“You’re back!!” Kylan gleamed the moment Feather stepped into the guest hall they’d allowed the child to stay in, right beside Lilino’s nursery for children under the age of twenty. They’d figured out that the young boy he’d rescued was only eleven years old, and Feather happily embraced him again when he was bombarded and tackled with a hug. “How did the meeting go?! Did you show her who’s boss?!” Kylan’s eyes sparkled, Feather smiling as he gave a quick ruffle to the boy’s hair.

  “Sure did! She even gave me permission to take Cirrus wherever I want and whip him into shape, which means we’re gettin’ outta here soon!” he chirped, waltzing on into the room with Kylan stuck to his hip, Cirrus, Nefion, and the rest of them filing into the large quarters behind them.

  As far as he was aware, Nefion had been the one actually taking care of Kylan and spending time with the boy. From what Feather understood about them, they weren’t often at the castle and were usually exploring the seas and strengthening alliances throughout all the many kingdoms and planets that Lilino was aligned with. Which meant Nefion was very good with people and had been assigned with taking care of Kylan as well as the mythical beast they'd rescued that was being kept in the same room.

  It had ended up transforming into somewhat of a humanoid figure, taking the shape of a very beautiful young lady, her skin as white as a pearl with small fins in place of ears taking shape along her features. Her hair was a soft and silky blue, the color of clear waters when they could reflect a bright summer sky. Her eyes were also clear, reflecting whatever she was looking at, so when the mythical beast saw Feather, he could see his fair skin and golden curls illumining in their clear depths.

  “Ah! Young human, hello!” Tamillia smiled kindly, as that was the name she explained she went by. All mythical beasts had human forms, as once they reached the stage of being mythical, they would have already cultivated the ability to transform their appearance into whatever was most convenient for those around them. Of course, Tamillia didn’t look strictly like a human by any means… not when she had fins curving around smooth holes for ears and a small serpent’s tail protruding under her flowery dress and webbed hands to match… but it was close enough, and she looked just fine.

  “Hi there, Tammy,” he grinned, hand softly kneading at Kylan’s head as he greeted her. “Sorry for not checking in on you earlier. I know Eve already healed you, but you’re certain that you’re not under the influence of the concept of evil anymore, correct?”

  “Oh, no, no, I’m quite sure I am not! I feel as true to myself as can be!” she smiled, serpent’s fangs showing when she gave a toothy smile, Feather mirroring her excitement. “I even tested it myself! I made sure to check my blood when Eve was healing me, so I’m all cured!”

  And when Feather turned to Eve for confirmation, the white-haired woman immediately stepped forward with a smile, moving to stand next to Tamillia with a hand on the taller woman’s shoulder. “Yup! It’s all true! Her blood looked all red to me!”

  “Okay, perfect! Then everything sounds good,” he approved, looking pleased with what he was being told, although... someone in the room was still watching him with troubled eyes.

  Cirrus hadn’t been able to get the earlier sight he’d seen of Feather out of his mind, and he couldn't stop asking himself, debating within his memories, whether or not Feather and Arcadia were truly the same person. It was just that he hadn’t been able to find the right time to bring it up again. Not with everything that’d happened with Lavimo… which did also confuse him. His cousin could be antisocial at times, but he was never outwardly aggressive. Not to mention, Feather and Nefion seemed to be hiding something from him, which also felt troublesome. His older sibling was crafty and not to be trusted, and as much as he liked Feather, he also wasn't very trustworthy... he needed to get to the bottom of this.

  “So, actually, if we can," he decided to speak up, pressing his hands together as he stared awkwardly into the center of the floor. "I’d like to have a conversation about what actually went down with Lavimo.”

  Cirrus had barely raised his voice, and yet the moment he said anything, Feather and Nefion both turned to look at him with similar jaded eyes. Both so secretive, so cunning... honestly, how was it that even though they'd only met for the first time a few hours ago, the two of them were already so in sync? Yeah, they both liked keeping their secrets and both had very troublesome mischievous streaks, but still. He didn’t like it when they glanced at each other, as if they were telepathically communicating something he wasn't aware of with just their gazes alone, before Feather turned back around to face him with a blank face. For some reason, when the blond went to open his mouth, he ghosted his hands around Kylan’s ears, like he was preparing to cover them completely if he needed to. “Your cute little cousin thinks I started the apocalypse and is accusing me of being the one who killed his family. I really don’t know how he got that information, but I can guarantee you that if I did start the apocalypse, I’m not aware of it. And the first time I ever stepped foot on Viscendant was after it’d already been corrupted, so there’s no way I could have killed them,” he sighed, Nefion carefully observing him as they took note of the things in his story that Feather had changed compared to when he had his talk with Lavimo.

  But Cirrus was just confused. What was he supposed to say to that? How would one even go about starting the apocalypse? It just sounded absurd. He didn't know what had started the apocalypse, but it seemed a bit of a stretch to say it was Feather. Luckily, Jayce spoke for him, as paranoid as he ever was, so Cirrus trusted that his sharp mind which didn’t trust things so easily would poke holes in that statement for him.

  “Why would he even think you started the apocalypse? What led up to that?”

  “If I may, I don’t think Feather has the answer to that,” Nefion spoke helpfully, lifting their hands up with a shrug as they shot the crew a nice smile. “I was watching our new great miracle man the entire time, from the moment he left the meeting to the moment I intervened to stop my mother from killing him… he had just finished interrogating one of your prisoners when he ran into Lavimo, who immediately clocked who he was and accused him of starting the apocalypse.”

  “...you interrogated one of our prisoners? How the hell did you get through security?” Jayce immediately turned on Feather with no further prompting, who was quietly thanking Nefion for turning the conversation away from his secrets as he gave a bright laugh.

  “Oh! I just teleported past them! I realize that Lilino's castle has a way to prevent teleportation inside the dungeon, so I just used my mana to overpower its sensors and teleported in anyways without anybody noticing. Aren't I great?"

  “Huh? Do you wanna get arrested?” Jayce snarled, before he whipped back over to Nefion, immediately accusatory of them, as well. “And why are you two already in cahoots?! Have you met before?”

  “Of course not,” Cirrus' older sibling shook their head while smiling all the while, casually gesturing towards Feather with a lazy hand. “It’s just that one mastermind always recognizes another.”

  “You sound arrogant as fuck,” Jayce quipped back, before he was forced to stand down when Cirrus extended an arm in front of him.

  “Let’s not argue, okay? I’m just trying to figure out what happened…”

  “Aww, and this is exactly why everyone calls you a pushover, Cirri,” Nefion blew him a kiss, Cirrus’ brow twitching at that remark. But no, he wouldn’t let his sibling get to him. He would be the bigger person... like he always was.

  “I’m just trying to get my information straight. Feather, what do you—”

  “As straight as you are?” Nefion drilled with a gleeful grin, Cirrus doing his best to ignore them as he kept on with his sentence.

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  “Feather, what do you think of Lavimo’s new concept? It’s the concept of corruption, isn’t it? My mother has him chained up in concept suppressing shackles, so that when he wakes up, he can’t destroy anything, but… just how dangerous do you think his concept actually is?”

  “Mm… I’d say it’s pretty dangerous,” Feather responded dully, thinking over his fight with Lavimo as he kept a hand firmly on Kylan’s head, the boy leaning into him while being obedient and quiet, as if he’d already been trained to quiet himself when adults were having serious conversations in front of him. “If I hadn’t put my forcefield up or teleported him out of the hallway, he very well might have destroyed the entire castle… which spans for miles, so if that gives you any idea.”

  “I see… and how many concepts do you have?” Cirrus questioned again, even though it had to have been the tenth time he’d asked that, only for the truth to be skirted every time. But he was determined to get an answer out of Feather eventually.

  Though he really, really couldn’t comprehend it when the crazy blond’s cheeky smile returned, the man looking almost proud of himself as he responded happily, “Only one.”

  “Hah? Liar…” Kylan muttered under his breath, Feather openly laughing at him as he smacked his hand lightly atop the boy’s head.

  “Alright, alright, I give in… I can use all of them!”

  “You’re still lying! That’s not possible!” Kylan protested, Feather taking the boy’s shoulders to push him off of his chest before spinning him around, squatting in front of the child with the shittiest grin Cirrus had ever seen.

  “Oh yeah? Want me to prove it?” Feather provoked, Cirrus and Nefion both giving him dead looks as the entire crowd waited for him to pull some sort of trickery. But Feather merely stood himself up, flicking his wrist forward as an icy flower appeared in his right hand. And then it shifted to water, and then somehow the waters caught into flames… and then the flames began sizzling and dying down until a regular rose sat there in his fingertips, before even that melted into lightning that zigzagged all around Feather’s wrist and up his arm. “I can do anything, trust me. Just give me something to do and I’ll do it.”

  “Ah! Turn invisible!” Eve blurted, pushing herself past Cirrus to be right in front of him next to Kylan, the two of them utterly glowing as Feather obliged, his body shifting out of sight before he reappeared behind them.

  “Tada~”

  “That’s so cool! Wow, can you fly?!” Kylan gleamed, Feather merely moving his hands to rest behind his neck as he tilted himself backwards, falling into the air before he began to float as if he were swimming through space.

  “Ooh, ooh! Make it snow, make it snow!” Eve begged, flurries of little snowflakes whisking around her the moment Feather raised his pinky, the man humming in midair as he flipped onto his stomach, kicking his legs behind him.

  “Yes, yes… anything else?”

  “Explosions!! I wanna see something explode!!” Kylan exclaimed loudly, Feather laughing at him as the more mature people in the room froze.

  “Haha, okay, what should I explode? Maybe that chair over there?”

  “How about we don’t explode anything,” Achitha instructed, taking Feather by the hair as she dragged him back down to the ground, the man gracefully landing on his feet as Eve and Kylan started whining.

  “Nooooo… I wanted to see something explode…” the snow-white healer started complaining, Jayce giving her an incredulous stare at her childish behavior.

  “What are you, twelve? Get a hold of yourself.”

  “You don’t have any more whimsy left in you, do you, Jayce?” Eve retorted, Jayce not even totally sure how to respond to that insult as he stood there, dumbfounded.

  But this only made things more confusing. Cirrus didn’t know what to do with this at all. How many concepts had Feather just displayed? Ice, water, fire, earth, electricity, invisibility, floating, snow… that was already well above six concepts, which was the humanly limit before your brain became overloaded and you inevitably lost your ability to function and died… but even earlier, Feather had shown the concepts of the forcefield, space manipulation, consciousness manipulation, healing, goodness, perception blurring… just how many concepts did this man have? Cirrus felt like his brain was malfunctioning just trying to comprehend how this was even possible, and for once, his elder sibling was in the same boat he was.

  They were usually far more composed than their little brother, far more intelligent and better at piecing things together than he was. But Nefion didn’t know what the hell they were witnessing, either. For once, the siblings shared one single brain cell as they watched Feather flaunt his power, the older sibling the first to express their feelings of defeat as they exclaimed with clear irritation, “What are you, a god?”

  Though, in hindsight, they probably shouldn’t have said that. Because watching the way Feather’s eyes glowed at being referred to by such a mighty title made Nefion want to throw up, hating the way his eyes turned smug and arrogant as the blond straightened himself up tall and announced, “My, Nefion, if that’s how you see me… I will humbly accept this title I’ve been bestowed…!”

  “Hah... you’re a lot different than that persona you were putting up back in the meeting hall in front of my mother. What the hell’s up with that?” Nefion spat, Feather meeting their eyes with the grin of the century as he merely crossed his arms and held himself high.

  “That’s how I always act when I have to talk to stuffy nobles who think they’re better than everyone. I don’t trust most nobles with the truest facets of my personality, you should be honored I’m being so genuine with you.”

  “That’s rich,” Nefion’s expression twisted in between a smile and grimace, Feather merely smirking at them before he ruffled Kylan's black hair.

  “Whatever, I don’t care how you view me. Right now, I need to get to work,” he smiled, bright blue eyes turning to Cirrus with a touch of pride. “I’ll be taking Kylan to reside with my family. I don’t trust that he’ll truly be taken care of here, but I have a home on the planet Buma that will be safe for him. They even have a kid around his age, just two years younger, so I think he’ll get along well there. I’m leaving right now, so if you’ve made your decision, come along with me or stay here,” Feather extended his hand towards the prince, Cirrus' amber eyes locking in on the gesture.

  “But my mother already—”

  “I don’t care what your mother said. It’s your decision, no one else's,” the blond interrupted, blue eyes sincere and poking through every web of knowledge Cirrus had constructed for himself as he looked at the fair hand in front of him. “I’ll train you, but it’s your decision to accept that. Your mother doesn’t control you. Only you can make these decisions for yourself, and in the end, her opinion shouldn’t matter all too much when you’re weighing options in your own life. So do you want to come along or not?”

  And Cirrus couldn’t help but stare at him, Nefion looking between the two with things finally clicking together. Of course their younger brother had fallen for this sly little fox. They loved their brother dearly, as did everyone in their family… Cirrus was cherished and cared for. But he never got to make his own decisions and wasn't encouraged to very often. The prophecy had always dictated his life, and their mother thought she knew the prophecy best, therefore handing him tasks that he probably hadn’t been ready for. Cirrus wasn’t used to being given authority over his life, and he’d never been encouraged to take it for himself before Feather came along and asked him to do just that. It must feel like he’d been given autonomy for the first time, Nefion took note of, so of course his sweet and innocent little brother was drawn to that. It made sense. And it was obvious what Cirrus’ answer would be.

  “Alright, I'll go with you,” the great prince foretold of in the grandest of prophecies agreed, taking Feather’s hand with a firm grip as he stepped closer. “But first, can you answer a question of mine?”

  “Sure. Is it a good one?” Feather grinned, gripping his hand as tightly as possible as he dug his nails into Cirrus’ skin, purposely trying to annoy him, just like the first time they'd held hands. Except the difference was that this time around, the prince didn't flinch.

  “Are you Princess Arcadia?”

  "Ah," Nefion made a little gasp… well, that was certainly a blunt way to put it. The entire room froze, as that question had felt entirely uncalled for. But Cirrus didn’t think there’d ever be a better moment. He wanted to know now. He wanted to know if the feelings he was having for this man were okay. He’d felt so much, so much despair at not being able to love Arcadia for the woman she was… he’d felt so much guilt for falling in love with Feather, who was a man, and so much different from the lover he thought he'd been prophesied to be with. But if they were one in the same… then it’d be okay to love him, wouldn’t it? It wouldn’t feel so wrong.

  And Cirrus felt it when Feather began twisting his hand even tighter, his smile fading into an angry glare as he gave an aggressive push to Cirrus’ chest with the hand that was holding his, straining his wrist with the force as he stumbled, Feather succeeding in his goal to make the prince nearly fall. He looked angry, really angry, and for a moment, Cirrus wondered if he could’ve possibly been completely wrong and just said something horribly offensive… when Feather’s glare got close to his face, his heart beating too fast and his arms all but trembling. The miracle worker was so close to him, Cirrus' visible eye blown out wide as he watched this wonderful man snap so fiercely, his breath hot and tingling on his cheeks, “That’s Prince Arcadia, to you. And if you value your life, don’t ever call me a princess again!”

  end of book two, so let me know what you guys think and how you've enjoyed it! Is there anything you're looking forward to in book three? Any theories or expectations? I'd love to know!

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