Spring

One of Hargeon’s churches overlooked the ports five blocks away from the sea. It was a local parish from one of Fiore’s most prolific faiths. The parvis in front of the building running to the side of the building had been converted into a garden since a few years ago. From the open church gardens into the street outside had been filled with tables and benches, the church and the buildings on the opposite side, mostly cafés and shops, were decorated with light colored fabrics and brightly blossomed flowers.

This was only supposed to be a small event to celebrate the return of many of its townspeople who were taken by slavers nearly a month ago. The church took the opportunity as both a final stretch to the people’s week-long debriefing process, and a way to make them relax. Edna’s company provided the means for a small celebration over at the church gardens, but when the council got wind of it, they started giving calls to the neighbor’s association.

One thing led to another and somehow, they eventually ended up with this overblown campaign. Officially, this was now a collaboration between the town council and the church trying to imitate the spring ‘Easter Feaster’ festivals in the cities. Truthfully, Edna and the local parish could only scratch their heads on how it led to this. The townspeople they were supposed to celebrate it with were pretty on board, so there wasn’t much ways on it being canceled. Although there were others who took the incident hard and opted for a quieter night with their families. Edna and the others made sure they were still taken care of despite the fact.

Tim wanted to help deliver the food to the ones he rescued, but his old boss practically booted him to the celebration instead.

“Let loose, for once.” She said with finality. “I have Heba with me, don’t worry.”

And for the next hours while sitting over the church’s roof, that’s exactly what he did. Tim was worrying. He was worrying about a lot of things, as much as he’d like to deny it. This always happened whenever he had nothing to do; no job to keep him busy, no chore to keep his thoughts off certain things. Leaving Tim with nothing to do was the worst thing someone can do to him!

Giving Tim the means of extended time to think idly would lead to very disastrous situations. Ledges sounded way friendlier than usual. Just now as he stood over the church bell-tower’s roofing, he let his body basking the setting rays of light. His bottle of spirit sloshing as he swayed along with the wind.

Suddenly Tim looked into the ground, a few dozen meters below. “With how I am now, I’ll probably survive that, won’t I?”

“I want to say don’t jump, but sensing you right now? You might even be able to survive a fall from the sky.”

“Timόtheos.”

“Hello, my boy.”

An old man with nothing but a very large jacket was sitting beside Tim. The young man shook his head and opted to sit with him instead.

“Timόtheos.”

“Yes?”

“Have a drink.”

“I’m quite alright.”

“C’mon, just a shot—”

“You do not have a shot glass, Tim. Also I do not drink.”

“Of all people— damn, do-gooders!”

“Was that supposed to be an insult?”

“Piss off…”

“…”

His ancestor looked over the setting sun. They were sitting over the church’s roof, listening to the townspeople prepare for the celebration. Tim already halved spirit’s contents, and his little late day drinking had loosened his lips considerably. It was pure coincidence that his ancestor came for a visit that day, or so he said, and the tipsy young man roped him into a ‘pre-celebration celebration’.

“Timόtheos.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think I can save my father?”

“…”

“…”

“From what I could sense—”

“You and I both know he’s still out there.” Tim took a hard swig. “I can feel it. Like a weird connection you can’t just explain.”

“When the opportunity comes—” Timόtheos sighed. “And he would be at my mercy, would you let me take his life?”

“Yes.”

“…truly?”

“…”

“Then there’s your answer.”

Tim scoffed. “To think I had the gall to call you out about your daughter.”

The older man looked down and shook his head. “Those are merely words, Tim. Let it go.”

“Never.”

“I never held you in contempt. Any of you.” His ancestor began. “I am at fault. I was the one who ruined what little humanity I had left— all for the sake of revenge. Had I fully pursued it? I should have had the common decency of not allowing myself to have any children, not allowing anyone else suffer with my curse.”

“That’s a warped view on your situation—”

The man-turned-god laughed. “Of all people, you are the one saying such a thing?”

Tim paused, looked at the sunset and sighed.

---

After night fell over the town, the celebration finally reached its peak. There was music and a lot of noise on the streets. Tim, meanwhile, hid. He sat by a corner of the garden by one of the stone benches. The slightly labyrinthian hedges keeping the couples walking around from seeing a monster. And it was no exaggeration too; lately, Tim’s curse had worsened. Unless he either basks himself under direct sunlight or burn himself with his light magic, his tar-like curse would drip out like sweat. The worst part of this was he had little to no idea why this was happening. It could be because he kept tapping on his magical energy, seemingly accelerating the curse somehow? He was using a lot of magic when on jobs, infinitely more than he would compared back when he had been working under Edna. Or, it could be because Erebus had already made a move against him. It could be anything, Tim could only keep theorizing.

He had a bottle of brandy on one hand while slinging his other hand over the bench’s backrest as he waited for Edna and Heba to finish exploring the event they helped organize. There were a lot of games for the children, Tim only hoped Heba had a good time mingling with the other kids. He, meanwhile, received two small 'Easter eggs' for attending the 'Feaster'. Tim didn't mind the commemorative items and kept it for himself.

“You know, Wolf. We really haven’t talked to each other.” Tim took another swig off his third bottle. “Other than the times you huff like a snob at me and when I say your name, we haven’t talked. At all. It’s weird.”

All he got out of that was a familiar indignant huff.

“See?!” Tim laughed. “The only reason I knew your real name was because of the Fae. It’s crazy.”

---

This child had dabbled in this sort of debauchery before, and with a group of fellow drunkards to boot! Asena patiently waited as the child wasted his night away, just as she had been doing so since she met him in the doorsteps of the Ley-Line guardians’ headquarters all those months ago. As she sat vigilantly beside the child, she took the opportunity to let her mind wander just as he had.

Like he said, their relationship was a very fragile one. It was a relationship born out of little more than idle curiosity when she and the others from the astral pack took interest in his divine light. It was akin to a feline and its relationship to catnip. It was only when Tim had been conversing to a deity, one who apparently was a direct ancestor, where her personal interest took flight. It was a rocky start, at best. Since then the child took part in many activities to strengthen his magical prowess: from hunting prey in a forest, preserving his territories against a ferocious lion, and even setting out lands beyond to take back members of an old pack. She didn’t want to admit it, but he had grow. He was thick headed, at first. He had little motivation to pursue power, and this led to many excruciating situations where she needed to protect him. But there were also times, where she was the one who needed protecting.

“Hey, Wolf…” By the maker, that is not her name! Why does he always use such a vulgar way of talking?! She would often chide him, but all it would sound to his untrained ears was, as he put it, an indignant huff. She could only cross her brow at such a display.

“Thanks.”

Asena blinked.

“You remember when I was face to face with that wolf god? I never really thanked you for standing up for me, have I?”

Again, Asena could only blink. She definitely did not forget such an incident. It was one of the most terrifying things she had done in her existence! It was when they came to a place the cursed lands, the child and her ran into a trap orchestrated by none other than the wolf-god Vánagandr. The thought made her flinch.

“Wolf—it’s alright! Hey! Hey…” The child didn’t bat an eye and leaned closer to her, putting the bottle of spirit on the stone bench and clasped her with his cursed hands. “…don’t think about it anymore, alright? I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

Asena was not cowardly. She prided herself as a very efficient huntress, and a rather strong member among her astral pack. Accompanying the child— Tim. Helping him with his guild endeavors had made her even stronger. But facing a deity was another matter entirely. His threat of forcing her into his servitude wasn’t the part that sent shivers down her nonexistent spine, it was the notion that he will kill the child without batting an eye.

She didn’t want to admit it, but it was that sliver of attachment that took hold of her like a vice. Such a thing had not happened to her before, and she could not shake it as much as she tried!

“If that prick of a god comes back, I won’t go down without a fight, alright? And this time, it won’t be through some lucky magic power-up. I’ll beat it up without a scratch.” This was the closest he had been to her face. His eyes glowed a blood red from the curse, but it still had the same glint of the young man she had been accompanying. “I promise.”

This was what she meant; Tim had grown.

His body language didn’t even betray a single doubt when he said those words. This growth was the reason she stayed. This was the reason she feared losing him. This growth was the reason she was compelled to say something to him, but if she tried to speak it would only sound like her ‘indignant huff’. She wanted to convey it badly. Yet all she could do was to let her head fall over his shoulder. She wished this was enough to him to know how she felt.

‘I will hold you to that promise, partner.’

Tim and Asena’s continued waiting, but this time, she was sprawled all over the bench’s length, her head large head over Tim’s lap as her companion stoked her ethereal fur. If there was one thing humans have as an advantage over them, it was their hands. The ability to pet anything was already a form of magic in and of itself. If it weren’t for Tim’s smell of alcohol, it would have been the perfect night for her.

Then, the two suddenly heard the familiar voice of Edna and Heba. Asena didn’t budge, but she knew Tim would have a different reaction, especially since the dark essence he excreted whenever it became nighttime was still in full effect.

“Edna? Stay back!” Tim yelled from his seat. “The curse—”

But Asena heard light footsteps run towards them! Tim stood up to try and run while Edna called for Heba in disiertan to come back, but it was already too late.

The Desiertan child Asena’s companion had taken in saw Tim’s unrestrained cursed form. To keep most of his clothes from getting dirty, Tim would always remove his shoes and his jacket to hang. Asena often saw Tim meticulously do this every night. The form Heba saw, then, was Tim wearing his trousers and dress shirt. His body had a very ominous looking inklike tar dripping down, a pair of scarlet orbs gleamed whenever the tarlike substance lathed over his eyes.

“Tim? Tim!” Asena saw Heba look past her partner’s form and scream over to the back of the bench.

The ethereal wolf tilted her head as she finally understood, she thought Tim had been attacked! Heba screamed at Edna, pulling her behind the hedge and peered her head as she screamed Tim’s name over and over. Tim himself was dumbfounded, but then suddenly began to laugh. Asena saw him sit down over the garden’s stone path, cackling at himself as he realized the child’s reaction.

“Heba?” He called to the child.

When she peered out from the hedge for the final time, Tim was waving his hands. “It’s me.”

Asena helped by standing beside him as she always would, it must have helped because took a few seconds, she looked back and forth between Asena and Tim, before the child finally recognized him.

“Tim…?” She said, her tone softened to her usual one.

“Yeah.” Tim was still sitting, but Heba was eye level with him. “Hello, Heba.”

“This is what I really look like.” Tim scratched his cheek as he looked away. “… a monster.”

Asena, Edna and Tim went wide eyed when the child suddenly shouted in desiertan and flung herself towards Tim. But only Asena and Edna were able to understand what she just said.

The child simply shouted ‘No!’ as she jumped for the hug. She hastily took out another one of those Easter eggs and handed it to Tim. “She painted it with the other kids.” Edna supplied.

She looked at him expectantly.

“Friend.”

“Thank you, Heba.”