Did I do some research into the relevant kind of injuries for this chapter? Yes. Did I do much of it? Not really, no. Should the descriptions in this be taken as accurate to such injuries? Absolutely not.

Random science-y time, not really relevant, just me speculating. So, lightning happens when a cloud builds up an electrical charge. That charge wants to equal itself out, and cloud-to-ground lightning happens when the charge does so by jumping between the cloud and the ground. So what would happen if lightning struck Ataraxia? Would the bolt just travel straight through the island and continue to the mainland? Could the charge equalize itself just by striking the island? If that happened, could charge eventually build up on the islands themselves and generate lightning between the islands? Or between the islands and the ground? That would certainly make Ataraxian life more… interesting.

The first thing Ingressus was aware of was pain. It hovered over him like a layer of fog, its touch feathering over his skin and seeping down into his muscles. The second thing he noticed were the voices, low but nearby. His ear twitched as he tried to listen and ow, why did even that hurt?

"–the best Proteheal user I know," one of them was saying. "And I know a lot. What happened was– bad, it's true, but it's over now. We just have to wait for him to recover."

"What if he doesn't wake up?" the second voice whispered.

"He will."

They were… talking about him, weren't they? Ingressus was awake. But… oh. Oh yeah, his eyes were still closed. He opened them and immediately slammed them shut again, wincing at the bright light that seemed determined to drill its way into his skull.

"I– Ingressus?"

It was okay. He could deal with this. Eyes could adjust to light. He needed to know why he hurt.

He cracked his eyes open again, blinking against the light until he could see without squinting. He heard a gasp and focused his gaze to see Galleous and Luciren staring at him.

"You're awake!" Luciren cheered, jumping up from her chair as though to leap onto the bed beside him. "You're awake and alive!"

She bounced in place, her hands gripping the edge of the bed. "Doctor Meirus told me to give you space but I'd be giving you the biggest hug ever if he'd let me. Oh, I'm so glad you're okay!"

Ingressus did his best to keep up with her words as he looked around, taking in where he was. He was lying on a bed, propped up on his side by a set of pillows and leaving the most painful of– what was it, burns? –exposed to the air. The room he was in was mostly empty– his bed, a few chairs, a chest off to the side, a table by his bed with a bottle of water sitting on its surface. And behind Luciren, Galleous was slumped forward in his chair, staring at Ingressus with a look of pure relief in his eyes.

"You do remember us, right?" Luciren was saying. "The zap didn't fry your brain? You know who we are, right?"

"Yeah," Ingressus said hoarsely. "I remember you." Void, his mouth tasted weird.

Galleous rested a hand on Luciren's arm. "Why don't you go get your mom and brother," he suggested. "Give Ingressus some space to breathe."

Luciren jumped up. "Oh! That's right!"

She bolted out the door. Ingressus swore he could see a trail of dust in her wake.

Galleous pulled his chair closer, sitting beside the bed. "How are you feeling?"

Ingressus lifted his head with a wince, looking down at himself. With relief, he saw he still had all his limbs; whatever had happened to him, it wasn't Selarin's Aggrosphere. But there were faint, dark burns arching around his ribs from his back, leaving his markings paler than normal in their wake.

"Sore," he said finally. "And… sunburned." He looked at Galleous again. "What happened?"

Galleous's gaze darkened. "Verdeus used Aggroshock on you."

The blaze of red echoed in Ingressus's mind at the word. He remembered the violent sizzle of the Song's aura in the half-second before impact, remembered the roar of thunder as his world had exploded.

"Luciren ran to get help," Galleous went on. "Rana Sendaris found you there on the ground, barely breathing, and ran you to the hospital. Your friends followed you all the way there. Kittrian had to force Volerik to go home and get some sleep; he was really worried about you. We all were. You've been out for two days, Ingressus."

The dark bags under Galleous's eyes testified to his words. Ingressus had been out cold, but it looked like Galleous had barely slept.

"Was anyone else hurt?"

"Not from the Song," Galleous said. "And no one as bad as you." His lip curled in bitterness. "Verdeus's aim was always good."

Ingressus tried to speak again, but his dry throat turned the words into a croak. He gestured at the water on the bedside table and Galleous scooped it up for him, sitting on the edge of the bed and helping him drink. The liquid felt like pure heaven in Ingressus's mouth, and he had to force himself not to gulp it all down at once.

"My students?" Ingressus said when he could speak again. "My friends?"

"They're all okay," Galleous promised. "Bruises, scrapes, that's all. Marina had a concussion, but Denarus fixed that up."

Ingressus sank back into the bed, hugging a pillow to his chest as he stared at nothing. "They got hurt defending me."

Galleous opened his mouth, closed it again, then shook his head. "Okay, kid. It's very noble of you to be worried about someone else's flesh wounds when you've just come out of a coma, but by the Songs, I know there's no way in Nether that this was your fault. Those brats have been trouble from day one, and you know that as well as I."

Ingressus did. Selarin and his friends hadn't limited their bullying to him. They picked on everyone; his clan was merely a source of ammunition for them, not the cause. Ingressus had almost appreciated it, even as he hated them.

"So what happened back there?" Galleous asked when Ingressus didn't argue. "I've never known things to go half this far between you."

Ingressus lifted his head again, shifting gingerly to prop himself up more. "Selarin and his friends were harassing my students at our training grounds. We told him to leave, and he told us to do the same. He fired his Aggrosphere to try to scare me off. I don't know if he intended to hit me, but he definitely wanted to make a point."

He shook his head. "When he fired his Song, I just… He could kill someone with it. You know what he's like, Galleous. He gets away with what he does all the time, and he never stops. Over and over, just because he can. Because he likes lording his power over people who can't match it. He's never been bold enough to attack me outright, but others haven't been so lucky. How long would it have been before someone died at his hand? I was the only one there who could stand up to him, so I challenged him to a duel, to defend the kids from him."

Galleous arched a brow. "Did you win?"

Ingressus cracked a smile. "Yeah, I won. I had him down and disarmed, but his friends intervened."

"Dishonorable cowards," Galleous declared.

Ingressus snorted in agreement. "They pinned me down. Selarin was ready to beat me while I couldn't fight back, but that was when the kids attacked them. One of the twins knocked Selarin off me, and then it was us against them."

"And that was when the Song hit you?"

Ingressus nodded, his mouth dry. He reached for the water and Galleous helped him drink again.

He hadn't even seen Verdeus in the moment before the Song hit. He remembered kicking Kesantus across the island, remembered seeing Selarin buried under a pile of angry children. But Verdeus himself…

Ingressus shifted his shoulder and winced. The pain was radiating from his back, starting somewhere just below the tip of his shoulder blade and spreading around to his side and over his back and neck. He had been blasted from behind.

Spatial awareness, he thought. Minimize your blind spots.

"Ingressus," Galleous said, putting the bottle back. "What you did was very brave. But also very dangerous."

"Many Aggressium Songs are too dangerous to use at close range," Ingressus argued. "I stayed—"

Galleous held up a hand. "Please, Ingressus, let me talk."

Ingressus fell silent. Galleous lowered his hand with a sigh, suddenly looking decades older.

"You have always been brave, Ingressus," he said. "And I admire you for that. If you see something that needs doing you do it, regardless of the risk or the odds against you. But zombie's breath, kid, you challenged someone you knew had a lethal Song and hated your guts. Please, Ingressus, by Ardonia's name… please, never scare me like that again."

Ingressus met Galleous's pleading gaze, swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat. Wordlessly, he reached out a hand and rested it between them.

Galleous gently closed his hands around Ingressus's, bowing his head. "Songs, kid, I thought I lost you."

Ingressus squeezed his hand. "I'm not going anywhere."

Kittrian and the twins arrived a few minutes later, all three of them rushing to Ingressus's bedside. Galleous scooted back to make room and Kittrian took Ingressus's hand in his place. "Oh, thank the world gods you're all right."

Volerik pressed in against her side, grinning wildly despite the bruise around his eye. "I broke Selarin's nose!"

"Good job!" Ingressus grinned, ignoring the flat look Kittrian gave him.

Volerik preened under the praise but then sobered, holding up his hand. "I hurt my thumb doing it, though. I think I punched him wrong."

Ingressus shifted, shoving a pillow under his arm to prop himself up. "Show me how you make a fist."

Volerik held out his hand, showing his fingers curled around his thumb. Ingressus nodded in understanding. "You need your thumb to be outside your fingers," he said, demonstrating. "Did I never show you that?"

"Is that not how everyone makes a fist?" Luciren asked.

"All right, you little menaces," Kittrian said dryly. "Ingressus, how are you feeling?"

"Less pain than I would've expected from a lightning strike," Ingressus noted.

"Meirus has been giving you a bunch of Proteheal sessions," Luciren said. "We could see your burns going down after every time." She shivered slightly. "It was cool, but also kinda scary how bad it was. You looked like a piece of steak someone lost in a fire. Now you look only a little singed."

Kittrian nudged her. "The point is, we're all glad you're all right. Please don't get hurt like this again."

"I promise that's not my intent," Ingressus said wryly.

He looked over the four. "What's happened since I was out?"

"I'm sure you'll be glad to know that Selarin and his friends didn't get away with this," Galleous said, a satisfied smirk on his face. "They've never done this much with this many witnesses before. They tried to play the victims, Verdeus especially, but that's a hard sell with the shape you were in. Rana and Meirus both testified to your condition, and all the kids there told how you were defending them."

"It wasn't just us," Luciren broke in. "Once they heard how much trouble Selarin was facing, like half the kids on the island showed up to tell how Selarin was always picking on them. It was the second-greatest thing I've ever seen."

At Ingressus's questioning look, Volerik elaborated. "The first was you beating the stripes off of him. I know you're good at swords but that was amazing."

"Galleous got the council to confiscate their Songs," Kittrian said. "They aren't getting them back until they shape up big-time. They'll be doing community service in the mines for the next year, so you won't be seeing much of them anymore."

"Good."

According to Matt, the mine supervisor didn't suffer arrogance lightly. Selarin's gang was long overdue for being cut down to size.

But as satisfying as justice was, there was another problem nagging at Ingressus's mind. Ten years ago, Tiris and Heralas had told him that his stay in Ataraxia was conditional: that he had to "behave himself." Ingressus had pushed his luck in the past, but never to this extent.

"Has the council given a verdict about me?"

Luciren gave a growl that would've made a zombie reconsider how hungry it was. Kittrian sighed.

"The council does intend to speak with you," she said. "Verdeus and the others did their best to demonize you. The council does want to hear your side of the story before passing judgment, but they have no justification to condemn you. The truth will win out."

"But not until at least tomorrow."

Everyone turned to see Meirus leaning against the doorway. The Sendaris doctor looked Ingressus over, arms folded casually.

"I can stall them longer than that if you need," he went on. "If you're in my hospital, you're under my jurisdiction before theirs. But I'm not letting them in to decide your fate before then."

"Thank you, Meirus," Galleous said.

Meirus shrugged. "Least I can do for the kid my nephew practically worships now."

Ingressus had a sudden feeling that whatever the council decided about him, his life was going to be different when he got out of the hospital.

"Well, the least I can do outside of what it's actually my job to do," Meirus corrected himself. "On the subject of which, I need to check up on my patient now that he's awake."

Luciren stared up at him with wide, white eyes. "Do we have to leave?"

Kittrian rested a hand on her shoulder. "We should give him room to work."

Volerik leaned over and squeezed Ingressus's hand. "We'll come visit you as often as he lets us."

Ingressus squeezed his hand back. "I look forward to it."

Meirus walked up to the bed as the others left. "All right, let me check your pulse." He rested a finger on Ingressus's neck. "Can you feel all your fingers and toes?"

True to Meirus's word, Ingressus saw neither hide nor hair of the council until the following evening. His family continued to keep him company as he recovered– not all of them could be there all the time; Kittrian and Galleous had jobs of their own they had to attend to– but the twins could hardly be dragged away, and Ingressus was never alone except when Meirus made the visitors leave and let him rest. Word had spread that he was awake, and soon his other students began paying him a visit as well. Percy proudly showed off a scraped elbow and bruised leg from the fight, and Madaris displayed his splinted finger like a trophy. Ailera and Saylor both came to see him as well, bearing some get-well-soon gifts and bringing news from the rest of Ataraxia.

The biggest surprise was when Keperin showed up. He crept into the room as though expecting to be struck or shouted at, hunched over with his ears drooping in shame as an apology rushed out of him.

"I didn't know they were following me," he said in a rush. "I just wanted to watch again, like you let me last time. I'm really, really sorry."

Ingressus didn't know how that encounter ended with him gaining another student. But if he knew Selarin at all, the Mendoris would have plenty of anger at his humiliation. Keperin would need knowledge of how to defend himself.

He could hear Meirus talking to the council before they arrived. "–your department, but medicine is mine. If I feel you are distressing my patient, I will exercise the right to kick you out until a later time."

Ingressus gestured to Volerik to put away the book they'd been looking through. The Ataraxians had known when he began searching for the cause of the dead resonances, and many had seen it as just another reason for suspicion of him. Ingressus wasn't going to grovel to the council, but there was no point in worsening his odds.

Volerik slipped the book into his inventory while Heralas spoke. "Do you believe that we will?"

"I don't know where you two stand in regards to the Voltaris these days," Meirus said. "Or this Voltaris in particular. I know you never cared, Remus, but I figured I would forewarn the rest of you."

"Are you going to say that you weren't suspicious at first?" Tiris asked.

"I was. But I grew out of it after he carried a kid with a thorn in her foot to me from halfway across the islands. At any rate, he's right through here."

Meirus appeared in the doorway, gesturing the council on through. Ingressus propped himself up on his arm as the three entered. He refused to appear as an invalid.

Remus was, as usual, the most sympathetic, wincing at the sight of Ingressus's burns. They had continued to fade with Meirus's burn cream and repeated Proteheal sessions, but they were still present and still painful.

"You sure you're okay to do this now?" Remus asked him in concern. "This is not that urgent of a matter."

Ingressus nodded firmly. "Let's get this done."

"Very well," Heralas said. She turned to Volerik. "Could you excuse us, dear? We have matters to discuss with Ingressus."

Volerik straightened, glancing at Ingressus. "Actually," he said, "I'm staying with my friend. With my brother."

Heralas blinked, taken aback by Volerik's declaration of loyalty. Volerik glanced at Ingressus again. "If that's okay with you, I mean."

"You're welcome to stay."

Tiris's ear twitched at their insolence. "So be it," he said, folding his arms. "Ingressus, you knew from the start the conditions of your stay in Ataraxia. Surely I don't need to spell out that attacking one of our citizens is an unacceptable act."

"Your conditions were that I not cause trouble," Ingressus said. "You have already sentenced Selarin and his friends to their punishment. Surely you are already aware of how long they have been the aggressors against many in Ataraxia. I stood up to him and his friends because no one else could."

"You did more than stand up to him, by all accounts," Heralas said. "You engaged Selarin Mendoris in violent armed combat. You fractured Kesantus's arm. Verdeus claims he used his Song against you in fear for his life. We are aware of Selarin's past behavior and have acted accordingly. We are here now to discuss yours."

"Broken bones will heal," Ingressus said. "Aggrosphere can be lethal. Selarin used that very Song to threaten me and my students, and in response, I challenged him to a duel. I did not force him into anything; he accepted the challenge of his own free will."

"Ingressus was defending us," Volerik spoke up. "I told you that already. He didn't do anything wrong."

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Remus said gently. "Whatever the reasons were, people did get hurt, some badly. We need to determine if what happened was avoidable."

"It was avoidable," Ingressus said, and Volerik turned to stare at him. "You could have acted to prevent Selarin's bullying long before."

Ingressus pushed himself to his feet, wincing as the motion strained his burned skin. Meirus stepped forward. "Ingressus, you sit back down—"

But Ingressus was already on his feet, steadying himself against the bedframe as the muscles in his legs protested the movement. He looked the three council members in the eye in turn.

"You call my actions unacceptable," he said. "But you've been more than willing to accept such acts from Selarin for over a decade. Since before I arrived here, he and those who associate with him have been mistreating those less powerful, both verbally and with physical violence. And you have done nothing more than the bare minimum to stop him. You cited a lack of proof for his actions, claimed you did not have the power to discipline an adolescent, and all along you have been letting his menace grow, and become more bold with every act he gets away with."

He pointed at the two Ardoni. "You call my clan barbarians, warmongers, bloodspillers. But our Master would never have allowed such a thing to go on for so long. I did what you would not: I showed him that he could not act with impunity."

"What would you have had us do?" Tiris demanded. "Administer corporal punishment on him, as you did? Perhaps that was acceptable in the Barrier Mountains, but not here. We have tried to stop him in the past, to no effect. But you are not in a position to act as judge, jury, and executioner against him. You should have informed us, or some other adult, to handle it."

Perhaps he could have, that was true. But experience had shown Ingressus that there were still many in Ataraxia who believed his problems were for him alone to deal with.

"Do you believe that I intended to duel him to the death?" Ingressus challenged. "What would that have gotten me? Despite the lethality of his Song, I do not believe that Selarin himself is capable of premeditated murder. I only intended to make him think twice before he continued to use his Song so blatantly that he killed someone by mistake."

"Galleous did give that argument as well," Remus spoke up. "He said that Selarin has shown himself to be irresponsible in the past, and that his latest actions have only proved that he is not fit to wield an offensive Song. I am not inclined to disagree."

"We have already decided Selarin's punishment," Heralas snapped. "We are here to decide Ingressus's. Selarin has shown a lack of responsibility to wield an Aggressium Song. Meanwhile, Ingressus has shown that he will gladly resort to violence as well, and drag children into his battles behind him."

She gestured at Volerik, at the bruises that still darkened his arm and eye and the scrape on his chin. Ingressus flinched at the reminder but Volerik jumped to his feet, clambering onto the bed to get to eye level with the rest of them.

"Ingressus didn't drag us into anything!" he yelled. "We helped him because we wanted to! He stood up for us so we stood up for him. Stop trying to get him into trouble because of his clan! That's why you're doing this, isn't it? He didn't destroy the resonances, so leave him alone!"

"Wh– what does this have to do with the resonances?" Tiris spluttered.

Volerik stomped on the mattress, then flung out his arms as he wobbled. "You blame him for everything! The resonances, Ailera's uncle dying, now you blame him for the fight when he's the one who got blasted by lightning! None of that even makes sense! All he did was stand up for us, so leave him alone!"

Ingressus held up a hand to calm Volerik. He didn't blame him for his frustration, but he wouldn't let Volerik get in trouble for arguing with the council. Maybe he should've asked Volerik to leave.

"I challenged Selarin to defend Volerik and our friends," Ingressus said. "When I disarmed him, his friends interfered and overpowered me. At that point, the children joined the fight to help me. Yes, it escalated beyond what I had intended, but not through any doing of mine."

He folded his arms, remembering just in time to not touch his burns. Songs, his legs hurt, his back hurt, his side hurt. He was getting a headache already from tensing up, and he tried to force himself to relax.

"You are here to decide my fate," he said. "So decide. If you have questions about what happened three days ago, then I will answer them. But I will not continue to have the same argument about my clan's nature that I have made dozens of times over the years."

"If I may add something," Meirus spoke up. "Whatever your verdict is, it will not be a private one. People noticed when Ingressus arrived, and they will notice if he disappears. He has gained significant goodwill from parents in Ataraxia for his defense of their children, and if he is banished, many will see it as you siding with Selarin."

Heralas gave him an irritated look. "Whose side are you on?"

Meirus simply expressed a silent fascination with the ceiling.

"No," Remus said. "Banishment is too severe a punishment, especially given how unsafe Ingressus would be in the outside world. I will not support such a verdict."

"We made our conditions clear," Tiris argued. "Ingressus knew them and broke them, and shows no remorse for it. There must be consequences."

"No, there doesn't," Volerik offered.

"I could argue that the injuries he has sustained have been consequence enough," Remus said. "It is clear that he has not fully recovered from them."

"Very true," Meirus said pointedly. "On that topic, Ingressus, please sit down."

Ingressus was half-leaning on the bedpost by this point, his knuckles pale as a cramp shot up his leg. He knew his pain was visible, in his clenched teeth, the tension in his muscles, the sweat forming on his brow, but he still refused to give in to it. Just a few moments longer, until the council gave their verdict and left.

"What will my punishment be, council?" he grit out.

"By the Songs, you're insane," Tiris whispered.

"A few months of community service once he recovers," Heralas said. "Not in the mines, we'll work out exactly where later. Is that acceptable?"

"Fine," Ingressus said, his teeth clenched.

The minute the council left Ingressus tried to sit again. But his lightning-damaged limbs gave out and he fell back to the bed. He flung out an arm and caught himself on his elbow, a strangled yelp of pain escaping him as the burns on his lower back scraped themselves against the sheet.

"Ingressus!" Volerik yelled.

Meirus was already there, pulling Ingressus up to free his burns. Ingressus's fist clenched into the sheets, his breathing tense as the feeling of fire licked across his back. Meirus held his hand over the wound, blue energy flickering around him.

"Thank you, kid, for that excellent demonstration of 'pride comes before a fall,'" he muttered, his Song casting a numbing glow over the wound. "Volerik, in my office there's a clay jar labeled with 'sleeping aid.' Bring me that and a bottle of water."

Meirus would not take no for an answer about the sleep aid, and when Ingressus woke up again, it was late the following morning.

"So is there a reason Meirus told me to make sure you don't try to stand up?" Galleous asked when he visited later.

Waiting around in a hospital was boring. Even with his visitors to keep him company, Ingressus was not accustomed to being confined inside. But Meirus had made it clear that every time Ingressus tried to overstep his recovery, Meirus would wait longer to declare him free to go. Leah had warned Ingressus not to call the doctor's bluff. So, reluctantly, Ingressus stayed bedridden.

Kittrian and Dusk were keeping him company that evening while Galleous and the twins left to pick up a meal for them. Luciren had snuck the cat in while Meirus's back was turned, and Dusk was kneading the sheets and purring happily. Apparently Kittrian had once lived in Northwind, which explained why she would hardly bat an eye at the same snowfalls that would drive the rest of Ataraxia indoors. She, like Ingressus, knew that an inch of snow was hardly a crippling snowfall.

"It's all what you're used to," Kittrian said. "Remember when I found you sticking out the summer heat in my pond your first year?"

Ingressus snorted. He had never been fond of scorching summer days. Shade and water had been a blessing for him his first summer in the south. Thankfully, the altitude kept Ataraxia cooler than it might've been.

"Kittrian?" he said.

The Kaltaris looked at him curiously. Ingressus propped himself up more.

"I– thank you, for everything," he said. "You've never cared at all that I was Voltaris. You accepted me as your neighbor from the start, without question, and you've never hesitated to help me when I needed it. Your kindness was what made this place bearable for me early on. I don't think I've ever said this, so… thank you, Kittrian."

Kittrian seemed to choke up at his heartfelt declaration, pressing a hand to her chest. She reached out, resting her hand over his.

"You are more than welcome, Ingressus," she said. "I know that your clan is not what mine believes them to be."

Ingressus clasped her hand in gratitude, but her words had sparked a question in his mind.

"How did you know?" he asked. "All the four clans have about mine are war and the horror legends. But you welcomed me before you had any idea what I was like."

"That… is true," Kittrian admitted. "So many centuries of war have twisted the way our clans can think of each other. I did once believe the stories, but then…"

She gazed in the direction of the outside. Ingressus cocked his head, wondering if she would finish her thought.

"I met the twins' father," she finished.

Ingressus's head shot up and he stared at her. "A–" he lowered his voice. "A Voltaris?"

Kittrian nodded, a fond smile on her face. "I don't suppose you knew him? Milorus?"

"I didn't." Ingressus said, shaking his head. That was for the best, though. It meant he might still be alive.

"Do the twins know?" he asked.

"I haven't told them," Kittrian said, casting a glance at Ingressus. "But I suppose I have something to thank you for as well. I vowed that I would never speak ill of their father's clan to them, but I was always afraid that the world would teach them its hostility in my place. But thanks to you, they've seen for themselves that such hostility is unfounded, just as I did."

Ingressus glanced out the doorway. What might it have been like, to have been told only the worst about half of your identity? To either live your entire life with unknowing self-hatred, or to learn the truth and be forced to confront your own ignorance?

Ingressus was still processing when Galleous and the kids returned with their meal. They made casual conversation as they ate, Ingressus sharing Meirus's predictions of when he could leave and Galleous sharing news from the rest of Ataraxia. Dusk begged a piece of chicken away from Volerik and curled up against Ingressus's ankles to sleep.

Kittrian had been distant during the meal, but as she finished a carrot, she spoke up. "Kids," she said. "There's something I have to tell you. Something I think you're more than ready to hear now."

The twins looked up at their mother with matching attentive expressions. Ingressus looked over as well. That had certainly been quick.

"I've never told you who your father was," Kittrian said. "It was for the sake of safety, his and ours. But now I think you're old enough to know the truth. Your father is Milorus Voltaris."

Luciren was on her feet in an instant. "YES! I knew it!"

Ingressus burst out laughing, causing Dusk to jolt awake in alarm. Kittrian gaped at her daughter. "Wh– what?"

Luciren smacked Volerik in the arm. "You owe me five irons!"

"I never agreed to that bet!" Volerik protested.

"Yeah, because you knew I was right!"

"Hold on, stop." Kittrian held up her hands pleadingly. "Luciren, what do you mean, you knew?"

"I figured it out," Luciren said proudly. "We're clanless, so our dad wasn't a Kaltaris. You've talked about him but never told us or anyone else who he actually was, so there had to be some reason not to. And you've always told us that the Voltaris weren't as bad as people say, but how would you have known that without meeting one of them? It really wasn't hard."

"She said it as a joke one time," Volerik added. "But then we realized how much sense it made."

"And you placed bets on it?" Galleous asked in amusement.

"Yes."

"No."

Kittrian still looked stunned, but shook off her surprise to give Ingressus and Galleous a flat look. "You two can stop laughing whenever it's convenient."

Ingressus's shoulders were still shaking with laughter and, ow, his burns stung but it was worth it. This was the best moment he'd witnessed in ages.

Galleous was still smiling, too. "So much for the big reveal."

"Oh, quiet, you," Kittrian retorted.

"But how did you end up with Milorus at all?" Ingressus asked. "My clan avoids the others as much as we can."

Volerik perked up. "Oh, yeah! What's the story?"

Luciren bounded up and down. "Yeah, Mom, give us the story!"

Kittrian sighed. "You want to know?"

Ingressus faltered, suddenly remembering that this story might not have a happy ending. But Kittrian's sigh had been amused, not resigned. Her fond smile was backed by– nostalgia, yes, but he didn't think it was grief or sorrow. And at the twins' vigorous nodding, Kittrian began the tale.

"I was living in Snowpass at the time," she said. "A town near the southern border of Northwind. Not quite near the Barrier Mountains, or so I had thought. But apparently it was close enough." She nodded to Ingressus. "I met him completely by accident. It was the middle of the Northwind winter, and I had misjudged the signs of a snowstorm. I was caught outdoors in a total whiteout– imagine a really foggy day, except very cold and windy, and the snow makes you feel like you're being pummeled with a cactus."

Volerik winced. "I'm glad we live here."

"I don't blame you," Ingressus said.

"It's a dangerous amount of cold," Kittrian said. "I took shelter in the first place I could find, which happened to be someone's root cellar. Well, it turned out Milorus had had the same idea."

"Wait, what was he doing in Snowpass?" Luciren said, frowning.

"A supply run, probably," Ingressus said. "Looking for medicine or other things we can't get in the mountains."

Kittrian nodded. "Yes, though I didn't know that at the time. I panicked when I saw him, I admit, though in my defense he did have a rather large ax. I remember grabbing up a jar of spider eyes to throw at him. Don't criticize, it was the first thing I could reach. But I guess neither of us wanted to make the first move: I was afraid of the ax, and Milorus had just wanted to get in and out fast, without having to fight. Eventually we came to an unspoken truce, to wait out the storm in peace. We kept to our opposite sides of the cellar, keeping an eye on each other and hoping that whoever owned the house wouldn't come down."

Ingressus wondered if he would've had the same reaction as Milorus in such a situation. While he was relieved for the sake of his friends' existence that Milorus hadn't chosen to fight, he couldn't help but feel that Milorus had gotten extremely lucky in who he had encountered. Any other Ardoni, and he could have paid the ultimate price for his hesitation.

"The plan of waiting and ignoring each other went perfectly smoothly for maybe an hour," Kittrian said. "And then Milorus started acting… weird. He was inspecting the wall on his side of the cellar really intently, even putting his ear up to it like he could hear something on the other side. I thought he was trying to trick me somehow– there were no adjoining homes, there shouldn't have been anything on the other side. But he kept at it, even knocking on the wall at times. I still ignored him, until he started hacking at the wall with his ax."

Well, this had taken a turn Ingressus didn't expect.

"I yelled at him, of course," Kittrian said. "But then he broke through to a space on the other side of the wall. It turned out that the owners of the house were criminals– they were holding children for ransom."

Yeah. Whatever Ingressus had been expecting, it definitely wasn't this. Volerik nudged him, whispering, "This is even better than your campfire stories."

"Milorus didn't hesitate for a second to run to the children's aid," Kittrian recalled. "He went right to their side, reassuring them and bringing them out, checking them for injuries and digging some food out from a barrel for them. And then the kidnappers came to investigate the noise."

"And then you and Dad ganged up on them in an epic battle for goodness?" Luciren said excitedly.

Kittrian snorted. "I doubt you could call me hitting them over the head with any heavy thing I could find 'epic,' but yes. Milorus and I did team up against them. The snowstorm was still raging outside, so we tied them up and threw them in their own secret room until the town council could deal with them."

Galleous nodded approvingly. "Very fitting."

"We thought so, too," Kittrian agreed. "The storm went on overnight and into the next day. Milorus was great with the kids: he kept them calm, made sure they felt safe– he was nothing like what I had been told the Voltaris were like. It really got me questioning what I thought I knew.

"When the storm finally let up, we went our separate ways. We agreed to pretend we'd never seen each other, and we convinced the kids to keep quiet, too. The kids never told, but Milorus and I… well, we were less good at keeping our part of the deal. We didn't tell anyone, but we never forgot about each other."

"Awwww!" Volerik said with a grin. Kittrian laughed.

"It does sound rather cliche," she admitted.

"So wait, what happened then?" Luciren glanced at Ingressus nervously as she spoke.

Kittrian sighed sadly. "We had been making plans to run away, to find somewhere far from the clans where we could be together and have our family. But then one day when we met, Milorus told me his clan had been getting suspicious of him. It was too dangerous for us to keep meeting. For both our sakes– all our sakes, you two were already on the way by then– we had to say goodbye."

"But wait, why would the Voltaris be a danger?" Luciren asked.

"Because we had to stay hidden," Ingressus said solemnly.

The twins turned to look at him but he dropped his gaze. He didn't want to say it, to expose them to the dark possibility. But didn't they have a right to the truth?

He sighed inwardly and explained. "If Kittrian ever let anything slip, if she was ever followed, or if it turned out to all be a trick– then at best, Milorus would be as good as dead. At worst, his entire camp would be. That's… that was a big reason why I stayed here in the beginning: I was afraid it was a trick, to get me to lead raiders back to the rest of my people."

He glanced up, hoping they would understand. "All of this has happened before. If Milorus's camp found out about you, Kittrian… they couldn't afford to take that chance."

Please, he thought. Don't ask any more.

He wasn't proud of some of what his clan had resorted to in order to survive. They didn't have a choice, it wasn't that they wanted to be so ruthless, but they couldn't afford to assume the best of other Ardoni. It was in the name of survival, of doing all they could to exist in a world that was determined to deny them that.

A somber silence had fallen. Luciren was hunched over in her chair, her knees drawn to her chest as she stared at nothing. He saw Volerik take her hand in his, saw Kittrian rubbing her hands together at his words.

"I don't think Milorus was caught," he said. Songs, he couldn't bear to see them like this. "If he had been, word would've reached my father sooner or later, and I never heard about anything like that happening."

"So he could still be out there," Volerik said hopefully.

"Maybe," Ingressus agreed.

He wondered what he would've done in his father's place, if he had been faced with such a scenario. One of his clanmates falling for the enemy, endangering the rest of them whether they'd meant it or not. Would he have been able to do what needed to be done? Would he have risked trying to find another way?

He wished he could've known for sure what had happened to Milorus. If Ingressus were in his father's place, he would've known for sure if he were caught– or, if he hadn't been, he would've known from the lack of information.

"Well, it's like Sukey said," Luciren said. "The fighting can't go on forever. Maybe when it's over, we can go and find him."

No one had the heart to burst her bubble.

Ingressus was in the hospital for a few more days. Meirus finally let him start walking again, helping him limp from the bed to the door, then down the hall and back, gradually letting him go further and further each time Ingressus proved he could handle it without collapsing. Each Proteheal session shrank his burns more and more, steadied his lightning-damaged muscles bit by bit. Aggroshock was powerful, but so was Proteheal.

Finally, when the burns had faded almost out of existence and Ingressus could walk and stand normally again, Meirus let him go, slapping a jar of burn cream into his hand as a goodbye.

Galleous, Kittrian, and the twins had all come to celebrate his release. They walked together across Ataraxia, Ingressus savoring the evening light, the cool breeze, the smell of the flowers that lined the path. It was amazing, what you didn't realize you would miss until you were deprived of it for a time.

"You!"

Oh, and there came something Ingressus hadn't missed at all. He turned to see Selarin himself storming towards him, his face twisted with fury.

"You Songs-cursed menace!" he snarled. "You'll pay for what you did to me, you—"

Galleous and Kittrian had closed ranks in front of him the minute Selarin had appeared, but Ingressus brushed past them and advanced on his adversary. Selarin struck at him but Ingressus shoved his hand aside, slamming his own fist into Selarin's gut. Selarin's voice was cut off with a wheeze and Ingressus swept his leg from under him, sending the Mendoris crashing to the ground.

Ingressus planted his foot on Selarin's chest, letting himself savor his rival's gasping as he struggled to get his breath back.

"Stay away from me and my friends," Ingressus warned, his voice like stone. "You have no Songs to hide behind anymore. You've seen what I can do. You won't get another warning."

Selarin stared up at him, a glimmer of fear in his eyes. Ingressus turned away as though he were an uninteresting rock, hearing a passing kid cheer.

Before Selarin could rise, Kittrian crouched beside him. "Ingressus said you won't get another warning, but I'll give you this one: stay away from my kids. All of them."

(7154 words)

Holy crud, this feels so cliche. They just meet each other once and then can't help but keep looking for each other, even despite the dangers and common sense? They barely know each other, but they keep seeking each other out anyway? Does this feel remotely plausible? Help me, I don't know how this stuff works! I don't do romance!

I discovered that "keraunos" means "lightning." I also discovered that that's a cool fantasy name. Missed foreshadowing opportunity there, whoops.

And I think I need to go reassure the readers of my other fic that I'm not dead, so there will be a (hopefully) short break while I give them another chapter.