Raenef spent the days before the Council working on his weather magic abilities. Working in the circular study overlooking the most desolate parts of his realm, he was able to focus intently on the task at hand. Peripherally, he noticed the clink of a plate being set on the table, and the door opening as Eclipse left the room with the old empty plate, but he kept writing, too absorbed in his work. He knew Eclipse was impressed by his dedication because he brought all the meals up instead of asking Raenef to come down and eat like usual. By a strange coincidence, Eclipse brought up his favorite meals too.

Normally, Raenef couldn't even focus for more than a few hours, but he felt motivated now. He was unable to get the image of his parched lands out of his head, or stop thinking about all of the people living there. They probably had trouble with water, with growing crops, and with herding cattle.

Growing up in Puhel, he knew all about the constant struggle to ration water adequately and endure the constant heat. Before, he had simply endured it all with his fellow thieves, but now, he was a Demon Lord. And these, he was starting to realize, were his people. That made them his responsibility, even though right now they were afraid of him.

And anyways, he reasoned, wasn't that Chris' problem with demons? That they never helped, they only hurt, they were cruel and evil and never nice. But Raenef could be nice, and he could help. Maybe if he were able to win the trust the townspeople and villagers living in his realm, the clerics would understand not all demons were bad. As Raenef struggled to focus, writing pages of notes in preparation for the weatherworking tonight, he thought of the people, and how to gain their trust.

The main reason he had such trouble with weather magic, even though he had been trying for the last few months, was that it required a lot of intense preparation beforehand. One bit of weather magic affected the entire system for hundreds of miles around, so doing the exact right steps was as important as putting a lot of power in.

Power was something Raenef had never had a problem with, but the concentration to map out the spells had always been lacking; now, he was almost finished. The main reason the land was so dry was that the mountains blocked the water from coming over. He hoped that he could summon water to his land from over the mountains before it all disappeared as snow. He didn't need a huge amount, not enough to hurt other lands or to cause flooding, but just enough to give his people a boost until the dry season was over.

With an exhausted sigh, Raenef threw down his pen in satisfaction. "Eclipse! I've finished, come and see!"

Eclipse appeared with a pop. He was wearing his usual purple robes, but Raenef noticed with a hint of excitement that he had a smear of flour on his nose, right above his forehead. Had he been making cookies?

Eclipse gravely surveyed Raenef's diagrams before nodding, gracing Raenef with a genuine smile. "Very well done, Master Raenef! I could not have done it better myself. Now come on, you need to rest up for tonight."

As they walked together down the stairs, Eclipse continued with a gleam in his eye, "We might have time to eat something before we start. Maybe you should go look and see what there is." Raenef bounded down to the kitchen with a (not at all girly) squeal of glee.

It was windy that night. Raenef brushed chocolate chip cookie crumbs off his front as he watched Eclipse writing out the magical diagrams on the castle's courtyard. Nervously, he reviewed the procedure in his head again. His job was to walk forward and gather his power to him as he walked through the rows of characters. No incantation needed, not here in his own home, and just... pull the clouds. Simple. Really.

Raenef was optimistic though. It would be hard, but he believed he could do it. He had grown up in the past couple years; he wasn't a child anymore, and he could do magic. No matter how difficult it seemed. Raenef gulped. Oh well, no going back now, right?

The wind whipped violently across the sky down, branches flying through the air. Eclipse's robes were flying up and around his calves, and his hair streamed back behind him. So handsome! Eclipse's hand was steady though, the runes he was tracing deliberate and precise. His tipped claws gleamed in the light of the rising moon, and Raenef felt anticipation rising in his chest. Almost time now.

The white ink was almost flourescent in the faint light, and the procession of rows radiating out in circles from the center of the courtyard seemed to march in front of Raenef's eyes. Eclipse was almost next to him now, finishing off the very last figure. Then Eclipse stood up and started backing away without looking; his gaze never left Raenef, looking at him with dark eyes.

Raenef moved forward quickly, before he could start shaking. He swallowed again, rapidly. When he hit the border of the magic, he gathered all the power he could to himself, hands shaking. By the time he had passed over three rows of runes, they had started to glow. By four, he could feel his hair standing on edge, clothes whipping up against the force of his magic. It was getting hard to breathe, the air was so charged, and he almost panicked. Thinking of his people, and how disappointed Eclipse would be, he pulled himself together, and took the final few steps to the bare area in the center.

Raising his arms, he casting his thoughts out as far as he could, to the north, to the mountains and the water there. He pulled at the air as hard as he could, wrenching as hard as he could. When Raenef felt the clouds finally give, just a little, coming towards him, up over the top peaks of the mountains, he finally collapsed in a heap.

"Raenef. Raenef!" Someone grabbed his shoulder and shook him, gently.

He blinked his eyes muzzily, lifting his head up from where it was pillowed by his folded arms. Ouch... Every muscle in his body protested the stretch after the hours-long magical carriage ride. A carriage? What were they doing? When he tried to ask, all that came was "Wha?"

"We have arrived, Lord Raenef. I suggest you get up and arrange yourself into some semblance of order."

Finally, Raenef's eyes finally focused on Eclipse's face, leaning down close to his. Why was he so... blonde?

"Your hair could also do with some care," Eclipse added, handing him a brush and reaching out to push most of Raenef's hair out of his face. "Now, I suggest you get yourself cleaned up; the Council will adjourn in three hours, and we have a lot of review to do." Eclipse stacked a large number of ominously large books on a nearby chair before moving off to get Raenef's dress robes.

Raenef sat up, looking around. Their carriage, provided by the locals and enchanted by Eclipse, was rather roomy, with several plush chairs and a curtain for changing behind. Everything was decorated in black and gold (with some violet splashes), which Raenef realized were his colors. Pretty snazzy.

"How did I get here? What happened last night."

"Don't worry my lord, we succeeded last night. Everything's fine. I just didn't want to wake you this morning, you were so tired, so I carried you in here." Eclipse said all this absently, without a care, as he dug through a chest full of clothes, but Raenef could feel a blush rising in his cheeks. He had passed out and Eclipse carried him inside. And then had carried him out to the carriage. Eclipse's arms had been around him. Raenef could only hope he hadn't drooled on him or anything. Or even worse, tried to cuddle.

Raenef was distracted from his worrying by a satisfied "Ah!" of satisfaction from Eclipse. The clothes that Eclipse took out with a worrying amount of enthusiasm were the same colors, black with gold trimming. Raenef like pretty things, but gold foil lace wasn't one of his favorite things. He sighed. If nothing else, this meeting was certainly going to be itchy. Eclipse's own clothes were less elaborate, black with royal purple.

Raenef set aside the brush, and started eating some food that Eclipse had yet to put away. If he had to wear uncomfy clothes, he was at least going to be full.

When Eclipse turned around, his eyes narrowed at the vision of Raenef with cheeks bulging, crumbs littered down his front. "And now, my lord, you need to change into these. I'll quiz you on the names and titles of the other demon lords while you change."

Raenef visibly deflated and got up sadly. Closing the privacy curtain behind him, he started struggling with his buttons, trying to focus on Eclipse as he started with Lady Obscura the eighth. "Um... lady of..." Oh drat! Raenef kneeled down, scrabbling after the fastening that had slid out of his fingers. "Storms! She's the lady of storms."

Eclipse made an encouraging noise. "The lady of what kind of storms?"

What? Raenef distractedly took the outermost of his clothes off, leaving him in just a shift and his boxers. What kind of storms? Why did there need to be more than one kind of storm? "Big storms?" he ventured.

"No. Not at all. She is the demon lord of lighteningstorms." Eep. Eclipse sounded annoyed. "And do you know who the lord of water storms is?"

Strom maybe? "Um..." Raenef shucked off his final clothes, pushing them off his hips down onto the floor. Oh. He was naked in the same room as Eclipse. With only a curtain between them. There was a pause in Eclipse's voice, as though the same thing had just occurred to him.

Raenef felt uncomfortably warm, and his imagination went into overdrive for a second before he firmly suppressed all thoughts of Eclipse throwing back the curtain, violet eyes raking over Raenef's body before – oh yeah, definitely not thinking anything like that at all. Raenef hurriedly picked up his formal outerwear and struggled to get dressed before he said anything stupid.

Raenef took a deep, calming breath. Storms, right. Storms. The demon lord of water storms. "Strom?"

Eclipse cleared his throat. "Raenef, you should not guess, you should know. But yes, it is Strom, one of the more powerful lords to dwell in the northern ranges."

Raenef finally finished the last of the tiny buckles on his boots, and came out for inspection.

"Very nice," Eclipse said, reaching out to adjust a poorly fastened button on Raenef's side.

"Eclipse, why don't I control something? After all, Krayon gets dreams, a lot of other lords have really cool realms. What do I get?"

"My Lord, you don't have an intangible realm at all. But remember, you have control of all the land for miles and miles around your palace. Those who have control of a idea, or a force of nature, are able to influence that one aspect of the world. But your lands, no other lord can encroach upon unless you let them."

"You mean, I could stop Krayon from entering my lands?"

Eclipse smiled in satisfaction. "Indeed. But even more than that, you could stop Krayon from entering the dreams of anyone living there; the instant a flood controlled by Strom entered your land, it would lose all magical power and continue on simply as water. Not that it wouldn't do damage if it had enough momentum, simply that it would no longer be controllable by anything but the natural laws of nature and physics." He gestured airily with his hand, and continued, "Not that you do that, of course. Blocking another's rightful power is a great insult, but... if you needed to, you could. All your lands are under your protection."

So if things did break out into conflict, Raenef could stop them. "But Eclipse, wouldn't that take a lot of power?"

"Well, yes." Eclipse gave Raenef a subtle, compelling look. "But my lord, I think if it came down to it, you would have enough. If it meant the difference between death and survival." At Raenef's troubled look, Eclipse said "You're worried about this council?"

Raenef nodded. "Eclipse, Chris is my friend. I'm not sure I could fight him if he didn't attack me first. I don't want to fight him at all, even then."

"And you're worried that the other demon lords won't like that," Eclipse finished for him. He sighed when Raenef nodded earnestly. "I won't lie to you Raenef, I understand your worry. This might become a tense situation. The demons are afraid; the power of the gods is growing, bolstered by the faith of their clerics and humanity's hatred for us." Eclipse spread his hands helplessly. "We shall see what happens later today. Now let us finish, so you don't embarrass either of us."

They continued studying names and ranks for the next few hours, until they had finally covered the hundred most powerful of the council, and some of the lesser demon lords as well.

Then, a hollow bell sounded throughout the area. The Council of Demon Lords was about to start.

A/N: I'm having trouble telling just how smart our new Raenef is. Can he really study for several hours? Can he really do complex weather magic? I have no idea. If anybody has any feedback on that, just review and let me know!