Archive of Our Own ^beta

Prologue

  He sat in his armchair and stared into the fire. He didn’t know what to expect; the future was far from certain. He sensed his presence and opened the door before he had a chance to knock. They stood facing each other, one just a few centimetres taller than the other. Finally, the visitor sighed.

  “Well? Speak.”

  They looked at each other and he took a deep breath.

  Showtime . 

I

  “Are you sure?”

  The question hung in the air.

  He looked towards the gate. The modern house in the suburbs of Birmingham drew him in. Somewhere in his subconscious, he heard murmurs and calls. He knew that a trip there could end badly, but he had to find out for himself.

  “Of course,” he replied with an uncertain smile, “what could possibly go wrong?”

  “Phuwin–”

  “No, Pond. I have to check it out. Those voices mean something.”

  It had to be a trap. In fact, he was sure that he was just waiting for Phuwin to show up. But he felt he had no choice – the voices, whoever they belonged to, needed help.

  Pond still looked at him as if he were a young mage, untouched by time and life. They had known each other for decades, meeting in the same places and situations exactly when they needed each other. Phuwin was an individualist, working alone and never asking for help, while Pond was the leader of a team that did the same thing he did – although he mostly served as his support.

  This time, too, he appeared at the house just as Phuwin was about to walk through the gate. They both knew why they were there.

  Win, another mage, had only been wielding magic for a dozen or so years, but he had already made a name for himself. He openly opposed the Elders and did not follow the orders imposed by the Council. And probably no one would have paid any attention to him if it weren’t for the threats he made towards the oldest mages. Phuwin had been watching his actions for over a year, making sure if he should deal with him.

  And then the mages began to disappear.

  Not the oldest ones, because they were protected better than anyone else in their world, but those who collaborated with Phuwin. The first two cases – Joong and Dunk – looked like a typical lovers’ escape, although they did not disappear at the same time. Everyone knew they were in a relationship, so no one paid any attention to them.

  Until it was too late.

  When, five months ago, Tu’s house and half the street where she lived vanished, the Elders noticed the problem. All eyes turned to Phuwin, and he knew that Win must be behind it.

  Before Phuwin got to his house, four more mages had disappeared, and his head was flooded with more and more voices.

  “Give me 24 hours,” he finally said. “If I don’t come back, send a rescue team.”

  “What if you die?” He looked at Pond and shrugged.

  “Then bring a black bag,” he snorted.

  As he passed through the gate, he turned to Pond and smiled. He was playing brave, even though inside he was scared to death. If Win had gotten rid of seven mages much older than himself, why would Phuwin be any different – especially with the powers Win had gained?

  You have Pond , he reminded himself, he’ll save you, as always .

II

  The closer he got to the house, the more obvious it became that it was just a spell cast on an older building. Looking through the history of the place where Win lived, Phuwin found information that the house dated back to the mid-nineteenth century and had been rebuilt relatively recently. Apparently, however, what was written on paper did not correspond to reality.

  About 15 metres before the stairs, he felt a magical boundary, beyond which the house had nothing in common with what he had seen a moment ago. The building was in a state of complete ruin, the trees – previously green – were completely dry, and weeds were growing through the previously smooth gravel. Phuwin turned around to see if the spell worked both ways and saw only broken bushes and a rusty gate behind him.

  What’s worse, there was no trace of Pond’s car.

  With every step, Phuwin felt less and less confident, and his legs carried him slower and slower. His mind told him to run, but the voices were getting louder and clearer. For a second, he was sure he heard Tu, which only confirmed his belief that Win was behind the kidnappings.

  Unless he’s putting her voice in my head , he thought, but before he could react to his own thoughts, the door in front of him opened. It wasn’t the young mage he was expecting who appeared in the doorway, though.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve discovered the side effects of absorbing magic,” Phuwin said with a smirk and waited for a reaction.

  He crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. It took him a moment to realise that the older man was not Win, that he had no magic in him, and from the way he swallowed, Phuwin guessed that he had no tongue either. Phuwin’s eyes widened, and he lowered his arms. He had made a servant out of the former owner of the house?!

  The man pointed encouragingly towards the door and smiled slightly, although Phuwin felt that it was more of a smile through tears. Crossing the threshold, Phuwin sensed something strange in the air, but decided to deal with it later.

  Inside, the house bore no resemblance to either his first vision or its exterior appearance. Phuwin had expected a neglected interior, with rubbish, broken doors, walls and stairs, but it turned out that everything looked clean and tidy. Even if it was just another spell, at least he liked it.

  After moving on to the next room, which turned out to be the dining room, he felt that something again, but this time it had a taste and smell. It wasn’t a meal, because there was none on the table, but something more subtle that was sinking deeper and deeper into his head. His years of experience told him that Win was trying to break through his defences and get to his magic.

  Phuwin didn’t have to turn around to know that Win was standing behind him and that the older man was nowhere near. Something told him that this visit might not last just a day, but many days, maybe even weeks, and that Pond would not break through any of the barriers put up by the man. For several seconds, Phuwin’s heart pounded wildly, then suddenly calmed down. You and I have several hundred years of experience between us, you won't hurt me , he thought, and smiled to himself.

  Phuwin turned abruptly to face the man. At 180 cm tall, he didn’t expect Win to be taller than him, but it turned out that he had to tilt his head back slightly to look him in the eyes.

  “I thought the files mentioned that you were only slightly taller than me.” Phuwin tried to use sarcasm, but it came out rather weakly.

  “I decided to add myself a few centimetres,” Win said and smiled crookedly, then touched Phuwin’s head without warning. “Let me take what’s mine,” Phuwin heard before everything went black.

III

  Pond didn’t like the idea of entering the house of a man who had kidnapped at least seven mages. The fact that Phuwin had decided to do it without his help didn’t please him even more. He hoped that he would change his mind when he finally stood in front of the gate, but Phuwin was stubborn, obstinate and dangerously self-confident.

  They had been working on finding and neutralising dangerous mages for many years, Phuwin long before they met, and had always agreed that they would work together. However, this time something had changed, his behaviour was out of the ordinary, and his unwillingness to cooperate worried Pond. He felt that even before Phuwin knew who Win was, the man had already done something to him.

  Pond had encountered several other mages who had attempted to kidnap and steal the magic of other mages, but this particular case gave the impression of a man who knew exactly what he was doing. He had no known past; it had not been established where he came from, who his parents were, or whether he had any connection to the kidnapped mages. According to the information gathered, he discovered his powers when he was a teenager, so it couldn’t have been more than a dozen years ago.

  Neither Phuwin nor Pond’s team discovered why Win decided to kidnap mages. Pond bet on madness, Phuwin on intelligence. Both knew that it was definitely not just about the powers – it was unknown what powers exactly those who disappeared had – but the very act of taking them away must have been very appealing. No one had even attempted to do it on such a scale. Not until Win showed up.

  When Phuwin turned to Pond one last time before passing through the gate, he knew he had to act quickly. Phuwin told him to wait 24 hours, but he believed that in 24 hours, he would either be dead, stripped of his powers, or, in the worst-case scenario, both. He couldn’t let that happen. Phuwin was too valuable a member of his team. Of his life . 

  Returning to base, he thought only of how to bypass all the security measures around Win’s house – he sensed a dozen of them, and he was only standing in front of the gate, which was one of them. The illusion of the house was another security measure, and Pond was convinced that as soon as Phuwin passed through the gate, Win was informed. Pond knew that he would not be able to cross the spell’s boundary, and probably not even the gate itself, without a problem and enter the house as if nothing had happened. Problems began to pile up, and he hadn’t even begun to solve the first ones.

  When Pond arrived at the complex, Santa was already standing in the garage doorway with his arms crossed. As soon as Pond got out of the car, Santa’s eyes turned to the empty passenger seat, then to him. His gaze said it all – Pond had another problem, a more serious one.

  “Khun Jack wants to see you,” Santa muttered.

  “I guess so. I’ll be right there,” Pond said and tried to pass him at the door. “I have to give orders.” He looked at Santa. “I hope you’re ready to head off?”

  Pond entered the building and headed for the lifts but ultimately decided to take the stairs. He needed time to calm down, and sitting nervously in the car earlier hadn’t helped to calm his body. When he entered the room, the whole team was there.

  “So, what are we doing, boss?” Gemini asked from in front of the monitor, as enthusiastic as ever.

  “We’re saving Phuwin... as usual,” Pond said and sat down on the chair next to him, leaning back so far that he almost fell to the floor and covering his eyes with his forearm. “Do you know who the other mages that Win kidnapped were?”

  “I have their names, but I don’t know what powers they have.”

  “Great,” Pond muttered under his breath. “Look for information, we can’t move without it,” he stopped, then asked, “Does anyone know what powers Joong and Dunk had?” He raised his arm slightly and saw that everyone in the room was shaking their heads. “Great,” he repeated and looked at Perth and Santa. “Get ready to go to Birmingham. I’ll send you the coordinates in a moment. You have to find a way to get inside without alerting Win.”

  “Any security?” Fourth spoke from the armchair in the corner of the room. His calming magic was palpable in the air. Pond grimaced.

  “I sense a few, there are probably more,” he said and turned to the two people standing by the door. “No magic. Use drones and other non-magical gadgets.” Perth and Santa, the perfect team for fieldwork, nodded in unison and left the room. “Fourth, turn that off. I don’t have the strength or desire to be calm.”

  “As you wish,” Fourth raised his hands and stretched. “Oh, Khun Jack–”

  “I know, I’m on my way now,” he mumbled and got up from his chair, looking seriously at the other mages. “Find something to do. We have 18 hours to find a way in.”

  He walked slowly to the elder mage’s house, gathering his thoughts and concentrating on what he had to say. He didn’t like meeting Khun Jack, especially in situations like this one, although his interactions with the rest of the Elders were much less pleasant. When Pond knocked, the door opened by itself. He rolled his eyes and went inside.

  The impact of the magic almost knocked him off his feet. He grimaced but bowed his head in a traditional greeting. “You could have just asked,” he said, less politely than usual. He began to regret telling Fourth to remove his spell. Now he had to calm himself down on his own.

  “Where is he?”

  “Win, the mage who–”

  “I know that . I’m asking why he is not with you.” Pond raised his head and looked into the older mage’s eyes.

  “Have you ever tried telling your son not to go where it’s dangerous?”

  Khun Jack shook his head. Phuwin wasn’t the type of man to sit quietly until someone told him what to do. He never listened and always did what he wanted. If only he took after his mother a little , Jack thought. He pointed Pond to a chair against the wall and sat down at his desk.

  “What do we know?”

  “Not much. Gemini got the names of the other victims, but the info on their powers is inaccessible. We only know what power Tu used.” Pond looked at the older man, hoping he wouldn’t have to ask directly, but Khun Jack wasn’t going to make it easy for him. “Can you give us that information?” he asked, rolling his eyes, then added, “Please?”

  “You don’t know what powers Phuwin has?” Khun Jack raised an eyebrow, and Pond shook his head. “Interesting... I’ll send you the data you need.”

  “What about Joong and Dunk? Why did Win start with them?”

  The man smiled half-heartedly. “They were inseparable, weren’t they? The beginning and the end. Life and death,” he said the last word almost in a whisper. “When that Win guy kidnapped Dunk, Joong went crazy, we had to lock him up. Dunk was probably just as bad. Without each other, they’re... ticking time bombs. He needed them both to keep going.”

  “Did he need them as weapons?” Pond asked, his voice trembling slightly.

  “No, Pond,” Jack said calmly. “He wasn’t interested in them. He was only interested in their powers. And now he has Phuwin. And believe me, if he takes his magic too, we can kiss the world we know goodbye.”

IV

  Phuwin woke up in a dark room. He smelled the same scent as before, but he still couldn’t figure out what it was. His head hurt so badly that he could barely lift himself up on one elbow to see what he was facing. To his relief, he found that he still didn’t need light to look around.

  The room was small but had basic furniture: a bed, a bedside table with a lamp, and a table with chairs. However, the sight of a desk, a bookcase with books, and a cupboard with a kettle and cups surprised him. He touched the wall, but its texture did not match what he saw.

  “Another illusion...” he muttered to himself.

  He got out of bed and touched one of the two doors. They turned out to be reinforced not only against human factors, but also against magic. The second door led to a small bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet. There was a lit incense stick on a shelf.

  “That’s where the smell is coming from...”

  He thought he could try to enlarge the bathroom and add a bathtub but realised in time that Win might see more than Phuwin was ready to show him.

  Before turning on the light in the room, he returned to the bed and, pretending to stretch, decided to press the right points on his body responsible for magic. After a few minutes, he noticed a slight decrease in one of his powers, but luckily Win hadn’t managed to take the rest from him.

  Incidentally, Phuwin discovered where Win had hidden the camera, but decided not to move it for now.

  In the light of the bulb, the room didn’t look as good as it did in the dark – apparently, the masking spell had trouble holding up when the light was on. It seemed that Win wasn’t as strong as he wanted to be.

  However, Phuwin was worried about something else – there was no window or clock in the room. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, so counting down the seconds, minutes and hours to the magical 24 hours was no longer possible. The thought that a day might have already passed and Pond hadn’t managed to reach him flashed through his mind.

  No, no , he began to calm himself down, Pond will always save you, just give him time ...

  That was when he began to wonder how the hell he had managed before the younger mage joined him.

  On his own.

  He was independent.

  With or without Pond, Phuwin knew he could handle it. Somehow, he would get out of this mess.

V

  The hours passed, the smell of incense faded, and Phuwin grew increasingly bored. Win did not appear either. Phuwin snorted. He didn’t use magic, so he didn’t test whether his cursory examination turned out to be true. What if he took more of my power and set out to conquer the world? he thought, and his heart began to pound with fear.

  Joong, Dunk, Tu, four others, probably powerful mages, and me... he doesn’t plan to be a super-mage. He wants to be a terrorist.

  Panic gripped him from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. Questions and conspiracy theories began to flood his mind. It took him several minutes and repeating to himself that the fear was only in his head before he calmed down enough to return to normal functioning.

  This wasn’t the first time he’d been held captive. He just had to figure out how to get out of this one.

  Since there were no windows in the room and it was soundproof, it meant he was in a basement. He hated basements. They were always cold and slimy, full of vermin and mice. He didn’t see any of the latter, but who knew what was hiding beneath the illusion. The exit door was heavily reinforced, so he wouldn’t be able to get through it, and there was only a small ventilation shaft in the bathroom, but of all the powers Phuwin possessed, shapeshifting was not one of them.

  He returned to the bed and looked at the bookcase. Something was wrong with it. The camera was on the other side of the room, so Win would know what Phuwin was doing, but he decided to ignore it. Maybe if he saw what Phuwin was doing, he would at least come downstairs to talk. Or to take another dose of his magic. Either way, he would open that damn door.

  He crouched in front of the bookcase and looked closely at all the books on the shelves. They weren't extraordinary titles, but they were well-read, and one of them had a library stamp on it – unfortunately smudged and illegible. They looked like Win’s childhood books. Had he thrown them here to keep the mages busy, or did he want to get them out of sight?

  This is his old room , Phuwin realised after a moment. Why would anyone lock a child in the basement?

  He turned to face the camera and tilted his head. Was he being watched or not? He took one of the books from the shelf, waved it around, and tore out a page. Half a second later, the door opened, and Phuwin realised that escape would not be so easy.

VI

  Perth and Santa returned after almost four hours – soaked and angry. Pond sat in the armchair where Fourth had been sitting earlier and wondered whether to share the information he had received from Khun Jack with the team or not. His thoughts were interrupted by Santa’s bag being thrown at his feet.

  “Good news or bad news?” he asked Pond.

  “Is there any good news?”

  “No. Everything went exactly as I expected as soon as we got there.”

  “So we have nothing,” Pond concluded and glanced at the clock. The hours were passing unwaveringly. The chance of saving Phuwin was diminishing with each passing minute.

  “Oh no, we have a lot of material,” Santa interrupted and looked at his partner. “Perth, connect the computer,” he said and turned his gaze back to Pond. “The problem is, that house isn’t there.”

  Pond blinked in surprise and shook his head. “Santa, I was standing in front of the gate, I think I know what–”

  “You saw an illusion, not a house. The security measures you sensed were around the property, not the house. Look!” Santa pointed to the monitor.

  The drone, initially aimed at Perth’s face, turned its camera towards the garden, where there was indeed nothing but a few bushes and a huge amount of yellowed, unkempt grass. The house Pond had seen had vanished. He got up from his chair and marched over to the screen.

  “Did he move it?” he thought aloud, but Santa shook his head.

  “The neighbours say it’s always been a fenced-in lot with a garage in the back. There’s never been a house there.”

  Pond bit his cheek from the inside. “Documents? But we found documents about the damn house on that plot. And how did we see it– an illusion, of course. Only mages could see it?”

  “Uh-huh,” Santa confirmed and sighed. “We saw the house too, but the camera isn’t magical, so it only shows what’s there. And documents ? Come on,” he shrugged. “We have something more interesting. Remember Callme?”

  “Your ‘rat with a backpack’?” Pond laughed, but his expression soured when he saw the recording.

  “Callme crossed the barrier. The camera stayed behind.”

  “Electronics don’t get through, only living organisms?” he asked, and Santa nodded. “Damn, Phuwin was right. The guy’s smart. What else did you find?”

  Perth threw a phone in a unique case onto the table. Phuwin’s phone. Pond picked it up and unlocked it without any trouble. Santa stood with his head tilted, but Pond just grunted at him and got to the recorder. Phuwin was documenting everything that came to his mind, so he must have left some information.

  Pond played the last recording.

  “ Okay, I know this sounds like I’m crazier than I am, but I think Tu is alive. I hear other voices too, but hers is the loudest. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, Win might be in my head, but I know what I’m talking about. Tu and I have a code, do you think he would know it? I have to get inside, not only to neutralise Win, but above all to save her, and maybe the rest, if they’re still alive. Pond, it won’t take a day, although I’ll tell you exactly this as soon as you get here. He’ll torture me until he gets everything. And he’ll have a lot to take... Try to get here, try to get through and save me and the rest. Just try. And if you don’t succeed, don’t worry about me, just get Win. ”

  The message ended with Phuwin’s typical “tsk”, at the sound of which Pond rolled his eyes. He was going to his death, and still he had a bit of a sense of humour. Pond looked at the rest and sighed.

  “So, we know our orders. We have to get inside, which we don’t know where it is, rescue him and the other mages, who may or may not be dead, and get rid of Win.”

  “Easy-peasy,” Fourth said from his armchair chair. “It can’t be that hard to find one house.”

VII

  “Give it back!”

  Win’s scream echoed in Phuwin’s head. The powers he possessed were unstable, Phuwin could feel it in every magical point of his body. Phuwin handed him the book with a small smile.

  “I didn’t do anything to it. I was bluffing.”

  “Ohhh, you’re dreaming of a way out, aren’t you?” Win snorted and threw the book back onto the shelf from which Phuwin had taken it a moment earlier. “There’s no ‘outside’ for you, understand? You’re sitting here and you won’t even stick your nose outside this damn room. Be glad you got a bathroom, Rayong wasn’t so lucky and had to make do with a bucket.” Win looked at Phuwin with disgust and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

  Who the hell is Rayong? Phuwin asked himself and immediately began to feel sorry for the man. If he was one of the kidnapped mages, he must have had something to do with him, just like Joong, Dunk and Tu, but he couldn’t remember there being any mage named Rayong in his circle. It took him a few minutes to realise who Win might have been talking about. But his name wasn’t Rayong, he was from Rayong Province... he thought, trying to remember his name, his power and when he had last seen him. And Phuwin felt that it wasn’t insignificant. It couldn’t be a mere coincidence.

  After a few more minutes, Phuwin got up from the floor and began pacing around the room. Win couldn’t control his magic, he couldn’t keep his power in check, hence his outbursts. On top of that, he was kidnapping mages whose names he didn’t even know.

  Phuwin began to wonder how Tu had been kidnapped. Phuwin hadn’t assigned her to the group searching for Joong and Dunk, so there was a chance that Tu was looking for them on her own and Win had found her that way. Or maybe Joong and Dunk had passed on information about the whole team along with their powers? Phuwin knew that Tu was the key; without her, Win would not be able to find the other mages.

  He returned to his bed, racking his brains for a way to defeat Win. Even the first step – getting out of the room – was troublesome. The big dog behind the door didn’t look like a happy puppy who would roll over and show you his belly when you bent down to pet him, but rather like a beast that would bite your hand off, even if you were holding a steak in it. How am I supposed to get out of here when I don’t even have a steak to bribe it with? he thought furiously, then tilted his head. Maybe it's not real?

  Phuwin began to look around the room, and only then did it strike him that all the furniture was arranged in a very precise manner. They weren’t a random collection of furniture, but a complete set arranged as if the room had been taken out of a catalogue or a shop window. He stood up and, as a test, moved a chair to the middle of the room, then sat back down in his place. After a few seconds, the chair returned to where it had been before. Phuwin smiled and picked up one of the newspapers meticulously arranged in a pile on the table. According to the date on the cover, it had been there for 16 years. Leafing through it, he came across an ad for a furniture store with a room that looked similar, if not identical, to the one he was in.

  Why did a teenager have a room in the basement, and why was the furniture in it taken out of a newspaper? The answer was obvious. Sixteen years ago, Win had his first magical outburst. Someone, probably frightened by what had happened, locked the boy in the basement and threw in things that Win might consider his own, such as books. Phuwin looked at the camera and smiled sadly. He thought that since he was sitting on the other side, staring at him, Phuwin could try telepathy – one of the powers he possessed, though probably not for much longer.

  I really feel for you. I wouldn't want to go through that. Whoever hurt you has already paid for it, right? But what did those wizards do to you? Did they reject you? Abandon you?

  The door creaked and Win returned, shaking his head pityingly. “Are you that desperate for company?”

  “I’m not a fan of staring at walls,” Phuwin replied, shrugging and tapping his head. “Apparently, I think too much.”

  “You know that won’t help you?” Win asked and snorted. “I’ll rip everything out of you and leave you as a shell. You’ll be nothing.” The broad smile on his face made Phuwin’s skin crawl.

  “But you know my powers can kill you?” Phuwin asked and finally looked at Win when he got no response. “You’re a teenager in our world, Win. I can feel how much the magic you took is fighting you. Those mages were older than you. Look what–”

  “You won’t kill me, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ll keep every bit of your magic and finish off the mages once and for all,” Win spat out the words and looked at Phuwin as if he were a bug he wanted to crush. “And these powers? They’re not fighting me, they’re fighting each other,” he said and laughed. “It’s actually a funny feeling.”

  Phuwin wasn’t laughing. There was nothing to laugh about. The man standing in front of him had gone mad from an excess of magic. Phuwin touched him with his fingertip and immediately withdrew it. Win looked at him in shock.

  “You– you have more than eight powers,” Phuwin stammered.

  “Indeed.”

  “How many mages have you killed?”

  A chuckle. “Many.”

  “You should be dead.”

  A moment of silence. “Maybe I am,” Win whispered and smiled, then turned and left the room.

  A zombie-mage , Phuwin thought bitterly and snorted. I haven’t fought one of those yet . 

VIII

  Pond lay on the floor, stretching his spine. After several hours in front of the computer monitor, every muscle ached. They searched for any clue, but to no avail. The data Phuwin had collected over the past few months was extensive, but not enough to get closer to who Win was.

  “Okay, let’s go back to basics,” he groaned, getting up from the floor. “The guy didn’t just appear out of thin air, someone had to give birth to him, and he had to live somewhere. We know his name, or at least the one he used a few months ago. He couldn’t have made it up, could he?”

  “Win Hallam,” Santa said. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the screen. “There’s a university in Sheffield, and there’s a village with that name near Derby.”

  “Well, we have a starting point.” Pond felt a surge of energy. “Is there a school in that village that has a list of kids who went there?”

  Gemini turned away from the computer screen. “There’s a primary school, yes. I’ll search the database to see if they have it digitised. If not, we’ll have to go there.”

  Something in the back of Pond’s mind told him there was another clue he couldn’t see. He began massaging his temples in the hope of coming up with something. Suddenly, he heard a quiet voice in his head. Phuwin . He smiled. Phuwin was trying to contact him. He could only make out a few words from the noise. House, basement, more power... Phuwin, what are you trying to tell me? he thought intensely, but the voice fell silent for good.

  Fourth tapped him on the shoulder. Pond looked around and saw a shield stretched out around him. He raised his hands.

  “Everything’s okay.” He tapped his head. “Phuwin.” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. “Kid, shouldn’t you be behind the shield instead of next to me?”

  “You looked calm.” Fourth shrugged. “A strange aura started to form around you, it freaked them out,” he paused and held out a cup to him. “Tea?”

  “Give it to me.” Pond rolled his eyes. He could have bet that a moment ago Fourth had nothing in his hand.

  “Phuwin was trying to tell me something, but I don’t really understand what he meant. House, basement, more power, that’s all I heard. He probably said more, but I suspect he was trying to get through Win’s barriers, which required a lot of power anyway.”

  The room fell silent, and sandwiches, coffee and more tea appeared on the table. Pond looked at Fourth, but he just shrugged, took the food and returned to his armchair. His power was growing stronger. He’ll make a good team member , Pond nodded to himself.

  “Pond, what’s the range of his telepathy?” Santa asked between bites of his sandwich.

  “I don’t know, a few dozen kilometres?” He mentally facepalmed. “He’s somewhere nearby. He figured it out himself when he tried to contact me. Birmingham was a red herring. How far is it from here to this Hallam place?”

  “West Hallam,” Gemini corrected him without hesitation. “About fifty kilometres.”

  “A house, in the basement...” Pond muttered under his breath. “He’s in a house, in the basement. Phuwin, that’s not hel– damn, Gemini!’ The boy jumped up from his chair. “A children’s home or an orphanage. Big and old, with a basement. Not far from Hallam. Closed down a few years ago.”

  “ On it! ”

  “Pond–” Santa was quicker. “Derby.” He pointed to a photo on the monitor. “Officially closed in 1993, but a few elderly people lived there for some time after closing.” He looked up at his boss and saw him smiling. “But Win looks like he’s in his twenties.”

  “And what’s the trouble with changing your age and appearance? If he has the right power, none.” He paused and looked at Santa. “More power. If he wasn’t young almost 30 years ago and already had power then, either he aged naturally so as not to arouse suspicion, or–”

  “Or what?” The question came from all sides of the room. He grimaced.

  “Do you know how old Phuwin is?” 

IX

  Pond, please, if you can hear me... this is an old house with a long history, Win was here as a child. I’m in his old room, in the basement. Pond... he... he has more power than we thought, than I thought.

  Phuwin thought hard about what else he could add before Win would enter the room again. He thought he could confuse him if he was eavesdropping on his telepathy. He didn’t know how much Pond had heard, but he hoped it was something. He felt he was close. He could find him and save him. He believed in him.

  After considering it, he added two more sentences and smiled slyly. He knew they wouldn’t get past Win’s barrier.

  I can’t do it alone. He’ll take everything away from me .

X

  “What do you mean, how old is he? The same age as a normal mage of his age.” Perth shrugged. “No one asks other mages, especially those older than themselves, how old they are.”

  “Santa, you’re the oldest here.” The man showed Pond his middle finger. He raised his hands in a gesture of peace. “I’m not saying that to be mean, just for context. You’ve known Phuwin longer than we have.”

  “ I know him?” He looked at Pond critically and snorted. “No one here knows him except you , boss. Rumour has it that he’s always been here. That he’s been fighting disobedient mages longer than anyone else, that he’s the famous ‘slayer of evil’.” Santa rolled his eyes. “Pond, those are just rumours. He looks no older than 150 to me.”

  “You’re not even close.” He smiled but then remembered Khun Jack’s words about the bomb and his smile faded. “What I mean is that Phuwin doesn’t look his age – and he’s got a few centuries under his belt – because he doesn’t age. Or rather, he ages very slowly. Win doesn’t look like the old man he was 30 years ago because he’s rejuvenated. The question is: did he discover his power in childhood but decided not to use it until he started dying, or did something happen at the end of his life that awakened his power?”

  “What was supposed to happen?” Santa crossed his arms over his chest. “ The Big Bang? ” He laughed, but seeing Pond’s serious expression, he fell silent.

  “Sixteen years ago, Tu sensed a power. A strong one.” Pond closed his eyes to let the memories flow faster. “We were sitting in this room, as always, debating whether to order something to eat or go to one of our places and cook something. Tu was restless. At one point, she jumped up from her chair and ran out. Two days later, she came back with a baby.” Everyone looked at Fourth, who was curled up in a ball. “She said she felt a magical blow, one that could have killed. When she entered the house, she saw two bodies and a child crying on the floor. Phuwin knew that Tu was hiding something; they communicated telepathically all the time, but he didn’t say a word.” Pond paused and rubbed his face with his hand. Phuwin had his reasons, don’t doubt him... he thought before continuing. “The beginning with the baby was difficult. Children don’t control magic, especially when they’re so young. Fourth had constant outbursts of power, uncontrollable, stronger than we know. Phuwin kept saying that it was similar with the mages in the old days.”

  Several pairs of eyes turned towards him in terror. He decided to wait a few minutes for everyone to calm down. In the meantime, he sat down on the floor with Phuwin’s phone in his hand and looked through his notes. They were different from the official ones, but not enough to share them with the team.

  What did you know? What did you expect? You must have known something, you wouldn’t have gone there blindly...

  And then he saw a note from the day after Tu disappeared, with the address of the house where he had last seen Phuwin. He knew where his friend had disappeared, but he didn’t go there to save her and the rest? Why?

  He shook his head. Scrolling further, he came to the last note, from a year ago. He began to shake and threw the phone on the floor with such force that it shattered into tiny pieces. Everyone jumped, and Fourth automatically used a calming spell.

  “We made a mistake,” he hissed through clenched teeth and felt a shield around him. He didn’t care. He got up and looked at the rest with madness in his eyes. “Phuwin knew where to find Win for a very long time, he could have gone there and gotten rid of him, but he let Win kidnap seven damn mages!” Pond yelled. He was breathing heavily and trying to calm down, but he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Fourth was pressing his power harder against him, which only enraged him more. “For fuck’s sake, turn it off!”

  “Pond...” Fourth said quietly and looked at him with his childlike eyes. “You’re scaring me...”

  Pond raised his hand and shook his head. “No, Fourth, it won’t work on me this time.” He leaned against the wall, still staring furiously ahead. “Photos, drawings, paintings, papers, anything related to that damn orphanage. Look through everything. Find Win. This time we’re taking it seriously and ending this game of cat and mouse.” He paused and felt the shield around him disappear. “Twenty-four hours have long passed, but since Phuwin already knew what he was up against, he can hold out a little longer until we find out everything. Then we’ll go to that damn house, drag the mages out, dead or alive, and kill Win.”

  He pushed himself off the wall and left the room. No one stopped him. He went straight to the training ground, cast a spell in front of him and mined the entire area. At the other end of the field, he summoned his target – a dummy with Win’s face. He took the knives out of his pocket and started running forward.

XI

  “I was wrong about you,” Phuwin said into the space.

  He lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Earlier, he had thought about making himself some tea or asking for food, but he decided that all he needed was a shower. Surprisingly, he found fresh clothes and a towel in the bathroom. Win, however bad of a person he was, knew how to take care of his ‘guests’.

  Phuwin wondered how long it would take Pond and the others to find him. He was sure they already knew where he was. If they had found his phone with his notes in it, and his telepathy had passed through Win’s barriers, they were close to entering the house.

  Unless Pond didn’t like secrets... he thought, biting his lip. Phuwin had been working as a mage hunter for many, many years and had always had trouble sharing information with the group. That’s why he worked alone. He paid no attention to others because only the target mattered.

  This time, the target was Win.

  “You know, I could have come here a year ago,” he smiled with a grimace. “But she wouldn’t let me. She said I didn’t understand, that you were trying to change. How can one change in a place like this?” he snorted.

  Phuwin stood up and looked at the camera. He could feel Win watching him, but he didn’t pay any attention to it. Let him look , he thought. He wasn’t the first weirdo he’d dealt with.

  “And now you know what’s going on inside, don’t you? After all, you have eyes and ears there. And everything is fine as long as he’s not asleep... and he is sleepy, isn’t he? You’re nervous about it, right? You won’t know the plan, you won’t know when they’ll come here... and they will come...”

  He jumped out of bed and went over to the wall. The illusion was becoming less stable, which meant that Win was losing his nerve. Phuwin used a little magic and began to draw symbols on the wall, which looked like meaningless scribbles, but not to a skilled mage. With his last movement, the entire illusion collapsed and after a few seconds returned to its place, but completely different. It looked as if it had been pulled out of another room. He smiled.

  “I remembered who Rayong was,” he paused and turned to the camera. “Of course, you know that’s not his real name, right?” His smile widened. “You can see the future. And you don’t like what you see.” He returned to the bed and crossed his legs. “I was wondering what you were so afraid of. You know their powers, you know what they can do... and yet something is bothering you. Actually, someone . He’s wild... and that’s scary. I trained him myself, and even I don’t know what he’s capable of.”

  He waited. He’ll come, he’ll get angry, and he’ll come , Phuwin thought. He hoped they were ready, that they were somewhere nearby. If he was wrong, he would die. He didn’t like that idea. He had lived so many years.

  “When I think about what I know about you, I come to the conclusion that you’re really a teenager, you know, compared to me. How old can you be? A hundred, a hundred and fifty?” Bored, he sat down on the floor and leaned his back against the bed. He waved his hand, and a glass of wine appeared next to him. “I’ve lived so many years, and I still admire you all, so young and ambitious. If only you would look at history, at what happened to people like you. And who got rid of you.”

  Phuwin felt the magic around him tremble. Win opened the door so hard that it slammed against the wall. “You’re supposed to be the ‘slayer of evil’?” He laughed, but there was uncertainty in his laughter. “You’re not as powerful as you think you are!” He snatched the glass from Phuwin’s hand and threw it against the wall.

  Phuwin raised an eyebrow. “No? That’s interesting.” He got up from the floor and looked at him. “Tu told you a lot about me, didn’t she? And Fourth showed you what I’m capable of. There’s just one tiny problem. I knew everything. And there are only two mages who know everything about me. My father.” He smiled, showing his teeth. “And Pond.”

  Win couldn’t take it anymore. Phuwin’s vision went dark again.

XII

  After another two hours of staring at computer screens, Pond had had enough. He knew Phuwin had a plan when he walked into Win’s house, but he couldn’t accept that after all these years of working together, he didn’t trust him enough to tell him what that plan was.

  Trust... it’s not like I need Fourth to calm me down when a problem arises– Fourth!

  Pond turned abruptly towards the armchair where the boy was sleeping. His name appeared several times in Phuwin’s notes.

  “Sixteen years ago, something happened. Something that caused Win’s power to not so much awaken as increase. I think he returned to his youthful appearance a year or two earlier.” Pond looked at a photograph from the early 20th century, in which a young man was looking at him. There was fear in his eyes... and anger.

  “But why?” Pond raised his head at Santa’s question. He smiled and nodded towards Fourth. “Oh, I see...”

  Pond walked over to the armchair, knelt in front of it, and looked at the teenager. He took his phone out of his pocket, wrote a quick text message, and touched Fourth’s hand. The boy opened his eyes and stretched.

  “Go back to your room, kid.” Pond said gently, allowing a calming spell to spread around them. “You're falling asleep sitting up.”

  “No, no. I’m fine, I’m waking up now.” He said a little too abruptly for him. Pond shook his head. “Why?”

  “You’ve been up for a day and a half, using your powers every few minutes. You’re exhausted.” Pond ruffled his hair, and the boy laughed. “There’s no point in sleeping in an armchair when you can lie down in your own bed, right?”

  “Maybe you’re right... but you will wake me up if you find anything?” Pond hesitated but answered yes. The boy nodded and left the office.

  Pond turned to the rest of the group. He shook his head and pressed his finger to his lips. He touched the chair where the boy had been sitting and drew a sign of unveiling. Half a second later, the entire room was covered in veins. He heard curses behind him.

  “First of all, I’ve never been able to do this spell correctly. Second, wow .”

  “What... is that?” Perth stammered.

  “That, my friends, is...”

  “Fourth,” Khun Jack replied for him, appearing in the doorway. Pond looked at the walls, then at the man.

  “They’re fading.”

  “He’s falling asleep.”

  Jack walked over to the chair and performed a spell that Pond didn’t know. All the veins disappeared, and they heard a quiet howl in the room nearby.

  “I’ll go to him,” Khun Jack said and grabbed Pond by the arm before leaving. “You know everything now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then go save my son,” he said so quietly that Pond thought he had imagined the man speaking to him.

  Everyone looked at Pond in silence. He sat down in a chair and exhaled, not realising he had been holding his breath. He looked at the others and tapped his head. “Phuwin.”

  “Do you have a plan?”

  “I do.”

  Pond approached the laptop with renewed energy. “Tay, can you jump with three people?” The man, surprised that Pond had spoken to him, closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded. “Me, Santa, and Perth are going with Tay. The rest of you get in the cars and head to Derby.”

  “But... Pond, how are you going to get inside?”

  “Oh, you’ll see.” He smiled wildly and grabbed Tay by the arm. They disappeared a second later.

XIII

  “How much did you take?” Phuwin asked, holding his head. He didn’t feel much of a loss of power, but Win was lying on the ground, breathing heavily.

  “Not enough,” he gasped after a few seconds.

  He got up on shaky legs, and although he could barely stand, he pointed his hands back at him.

  “You won’t last much longer,” Phuwin shook his head at his stupidity. “You’ll kill yourself, and I won’t lose anything.”

  “Shut up!” he yelled, making Phuwin wince. He was unstable, and the power he had taken from him wanted to return to its owner. “I know what you’re planning. No one will come to your rescue! This place is too well protected!”

  “I know,” Phuwin said quietly, allowing Win to touch his forehead. “But you’ve made a mistake.”

  “I. Do. Not. Make. Mistakes,’ he hissed. Phuwin smiled and looked him in the eyes.

  “He’s already here,” he managed to whisper before darkness fell again.

XIV

  “Ouch!” Phuwin grabbed his head and looked angrily at Pond. “You could have just woken me up instead of giving me a bruise.”

  “I should have hit harder!”

  “Oh, I’d love you to try.” He looked at Win lying on the floor. “Is he alive?”

  “As always. He’s all yours.” Pond grimaced.

  He wasn’t fond of watching power being taken away. Whenever Phuwin started doing it, he preferred to walk away and not look. This time, however, he grabbed Win around the waist and carried him out of the house. Phuwin followed him, not quite understanding what he was doing. Pond threw the unconscious man to the ground.

  “Why here?”

  “Because you don’t like basements.” He shrugged and sat down on the steps. “Do what you have to do, we need to talk.”

  “We’ll talk.” Phuwin nodded.

  Phuwin bent down and looked at the battered Win. He hadn’t seen Pond and the others enter the room, he had only sensed them entering the house. But judging by the mage’s appearance, he must have put up a good fight. Or no one had stopped Pond from taking his anger out on him.

  He touched the man’s forehead and first removed the magic that belonged to Phuwin. Only then did he feel like himself again. He took a few deep breaths and held his hand over Win’s heart.

  Power, come back... he repeated in his mind several times until he felt the magic flow. He gasped, surprised by the amount of it Win possessed. After a minute, he finished and sat down on the ground. He felt like going and throwing himself off the nearest bridge. Too much... too much... he didn’t even notice when tears began to flow down his cheeks. Pond immediately appeared at his side.

  “Are you okay?” He shook his head. “Tay?” This time Phuwin nodded. “What should we do with him?”

  Phuwin pointed his trembling hand at Win, whose body instantly turned to ash. He waved his hand again and all the dust landed in the conjured jar. Pond nodded and put it in his bag.

  “Home?” The question hung in the air.

  Phuwin fainted. 

XV

  Tay was supposed to drop Phuwin and Pond off at the former’s house, but by some strange ‘coincidence’, they found themselves in front of Khun Jack’s house. Tay smiled apologetically and disappeared, leaving Pond with the unconscious Phuwin in his arms.

  “Are you coming in or are you just going to stand there?” Pond heard from inside.

  As he crossed the threshold, Phuwin began to wake up, and with him, restless powers. Pond sat him down in an armchair. “Father...” Phuwin cried out. “Help me, there are too many of them...”

  “How many?”

  “Fifteen? Maybe more... plus my powers. I can’t do it.”

  “Where’s the body?” Pond took the jar out of his bag when he heard the question and waved it in the air with disgust. “And the others?”

  “Who knows?” Pond shrugged. “They’re looking for them,” he paused, “but I doubt they’ll find anyone alive.” The older man nodded.

  “Take him, let’s go to the circle.” Jack took out his phone and sent a text message. Pond tried to lift Phuwin, but he insisted on going alone. “Carry him,” Phuwin’s father cut off the discussion before it began and left the house without even looking at them.

  The circle was the meeting place of the Council, with a circle of shiny sand in the middle. When Pond entered it for the first time, Phuwin told him it was magic, but he thought it was just crystal particles.

  Pond instinctively raised his head to look at the ceiling and smiled involuntarily at the sight of hundreds of names painted on it. One day, I’ll be there too... he thought.

  Pond placed Phuwin in front of the circle and turned towards the exit. Just as he didn’t like watching power being taken away, giving it back to the earth was even worse. He had seen it several times, he had seen the pain in his whole body, and he had seen Phuwin’s exhaustion after it was over.

  “Stay,” he heard behind him. “This time you must.” Phuwin said firmly, placing his hand on the sand. “Earth, accept these powers, leave mine and give back those you do not need,” he began to repeat.

  After a few more repetitions, a shiver ran through Phuwin’s entire body, and streams of multicoloured light began to emanate from his hand. After a few seconds, he began to scream. If it weren’t for his training, Pond would have run up to him and pulled him away from the circle, but he knew that would be worse than the process of giving up the magic to the earth.

  When he finished, Phuwin relaxed, which was not exactly normal. To the best of Pond’s knowledge, Phuwin should have been lying there, almost dying of pain, but he looked happy. Pond felt a kind of relief.

  Two balls of light hung above the circle. Pond looked at them in confusion.

  “I told you you had to be here. You’ll like it, I promise.’ Phuwin smiled and turned to the Elders. They nodded at him.

  “Earth, if you wish, give these powers to those who need them,” they said in unison.

  The balls rushed towards Pond and Phuwin. When they hit their bodies, Phuwin didn’t react, but Pond accepted the new power with a loud gasp. Suddenly, something moved in the air. They both looked up at the ceiling, where new names appeared one after another.

  The team had found the bodies of the mages.

  Joong, Dunk, Title, Off, Satang, Prim, Tu

  When the last name appeared, Phuwin left the circle. He knew that everyone except him was dead. Pond looked at Khun Jack, but the man just shook his head.

  He decided to talk to Phuwin later. He needed time, and Pond had to get rid of his excess energy. His calm jog ended after a few seconds when he found himself at the other end of the complex. He laughed.

  Just as he was trying to calm down and slow down, Phuwin gave him superspeed.

  “Well, it’s time for a trip,” he laughed to himself and headed towards Derby.

XVI

  Phuwin sat on the floor and enjoyed the fire burning in the fireplace. He felt calm again, although the fear of talking to Pond kept creeping into the back of his mind. Maybe I should take some time off? Run away for a few years, cut myself off from everything , he thought, but immediately shook his head.

  “I couldn’t, this is my life,” he decided.

  “That’s good,” he heard his father say from the doorway. As usual, he surprised him with his silent entrance. “How are you feeling?”

  “Free,” he smiled. “I don’t know how Win was able to live with so many powers inside him. What I felt at the very beginning was almost nothing compared to what he must have felt. Maybe if he had just come to us–” He trailed off. If he had, he would have ended up dead anyway.

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” Jack put his hand on his shoulder. “You did the right thing.”

  He wasn’t sure if that was true. After every such action – taking away powers and killing a mage – he felt like those who had previously taken away powers and killed other mages. He was a murderer, although some called him what Win did: ‘the slayer of evil.’ He snorted, but seeing his father’s raised eyebrow, he shook his head.

  “Either way, I’m taking some time off. A few years, maybe a dozen.”

  “Sure.” Jack laughed out loud and sat down on the sofa.

  Phuwin rarely heard that sound. He smiled. Sometimes he forgot that his father was thousands of years old. When he was around, he usually acted as if Phuwin was in his twenties and he was in his forties. Then he would leave and return to being Khun Jack, the chairman of the Council and the oldest mage in the complex, and perhaps in the world.

  “Maybe a little more faith in my determination, eh?” he asked, getting up from the floor and walking over to the window. “It usually takes me a few years to gather my strength back. A break would do me good. I’d gain new strength... distance.”

  “What about training the kid?” The question made him realise the problem with Fourth and his growing powers. He grimaced. “You’re the only person I would trust to look after an unstable mage.”

  “I don’t have such a good relationship with him. He spent most of his time with Tu.” His father looked at him, but he just shrugged. “The earth gave me her power, so I haven’t lost her completely. Don’t feel sorry for me.” Phuwin sat down in his chair and looked at his father. “Another grey hair,” he commented and smiled half-heartedly.

  “A little more and I’ll hit midlife crisis. I’ll be unbearable, you’ll see.” Jack grinned and stood up. “Are you going to tell him?”

  “Who?” His father looked at him like he was an idiot. Phuwin rolled his eyes. “Do I have a choice? He’s held out long enough.”

  “He wasn’t interested in your past before.”

  Phuwin’s eyes widened. “You talked to him?!”

  “I didn’t tell him about you. That’s your story.” Jack reassured him. “I’m just saying that now he has questions he didn’t know he had before.”

  “Does he know how old I am?” His father shook his head. Phuwin breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that he would be able to leave that out of his story. “But he knows you’re... I don’t want to say old–” He side-eyed him. Very funny , he thought sarcastically. “Knowledge and understanding. He needs to know in order to understand.”

  “I know, I know.” Phuwin rubbed his eyes. “For now, though, I’ll let him enjoy his new power.”

  His father left, leaving him alone. He touched the spot on his right shoulder where the power that had recently belonged to Tu had settled. I’ll take care of Fourth, I promise .

XVII

  He sat in his armchair and stared into the fire. He didn’t know what to expect; the future was far from certain. He sensed his presence and opened the door before he had a chance to knock. They stood facing each other, one just a few centimetres taller than the other. Finally, the visitor sighed.

  “Well? Speak.”

  They looked at each other and he took a deep breath.

  Showtime .

  “How much did my father tell you?”

  “Only that you’re older than you look.” He shrugged as if it were insignificant information, but Phuwin could see that it wasn’t. “And that combining your powers with Joong's and Dunk's could probably result in an atomic bomb explosion.”

  “Oh. No, it wouldn’t be that bad.” Phuwin closed his eyes and shook his head. “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything.” Pond said firmly, and Phuwin rolled his eyes. Try again , he ordered telepathically. “Okay, why did you start hunting mages?”

  “So we’re starting from the beginning...” Phuwin looked at him uncertainly. “I did not get my powers; I was born a mage.” He waited for a reaction, but there was none. “Once upon a time, mages and humans mixed together. It didn’t bother anyone because in most cases there were no children out of it. However, when two mages–” He shook his head. “When two unusual genes are combined, the result is usually explosive.”

  He snorted and scratched his neck.

  “Were you explosive?” He smiled when he heard the question.

  “What do you think?” He shrugged, and Pond’s eyes widened. “I killed the first person right after I was born. Poor midwife wasn’t lucky.” Phuwin looked him in the eyes. “You can leave if you want.”

  He shook his head. “Go on.”

  “I was– everyone thought I was crazy. My power was wild. My parents couldn’t keep me in one place. To be honest, they put up with me for 16 years. My father decided he had to send me on a mission. My mother was terrified.”

  He could still hear her screams of agony in his head and her pleas for Jack not to send Phuwin to the other side of the country. Don’t worry about him, worry about his enemies , he told Phuwin’s mother at the time. Phuwin was grateful to him for sending him away, for not making him sit on his ass and control his magic but allowing him to develop his powers away from home.

  “And that's how it started. I hunted the bad ones. At first, I only tracked those who had excess power, which meant that most of that power wasn’t theirs. Later, I started taking power away too.” Hundreds of years later, he still couldn’t get used to the pain of taking and giving away magic. “My father decided that I couldn’t keep it all inside. He created a circle. There was no Elders and Council back then, it was just the two of us. It was awful...”

  “When I look at you, I think it still is.”

  “No, Pond, now it’s easy compared to how it was in the beginning. We didn’t have our method. We literally had to figure out what to do to make the earth accept the magic we took. It took us a hundred years to figure out what the earth wanted.”

  “Wait, you’ve been collecting power for over a hundred years without giving it back?!” Phuwin looked at him in surprise. He didn’t understand why Pond got mad this time. “But the circle was formed... no, you’re messing with me.”

  Phuwin raised his eyes to the ceiling. He waited for Pond to reveal what he had discovered. He could see the cogs in his head turning faster and faster. He needed a good few minutes to gather his thoughts.

  “Two thousand–” Pond whispered, and Phuwin nodded, although it was more of an estimate. “How old is Khun Jack?”

  “I have no idea,” he laughed softly and shook his head. “I don’t even know if he knows.” Phuwin walked over to the window and looked out into space. “Any more questions?”

  “You said you were wild... but you’re not. I mean, you’re not normal either, but I wouldn’t call you crazy.”

  Phuwin laughed out loud. It wasn’t a question, but he understood the message. His early memories were brutal, but he wasn’t ashamed of them. What had happened to him was part of his history.

  “I was wild because I didn’t have my mother’s wonderful gene.” He turned to Pond and leaned against the window. “You see, my mother was good . However that sounds. I think that was her power. Unfortunately, I missed out on that pleasure. I got a whole bunch of powers that made me nothing but walking destruction without an ounce of kindness.” Pond took a sharp breath. Phuwin rolled his eyes at that.

  “But you’re not like that,” Pond whispered. Phuwin nodded.

  “Three hundred years ago, I came across a mage. He could barely stand when I reached him. He had the power of ten mages. He was crying.” Phuwin snorted. “No one had ever asked me for forgiveness and mercy before, so I wasn’t moved when he threw himself on his knees in front of me. He babbled for me to take his powers away, even his own, and let him go free. I remember laughing in his face as I knocked him over and touched his heart.” Phuwin grew serious and looked at Pond. “When I took everything from him, I was overcome by what was his. I was weak, I couldn’t take his life. I took him to my father. I begged him to kill him.”

  “Was that your mother’s power?” Pond asked, and Phuwin immediately shook his head.

  “No, no. My mother has been dead for hundreds of years, her power absorbed by the earth. It was... empathy.” He laughed. “And the earth decided that this would be the power it would give me.” He fetched a bottle of water from the kitchen. Unscrewing the cap, he looked at the fire. “It took me a few years to get used to it.”

  His father used to tell him that he had once been crazy but level-headed, and that when he gained empathy, he lost his self-preservation instinct. Looking at his latest feat, maybe he was right.

  That’s why I need time off, but apparently no one agrees.

  “I need a moment to process this.” Pond’s words pierced his consciousness.

  “I understand.” Phuwin smiled, walked past the sofa where Pond was sitting, squeezing his hand lightly, and left the house.

  Normally, Pond would have gone outside, but this time he needed some air. He had to come to terms with everything, and Phuwin needed to collect his thoughts. It wasn’t the end of the conversation, but they both needed a break.

  Their bond was strong enough to survive it.

XVIII

  “ You can come back if you want ,” he read Pond’s text message and smiled. I can go back to my own home , he thought sarcastically. He rolled his eyes and replied, “ I’ve walked 3 km, it’ll take me a while .”

  “Fourth,” he heard beside him and almost jumped out of his skin. He hit Pond on the shoulder when his heart returned to its normal pace.

  “Idiot,” he added, giving him another slap on the head. “What, Fourth?”

  “How did you know about him?”

  “That he’s Tu and Win’s son?” Pond looked at him confused.

  “Their son ? I thought he was Win’s spy–”

  “Oh... right, that was unintentional.” Phuwin gathered his thoughts. “Eighteen years ago, Tu went on a mission and met Win. She told me she had fallen in love with a man, but she didn’t tell me who he was. I advised her against the relationship. She didn’t listen.” Phuwin paused. If he had managed to stop her somehow, none of this would have happened.

  “He would have done it anyway,” Pond said, pretty much reading his thoughts, as he often did.

  “But he wouldn’t have been so strong. My father told me that when I was born, his power increased, and he was already powerful then.” Phuwin gathered himself. “Anyway, Fourth is just like me, luckily he has more positive genes than I did. And he got good power.”

  “Good powers. Plural.” Phuwin looked at Pond in surprise. He smiled smugly. “Finally, I know more than you. While you were away, he developed another one. Besides calmness, he can now create something out of nothing.”

  “That’s a dangerous power...”

  This time it was Phuwin who had to pause for a moment. Pond walked beside him at a steady pace, their fingers intertwining, although normally he would have been counting the stones on the road or the birds flying overhead. Phuwin noticed this and smiled at him.

  “So far, he’s made us sandwiches and tea, but I agree, it could be bad.”

  “He needs a teacher. Someone to guide him.”

  “You brought me out into the world,” Pond suggested, and Phuwin rolled his eyes. “Well, almost.”

  “Pond.” Phuwin stood in the middle of the road and grabbed him by the arm. “I was able to calm you down because you were just like me, mentally. Fourth needs someone who is close to him and who will take care of him.”

  He looked at Pond deeply and waited for a reaction. Pond just shook his head.

  “No.” Phuwin nodded anyway. “No, Phuwin. No. I’d ruin him.”

  “Not at all. He sees you as his mentor anyway. He treats you like the father he never had.”

  “Me?”

  “Wherever you are, Fourth is there too. He watches everything you do. He calms you down when you start to get angry.”

  “He’s not afraid of me.” Pond grimaced, and Phuwin smiled broadly, then walked over and kissed him on the cheek, something he had never done before, but this time he felt it was worth it. Pond blushed but didn’t pull away. “Great. A madman will train a mega-talented mage.”

  Phuwin started laughing, and Pond walked over and hugged him. They stood in silence until Phuwin finally patted him on the shoulder. “It’s time,” he said and pointed Pond the way to the complex. I’ll go alone, go to him , he said telepathically. Pond disappeared before it occurred to Phuwin that he should help him with the training somehow.

  He’ll be fine , he thought and turned on his heel.

Epilogue

  He sat in his armchair and stared into the fire. He didn’t know what to expect; the future was far from certain. He sensed his presence and opened the door before he had a chance to knock. He stood in front of him, smiling.

  “How about I be your mentor?”

  He looked at him and took a deep breath.

  “Really?” he squeaked.

  “Fourth, since I treat you like a younger brother anyway, I might as well teach you something along the way.”

  He threw his arms around his neck. “You’re the best older brother I could ever have.”