I am a painfully chronic morning person, I hate it myself: why my body just innately knows when exactly five a.m. is and is just, “Alright, let’s go out and run a 5K” when you couldn’t even catch me running to the words “free food”. I rolled over in bed as I pulled a pillow over the back of my head blocking out the sunlight filling the room. Probably because my mom is one of the Lady Noons, is why I’m such a fucking morning person.

Lady Noon, a being that a lot of people probably don’t know about, one of those obscure out there ones. They’re also called Lady Midday, the Noonwraiths or the Noon witches. They’re a group of fully feminine almost demonic elf being that is from in the various Slavic countries of Eastern Europe: Russia, Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and that whole quagmire. They’re depicted as women in full white garb that would be seen wandering aimlessly through fields…their whole deal is that they are the spreads of heatstroke and madness. They could be seen as whirling dust clouds, or an old woman, a young girl, or an adult woman, always dressed in solid white and often times carrying a large set of shears or a scythe and are basically a personification of sunstroke. There are a few outliers like one Lady Noon who would kidnap children who wandered off into rye fields or would abduct ill-behaved children at night. To their core, they are a sub-group of the sun elves, these elves who were blessed all sorts of powers and abilities of the sun, becoming servants of the sun as they spread light and warmth and growth everywhere, but…the Lady Noon were a group of sun elves who were selected to spread the bad aspects of the sun. And sense, Dad, Aamon, is a chimera which the more fine, delicate, and controlled power over hellfire, my whole deal of magic has to do with heat, the sun and light and fire. Even Dad’s powers over being a leader to the various beasts of the hells went rather weak when I inherited my parts of it. While I did learn a lot of magic while at Paradise Academy…I’m a medical wizard, I didn’t learn anything other than how to heal, how to help and how to be anything, but destructive or dangerous.

I wanted to go back to sleep, but that connection I have to the sun just wouldn’t let me go back to sleep, no matter who much I willed myself and tried to get back to sleep…nothing, but more and more awake alertness rose. I sighed as I sat up, probably only having gotten three-four hours of sleep, I felt as well rested as if I got a full night’s rest. The whole archdemon aspect of myself and my cousins makes us only need about four or so hours of sleep a night to properly function, but we can live without going to sleep and only do so for the sake of enjoying sleeping, same with breathing…and blinking. I raked my hands back through my hair as I sighed deeply, not wanting to be awake, but alas…I was. I rolled over to the edge I opened the UV pod and took my phone out to see if Zavi sent me anything more or anything like that. Soon after I got on my phone though, a text from Aden came in, saying good morning and asking if I slept well.

“That’s so sweet” I whispered as I read the text, but as I realized what I was saying, I groaned sharply in pain as it felt like someone had twisted a knife in my stomach, I slapped around on my bed as my vision started blurring at the edges and went through my contacts before nearly dropping my phone as I started the call to the only other person I knew I could trust with the information of my Bond and the only one I can think of who would know what’s wrong with me, why it feels like someone was forcing my guts through a paper-shredder…my phone buzzed as the call was sent to Kal, luckily I was able to put it on speaker phone before I dropped my phone.

“Vlad? Is something wrong?” the extremely deep, growling, and rough voice of the eldest warlord said, voice dripping concern and honest worry, but I could tell he either woke up recently or the call woke him up by the overt thickness of his accent.

“Why?” I asked, only able to get that out as I curled up in bed, holding onto my chest with both hands.

“Is something wrong?” he asked again, I heard something clatter and fabric rustle

“Did…did Zavi tell you about me?” I asked, I think that gave him pause by the hitch in his footsteps.

“They did mention something important happened to you…nothing direct or precise…just that you found your bond.”

“Everything…. everything hurts” I croaked out, I heard a heavy sighed before the line went dead, but almost right afterwards, this stiff breeze went through my apartment from no source before the sound of clawed scaled feet on the bamboo floor followed.

“I see, you’re in this stage” Kal said, I looked over seeing him walk past the curtain over the archway, just in a looser t-shirt and a pair of very high waisted and almost baggy sweatpants, probably just having portal-ed over from his bedroom.

“What do you mean…stage?” I asked, still in a fetal position from the pain.

“What’s his name?”

“A-Aden” I said, but at the utter of his name, the pain…started fading off a bit, not a lot, but…enough to notice it. “Aden Ashmore” I added as more of the pain faded away.

“I felt that too…wanting to keep the Bond distant.” He said as he walked over, resting a hand on my hip, “Not letting the Bond get deeper will only make this worse.”

“Worse?”

“It becomes a permanent feeling at a point…like your body is filled with acid and being shredded into ribbons” he said, “the more you recognize him as your bond, the more you internally validate him as such…the less pain you’ll feel before your body will demand more.”

“But…I don’t want it” I whispered, the bed dipped as he sat on the edge by my knees, hand moving my shoulder as he softly let his thumb trail across my skin bring a deep comfort and safety fill my mind by the knowledge of my eldest cousin being here. Plus…his magic and person are as cold as the abyssal depths of the ocean’s trenches, feeling that cold radiate over me was…some strange from of comfort and tampered any pain.

“Why?” he asked, a soft concern on his voice, I used his arm and shoulder to pull myself up to seated.

“I’m…worried.”

“Why are you worried? That he won’t approve of your job, your being…your family?” he asked, I shook my head

“Everything…when you found Anthony…Eros attacked, and the Velvet Circle raged…when Zavi found Kain…the Conclave happened…I don’t…I don’t want anything like that to happen again…the world’s not ready for another attempt like this” I said

“Oh, I see” he said softly nodded, “Well, that is extremely…extremely noble of you, Vlady” he said, softly wrapping his hands around mine as I rested my forehead against his shoulder.

“Zavi told me that…I won’t know if something will happen unless I go for it…but…you and them have had that happen when you find your bond…what are the odds of me not causing it?” I asked as I was trembling against their shoulder.