The two of them simply sat there, staring at one another for what felt like an eternity. If I hadn’t known better, I would have guessed my slowed vision had kicked in. The second they locked eyes, the world seemed to stand still. I couldn’t say anything. I just sat there, watching the two of them. My eyes frantically switched between the two of them, waiting for a hint of movement.

The first to move ended up being Viktor. He snapped out of the trance they were in and gave the girl, Samantha, a smile which seemed to hold a hint of sadness behind it. “It’s been a while, sis… You’ve grown up a lot…”

She returned his smile in an almost identical fashion, the same emotions masked behind it as she shrugged. “Well, time does that to us all. You’ve grown up a lot yourself. I see you really take after momma in the hair department,” she said, chuckling softly and pulling up a chair to take a seat at the table. “So, what have you been up to?”

“Before we get to that, I should probably introduce you,” he replied, gesturing to me. “Avien, this is my twin sister, Samantha Terranova. Samantha, this is Avien Ventilius.”

I blinked a few times looking at her. She held out her hand and it took a minute before I realized she wanted me to shake it. Once the confusion and shock wore off, I took her hand, shaking it firmly. “Nice to meet you, Avien. Glad to see my brother has found himself a good boyfriend.”

“Samantha!”

She smirked. “What? He’s totally the kind of guy you’d date. Plus, I can tell the two of you are close. It was just a natural assumption, ya know?”

When I looked at Viktor, he was beat red. It was actually a little funny how flustered he was. After all, it was a fair assumption from what she had likely observed of us. I was too troubled though. Viktor deserved a much better guy than me.

“He’s not my boyfriend. We’re just friends. He just recently came to Camp VII and we’re currently on a mission. We just happened to be stopping through town for lunch. I had no idea this was where the village was.”

Samantha gave Viktor a skeptical look before shrugging slightly. “Yeah. We’ve been here for a few years now. It’s pretty nice. I like it here.”

Viktor smiled. “That’s good to hear. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”

“Yeah… So, you’re at Omnia? That’s pretty cool! I figured you had gone to one of the camps, but I didn’t really know which one you might end up at.”

“Honestly, going to Camp IV never even crossed my mind. I just didn’t think I would fit in there, but with Omnia, it’s sort of the place where everyone is accepted, no matter their power or background.”

She smiled. “I think that sounds like the perfect place for you. I’m really happy to hear that you’ve found such a good home.”

“I am too. Although, I do have to wonder, how are you doing these days?”

Samantha shrugged. “I’m doing pretty good as well. Ezrael left a few months back to go to Camp IV. Momma wasn’t all to please about that, as you could probably imagine…”

He nodded, his head drooping. “Yeah. I can…”

They sat there in silence for a moment. I figured it was best for me to just keep quiet. They seemed to be having a fairly nice conversation and I didn’t really want to interrupt that and ruin the moment.

However, I didn’t have to. Viktor suddenly shot to his feet, turning his attention to me. “We need to leave.”

I gave him a confused look, still seated. “Uh… What? Why? We haven’t even eaten lunch yet.”

Viktor looked around, panic noticeably dawning on him. “We just need to go okay? Samantha, could you get us some food to go? We’re gonna be out back, waiting.”

Before I could say anything, Viktor grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the door. Samantha gave me a look of concern and confusion, but I just shrugged. I was as clueless as her right now. Eventually, we were all the way back outside. Viktor opened up the box to make sure that Damien was still inside of it. Thankfully, he still was and the suppression was still working perfectly fine.

After a few minutes of waiting, Samantha joined us, giving an inquisitive glance towards the large wooden box. “What is that?”

“It’s a box.”

“No, really? I know it’s a box. What’s in it?”

Viktor lifted up the lid, displaying the piece of wood obstructing view of the body underneath. “It’s just a box.”

She seemed pretty skeptical of the idea, but chose not to press the issue and instead handed us two small, ornate looking boxes. When we opened the lids, we found a delicious lunch waiting inside of them. We thanked Samantha for her help and the food. Viktor gave her a hug before placing the wooden box on a cloud I’d created. I grabbed the reins and began to pull the box along in to the forest, the town disappearing behind us.

However, our departure was short-lived. A voice roared from behind us causing us both to turn around abruptly.

“Viktor Terranova!”

The sound seemed to shake the trees and ground around us in an unreal fashion, instilling a sense of fear in the both of us as a figure began running towards us. Once the figure reached us, it stopped.

Standing in front of us was a towering woman. Easily 6’ 6” and built like a blacksmith. She had the same deep brown skin as Viktor and Samantha as well as the same hair and eye color. Her hair was tied back in a bun with two long tails of hair coming out from it on each side of her face. She was extremely muscular and was wearing a strange green garb that was somewhere between a dress and overalls.

Her expression was one of pure fury and rage and a strange mix of disappointment. Without even having to ask, I could tell this was exactly why Viktor was suddenly in such a rush to leave town. If my guess was correct, this was Viktor’s mother and was the woman they had been referring to just before we left the diner. Just from looking at her, I could agree with the decision to leave town.

She completely ignored me and stomped right over to Viktor, the ground literally shaking with each step she took. When she got to him, he just froze, staring up at her.

“Viktor…” she said, her voice soft, but still harsh. It was smooth, but aggressive.

He swallowed. “Y-Yes, ma’am…?”

“May I ask what it is you are doing in this town?”

“We were just passing through,” Viktor replied, straightening his stance a bit.

“I see. I was under the impression that I was never going to see you anywhere near us ever again and I was quite content with that reality. However, here you are now and I believe that it might be time for you to come home. After all, you’ve survived this long. Perhaps you aren’t as useless as I had once thought.”

“I’m not coming home to you. Not ever.”

The woman leaned down to rest at eye level with Viktor. “Excuse you? I don’t remember asking. You will come home now.”

“You don’t control me. I’m leaving.” Viktor turned around and began walking, but in the blink of an eye, the woman appeared in front of him, one of her eyes glowing green.

“Do you truly wish to take the defiant route here, Viktor?”

Viktor summoned roots and vines underneath him to rise up to her eyes. “I will die before I go home to you.”

She began to laugh until she was consumed by a full below, holding her stomach. “My my… You have gotten quite full of yourself while you were gone, but if that’s what you want that I’ll grant it to you.”

Viktor stared in to her eyes defiantly. “You give me one day and we’ll see who is truly stronger, out of the two of us.”

She smiled. “Oh? Is that the wager you wish to make? A battle? I’ll grant you a day, but if you flee, I will hunt you down and find you. I assure you of that.”

Viktor nodded and stuck out his hand. “Then it’s a deal. We’ll fight in exactly twenty-four hours. If I win, I get to leave.”

“And when I win, you have to return home,” she grasped his hand, a glowing green seal forming on the underside of their wrists. “Now, I have a family to attend to. You’re more than welcome to come see them, but I would suggest you use every second you have to prepare. You’re going to need them.”

With that, she disappeared once more, a cloud of dust being the only evidence of her departure. Viktor lowered himself back down to the ground and walked over to me. I didn’t know what was happening at first until he collapsed in to me, tears streaming down his face. I didn’t know what to do, so I simply wrapped my arms around him, attempting to comforting him as he lay sobbing.

“Avien… I’m sorry. I’m going to be stuck here forever… I’ve failed this quest before it has even reached its end…” he managed to say.

I pat him on the back. “No you haven’t and you’re not going to be stuck here. You’re going to kick her ass and then we’re going to get out of here.”

He took his head out of my chest, looking up at me. “You don’t understand. I couldn’t have beat her if she was still as powerful as when I left. I certainly can’t beat her now.”

I shook my head, placing my hands firmly on his shoulders. “That’s complete nonsense. You are stronger than her and you are going to beat her. Especially with a whole day. Plus, I can help you out.”

He sniffed, rubbing his nose. “Really? You’ll help me beat her?”

I smiled. “Of course! That’s what friends are for… I think…”

Viktor brushed himself off, a smile dawning on his face. “Alright. Then we’ll do it. Although, why don’t I go introduce you to my family. I think you’ll really like my mom!”

He began walking off. I gave him a confused look. I had just met his mother and she didn’t really seem that great to me, but I wasn’t one to object. I grasped the reins of the cloud and resumed hauling the box, trailing just a bit behind Viktor as we made our way around the village. Eventually, we arrived at a house with a large crest on the front door. The crest was formed of an ornate letter ‘V’ surrounded by several different designs of meanings I could only guess at.

Once we reached the door, Viktor reached for the handle. He paused for a moment before turning it and walking inside. I set the box down on the porch and headed inside of the house along with him.

We were immediately greeted by a fairly normal room. There were two chairs separated by a small table on the wall to our left. Directly in front of us, there was a large bookcase pressed up against the far wall. Next to it, there was an opening leading in to another room with a large window which shown light in to the house. On the floor in the room ahead of us, there was a large green and gold rug with a variety of strange toys scattered about. In front of it, on the right, there was a fireplace with a large family portrait atop it. Altogether, it looked rather normal and quite nice.

“Mom! Are you here?” Viktor called in to the house.

However, instead of the loud, boisterous footsteps I’d been expecting, there was a rapid movement of much lighter footsteps down a flight of stairs to our left. Once they stopped, I didn’t see anyone, but Viktor turned to face his left, tears once again welling up in his eyes. From the left, a woman came running at him, much different from the one we’d met in the forest. She wrapped her arms around Viktor lovingly as he did the same.

“Viktor… You’ve gotten so big…”

“It’s been a while, mom…”

The woman hugging Viktor looked a lot more similar to him than his other mother when it came to their general demeanor and appearance. While the one in the forest has been extremely toned and large, this mother was softer and much shorter, an inch or two below Viktor. She was dressed in a simple green blouse and a white apron. Her hair was much like Viktor’s, but with a bit less curl and more wave. Her eyes were both green, but they weren’t powerful eyes. They were normal.

When she released her hug, she just stared at Viktor, eyes tearing as she seemed to simply be admiring him. “I do hope Dameria didn’t give you too hard of a time…”

Viktor shook his head. “Not too much… I’m going to be fighting her tomorrow though…”

She just sighed. “Of course… You two… I swear. She’s a lot better than you think. She’s grown a lot. She was ruined when you ran off, but you know she doesn’t deal well with sadness, so she channeled that in to anger…” She seemed to notice Viktor’s somewhat pensive expression and stopped. “Sorry… Would you like me to talk to her for you?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I can handle this, I swear.”

At that moment, she seemed to realize I was standing there and turned to face me. “Oh! Hello! I’m so sorry I didn’t see you there!”

I shook my head, smiling as I wiped some tears from my eyes. “No, it’s quite alright. I figured I would just let you two have a moment. I’m Avien Ventilius, by the way.” I held out my hand, but she instead gave me a hug. It was warm and very friendly.

When she released her hug, she smiled at me. “I’m Amelia, Viktor’s mother. I believe you already met my wife in the forest, yes?”

I nodded. “She’s quite the opposite to you…”

She smirked. “It works out a lot better than you might think. But anyway, are you Viktor’s…?”

I shook my hand. “No, ma’am. We’re just friends. We’re currently on a mission,” I said, holding up my hand to display the compass.”

She nodded. “I see. Well, I’m glad Viktor could find such good friends.”

“He’s a great person, mom,” Viktor said, smiling at me.

I blushed a little at the compliment, not sure what to say. “So…”

“Would you like to meet my siblings?”

I blinked a few times. “Uh… Sure!”

“Let’s go then.”