… and it passed right through, dissipating and reforming on the other side.

“Uh,” Jax blinked their six orange eyes, looking down at the staff before trying a few more equally ineffective swings.

High defensive magic, Drazaria realized, meaning the Guardian magic was incapable of being used offensively. It also meant the sorcerer would have to be really trying to cause some harm in order to do so. He grinned, putting on his best evil sorcerer act, “Too bad, I was looking forward to it.”

The teenaged Guardian barely had time to look up before Drazaria pushed them, sending them flying into the barrier around the platform. They grunted as they hit the ground, pushing up with a strained, “That hurt.”

Drazaria let them get their feet under them before charging again but sped up a bit so they wouldn’t have time to dodge.

“They’re gonna die!” Tedi cried from the sidelines.

“Oh no,” Jax said, raising their staff just in time to block the incoming blow.

There you go, kid, Drazaria thought, twisting to kick the Guardian back a few feet, My one gift to you for being forced to be in my way.

“Why didn’t it work before!?” Jax called out to Vasskr.

“Guardian magic is defensive,” the kradreen replied, “It cannot be used to attack.”

“Then how am I supposed to fight!?” the woozhi asked.

“I told you that as well,” Vasskr sighed.

A switch phrase? Drazaria wondered, keeping up his attack, forcing the Guardian to continue dodging and blocking. They were uncertain on their feet - they wouldn’t be able to attack even if they could. So the sorcerer pulled back - gave the kid some breathing room to think.

Of course, he made sure to do so theatrically - he had a reputation to maintain.

He jumped to the center of the platform and started gathering magic around him - teal magic, to form a barrier and look impressive. Drazaria yawned and said, “You’re boring me to tears, Guardian- so I’ll make this quick. Better figure out how to hit me before I’m done charging up.”

“Oh no, oh no,” Jax muttered, eyes moving in every direction as they tried to remember whatever switch phrase Vasskr had told them earlier. Then, suddenly, they all snapped forward as they raised the staff up, “Got it! By the wrath of the cosmos, I heed the call!”

Drazaria shored up his magical barrier as he watched the armor turn red and grow spikes, and the staff turned into a glowing red two sided hammer.

Jax charged with another, more sure war cry as they swung one end of the hammer at their opponent.

The hammer shattered the barrier, and Drazaria barely had time to raise his arms in front of his face and coat them in pure defensive magic before the blow sent him flying into the barrier… which provided its own magical kick. He hit the ground on hands and knees, winded and thinking, Well, I definitely won’t have to worry about hurting the kid when they’re in defense mode.

“Oh, wow…” Jax said softly, looking down at the hammer in their hands.

“Whoo! Yeah!” their blue-haired friend cheered.

“See? Nothing to worry about! Probably!” the Nakin assured the other human.

“The fight is not over, Guardian,” Vasskr interrupted the premature celebration, watching his brother carefully.

Drazaria forced his way to his feet, red magic already swirling around one hand as green healing glowed from the other. It was usually ill-advised to fight with broken ribs, as he knew from past experience. The attack magic was instinctive, and he dismissed it as soon as he saw it - he wouldn’t have had a problem hurting a well-trained adult, but he didn’t want to cause any permanent harm to some kid picked by chance.

“Now he’s definitely going to kill you,” Tedi said from the sidelines.

“... you win this time, Guardian,” Drazaria said, and the spell keeping the platforms together seemed to understand the yield. He needed to regroup - he hadn’t properly prepared for the first hit, and wasn’t ready to handle a second one. Not while holding back, at least.

“I do?” Jax asked, not dismissing their magical weapon and armor, even as they stumbled at the platform moving.

“I’ll be back!” Drazaria shouted as his smaller platform took to the air. He jumped from it, forming green footholds in the air to run back to the top of the gorge and away into the woods. He stopped when he was sure he was out of eyesight to finish healing before heading home. He would need to rest before trying again.

It wasn’t until the next day that there was a knock on the human sorcerer’s door - a pattern knock he was familiar with.

Drazaria waved a hand from where he sat on top of his desk, one hand on top of a book to balance it on one knee of his crossed legs while he ate with the other hand. The door swung open by magic.

Vasskr ducked his head to enter, giving the dwelling a cursory glance before saying, “It’s smaller than your last one.”

“I like small,” Drazaria replied, “Less noticeable.”

“True,” his brother nodded, then sighed, “Why are you going after Swordheart?”

“So I can use it to steal the Basin,” the human replied, not looking at the kradreen as he continued refreshing his memory on advanced defensive magic.

“And why do you want to do that?” Vasskr asked, finding a patch of wall to lean against.

“Why not?” Drazaria returned, glancing up.

His brother regarded him with a neutral expression for a few moments before saying, “I see.”

“Sure you do,” the sorcerer huffed, returning to his reading. He was comfortable with Vasskr and didn’t feel a need to say more.

The kradreen made a short circuit around the main room, investigating the kitchen area and pursuing the shelves around his brother before returning to the wall and saying, “You know I can’t help you.”

“Yeah,” Drazaria said, “No hard feelings. Just your job.”

“I take it you don’t want me to reveal our kinship to the Guardian?” Vasskr asked.

“Fuck, no,” the human sorcerer scoffed, “And none of their friends, either. I don’t need pity from a bunch of brats.”

His brother hummed and asked, “Anything else?”

“Nah,” Drazaria said, closing his current book and shifting to return it to its place.

“The Ballatsa princess-” Vasskr started.

The human froze, feeling his heart stop in his throat.

His brother hesitated, then went on, “The Ballatsa princess is doing very well. She’s… a bright child and very happy.”

“... I see,” Drazaria said, slowly pushing the book into its place and selecting another. Any other, not really looking at the words as he opened it to a random page. He tried to force his mind to work faster, When did he learn about that?

“I’m teaching her to sign,” the kradreen added, trying to prompt a response. He didn’t need to say ‘so she can speak with you.’

Thanks to one of his ‘signature’ scars, Drazaria found it difficult to speak at length. When he and his brother needed - or wanted - to have long conversations, they would switch to kradreen sign language. At least, Drazaria would switch. Vasskr usually switched on and off since hearing wasn’t why they signed.

“Useful skill,” Drazaria said softly, staring dumbly at the book in his lap.

After a prolonged silence, Vasskr cleared his throat and said, “Well. Until next time.”

“Yeah,” his brother agreed and didn’t move as the kradreen went to the door.

Vasskr hesitated at the threshold but sighed and left without saying more.

It was a while after he left that Drazaria allowed himself to cry.

Drazaria’s next attempt at stealing Swordheart went a little better for him and a lot better for Jax.

It started about the same - he showed up at the temple, called out a challenge, blah blah blah. It was clear Jax had gotten some training since their last fight, which made Drazaria more confident in his blended use of all three kinds of magic. Utility magic blended with defensive to form a full-body defensive armor that enhanced his strength and speed while he focused attack magic around his hands and feet to penetrate the High Defensive magic of Swordheart. His goal was to destabilize the link between Jax’s lesser focus and Swordheart, defeating the Champion by breaking their armor and forcing them to yield. He would do this by sneaking in his own magic - small bursts of utility magic encapsulated by defensive magic. The utility magic would attach itself to the lesser focus Jax wore and eat away at the chain keeping it around their neck. Once it was off their person, the connection would be broken.

It was riskier and harder to execute than fighting the kid for real, but it would accomplish his goal without causing permanent damage, which suited him fine.

What he wasn’t counting on was the chain breaking causing a new power to manifest instead.

As Drazaria had planned, the utility magic chewed through the chain - but as the pendant fell, the connection between it and Jax didn’t break. As evidenced by the armor and weapon remaining intact. Instead, there was a bright flash of light and pulse of magical energy that sent Drazaria stumbling back, holding up a hand against it and blinking to clear his vision as it dimmed.

Fuck, he thought, It’s a Companion Focus. I should have known.

What stood before Jax was a vulpine creature that came up to the woozhi’s shoulder - the Focus sitting in the center of its chest. It had the antlers of a stag, three glowing eyes with round black pupils, the front legs of a bird, and large wings to match. Its body was composed of the same light as Jax’s armor - currently red for attack magic.

And it had its eyes trained on Drazaria.

“Did I do that?” Jax whispered in confused awe.

This is going to hurt, Drazaria thought, channeling more defensive magic into his arms and bringing them up.

He was just in time for the Companion’s charge - antlers forward and faster than a blink. Drazaria grit his teeth as he slammed into the barrier, though his own defenses took the brunt of the kickback. None of his research had indicated the Swordheart Guardian had a Companion Focus, but he supposed it could have been dormant until certain conditions were met - such as the Guardian being separated from their focus while it was active. He also supposed the kradreen were very good at burying information they didn’t want outsiders to know.

“That was awesome!” the human with the blue braid - he’d heard someone call them Ken - shouted out.

Drazaria didn’t have time to pay attention to the sidelines as he dove to avoid a second round of antlers. He rolled to his feet, watching it warily.

The Companion circled around Jax once, standing in front of the young Guardian and lowering its head in warning.

Drazaria quickly weighed his options - on the one hand, he could keep attacking the Companion and at least gauge its capabilities. On the other hand, he’d already used a significant amount of magic trying to separate Jax from their focus nonviolently, and a drawn-out battle against an experienced opponent would just cause him more strain. And he couldn’t afford to be defenseless.

“Enjoy your new pet until next time, Guardian,” the sorcerer said, and once again the platforms split at the forfeit.

The Companion only rose its head as Drazaria reached one of the upper platforms - and watched him as he leapt into the forest.

This is getting more complicated than I expected, he thought, striding a ways into the forest and stopping to heal. He was pretty sure Vasskr knew about the Companion - it was probably written on the Mentor Wall. Not that his brother would have told him, nor would he have expected Vasskr to do so.

It didn’t matter - he would go home and devise another plan. It wasn’t like an inexperienced teenager could stop him for that long. At least this time, an actual threat stopped him rather than what was left of his morals.