Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There were a lot of things that were unpleasant about Kravitz’s job. It was a simple fact and not something that had truly bothered him for a long, long time. It was something that couldn't bother him if he was to be any good at it. Death was rarely a clean thing, and trying to escape it rarer still.

It was a messy and complicated job. Sometimes things were clean cut, a simple swing of his scythe through something evil and wicked and undead. Sometimes they were a horrid web of good intentions and ignorance tangled together in knots Kravitz was sure even the Lady Istus would have trouble unraveling. Sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference between the two.

So, there were many uncomfortable and unnerving things he’d had to get used to over the countless years he’d spent as a reaper. He had gotten used to them though, as horrid as some of it was. He wouldn't call anything he went through boring, but there was a steadiness to them over time. Some jobs were more memorable than others, but typically things had a somewhat predictable pattern. Even the exceptions were predictable exceptions.

Something about that had changed lately though.

Lately, there was so much death.

And for the first time in a long time, Kravitz was starting to feel tired. It didn't seem like there was any end it sight. He couldn't see how things could do anything but get worse.

He didn’t know exactly what the cause of the wars were. They had seemed to pop up almost overnight, at least to him. Sure, he was bad at time, but he swore it had been so fast. The types of people he tended to deal with weren’t ones he was looking to get into a friendly chat with either, so he wasn't asking them much about it all. The most he’d heard was about fighting over these relics. Powerful, terrible things. Kravitz knew that from the scars he could see from their usage and the lengths that people would go to in order to get their hands on one.

Lengths like the situation he was currently dealing with. He couldn't be certain if a relic was involved, but for some reason he had a feeling.

Even if there wasn't, that didn't make this one any less horrible in his eyes. If there was one easy way to piss Kravitz off, it was forcing him to deal with kids while he was on the job.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like kids. He didn’t know how to interact with them much sure, but that went for most mortals if he was being honest. Sure, children had an added sense of discomfort for him, because they were something so how of place in his work. You needed to be so gentle with them. In the kinds of situations he often found kids in, it was crucial that one be gentle with children.

That wasn’t the reason seeing kids at his work filled him with a burning rage though. No, having to interact with children wasn’t the problem. It was that they were there in the first place. Children could almost never be held accountable for their involvement. They were almost all forced into committing the crimes for adults in search of power or glory or whatever it was their twisted souls desired.

Almost universally, children were victims. It was one of the nastier things he’d needed to get used to with his job.

He had, over the years. Still, it was hard, whenever he’d be a moment too late. With this strange, unexplained war going on, it felt like he’d been a moment too late a lot recently.

Not this time though. This time he was fairly sure he’d made it in time.

Or at least, he hoped he did.

The undead that had done this was gone. A powerful thing that had set Kravitz's soul sour from just being in its presence. Unfortunately he hadn't trapped it in the stockade or destroyed it like Kravitz would have liked. He’d gotten distracted when the child, the infant honestly, had started crying. He hadn’t been sure if it was even alive until that moment.

It had only been a second, but it was enough for the devil, the fragment of Vecna, to escape.

He might’ve been able to go after it at that point. He almost did without a second thought. It had fled into another plane, but Kravitz could track it if he was quick.

The child was still crying though, and reluctantly Kravitz sighed, letting his scythe dissipate in his hand. He summoned his tome in its place as he walked over to where the child lay. He was on some sort of alter, made of smooth black stone, obsidian. There was a divot in the stone’s surface that the baby lay in, and it was clear that creature had intended to use him for something.

Kravitz had gotten here in time though. The boy was still unmistakably alive, and he doubted that would be the case if the creature had managed to fulfill whatever dark ritual it had been setting out to do. Those who were unfortunate enough to be involved with the undying king rarely ever stayed alive. Not in any meaningful way.

He needed to find that thing as soon as he he finished up here. He didn’t know if that abomination had bargained for the child or stolen him, but he should stop it before it tried this again.

“Alright, enough of that now,” Kravitz said softly, picking the boy up off of the stone alter. The surface was cold to the touch, even to him. The boy also felt cooler than Kravitz knew the living should, but he ignored that for now. He hummed, and music wasn't something he did very often anymore, but children always seemed to enjoy it. The boy ceased his crying slowly as Kravitz flipped through his book with his other hand, squinting deeply at the child to try and get a good look at his soul.

It was difficult. More difficult than it should be. There was something dark tinged around the edges that worried him. Perhaps the ritual hadn’t been completed, but something had taken a hold.

“Let’s see, who are you, who are yooou,” he said, and the child had stopped crying entirely now. Instead he seemed content to try and pull at his hood and drool on his robe. Kravitz clicked his tongue (which he technically didn’t have right now, in his full reaper form) when he finally landed on the right name.

“Ah, Angus McDonald, here you are. Six months old human, son of Donovan and Halle McDonald. They’re both… ah, well, I suppose that’s not very surprising,” he said, closing the book with a sigh. Of course there weren’t any parents he could return the boy to once all this was over.

Well, it was far from the first time he’d had to deal with orphans. He could figure out a safe place for him once they got everything else sorted out.

“Well Angus, let’s see what the Raven Queen can do with you,” he said. Kravitz let the book disappear, his scythe re-materializing in it’s place. Angus for his part didn’t seem particularly scared of much anymore. It was a bit surprising, considering Kravitz’s face was only a skull now. Sometimes at that young children didn’t tend to know better and weren't scared of obvious dangers. So instead of being frightened by the sudden appearance of the weapon, Angus attempted to grab at it. Kravitz easily moved it out of the boy’s reach before cutting a decisive swipe through the air.

Stepping through into the astral plane, it was rare to bring someone living. In all his time as a reaper, Kravitz doubted the number of times was any higher than maybe two dozen at most.

He’d been in this line of work long enough though to know when something was wrong. The being that had this boy had been powerful, and there was something twisted up in this child’s soul. He didn’t know enough to know what had happened to even begin to try and undo it. That was the worst part of dealing with Vecna, so many secrets and unknowns.

The Raven Queen would know how to fix this though. The child was still alive and could not be to blame for the darkness that had tried to use him. She’d get this cleared up, and Kravitz could finish hunting down that devil and maybe , he’d get a break afterwards.

As he stepped into the Raven Queen’s throne room he instantly felt her attention on him. It was less like she was merely looking at him and more than she’d already seen him down to the core of his soul. It was a feeling he was very well familiar with at this point.

“My Kravitz, you’ve brought a living soul with you,” she said, her voice echoing around the room and deep inside of him. The child had been babbling little nonsense baby sounds, but even those went quiet at her voice.

“Yes my Queen. This child was with my latest bounty. I managed to interrupt it before it was able to complete it’s ritual, but something dark lies in his soul,” he explained. He felt a tug at the child in his arms, and could see the Raven Queen had a hand held out now. He loosened his grip on Angus and let her draw the boy over to her.

Angus for his part didn’t start crying as he was floated through the air. The child spun helplessly before actually starting to giggle and grabbing at his feet. It was subtle, and expressions were hard to comprehend on a god, but Kravitz was fairly sure the Raven Queen had started smiling at the sight.

There was a long moment where she examined the infant in front of her. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking, and Kravitz couldn’t be entirely sure how much time had passed. Soon enough though the child was being carefully returned through the air to him and back into his arms.

A part of him had hoped that that would be it, that the Raven Queen had already undone the darkness inside of the boy without even a word. When Kravitz held Angus though he could feel that the boy was still cooler than he should be. Not as cold as the dead, but a mark of death on him nonetheless.

“I’m sorry my Kravitz, you were not as successful at stopping this ritual as you had hoped,” she said, which was a surprise. He didn’t- there weren’t many deeds one would need a child so young for that would end with the child still alive. “It has tied power deep in the boy, although it is still incomplete,” she added.

“I’m sorry my Queen, I’m not sure I follow,” Kravitz said. Angus was trying to crawl up him now, and it was a little difficult to look dignified with an infant grabbing at his eye socket.

“The ritual has created a connection to death in the boy down to his soul. It was meant to bind him to the undying king. It would appear you stepped in before they could finish the binding however,” she began to explain. Kravitz could feel the connection to death that she spoke of in Angus. It was obvious in how cool he was, and in the darkness that clung and dampened his soul, but there was something else too.

A swirl of power and energy deep within him, stronger and more volatile than it had any right to be.

“Can you undo it?” he asked. He had a feeling he already knew the answer though. The Raven Queen was a god, a powerful one. Souls were delicate things though, it was remarkably easy for something to go wrong. It was so easy for them to break.

“I’m sorry my child. It had permeated deep within his being, and without a bond to focus the darkness it will destroy the child,” she said, and Kravitz had to keep himself from snapping his head up at that. Angus was still inspecting his eye sockets, he didn’t want to move too fast and hurt the boy.

“Wait, my Queen. You can’t- isn’t there anything we can do?” he found himself asking. This boy still seemed so full of life, giggling and inspecting his surrounding despite being in the presence of a god.

It wasn’t like Kravitz wasn’t used to death. He was death, in a way. If this was what was going to happen he could accept it, but it was just-

He was so tired. This past year had been running him ragged. He couldn’t believe it had only been a year since everything had started going so horribly wrong. There’d been so many failures this year.

He thought he’d managed something that wasn’t a total failure this time. He wasn’t happy to be wrong.

“Yes, there is something we can do,” the Raven Queen spoke after a moment, once again surprising Kravitz. He wasn’t able to keep himself from letting out a sigh of relief, and once again he swore he could see her smile.

Without another word the Raven Queen stood up, and as she did her shifting form of dark glimmering feathers towered over them. Then she moved towards them, and her form seemed to shrink as she did. It was impossible to tell if she was walking or if the room had gotten a lot shorter, and in a way there wasn't much of a difference. Soon enough she was in front of Kravitz, who adjusted Angus in his arms. The Raven Queen’s physical appearance was still difficult to comprehend even this close up. Impossible to tell if it was more bird or human or elf or something else entirely.

Kravitz held Angus as still as he could as the Raven Queen placed a hand or a talon gently on the boy's head. There was a shift, like something clicking into place, and Kravitz could feel an immediate change. The power that had been crackling beneath the surface in Angus was still there, but it seemed soothed somehow. Coming in pulses like gentle waves.

For his part, the boy didn’t seem to notice. Instead he reached out at the Raven Queen, somehow managing to come back with a long black feather that shimmered like spilled ink clutched tight in a tiny fist.

And then he tried to stick it in his mouth.

“Angus, no don’t- Do not eat that, goddesses are not chew toys,” Kravitz said. He couldn’t quite get the feather away from him, but he at least managed to keep him from trying to eat the thing. The Raven Queen laughed, a soft comforting sound.

“I’ve bound him to the astral plane,” she said, and Kravitz nodded. That- it made sense, she’d said he’d needed something to channel that power through. Kravitz couldn't think of a better thing to channel powers of death through than the astral plane itself.

“Thank you,” Kravitz said, his voice soft and sincere. He knew there wasn’t any point in trying to hide how he felt from her. His existence was tied to her he knew she could tell that he was- that things were tough right now. It would've been a disappointment to lose this child. He always hated when they couldn't save children.

“I uh, I suppose I should get this little guy back to the prime material plane now. It’s imperative that I continue after this agent of Vecna as soon as possible,” he said. His mind was trying to think of some place safe enough to leave Angus. The world was being ravaged so severely now though, he wasn’t sure if someplace safe actually existed.

“I’m afraid not,” the Raven Queen said, once again surprising Kravitz. Most of the time when things were strange they were strange in a way he’d grown to expect. This was one of the rare cases that seemed to still be perfectly capable of throwing him for a loop.

“Is something still wrong?” he asked, resisting the urge to check Angus over. He could feel he was still unnaturally cool, but the darkness in his soul seemed less malicious now. Kravitz let out a small sigh of relief when she shook her head.

“Nothing is wrong, and he is still alive and will continue to live and grow as any normal child shall,” she said, although Kravitz could tell that wasn’t the end of it. “But, he is bound to this plane now. As he grows so will his power, and while he is not a prisoner here, this is now his home,” she finished. There was a finality in the way that she said home that made Kravitz nervous. There was a meaning there that he couldn’t very well ignore, although he still found himself trying to.

“I um, what do you mean my Queen? He can’t exactly live here. Living isn’t typically done here,” he said. She couldn’t possibly expect him to leave an infant roaming around on the shore of the astral sea. Kravitz wasn’t even sure if the boy was at an age where he could crawl properly yet. He didn’t know much about what the ages were when kids could start doing things.

“This is not a typical situation,” she said simply, and Kravitz could feel amusement in her voice, reverberating in the world around him.

“There’s no one here to watch him,” Kravitz pointed out. After all, it wasn’t exactly impossible to make a place here suitable for someone living. Kravitz technically had a home, a section of the Raven Queen’s court he was free to shape to his will. He hadn’t been back there in a while, and it was mostly where he kept trinkets taken from bounties and that his Queen gave him.

The Raven Queen was giving him a look now. That was the only way to describe it, a look that he couldn’t say gave him a very good feeling. He had a feeling things were going to continue to go in a way he wouldn’t have expected at the start of this. Not in the slightest.

“My child, I know you have been working tirelessly” she started, and nope, that was never a good start. That was the way she spoke to him when she insisted he take breaks when he swore he didn't need them.

“And I should get back to it,” he said, because yes he had kind of been hoping for a break, but not if there was still more work to be done.

He wasn’t too sure how much he would count whatever it was she was going to suggest as a ‘break’ either.

“I’ve already sent another reaper after the demon,” she said, and Kravitz deflated some. He really shouldn’t be surprised by that one. They couldn't waste time after all, it made sense to get someone else on it while he was dealing with Angus.

“I uh, I still don’t know what this has to do with having someone to watch Angus,” he said, even though that was a lie. Even though he knew the Raven Queen knew that was a lie.

“This is not a permanent job change,” she said, not bothering to spell out what ‘this’ was. “I would not call this a job at all, I suppose,” she added, which was fair. It would be odd to think of this- of taking care of a child as a part of his job a a reaper.

"My Queen, I- I don't know how to take care of a child," he insisted. He hadn't thought about what the living needed to actually live in a long, long time. Children were an even bigger mystery.

"I trust in your ability to learn," the Raven Queen said. He wanted to feel reassured by that. Usually he would, but this was just- it was so-

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked, and normally he wouldn’t doubt his goddess’s decisions like this. She’d said herself though, this wasn’t exactly normal. This was basically the opposite of what Kravitz had spent centuries focusing on.

“I spoke to the Lady Fate shortly before you both arrived,” she said, and that was all she needed to say. Of course fate was involved with this. There was rarely a time when Kravitz felt taken so off guard that she didn’t have a hand in the proceedings.

“I suppose in that case I should start getting a place set up for Angus instead,” he said with a sigh. He felt more than saw the Raven Queen nod. She reached over, gently brushing fingers over the child’s forehead. Angus reached up and when he brought her hand to his mouth the Raven Queen let him gnaw ineffectively on her fingers.

“He’s going to grow up to be twelve feet tall or something now, you know that right?” Kravitz said, trying to let himself feel amused by all of this. It was all very, very strange, but it might not be too bad. The Raven Queen wouldn’t give him a task like this if she didn’t think he could handle it, and Kravitz didn’t mind kids. He didn’t know much about them either, but so far Angus at least seemed like a calm one.

“If that is what fate has in store for him then so be it,” she said before drawing her hand away. “Feel free to do whatever you need to make the child feel comfortable,” she added and Kravitz nodded.

“I uh, I might need to go back to the prime material plane anyway. To get food and supplies I suppose?” he said, painfully aware that he had no idea what babies need. “You said Angus isn’t a prisoner here, so he can leave right? Or should I um, leave him with another reaper while I go shopping, or um,” he asked.

“He can return to the prime material plane. At this age though I suggest the visits be quick. It’ll be safer for him to stay there longer as he grows and the bond to this plane is strengthened,” she explained. Alright, that was a relief. “However, when you do need to leave Angus here, you may leave him in my care,” she added. If Kravitz had flesh on his face he probably would’ve broken out into a smile at that.

“Of course my Queen,” he said. Angus was still holding the long feather he’s taken from her, and started waving it around, bapping Kravitz in the face with it. “Well, I suppose I’ll be going now,” he added, the situation still not seeming to have fully sunk in yet.

Cutting another portal, this one led to the part of the astral plane that was his ‘home.' It was as simple as he remembered it being, and he supposed he’d have to spruce it up some into a proper place for a child to live. Once he had most of the basics out of the way he could make a quick trip back to the prime material plane for anything he couldn’t form at will.

As it was there were only three distinct rooms in his house. If he had to give the space names there was a rudimentary bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. The ‘kitchen’ was basically a fridge filled with wine and a few other simple treats he liked. The bathroom was pretty much just a bath. He could reform himself at will after a mission and he’d be perfectly clean.

Sometimes that didn’t feel like enough though. Sometimes there were things that didn’t feel like they could be washed away until after several hours soaking in water.

Other than those, the bedroom had well, a bed. There was also a dresser, but it was filled with little odds and ends as well as clothes. Besides that there was just a desk and a mirror. The desk was for the rare times when he felt more like working on his paperwork here than in his office, and the mirror was because, well, why wouldn’t he have a mirror? Most of the time he’d meet with the Raven Queen in his reaper form, but there were times when he didn’t. Of course he still wanted to look nice in those moments as well.

It didn’t take much more than a quick thought to form another room, separate off the kitchen. He made it about as large as his own bedroom, and then thinking after a moment, a bit larger. Angus was sure to spend more time in here than he ever did in his own, after all.

Alright, things he knew babies needed. They needed to sleep. Kravitz created a plane crib for Angus, setting him down in it afterwards. Angus didn’t seem too bothered being put down, still playing with the feather he’d taken earlier. Which, thinking of that, babies also needed toys. Maybe those would be better to get on Faerun though. He didn’t know what kind of toys were good for children of his age.

He also made a changing table and a dresser full of some basic baby clothes. He could get him some more on the prime material plane though. Lastly, he changed the floor so that it was a soft carpet and the walls to a shade of blue that probably wasn’t too depressing.

And then-

And then he had no idea what else he was supposed to do with a baby.

Food, obviously, but he would have to get that from the prime material plane for it to have any real nutrients or substance. Kravitz formed a chair to slump into, the events of the day finally starting to catch up to him and the reality of what was going on settling in as well.

There was a child. In the astral plane. That he was going to have to take care of. That he was going to have to raise. He didn’t know where he was supposed to even begin, or why this was-

Well no, he knew why. Fate had set this into motion. He couldn’t possibly guess why though. All he could know for sure was that this boy was going to be important.

Taking a deep breath, he’d have to figure this out as he went along. Standing up, he allowed his reaper form to fade away to his actual face, running a hand through his locks as he tried to shake away some of the stress.

Without warning, Angus started to cry.

“Oh no, Angus, what’s wrong?” he asked, heading back over to the crib. Picking the boy up, he started reaching for Kravitz’s face. Kravitz blinked, trying to figure out what was wrong. “Is it- is it the face?” he asked, letting his flesh melt away and the skeleton underneath to reappear.

As he did Angus slowly stopped crying, looking confused before giggling and sticking a finger back into his eye socket. Kravitz snorted, pulling Angus’s hand out before shifting back into flesh. The boy still looked confused, but didn’t start crying again.

He did try to poke Kravitz in the eye, but he managed to shut it in time.

“Okay, we’re gonna have to work on that,” Kravitz said, talking mostly to himself.

They were going to have to work on so many things.

He didn’t know how he was supposed to do any of this.

Chapter Text

Kravitz figured he should get Angus some food and other supplies as soon as possible. He didn’t know how long that demon had been in possession of the boy, although he figured it couldn’t have been long before Kravitz found him. Otherwise they probably wouldn't have been as successful in interrupting the ritual. Still, he doubted it’d been feeding the child well in that time. Honestly Kravitz was rather shocked that Angus was in such good spirits after everything.

But still, he needed to get the boy some food and such before that changed.

He’d spent a few moments shifting between his skeletal form and his flesh face to amuse Angus and get him used to the change. Plus, it gave him some time to think everything over, figure out where to start. Once Angus no longer seemed confused when Kravitz had a face he settled the boy in his arms and summoned his scythe. Angus was babbling, still waving around the feather from the Raven Queen.

“You really like that feather don’t you? Try not to lose it, although I doubt she would mind giving you another,” he said. He knew a child this young couldn’t understand the significance of a gift like this from the Raven Queen, but at least he had a tight grip on it.

Cutting a portal through the air, Kravitz walked out with Angus into a back alley in the streets of Neverwinter. No one was around to see them, but it wasn’t far from a busy shopping district. No one paid them much mind as Kravitz started looking for a place that sold baby… things.

Well, the best place to start was probably a regular grocery store. He was sure they had baby food and supplies there. It didn’t take him too long to find one either, even if there was something so strange about being casually among the living. Sure, he went undercover for a reaping every so often, and he’d slip into a concert or the occasional casino in the rare event that he had some downtime.

This wasn’t either of those things though. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone shopping. Stepping into a store, Kravitz shifted Angus in his arms so that he could grab a basket. The new position let him grab at Kravitz’s hair, tugging and trying to stick some of the locks in his mouth.

“Whatever keeps you entertained I suppose. Going to have to get you some things to chew, aren’t we?” he asked. It didn’t look like Angus had any teeth yet, but maybe he was going to get some? Chewing probably meant teeth were happening soon? Kravitz had no idea when teeth started to happen.

There was a baby isle like he’d hoped, and he grabbed a few packs of different kinds of baby food. He didn’t know if there was any differences besides the flavors, but he doubted having choices would be a problem. He also got some formula. Kravitz didn’t know when kids exactly switched over from milk to food, so he figured it was best to be safe and keep Angus on both for a while.

There were things besides food in this isle, which he searched over for anything that might be important. He got a few bottles, diapers obviously, some pacifiers since Angus kept sticking things in his mouth. Teething ring, although he didn’t have any teeth yet.

There were a few soft little stuffed animals too, and Kravitz threw a couple of those into his basket as well. He might’ve specifically gotten as many stuffed animals or items that had birds on them as possible, but well, it seemed fitting. There weren’t many that were specifically ravens, but he did get one stuffed bird that was black and white. One of the blankets he grabbed had some stylized black birds on it as well.

It didn’t take very long before his basket was full, and he couldn’t push a cart around easily while still holding Angus. Still, Kravitz was pretty sure this should be enough to last them for a little while, and the Raven Queen had said that his trips to the prime material plane should be short for now.

Next time he went out he’d have to get Angus a stroller or something. Carrying the boy wasn’t an issue physically or anything, but it would be nice to have better use of his hands. Also so that Angus didn’t spend the whole time yanking on his hair and trying to grab the beads he had strung through it.

“Good afternoon,” the cashier said as she began ringing up the supplies. Kravitz nodded, and he hadn’t been paying much attention to how much anything had cost. It wasn’t exactly an issue for him after all, being a bounty hunger for the Raven Queen certainly had its perks.

Angus seemed to be getting tired, slumped against him and still clinging onto the feather. Hopefully that was because of the long day the little one must’ve had and not from any negative side effects of being outside of the astral plane for too long. Best not to risk it either way and get back soon.

“Your son is absolutely adorable by the way, how old is he?” the cashier asked, which took Kravitz off guard. It shouldn’t have though, it was a reasonable assumption for anyone to make after all. Probably the best for him to play along with it as well, instead of trying to explain the complicated situation.

“Six months, I’m uh, I still feel like I’m only starting to figure all this stuff out,” he said, which definitely was the truth. The woman laughed and nodded, starting to bag his groceries.

“Your first? Yeah, it’ll be like that,” she said. Kravitz considered asking her for some advice, but he wasn’t sure what specifically to ask. There was so much he didn’t actually know. Too much. He’d have to just… go out and do some research. Maybe get some books on child care.

Gods, how had this become his life? Unlife. He didn’t even have a life, technically. He should be the last person raising a child. It hadn’t even been a day yet and he felt like he had already lost most control.

“That’ll be fifteen gold and four silver,” she said, speaking quietly as not to wake Angus, who seemed to have completely fallen asleep at this point. Kravitz reached into his pocket and pulled out a fist sized emerald.

“Will this work?” he asked, handing it over to her and grabbing his bag. The woman stared in utter bewilderment at the gem in her hand. It kind of looked like she was trying to check if it was real, but had no idea how to.

“Um, yes? I- uh, I guess so?” she said uncertainly. Kravitz gave her a smile, hooking the bag around his wrist.

“Alright then, have a good day ma’am,” he said, hearing a quick and confused ‘good day?’ following after him as he left. Heading into the closest dark alley, Kravitz cut another portal back into his home.

Angus was still asleep, and Kravitz figured he shouldn’t wake him. He’d make sure to feed him the next time he woke up, and until then he could try and figure some things out. So Kravitz headed into the new room, Angus’s room, and placed him down in the crib as gently as he could as not to disturb him. It seemed to work. Digging through his bag, he grabbed one of the blankets he’d brought, the one with the birds, and placed it over the boy’s form. He also threw in a couple of the stuffed animals for good measure.

Angus’s grip on the feather had loosened enough in his sleep that Kravitz could take it if he wanted to. Despite how much Angus had been squeezing it and smacking it around and against things it still looked pristine, which wasn’t that surprising. It had come from a goddess after all.

He let the feather stay in the crib with Angus. There was no doubt that this boy had received a blessing from the Raven Queen with or without the feather, but having tokens like that was always a good thing.

Once he was fairly certain that Angus was set up and would be asleep for a while, Kravitz went to put the rest of the stuff he’d brought away. Diapers and changing supplies on the changing table, spare blankets on the dresser. Toys, um, he quickly made a chest in the corner and stuck the toys he hadn’t left in Angus’s crib inside of it.

Then he headed out into the kitchen, pulling out the baby food and formula. He carefully read over the packages, and alright, these didn’t seem too hard. He didn’t have to do anything with the baby food, and it did look like Angus was old enough to start eating it.

Cooking was something he hadn’t done in, well, he couldn’t remember, but all the formula needed was boiled water. He could do that without fucking up. Forming a stove in his kitchen, he figured he should have made one by now anyway. He’d never needed one before though. The times he ever felt like indulging in food it were rare, and he’d just do it on the prime material plane. Creating a pot and a sink, he filled it up with water and set it on the heat. While he waited for that to finish he got the bottles out of their packages.

Kravitz could vaguely remember a saying about watched pots and boiling water, so he tried to occupy his mind with other things while he waited. He didn’t know how full time of a… situation, this was going to be. Of course while Angus was young like this someone would have to keep a pretty constant eye on the boy.

A couple years wasn’t that long of a time to someone like Kravitz though. He was fairly certain that the Raven Queen would still send him on the occasional mission here and there too. He’d probably go a little stir crazy if she didn’t.

Soon enough the water was boiled and he had a few bottles of formula ready. He stuck them in the fridge for whenever Angus woke up, and then headed to his room. He’d made it so that he would hear if Angus started crying before going and collapsing onto his bed. He really had been in desperate need of a break.

The break didn’t last as long as he might’ve hoped for. Kravitz rarely slept, but after a year like the one he’d had he felt he deserved a nap. It took a moment to gauge how long he’d been asleep for when he was woken up by the sound of cries, but it couldn’t have been more than a few hours.

It took a few moments for Kravitz to remember what was going on. Right, Angus. That was a thing now. Queen, that was a thing now. Scrambling out of bed, Kravitz did a quick check to make sure he had his face on before heading to Angus’s room.

He’d definitely woken up and was crying loudly. This was honestly something he knew how to deal with. More often than not the children that Kravitz had encountered were in almost inconsolable states. The fact that Angus had calmed so quickly when he first found him was an outlier.

“Shhh, you’re okay Angus, it’s okay,” he said softly, carefully picking Angus up out of the crib. He was still crying, and Kravitz grabbed the stuffed bird and held it out for him. Angus grabbed it and the tears seemed to stop some, although he was still complaining loudly.

“Alright Angus, I’m sure you’re starving,” he said, carrying him to the kitchen. The bottles of formula were definitely cold enough now that he didn’t have to worry about accidentally burning the child, and the packages said he didn’t need to warm them up again to feed him.

Kravitz was fairly certain he’d never actually fed a baby before. Maybe once or twice when he’d been alive? There were vague memories, clouded by age of awkwardly holding children that must've been relatives. Maybe he’d fed some back then, but if he had the details had faded long ago.

Still, it wasn’t too hard to figure out, and Angus did a decent amount of the work. He’d definitely been hungry, grabbing at the bottle almost as soon as it was in his sights. Kravitz wasn’t too sure how to make sure he wasn’t drinking it too fast, and gods yeah, he definitely needed to get some parenting books.

It didn’t take Angus long to finish the bottle, and he seemed to be in much better spirits once fed. Kravitz knew he’d heard something about burping babies, so he did his best attempt at that. He had no idea how effective it was though or he needed to do it.

Still, he was working off of half ideas and vague memories at the moment, so it was the best he could do. Not that Angus seemed to mind any, in fact he seemed more occupied with the stuffed bird now that he'd been fed. He was babbling at it, waving it around and sticking it in his mouth. Kravitz figured that was fine, since it was his toy and all. Plus it wasn’t anywhere small enough to risk it going down his throat, and that was the main thing Kravitz was worried about.

Kravitz didn’t actually know what he was supposed to do now though. He knew how to deal with children when they were distressed and needed comforting and words of assurance. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do when they were just… fine. Right now Angus seemed to be fine and happy with his toy bird.

After a moment Kravitz figured it would be best to head back to Angus’s room. He realized he was still in the clothes Kravitz had found him in. They were nice clothes, although Kravitz didn’t know that much about baby clothes. Still, the fabric was nice and they seemed to be well made. Angus had been in those clothes for at least a day though, so Kravitz changed him into one of the outfits he’d created for him yesterday. He changed his diaper too for good measure.

Once he was in fresh everything Kravitz set Angus down on the floor. He was still gnawing on his toy bird, but Kravitz put a few other toys down with him as well before materializing a chair, and just sort of… waiting. For what, he wasn’t sure. Until Angus needed something else, he supposed.  

Angus seemed content to just play on the floor though. He wasn’t crawling yet, but he’d sort of roll towards a toy if it wasn’t quite within his reach. Kravitz didn’t have any idea how to play with a baby, but occasionally he’d grab a rattle and shake it in front of Angus and let the boy grab it from him. He also spent a while letting his hand shift between flesh and bones, and Angus seemed to get a kick out of that.

“You know, I figured there’d be a lot more crying involved. I thought babies were supposed to cry all the time,” Kravitz said, and he knew he was basically just talking to himself. Still, he knew that talking to children was important. It was one of the few things he could be pretty certain of.

He could remember the desperate soul of a mother he’d had to collect insisting as such. That she needed to stay to take care of her daughter, that they never spoke to children enough in orphanages.

He hadn’t been able to let the woman stay of course. She’d committed several unforgivable acts of necromancy. Undead servants catering the house, her husband risen as a zombie with about as much personality as you would expect from one (although she had insisted she saw no difference from when he was alive) and herself, already dead and little more than a decaying body possessed.

Still, she’d seemed to be telling the truth when she said children needed to be spoken to. That it was good for their development. Kravitz didn’t get a lot of childcare advice in his line of work, so he’d take any strands he could get for now. At least until he could get some proper research on it.

“I guess not a lot of crying is good though. Maybe it means I haven’t messed up too badly yet, right Angus?” he said. Angus made some garbled babble around the rattle in his mouth, and Kravitz smiled. “I’ll take that as a rousing agreement,” he joked.

“Still,” Kravitz continued with a sigh, leaning back in his chair as he stared down at Angus. “Shouldn’t you be more upset about this? I would’ve expected you to start crying for your parents by now,” he said. He still didn’t know how the agent of Vecna had gotten a hold of this child though. The Raven Queen had sent another Reaper after it, so he guessed he wouldn’t be getting his answers from the thing directly.

He supposed he could ask whoever did catch it if they found anything, or the Raven Queen herself.

There were other options too, but he’d hold off on those for the time being.

Kravitz wasn’t great at keeping track of time. Whenever he tried to it always seemed to go so fast. It wasn’t long before Angus was hungry again and needed changing again and needed to sleep again. Soon enough he was waking up and hungry and things started falling into a bit of a pattern. He wasn’t sure if they were exactly whole days between his periods of sleep. Even to Kravitz it seemed a bit too fast for that.

He really needed to get a watch so he could keep track of these sorts of things. He was lucky he didn’t need to sleep, or else having to constantly be getting up to take care of Angus would have left him exhausted.

He might’ve spoken too soon about Angus not crying much, because he did certainly cry. It never seemed to be for long though, once Kravitz was able to figure out the reason. All in all Angus seemed to have a pretty happy disposition.

After what Kravitz would tentatively estimate to be about four days, he figured he should head back to the prime material plane to get some more supplies for Angus. They still had plenty of food, but Kravitz really didn’t want to risk running out of diapers. Plus, he could use some child rearing books, and Angus could probably use some clothes that wouldn’t stop existing once he left the astral plane. As it was he dressed Angus back up in the outfit he’d found him in before they headed out.

It was fairly early in the day when they stepped into the prime material plane. Kravitz figured the smart thing to get first was some sort of stroller, so he wouldn’t have to carry Angus around the whole time.

It took some asking around, but after a bit Kravitz was directed to a baby supply store in the nicer end of town. Apparently things were a bit more expensive around here, but Kravitz didn’t mind. Honestly, he had lost the concept of how much gold was actually anything a long time ago. The Raven Queen paid them in other things, and he never had much of a problem getting what he needed.

He had gold too, mostly from times he’d gone out gambling. He tended to keep that back in his room in the astral plane if he wasn’t heading out to play the tables or such. He could pay for Angus's things with that, but it was always simpler to hand over a couple gems.

Kravitz found a fairly nice looking stroller, with a basket on the back and a little tray in the front for Angus’s things. He bought that, quickly setting Angus up in it. Putting his bottle in his holder he let Angus entertain himself with a stuffed frog and the feather from the Raven Queen. Once that was taken care of Kravitz started looking through the rest of the store.

There were a lot of books. So many books he almost didn’t know where to start. He stayed away from any titles that looked too sensational or gimmicky. He just needed some basics, he wasn’t interested in raising Angus ‘The Druid Way: Let Your Child Be One With Nature.’

Eventually he found some stuff that looked pretty solid. Some on typical development milestones (maybe he’d be able to figure out when teeth) and some on general parenting advice.

He also got a book titled ‘So You’re A Single Mother. What Now?’ because well, there wasn’t a single father version and it seemed to be the most appropriate. It certainly reflected how he was feeling with all of this.

Other than that this store had a lot more options than the single isle at the grocery store had. He ended up with a few baskets worth of stuff, most of them hanging off the handles of the stroller, which was making things much easier.

As the cashier rung him up they didn’t seem bothered to ask any questions about why he was buying all of these things now. He supposed it wasn’t that strange though. With the carnage that had been happening lately, there was no shortage of orphans. He couldn’t even strictly say that wasn’t what happened to Angus after all.

He was buying a lot more stuff than he had the other day, so instead of an emerald he handed the cashier a handful of small diamonds. They seemed just as confused, but hey, he’d yet to be turned down when he used this method. Plus he certainly had more gems than he needed. He’d been a reaper for a very, very long time, and he was quite good at his job.

Once they left the store it was still only a bit past noon from what Kravitz could tell. Which honestly didn’t say much. Right, on the topic of time, he wanted to get a watch too. Looking into the stroller at Angus, the boy still seemed happy enough. He’d have to double check what the Raven Queen meant by a ‘short trip’ but for now it wouldn’t hurt to walk around some and find a watch. Angus could probably use the sunlight after all.

There ended up being a nice clothing shop a few blocks down, and Kravitz didn’t have a lot of clothes that weren’t a part of his construct, but it never hurt to have a few items here and there. Heading in, he ended up finding a very nice watch. It was a deep black with gold trim, and was probably expensive. Kravitz was debating exactly what he should pay for this with when he overheard a few other men in the shop talking.

“Again huh, what was it this time?” one asked. Kravitz couldn’t help but listen in. He didn’t tend to be around mortals very often, and most news he got was in bits and pieces like this. It wasn’t the most effective method of keeping up with the times, but it was all he ever really needed.

“Apparently the entire town of Sivadale died in one night,” the second said, and Kravitz frowned. He didn’t know when these wars were going to end. Normally, that large a group of people entering the astral plane at once would’ve caught his attention immediately. He hadn’t even noticed this time, being distracted with Angus.

“Was it fire again?” the first man asked, and Kravitz found himself surprised when the other shook his head.

“No, no one’s seen the fire for a while, so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before it shows up again,” he said, and Kravitz didn’t doubt that. He didn’t know a lot about the specifics of the items at the center of these wars, but he’d heard about the fires. He’d seen the circles of black glass that were left in their wake.

“From what I heard, the entire town and everyone in it turned into mirrors,” the first finished, which was certainly an odd thing.

“Mirrors? What do you mean by that?” the first asked.

“I don’t know exactly. My cousin said he saw the town but didn’t get close. Thought the light reflected from the sky would blind him,” he said. Kravitz found himself almost wanting to go and check this out. The few examples of this war that he’d seen were always terrible, but nothing quite so strange as that.

“Eh, I guess that’s more believable than that town that turned to candy,” the man said. Kravitz was considering whether or not to stay and eavesdrop a bit more, but Angus started babbling, trying and failing to reach his bottle.

“Oh, here you go buddy,” Kravitz said, taking it out of the holder and handing it to Angus. Once Angus was drinking Kravitz decided it was best to head up to the counter. It didn’t take long to buy the watch, and he went simple and used more diamonds. The shop clerk actually took a moment to inspect them before determining that they were worth the amount of the watch.

With that taken care of, Kravitz figured it was best to play it safe and head back to the astral plane. After all he still didn’t want to risk keeping Angus out too long. Plus, they had a lot of stuff they needed to put away, and Kravitz supposed he had some reading he needed to get done.

A quick swipe of his scythe later and they were back home. Angus seemed to be getting bored of staying in his stroller and Kravitz let him out. Then he made a closet to keep the stroller in, and after a moment of consideration, another large room right up front, along with the kitchen.

Kind of weird to have a living room in the land of the dead, but it wasn’t like they couldn’t use the space. Angus would probably get bored spending all his time in his room after all, and Kravitz wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to bring him down to the shore of the astral sea or any other parts of the Raven Queen’s court yet.

Setting Angus up with some of his new toys, Kravitz materialized a sofa and sat down with his books. The developmental milestones one was probably the best to start off with first. To make sure that Angus was getting everything he needed, as well as to have a rough idea of what was coming for him and when.

Right now he just needed to figure out how to actually take care of Angus. Once he had that down he could start looking into the reasons why he was taking care of him in the first place.

Chapter Text

The watch did help Kravitz start to get a better feel for how long things were taking. According to the books, Angus seemed to be sleeping and eating about the normal amounts for his age. Maybe sleeping a little less than a human infant was supposed to, and Kravitz wondered if that was a side effect of the magic that fueled him.

It was still there, a constant smooth roll of energy like the waves in the sea of souls. When Kravitz wasn’t trying to focus on it it faded into the background until he forgot it was there at all.

After about a week (maybe longer? He’d gotten down hours pretty well but days were still a little difficult to track) Angus still seemed to be doing fine. Kravitz still felt like he had no real clue what he was doing, but he didn’t seem to be actively fucking it up yet.

With a week of not really doing anything though Kravitz was starting to feel restless. It wasn’t that taking care of Angus wasn’t work, it definitely was. He wasn’t trying to think of this as a job, but it was still a work he was unfamiliar with and probably not all that great at yet. He knew a week wasn’t a long time in comparison to how long he would have to raise Angus, but still, he wanted to do something besides sit in a room and try to find different ways to entertain a toddler.

Getting Angus dressed, Kravitz figured he was due to ask around and see if any new information had come in at this point anyway. They needed to make sure that demon was taken care of, for Angus’s safety if nothing else. Hopefully it wouldn’t want to come after him now that they completed the ritual for another target, but Kravitz couldn’t be sure about that.

“No, chew on this, not my hair,” Kravitz said. He gave Angus a pacifier when he grabbed one of his locks and seemed intent on trying to stick one of the gold beads Kravitz had decorating it in his mouth. The pacifiers definitely seemed to help with Angus wanting to stick everything he could get his hands on in his mouth. That and having things he could chew on without any sort of issue.

Leaving their ‘home’ with Angus, it didn’t take long at all to arrive at the Raven Queen’s court. To be fair it didn’t take long to get anywhere in the astral plane if you knew how to do it right, and Kravitz certainly did.

Standing outside of the room, he waited until he felt the signal that he was allowed to come in. Kravitz typically didn’t have to wait for such types of permission, but he figured this wasn’t exactly an urgent matter. Plus, if she was meeting with anyone over something important he didn’t exactly want to barge in with an actual child in tow.

“Hello my Kravitz,” she said, and he could feel the amusement in her tone. “And Angus. How have the new arrangements been treating you both?” she asked.

“It’s certainly something different to get used to,” Kravitz admitted. He didn’t feel like anyone could blame him for that, this whole situation was very odd and he was still getting used to it. “Um, I’d say it’s been going well though. I think I’ve got him comfortable?” Kravitz added. The Raven Queen nodded, and he couldn’t feel any sort of surprise from her at that. It was rather difficult to surprise a goddess to begin with, but it definitely seemed like she had been expecting Kravitz to be able to handle this.

Angus started shifting in his arms, and it took Kravitz a moment to realize he was trying to reach for the Raven Queen. Kravitz laughed slightly, adjusting his grip on the boy so that he couldn’t accidentally squirm out.

“I uh, I guess he still remembers you from last time,” he said. Kravitz could feel the same amusement coming from the Raven Queen, and when he felt a tug on his arms again this time he very carefully let Angus go. The child was almost shrieking with laughter as he was lazily floated around the room.

“My Queen, I was wondering if there was- If the agent of Vecna that had Angus has been apprehended yet,” he asked after a moment. Angus was still having fun flying about the room. He’d brought one of the several stuffed birds Kravitz had gotten him at this point, and every time he dropped it the Raven Queen would have it float in circles around him. It was clear that he was dropping it on purpose now so it would happen.

“I’m afraid not my Kravitz,” she said, and Kravitz told himself there was no reason to be disappointed by that. It hadn’t been that long yet, and those under the undying king’s grasp were always difficult to track.

The ritual done on Angus had been extremely advanced to be so permanent, it would have taken an incredible amount of energy. The demon must’ve gone into hiding to recover its strength from the botched ritual. Of course it would take longer than a week to find it. There was still a building anxiety in his chest knowing the unholy thing was out there and he couldn’t go and look for it.

Or at least get some more information on how he’d gotten Angus in the first place. He didn’t particularly like having so many unanswered questions. It was rare that he had something important to him that he didn’t have the answer at his fingertips for.

And whether he was entirely comfortable or used to it yet, he couldn’t argue that Angus wasn’t important here now. With such strange circumstances, of course he was important.

“Kravitz, if you wish to leave Angus here for the moment, you may,” the Raven Queen said suddenly. It wasn’t a surprise though, he knew more often than not she could tell what he was thinking without even having to resort to the powers she had as a god. He’d always been a little bit of an open book in that regard.

“Thank you my Queen, I uh, I shouldn’t be gone for long,” he said, taking another glance at Angus to make sure he was alright. The boy still seemed pleased as anything being gently rocked in the air, so Kravitz supposed leaving him for a bit wouldn’t hurt.

“Take your time,” she said, and once again Kravitz found himself almost snickering. He didn’t, because that would probably be some form of mild blasphemy at the least. He supposed he couldn’t blame his Queen for being somewhat fascinated by Angus. It was rare that she interacted with the living, and rarer still with children.

Kravitz nodded, knowing she saw him even if it didn’t seem like she was looking. As he left the court, Kravitz knew that he wouldn’t be able to track the demon down in an afternoon. Or well, however long he was going to leave Angus with the Raven Queen. He’d fed him before they went, so they should be good for a little while, but still, he should make sure to be back in a couple of hours at most.

So, he wasn’t going to go far. He didn’t need to go far, and plus this was something he’d been thinking of doing once he realized Angus was sticking around. It only seemed to make sense, to figure out what kind of life Angus was coming to them from.

The shore along the sea of souls was peaceful. It was always peaceful, and even though it had only been about a week it still felt too long since he’d been here. For a moment he simply stood there, taking in the scene of the deceased gently floating through the water. The waves seemed the slightest bit larger and more restless than they typically did, as they had for the past year now.

Kravitz hoped something ended the bloodbath in the world below soon. That wasn’t what he was here to focus on right now though.

Moving out above the sea, finding specific souls was difficult. Someone looking at the sea would think it was impossible from the sheer number of them. Trying to search through normal means would be, even with the ability to actually distinguish the souls from each other.

Luckily, he didn’t have to simply search. It still took a while, but he was able to find them in his tome of souls rather easily. Once he had that, it was just waiting and concentration until he was able to pull the two souls up to the surface. Once they were in front of him Kravitz allowed them to take forms appearing as they would have in life. These forms were flimsy, flickering things made mostly of light.

They were ghosts. They just looked like ghosts.

They were also definitely Angus’s parents. Kravitz could see the small resemblances in each of them. His father’s eyes, the little bit of dark curls a mirror of his mother’s hair. He had a suspicion that the family he’d come from had been well off, and from the clothes they were wearing he’d say he was right on that.

“Who are you?” the father, Donovan McDonald, asked. Both him and his wife looked confused and suspicious, and Kravitz couldn’t entirely blame them for that. They tended not to pull souls out of the astral sea if they could help it. If there was no need to interrupt one’s afterlife it was best to leave them to their rest.

Sometimes they needed to ask questions though. It was unfortunate but necessary in their line of work. It was why the Raven Queen typically permitted spells that initiated speaking with the dead, as long as they were temporary and specific in their usages.

“My name is Kravitz. Don’t worry, you’re not in any sort of trouble,” he said, having to resist to add on a ‘yet’ to that. There were no records in his book of either of them committing any acts of necromancy. It was possible that their child had been stolen and their deaths were tragic ones.

As horrible as it was, Kravitz was hoping that was the case.

“Why’d you raise us?” Angus’s mother, Halle asked. Kravitz quickly shook his head at that, the mere suggestion irritating him.

“Make no mistake, I have not raised you and you will return to the other souls as soon as we're done here. I’m afraid we needed to ask you some questions though. About your son,” he said. The two shared a glance, and Kravitz could see a flash of panic on their spectral faces.

“What about him?” Donovan asked, his voice clipped. That… wasn’t a good sign. Kravitz thought about the way that one bounty from years ago, the one who’d insisted children needed to be spoken to, had acted. As far gone as she was in the thralls of necromancy, it was clear that she still cared for her child.

It wasn’t clear here if these people cared or not.

“We need to know if you’re aware of how he’d gotten into the possession of a powerful and ancient demon working under the control of a lich,” he said bluntly. There wasn’t surprise on their faces at that. It was worry, but Kravitz couldn’t tell if it was for themselves or for Angus.

“No,” Donovan said after a moment. It was a lie. Kravitz could tell it was a lie.

“Sir, I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in. I’ll repeat myself. I’m going to need you to tell me how Angus McDonald ended up in the possession of an agent of Vecna,” he snapped. They might not have personally preformed any necromancy, but if needed he could make a case of their imprisonment in the Eternal Stockade. There was always room for those who would see power given to the Raven Queen’s enemies.

“How- what happened to him? What did they want him for?” Halle asked, and some of her concern actually appeared to be genuine. Donovan was still eyeing him with disdain, and didn’t seem intent on talking yet.

“He’s not dead, but I cannot tell you anymore than that until you tell me if you had a hand in this,” Kravitz told them. Technically he hadn't even needed to tell them that much, but there was still a part of him that wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.

“If he’s not dead that’s all we need to know,” Donovan said, which Kravitz wasn’t happy with. He could see the stubborn pride in this man, that clearly trumped everything else in his eyes.

“Oh, what does it matter now, it didn’t work!” Halle said, spinning on her husband. Kravitz was surprised at the sudden anger, although he could appreciate it when not directed at him.

“That’s not true,” Donovan argued, but his wife scoffed bitterly.

“Isn’t it? I don’t know if you’ve realized this love but we’re dead,” she snapped, spitting the pet name out like venom. The two were entirely focused on each other now, and Kravitz wasn’t about to remind them of his presence.  People said a lot of things when they were angry, this could work out well for him.

“But we got the stone, it worked,” Donovan insisted.

“For all the good it did! You killed us with that blasted rock! It didn’t work, It-” she was fuming now, turning back towards Kravitz. Her husband protested but she ignored him as she continued to speak.

“We gave him to the demon. We- we bargained with it for enough power to claim that damn relic. We just- I just wanted that cursed rock so bad, I didn’t care. I didn’t know why it wanted Angus and I didn’t care as long as we got that stone,” she said, getting progressively more distressed as she seemed to realize what they’d done.

“You didn’t know what it was planning to do with him?” Kravitz asked, wanting to be absolutely certain about this. “You didn’t know the sort of entity it was working for?” He was very pissed that anyone would do this to their own child, and to do it so carelessly as to not even bother finding out why someone would want them.

But if they didn’t know what force they were aiding, it wasn’t technically something he could throw them in the stockade for.

“No. No we didn’t… what did we do?” she asked. Donovan was silently fuming, although Kravitz could start to see the smallest cracks of regret in his facade. Kravitz wasn’t particularly moved, but at least it was something.

“He came close to becoming a vessel bound to an incredibly powerful and evil lich. Trust me when I say death would have been a much preferable option if it had worked,” he began to explain.

“But you said he’s not dead,” Donovan said, and there was almost worry there now. Like he was finally starting to realize the gravity of the situation as well.

“No, he’s not. We managed to interrupt the ritual before he was bound. He’s under my care now,” Kravitz told them. Halle looked relieved hearing that, but Angus’s father still looked suspicious.

“Your care?” he asked, glaring at Kravitz now. “And just who are you exactly?”

“Since you tried to sacrifice your child to an indisputably evil lich, I don’t see why you have any right to know who I am,” Kravitz shot back. He could leave it like that and he almost wanted to. Put them both back into the astral sea now that he knew he wouldn’t be getting much more useful information out of them.

He didn’t though, because there was still something he was curious about.

“But, if you must know, I’m a reaper for the Raven Queen. Angus is still alive, but the ritual did change him and he’s been connected to death in such a way that we’re going to keep an eye on him,” he explained. They both still looked concerned, but neither of them looked like they were going to argue with him. They really weren’t in a position to be arguing with him anyway.

“You’re going to take care of him?” Halle asked, sounding genuinely worried. Kravitz let his face soften somewhat as he nodded. He hadn’t chosen to appear to them in his full reaper form. It probably would’ve helped with an intimidation factor, but he hadn’t wanted to terrify them too much if they had been innocent in all of this.

“Yes. He’s a very bright boy. He has the blessing on the Raven Queen herself watching over him now,” he said. There was relief on both of their faces at that. As much as he wouldn’t have expected that when he’d realized what they’d done, Kravitz was glad for it. At least this way he could honestly tell Angus his parents cared for him if he ever asked about them when he was older.

“Thank you,” his mother said, and Kravitz just nodded.

“There’s one more thing I wanted to ask you both about,” he said, which caught their attention. “You mentioned a relic? What stone are you talking about?” he asked. He’d heard of the relics in vague terms, and he’d seen the scars of their powers, but he didn’t know many specifics.

“Surely someone like you would have heard of the relics,” Donovan said, and Kravitz huffed.

“I have, but specifics take a while to travel over here to the astral plane. We don’t exactly have a newspaper on all the goings on in the land of the living, so humor me,” he said.

“It was that blasted stone. It was- it could do anything, make anything. I don’t even know why but we needed it. I needed it,” Halle explained, although it wasn’t much of an explanation. Still, he’d heard some vague rumors of something like that before. She turned with a glare towards her husband as she continued.

“My dear Donovan here had managed to get it, and it was- how much did you even turn?” she asked, and he was frowning now.

“I don’t know. I can’t- as much as I could. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said, sounding like had been in a trance. Kravitz remembered what he’d seen in his tome, they hadn’t died all that long ago. It was why he thought they might have been victims in this. Maybe he wasn’t entirely wrong with that either.

“When you say turn, what do you mean? Was it- tell me, were there mirrors involved?” he asked. Kravitz wasn’t surprised when he nodded, and Halle scoffed at her husband.

“You really are that vain, aren’t you love?” she asked. It almost made Kravitz laugh, but he managed to resist the urge.

“Thank you both. As I said before, you aren’t in trouble and can return to your afterlife. I promise to look after Angus,” he said. Donovan didn’t say anything else, giving a nod before his form faded away until it was a ball of white light again.

“Thank you for watching after our son. I’m so sorry we put him through that,” Halle said before she too returned to the pure form of her soul and they both rejoined the astral sea.

Once he was alone again Kravitz slowly made his way towards the shore, thinking over what he’d found out. He didn’t- those relics almost sounded worse than he’d expected.

He’d wanted to check out what had happened in that town. Now he felt like he was justified in going.

Giving a quick glance to his watch, that conversation hadn’t actually taken that long. Combined with the time he’d taken to fish their souls out of the sea, he’d been gone for maybe an hour at most. He figured he could still stand to stay out for one more before he should be getting back to Angus.

It was easy to get to Sivadale. A simple slice with his scythe and he was standing out on a large hill maybe a mile out. He didn’t want to head directly into the middle of it. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to find after all.

It was about sunset as he stepped into the prime material plane. Even though he was getting better at judging twenty four hour intervals, he wasn’t so great at connecting them to what it was in the prime material plane yet.

As he looked out onto the town though, there was a moment where he thought whoever said the town hadn’t been destroyed in fire must’ve been wrong. The brilliant oranges and reds and yellows that shown and almost threatened to make him look away made it seem like the town was still on fire.

As he focused though, he realized it wasn’t that. It was a reflection of the sunset, repeated over and over and over against against every surface. It seemed the lights were particularly brilliant in this part of Faerun, and the effect here was almost blinding.

The entire town, every single building and tree was reflecting the sunset. It wasn’t- it wasn’t natural. It set a pit in Kravitz’s nonexistent stomach. There was something about it that was beautiful, even from this far away, but there was an undercurrent of being wrong that he couldn’t ignore.

Slowly, Kravitz started towards the town. As he walked the sun continued to make its way down under the horizon and the blinding reflection lessened, and Kravitz could start to take in the town clearer. It looked to be a wealthy town, although some of that opulence might be due to the way everything had turned to shimmering reflective mirrors.

When he reached the edge of the town, Kravitz felt his spirits sink even further. It was- of course, he knew that the whole town had been killed, but there was something horrifying about seeing people frozen and made of perfect reflective glass.

Carefully, he stepped into the town, the grass that had turned to mirror cracking and shattering under his feet. Whatever had done this must’ve been gone now, or it didn’t affect people who were constructs.

Kravitz remembered what those two men in the shop had said, about a town that was turned entirely to candy. It sounded ridiculous, but if it was anything like what had happened here, he could imagine that the sight was somehow just as disturbing. Maybe even more so.

It was quiet as he made his way through the streets, and Kravitz was used to quiet. Maybe a little less use to quiet, after the week he had. It was so strange, having someone around constantly babbling or laughing or crying. He supposed that was going to become his new normal though, which in itself was a wild thought.

This quiet though was uncomfortable and unnerving in a way he'd become used to over his many years. It was a silence that could only be found in a total absence of life.

He was careful not to touch anyone as he made his way through the town, and it was terrifying how absolute the transformation was. Everything was that same reflective glass. He couldn’t look anywhere without seeing a mirror of himself, sometimes twisted on other’s faces. He tried to avoid that.

He just- he wanted to find the epicenter of this. He knew who he had to find for that as well.

Of course, he didn’t know exactly where to find them, but he figured the center would be a good place to start. Heading to what seemed to be around the middle, Kravitz did a quick fly up above the town to make sure. It was, but it wasn’t exact. The mirrored infection wasn’t spread out in a perfect circle like those blotches of black glass. Instead it went out in more waves and curls, spreading out like a twisting disease.

Heading back down, he figured he was closest to the center as he could get and started looking around. It didn’t take him long to find a large house. The gardens out front were starting to shimmer with the reflections of the night sky. The night setting in was helping, even if the darkness seemed so absolute, reflected back on itself. It was still better than walking around with a million reflections of himself twisted onto every surface.

The door opened without much issue, although Kravitz had been briefly worried about breaking it. He let out a bitter laugh, thinking about how much bad luck one could get breaking this many mirrors. It was just a silly superstition, for the most part at least. There was still power in things like that.

Heading through the large home, it was just as elaborate inside. Just as hard to tell where he was going too, the mirrors making the area like a maze. Several times Kravitz nearly tripped over himself not noticing something small that blended into the reflective, endless floor.

Eventually though he managed to make his way up stairs. He ended up passing the frozen forms of what looked like terrified servants, most of them starting to run away from something. Kravitz had a feeling he was getting close.

Opening another door, he was right. It took a moment to be certain, to see their features on the mirrored surface and not his own distorted face, but these were definitely Angus’s parents.

Halle looked like she’d been screaming, shouting in a rage and trying to wrestle something from Donovan. There was a look of horrible, indescribable determination on his face. It looked like he might’ve been clutching something close to his chest as he kneel down on the floor.

It was impossible to tell for sure though. Someone had smashed away his hands, just a shattering of broken glass in front of him.

There wasn’t anything left to find here, and Kravitz sighed. This needed to stop, but it was- every time he brought it up with the Raven Queen, she also seemed to be at a loss. It was scary, having something so horrible going on that even his Queen didn’t seem sure on how to solve.

Kravitz wanted out of there. It took a lot to get him nauseous or give him a headache with non-magical means, but he had one now. He didn’t even bother leaving the house. Summoning his scythe right there and tearing a portal back into the astral plane. It wasn’t like there was anyone living around to see him.

Kravitz gave himself a moment to regain some composure once he was out of there. It was disturbing, in a way he’d never seen before. There wasn’t anything to do about that now though, and he headed into the Raven Queen’s court with a grim expression.

It cracked like glass the second he actually saw the scene inside though.

Angus was no longer floating through the air. The Raven Queen was almost the size of a regular mortal, and Angus was up with her on her throne.

He was set up on the arm of the throne, and Kravitz knew he’d left them with a toy bird. Somehow he wasn’t surprised at the small murder of ravens that were around them now. Angus would try and grab at them, and every time he seemed close to falling over an invisible force would set him back into place. Some of the ravens were holding small children’s toys out for him.

“I suppose you didn’t have much trouble watching him then?” Kravitz asked, and and he felt more than saw the Raven Queen nod.

“Of course not, he’s a delightful little soul,” she said, and Kravitz supposed he couldn’t argue with that. He wasn’t typically one for arguing with the Raven Queen anyway.

Angus seemed to have taken notice of him then, and let out a squeal before starting to reach for him. Which- Kravitz hadn’t expected that. The Raven Queen clearly noticed his surprised and he could feel her amusement at it. With the smallest flick of her wrist most of the ravens dispersed and Kravitz could see now that his toy was thankfully still a toy. Then Angus was being moved over to him, and he carefully settled the boy in his arms once he was close enough. Angus was babbling happily and instantly had a lock of Kravitz’s hair wrapped up in his little first.

“Thank you for watching him,” Kravitz said, not that the Raven Queen seemed put out by it any. “I uh, I spoke to his parents,” he added, and he felt her mood dip ever so slightly, like a chilled breeze passing through.

“I appreciate your dedication to this Kravitz. I’ll let you know when we have apprehended the creature responsible,” she said, and he nodded. He’d have to file an official report on Angus’s parents later. Just to make sure everything was by the book.

“I should go get Angus his dinner,” he said, some of that amusement coming back to the Raven Queen again.

“Of course, good night Kravitz, and you too Angus,” she said.

“Good night my Queen,” he said, and with that they headed back to their section of the astral plane.

There was a lot to worry about, but Kravitz tried not to focus on that for now. For the moment, he just made sure to talk to Angus as he fed him his dinner.

He made sure to avoid the topic of parents though. Angus was too young to remember any of this, but still, it felt better to be safe.  

Chapter Text

Whenever Kravitz started to feel like he was getting a hang of this whole childcare thing, Angus would learn something new and throw it all for a loop. He guessed that was normal, the baby books said that kids had a lot of development at this early age. He'd be learning new things every day, and that was a good thing. It was all still moving extremely fast though, and Kravitz wasn’t used to that.

He guessed he’d had Angus for about a month and a half when he started crawling. The books said that was normal and he should be looking out for that at around his age. It also said he should start child proofing the house, which wasn’t that hard. Kravitz hadn’t put any stairs in, he didn’t see the point in having any if he didn’t need to after all. He changed the few tables and desks he had so the corners were rounded and it seemed well enough.

He’d created a bookshelf in his new ‘living room’ a little while ago, so he’d have some place to put the books he’d gotten for Angus. Kravitz had also grabbed a few for his own personal enjoyment while he’d been out. Taking care of Angus was a lot of work, but he was a baby and babies sleep a lot. So Kravitz found himself with a lot of extra down time and figured he might as well take the chance for a break when he could.

Normally when he had breaks he would spend them in the prime material plane, but he had to stick around in case Angus needed something. So, there was a lot of time sitting around not doing much, and reading was a good way to pass the time.

The bookshelf had come in handy with his slowly growing collection. The first time Angus had tried to pull himself up onto the second shelf though Kravitz frantically grabbed him. With a thought he adjusted the shelves so that the second shelf was up well out of his reach. It wasn’t like Angus could pull it down onto himself, since Kravitz was pretty sure it was technically a part of the wall. Still, it was best to play it safe.

So all in all making the ‘house’ safe for Angus had been a pretty simple task. It wasn’t an overly large space either, and sure Kravitz might’ve slowly been making it into more and more of a real home over time, but it was still pretty open. He had a good line of sight on most places, and therefore he shouldn’t have any issue keeping track of a baby who couldn’t even walk yet. Crawling couldn’t possibly be that fast.

Somehow though, none of that changed the fact that he couldn’t find Angus right now.

He’d been looking away for not even ten minutes. Probably not even ten minutes. He was bad at time sure but he had his watch now and he looked at it quite often. He’d set Angus down with some blocks and giant foam puzzle pieces, he seemed to like those, and pulled out some paper work. Just because he wasn’t being sent out into the field currently didn’t mean he was exempt from all reaper work.

Things had slowed. About a week ago, and drastically. Kravitz hadn’t gotten a chance to ask if anyone knew what it was yet, but the constant rush they’d been in for well over the past year now had seemed to stop overnight.

Which finally gave them some time to get some of the backed up paperwork sorted out, and he’d been going over a few things. Every so often he’d glance up at Angus babbling away with his blocks and toys and then go back down to his work. It was almost relaxing.

After a minute though he noticed it was quiet. It was usually quiet, he didn’t have a lot to fill up the space of the astral plane after all. He tried to talk to Angus a lot of course, but there was only so much you could say to someone who hadn’t quite figured out how to speak back yet. One of the baby books had said that music was good for kids, and Kravitz was considering investing in some records on their next trip to the prime material plane.

He was almost considering grabbing an instrument or two for himself. He doubted he could remember how to play much after so long, but he supposed it couldn’t hurt. He could barely remember what instruments he used to own though. He was pretty sure it was strings for the most part.

Kravitz hadn’t done any of that yet though, so the house was quiet aside from whenever he or Angus was making noise. Right now it was quiet though. When Kravitz glanced up from his paperwork, he’d expected to see that Angus had fallen asleep in the middle of his play.

That hadn’t happened though. He didn’t see Angus sleeping where he’d been playing. In fact, he didn’t see Angus there at all.

“Angus?” he called, giving a quick glance under the coffee table he’d been working on. He wasn’t under there, and Kravitz cursed under his breath, putting down his paperwork for now. “Angus? Where did you go?” he called, scrambling up from the couch and starting to look around.

That had been about fifteen minutes ago, and Kravitz swore he’d checked every square inch of the five rooms that comprised his part of the astral plane. There was no way Angus could have gotten out of this part. Like, technically yes there was a door that led out, but it doorknob was too high for him to reach. Kravitz had specifically made it kind of ridiculously high ever since Angus had learned to pull himself up onto his feet. He didn't want to risk him getting anywhere dangerous or super spooky.

Kravitz paused in his frantic searching. Okay, he needed to think this through. He’d checked the living room first. There was only the couch, the coffee table and the bookshelf in there. He wasn’t under any of those things, and he couldn’t reach the higher shelves of the bookcase.

He’d spent a long time looking in the kitchen, since he’d actually gone through and made a couple cabinets in there recently. Just a few places to stick the dishes he’d started using to feed Angus, as well as the pots to boil the water for his bottles.

He wasn’t in any of those. He wasn’t in the fridge either. Kravitz hadn’t bothered to make an oven yet, he’d only needed the stove top, so he didn’t have to worry about that.

The bathroom was a similar affair, although taking a bit less time since it was smaller. Angus hadn’t managed to get into the bathtub on his own though, so that wasn’t it.

Angus’s room turned up empty. Wasn’t under the crib. Hadn’t somehow learned to fly and gotten back into his crib. Wasn’t in the toy box, or around the changing table. Kravitz had pulled out the dresser drawers just in case, but those were only filled with clothes, not child.

Kravitz’s own room was the least changed since Angus had gotten here. It was still just his bed, desk, dresser and mirror. Angus wasn’t under the bed or the desk. Hadn’t climbed up the dresser. He just wasn’t in here.

Now he was back in the living room, trying to figure out what place he might’ve missed. He still had to be in the house, and it was safe. Kravitz had gone over the baby books several times to make sure it was safe. Angus would be fine he just had to find him.

The sound of giggling knocked Kravitz out of his not-panic. Glancing around he still didn’t see Angus. He had to be close though he could hear him. It was a little muffled, like it was behind something. Frowning, Kravitz tried to follow the noise, and he ended up by the bookshelf. He wasn’t on it though, Kravitz didn’t see-

Glancing down at the bottom shelf, there was a door. Or, less like a door, more of a plank set clumsily against the edge of the bookshelf. It was black, like the rest of the bookcase, and only closed off the extra large bottom shelf. Kravitz knew hadn’t made a door there.

Crouching down, he could see more clearly now how crude it was, looking like it was just kinda stuck on. There wasn’t any sort of handle either. He could hear the giggling very clearly now though, and Kravitz grabbed a hold of the edge that didn’t quite match up with the rest of the case and pulled it open.

“There you are,” Kravitz said, unable to keep the relief out of his voice. Angus seemed pleased as anything, starting his little baby talk as soon as he saw him. Reaching in, Kravitz pulled him out and stood up, frowning down at the shelf now.

“How did that get there?” he muttered, making the unnecessary door dissipate. It took him a second to see that there was something else in the small place as well. They looked like blocks, but they were all crudely shaped and black.

“Where did you… get those?” Kravitz asked, not expecting an answer. He was already starting to get a very worrying idea, and he was not too pleased with the answer he ended up getting anyway.

“Da!” Angus said, which didn’t actually mean anything but was the noise he tended to make when he wanted Kravitz’s attention. When he looked, Angus was holding another one of those crude blocks.

Kravitz took it from him, and then Angus reached out and another one coalesced into his hand.

“Oh, oh no,” Kravitz said, before starting to laugh nervously. “So you uh, you can do that too huh? That’s uh, that’s great Angus,” he said. It made sense, with the way he was bound to the astral plane. Of course he would be able to manipulate the energy of the plane to his will as well. Kravitz had figured with the strong magic inside the boy he would eventually start to develop powers and such.

He hadn’t been expecting it so early though.

The baby books had warned that things might be difficult when he started crawling, but Kravitz hadn’t been that worried about it. All things considered Angus had been much easier to take care of so far than he’d expected. The books all made a big deal out of how little sleep he’d be getting, but he didn’t need sleep, so it wasn’t an issue. He’d figured and he’d hoped that this would be another pleasant surprise.

And maybe if Angus had only been crawling, it would’ve been.

None of the baby books said anything about how to take care of a child who could also manipulate their environment to their whim, and Kravitz thought this was a grave oversight.

“Wait no!” Kravitz shouted, barely managing to toss out another length of shelf before Angus went tumbling to the ground. Kravitz had not put any stairs into his floor plan, as he didn't see a need for them. Angus on the other hand seemed to love to make stairs. Not to anywhere of course, he just seemed to like climbing.

Hurriedly finishing up Angus’s lunch, Kravitz went and grabbed him off of his wobbly, lumpy staircase. He dispersed it out of the middle of the living room as he walked back over to the kitchen. “Just because you’re bonded to death doesn’t mean you have to keep trying to break your neck,” Kravitz grumbled.

It’s only been a couple weeks since those first little creations, but Angus had quickly gotten the hang of more and more things. Sure, they were all crude and blocky, but the things he could make were getting bigger and more elaborate.

“Da!” Angus said, and Kravitz nodded, setting him up in his highchair as he continued to babble.

“If you’re really in the mood to go flying, I guess it has been a while since we’ve had a visit to the Raven Queen,” Kravitz said. He’d been meaning to get down there and have a longer discussion with her for a while now. He’d only gotten the chance to hear a few things from the other reapers, but something had definitely happened that was quite concerning.

It seemed like as fast as the wars had started, they’d come to a stop even faster. Something like that wasn’t normal, wasn’t natural, and he’d been wanting to talk to her about it. After seeing close up the type of unsettling destruction those relics could cause, the fact that everything was so quiet now didn’t sit well with him.

Also, as far as he knew they still hadn’t found any sign of the agent of Vecna that had tried to take Angus. He wasn’t very happy about that either.

Kravitz hadn’t been paying too much attention while he fed Angus as he thought over these things. He’d been making sure to keep an eye out for any new additions to the house of course and that he was feeding him correctly. He hadn’t been paying much attention to the babble coming from him. So he might’ve missed it at first.

“Dada!” Angus said, and Kravitz just hummed and nodded. They could go see the Raven Queen after this, and then if it wasn’t too late afterwards they could head down to the prime material plane. He still wanted to get some records after all, he’d been too busy getting adjusted to Angus’s new reality warping abilities to think about getting all that done.

“Dada!” Angus repeated happily, and Kravitz nodded once again.

“Mhmm, finish this up and we can get going,” he said, feeding Angus another spoonful. And then when he’d said actually processed in Kravitz’s brain and he froze.

“Wait, uh, what did you say?” he asked, suddenly nervous. Which was dumb, Angus was just babbling. He doubted he’d even repeat it again, or that it was referring to him.

“Dada!” Angus said a third time, this time trying to reach for him, clearly done with his lunch. Which, he supposed it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise. The books had said they’d start saying things like that at this age. Kravitz hadn’t been sure if Angus would though, since he hadn’t exactly been encouraging him to call him that. He wasn’t sure what Angus was supposed to call him. So far he'd been thinking of himself as Angus's guardian, but not anything much more than that.

He’d gotten Angus little kids books and had been reading those to him though. Some of those had moms and dads in it. He didn’t know if that was where Angus had made the connection but it was the only thing he could think of.

“Um, okay? I guess that’s what we’re doing now,” he said, and Angus was still reaching for him so Kravitz put the empty bowl of food out of the way and picked him up. Then Angus was poking at his face and Kravitz laughed. “Oh, you want that face?” he asked, letting his flesh fade away and leaving only the skull behind.

Angus laughed at the transformation, which Kravitz was pretty sure the child thought of as some elaborate peekaboo thing. He let Angus preoccupy himself with pointing at the individual teeth in his jaw as he gathered up a few things to head over to the Raven Queen’s chambers.

Once he was ready it was another short trip to right outside the Raven Queen’s court. He didn’t even have to knock before he felt her welcoming him inside.

“How have you both been?” she asked as he stepped into the room. Angus got distracted from trying to see inside his mouth at that and started trying to get out of Kravitz’s arms. Without any real worry he loosened his grip on the boy and let the Raven Queen start to maneuver him around the large open chamber.

“It’s uh, it’s been well. Angus has learned to manipulate the astral plane,” he said, and he could sense her nodding. Almost as if to prove it Angus created a block in his hand that looked mostly like a bird, if a little wobbly.

“He will learn fast,” she said, and Kravitz wasn’t sure if that was reassuring or worrying. He was going to go with reassuring for now.

“Oh, I wanted to talk to you my Queen, about the wars,” he said, figuring it was best to get to the point right away. While her attention had been previously focused mostly on Angus he could feel it turn to him now. Her mood also shifted into something more serious, and it was a little odd with Angus now floating off playing in a corner. Kravitz supposed he needed to get used to that being the new normal now though.

“They have stopped, you’ve noticed it as well,” she said, and it wasn’t a question but he nodded anyway.

“Yes, it’s just- I don’t know what could have ended them all so abruptly. I barely even understand how they started,” he said, and the Raven Queen nodded gravely.

“A storm has passed, for now. Strings of fate point towards an even larger one looming in the future,” she said, and while his Queen could be a lot more straightforward with him than she was with most, he was still well used to cryptic answers like that one. It didn’t sit well with him. Cryptic often meant the gods couldn’t see the full picture of something yet, and the unknown was almost never good. “We must be prepared.”

“Of course, my Queen,” Kravitz said. He didn’t know what they were preparing for, or when, but he felt his gaze drift towards Angus again. Maybe there wasn’t a connection there, but he’d yet to know fate to not make use of that kind of coincidence.

“And um, the agent of Vecna?” he asked, already knowing the answer. They would have sent for him if there was anything new, but he still had to ask anyway.

“Nothing yet. Their existence in secrets makes them difficult to find. The ritual had left it vulnerable, it will not make the same mistake again so soon,” she said, and it was everything Kravitz already knew. It didn’t leave him feeling any better hearing it though.

He just wanted it dead and gone. Not a risk anymore. He didn’t like it out there. He didn’t want to risk it coming after Angus again.

He might’ve started to get a bit attached to the kid.

“Is there anything else you require, my reaper?” the Raven Queen asked, and Kravitz shook his head.

“No, thank you. I will be patient and prepared,” Kravitz told her. She nodded, and he could feel her approval.

“Dada!” Angus called, moving like he was trying to crawl over to him but not having much control from where he was hovering in the air. Kravitz was pretty thankful that he’d come here without his actual face on when he could practically feel the Raven Queen laughing. She started moving Angus back towards him as well, the child clearly enjoying the little flight.

“I- he just started that on his own,” Kravitz said, because it was true. He knew she could tell he was telling the truth, but that didn’t make the amusement fade any. Once Angus was close enough Kravitz grabbed him up out of the air, the boy seeming happy enough to settle back into his arms.

“Of course,” was all the Raven Queen said, which somehow managed to say everything.

“Right, um, say goodbye to the Raven Queen Angus,” Kravitz said. Angus sort of babbled something around the probably-bird toy he’d made, which was now in his mouth.

Once they left her court Kravitz had almost forgotten that he’d wanted to go shopping afterwards. With a quick run back home to grab Angus’s stroller they headed out.

Kravitz hadn’t noticed that Angus was still holding onto the little block toy he’d made. As soon as they passed into the prime material plane it vanished into smoke. He saw Angus wave his hand like he was trying to create another one, but nothing happened. All the items made like that were intrinsically linked to the astral plane of course, so it wasn’t going to work here.

Angus waved his hands a few more times, more forcefully with each attempt. The confused look on his face quickly shifted to upset to crying.

“Oh no, shh, it’s okay Angus,” Kravitz moved to the front of the stroller to try and console him. “Look here, here’s a bird,” he said, waving one of the stuffed animals in front of him to hopefully distract him. It took a bit before he actually paid it any attention, and when he did it didn’t actually seem to help all that much. Angus grabbed the toy but kept on crying.

“Okay uh, something else then,” Kravitz said, suddenly wishing he’d brought more toys. Usually Angus didn’t get too upset on their outings and it hadn’t been much of a problem. He’d bring one or two stuffed animals so Angus would have something to occupy himself with while Kravitz shopped, but that was it.

“You want your feather?” he asked, holding up the feather from the Raven Queen. Angus pretty much insisted on taking that everywhere with him, and it’d been sitting in the cup holder along with his bottle.

Angus snatched it up almost immediately and slowly stopped crying. Kravitz gave a sigh of relief before softly patting Angus on the head.

“There you are. Don’t worry, we’ll head back soon,” Kravitz said. Once it seemed like Angus wouldn’t start crying again Kravitz started to head them towards the music store. He figured they should be quick so that Angus wouldn’t start to get upset again anyway.

As they moved through the streets of Neverwinter something was… different. Kravitz hadn’t spent a lot of time prior to this out and about with people, but in the few times he had, especially his first few outings with Angus, there’d been a tension in the air. A gloom and stress on the people from a terrible war that had brought so much devastation faster than anyone had ever thought possible.

All of that wear and grief and fear was gone now. It didn’t feel like there’d been some triumphant victory either. There was no signs of celebration at finally entering piece, no whispers of loss, no confusion over the abrupt end of the carnage.

It had just… stopped. People were acting like it had never even happened.

It was incredibly unnerving, and even if he wasn’t worried about Angus getting upset again Kravitz doubted he would’ve spent much time dawdling anyway.

Still, he managed to find a record player and a few stacks of records that looked promising. He hadn’t kept up with the music scene much outside of the occasional visit to a concert hall. There was a lot he’d never heard of.

It had taken a little bit of convincing to assure the shopkeeper that no, it was fine, his home wasn’t far he could carry all of this no problem. Yes, with the stroller too, he didn’t need anything delivered, please sir.

Eventually though he managed to get it into the alley behind the shop and through a portal into the astral plane. Undoing Angus from his stroller, he saw the boy tentatively wave a hand and jump in excitement when a block appeared in it again.

“See buddy, told you it’d be fine,” he said, setting Angus on the floor. The kid was pulling out blocks and small birds and Kravitz was pretty sure there were a few attempts at some skulls in there. He’d have to remember to disperse a few the next time Angus went to sleep. Otherwise their living room was going to become completely overrun with the things.

While Angus was amusing himself with that though Kravitz started setting up the record player. There wasn’t a lot of set up involved, and soon enough he was looking through the records to try and figure out which to try first. Eventually he decided to pick one at random, since he’d end up listening to all of them soon enough. The record player worked well, which he’d hoped would be the case. He’d given the man a couple of rare opals for it and the records combined, and he was pretty sure those were expensive.

Kravitz made sure to put the rest of the records up on the top shelf of the bookcase where Angus couldn’t reach as well. When he looked over at Angus the kid was babbling happily, although Kravitz couldn’t say if that was from the music or not. It sounded nice enough to him, some calming instrumental pieces from the look of it.

“What do you think Angus, you like music?” Kravitz asked, picking up the boy to go sit on the couch. He’d probably end up taking a nap soon after all. Maybe the music would help, it was pretty relaxing.

Right now, Kravitz tried to focus on the music and on Angus. It wasn’t his job but it was important and the Raven Queen had said they needed to be prepared for a coming storm.

He didn’t know what that meant, and he didn’t know what could have caused the world to discard the relics it had fought over so viciously without a second though.

But right now, he just wanted to make sure Angus would be safe. There wasn’t any outside force he could go after to ensure that though, so all he could do was, well, raise him.

Raise him, and hope his complete disregard for danger was a result of toddler ignorance, and not a permanent personality trait.

Chapter Text

The older Angus got the more worried Kravitz became that the whole ‘no fear of death’ thing was just how Angus was. Considering the circumstances it made sense. He'd been bound to the astral plane and had a deep well of magic fueled by it. He was blessed by the Raven Queen and had more contact with a goddess in his very short amount of time alive than possibly any other mortal ever had.

His uh, his adoptive dad was the grim reaper. The fact that death wouldn’t exactly be an unknown, frightening thing for him wasn’t exactly surprising.

Kravitz was pretty sure he was still too young to fully conceptualize all of that though. So it really didn’t help the fact that the boy kept trying to throw himself into danger.

The Raven Queen had been right about him learning fast, not that Kravitz had ever doubted her. He was pretty sure Angus went from crawling to walking faster than the books said would be average. Although that might’ve also been because Angus had learned how to summon small pillars to grab onto every time he was about to fall over.

At least when he was walking it was slower than when he was crawling for a good while. He was also higher up, made it easier to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn’t go disappearing into secret hidden compartments he’d make in the walls. Unfortunately that wasn't fool proof and sometimes Kravitz had to go around the house quickly taking away small bit of suspicious looking walls.

Angus at least hadn’t found a way to get outside the house yet, although not for lack of trying. Kravitz was counting every blessing from his Queen for that one.

Talking had also came pretty easy to Angus. It wasn’t anything ridiculous, he’d stuck with dada and his infant babbling for a while. By the time he turned one though he had a couple words down. ‘Bird’ for his bird toy and ‘fedder’ for his feather and ‘wayen’ for when he wanted to see the Raven Queen.

Angus kept trying to get out of their little section of the astral plane though. Kravitz ended up having to add a lock to the door and only materializing the key when he needed it. Thankfully Angus couldn’t create anything as specifically detailed as a key yet, although he was getting better at it every day.

It seemed like the inherent ability to manipulate the astral plane was the only power he’d manifested so far. Kravitz wasn’t sure what other kind of magics he’d get once he got older, but dealing with this one was enough for now.

When Angus started trying to leave their home though Kravitz started taking them on more visits to the prime material plane. The childcare books had said that it was good to socialize kids, and it was pretty isolating in the astral plane.

It was pretty fucking awkward for Kravitz, and he did his best to avoid the um, other parents, as much as he could. It couldn't be all that healthy for Angus, being raised by someone who could barely remember how it was to be alive in the first place. These trips were good for him, as much as they made Kravitz incredibly uncomfortable whenever someone would try striking up casual conversation with him.

The more time he spent in the prime material plane, the more he was convinced that it was like the world had forgotten the wars had ever happened.

Kravitz had gone back to the town encased in mirrors once, to prove to himself that it was still there and had happened. It was, and the mirrors weren’t as perfect anymore. All cracked and dirty and broken from nearly a year of weathering at that point. Made the whole place a little less disorienting to be, although no less unsettling.

Angus turned two, and on his first birthday Kravitz hadn’t been sure what to do. He’d settled on getting him a bunch of new toys and a couple new outfits. This year though he’d done a bit more research and had um, talked a little with some of the other parents at the park he’d take Angus to.

So for his second birthday Kravitz had still done the presents like he’d had the first. Angus seemed to enjoy things that had parts he could put together and take apart, although Kravitz still tried to keep it to big things. He didn’t want to risk choking hazards. Besides that though he’d also gotten a cake, which Angus seemed to greatly enjoy, and some games.

They were really simple games, but Angus liked them. It was obvious that his favorite had been a little eye spy book. Kravitz had gotten it not entirely sure if Angus would be able to get the concept, but he figured if he couldn’t he could at least enjoy the pictures. It turned out though that Angus loved it. After some time he’d gotten bored at playing with the book and wanted Kravitz to actually hide things around the house for him to find.

That led to at least an hour of Kravitz telling Angus to close his eyes, taking whatever toy he’d brought him and hiding it somewhere Angus would be able to find without too much effort. Usually on the bookshelf or sitting under the table or perched on the head of another stuffed animal.

It was fun. By the time Angus had conked out against him it was later than usual, but that didn’t exactly bother Kravitz any. Instead he carefully picked him up and carried him to his crib for the night.

He’d have to look into changing it into a bed soon. The books said it was best to wait until closer to three but Angus was already using his abilities to crawl out of the crib pretty regularly.

It wasn’t too long after Angus’s second birthday that Kravitz felt a familiar tug. He hadn’t realized just how long it had been until he felt that pull on his soul and the request of his Queen.

He was needed to hunt down a bounty.

Even since he’d taken in Angus he’d basically been on desk duty. That wasn’t his  favorite part of the job, but it was something they needed to do and it made him feel a little less useless as a reaper while watching Angus. The Raven Queen had said that he wouldn’t be kept from hunting bounties for too long. Considering he had Angus for a year and a half now it made sense for him to start up again.

Besides, a part of him had been itching to get back into it all. They still hadn’t found the one who’d attempted the ritual on Angus. Maybe if he could get back out there he could make some sort of break. He’d been the one to find it the first time after all.

He knew his first mission back after such a long break wouldn’t be that though. It’d be something simple and hopefully one he could finish in an afternoon or so.

“Angus, we’re gonna go see the Raven Queen,” Kravitz called. Angus had been sitting and ‘reading’ which meant staring at his picture books and nodding thoughtfully. He quickly looked up at that though, smiling brightly.

“Wanna fly,” he said, and Kravitz chuckled and nodded.

“I’m sure she’ll let you fly if you ask her nicely. Now go get your shoes,” Kravitz said. Angus pushed himself up to his feet and quickly retrieved a pair of shoes from his room. They didn’t quite match the clothes he was wearing, but the blue ones were his favorite.

“Dad help,” he said, shoving the shoes into Kravitz’s hands and climbing up on the couch.

“Of course,” Kravitz said, quickly putting the shoes on Angus’s feet. Once that was done he grabbed the boy and hefted him up onto his hip. It still wasn’t any issue at all carrying him, but he definitely was getting bigger.

Heading into the Raven Queen’s chambers, they were barely inside before Angus was trying to scramble out of his arms. Kravitz could still feel his Queen’s amusement at the sight, but it was undercut with the actual reason he was there.

“Wanna fly!” Angus insisted when Kravitz hadn’t let him out of his grasp yet.

“Say please,” he said, because he’d been trying to instill at least some respect for the Raven Queen in him. Kravitz was pretty sure Angus saw her as a fun babysitter with magic powers at the moment, which was a little irreverent. Of course she never seemed to mind, but still. Angus would have to understand the sheer power of the entities he interacted with some day.

“Wanna fly please,” Angus repeated, and Kravitz couldn’t help but snort at that, finally letting him go. Immediately the Raven Queen sent him floating off into a distant part of the court. Kravitz could see several ravens over there watching him, and he wasn’t worried about Angus being entertained.

“My Queen, you have a bounty for me?” he asked, letting the fondness bubbling inside of him shift into something more serious. She nodded, and without a word a scroll appeared in front of him. This was a very standard affair, only made not standard by how long it had been.

Kravitz looked over the bounty, and it wasn’t anything particularly unusual like he’d thought. It was definitely a danger, a dragon attempting for lichdom. He could understand why she’d rather have him take care of it than another reaper. He’d been doing this job for a very long time, he shouldn’t have much of an issue stopping this before the dragon succeeded.

“Alright my Queen,” he said, and then his sight drifted to Angus again, trying to figure out how long this would take. A couple hours at least. If things went a little sideways he might be out for most of the night.

“Do not worry my Kravitz, he will be in safe hands,” the Raven Queen said, clearly realizing what he’d been thinking about. He nodded, trying not to look too worried. He wasn’t, he knew no harm could come to Angus while he was in the presences of one as powerful as the Raven Queen.

It was just- well, she wasn’t exactly a living mortal. Maybe at one time, eons ago, but no longer. Kravitz didn’t doubt her abilities but this was a little, um, out of her domain.

“If I’m not back in two hours he’ll need dinner, and he shouldn’t stay up any later than,” Kravitz did a quick glance at his watch to double check the current time, “nine o’clock. He woke up a little late today,” he said. He could feel the Raven Queen’s amusement as she nodded.

“Of course my reaper, it shall be fine,” she insisted, and right. It was pretty dumb for him to worry.

“Angus? I’m gonna be going now. I’ll be back soon, listen to the Raven Queen while I’m gone,” Kravitz said, and Angus looked up from where he was playing with a Raven. Kravitz had made sure to tell Angus multiple times to be gentle with the birds, and he seemed to listen well enough.

“Bye bye!” he said happily, and it looked like he was much too distracted with playing with the ravens to care much about him leaving. Kravitz couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. He’d been a little worried that Angus might be upset at him leaving, but this wasn’t the first time he’d left him in the care of his Queen.

This would definitely be the longest, but there was no way for Angus to know that. So even though Angus didn’t seem to care, Kravitz quickly went over and gave the boy a quick kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be back soon,” he insisted.

“Soon,” Angus repeated in as stern a voice as a two year old could manage. Kravitz smiled before taking a step back and cutting a tear to the location of his new bounty.

Dragons were always difficult creatures to deal with, and the ones who sought after lichdom all the more so. This one had clearly known about reapers and the laws they were trying to break. It had been more difficult to get into its lair than he had initially suspected.

It had seemed that the dragon hadn’t been quite prepared to go through with the process of becoming a dracolich yet. So even though it had been a long, slow trudge through its lair before he finally made it to the heart, that part went relatively quickly.

A year and a half out of fighting had done little to affect his skill. While battling dragons was consistently one of the tougher parts of the job, after some time he managed to rip its soul from its body, casting it into the eternal stockade.

The effort to get here had taken so much longer than he’d hoped for though. Kravitz practically winced when he finally glanced at his watch again. He knew he lost track of time, but it was well into the next day at this point. Angus would most likely be awake again. Kravitz had been hoping that if he hadn’t made it back before he fell asleep he’d at least manage to get back before morning came again.

Well, there wasn’t anything anyone could do about that now, and so Kravitz did a quick sweep of the bounty’s lair. Collecting what he needed for his report he destroyed the rest. There was no need for the knowledge of these kinds of sick experiments and rituals to exist in the world. Once that was done he cut a portal into the Raven Queen’s court.

Almost immediately he had something clinging to his leg. Kravitz didn’t even try to fight down the fond smile as he bent over and picked Angus up. He had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and Kravitz knew as soon as he touched the soft material who’s work it was. The way the white and blue yarn seemed to shimmer with latent power was also a dead giveaway.

“Hey there my little one, did you have a good time with the Raven Queen?” he asked. He seemed upset, and Kravitz had been worried about this.

“Not soon!” Angus huffed, sounding extremely offended by the whole ordeal. Kravitz gave his best apologetic smile, running a hand through Angus’s hair to fix some of his curls.

“I’m sorry for taking so long. I was really busy with work,” he said softly. Angus was still pouting at him, but he seemed to be getting less upset as Kravitz spoke. “Where did you get that pretty blanket?” he asked, already knowing the answer but hoping to distract him. Angus pulled it a little tighter around him, smiling now.

“Isis!” he said excitedly, and that’s what Kravitz thought.

“You met Lady Istus?” he asked, and Kravitz had sort of figured that would happen eventually. Since they found Angus it had seemed he’d been bound by fate’s strings, it was only a matter of time before she'd wish to see him herself.

“Met Isis! Gave me a present!” Angus repeated, and Kravitz nodded before finally turning to look at the Raven Queen. He could feel her fondness as she watched them, feeling almost self conscious at the fact. He didn’t think he’d ever gone this long in the Raven Queen’s presence without addressing her.

“Thank you for watching him. The dracolich is taken care of,” he said, and he felt her nod.

“Thank you my Kravitz. You may fill out a formal report on your own time and get it to me the next chance you have,” she said, and Kravitz was more thankful for that than he expected. He uh, he really hadn’t expected to start caring for Angus so much.

It’d been centuries since he had someone else outside of his work to care about though. He supposed it only made sense. He was pretty sure he’d always had a bit of a soft spot for children.

“Do not worry about the blanket, it is a gift,” the Raven Queen added after a moment. Kravitz felt his smile grow just that little bit wider.

“Of course. Angus, say thank you to the Raven Queen for watching you,” he said, and Angus seemed to be over his upset feelings at Kravitz being gone for so long.

“Thank you,” he said. The Raven Queen didn’t so much answer with words as she did let her open feelings of affection for the boy out. Kravitz knew Angus could feel them too, as he immediately started giggling.

With that they headed back home. Kravitz made Angus breakfast, as it turned out he’d only woken up a little bit ago. He was pretty clingy for the rest of the day, and Kravitz wasn’t too surprised by that after the way he’d reacted when he finally came back.

Angus also wanted to know what he’d been doing while he was gone. He’d never really explained his work to him before, and this seemed like a good of a chance as any. Of course, he kept it as child friendly as he could, telling it more as a fairy tale than anything else. Angus seemed enraptured by the whole thing though, curled up against his side, wrapped up in the shimmering blanket the lady Istus had gifted him. Angus was warmer than Kravitz, but he was still that slightest bit too cold for a normal human.

By the time Kravitz had finished explaining his tale Angus was insisting that next time he wanted to come.

Of course, the next time Kravitz had to go out on a mission he did not let Angus tag along. It would be years before Kravitz would be even remotely comfortable with the idea of having Angus close to any bounties. If he would ever be comfortable with that idea. He didn’t want Angus to get hurt, and Kravitz knew how dangerous some of his missions could be.

It had resulted in a bit of an argument with the boy the next few times though. Arguing with a toddler was a harder fight to win than Kravitz had expected. Eventually he managed to placate Angus that he’d take him out on missions when he was older, and until then he’d come back and tell him loads of stories all about them.

He still pouted, but it seemed that for the time being the promise of stories was good enough.

Kravitz had to get some new child rearing books. Most of the ones he’d gotten originally hadn’t gone past two. Kravitz had always thought that time had moved fast before. God, that was never more apparent than with Angus. The new books said that children grew fast at this age and they were learning so much, it was hard to keep up.

That certainly seemed to be the case, and there was almost something scary about it for Kravitz. He hadn’t spent this amount of time with a living person since, well, since he was alive, if he had to guess. Those memories were clouded and faded with centuries of time between them and now too.

Watching Angus growing up was a stark reminder of how fast life actually was, especially when he was still so young. Kravitz tried not to think about any of that though, because it didn’t do any good. He cared about Angus and so he was simply going to try and raise him and protect him as best as he could.

Sometimes it felt like he couldn’t do that all that well though.

Angus was smart, Kravitz knew he was smart. He caught on to words and talking faster than the books said was average, and he could create and dispell all kinds of objects from the astral plane by the time he was three. He followed Kravitz around and insisted on helping him with making lunch. He was a little shy around the other kids at the park, preferring to play his own little hide and seek games.

Sometimes it seemed like something was off though. It took him a minute to parse what something was or he had to stare for longer than normal to find something Kravitz had felt like he’d hidden in a really obvious spot.

It wasn’t until he was starting to try and teach Angus individual letters did he realize the boy needed glasses. Kravitz felt like an idiot at the realization. Of course that was why he was squinting and would sometimes take longer to find something than Kravitz knew he should.

Luckily, as soon as he realized he needed glasses it had been easy to get him a pair. Kravitz was starting to get a better hang of money than he’d had before, but he still probably overpaid a lot of the time. Still, he wanted Angus to have a good pair of glasses, something that would last him. So he ignored the dumbfounded look the eye doctor had given him when he’d placed a large diamond on the counter and asked what sort of glasses that could get him for Angus. The boy could barely reach the counter standing on his tiptoes, and had been nervous about going to the doctor.

Once he had his glasses though his face had lit up at being able to see clearly. They had taken a walk before heading to the astral plane and Angus spent the whole walk pointing out and naming as many things as he could from as far away as possible.

“Look at the leaves dad!” Angus had said the first time they came upon a tree after that. Once he had his glasses it ended up making their little hide and seek the objects games a lot harder too. Kravitz had known he was a smart kid, and nearing four years old now he knew it would be more and more obvious.

Still, Angus had a knack for finding hidden objects unlike Kravitz had ever expected. He’d almost started to think that he was raising a rogue here. It would certainly be a little bit unorthodox for someone under the blessing of the Raven Queen, but by no means unheard of.

As many new things that came with raising Angus though, there was definitely a familiar pattern starting to get into affect now. He’d be in with Angus most of the time still, and most of their time now was dedicated to teaching Angus. He was a smart kid with an obvious desire to learn and was always asking questions. Kravitz didn’t have any problem answering them.

Even though Angus was shy around other kids, Kravitz would try to take him to the prime material plane regularly. Angus at least liked going over there and playing in the parks and getting new toys and books, even if he was unsure about the other people.

Honestly, his hesitance helped some. Kravitz still wasn’t sure how to explain to Angus exactly what his situation was. The less he interacted with the living, the longer it would take him to notice the differences.

He’d have to explain everything to him eventually. Kravitz knew that. Still, he didn’t think anyone could blame him much for wanting to take some aspects of it slow. He didn’t want to overwhelm Angus or anything like that.

The first opportunity he found was one afternoon when Angus was sitting in the living room. Angus was working his way through a small children’s book, and he’d really started getting the hang of reading to himself. Kravitz couldn’t help but smile softly whenever he’d see Angus mouthing out longer words to himself.

He also had the blanket from Istus wrapped around his shoulders, and the black raven feather from his Queen tucked behind his ear. Kravitz had been in the middle of grabbing a juice for Angus, and handed it over to him as he sat down.

“You remember where you got this blanket?” he asked. Angus paused in his reading and nodded, pulling it a little closer around him at the mention.

“Lady Istus gave me it,” he said, and Kravitz nodded.

“She did,” he said, and then his eyes glanced back over to the feather. Even against his dark black hair, something about it seemed to shine and stick out. “What about your feather?” he asked. Angus frowned some, seeming thoroughly distracted from his book now. He plucked the feather out from behind his ear and stared at it for a moment.

“I don’t remember. It’s one of Raven Queen’s, right?” he asked, and Kravitz wasn’t surprised he’d realized that even if he couldn’t remember.

“That’s right. She gave it to you the day you came to us,” he said. He wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell him right now. He was just laying out groundwork. “You should take care of both of them, they’ll keep you safe.”

“I know,” Angus said, like it was a simple and obvious thing. He stopped inspecting his feather and stuck it back behind his ear before going back to his reading.

Kravitz supposed he really hadn’t explained a lot there, but he decided to leave it for now. It was a start, and Angus knew that they were watching out for him. That was the most important part.

Chapter Text

Angus was getting older, that much was obvious. Kravitz had figured taking care of him would get both easier and so much harder as he grew, and he was pretty sure this was one of the things he was right on the money on.

He was getting more independent, and Kravitz knew he was starting to figure out that this place he lived wasn’t exactly normal. The picture books and recently small children’s books Kravitz had gotten him certainly didn’t show any kids living in places like the astral plane. They didn’t have incomprehensible gods as babysitters.

Angus had started asking questions about that, and Kravitz had answered most of them vaguely so far. He knew he’d have to explain things to him eventually, but he still wasn’t sure how. He tried to start off simple, just giving him a base idea of the world he live in. Angus knew it was the astral plane, but he didn’t know what that meant. He knew Kravitz was a reaper, and went on adventures stopping evil individuals, but he didn’t know what that meant really, or why.

Still, he needed to tell him the truth about all of this eventually. Angus was still too young to understand everything, but he was old enough for a start.

Kravitz figured a good start to that would be letting him see more of the astral plane.

“Do you need help with your coat?” Kravitz asked, watching as Angus struggled to button it somewhat. The boy shook his head fiercely, almost dislodging his hat in the process. He still had that feather he’d received from the Raven Queen when he was bound to this plane. He’d taken to pinning it onto his favorite hat recently, so that he wouldn’t risk it falling out of his pockets as he played.

“I got it!” he insisted. They weren’t in any rush, and so Kravitz stayed waiting on the couch until Angus managed to get the buttons. It wasn’t that much colder at the astral sea than it was in their home, but Angus was always a bit cooler than the average person. A light jacket wouldn’t hurt.

“Where’re we going dad?” Angus asked. As soon as Kravitz stood up he was almost knocked right back down, Angus running and jumping up onto him. It wasn’t difficult for Kravitz to recover and grab him up, situating the boy on his hip as he materialized his scythe.

“Someplace new, it’s a part of my work actually,” Kravitz said, and as soon as Angus heard that his face lit up. The boy was still absolutely fascinated with his job, it was a bit worrying at times. Kravitz didn’t want him to get too interested in it.

“Really?” he asked, and then started reaching for the scythe in Kravitz’s other hand. “Can I take us? I wanna try dad!” he said, and thankfully it still wasn’t hard to pull the scythe out of his reach.

“No, not until you’re older,” he said. Angus pouted but didn’t argue, and he still seemed excited about the prospect of getting to learn anything more about his job. With that Kravitz cut a quick slice through the air, and they stepped out onto the shore of the astral sea. Letting the scythe disappear, he gently placed Angus down on the sand. His eyes were scanning the endless horizon of lights around them.

“This is the astral sea Angus,” Kravitz said, his voice soft. He could see the awe on his face as he took a few small steps towards the edge of the sea.

“The ocean?” he asked, crouching down once he reached the edge to inspect it further. Kravitz walked up and got down next to him. He could see the way Angus was trying to think through everything, to take in every little detail. He was still so young, but it was obvious how smart he was already.

“I guess you could call it an ocean too, yeah,” he said, a bit of amusement in his voice. “This is were people’s souls go when they die. My job is to make sure everyone stays in here and safe,” he explained.

None of the books he’d gotten had said what age was a good one to explain the concept of death to a child. Kravitz had figured that even if there was one, it would do Angus good to know about it as soon as possible. It was a part of him after all, in a way he’d have to learn about eventually.

“That’s all people?” Angus asked, pointing out at the innumerable swirling lights. Kravitz nodded, and Angus somehow managed to look even more amazed as he turned back towards the ocean. They were right at the edge of the sea, and Kravitz couldn’t say he was that surprised when Angus reached out to try and grab one that came close.

Gently he grabbed Angus’s hand and pulled it back before he could actually touch it, chuckling slightly.

“Careful now. We don’t want to hurt them any,” he said. Angus nodded, keeping his hands to himself now and not reaching out to try to grab any more of the lights. After that the two of them spent a long moment sitting at the edge of the astral sea. Angus seemed almost transfixed as he stared out at the lights, and Kravitz couldn’t blame him. It was as beautiful as it was peaceful. Kravitz had spent a fair amount of time himself watching the lights in the past.

Kravitz hadn't realized how much free time he used to have. How often he'd just been waiting for the next mission to come along.

Eventually Angus stood up and started looking around further. Kravitz wasn’t surprised when his eyes fell on the only other structure out here.

“Dad, what’s that?” he asked, pointing towards the tall, dark building out on another larger island.

“That’s the Eternal Stockade,” Kravitz said, pushing himself back up to his feet. As soon as he was standing Angus grabbed his hand and started trying to pull him closer to the large prison. Luckily they were on a totally different island, so Angus couldn’t go running off for the place.

“What is it? I wanna see,” Angus insisted.

“Angus, that’s where all the bad people I capture get locked up. It’s really dangerous inside,” he said. That was simplifying it to a huge degree, but the point was still accurate. Angus frowned, looking disappointed by that answer.

“Please Dad?” he asked, and with most things it was hard for Kravitz to keep saying no to him when he did that. In this case though, it wasn’t difficult, because he definitely wasn’t going to let Angus get that close to the kind of people he had to lock up in the eternal stockade.

“I’m sorry Angus, it’s just too dangerous. Maybe one day when you’re older,” he said, although honestly he’d rather keep Angus away from the stockade no matter how old he was. He could already tell that the kid was going to have a stubborn streak though, so he wasn’t sure how successful he’d actually be with that.

“Fine,” Angus grumbled, not seeming happy about it. After a moment though he stopped staring longingly at the eternal stockade and looked back out at the large astral sea.

“Where’s home?” he asked suddenly, the question catching Kravitz off guard.

“What do you mean Angus?” he asked, and he could see that look of concentration on the boy’s face again.

“Home is in astral plane, right? And this is astral too, right?” he asked, and oh, that made sense. That was something he’d been planning on explaining to Angus eventually too after all.

“Right, this is all the astral plane. Here and the eternal stockade and home. We’re in the astral plane whenever we go visit the Raven Queen too. Her chamber isn’t too far from our house, actually,” he explained. Angus nodded, clearly listening intensively.

“It’s all the places where I can make,” he said, holding out a hand and a small toy bird appearing in it. His little creations had gotten quite a bit more refined over the years, and he could see little etchings of feathers in this one. Kravitz smiled and nodded.

“Exactly, the astral plane is your home and it’s where you’re strongest,” he said. The way Angus beamed in pride at that was adorable, and Kravitz couldn’t help but smile some as well.

“But not the park?” he pressed, and Kravitz nodded again.

“The park isn’t in the astral plane. When we go shopping and on walks that’s in the prime material plane,” he explained.

“Prime material plane,” he repeated slowly, frowning and his brow creased in concentration. “I can’t make things over there, it’s annoying,” he added, and Kravitz let out a snort of laughter at that.

“Yeah, it’s a little annoying, but you like going to the park and getting new things, right?” he asked, and Angus nodded. Kravitz figured he should start expanding Angus’s knowledge of that plane as well, take him to places other than Neverwinter and the like.

The world was a lot safer since the war ended. Angus was strong enough now that they could spend a couple of days in the prime material plane without any negative consequences.

Still, that was stuff they could do later. As it was, the two of them spent a bit longer on the shore of the astral sea, Kravitz answering as many of Angus’s questions as he could. The boy never seemed to run out of things he wanted to learn about, constantly searching out new information.

Kravitz was more than happy to fill and encourage that curiosity. It felt like a good thing, a way to get back against Vecna trying to use this child for his own whims. Vecna and his followers were all about secrets and burying information and the truth. Angus’s constant search for knowledge felt good. Made Kravitz feel more secure in the idea that the lich had no lasting influence over the boy.

After spending the day at the astral sea they headed back home. Even though they’d only walked along the shore and talked, Angus was tired and ready for a nap by the time they got back.

Kravitz knew it had been over five years at this point, and that felt so much longer and yet so short at the same time. He was surprised that taking care of a child, that uh, being a dad, was so normal to him now. Five years was such a short amount of time for someone like him.

He also couldn’t believe that it’d been over five years. Angus was going to be six soon, and he’d already started to learn how to read and write and could hold full conversations with him now. His powers were growing and he wanted to understand the world around him so much.

Angus was growing up so fast and Kravitz was so, so proud of him.

——

Angus was six years old and today he was going to get inside of the eternal stockade.

His dad had said it was a dangerous place, full of all the scary evil people he had to lock up for breaking the rules. He said it was too dangerous for Angus to go there until he was older. His dad was smart and strong and went on lots of scary and fun sounding adventures to keep the world safe. So he probably knew he what he was talking about when he said a place was really dangerous.

Which was why Angus waited until now to try and go. Dad said he could when he was older, and he said that when he was five. He was a whole year older now, and that had to count for something. He even waited an entire week after his birthday, to make sure that he was really properly older.

Right now he was in his room. Dad thought he was taking a nap, and was probably doing more work stuff in his room. He said that the paperwork was the boring part of his job, but still important. Angus knew that he’d say no if he asked him to take him to the eternal stockade, but that was just because he was protective. Dad was always worried about him getting hurt, fussing over every little bump and bruise even when Angus insisted he was fine.

It was okay though. Dad just worried about things, so Angus wasn’t going to worry him about this. He was gonna go to the Eternal Stockade and when he got back show him how he didn’t have to worry about that stuff anymore cause Angus was strong too.

The first thing he needed to do was get there though. He’d never done the cool travel stuff his dad could do before, and dad never let him practice with his scythe either. He said it was too big and he didn’t want Angus accidentally ripping his own soul out.

It was really big, and Angus wasn’t going to try to use something that big. Still, even though he’d never done it before, he’d watched his dad more times than he could count, and he could count really high.

Concentrating, making things was easy. He tended to stick to small things, but sometimes he’d made stairs and stuff if he needed something off a shelf he couldn’t reach. Still, he wanted this to be perfect, so Angus focused as much as he could imagining exactly what he wanted in his hands.

In a moment he was gripping a long pole, a curved blade on the end. It looked almost exactly like his dad’s, and Angus had to resist the urge to run out and show him. The only real difference was that his was a lot smaller, and he’d done that on purpose. This one was perfectly him size, and he couldn’t fight the grin off his face as he gave it a few test swipes.

Angus flinched when he accidentally knocked a lamp off the side table by his bed in the process. He barely managed to materialize a pillow underneath it in time, preventing a loud crash that definitely would have made dad come running to see what happened.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Angus stopped playing around. He had something he needed to do after all.

Okay, he just needed to do it like dad did. He’d asked him how before, and he’d said he concentrated on the place he wanted to be as he made the portals, so that’s what Angus did. He’d gone back to the astral sea a few times with his dad, and each time he’d spent a while staring at the eternal stockade. He imagined it in his mind now, closing his eyes and focusing hard on the imagine in his head.

Pulling back the blade he made a long, unsteady swipe, nearly falling over in the process. Quickly opening his eyes again as he caught his footing, he could see a small tear in the air in front of him. It wasn’t anywhere near as large and steady as the portals his dad made, and it was already closing.

Not giving a second thought, Angus rushed through. The end of his scythe almost got cut off in the closing tear behind him, but he managed to yank it through in time. As he stepped forward he felt soft sand shifting under his feet, and when he looked up he was in the shade of ominous, cold stone walls.

Angus squealed in excitement, holding tight onto his scythe with both hands and running up to the building. He did it! He actually did it his dad was going to be so proud and excited when he found out!

The lights of the astral sea illuminated the outside of the prison, and Angus slowed down as he went up to the front door. It was quiet and still as he got close, and the door was like a solid chunk of heavy iron. It looked solid and strong and like it did a very good job of keeping what it wanted to keep in, in, and what it wanted to keep out, out.

Dragging the blade of his scythe through the sand behind him, he went and put a hand on the door. Angus hesitated slightly now that he was here. Dad had said it was dangerous, and he was still a pretty little boy.

This was still the astral plane though, and dad had said that was his home. He was strong here, and he already managed to get here and he needed to know what was inside.

Taking a deep breath, Angus pushed on the door with all his might and was shocked when he gave way a lot easier than he expected. He ended up falling forward onto his knees as it pushed in, and Angus quickly scrambled back to his feet. He expected some evil monster his dad had locked away to come jumping out at him, but nothing happened. There was just a long, cold stone hallway stretching out in front of him.

Angus picked up his hat from where it had fallen, making sure the feather was still in place before putting it back on. Then he slowly walked back to where he’d dropped his scythe when he fell and picked it back up as well. It scraped and made noise as he dragged it along on the stone ground. It had been a lot quieter in the sand, and Angus debated getting rid of it. He wanted to be able to protect himself if he ran into something dangerous though, so he kept it.

Making his way down the long hall, it was almost completely silent other than the sound of metal scraping behind him, which echoed down the halls. It was unnerving, but he wasn’t going to get scared and run off before he’d even seen anything yet.

When he got to the end of the hall, it branched off into a bunch of directions. More than he would’ve thought. They all looked the same, and he couldn’t see the end of any of them. They all seemed to fade off into darkness.

Picking one at random, he kept moving forward. He’d thought the halls had been the same as the entrance he’d come down, but as he moved forward he could see they were different. These halls had cells, all lining the walls. There had to be hundreds of them, maybe thousands. He had no idea how far the halls went or how many times they branched. The eternal stockade had looked big from the outside, but it was positively enormous inside.

Hesitantly, Angus walked up to the first cell he’d come across. It was dark inside, and as he squint he couldn’t see if there was even anything in there. Maybe there wasn’t. Maybe the thing was just empty.

“AH!” Angus shouted, falling back in fear. Without warning there’d been a person up against the bars of the cell. Or, not a person. Their face was locked in a tormented scream, their eyes full of rage as a spectral hand tipped with claws tried to reach through the bars at him as the thing wailed.

Angus scrambled away on his hands and knees until he had his back up against the ball. He must’ve dropped his scythe in fear, and he couldn’t do anything but sit there and shake in fear as the thing continued raging inside of its cage.

Then there was a rip opening in the hallway between him and the monster. Angus's first instincts was to jump up and run to his dad when he saw him storm in through the portal.

He couldn’t move though. He was too scared and if he went to his dad he’d be getting closer to that thing.

“What are you doing here?!” his dad shouted. He was in his skeletal face, the one he usually wore when he went off to work, and Angus had never seen him look that mad before. His eyes were a glowing, blazing red, and he wasn’t even paying attention to the monster locked in the cell behind him.

“I- I, I just-” he tried to stutter out, but he couldn’t get the words to form and ended up letting out a choked sob. He hadn’t even realized he started crying but now he couldn’t stop. He didn’t notice his dad coming closer until he was very carefully lifting him up off the floor of the eternal stockade.

Even if he was mad right now Angus didn’t hesitate in clinging to him as tight as he possibly could. He heard his dad sigh softly, moving around a bit more before hearing the telltale sound of another portal being ripped open.

Angus didn’t even need to look up from where he was still crying into his dad’s shoulder to know they were back home. He felt his dad sit them both down on the couch, and there was a long moment where he sat there, rubbing at Angus’s back and letting him cry.

He wasn’t sure how long it was when he finally managed to get control again and mostly stop crying. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, still not moving from his spot curled up against his dad. Angus heard him sigh and felt him carding fingers through his hair. He hoped he hadn’t dropped his hat before they got back home. He didn’t want that monster to take it.

“Angus, what did I tell you about the Eternal Stockade?” he dad asked. He no longer sounded all full of anger and rage like before, instead a soft disappointment in his voice that still managed to make Angus flinch.

“It’s dangerous,” he mumbled, and he felt his dad nodding.

“Exactly. Angus I’m sorry I yelled at you but when I saw you were gone I was so worried,” his dad said. Angus tried to fight back more tears that were starting to threaten to spill again when his dad pulled back some. He had his fleshy face on over the skull again. He did look like he’d been really scared. He wasn't used to seeing his dad scared.

“You said I could go when I was older, and I- I’m older now,” Angus tried to explain. He couldn’t help but feel a little better when that got his dad to smile some.

“Oh, Angus,” he said, shaking his head softly. “You’re older yes, but I was thinking a little bit older still,” he said, and Angus reluctantly nodded. That was probably fair.

“Sorry I worried you,” he apologized, and his dad shook his head, reaching out and wiping his face some.

“It’s okay my little one, I know you didn’t mean to scare me,” he said, and Angus nodded. He really hadn’t. He thought his dad would be excited and proud when he told him. He also didn’t think he’d get all scared right away and he’d have to come get him either though.

“I am a little confused on how you managed to get all the way into the eternal stockade though,” he said after a moment, obvious befuddlement in his voice. Angus managed to stop crying at this point and perked up some. Even if he’d been scared he’d managed to do so much and he wanted to show his dad.

“I made a scythe like yours! And I cut a portal like you do,” he explained. His dad looked impressed at that, but not too surprised.

“So that’s what this is,” he said, reaching down and picking Angus’s scythe up from where he hadn’t noticed it lying on the floor. Angus’s face lit up at that and he tried to grab it, but his dad was holding it a bit out of his reach.

“Yeah! I made it myself and it’s just like yours but smaller and I can make portals with it too!” he said, speaking fast with his excitement.

“Angus, that’s…” his dad said, and Angus’s smile faded some. He didn’t sound excited like he’d hoped.

“Is it okay? Are you mad?” he asked, and his dad quickly shook his head.

“No, no of course I’m not mad. This is amazing, I can’t believe you figured out how to do this all on your own,” he said, and Angus’s smile came back full force at that. “But-” aaand it was gone again. “I uh, I think we should probably put in a rule about making blades until you’re a bit older. You could’ve really hurt yourself with this.”

“I’ll be careful! I fell when I first went into the stockade and didn’t get scratched at all,” he tried to argue. His dad looked even more worried at that though, so maybe it hadn’t been the best argument.

“That- Okay. Okay,” his dad said, taking a deep breath and rubbing at his temples some. “Angus, I’m so proud of you, but I think we need to put in a no blades rule,” he said, and Angus frowned heavily at that.

“Aw, really?” he asked, not happy about this at all. “But I wanna get better at portals! The one I made was small and went away real fast,” he tried to argue. Dad actually stopped and seemed to think about that one.

“It’s- Alright, but no practicing on your own, okay? I’d rather teach you about all that anyway,” he said, and Angus nodded, pretty sure that was the best deal he was going to get.

“Promise!” he said happily. Then he yawned loudly, not meaning to. He hadn’t actually been all that tired when he lied and told his dad he wanted a nap, but after all of that he was. His dad seemed to notice right away, smiling gently and running his fingers through Angus’s hair again.

“You ready for a real nap this time buddy?” he asked and Angus nodded.

“Yeah,” he said, and then hesitated slightly before adding. “Can, um, can you stay though?” he asked. He didn’t want to seem scared and little. That thing had been behind bars, it couldn’t have hurt him. He just hadn’t been expecting it to jump out like that.

He wanted to take a nap with his dad though. Not because he was scared, just because.

“Of course. How about we get set up for a nap in my room?” he asked. Angus nodded, climbing off his dad’s lap when a thought came to him.

“Oh, dad did you get my hat?” he asked, worry clear in his voice. He really liked that hat. He could get a new one if he lost it, but his feather had been in that one. He couldn’t lose that feather, it was his favorite and he’d always had it. The Raven Queen gave it to him and it was important.

“It’s right here, don’t worry,” his dad said, holding up the hat and Angus let out a sigh of relief.

With that he followed his dad to his room and helped him set up a bunch of pillows and blankets. His dad wasn’t tired, which made sense cause he was never tired. Instead of sitting at his desk though he sat up in bed with Angus, a little floating platform in front of him so he could do his work there.

Angus curled up next to him, and he’d been tired from everything. Crying always made him a little tired and it wasn’t like he needed a nap every day anymore, but they were still nice.

Even still, he was out like a light almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Chapter Text

Kravitz had assumed, and he felt it was a reasonable enough assumption, that after Angus’s first attempt to get into the eternal stockade it wouldn’t be an issue anymore. It had obviously terrified him, and rightfully so. The things Kravitz had to lock up in there would unnerve most grown adults.

Kravitz had been so scared. He hadn’t feared the necromancers and undead monstrosities he’d been locking up for a long, long time.

But when he’d realized he couldn’t feel the familiar, constant drum of power from Angus’s soul like waves coming from his room anymore, he’d been terrified. He felt out for him across the astral plane and realized exactly where he was, and Kravitz was suddenly very scared of all the evil he’d locked up there.

He’d gotten Angus out before any damage could be done though. Found him terrified and in tears, but safe. He’d been especially clingy for the week afterwards, but quickly seemed to get over the scare.

And Kravitz assumed that would be the end of it. Angus was a very smart boy and his powers were obviously growing, but now he knew that the eternal stockade wasn’t a joke.

There were other things Kravitz had him distracted with anyway.

He still wasn’t too comfortable with such a young boy learning how to use a large, bladed weapon, but Angus had begged. Kravitz was not very good at holding his ground when Angus begged. It was safer to have someone watching after him and teaching him anyway than Angus trying to sneakily learn on his own. Plus, teaching Angus how to control his power was important.

At first he only seemed to be able to make portals connecting different parts of the astral plane, which made sense. Most of their practice consisted of Angus hopping from room to room in their home. Usually trying to sneak up on Kravitz with varying levels of success. Sometimes he let Angus make the portal to take them to the astral sea, or to the Raven Queen’s chambers.

After quite a bit of trial and error Angus finally managed to figure out portals to and from the prime material plane as well. He couldn’t move to different parts of the prime material plane without coming back to the astral plane first though.

Figuring out how to get back to the astral plane from the prime material had been a challenge. Kravitz could summon his scythe at will no matter where he was, it was a part of his construct. Angus could only make such things when within the astral plane though, using his bond to it to manipulate the plane itself to his will.

They were sitting in a secluded part of a forest on the edge of the teeth mountain range. It was nice and peaceful out here, and the chances of anyone happening upon them were very slim.

Kravitz was fairly sure that Angus should be able to make portals back to the astral plane. He hadn’t been able to figure it out yet though. Kravitz had a few theories, but they were still ruminating.

They would require some pretty in depth explanations on the source of Angus’s powers. Which, he needed to get around to doing eventually. Angus was already seven years old. Kravitz was still trying to find the words for it all, he supposed.

“How do you do it dad? I can’t get the dumb scythe to appear,” Angus huffed, crossing his arms and slumping back against a tree stump in frustration. Kravitz frowned some in thought, trying to figure out how exactly to put it.

“Well, it’s a part of me, so making it appear is a lot like how I control any other part of myself. I simply will it to come,” he explained. It wasn’t a very good explanation, but Kravitz had never professed to be a very good teacher. He hadn’t been a wizard in life, his powers had always come from something more emotional. Something he had a hard time putting into words. He was honestly lucky Angus was so good at picking things up himself.

“Like how you can make your face and stuff go away?” Angus asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Exactly like that, yes,” he said. Angus frowned, and there was a look of concentration on his face. After a moment he poked himself in the cheek before looking disappointed. Kravitz had to bite down on the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing.

“What uh, what are you trying to do there sweetheart?” he asked, not quite able to hide the amusement in his voice. If Angus noticed he didn’t make a note of it, still pouting somewhat.

“I wanted to see if I could make my face go away too,” he explained, and that was what Kravitz had thought he might’ve been doing.

“It uh, it doesn’t quite work like that I’m afraid. You’re a flesh boy,” Kravitz said, afterwards thinking that maybe that wasn’t the best way to word it. Kind of a weird way, actually. Angus didn’t seem to mind though, instead looking more concerned with the fact that he couldn’t make his face melt away at will.

“Yeah but you can make your flesh go away when you want it to,” Angus said, and Kravitz was still smiling with amusement.

“Yes, but that’s because I’m d-” he said, and then stopped suddenly, his smile fading immediately. He was wracking his brain trying to remember if he’d ever had this conversation with Angus before. He had to of, right? It was- it was a fundamental part of who he was, and of who Angus was.

As much as he tried though, he couldn’t remember ever telling Angus that he was dead. He’d told him all about his job as a reaper, and how the Raven Queen was a goddess of death. About how the astral plane was where souls go after they passed, and how it was there home, but he’d never spelled it out for Angus. He supposed he never thought he needed to.

“Dad?” Angus asked, a look of concern on his face.

“It’s um, it’s because I’m-” he started, trying to figure out a gentle way to put this. He’d had hundreds of years easing souls into the afterlife, this shouldn’t be particularly hard for him. It was though, because this was important, and it was about him.

“Dead?” Angus filled in, and Kravitz froze.

“What was that?” he asked, but Angus didn’t look particularly upset or anything. Or surprised. He kind of looked amused, honestly.

“You’re dead? I know that dad,” he said, the tone of voice he had implying that Kravitz was being a little ridiculous, and maybe he was. He still couldn’t help but let out a large sigh of relief. Okay, maybe he hadn’t needed to spell it out for Angus.

“Right, right sorry. It’s because I’m dead and a reaper, the fact that I can change my form and such that is,” he said, starting to get his words back under control. Angus nodded, seeming more mildly curious than anything. It wasn’t the reaction he’d been expecting, but he’d take it. The last thing he wanted was for Angus to get upset over something he’d accepted about himself ages ago.

“So when I become a reaper will I be able to do that stuff too?” he asked, and that gave Kravitz slight pause again.

“I… suppose so, if that’s what you want to become,” he said. Honestly the idea of Angus becoming a reaper wasn’t a good one for Kravitz. He didn’t like thinking of his son in that kind of danger. Angus nodded though, not seeming to take much notice of Kravitz’s discomfort.

“Yeah I guess so! That’s another thing you’re gonna say I can’t do till I’m older though, right?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Right, not until you’re much, much older,” he said. Another idea was coming to Kravitz, and this one might have been worse than the thought that Angus hadn’t known he was dead.

“Hey Angus, how did you figure out that I was dead?” he asked, and it seemed like Angus had gone back to trying to summon a scythe again. He shrugged, not seeming too bothered by the question.

“It seemed obvious. Everything back home is dead, right? That’s what you said the astral plane is for,” he asked, and Kravitz slowly nodded. That was what he thought might be going on here.

“Most things back home are, yes,” he said, hesitance clear in his voice. Angus seemed to think that over for a moment, before nodding.

“I guess Raven Queen isn’t dead, right? She’s a god, that’s different,” he said. Angus wasn’t wrong about that, and Kravitz supposed there was a time when she was the only thing that could be considered alive in the astral plane. Still, it let Kravitz know that he was right here.

It wasn’t that Angus hadn’t ever realized Kravitz was dead. No, it was that he had never realized that he wasn’t.

“Yes, that’s true,” he said, trying to figure out the words here. He could tell Angus had noticed something was up again, because he was staring at him with clear confusion.

“You okay dad?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just…” he paused, because there was really no way to be too gentle with this. Or at least, no way that Kravitz could figure out on the fly. Angus was smart, as soon as he started hinting at it he’d figure out anyway. Best to be straight forwards. “Angus, you do know that you’re alive too, don’t you?”

Angus was staring at him for a long moment, and Kravitz could see the gears turning in his little head. It was pretty clear that he hadn’t known that.

“But you and Raven Queen are always talking about how the astral plane is my home and my powers come from it and all that stuff,” he said, and Kravitz nodded. God, they really should’ve been more clear about these things. He’d known he should’ve explained to Angus how he came to be here, but he’d never known how to in a way that would be appropriate.

He hadn’t thought about what Angus would assume in the meantime though.

“It is, and they are. It’s not- I promise we weren’t ever lying to you, although I suppose there are a few things we could have explained more thoroughly,” Kravitz said. Angus shifted in the grass so that he was sitting closer to him, fully invested in this now.

“Like what? If I can’t do this stuff cause I’m dead how do I? If I’m alive why do I live in the astral plane? Is it just because you’re my dad? Are you my dad actually? I mean you are but were you alive when I was born and then did you die or were you always dead? Do I have other living parents somewhere? If I do is it okay if I still stay with you?” Angus asked, shooting out about a million questions and not giving Kravitz any time to actually answer any of them.

“Alright, alright there darling, one at a time,” he said. Angus seemed to think it over, trying to decide which question to go with first.

“Why do I live in the astral plane if I’m alive? You’re not gonna make me stop someday, are you?” he asked. It was technically two questions, but Kravitz quickly shook his head to the second one.

“No, of course not. If you want to spend more time over here as you get older that’s fine, but the astral plane will always be your home whenever you want to come back,” he said, and that seemed to relax Angus some. Then Kravitz tried to focus on his first question. It was a big one, and would probably answer a lot of the others he’d barraged Kravitz with moments ago.

As he started explaining, he pulled Angus over to sit in his lap. They’d been sitting in a patch of sun, so he was a bit warmer than he typically was. There was still that chill there that wouldn’t be on a regular human. No wonder Angus had realized that something wasn’t normal with him.

“When you were little, just a baby I found you while I was out on a mission. I’d been after a terrible demon who’d been performing a ritual for Vecna,” he began to explain. Angus was listening intently and frowned at the mention of the undying king.

“I don’t like that guy. Your missions with him always take forever,” he complained, and Kravitz chuckled some at that.

“I don’t like him either. Well, he’d been- the demon that had been working for him had started to preform a ritual. It was supposed to bind the human they’d taken to Vecna, letting him channel his powers through him,” he continued to explain.

“Through me,” Angus said, clearly knowing what was going on with that. Kravitz had a feeling he would, and nodded.

“Yeah, through you. I stopped him but he already managed to start the ritual. We needed something to channel all that magic inside of you through, so the Raven Queen used her powers to bind you to the astral plane,” he said, still holding Angus carefully in his lap. Angus seemed to take a moment to think the whole thing over, and it all sounded so simple when he said it out like that. A part of him was surprised he’d taken this long to explain it to Angus.

“That makes sense,” Angus said finally, seeming pretty okay with all of this. “I’m not tied to him anymore, right? You guys fixed that?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“You’re not, that’s not something you should ever have to worry about,” he said, and he meant that. Of course the dying king and his minions were still out there, they always were, but he never intended to let any of them get near Angus ever again.

“Good,” Angus said, and Kravitz couldn’t help but smile some at that. “So, my magic comes from the astral plane itself? That’s how I’m able to make things when I’m there and portals and stuff?” he asked.

“That’s pretty much it, yeah,” Kravitz said. He could see Angus trying to work something out, and Kravitz wasn’t good at explaining how magic worked. His all felt like an extension of himself, and the little magic he’d known back when he was alive had been bardic in nature. He was never all that good at finding the words to explain it. Still, he was trying for Angus.

“Try not to worry about creating a scythe to create the portal. Mine had been a gift from the Raven Queen. Her magic is what allows me to create the tears in the planes, and it’s channeled through that. This is all you though, so try and focus on the astral plane and what you want to happen,” he said, not too sure if he was making much sense. Angus nodded, not bothering to get out of Kravitz’s lap. Instead he stretched his hands out in front of him, a frown of concentration on his face.

And then Kravitz saw a small tear start to open up in front of them, the astral plane on the other side. It wasn’t very large and didn’t stay open for long but Angus was beaming when he turned around in his lap to look at him.

“I did it! Dad, dad did you see it? I made a portal back home!” he said, and Kravitz nodded.

“I saw, that was great Angus,” he reassured him. They spent the rest of the afternoon with Angus practicing creating portals back home, and he was such a fast learner once he got the hang of it. Soon it was getting late, and Kravitz let Angus create them a portal back home. He kind of had to duck to walk through it, but it did the job well enough.

He seemed pretty worn out after that, so Kravitz figured he would knock out pretty soon after dinner. Angus sat at the counter as Kravitz cooked, and his food wasn’t all that great. He hadn’t ever had much of a gift for it from what he could remember, but Angus never really complain. He’d gotten a bit better at it over the years with practice, his stuff was at least edible.

“I had other parents before you, right?” Angus asked suddenly, catching Kravitz off guard. He nodded, peaking into the oven to make sure that he hadn’t burnt the pizza yet. It looked fine so far.

“Yes, you did,” he said. He figured Angus would want to know about them whenever they eventually came up. A part of him had been relieved when Angus had mentioned wanting to stay with Kravitz during that previous barrage of questions. Still, he shouldn’t have thought that would be the end of it. Angus was always too curious to let something like that go.

“Did they die? Or are they still out there somewhere?” he asked. It was a fair question.

“They died,” he answered simply. Angus didn’t seem all that bothered by this, and Kravitz hadn’t really expected him to be. It wasn’t like Angus wasn’t familiar with the concept of death, and there was no way he could remember them with how young he’d been.

“Did Vecna kill them when he took me?” he asked, and that was more difficult. He knew it was coming but he still hadn’t been looking forward to explaining this part.

“No. He hadn’t. They died afterwards,” he said, and he could see Angus’s interest pique at that.

“Really? What killed them then? And did they know I got taken or was I stolen without them finding out? Did they give me to Vecna?” he asked, and he still didn’t seem upset by any of this. If anything he sounded intrigued, fascinated by this new unknown.

“They had- there had been a war, back when you were very little. It was terrible. Your parents had gotten tied up in it, and they’d- Vecna had tricked them. They didn’t realize what they were giving you to, but they offered you to him for enough power to get something from the war. I don’t know what it was called, but it was a incredibly powerful artifact. It turned an entire city and everyone in it into mirrors. They got it, and that’s what killed them,” he explained.

Angus was just staring at him now, a look of confusion on his face. It wasn’t what Kravitz had been expecting.

“What? Sorry, what killed them dad?” he asked again, and Kravitz wasn’t sure what was wrong.

“It was- There was a powerful magical artifact, it turned them both into solid glass mirrors,” he explained again, and Angus only looked even more confused. Kravitz had expected fear or for Angus to be disturbed by their deaths, but this was strange.

“What magic thing though? What did it do?” he pressed, and now Kravitz was starting to get worried.

“I just said, it turned them to glass,” he repeated.

“Dad, I can’t understand you,” Angus said, and Kravitz didn’t know what he meant. This hadn’t ever been a problem before, and he couldn’t imagine what could be causing something like this now.

“What do you mean, you can’t understand?” he asked. Angus huffed, clearly frustrated by all of this.

“You start off fine, but whenever you try and talk about what killed my original parents it just- it’s like you’re talking in static,” he said, and Kravitz was frowning deeply now.

“Static?” he asked, and Angus nodded.

“I can tell you’re still talking but all I hear is static, it’s really weird,” he said, and Kravitz didn’t know what to think of that. He’d never heard of anything like it before.

“It’s only when I talk about what killed them?” he asked, and Angus nodded.

“Mostly? I know you said there was something when I was little and my parents traded me to Vecna, but everything else just kinda dissolves,” he explained. Kravitz sat down across from him at the counter, trying to work through this.

“Okay, you can't understand that there was a war either?" he asked, and Angus was looking even more frustrated.

"A what?"

"A war. It was terrible, everyone in the entire prime material plane had been after these artifacts, and they did so much damage,” he explained. He’d always wondered what had caused the war to end so abruptly, for everyone to have acted like it had never happened in the first place.

“There was… what? Dang it, I got none of that, basically,” Angus said, and Kravitz didn’t like this. It did explain some things though.

“That’s… weird,” was all he could end up saying though. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do with this information. He didn’t know how much was blocked, or by what. The fact that it was affecting Angus all the way here in the astral plane was concerning. He wasn’t sure why it didn’t affect him, but there were several theories he could come up with for that.

“What’s that mean? Can you not tell me what killed them?” he asked, and Kravitz shrugged.

“I suppose not, none of the specifics at least? It had been a very powerful artifact though, you can get that much, right?” he said, and Angus nodded. Kravitz wasn’t sure what to do with this, this was one answer he had now but it opened up so many more questions.

“Your parents did love you though Angus. They had just been- something had corrupted them,” he said, and Angus nodded.

“Yeah okay,” he said, and it was so obvious that he wasn’t all that bothered by that. He was much more focused on why he couldn’t know things, the parents dying thing was kind of thrown by the wayside. Kravitz couldn’t entirely blame him for that, it was bothering him as well.

“Dad, the pizza’s burning,” Angus said, and Kravitz quickly jumped up. Throwing the stove open he barely remembered to melt away his flesh so that he could grab the tray with the bones of his hand instead.

“Shit- uh, do you think it’s salvageable?” he asked. Angus sat up some, looking over the counter at the dark pizza.

“Uh, no,” he said bluntly, and Kravitz wasn’t able to keep himself from snorting in laughter. It was a very fair assessment.

“Yeah, it’s uh- hang out here for a few minutes okay? I’ll run down to the prime material plane and grab something for dinner instead, alright?” he said.

“Okay, sounds good,” Angus said. With that Kravitz summoned his scythe, making a clean slice through to the prime material plane. He tried not to leave Angus on his own too often, but this would only be for a few minutes. He was still so young, but he was smart and Kravitz trusted him not to get into too much trouble while he was gone.

He figured since he’d fucked up the pizza, he should probably get pizza as a replacement. The store he went to was nice, and Kravitz was starting to try and keep gold on him, so he was pretty sure he didn’t even overpay all that much. Like, they’d asked for three silver, but he didn’t have any of those so he gave them three gold instead. It wasn’t that big of a deal.

He’d been gone for maybe fifteen minutes by the time he made a portal back into their kitchen. Just long enough for the fantasy Papa John’s to take the order and for Kravitz to wait for it to get done. When he got back though, he saw that the kitchen was empty. A quick check and yep, the whole house was empty.

Kravitz already had a feeling what he was going to find, but even still he felt out further, trying to get a read for Angus’s distinct soul. It wasn’t hard, it pulsed in a way in tune with the waves of the astral sea, and after so long close to it he could pick it out in an instant.

It was in smack dab in the middle of the eternal stockade. Gritting his teeth, Kravitz tightened his grip on his scythe. He made sure to put the pizza down before tearing a swipe through the air, taking him straight to the astral plane.

He thought this wouldn’t be a problem with Angus anymore.

He guessed he should have known better though. Angus was always too curious for his own good.

Chapter Text

Angus knew his dad was going to be mad when he got back.

He hadn’t been planning on going back to the Eternal Stockade so soon. It’d been a little over a year now since his last attempt, but his dad insisted that he was still a little boy and that the eternal stockade wasn’t the kind of place for someone like him. He was probably right about that too, at least somewhat. Angus knew he was still young, and he also knew some other stuff about himself now.

Like the fact that he wasn’t dead. That one had been kind of a surprise. He hadn’t given it too much thought but he knew everything in the astral plane was dead. He knew he was in the astral plane, and so he’d just assumed he was included in that. He didn’t know why he wasn’t in the sea with everyone else, but he’d figured it was something to do with his dad’s job. So that he could take after him, or something like that.

He’d liked the idea, and he liked his life, so he wasn’t going to complain. He figured his dad would give him the details once he needed them, or that he’d figure it out for himself eventually.

Which, Angus guessed he had. Except the details hadn’t been what he’d been expecting. Hence the whole alive thing. Lots of stuff suddenly made sense though, and Angus felt like he had a better grasp on his powers now. He could focus and feel the astral plane in a way he wasn’t sure if he’d ever noticed before. It was like a part of himself, but still something separate all together.

Just as things were starting to make sense though, something else strange came up.

His dad had been trying to explain how Angus’s original parents had died. It wasn’t something he felt particularly attached to, and maybe that was a bad thing? They’d been his parents too, but he couldn’t remember them at all. Dad was the one who raised him, dad and the Raven Queen. So hearing that they died didn’t really upset him, because everything died.

Plus, dad had said they cared about him, but they did give him to Vecna. It meant he got to grow up here, so he wasn’t upset about that, but it definitely wasn’t a good thing. Still, Angus had been curious about what had happened to them, and dad had been trying to explain it to him.

Except Angus couldn’t understand him.

It didn’t make sense, and Angus was instantly curious. He loved secrets, and his dad didn’t seem to have any idea where this was coming from. He didn’t seem as surprised as he might’ve been though. It almost seemed like this made sense to him for some reason. Like it had confirmed something that he was already confused about, what that was though Angus had no idea.

And Angus needed to know what it was that was making him hear static whenever his dad tried to talk about that magical artifact. And well, there was one other place that Angus knew he was supposed to stay out of. One that was full of things he wasn’t supposed to know about.

So, when his dad went to grab them some dinner from the prime material plane, Angus created a portal to the eternal stockade. He didn’t bother making a scythe to focus his energy, because now he knew he didn’t actually need to.

Plus, his dad did have a ‘no blades when he wasn’t around’ rule, so instead he made a small crossbow. He wasn’t too sure how to use one, but the main character in a book series he’d started reading recently used one. He was really liking it so far, and it seemed like a good weapon without a blade in case he needed to protect himself. He couldn’t imagine it would be too hard either, it was just point and shoot, right?

Once he was in the eternal stockade, Angus wasn’t sure what he should do. Last time he’d hardly gotten anywhere before getting scared and his dad came in to save him. Except that creature hadn’t been able to get out of its cage, so there really wasn’t anything he needed saving from.

He tried to focus on that. The creatures in here were locked up, as long as he stayed far enough away from the cages they couldn’t hurt him.

Angus wasn’t sure what he was looking for here, but anything he could find would probably be good. Maybe he would find his parents. His dad hadn’t said they were death criminals, but they had worked with Vecna, and dad had found him on a job. If they were in here, maybe they could explain something about the static.

So Angus started down a hallway, and he wasn’t sure if it was the same hallway he’d gone down the last time, but he guessed that didn’t matter. He’d honestly hoped it wasn’t, he didn’t want to be found in the exact same place as he had last time. That would just look silly.

There were rows and rows of these cells though, and it was still hard to see inside of them. He couldn’t even tell how big they were. They almost looked endless, despite how close together they were in the halls and the relative small size of the doors.

Angus wasn’t as surprised as he’d been the first time when something came slamming against one of the cell’s bars. He still ended up jumping back, his crossbow held out in front of him at the thing. This one looked more human, but its mouth was still held open wide with agony as it moaned.

To his surprise, it actually stopped moaning after a moment, and the visage of horror shifted into confusion. What had only looked vaguely humanoid and decayed before slowly formed into the image of a woman. Something was still broken and unsettling about her, but she no longer looked quite as horrifying. Still pretty horrifying, but less so.

“A child?” she asked, and it surprised Angus that she could actually speak. It was broken and somewhat screeching, but those were definitely still words he could understand. He guessed that most of the stories his dad told him did have the things he caught be people at one time or another. Most of them had lost their humanity along the way, but it wasn’t always entirely.

“Hello ma’am, my name is Angus McDonald,” he said, trying to be polite. His first instinct was to hold out his hand for her to shake, but he quickly decided that would be a bad idea.

He was alive after all, even if he hadn’t realized that before. His dad would be really upset with him if he ended up actually dying for real.

“And now they’re locking up children? Does death know no end to its cruelty,” she spat, the shifting form of her face stricken with anger. Angus shook his head though, because that certainly wasn’t what was going on here.

“Oh no ma’am, I’m not locked up here. I’m just looking for something, do you think you could help me?” he asked. It would be a good idea to see how many people this strange inability to know things affected. Was it just him? Was his dad immune because he was an aspect of the Raven Queen? There were a lot of questions and he didn’t have any answers to them yet.

“Help you? Hm, alright child, but only if you do something for me in return,” she said, and Angus should’ve seen that coming.

“I can’t let you out ma’am. I’m sorry but my dad would be really mad at me if I did that,” he said, and he could see the disappointment and irritation on this woman’s face.

“Fine. Then I’d just like to know how my daughter is doing. If she is still alive, I don’t know how long I’ve been in this miserable place,” she said, and Angus nodded at that.

“That shouldn’t be too hard! Actually, how long you’ve been in here is relevant. Do you- hmm, I don’t actually know what to ask. Do you remember something happening, about seven years ago?” he asked. He could see a frown form on her face now, as she seemed to think it over.

“Seven? Time does not exist in his pris-” she started, cut off when a slice in the plane appeared between her and Angus. It wasn’t surprising, but Angus still wished he’d had longer to check things out. He hadn’t figured out anything at all really.

“Angus!” his dad yelled, and yep, he was mad. Angus knew he’d be mad but he was really mad. “What did I tell you?” he snapped, spinning on him. He wasn’t a skull, so it was easy to see what he was feeling. Those feelings were clearly upset and worried, which Angus felt a little bad about.

“But I was okay this time! I’m staying away from the cages and I was just asking her a few questions about that thing you couldn’t explain to me,” Angus tried to defend himself. His dad turned to see who he was talking about, and the ghost he’d been interviewing had almost a smug look on her face. As smug as a tormented visage of horror could manage.

“Didn’t realize the grim reaper himself had trouble keeping his child in line,” she said, and his dad sighed heavily.

“This does not concern you Marilan, leave us be,” he said, but she didn’t seem interested in moving from the front of her cell any.

“No, I think I’m going to watch this. So little by way of entertainment these days,” she said, and that was about what Angus expected. His dad was rubbing at his temples in clear frustration, but didn’t bother to try and get her to move further back into her cell again.

“Angus, it doesn’t matter if you’re being careful, this place is still much too dangerous for a child,” he insisted. It was probably fair, but Angus was pretty sure he wasn’t some normal child. In fact, he could say that pretty definitely.

“But it was fine. I wasn’t going to let her out or anything,” Angus said.

“It’s true, he wasn’t,” the ghost, apparently named Marilan backed him up. His dad sighed heavily again, and Angus guessed he couldn’t blame him for being a little frustrated.

“You can’t just come here on your own though, most of these souls are much less stable than Marilan,” he said.

“What if I came here with you?” Angus pressed. He could see his dad hesitate slightly at that, still not too thrilled by the idea. He was weighing it with Angus continuing to sneak out to the eternal stockade though, he could tell. After a long moment he sighed again.

“I’ll consider it. Now we’re going home. The pizza is going to get cold,” he said, which was about as good as Angus could ask for. So he didn’t argue with his dad opened up a portal back to their home, although he did give the ghost Marilan a wave as they left. She waved back, still seeming very amused by this whole thing.

There was new, not burned pizza back at the house, and it was quiet and a little awkward as Angus grabbed some and started to eat. His dad was obviously upset with the way he ran off to the eternal stockade again, even if Angus had been doing fine this time. He knew it was because he wanted to protect him, but Angus could take care of himself.

He wanted to figure out why he couldn’t understand that stuff too. It didn’t seem like his dad actually knew why, which was strange. There wasn’t a lot his dad didn’t know, since he could ask the Raven Queen about most things.

He didn’t think his dad would be happy with him continuing to search through the eternal stockade for answers. At least, not without him there to help. Even then, Angus doubted it would be that much, and it might not even be the best source of answers. Dad had said that most of the spirits weren’t quite as coherent as Marilan had been after all.

“Hey dad?” he asked, breaking the silence that they’d been in since they’d gotten back. Angus could tell he’d been somewhat lost in thought, jolting slightly at his voice.

“Yes Angus?” he asked back, and it seemed like most of the anger from before was gone now. He was just worried and probably trying to think of how to keep him from doing this again in the future.

“I think I want to become a detective.”

——

Kravitz wasn’t sure what to think of Angus’s new desire to become a detective. He was still reading some child raising books on occasion, but less frequently. Angus was at an age now where he could ask him what he needed and such, and Kravitz felt that was more effective than the books. Still, they’d said that kids around his age would change what kind of jobs they wanted when they grew up a lot, but it was still important to encourage them in whatever their latest pursuit was.

So, Kravitz had encouraged him. He could understand why Angus thought being a detective would be a good job. It was obvious that these thoughts he couldn’t understand bothered him and he wanted to solve that mystery.

Kravitz did as well, if he was being honest. Now he knew why the wars had stopped, no one could think about them anymore, but that didn’t really explain the how.

Plus, if it kept Angus from trying to sneak off into the eternal stockade and other dangerous places, well, Kravitz was more than happy with it.

Except it quickly became apparent that even if it wasn’t the eternal stockade, Angus was still getting into dangerous situations.

Kravitz still felt like he was a little too young to be going off on his own, but the older Angus got and the more in control of his powers he became it was harder and harder to keep a good handle on him. By the time he was eight he could jump back and forth between the astral plane and the prime material plane without any trouble at all. Kravitz could only leave him with the Raven Queen so much. She seemed to be encouraging his independence lately as well. Kravitz wasn't sure if she understood just how young Angus was though. They were all children compared to her ancient form after all.

Still, Kravitz tried to set some ground rules. Angus had to tell him where he was going, he had to make sure to be back by dinner. If he was ever in danger Kravitz impressed for Angus to call him immediately.

It seemed to be working for a while too. Angus was spending more time in the prime material plane, and Kravitz told himself that was a good thing. That was where the living were supposed to be after all, and he’d been trying hard not to make Angus feel too isolated from all that. He apparently hadn’t done that good of a job, considering he’d thought he was dead for a large chunk of years, but it seemed to be getting better now.

Plus, it gave Kravitz more time to get back into his work as a reaper. Angus growing up and getting independence was a good thing, and Kravitz didn’t begrudge that.

Sometimes he was jut worried about Angus was all. He felt like that was fair. Angus was his son, of course he would worry about him.

It didn’t help when one day Angus came home late, stumbling a little through the portal, with blood on his clothes.

“Angus! Are you- what happened? I told you to call me if you were in trouble,” Kravitz said, jumping up immediately. He’d been waiting, debating on whether or not to go after Angus and bring him home himself. There were a few times where he’d simply lost track of time, and he’d been hoping this was another one of those instances. It didn’t look like that though.

Kneeling down besides Angus, Kravitz tried to check for any wounds. There wasn’t anything immediately visible, instead he could see that Angus was smiling. Downright beaming, honestly.

“I solved a murder!” he announced, stars in his eyes. He didn’t look hurt, and his excitement gave Kravitz pause. Then the words processed in his head.

“You did what?” he asked. Angus didn’t seem to register his shock, nodding enthusiastically.

“I solved a murder! There was- I was in Neverwinter, and they’d been having this guy- he was- so people had been turning up dead, all chopped up. Murder weapon looked like it was a hatchet or some some of meat cleaver. He’d been giving the police a lot of trouble, and it was- so I started looking around, and I figured out that the guy had to be transporting the victims somehow, and there are those new refrigerated wagons, and I followed one near a crime scene and I found the guy!” Angus explained, speaking a mile a minute.

Kravitz stared at him, slowly letting all those word process in his head.

“You found a murderer?” he asked, and Angus nodded, still seeming nothing but proud of this fact.

“Yeah! I snuck into the back of his truck and luckily he didn’t have anyone back there at the time, but I managed to find enough evidence to show the militia. They didn’t want to listen to me at first, which is why I’m late, but I finally got them to pay attention and they arrested the guy,” he finished, still smiling brightly despite being somewhat winded after all that.

“Where’s this blood from?” he asked, taking a hold of Angus’s arm and pulling it towards him gently. The sleeve of his shirt and some of his side was stained red, but looking at it now it didn’t look like it was from any sort of wound. In fact when Angus looked at the stain it seemed like he hadn’t even noticed it was there until that moment.

“Oh, that must’ve been from when I fell in the wagon. He started driving at one point when I was hiding back there and it was dark and hard to see. I uh, I’m not sure if that’s from all the meat back there or if it’s people blood,” Angus said. Some of the excitement from all of this seemed to be fading away now, but he still didn’t seem the least bit scared.

Kravitz took a long, deep breath, trying to calm himself. This was fine. Angus was fine, and right in front of him and alive.

“You could have gotten killed,” he said after a moment. Angus didn’t look particularly worried about that, even after having it pointed out.

“I would’ve come back home or called you if anything bad happened. I was fine,” Angus said. He wasn’t exactly wrong. Angus could get out of pretty much any situation if he needed to by jumping into the astral plane. Although Kravitz had told him to not do it in front of other people unless it was an emergency. He trusted Angus to use his best judgement with things like that though, and almost dying would certainly count as an emergency.

If Angus was ever in a situation where he couldn’t run and needed to call Kravitz, well, he doubted he’d be in that situation for very long afterwards.

“Okay but it’s- you have to be careful Angus,” he said, trying not to sound upset with him. He was obviously so proud of this, despite the way it was filling Kravitz with barely concealed panic.

“I am, don’t worry dad,” Angus insisted, like Kravitz was being silly for getting so worked up over this. It made him chuckle some in disbelief and slight hysteria, suddenly wondering how he was supposed to put a fear of death in a child who viewed the goddess of it as something of a grandmother.

“Alright, well why don’t you go wash up and put on some clean clothes. You can tell me the whole story while we eat,” he suggested. He'd finished dinner a while ago, but he could heat it up while Angus was in the bath. Angus quickly nodded, looking excited again.

“Sure thing dad, I’ll be quick!” he said, running off to his room to grab some clothes before heading to the bathroom. While he did that Kravitz reheated dinner. It wasn’t anything special, he’d still never really got the hang of cooking.

Once Angus was no longer covered in blood Kravitz gave him a plate of food and listened as he began explaining his whole escapade in much more detail. It had been dangerous, clearly it had been dangerous. Angus could’ve been found, and he could’ve been killed.

Kravitz couldn’t deny that he’d handled the whole situation well though, and had managed to make connections Kravitz wouldn’t have thought of. There certainly wasn’t an issue with if Angus was good at this or not, because he clearly had a knack for it right off the bat. When he told Angus as such his entire face had lit up.

“Does that mean I can keep solving more mysteries?” he asked, and there was a part of Kravitz that wanted to say no. That didn’t want Angus anywhere near this kind of danger.

He was being a supportive dad though. Angus had found something he was passionate about and good at, and as long as he didn’t do anything crazy maybe it wasn’t that bad?

“Alright, but the same rules still apply. Don’t be late for dinner again, or at least make sure to call me if you’re going to be. I was worried,” Kravitz said, and Angus nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course! I promise I’ll remember next time. I’d just gotten so excited cracking clues and solving crimes,” he said, and Kravitz couldn’t help but give a snort of laughter at that. He didn’t mean it in a bad way though, and thankfully Angus didn’t seem to take it as such. Kravitz knew that there was no way this was normal. He highly doubted regular kids got so excited over getting wrapped up in real murder cases.

“At this rate how long do you think it’ll take before you’re a better detective than Caleb Cleveland?” Kravitz asked. He wasn’t surprised when Angus started thinking that question over very seriously.

“That depends. Caleb did his first case when he was nine, so I’m already a year ahead of him on that,” Angus said, and Kravitz nodded.

“Just remember to ask for help if you ever need it, okay? Even Caleb Cleveland has to get help from other people on his mysteries sometimes,” he said. He knew Angus had a tendency to go running off and trying to do things on his own, and the last thing he wanted was for Angus to end up in some hot water because of that.

“I will Dad, don’t worry,” he assured Kravitz once again. Then his face seemed to light up as an idea came to him. “It could be fun! Having you help me on some mysteries, and then maybe I could help you on some of your bounties,” he said, and Kravitz should’ve seen that one coming.

“We’ll see. Maybe when you’re a little bit older, or um, maybe some of the real simple ones?” he said hesitantly, not about to promise Angus anything quite yet. He still wanted to keep Angus away from his job as a reaper for as long as possible, but he knew how determined Angus could be. His face lit up at even that much, clearly excited by even the prospect.

“Yeah! Most of your jobs are a lot like mysteries too, just all focused on necromancy crimes,” he said, and he had a point there.

“Like I said, we’ll see. I’d have to ask the Raven Queen first, since you’re not a reaper,” he said, although he wasn’t sure if that was technically true or not. There wasn’t any rule keeping him from involving Angus, or really anyone in his work. That wasn’t how it went though.

“Well, until then you can help me on some of my cases,” Angus said, and Kravitz nodded at that. Helping Angus on his cases would be a nice way to see for himself exactly the kind of stuff the boy was getting himself into. And sure, he knew Angus was getting older, but he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to get to spend some more time with his son. It seemed like he was running off on his own so much nowadays.

Plus, it was better to be there so he could protect him in case anything did go wrong. Sure, he could tell Angus he wasn’t allowed to run off on dangerous missions, but Kravitz was rapidly learning just how bad he was at telling his son no.

Chapter Text

Angus felt like he was becoming a pretty good detective. Probably one of the best, if he was being honest. He’d solved a lot of mysteries and the Neverwinter militia were already starting to get used to him being on the scene of any given crime. He was only nine, but he didn’t see why his age had to have any bearings on his skills. No one could deny that he was good at this.

He’d caught murderers and thieves, and he even unveiled an assassination attempt on the ruler of Neverwinter once! That had been the case that had forced the adults in charge of the police to finally start taking him seriously. No one wanted to at first, since he was just a little boy with a name no one had ever heard of and a home he couldn't give an address for. They were listening now though, because he was a very good detective.

So, it was very frustrating that his own dad insisted on being so overprotective all the time.

“I just think I would be able to help! You said I could go on missions with you and we never have,” Angus argued, slumped on the couch. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this argument, and it was frustrating that they hadn’t gotten anywhere yet.

“I said I would have to ask the Raven Queen before we decide anything on that,” his dad said, and Angus rolled his eyes at that.

“But you haven’t yet,” he said. His dad kept saying he would ask her and then he never would. Angus could see his dad hesitated some when he called him out, before sighing heavily.

“No, I haven’t. Listen, Angus I just don’t want you getting hurt. You know how dangerous my job is,” he said, and he was telling the truth. Even if Angus wasn’t so good at telling when people were lying and when they weren’t he knew this was true. He'd seen exactly the kind of things had dad had to deal with when he was after a bounty, and they weren't good.

“My job is dangerous too! It’s not like I’ve never dealt with necroma- er, it’s not like I’ve never dealt with dangerous people before,” Angus said. He quickly tried to correct himself when he realized what he was letting slip. It didn’t seem to be fast enough though, his dad had definitely noticed.

“Wait, Angus what do you mean by that?” his dad asked, and oh no. He might’ve fucked up here a little bit.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he tried, doubtful that it would actually work. His dad wasn’t dumb.

“Angus,” he repeated, and it was clear that he wasn’t going to budge on this. Angus took off his hat, starting to play with the feather he had tucked in it like he did whenever he got nervous. He’d been careful not to let his dad know about those few cases that might’ve crossed over into dealing with the undead a bit, but the cat was out of the bag now.

“It wasn’t um, it wasn’t anything that bad. Definitely nothing worse than my usual cases, which! You said those were okay, you’ve even gone with me on some and they were fine,” Angus said, trying to build up a defense for himself before he started going into the actual details. He didn’t want to end up getting grounded, or worse, for his dad to say he couldn’t do his detective work anymore.

“What necromancer were you dealing with Angus?” he pressed, and yeah, he couldn’t put this one off forever.

“He wasn’t even a good one. His zombie guards didn’t even realize I was there,” Angus mumbled. His dad sighed heavily, slumping down next to him on the couch. “I didn’t mean to go after a necromancer. I’d been investigating some murders and it just happened that he was killing people and raising their corpses as servants,” he added. That was true at least, he knew it would worry his dad so it wasn’t exactly something he intentionally tried to seek out.

“Angus, you could’ve been-”

“Killed, I know. Lots of things can kill me though, necromancers aren’t special,” he said, cutting him off. He couldn’t blame his dad for the irritated look he gave him at that.

“Yes, I suppose that’s fair, but it’s not something to be so casual about,” he said. It was fair, but Angus still didn’t see the issue with this. It wasn’t that he specifically didn’t think necromancers were a problem.

“I just don’t see why necromancers are any worse than the regular murderers and stuff I chase. Especially the shitty necromancers,” he argued. He could see his dad start to open his mouth to argue, before shutting it again and seeming to think things over a bit more thoroughly.

“I… suppose there isn’t that much of a difference, in some cases,” he said, clearly reluctant to admit that. It was better than Angus was expecting from him, honestly.

“Does that mean I can-” he started to ask, but his dad held up a hand, cutting him off.

“I know that what you do is dangerous, and I know you can handle yourself, but you have to understand why I’m so cautious about bringing you into these sorts of situations Angus,” his dad continued. Angus nodded reluctantly, because he wasn’t sure he did understand.

“I’d probably be safer on your missions than I would be doing my own jobs though. I mean, you’d be there,” he said. He knew his dad was good at his job and he doubted anything too horrible would happen with him around. The cases Angus had brought him on had all gone really well, if they were maybe a bit on the easier side of the spectrum of his work. He didn’t want to worry him after all.

“That’s true, and I wouldn’t ever let anything hurt you if I could help it,” his dad said, which only proved Angus’s point more. “I’m just worried there’ll be a day when I can’t help it,” he added, and Angus frowned at that.

“That seems pretty unlikely. I mean, it's not like you're going to die,” he said, which got a laugh out of his dad.

“Well, you’re right about that one,” he said, smiling softly.

“So… does that mean you’ll let me come on a mission with you?” he asked, not sure if he was pushing his luck here or not. He was lucky that his dad wasn’t making him stop detectiving at all after finding out he’d dealt with at least one necromancer without telling him. His dad sighed, seeming somewhat resigned to all of this now.

“It’s- I’ll ask the Raven Queen,” he said. When Angus opened his mouth to object he continued. “For real this time. I promise, I’ll ask her before the start of my next bounty, alright?” he said, and Angus shut his mouth and nodded.

“That works,” Angus said, and his dad seemed relieved to hear that.

“If she says no you know that’s the end of this, right?” his dad asked, and Angus had thought about that. It was kind of the only reason he hadn’t pressed his dad too hard on the fact that he hadn’t asked her before now. Angus could wear his dad down until he eventually said yes, but he probably shouldn’t try that with the Raven Queen.

At least not yet. He knew his dad was able to make deals with her and such over certain things but Angus knew his dad was good at that sort of thing. The Raven Queen cared about him a lot, and was always protecting him and giving him gifts. Still, Angus was new when it came to all of this. He was smart enough to know he should wait until he had a bit more experience before trying to haggle with an actual god.

“I know,” he assured his dad, and it actually seemed like they managed to get somewhere with this argument this time.

“So… how long ago was that incident with the necromancer?” his dad asked after a moment, and Angus smiled sheepishly.

“Um, a couple months?” he said, and he could see the resignation fall over his dad’s face.

And then he could see his dad’s face fall, quite literally. It melted away into bones, and Angus had only learned recently that skulls and stuff were things that most people found scary. As it was, he laughed as his dad groaned dramatically as his face faded into bones.

“Angus, Angus look at what you’re doing. You know you’re killing me, you’re killing your father,” he said, flopping down so he was laying across him. Angus snorted in laughter, trying and failing to push his dad off of him. It looked like he’d gone full skeleton this time, one of his arms flung up dramatically over his head, the bones in his hands clanking as they hit his forehead.

“Your death happened long before I was born, you can’t blame me for that,” he said, not that it seemed to matter much right now.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m quite literally withering away hearing of your escapades. I’m going to turn to dust if you keep me worrying like this,” he said, and Angus rolled his eyes.

“Then perish,” he said, throwing his hat over his dad’s bony face for good measure. That got a shot of laughter out of his dad, who reluctantly sat up and freed Angus from his prison stuck under him.

“So cruel,” he joked, picking the hat off his face and putting it back on Angus’s head.

“Fate is often cruel,” Angus said simply, which got another laugh from his dad. It was nice, joking around like this. It wasn’t that they didn’t do it often, because they did. Angus liked his dad and spent a lot of time with him. They both had been a bit more busy than usual though he supposed.

Maybe that was why he wanted to go with his dad on one of his missions. It wasn’t a big deal, but he guessed he kind of missed hanging out with him some. Plus, he’d always been interested in his dad’s work, and he was getting better and better at his detective work so it seemed like a good thing for them to do together.

Sure, sometimes his dad would come on his detective jobs, but he didn’t want to end up boring him with those. His work hunting bounties always sounded so excited, and sometimes being a detective was too! But sometimes it was a lot of waiting around for the right little bit of information to slip.

And he didn’t have jobs as often as his dad did. He was making a name for himself and they were happening a lot more often than when he first started out. It was still one every couple of weeks if he was lucky though. He spent a good amount of time in the prime material plane just looking for cases, which wasn’t as fun.

The next few days passed without any other mention of this though, which wasn’t too surprising. His dad could sit on things for a while before actually doing anything about it, if it wasn’t something he took care of immediately. Angus figured it was because of how long he’d been, well, not alive.

Angus didn’t actually know how long he’d been dead, or what killed him. He kind of wanted to ask, but he also wasn’t sure how to. It was probably kinda rude, and he figured he’d tell him eventually.

A part of Angus wondered if he was actually going to bring up taking him on a mission at all. Sure, he said he’d ask the Raven Queen next time he saw her, and his dad didn’t typically lie. He might rethink it though.

So he was kind of surprised when it did get brought up again, after about a week of no mention at all.

“So, I talked to the Raven Queen,” his dad said, not looking up from the book he was reading. It was a Caleb Cleveland novel, Angus had insisted he read it because it was one of the best in the series.

“You did?” Angus asked, surprised. “What did she say?” he pressed. He didn’t want to beat around the bush and not get a straight answer when his dad finally had one.

“Taking you on a mission would not strictly be against any rules,” he said, and Angus felt a smile instantly start spreading across his face at that. “But!” his dad continued, and the smile died some. “I get to choose the mission, to make sure it’s not something too dangerous,” he added. That was good enough for Angus.

“I can go on one though? When? Which mission, have you picked it out yet? Don’t pick something dumb like a guard shift at the eternal stockade,” he said. From the frown on his dad’s face that was exactly the kind of thing he had in mind. “That’s not a real mission, I know you don’t actually do guard shift,” he pressed.

“Maybe not me, but we have reapers that do,” he said, but Angus wasn’t going along with that.

“I’ve already been to the eternal stockade. I go there with you all the time now,” he said, ignoring his dad’s resigned sigh at that. He knew he wasn’t too happy with him tagging along whenever he needed to check in on certain bounties or other miscellaneous tasks in the stockade. It was better than Angus sneaking in there on his own though, so he let it be.

“Alright, nothing in the eternal stockade,” his dad said with reluctance, clearly having to rethink his plans. After a minute he pulled out the large tome of bounties and souls and other death stuff and started flipping through it. Angus scrambled up on the arm of the couch so that he could get a better look to read over his dad’s shoulder.

“What about this one?” he asked, pointing to one of the names written on a shimmering page. His dad instantly frowned, shaking his head and flipping to the next page.

“We’re not doing anything with any agents of Vecna. I don’t want him trying to reclaim your soul or anything like that,” he said definitively, which Angus guessed was fair. He’d rather not have his soul bound to some evil undying lich king.

“What about this bounty?” he asked, pointing now to a name that was circled and underlined several times, his dad’s angry handwriting marking ‘57!!!!’ next to it. He had a very good feeling that he already knew the answer before his dad said it.

“No. I don’t even know where- that bounty isn’t a good one to start off with, it’s too inscrutable,” he said.

“What about-” he started, but his dad began flipping through the pages too quick for him to pick another one.

“I said that I get to pick the bounty Angus,” he said, and Angus lowered his hand and let his dad start looking through them at a bit of a slower pace. After some time he seemed to have finally found one that he might actually allow.

“Alright, this one shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s just the one necromancer and it’s- you said you’ve already dealt with zombies, right?” he asked, and Angus nodded. “Alright, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. We can head out early tomorrow,” he said, and Angus could barely contain his excitement.

“If I do good on this one do you think I can join you for more?” he asked, and he could see his dad thinking that over.

“Maybe, occasionally. I don’t think this should be too often Angus, I don’t want you getting hurt,” he said, which was about what Angus expected.

He was going to go on a mission with his dad though. Once that one was done he could concentrate on convincing him to let him come on more. He just had to not mess it up.

——

Kravitz was a professional reaper, and under normal circumstances a bounty like this wouldn’t faze him in the slightest. It probably wouldn’t even be one he’d necessarily take even. It was simple enough that some of the less experienced reapers could take care of it.

He couldn’t help but be nervous though, because this wasn’t like he was taking a new reaper on a training mission. He was letting his son, his very much alive son, come with him.

He really had to get better at saying no to Angus.

That was a thing he could deal with later though. Right now he was trying to figure out the best way to handle this. The necromancer was holed up in an old mansion, and Kravitz hadn’t realized where that building was when he picked this mission.

It was right on the hills overlooking the town of Sivlerdon. They would probably be able to see the place if they went to the top floor of the building and looked.

Thankfully, necromancers tend to stick below ground, so they were much more likely to find this guy in the basement than anywhere else.

“Should we just cut a portal into the building? It would probably draw less attention than trying to go through a door and risk setting off a trap,” Angus asked. Kravitz nodded, and if he hadn’t brought Angus he would’ve started off going straight into the house. As it was though he brought them in a few yards away from it, looking in at the place from some overgrown brambles.

“Yes. Okay Angus, once we’re inside I’m going to need you to stick by me, okay? You have your crossbow on hand just in case, right?” he asked, and Angus nodded. Angus had first started carrying a crossbow around the astral plane when Kravitz had banned blades without his supervision. Eventually he figured he might as well get the boy a real one so that he could defend himself in the prime material plane as well.

With that, Kravitz cut a quick, silent swipe through the air, a portal opening to the inside of the mansion. Heading in, thankfully Angus seemed to be listening and was sticking right by his side.

It was quiet inside the mansion, and the place looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. Kravitz figured he was right about most of the necromancer doing most of his work underneath the building.

He made an exaggerating shushing motion to Angus before waving for him to follow, and he ignored the eye roll that earned him. He knew Angus dealt with dangerous situations like this before, Kravitz mostly tried not to think about that too much.

It was quiet as they moved through the mansion, and Kravitz was trying to figure out what to do here. They could go the sneaky route, break into his lair with stealth and take him out quietly. That was probably the safest option. He was sure Angus would be all about it as well, since he loved all that mystery detective stuff.

This was a simple mission though, and he’d researched this necromancer extensively while Angus was asleep. He shouldn’t end up posing much of a threat.

And okay, maybe there was a part of him that wanted to show off for his son.

“Angus, do you want to do this the fun way?” he asked, whispering as not to alert anyone else in the house. He was pretty sure they were far enough away from the basement still that it shouldn’t be an issue. Now that he was concentrating he could lock in on the necromancer’s soul. He could see the look of intrigue on Angus’s face almost immediately.

“Yes, absolutely, I would love to,” he said, and Kravitz grinned at that. Then he stood up a bit straighter and let himself shift into his full reaper form.

“Just stay behind me, alright? And if anything goes wrong I want you heading straight back home, you hear?” he said. Angus nodded, and Kravitz could see that he had his mini-crossbow out as well, which eased some of his nerves. Angus could defend himself, and if worst come to worst he could just leave.

With that, Kravitz summoned his scythe in one hand and his tome of souls in his other, before cutting a slice right into the necromancer’s lair.

“Nalphar Rinseli, you have been found guilty of crimes against the natural order of life and death by her Eternal Majesty the Raven Queen! As sentence, your soul has been forfeit to the Eternal Stockade,” he said as soon as they were through the rift, his voice booming around the dimly lit room.

The necromancer shouted, stumbling back and almost tripping over a stool, clearly not expecting the sudden interruption. Kravitz saw him start to scramble for a wand and rushed forward. If he could end him before he even got off a spell, that would be the ideal.

The surprise had definitely thrown him off for a moment, but unfortunately not enough for Kravitz to get to him before he grabbed his wand. He was on the defensive though, focused on trying to get away and only sending up blasts of arcane power to keep Kravitz back.

He almost didn’t notice the small crossbow bolt, shot right into the necromancer’s side. He saw the man stumble, quickly looking around in a panic for who else was in there with him. Then another one hit him, this time in the shoulder, and his head shot in the direction it came from. Kravitz didn’t know if he managed to spot Angus, taking the momentary confusion to close the distance and run his scythe through the man’s body, pulling his soul out with ease.

As soon as the body hit the stone floor Kravitz spun around, terrified that something had happened to Angus after drawing attention to himself. Instead of any sort of grisly sight though he saw Angus run towards him before crashing into his side with a hug.

“Wow dad, that was awesome! Did you see me shoot him? Did you?” he asked, and there were practically stars in his eyes. Anything Kravitz might’ve been prepared to yell at Angus about being careful and worrying him died in his throat.

“I did, the distraction was a big help,” he said, and Angus’s smile somehow got even wider.

“I told you I could help,” he said, a smug tone to his voice that Kravitz couldn’t help but laugh at.

“I guess you were right about that,” he said, straightening Angus’s hat some from where it had gotten knocked crook when he ran into him with a hug. It really had gone well, and it was definitely a reaper below Kravitz’s skill level, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take Angus on similar bounties every so often. It would be useful to have something to sate the boy’s endless insistence on putting himself in danger.

“So, now what? Do we take his soul back to the astral plane now?” Angus asked.

“Mostly, there’s a lot of paperwork involved in this job, but you already knew that,” Kravitz said. He took a quick glance around the lair, and it would be best not to leave all this stuff here. “First though, I need to get rid of this stuff,” he said.

“Can I help?” Angus asked, and if Kravitz had his flesh on he probably would’ve grimaced at that.

“Actually, if you could do me a favor and look through the rest of the house to make sure he doesn’t have anything else set up, that would be a big help” Kravitz said. Angus was giving him a look like he didn’t really believe that was a super important job, but after a moment he nodded.

“Sure thing! Bet I can search everything first!” he said, before running off towards stairs that probably led back up to the first floor.

“Be careful! Those stairs are old, you’ll break your neck!” he yelled after Angus, but he was long gone. Sighing, Kravitz moved to start gathering up and destroying any of the illegal necromantic experiments that had been going on.

It only took him about ten minutes, and by the time he was done Angus had yet to come back. Kravitz wasn’t surprised, it was a large mansion and he knew Angus would be thorough in checking every room for any signs of the necromancers work. Doing a quick search for Angus’s soul, he was surprised at how far through the house he’d managed to get already.

Opening a portal, he stepped out to find himself on a balcony on one of the highest floors. Angus was staring out, and Kravitz’s first instinct was to tell him not to lean on the bars. They were old and who knew how study they were.

Then he glanced out to see what Angus was staring at, and he felt his heart sink. How could he have forgotten how close they were?

“Dad, what is that?” Angus asked, staring off at the section of horizon that seemed to shimmer and wave. It wasn’t the solid blinding reflection Kravitz remembered, the years had done much to tarnish it.

“Not important. I finished cleaning out the necromancer’s lair, let’s get home,” he said, but Angus shook his head.

“No, we should go check it out. It looks so- it’s weird!” he said, and he only turned away from staring at it when Kravitz sighed heavily. “What? You know what it is, don’t you?” he asked, suspicion clear in his voice, and Kravitz nodded.

“I do, but I couldn’t explain it to you even if I wanted to, and believe me Angus, I want to,” he said, and he could see the connections clinking in Angus’s head.

“It’s one of the things you can’t tell me! But that- we gotta go check it out now!” he said, and Kravitz should’ve expect that reaction.

“Angus, I don’t know how being there will affect you. You can’t even hear me when I talk about it. I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said, and Angus was pouting now.

“But it’s a mystery, one I haven't been able to crack at all! And the answers might be right over there!" he insisted, and Kravitz shook his head again. Maybe he was bad at telling Angus no for most things, but he wasn’t going to budge on this one.

“Not this time Angus. Let’s go home,” he insisted. He could see the boy wanting to argue more, but reluctantly nodded.

“Fine,” he grumbled, clearly not happy with that. “But I get to come with you on more reaper missions?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded. Gods, he was too soft.

“The ones that aren’t too dangerous,” he said, and that seemed to placate Angus for now.

With that Kravitz opened a portal back to the astral plane, dropping Angus back at their house before heading to give a quick report to the Raven Queen. The report mostly consisted of the parts about Angus, and Kravitz told himself that was because they were the more usual parts.

Maybe he was also bragging about his son, just a little bit. He didn’t think anyone could blame him if that was the case.

Chapter Text

Angus knew his dad was only trying to look out for him. He was always trying to be careful and do what was best for him. Angus appreciated it, honestly he did, even if sometimes it felt like he could end up being a little overprotective in the process.

Maybe that wasn’t factually true, considering the kind of things that normal kids his age got up to. When compared to that, his dad let him do all sorts of things that would terrify most parents. Still, Angus knew he was able to do a lot more than regular kids, so it still felt a little bit overprotective. There were still things that made his dad nervous that Angus had no problem with facing.

So even though he didn’t want to, when this dad insisted they leave that strange, shimmering blotch on the horizon alone, Angus let him take them home. He told himself he'd check it out on his own later. He didn’t immediately go seek it out the next time he was in the prime material plane by himself though, or the next. Or even a couple times after that. At first it was because he didn’t want his dad to get suspicious. As time went on though that became less of a concern.

After a while, he’d just kind of forgotten it was something he wanted to do.

It wasn’t until the next time his dad took him on another one of his reaper missions that he remembered the strange incident at the end of their last one. He couldn’t believe he’d let it slip his mind like that, it wasn’t like him.

The next reaping was just as fun as the first, although Angus wished he could do more to help. He tried shooting this one with a crossbow bolt like he had with the last, but he’d missed. It drew the ghoul’s attention to him, which was enough of a distraction for his dad to get it. Angus could tell he wasn’t exactly happy with the idea of Angus using himself as a distraction though.

If he had his astral plane magic over here he might be able to help more. All that amounted to was making items and jumping around to different places. Not the most combat sorted skills. Maybe if he could learn some real magic he could be a little more useful.

Still, it was fun, and when it was over Angus remembered how he’d seen that weird, wavy place back at the end of the last mission. He didn’t bring it up with his dad, he knew he would still be against Angus going there. So instead he made a note to keep it in mind for later. He spent the rest of the day excitedly talking to his dad about the mission and how excited he was to be doing reaper stuff with him. All of that was true too. It really was fun and he was glad his dad was letting him join him more often.

Angus was still a detective though, and the next time he went to the prime material plane it was for his work. He found himself back on that hill where they’d caught that first necromancer. He hadn’t been lying when he told his dad what he was going to do, this did count as detective work after all. It was a mystery if he ever saw one, and as a detective he needed to get to the bottom of it.

It was a pretty long walk to the source of the shimmering light Angus had seen from the house, so he started right away. As he did, he tried to think of what he knew about his birth parents deaths and the block keeping him from knowing everything.

It had taken some trial and error, but the closest he could tell was that the block didn’t work on the dead. He could go into the Eternal Stockade with his dad now, and he’d talked to a few of the locked up souls there. Sometimes when he’d ask about something that happened ten years ago, something with strange, powerful artifacts, they would start going off in the same static his dad did. When he tried asking about it to living people though, they all had no idea what he was talking about.

There wasn’t much he could do to figure out a way around the block for now, other than dying. He wasn’t quite that invested yet, and his dad would be really, really mad if he died.

When he finally started to reach the anomaly, it took a long moment before Angus could comprehend what he was seeing.

It was a town. An entire town with people in it and everything, but it was all statues. No, not statues. Frozen? It was hard to describe, but it was unsettling. Angus wasn't sure what he was seeing here.

Crouching down to the hard ground in front of him, it took a bit of scrubbing for him to realize what it was all made of. He’d thought for a bit that it was glass, but it all specifically seemed to be mirrors.

Everything, every blade of grass and brick and person was made entirely of mirrors. It was too detailed to be any sort of work of art, and too massive.

It was an entire town, encased in glass and then left to crack and shatter with the passage of time.

He didn’t know what could have done this. It was terrifying and unnerving. As he walked through the town, lots of the people had broken over time, missing arms and such that must’ve been sticking out when this happened. They weren’t flesh and blood inside, everything solid glass. He could almost think of them as statues, but then he would look closer and it was clear that they were way too detailed and individual to not have been real people at one point.

He tried to ignore that, moving deeper into the town to try and find some source. At first he couldn't figure out a way to track where this could have started. There had to be something though, some epicenter. There was no way this was all instantaneous. He could see it in some of the people, a look of panic, an attempt at running from whatever had transformed them like this.

He started moving in the direction people were running from. Every so often he’d catch his reflection in a bit of mirror that hadn’t been faded and covered in grime over the years. It was a little unnerving, and Angus could imagine how disorienting walking around in a place like this would have been when everything was shiny and new.

Eventually he managed to find his way to a street that seemed to be at the center of it all. The houses on this one were large, sprawling things. He started looking through them one at a time, until eventually he found one that looked to have been caught in the middle of a panic. Something had broken the front door off at some point, it looked like after the glass had started. Things were a little less worn down inside of the buildings, and Angus could see his reflection more and more often.

He tried to ignore that, instead focusing on the servants caught running from something. He kept moving in the direction they were heading away from, and it took some trial and error. Eventually he found a room that looked like it must’ve been the source of all this.

There were two people inside of it, and it didn’t look like they were afraid of whatever was going on like everyone else. They looked angry, like they were fighting over something. There was a woman trying to grab something from a man, who’s arms had been smashed away at some point. Clearly some point after he’d already turned to mirror, at least.

He couldn’t say for sure if this was where all these mirrors originated from, but something had happened here. Angus searched the room as thoroughly as he could, but he couldn’t find anything useful. Any books that had been in here were solid impersonal blocks of glass now, along with any pictures that had been hanging up.

He tried to get as good of a look at the two people as he could. This far inside of the house away from the elements they were rather well preserved. Nothing major seemed to have broken off except for the man’s hands, which Angus could tell had been deliberately smashed. Probably to take whatever it was they’d been fighting over.

They were clean too, which honestly made it harder to pick out specific details. He kept getting confused by the way his own reflection was superimposed over their faces. Something about it was incredibly disorienting, and he didn't like it.

Eventually, Angus figured there wasn’t anything else he could get from here. It was too thoroughly destroyed, despite how well the glass had preserved at the same time. He didn’t want to give up the mystery here, but if he thought too deeply about it all the static building up in his thoughts would start to give him a headache.

Plus, it was getting late, and he didn’t want his dad getting worried if he wasn’t home in time for dinner.

Angus didn’t have anymore breaks in that case for a while. Things had fallen into a sort of pattern, him spending a lot of time working up his name as a great detective. Probably the world’s greatest detective he'd say. Every so often his dad would take him on a reaper mission that he figured wasn’t too dangerous, and they were often about as hard as some of the cases he took on. He didn’t tell his dad that though, because he didn’t want to worry him.

It didn’t seem like anything was going to change. As much as he wanted new information, there wasn’t anyone he could go to that could help him figure it out. He’d asked his dad to see if the Raven Queen could do anything, and he actually had gone to her. Apparently she’d already spoken to the Lady Fate about it though, and there wasn’t anything they could do. That it was one of those things that needed to sort itself out.

Angus was annoyed, but they’d never been wrong about this kind of stuff before. Still, he hated waiting for the answers to fall into his lap. He wished he could be more proactive in these sorts of things.

He guessed he was lucky that he didn’t have to wait long, at any rate. The case he’d taken on for the Rockport Limited hadn’t seemed too unusual at first, if pretty inscrutable in the way the killer managed to leave no traces behind.

Things had taken a turn he hadn’t expected once he started getting involved with those three though.

“What are the names that aren’t fake that you guys actually have?” he asked, giving them a sweet smile. He didn’t peg them as the murderers, but there was definitely something suspicious about them. They clearly could tell something was up with him too.

That wasn’t too unusual though. As much as Angus tried to blend in, once people noticed him they tended to be able to tell something wasn’t normal. Angus wasn’t sure how to put a word on it, but people sometimes stared at him and his dad while they were out. His dad insisted it was because of him, that some people could just feel something off about an avatar of death hanging around.

Except Angus still got those looks when he was out on his own too. Maybe not as much as when he was with his dad, but they were still there. He supposed people could feel that in him too, that connection he had to the astral plane. Angus wasn’t sure if it showed in him physically, but he didn’t know what he looked like before he became connected. He imagined it hadn’t changed much, if anything at all.

Maybe his eyes hadn’t always been red though. That color was the one thing he could say he shared definitively with his dad.

Still, these three weren’t normal either, and it was pretty obvious they could see that in Angus too. Hell, Angus didn’t need to be the world’s greatest detective to figure that one out, considering he could hear them whispering about whether or not he was ‘the bad guy.' So he felt it was best to cut to the chase.

Taako, Merle and Magnus. Something about those names sounded familiar, but he couldn’t figure out where he’d seen them before. He was wracking his brain for another case they might’ve seen them in. Maybe he was wrong about them not being killers after all.

They insisted they had been sent to recover the object the real Leeman Kessler had been carrying. That the Rockport Slayer had killed him to get it, and that it was incredibly powerful and couldn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Then he asked about the organization they all worked for, and that was when he realized how much bigger this actually was.

“I’ll tell him what it’s called. It’s called the b̴͢͞͡u̧̢r̵̢͜͠ę̶̴̕a͟͢u̡̕͜ ̢̛̕͜o̷̸̸҉͡f̕͡͠ ̕b̸̢͠a̢̢l̴̨͝͝a̛͝͝n̷c̸͘e̛͡,” the elf, Taako, had said, sounding like he expected something to happen. And it had. Angus froze on the spot, looking at them all much more intently.

“What was- can you repeat that, sir?” he asked, because he had to be sure it was the same thing. He had to know.

“B̢u͏r̨̕e̡͠a̧u ̴̛͞o̵͢f̨ ̷͠b̷̶alą̵͟nc̵ȩ̨͠ my dude,” he said, and yep. That was it.

“Did you get that okay?” Merle asked, his voice betraying the fact that he was well aware that Angus hadn’t. Merle. He’d seen that name before, along with Taako and Magnus.

Angus’s eyes widened when he remembered where he saw them. This was bad. Oh no. Oh no this was very bad. Angus put a hand in his pocket, smoothing his thumb over the stone of farspeech inside and wondering if he could get away to call his dad. That wasn’t something he’d ever needed to do before on a mission. He always assured his dad he would if he got in too deep, but he kind of doubted he'd actually need to. Angus remembered the way his dad had acted with he’d jokingly suggested going after one Merle Highchurch on his first mission though.

These were bounties. Very, very dangerous ones, from what Angus had seen in his dad’s book.

“Are you three by any chance actually dead?” he asked, trying not to let show how nervous he was. He couldn’t be sure yet. His dad would be mad at him confronting them, but he could run away if he absolutely needed to. It was hard resisting the urge to reach up and start playing with the feather on his hat though.

The question didn’t seem to be the response they were expecting. They didn’t look angry, or like they’d been caught in a lie either, instead they just looked confused.

“Uhhh, last I checked no?” Magnus said, sort of looking over his body like he needed to double check now.

“Not dead, no,” Taako said, clearly befuddled by the question.

“Only on the inside,” Merle said, which was probably a joke. It sounded like a joke. Of course, none of that explained the fact that they could think past the static. They were clearly aware of its existence too.

He should get his dad and not stick his nose into this any further, but this case had just gotten so much more interesting.

“Hey kid, why exactly do you think we’re dead?” Taako asked, and it was a fair question. He could understand under normal circumstances why it had caught them off guard. Except this wasn’t a normal circumstance.

Oh Queen, he was going to be in so much trouble when his dad found out about this.

“The static you spoke in, I’ve only seen dead people able to do that,” he explained, trying to be careful about this. He couldn’t say too much, but he was in it now, he just had to keep pushing. The three of them looked at each other with confusion at that.

“Do you- I’m sorry, do you regularly talk to dead people Angus?” Taako asked, sounding like he was trying and failing not to laugh. Angus tried to avoid talking about his home and family in astral plane as much as he could. His dad told him it was something he should keep on the down low. Best to make sure he didn’t make himself a target for people working against the Raven Queen.

“As a detective it is important to get information from as many sources as possible, and sometimes that includes the recently deceased,” he said instead. It wasn’t the best answer, but they seemed to accept it.

“Wait, does that mean the dead aren’t affected by the vo҉̷i̷͜d͟f҉i͏̛͟s̕͞͞h?” Magnus asked, and Angus frowned in frustration as the last part was cut off.

They weren’t able to get much further in their conversation, suddenly cut off by a scream further up the train. Angus tried to jump back into detective mode. He could figure out what was up with those three and their strange organization after they figured out who the rockport slayer was.

They happened upon Jenkin’s dead body, which was unfortunate. The man hadn’t seemed like a bad guy, if a little frustrated at people bothering him while he was trying to do his job.

“He’s dead! Quick, Angus talk to him and ask him who did it,” Magnus said. Angus rolled his eyes as he started looking around the small in-between room to try and figure out what happened, checking over Gram as well. He was still alive at least.

“It really doesn’t work that way sir. Check over his body before someone else comes,” he said.

Things moved fast after that. They ended up fighting a giant crab monster, and then searching around the train for a while. Eventually they managed to figure out that it hadn’t actually been Jenkins who’s died. The use of the pleasure chamber to get rid of the head was a clever one. It kind of made Angus curious about what would happen if someone was in the middle of one of his portals when he stopped it. Not curious enough to actually test it out though.

As they worked through a plan to get Magnus to the back of the train so they could stop him, Angus found himself unsure of what to think.

It was obvious that these three weren’t exactly nice people. They teased and joked without much care for other people’s feelings, and they hadn’t seemed all that torn up when they all thought that Jenkins had died. Hell, they didn’t seem to care much that the engineer was actually dead.

So they weren’t nice people, but Angus watched as Magnus risked his life so that they could get into the back cart to stop Jenkins. He’d been caught pleasantly off guard when Taako had so easily and readily trusted him, despite his age. He’d even stood up for him against some of his friend’s teasing too.

Merle was well, Angus didn’t have a good grasp of Merle yet. He didn’t seem to like Angus very much either though. Angus remembered very clearly where he’d seen his name before now. Circled angrily with a 57 written next to it. Still, it was clear he was trying to help where he could, even if that help didn’t seem the most competent at times.

They weren’t nice people but they didn’t seem like they were bad people either. Angus didn’t see the item they’d been after, but soon enough after dispatching Jenkins they retrieved it. Then there was just the matter of stopping the train. As soon as they had that squared away then Angus could see about figuring out what their whole deal was.

His dad had bounties on them, but they were also the best lead he had to figuring out what was up with this damn static.

Except, they were kind of having some difficulties stopping the train.

“Oh no. If we crash this train into Neverwinter my dad is going to be so mad at me. I definitely won’t be allowed to do anymore detective work,” he said, trying not to panic and figure out a way out of this. He could call his dad to get everyone off the train, because Angus would feel bad only saving himself. Of course, then everyone at the station would still die.

“I mean, you’d also be dead, so I don’t think you’d have to worry too much about your dad grounding you,” Magnus said.

“You underestimate my dad. Death is no obstacle for him,” Angus told him bluntly. It was weird enough to be taken as a joke. These three seemed to brush it off as one.

It turned out that he didn’t have to call his dad, and he also didn’t have to let a train smash into a heavily populated city. Taako and the others thought of a plan to transport the train somewhere else using Jenkin’s pleasure chamber wand.

Angus might’ve been a little nervous about jumping off a moving train, but he was pretty sure he didn’t actually need Taako to throw him off. Either way it worked, and he watched in slight awe as the elf gracefully leaped off the train and cast the spell, transporting the train safely away from where it could hurt anyone.

As soon as everything was quiet and it was obvious the danger had passed Angus scrambled to his feet. He started running as fast as he could to catch up to where everyone else was.

He was pretty far back though, and he really wanted to talk to them. He knew his dad was off on some bounty right now, so he quickly hopped into his bedroom in the astral plane and then back out besides Taako.

“Sir that was incredible!” he said, only remembering afterwards that he should try to stay a bit more impartial. He didn’t know these people. In fact, the only thing he knew definitively about them was pretty bad. They had cheated death somehow, which was far from something to take likely.

Sure, there were a few people in the eternal stockade he liked to talk to despite that, but still, they weren’t good people.

“Holy shit where the fuck did you come from?” Taako shouted, jumping away from him in surprise. Which was fair. Angus had appeared next to him with no warning. Luckily Taako had been too exhausted from casting the spell to have noticed him stepping through the rip in the planes. Angus could see Merle and the rest of them still slowly walking up to where they were. Jess and Gram carrying an unconscious Magnus along with them.

“Uh, I run really fast?” he tried. It was an obvious lie, and he knew that Taako could tell it was a lie.

“Alright, sure, creepy kid appearing out of the ether, why not? Well yeah, of course I was incredible little man,” he said, mumbling the first part. Angus followed as he started off towards everyone else. It was fair, they should check on Magnus and then they could head to the station to explain what happened.

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to you all about this while we were on the train, because everything went really crazy, but you’re sure you’re not dead?” he asked, trying to be conversational about it. Taako was frowning heavily now, but again it didn’t seem to be in anger. Just confusion.

“Definitely not dead kid. What gave you that idea?” he asked.

“Like I said before, the only people I know who can do that static thing are also dead,” he said. There was no reason to reveal that he knew that they had committed death crimes quite yet after all. He couldn’t completely pull off the innocent kid act with them anymore, but he could get close enough.

“Yeah, that’s weird. Didn’t know dead people could do that. It’s uh, we can think past the static because we drank the v̶͡o͘i̸̡d̕͜͝f̢i̧̛̕ş̸͏h̴̶̛ ̴͏ic̨h̕o̸̶͠r͠, although I guess that doesn’t actually mean jack shit to you,” Taako explained. Or well, Angus was going to assume he explained. It didn’t actually give him any answers.

“No, it doesn’t,” he said, and by now they had caught up with the rest of the group so Angus let the topic drop. The walk back to Neverwinter wasn’t that far, they really were cutting it close. Angus had to go and explain to the militia what had happened, or at least all of the relevant parts. A part of him was worried that Taako, Merle and Magnus would be gone by the time he finished, but thankfully they were still around. Magnus still seemed pretty beat up, but he was at least conscious now.

“Hello sirs! I’m glad I managed to catch you before you left!” he said, and they didn’t seem too surprised by him coming back again.

“Oh hey Ango, what’s going on with you?” Magnus asked, sounding a little bit out of it. Considering that he only seemed semi-conscious, that was probably true.

“I’m going to need you three to take me to your organization, please,” he said, giving them a bright smile along with the request. There was an obvious hesitance from the three as they all looked at each other.

“Uh, that’s not actually like, allowed though? We can’t just bring up people who aren’t a part of the b̷̛͘u̢͟re҉̸͏a͏u̸,” Magnus said.

“Yeah, scram kid,” Merle said, and Angus ignored him. This was the best lead he’d gotten since this whole thing had started and he wasn’t going to lose it.

Even if they were all super dangerous death criminals. Even if his dad was going to be furious when he found out about this.

“I’m sorry but it is imperative that you take me to your organization and let me speak to them. If they have a way to remove the static from people’s minds I would very much appreciate it,” he said. If he was confident and direct hopefully they would listen. These three already knew that he meant business and wasn’t just some little kid.

“We already said-” Merle started to protest again, and Angus was a bit surprised when Taako cut him off.

“Hey, hey now, let’s think this through. He knows our names and faces now. So our only two options are we bring him into the bureau, or we kill him,” he said, and Angus was nodding along until that last part.

“I would recommend not killing me, um, please,” he interjected.

“What, so I don’t get to bring a dog on the moon but Taako gets to bring a whole kid? That’s not fair,” Magnus complained.

“Wait, the moon?” Angus tried to ask, but they were pretty much ignoring him entirely now. All he could do was watch as they argued for a bit more, until eventually Magnus seemed on board for bringing him along. Merle still didn’t seem very happy about any of this, but he was outvoted.

“Alright shortstack, I guess you’re coming with us,” Taako said, and Angus was beaming. Against his better judgment, he kind of really liked them. He’d have to explain a lot to his dad later, but they didn’t seem like bad people. They didn’t seem like they were even necromancers. Magnus couldn’t do any magic at all, Merle was a cleric.

“If the Director says we can’t keep him we can just toss him off the moon, right?”

Okay, maybe Merle’s cleric status didn’t reflect his morality as much as Angus would’ve hoped.

Still, he followed them to the outskirts of Neverwinter, and watched as they activated some rune on their bracers that he couldn’t quite focus on. It was quiet for a bit, and a little awkward, and then Angus saw a shadow slowly forming a few feet away from them. Looking up, he could see some sort of strange glass ball floating down. It came to rest a little ways in front of them, and Angus’s mind was reeling with half thoughts he couldn’t quite manage to finish.

Then Angus followed the three into the ball once it opened, and Magnus was mumbling about them getting in so much trouble for this. Before Angus could ask what was going to happen next, the ball started raising up off the ground. He could see the ground getting further and further away, and after a bit he looked up. The moon was getting closer to them, or at least one of them was.

They were actually going to the moon.

His dad was going to ground him for a century when he found out.

Chapter Text

Getting on the moon was disorienting. As Angus tried to think about what was going on his mind felt full of fuzz, and when he looked around it was incredibly difficult to focus. The whole thing was quickly making Angus nauseous. “Being alive is stupid,” he muttered, leaning forward in his chair in the strange pod some.

“I mean, we can fix that,” Merle offered ‘helpfully.’

“Don’t, sir,” Angus snipped, taking a deep breath to try and steady himself. He kept wanting to look around and take everything in, but he couldn’t because of this damn static. He’d never had it in such high doses like this before. His dad was always careful to keep situations concerning the things blocked out brief and vague enough that Angus could understand the majority. There were a few times when he and the Raven Queen had gotten into some pretty deep discussions while he was in the room. Large chunks of them would be nothing but static, but those were always cut off when they realized he was trying to listen in.

The only other time it felt even close to this was when he’d been in that strange mirror town, trying to piece together everything his dad had told him.

This was so much more though. Every time he tried to draw conclusions about the fact that they were on the moon his brain would throw a fit.

The door to the pod opened, and Angus slowly got his bearing to walk out. It was like a bad case of motion sickness, he could deal with it until he got some answers. The three men he was with didn’t seem too concerned about helping him, walking out and assuming he’d be fine following. Which he was. He asked them to bring him here and he could handle this.

“Did you guys get another relic? You all are legends!” another voice said, one Angus didn’t recognize. There was a man in this room, seeming exited to greet Merle and Magnus and Taako. He was wearing blue and there was some sort of design on his outfit, but it blurred out along with many other patches of the room.

“Yeah, we’re pretty much great at this,” Taako said, and Angus would say that he sounded kind of nervous. It was hard to focus on a lot, but he was good at telling how people were feeling. Those sorts of things weren’t blocked out by whatever this static was.

“Yeah, you all are- uh, hold up, is that a kid?” the man they were talking to asked, having clearly taken notice of him now. Angus managed to get out of the pod by then, and he sat down on the steps. Part of him wanted to duck into the astral plane to get his bearings, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to focus on this place well enough to get back afterwards. Plus, he didn't want to do that in front of strangers.

“Hello sir. I’m here to um, join your secret moon society?” he said, his brain struggling to put together what he was actually here to do. He needed to get to the bottom of this static. He needed to figure all of this out, but it was hard to know what ‘this’ even was.

“Uh yeah, so Avi, good news is, we got the relic! Yet to be determined news, this kid kinda figured out about the whole secret organization thing and demanded to join,” Magnus explained. Angus made a face at them calling him a ‘kid’ when they knew he was a lot more serious than that.

“Guys, we can’t just bring a kid into the b̧҉u̧̕ŗ͡e̸̴͜aư, that’s- like, I pretty sure that’s illegal?” this new man, apparently called Avi said.

“My name is Angus McDonald and I am the world’s greatest detective. Please don’t under- underestimate me due to my age,” he interjected. It didn’t look like this guy believed him very much. He mostly looked sympathetic, which was possibly worse. Sympathy meant people were even less likely to take him seriously, thinking of him as a little kid they needed to take care of.

It worked well when he was undercover, but when he was trying to convince people he meant business it was the most frustrating thing.

“Hey now, don’t strain yourself kid. It’s uh, guys, where the hell are this kid’s parents?” Avi asked, asking the three adults rather than asking Angus. Sure, he was pretty nauseous and sick feeling right now, but he could still talk.

“Uh, we don’t actually know? Shit, Angus didn’t you mention a dad? And a grandpa?” Magnus asked.

“The grandpa was a clever ruse sir, I do have a dad though,” Angus said.

“And uh, where is your dad? Shit, did we just kidnap a child?” Magnus asked, and Queen, this was not going well so far. He needed to stop being so muddled and focus on the task at hand. He couldn’t think about the things here, he had to stop trying to focus on them and just stay on conversation.

Just stay on task. He needed to join this organization. He needed the static gone. He was a detective, and he wasn’t leaving until he got some answers.

“No, you didn’t kidnap me. My dad knows I do all sorts of things for my detective work, he won’t mind this,” Angus said, pushing himself back up to his feet. That was only partially a lie. His dad did know that he did all sorts of dangerous things for his detective stuff. He would probably not be okay with Angus spending some extended time with three of his highest bounties though.

He still couldn’t even figure out how that worked though, but now wasn’t the time for those kinds of thoughts. He could figure all that once he convinced them to get the static away.

“Um okay, I think I should call the director and uh, let her know about this,” Avi said. The director sounded like someone in charge of this place. Well, he’d probably have to talk to her if he wanted to be cleared of this static, so this might be a good thing.

“Oh right, we need to give her the r̢e̷̴͟l҉̢͟͟i̸͜͝c͘͜ too,” Taako spoke up, and Avi nodded. Angus wished he could understand fully what they were talking about. He knew it had to be whatever item they had claimed from the train. He wasn't letting himself think any further than that though, or else he'd get overwhelmed again.

“Hey uh, Madame Director?” Avi said, talking into a stone of farspeech. “The reclaimers are back, they um, so they got another r̸̡ę̶͜͜l̕҉͏i̸͘͠͞c̨̛. And they brought someone up with them, as well,” he explained. So far that wasn’t too bad, he at least hadn’t mentioned that Angus was a kid yet.

“He’s still too young for us to get him drunk, right?” Taako asked, not seeming bothered about cutting into that conversation. That was also a weird thing to say, and Angus wasn’t able to mask his befuddlement.

“Yes! He’s- shit, how old are you kid?” Avi asked.

“I’m ten sir, I'm not allowed to get drunk yet my dad would be really mad at me,” Angus answered. He hoped that this Madame Director person hadn’t heard that, but there was no way she wouldn’t find out about his age soon enough.

“Avi, who are you talking to? You said the reclaimers brought someone onto the base? What do they look like? Were they affected by the thrall?” this woman asked, and she sounded almost panicked. Almost hopeful too, but Angus didn't know enough about the situation to take a guess as to why yet. She was definitely extremely interested, which was fair. This whole place was super secretive after all.

It also might be a whole base of evil necromancers and undead. He didn’t know how else they would be able to circumvent the static after all.

Oh. Oh boy. If they tried to get the static to leave him by making him undead he was really going to have to give up this search and get out of here. He hadn’t thought about that before now.

“Uh, he’s like ten? Dark hair and skin, um, fancy clothes? Hey kid can you look- thanks, red eyes, glasses. Guys, was he affected by the thrall?” he asked, once again asking the three men he came up here with instead of him. Angus didn’t actually have much of an idea about what he meant by ‘thrall’ though, so it was a little more fair than the other times.

“We didn’t let him get near the r̶̛̛̕ę͟l̶̢i̷̵͝͏c̵̵̛ to find out. This isn’t our first rodeo,” Taako said, sound rather smug about that last part.

“Yeah, it’s our second!” Magnus added, laughing at his own joke.

“We don’t know if he was affected or not, he didn’t have direct contact with the r҉e̷͢l̷̛̕i̸̛͝c̸͜,” Avi said into the stone of farspeech.

“It’s- they brought a child up here?” she asked, sounding flabbergasted and oh boy, there it was. He’d been hoping he could at least speak to her in person before she realized his age. This wasn’t going well.

“Sir, may I please speak to her?” Angus asked, already holding out his hand for the stone of farspeech. Avi seemed really uncertain about it though.

“Uh, he wants to speak with you? The kid, I mean?” Avi said, which Angus supposed was fair. If this lady was the leader here he could see why they wouldn’t let just anyone talk to her.

“Well, I suppose that’s alright?” she said, clearly confused by this turn of events. People were usually pretty confused where he was concerned. Avi handed him the stone of farspeech though, and Angus took a deep breath to try and focus his thoughts as best as he could.

“Hello, Madame Director is it? My name is Angus McDonald. I’m a detective and I’ve been looking into the cause of static blocking information regarding a catastrophic event that happened about ten years ago. I met three of your um, employees on the Rockport Limited, and they seemed to be able to think past the static. I would greatly appreciate it if you could remove the static from me so that I can see if you’re doing anything nefarious here,” he said, trying to sound as professional as possible. He might have been mimicking the way his dad would read off charges from the Raven Queen to his bounties somewhat, except without putting on any silly accent. There was a long beat of silence on the other side of the stone.

“Mr. McDonald, how old exactly did you say you were again?” she asked, which wasn’t the most surprising question.

“I’m ten ma’am,” he answered cheerfully.

“And how did you find out all that?” she pressed, clearly suspicious. He couldn’t tell if she was suspicious that he wasn’t ten, or that someone was feeding him this information or what. He guess the second thing wasn’t too wrong, but still, he knew his dad would much prefer it if he didn’t go on these missions. It certainly wasn’t like he was actually the brains behind all this.

“I’m a very good detective ma’am,” was all he said. Angus could hear something like a glass being poured on the other side of the call, and then a few quick gulps.

“Could you give the stone back to Avi, please?” she asked after a moment. Angus nodded, even though he was pretty sure she couldn’t see him.

“Of course ma’am,” he said, holding out the stone for Avi to take. His brain was swimming even more than before after all of that. It was frustrating, but at least he was able to keep himself together enough to try and be taken seriously.

“Avi, have the reclaimers head to the relic disposal chamber. I will meet them there in a moment. Keep Mr. McDonald with you until I get there,” she said. Angus wasn’t thrilled at this. He didn’t know for sure if those three would come to his defense, but they’d let him help while they were all on the Rockport Limited. Taako at least seemed to recognize his skill past that of just some little kid.

“Alright, you got it Madame Director,” Avi said. Without any real care the three men left the weird hanger they were all in, not paying mind to Angus. It was frustrating, but they seemed to be very distracted people in general. Angus didn’t comment on it, trying to keep his mind from straying too much until he had something to clear up his brain.

After a few minutes someone walked into the hanger. When Angus looked up it was an older woman, all dressed in blue and white robes. She held herself with a poise that reminded Angus of his dad when he was genuinely serious instead of when he was just trying to be, and somewhat of the Raven Queen. A power drawn from melancholy was the best way Angus could describe it. She quickly caught sight of him, and a soft smile spread onto her face.

“I take it you are Mr. McDonald?” she asked, and Angus nodded. He regretted that when the world started spinning even more but tried his best not to let it show. Avi was standing off to the side of them now, slightly awkward.

“I told them we couldn’t just let a kid into all of this,” he spoke up, and Angus frowned at that. He didn’t need someone trying to talk this down before he even got a chance to start to defend himself.

“I can assure you I’m no ordinary child,” he insisted. The director nodded, and she seemed to believe him at that.

“In order to have found out as much as you have, that’s clear,” she said. She moved so that she was kneeling down to his height, and Angus got the sense that she was trying to look into his very soul. She couldn’t, she wasn’t a reaper or a god, but Angus would say it was a pretty decent attempt none the less.

“I’ve been tracking the static for a few years now. There was, um, there was a town. It was all mirrors. I don’t know how- but it was connected to all of this too, wasn’t it?” he said, and once again the Director seemed taken off guard by him.

“Yes, it was,” she said, her voice soft. It was less of that condescending pity than was usual, it sounded more like genuine sorrow for whatever had happened in that place. It was enough that he could probably work with this.

“I don’t feel like you all are evil ma’am, but I really need to know what you’re doing here,” he insisted. He could see that flash of uncertainty on her face again, and it was frustrating. He was so close to getting answers and he didn’t want to lose them here.

“You have to understand Angus, if we do this there’s no way for us to undo it. It may be a bigger commitment than you expect,” she said, and he nodded. Then he paused, because no, he couldn’t go agreeing to anything, even with how sorely tempting it was. Not when the chances of it being related to the undead was so high.

“I just have one question to ask before I agree madame,” he said, and she didn’t seem bothered any by that.

“Of course.”

“Are you people actually dead?” he asked. He wanted to keep that suspicion to himself, but he’d already asked Taako, Merle and Magnus. A look of surprise passed over the Director’s face, and it was different from the one those other three had. There still wasn’t guilt there, at least, he was pretty sure it wasn’t guilt. It was more like shock, and something Angus couldn’t read.

There was something about this woman that was very hard to read.

“Dead? I- no. Where did you get that impression?” she asked, and Angus knew that this line of questioning was going to be a tricky one. It was why he wanted to avoid it, and Queen he wished he could think clearly for this. Still, he needed to know before he agreed.

“The static. It’s- in my investigation, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t work on the undead, or souls who exist outside of bodies, like in constructs and such,” he explained, trying to be vague. No need to tell them he knew about people’s death counts, or that his dad was one of those souls the static didn’t affect.

When he looked at the director now there was a look of panic on her face, and Mr. Avi looked rather shocked as well. Magnus hadn’t seemed to realize the dead were unaffected by this, but he had to be sure that wasn’t an act.

“How did you- Angus, how did you discover this?” the director asked, and she sounded urgent. And scared. And suspicious. He could understand why, if it wasn’t something they were using it was a pretty big loophole.

“I’ve uh, I’ve had a few detective cases that deal with necromancers and the like. I’ve talked to a few undead,” he said. It wasn’t a lie. The director nodded, but there was still a tinge of fear there, some deep panic behind her eyes.

“Did you-” she paused, and if Angus wasn’t concentrating so hard on her face to avoid looking at everything else he might have missed the way her eyes flickered to Avi, like she was debating whether to say anything with him here. “Angus, in your encounters with the undead, were any of the people you spoke to wearing a bright red robe?” she asked, and Angus frowned at that. It was an odd question, and he did a quick mental check to make sure he hadn’t met anyone like that before shaking his head.

“No madame, I don’t believe so,” he told her honestly. She was still staring at him with suspicion, and Angus really was trying to pay as much attention as possible. He was about to ask if everything was okay, she was staring straight into his eyes like she was searching for something. Then her own widened in a panic, and before Angus could react she’d reached towards him and grabbed a hold of his arm.

Before he could pull away, he felt her cast something, powerful magic coursing through him. Angus felt himself panic, trying to scramble away, but as quickly as it had started she stopped, and nothing had changed. There hadn’t been any pain, and he couldn’t fell any difference in himself.

Whatever she’d cast, that result seemed to relax her considerably. She let go of his arm and smiled apologetically before raising back up to her full height.

“I’m sorry about that Angus, I had to be sure you were being honest,” she said, and Angus nodded.

“That’s okay madame, but um, please don’t do that again,” he said, still a little shaken. If these people were evil, that could have gone very badly.

“I promise,” she said, and he relaxed some at that. “Are you alright though Angus, are you cold? Sick? You felt rather cool just now,” she asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Shit. He always forgot about that. He wasn’t as cold as his dad, since he was still alive, but weird astral plane magic stuff was still weird astral plane magic stuff.

“I’m quite fine madame! I have a condition, don’t worry about it. Could we get back to the whole static thing please?” he asked, trying to steer the conversation back to the important stuff. He still felt so sick, he wanted some answers and for this to be over.

“Alright. Alright. Well Angus to answer your question, no. I can assure you no one here is dead, and that is certainly not the method we use to cancel out the static,” she said. Angus wasn’t sure how much he believed her on the first front, since he saw the bounties on those three who worked here. Still, it could be unrelated, as unlikely as it was.

“In that case I would very much appreciate it if you could make the static stop,” he said. The director smiled again, and Angus felt relief wash through him when she nodded.

“This is unconventional to be sure, but I believe it might be the best choice for everyone. Please follow me Angus,” she said. He nodded, grinning brightly at the chance for some actual answers. Avi looked like he was going to say something for a moment, but seemed to give up mid word. That was fine by Angus, the faster he could get this done with the less time anyone had to have a second thought.

As the director led them further into this compound everything got more and more uncomfortable and dizzying. He’d plucked the black feather out of his hat at this point, running it through his fingers in an attempt to ground himself. It helped some, and when he offered up a silent prayer to the Raven Queen he relaxed a bit more as he felt her cold presence with him.

It wasn’t telling him to turn back, she wasn’t urging him to come home. That was all the permission he needed to go through with this.

Soon enough the Director led him to a long hall, lined with guards. He followed her down it, and the room they walked into was huge. There was some sort of tank, it took up most of the space, it was giant. Whatever was in there had to be enormous.

He couldn’t see what it was though, and the feeling of static was the worst here. Angus barely even noticed that there was someone else in here as well, a bard. He could hear the man start to talk to the Director, but their voices shifted to static too often. It was too much, and Angus found himself sitting down on the floor, brushing the feather between his hands.

A moment later the Director was crouched in front of him again, and there was a small cup of some strange, inky liquid in her hand. He couldn’t help but be suspicious when she held it out to him.

“Drink this, it’ll clear the static,” she said. He knew he should have her test it first, or at least tell him what it was, but it was all so overwhelming at this point he did as she said.

It wasn’t a very nice taste, but the static was slowly starting to clear up. He could remember what Taako and Merle and Magnus had been talking about on the train, could clearly recall the symbol that was all over this base. This secret moon base, on a fake moon.

He could remember the bits and pieces his dad tried to tell him over the years, the ones that had dissolved into static whenever pressed too far. It wasn’t much, he was always careful not to overwhelm him. Angus could remember what he’d said now.

How his dad had told him that his birth parents had been after an item, an item with incredible power, that had managed to turn an entire town into mirrors.

Oh.

“Are you alright Angus? Given your age, you shouldn’t have many, if any memories of the war,” she said, and he quickly nodded.

“I’m fine madame, thank you. That was uh, that certainly explains some things,” he said, and when he looked up he could see what was in that tank now. It was giant, and it was beautiful. It looked like jellyfish, but there were these swirling lights inside of it that flashed and spun in lazy movements. It almost reminded him of the astral sea. “Whoa.”

“It is pretty damn whoa, yes,” she said, amusement in her voice. He smiled sheepishly before picking himself up off the floor.

“So uh, we’re really letting a kid into the bureau?” the bard asked, and Angus has almost forgotten about him.

“Oh, hello sir. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself early, my name is Angus,” he said, holding his hand out. The bard nodded, shaking it and still looking pretty uncomfortable.

“I’m Johann, nice to um, meet you?” he said before turning back towards the Director. “So like what now? Is he gonna stay up here? What about his parents?” he asked. Angus was surprised by the flash of panic that crossed the director’s face at that question.

“That’s- I might have forgotten about that,” she said, and Angus almost laughed.

“I did mention that I have a dad. I think you were listening in on the stone of farspeech at time time?” he said, and she nodded, somehow looking even more embarrassed by this mistake.

“Yes, you did. I- Angus, I hope you understand that we can’t- we won’t be able to simply inoculate your whole family. We can have you live on the planet, of course, and be a consultant, but I’m not sure how safe your home is for frequent canon rides,” she said.

“Um, before we figure that out could you please explain to me exactly what this organization is doing?” he asked. That seemed to surprise the director, who quickly nodded.

“Yes, yes of course. Come with me Angus, I’ll explain to you on the way. We need to see to it that the Oculus is dealt with after all,” she said. Angus wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but nodded.

They weren’t evil. As the director told him everything they were doing here, how they had ended the war by erasing the weapons that had started them from the world’s mind, Angus became more and more sure of that. He could remember the faces his dad made whenever those things were brought up. Those had never been covered by the static, and Angus could see how much he hated what happened. He could remember, and for something to be so bad as to leave an effect on an aspect of death it had to be horrible.

They were trying to fix it. They were gathering the relics and destroying them, and they already had two down. He was excited to see the reclaimers, the three he’d met on the train, while they destroyed the relic. They seemed varying levels of pleased at him becoming a part of the bureau.

He couldn’t wait to tell his dad about this when he got home.

Which, he probably needed to do soon. He was alone with the director now, in her office. Or not alone, that gnome Davenport was here as well. Angus still wasn’t sure what to think of him, but he seemed nice enough.

“We’re very pleased to have you Angus, and you’ve already brought in some incredibly valuable information. The fact that the undead are immune to our effects is a concerning one to be sure. That, combined with your pursuit of our organization I think makes you more than qualified to join the Bureau officially as a seeker. Normally we would give you a trial of initiation, but in these circumstances we can skip that formality,” she said, and Angus grinned.

“I appreciate that madame, it’s been a very long day. Hopefully you all don’t have to deal with the undead too often. Although I guess based on what you said there should be a relic based around necromancy, right?” he asked. Just the idea made him shudder.

“Yes, there is. We’ve yet to retrieve that one,” she said, which was unfortunate. Maybe he could ask his dad about that though, he had to know something. “That’s a very beautiful feather,” the director added suddenly, catching Angus off guard. He hadn’t even realized he’d been fiddling with it all this time.

“Oh, yeah. It’s kind of my good luck charm,” he said, not wanting to go into anymore explanation than that. She smiled, seeming to accept his words at face value. Smoothing the feather back into place, it looked as pristine as it ever did and Angus stuck it back into his hat.

“Madame Director I really appreciate you explaining all of this to me and trusting me. I promise I’ll be able to help you all find the rest of the relics, but right now I should really get home. My dad’ll be worried if I’m late for dinner,” he explained. She smiled at that and nodded.

“I’ll have Avi prepare a canon for you. Where do you live?” she asked, and that was certainly an interesting question. Hopefully one he wouldn’t actually have to answer. He liked the director, and he could tell that she was a lady who was used to secrets. He was pretty sure she would be able to keep one more.

“That won’t be necessary madame, I can get home on my own,” he said, and she blinked at that.

“That’s not- we can’t allow you to jump off the moon. Even if you know feather fall or other levitation based spells that is incredibly dangerous ,” she said. Instead of answering, Angus held a hand out, opening a small rift up into his bedroom. His dad wasn’t there, which was good. He was hoping to explain everything to him at a slow pace, and he wouldn’t be happy at Angus opening a rift in front of someone.

“I wasn’t being braggy when I said I’m not a regular kid madame director. I would appreciate it if you could keep this a secret though,” he said, grinning and maybe bragging a little by showing off. The director nodded, clearly taking a moment to process what was happening.

“This is… some sort of teleportation magic, I assume?” she asked, and Angus nodded. That wasn’t quite right, but he didn’t want to tell anyone he was from the astral plane. It looked like he’d opened a portal to a normal little boy’s room that could be anywhere in the world after all.

“Yeah, so you shouldn’t have to worry about me getting onto the base either,” he said. She still seemed pretty surprised by this, but was quickly recovering.

“That is useful I suppose,” she said, looking almost amused by all of this now. “Well, you have my word on keeping this a secret,” she added. Angus smiled and stepped through into his bedroom at that.

“Have a good night Madame Director,” he said, and she smiled and nodded back to him.

“You too Angus,” she said, and with that he closed the rift back up again. He could hear his dad moving around in the kitchen, so it seemed like he’d managed not to be late after all. That was good, he didn’t need to start off this conversation with his dad already annoyed with him.

He was going to have to explain so much.

Chapter Text

Kravitz was almost finished making dinner when Angus walked out of his room. Which was a little strange, he usually opened a rift straight into the living room. Doing a quick glance over it didn’t look like he was hurt or anything. It didn't look like he was trying to hide the fact that he was hurt either. A little scuffed up and his clothes somewhat dirty, but that wasn’t unusual for Angus.

“Hey dad, how was your day?” he asked, and there was an air to his voice that Kravitz couldn’t quite place. Definitely a little nervous. Kravitz tried to remember what Angus had said he’d been planning on doing today. He believed he said something about a mystery on a train, but hadn’t gone into any details.

“Good, work was the usual. How about you, you had that train mystery today, right? Did you manage to solve it?” he asked, and Angus quickly nodded, pulling a stool up to the counter and sitting down.

“Oh yeah! It went great. I mean, the murderer managed to kill one more person before I was able to apprehend him, or well, two I guess. But he’s dead too now, so I guess not super great since I wasn’t actually able to put him in jail, but better than him being able to kill more,” Angus said. Kravitz nodded, turning the heat off the food and starting to plate some for Angus. It wasn’t anything fancy, but he never complained about the food.

“Sounds like a lot went down,” he said, and Angus nodded. He started eating once Kravitz gave him his plate, but there was obviously something still on his mind. Something he wanted to say but wasn’t. Kravitz wanted to press, but told himself that if he gave Angus time to put the words together he wouldn’t have to.

He really was planning to wait, to give his son the time to decompress from the obvious big day he’d had. Then Kravitz got a good look inside of his mouth when he went to take another bite, and he froze. “Angus?” he asked, his son looking up at him with mild confusion.

“Yeah?”

“What happened to your teeth?” he asked, sounding somewhat horrified. Angus stopped eating, swallowing the food in his mouth. Kravitz could see him run his tongue along his teeth, and he could pinpoint the moment when he noticed.

“Oh, I uh, I guess those fell out when I jumped off the train. I didn’t notice,” he said, mumbling mostly to himself. Despite that it certainly got Kravitz’s attention.

“You jumped out of a train? A moving one?” he asked, and Angus looked a little more hesitant to start explaining everything now. Kravitz supposed that was fair, but he also felt his reaction to finding out Angus jumped off a train was also fair.

“Yeah, it was um, a lot happened. I didn’t even notice the teeth until you pointed them out actually. I think they might’ve still been baby teeth? Probably?” he asked, and god, it had been a while since Kravitz had read about teeth. Did he really need to start thinking about teeth again?

“Angus, what happened?” Kravitz asked, because there was definitely something up. Something was still up, if the way Angus was acting had anything to say about it. If his son was in any sort of danger he needed to know.

“You’re gonna be mad,” Angus said, pushing his food around on his plate and avoiding eye contact. Kravitz sighed, about to protest that he wasn’t going to get mad before stopping himself.

Angus was a very smart boy.

He probably was going to get mad.

“Finish eating your dinner and then we’ll talk about it,” he said instead. Angus nodded, and he was definitely eating his food a bit slower than he normally would. Once he finished though Kravitz took his plate and put it in the sink, the two of them heading to the living room.

Sitting down on the couch, Kravitz pulled Angus over onto his lap. His son slumped into him some, still seeming unsure about all of this.

“So, what trouble did you get yourself into this time?” Kravitz asked, trying to sound more amused than anything. After all, Angus wasn’t hurt. He was right here and Kravitz could sense the slow pulse of his soul like waves and could feel his heart beating against him, so whatever he’d done hadn’t been that bad. Or well, it might have been, but the result was still the same, so he couldn’t get too mad.

“It’s not trouble,” Angus insisted. Kravitz nodded despite not being convinced in the slightest.

“Alright, what is it then?” he asked, and Angus sighed.

“Okay, so I guess to start, I kinda met some people on the train. They were nice and helped me catch the Rockport Slayer,” he said, and it was obvious this was a lead up to something else. Still, Kravitz nodded along not wanting to rush Angus and feeling like he probably needed this cushioning. He was trying to prepare himself to hear the worst.

“That’s good. I’m glad you were able to get some help on this one,” he said. The fact that the culprit had died meant it was a pretty intense mission. He didn’t like the idea of Angus taking on all that on his own. He knew Angus would call him if he ended up in something truly life or death, but he was glad it hadn’t come to that.

“Yeah, they were a little weird, but I liked them,” he said, and then it was quiet again as Angus seemed to think something over. “They were really cool. They helped protect me against this big crab monster, and they got rid of Jenkins too. He’d killed the engineer, so we didn’t have any way to stop the train. One of them was a wizard and he had all of us jump off the train before teleporting it somewhere it couldn’t hurt anyone,” Angus explained. He wasn’t lying, that was a lot, but Angus was talking about these people with quite a bit of fondness and respect.

“It sounds like this one was a bit more intense than your normal jobs,” he said, and Angus nodded in agreement. “Are you sure you didn't get hurt anywhere else? Let me see your mouth again,” he added, wanting to be certain that Angus wasn’t hiding any injuries.

“I’m fine dad,” Angus said, opening his mouth for Kravitz to get a look despite that. He couldn’t see anything else wrong, besides the two missing teeth. When Angus closed his mouth, Kravitz could see him debating on whether or not to say whatever it is he needed to say next.

“The three I met on the train are a part of a secret society on the moon and I kinda might have joined it,” Angus said all in a rush. The words so so fast and so unexpected that it took a moment for them to actually process.

“On the moon?” he asked once it finally did, and Angus nodded sheepishly.

“Yeeeesss?” he answered hesitantly, giving him a large, nervous smile. Kravitz sighed heavily, slumping back into the couch and rubbing at his temples as he took everything in.

“You joined a cult,” he said after a moment, Angus quickly shaking his head.

“It’s not a cult dad!”

“You specifically called it a secret society on the moon! That sounds a lot like a cult to me,” Kravitz insisted. Angus winced a little, looking like he was having a hard time arguing with that one.  

“Okay, it might be a little culty. But they’re not evil, they’re doing good things and trying to make the world safer. They’re only a secret because they have to be,” Angus said, and Kravitz took another deep breath. He knew he was already dead, he was an aspect of death herself.

Somehow though, it still felt like Angus was sending him to an early grave.

“Why exactly do they need to be secret? What exactly have you gotten yourself into?” Kravitz asked, sounding as flabbergasted as he felt. He’d been hoping that whatever danger Angus had gotten himself into wouldn’t be an ongoing thing, but since he ‘joined’ it seemed like that wasn’t going to be the case.

“They’re gathering up these really powerful, dangerous artifacts and destroying them so they can’t do anymore harm. There was one on the train, but they managed to get it before the Rockport Slayer had. We took it back to their base so it could be destroyed afterwards,” Angus explained. Kravitz was trying very hard not to look too upset about that, but he guessed he didn’t do that great of a job.

“I won’t be out actually going after the items though! They have specific people for that job. The items have a really powerful thrall to them, and only a few people can resist it. If I got too close to the one on the train I might’ve tried to use it, and that would’ve been bad,” Angus continued frantically, clearly trying to smooth this over.

Which… that certainly sounded familiar. “I’ll only be helping them locate the items. It seemed like a good use of my detective skills,” he finished, and Kravitz felt himself relax some at that. Yeah, he much preferred the idea of not having Angus out in the field.

His ultimate preference would be Angus not involved in any of this at all, but it didn’t seem like he’d have his way with that.

“You’re right, it sounds like you could do a lot of good there Angus, I’m proud of you,” he said, despite the serious problems he was having with all of this. They weren’t done with this conversation, but he didn’t want Angus thinking he was only mad and not listening at all. A large grin spread across his son's face at the praise, but then it fell into something more serious again and Kravitz could feel himself getting nervous.

“There’s one more thing,” Angus said, and that was about what Kravitz expected.

He really wasn’t sure how well he could handle ‘one more thing.’

“And what’s that?” Kravitz asked anyway, because he couldn’t get away with just not knowing.

“The items were gathering. They’re the relics from that war that happened about ten years ago. Like the one that killed my other parents and turned the town to mirrors,” Angus said bluntly, and Kravitz felt himself freeze.

“How- how did you…” he started to ask, his words failing him for a moment. “You said you could never understand it before,” he ended up saying, and Angus nodded.

“The organization I joined, the um, bureau of balance, they’re the ones who managed to make the world forget and ended the wars. They took the block off of me when I joined their group,” he explained and that- that made sense. It didn’t, really. There were lots of questions he still had, but it was a start.

Kravitz knew someone had to be behind this, but he never knew who. He’d never had the free time to look into it, between his duties as a reaper and raising Angus. Technically, it wasn’t even their jurisdiction, so he couldn’t devote that much time to it outside of work. It had always bothered him, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

He certainly hadn’t expected Angus to find them with little to no warning.

“That’s- well shit Angus, I can’t believe you managed to do that,” he said, and Angus looked a little worried now.

“You’re um, you’re not mad are you?” he asked, and Kravitz slowly shook his head. It took him a moment to decide that, but he was pretty sure he wasn’t angry.

“No, of course not. I’m surprised is all, the ending of those wars had always seemed to strange and I haven’t had much time to really look into them. I didn’t expect you to be able to find all the answers just like that,” he said, and Angus was smiling now. Okay, this was still definitely not great, but he couldn’t help but he a little proud of Angus.

“I’m a really good detective dad. And I guess I did get a little lucky that those three from the bureau had also been on the train,” Angus said, and Kravitz laughed at that.

“I know you are. I suppose I shouldn’t have doubted that you’d figure out this mystery sometime too,” he said, reaching over and ruffling Angus’s hair.

“That’s true,” he said, readjusting his hat back into place. Kravitz snorted at how self assured he was in his own skills, but it wasn’t like he didn’t have every right to be. Kravitz wasn’t going to argue with him on that in the slightest.

“So, this group. How did- how did they actually manage to erase all of that information?” he asked, because he’d been so curious for so long. It had been unnerving, even though it had definitely did a lot of good ending the wars.

“There’s this thing they have. It’s like a giant jellyfish I guess. They call it the voidfish, and when you feed it information it’s able to block that information from everyone in the whole planar system. Or at least, everyone who has a corporal body I guess?” he said, and Kravitz nodded. It was pretty fantastical, but Kravitz had seen a lot of fantastical things over his centuries working under the Raven Queen’s charge.

“How’d they manage to get around that for themselves and you? Because I can tell that you’re very much still corporeal,” he said, poking Angus in the side for good measure. Angus laughed some at that, swatting had hand away.

“Dad, stop it, this is serious, ” he insisted, still giggling some and Kravitz reluctantly stopped so that Angus could actually tell him what the deal was. “If you drink from the tank the voidfish is in you become immune to its effects. It uh, it doesn’t taste very good, but it’s definitely better than having that dumb static all the time,” he explained.

“That’s certainly unconventional,” Kravitz said, not too sure how he felt about that. He wasn’t sure how he felt about any of this, he’d rather Angus not be hanging around something centered around objects so dangerous. Around powers so strong that they could wipe out such a devastating war from the collective mind of the entire world.

His thoughts turned towards something the Raven Queen had said years ago, back when he’d only just gotten Angus. They needed to prepare for a coming storm, one even larger than the relics had brought. He had kept that in the back of his mind all these years, not sure what it meant. He didn’t know if this was the start of it, but his gut told him it was probably close. If those horrible relics were involved, it had to be close.

“Angus, I want you to know that I’m incredibly proud of you,” he said after a moment. Angus smiled at that, but then it shifted into a suspicious frown.

“I feel like you’re about to say something bad,” he said, and Kravitz chuckled a bit at that.

“No, it’s not- I just need you to be careful, alright? Those relics, they’re scary stuff. It’s- the wars were terrible Angus. We felt their affects even all the way here in the astral plane, and I don’t want you getting hurt,” he said, trying to let it show in his voice how serious this was. To Kravtiz’s relief Angus’s suspicion faded away, and from his expression he seemed to understand what Kravitz was talking about.

“I promise I won’t do anything stupid dad,” he said, and Kravitz smiled at that.

“I know you won’t,” he said.

——

Angus felt really bad about lying to his dad.

He tried to justify it in that it wasn’t necessarily a lie, he just hadn’t told him the full story. Lies of omission were still lies though, and this had been a pretty big one.

He knew those three had bounties in his book. Important ones. He hadn’t seen the full charges, those wouldn’t appear unless his dad wanted them to, but he knew they had died. A lot. He should have told his dad about them immediately. They were death criminals and belonged in the eternal stockade. They certainly weren’t the kind of people his dad would trust him being around, for good reason.

But Angus hadn’t told him. He’d kept the focus on the bureau and the relics and had only said all the good things those three had done to help him, and deliberately without names.

He told himself that he only wanted a bit more time to get a better read on them before jumping into anything. They were important members of this organization, and he was still trying to get this group to trust him. Carting three of the people who were main members of it off to ghost jail probably wouldn’t sit well with them right away.

It only got worse once he started looking into everything more though. Taako, Merle and Magnus weren’t just key members of the bureau. According to the Director, they were the only people in the entire world who were immune to the thrall that the relics put out. Without them, the whole organization would fall apart and they wouldn’t be able to protect the world.

He couldn’t let his dad arrest them, at least not until they were done gathering the relics.

Angus knew that his dad would make exceptions sometimes. He couldn’t just ask though. There was no way he would let them go on Angus’s word alone. Even if normally his dad listened to what he had to say, he doubted he’d be happy when he realized Angus had been interacting with and helping what was probably a bunch of necromancers. The fact that he’d hidden it already only made it worse.

So, he needed to take his time. He couldn’t let his dad find out about this until he had enough evidence to prove that they were good people who deserved a second chance.

To do that, it would help if he knew what the charges were they were up against. Just what kind of necromancy they had been complicit in, and why.

Except Angus couldn’t find any sign that they were necromancers. None at all! Nothing! He’d looked, it was one of the first things he did. As soon as he managed to get their full names and some privacy he started looking into the backgrounds. As a wizard Taako was the most likely one to dabble in those sorts of things, so he started with him first.

Taako from TV, used to have a traveling cooking show. It ended a few years back when there had been a mass poisoning in the town of glamour springs. No major sightings of him since then, and the tragedy had been unfortunate, but nothing especially nefarious when it came to dark magics. Angus knew, he’d looked into it extensively.

There were no records of him prior to ten years ago, starting with some documents for the start up of Sizzle It Up With Taako.

With no leads there, Angus moved onto Merle. He’d seemed to be the greatest offender, at least from the quick glances he’d gotten from his dad’s book. Even though he was a cleric of Pan, he was still heavily suspicious.

Merle Highchurch, married into the Roughridge family in an arranged wedding about eight years ago. He had a son and step daughter, but it didn’t look like he’d been in much contact with his family for several years now. No obvious blights on his record, just a few scattered adventuring jobs and happenstance sightings one would expect from a traveler.

There were no records of him prior to moving into the Coral Heart Clan about ten years ago.

Finally, he looked into Magnus. He wasn’t expecting to find much since he wasn’t a magic user. While there were the occasional non magic users in with the cults and such, they weren’t usually the ones leading the charge.

Magnus Burnsides, made a very public name for himself in Raven’s Roost first by leading a decently sized rebellion, and then with his carpentry. It seemed like pure bad luck and maliciousness that the town had then been attacked while Magnus was at an international crafts showcase in Neverwinter. The town was abandoned now, and there were few signs of Magnus after his winning at the showcase.

There were no records to him prior to moving into a small wood working shop in Raven’s Roost, approximately ten years ago.

Obviously, there was something there. Angus wasn’t dumb enough to not realize that. All three of them had just appeared in their lives around the same time with no real explanation on what they’d been doing before.

He couldn’t make any other connection though. They were all so disjointed, and in some separate parts of the country. There wasn’t anything malicious about their starts. There were bouts of tragedy here and there, but nothing with raising the dead or extending one’s life artificially or anything like that. There wasn’t anything that led towards the normal paths one would see for necromancy.

It didn’t make any sense. He knew his dad’s book couldn’t have been wrong. That simply wasn’t how it worked. A part of him was real tempted to try and steal it, just for a quick peak. He didn't even know if it would work for him though, and his dad only materialized it when he needed it anyway. Angus decided that he'd only do that as an absolute last resort.

The relic war had ended right around the time they’d all started up new lives. Was it connected? Had their previous lives been destroyed by one of the relics? Maybe that was why they were working to gather them now.

It might have even been what had caused those blights on their records in the first place.

Angus told himself that he needed to wait until they gathered the relics, or until any of them showed themselves to be an actual threat. As soon as either of those things happened he would go to his dad and explain everything. Either his dad would arrest them if they did turn out to be threats, or he would listen when Angus explained that they’d helped to save the whole world.

Either way, he’d probably be grounded for a pretty long time, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand why.

So Angus spent the next little while trying to get used to all of this. The moonbase was fascinating to him.

The first time he went back, he opened a portal up to Madame Director’s office. Luckily she was already in there, because he felt like being in there without her would be pretty rude. She was a bit startled by his sudden entrance, the grip on her staff tight and leveled at him. She immediately lowered it when she saw him walk through however.

“Oh, Angus,” she said, slumping back in her large throne some. “That’s- we might have to make some regulations on your preferred mode of travel,” she added, and Angus nodded. He couldn’t say that was unreasonable, especially since he already had a lot of rules for it.

“Sorry for startling you Madame. I figured this would be the safest place for me to come in without anyone else seeing,” he explained. She nodded, and seemed to think that over.

“Yes, that’s true,” she said, and then after a moment added. “We can get you your own room. I’m aware you would prefer to keep living at your home, but it could be a place for you to keep your things and come onto the base without anyone discovering your abilities,” she said. Angus actually liked that idea.

“That sounds great madame! I would really appreciate it,” he said, and she smiled some at that. Angus decided that he really did like the director.

“We’ll get that settled right away then,” she said, and then she opened up a drawer in her desk. “Also, on the note of your membership of the bureau, there was something we hadn’t had the chance to do last time,” she said. Angus could see that she was holding a small silver bracer now. Everyone he’d seen in the bureau had one, so it made sense.

“Oh right! I meant to ask you about those,” he said, coming up to her desk to get a closer look. It was a plain silver, with the symbol of the bureau on it. There was also a button on it, barely noticeable.

“You’ll want to put it on your non-dominate arm,” she said, handing it over to him. “Oh, and it is unmovable, and let’s us know where you are at any given moment,” she added right as Angus had snapped it onto his wrist.

“Um. Oh,” he said, the excited smile on his face dying pretty fast. “Uh, what else does it do?” he asked, really hoping that it wasn’t just a tracking device. He’d feel stupid about putting it on if it was just a tracking device.

“It allows you to call down the transport canons wherever you are, although it seems like that won’t be a use you’ll need very often I suppose,” she said. Yep, this was still sounding pretty bad. “It also works as a key to get into many of the rooms here, such as the voidfish chamber and my office, as well as your own room once we get it set up,” she said, and Angus relaxed some at that.

At least that was useful, since he couldn’t actually teleport from different parts of the prime material plane without jumping back into the astral plane. He was pretty sure his dad wouldn’t be happy if he was plane jumping all the time to get into different rooms.

“Alright then madame, um, thank you I guess? Is there anything you need from me right now?” he asked. He didn’t know exactly what kind of responsibilities he’d have as a seeker, but he was excited to find out.

“Not at the moment. If you would like you can get yourself acclimated to the base. We also have a very large library that our seekers use to help track the relics. If you’d like to explore that some,” she said, and okay, that sounded real interesting.

“I’d love to get a good look around! I wasn’t able to absorb that much last time, because of the voidfish and all,” he said, and she nodded at that.

“Yes, the first trip here tends to be like that. Have a look around. The library is the large dome on the other side of the quad, you’ll want to leave this dome, and you’ll pass another smaller dome, turn right there and when you see the dome labeled-” she started to explain, and Angus snickered some.

“I think I’ll just explore and see what I find ma’am,” he said, and she looked a little sheepish at that.

“Of course,” she said. With that Angus left her office and started exploring around the base. It was pretty big, a lot bigger than Angus thought something flying up in the sky could be. They had to be using some serious magic to keep it all afloat.

Walking around some, Angus managed to figure out where the living quarters and cafeteria were. There was something that looked like a training area, and as he walked around there were a lot of people who kept glancing over at him. Which was fair, he knew that he was the only child on the moon. He figured word might not have gotten around about him yet.

Angus was also aware that there tended to be something people found unnerving when they looked at him. He couldn’t really put a finger on what it was, except maybe his eyes. Still, people seemed to notice that there was something different about him.

The connection to death, to the astral plane that he had was strong, and even if people couldn’t put a word to it they could feel it. It didn’t particularly bother him, even if the occasional stares did make his job as a detective a bit harder.

Still, that might not be a problem this time. This place seemed to be home to all kind of unusual and unexplainable things.

Angus had a feeling he was really going to like it here.

Chapter Text

After quite a bit of walking around the moon base, Angus managed to find the library. The Director hadn’t been joking about it being huge, and walking inside Angus felt like he could get lost for a good long while in there. He didn’t have anything specific he had to do for his new job yet, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and get as familiarized with the materials here as he could.

Going through the long isles of bookcases upon bookcases, there was so much to see. He didn’t have a direction to start looking in, so he grabbed anything that particularly caught his eye. General information about the relics, the small bits of information he could find on the ones who created them. And just information at random, as this library seemed to have plenty. He spent a lot more time in the prime material plane now than he had when he was younger, and he’d been to lots of libraries.

It always seemed like there was something else new to learn though. He couldn’t help but jump at the chance to take in as much as possible.

He hadn’t noticed how late it had gotten until he started feeling a bit hungry. Angus had always felt like he was able to go a bit longer without sleep than most people, not that his dad encouraged it. Pulling out a pocket watch, Angus frowned when he saw the time. He should go find the Director and figure out his new room situation, but his dad would start to get worried if he wasn’t back home soon.

Considering how tentative and concerned he was about Angus’s new job, he didn’t want to give him a bad impression by disappearing without notice first thing. Or at least, anymore of a bad impression than the one he already had, thinking of it as a cult and all that. Glancing around to make sure he was alone in this corner of the library, Angus pulled out his stone of farspeech.

“Dad? Are you there?” he asked, whispering because one, he didn’t want anyone to overhear him, and two, you shouldn’t be loud in a library.

“Yes, I’m here. Is everything okay? Do you need me to come get you?” his dad asked, already sounding worried. Which was fair, Angus didn’t usually call him unless there was a problem.

“No, everything’s good. I’m on the moon, I just got distracted reading and I might be a little late to dinner. They have a really big library up here, I didn’t want you to get worried," he explained, and he could practically feel his dad sigh in relief.

“Oh, that’s alright Angus. Thank you for letting me know,” he said, and Angus was really glad his dad was trusting him with this. And maybe feeling little guilty, but he was trying to ignore that part. “How long do you think you’ll be out for?” he asked, which was a good question.

“Um, I gotta meet up with the director soon to get some stuff figured out, but after that I should be good. Actually, I can grab something to eat for dinner while I’m here, they have a cafeteria for everyone,” he said.

“If you’d rather do that it’s fine. Just don’t stay out too late,” he said, and Angus nodded even though he was pretty sure his dad couldn’t actually see him right now.

“I won’t, see you later,” he said.

“Love you Angus,” his dad said, and then he heard the stone of farspeech click off. Angus sat there for a moment, a small smile on his face. Okay, he needed to go see if the Director was in her office and if she’d gotten him a room ye-

“Who was that?”

Angus jumped at the sudden voice behind him. Spinning around as much as he could in his chair, Angus wasn’t sure if he was relieved or even more nervous when he saw one of the reclaimers he’d met on the train. Taako, the elf wizard.

A bounty his dad would throw into the eternal stockade without a moment’s hesitation, but for what Angus couldn’t imagine.

“Oh, hello sir! It’s very nice to see you again,” he said, trying to ignore the question.

“We thought you fucking died or something. No one’s seen you around for a couple days,” he said, and Angus tried not to show any emotions at the ‘died’ comment. It was only an unfortunate choice of words. He was probably exaggerating for comedic effect.

“I didn’t die sir, I just went home for a little bit,” he said, not mentioning the fact that under some definitions that would be the same thing. Taako shrugged, not looking real invested.

“Makes sense, who was that on your stone?” he asked, and Angus kind of had a feeling he wasn’t going to be able to deflect that entirely. Taako seemed to be a lot smarter and more attentive than he tried to put off.

“It was just my dad. I was letting him know I was gonna grab dinner while I was out today,” he said, because there wasn’t any reason to lie. It’d be much more suspicious if he refused to answer such an innocent question.

“You heading to the cafeteria now?” Taako asked, and Angus nodded. He’d been planning on heading to the director first, but he was pretty hungry and he could always talk to her afterwards. “Cool, cha boy’s heading there too. I’m fucking starving,” he said. Angus quickly closed up the books he’d been looking through and gathered his things so he could go with Taako.

Maybe if he spent some more time around them he could figure out exactly how it was they’d all broken death laws. He certainly hadn’t been able to find anything with good old fashioned research. Some more personal investigation was definitely in order.

“Were you doing research too sir?” he asked, and Taako scoffed at that.

“Fuck no, do I look like some sort of nerd to you? Going through the library is the best shortcut from the fantasy Costco,” he explained.

“I mean, you’re a wizard, aren’t you?” he asked, and Taako gave him a look like he didn't understand.

“Yeah, what’s that got to do with shit?” he asked, and Angus just shook his head at that.

“Nevermind sir,” he said, and he could see Taako roll his eyes at him but ignored it. He was kind of glad he had Taako to follow, otherwise it probably would have taken him a lot longer to find his way back to the cafeteria. He was good at remembering where things were when he had to take notice for a job, but otherwise he kind of didn’t pay attention. He didn’t need to when he could just open a rift in space to wherever he needed to be. So while he was good at remembering details, his sense of direction wasn’t the greatest.

“So,” Taako said as they got into line. Angus was suddenly unsure if they were supposed to pay for the food here or not. He guessed he would follow Taako’s lead. “You actually have a dad, like, one that’s alive and takes care of you? That wasn’t just some lie like the grandpa thing?” he asked, grabbing a tray of some kind of pasta dish.

“My dad is definitely a person that exists,” Angus said, because that was the truth. He wasn’t alive, but that didn’t seem to be important to what Taako was asking.

“Wow, okay you could not have have worded that in a more suspicious way,” Taako said, almost laughing. Angus frowned, grabbing his own tray of food. It didn’t look like you paid here, which was good. Angus only had gold pieces on him, and he kinda doubted it would be that expensive.

“There’s nothing suspicious about it at all sir, you wanted to know if my dad was real, and he is. He takes really good care of me too, even if he worries a little too much sometimes. You heard me talking to him,” Angus insisted, following the elf to an empty table. He wanted to get more information about Taako, but it seemed like he was the one having to answer questions.

“Whatever,” Taako said, sounding like he didn’t care. “I was only wondering cause like, he’s not part of the bureau, right? The fuck’s he think you’re doing right now?” he asked, which was a good question. If Angus hadn’t explained what he was doing, he doubted his dad would be happy about him disappearing off like he was.

Except no one here could know that he had told his dad everything.

“On a detective mission. It’s not a lie, and he knows those sometime take a while,” Angus answered easily. He’d been hoping this wouldn’t come up, but he knew he had to be prepared for when it did.

“Sure, that sounds about right, like fuck do I know how parents are supposed to work,” Taako said. Angus took a bite of his pasta, and it was pretty okay. Taako made a face when he tried his, but he kept on eating anyway.

“What are your parents like sir? Are they still alive?” Angus asked breezily. He needed to turn the topic away from him, and if he could learn anything at all about Taako’s past that would be a bonus.

“Uh yeah, I really don’t think we’re quite at back story territory yet mon frère,” Taako said with an offended look on his face. That certainly wasn’t the most useful response in the world. Angus couldn’t tell if he didn’t want to talk about that, or if he didn’t know, or some other third option.

He didn’t get a lot of time to think it over either, because just then Magnus and Merle were sitting down at the table with them.

“Oh shit, he is alive. Ha! Merle, you owe me five gold,” Magnus said, dropping his own tray of food down onto the table with a clatter.

“What? I don’t remember making any bets,” Merle complained, sitting down with a huff, his expression not very happy.

“Nope, definitely made a bet, give me money,” Magnus insisted, and from that tone of voice Angus was pretty sure he was lying through his teeth.

“You know, I think I feel a spell coming on. That’s right, it’s time for zone of-” Merle started, raising up his extreme teen bible. Before he could finish though Taako snatched the book out of his hand.

“Don’t you fucking truth compel me while I’m trying to eat old man. I’m trying not to announce to everyone around that this pasta somehow manages to be completely bland and over salted as fuck at the same time,” Taako snapped. Merle swiped his holy symbol back, but it seemed like he was no longer going to cast the spell.

“Well, you’re not doing a very good job of that, now are you?” he taunted, and Taako just rolled his eyes.

Angus was trying to be serious and impartial. Even though they were doing a good thing with the bureau these three might have still done some super bad stuff in their pasts. The people with the kind of bounties they had were usually pretty irredeemable.

But they were just so ridiculous. Angus couldn’t help but fall into a fit of laughter as he watched them bicker and prod at each other. That seemed to get their attention as they stopped their goofs, the three reclaimers turning back towards him.

“Anyway, did you go somewhere or something kid? Kinda expected you to be around more like, snooping through all our business,” Magnus asked.

“I went home sir. I’m just a little boy and my dad would be worried if I disappeared without notice,” Angus explained happily, eating more of his pasta. He didn’t have to play into the innocent kid thing quite as much as he usually did, these three knew he was a lot smarter than that, but it was still useful.

“Oh right, I guess we did kind of technically maybe kidnapped you a little back there? Our bad,” Magnus said, sounding pretty sheepish about that.

“I call bullshit. I still don’t think he’s actually got parents,” Taako said, and Angus frowned at that.

“Sir please, my dad is real. You heard me talking to him on my stone,” Angus insisted. Maybe it would be easier to let people think he was an orphan, but he wasn’t happy with that idea. His dad was important to him.

“Oh yeah? Call him right now,” Taako said.

“I can’t sir, he thinks I’m on a detective mission and when I last talked to him I told him I’d only call him again if there was an emergency,” Angus told him. He might not have explicitly told his dad that, but he was pretty sure he would get worried if he called again so soon for no reason.

“Fair enough,” Taako said reluctantly.

“What’s your dad’s name Angus? Or uh, was it also lost to time?” Magnus asked, which was a fair question. That hadn’t been the smoothest cover up Angus had ever attempted.

“His name’s Kravitz,” he said, since there was no harm in telling them that. Angus knew there were very few people who knew the grim reaper by name, after all. Most of them were locked up in the eternal stockade, or were gods.

“What’s his last name?” Merle pressed, asking it like it was some sort of clever trick question.

“…McDonald,” Angus said, hoping his blank stare and blunt tone came off as thinking that was a stupid question. Technically, it was, even if Angus wasn’t sure if his dad’s last name actually was McDonald or not. It was his last name, but it might’ve been from his birth parents. He’d never bothered to ask one way or the other, he didn’t think it really mattered.

“Well, that’s good enough for me,” Magnus said, starting to dig into his food. It seemed to be enough for the other two as well, neither of them pressing him on his dad anymore. Angus didn’t mind talking about his dad, but he knew these three were a lot smarter than they appeared most of the time.

He really did like them, but he had to be careful. He didn’t know if he could trust them. Not yet.

———

Kravitz was trying very hard to trust in his son’s judgment. After all, he knew he was a smart boy, and Kravitz was trying to raise him right. He could admit that he wasn’t the best at getting all the little intricacies of being alive, but he was trying. He felt like he was doing a pretty good job so far all things considered too.

He was proud of Angus, there was no doubt about that.

He was just also fairly certain he’d joined some sort of weird cult on the moon.

Which was, well, it certainly wasn’t fine. Kravitz would have preferred that he very much didn’t do that thing he’d done. It sounded, as hesitant as Kravitz was to say it, like a good thing though. If everything Angus told him was true, they were the ones responsible for ending that horrible war.

The abrupt ending and resulting complete dismissal of the previous tragedy had always unnerved him, but at least he had an answer for it now. Kravitz had never heard of something called the voidfish, but he’d never heard of something that could so completely and readily affect entire planes worth of people either. Nothing other than the gods, and even they tended not to meddle so directly.

He had no doubt that Angus was telling him the truth though. It wasn’t like anything else made sense, and there was no denying that whatever had happened had worked. He could think past that strange static he’d always said blocked his hearing.

Despite all of that, when Angus had first called him on his stone of farspeech, he’d instantly panicked. Kravitz knew he was going back to visit his weird moon base today, and his only thought was that it had been a trap and he should have gone with his gut and kept Angus the hell away from them. He’d already had his scythe forming in his hand before Angus had explained that he was staying late reading and was going to eat dinner there instead. He tried to hide the bout of fear, quickly dismissing the scythe and assuring Angus that it was fine.

He’d told Angus not to be too late, and it had been about two hours since then. Kravitz wondered how long was too long before he was allowed to start worrying again. He should have set a time instead if Angus was going to be out past dinner.

Kravitz was just about ready to try and call Angus and ask for an update when a familiar rip opened up in the living room and his son stepped through. Kravitz would have jumped to his feet if he hadn’t already been up pacing, but he quickly shoved his stone of farspeech back into his pocket.

“Hey dad. You uh, you weren’t waiting for me too long, were you?” he asked, and Kravitz guessed his worry had showed more than he hoped. He shook his head though, since really it hadn’t been long and Angus had warned him that he would be late.

“No, I was just thinking that if you’re going to be late again we should probably set a time. How about we say you try and get back by nine?” he suggested. That seemed like a reasonable curfew considering Angus’s age, but Kravitz was sorely tempted to start going back to the parenting books. He’d already been meaning to go back and take another look at teeth.

“Oh, yeah okay, that sounds good dad,” Angus agreed, which was a relief. “You weren’t worried were you? I called,” he added. Kravitz smiled sheepishly, heading back over to sit down on the couch. Angus joined him and Kravitz tried to think of the best way to approach this.

“I’m always worried,” he said, which got a laugh out of Angus. “It’s just- you’re sure this whole moon base cult-”

“Not a cult,” Angus cut in.

“Moon base society is a good idea? You know I trust you Angus, I promise I do, it’s just…” he hummed, trying to figure out what could possibly making him feel better about this. “Maybe if I could just meet them…” he started, and he saw Angus jolt at the suggestion.

“No!” he insisted immediately, which was a surprise. Angus seemed to realize it as well, quickly continuing. “It’s just, it’s a secret moonbase. They don’t know I told you. They don’t know I can tell you,” he added.

“What do you mean?” Kravitz asked, frowning now.

“The only people who can know about the moonbase and everything they’re doing are people are have been inoculated. Or dead people. They didn’t even know that the dead are immune before I told them,” Angus explained, and Kravitz nodded reluctantly. They’d already been over that though, so he still wasn’t sure where Angus was going with this.

“They know the dead are immune now though, right? So why can’t they know I know?” he asked, confused. Angus was looking at him now like he was missing a really obvious point.

“I never told them you’re dead dad,” he said.

“Oh,” Kravitz said, and he suppose it was obvious when he said it.

“I mean, it’s not that I didn’t want to!” Angus was suddenly insisting, and Kravitz wondered what his face had looked like at that moment. Maybe a little hurt, although there wasn’t any reason to be. “It’s just- that’s what you and the Raven Queen always say to do, right? I really do think they’re all good people, but you’re always saying that I should be careful about that stuff, right? If people who don’t like the Raven Queen found out then they might try to hurt me,” he said, and Kravitz quickly nodded.

“Right. No, no Angus you’re right, that was very good thinking on your part. The Raven Queen- I have a lot of enemies. I’d never forgive myself if one of them decided to target you because of it,” he relented. It was true, and it was good that Angus took him seriously when he warned him against those sorts of things.

“So… you haven’t mentioned me at all?” he asked, and Angus shook his head.

“No, that’s not- I told them I have a dad, of course. They wanted to be sure they weren’t kidnapping me,” he explained, and Kravitz chuckled some at that. At least the people there seemed to realize how unusual it was to hire a child like they had. “The director said we couldn’t just inoculate my whole family though. I think most of the people there have family who don’t know what they actually do for work,” Angus continued to explain, and reluctantly Kravitz nodded.

“I suppose that makes sense. It certainly must be pretty high security if they’ve managed to keep everything about that war a secret for so long now,” he said. Kravitz couldn’t say he was very happy about this, even though it was reasonable enough.

“I promise I’ll tell you if anything bad happens,” Angus said, clearly sensing his continued unease. Kravitz sighed, wrapping an arm around him and pulled him into a small hug.

“I know you will. But I’m your dad, so I’m gonna worry anyway,” he said. Angus laughed again at that, relaxing against him and unsuccessfully trying to muffle a yawn.

“That’s dumb. You shouldn’t worry unless you have to,” he said.

“I’m your dad, it’s my job to be dumb,” Kravitz insisted.

“Okay, that’s true,” Angus said, and this time Kravitz let out a snort of laughter.

“So how was the rest of your day? You said they had a really big library huh?” he asked, and he wasn’t surprised when he felt Angus perk up a bit at that question.

“Oh yeah! It was great. It’s this huge library, and most of it is on- is about the relics, and ways to try and track em, and things like that. They got other stuff too though, it was too much for me to get a good look at it all,” Angus said. Kravitz nodded along, genuinely pretty interested to hear about this. Not just because he wanted to know more about what Angus was up to and that he was safe, but also because it was a thing that had always bothered him. It was nice to finally have some answers.

“You said they’ve found two of the relics already, right?” he asked, and Angus nodded.

“Yeah, the gauntlet and the oculus. I don’t know if they’re close to finding another one yet. The director told me to get familiar with the library today,” he explained. Kravitz really did want to meet this director person, for multiple reasons. Many of those reasons had to do with wanting to make sure of Angus’s safety. Some of them didn’t though.

He wondered what kind of person would bring an actual child into their strange moon cult, even knowing how competent Angus was. Another part of him appreciated the fact that she let him take his time and explore the library to his heart’s content before trying to get him into any actual work. He also wondered how’d she’d managed to accomplish all of this, it was certainly impressive.

“So, were you able to learn anything interesting?” Kravitz asked, and Angus shrugged.

“Not really, at least, nothing too in depth. A lot of it was just some more details on the stuff they explained when I joined. And things you’ve tried to tell me too I guess,” Angus said, seeming to still think over the question some. “Do you know anything about the people who created the relics?” he asked, and Kravitz shook his head.

“I don’t. I hadn’t been paying much attention outside of the necromantic circles for a while I suppose. By the time we noticed what was going on the war for the items had already started kicking into full swing,” Kravitz told him. Angus didn’t seem too surprised by that.

“Apparently they were called Red Robes. I wasn’t able to find much on them, but it is a huge library and I was only looking for a day, so that’ll probably change. The Director said they were a bunch of super powerful wizards and warlocks and stuff that refused to limit themselves and made the relics just to see if they could,” Angus explained, and Kravitz found himself frowning at that. Not because of Angus or the explanation, as far as he was concerned, that all made sense from what he’d seen.

“Red robes?” he asked, and Angus nodded. He didn’t seem to notice Kravitz’s curiosity at that, but that was probably because he was struggling to hide another yawn.

“Yeah, it’s- ah, they were super powerful magic users who uh, wore red robes I guess? The director said most of them got killed when everyone started going after the relics though,” he said.

“Most of them,” Kravitz muttered. His mind was churning now, and it would have been so much easier to determine a time line if he hadn’t taken such a long break in reaping to raise Angus. He didn’t regret that in the slightest of course, but he couldn’t be too sure now.

“Dad? Everything okay?” Angus asked, looking up at him with confusion.

“Everything’s fine sweetheart,” Kravitz insisted, leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to the top of Angus’s head. “It looks like you’ve had quite a long day of research though. I’d say it’s high time someone headed off to bed,” he said. Angus looked like he was about to protest, but when he opened his mouth to speak he was cut off by a yawn. His expression afterwards was an extremely offended one, and it was very difficult for Kravitz to keep from laughing.

“Ugh,” Angus muttered, and Kravitz chuckled a bit at that. “Yeah okay, I guess that might be a good idea,” he relented. Kravitz lifted his arm up so that Angus could get off of the couch, his son slowly climbing up out of the comfortable position he’d ended up curled in.

“Goodnight dad, I love you,” Angus said as he headed towards his room. Kravitz smiled softly and nodded back at him.

“I love you too Angus, goodnight,” he said. Kravitz listened as he moved around some in his room getting ready to sleep, until a few minutes later it was quiet and he could tell that Angus had drifted off.

There were still so many things about this that Kravitz was unsure of. He just wished he could have some more information concerning everything his son had gotten himself tangled up in. The last thing Kravitz wanted was for him to end up getting hurt because he hadn’t been there to help when he needed him.

Angus didn’t want him jeopardizing his position in this new group of his, or accidentally revealing himself. They were reasonable concerns, as much as Kravitz wanted to ignore them and storm in there to get a look for himself.

They weren’t the only people in existence who knew about this war and the relics it had centered around though. As hard as they tried to be absolute in their redaction, the undead had slipped through their efforts, as the undead often do.

And Kravitz might have just discovered a new place to get information. The source of it.

The only problem would be finding the bastard. Queen knew he’d already had enough trouble tracking one Barry J Bluejeans.

Chapter Text

It had been a while since Kravitz had spent what could be considered his free time on extra work. It used to be something he would do quite frequently and regularly, to the point where it was kind of hard to distinguish his free time from work. Ever since Angus had come into the picture though Kravitz had kind of kicked that habit. Especially once he had started reaping again, he wanted to spend the time he wasn’t with his son.

Angus had started getting older though, and Kravitz supposed that meant he had more free time again while he was off doing his own thing. Particularly, while he was off at this strange moon base of his.

He didn’t spend all his time there, but there was starting to be a pattern now at least. Once or twice a week, usually twice a week, Angus would tell him that he was going to the moon for the day. The first couple of times Angus would call and let him know that he was going to end up eating dinner there. After a bit, he’d just tell Kravitz as he headed out that he wouldn’t be back until eight or nine and not to worry about food.

Kravitz really was trying not to worry. It was definitely something he wasn’t used to, especially after ten years with Angus. He’d gotten a lot of practice at worrying in during that time, Angus was very good at finding reasons for him to worry.

He trusted Angus to tell him if he ever got in over his head, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d spent so long without caring about anyone in that way. Of course, he felt pity for those innocents he’d find wrapped up in necromancer’s schemes, and he had his quite literally undying loyalty to the Raven Queen.

Neither of those were quite the same as the way he cared about Angus. There wasn't anything else like the fear that would run through Kravitz at the idea of something happening to him.

And Angus continued to insist that everything was fine. As far as Kravitz could tell, he wasn’t saying that just to get him to relax either. He always seemed genuinely excited when going to spend time at the Bureau, as he called it. He’d come home and be delighted as he explained the latest method they were using to track the relics and how he was helping with the research. And it really was nice, seeing Angus so excited and passionate about this.

It helped, and as time went on and things continued to be okay, that helped too.

But Kravitz was still worried. He just wanted to have a better idea of what exactly Angus was getting himself into. He’d seen the destruction those relics could cause first hand after all, and Angus ending up in a similar situation as his parents was the last thing Kravitz was ever going to let happen.

He wasn’t going to show up on the moon and start demanding answers, as much as he wanted to. It would certainly be the easiest solution, but he didn’t want to upset Angus. Kravitz didn’t want him feeling like he was going behind his back to look into these things either though. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Angus, he just wanted to keep him safe.

Kravitz had decided that this wasn’t going behind his back, not really. After all, he hadn’t known that this particular bounty had any connection to all of this relic junk until Angus had said something. He still didn’t know for sure, it could be a coincidence.

If it ended up not being one, and he found out anything useful Kravitz would tell Angus about it in a heartbeat. Until then though he didn’t want to get his hopes up on what was possibly a false lead.

Especially when this lead wasn’t exactly an easy one to find.

Kravitz supposed it’d been about a month since Angus had first joined up with those folks on the moon. They’d yet to find another one of those relics, but Angus said that apparently it took a while to track those things down. In order to keep them from being used, they had to be so thoroughly wiped from the world’s mind that they wouldn’t surface very often anymore. When they did, no one could really explain exactly what they were dealing with either.

Honestly, the longer they took to find another one the better in Kravitz’s opinion. He wanted to have time to work through his suspicions before Angus was dealing with one of those objects.

Unfortunately, if he was correct, then one Barry Bluejeans was almost as hard to find as the items he created.

Part of that might have been because Kravitz was only really able to look when Angus was off on the moon. Sure, he was a lich with an incredibly high death count, but it seemed he'd been deemed a 'non urgent' matter. For the unlife of him, Kravitz didn't know why, but he supposed in all his searching he hadn't seen anything to suggest he was actively causing more harm.

Still, Kravitz knew that this lich was out there somewhere. None of the other reapers had caught him yet, and Kravitz  very distinctly remembered running into him once or twice after getting back on the job. He’d always stuck out as so odd, which was why that particular lich had jumped to his mind so readily when Angus spoke about a ‘Red Robe.’

He’d been almost frighteningly competent and sound of mind, more so than the vast majority of liches Kravitz dealt with. He could admit that his underestimating of this lich was part of the reason he’d managed to escape so handily.

There’d been next to nothing lately though. Kravitz figured the lich had to of been holed up somewhere nice to be able to evade their search so thoroughly. The question as to that was why though? Kravitz had yet to meet a lich that didn’t have some sort of nefarious plan up its sleeves.

He was running out of time too. Angus had been excited for the past week or so. Apparently they were finally starting to hone in on one of the relics. He’d been going to the moon almost every day this week because of it, which admittedly did give Kravitz more time to look. Not that any of it was very fruitful.

Then today, about an hour after Angus had left for the moon Kravitz felt his stone of farspeech begin to buzz.

“Angus, is everything okay?” he asked, answering it immediately. He didn’t have to check who was calling, Angus was the only one who had this frequency.

“We found one!” Angus’s voice came over the stone, and Kravitz could tell it was taking all of the boy’s self control not to shout.

“You what?” he asked, not sure if he should be excited or panicked. Both. Definitely both.

“We found a relic! One of the leads we were looking into turned out to be right and so now we’re going after the gaia sash. It’s like this belt that lets you control nature and things like that,” Angus explained, and Kravitz realized despite how excited he was he was also trying his best to whisper. Which right, he wasn’t technically supposed to be able to talk to him about these things. Not that there was anything those people could do about it if they did find out he could understand it all.

“Are you- do you have the relic now?” he asked, afraid he might have to rush in there and get Angus out. He didn’t trust anyone with those items, even if they said they’d already destroyed some, he didn’t particularly want Angus in the same place as any.

“No, not yet. We just sent the reclaimers down to get it,” he said, and Kravitz calmed down slightly at that.

“Right, the reclaimers. The uh, the folks that you met on the train? The ones who had you jump off of it while it was still moving, correct?” he asked, maybe sounding a little more displeased than he meant to. Angus didn’t mention them much, but whenever he did he said nothing but good things about them.

They had thrown a child off of a moving train though, so Kravitz wasn’t too sure how much he liked that group.

“Yes, but it was- the train was gonna crash, it was fine,” Angus insisted. This was not the first time they’d had this conversation.

“Alright, alright,” Kravitz relented, a smile starting to tug at his lips for a moment. It didn’t last for long though, the reality of the situation at hand coming back quickly. “Angus it’s… please be careful. Get out of there and call me the second it looks like something might go wrong with the relic involved,” he said. He could imagine Angus nodding seriously on the other end of the line, probably hidden in the room the Director had gave him so that no one would overhear this conversation.

“I will, I promise,” Angus said, and Kravitz relaxed some at that. “I uh, I did want to ask you something though,” he added, and there went that sense of ease. That tone of voice was not one Kravitz was a huge fan of.

“And what’s that?” he asked.

“Can I please spend the night here?” he asked, the question coming out so fast it took Kravitz a moment to parse it. When he did he couldn’t help but frown.

“Angus, dear, I don’t-” he started, not too surprised when Angus cut him off.

“Pleeeease dad? I promise I’ll still make sure to call you if anything goes wrong and I’ll make sure to sleep but I want to be here in case they don’t get it right away and need my help. Just one night, I promise if they don’t get it tomorrow I’ll come right home,” Angus pleaded, and Kravitz let out a long sigh.

“Are you sure you want to stay Angus? You’ve never spent a night away before, you won’t get homesick?” he asked.

“What? That’s not- I’m not a baby dad,” Angus said, sounding extremely indignant at the suggestion.

“I know, I know,” Kravitz said, unable to keep himself from laughing slightly. He knew Angus was getting older, but Kravitz was ancient and it was hard not to see ten years old as barely a drop in the bucket. “Just remember, if you do end up wanting to come home, for any reason, call and let me know, alright?” he said sincerely.

“Does that mean I’m allowed to stay the night?” Angus asked, his voice full of hope. Kravitz let out a long sigh, running a hand down his face.

“Yes, one night. Understand? And I want you to call me as soon as you’ve destroyed the relic so I know you’re safe. And don’t get near it,” Kravitz said, and he knew he was saying stuff Angus already knew. He felt like he was allowed to be a little nervous considering what he was working with though.

“Yes! Thank you! I promise I’ll be careful,” Angus said, clearly ecstatic about this. Despite Kravitz’s worry it was infectious, and he found himself smiling a bit once again.

“I know you will be,” Kravitz said, and it was true. Angus was a smart kid, he wouldn’t do anything to put his life in danger. He’d be fine, even when Kravitz wasn’t there, he had the Raven Queen watching out for him.

“See you tomorrow dad, I love you,” Angus said, and Kravitz could tell he was still beaming from being allowed to stay the night on his odd moonbase.

“Goodnight Angus, I love you too,” Kravitz said before disconnecting the stone of farspeech.

Well, as nervous as he was about all of this, it did help him out in one regard. He now had all night to look for this lich, instead of only a few hours. He wasn’t sure how fruitful it would be, but with them so close to gathering another relic it certainly wouldn’t hurt to give it one more try.

Kravitz honestly wasn’t expecting much out of it. He’d been looking for so long after all, and so far nothing. He wasn’t sure what his chances were this one night.

Most of the night went as Kravitz had expected, no sign of the lich. No updates from Angus either. Hopefully that was a good thing. No news is good news, that sort of thing.

The sun was starting to rise now, and Kravitz was wondering how long he should push it before heading back home. If he had to bet anything he’d say that Angus hadn’t gone to bed on time last night, so he probably wouldn’t be awake yet. Of course, Kravitz had no way of knowing when the ‘reclaimers’ would come back with the relic either. If they came back with the relic.

There was a very real chance that they would die when dealing with those things. If that happened he should try to be home as well. Sure, Angus was far more familiar with death and it’s necessity in the world than most children his age, but he’d never lost anyone he’d cared about before. He seemed quite fond of those three, despite Kravitz’s reservations.

Kravitz was about to give himself just one more hour of looking when he felt something. Something he’d been trying to pick up for weeks now. It was far away, but Kravitz could get a direction. Using that, he set out to track it, trying to be fast. He couldn’t say for sure why this lich would be out of whatever hiding place he’d been in all of this time now, but he had a pretty good guess.

It certainly supported his theory that the scarily powerful lich in a bright red robe that seemed to appear sometime after those terrible wars had ended was the red robe Angus had been talking about.

Kravitz wasn’t happy with how close to a major city they ended up being. It was always so much easier when liches were off in their remote caves and abandoned ruins, as cliche as those places were. They meant for less chance of collateral damage.

Still, Kravitz supposed he was lucky, at least for now. The lich wasn’t actually in the city yet, but waiting out in the desert. He was at the bottom of the huge cliff that Kravitz was pretty sure the city was still named after. Places changed names so frequently, but he was at least trying to keep them straight lately. With how much Angus had taken to traveling around, he wanted to have some idea of where the boy was at any given time.

As Kravitz got closer, it was hard to tell if the lich had noticed him yet. He didn’t seem to be doing anything though, just a phantasmal coat’s best impression of sitting on the rocks at the edge of one of the waterfalls that rained down around them.

He supposed his hope of being able to sneak up on something so powerful was a fool’s dream. It wasn’t long before the lich lifted up from the rock it was sitting on, sudden and jerky as he looked around. Almost immediately its gaze fell on Kravitz, already in his full reaper form, scythe in hand.

“Do you have any idea how difficult you are to track my man?” Kravitz asked, and normally he didn’t bother speaking to the bounties as dangerous and high up as this one. But considering the reason he’d been working so hard to find this lich outside of work was because of information well, talking was inevitable.

“Aw, shit,” the lich said, his voice so much more human than Kravitz was used to. “Sorry bud, normally I’d just run, but today’s kinda- I’ve got stuff I need to do here,” he said. Kravitz would have frowned if he had a flesh face, not used to liches apologizing.

“Hey man, no no I get it. Totally, by all means don’t let me stop you. We all get busy from time to time, don’t we? It's completely understandable. Need to get that relic huh, what’s it? Some sort of nature belt? I see no reason for something as inconsequential as death to get in the way of that,” he said, falling into his fake accent and maybe laying on the sarcasm a little thick. It wasn’t like he owed this man any sort of kindness.

“Wait- how did-” the lich asked, clearly surprised at being called out. Then his form seemed to slump some, and he laughed. It wasn’t the crazed, maniacal laugh liches consumed by their own power had. It sounded tired and a little broken. “Gotta say I’m kinda surprised. Didn’t expect word to have spread like that all the way to the astral plane,” he said.

“So that is why you’re here?” Kravitz asked, and it was frighteningly easy to have this conversation. This lich didn’t seem very inclined to want to attack him, had admitted to wanting to run away even.

“What is?” he asked, like he wasn’t sure what Kravitz was talking about. Maybe he wasn’t. As sound of mind as he seemed to be, he was still a lich. Kravitz could see the signs that his mind had at least been somewhat cracked. A slight jerkiness to the way he spoke, the occasional blast of arcane energy coming off of his form.

“The relic. You’re here to get it for yourself,” Kravitz said, like it was obvious. In his opinion, knowing that this person had apparently helped in making them, it was.

“Oh, that. No,” the lich said, like it was equally obvious. It was probably a lie, but his voice was so blunt that it actually gave Kravitz pause.

“That’s- you’re not?” he asked, feeling dumb even as he said it.

“Nah,” the lich said simply.

“But… you are the ones who created them, correct?” he asked, because it was probably best to double check there. He could always lie, but he almost seemed to have forgotten that that’s an option.

“Yeah, that one’s on us,” he said, and Kravitz was used to those evil undead forces using every scheme in the book to try and get out of punishment. He’d seen it all, even these responses weren’t entirely unheard of, even if they were usually from necromancers not quite as far gone as to already be a lich.

So, it was probably all an act. That didn’t change how genuine the sorrow and regret in his voice at that moment had sounded.

“Well, if that’s not why you’re here then wh-” Kravitz had started to ask. He was feeling a lot less inclined to stand and listen to this guy. He didn’t know what game he was playing but it was clearly a dangerous one. The more he spoke the more Kravitz wanted to lock him up in the stockade where someone so powerful and manipulative wouldn’t be a danger anymore. He just needed to get as much information as he could first. He really wasn’t planning on speaking for much longer.

Before he could finish his question though, something passed overhead. Kravitz usually wasn’t one to be easily distracted when dealing with someone so dangerous, but he could hear shouting, and then the wind started kicking up in a very unnatural way.

“Shit. Shit. Hey bud, I’m wicked sorry about this,” the lich said. It was still strange to hear a lich apologizing for anything, but Kravitz recognized that sort of apology.

He was a moment too late, the wind buffeting them from the apparent tornado forming doing nothing to help him dodge. He felt himself get hit full force with a powerful prismatic spray, a blast of acid followed by lightning knocking him to his knees. It wasn’t enough to take him out, but it left him stunned long enough for the lich’s power word kill to finish the job.

Reduced back to the ball of light that was his soul, Kravitz quickly opened a small rift back to the astral plane. It wouldn’t take him too long to reform a new construct, maybe a few hours at most. That attack had done a number on him though, it wasn’t as rough when he retreated back to his soul voluntarily, although even that was a rare occurrence.

Dear Queen, Kravitz just hoped that he managed to piece himself back together before Angus got home. The last thing he wanted to do was worrying him like this.

And he’d been worried about Angus getting in over his head.  

Chapter Text

Angus was so excited. He knew things hadn’t gone perfectly, they lost Captain Captain Bane, which had upset the director. The person who’d been using the relic and her partner ended up turning into a tree too, which all three of the reclaimers seemed sadder about than they were willing to admit.

They did it though. They got the relic and destroyed it and Angus wasn’t sure how much help he was but watching the battle wagon race was one of the most exciting things he’d ever seen.

“That was so awesome madame director, maybe even more exciting than when I was actually on the train with a relic,” he said. He was still grinning about the whole thing, despite the somewhat sour dip in mood the director had. Her smile was a little forced and somber as she nodded, but Angus could tell there was still some genuine happiness there. Definitely a little bit of relief as well.

She’d just gotten finished talking to the reclaimers in her office privately. Angus assumed about Captain Bane, since she sent the three of them down with his rights of remembrance right afterwards. She’d been unhappy when they went in, and seemed somber and concerned when they came back out. There were a lot of things that could cause that though, he couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly.

“They certainly know how to make something entertaining, don’t they?” she said, and Angus nodded. He let his wide grin dip some, trying to look a little more comforting. He knew a part of his dad’s job was helping people accept death as a natural and necessary thing, but Angus had never dealt much with that before.

“Madame Director, I’m really sorry about Captain Bane. I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted to hurt you guys because the sash took over his mind though,” he said. The director smiled softly at him and it looked a little less forced this time.

“That’s true, you’re right Angus,” she said, and she didn’t seem quite as upset as she had before. “You really are quite the intelligent boy, aren’t you?” she added, and Angus felt himself beam at the praise.

“Yeah, my dad says-” he started, but he wasn’t able to finish that thought, his smile dropping completely now. “Oh no, my dad. He uh, he was nervous about me staying out for the night and wanted me home as soon as possible. I’m really sorry madame director but I need to go,” he said. He meant to call his dad when he woke up this morning, but before he got a chance someone had come by his room and said the reclaimers were doing a race for the relic. He’d gotten so caught up in everything after that he’d completely forgotten.

Hopefully his dad wouldn’t be too upset with him.

“That’s quite all right Angus. We got a lot of very good work done today, you should go home and rest,” the Director reassured him. Angus smiled gratefully, and since it was only them and Davenport in the office he opened up a portal to his room right there.

“Thanks madame director! See you later!” he said, hopping through the portal and closing it behind him. Angus knew his dad was probably going to be worried, but it was still super early in the day. So hopefully it wouldn’t be that bad, he wouldn’t say he was running late to come home. The race had started only a little after sunrise after all.

“Dad! Dad I’m sorry I didn’t call before but you’ll never believe how cool it was! We destroyed the relic and there was a battle wagon race and I got to watch it and it was- it uh, dad?” Angus had come out of his room excited and talking a mile a minute about everything that happened, but that quickly tapered off as he stood in the empty living room.

It wasn’t completely unheard of for Angus to come back and his dad to be out. Usually he warned him if he had to go reaping, but sometimes it was urgent and he didn’t get a chance.

It seemed weird that he wouldn’t say something this time though, with how nervous he was about Angus spending the night at the Bureau. Still, it was what he figured had happened, since he couldn’t think of any other reason why his dad wouldn’t be home waiting for him. Maybe he figured Angus would be back later than he actually was or something.

Disappointed, Angus had started heading back to his room to grab a book or something to occupy his time until his dad got back. Before he got there though a ball of light came shooting out of his dad’s room without warning.

It stopped directly in front of Angus, hovering and bobbing there for a moment like it was looking him over. Angus had seen these before, of course he had.

Countless souls, all endlessly swirling through the astral sea. This was a soul, a person.

“Dad?” he asked cautiously, not sure if he was talking to the soul or still calling for him hoping he’d show up and explain what was going on. There shouldn’t be a soul outside of the sea, especially not one floating in their house. In response, the soul swirled lazily around him, stopping directly in front of him once again.

Angus could feel himself start to panic as realization drew on him. There was no way to differentiate the souls, not by sight at least. Despite that he could feel it, with ever increasing certainty. He didn't know how but he knew this was his dad's soul.

“D-dad? Dad what happened? Why are you- what-” he stuttered, reaching out cautiously to touch the soul. He didn’t move away when he did, and it felt like this fingers were buzzing when he brushed up against it.

There wasn’t any sort of response from his dad, and Angus was trying very hard to stay calm. He could feel himself not doing a very good job of that, his mind rapidly getting away from him as he tried to figure out what was going on. Why was his dad just a soul now? This never happened before, and he wasn’t saying anything and tears were starting to prick at the corners of his eyes.

“No, oh no, no, no,” he said, and his dad’s soul was sort of brushing up against him now, like it was trying to comfort him. He probably was, which was only making Angus more upset. “No, no it’s okay. It’s- I promise it’s gonna be okay dad. I’ll fix this, I’ll get the Raven Queen to fix you,” he said, quickly grabbing the soul and holding it close.

Opening a portal, Angus ran straight into the Raven Queen’s chamber. He’d been in here plenty of times both with and without his dad. He’d never come here on his own before, and he’d certainly never barged right in.

He wasn’t on his own though. His dad was right here but there was something wrong with him.

“My Queen!” he shouted, even though he knew her attention had been on him from the moment he opened the portal.

“I don’t- I don’t know what happened. I came home and he was just like this and he won’t say anything! Please, you can fix him can’t you? Y-you won’t make him go into the sea with everyone else, right? You’re not gonna make him leave, are you?” Angus managed to ask between his panic and tears. His first instinct had been to come here for her help, but now that he was here terror was slowly starting to grip him.

His dad was always telling him that he had to try and be respectful in front of the Raven Queen. She was a goddess, and while of course he should be himself in front of her he needed to remember that fact.

Right now though he couldn’t stop crying and clinging to his dad’s soul like he was afraid she would take him away. He was afraid that she would take him away. That’s what happened to souls when they died, they returned to the Raven Queen.

But his dad was already dead and so it wasn’t supposed to be like that. He was supposed to always be there.

But she was the one he needed to go to if anything was ever wrong and his dad wasn’t there. She was the only one he knew who could help. She wouldn’t just take his dad away like that. She wouldn’t.

Angus tried to fight back another hiccuping sob as the Raven Queen was suddenly in front of him. He didn’t pull away any as she leaned down, brushing away his tears with hands like talons. He’d never been afraid of them cutting him accidentally, and despite how scared he was now it still didn’t give him any pause.

“There is no need to be afraid, my dear,” The Raven Queen said, her voice echoing around them already managing to bring Angus some comfort.

“So- so you can fix him? You won’t make him leave?” he asked, that worry still sitting deep and heavy in his chest. He could feel the Raven Queen’s amusement at the question. It was almost like being able to tell she was smiling, despite the fact that her face was mostly bird and hard to focus on at the moment.  That might not have been entirely from the whole god thing though. Some of that was probably due to the tears clouding his vision.

“There’s nothing to fix. He’s taken some damage, allowed himself to get distracted it seems. Give him some time and he shall be back to himself,” she explained. Angus let out a deep sigh of relief hearing that, the raw panic at the thought of losing his dad easing away some. It wasn’t completely gone, but the Raven Queen wouldn’t lie, especially not about something like this.

He loosened his grip on his dad's soul some, not holding him quite as tight to his chest as he had before. He remembered when he was little his dad had kept him from touching the souls in the sea, but it didn’t seem to hurt him any. His dad’s soul still stayed settled in his arms even, and Angus was kind of grateful for that.

He wasn’t terrified of having him ripped away from him anymore, but Angus would still like to keep him close for the moment.

“I’m sorry for panicking and- and freaking out over nothing and taking up your time. I just, I thought something was seriously wrong and I had no idea what happened,” he apologized, feeling ridiculous and embarrassed now. He didn’t know why he was still struggling to hold back tears when he knew everything was going to be fine.

“There is no need to apologize my dear Angus. You may always seek me out when you are in need,” the Raven Queen reassured, brushing some hair out of his eyes and readjusting his hat before pulling back some. Angus smiled a bit shakily at her and nodded. He already knew that, of course he did. But still, he supposed it was nice having it said again.

“Thank you,” he said, looking down at the soul still resting in his arms. He had no idea how long it would be until his dad woke up, or put himself back together, or whatever it was exactly that he was doing like this.

She’d said he’d taken damage. Angus knew his dad’s reaper missions were dangerous, and that sometimes he got hurt during them. He’d never seen him reduced to just his soul and nothing else before though.

Whatever he’d been fighting must’ve been terrifying.

“Would you like to stay here until he reforms?” the Raven Queen asked, breaking Angus out of his thoughts. Angus paused, considering the question before answering.

“I um, I think I’d like to wait for him at home actually,” he said after a moment. He’d gotten annoyed at his dad last night for asking if he was going to be homesick of all things while they were in the middle of reclaiming a relic. He wasn’t a baby anymore, he could stand to be away from home for one night.

Right now though he really wanted to be home. Preferably with his dad, but he might have to wait a bit for that part.

“Of course,” the Raven Queen said, not sounding surprised by that, and she probably wasn’t. Angus was pretty sure she could read minds along with seeing into people’s souls and things like that. With a wave of something that might’ve been a hand, might have been a wing, another portal opened up leading back to their living room.

“Thank you my Queen,” Angus said, bowing slightly before heading over to the portal. Once again he could feel more than see a smiling form on her face, like he could sense the whole of the astral plane shifting the slightest bit with her mood.

“You’re quite welcome, my Angus,” she said, and then her gaze dipped down to the soul still held in his arms. “And do not worry, he shall be back soon,” she added, and Angus nodded.

Then the portal closed behind him and Angus immediately went and collapsed down in a heap on the couch. Rolling onto his back, he let his arms fall back so that the ball of light was resting on his chest. He’d almost stopped noticing the weird tingling sensation he got wherever he touched the soul, and he couldn’t tell if it was warm or cold. It felt like a bizarre mix of both, which he supposed was kind of fitting.

“And you’re always telling me not to do stupid things and get myself hurt,” he pouted. In response, his dad’s soul knocking his hat out of place before settling back down on his chest. Angus giggled shakily, attempting to put his hat back in place for a moment before giving up and taking it off. He put it down on the coffee table, keeping the feather held in his hand.

“How long are you gonna stay like that? The Raven Queen said you’d be back to normal soon,” he asked, feeling a little bad about complaining. His dad was stuck like this because he got hurt, he doubted it was very comfortable for him.

His dad’s soul was silent still. The only response he got was from himself, a large yawn Angus wasn’t quite able to smother.

He hadn’t been able to sleep too much last night. He’d blamed it all on his nerves and excitement about helping to gather a relic. Those had definitely been the things at the forefront of his mind at the time.

Maybe there was a small part of him that had been a little bit homesick too.

Gathering up his feather and his dad’s soul, Angus headed into his dad’s room. They changed up the other parts of the house however they needed, or sometimes just because they felt like it. His dad’s room had always been a pretty even constant though, he got the feeling he liked the dependability of it. Or it was weird for him to change after having it the same for so long.

Climbing into the bed, the soul seemed pretty content to rest on one of the many pillows. Angus curled up with his own pillows and blankets, and he knew his dad was still there with him but he really wished he’d go back to normal soon.

“Soon as you’re you again… I need to tell you all about… how we got the sash… it was cool,” Angus muttered, quickly falling asleep.

—

He’d fucked up.

Of course, Kravitz was well aware of that when he allowed that lich to get the drop on him. To kill him so thoroughly that he wouldn’t be reforming a construct for a good couple of hours. It’d been so long since he’d been reduced to a soul so suddenly against his will. Normally had had a chance to retreat, to regroup and build himself back in a matter of minutes instead. This time though, he needed to wait, to rest and recover.

He’d never been stuck like that in front of Angus before. He’d certainly never even appeared as only a soul in front of him. The times when he took that form, they were always in the middle of his work. The rough, dangerous parts of his job that he tried so hard to keep Angus away from. Of course he’d never appeared like that before him.

He shouldn’t have this time either. He should have stayed hidden, let Angus think he was simply out on a job and only appear once he was reformed.

Kravitz had been so worried about Angus though. Had been so relieved when he’d heard him excitedly burst in, talking about reclaiming the relic. Kravitz didn’t think, he used what little strength he’d managed to work up to rush to Angus, to check that he was okay.

He was fine.

Or at least, he had been fine, before he saw Kravitz. Kravitz could see, could feel him panicking, and he’d tried to reassure him as best as he could in this state. It clearly hadn’t done much, and he couldn’t even speak like this, not without possessing something. He didn’t even have the energy for that.

The Raven Queen had comforted him, managed to explain the situation and quell his fears. A part of Kravitz was relieved that the first thing Angus had done when scared and without him was go to her. There wasn’t a single place or being that Kravitz would feel safer leaving Angus.

A bigger part of him though was angry at himself that Angus had to go to her at all. That he couldn’t just comfort his son himself.

He’d never even considered Angus being afraid of losing him. He kind of doubted Angus had considered it either, before that moment. There was no reason to be afraid of something like that after all, Kravitz was death.

It was maybe an hour after they’d gotten back that Kravitz was finally able to rebuild his construct. He did so immediately, even though Angus was still asleep. It didn’t matter, Kravitz was impatient and he wanted to be himself for when he woke up.

Once he had a body again Kravitz very carefully moved Angus into his lap, not wanting to wake him up just yet. He’d seemed exhausted after all of that, and Kravitz figured he was right about him not getting much sleep.

He supposed he could have played it safe and not moved him at all. After having to watch him crying like that without being able to do anything though, Kravitz wanted to hold his son for a bit.

He wasn’t sure how much longer Angus slept for, he wasn’t particularly worried about the time right now. He was content to sit with his back up against the headboard, carding his fingers through Angus’s hair. It felt like it had been a long time when Angus finally started stirring, but that might have been Kravitz’s own impatience.

“Hmm, dad?” Angus mumbled, leaning into his hand some as Kravitz ran it through his hair once again. He still seemed groggy and half asleep, it was a good possibility that he hadn’t remembered everything that had happened yet.

“Angus, I am so sorry,” Kravitz said softly, the words not feeling like a good enough apology. Still, he needed to say them. It seemed to wake him up fully, Angus jolting under his touch and scrambling to sit up.

“Dad! You’re back!” he said, his relief obvious. There was also the slightest bit of surprise in his voice, which hurt. The idea that Angus had even subconsciously worried that Kravitz had left him and wasn't coming back felt like a knife in his chest.

“I am. I’m so sorry for worrying you like that Angus,” Kravitz repeated, because it was true and he needed him to know that. Angus started rubbing at his eyes, and it looked like he was trying to pass it off as being sleepy. Kravitz could see his eyes watering as he struggled to hold back tears though. His body was a construct, he’d just been rather painfully reminded of that fact. He still felt his heart fucking break at the sight.

“I wasn’t- I wasn’t worried once the Raven Queen said you’d be back,” Angus insisted. Kravitz smiled at that, nodding encouragingly.

“I know you weren’t,” he said, letting Angus put on a brave face about this. “But I shouldn’t have ever scared you like that to begin with,” he added, his voice serious.

“It wasn’t your fault though. You got hurt,” Angus said. Kravitz sighed and nodded, despite how frustrated he was that that had even happened to begin with. He should have known better than to drop his guard around such a powerful lich, no matter how friendly it was playing at being. He should have explained to Angus ages ago what happened when he was damaged enough to 'die.' He hadn’t thought it would happen though, he’d been over confident. Cocky.

Those weren’t things to drag out in front of Angus though. Especially not right now when he was still obviously upset, despite how hard he was trying to hide it.

“I know, come here,” he said instead, holding his arms out somewhat. Immediately Angus collapsed against him in a hug, Kravitz quickly wrapping him up. He could feel Angus shaking against him and he started saying as many soft assurances as he could think of as he rubbed at his back.

“I thought they were gonna stick you in the sea with everyone else,” Angus muttered into his chest after a bit.

“I heard. Angus, I promise as long as the astral plane exists I won’t ever leave you,” Kravitz said, confident at least that he could keep that promise. “Sometimes I just get stupid, and let a powerful lich hit me with a power word kill. It won’t ever be enough to keep me down for good though,” he added, fluffing Angus’s hair some.

That tidbit of what happened seemed to be enough to switch Angus over from upset to curious. He stayed curled up in Kravitz’s lap some, but he pulled back enough to look up at him with interest.

“You were fighting a lich?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Yes, not very well, clearly, but you could qualify it as a fight, however quick it’d been,” he said, Angus giggling a little at that. He still seemed a bit shaky, but at least he slowly seemed to be improving in mood.

“I didn’t know there were things strong enough to hurt you like that,” he muttered, letting his head flop down against Kravitz's chest. He sounded genuinely in awe of the idea. Kravitz smiled some, and he couldn’t really blame him for being surprised by that. He was pretty damn powerful.

“There are, so you can understand why I’m particular about the missions I let you join me on,” he said, and Angus nodded. It did seem like he understood a bit better now. “I made some pretty foolish mistakes on my part, I let my guard down without thinking. That’s all it took though, he’d only needed a moment,” he added.

“You need to be more careful dad,” Angus admonished, and Kravitz wasn’t able to keep himself from laughing loudly at that. He nodded when he saw Angus pouting at him in annoyance, despite the fact that the sight sent him into another small fit of laughter.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry Angus, you’re right,” he said, and he could see Angus trying to fight off a smile as well.

“You were all worried about me but we got the relic and um, okay I guess a couple people died but it still went really well despite that! And I managed to stay safe like I promised I would,” Angus said, and Kravitz nodded, smiling sheepishly now.

“That’s true. Next time I’ll take a page from your book and try to be a bit more cautious, I promise,” he said, Angus giving him a sharp nod at that.

“Good,” he said, still sounding rather put upon about the whole thing. Some of that seemed to fade some after a moment and Kravitz could see the nervous uncertainty underneath. “But- but even if you do mess up and get hurt again, it won’t ever be enough to make you gone forever?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Never. Not as long as the Raven Queen still holds power in this world,” he said, and he could see Angus relax at that.

“So, how did that relic mission go? You said you were going to tell me all about it,” Kravitz asked, figuring a change in subject was in order by this point. Angus nodded quickly, a grin starting to spread across his face.

“Right! I never got a chance to tell you! It was so cool, the reclaimers, they had to compete in a battle wagon race. Do you know what a battle wagon is? You’re really old,” Angus asked, and Kravitz let out a snort at that.

“Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I can’t keep up with the times,” he insisted. Angus stared at him expectantly for a moment. “It’s um, I’m assuming it’s a wagon you do battle with? Do battle in?” he guessed, getting a laugh out of his son. It didn’t bother him, and Kravitz listened intently as Angus began explaining what a battle wagon was and the rather convoluted way the bureau’s reclaimers had managed to secure the relic.

It matched up from what little Kravitz had seen, but he didn’t bring that part up. He’d rather Angus not know he’d gotten hurt looking into this without telling him.

So, as much as listening to Angus talk about all the dangers and excitement of the mission terrified him, worried him with the idea of Angus being so close to all of that, he didn’t comment on it. He smiled and nodded along and listened as Angus got wrapped up in the story. Until it seemed like he’d completely forgotten about how panicked he’d been only a few hours earlier.

Right now, he just wanted to see his son happy. Everything else they could deal with later.

Chapter Text

Kravitz listened intently as Angus was finally able to tell him how he had helped gather the relic. It had been much more fruitful than his own day ended up being, although he didn’t directly comment on that. Still, he told Angus how proud he was of him and how thankful he was that it had turned out for the best.

It was almost enough to make Kravitz think that maybe things would be okay with this moon base deal. As fantastical as the whole event had been, Angus hadn’t been in any direct danger. The relic was swiftly destroyed once it was on the moon, and though the methods had been unconventional, they worked .

Apparently a few people had died in the process, but Kravitz has seen what those relics could do. He was genuinely surprised that it was only a few.

It was almost enough to make him stop worrying, because Kravitz had dealt with the red robe who was very much involved with the relics . He knew he’d been powerful, but it’d been a while since he’d been up against something like him.

Honestly , Kravitz wasn’t sure if he’d ever been up against something exactly like him before. He was a lich that seemed to have a frankly terrifying amount of control over himself.

He didn’t want to image what would happen if Angus ended up getting too close to that lich. He’d obviously been in Gold Cliff for some reason relating to the relic, even if he’d insisted on not trying to take it for himself . Since the Bureau had claimed it and Angus hadn’t mentioned anything about the lich showing up, he guessed that part was at least partially true . He wasn’t sure if that meant anything good though. The only thing worse than a lich was a lich that one couldn’t predict.

Kravitz didn’t bring any of that up with Angus though, listening in fascination as he excitedly talked about his day . Maybe he would later, once he had a better handle of the situation.

As it was now he didn’t want to give him the idea to go chasing after this trail. He knew his son, and he knew that if he found out about this it would be all he wanted to investigate. So, he’d keep it to himself for now.

Once Angus finished telling him about the day Kravitz stretched, his new construct a little sore . He’d kind of rushed its formation, he could reconstruct it later tonight once Angus was asleep.

“Well, it seems like you had an extremely long day. When was the last time you ate?” he asked, and Angus frowned somewhat as he thought the question over, which told Kravitz that it had definitely been far too long .

“I had some breakfast while we were watching the race,” he said. Kravitz nodded, and Angus moved out of his lap so that he could get off the bed.

“In that case it’s definitely about time for lunch,” he said. Angus followed him out into the kitchen, and things definitely seemed to have settled now. He made Angus a sandwich and he seemed to appreciate it.

It was nice, and Kravitz figured he’d probably spend the rest of the night in with Angus. He certainly didn’t want to leave him on his own after that scare, he already felt terrible enough about it. It had been a little while since they had been able to spend some time together. Angus was very invested with all his work on the moon, and Kravitz had his own things to deal with.

So, he greatly appreciated this chance to relax some with his son. They didn’t end up talking much more about the mission to reclaim the relic, and to his surprise Angus didn’t end up asking about the job he’d been on .

Kravitz guessed it was still too fresh for him to want to talk about. He knew Angus didn’t like looking upset or afraid. Kravitz let him keep the brave face for now and avoid the subject. After all it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about at the moment either. Instead the two of them just talked about nothing in particular. There was a new Caleb Cleveland book coming out soon that Angus was excited for, things like that.

It was later than Angus usually went to bed when he finally started yawning. Kravitz supposed the nap was responsible for that, so he didn’t make too much of a fuss over it.

Angus didn’t complain any about Kravitz tucking him in tonight. Usually he’d do at least a halfhearted protest about being to old for that sort of thing now, but this time he just let Kravitz guide him to his room .

“Goodnight dad, love you,” Angus said once he was tucked into bed. Kravitz felt himself smiling softly at that before moving to turn off the lights.

“Love you too, goodnight Angus,” he said before quietly closing the door. Once he was certain that Angus was asleep Kravitz took a deep breath. Then he summoned his scythe and cut a portal open to the Raven Queen’s chambers.

“Kravitz, it is good to see you whole again,” the Raven Queen said, a hint of amusement in her voice. Kravitz supposed he’d earned that somewhat.

“My Queen, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I should not have allowed myself to be reduced to such a state,” he said, bowing as he spoke. He knew she did not mind Angus coming to her, not in the slightest, and having his form destroyed like that was only a mild inconvenience . under normal circumstances he wouldn't have come to her about it at all, and would only mention it in a report.

Still, he’d already apologized so much to Angus that he’d start getting annoyed if he did it any more. It felt only right to apologize to the other being he’d impacted with his carelessness, no matter how slightly .

“There is no need to apologize,” she said, which was unsurprising. “Your search did not end fruitfully ,” she said, and it wasn’t really a question but Kravitz nodded anyway.

“No,” he said, and then he hesitated some. “Well, I confirmed that the lich Barry Bluejeans was involved in the creation of the items that had caused the wars a decade ago,” he said, because that was good information . They didn’t strictly judge people based on their deeds in life, or at least, on the non-necromancy related deeds . But they did help to determine the course of action when dealing with someone who already had a bounty.

Death was often unfair, but they didn’t strive to be cruel. There were good people who, through good intentions or ignorance, got caught up in dealings over their heads . There could be allowances made in those circumstances. They wouldn’t have Angus now if that wasn’t the case.

In this particular case though, having a lich that had helped to cause the most devastating war Kravitz had ever witnessed , things were leaning in quite the opposite direction . The only way this could end well was with Barry Bluejeans locked in the eternal stockade.

“Thank you for confirming that my Kravitz,” the Raven Queen said. “Do try to be more cautious next time,” she added, amusement in her voice again. Kravitz knew it was fair, he deserved this.

“I will,” he said, and then he sighed. “I just wanted to make sure whatever Angus is getting himself into it wasn’t too immediately dangerous for him,” he admitted . He could feel the Raven Queen’s understanding as she nodded.

“He’s-” Kravitz started to speak, but cut himself off before he could get his full question out. ‘He’s going to be okay, right?’ It was a foolish question to ask the goddess of death. He knew that she was watching over him, that she genuinely cared for Angus. But she was still a god and she still had her duties to uphold.

“He’s fallen in with a group hoping to destroy the items that had caused the war. I don’t know if I fully trust them,” he said instead. It was the actual issue pressing on him right now.

“Angus’s destiny is tied into something great and unknown. He’ll need you with him as he works through it,” she said. Kravitz nodded, and he was familiar enough with cryptic answers from gods to be able to cut to the meaning of what she meant .

The most important thing right now was being there for Angus. He still had to let him go through with all of this, despite how many reservations Kravitz had on the subject. He just needed to be sure to be there to help him through whenever he went and got in over his head.

“Thank you my Queen,” he said with a bow. With that he could feel that he’d been dismissed , and he cut a portal open back to his home. It was just as quiet in there as when he left it, and even though he could still feel the even, slow pulse of Angus’s soul, he ended up cracking the door open the slightest bit in order to peak inside .

He was asleep still, thankfully hadn’t seemed to noticed that Kravitz had left at all. That was good, the last thing he wanted to do was give him another scare after this morning.

Closing the door just as quietly as he’d opened it, Kravitz headed into the living room and tried to find something to distract himself . He still desperately wanted to help, but for now all he could do was wait.

———

Angus had felt kind of dumb when his dad came back and it was obvious he’d freaked out over nothing. He should have been able to figure out that he wasn’t in any actual danger of having to go into the astral sea without any sort of warning like that . He was a highly skilled reaper and had been doing his job for hundreds of years. There was no reason for it to just end like that.

He guessed he had some reason to worry though. The fact that he’d been up against something so strong that it had managed to reduce him to such a state was clearly huge. Angus knew that he’d only been in his dad’s life for a pretty short amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but it was still something he’d never seen before . His dad had never thought to warn him about it, so it couldn’t be something that happened often.

That part he felt justified in worrying about.

It had been a week since all of that had happened though, and everything was fine now. It wasn’t- Angus wasn’t being clingy. He’d spent almost every day at the bureau for the week before they managed to find the relic. They’d all put a lot of work in and the Director had said that they deserved a break, so Angus was taking one. Plus, he knew his dad didn’t like him spending so much time over there anyway.

Angus knew that the only reason he hadn’t gotten grilled more thoroughly over the reclaiming mission and didn’t get in trouble for forgetting to call was because his dad had messed up even worse than he had . So he wasn’t going to push anything.

It’d been a week though, and he figured he should at least head back to the moon for a bit today to check in on everything. He didn’t want them thinking he wasn’t ready to get right back to work whenever they needed him.

“Dad! I’m going to the moon today. Probably won’t be too late but I’ll let you know if that changes!” Angus called to his dad, who was reading in the other room. He hadn’t had any bounties in the past week, and Angus wondered if he was still recovering or if it was just a coincidence.

“Alright, just call if you need anything,” his dad said. With that Angus opened up a quick portal to his room on the moon. He didn’t have a lot in there, mostly books he’d taken from the library and notes and such. There was a bed, but he’d only used it the once so far.

Heading out, Angus decided to go straight to the director’s office. He’d been gone for a while and it would be best to find out if they’d started searching for the next relic yet.

Knocking on the door to her office, the voice of the director called for him to come in. Heading in, Angus saw her perk up some in surprise at the sight of him. “Good morning Madame Director, I hope I’m not interrupting you,” he said, and she smiled and shook her head.

“Good morning Angus, you’re fine,” she said, not looking down at her desk to finish writing whatever it was she was working on and putting it aside . “I hope your father wasn’t too angry at you forgetting to call?” she asked.

“Oh no, it was fine. He actually got held up at work and was super sorry about the whole thing when he got back,” Angus said. It wasn’t totally a lie. More just like, lie adjacent. Metaphorically , he was telling the truth.

“That’s good to hear,” she said, and Angus nodded.

“Right, I wanted to apologize for not being around for the past week but I was wondering if you’ve started the search for the next relic yet,” he asked, steering the conversation away from his dad . There was no reason to linger on it. As far as anyone here knew he was just a normal guy with a normal job who was maybe a little lax about where Angus spent his time .

“We have a few seekers keeping an eye out for any signs of the relics we have records on, but unfortunately there has been no sign of any of them thus far,” she explained . That wasn’t surprising, being so soon after they had just found a relic still.

“Well, I’ll be happy to help with the search in any way I can!” Angus said, and she smiled softly at that and nodded. He sort of expected her to dismiss him at that, so he was surprised when she didn’t.

“Oh, Angus there is one thing I wanted to ask you before you go,” she said.

“Yes madame?”

“Where exactly do you live?” she asked, and Angus tried not to look too suspicious at that question. She already knew he was even stranger than most people thought he was, he’d needed to trust her with some of that information . He couldn’t trust her with everything yet though, as much as he wanted to.

“Why do you need to know that Madame Director?” he asked, which definitely wasn’t the least suspicious answer he could give. Still, he didn’t want to outright lie, especially when there was such a risk of getting caught.

“In the event of an emergency it would be good to know where you are so that we can go to you,” she said, and Angus frowned somewhat at that . It wasn’t an unreasonable excuse, but something about it still felt just like that, an excuse.

“I have a stone of farspeech that you guys can call at any time, and I can get up to the moon without any issue,” he argued. He knew the director was already aware of those things though. “Madame, why do you really want to know?”

The director stared at him for a moment, before sighing and shaking her head, a smile playing on her lips.

“You are certainly good at your job, Angus,” she said, and Angus couldn’t help but grin some at the praise. “I hope you don’t take it as too much of an invasion of privacy, but while you were gone during the week I checked in on the tracker on your bracer . It had been a while since we’d heard from you and you had left in such a hurry. I wanted to make sure everything was okay,” she began to explain. Angus felt his blood start to run cold as he realized what must have happened.

“Angus, I couldn’t find you anywhere. Of course our employees are free to have their own private lives and are by no means expected to be available at every minute of every day . The trackers are purely a protective measure against members that have gone rogue,” she continued, and Angus nodded . He knew that, but he’d still been nervous about the tracker for this very reason. “Not being able to sense you at all though is very concerning , especially since, and I mean no disrespect by this, but you’re still a child,” she finished.

“I know madame,” Angus said, trying not to comment on the fact that he did still feel a little bit of disrespect from that. It was fair enough though, he was a kid.

“I need to know where you were and how you managed to get around the tracking device Angus,” the Director said, her voice final and with little room for argument . This wasn’t going to be easy.

“I can’t tell you that Madame Director,” he replied. She didn’t seem angry by the refusal, still just very concerned.

“Why can’t you tell me?” she asked. Angus took a deep breath, trying to figure out how much he could get away with saying here and how much he could keep hidden .

“My dad… is very powerful, and he has a lot of enemies. If people knew who he was, and um, who I am, they would target me to try to get to him. Our home is blocked from any type of scrying or tracking, which is probably why your bracer didn’t work while I was there,” Angus explained . He was telling the truth, and he could almost feel the director’s eyes scanning him over trying to be sure of that.

“I suppose you won’t be able to tell me who your father is if I asked,” she said.

“His name is Kravitz. That’s actually fine I can tell you that,” Angus said. She nodded again, still clearly working this over and trying to figure out if it was enough.

“Angus, I want to be clear that you can trust us. Even if you feel that you cannot trust the bureau at large, you can trust me,” she said, and Angus really wanted to. He like the Director, there were a lot of ways that she reminded him of his dad and the Raven Queen.

She had three death criminals under her employment though, and despite how much he liked them he could not let this kind of information out knowing that .

“I’m really sorry Madame Director,” he said, and she seemed to get the picture. “I promise I can still help with the relics! Everything with my dad is separate from that, I swear. Him and my, um, my grandma have just been really really strict about this and I can’t tell you,” he added quickly, suddenly very worried.

He didn’t want this to ruin everything. He really liked it here, he wanted to keep helping. He didn’t want it to stop yet.

“You can understand why I’m hesitant to let such a security breach go on word alone, right?” she asked, and Angus nodded.

“I know,” he said, shoulders slumping slightly .

“Kravitz…” the Director muttered, like she was trying desperately to think if she’d heard the name before . “Kravitz… McDonald?” she asked, and Angus kinda shrugged.

“Something like that? I’m actually adopted, I never thought to ask if it was my my birth parent’s name or his,” he told her. She nodded, not seeming too bothered by that at first, but then something seemed to click in her brain. He wasn’t sure what, but she was looking worried and suspicious again.

“I only have one more thing to ask you Angus, and I implore that you answer it honestly ,” she said, a tension in her voice.

“I promise I will Madame,” he said, and he wanted her to believe him on that. “If um, if you know zone of truth, I’d be okay with you casting it,” he said. She nodded, and he felt the spell fall over them as she tapped her staff. He didn’t try to resist.

“Angus, is your father a lich?” she asked. Angus blinked as he processed the question, and he wasn’t able to stop the offended look of disgust on his face as he did.

“No. No! Of course not!” Angus snapped, and he didn’t mean to get angry but he didn’t know where she would even get an idea like that. He knew that she had no idea who his dad was but the thought of anyone implying he would be something like that made his lips curl . “He wouldn’t ever do something like that! He’s a good person and he- he’s not a lich!”

His fists were balled up and he could feel them shaking with anger. It was one thing to be a necromancer, or to get a bounty on your head and then turn your life around. Sometimes good people got mixed up in those sorts of things, and it was his dad’s job to sort out those good people from the bad ones .

A lich was different though. Good people don’t just become liches. They were evil, they were creatures like Vecna. His dad had just been reduced down to his very soul by a lich. He didn’t know how anyone could ever think-

“Angus,” the director cut into his thoughts, clearly surprised by the outburst and rage. It was fair, he’d only ever been polite and happy around her before, and maybe a little over excited when watching the battlewagon race . “Angus, I’m very sorry if I offended you, truly I didn’t mean to,” she said, and Angus could feel the zone of truth dropping.

“Yeah,” he muttered, and he knew he shouldn’t be pouting but he kinda was. Still, he forced himself to unball his fists and take a steadying breath. “Why did you need to know that?” he asked, because he felt like he deserved to know that at least.

“It’s- and I promise Angus I mean no disrespect towards your father, but since I cannot know his identity I had to be sure he wasn’t… someone else, and lying to you about his name,” she said, and Angus bit down the urge to snap that his dad wasn’t lying about his name .

“It’s his real name,” he still ended up grumbling, and she nodded.

“I’m sure it is, but I needed to be certain,” she said. Angus nodded, taking a deep breath and trying to tell himself not to be mad about this. She didn’t know. If anything this was a good thing, it meant she truly had no idea who his dad actually was.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you madame, but it’s- liches are evil, they’re the worst kind of undead there is. And I know you don’t know my dad but he wouldn’t ever become something like that,” he said.

“Yes, you’re right Angus, they’re evil and I’m glad to know isn’t involved in anything like that,” the Director said. She seemed to think something over then, before nodding to herself. “And I suppose I won’t press you on the topic any further. I certainly know what it’s like to have to keep secrets for the greater good. As long as your father isn’t involved in anything that will negatively affect the bureau, it’s not imperative that we know his identity,” she said . Angus let out a huge sigh of relief at that, his smile starting to come back.

“I promise that I’ll personally make sure nothing with my dad will ever be a problem for the bureau,” he assured. He was going to try his damnedest to for sure. The hardest part would be keeping him away from the three reclaimers, but as long as they gathered the relics fast enough it hopefully wouldn’t be an issue . As far as Angus knew it didn’t seem like he had any clue where they actually were to even begin hunting them.

“That’s very good to hear,” she said, and it seemed like she meant it. He could tell there was a part of her still uncertain about this, but she didn’t question him any more about it.

“See you later Madame Director,” Angus said, starting out of her office.

“Have a good day Angus,” she said, and once Angus closed the door behind him he sighed, taking a moment before heading off towards the library . He wanted to try and figure out how much information they had on the remaining relics so he could start to search for them .

He really hoped this was the last time his dad got brought up with the bureau. He wasn’t sure how much more he could explain without telling them that he was the actual grim reaper.

Chapter Text

Angus tried to pay attention to the books in front of him. Despite how expansive the library at the bureau was, there wasn’t a lot of confirmed information about the remaining relics. It was difficult work, sorting through the misinformation and false reports that cropped up during the wars. Trying to find any sort of contradiction from what they did know to be true to figure out which ones were real.

Normally he absolutely loved the work. He could spend hours at it. Several times got so lost it in all that he almost missed his curfew, despite his best attempts to stay on top of that.

Right now though, he was distracted, and still kinda annoyed. It was a dumb thing to still be bothering him because it wasn’t even important. In fact, it was better that no one had any idea who his dad was, and any wrong impressions they might get because of that were inevitable.

It still left a bad taste in his mouth. After maybe an hour or so of fruitless attempts at research Angus sighed, shutting the book in front of him. He’d have to call today a loss probably. He knew it was fine, they’d only gotten the belt a week ago. He figured the reclaimers were still resting from their adventure if anything, he doubted they’d want to get sent out after another relic again so soon.

Leaving the library, Angus didn’t want to head back home after barely being on the base an hour. He didn’t want his dad thinking something was wrong, and besides, he hadn’t spent all that much time actually exploring the moon base yet. He spent a lot of time working in the library or eating in the cafeteria or hanging out in the Director’s office so far. He hadn't spent much time wandering around and exploring though.

So that’s what he was doing. He didn’t have any real destination in mind as he wandered around, and the moon base was big but it wasn’t huge. There wasn’t really enough space for him to get lost, and after a while he ended up looking out along the edge of the base. It was kind of crazy how high up they were, and looking over the edge made him feel a little dizzy and his knees weak.

Sitting down, it really was a breathtaking view. He could make out the faint shape of the city of Neverwinter in the distance, a few smaller towns dotting here and there. Pretty far down below them was a dark patch of black glass, which Angus had learned a while ago used to be the town of Phandalin.

The people here had to be good, if they were stopping things like that from happening again. He truly believed that.

Angus sat there for a while, kicking his legs back and forth and letting his mind wander. After a bit he was starting to feel better from the bad mood the Director’s question had put him in. At some point he laid down so that he say lying on his back in the grass, his legs hanging off the side of the base at his knees. The sun was high above the base, so Angus closed his eyes and started humming. It was some tune his dad had taught him, although it didn’t have a name. He didn’t know if his dad had made it up or if he’d just forgotten the name with the ages.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been like that, mostly daydreaming. It was nice though, Angus knew he probably didn’t relax as much as a kid his age should.

“What the fuck?” a clearly confused voice cut into the comfortable silence. Angus recognized it immediately, opening his eyes and pushing himself up on his elbows to look over at Taako.

When he moved, there was a small flurry of ruffled feathers and content squawks. Angus had no idea when a small unkindness of ravens had gathered around him, but there certainly were quiet a few large black birds perched on the side of the moon base and resting comfortably around him. Oops.

“Good afternoon sir, is something the matter?” Angus asked, trying to act like this was all somehow normal. It was a little weird, even for Angus. Normally there would be ravens and other birds hanging around whenever he was in the prime material plane. They didn’t typically hang around so close like this, or have quite this many.

“Oh nothing, just a creepy red eyed child humming and surrounded by a flock of fucking murder birds. Birds can’t even fly to the moon!” Taako said, and okay, Angus supposed that reaction was fair. He didn’t try to be creepy, at least not unless it gave him some sort of advantage, but he could certainly understand it in this scenario.

“We’re not really on the moon sir. I’m sure these birds were just flying high and noticed the base and wanted to check it out,” Angus said. He kind of doubted that was the complete truth, but it wasn't like he brought the birds here on purpose. Taako scoffed, still looking a little uncomfortable and distrusting of the whole situation. Angus reached out towards the closest bird, and it didn’t move or look bothered at all when he petted it. “See, they’re friendly,” he insisted.

“Are you some sort of secret druid kid?” Taako asked, and Angus shook his head.

“No, I just like birds,” he answered, which again, wasn’t exactly a lie. Taako nodded, not looking exactly convinced either.

“Still pretty horror movie kid creepy here,” he said, and Angus frowned, letting out a small huff of frustration. He liked Taako, but he didn’t like being called creepy. An idea came to him then, and Angus wasn’t able to keep from smiling slightly as he leaned over to the raven he was petting and whispered to it. “Now you’re whispering to them? It keeps getting worse!” Taako complained.

Angus had no real idea if it would work at all, so he was absolutely delighted when the bird took off, flying straight at Taako. The elf squawked at the incoming bird, trying to scramble back. The raven didn’t touch him, instead snatching the hat he was wearing off his head and coming back to drop it into Angus’s lap.

Taako was looking at him with an expression of absolute indignation, and Angus couldn’t help but dissolve into a fit of giggles.

“Yeah, laugh it up. Give that back before it gets covered in bird shit,” Taako demanded. Angus was still grinning as he held out the hat, not moving from his spot surrounded by birds.

“Here you go sir!” he said happily. Taako was staring at him with an extremely unimpressed expression. Then he moved his hand and a mage hand appeared in front of Angus, plucking the hat from his grip and bringing it back over to Taako. “Aw,” Angus complained, a little disappointed despite getting to see the display of magic.

“Yeah, no,” Taako said, putting the hat back on and adjusting it slightly.

“So, what are you doing sir?” Angus asked, giving some of the birds around him a few more pats before climbing to his feet. If they started appearing regularly he’d have to start keeping some seeds and stuff on him for treats.

“Besides getting tormented by devil birds?” Taako asked, and Angus nodded.

“Yeah, that one was pretty self evident,” he said, and that actually got a snort of laughter out of the elf.

“Nothing important, a little bit of shopping maybe. Don’t you got nerd shit you gotta attend to?” he asked, and Angus shook his head. A few of the ravens had flown off by this point, but it seemed like a couple had decided to stick around.

“Nope!” Angus told him happily, which got an annoyed sigh out of Taako. He didn’t end up complaining too much as Angus followed him around the moon base for the next couple of hours though. He told himself he was doing research, because he still had no proof that they weren’t secretly evil necromancers. If he couldn’t focus on the search for the next relic, maybe he could focus on that.

There was nothing suspicious as he shopped around the fantasy Costco. If anything the only thing that pinged Angus as unsettling about the place was Garfield, but that wasn’t anything new. He had the weirdest feeling like Garfield knew exactly who he was. Well, a feeling and the fact that he kept calling him ‘little death boy!’

If Taako noticed how Garfield called him that, he didn’t comment on it.

“What are you doing now sir?” Angus asked once they left the fantasy Costco. None of the ravens had come in with them, which Angus supposed might have just been them being polite and knowing birds aren’t allowed inside stores. Or maybe they found Garfield as unsettling as he did. Either one was possible.

“Going back to my dorm,” Taako answered simply, poking around in his bag like he was making sure he had everything.

“Can I come?” Angus asked, trying to sound like an innocent kid.

“I’m probably gonna pass the fuck out, Taako ain’t doing no babysitting. Entertain yourself kid,” Taako said, which was fair.

“That’s fine sir! I just haven’t seen your new dormitory yet, I promise I won’t get in your way,” he said. It was a decent enough excuse, and Taako gave a frustrated groan, but shrugged.

“Fuck it, fine. But no birds, not having them ruin my shit,” he grumbled. Angus smiled, nodding emphatically.

“Of course!” he said, having to speed walk a little to keep up with Taako’s long strides. Soon enough they were heading down a long elevator to the reclaimer’s private dorms that the director had given them after the last mission. He supposed they did deserve it, being the only people capable of interacting with the relics.

“Alright, I’m going to take a fucking nap. Do whatever the fuck, don’t wake me up and don’t break any of my shit. If you break one of the other doofus’s junk that’s on you,” Taako said, heading straight to what had to be his room.

“You got it sir! Have a good nap!” he said happily. Taako grunted at him and then closed the door to his room.

And then Angus was alone in the reclaimer’s dorm.

Or no, he couldn’t be entirely sure he was alone yet. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he made his way over to the door furthest from the one Taako had gone in first. He was pretty sure it was another bedroom door, which was exactly what he was looking for.

Leaning up against the door, he tried to listen for any sort of sound that would tell him someone was inside. Crouching onto the floor, he tried to peak between the crack, but couldn’t quite get his head far enough down without his glasses getting pushed up against the floor.

He wished he knew some proper magic, there were bound to be some useful spells for spying into rooms. After a minute of careful listening he was pretty sure there wasn’t anyone inside, and Angus decided to try the doorknob.

It turned easily, not locked. Opening it the slightest bit, Angus let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was indeed empty. Quickly going in, he shut the door behind him so that he could have a look around without anyone seeing.

From a quick glance, he’d guess this one was Magnus’s room. A few weapons were propped up against the end of the bed, and there was a desk with chunks of partially carved wood on top. He doubted he’d find many answers in Magnus’s room, but he still wanted to do a thorough search of the place. As a detective it would be bad to leave any possible stone unturned.

So that’s what he did, carefully looking through his shelf and under his bed and searching the desk for any sort of secret compartments. The shelves were full of wood carvings and knickknacks, under the bed was a bunch of dirty clothes.

There was a secret compartment in the desk! But, inside of it was just a couple of potions with a sticky note that read ‘Pringle Stash: Emergencies Only!' Angus figured the remains of what their old roommate had left in their dorm before he got thrown into moon jail.

Sighing, Angus decided to write this one off as a lost cause. There just wasn’t anything to link Magnus to any sort of death crimes. At the very least, certainly nothing to suggest that he was still committing them. The room had already been pretty messy when he came into it, but Angus did his best to try and put as much stuff back into the right places as possible before leaving.

With Magnus’s place out of the way, Angus carefully made his way past Taako’s door and over to what had to be Merle’s room. Once again he listened in and tried to see under the crack in the door to no avail, before finally deciding to try the handle. He wasn’t sure if he was just really lucky that it wasn’t locked, or if they assumed that since their dorm as a whole was locked it would be fine. That was probably it, since it was a reasonable assumption to make.

He did count himself lucky that Merle wasn’t inside, since he had a feeling the dwarf wasn’t particularly fond of him.

Maybe he could tell he was connected to death in some way? If he was the one with the highest bounty of the three it would make sense for him not to like him if that was the case.

Once again Angus shut the door behind him before starting to get to work. The layout of the room seemed to be a mirror of Magnus’s, with the same shelves and desks and such. Merle had covered his shelves with potted plants and little chick tracks stacked up between them. Angus looked through a few, just to make sure they were actually what they appeared to be. They were, and Angus quickly went to look through the rest of the room.

There wasn’t a secret compartment in this desk, and Angus got the feeling that Magnus must’ve made that add on himself. There were a bunch of little odds and ends shoved into the desk though, but nothing nefarious. A picture of two dwarf children that Angus figured were his kids, a few magical items that had to of come from the fantasy Costco.

Again, no luck. It was starting to get a little frustrating. His extreme teen Bible didn’t seem to be anywhere in the room, so he probably had it on him wherever he was. That was unfortunate, although Angus wasn’t sure how well he’d be able to understand cleric spells. Still, he was sure he’d recognize necromantic work when he saw it.

Putting everything back once again, he left the room hoping no one would realize he’d been digging through there. Then Angus stood in front of Taako’s closed door, hand resting on his chin and brow furrowed in contemplation.

He said he was going to take a nap. It had been long enough now that he was probably asleep at this point. If sleep was even what he was planning to do. Mr. Taako was an elf after all, when he said nap he might’ve meant meditation.

If Angus had to bet though, he’d probably go with actual sleeping. It seemed like a thing that Taako would like to do, and he had specified that Angus not wake him up. The next issue then was how deep of a sleeper was Taako? There was no way to know for sure, and Angus wasn’t sure if it was worth the risk.

He really wanted to see this through though. As a wizard, Taako was the most subject to actually having done the magic that came with necromancy. Plus, since he was in there that meant his spell book probably was too, unlike Merle’s extreme teen bible.

Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to just peak, Angus cracked the door open the slightest bit. Glancing over at the bed, Taako was sprawled out across it, messily wrapped up in his blankets, the umbrastaff still clenched tight in one hand. That seemed a little strange, he wasn't sure why Taako would need to sleep with his spell focus like that. He guessed he was either cautious, despite how safe the moon base seemed, or he'd was tired enough to not notice he hadn't put it down. Watching for a minute, Angus slowly opened the door wide enough to come in once he was sure Taako was fully asleep. He didn’t bother closing it behind him this time, the less noise he made right now, the better.

His room’s layout looked like it had been the same as Merle’s, but Taako must’ve swapped the bed and the desk so that the bed was right in front of the window. Angus crept over to the desk, slowly and methodically looking through it. There was a lot of jewelry, most of it fake from the looks of it. More magical items from the fantasy Costco and the goshapon, other little expensive looking odds and ends. No spellbook though.

Looking at the bookshelf, this one had the most actual books on it out of the three. Quietly sliding one off, a look over revealed it to be a cookbook. That wasn’t too unusual, Angus remembered seeing he’d had a cooking show when he’d been doing his initial investigation of the three.

Glancing back over at Taako to make sure he was still asleep, Angus put the book back and took out another one. There were a couple more cook books, including one it looked like Taako had wrote himself. Angus spent a good while looking that one over, just to make sure there weren’t any sort of hidden secrets in it.

As far as he could tell though, it was only a cook book. Other than that, there were a few magical tomes on his shelf, but they all looked like Taako had gotten them from the bureau library and forgot to return them. Angus flipped through them anyway, but they just seemed to be normal adventurer magic.

There was the low level necromantic spell here and there, but nothing outlawed by the Raven Queen. It didn’t even look like Taako had paid much attention to those spells. He’d folded down the corners of some pages (which was a very rude thing to do to a book that didn’t belong to you) but they were mostly on transmutation and evocations spells.

He needed to find Taako’s spellbook. Glancing around the room, he saw the bag Taako took with him on reclaimer missions hanging on the bed post. Careful not to step on anything as he walked over, Angus flipped the bag open and started rummaging inside. He felt a triumphant smile spread across his face when he finally found the spellbook.

Slowly flipping through, he knew he didn’t understand the more arcane aspects of it. The handwriting was also pretty bad, like Taako had written it all in a rush or without really paying attention. Some of the notes weren’t even magic in nature, half finished recipes and such littered throughout it.

There had to be something here though. Some sign to show he either decisively was or wasn’t guilty of death crimes. He needed to keep looking so he could-

“Shit!” Angus blurted out when something large grabbed him from behind, the spellbook flying out of his hands in surprise as he was left held aloft in the air. Twisting around, he just barely managed to catch sight of a large spectral hand holding him aloft. Too large and strong for a mage hand, so bigby’s hand then. It moved around so Angus was facing the bed now, held up like a cat by the scruff. Taako was giving him a sleepy and very unamused look.

“Um, hello sir,” Angus said sheepishly, trying to smile. The hand holding him aloft let go, Angus stumbling slightly when he hit the ground but managing to stay on his feet.

“The fuck you doing in here boychik?” Taako asked, and he didn’t sound as angry as Angus had feared. Definitely a little annoyed, but not pissed or anything. Before he could start to come up with an excuse, (Queen, he should have had one already thought out) Taako got off the bed. He walked over and picked up his spellbook, flipping through it lazily.

“I’m really sorry sir! I know I shouldn’t have been looking through your things without permission,” he quickly apologized.

“You into magic or something?” Taako asked, and Angus nodded.

“Oh yes! I love magic, and- and the magic you did on the train, and watching you during the battle wagon race was just so cool!” he said, taking that excuse and running with it. It wasn’t even entirely a lie, he was fascinated by magic and had been pretty enchanted watching Taako do his wizard thing.

“You want to learn?” Taako asked, closing his spellbook and tossing it onto the bed before going to sit back down. Angus blinked at the question, a little confused before nodding.

“I mean, yes of course. I’d love to learn magic. My dad’s tried to teach me some things but his magic is more um, innate? It’s not really a thing you can learn,” Angus said. Taako raised an eyebrow at that, looking mildly curious.

“He like a sorcerer or some shit?” he asked, and Angus shrugged.

“Something like that,” he said. Then he frowned some, trying to figure out what the best way to describe it would be without actually giving anything away. “Well, I guess warlock is probably more accurate?” he said.

“Huh, yeah no, can’t teach that,” Taako said.

“So yeah, I haven’t had anyone to really teach me proper wizard magic. I was hoping to um, learn something by looking through your spellbook. I should have asked first though,” he said. Taako shrugged, no longer looking annoyed. That was a relief, but Angus told himself he wasn't out of the woods yet. He just had to hope that Taako took this all at face value.

“Here’s the deal, you fuck off and leave me to my nap, and I’ll teach you a spell or two later, alright?” Taako said, catching Angus completely off guard.

“Wait, really?” he asked, but Taako was already laying back down and pulling his blanket back around himself.

“Yeah, fuck it. Just let me sleep,” Taako said, and Angus was grinning now. This wasn’t why he’d come in here at all, but if he wasn’t going to find answers on the whole necromancy front he certainly wouldn’t complain about learning some magic instead.

“Alright! Thank you so much sir! See you later!” he said, Taako grunting in response as Angus left the room. He knew there wouldn’t be anything of note to find in the rest of the reclaimer’s dorm if there wasn’t anything in their personal rooms. As much as he hated giving up without finding anything, he figured he’d looked enough and could call the reclaimer’s dorm free of any suspicious necromantic activity.

And he swore he wasn’t just saying that before he was excited about being able to learn magic. Angus supposed it was making him not feel quite as bad about coming up empty handed though.

He’d definitely need to make up for not doing any real seeker work today later. Hopefully his dad wouldn’t mind him coming to the moon base an extra day or two during the week. He doubted Mr. Taako would want to teach him that often, but it would be best to keep the option open, just in case.

Chapter Text

Kravitz knew he still wasn’t the best at some things. Even after ten years of raising Angus, old habits tend to die hard, whether someone was already dead or not.

He really did try to keep the important dates in his mind though. Angus’s birthday he had down pat, he never let that one sneak up on him. Sure, he tended to have extensive reminders, but whatever worked. Sometimes holidays slipped by him though. It wasn’t that he meant for them to, often he knew the date and knew conceptually that they were getting close. Sometimes days mix together when you don’t need to sleep though, and two weeks go by faster than you expected and your son’s head shoots up during breakfast one day to announce you both missed midsummer solstice.

It was never that big of an issue. Kravitz didn’t see why they couldn’t celebrate holidays after the fact after all, so that’s what they did every time it happened. Angus never minded, and since it had always just been the two of them it was fine. Kravitz had gone so long without celebrating a lot of the holidays that he wasn’t always sure what they were supposed to do. So they’d make up their own things.

Because of that a lot of their stuff ended up pretty similar, but it was fun. Angus always seemed to enjoy it, and they’d add in new things as he discovered or thought of them.

Kravitz swore, he actually remembered Candlenights this year though. After everything that had gone on lately he wanted to get this right. Angus had been spending even more time at the moon base after they reclaimed that last relic. Apparently one of the reclaimers, the wizard, had started teaching him some magic. Kravitz wasn’t surprised that he took to it fast, to say he had arcane potential was a massive understatement.

It wasn’t like Angus was drawing away from him or anything like that. No, he’d actually been rather clingy for a good while after the scare with the lich known as Barry Bluejeans. Kravitz still felt a little guilty about that, but there wasn’t anything he could do now. He tried to tell himself that more good had come out of it than bad. Angus now understood how dangerous his job could be, and Kravitz appreciated the extra time they’d spent hanging out.

So even though Angus was staying at his weird moon not-a-cult more often, he still came home every night and would excitedly tell him about what he’d done that day. Would show off whichever spell his wizard friend had started teaching him that day.

With how different everything had been lately though, he just thought it’d be nice to celebrate Candlenights together. Actually on the right day for once too.

So, he was incredibly disappointed when he felt a tug from the Raven Queen as they had begun getting ready the night before. He supposed it must’ve shown on his face, because Angus was looking at him with concern.

“Everything okay dad?” he asked, and Kravitz sighed, forcing himself to nod. He was half debating on asking the Raven Queen if she could send another reaper. He’d already spent so much time away from his job to spend time with Angus though. He knew that she wouldn’t have given him this job unless she needed to. Kravitz could tell from the pull, it was something urgent.

“Everything’s fine dear. Unfortunately it looks like I’m getting called into work tonight,” he explained.

“Aw,” Angus said, and he didn’t sound as disappointed as Kravitz had feared. Still disappointed for sure, but not upset as the garland he’d been preparing to put on the Candlenights bush disappeared in his hands. They didn’t actually have a lot of real decorations, they mostly created whatever they felt like having this time around.

“You can still decorate,” Kravitz told him quickly. “We might have to put off the big parts until tomorrow is all, sorry Angus,” he said.

“That’s okay, I’d rather wait until you’re here to finish up,” Angus said, and Kravitz couldn’t help but smile a bit at that. “Um, actually, if you’re not gonna be here, I was wondering…” he continued, in a tone of voice that Kravitz knew meant he was going to ask something he wouldn’t like very much.

“Wondering what Angus?” he pressed, partially because he figured it’d be best to get this over with as fast as possible, partially because he knew he needed to get to the Raven Queen’s orders soon.

“They’re having a Candlenights party on the moon base tonight, and since you’re gonna be at work I was wondering if it was okay if I went,” he said. Kravitz felt himself frown slightly, even though he was trying to be less… judgmental, of the moon base.

“What kind of party?” he asked, and Angus looked a little confused at the question.

“I just told you, a Candlenight party,” he said, which was fair. There wasn’t technically any reason for Kravitz to not want him to go, since he already spent so much time at the bureau. So far, despite all his misgivings, they’d yet to do anything to get Angus into danger.

He’d yet to see Barry Bluejeans again to get any more answers. He wanted to get back out there and look, but he didn’t want to mess up and worry Angus again. Until he did, he could reluctantly admit that he didn’t have any reason to distrust the bureau.

“Alright, I guess if you want to go that’s fine. Don’t see any reason to keep you here alone on Candlenights,” he said, and Angus smiled brightly at that.

“Thanks dad! Do you think you’ll be out all night?” Angus asked. Kravitz frowned in thought now, pulling out his book to see the bounty he’d been sent on. Maureen and Lucas Miller, escaping the eternal stockade and aiding in that escape respectively. A few other missing souls as well, not all from the stockade.

“Probably not? Don’t wait up though, I still want you home before nine, alright?” he said, and Angus pouted a bit at that.

“Can’t I stay out a little bit later? Since it’s Candlenights?” he asked, and Kravitz sighed. He was too soft, but well, it was Candlenights. And he felt bad about having to bail out at the last minute.

“Alright, but I want you home and in bed by eleven, understand?” he said, and Angus was grinning as he nodded now.

“I promise,” he said, and with that Kravitz shut his book and let it disappear. Then he headed over to Angus and leaned down to press a kiss to the top of his head.

“Have a good time at your party. I’ll let you know as soon as I get back,” he said. As soon as he pulled back Angus gave him a quick hug. It was definitely disappointing to have to leave, but maybe if he did this job fast enough he could get back before Angus went to sleep.

“Thanks, be careful reaping,” Angus said and Kravitz chuckled some before nodding. He couldn’t blame Angus for getting on him about being careful after the Bluejeans incident.

“I will,” he said, summoning a scythe and focusing on the location of the bounty. “See you later Angus,” he said, cutting a swipe through the air.

“Later dad!” Angus said happily, and with that Kravitz walked through the rift. When he closed the portal behind him, it took a moment for Kravitz to get his bearings. He could fly, but he hadn’t been expecting to need to at that moment. He was in the air though, and staring at the place where the Raven Queen had pointed him towards his target, he saw a floating base.

There was a moment of panic, thinking it was Angus’s base. But no, this wasn’t hidden behind a false moon, and it was much smaller. He might’ve um, scouted out the moon base a few times. Just to be safe. He’d never set foot on it though, he knew Angus didn’t want him doing that. Still, he’d seen it from a distance, and this wasn’t it. It was similar, too similar for his comfort, but not the same.

As he watched, trying to figure out the best course of action, something happened. The strange floating lab changed.

It seeped out of windows first, moving quickly until it enveloped the entire outside. It was so bizarre that it took Kravitz a good moment to even process what he was seeing. Crystal, some sort of pink stone was covering the whole odd building.

Getting closer, Kravitz could see that no, not covering. The base had transformed, the metal that had made up its form before was now solid pink crystal. Snow was falling onto the base, and whenever it touched down on the crystal Kravitz watched as the flakes transformed into the same pink rock.

Well.

This might take a bit longer than he thought.

——

Angus was a little disappointed at his dad having to head to work. He had been trying to think of a way to ask if he could pop over to the bureau Candlenights party for a little bit all day though, so at least he could do that now. He could have one Candlenights with the bureau and then another one with his dad once he got back from work. As far as Angus was concerned this was a pretty alright outcome.

Heading into his room, he crawled under his bed and pulled out the gifts he’d already gotten for the reclaimers and the Director. He’d thought he’d have to give them out late, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. He left the presents for his dad under the bed for now, he could put those under their own Candlenights bush later. Once they were together and had lit the candles in the way his dad said he could remember doing when he was alive. There weren’t a lot of things he could remember from his life, so Angus liked being able to do the few things he did.

He wondered what Candlenights was going to be like at the bureau. Probably pretty different, since their traditions were half remembered semi-ancient traditions combined with things Angus had thought of when he was younger. He was sure it would still be fun though.

Looking down at the wrapped gifts, he hoped the reclaimers liked them. The Director too, but he was a little less worried about her. He still couldn’t tell how well the three actually liked him. They did pick on him a lot, but it mostly seemed like they meant them all as fun goofs. Taako had followed through on his promise to teach him magic too! He didn’t know a lot yet, just mage hand and light and a couple other cantrips, but he was getting better. Taako said he was picking it all up fast, and his dad had been real encouraging of him learning magic.

It’d been almost two and a half months since they’d found the last relic, and they still didn’t seem anywhere near finding the next one. He’d complained to his dad about it several times, although he didn’t seem as disappointed by that fact as Angus was. He knew he didn’t want him to get hurt, but they needed to get those things out of the world.

He wasn’t focusing on that tonight though. Tonight he was going to have fun at a Candlenights party, and they could worry about the relics afterwards.

Forming a portal into his bedroom on the moon, Angus quickly stepped through. From there he headed straight down to the reclaimer’s private dorm, since that’s where he heard the party was happening. He could definitely hear voices and some muffled music as he got close, and he rocked back and forth on his feet excitedly as he knocked on the door. There were a few slightly louder voices then, some argument over who’s turn it was to get the door.

A few seconds later the door opened, Merle standing in the doorway. Which, was honestly the person Angus was hoping to open the door the least. It wasn’t that he disliked Merle, he just trusted him the least out of the three reclaimers. Plus, he was pretty sure Merle didn’t like him that much either. Case in point, the dwarf did not look too happy at seeing him.

“Happy Candlenights sir!” Angus still said, smiling brightly and trying to look as cheerful as possible. Which wasn’t hard, he was still feeling pretty dang cheerful.

“Ugh, did we invite you?” Merle asked. Angus didn’t let the question deter him, moving past Merle and heading into the dorm.

“I’m sure you just didn’t get around to it since I’m not always on the base,” Angus said happily. Merle grumbled but closed the door without any argument. There were quite a few people in here, but it wasn’t overly crowded or anything. Still, Angus wasn’t sure if he wanted to rush straight into the middle of it all yet. He caught sight of the director standing off to the side, and headed over to her, smiling.

“Hello madame Director, happy Candlenights,” he said, smiling brightly. She smiled down at him, drinking the last of whatever wine she had in her glass before setting it down and putting her full attention on him.

“Hello Angus, I’m glad you could make it,” she said, and she seemed to mean it.

“Yeah, it was kind of a last minute thing,” he said, not going into details. Thankfully she didn’t seem intent on asking him for any. “Oh, I don’t know if people have started giving out gifts yet, but I got you something,” he said, putting the reclaimer’s gifts under one arm and holding out the one for the Director.

“Oh, you didn’t have to, but thank you,” she said, taking the gift and opening it. Angus guessed it was fine if it ended up being a little early. Maybe it wasn’t though, he had shown up kind of late after all. The Director flipped the book open in her hands once she uncovered it, seeming at least mildly interested.

“I know you probably have to read a lot for your job and finding the relics and all that, but I thought you might like something fun to read. You know, something that doesn’t directly involve forces that threaten to destroy our world,” he explained. She laughed a little at that, smiling in appreciation.

“I suppose I could use a small distraction from that from time to time. Thank you very much Angus,” she said, and he was beaming at that. He really did like the director, she reminded him a lot of his dad when it came to work. She didn’t seem to have much to pull her away from it though, which was unfortunate.

“Well, I’ll let you enjoy the rest of the party. Thank you again Angus,” the Director said, picking up her empty wine glass and walking off. If he had to guess probably to get a refill. Angus looked around, not sure what to do next. After a moment he spotted Taako’s large wizard hat a little ways away and rushed over to him.

“Hello sir! Happy Candlenights,” Angus said once he was well within earshot. The elf looked down, seeming surprised to see him there.

“Oh, yeah yeah happy Candlenights yadda yadda,” he said, and he was holding a tray of some sort of cookies that smelled really good. “Shouldn’t you be at home like, celebrating with your family that you totally have?” he asked, and Angus frowned a little at that. He was still kind of disappointed after all.

“I was, but my dad got called into an emergency at work at the last minute, so we’re gonna do our Candlenights stuff tomorrow,” he explained. Taako nodded, seeming to believe him well enough. It was the truth, but it was always a toss up on whether Taako would actually take it at that or not.

“He get called into work a lot? What’s your ol’ man even do?” Taako asked, and whoops. This wasn’t the conversation Angus meant to have. He’d managed to keep the topic from coming up so well with the Director too.

“Not really, a little more now that I’m older and he’d not as worried about leaving me on my own,” Angus said, and Taako nodded. “He um, he works in law… enforcement,” Angus added, his words kind of failing him. He hoped Taako wouldn’t notice, but there was no way that was going to happen. He saw the elf’s eyebrows raise up, and a look of understanding came over his face.

“Ah! I get it now,” he said, which immediately worried Angus. There was no way he’d actually guess what his dad did from that, but he was nervous none the less. “That’s how you get all your little detective missions and shit ain’t it? Your old copper dad hooks you up?” he asked, and Angus sputtered in offense at that.

“No, I- I mean, sure, he’s um, accompanied me on a couple of jobs, and I’ve gone to his work a couple of times, but they’re totally unrelated. I get my detective work through skill alone,” he insisted. Taako hummed, not really sounding like he believed him all that much.

“Sure, sure,” he said, and Angus pouted. “So, you gonna carry those gifts around all night or what? Either put em under the bush or hand em over,” Taako said, and well at least it was a change of subject.

“Oh right! Um, I guess there’s no reason not to give them out now, I already gave the Director’s hers after all. Sorry about being late by the way, I didn’t know I was gonna be able to come until last minute,” Angus said. He shuffled the presents around some until he found the one he meant for Taako. “Here you go sir,” he said. Merle and Magnus had wandered over by that point too, so Angus handed theirs out as well. “And here you go, and here you go,” he said.

None of them looked particularly thrilled by the Caleb Cleveland books, but Angus could have predicted that. Still, he hoped they at least gave them a chance to read them, since he’d put a lot of work into thinking of which mystery would most appeal to each of them.

Once they finished opening the books and Magnus and Merle had given him some bare attempts at presents Angus was going to go check out the rest of the party. He was surprised when Taako actually pulled out a small gift for him. If anything, he was only expecting a macaroon like he was handing out to everyone else.

“And this is for you Angus. It was a little hard to um, buy these back from where we lost them. Don’t think about that too much, but here, I got you these three spoons,” Taako said, handing him exactly that. Three pieces of silverware that Angus stared at in confusion.

“Um, thank you sir? I appreciate them, I guess?” he said, not sure why Taako would get hims spoons. Staring at them, they kind of looked familiar, and then it clicked in his head. “Oh! These are from the silverware I had on the train!”

“Yeah, said something about the set being a priceless family heirloom,” Taako said. Angus laughed nervously at that, quickly shoving the spoons into his bag.

“Yep, that’s definitely a thing I said,” he said, and that was probably suspicious. He knew the silverware had been super expensive, which was honestly the only reason he had it. He knew the rockport slayer stole incredibly valuable objects, so he’d been hoping to lure him out with them. There’d certainly been so sentimental attachment to them, he’d brought them that week with some of the gems his dad gave him in case of emergencies. It had been a funny goof he'd thrown out, about a grandpa he figured they would have realized wasn't real at that point.

Then he started to frown as a thought came to him.

“Wait, sir you’d said that everything had still been on the train when it had been destroyed, so now I’m deducing that-” he started, acting more annoyed about this than he actually was.

“Shh, shh, it’s Candlenights,” Merle said.

“And a macaroon!” Taako added, shoving some of the cookies at him. It was a cheap attempt at a distraction, but Angus rolled his eyes and took the cookies. He didn’t actually care about the silverware, but he made a mental note to bring it up again to Taako later. They all had fun teasing him after all, he could tease them back a little too.

“Well, happy Candlenights sirs!” he said again, wandering off. It looked like the director wanted to speak to them, probably to give them her own Candlenights gift.

Angus wasn’t actually all that sure what one was supposed to do at a party. He’d never been to one before, not really. He’d been undercover at one once, but it had been a pretty fancy, boring one and he’d mostly tried to stay unnoticed. He’d been much more focused on the mystery he’d been investigating at the time than having fun.

He was here to have fun tonight though. Looking around, most of the people here were standing around talking, some exchanging gifts. Maybe he should have brought presents for more people? He didn’t know many other bureau members that well though, although Angus suddenly felt bad for not getting Mr. Davenport anything. He didn’t see the gnome around anywhere though, so hopefully it wouldn’t come up.

Johann was playing some music, and like everything Johann played it was very beautiful sounding. So Angus spent a little while wandering around, listening in on conversation and looking at the Candlenights bush. He watched in interest as the reclaimers opened a gift that had been left there without a 'from' tag. He couldn't help but frown when they refused to let anyone else see what it was or know who it was from. The director also seemed to find that weird, and Angus didn’t blame her for trying to question them on it.

All of that was put to a halt when a voice Angus didn’t recognize started speaking from the director’s necklace. He hadn’t realized it was a stone of farspeech, but that made sense. The director was definitely smart enough to keep a concealed method of communication on her at all times.

Her name was also Lucretia. It was a pretty name, and Angus wasn’t sure why she seemed so distressed by them all finding that out. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but she’d wandered off into a corner and was shouting at whoever was on the other end of the stone of farspeech.

It was certainly gotten everyone’s attention. They were all staring at her and if anyone else was talking at all it was in hushed whispers.

Maybe it was a little rude, since it was a Candlenights gift, but Angus was curious. It was less that he didn’t trust the reclaimers anymore, because honestly he did. He was trying real hard not to, but he liked them too much. They still weren’t what he’d call nice people, but they weren’t bad. He fully believed that now.

But oh, was he curious about them. There was some mystery behind those three that he was dying to find out.

So, when Magnus absently shoved the small gift into his bag without looking, making a motion at Johann to play some music, Angus snuck a hand inside. Just fast enough to grab something out of the box before Magnus noticed. It was small and thin, and Angus made sure no one was paying any attention to him before examining what it was he grabbed.

It was some sort of patch. Like something you’d iron on to a jacket or other uniform. The background was a dark blue, and along the edges were twelve multicolored circles. Across the middle in white was a word Angus couldn’t read. He couldn’t even recognize the alphabet used. Pulling out a notebook, he did a quick sketch of it before slipping it right back into Magnus’s bag.

The director was heading back now, and Angus quickly flipped to another page. Whatever was going on it would probably be best to have his notebook out anyway.

As it turned out, what was going on was them finding another grand relic.

Or, not finding exactly. It had been found, by some consultant to the bureau. Not a full member, and Angus was pretty sure he’d never met him. He didn’t sound like the best person to trust though, if only coming from the fact that he’d gotten a grand relic and kept it from the rest of them. Now whatever experiment he’d been conducting might result in the entire world getting turned into pink tourmaline.

His hand faltered somewhat as he wrote that part. He could deal with that later. They needed to get the reclaimers suited up so that the philosopher’s stone wouldn’t immediately turn them too, and they had a time limit on top of it all. Angus didn’t even know if he had enough time to call his dad and let him know what was going on.

Maybe it would be best to do that later. He wouldn’t be happy about it, but Angus would just have to explain that it had been an emergency.

Everyone had started scattering from the party, and it felt weird walking as the moonbase shot through the sky to the proper location. The reclaimers had gone down to the artificer’s chambers to get their null suits, and he was following the director down to the hanger. It was just the two of them rushing through the hallway now, Avi had gone up ahead to get the base moving.

“My parents were killed by the philosopher’s stone,” he said quietly. The director stopped in her tracks at that, which wasn’t the reaction Angus had been expecting. He was sure a lot of people here had lost relatives and such to the relics.

“What?” the Director asked, looking stricken. “But- your father…” she said, and Angus nodded quickly.

“I told you I’m adopted madame. My birth parents got turned into mirrors by the stone,” he explained. A look of understanding came over the Director’s face at that, and she nodded slowly. It wasn’t ever something that had particularly haunted Angus, he couldn’t image his life if he hadn’t ended up with his dad. He didn’t want to, honestly.

But it was still strange, knowing that the thing that had killed them was the thing the reclaimers were going after now. It was- it was scary. He didn’t want to lose them.

“Let’s get down to the hanger Angus,” the director said after a moment, and Angus nodded, quickly following her again. It was going to be okay, they’d already gotten three relics. How hard could getting one rock be? Especially when the person who had it was at least making an attempt to try and help.

Hopefully, they’d get this all settled before his dad found out anything was even wrong.

Chapter Text

Angus pulled out his pocket watch for what was the fifth time in as many minutes. The reclaimers had only just left the base, and it was going to be fine. It was fine. They had the null suits, and they’d managed to gather relics before. It was still pretty dangerous of course, and they were pressed for time on this one too.

If they didn’t stop the philosopher’s stone before the lab touched down the entire world could be destroyed.

7:38pm. That was the current time, and according to Lucas they had a couple hours, more so if the reclaimers could deactivate some of the systems in his lab as they went through it. Angus had been going through all of the information Lucretia had on Lucas Miller, and he wasn’t too thrilled by what he was seeing. He definitely seemed like a reckless individual when it came to science, and he’d warned the reclaimers as such. Whether or not they’d listen to his advice was on them. He hoped they did though.  He hadn’t been able to help too much with the last mission, he wanted to make a difference this time.

7:40pm. His dad wanted him back home and in bed by eleven. That was almost three and a half hours away, surely it wouldn’t take the reclaimers that long to solve all of this? If it did, well, hopefully his dad’s reaper mission ran late too.

He should call his dad. He didn’t want to worry him though, and he was at work. Plus, he wanted to keep his stone line open in case the reclaimers needed his help, and he couldn’t sneak away without the Director noticing. If it started getting too late into the night, he could make the excuse that he needed to tell his dad he’d be late. He couldn’t do that now though, and he couldn’t tell them that his dad knew about the relics either.

He just needed to play it all by ear and hope nothing too catastrophic happened.

They’d been down on the lab for a bit now, and Angus was trying to have as much information available for if they needed his help. They hadn’t called that much during their last mission, but they’d had Captain Bane with them on the ground for that. At least, until he turned evil and tried to kill them for the sash. Lucas was technically helping them out this time too, but Angus didn’t trust his ability to resist the relic.

Angus jumped when his stone started buzzing, quickly answering it.

“Hello? Did- what did you guys need?” he asked, excited that they were actually calling him for help. Also nervous, because they’d only been down there for a few minutes and they already needed help? Had something gone wrong? Were the suits not as resistant as they thought? Was this actually a trap Lucas has led them into?

“Hey Ango, um-”

“Is that- is that happening?” Angus asked, laughing slightly and amused by the nickname. They gave him a lot of nicknames, but he actually kind of liked that one.

“Yeah, D’Jangus. Um, what do you know about the philosopher’s stone? We just ran into a crystal golem thing that like, sang to us? And it was like-” Magnus began explaining, and Angus frowned at that.

“Yeah, that shouldn’t, that definitely shouldn’t happen,” he said, flipping through his notes on the philosopher’s stone. He’d barely call the relics limited in what they could do, but they all had a focus, a sort of domain they ruled over. The philosopher’s stone didn’t have the power to create life, and he told them as such.

“Do you know anything about like, a crystalline demon?” Magnus asked, and Angus was looking around for a book on demons or golems or something. Maybe they were dealing with some sort of elemental? He hadn’t thought to bring anything on those.

“How did it- how did it find you? Tell me everything,” Angus said, holding his stone of farspeech up with his shoulder as he shuffled through his research. The director was standing off in a corner of her office, talking on her own stone to the regulators. He could just overhear their conversation. Apparently they’d gotten blown off course and were having a hard time getting onto the lab. Gosh, this was already going pretty bad.

“So, we were walking across this crystalline garden or something? And the rocks started like, forming around this light and-” Magnus started.

“There was a rift! Like, a little hole that the light came out of,” what sounded like Taako cut in. Angus paused in his search for a book on elementals, his stomach dropping at that.

“A rift?” he pressed, trying not to get too worried yet. It could be anything after all.

“Yeah, right that. So, first there were these crinkle tinkles, and then a weird robot sounding voice was singing like, uhh, did anyone write down what it said?” Magnus asked.

“It was like- here in my crystal kingdom, crystal kingdom, I have a crystal kingdom,” Merle sang, not all that well if Angus had to admit. He didn’t have to admit though, and it would be rude to say so he didn’t, but still. Wasn’t great.

“That’s- yep, 100% that was it. So it sang, and then a little rift opened up and a ball of like, white light came through. And then all the crystals in the room started floating around the light and formed this golem, full of uh, white fire?” Magnus continued.

“Very, very spooky,” Taako cut in.

“Did it do anything? Did it say something to you?” Angus pressed. He wasn’t panicking, not yet. He was maybe a little worried but he couldn’t jump to conclusions.

“It just kind of stared at us? I totally intimidated it,” Magnus said. Angus was pretty good at telling the truth, and it actually sounded like Magnus wasn’t just blowing smoke with that somehow.

“He pointed at Merle and was all, yooou!” Taako said, imitating a low grumble.

Oh boy. Oh dear, that wasn’t good at all.

“Okay, it sounds like it was um, inspirited, by a ghost or something,” Angus said, trying to be rational about this. “You said it came through a rift, in spacetime?” he pressed.

“Yes,” Magnus said, and Angus could feel his heart thinking.

“Yeah, ghosts can’t really… do that,” he muttered. What they were describing was definitely a soul. Angus couldn’t think of what else it could possibly be.

His dad had explained some more of his own powers to him, after the scare they’d had. He didn’t say it was because of that, but Angus knew that it was and despite feeling like a little kid it did help. His dad could dismiss his construct at will, could turn into only a soul, and when he did it of his own volition it wasn’t any issue. He could inspirit things when he was in that form, create physical constructs out of rock or water or anything really. He did it on rougher missions, when he needed a strength advantage.

Missions like say, going after three highly ranked bounties with dozens of unexplained death crimes.

“I’ll start cracking the books, see if I can figure out what it is you’re up against,” he said. Magnus didn’t seem to notice how worried he sounded, or maybe he did and didn’t comment on it. Either way Angus ended the call without another word.

Oh Queen, what was he supposed to do?

“Angus, how’s the update with the reclaimers?” the director asked, and Angus jolted up, forcing a smile onto his face. She could probably tell it was faked. It certainly felt like it wouldn’t fool anyone.

“Fine! They’re fine! Um, there’s some sort of crystal golem chasing after them? I don’t know exactly um, what it is though. It sounds like it might be some sort of ghost, but it uh, seems a little too powerful… for that,” he explained. It wasn’t a complete lie. He couldn’t know for sure. Not yet. It was definitely a little too powerful for a ghost.

“That sounds… concerning,” the Director said, a frown etched onto her face.

“I’m sure they’ll be able to handle it,” he said, and then he looked down at the spread of books in front of him. “I’m uh, I’m gonna go see if I can find some more relevant materials. Something on um, undead spirits, and possession. If this is undead related that makes it even more urgent with it being close to a relic,” he said, and the Director nodded.

“You’re right, we need to be careful with that,” she said. Angus took that as permission to go, quickly getting up from his seat and running out of the director’s office. The library wasn’t far, but once Angus was out of the dome he ducked behind some bushes, pulling out his stone of farspeech.

He needed to call his dad. He needed to- to-

Oh Queen, what was he going to tell his dad?

Hey dad, it’s Angus! I know you’re on a mission right now, sorry for interrupting. I was just wondering, are you in a weird crystal laboratory up in the sky right now? Oh by the way, we found a relic, yeah the one that killed my old parents, don’t worry about that. Anyway, the reclaimers said they saw something that sounded a lot like you possessing a bunch of virulent crystals. Why would I think you’d be near the reclaimers while hunting bounties? Oh, yeah did I never mention, they’ve all got like, super high death counts. You didn’t need to know that, did you?

No. Nope, oh god no. He couldn’t do that. He just- he had to find some other way. There had to be some other way around this.

The only issue with doing something else was that Angus had no clue where to even start. He spent a good twenty minutes outside, pacing back and forth and trying to figure out how to approach this situation. He’d been alone when he came out here, but now there was a large group of ravens gathered around watching him. Honestly it wasn’t helping his nerves much. He assumed they weren’t sent by his dad, but he couldn’t help but feel like the Raven Queen was watching him through their eyes.

She was always watching after him through, whether there were birds around or not, so he tried not to think about it too much. Her watch was a good thing. Or at least, he trusted her to keep him from making any decision that was too dumb. Occasionally he’d pet some of the ravens as he passed them while pacing. They seemed almost as riled up as he was.

Angus was trying to formulate some sort of plan. He had to go with the worst case scenario and assume that was definitely his dad down there. His job tonight had been to finally bring in Merle, Magnus, and Taako.

Maybe he wouldn’t realize it was a relic causing the change in the lab. He’d seen what the philosopher’s stone could do, but he might not immediately realize that’s what was going on. He hoped he didn’t realize that was what was going on. If he did then that would be even harder to work around and Angus was-

“Shit!” Angus jolted when his stone buzzed again. He cursed a little quieter under his breath when he saw the color the stone was lighting up slightly. A deep, soft red. Definitely his dad.

Taking a deep breath and trying not to sound as panicked as he felt, he figured his dad at least wouldn’t be able to hear the way his heart was pounding in his chest.

“Hey dad! Everything okay?” he asked, taking another glance at his pocket watch. 8:03pm. His normal curfew wasn’t until nine, and he got express permission to stay out later tonight, so that wasn’t it. Maybe Angus had been wrong and his dad wasn’t the thing accosting the reclaimers and he was calling to tell him he was all done with his job and would be waiting for him at home whenever he was done with his fun Candlenights party.

“Oh, yes, everything’s fine Angus. I just uh, wanted to check in on you, how’s the party going?” his dad asked, and okay. That was a little suspicious. Not that his dad wanted to check in on him, because that was pretty standard for him. It was just that he didn’t usually go out of his way to like this, not when he’d been on a job for barely an hour. And especially not when as far as he knew Angus should be perfectly safe.

He should tell the truth. He should explain to his dad that they found a relic and the party was over and that the reclaimers might have been the job he’d been sent out to grab tonight.

That’s what he should have done.

“It’s going great! I think the reclaimers and the director liked the presents I got for them. And um, I got some spoons, and like, a duck paperweight, oh and these really great cookies! I’ll try and remember to grab some more before I come home so you can try one,” he said. He could hear his dad sigh ever so softly on the other end of the line. Not in a bad way, but definitely some relief there.

“Good, good, that sounds lovely Angus. So um, nothing's wrong? And you guys haven’t had any sighting of any of the other relics, right?” he asked, and Angus felt his stomach flip at the mention of the relics. There was definitely something going on with his dad’s end if he was bringing those up out of the blue.

“No, they’ve- they’re still alluding us, why?” he pressed. He didn’t like lying to his dad, but he just kept digging this hole deeper and deeper. Maybe he’d come out the other side, but probably not.

“I’m sure it’s unrelated,” his dad said, not sounding sure of that in the slightest. “But um, you don’t know of any other floating bases, just to be sure?” he asked.

“That sounds like copyright infringement,” Angus said immediately, which got a laugh out of his dad.

“Well, I’ll be sure to arrest the people inside for both necromantic crimes and stealing your cult’s IP,” his dad said, and Angus tried not to make his laugh sound forced. Okay, that- that pretty much proved it. His dad was definitely at the Miller’s lab, with full intent on bringing the reclaimers in to the eternal stockade.

“Sounds good,” he managed to say. He didn’t correct him on the cult thing this time, but it didn’t seem like he noticed.

“I need to get back to work, but I’m glad you’re having fun,” his dad said. Angus nodded even though the only ones around to see were the birds, still perched around the little corner of the moon base he’d hidden himself away in.

“Yeah, it’s- be careful dad,” Angus said, wishing he could get his words to work right. There was a genuine worry leaking through his voice more than he meant. He could pass it off as simple fear after his dad getting hurt before. He was sure that’s what his dad thought it was. Angus wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. It kept him from getting caught, but maybe it would be better if someone figured this out before he made it any worse.

“I will be. See you soon Angus,” his dad said, and with that the stone cut out. Angus sighed heavily, clutching the stone to his chest and looking up at the night sky as he slumped back against the wall of the dome behind him.

What in the world was he supposed to do now?

It probably wasn’t what he was supposed to do, but what he ended up doing was sit slumped over on the ground for another five minutes. Trying and failing in keeping himself from having an anxiety attack. The dry heaving definitely meant he’d failed.

As soon as he managed to pull himself together though he climbed to his feet. He couldn’t waste anymore time panicking and being useless. He needed to think of some way to fix this.

First things first though, he needed to complete his cover story and get to the library to find some books on undead. Heading there, he stopped at the first reflective window he could find and gave himself a look over. He definitely looked a bit more ashen than usual, the color only slowly returning to his face. He’d have to hope he looked like a living person again by the time he got back to the director’s office.

With that he got to the library, and thankfully there weren’t a lot of people in there right now. Most of the bureau members were either off for the holiday or currently trying to help with the relic crisis. Angus was frantically grabbing some books at random when his stone lit up again. This time it was the reclaimers, and he took a steadying breath before answering.

“Hey, this is Angus,” he said, trying to put on as cheerful of a voice as possible.

“Angus,” Taako said, and his voice was that not quite genuine sort of serious where he was trying to hold back a laugh. So probably nothing too bad had happened yet, if they were still cracking goofs.

Well, knowing them that wasn’t totally certain. They could be halfway to the eternal stockade right now and still joking around.

“What’s up? What’s crackin?” he asked, and maybe if they were close to getting the stone they could get out of there before his dad had a chance to kill them.

“Are you, hey listen, are you down here? Cause I swear I’m talking to you right now,” Taako said, which was several kinds of befuddling. Even if they had met his dad he doubted the resemblance would be that strong since he was adopted, and he didn’t sound like his dad.

“No, I’m-” he glanced around the library he was still in. “I’m back in the director’s office. We’re working on figuring out what that golem that attacked you was,” he lied. He’d already lied so much tonight, not being truthful about where he was at the moment was the least of his issues.

For some reason the reclaimers seemed convinced that he’d sold his voice to a robot, or was a robot, or something like that? It was honestly a little hard to get and he was feeling pretty distracted.

“No, I’m a flesh boy,” he said, and their distressed reactions at that was almost enough to make him laugh. He was frustrated and still had no idea how to fix this though so that didn’t happen. “If you guys- I need to get back to work. Do you need something, is it pressing?” he asked, his annoyance showing through a bit more than he intended. He cared about them, but he was trying to figure out some way to keep them all from dying here. It didn’t even seem like they knew the danger they were in.

They probably didn’t. As far as Angus could tell, none of them had any clue about any necromantic crimes on their records. It was so bizarre he doubted his dad would ever believe it.

The reclaimers ended up getting distracted by a call from Lucas, and after a bit Angus hung up. He should actually get back to the Director’s office now though, as much as he was afraid to go in there and let her see him. She was a very observant woman, he could tell that easily. There was no way she wouldn’t notice something was wrong.

Before he could get back though his stone lit up again, and he let out a sigh of frustration when he was it was the reclaimers again.

Still, he tried to sound upbeat and happy. Maybe a little bit overly so, but he didn’t want them to worry or get suspicious. A part of him wondered if maybe he should give them some sort of warning about the fact that a reaper of the Raven Queen was after them.

But no. He couldn’t do that. He wasn’t going to help someone fight his dad, no matter who they were. He needed to find some way to fix this peacefully.

It turned out they needed some help with a quiz robot. Weird and Angus wasn’t too sure what the point was, but he figured it was one of Lucas’s experiments. He didn’t trust it, because he didn’t trust Lucas. Still the first question wasn’t all that hard, it was just a spelling question. He was a little surprised that they weren’t able to figure it out on their own, but he supposed spelling wasn’t everyone’s strong suit.

He told them how to spell aarakocra though, and it seemed like it was going to be fine for a second. Angus had stopped his hesitant return to the director’s office to help them, and he couldn’t help but feel a little good about actually being able to help out.

And then something went wrong.

He could hear the robot over the line, and it suddenly sounded a lot less friendly. Then he could barely hear anything over the stone, the sound of the reclaimer’s voices drowned out by a crackling buzzing, and Angus felt his heart sink.

He kept messing this up, and he had no idea how he was supposed to fix it.

——

Kravitz frowned as he put the stone of farspeech away. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but the things happening in this lab were too similar to the devastation he knew one of the relics had caused. He wasn’t sure how, so he figured he’d call Angus. Certainly if there was a relic in another strange floating base in the sky, his bureau would have heard about it.

According to Angus though, nothing was wrong. Kravitz definitely didn’t want to drag him into this if it turned out a relic wasn’t involved. So he figured it would be best to keep his eyes open for now. Find out what was causing this exactly, and get rid of all the multitude of death criminals holed up in this lab.

Hopefully, locking up the people in this place would stop the strange crystallization too. He figured they had to be channeling it somehow after all. If it wasn’t a relic, it was probably some sort of spell.

He’d tried to cut right through into the core of the lab, where he knew one Lucas Miller was locked up. He’d bet money that was where Maureen’s soul was as well. Much to his frustration he hadn’t been able to, some some of magical blockade preventing his entrance.

That was only on a few of the bottom rooms of the lab though. It wasn’t like he’d never dealt with magical barriers before, and so he figured he’d go in the old fashioned way. Walking right in and breaking down any sort of strange crystal barrier in his way. Whatever this crystallization was, it couldn’t affect him if he made his construct out of the stuff.

He genuinely hadn’t been expecting to see other people in the lab, at least, not living ones.

Although he supposed living was a technicality. Those three men had all died, multiple times. He knew exactly who they were, and Kravitz told himself the only reason he’d been taken off guard and had to retreat so quickly was because he was not expecting to find them here as well.

He’d been wanting to bring in one Merle Highchurch for a while now though. Magnus Burnsides and Taako too, of course, but 57 deaths was just despicable. He wasn’t even sure how it was possible without them noticing sooner.

Kravitz had no idea why they were in this crystal lab, but the why didn’t really matter. He’d have to apologize to Angus in the morning though, chances were he wasn’t going to get home until late now. This bounty had just gotten much more complicated.

Well, at least the one good thing was that they didn’t seem quite as… threatening as he would expect from such high bounties. He wasn’t going to let his guard down again of course, not after the Bluejeans incident.

Letting his construct fall away, he’d rather have the extra protection of a golem in this fight. He supposed that was one good thing about the crystals, they certainly were plentiful. They also seemed to transform everything that touched them. He wasn’t sure how those three were avoiding it, but if he had to guess it was probably the strange suits they’d been wearing. He highly doubted they were wearing them for fashion.

Kravitz decided to go for a bit of a subtler approach after his first attempt failed. He told himself that these folks were a lot more dangerous than they appeared after all. A lot of necromancers were, although these three certainly weren’t typical of what he’d seen in necromancers.

In any case, Kravitz saw no reason not to try and use the crystals that coated this place to his advantage. Possessing a column in the middle of a room they were in, he wanted to try and get this over quickly still. He shot as many shards out in their direction as possible, aiming them all at one Merle Highchurch. Getting rid of him first was top priority after all, and he was very disappointed when they managed to get into the next room without any of the crystals hitting their target.

His next attempt was maybe a little underhanded.

Or well, to be precise, it left Merle a little underhanded.

Unhanded.

To be fair, it was supposed to kill him, so he felt like the dwarf got off with the good end of the deal there.

Besides, Merle and the rest of the criminals in this lab would be locked in the eternal stockade by the end of the night, so he really didn’t have to worry about Pan finding out about it. It was never great having to go after devote followers of the other gods, especially the ones who were actually on good terms with the Raven Queen. Still, these three had flagrant disregard for the rules of life and death that couldn’t be ignored.

Well, Kravitz figured they would be at a pretty severe disadvantage after that, if they managed to keep Merle alive at all. He was preparing to go back in as soon as he could get a read on their souls again, they were in another room he couldn’t get into, when he felt something. Something that despite being around a frankly preposterous amount of bounties, he hadn’t felt all night.

A very powerful, and familiar, burst of necrotic energies.

It was in the lab, and then suddenly it wasn’t. It wasn’t far either, and Kravitz was torn for a moment. He shouldn’t leave, but it was only a few hundred feet away, and he needed to see for sure.

He couldn’t say he was surprised when he came across the lich known as Barry Bluejeans. What did surprise him was how… out of it he seemed.

“Okay just- it’s okay. She’s out there. She’s still out there- she has to- fuck. Come on Barry, just a little bit longer. Just a little-” he was rambling to himself. Once again his voice was oddly human, oddly hurting. The crackles of arcane energy around him had been slowly lessening, but they stopped dead and his whole shivery form froze when he caught sight of him.

“Shit. Uh, big night, huh bud?” he said nervously. Kravitz almost wished he had a face to frown with in his reaper form.

“I’m not your bud,” he said, and he swore the lich almost flinched.

“Right, uh sorry again. About the whole killing you thing, I figure you’re probably used to it though, right?” he said, and at least Kravitz had arms he could cross. He shouldn’t be wasting time, but at least he wasn’t letting his guard down again.

“Are you saying I’m bad at my job?” he snapped. To his surprise that actually made the lich backtrack.

“What? No, I didn’t mean- I just meant like, you’re death. So dying probably isn’t like, a big deal? To you?” he said. It was so odd, how genuinely nervous he sounded. Not about being dragged to the afterlife, but just of offending him.

“Not to me, no,” Kravitz said, being very deliberate not to bring up Angus.

“Right,” the lich said, and then it seemed to sigh. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you again, and I’m not- not having a great night. Sure you saw that,” he said, his form slumping.

“Believe it or not, I’m not here for you tonight,” Kravitz said, mostly wanting to see what he would do. Kravitz was fairly certain now that detaining Barry Bluejeans would be a multiple reaper job, as much as he didn’t want to admit it.

The response wasn’t what he expected.

“Wait, really?” the lich asked, confusion and relief clear in his voice. Then it was almost like a jolt ran through him, and Kravitz could see its focus shift to the lab still floating behind them. He must have realized. He must have known who was inside.

“No. No, fuck, bud I’m sorry, I can’t- you can’t take them in. Not yet, please,” he said, genuine panic in his voice. Kravitz felt himself tense, preparing for the lich to attack him.

“I can take in whoever I want. They’ve died,” he snapped. He’d played nice with this lich much more than he ever needed to.

“It wasn’t their fault. They don’t even remember anymore,” Barry said, and Kravitz almost paused at that. He resisted though, because he wasn’t going to be tricked by this lich again.

“How in the Raven Queen’s name would I possibly believe you on that?” he asked.

“You don’t believe me. Of course you don’t believe me. I’m a lich so I’m evil and obviously trying to- to trick you and lie and scheme, you won’t believe me,” Barry said, clearly speaking to himself more than to Kravitz. He wasn’t going to fall for it.

“All true,” he said simply.

“I need- shit. I need to go,” the lich said, looking around, and then up. Kravitz let his gaze follow for only a second, and he saw something that hadn’t been up there the last time he was out. The moon base. Angus’s moon base, was strangely close. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Please, just- give them a chance. I know you won’t believe me, but you can’t take them. They’re this world’s only hope,” Barry Bluejeans said. Kravitz didn’t know what he meant by that, but before he could react there was another burst of energy. As Kravitz tried to rush forward and attack, his scythe caught nothing.

The lich was gone. Again.

Giving one glance back up at the moon base overhead, he started back down to the crystal base. He could deal with that after he got the bounties taken care of.

He wasn’t going to let Barry’s words distract him. He wasn't going to let anything distract him.

Chapter Text

By the time Angus managed to make his way back to the director’s office his stone of farspeech still hadn’t opened up to the reclaimer’s frequency. He was struggling not to cry, and he couldn’t even be that mad about that part.

Tonight had been so much more stressful than he’d imagined it would be. Even when he realized it wasn't going to be a fun party and instead a reclaiming mission. He figured he deserved to cry at least a little bit.

“Angus? Angus what’s wrong?” the director asked as soon as he shut the door behind him. He’d been trying to wipe away the tears before he actually went in, but it was taking too long and he figured she’d definitely start to get suspicious if he didn’t get back soon.

“I- I got a message from the reclaimers and they wanted me to help them with this spelling puzzle and I should have known it was a trap but I helped anyway but something went wrong and their stones went out and now they won’t answer me at all and I didn’t mean to mess up and put them in danger I swear I didn’t,” he said, definitely starting to ramble as the tears began building up again. He almost had them under control before he started talking and getting upset again. It was stupid.

“Angus, Angus dear it’s fine. I’m sure they’re going to be okay, they’re stronger than that. Just- here, just sit. I can try and get through to them,” the Director said, leading him over to a chair and having him sit. It was kind of obvious that she wasn’t super sure how to deal with a crying child, which made sense. She was always kind, but her job didn’t lead her to interacting with children very often. Angus followed along though, handing her his stone of farspeech so that she could try and get through to the reclaimers.

He wasn’t sure if she actually managed to do something, or if it was lucky timing. Either way, a few moments after the director started trying to contact the reclaimers the dull buzz that had been blocking out any form of communication lifted and they could hear them again. They were acting like none of it was a very big deal at all, and that wasn’t a surprised.

They didn’t talk long, which was fair. They needed to keep moving, to keep going so they could get to Lucas and stop the philosopher’s stone before it destroyed the whole world. It didn’t keep Angus from sitting nervously as he waited for more word from them. Or from his dad. He had no idea what was going on down there and he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to fix this yet.

He guessed the director must’ve noticed his nerves. That wasn’t surprising, for as much as he was trying to hide them. He knew he was fidgeting and rereading the same passages of the research books over and over again. He wasn’t even sure why he was trying to read them, he knew what was fighting them down there. These weren't going to help any.

“Angus,” she said softly after a moment. He’d been so lost in thought that he hadn’t realized the pencil he was holding was completely chewed up until he pulled it away from his mouth to speak.

“Yes, madame director?” he asked, trying to sound normal.

“I was just thinking that it’s starting to get late,” she said, and Angus frowned, pulling out his pocket watch to check the time. He’d been so worried about everything else he’d forgotten to stay worried about the time. It was later than he expected, but it wasn’t as bad as the director made it sound.

“Madame, it’s only ten thirteen. If you’re worried about my curfew I actually got permission from my dad to stay out until eleven tonight, but I suppose I should call him soon to let him know I might be spending the night again,” he said. Well, at least it was a good excuse to be able to call his dad. Maybe not in front of the director, but if he had to he’d figure something out. He was sure his dad would understand if he was suddenly being a bit cryptic. Or at least he hoped he would.

“Oh, well yes I suppose that might be a good idea,” she said, but the tone of her voice quickly made him realize that hadn't been her concerned. “Even if you’ve been allowed to stay out, tonight has been… much more stressful, than any of us would have expected. If you’re feeling tired it’s quite alright if you’d like to go lay down for a bit,” she said, trying her best not to sound insulting. It only worked so well and Angus was still a little bit insulted.

“The fact that it’s stressful is exactly why I should be here Madame. I can help, this is why you guys hired me in the first place,” he tried to insist. He couldn’t walk away from all of this, not when his friends and his dad were both tied up into it. Of course, he couldn't tell anyone about that either.

“I know, and you’ve been doing an excellent job,” she said, and at least it didn’t sound like she was just placating him. Even if it kinda felt like she was anyway. That was mostly because Angus didn’t feel like he’d made much of a difference yet.

No one but him even realized how serious this was. They knew about the relic of course, but they didn’t know their souls were on the line. He couldn’t even tell them either, not without betraying his dad.

“But I’m just… worried, that this all might be a bit too personal for you,” the director finished. Angus frowned at that, partially to conceal the flash of panic before he realized what she was talking about.

“You mean with my parents?” he asked, and she nodded. Angus couldn’t help but make a face in annoyance at that. “Madame, they died when I was a baby. I don’t- it’s not that I don’t care, but it didn’t… affect me like that. I guess I didn’t have a strictly normal childhood, but I like the one I got better anyway,” he said. The director was smiling softly at him now, and seemed to reluctantly nod.

“Alright Angus, if you feel you can still-” she started, and then Angus’s stone started to vibrate. Pulling it out quickly, it wasn’t glowing the red color to signal his dad. When he answered it he wasn’t surprised to hear Magnus on the other end of the line.

“Hey Ango, sooo, we kinda have a situation here,” he said, and he actually sounded kind of nervous now. Angus didn’t even bother to hide his look of worry as he glanced up at the director, who also looked concerned.

“What kind of situation sir?” he pressed.

“Good news, no one’s dead. Well, Boyland’s dead, don’t know if anyone’s told you about that yet. Also, Merle lost an arm,” Magnus said, all delivered with a pretty casual tone. Angus didn’t really know Boyland, didn’t know too many people on the base all that well honestly, but the director seemed pretty grim hearing the news.

“Carey and Killian already filled me in about Boyland, what happened to Merle? Is he stable?” she asked, sounding about as worried as Angus felt. He guessed Carey and Killian must have called about that when he was in the library, since it was the first he'd heard of it.

“Oh yeah, I mean, he’s knocked the fuck out now, but that’s from some medicine Lucas got him on I guess,” he explained.

“You all made it to Lucas?” Angus asked, which okay. Those other two things were pretty horrible, but at least maybe they could get the stone soon.

“Yeah, we uh, still need to get down to the, ya know, stone though,” he said, sounding like he was whispering. At least they trusted Lucas as little as Angus did from the sound of it.

“Okay, what happened? How did Merle lose his arm?” Angus pressed, and he could start to hear Merle moaning softly in the background. He must be starting to wake up from whatever drugs Lucas had used to put him under.

“Well, first of all I had valiantly saved his life through my quick thinking and-”

“He chopped the fucking thing off with his ax!” Taako cut in, Magnus quickly and very loudly shushing him.

“It was turning to crystal! And I cut it off so Merle wouldn’t turn all to crystal! I saved his damn life!” Magnus shouted. That- was bad. That was so bad. Merle almost died.

“How did that happen? Did something happen to his null suit?” the director asked.

“Uh, we weren’t looking when it happened? The crystals have really had it out for Merle though. Like, the weird ghost thing that’s been possessing them? It really hates Merle,” Magnus said, and Angus felt his stomach drop at that.

His dad was going to kill them. His dad almost killed Merle, that was the only explanation here. He was going to keep trying and he knew the reclaimers were strong but without something huge happening Angus couldn’t see him letting three giant bounties off the hook.

Something huge needed to happen.

Angus kind of tuned out for the rest of the conversation. It wasn’t long. It was clear Merle was waking up soon and they needed to figure out what to do with the fact that he only had one arm now. Hopefully they’d be able to think of some sort of solution for that, although Angus was lost as to what. Still, he guessed Lucas had a lot of fancy inventions down there. So maybe they could jack together something and then figure out a more permanent solution when he got back to the base if it wasn’t good enough.

If they got back to the base.

Once they ended the call Angus let his shoulders slump, just sitting there for a moment. Something needed to happen. He couldn’t sit back and hope that everything was going to work itself out because obviously it wasn’t. It was only getting worse and people would either die or realize all the secrets he’d been keeping, or both.

He needed to make sure that at least no one else died here. Everything else was second.

“You know director,” he spoke up quietly after a moment. She turned her attention towards him, waiting for him to continue. “I- I think you might’ve been right. Maybe I should go lay down for a minute,” he said.

“Of course Angus. If you need to go home I understand, but if you want to stay I can let you know as soon as the reclaimers get back,” she said.

“I think I’ll call my dad and let him know I’m sleeping here for the night. Thanks madame,” he said. She smiled softly at him, and Angus really didn’t like having to lie to people. He was good at it, but he didn’t enjoy it.

Leaving the director’s office, he didn’t head to his bedroom on the moon. He started off, ducking into an empty hallway and pulling out his stone of farspeech. He didn’t call right away. He needed to formulate a plan, exactly what he was going to say.

Part of him was delaying because he really didn’t want to make this call. Still, he needed to, before his dad hurt his friends. He could deal with his dad being mad at him after he had that settled.

After finally figuring out what he was going to say and working up the nerves, Angus tried to call his dad.

“Dad? Dad I know you’re on a mission right now but I really need to talk to you,” he said. He sat nervously, waiting for his dad’s response.

Which didn’t come.

“Dad?” he tried again, to identical results. It almost seemed like his call wasn’t going through. Angus could feel that panic starting to bubble up inside of him again. He’d never not answered before. There were only two explanations for this. Either he was in some place where the call wasn’t getting through.

Like a section of the lab that had communications cut off, like the reclaimers had been in before.

Or he was in the middle of a fight. A rough one, probably as a golem where he wouldn’t have easy access to his usual items.

Either way, it meant Angus couldn’t sit here and wait anymore.

Trying to think clearly despite the panic, he started running towards the artificer’s chamber. Leon had only been in there due to the emergency with needing to fit the reclaimers into their null suits, so the place should be empty.

It was a good thing everyone had been in such a rush. It meant Angus could find the null suits and figure out how to set one up pretty easily, since they left everything out. There weren’t any made specifically for children, but a large halfling suit fit well enough, even if it kinda flopped around his feet some. It was secure and would keep him safe from the crystals, and that was all that mattered.

With that, Angus opened a portal up to his bedroom back home.

He could just stay here. But then he might lose his friends, and the world might end, and his dad would realize what had happened and be mad at him.

Everyone was going to be mad at him for this, but at least he could hopefully keep people from dying and the world from ending.

It was hard, trying to pinpoint an exact place to open a portal on the floating base. He didn’t know exactly where the reclaimers would be right now, but he knew they were somewhere near the bottom of the base.

With some effort though, he felt like he could almost sense where his dad was. Trying to stay as focused on that as possible, he gave a quick silent prayer to the Raven Queen and opened a portal.

———

Kravitz told himself he wasn’t going to be distracted. He needed to finish this up as quick as possible, and that’s exactly what he intended on doing when he opened a rift into the room where the three bounties currently were.

When he found them all lying on the ground, all of them partially to completely paralyzed, he figured he might actually manage to finish this up soon. There was another bounty too. This one far lower and stuck in some sort of robotic vessel, and he told himself he could gather her up as well. These four, and then Lucas and Maureen Miller, and it would be an incredibly tiring but also incredibly productive night.

Except when he went to swing for Merle Highchurch, he missed. Just sorta whiffed it completely. It was just enough time for them to start fighting back.

And so of course, it wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d hoped for.

Still, he had the advantage. They were still struggling to get out of whatever strange paralysis had fallen them, and he’d been steadily wearing them out through the night. He just needed to stay focused, and as soon as he took one of them down he was sure the others would fall quick enough. That’s how it always tended to go with groups, from bands as small as these three to whole cults. Once death got its foot in the door it tended to spread rapidly.

All he had to do was not get distracted.

“Hey thug what’s your name I’m about to tentacle your dick!” the elf wizard, Taako he was pretty sure, shouted.

Kravitz had heard hundreds upon thousands of curses flung at him, in any number of languages. People’s panicked pleas and raging insults. Desperate people would say just about anything if they thought it might get them the slightest upper hand.

That was certainly a new one.

“It’s Kravitz!” he snapped, and there was no real reason to tell them his name. Still, his bounties asked for it so rarely, and these people would be locked in the eternal stockade soon enough anyway.

Or at least, they would be once he managed to fight his way out of these tentacles. He couldn’t even be- well no, he was still very capable of being angry, but he had to admit, the elf had fucking warned him there were going to be tentacles.

When he managed to throw an angry look back over at the wizard, he had a strange look on his face. Like he was trying to remember where he’d heard his name before.

With some effort he managed to get out of the tentacle's hold. He was about to create two more crystalline bombs, when something happened. Kravitz froze and felt his heart sink when an incredibly familiar tear opened up in the corner of the room. Panic gripped him when he saw Angus run through, for a second certain that his body was going to be infected by this strange virulent crystal.

But it didn’t. He was wearing the same strange suit as these three were, and looked panicked as he rushed towards them.

“Wait! Everyone please stop fighting,” he shouted. Immediately all eyes were on him, not that Kravitz was paying more than the bare amount of attention on the other people in this room now. Just enough to make sure none of them were planning on going for him.

“Holy shit!”

“The hell are you doing here kid?”

“Did he just teleport?”

The other three were all shouting, clearly confused. They weren’t as confused as Kravitz would have expected though, but he couldn’t think on that much at the moment.

“Angus!” he shouted, dropping out of his crystal golem form. This time instead of retreating back through a rift, he formed his regular construct and ran over to his son. He was getting a little big to be held regularly, but Kravitz lifted him up anyway, trying to keep him as far away from these strange crystals as possible. He even floated a few inches off the ground for good measure. “What in the world are you doing here?” he snapped, torn between terrified and angry.

“I um, it’s a long story,” Angus said, and Kravitz’s mind was racing. He was halfway through summoning his scythe to cut open a portal to get them both out of here so they could talk away from the bounties he’d been fighting, when one of them shouted.

“Aha! I knew I recognized that name! You’re the dad! Holy fuck, no one ever said anything about you being hot,” the elf, Taako, yelled.

“What?” Kravitz asked as he turned back towards the group, still holding Angus protectively as far from these people as he could. He was momentarily confused by that last part, but he tried to keep himself focused. “What do you mean by that?” he snapped, and then added. “About recognizing the name, I mean.”

“You’re his dad, right?” Taako asked, pointing towards Angus and sounding a little less certain now.

“That is none of your business,” Kravitz insisted.

“You don’t gotta protect me from them dad, they work for the bureau,” Angus cut in, drawing Kravitz’s attention again. He was halfheartedly trying to get out of his grasp, but Kravitz wasn’t letting him go.

“Hey, Ango maybe let your dad hold you, since he can fly and all,” one of the bounties, Magnus, cut in. Kravitz wasn’t sure why they’d all immediately stopped attacking and seemed perfectly fine to stand around and talk now. They were all mostly taking the moment to get to their feet and shake off the paralysis. Maybe they were decent enough not to fight with a child’s life in danger, but Kravitz wasn’t dull enough not to realize it was something more than that.

“I have a null suit,” Angus argued, and oh, so that’s what these things were called.

“I do not trust whatever weird thing it is you’re wearing. We’re getting you out of here,” Kravitz said, his mind still reeling. Angus said these three worked for the bureau. He seemed to know what was going on here pretty thoroughly, even though Kravitz hadn’t given him many details about this particular mission.

Bit by bit it was starting to click into place. They still needed to leave, but Kravitz found himself pausing once again as he thought it over.

“Angus,” Kravitz said, his voice slow and deliberate. His son looked incredibly nervous right now, which he didn’t feel particularly sorry for at the moment. “You told me you were at a Candlenights party.”

“I… was at a candlenights party,” Angus said. He easily managed to tell that wasn’t the answer Kravitz was looking for and continued, his reluctance obvious. “But it stopped when we found a grand relic,” he muttered.

“So this is a relic,” Kravitz breathed out, a fresh rush on panic and understanding flowing through him. He knew it was too similar. It was the exact same thing that had caused all of the mirrors.

“Wait, Angus, how can your dad know about the relics?” Magnus asked. Kravitz saw Angus open his mouth to start to answer, but before he could Kravitz cut him out.

“I’d prefer it if none of you spoke to my son,” he snapped angrily. These were still high ranking bounties. High ranking bounties that were in the same strange organization his son had been in, and seemed to know him. Who could have been in contact with his son for months and he didn’t have any idea. Every single time he let Angus go off to the moon he’d been unknowingly risking his soul to necromancers.

“Dad, stop it,” Angus insisted. “It’s- you can’t kill them. They’re the reclaimers for the bureau. If you don’t let them finish this job this base will hit the ground and the philosopher’s stone will turn everything into crystal,” he explained.

Kravitz could remember the devastation wrought by the relics. He could remember the issues with this one in particular. How it had resulted in the death of an entire large city, of Angus’s parents.

But he was not going to simply take this standing either.

Summoning his scythe, he cut a large portal open.

“We’re going to the moon. I need to have a talk with this bureau of yours,” he said, no room for argument in his voice.

“Wait, dad no-” Angus started, but Kravitz turned towards the three bounties. The reclaimers Angus had always spoken so highly of, and pointed at them with his scythe.

“You three are to stop this relic, since apparently you’re quite good at that, and then I will be back to continue our discussion about your death counts.”

“What? Death counts?” the elf Taako asked, at the same time that Magnus declared.

“Oh! Angus’s dad is death. That makes sense now.”

“Does it?” Merle asked in clear disbelief. Kravitz was ignoring the three now, stepping through the portal he’d made. He knew Angus had mentioned a director of the bureau several times, and it didn’t take too much effort for him to find the area that must’ve been her office and appear there.

As soon as he’d stepped through, an older woman shot out of her chair, a long white oak staff leveled at his chest. It dipped slightly when she caught sight of Angus in his arms.

“Angus, what- who is this man? I thought you went to get some sleep,” she asked, still seeming very on guard. The only other person in the room with her was a small gnome man, who stepped out somewhat protectively in front of her.

“This is my dad, the um, the grim reaper,” Angus muttered, sounding very much like he was aware of how much scolding he was in for in the very near future.

“Sorry to disturb you at such a late hour, Madame Director is it? I’m afraid we need to have a discussion about the kind of business you’ve been involving my son in, as well as the mortal status of several of your employees,” he said, giving his best attempt at being diplomatic.

He saw her eyes glance from him to Angus and back to him again, a clearly intelligent mind working through everything and making connections. After a moment, she lowered her staff completely and nodded.

“Alright then. Let’s talk.”

Chapter Text

Kravitz finally let Angus down on the floor, keeping a hand on his shoulder just in case. In case of what he wasn’t sure. Angus trying to run away or so he could be sure to get him out to safety quickly if things broke bad here. Both probably, if he was being honest.

“Angus, what are you doing in a null suit?” the director asked, her eyes shooting to the boy as Kravitz put him down. Angus pulled the strange helmet off, starting to undo the suit as he spoke. That was a relief, that probably meant he wasn’t intending to try and go back to that damn lab again. He never should have been there in the first place, but Kravitz could deal with that later.

“It’s um, it’s kind of a long story madame,” Angus said. Kravitz could tell that for once he actually seemed much more keen to stay out of this conversation, at least for the moment. It was a blessedly rare thing for Angus, but considering the magnitude of what was going on right now, Kravitz couldn’t blame him.

Necromancers. Some of the highest bounties Kravitz had seen in lifetimes. He’d been spending time with Merle fucking Highchurch.

Taking a deep breath, Kravitz forced himself to focus on the now. At the moment, he needed to get as much information out of this ‘Madame Director’ as he could.

“I’m sure everything will be explained in due time madame. Shall we sit?” he asked. Civil. He needed to at least try and be civil right now, for Angus’s sake. It was obvious that he cared for these people, and despite everything they hadn’t done anything to harm him yet. Kravitz didn't even disagree with their main objective. He believed that getting rid of the relics was an important goal.

So as much as he didn’t want to, he was going to try and not jump to any conclusions. For now, at least.

“Alright,” the director said, heading back over to her chair. She levitated a few others over from the side of the room for him and Angus to sit down. As soon as he was seated, Kravitz summoned his book of souls.

“Dad?” Angus asked, concerned. The director was looking at him with mild suspicion, but nothing clearly hostile yet. Her hand hadn’t left her staff, and Kravitz couldn’t rightfully blame her for not wanting to let her guard down. The last thing he was going to do was try and start a fight while his son was in the room though, at least not in this scenario. Not when he knew Angus would try and stop it.

“Forgive me, but after the night I’ve had it’s best to be thorough,” Kravitz said, flipping through the pages as he spoke.

“Of course,” the Director said. It only took a moment for Kravitz to identify her soul, and he frowned when he came to exactly what he’d been hoping not to find.

“Madame Director Lucretia, you have died seven times,” he said, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Angus’s head whip towards her. “As a bounty hunter for the Raven Queen, you can understand why  this combined with the fact that you’ve hired multiple other bounties of mine to be wholly unacceptable,” he said, going to close the book. Before he did thought he caught sight of the gnome standing at the side of the director and sighed, opening it fully again. “Well, like I said about being thorough…”

“Dad, I really don’t think Mr. Davenport has-” Angus started to say, but before he could finish Kravitz had found the entry. He hadn’t even needed to turn the page after all, it was listed right with the others.

“Six. Six deaths for Mr. Davenport here,” he said, this time closing his book with a satisfying thud before letting it fade away. Angus stared at him in disbelief before turning back towards the director.

“Madame Director, I don’t understand…” he said, and Kravitz truly hated how hurt Angus sounded. He knew how much faith and trust he’d put into this organization. He’d never wanted to tear them down like this, he’d hoped despite his better instincts that this would be a good thing for Angus. But it turned out he was wrong. He should have been more prepared for something like this.

“Angus, I’m sorry. I swear I did not ever mean to deceive you,” the Director said, and it sounded like she meant it.

Kravitz had meant some very good liars over the years though, and he wasn’t about to trust blindly. There were exceptions made of course, but Kravitz wasn’t going to risk it when his son’s safety was on the line.

“You said it wasn’t necromancy though,” Angus argued. Kravitz swore, raising Angus had brought pieces of him that had been long forgotten back to life, and hearing the pain in his voice made his heart ache. Knowing that he’d discussed necromancy with these people made his stomach twist.

“Hunting for the relics is… dangerous. But I can promise you there was never any deliberate use of necromancy,” she said. Angus looked confused at that, and Kravitz frowned slightly.

“I’m going to need you to clarify that for me,” he said, because he wasn’t sure how much he was willing to believe yet. He had a hard time thinking that all of these people were unwitting and unwilling victims of someone else’s necromantic ritual.

“I take it you are aware of the relics, yes? Angus has been sharing this information with you against bureau protocol,” the Director asked, and Kravitz nodded. Angus ducked his head some, a guilty look flashing across his face.

“He already remembered the war, so I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, sorry,” he said. Kravitz was not a fan of Angus apologizing for not keeping more stuff from him, even though he could understand why.

“That’s quite alright Angus, considering the… situation, I can understand why the topic would come up,” the Director said, before turning her attention back onto Kravitz. “Before I had began the bureau, I had foolishly attempted to gather and destroy the relics personally. I had some help, but it wasn't... we weren't prepared. I had encounters with two of the relics before I decided to give up this individual approach. The encounters had not ended well,” she said.

It didn’t seem like a lie. As much as Kravitz wanted to make this simple and easy and throw everyone here into the eternal stockade, it really didn’t seem like a lie.

“I understand you’ve already gathered quite a few of the relics so far. Are the ones you went after yourself included in those?” he asked, and Lucretia shook her head.

“No. The one I’m assured you’d be most interested in was necromantic in power. It’s called the Animus Bell, and I could tell you where it is but I would not recommend seeking it out. I can’t image the kind of catastrophic damage that would be caused by someone like you succumbing to the thrall,” she said, and Kravitz frowned in offense at that. He wanted to insist that he would never fall prey to something like that, a pure concentrated source of everything he existed to fight against.

He could remember the wars though, and he wasn’t about to underestimate something that could cause such damage either. He was far from a god, and despite his pride he could admit that he made mistakes. He’d like to think he wouldn’t make one so grave, but he wasn’t going to go tempting lady fate to prove him wrong either.

“But what about Mr. Davenport? How did he get a death count too?” Angus asked, and said gnome was still glaring with suspicion at Kravitz. He’d yet to say anything though. If Kravitz wasn’t focusing so much on his surroundings he might have forgotten he was there at all.

“I’m afraid I came out… lucky, from the first attempt at gathering the relics. Davenport was less so, there were… sacrifices that had to be made, you understand? There were some who didn’t come out at all,” the Director said, and there was genuine sorrow on her face as she spoke. Angus’s shoulders slumped, and Kravitz could see things clicking into place in his head.

“Oh,” he said simply. After a small pause of silence Kravitz cleared his throat, because he needed to keep this going. It was so late, this night had gone on so much longer than he ever anticipated.

“That accounts for you and Mr. Davenport here. I’m afraid it doesn’t include the three men currently under your employment as reclaimers, I believe the title is,” he said, and he watched as the director’s mouth dipped down into a frown.

“What about the reclaimers?” she asked, an edge of suspicion in her voice.

“What about them is that they have died a total of eighty-four times between the three of them. Although I will grant that well over half of those deaths go to one Merle Highchurch,” he said, and he saw Angus’s eyes widen in surprise.

“Eighty-four?” he almost squeaked out. “ That’s what the fifty-seven meant, how many times he died?” he asked, some of the blood having noticeably drained from his face at the realization.

“So you can understand why you’re in trouble for not telling me you were spending time with some of my bounties,” he said, and Angus nodded weakly.

As upset and angry as Kravitz still was over that, at the moment he wanted to get all of this done with as fast as possible so he could take Angus home. Make him get some sleep so they could talk about these things in the morning.

“I… wasn’t aware of that,” the director said, cutting off his thoughts of getting home already. Kravitz wasn’t sure how well he could rightfully believe that. There was no way they had just happened to come into the employment of several people possessing equally high and unexplained numbers of death count. “Do you know how they’ve died so much? How are they still alive if that’s the case?” she asked, and Kravitz couldn’t help but scoff at that.

“No, there isn’t a single damn explanation of how this happened. I have no idea where you people have even come from but it’s a little hard to believe this isn’t all connected somehow,” he said, leaning forward in his chair some and starting to rub at his temples. This was not anywhere close to how he wanted to spend his night. He wasn’t even sure how he was getting a headache, like physically, but it was definitely happening.

“Perhaps it is connected,” the director said, a contemplative tone to her voice. Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that, lifting his head up to look at her again.

“And what do you mean by that?” he asked.

“If their deaths were caused in a similar way to my own, by the relics, it could explain why they are more capable of resisting the thrall than anyone else I’ve ever met. The exposure they’ve had to the thrall during that time could have helped them develop a resistance to it,” she said. Kravitz supposed that made sense. At least, it sounded logical enough, and he could admit that this woman probably knew more about the relics than he did.

He was surprised by how quiet Angus was being during all of this. Normally he would be pressing for answers, trying to make his own conclusions and fill in as much of this mystery as he could. He was sitting quietly next to Kravitz though, watching both him and this Director speak. It was obvious his attention was still squarely on the situation, but whatever he thought of it all he was keeping to himself.  

“Alright, I’m not going to pretend I know how these relics work, but I need-” Kravitz started to say, before cutting himself off, his mouth snapping shut as he felt a hard and urgent pull on his soul. “Shit,” he snapped, standing up and summoning his scythe. The director stood just as fast, some sort of magical barrier forming around her and Davenport.

“Dad?” Angus asked, looking fearfully between the two and Kravitz quickly shook his head.

“No, no not- damn it. Something’s wrong in the astral plane,” he explained. It was as much as he could explain because he needed to go now. He quickly grabbed a hold of Angus, who looked worried in a vastly different way now. “You’re grounded,” he announced, cutting a quick slice through the air to Angus’s room and placing him on the other side. “Stay inside,” he said.

“But dad what’s-” Angus started to ask, but before he could finish the question the portal closed. He shot a look over at the Director, who still had a shield up around her and Davenport.

“We’ll continue this later,” he said, before swiping another slice through the air. He moved to jump through the portal, but he paused for just a moment when she spoke up.

“Believe me or not, but I need you to understand that you can’t kill those three. Please, they’re this world’s only hope,” she said, and Kravitz needed to go. He still found himself standing for a moment, before laughing to himself and shaking his head.

“It’s funny. You’re not the first person to tell me that tonight,” he said. He could tell she wanted to ask what he meant by that, but he didn’t have time. Turning away, he jumped through his rift to the source where the pull on his soul was taking him.

Right to the eternal stockade.

Where a spectral form of hundreds of escaped ghosts were struggling to pull themselves through a hole torn right through the plane. Kravitz let his shoulders slump for just a moment, staring in befuddled disbelief at how bad his night was going.

“Fucking hell…” he muttered, before pulling his scythe up and flying towards the legion. Through the hole, he could see those three again, the bounties he’d been after before. It was the same lab as before, but something had obviously changed. They were fighting legion, keeping its attention.

He managed to swing his scythe through it before it noticed him. It shouted in rage and pain as the blade cut through, pulling out every soul it snagged and sending them back to the stockade.

“Hell yeah! Papa McDonald’s our backup!” one of the reclaimer’s shouted at him through the tear. He was fairly sure it was the befuddling elf that Angus seemed to like so much, the one who was teaching him magic. While Legion’s attention was on him, Kravitz saw Merle Highchurch casting turn undead, which he thankfully seemed to be out of range of, standing in another plane. The part of Legion on the other side wasn’t as lucky, screaming and scattering.

“I’m not your- do not call me that. You three help me deal with this and I might reconsider throwing you all in the stockade along with the rest of these criminals,” he shouted back. As much as he shouldn’t be making exceptions for people with such high bounties, he could feel that he was telling the truth when he said that.

“You got it! You can deal with that side!” Magnus said, and before Kravitz could say anything else he brought his ax down on whatever strange contraption was creating this rift. As soon as the blade landed the tear closed. It left a good chunk of legion stuck in the astral plane with him, no easy way to escape.

“I guess that works,” he muttered, before rushing forward and starting to round up as many souls as he could. It was brutal, vicious and efficient work.

After everything else that had happened tonight, he appreciated the chance to let off some steam.

——

Angus’s question died on his lips as his dad closed the portal in his face. He couldn’t really blame him for that, as much as he wanted to throw open a new portal and storm right back in there to figure out what was happening now. Tonight had not gone as planned. Tonight had gone so very off plan that words couldn't do it justice. Angus knew he was going to be in so much trouble, and it was obvious that something else had gone terribly wrong now.

He had no idea what though, but he’d seen the look of panic on his dad’s face. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good and he clearly had no time to waste.

Angus could go and try to figure out what was going on. He could go back to the bureau and ask the Director some questions. He had so many questions for her. He could do a lot of things that weren’t sitting around his room waiting for answers.

But he was tired, and he was grounded, and he really didn’t want to make his dad anymore mad than he already was.

So instead, Angus kicked his shoes off and went straight over to his bed, collapsing down on it face first.

He was so tired, but he couldn’t rightfully sleep. Not until his dad got home and told him what had drawn him away in such a hurry. He’d only said that something was wrong in the astral plane. Angus knew his soul was connected to the plane, but he couldn’t feel anything wrong with it.

He’d said in though, not with the astral plane. So who knows what it was. He’d just have to wait and find out.

Waiting was hard though, and the longer it took the more Angus kept thinking about the night. And before the night, everything he’d done and how he could have made different decisions and maybe everything wouldn’t be so awful right now.

His dad was never going to forgive him for this. He wasn’t ever gonna let Angus go back to the bureau. He didn’t even manage to make much of a case for the reclaimers not to get thrown into the stockade. He didn’t-

He didn’t even know if they shouldn’t put them in the stockade. He didn’t think they should, but he could be wrong. He’d already been proven to be wrong tonight. There was so much he hadn’t known.

Angus had no idea about the Director’s death count. Or Davenport’s. He never would have guessed, but he never would have guessed for the reclaimers either, if he hadn’t seen their names in his dad’s book.

They has so many deaths. It was more than he’d ever expected, and the Director. She was-

She was lying. About something. Not everything, she’d been telling the truth about the relics, about how they’d hurt her and Davenport. How she lost people trying to get them.

When his dad brought up the reclaimers though, she’d denied knowing anything about their death counts. She even tried to help his dad figure out what they could be, and her theory made sense. It even fit in with something Angus had never understood before, how they were the only ones who could withstand the relic’s thrall.

But she was lying. Or at least, he felt like she was. He couldn’t be sure, but something felt off when she said that. Angus was pretty sure his dad hadn’t realized anything. Maybe he was imagining it and he was too tired to be making these kinds of decisions but something was wrong.

Not that it even mattered because his dad was probably going to lock them all away in the eternal stockade anyway and the bureau wouldn’t be able to finish destroying the relics and it was all his fault.

All things considered Angus felt like he managed to hold out a pretty long time before he started sniffling into his pillow. He was trying really hard not to cry but he was tired and upset and certain that he’d made the whole night worse.

He was crying quietly by the time he finally heard another rip open up in the living room. Under normal circumstances, hell even under really bad circumstances Angus would have sprung up and immediately gone to question his dad on everything that had happened. To make sure his dad was okay, especially after that sort of exit.

But he was probably still really mad at him. And Angus didn’t want to know if he’d locked the reclaimers in the eternal stockade.

So instead of getting up Angus rolled over so that he wasn’t facing the door anymore, pulling a blanket up over his head for good measure. He guessed his dad must’ve expected him to come out though. After a moment he heard the door open slowly, like he was afraid he was asleep.

“Angus?” he asked softly, and he didn’t sound mad. Still, Angus tried to give off the impression that he was sleeping, but his breath was too shaky and his shoulders were trembling even under the blanket. He heard his dad walk across the room and felt him sit down gently on the bed behind him.

“Angus, it’s- you know I was just scared, right? I was so terrified when I saw you come into that lab, and- and finding out you’ve been working with these people. I was mad at myself for not doing a better job of making sure you were safe. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you,” his dad said, and Angus nodded, giving up on the poor attempt at pretending to sleep.

“I know,” he managed to croak out, and if his dad didn’t know he was crying before he definitely did now. Angus heard him sigh, but not in an annoyed way.

“Come on, sit up now,” he said, placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort. Reluctantly Angus pushed himself up, still keeping his blanket wrapped around him. When his dad started to pull him into a hug Angus immediately wrapped his arms around him, clinging to his dad and crying into his shoulder. He ended up crying for longer than he meant, but his dad didn’t seem to mind any. He rubbed at his back and ran a hand through his hair, mumbling words of comfort.

Angus had lost track of what time it was a while ago, but it had to be nearly morning by the time he pulled away and started rubbing at his eyes.

“You should get some sleep dear, we’ll talk about all of this in the morning,” his dad said softly. Angus was tired, he could barely keep his eyes open and he had a splitting headache from all that crying. Still, he couldn’t sleep unless he knew.

“Did- did you throw them into the stockade?” he asked, his voice shaking and still terrified of the answer.

“Oh Angus,” his dad said softly, materializing a box of tissues and starting to wipe the tears and gunk off his face. “No, I didn’t,” he said, and Angus perked up in surprise at that.

“Really?” he asked, and he knew his dad wouldn’t lie about something like that but he was still relieved when he nodded.

“Really, against my better judgment I'm afraid. We managed to work out a deal, as long as there’s no more unexplained deaths their bounties have been called off for now,” he said. Angus felt his whole body slump in relief at that. His dad finished cleaning up his face then, letting the dirty tissue dematerialize. “Now get some rest, we’ll talk about everything in the morning,” he added, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the top of Angus’s head before standing up.

He really didn’t have the energy to argue with that at this point, and he couldn’t have a productive conversation when he was struggling to keep his eyes open. So instead Angus nodded and laid down, curling up and pulling the blanket over himself. “Okay, goodnight dad,” he said as his dad walked towards the door. “Love you,” he added softly.

“I love you too Angus, happy Candlenights,” he said, turning the light off before closing the door. It had been such a long night that Angus had almost completely forgotten it was Candlenights.

Normally Angus wouldn’t be able to sleep after something like this, so many thoughts and theories and worries running through his head. Right now though he was tired, and they weren't going to throw the reclaimers into the eternal stockade. Neither the Director or Davenport either, apparently. He’d been up all night, and those were the most important things.

His dad was right, they could talk about everything else in the morning.

Closing his eyes, Angus fell asleep with little difficulty, finally letting his body give in to exhaustion.

Chapter Text

Kravitz didn’t sleep often. He didn’t need to. Sure, he slept more now than he ever had before Angus came into his world. Sometimes he’d get so into a routine of making sure Angus was eating and sleeping and taking care of himself to the point that Kravitz forgot he didn’t strictly need to do those things as well. He told himself it at least made for a good example at the very least.

After the absolute disaster of a night they’d all gone through, Kravitz would have very much appreciated a nap.

He still had paperwork he needed to do though. The stockade was a mess after the break out attempt, and he had what few reapers they could spare cleaning it up. He would have liked to be there himself, but he didn’t want to be gone in case Angus woke up. That was probably selfish of him.

That was... this might have to be something he talked to his Queen about. Eventually. Not now, not even anytime soon. Someday though, because he just- he needed to know what the limits were here. They'd never had a situation like this before.

On the matter at hand though, as much as he would like to take a break, he needed to finish up the paperwork. Calling off the reclaimers, the Director’s, and Davenport’s bounties took a bit more than changing some numbers in his fancy book. No one else needed to know that though, it would kind of ruin the dramatic effect. Plus, there was making sure everyone in the eternal stockade had been accounted for after that mishap.

Oh gods, plus the extension on Noelle Redcheek’s bounty. He had to make sure to put that through properly as well. He had no time to rest. He wanted to have the majority of this done before Angus woke up. He needed to be able to put his full attention on his son once he was awake so they could work out what happened last night. What had been happening for a while now apparently.

Kravitz didn’t even want to give himself the temptation of his bed, so instead he sat down on their living room couch and started working there. There was still a half decorated Candlenights bush in the corner of the room, but Kravitz kind of doubted Angus would be in the mood to finish that today.

Maybe they could try and do something nice this weekend. To get their minds off of everything.

Kravitz was good at doing paperwork, and after centuries of it he was quite fast. It still felt like this work was taking longer than usual. He kept having to reread lines, redo pages when he accidentally signed on the wrong line, frustrating little mistakes that were almost never an issue usually. It didn’t help that his head kept trying to dip down and his eyes would close without his say so. Really quite annoying. After he finished this and talked with Angus he could take just a small nap. He’d gone much, much longer without sleep in the past.

“Dad? Hey, dad?” Angus’s voice and a tentative hand on his should caused Kravitz to jerk up. The report he’d been working on, the extension for Noelle Redcheek's soul, fell to the floor with his sudden movement. Kravitz rubbed at his eyes, not sure when he’d even lied down.

Oh Queen, he’d actually fallen asleep. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened when it wasn’t his choice.

“Sorry, you can go back to sleep. I just saw you sleeping on the couch and you’ve never done that before,” Angus said. He didn't say he was worried, but the obvious edition still hung in the air. Kravitz went to answer but when he opened his mouth he immediately had to cover a yawn, shaking his head afterward.

“No, no, it’s quite alright dear,” Kravitz told him quickly, gathering up the papers that had gotten kind of scattered in his sleep. He would just have to finish the rest later. He only had to double check and sign off on Noelle’s soul and go over the freshly re-imprisoned souls from the stockade left. “How are you feeling?” he asked. Angus shrugged, eyes downcast as he started straightening the rug with his foot.

“Fine,” he mumbled, although it was obvious that wasn’t true. “It’s- I’m really sorry. For not telling you,” he added and Kravitz sighed.

“Yes, that is something we need to have a talk about, isn’t it?” he said, shifting over some so that Angus had room to sit down next to him. He did, and when Angus leaned against him Kravitz made sure to wrap an arm around him.

“They aren’t bad people. I just- I thought I could handle it on my own. I was gonna tell you as soon as I had proof that it wasn’t their fault,” Angus said. Kravitz couldn’t say that Angus's reasoning surprised him. It was far from the first time he'd had done something on his own that Kravitz would never want him anywhere near.

“You know I trust your judgment Angus, but this isn’t- you should have called me as soon as you found out who they were. What if it was all an act? If someone truly doesn’t belong in the stockade I’m not going to put them there, but I need to be the one to make that call. I don’t ever want you risking you life like that Angus,” Kravitz said.

He could think of people he’d met, bounties he’d taken in. People with silver tongues and tears in their eyes and a story, always a story of the hardships they’d gone through. How there’d been no choice, how it wasn’t fair and they needed this. How everything would be better if he just made this one exception.

It was hard. Sorting out who truly was an exception to the rules and life and death. Kravitz wasn’t infallible, he’d made mistakes before. Trusted when he shouldn’t, given people a second chance only for it to be abused. Hesitated a moment too long and reduced to nothing but a soul in an instant. Even with hundreds of years of experience, with a part of his soul belonging entirely to the Raven Queen, knowing he was guiding her in his decisions, he still made mistakes.

And Angus should have been wrong. Statistically it didn’t make sense. There should have been a trap, some underlying lie, anything. He still didn't fully trust the Director, but the fact that Angus was still here now was a major deciding factor in Kravitz recanting the bounties.

He didn’t know what strings lady fate was weaving to keep Angus safe, but he would have to go and personally thank her soon.

“I’m sorry,” Angus said softly, and it seemed that the gravity of the situation was sinking in somewhat.

“I know you’re capable, and I’m not going to ask you to give up this… passion you have for mysteries, despite how often you end up putting yourself in danger because of it. But Angus, you have to promise me you won’t ever do something like this again. I can’t lose you,” he said, and he couldn’t think of the last time he’d felt so raw. He’d had fears of losing Angus before, Queen knew he had, but the more he thought about this one the more terrifying it was.

“I promise. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said softly, and Kravitz nodded.

“I know you didn’t,” he said. Kravitz knew he could only hope that this would be the time that it would sink in for Angus, that he would finally start to realize just how fragile and mortal he was.

“You didn’t lock them away though… so you believe me? When I say they’re good people?” Angus asked hesitantly after a moment. Kravitz sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to think that one over.

“I believe that the situation is complicated, and whatever circumstances they’d gotten into in the past aren’t a part of their lives anymore. They haven’t hurt you, and I’d hate to have the world destroyed by those relics,” Kravitz said. There was more to it than that, but those were the most important things.

Those three were this world’s last hope.

Kravitz couldn’t get those words out of his head. He hadn’t known what to think, hearing them from Barry Bluejeans. He couldn’t trust that lich, of course he couldn’t. There was a sincerity in his voice though, one that struck as true. If not in reality, then certainly in the lich's mind.

And he still ended up sparing those three. The director has insisted the same thing, that they were the only hope this world had left. Her claim was more credible, but it still didn't- it didn't make sense. For both sides of this conflict to have such faith in the same small, strange group.

It was obvious that there was more to the story here. The director didn’t give details, and he was operating much more on faith than he’d normally be comfortable with. He just hoped it didn’t backfire.

“So,” Angus said quietly after a long moment. “Am I still grounded?” he asked, a tinge of hope in his voice and an uncertain grin on his face.

“Yes,” Kravitz answered automatically, the smile on Angus’s face instantly dropping into a pout. “Angus, you harbored death criminals from me for months. Yes, you’re still grounded,” he insisted, letting himself sound as incredulous as he felt. He knew he was too soft with his son more often than not but he wasn’t about to cave on this one.

“How long am I grounded for?” he asked, and Kravitz hadn’t actually thought that far yet.

“Do you have somewhere to be?” he said instead of giving him a concrete answer. To be fair, Kravitz figured it wasn’t unreasonable for him to want to take a few days to actually figure that out. He was definitely grounded for longer than a few days.

“I mean, I kinda wanted to, you know, get back to the bureau at some point… make sure they destroyed the philosopher’s stone…” he mumbled. Kravitz couldn’t help but wince at that, even though he knew this was going to be an issue. Of course Angus would still want to go to the bureau and continue working with them. It could never be that easy.

“I need to finish up the conversation I was having with Madame Director. I can ask her about the destruction of the relic and make sure it was taken care of then,” he said, Angus’s shoulders dropping at that.

“Yeah but… I should also ya know, be helping them find the next relic too,” he tried, and Kravitz sighed. Angus shifted, not pulling away from him but still turning so that he was facing him fully. “Dad, it’s my job. I know why you don’t trust them but you said it was okay before,” he argued.

“That was before I knew who they- ugh” Kravitz said, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a deep breath. “You have to understand why I’m so uncomfortable with this,” he said, because he really didn’t want to force Angus to give up the bureau completely against his will. If he didn't have a choice he would do it, but it would be so much more likely for it to actually work if Angus understood.

“I know, but I want to help them… and I don’t want to stop learning magic…” Angus said, his disappointment clear in his voice. That made this whole thing a little more difficult. He’d nearly forgotten one of them had been teaching Angus magic. He wasn't sure how he had, Angus had been so excited for it recently. There was quite a lot on his mind at the moment though, so he felt that was forgivable.

“Right, right, that weird wizard,” he grumbled, and at least that got a bit of a smile back onto Angus’s face.

“Yeah, he can be pretty weird,” he said, sounding more delighted by that fact than annoyed. “Maybe…” Angus started hesitantly, and Kravitz wasn’t sure what he was about to suggest but he kind of doubted he’d like it. “Maybe you would like them more if you got to know them better?”

“This has nothing to do with whether I like them or not. They’ve blatantly broken the laws of life and death,” Kravitz argued. Sure, he was going out on a limb and not throwing them all into the stockade, but he did not have to keep interacting with them. He certainly didn’t have to let Angus stay in contact with them as well.

“Then you can be there to make sure they don’t do anything else illegal and keep me safe, and besides…” Angus trailed off, giving him a look Kravitz couldn’t quite identify.

“Besides what?” he prompted.

“You don’t really have any friends dad, I think you’d like them if you got to know them,” Angus said. Kravitz frowned at that, not expecting the conversation to turn to this all of a sudden.

“I have you,” he said, and Angus giggled at that.

“I’m your kid, I don’t count,” he said, which Kravitz supposed was fair, barely. Thinking for a moment he was about to speak when Angus cut him off. “The Raven Queen doesn’t count either,” he said, and Kravitz shut his mouth again.

“I like the other reapers well enough,” he said, although the pause had been much too long for Angus not to feel like he’d won.

“Yeah, but you’re not really friends with any of them, you never hang out with them when you’re not in the stockade,” Angus said. Which, Kravitz supposed none of that was technically wrong. He’d never felt much of a want for friends though. He certainly didn’t need them.

A traitorous part of his mind chimed in with the fact that he’d never felt the need for children either, and he wouldn’t give up Angus for the world now.

“I really don’t think a friendship is going to happen here,” he said finally, Angus pouting a little at that. “But,” he continued. “I will think about letting you go back to the bureau with supervision, if it truly means that much to you.”

“It does,” Angus said, looking relieved. Kravitz knew how much he cared about this, and it was true they hadn’t done anything to hurt Angus in their time with him so far. They seemed rather worried about him in the lab even. There was still no way Kravitz was letting Angus stay with any of them on his own anymore, but maybe if he was watching.

“You’re still grounded though, so you’re going to have to hold off on any of that for now,” Kravitz said, because that was important.

“Yeah okay, I guess that’s fair,” Angus admitted reluctantly. Kravitz wondered if a month was too long to ground him for. Maybe not if he did actually end up taking him out during the weekend anyway, to make up for their ruined Candlenights.

Yeah alright, a month would probably work.

He'd still let him wait a few days before giving him the time frame though. Just to be sure.

——

When Angus woke up he’d found his dad sleeping out on the couch, which was definitely an unusual sight. It wasn’t that his dad didn’t ever sleep, but he certainly never ended up crashing like that. Angus guessed the previous night had been as rough on him as it had been on everyone else.

Still, when he woke up and they talked it wasn’t as bad as Angus was expecting it to be. He was grounded, and his dad wouldn’t tell him for how long either. He wasn’t allowed at the Bureau by himself anymore, but his dad said he’d think about letting him go if they were together. Which was a lot more than Angus expected if he was being honest.

“Well,” his dad said after a beat, pushing himself up off the couch. “We both had quite a night, I image you’d like some breakfast at this point, huh?” he asked, and Angus nodded. He hadn’t even realized how hungry he was until his dad brought up the prospect of food.

“Yes please,” he said. His dad started over to the kitchen, but not before glancing at the large stack of paperwork on the coffee table. If Angus had to make a guess, it was probably from everything that happened last night.

Which, he still didn’t have the full story of. Now that he was less worried about the state of the bureau and if his dad would hate him forever, he was getting curious about that again. He went over and sat down at the counter while his dad rummaged around for something to cook.

“Hey dad?” he asked, getting a hum in response. “What happened last night? I mean, I know a lot happened last night but after you left all in a hurry. You said something was wrong in the astral plane,” he asked, and he saw his dad wince at that.

“Right, that,” he said, pulling out some eggs and a frying pan. “There was a break out in the eternal stockade. The bounties I was supposed to be going after had managed to open a hole to let others through to the prime material plane. It’s all taken care of now though, but it might have gotten a little out of hand for a moment while I was dealing with your… friends,” he explained, and Angus couldn’t contain his surprise at that.

“Wait, really? How’d they manage that? Who was your bounty aga-” Angus started to ask, cutting himself off when it came back to him in a flash. His dad had said the names of the people he was going after before he left. How had he not made that connection? “Aarg!” he shouted in frustration, slapping his forehead. His dad turned towards him suddenly, a look of concern on his face.

“Angus?” he asked.

“Lucas! You said it was Lucas and I completely forgot!” he said. His dad still looked a little confused and concerned, turning back towards the eggs.

“Right, right. I take it he is connected to your bureau as well, right? You um, you knew him as well?” he asked cautiously, but Angus shook his head.

“I never met him. He was a consultant or something for science things. I think I saw him around once or twice but I never learned his name before last night,” he said, and his dad seemed a little more relaxed at that. “He organized a breakout of the stockade?” Angus asked in disbelief, and his dad nodded.

“Him and his deceased mother. They had not intended for quite so many souls to come through the exit they created, and Maureen came in willingly,” he explained. Okay, that was good at least. “We got everyone else back in as well,” he added, bringing the pan over and pushing some eggs onto a plate for Angus.

“Thanks,” Angus said automatically, dumping some salt and pepper onto them. They were a little overcooked, but he knew his dad was trying. “Sorry you had such a rough night,” he added after a moment. His dad had started cooking some more eggs, most likely for himself. He would eat and sleep on occasion, but Angus knew it wasn’t something he needed to do. Last night must have really wiped him out.

“It’s alright, I’m just glad you’re safe and it’s all done with now,” he said, poking at his eggs somewhat as they cooked. Angus couldn’t argue with that at all. He was pretty relieved it was all over now too. As horrible as it had been with everyone finding out, it was a lot less stressful now that everyone knew.

He had no idea how the people at the bureau would feel about him now though. The Director hadn’t seemed too upset at him giving information to his dad, and he doubted the reclaimers would care much about that aspect of it.

He’d never really told anyone about the whole death thing before. Sure, he wasn’t dead, but his dad was death. He lived in the astral plane and he was regularly watched by a goddess growing up. Angus was self aware enough to know that very few aspects of his upbringing could be considered normal.

He doubted it would change much though. He hoped it wouldn’t. Everyone at the bureau was a little odd, they’d all seen strange things before.

Magnus has sounded extremely cavalier about his dad being Death, and Taako had already been reluctantly accepting of the more ‘creepy’ things he would do. Merle had seemed pretty taken off guard, but considering his dad made him lose his arm in the night, that was pretty fair.

Angus liked to think they’d be okay with everyone once he got a chance to explain. He sure hoped they would be, at least.

It was quiet for a while as they ate, until a thought came to Angus and he suddenly sat up straight. “Oh shit,” he said, immediately getting a frown of disapproval from his dad.

“Language Angus,” he said.

“Shoot,”  he corrected, pushing himself out of his seat. His dad seemed both amused and vaguely concerned.

“Where’s the lich dear?” he asked, and Angus shook his head.

“We both got really busy last night, I didn’t get a chance to give you your Candlenight’s present,” Angus explained.

“Oh,” his dad said, and it sounded like that had caught him rather off guard. When Angus glanced back over at his dad he did look about as surprised as he sounded, but he wasn’t sure why. “I didn’t think you’d still be up to celebrating after everything,” he said. Which okay, that made sense.

“I mean, if you don’t want to that’s fine,” Angus said, trying not to sound too disappointed. He guessed it was fair, since he was grounded now and everything. He wasn't sure if you were allowed to do Candlenights and things like that when grounded. His dad quickly shook his head though.

“No no, of course I do. We can do a small exchange before I have to get back to all this paperwork, and the rest once we've settled everything else, alright?” he asked, and that made sense. His dad definitely had a lot to work on from everything that happened yesterday, Angus couldn’t blame him for that. A lot of it was probably to keep his friends out of the eternal stockade too, so he definitely couldn’t complain.

“Yeah that’s fine, it’ll be quick,” Angus said, running off to his room now. The present was still where he left it under the bed, what felt like forever ago now. It took a bit of stretching, but after a second Angus managed to snag the end of it with his fingers and drag it back so he could properly grab it and crawl back out.

He wasn’t too surprised when he went back out into the living room and his dad had a present for him ready as well. If he had to guess it wasn’t his only gift, just the one his dad wanted to give him now while they were doing this little exchange. It looked like some sort of long, thin box, and Angus’s mind was already trying to narrow down what it could be.

“Happy Candlenights, I hope you like it,” Angus said, handing over his own box, which was a bit larger than the other gift. It was hard buying for his dad, who was the grim reaper and could basically buy anything he wanted. Sometimes his dad forgot that he could do that though, or that he had interests outside of his job and raising him.

“Thank you darling, I hope you like yours as well,” he said. Angus took his gift, opening it slowly only because he kept stopping to watch for his dad’s reaction to his. It didn’t take long though, his dad quickly unwrapping it, and then pausing when he opened the case inside.

“Oh Angus, this is lovely,” his dad said, carefully taking the violin out and inspecting it. Angus grinned, relieved that he really did seem to like it. “It’s been forever since I’ve tried to play anything,” he added, and it looked like he was attempting to tune it some.

“I know how much you like music, so I thought you’d like it,” he said, and his dad nodded.

“It’s wonderful Angus, thank you,” he said, before looking back up at him. “Well, are you going to finish opening yours?” he asked and Angus jolted. Right, he’d almost forgot. Opening his gift, it went much faster now that he wasn’t waiting for someone else. Angus felt a look of awe fall over his face as he carefully pulled a wand out of the box. He thought it might be a wand.

It was a dark black twisted wood, with a bright blue gem embedded in the base of the handle. Angus gently traced his fingers along the grooves in the wand, the smile on his face growing wide.

“You like it? I know you already had a wand, but it never hurts to have a back up, and this one should be a bit more stable when you start learning higher level spells,” his dad said. Angus nodded, carefully putting it back into the box before jumping up to give him a hug.

“It’s perfect, thank you thank you thank you!” he said, going over and examining it again once he let go of his dad. He was chuckling slightly, and Angus saw him give one last look at the violin, clearly debating something before closing the case.

“Well then, it should keep you plenty occupied while you’re grounded. You can practice and get used to the new wand,” he said. Angus immediately frowned at the mention of his grounding again, even though he knew it was fair.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he grumbled. It couldn’t completely ruin his good mood though, and he did want to test out his new wand. “Are you going somewhere?” he asked when his dad stood and started gathering up the papers he had set on the coffee table.

“I shouldn’t be long, but I need to go check over the stockade to make sure everyone’s back where they belong, and then I should get these adjusted bounties to the Raven Queen,” he explained. That made sense, Angus was a little surprised he hadn’t gone to do all of that already, but he had been really tired from the looks of it. “I don’t need to tell you to stay here, right?” he asked, and Angus shook his head.

“I won’t go anywhere,” he agreed. His dad smiled, reaching down and ruffling his hair.

“See you soon Angus,” he said, before cutting a slice through the air and heading to the eternal stockade. Angus stood there for a moment, and then he headed into his bedroom with his wand.

He had a lot of time to kill, might as well start now.

Chapter Text

Angus was grounded, and he couldn’t exactly complain about that. He definitely knew it was coming and it honestly wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. It didn’t even seem like his dad was that angry with him now that most of it had blown over.

The only problem was that Angus was bored by this point. It'd been about a week now since he was first grounded, and he still wasn’t sure how much longer his dad was going to drag this out. Probably a while. Which was fair, Angus had harbored death criminals and went on a crystallized lab and lied to basically everyone. He probably deserved to be grounded for longer than a week. That didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

He spent the first couple of days practicing the spells he’d learned from Taako with his new wand. It had the slightest different feel to it, although Angus couldn’t quite put words to it. A little more solid, more steady.

Magic had been a good distraction, but after about four days he’d thoroughly exhausted all the spells he knew and every spellslot available. He had other things to distract himself with, books and such, but it didn’t take long to get through most of those either.

It’d been a while since he’d spent so long in the astral plane, and he was starting to go a little bit stir crazy. His dad was around most of the time, probably to make sure he wouldn't leave, but he still had a lot of cleaning up to do with the whole mess from Candlenights. The times he was gone dragged on even more, because Angus didn’t even have anyone to talk to then.

He guessed he could technically try and leave and hope his dad didn’t notice. That honestly wasn’t a risk he was willing to take yet, he didn’t want the grounding to last even longer than it already was.

His dad was out right now too. Not dealing with everything from Candlenights though. As far as Angus knew he was on another regular bounty. He had no idea how long it would be before he got back, and Angus had taken to lying on the couch in the living room, staring up at the ceiling and trying to think of a way to entertain himself.

Angus was vaguely tempted to try playing the violin he’d gotten his dad for Candlenights, but he wasn’t bored enough to risk messing it up. His dad hadn’t even gotten much of a chance to play it yet, so he definitely wasn’t going to ruin it by accident. Plus, he had absolutely no idea how to play.

He could reread some of his books, but he didn’t particularly want to. That didn’t feel like it would do much to fix the boredom. Maybe he could convince his dad to get him some new ones if he was going to be stuck grounded for much longer. Sure, this was a punishment and all, but he had a feeling he could convince his dad to give him some stuff to entertain himself anyway.

After a while his attention turned back towards magic. He’d already practiced most of the spells he knew today. He was bored of practicing those spells too. Pushing himself up off the couch, Angus decided to head over to the book shelf. It was mostly his dad’s books on the one in the living room, a lot of them not much of an interest to Angus. Looking through though, he managed to find one on some lower level spells.

He hadn’t tried learning anything on his own since Taako had started teaching him. He’d made attempts before then here and there to teach himself magic. The only times it ever seemed to work was when it was one of his powers connected to the astral plane.

Angus figured he had a base now for trying something else. So maybe this time it would work. At the very least, it was better than sitting around staring at the ceiling.

Flipping through the book, it had a few of the spells he’d already learned from Taako. So far he only knew a few cantrips and a couple first level spells. There were still a lot there he could try to learn.

Instead of looking for another cantrip or first level spell though, he skipped ahead and started searching through the second level spells. He wasn’t sure if he was actually strong enough to learn any of them, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. Whenever he got around to seeing Mr. Taako again, he’d probably be real impressed if he managed it.

Angus really hoped his dad let him go back soon. Before they found the next relic, at least. He wasn’t sure if his dad had ever went back to talk with the Director some more. He said he wanted to that night, but it didn’t seem to be at the top of his priorities. Angus guessed that was fair, he had a lot to do after all. There weren’t bounties on any of the bureau members anymore, so they could be dealt with later.

After a bit of reading, Angus decided to give a try at levitation. His dad could fly, and Angus could remember the way the Raven Queen would float him around her chamber when he was real little. She still did it a bit in the few times she ended up watching him, but Angus wasn’t going in demanding it like a little kid.

Looking over the spell, it didn’t really seem all that hard. He had his new wand, and started first by trying to get the incantation and movements right. It took a while, but after a bit he felt like he had it. He did kind of wish he had someone here to nudge him in the right direction if he was doing something wrong, but he’d just have to trial and error it.

His first attempt fizzled out with no effect at all. Angus tried not to let himself get discouraged, because he couldn’t really be surprised by that. It would take a few tries, but he told himself he would get this eventually.

The second try ended up reacting pretty much the same as the first, his wand glowing with magic for a few quick seconds before fading back down into nothing. This time he let out a little huff of frustration. He could feel the attempts taking up energy too, he kind of doubted he’d have many more shots before he would have to rest. That was if he had enough magic inside of him to cast second level spells at all.

He was connected to the astral plane though. It was a different source of magic than the one he drew on for his wizard magic, but it was still magic . He wasn’t sure if it would work, but Angus decided to try and focus on that, pulling up the energy to him, feeling like waves being drawn up by the tide.

“Come on, up,” he insisted, before attempting to cast the spell. It didn’t even fizzle out that time, his wand useless in his hand.

Angus didn’t have time to focus on that though, because he felt that power inside of him pull up, splashing over the edge as a crashing wave.

He stumbled forward, knocked off the couch and barely able to keep himself from smacking into the coffee table. He didn’t quite succeed, yelping when his arm smacked it. Or no, not his arm. His arms were fine and had managed to keep his face from hitting the floor.

A floor that has several feathers scattered across it now. Angus frowned in confusion, reaching over and grabbing his hat where it had landed. His lucky feather was still stuck in its proper place, and Angus sat up to put it on the table so that he wouldn’t get it mixed up with any of these new ones.

Except when he tried to sit back, he couldn’t quite sit like he expected to, something smacking against the front of the couch behind him.

Looking back in confusion, Angus started to laugh in disbelief, confusion, and delight.

There were wings there. Big black ones, raven wings he could tell from a glance, even all person sized like they were now. He quickly stood up, trying to spin around to get a better look, and he could feel them now. They were definitely wings that were attached to his body. Experimentally he tried to flap them, and their movements were a bit jerky, but they were certainly real.

“Hahaaa holy shit,” he said, spinning around again. Fumbling, Angus quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his stone of farspeech. He wasn’t supposed to leave but he needed to tell his dad about this. “Dad! Dad hey dad are you there?” he said as soon as the stone connected.

“Yes, Angus is something wrong?” his dad asked, sounding worried. Angus wasn’t surprised by that, he was always worried.

“No, at least I don’t think so? Uh, are you super busy right now?” he asked, still kind of moving around and trying to test out these wings. He made a large mirror in the middle of the room to get a better look at them.

“I’m at the stockade, do you need something?” he asked, and Angus almost told him he could wait until he got back, but he wasn’t sure how long he would be able to keep the wings. He also didn’t know exactly how to get rid of them though, so he didn’t want to risk it.

“Um, not really? Could you come home real quick though? I think I did a new like, power thing? With the astral plane magics and stuff?” he said. There was a smile stretched across his face as he looked at the wings, barely able to contain his excitement. He wondered if his dad would get mad if he made the ceiling like, super high so he could try and practice flying.

“What do you mean? Are you sure you’re fine?” his dad pressed, and Angus quickly nodded.

“I’m fiiine come see it! It’s really cool!” he said, sort of bouncing now. He heard his dad sign fondly over the stone and could picture the look of endearing exasperation on his face at that.

“Alright, I’ll be right there,” he said before hanging up on the stone. Almost immediately Angus heard the tear of one of his dad’s portals behind him, and he spun around to meet him. “So, what did you manage to- holy shit,” his dad started to say, and it wasn’t hard to pinpoint the exact moment he noticed.

Instead of heading over to his dad like a normal person Angus decided to take a running leap, tentatively trying out his wings. He wasn’t sure if he actually managed to do anything with them this time, but his dad managed to catch him without falling over.

“I was trying to teach myself levitate but it didn’t work!” he said. It was obviously a little awkward for his dad to hold him like this, trying not to mess with the sudden new appendages and Angus was still definitely a little too big to be held. He could see his dad looking him over in befuddled confusion.

“Yeah this certainly isn’t the levitate spell,” he muttered, putting Angus back down on the ground. “They just- you made these?” he asked, and Angus frowned slightly as he tried to think it over.

“It’s not like making stuff around the house. These feel like they’re a part of me? Like, I can move them and stuff,” he said, giving them another flap to show what he meant. His dad nodded, starting to smooth out some of the feathers that had gotten ruffled when Angus jumped at him.

“They don’t hurt, or anything? How long have they stayed so far?” he asked, and Angus shrugged.

“I called you almost immediately, a couple minutes. And no, they feel fine,” he said, and he could tell his dad was thinking. “I just kind of thought they were a thing with the astral plane magic. I was trying to concentrate on that when I cast the spell, cause I was out of spell slots but still wanted to try,” he explained.

“Right, no that makes sense,” he said, and it was clear that he wasn’t sure what to do about this. It honestly wasn’t what Angus expected, he always seemed to have a pretty good idea of his astral plane powers.

“Is it okay?” he asked, and his dad nodded, pulling himself out of whatever thoughts he’d been stuck in.

“Yes, yes of course it’s alright Angus. This is just a surprise. It’s- we always knew that your development when it came to magic would be unorthodox. We’ve never had a mortal bound to the plane like you are before, most of your powers have been things I’ve dealt with before. It was only a matter of time before they started manifesting differently though,” he said.

Angus supposed that made sense. He guessed it would be a little unpredictable how that kind of power would manifest when channeled through a mortal.

“I like them,” he said, giving them another flap. His dad chuckled at that, nodding in agreement.

“They definitely suit you,” he said, and Angus was inclined to agree. It wouldn’t help the spooky vibe he apparently gave off, but he doubted he’d be going around with them all the time. Or at least, he probably wouldn’t be. It kind of depended.

“Hey dad?” he asked, his dad nodded.

“Yes?”

“How do I make them… go away?” he asked. He could see his dad blink in surprise at that, a look of thought falling over his face afterwards.

“That’s- hm,” he said, his fist balled up and held against his mouth as he continued to stare at Angus’s wings. That was very much a sign of someone who had no idea how to actually answer the question. “How did you make them appear again?” he asked instead, and that was a good place to start, yeah.

“I was trying to cast levitate, and I kind of like, pulled on the power of the astral plane? It kinda felt like a wave, and it just sort of spilled over,” he said, doing his best to put the feelings into words. His dad nodded, thinking that over.

“Maybe try and put that power back some? Push it back inside of you instead of dragging it out to the top,” he said. Angus nodded, and he didn’t particularly want to get rid of the wings now but he wanted to be sure that he could. It would be a lot better if he could learn to have control over this sort of stuff.

It took some concentration, but after a moment he managed to feel that even push and pull of energy inside of him, steady with his breath and the beat of his heart. Focusing on that, he tried to do what his dad said, pushing it back inside.

He wasn’t sure when he’d closed his eyes, but when he opened them again and looked behind him, the wings were gone. “I did it!” he said excitedly.

“You did, that’s incredible Angus,” he dad said. Angus was already focusing on trying to catch that energy again, pull it back towards the surface and focus on flight.

With another ruffled flash of feathers, the wings were back again and Angus laughed, twirling around. He really needed to stop spinning or else he would start to get dizzy.

“Wow, you’re really catching onto that fast,” his dad said, sounding somewhat in awe. Angus nodded, a huge grin plastered onto his face at this point.

“Yeah! It’s like- I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but it’s a lot like making things in the house, but focused on me,” he said. His dad nodded, seeming to understand. “Hey, I’m still grounded right? So I can’t leave the house?” he asked, and his dad nodded.

“Yes, for another week at least,” he said. Angus nodded, not too deterred by that. Honestly, another week was a lot shorter than he’d been expecting. Longer than he hoped, but understandable.

“It doesn’t count as leaving the house if I make another room though, right?” he asked, and his dad frowned, reluctantly shaking his head.

“No, I suppose it doesn’t. Why?” he asked, clearly suspicious of whatever it was Angus was planning. Angus headed over to a wall and created a door to a large room, at least twice the size of the living room, with the floor a good five feet down from where he made the door.

“I’m gonna learn how to fly!” he said, moving back before taking another running leap.

“Angus no!” his dad shouted. As he jumped he tried to get his wings to work for him, but they were still jerky and he wasn’t sure how they were supposed to be catching the air. Before he hit the ground his dad appeared leaping out of a rift, grabbing him out of the air. “You’re going to break your neck doing that!” he snapped. Angus laughed though, and his dad had floated them both back to the floor now, carefully setting him down.

“I’ll make a bunch of pillows or something,” he said, not that it seemed to satisfying his dad any.

“Don’t go jumping off of high places Angus, it’s not- how in the world am I ever going to get you to have just an ounce of self preservation?” he asked, and Angus shrugged.

“I don’t know, you’re not real scary as death, and the Raven Queen is nice,” he said, and his dad sighed, shaking his head.

“I’m not sure what else I expected,” he said, not sounding as annoyed as he probably should be. Angus flapped the wings again, trying to figure out how he was supposed to use them to actually fly.

“Do you gotta get back to work now?” he asked, and his dad sighed, looking uncertainly at the pit of a room they were in.

“I suppose so. No jumping off of high surfaces, especially when I’m not around,” he said, and Angus’s shoulders slumped at that.

“How high?” he asked after a moment of consideration, his dad barely able to hold back a laugh at that.

“Nothing higher than three feet,” he said after some thought. It wasn’t the best, but he could work with it. “And make some pillows,” he added.

“Alright,” he said with a grin. Well, at least he had something to entertain himself with now.

———

Kravitz could say for certain that he hadn’t been expecting that one.

He guessed it made sense though, with how Angus was. They’d never had anyone like him before, and his powers were bound to manifest in a multitude of ways. Considering that he was learning magic now too, it only stood to reason that he would start to grow strong and develop more of his powers. It wasn't even entirely unheard of. Champions and warriors with the Raven Queen's blessing were sometimes gifted with wings, and Kravitz himself could change his appearance to create some. His were mostly decorative though, since he could fly without them, and Angus was still so young.

Kravitz wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do with all of this. He knew how a lot of the base powers worked, the things like portals and manipulating the astral plane. It was going to be more than that moving forward, and Angus was clearly excited about the prospects.

Excited enough to jump off of tall structures and risk putting himself in danger. Nothing new per say, but an ever increasing headache for Kravitz none the less.

Still, he left Angus to work out the energy this new discovery had filled him with. Hopefully three feet wouldn’t be too high for him to get seriously injured? Preferably Kravitz wouldn’t want him jumping off of anything, but it seemed like Angus was starting to get a little restless with his grounding.

Which was fair, grounding wasn’t supposed to be fun for him. Still, he couldn’t exactly bring himself to want Angus to be miserable. It was probably better for him to be testing out these things in the safety of their house anyway. Didn’t make Kravitz feel any less anxious about it, but it would have to work for now.

Heading back to the eternal stockade, he actually didn’t have that much left to do before he was done and could head back home. It’d been a pretty solid week of working to make sure they'd secured everything and that the deals Kravitz had made weren’t completely out of line. They couldn’t go back on their deal even if it was, that wasn’t how a deal with death worked.

It would have fallen on his head though, so he was thankful the Raven Queen had been understanding of the situation.

Hopefully, she understood the situation a little better than he did, because he still wasn’t too sure if he made the right choice there.

Kravitz had intended to go back home as soon as he finished his work, to make sure Angus hadn’t gone a broken his arm or twisted an ankle or lost even more teeth. He paused before opening the portal to head home though, his mind still on Angus’s new powers.

And on Angus’s well-being in general. It’d been at the forefront of his mind for a while now.

Instead of going home, Kravitz went to the Raven Queen’s chambers. He’d been in here quite a lot lately, and he felt her reassurance that it wasn’t a burden before he even had the time to get anxious about it.

“Sorry for disturbing you my Queen,” he said anyway, a formality.

“It is no disturbance,” she said, and Kravitz nodded in appreciation. “You are concerned,” she added, and Kravitz did appreciate the way she could get to the point of what he needed. That was gods for you though.

“Yes. Angus has shown growth in channeling the energy from the astral plane. It’s manifesting in some ways that aren’t well, typical for regular human children,” he said. He could see feathers and hair shift as she nodded.

“He is no regular human child,” she said, and Kravitz couldn’t help but chuckle some at that. That was an understatement if there ever was one.

“I know, I just worry about him too much. He’s enthusiastic now, but if they continue to grow I don’t want him to get… overwhelmed, I suppose,” he said. He wanted to be able to help Angus as much as possible, and he wasn’t sure how well the living took to powers like the ones Angus was likely to develop.

“He will have you for support, and you both will always have me, my Kravitz,” the Raven Queen reassured him. Kravitz felt himself relax some at that, but not completely. It wasn’t that he didn’t doubt the Raven Queen’s ability to help them, far from it. He knew this wasn’t the only thing bothering him, and the Raven Queen did too.

“My Queen, I’m sure it’s something you’ve known for a long time, but Angus is my… life. And sometimes that feels a little contradictory, given the circumstances,” Kravitz said.

When he thought about it, he knew it shouldn’t be right. He had a son. He was spending more and more time outside of the astral plane without bounties, and when Angus started going back to the moon base he was sure that would only continue to increase.

He didn’t know what he would do if he ever lost Angus, and he didn’t want to find out.

He was death, and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to feel all of this like he was anything but dead.

“My dear Kravitz, there is no need to worry over such things,” the Raven Queen said. “I know you have been devoted to me for lifetimes now, and I know that devotion has not changed. There is no need to try and limit yourself here. You are permitted to care for Angus and to live to your fullest extent,” she finished. It felt like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders at that. He knew how much this had worried him, but he hadn’t quite realized how long it had been weighing on him.

Probably about ten years now. It hadn’t taken him very long to get attached.

“Thank you,” he said, bowing and he could feel the Raven Queen smiling at him.

“You’re welcome, my reaper,” she said, and with that he stood back up straight. “It may be best for you to get home now. It would seem Angus has some rather creative ideas of what counts as three feet,” she added, and Kravitz felt himself bulk at that.

“Right as ever my Queen,” he said, giving her one last bow and feeling her laughter as he quickly turned and made a slice to get back home.

“What did I tell you about jumping off of high places?” Kravitz asked as soon as he stepped into the little training room Angus had built himself. It had certainly changed a lot in the short time Kravitz had been gone. There were several pillars and stairs of varying heights scattered about the place, all along different levels of flooring, pillows and cushions covering the whole area. Angus was currently standing on a pillar that looked to be at least seven feet up.

“It’s three feet! It’s just, on another level,” he said, and it was technically true. It was a three feet pillar up on a section of the room that was about four feet up from the bottom where Kravitz stood.

“You are going to be the death of me,” Kravitz said, not quite able to keep the fondness out of his voice.

“That’s pretty hard when you’re already dead,” Angus replied.

“Somehow you’ve managed it anyway,” he said, and he knew the smile on his face canceled out any irritation he was trying to convey. He couldn’t say he was too upset by that though.

Chapter Text

As it was, Angus was getting better at figuring out how to make his wings functional. Kravitz had spent much of the past week watching and trying to make sure that he didn’t go breaking anything as he practiced gliding with them. He had to admit Angus was getting the hang of it, and there was even some tentative flight starting. Little by little he was improving, and Kravitz supposed in the end that was a good thing.

He’d always been terribly worried about Angus falling off of something and getting hurt. Especially when he was younger and seemed so insistent on creating stairs everywhere he went in the astral plane. At least now if Angus did ever end up falling somewhere he had a pretty good chance of catching himself before he got hurt too badly.

Kravitz had managed to keep up his grounding for two weeks now. He had a feeling he was reaching the limit of Angus’s ability to entertain himself though. He’d been hoping for it to last at least a month, but it didn’t seem like that was going to work out without Angus starting to try to go behind his back. That was the last thing he wanted. Kravitz was trying not to be a pushover here, but he understood how boring it had to be for him. Sure, Angus wasn't supposed to be having a grand time before grounded, but the point was more than he understood what he did was wrong, rather that only punishing him.

When they sat down to eat for dinner that night Kravitz decided to be the one to bring it up first. He knew if he waited too long Angus would try to test out the subject himself, and it was best for this to at least seem like this was Kravitz’s idea. Keep up some illusion that he was the adult in this situation.

“So, I was thinking of easing up on your grounding some, since you’ve been doing good about not leaving the house like I asked,” he said, flipping through some documents from the eternal stockade. Angus’s head immediately perked up at that, clear surprise on his face.

“Really? Can I go-” Angus started to ask, clearly excited at the prospect. Before he could get his question out though Kravitz held up a hand to cut him off.

“Some stipulations though! You’re still in trouble after all, I just don’t want you going stir crazy in here,” he said. Angus’s obvious excitement deflated some, but he was still listening attentively, so Kravitz continued. “No changes to the rules here in the astral plane, you can explore wherever you like, just stay out of the eternal stockade if I’m not with you,” he started. Angus nodded, seeming fine to accept that. He hadn’t expected there to be any problem with that though. “I don’t want you taking any detective jobs right now,” Kravitz continued, and that’s what got a reaction.

“But you said you wouldn’t make me stop!” Angus complained, and Kravitz nodded.

“I’m not. Not forever, consider this um, a probation of sorts. I just want to make sure you’re not immediately jumping back into another situation like this last one,” he said. Angus was still pouting, but he seemed to be thinking it over.

“For how long?” he asked after a moment.

“Another two weeks, and I want to hear about the jobs you’re taking and who’s involved once you start up again,” he said. Reluctantly Angus nodded.

“I guess that’s fair,” he said. He did not sound thrilled but it was clear he was willing to put up with this for now as long as it meant he could resume his detective work at a later date. “What about the bureau?” Angus asked after a moment, and Kravitz sighed. That was the main topic he was not looking forward to discussing again.

“I really don’t want you going back up there,” Kravitz told him truthfully. As he expected Angus didn’t look like he was going to readily agree to that.

“But they’re not bad people! And- and I want to help them keep the world safe,” he argued. Kravitz rubbed at his temples, because he knew that Angus wasn’t going to want to stop with the bureau, as much as he hoped he would.

“I know you do, but I just don’t want you getting hurt,” he said.

“What if you came to the moon with me? You said you’d consider it, and it doesn’t even have to be a lot,” he said, and Kravitz knew that suggestion was coming too.

“I’m not too sure how much your bureau would appreciate having me hanging around their base,” he said, and Angus frowned at that, a look on his face like he hadn’t even considered that. He opened his mouth to speak, before closing it and seeming to think it over some more.

“But… we could explain it to them? I’m sure they would understand,” he said after a moment, not sounding as certain about that as he was trying to.

“I did kind of get Merle’s arm chopped off Angus,” Kravitz said, and his son’s shoulders slumped a little at that.

“Yeah… Merle’s probably gonna be mad… I don’t think he likes me very much to begin with,” he said, and Kravitz really did hate how disappointed he sounded. “We could at least go ask the director though, right? I still think they'd understand if we explained it to them,” he suggested, and Kravitz supposed he could at least allow that much.

“We can go and talk to them tomorrow. But I’m serious about not wanting you there anymore without me around, alright? I need to see for myself that it really is safe,” he said, and immediately Angus’s smile came back. Kravitz didn’t know why his son had to get so invested in an organization full of death criminals, and not like, scouts, or sports.

“Thank you! I promise, if they aren’t alright with you being around after we explain everything I won’t push it anymore,” he said, and Kravitz actually felt like he was telling the truth with that. “You should um, probably apologize to Merle though. Cause he did lose an arm,” Angus added, and Kravitz couldn’t help but wince a little at that and nodded.

“Right, maybe we keep some space from those three reclaimers of yours at first, just in case,” he said. Angus reluctantly nodded.

“At least Merle. Taako would probably understand if we explained it? And Magnus forgives pretty easily,” he said. Kravitz wasn’t sure how much he was willing to bet on that, but he nodded anyway.

There were not a lot of things that got Kravitz nervous anymore. At least, he liked to think there wasn’t. He’d faced deathly horrors and abominations of the likes seldom seem in this world. Most days he went in to deal with necromancers and cults with a feeling of mild irritation and frustration, not worry.

Despite that, Kravitz found himself nervous the next morning. He told himself it was because Angus was involved in all of this. If it went badly he knew the boy would be so disappointed. As much as he would prefer to keep him away from the bureau, he didn’t want to crush his hope that this would go well.

Not many people were willing to have an aspect of death around in such a direct manner. Considering the disaster that had been Candlenights, he didn’t have his hopes up that they were going to persuade them too easily.

Still, he told Angus they would go talk to them today, so that’s what they were going to do. He assured Angus they would, the boy practically jumping out of his seat as Kravitz insisted he had to eat breakfast first. It was perhaps the faster Kravitz had ever seen someone eat cereal before. He wasn’t sure if he was impressed or concerned.

“Can we go now? I uh, I know you probably have a lot of other things you gotta do so we should get it out of the way first, right?” Angus said, and Kravitz could commend him for at least trying to make it seem like he wasn’t just very excited to get back to the moon. Sighing, Kravitz pushed himself up to his feet and nodded, summoning his scythe in his hand.

“Yes, I suppose we should get this over with,” he said, cutting a slice through the air to the location of the Director’s office. He didn’t quite consider how threatening that might look, but he couldn’t blame the woman for having her staff leveled at him as soon as he walked through. At least it lowered once again when she saw Angus.

“Wait! It’s okay Madame Director, you’re not in trouble,” Angus insisted. Kravitz could see the hesitance on her face, but even still she reluctantly put her staff back down.

“Hello Angus, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” she said, and that sounded genuine. Her eyes were still wary as she turned back to look at him however. “And to what honor do we owe a visit from your father?” she asked. Angus’s shoulders slumped at that, and he scratched at the back of his head sheepishly.

“That’s uh, that’s not you guys actually. I’m um… not allowed here anymore… without supervision,” he mumbled, not quite meeting her eyes.

“Considering our last conversation I’m sure you can understand why I would feel the need to be a little cautious letting Angus come here at all,” Kravitz jumped in. He still wasn’t sure how this was going to shake out, but he felt he deserved to be pretty firm in his stance on this.

“Of course,” the Director said, although she still didn’t look too pleased by that. “But I can assure you, none of us ever had any intention of putting Angus in danger,” she added, and Kravitz nodded.

“I’m sure you didn’t. Look, it’s very clear that you’re a smart woman, so I’m going to level with you. Taking everything else out of the picture, the point of the matter is you know who Angus is now, and I’m sure word has spread around your little organization. I’ve been around a long time and I’ve seen the kind of things people will do to avoid death. Another person in connection to your organization had almost caused a completely breakout of one of the most secure areas of the astral plane, and I’m not sure if there are other people around here who could be that desperate,” he said. Angus was looking up at him in surprise, like he hadn’t considered that side of it. The Director also looked surprised for a moment, before nodding.

“I can’t blame you for wanting to take precautions where your son’s safety is concerned,” she said after a moment. Kravitz couldn’t say he trusted this woman, but he did appreciate how she was taking this so far. He could understand the situation she was in.

“I understand that the security of this base is important to you, and despite the misgivings I have with some of your employees I have reason to believe that the work you’re doing here is… guided by fate, shall we say,” Kravitz continued. Call it a hunch on his part, but he couldn’t believe that the Lady Istus wasn’t involved in the workings here. “You can’t really stop me, but I’d like to ask your permission to be on base and have access to the areas Angus can go,” he added. Both Angus and Madame Director seemed a bit surprised by the polite request.

“Yes, I suppose we can allow that,” the Director said after a moment of internal deliberation. “I would like to formally request that you do not reap any of my employees while you’re here. Baring any actual future deaths, of course,” she said and Kravitz nodded, the request easy enough to agree to.

“Of course,” he said. The Director smiled slightly then, a look of amusement on her face.

“I don’t suppose I could interest you in a bracer and becoming a full member of our organization?” she asked, and Kravitz politely shook his head.

“I think I’m good,” he said. With that she turned towards Angus, who definitely looked pleased with how this whole thing had gone. To be fair, it was a hell of a lot smoother than Kravitz would have ever predicted. He wasn’t sure what kinds of things this woman had been through to have a conversation with the grim reaper be so casual, and to go so far as to make a halfhearted attempt at recruiting him. He could say for sure that he was impressed though.

“Angus, we’re very glad to have you back. If you would like to give your father a tour of the base that shouldn’t be any issue,” she said. Angus’s face lit up at that, the boy quickly nodding.

“Yes! I can do that,” he said, looking a hair away from grabbing Kravitz’s arm and pulling him right out of the room. “Oh yeah, I might not be around as much as before. My dad’s pretty busy, but I promise I’ll still help you all as much as I can,” he added, and the Director nodded.

“That’s fine, we’re thankful for any help you can give,” she said. With that Angus did grab his hand, giving a quick goodbye to the Director before leading him out of the room.

As they left, Kravitz made sure to get rid of the scythe and feathered cloak. There wasn’t any need to stand out in every conceivable way. While he was sure word had spread about him, he wasn’t looking to go flaunting it either. If anything, he was hoping to avoid talking to the rest of the people on this base as much as possible.

He had no idea how successful he was going to be with that. If he had to guess, not very.

———

Angus was genuinely surprised by how well that had gone.

He’d been worried all night, to the point where he’d had trouble sleeping. He wasn’t sure how much the people at the bureau were going to be okay with everything he’d been keeping from them being shoved into the light, but the Director had been surprisingly fine with it all.

She was gonna let his dad stay on the moon base, which meant he could stay on the moon base. Sure, only when his dad was around and willing to take him, but that was better than nothing. Angus was pretty sure that if things went well for long enough he’d back off some too. The people were good here.

Or at least, that’s what he wanted to believe. There was a nagging in the back of his mind, a certainty that something was being kept from him. Angus knew he’d have to explore what that was eventually, but not yet. His dad didn’t want him sticking his nose into anything too dangerous so soon after all.

And besides, no matter what they were keeping at the end of the day, Angus did not think anyone here was evil.

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. They weren’t the kinds of things he wanted to be thinking about while he was showing his dad around the base. He was trying to give him as good of an impression as possible.

“So where do you want to go first? It’s not a super big base so we can definitely see all of it while we’re here but we can go wherever you wanna to start,” Angus asked, rocking back and forth in excitement. His dad didn’t seem to expect the question, quietly thinking it over for a moment.

“How about we start at whatever place is your favorite?” he suggested. Angus paused, thinking that over.

“Well, my favorite is probably the library, that’s where I spend the most time… wait no! We should go see the voidfish first,” he said. The voidfish was definitely the most wondrous thing on the base, and he knew for sure that his dad had never see anything like it. Besides maybe regular jellyfish. Those were pretty similar but also not at all.

“Oh, yes I suppose we could do that first,” his dad said, seeming a little surprised by that suggestion. Angus supposed it made sense, it was kind of the most secure thing they had besides whenever they had an actual relic on base. Still, the Director said his dad had clearance to go anywhere he could, and Angus was allowed to go down to the voidfish.

As they walked there were a few people who seemed to stare here and there, and Angus couldn’t blame anyone too much for that. There weren’t typically a lot of new people on the base, and he and his dad did kind of stand out some.

Heading into the voidfish’s chamber, Angus smiled at Johann who looked up in surprise.

“Hi Mr. Johann! I’d like to introduce you to my dad. I brought him here to see the voidfish if that’s okay,” he said. When he glanced back at his dad he wasn’t looking at Johann, instead staring up at the large floating creature in the tank in front of them. Angus could understand why, it was a pretty amazing sight.

“Uh, okay then. Hi there, Mr. Angus’s Dad, I guess? You uh, here for an inoculation?” Johann asked. Before Angus could explain his dad torn his eyes away from the voidfish and shook his head.

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary. This creature is stunning, are you the one who takes care of it?” his dad asked, and Angus was pleased at how genuinely curious his dad sounded. Johann blinked in confusion, taking a few moments to answer the question.

“Uh yeah, that’s me. Wait, you can see it?” he asked, and his dad nodded.

“Yes,” he said, not offering any sort of explanation. Angus couldn’t help snickering at the completely bewildered look on Johann’s face at that. He quickly made himself stop though, not wanting to torture the half elf too much.

“My dad isn’t actually effected by the voidfish. It’s um, it’s a little complicated but-” Angus started, trying to explain without saying too much. He wasn’t sure how many people had actually heard about everything, but it was clear that Johann hadn’t.

“I’m dead, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” his dad cut in, and Angus snapped his head over to glare at him.

“Dad! You can’t just go around telling people that!” he said. His dad was smirking in amusement, and Angus was fairly sure this was supposed to be some form of payback. Angus couldn't even say it wasn't payback he deserved either. He huffed, but at least his dad was loosening up enough to joke around some. Johann was staring at the two of them throughout this, before shaking his head and throwing a hand up.

“Yeah, sure why not. You’re dead, nice to meet you dude. My life is already so fucking weird,” he grumbled. Angus knew he should probably feel bad, but he couldn’t quite keep a smile off his face at that.

“Sorry Mr. Johann, I know it’s a little strange,” Angus said, not wanting to torment the poor dude too much. Johann just nodded, seeming kind of over it, which was fair. They didn’t tell a lot of people, or well, anyone really before now, but he figured this was a somewhat appropriate reaction.

They ended up spending a bit more time in the voidfish chambers than Angus expected, not that he was complaining. He liked it down there, it was peaceful. After a bit Johann seemed to relax some, despite the weirdness going on. His dad had noticed some of his music sheets and violin and managed to convince him to play for them, which probably helped. It was as amazing as it ever was, Angus could tell that even his dad was impressed.

A bit after that they left, and Angus decided they should wait to see the library and hit some of the faster things first. So he shows his dad around where the training area was and the cafeteria, moving quick through those.

They had just left the dorms, after Angus had showed his dad his room. There still wasn’t a lot in there, but it was pretty important for him to know where it was. Angus figured they should continue coming in and out of the bureau there as not to give the director a heart attack.

They were walking across the quad when Angus paused, catching sight of Taako also walking away from the library. Grabbing his dad’s hand, he started to pull him over towards the elf.

“Hey, there’s Taako, we should go say hi,” Angus said. His dad stopped walking, and Angus wasn’t actually anywhere near strong enough to pull him against his will.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Shouldn’t we give those three um, space? For a bit,” he said, and Angus could understand why he wouldn’t want to go running up to them. Still, it would be better to get it out of the way as fast as possible.

“Taako’s the easiest to talk to though, and you didn’t chop his arm off,” Angus insisted. Reluctantly his dad started to let him move forward again, following behind. Once they started getting close Angus began waving an arm up to get his attention.

“Sir! Hello sir! How have you been?” he shouted over at Taako. Instead of dragging his dad along now, his dad had a hold on his wrist, keeping him from running over there as fast as possible. He’d managed to catch Taako’s eye though, an obvious flash of surprise on his face that quickly shifted into an easy smile. Yeah, he had a feeling it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to Taako. For all his loud complaining he seemed to take things pretty easily.

“Oh ya know, pretty chill. Definitely not dying if that’s what you were wondering,” he said. Normally a denial that specific would make Angus suspicious, but he was pretty sure Taako was telling the truth, he was just bad at it.

“Ah, well that’s um, good sir,” Angus said, a nervous smile on his face. He wasn’t sure how much his dad would appreciate bringing up the whole death count thing. “So, I know you guys technically already met but it wasn’t all that great last time, so Mr. Taako sir, this is my dad. He’s the grim reaper. Dad, this is Mr. Taako, he’s a reclaimer and has been teaching me magic,” Angus said, figuring the best way to deal with all of this was to barrel on through it.

“Yeah, kinda got the whole spooky reaper thing last time. Gotta say wasn’t my first guess but the clues all line up now. That's a detective thing right, clues and shit?” Taako said and Angus nodded.  Yeah, he was definitely taking this about as well as Angus could have expected. He could tell it was kind of throwing his dad for a loop some.

“Right, I suppose I should apologize some for that, although considering everything you three still got off relatively easy,” he said, and Angus elbowed him in the side some. “But yes, I’m sorry for trying to murder you and your friends to lock your souls away in the eternal stockade. I’m glad we managed to come to a different arrangement,” he added. Taako just nodded, appearing very casual with all of this.

“Uhuh, yeah for sure, no skin off my bones,” Taako said, and Angus wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a pun or not. “Sooo, you’re not gonna be like, trying to snatch up our souls while we aren’t looking or anything, right? Are you still trying to arrest us? Ango, you gotta tell me if your dad’s still after my soul or else its entrapment,” he added. Angus didn’t have time to answer before his dad was quickly shaking his head.

“Oh no, I promise as long as none of you die anymore it should not be an issue. Your bounties have been completely called off,” he said, and Angus quickly nodded.

“Yeah everything’s fine! My dad’s only here cause I’m kinda grounded after everything and not allowed on the moon base without supervision anymore,” he explained. He still wasn’t ecstatic about that, but he was trying to convince himself that this could be a good thing. There had always been a part of him that wished that he could include his dad in this part of his life.

“If you could actually pass that information and my apology along to your two companions, especially um, Merle Highchurch, it would be greatly appreciated,” his dad said. A bit to Angus’s surprise Taako shook his head.

“Nah dog, you can deal with that train wreck. Cha’ boy’s gonna stay the hell out of it,” Taako said, and Angus could see his dad’s shoulders slump at that.

“I’d really rather not,” he grumbled, which got a surprised laugh out of Taako.

“Hey, we’d all rather not with Merle, but if you’re gonna be hanging around you better get used to it Papa McDonald,” Taako said, and his dad grimaced. Angus couldn't help but snicker at the name, and even more so at his dad's reaction to it.

“I told you not to call me that,” he said as Taako turned towards Angus.

“Catch ya later little man, let me know when you’re down for more magic lessons and I can try and pencil you back into my busy schedule,” he said, and Angus quickly nodded.

“Yes sir! I probably won’t be around as much but I’ll definitely let you know soon!” he said. With that Taako offered them both a large, somewhat cheesy grin before starting to walk away. He was a good distance away when a thought came to Angus and he called after him again.

“Wait Taako! Sir, look what I learned to do!” he shouted. Taako turned back towards him, and it felt a little from when he was in the astral plane, but Angus managed to get his wings to unfurl from his back. Taako stood there for a moment, staring at him opened mouth and in shock.

Then he cupped his hands around his mouth in a crude attempt to amplify his voice and shouted “fucking sweet!” Angus couldn’t help laughing at that, despite the slightly exasperated sounding sigh that came from his dad. That was fine, Angus could tell that he was struggling not to laugh as well.

Despite everything, all of this might actually be fine.

Chapter Text

Kravitz was trying to get used to this. Really he was. The first day on the bureau base had not been too horrible he supposed. No one had been openly hostile to him, or even non-openly hostile. Sure, he had managed to avoid some of the people he was most worried about, which he figured would not last forever, but it was something. They had run into one of his former bounties, but it truly didn’t seem like Taako had cared much for hashing out their ah, less than pleasant first meeting.

Angus had said that he’d be the easiest one to deal with and at this point Kravitz didn’t doubt it. He couldn’t even blame the other two if they decided to hold a grudge on the whole trying to kill them thing. Kravitz still felt he was justified, and he’d given them a much better deal that they probably deserved, but no one liked getting attacked.

So even though it hadn’t been a complete disaster, Kravitz wasn’t exactly looking forward to going back there. He didn’t trust it, he still felt like he didn’t understand everything that was going on.

There was also the simple fact that he just… he didn’t feel comfortable there. He felt awkward, and like he didn’t know what to do. Those weren’t completely foreign feelings, especially not since starting to raise Angus, but it was still something he tried to avoid as much as possible. It felt rather dumb, being as powerful and ancient as he was and still being uncomfortable socially. He guessed it also made sense though, it wasn’t like he got a lot of practice.

From what he could remember of his life though, he wasn't sure if it was ever his strong suit. He could talk his way out of all sorts of situations, but when it came to anything more substantial... well, let's just say he couldn't exactly remember there being much in that regard.

In the end they went about a week before Angus brought up going back to the bureau. Kravitz was a little surprised that it actually took that long, but he supposed Angus was still being careful after his grounding. Also, he’d been pretty explicit that they wouldn’t be going to the bureau as often as he used to, so it made sense.

Kravitz had just brought home some food from the prime material plane for dinner instead of cooking tonight. He was well aware that his cooking wasn’t the best, and the price wasn’t typically an issue, so it didn’t hurt to eat out every so often.

“Hey dad?” Angus asked in between bites of food. Kravitz nodded in response, his own mouth full. He didn’t need to eat, but sometimes food was good. Particularly food he hadn’t made himself. Angus took that as a sign to continue. “I was just wondering if we could go back to the bureau sometime this week,” he said, and Kravitz quickly finished chewing.

“I suppose so. I did say you could go back,” Kravitz said, trying not to sound as reluctant as he was. A grin immediately stretched across Angus’s face, and that at least was nice. Making his son happy never got old.

“Great! Can we go tomorrow?” he asked, his excitement obvious. Kravitz figured at least this way he could get it over with as soon as possible, instead of having it hang over his head.

“Alright, baring the Raven Queen sending me out on any bounties, of course,” he said, and Angus nodded quickly.

“Of course,” he echoed, pushing himself away from the counter where he was eating and jumping down from his stool. “I’m gonna go call Mr. Taako and let him know,” he added, and Kravitz frowned a bit in confusion at that.

“Why?” he asked. He knew Angus was fond of the elf, but Kravitz wasn’t sure if he was looking forward to the idea of making plans to actually meet up with the man.

“I was hoping I could have another magic lesson if he wasn’t busy,” Angus explained, and oh, right. Those were a thing.

“Right, yes, you should call about that,” Kravitz relented. Angus smiled, nodding before going and running back into his room. Kravitz was kind of hoping that the wizard would end up being busy, but that wasn’t the case. He supposed that made sense, they didn’t seem to have too much going on other than looking for the relics, at least from what Angus had told him.

So the very next day they were heading back up to the moon base, this time portaling into the dorm room that had been set aside for Angus, instead of going to the Director’s office and frightening the woman again.

“Taako said we could meet him in the cafeteria for magic lessons,” Angus said, starting off almost as soon as they got onto the base. Kravitz supposed he couldn’t blame him, the boy was clearly excited to get back to his magic. That itself wasn’t a bad thing, so he followed along. It wasn’t a far way to the cafeteria, and he was pretty relieved to see it mostly empty.

The more people he could avoid while on this strange fake moon, the better.

Taako was waiting at one of the tables for them, which was technically a good thing. It was better than having to waste their time waiting around for him to show up. The elf grinned at the two of them as they walked into the room, but Kravitz could tell there was still an edge of nervousness there at the sight of him. That was probably for the best. It would be odd if a former bounty was comfortable around him so fast.

“Oh hey, y’all actually showed,” Taako said, not bothering to stand up from where he was sitting at the table.

“Of course sir! It’s magic day,” Angus said, like the thought of missing this lesson had never even occurred to him.

“Right, so uh, papa McDonald joining us too? Cause if you’re looking for some magic pointers I’m sure I can adjust the lesson plan some,” Taako added, and Kravitz chuckled a bit awkwardly at that, shaking his head.

“No, that’s quite alright. I’ll stay over here and out of your way, don’t even worry about me,” he said, going over and sitting down several seat away from them at the other end of the table. He didn’t actually want to intrude on his son’s lessons after all, and he was kind of curious to see what they were like.

“Yeah alright, I guess that works,” Taako muttered, before turning towards Angus. “So, what spell were you working on? It’s been way too long for me to be bothered to remember,” he asked. Angus didn’t seem bothered any by how flippant he was being, and Kravitz wondered if it was because he was used to it. There wasn’t a lot of things that fazed the elf, at least from what he’d seen so far.

“Identify sir! I’ve practiced a lot since we last met too, look!” he said. Kravitz watched as he quickly scanned around them for something to cast the spell on, before his eyes fell on the umbrella at the wizard’s hip. It was the most obvious magical item in the room, being the elf’s spellcasting focus. Angus quickly reached out and cast the spell, rather well from what Kravitz knew of magic.

It seemed to take Taako a moment to realize what he was doing, and when he did there was a sudden look of concern on his face.

“Wait, kiddo don’t-” he started, quickly trying to yank the umbrella away from him. There were a few small sparks of magic, and Angus’s eyes went wide before he pulled his hand away sharply.

Immediately Kravitz was on his feet, ready to rush over and yank Angus away from the elf. Angus was holding his head in confusion, blinking hard, but he didn’t seem to be in pain. Taako had the umbrella well out of reach, looking much more concerned than Kravitz expected.

“Shit, you good little man? Don’t just go grabbing magic junk you don’t understand, that’s how you get cursed,” he said, and despite the attempt at sounding annoyed he was looking Angus over carefully.

“I’m okay sir,” Angus insisted. Kravitz was still hovering over the table rather awkwardly, watching with concern. Angus did seem fine though, shaking his head after a moment like he was trying to bring himself back to the present. “What is that umbrastaff, sir?” he asked, obvious awe in his voice. Taako frowned, throwing it over his shoulder. It was a casual gesture, but it also got it out of Angus’s reach as he stood back up to his full height again.

“Fuck if I know. It’s just a kickass umbrella, a little weird I guess,” he said.

“Could I perhaps take a look at it?” Kravitz asked, curious despite himself. He did want to make sure that Angus wasn’t actually cursed or anything like that. He was pretty sure Taako wasn’t being serious with that, but better safe than sorry. The elf looked a little hesitant, before shrugging and holding the umbrella out for him to take.

“Sure, I guess. You’re an adult,” he said. Kravitz rolled his eyes a little bit at that before taking the item. It was indeed very magical, but Kravitz was having a hard time pinpointing anything specific from it.

“It felt like it was all different kinds of magic. I didn’t know things could be like that,” Angus spoke up, and Kravitz nodded in agreement before handing the umbrella back to Taako.

“It’s certainly unusual,” he said. As soon as the elf had the umbrella back he seemed to relax, in a way that Kravitz hadn’t realized he was tense beforehand. It wasn't in the way that someone felt more at ease having a weapon when around something they didn’t trust. It seemed more like just having the spellfocus back relaxed him deep in his soul. It was a little odd, but certainly not the strangest thing Kravitz had ever seen, so he decided not to comment on it.

He stayed mostly quiet for the rest of the magic lesson as well, offering words of encouragement and praise to Angus every so often. He really was getting quite skilled at wizard magic, and despite his rather casual and laid back methods Taako seemed to be a rather adept teacher. Kravitz hadn’t expected that, if he was being honest. He wasn't going to complain either though.

The magic lesson did not end up being all that long, which made sense. Angus only had a set number of spellslots after all, and so after a little over an hour there wasn’t too much left they could do. Taako had deemed Angus’s identify up to par though, along with the other spells he’d been practicing over his time while grounded. Then he got him working on his first second level spell, after Angus had told him how the wings had been a result of him trying to learn one on his own. Instead of levitate though, Taako got him to work on locate object.

“Alright, just keep on practicing that, should be useful for the whole detective stitch you got going on,” Taako said, and Angus nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course sir! I promise I’ll put the spell to good use,” Angus said, and Kravitz was reminded of the fact that he’d have to let him back out to do detective work again soon. He wasn’t looking forward to that, but at least Angus had a decent amount of magic to protect himself with now. Maybe he should thank Taako for that? He wasn’t particularly sure he wanted to though.

Kravitz still wasn’t sure how he felt about any of this. He could see why Angus liked it here, why he liked these people. There was something trustworthy about them, something about the way they spoke and acted that felt earnest.

Too many things just didn’t add up though. Kravitz couldn’t bring himself to trust yet, not without some more answers.

“Dad, is it okay if we come back again sometime this week? Not for long, just so I can show Taako my progress?” Angus asked, knocking Kravitz out of his thoughts. He forced a smile onto his face before nodding.

“I suppose that would be alright, I shouldn’t be too busy for a quick hop over,” he said. Angus looked pleased as anything at that, which Kravitz couldn’t help but feel happy about. Even with his uncertainty on the rest of this, it was nice to see his son happy.

“You gonna ask me if I’m free this week kiddo? You know I’ve got a real full schedule, might not be able to pencil you and papa McDonald in,” Taako said, and from the sound of it that wasn’t exactly true. Angus didn’t look like he believed him much either, but was still smiling brightly as he nodded.

"Can we please not with that?" Kravitz asked about the name, at the same time Angus spoke.

“Of course sir! Would it be alright if I came by later this week for you to check my magical progress?” he asked, sounding very chipper about the whole thing. Kravitz's interjection was quickly ignored, which was about what he expected.

“Oh yeah sure, just drop by whenever, I’m not busy,” Taako said, leaning against the table casual as anything. Angus laughed at that, and Kravitz couldn’t help chuckling some as well.

He really needed to find some more answers.

Kravitz let them stay on the moonbase a little bit longer after finishing the magic lesson. Taako had to get off to some sort of reclaimer training, which he did not seem too enthusiastic about. From the sound of it, he was probably supposed to go to the training a little while ago. Once he left though Kravitz followed Angus back over to the library, letting him look through some of the books and more recent information on tracking the next relic.

Kravitz found himself looking through some of the possible reports as well, and it wasn’t that they didn’t seem useful. They did, they were clear possibilities and leads on items and magical events that could have been caused by the grand relics. There just wasn’t anything more than that, at least nothing more that was concrete or went over the kinds of things Kravitz was curious about.

He knew he shouldn’t take the same risk twice, especially when it had backfired so spectacularly the first time. Even still, he couldn’t think of many other options he had. It felt less like a risk now too. He knew what to expect this time.

Even still, Kravitz made himself wait for a bit. Or well, not all that long all things considered. They went back home after spending another few hours in the library, and Angus seemed happy about the whole outing. The next day Kravitz let him go off to the prime material plane on his own, to look for new detective work. He promised not to take any jobs without checking in with him first though, which was about as much as Kravitz could ask for.

While Angus was out, Kravitz started trying to track him again. He knew he could ask the bureau if it was bothering him so bad. If he thought they were lying he had every right to reopen their bounties and throw them all into the eternal stockade.

He supposed he was hoping it wouldn’t have to come to that yet. If he directly confronted them and it went south, there wouldn't be much recovering from that. So he only had one other entity he could go to for answers, with some hope of whatever it said being true.

Barry Bluejeans and the Director both seemed to agree on one thing after all. According to the both of them, those three strange reclaimers were this world’s last hope.

Kravitz just didn’t understand why.

It didn’t take him as long to find the lich this time. He must’ve been out and about, instead of off in whatever warded place he hid where Kravitz couldn’t sense him. He was lucky, and Kravitz offered a silent prayer up to his Queen that his luck would continue.

As was rather usual by this point, the lich seemed annoyed but not surprised when Kravitz showed up. If anything, his attempts at bringing Barry into the eternal stockade seemed to amount to nothing but a mild inconvenience to the lich.

“Well shit, you’re getting a lot more persistent, uh, aren’t you? It’s only been like, a few weeks or so,” Barry said, floating back some but not immediately running. Kravitz made sure he was standing out of range of any melee attacks and most spells, just to be safe.

“There’s been quite a bit going on lately, hasn’t there?” he asked, and the lich sighed before nodding.

“Yeah, you could say that,” he said, and there was something particularly despondent about the lich’s form. More so than ever before, he seemed to be hanging on by only a few frayed threads. Kravitz kept himself on guard, not about to make the same mistake twice, especially when the lich seemed significantly less stable than he had before. “Did- did you kill them? You didn’t, right? The crystal wouldn’t have gotten stopped if you had,” he asked, and that question surprised Kravitz. He supposed that had been a thing he’d been concerned about the last time they spoke.

“No, I didn’t take them to the astral plane, despite having every right to,” he said, and the lich sighed in relief. He was still very much on the edge, but he seemed that slightest bit more steady after hearing that.

“Thanks, it’s- I know you probably don’t like, ever want someone like me to thank you, but uh, thanks,” Barry Bluejeans said. Kravitz was frowning because he was right, he did not like the idea of a lich thanking him in the slightest.

He bit that back for now though. There were more important things to focus on, and he had no idea how long this lich would be willing to talk to him.

“I didn’t do it for you, it simply seemed to be the best option at the time,” he said. Barry didn’t argue with him, the hood of his form just focused on him, like he was staring at him as he waited for whatever it was he was here to say. “I do need some information from you though. About the base on the moon, I’m sure you’re aware of it,” Kravitz said. That did seem to take the lich by surprise some.

“I uh, I’m not real sure how much I’ll be able to tell you about that,” he said, his voice still that nervous, strangely human sound. “Why?” he asked, and there was an edge there now, a caution that Kravitz recognized well. Someone clearly on the edge and willing to defend what they cared about if they needed to.

He could lie. Or at the very least, he could be vague. He shouldn’t give this lich any sort of opening on him, not after last time. Still, he got the feeling this creature would know if he was holding back. Would be too suspicious of him to give anything useful.

And he didn't trust him. Liches don't play fair, and they don't have morals. Even still, Barry had never tried to pick a fight with him before. He couldn't see him going after a child to get the upper hand in one.

“I’m worried about my son’s safety,” Kravitz admitted after a moment, being as honest as he could given the situation. The lich didn’t have a face, but it was still obviously shocked by that.

“Wait, what?” he asked, and Kravitz sighed. He’d opened this door, now he had to deal with it.

“My son. He’d been… involved in the moon organization, and I know they’re connected to you somehow. Or at least, they’re trying to clean up the mess you made with the relics. I just… want to be sure he’s safe,” Kravitz said, and the lich was still floating there, seeming blindsided by this whole thing. Kravitz couldn’t rightfully blame him for that.

“Your- wait, okay. Okay, let's take this one step at a time. You- you got a kid? Like, you’re the grim reaper, right?” he asked, and Kravitz felt his grip tightened on his scythe as he nodded.

“Yes, and he’s not any of your business,” he snapped, and the lich threw his hands up quickly in a placating motion.

“No! No bud don’t even- shit, I promise you don’t gotta worry about that. I’m not gonna hurt a kid. I’d rather not even hurt you, but you don’t give me much of a choice a lot of the time,” he insisted, grumbling that last part. Kravitz wasn’t sure how much he believed that. Still, there was a part of him that at least seemed to be earnest.

“You’re an affront to the laws of life and death, do you expect me to just let you go with a little slap on the wrist?” he asked, and Barry chuckled some at that, shaking his head.

“Nah, I guess not,” he said, still seeming rather amused by all of this. Then he sighed and looked up at the sky. It was day time, and for once the false moon wasn’t visible. He seemed to think the question over for a while before speaking.

“I don’t know how much hearing this from me is actually going to assure you, but the people up there, they’re good. I haven’t met all of them, of course, but the ones I have… they’re good people. They’re doing dangerous stuff, the relics are… terrible things. I wish they didn’t have to exist, but they do and well, there’s nothing any of us can do about that,” he said, and Kravitz was quiet as he listened, carefully watching the lich for any sign that he was lying. Any show that this was a trick, or a result of his slipping sanity, or something.

Every word he spoke rang true though, and that was probably the most confusing thing of all.

“I don’t think they’d put your kid in any unnecessary harm. It’s a… complicated situation, and I’m not sure where your kid falls into it, but if you want to know if you can trust them to keep a kid safe? Yeah, you can. Which, honestly, that’s not great for me, but that’s kinda par the course lately,” Barry finished. Kravitz still wasn’t sure what to think about that, but he nodded none the less.

“That’s… I appreciate you telling me that. It will help,” he said reluctantly. He still didn’t understand this lich and what in the world it wanted, but at the very least he supposed it was useful. It wasn’t trustworthy, but it didn’t seem to ever think to try and lie either. It didn’t seem stable enough to follow through with a lie.

“Cool, I’m uh, glad it helps,” he said, and there was a moment of awkwardness where Kravitz wasn’t sure what to do. It felt wrong to leave the lich, but he’d already accepted that he couldn’t take this one on his own. Barry also seemed a little confused about what to do from here.

“Hey, it’s-” the lich started, and he seemed hesitant to continue. Kravitz waited, almost curious about what he was going to say. “If uh, if this was helpful to you, could I ask you something? I just, there’s something I really need to know, and you’re the only one who’d like, know,” he said. Reluctantly Kravitz nodded.

“I suppose so, I can’t promise I’ll answer it though,” he said, and the lich nodded quickly.

“Yeah, no of course. That’s- of course,” he said, seeming to take a deep, unnecessary breath before asking his question. “There’s another lich. I’m sure she’s in your book too. Lup? Is- do you have her? In the astral plane?” he asked, sounding terrified of Kravitz’s answer. He blinked, not quite expecting that, but maybe he should have.

He was already fairly certain, but he quickly summoned his tome, flipping through the pages until he found the right bounty. Reading it over, he closed the book and let it disappear again.

“I don’t. She’s not in the astral plane or the eternal stockade,” he said, and immediately the lich seemed to perk up at that.

“She’s not? So she’s still- have you had any sightings of her? It’s- this is your job, right? To find liches?” he asked, excitement and something like hope building inside of him. Kravitz almost felt bad giving him his answer.

“It is my job, but unfortunately I haven’t run into that particular lich yet. She’s been much more elusive than even you have,” he said, and he could see Barry’s whole form slum at that.

“Oh, that’s… I guess that’s not a surprise,” he mumbled, the excitement he’d had before quickly fading away. His voice almost sounded choked, if a lich could manage to cry. “If- if you do, see her that is, can you just… tell me? I know you have no reason to, but I just… please, can you at least tell her that I- I need her to come home. I can't do it on my own anymore,” the lich was practically begging. It wasn’t unusual for liches to beg, but this felt different. It was just as desperate, but he was still unnervingly in control. Unnervingly human. After a moment Kravitz sighed and nodded. He was sure to regret making this deal later, but he was too damn soft hearted.

“I’ll pass along the message if I see her,” he said, and that seemed to perk the lich up at least a bit.

“Thanks bud,” he said, and Kravitz sighed.

“I’m not your bud,” he insisted, and the lich quickly nodded.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” he said, before disappearing in a small spark of magic. Kravitz stayed there for a moment, trying to think through everything that had just happened.

He supposed he should trust the bureau even less now. If a lich was willing to vouch for them, he certainly shouldn’t trust them.

And yet for some reason, he did. He felt a little bit safer with them now, and he didn’t know why. In any other circumstances he wouldn’t, but this felt like the truth. This felt right.

It felt like fate, and he wasn’t sure what to do with that. Fate was almost always like that though. He’d just have to go along with it for now and hope he wasn’t making the wrong choice.

Chapter Text

Angus was trying not to think about it too much.

The problem was the more he tried not to think about it, the more he absolutely could not stop thinking about it.

He wanted to trust the Bureau. He liked the people at the bureau, he didn’t think they were bad people! His dad didn’t think they were bad either, or else he wouldn’t have let them go with all the charges they had against them. Clearly that had to mean something. Angus trusted his dad’s judgment, especially when it came to things like this. If he thought they were good people then Angus should have no problem forgetting about this whole thing.

But he couldn’t. It was frustrating and he didn’t know what to do about it. His dad came back with him to the moon base a few more times, after that initial magic lesson. That was honestly a surprise, after the mishap with the identify spell he was a little worried he would want to cut back on magic spells. Sure, it still wasn’t as often as Angus would have liked to go ideally, but it was definitely a lot better than not getting to go at all.

The only issue was that Angus couldn’t focus on these magic lessons. He wanted to, he really enjoyed them! His dad even seemed to slowly but surely be getting more comfortable on the moon base. Or at the very least, he was when they were away from everyone else, which they usually were when doing magic lessons. Taako said something about not wanting lookie-loos cheating off his sweet magic lessons without paying. When pointed out that Angus wasn't paying either he just brushed it off. He didn't press it at all because Angus didn’t mind the chance for a nice quiet place where he could concentrate.

Or well, that would be if he could actually focus on magic despite the looming idea of the bureau being bad stuck in his head all the time. Or no, not bad. He really didn’t think they were bad.

He just knew something was wrong, and he didn’t know what to do about it. He wanted answers, and he wasn’t sure if he could stand to wait must longer to get them.

The next time Angus went to the base with his dad, it was for another magic lesson. They went every so often for his actual work helping to look for the relics too, but Angus was pretty sure his dad preferred the magic lessons. Probably because they didn’t last as long, since Taako had other things he needed to do too.

Angus had been right about his dad and Taako getting along too. Of course his dad didn’t seem to want to admit it, but they were at least on friendly talking terms now. Which was a lot better than he was with Magnus and Merle. He was still trying to avoid those two at all cost.

Taako was trying to teach him comprehend languages today. It was a very useful sounding spell, but Angus was distracted. More so than he had been the last couple of sessions too.

Angus told himself that today, he would try and look around a little bit. It would be difficult, getting away from his dad and Taako without either of them noticing, but it would hopefully be worth it. He just needed to look around the base a little, to put his mind at ease. Once he did that he was sure he would be able to put this all to rest.

So Angus was really trying to concentrate on the magic lesson, but he was also trying to look for an opening. Anything that would let him get away for a few minutes. Hopefully longer, but he wasn’t going to push it.

He was starting to get a little impatient though, and after another failed shot at the spell he sighed. Time for plan B.

“Sorry sir, I’ll be right back. I need to run to the bathroom real quick,” he said, pushing up from his seat.

“Do you want me to come with you?” his dad asked immediately, and it wasn’t hard for Angus to pretend to look annoyed by the request.

“I’m not a baby dad,” he insisted, managing to sound pretty well offended by the request. Thankfully instead of pushing it his dad smiled and put his hands up in surrender.

“Alright, alright. I just thought I’d offer,” he said. Angus was really thankful his dad was starting to get a little more relaxed around here. He was afraid after the bad reaction he’d had when trying to identify the umbrastaff his dad would go into high alert again. Surprisingly he didn’t bring it up much. He wasn’t sure why, but Angus wasn’t going to press it either.

As soon as Angus was out of sight from his dad and Taako he started running, and he didn’t have much of an idea of what he was looking for. Something to put his mind at ease. Something to shut up the voice in the back of his head insisting that the Director was lying. He had no idea what that would be, and even less of an idea of where to look.

Well, he had one idea, but it was a little risky.

Angus also figured he didn’t have a lot of time before his dad would start to get worried, so he had to be quick. Maybe he could make multiple smaller excursions like this whenever he and his dad visited, that would be safer. It felt like that would hardly get anything done though, and Angus really wanted some answers.

He told himself he’d just check. If the director was in there then obviously he would leave and not push it. Still, the only place he could think to look or any sort of information, at least to start off this investigation, was her office.

So Angus quickly made his way to her office. It was further from the cafeteria than he would have liked, he would barely have any time to look before his dad would start to get worried. Angus could imagine how awkward and uncomfortable it probably was with his dad and Taako left alone. They were certainly getting along a lot better than Angus had expected, but he kind of doubted they’d be able to last too long sitting around without him there or a magic lesson to focus on.

Angus waited until the hallway in front of the Director’s office was clear, and then sneaked up to the door. Putting an ear to it, he couldn’t hear anyone inside, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone. The Director could be pretty quiet after all, so there was no way of knowing.

Instead of knocking, Angus quietly opened the door a slither, peeking inside. He didn’t see the Director sitting in her chair, so he opened it a bit more, sticking his head inside.

“Madame Director?” he called, because if she was around he didn’t want to look like he was trying to snoop. When no answer came Angus made his way fully into the room, immediately shutting the door behind him.

Most of the office was pretty plain, grand but sleek in its design. Of course, the things that would be of most interest would probably be in her desk, or at least, the most open ones. Anything that was real bad would be hidden away better than that. The Director was a smart woman after all, if she did have anything incriminating she wouldn't leave it out in the open for anyone to find.

Angus told himself there probably wasn’t anything real bad though. That was why he was here after all, to prove to himself that everything was fine and he was getting worked up over nothing.

Making his way over to the desk, he did a cursory look over to see if there were any traps. He couldn’t see any mechanical ones, and when he cast detect magic the only thing that lit up was the large portrait behind him. Angus paused at that, and he knew he couldn’t waste a lot of time here, but he found himself staring up at the portrait. There were a number of ways a painting could be magical.

Reaching up, he was just tall enough to touch it, and it was solid, so no magic portal. It might have been an illusion, but the illusion should have dropped when he realized that, so that probably wasn’t it either. The only other thing he could think of was some kind of scrying or observation spell, and he really hoped that wasn’t the case.

“What are you hiding Madame?” Angus asked, still staring up at the painting.

“Davenport.”

Angus immediately spun around, trying and definitely failing not to look like a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar. Davenport was standing by the door, a disapproving frown on his face. Angus didn’t know much about the gnome, or well anything , other than he was immensely loyal to the director.

“Oh, hello there sir,” he said, suddenly thankful that he’d taken the time to check out the portrait. It would have looked real bad on him if he’d been caught rummaging through the desk. Davenport made his way further into the room, not bothering to close the door behind him. Angus figured he could lie, tell him that he’d just been looking for the director, but something told him Davenport would be able to see that. He got the feeling that the gnome was a lot sharper than he appeared most of the time.

“Are you gonna tell the director I was in here without permission?” he asked, and he could see Davenport thinking the question over.

“Davenport,” he said, which didn’t mean much to him, but he shook his head as well and Angus let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you sir,” he said, and Davenport nodded. He didn’t seem intent on letting Angus continue to look around though, starting to motion for him to leave.

“Davenport, Davenport,” he said, and Angus knew he should go, but he found himself staying where he was, turning to look back up at the big portrait.

“Sir, have you known the director for a long time?” he asked, and Davenport nodded. Angus wished he could ask more than yes or no questions to the gnome. He was so strange, and Angus knew the director had said he’d lost a lot in their pursuit of the relics. He wished he could know that story, whatever happened must've been horrible. The director did not seem inclined to talk about it though, and Angus couldn’t blame her.

“Do you know what kind of magic is on the portrait?” he asked after another pause, and Davenport glanced up at it for a moment before shaking his head.

“Davenport, davenport davenport,” he said, starting to try and lead Angus out of the room again, and this time Angus reluctantly went with him. He had taken too long anyway, his dad was surely starting to worry by this point.

As they left the office Davenport shut the door behind them, and Angus didn’t feel anymore unsure than he had when he first set out to solve this.

“Sir?” he asked, and Davenport looked at him expectantly. Angus took a moment, trying to figure out a way to word his question that Davenport could actually answer. “Is it… do you feel like it’s worth it? Everything we’re doing to gather the relics?” he asked. Angus could see almost confusion on Davenport’s face, but after a moment he nodded sharply.

“Davenport,” he said, and Angus smiled a little at that.

“Okay, thank you sir. I should get back to my dad and Taako now, they’re probably worried about where I ran off to,” he said, and Davenport nodded once again.

“Davenport,” he repeated, and well, the words never changed but the inflections Davenport used were still clear enough. Giving him another nod, Angus turned and started heading back to where he’d left the others for magic day.

The nagging feeling was still in the back of his mind, some mystery tangled up in a layer of static. They had to be doing a good thing though. Whatever this was, it had to be good.

——

Angus had run off to go to the bathroom, which left Kravitz waiting alone with Taako. He’d partially asked to go with him just so they wouldn’t be left in any sort of awkward silence, but Angus had shot that down pretty fast. Kravitz couldn’t say he was surprised though, and told himself he could survive a few minutes of awkwardness.

Honestly, Kravitz couldn’t say he even disliked Taako all that much. He didn’t know him very well yet for sure, but without the death count Kravitz couldn’t say he could find anything else wrong with him. Just as a person that is. At the very least, he could understand why Angus enjoyed spending time with him so much.

“So,” Taako said after a moment, breaking the pronounced silence that had fallen over the cafeteria. Kravitz couldn’t blame him for that, it was starting to get a little suffocating. “How uh, how does the grim reaper end up with a kid? Is he- Angus wasn’t actually dead the whole time, was he?” he asked, and Kravitz supposed he should have seen that topic coming up. Angus was the only reason they were hanging out right now, so it made sense to talk about him.

“No, Angus is very much alive,” he assured. Kravitz supposed he had given away Angus’s existence to a lich just the other week, and Taako already enough to put Angus in incredible danger if he wanted to. It wouldn’t hurt to tell him a bit more. Kravitz was certain that Taako wouldn't intentionally endanger Angus too, which was a level of trust he hadn't expected coming into this. "I found him being use as part of a ritual as a baby. I was able to stop it but at that point too much had been done and we couldn’t just leave him,” he said. Taako raised his eyebrows at that, an intrigued look on his face.

“So you were just taking out a creepy cult one day and found a kid and decided, well I guess this is mine now?” he asked, amusement clear in his voice.

“Well it was a little more complicated than that, but um, essentially I suppose so? The Raven Queen was the one to suggest it at first,” Kravitz said, which got a snort of laughter out of Taako.

“How does the grim reaper child rearing process go? You sing him lullabies about death? Does he have a pet cat that’s just a skeleton? Wait no, it's gotta be a bird,” Taako asked, and Kravitz rolled his eyes at that, but there was a smiling starting to play at the corner of his lips.

“There's no skeleton cat, but um, well there's no ravens in the section of the astral plane we live in. There are some in the Raven Queen's chambers, but I wouldn't call those pets ,” he said, and then he thought a little bit. “A surprising amount of lullabies actually have some weird death overtones, so uh, no more than any regular parent I think?”

“Fucking, fair enough my dude,” Taako said with a grin. Honestly this conversation was so much easier than Kravitz had thought it would be. As strange as Taako was fundamentally as a person, he somehow wasn’t hard to talk to.

“What about you?” Kravitz asked, which got a look of confusion from the elf, which was probably fair. “Do you have any family?” he clarified, and Kravitz felt a little bad when Taako’s expression stayed carefully neutral.

“No one still around who’s worth mentioning,” he said casually, and Kravitz nodded. He wasn’t going to push that, it hardly mattered in the present after all.

“I didn’t have anyone before Angus for… a long time,” he said, and it was definitely strange, talking about this with someone. He mentioned his old life to Angus here and there, or at least the pieces he could remember, but it’d been ages since he shared any of it with anyone else. “I mean, other than the Raven Queen, but that’s a little different,” he added, which got another snort out of Taako.

“Yeah, I image so,” he said, tapping the table some with his umbrastaff, looking a bit deep in thought. “I had an aunt, although you’re probably a lot more likely to meet her now than I am,” he added, and Kravitz smiled softly at that.

“Yes, I suppose it’s like that with a lot of people,” he said, and Taako nodded, and then a thought seemed to come to him.

“Hey, you’re death right? If you had family who died and shit couldn’t you just like, hang out with them whenever you wanted to? Pull em up outta that big old soul soup for a game of cards or whatever the fuck?” he asked, and Kravitz quickly shook his head.

“No, that’s not really how it works. I mean, theoretically I could, and we've had to pull souls out for questioning on a few occasions, but it’s best to let the souls who have already moved on rest. It’s certainly not fair to them to continue to drag their souls out of peace just because I missed them, and it kind of goes against the whole… reaper deal, that I’m supposed to uphold,” he said, and Taako nodded along, seeming interested.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair. You’d be pretty bad at your job if you were just bending the rules for anyone after all, right?” Taako asked, and there was a pointed smile there that would have made Kravitz’s face heat up if he had enough warmth in his body.

“Are you saying I’m bad at my job?” he asked, and Taako quickly shook his head.

“Nah, I said if you bent the rules for just anybody, ” he said with a grin. There wasn’t much Kravitz could do to that without either saying he didn’t care who he bent the rules for, or feeding into Taako’s ego. He should probably be more bothered by that than he actually was, but instead he found himself laughing.

That laughter died when he felt a chill run though his soul, sudden necrotic energy seeping into the air around them that immediately set him on edge.

“Do you feel that?” he asked, even though he figured a normal mortal probably couldn’t. Still, he supposed there were several things about Taako that made him anything but normal, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“Definitely having a better time than I expected, if that’s what you’re asking,” Taako said with a grin, and this time Kravitz swore his face actually did start to heat up at that. He shook his head, standing up and summoning his reaper form.

“No, not uh, not like that. There’s something here, something necrotic and undead and powerful. It’s- what’s taking Angus so long?” he asked, a sudden sinking feeling as he realized he hadn’t been keeping track of how long Angus had been gone. It was definitely longer than he should have been. He could see the sudden concern on Taako’s face at the question, the elf quickly standing up as well.

“I don’t know, you want me to go check while you go ghost busting or whatever?” Taako asked, and Kravitz would much rather go find Angus himself. He should figure out what the source of this power was before it had the chance to hurt anyone though.

“Yes, that might be a good id-” he started to say, his words getting cut off when Taako suddenly threw out the arm holding the umbrastaff. He looked just as startled as Kravitz had been, and then a powerful scorching ray started shooting out of the umbrella. It wasn’t aimed at anyone, and all he could do was watch as Taako bore several letters into the wall.

Kravitz had even less of an idea of what to do when it stopped, staring in confusion at the word it had spelled out. Or not word, name.

“Lup?” he asked, and Taako was staring down at his umbrella in confusion.

“I didn’t do that. Lup? What the fuck does that mean?” he asked, and Kravitz was staring at the umbrella now, his thoughts racing. He had no idea what this meant, but he knew it couldn't be good. 

“Taako, where did you get that?” he asked. The necrotic energy he was feeling before was suddenly gone, and Kravitz had a feeling he knew why.

“Just off some dead thug wearing a red robe in a cave. You know, average adventurer loot,” he said, although he didn’t seem very convinced of that while he said it.

“That’s it?” Kravitz asked, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah, why? Shouldn’t we be getting Angus and looking into the necromancy shit?” he asked, and right, they needed to find Angus, but Kravitz’s attention was still focused on the umbrastaff. Of course this was another thing connected to that lich. Just when he was starting to get… comfortable with Taako, more strangeness had to rear its head.

“It’s gone now, it’s not- I think it did whatever it was it wanted to do,” he said, and he could see the realization on Taako’s face at that.

“So uh, you’re not gonna arrest my umbrella, are you?” he asked, and the question took Kravitz off guard enough he actually managed to laugh.

“No, I uh, I don’t think so, at least. That would be a little silly, throwing an umbrella into a cell in the eternal stockade, we don't really deal with cursed items. Could I see it again though?” he asked, and Taako handed it over without any sort of argument. Now that he was looking it over it just seemed like a regular arcane focus. Trying to identify the specific source of magic inside of it left him with that strange swirl of highly concentrated everything that came from the identify spell.

“There’s some sort of… power inside of it? I’m not sure what though, it’s incredibly difficult to identify,” he said, handing it back over. Taako shrugged, giving the umbrella one more look before resting it up over his shoulder.

“I mean, it eats old dead dudes. Or like, their wands and shit?” he said, and Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that. 

“That would explain why it’s difficult to detect. If it’s all locked inside of some sort of pocket dimension,” he said, and Taako nodded.

“Oh yeah, it’d be like trying to use detect magic on something that’s hiding in the astral plane, kinda bullshit,” he said, clearly trying to think through this. Kravitz found himself a little surprised by how contemplative Taako looked at the moment. It wasn’t that he thought the elf was dumb, definitely not that, but he was usually rather aloof.

“If it is in another plane though, it must be incredibly powerful for us to be able to feel it at all. How in the world would something like that end up in an umbre-”

“What happened? I was gone for ten minutes!” Angus’s voice cut him off, and Kravitz’s head immediately swerved to look at his son. He looked perfectly fine, which was a major relief. Kravitz had a feeling that whatever it was that had happened hadn’t had anything to do with Angus.

“Oh you know, magic stuff. What took you so long pumpkin?” Taako asked, blowing off his question.

“The closest bathroom was occupied so I had to go find another one,” Angus said, and oh, that made sense. “Why did you guys blast a word in the wall. What’s L U P mean?” Angus pressed, going right up to the wall and inspecting it. Kravitz glanced over at Taako, a little surprised to find Taako looking at him with a similar panicked expression.

“It was…”

“A bet,” Taako finished, and when Angus looked back at them he looked incredibly skeptical.

“A bet?” he asked, and Kravitz found himself nodding.

“Yes, it was- Taako was insisting that he could write with scorching ray, and I didn’t believe him,” he said, and he didn’t like lying to Angus. He didn’t want him trying to look into whatever this thing was though.

“Why L U P?” Angus pressed, and Taako shrugged.

“Well, I wasn’t going to do an I or an O, those would have been too easy, that wouldn’t prove shit,” he said. Angus still didn’t look very convinced, or at the very least, he didn’t look like he wanted that to be the actual answer, and Kravitz couldn’t blame him. That didn’t exactly cast him and Taako in the best light.

“Why did you blast it into the cafeteria wall…” he asked, and Taako grinned brightly at that, clapping his hands together.

“Because congrats, the next spell we’re gonna teach you is mending,” he said. It took more effort than it should have to keep from laughing at that, especially from the less than thrilled look on Angus’s face.

He actually ended up picking mending up rather quickly, although Taako definitely had to smooth over most of the work so that it wasn’t obvious. The magic lesson ended up being a lot longer than most of the ones they’d had so far, and the umbrastaff didn’t act up the rest of the time. Kravitz had no idea what it was with that strange arcane focus, but he didn’t bring it up in front of Angus.

He’d have to just keep looking into it on his own. And well…

He had made a promise. It was to a lich, but even still Kravitz wanted to keep his word.

So, it looked like another visit to Barry Bluejeans would have to be in order.

Chapter Text

They found another relic.

Whatever hesitations Angus had been feeling about the bureau recently were set aside, because no matter what dubious things the bureau may or may not be up to, the very real fact was that the relics were a danger left out in the world like they were. They could very well end it, if put in the wrong hands.

There were only a few left though, and hopefully soon they would be able to cross another off the list. There were only two problems.

The first problem was getting to it. The director explained what the relic was, what the strange anomaly they found out in the Woven Gulch was made out of. The temporal chalice, trapped somewhere in a half mile wide bubble of time. They were working around the clock to figure out a way in. Most teleportation magic was too much of a risk, not wanting to mix up spacial and time travel together. Angus was half tempted to try cutting a rift into the area, but the director advised against it.

It did seem that at the very least, they were making progress on this particular problem. Avi had started to develop a theory and had been sent down to the Gulch a few days ago to begin working on it. Angus didn’t know enough about temporal physics to be sure if it would actually work, but he didn’t know that it wouldn’t work either. He’d just have to trust in their skill for now.

The second problem was his dad.

Angus supposed he couldn’t really be surprised by that. Considering what had happened with the last relic mission, of course his dad wasn’t going to let it all be just water under the bridge.

It had been pretty impossible to hide the fact that they’d found a relic from his dad. Since he was always around when Angus was doing his seeker job now, of course he would know. Angus didn’t mind his dad being around for the most part, he’d actually been helping with some things recently. Still, once they’d actually confirmed that they found a relic, his attitude had started to change. He started getting all protective again.

For his part, it was pretty clear his dad was trying not to be too obvious about it. He was trying, and Angus appreciated that. That didn’t make the way he started trying to pull away from the bureau again any less frustrating.

“Can we go to the moon today?” Angus asked as they ate breakfast, trying to sound casual about it. He wasn’t sure if he didn’t manage to succeed, or if his dad was just on high alert since they found the relic.

“What’s going on today?” he asked back, which under normal circumstances would be a fairly innocent question. Angus could understand the actual underlying question clear enough though.

“Boyland’s rites of remembrance,” he said instead, not actually mentioning anything about whether or not they were going after the relic today. His dad raised an eyebrow at his answer, a clear look on confusion on his face. “A regulator who died on the last mission,” he clarified.

“Oh,” his dad said, only seeming to remember after a moment that most regular people got sad at the mention of people dying and quickly frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, and Angus shrugged casually.

“Everyone was pretty upset about it, which is why it took so long to get around to doing, but I never met him so,” he let his sentence trail off there, but his dad understood. Neither of them approached death the way most people did, and Angus didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing.

“So, you want to go to the bureau for these rites?” his dad ask, getting back on topic. Angus took a big gulp of his cereal milk instead of answering.

“Well…” he started, and it would be so much easier if he could lie. Lying had gone very badly last time though, and Angus was smart enough to at least try and learn from his mistakes sometimes. He’d been hoping to get by with just some lies of omission, (which still went south last time so it probably wasn’t the best thing to try again but he was a little desperate) but it seemed like his dad had also learned.

“Well?” his dad pressed, and Angus sighed, setting his spoon down in his bowl.

“Um, we were also going to send the reclaimers down to try and gather the next relic today. I was hoping to be there to help them out?” he said, since there really wasn’t much else he could do but be honest about it. He saw his dad sigh, immediately looking conflicted by the request.

“Listen, Angus, I know how much this means to you, and I think you’re right. They aren’t bad people-” his dad started, and Angus could see where this was going.

“But?” he cut in, and his dad gave him a sympathetic look at that.

“But I think it might be a bit too dangerous,” he said, and yeah Angus had seen that coming from a mile away.

“Dad, none of the reclaimer missions have put me in any danger!” he tried to argue, and then he winced after thinking a bit. “Well, not any danger that I didn’t put myself in I guess,” he relented. It had been a really dumb idea to jump onto the crystal lab like he did, but he couldn’t think of another way to get everyone to stop fighting. That act certainly hadn’t inspired any ideas about Angus’s safety for his dad though.

“I know, I know Angus, it’s just-” his dad paused, taking a deep breath as he seemed to organize his thoughts. “How would you feel about a compromise? To put my mind at ease?” he asked, and Angus hesitated. He knew his dad worried though, and he didn’t actually like making him upset.

“I guess. What sort of compromise?” he asked.

“You stay home for this mission,” his dad started, and Angus couldn’t help the small groan that escaped him at that. His dad didn’t seem too deterred though, continuing on without much of a pause. “But you can still communicate with the bureau and reclaimers as much as you need on your stone. And if everything goes well, we can talk about you staying at the base for the next one, alright?” he finished.

Angus frowned as he thought it over, weighing the pros and cons. On the one hand, it wasn’t an actual guarantee that he could stay for the next mission. On the other hand, the director has already speculated that they wouldn’t be able to communicate with the reclaimers once they passed through the barrier anyway. They would most likely be on their own for this one. If there was a mission to miss, this would probably be the one. And he could still talk to the director for updates if anything happened anyway.

“I guess that works,” he relented after a moment, and he saw a relieved smile flash across his dad’s face. Angus guessed he really couldn’t blame him for being worried after everything, and he was thankful that he was trying not to shut him out from all of this completely.

“Do you mind if I stick around while you work? I should have a pretty clear day today,” his dad asked, and Angus smiled as he shook his head.

“I guess I wouldn’t mind,” he joked, getting his dad to smile as well. Getting up, Angus put his bowl in the sink before heading over to the couch and pulling out his stone of farspeech.

Even if he had to work from home today, he was going to try and do as much as possible.

———

Kravitz was thankful that he’d managed to get Angus to go along with his compromise. He knew that the question of what Angus would do when they managed to get access to the relic was going to come up, and it was going to come up fast, so he’d been trying to think of a solution for a few days now. That was the best one he’d thought of, and he was glad his son found it acceptable.

As stressful as the recent finding of another relic had been, Kravitz was thankful about one thing. It gave Angus enough of a distraction that he didn’t end up thinking about that strange event that happened with Taako’s umbrastaff very much. Kravitz had been worried that their lie wouldn’t stick, and it probably wouldn’t have if he’d had much time to examine it. They were lucky though, this hunt for the relic had kept him rather busy.

Of course, that also meant it kept Kravitz rather busy, since he still tried to be at the bureau whenever Angus needed to be. He was being a little less strict about it, not staying by his side quite as much when they were there. He still liked to be somewhere on the moon though, even if he let Angus go off and do his own thing every so often now.

Because of that though, he hadn’t had much of a chance to look for Barry Bluejeans again. The lich was hard enough to find on a good day, so he really wasn’t having much luck now.

Not that it seemed the umbrastaff wanted to act very strange anymore. Sure, Kravitz could barely say he spent a lot of time around the thing, or around its owner, only whenever Angus was having his magic lessons. Still, it seemed to be nothing but a normal spell focus now. It was beyond bizarre.

Kravitz tried to put that out of his mind for now though. He was sitting on the other end of the couch from Angus, reading a book and trying not to look like he was there in case anything went wrong. He was fairly sure it wouldn’t, at least not to his son. He couldn’t exactly vouch for the safety of the reclaimers, but he did hope they would be alright. Still, it was no secret that their job was incredibly dangerous.

It didn’t seem like there was very much for Angus to actually do right now though. Kravitz had listened in as he spoke to the director, telling her the deal they had set up. She’d been understanding, and agreed to keep her stone of farspeech open for Angus to listen in as she debriefed the reclaimers on their mission.

Kravitz wasn’t sure what to think hearing about the temporal chalice. It sounded both terrifying and so incredibly useful. Of course Kravitz could see how the thrall for something like that would be nearly impossible to beat. His own mind couldn’t help but go to what he would change in his life, given the chance.

Would he have tried to go back and prevent his death? He’d like to think not, after centuries he’d become rather at peace with it, but none of that changed the fact that he had died young. That he had plans he'd never been able to complete.

Would he go back just a decade ago? Make sure he was there a few minutes earlier, keep Angus from being used in a ritual at all and allow him to grow up as a normal child? Or maybe a few days before that, make sure his parents had never had the chance to trade him for that terrible relic at all.

No. He didn’t think so. And he knew it wasn’t because not using the relic was the safest thing to do, the right thing in the grand scheme of it all. The simple fact was, he wouldn’t go back and fix those things because he didn’t want them to be fixed. It was probably incredibly selfish of him, not to allow Angus that chance to grow up as a normal person, but the last thing Kravitz would ever want was something taking his son out of his life.

He was distracted from those thoughts by the sound of the reclaimers chanting about fantasy shorts over Angus’s stone, and Kravitz could not guess the context. That didn’t stop him from laughing though, Angus covering his mouth so that they couldn’t hear him giggling as well.

Kravitz was still smiling as they listened to the reclaimers voices get smaller and smaller as they were presumably pushed out of the room. Damn it, he really could see why Angus was so fond of the three, despite his best efforts.

After another minute or so Kravitz could hear some more shuffling, and then a still amused sigh from the director.

“Alright Angus, that should be everything for now. I’ll give you another call and fill you in on the reclaimers status once we get them down planetside and hopefully inside of that time barrier,” she said. Kravitz watched as Angus nodded, a serious expression on his face.

“Sounds good madame! Once they’re over I’ll try calling them on my stone. You never know, even if it doesn’t work for you it might work over here. I’m not sure what kind of time distortion might happen when moving from plane to plane after all,” he said. There was a small pause before the director spoke again, not very long but enough to be noticeable.

“That’s true. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try,” she said. With that they both gave quick goodbyes before shutting off the frequency. It wasn’t too much later when the director called back to confirm that the reclaimers had apparently managed to enter the bubble. Honestly, just long enough for Kravitz to be rather amused at how long they spent picking out shorts of all things.

“Thanks for letting me know madame! I’ll try and call them and see if anything gets through!” Angus said, barely sticking around for another polite goodbye. As soon as the director was off the stone he attempted to call the reclaimer’s frequency.

“Taako? Hello sir? Can you hear me?” he tried first. When there was no answer Kravitz could see his excitement die down some, giving a few more attempts before moving onto Magnus, and finally Merle, both of which ending with the same result.

“Drat, I was really hoping that would work,” Angus grumbled.

“It was a good idea dear, but time can be very complicated,” Kravitz tried to assure him, and Angus nodded reluctantly.

“Yeah, I guess so. I better call the director and let her know,” he said. For her part the director didn’t sound too surprised by the lack of success either, and Kravitz supposed there wasn’t much left for anyone to do but wait. Angus called the Director every now and then for any updates, but so far there was nothing.

It really hadn’t been that long. Maybe a little over an hour. Kravitz had genuinely expected it to be much longer, considering how dangerous this mission seemed to be. Despite that, an hour later Angus got a call from the director this time. She sounded beyond relieved, letting Angus know that the reclaimers had made it out alright, that they were safe and with Avi now, the cup retrieved.

“Wow! That was uh, really fast. Can I come over now that the missions over?” Angus asked, not getting off the stone before turning to ask him. Kravitz hesitated slightly, biting his lip.

“I’d rather you wait until the relic was actually destroyed, if that’s alright,” he said. Angus frowned, but before he could start arguing the director started to answer.

“That is completely understandable. From the sound of it our reclaimers wanted to finish up a few things in the town they were in before heading up, but I will be sure to let you all know as soon as they back and the chalice is destroyed,” she said. Kravitz was thankful for the backup, the fight in Angus immediately deflating at that.

“Yeah okay, I guess that works,” Angus said. The director was saying something else now, and Angus was answering her. From the sound of it they were ending the conversation, but Kravitz couldn’t focus on that. There was a pull on his soul, urgent and persistent and confused.

Kravitz didn’t know what to think of that. In all of the time he’d served his queen, uncertain was very rarely something he’d ever felt from her. Without a word he summoned his tome, the pages automatically opening to the problem.

Bounties. New ones, a little under a hundred, and all with thousands of deaths. The exact same number too, which felt downright impossible.

And at the top of the list, making Kravitz’s not quite real stomach drop, were three very familiar names. Their deaths weren’t up in the thousands with the others, which was about the only good thing. They each had eleven more than when Kravitz had last checked though.

“Dad?” Angus asked, breaking Kravitz out of his frantic reading. When he glanced up he could see his son was off the stone and staring at him with concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” Kravitz lied automatically. He did not enjoy lying to his son, but he also had no idea where to even begin explaining all of this. “Yes, it’s fine, it’s just-” he paused, shutting the book and letting it disappear before Angus could sneak around to get a look at the pages. “I’m afraid something rather urgent just came up at work,” he said, and he saw Angus’s face drop at that.

“Are you sure? You have to go right now?” he asked, and Kravitz gave him a soft smile as he nodded, already starting to summon his scythe.

“I’m very sure, unfortunately,” he said, and he could see Angus start to speak, but Kravitz already have a pretty solid idea of what he was going to ask. “Stay home until I get back. I know, but I promise not to let it be too long,” he said, and reluctantly Angus nodded. Kravitz had expected a bit more argument than that, but he guessed his face probably looked pretty serious right now.

“Okay dad. It’s- be safe, okay?” he said, and it wasn’t until that moment that Kravitz realized how worried Angus looked. He hadn’t been paying attention to how frantic he was acting, and it had clearly startled Angus.

“I will be dear, I promise,” he said, stopping to give him a quick hug that his son immediately returned. “I’ll see you soon darling,” he said, and Angus nodded.

“Later dad,” he said. With that, Kravitz cut a quick slice to head to the Raven Queen’s quarter, wanting to get a better idea of what was going on before heading straight out.

The Raven Queen was expecting him, as she always was. She was in a state Kravitz could rarely remember seeing her in, the feathers along her somewhat shifting form ruffled, betraying her flustered nature.

“My Queen, I saw the bounties. What’s going on?” he asked, nearly forgetting to bow as he stepped up to her.

“I was hoping you might be able to tell me, my Kravitz,” she replied, and well, Kravitz supposed that was fair. He was already rather connected to a few of the bounties in question.

“I’m not sure, but I um, I believe it most likely has something to do with another one of those relics,” he said, and he could see her nod.

“Please, go find out the truth. Those weapons are cause for some exception, but this cannot go without note,” she said, and Kravitz nodded.

“Of course my Queen,” he said, cutting another slice through the air. It wasn’t hard to figure out where to go. He knew who he needed to talk to about all of this after all, he just… was hoping they could keep it on the down low for the moment.

The reclaimer’s dorm was empty as he stepped inside, but that was no surprise. The director had said that they were planning on finishing up a few things on the planet before coming back up. That didn’t make it any less frustrating having to wait, but Kravitz told himself to be patient. At least he could be fairly sure that this wouldn’t end in any sort of fight.

It was starting to get late when Taako finally came into the dorm, looking positively exhausted. Kravitz was a bit surprised at seeing the elf come into the dorm alone, no sign of the other two reclaimers. Taako didn’t seem to notice him, hanging his cloak up by the door. Despite his best attempts at trying to tell himself that this was going to be a very serious work conversation, Kravitz felt a smile start to form on his face as Taako actually started talking to the cloak.

Kravitz couldn’t blame him for startling when he turned around, finally noticing him sitting on the couch. He looked a little nervous, and well, at least that meant he probably knew why Kravitz was here, and it wasn’t about Angus’s magic lessons.

“So, we need to talk, don’t we? I take it there was more going on with that mission than a simple success,” he said, and Taako laughed nervously, running a hand through his hair as he nodded.

“Yeah, you could fucking say that,” he said. Kravitz sat back down on the couch, Taako moving to go sit on a comfortable looking chair nearby. He looked exhausted, his clothes slightly scorched and covered in soot and dirt. He took his hat off, throwing it to the ground before starting to undo his braid. Kravitz couldn’t blame him for wanting to get comfortable after whatever he’d been through, but it was a little um, surprising, he supposed.

“You don’t need me to tell you that you all died again, right? Quite a few times,” Kravitz said, steering the conversation back on tract. Not that it ever actually got off the tracks, just his train of thought he supposed.

“Yeah no, definitely remember these ones. These ones were real,” Taako said, which Kravitz supposed was good. Made things simpler, at least.

“Taako, what happened?” Kravitz asked, because there was no other way to really get down to it. The elf sighed, rolling his shoulders slightly.

“A whole fucking lot,” he said, and then seemed to think it over a bit more. “How much did Ango tell you about this one?” he asked, and that was a fair question.

“It was time, right?” Kravitz asked, and the elf nodded.

“Yeah, the time cup. Seemed nice at first but was actually kinda a dick,” he said, although Kravitz couldn’t make heads or tails of what that meant. “Uh, long story short, since I already fucking told the director, there was a time loop. Whole town, destroyed by a purple worm on the hour, little girl used the cup to reset the hour for like, seven fucking years or some shit. Took us a couple loops to get it right, so we blew up a little bit,” he explained. Kravitz blinked, having to take a minute to actually absorb that.

“Taako, that sounds absolutely awful,” he said finally, and Taako gave a sharp nod in agreement at that.

“Yeah, no kidding,” he said, and Kravitz was frowning now, trying to think of what to do.

“Well, this is a complicated situation to say the least. It’s- we understand that these relics are extenuating factors, but Taako, there were thousands of deaths. That’s going to be a little hard for us to just ignore,” he said, and that seemed to catch Taako’s attention, the elf sitting up.

“Wait, is Refuge in trouble too?” he asked, and that surprised Kravitz slightly.

“If by that you mean the town that had been trapped inside the bubble, then well, trouble isn’t quite the word I would use, but we are going to have to figure out something to do about them,” he said. Kravitz didn’t expect Taako to look as genuinely worried as he did, but he supposed he had seen the elf caring more than he let on before.

“My dude, this wasn’t like, some evil necromancer’s plot. It was just a little girl, she was like, even younger than Angus,” Taako said, and Kravitz sighed. He always hated it when kids got involved in these sorts of things.

“Like I said, we’re going to have to figure something out. The last thing I want to do is have to throw a whole town into the eternal stockade,” he said. Taako nodded, looking surprisingly dedicated to helping him find some way to fix this.

Before they could really get started though, Kravitz felt another pull on his soul, groaning in frustration.

“Everything chill my dude?” Taako asked. Kravitz nodded reluctantly, standing back up.

“Yes, but I’m afraid the rest of this conversation is going to have to wait. It seems there’s another urgent bounty I need to get to,” he said, and oh, whatever this bounty was had better be sorry. Kravitz was not in a good mood right now.

“Oh, yeah alright, I guess that works. So uh, we’ll meet up sometime then?” Taako asked, and Kravitz nodded. He was kind of surprised when Taako actually didn’t flinch at him summoning his scythe. Before he cut a portal he paused, turning back to the elf.

“Um, one thing. Could you maybe not mention this to Angus?” he asked, which got him a somewhat amused look.

“Didn’t want to freak the kid out, I get it. Yeah sure, not like I tell him shit anyway,” he said, and Kravitz gave Taako a thankful smile at that.

“Alright, well, goodbye Taako,” he said, moving to make a portal. Before he could through Taako stopped him again.

“Hey wait, lemme get your stone first. Normally I’d use Ango, but since you want to keep this on the down low,” Taako said, and Kravitz nodded, quickly summoning his stone.

“Right, no that’s a good idea,” he said, attuning the two stones. Once he was done it felt slightly awkward. “Uh, right. Bye, again, for real this time,” he said, which got a chuckle out of the elf.

“Later my dude,” he said, and with that Kravitz made a portal and jumped through. Hopefully he’d be able to get back to all of that soon.

At the very least, the next bounty he’d been called to did not last very long at all.

Chapter Text

Angus tried to stay up until his dad got back from whatever mission had drawn him away. He said it wouldn’t be long, but that didn’t always mean it would be all that quick either. At one point Angus got a call from the director, letting him know the chalice was destroyed and it was now safe for him to come to the base if he would like. As much as Angus wanted to, he reluctantly declined. He wasn’t sure what the mission his dad went off on was, but it seemed to kind of spook him out and he’d been very insistent on Angus staying home.

He wasn’t sure what time it was when his eyelids started to droop and the hopes of staying up much later were rapidly dimming. Instead of going to his bed he grabbed a blanket and went back to the couch. He didn’t want his dad to start to worry if he came home and didn’t see him after all.

It was some point after that when Angus ended up passing out. He didn’t wake up until he felt something moving him, and even then it was only barely.

“Hmm? Dad?” he muttered out, squinting open his eyes just enough to see his dad’s black robes.

“Sorry for taking so long dear,” he heard him apologize, and Angus tried to tell him it was fine but it came out as a sort of unintelligible mumble instead. He was trying to wake himself up some, but he didn’t seem to be doing a very good job.

“Can we go to the moon now?” he managed to ask, and he could feel his dad chuckling as he carried him off back to his room.

“No, I think it best if everyone get some rest for now. We can head up to the base in the morning, how about that?” his dad said, and Angus was too tired to argue, instead nodding against his shoulder. They must’ve made it to his room by that point, because his dad was putting him down on a bed. “Goodnight dear,” he added, and Angus nodded again as he rolled over, pulling his blanket further around himself.

“G’night,” he managed, falling asleep again immediately after.

When he woke up the next morning Angus was surprised he actually remembered his dad coming home at all, he’d been pretty out of it. Still, he definitely remembered his dad saying they could go to the moon base today, and he intended on having him follow through on that promise.

Of course, his dad insisted they eat breakfast first, and Angus tried not to look too disappointed by the small delay. He also tried not to look like he was eating any faster than he normally would be, even if he definitely was. If his dad noticed, he didn’t call him out on it.

Actually paying attention to him, it looked like he was distracted by something. Angus wasn’t sure what it could be at first, before he remembered the mission he’d had to run off for so suddenly last night.

“How’d your bounty go dad?” he asked in between too quick bites of cereal. The question seemed to surprise him somewhat, but he recovered after a moment.

“Oh, it went well. It’s uh, still a little up in the air actually, need to iron out a few quick things before it’s all settled, but it’s fine,” he said. Angus frowned at that, not sure what it even meant. It was rare for his dad to come back without finishing his missions, at least not unless he was seriously injured and had to retreat.

“Was it another lich or something?” he asked, really hoping it wasn’t. He knew his dad insisted it would be fine even if he was destroyed, but he still hated the idea. He was a little relieved when his dad shook his head.

“Oh no, nothing like that dear. It was more, um, complicated. A strange case, we’re trying to figure out if we actually need to send anyone to the eternal stockade at all,” he said, and okay, that was pretty weird. Angus definitely hadn’t expected anything like that. He stopped eating, definitely intrigued by the idea.

“Wait, what happened? Did they break the rules or not?” he asked, and his dad kind of shrugged at the question.

“That’s kind of what we’re trying to figure out. I promise it’s fine though,” he said. Angus frowned, and he was pretty sure his dad wasn’t lying to him, but it was hard not to be curious. It seemed like one of those things he wasn’t super thrilled with sharing right now though, and Angus doubted prying would help much.

He supposed he could leave it for the moment, if only because he needed to switch his focus back to the moon base. He hadn’t gotten a full run down of the mission last night, so he figured he should go and get all of that checked out.

Once he finished eating his dad finally let them go to the moon. It was pretty quiet for after a mission, but Angus supposed from the sound of it it had been a rather quick one. It had barely been over an hour before the reclaimers were done. The candlenights disaster mission had been on a time crunch and that had even taken them longer.

Opening a rift into his room on the moon, Angus paused.

“Do you think Taako, Magnus, and Merle would be okay explaining everything that happened again? I guess I could just get a run down from the director though,” he asked, thinking it over. He’d rather get the first hand experience, but he wasn’t sure how willing the reclaimers would be to recount everything again.

“Maybe we should let those three rest for now. Those missions seem to be rather dangerous, I’m sure the Director can explain everything that happened just as well,” his dad suggested. Angus wasn’t too surprised that he would want them to do that, and he did make a good point. Those three did have a habit of holing up with do not disturb signs for a few days after their missions, or at least, the missions Angus had been around to see.

“Yeah okay, the director it is then,” he said, starting out of his room and to the Director’s office. It didn’t take long to get there, and she welcomed them both in when Angus knocked on the door.

“Good morning you two,” she said, and Angus smiled back at her politely.

“Morning madame Director, sorry we didn’t get to come over last night. How did the mission go?” he asked, and he didn’t mean to be rude getting right to the point but he had been waiting to hear about it all night. He guessed he couldn’t be too surprised when the Director’s face went a bit grim as she started to explain.

“It had been… difficult. The time they spent in the bubble was longer than what we experienced out here,” she said, and she must’ve noticed Angus about to cut in because she quickly continued. “Only about eleven hours, nothing too drastic. Still, it had been quite a difficult challenge for our reclaimers,” she said, and Angus nodded. Okay, it could have been worse, it still had taken less than a day.

“But, they’re okay now, right? What happened in there?” Angus pressed.

“Yes Angus, they’re just fine now,” the Director insisted, and then she started to tell him what had happened. He was pretty sure she was leaving out details, which was why he had wanted to be here when the reclaimers were giving their debriefing. They didn’t seem to care who heard what happened. Still, he was getting the big parts. A time loop in a town, it would reset right as a purple worm was starting to destroy it on the hour, they had to work through a bunch of the loops before they were finally able to get the cup.

It certainly sounded rough, but not the worst of the missions. They were okay, and everyone had survived this time.

Angus made a mental note to try and get the full story out of Taako later, but he supposed he could let it go for now. As long as everything had worked out it wasn’t the most pressing thing after all.

Angus supposed knowing his life, he shouldn’t have been all that surprised when something else pressing came up almost immediately. He just wasn’t too sure what it actually was yet.

There was something up with his dad. Angus was pretty sure it had something to do with whatever that mission was that he’d been called away on right after they retrieved the relic. He still hadn’t told Angus a thing about it, even when he started to press some more. His dad kept insisting it was fine, they were still getting some things sorted out but it was nothing to worry about, and that was when he would talk about it at all.   

But Angus couldn’t actually get any idea what it was he was hiding. It was starting to worry him, and he was pretty sure his dad had noticed he’d noticed. He’d started getting busier with work too, and at least he was talking a little bit about that. Complaining some about the random uptick in missions he had to go on lately. It always felt like there was an end to that sentence that he wouldn’t say. Angus didn’t know enough about what was bothering him to be able to guess.

And the worst part was he was avoiding the moon again. Or at least, it seemed that way. Maybe he really was just too busy with work, but once again he didn’t seem to have a lot of time to head over. Maybe only twice a week or so, and they weren’t staying for as long. It was frustrating, Angus hadn’t even been able to have a magic lesson in the past two weeks.

He didn’t know what to do, but this was a mystery if he ever saw one. So there was only one real option. He didn’t want to get into his dad’s business and invade his privacy, but it was hard to keep away from a mystery just dangling in front of him. That didn’t even get into the fact that it might be something dangerous. He knew his dad was strong, he’d been doing this kind of stuff for longer than Angus could image. That didn’t mean he couldn’t use some help sometimes.

So, he’d just have to figure out what was going on himself. His dad could thank him for the help later.

———

Kravitz wasn't trying to avoid talking to Taako about refuge. He hasn't forgotten either, and he was well enough aware of time now to know that two weeks was a while to make someone wait to talk about something so serious.

He was just so busy. He wasn't sure what the sudden uptick was about, but suddenly it felt like his work load just kept building. And when he wasn't working, Angus was around. He wasn't exactly sure how to excuse himself in front of his son without him getting suspicious. The boy was just too smart.

If he was being honest, he was sure Angus was already suspicious. He’d clearly noticed something was up the day after he’d gotten back from talking with Taako the first time, but he hadn’t pressed him much. Kravitz was sure he’d done nothing to quell his curiosity since then, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to keep everything to himself.

Eventually he didn't end up having a choice on whether or not to call Taako, his stone going off as he worked through some paperwork with Angus reading in the living room with him.

As soon as it started buzzing Kravitz jolted, flipping around his pockets until he pulled it out. He could feel Angus's eyes on him, confusion and suspicion on his face.

"Who's that?" he asked, and Kravitz was already up, trying to figure out a place he could talk that Angus wouldn't overhear.

"No one, you can keep reading," he said, finally deciding that no place in the house would be safe enough. Especially with the way Angus was eyeing him now.

"Dad I thought I was the only person who had your stone frequency," he said, and he had been. Kravitz had never seen a need to give it to anyone else, and no one had ever asked for it. (That wasn't true. There were a few times, when Angus was young and Kravitz had taken him to the park to play with other children. A few of the other, mostly single parents from what Kravitz had seen, had asked if he had a stone. He hadn't, Angus wasn't old enough to justify him needing one, and even if he had he probably would have lied about it. This was very different from that though, this was purely business.)

"I need to take this," he said, which he knew would answer precisely none of the questions Angus had. He didn't stick around for any more of them to come lobbing at him though, making a portal and jumping through. It was to another section of the astral plane where he could be alone, and as soon as the rift closed behind him Kravitz answered his stone.

"Oh hey, thought you weren't gonna pick up there for a minute," Taako said, sounding a bit relieved.

"Right, sorry about that. I uh, had to get away from Angus," he explained, and he could hear Taako hum in understanding at that.

"It cool, it cool. Is now a good time to talk or are you busy?" he asked, and Kravitz nodded quickly before remembering that Taako couldn’t see him. It was probably a good thing, because the he paused as he actually thought the question over, suddenly worried that if he took too long Angus would definitely come looking for him.

“I mean, for a minute? Probably not long enough to actually finish our discussion,” he said, feeling a little bad about having to continue to push this off.

“Yeah, no that’s cool. Figured it’d probs be better to do that shit in person anyway. Thought it might be a good idea to maybe try and schedule this shit. Ya know, make some sort of game plan, if you’re free anytime soon,” Taako said, and alright, that was more than fair. He could definitely at least attempt to do that.

“Right, no that make sense. I’m, uh,” he tried to think, and there wasn’t much of an agenda he could look at for his schedule, but he didn’t feel any immediate urgent rejection from his queen when he picked a day in his mind. “Could you do Saturday night? Barring emergencies I should be free then,” he said.

“Yeah no, that sounds good dog,” Taako said, and Kravitz felt a little relieved at that.

“Alright,” Kravitz said, and there was a long moment where he wasn’t sure what he should actually do now. He supposed end the conversation, but Queen help him if he actually knew how to. It was so rare that he made plans to see someone.

This was just a business meeting, there was no reason for him to be nervous about it. Except for maybe the fact that he was sure Angus was suspicious something was going on, and he’d rather not have him getting his nose into eve more dangerous things.

“Well, see ya later Dads McDonald,” Taako said. Kravitz gave a little snorting laugh at that, a bit thankful to him for breaking the tension.

“Not quite as bad as the other one, but still not great,” he said, and he could imagine the grin Taako was giving him at that.

“Oh, what? You mean Dadd-” he started, and Kravitz cut him off at that.

“See you later Taako,” he said, shutting off the stone just late enough to hear Taako cackling on the other end. He should probably be annoyed, but there was a stubborn little amused smile on his face. He didn’t think it was that unusual, Taako was certainly amusing.

Kravitz was not looking forward to heading back home and to Angus’s surefire questions, but the longer he stayed away the more he would think of. So, not wasting any more time Kravitz put the stone away and headed back to the house. He couldn’t be surprised when Angus immediately perked back up at his entrance, his eyes darting over him like he was trying to read his thoughts off his posture or something.

“Who was that? Everything alright?” he asked, and Kravitz quickly nodded.

“Yes, everything’s fine. I promise it was nothing you need to worry about,” he said, which didn’t seem to assuage his curiosity in the slightest. If anything, it only made it worse.

“What did they want?” he pressed, and Kravitz sat down to continue with his paperwork.

“Just something about work,” he said, which definitely wasn’t the answer Angus was hoping for. He was pouting, but to Kravitz’s surprise he didn’t try and press him any further on this. It was a little suspicious, but Kravitz wasn’t about to jinx it.

He was sure Angus was going to try and figure it out on his own. If he could just talk to Taako and get this all settled before he did, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Saturday couldn’t come soon enough, although Kravitz wasn’t sure how he was going to get out of the house without Angus noticing. Eventually he figured he wouldn’t be able to. Even though he hated lying to his son Kravitz figured one last white lie wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“I’m going out on a bounty,” he said, hoping Angus wouldn’t be able to detect the lie. It wasn’t even that much of a lie, this wasn’t a bounty but it was still for work. He just didn’t want him to know what an unusual and somewhat personal case it was. Angus nodded, not looking up from where he was working in his spellbook. That was a little surprising, but he guessed he did get rather focused when he was deep in his magic.

“Alright, see you later dad,” he said, and Kravitz nodded one last time before creating a rift and stepping through.

Taako had called him a bit earlier in the day, and Kravitz wasn’t sure if he’d been any better at covering it up from Angus as he had the first time. He highly doubted it. Even still, he’d had a place for them to meet, and the name was very odd but Kravitz tried to ignore it.

He wasn’t able to ignore all that much when he got to the Chug n’ Squeeze, looking in befuddled surprise at the wine and pottery class apparently going on. He guessed the name made a tiny bit more sense than it had before, but it only opened up so many more questions. Questions Kravitz was kind of scared of the answer to.

He couldn’t stall anymore though, especially once Taako noticed him walking awkwardly into the place, immediately waving him over.

“So um, this is a bit of an unconventional place to talk about the sort of fate of a whole small town, but I do like wine, so…” he trailed off, and Taako nodded

“Yeah well, I figured you’d want a place where Angus wasn’t uh, likely to come barging into,” he explained, and Kravitz let out a small sigh of relief at that. Okay, that made sense. Not a whole lot of sense, there were still probably so many better options, but it was something.

“Right, well, yes. I uh, appreciate you taking that into consideration,” he said, and then he sighed. There was a ball of clay on the wheel in front of him, and it felt kind of rude not to do anything with it, especially since Taako had already started on a piece from the looks of it. So Kravitz dipped his hands in the small bucket of water next to his wheel and began his best attempt at a vase.

“So, the truth is, I don’t even officially have a bounty out on anyone in Refuge at the moment. We’re just trying to figure out what’s going on,” he said, and Taako nodded, seeming to listen carefully. “We know what you all are doing seems to be for a good cause, but you have to understand that this is a lot to look past,” he added.

“Yeah, definitely not the normal run of the mill amount of dying when it comes to us, I totally get that’s all illegal and shit, but uh, okay. You see this bowl I’m making?” Taako asked, and when Kravitz gave him an affirmative he proceeded to give a very confusing metaphor about people in bowls and edges. It took a while, but after a bit Kravitz felt he understood, and with some promises on not to die anymore and assurance from the Lady Istus, Kravitz was already pretty sure he could close this case. There was still something bothering him though, and he clumsily tried to shape the neck of his face as he spoke.

“Taako, can I ask you something?” he said, and Taako nodded. “I just, I know you all don’t remember the previous deaths in your book, but the fact that they’re there and that I’ve had to continue to see you all just means that this job is preposterously dangerous, so I was just wondering… why are you still here? Why aren’t you doing a safer carer?” he asked, and he was a bit surprised by the silent pause as Taako seemed to think his question over.

“Because I’m worried no one else will have me,” he said, and that answer somehow managed to catch Kravitz even more off guard. Taako had surprised him with open answers before, but despite that he still didn’t expect that.

Kravitz found himself fumbling through something about Taako being very honest, and then it seemed like he made another joke, and Kravitz continued to be surprised by how nice this was. He had found himself enjoying Taako’s company more than he expected in the past, but this was just nice.

He should have gotten back home to Angus as soon as the mattered was settled. He didn’t want him getting worried. But he hadn’t told him how long he was going to be, and he’d had bounties last much longer than this, so he figured it would be fine. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, and Angus has said that he thought him and Taako would get along if he gave him a chance.

He should have known he’d be right about something like that. Angus was such a smart kid. Despite the forewarning, Kravitz still found every time Taako managed to make him laugh or smile a genuine surprise. He was fairly sure that he hadn’t been this thrown by something since Angus first came into his life.

This was probably a very bad thing.

As they were leaving the chug and squeeze it was starting to get late, and he really did need to get back home soon. A question had been on his mind for at least half the night, and eventually Kravitz figured he needed to bite the bullet and ask.

“Taako, I need to know,” he started, and Taako hummed questioningly at that. “Was this call for business or pleasure?” he asked, kind of hating the way he worded it after it came out of his mouth, but that was a rather frequent feeling. At the very least it didn’t seem to bother Taako, who shrugged.

“I mean, a little bit of both,” he said, and that answer made an excitement bubble up in Kravitz’s chest. This was definitely a very bad thing he was trying extremely hard not to over think. He would have plenty of time to do that later. “Definitely wanted to get this all squared away, and you know, not get dragged to hell or whatever it is you do,” Taako continued, and Kravitz laughed at that.

“That would be unfortunate,” he agreed, a downright silly tone to his voice.

“Right, but uh, I love your style. Wasn’t uh, all that sure how into this you’d be. Since you seem to have a lot going on, with everything, but yeah. It's been a while,” he said, and Kravitz had wanted to confirm that he was definitely very into this. Before he could though he felt a shiver down his spine, his soul souring as a sudden strong wave of necrotic energy came washing over them. Without thinking he took a step backwards, looking around as he shifted into his reaper form. “Love this,” he heard Taako comment, and he was kind of thankful not to have flesh anymore or he would have certainly started to blush.

“There’s something here,” he said, and when Taako nodded he thought for a moment it might have been strong enough for even him to notice.

“I feel it too!” Taako said excitedly, and okay, nope, wrong thing. Not entirely incorrect, but not the topic at hand.

“No- no not this,” he said, starting to look around to find the source. “It’s something necrotic and undead and very powerful. I felt it in the miller lab, and the last time your umbrella-” he started, stopping suddenly to turn back to Taako. He seemed to understand what he meant, holding up the umbrastaff.

“This?” he said, and as if on command it began to move. The only way Kravitz could tell it was the umbrella and not Taako was the look of surprise on his face, and then the way he started to struggle against it as it charged up a spell. A spell that looked intent on firing right at him.

Even as Kravitz dodged Taako had managed to wrestle the shot into the air and out of the way. A few seconds later and the umbrastaff was completely dormant again, the necrotic energy gone.

“Well that was… weird,” Taako said, and Kravitz nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, that’s- I need to do some research,” he said, a little worried about getting too close to the umbrella now. He had no idea what was going on, but he wasn’t comfortable just leaving this alone anymore. This was twice now. He needed to get some answers.

“You can research this kinda thing?” Taako asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“I thing I know who I can go talk to to ask about that,” he said, and Taako seemed to take that answer as good enough. As much as Kravitz wanted to stay, both to figure this out and for other reasons, he knew he really needed to go now. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go, but I’ve had a lovely evening. Do you- would you like to do this again sometime? Preferably without having to barter for a small town full of souls first?” he ended up asking. There was really no way to pretend this was business anymore.

Luckily for him, Taako just grinned as he nodded.

“Yeah man! For sure,” he said, and Kravitz couldn’t help smiling back.

“Alright then, Goodbye Taako,” he said, and Taako gave him a casual wave.

“Adios,” he said, and with that Kravitz cut a rift into his bedroom, quickly stepping through and closing the portal behind him.

There was a long quiet moment before Kravitz let out a sigh, the reality of the situation coming down on him.

Angus could never know about this.

As soon as he finished that thought Angus came barreling into his room, nearly falling over himself in his hurry and surprising Kravitz so much that when he barreled into him wings and all, they were both sent tumbling to the floor.

“You’re dating Mr. Taako?!”

“Fuck.” 

Chapter Text

Angus didn’t know what he was expecting when he decided to follow his dad. He knew something was definitely up with whatever mission he was going on tonight, although he tried not to show it. He might’ve tried a bit too hard, because his dad looked a little confused when he didn’t end up asking any questions, but Angus told himself he could deal with that later. Right now he just wanted to be able to find out as much as possible.

His dad had gotten another strange call that morning, and had acted just as weird about it. Angus didn’t know who he could possibly be calling, but if it was a normal mission there’d be no need for a phone. He was pretty sure the Raven Queen could put whatever thoughts she wanted into his dad’s head and he would figure out what he needed to do.

So, Angus figured he should try and follow his dad. There was only one real problem with that, which was Angus had no idea how to figure out where his dad went when he jumped through a portal. He could try and slip in after him, but even that was too risky for Angus. There was no way his dad wouldn’t notice, and Angus hadn’t gotten invisibility down yet. He’d really have to work on that one, it would be such a useful spell to have.