supreme Primarch thingy?"

  [Merak will not be doing any such thing,] Gray said, spoiling the mood. [The Aveanii dominion might not be as powerful as the galactic core nations, but that doesn't mean they don't have eyes on them. The death of their leader would draw a level of attention we do not want.]

  "Correct," Merak nodded. "And that doesn't count the fact that while this dominion is a weak one, there are more powerful Dominions out there. In specific, the dominion which this one separated itself from. They might be estranged, but a parent is always a parent. They will always look after their children."

  "So what do we do?"

  "You both? Nothing," Merak said. "I came here to enlighten you on the dangerous situation you've unknowingly found yourself in, but there's nothing you can do to stop it."

  "What if we inform Narkyra," Damien suggested. "She could openly protect Keilan."

  [No!] Gray shouted right at the same time Merak said with extreme seriousness.

  "No."

  Damien frowned. "Why?"

  "Excepting the fact where the Verrille Ascendants would kill you themselves to get it, after all, they were the ones fated to have acquired it from its original founders," Merak said, "there are other beings whose ears this would reach. You do not want this information reaching the ears of the core nations."

  The severity with which Merak had spoken, coupled with the vehement nod he got from Gray, clued Damien in on the seriousness of the situation. He nodded at both Ascendants beings, eliciting a nod from them both. That didn't last long, though, because the satisfaction on Merak's face instantly transformed into a deep scowl, which he sent Damien's way.

  "Your turn."