"We should tell mom. And… ah, I guess we don't need him anymore."

  Rou looked towards the still-shielded corpse of Elios while they were up in the air as they were.

  Not disagreeing, Dana casually flicked him like a booger off into the distance.

  "Not yet, no!"

  She flinched and snagged the corpse again with a shield before looking at Rou curiously. "Let's leave before you do. It might all go off."

  Dana's instinct was to chide Rou but she held off, something Dominic noticed and once again he gently patted her shoulder. Heading in the direction Rou suggested courtesy of Affection, the three were going and going before Rou nodded and then she flung Elios off like refuse into the forest below. "I'm sorry I'm so scared about this all, Grandma."

  As wise as she was though, she hadn't quite realized Rou was milking things to try and keep her in life. As scared as he was of the spores?

  He was nearly as scared of her too, though for vastly different reasons. "It's okay, I promised you and no matter how much of a… a monster I am, I won't break a promise to you."

  Little did she know that wasn't true, and of the memories he had of her, her breaking a promise was exactly that. It was partly why he kept taking advantage of her desperation for family no matter how guilty it left him feeling. Even Dominic suspected Rou doing that but didn't interrupt.

  –

  Along the flight journey, Dominic contacted his wife and the four had a small conversation before plans were made to evacuate all the nearby villages without going into too great of detail on the exacts. Naturally the King and Queen were informed to make their choices, but the important part was to make sure as many folks were safe.

  Eventually the three made their way through the forested area and actually hit a coastal region. Going further and further away from the black spores, Rou's mood went from shivering in terror to actually being a bit perky, seeing these things for the first time in this life. Perhaps any life, with how he was looking.

  "There's monsters in the woods and all, are there monsters outside of the woods too?"

  "Mm, yes. Though I can't say I've interacted with many. I was a Fang, our time was spent around the castle and out and about while training but that was about that. And since I was with your mom, it was just between the capital and back towards our village. …you should come there sometime, Dana. I'm sure Rou would enjoy you over for dinner. Though the place is small and we only have the one bed, so…"

  Dana rolled her eyes but did admit the idea of having dinner with her daughter again and grandson might be nice. "One bed? Small? My daughter is a noble, why would–"

  "You weren't the only one who thought she wasn't going to survive Dana. We had small hopes, but she didn't go there to live."

  The truth stung Dana rather hard as she lowered her head and hugged around Rou before showing a faint humility as they neared a port town. "We should stay the night. My magic isn't infinite."

  –

  The three landed and Dominic went to speak with the local villagers to find their leader and work out stay with him for at least a night.

  Naturally that left Dana and Rou time to walk around the village. This was his first time in this life certainly seeing the ocean and it showed, staring off in wonder.

  'Dear?'

  "Yes?"

  'Why do I get the feeling… that the ocean ends just past where I can see?'

  "...you noticed that, hm? Best not to worry too much about it right now. You'll learn eventually."

  ~Mm. She's right, leave that to us to worry about.~

  'Mmm… okay.'

  The slightly sleepy 'mmm' noise they both knew earned a shared chuckle before Rou looked up at his grandmother, tugging her hand. "Do your shields work anywhere? Above, and below water?"

  "Yes, they do. Why do you ask?" she was a bit curious, the two sitting down on the sand a bit from the waters edge.

  "I thought we could go swimming, maybe, when all is done. In a shield. It might sound silly but I'm scared of the ocean. Of… of water like lakes and oceans and rivers."

  "Why?"

  "You know I remember some things from other lives. There's one life I remember fully, before all the others. A life… on another world. The first life I remember. When I was young there, my family lived near a lake. I was always happy to go swimming in the water and it was always fun. But one day a creature moved into the lake, it came from somewhere. No one could ever find it, or even saw it, but local pets and such went missing and it wasn't hard to figure out something was there."

  Rou smiled slightly at the memory, "Ever since then I was always scared around water I couldn't see through. It's silly, I know, but… the fear of something attacking me, and being in water where I can't even run away freely? Mmm… I was always a coward. Pathetic, yeah? Scared to put my hand or feet where I couldn't see, afraid of insects and spiders." He laughed slightly, having a candid moment with his grandmother who scooped him up and hugged him.

  "Well, if you learn magic, you don't have to be scared of anything. But if I offered to teach you light magic, I get the impression your mother would try to kill me. And we only just… met again. I don't want that."

  Dominic was nearby, quietly listening but out of sight.

  "Mmm. I'd probably be scared even with magic. Always been a coward. Even killing a fish to eat freaked me out, always left that to others. I know some magic though."

  "What kind? Your parents know fire, wind and light, yes?"

  "Dark. Well… anti-gravity."

  She balked at the idea, not expecting he would lie, but also finding that hard to believe. That faint snort from her made that clear. "You don't believe me?"

  "Rou, that magic has been lost since antiquity. Even dark magic is arcane enough, but anti-gravity specifically? I only know of it from my own studies in the forbidden archives of the royal family."

  He stood up with a slight hop and turned, offering his grandmother a smile. "In that case, a bet? Are you familiar with the language of Estarch?"

  "...I do, yes, but however would you know that? I doubt even your mother would know that."

  Dana watched in wonder as Rou closed his eyes and seemed to think about something before taking his spinebear spine, which he had gotten from Elios and had it /thoroughly/ cleaned, and began to write letters in the sand. The memory fresh in his head of having sat on the bed in his home, reading the book, seeing the letters and despite not knowing them, being able to understand them thanks to a perk.

  For the eyes of scholars only, care of the Royal Library of Estarch

  Penalty of execution for viewing otherwise.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  In the sand, he wrote the warning from the book, then continued using his spine to write other things from the tome much to the wonder of his grandmother. Even an archmage such as her would have taken far more than his short years to become acquainted enough with that language to be able to freely write in it, let alone translate as she was used to.

  But watching him quite literally freely draw out the arcane fineries of gravity magic left the woman in wonder.

  "I would offer to try and cast something for you, but this body, this life, I haven't had the chance to sublimate anything. But it seems I won our little bet. Time to pay up. Go get us all a big fish. But… do me a favor and kill the thing before you bring it back?"

  Dana snorted, but stood up and patted Rou on the head gently. "You will have to show me where you learned all that. I must insist." and then she simply enough floated off into the air as a shield surrounded her and vanished into the ocean.

  "You should stop taking advantage of your grandmother Rou."

  Rou looked back over his shoulder from watching Dana and saw Dominic approaching. "Mmm. She needs to learn."

  "Learn what?"

  "How to have a family again. She lost mom when mom was young, and only now has me. Mom still hasn't forgiven her. I am… struggling too. I remember some things."

  Dominic walked over and scooped up his son, hugging him gently as he noticed Rou shaking slightly as if he was thinking of something awful again. "Like what?"

  "...I remember having to kill her."

  –

  Though the details were lost, he recounted the story from his memories, if being in a church in the capital and his crazed grandmother storming it, putting his parents and their made in danger and Rou having to stop his grandmother himself.

  "She really lost her mind?"

  "Mmm. At some point between when we met her in the capital around a week ago to… sixteen or so years from now, she would have gone mad. Things might be different now, but her insistence that she would never break a promise to me?"

  "Hmm?" Dominic felt Rou wriggle in his arms and turn to look at him directly.

  "I… asked her to pick, between her legacy, and her family. She picked me and mom… but she lied, and tried to kill you all the moment… that I took my hand off her neck. I can't trust her promises. Ever. But… I will trust her now." Rou's eyes looked down and he leaned against his father, quietly adding, "I want to believe she's still… with us at this point."

  For a bit they were both quiet before Dominic added, "Me too. For both you, and Shiela's sake."

  –

  Eventually the water stirred and the locals, as well as Rou and Dominic, noticed a pair of shields rise along with a fish that was easily four times as long as Dana was - indeed - already dead. And as she'd heard from Jarek in passing that Rou's scared of blood, she even drained the thing of blood before coming back.

  Naturally the local villagers hadn't really seen one that big before, let alone caught one, and all gathered around.

  Rou was quite happy as he walked over and used the spine after cleaning it off to pick at the fish lightly. They were curious as Rou flicked a few scales off and carved one side open only to cut out a small piece of meat with the spine and put it in his mouth.

  They weren't the types to eat raw fish so weren't quite sure what he was doing, his father and grandmother included before he announced, "Does not seem to be poisonous. But something inside it might be. Then again even if it was, I guess Grandma could heal us."

  Dana snorted, but was surprised yet again her grandson would think to check for poison. …but how would he even tell?

  Dominic noticed and informed her about his [Healthy Body] trait, and his habit of 'smelling' things, assuming it was that.

  –

  Before the night had started, the villagers came over and helped to carve the giant fish apart, even being extra careful with the organs as they knew certain fish did indeed have poison in them. And here and there Rou checked and seemed to think it was all safe.

  But he seemed a bit disappointed.

  "Whatever is wrong?"

  "Oh, just thinking that it's a shame we don't have certain things to go with the fish. Spices, or grains, or flours to coat the fish in or oil to fry it in. I mean, salt surely the village has, but citrus and… mmm."

  This caused a bit of amusement from Dana and Dominic. "Never knew he had a taste for all that."

  "Oh? Did you not feed him well?"

  Dominic snorted at her slight jab. "He ate just fine. But the village is nowhere near water and since he got old enough to enjoy meats, we simply haven't had the opportunity to bring something back. He's ate berries and fruits and vegetables his entire life, well, and grains and such. But I guess in one of his past lives he used to enjoy fish?"

  "Mmm. He said he used to live near water, so I guess that's the case."

  –

  Later that night after Rou had fallen asleep, it was just Dana and Dominic sitting there in the quiet room they'd borrowed.

  "Did he ever tell you why he's so scared of you?"

  "Not in so much words. Did he tell you?"

  "He did. For his sake I am going along with this, but if he had told me before… before we agreed to trust you? I never would have allowed it."

  There was a bit of silence as the two sat against the wall nearby Rou, both watching him breathe quietly in his sleep. His stomach rather fat from how much of the fish he ate. Despite his lamenting about the lack of spices and accompaniments with the fish, he'd gorged himself as if he'd been starved.

  "Did I ever hurt him?"

  "Worse than you could know."

  Dana tucked her legs up and, with elbows on her knees, looked like she might cry as she covered her face. "What did I do?"

  "You lost your mind, and threatened me, Shiela, and even Rou's maid. He begged you to stop. And when you tried to kill us for getting in your way of taking him, he killed you. He broke your neck with his bare hand, to protect us. I will never forgive you for that… even if it was not in this life. I've seen how easily he cries, how easily he is upset. I cannot imagine what you did to him, forcing him to do that."

  For a change, it wasn't Rou that quivered and shook slightly, silently. It was Dominic's mother-in-law. He didn't offer her comfort. He simply sat there for the nearly ten minutes it took for her to calm down slightly before adding, "Years ago I learned of a light magic. Naturally I could not cast it, nor did I try to learn it, but knowing you - not only could you cast it, but you probably know it. Lifebind."

  Rou's father held his hand out towards Dana with his palm up and Dana looked at him in shock only to shudder, looking at her precious grandchild. It took her a few moments before there was a small flash of light and Dominic felt a warm, pulsing crystal pressed into his hand. The slender fingers of his mother-in-law trembling before finally pulling her hand away and standing to walk out of the room, looking like she was going to vomit in disgust of it all.

  "Maybe there is hope for her after all." He looked at the crystal that gave him total control over her life. As he quietly sublimated it and it absorbed into him, from what he remembered of the spell he read about, her life now his to control. Control, and end, if he so desired, and not even the gods could likely stop him.

  Dominic might be extending trust her way, but he wasn't a fool. Trust only went so far, and for the rest of his, or her life - whichever ended first - he would have a method to kill her on the spot.

  –

  What Dana hadn't expected as she stood outside the room, trying to catch her breath and avoid discarding her stomachs contents?

  Was a hand to cover her mouth from behind.

  Dominic had walked out of the room and covered her mouth, and before she could react, she began to squeal in pain as he used that crystal she gave him to torture her very soul. Squeezing with his hand in the air as he whispered against her ear, for only her. "Hear me, Dana… death would be a kindness I will not grant you. This is your one, and only warning."

  Sleeping as he was, Rou didn't get to hear that for nearly an hour, Dominic got his own revenge for having heard the tale from Rou. Even if it wasn't her in this life… she had hurt his son. His sweet, innocent, pure pathetic crybaby of a son. There were no physical marks left on Dana. No cruelty or savagery inflicted upon her. But it was a lesson she would never forget, and a warning she would carry forever.