He spent the next week deciding what to do about the Unforgiving and the Scourge crystals.

Working with the Unforgiving was a risk - not only could they double-cross him, which was highly likely, he also had no idea what they would do with a bunch of powered crystals. Working with the corrupted crystals was only a risk to himself. On the other hand, he could double-cross the Unforgiving - getting purified crystals for himself and leaving none for them. But it would make him a bigger sore spot than just refusing to work with them - they would be far more aggressive in tracking him down if he made himself a real threat instead of just a nuisance.

And no doubt the Red Boars were pissed off that he’d wrecked one of their cushy jobs, so he wasn’t exactly in a position to make more enemies.

When he’d made up his mind, he went over to the cottage to talk to Heline and Owal.

Heline answered the door again and frowned, “Are you leaving again already?”

“No,” Drazaria said, “I need to explain some things.”

Heline nodded and stepped aside so he could come inside.

Owal looked up from feeding thons hawk, and forced a grin, “Oh? What’s this?”

Probably thinks I’m finally kicking thon out, Drazaria thought, guessing it had been at least two months. He grabbed a chair to sit on the edge of the backrest. He asked, “What do you know about the Unforgiving?”

“They hate humans and want to destroy Ballatsa as much as you do?” Owal offered.

Heline took a seat herself and nodded in agreement.

“Well, I’m about to piss them off more than the average human, so there’s a good chance they’re going to come after me,” Drazaria said, “They offered me a job, and I’m refusing. You know what their insignia looks like?”

“The skull thing?” Heline asked.

“Yeah,” the sorcerer confirmed, “If you see it, run. I don’t care how many of them there are or if you’re leaving me behind - you see them, you run. You’d just be in my way.”

“Because they’d use us against you?” Owal grinned, resting thons chin in thons hand.

Drazaria rolled his eyes, “I also pissed off a mercenary company called the Red Boars, so avoid them too.”

“You’re really good at pissing people off,” Owal said.

“So I noticed,” the sorcerer replied flatly, “The Unforgiving know I go after Swordheart, so there’s a good chance they’ll make a move at the temple. Red Boars probably won’t actively come after me, so they aren’t as much of an issue.”

He didn’t mention the inn - the teens wouldn’t be around there anyway.

“You know, I can take care of myself,” Owal said, “Heline should definitely run, but I could-”

“Hey!” Heline pouted, “I’m much better at fighting now if you can stay then-”

“Neither of you will stay if the Unforgiving attack,” Drazaria cut off the argument, “I only let you fight the Guardian’s friends because they’re other teenagers - the Unforgiving are trained and experienced adults that won’t hesitate to kill either of you if they think it’s necessary.”

Both teens fell silent - Heline pouting at the table and Owal glaring at it.

“I’ve fought adults before,” Owal said, crossing thons arms.

“I know,” Drazaria replied, “But unless you’re trying to get me to kick you out, you won’t while you’re staying here.”

Owal looked up sharply - suspiciously hopeful as thon managed to force half a grin, “So, as long as I follow your rules, I can stay?”

The sorcerer sighed heavily, “Yes.”

“Great,” the vanin teen grinned in full, sitting up and purring, “So no fighting adults, run away from the Unforgiving, and avoid Red Boars - anything else?”

Heline looked up as well and mostly failed to hide a smile of her own.

I hate teenagers, Drazaria thought, but said, “That about covers it.”

“So when do we go after Swordheart again?” Heline asked.

“Next week,” Drazaria replied, hopping off of the chair and heading back to his tower.

Drazaria used Heline’s help to find wierwood, building a small pond near the base and putting in one of the Scourge crystals with the wierwood as his first experiment in purifying them. He lined it with one of the shielded bags to keep any corruption from spreading beyond the water, covering it with a second bag for the same defense. He had a few other ideas but would need to go out and find another building to convert into a workshop first.

With that set, he and his charges set out to steal Swordheart once again.

The Unforgiving weren’t there - but Drazaria knew they’d be ready at some point. So, as usual, they made their way down to the lowest platform.

“Guardian!” Drazaria called out, “I’ve come to challenge you for Swordheart.”

After the excursion at the mine, it felt like it had been a long time since he’d made his challenge. He watched Jax and their friends run out of the Temple - Kendra still had her enchanted armor, and Trainer walked next to Vasskr.

Klamra, he reminded himself. She didn’t look much different than he remembered - her markings were cobalt blue, matching her eyes - though the left two were scarred shut. Her left leg was a metallic prosthetic, and she used a cane for support on that side as well. He’d felt a kinship with her as a kid - it had helped, seeing an adult unashamed of her scars, so similar to his.

That was why he looked away when she met his gaze, unsure what kind of face he would make. He could almost hear her lecturing him for not thinking things through again—of course, he would see her if she started training Tedi; he just hadn’t considered that when he suggested her as a teacher.

“By the wrath of the Cosmos-” Jax started; the Companion, Kendra, and Tedi at their side.

“Let’s make this more interesting, shall we?” a new voice called out before they could finish.

Drazaria looked up and watched in annoyance as a pelatia person jumped from the top of the gorge and floated down on a magical wind to a platform just above the sorcerer and his charges. They had the bright violet petals of the gloriosa lily and carried a bright pink fan with a feathery top.

They hid their mouth with it and laughed, “Ah ha ha ha ho, a battle royale should make this far more interesting, don’t you all think?”

“No one invited you,” Kendra replied, pointing her staff at the newcomer, “Just wait your turn and we’ll kick your butt after theirs, Flaro!”

“He’s a wizard,” Owal added, voice low, “He trained at Pass Tower as a lavender robe. He’s known as the right hand of the Boss of Nightbug City.”

That sounds like a pain, Drazaria thought.

“Don’t be mean, darlings,” Flaro said, waving his free hand, “This just evens out the numbers, doesn’t it? Aren’t you goodie-goodies all about fair odds?”

“I just see one versus three and four,” Drazaria replied.

“Well, I never said we’d work together,” the pelatia man replied, three eyes shining mischievously.  

Arrogant, Drazaria felt the vein in his temple twitch in annoyance, Well, only if he can’t back it up, I suppose.

After all, the sorcerer had made plenty of similar statements in the past.

“… you guys think we can handle it?” Jax asked Kendra and Tedi, inching a bit ahead of the two.

“I don’t think we have a choice?” Tedi replied, grimacing as his eyes darted between Drazaria, his charges, and Flaro.

“We can handle it,” Kendra replied confidently, shifting her grip on her staff.

Jax sighed, then raised their staff again and called out, “By the wrath of the Cosmos, I heed the call!”

“You going after Flaro?” Owal asked, throwing daggers appearing in thons hand as thons hawk took off.

“Obviously,” Drazaria replied, feeling annoyed again at being apparently predictable.

As the main platform came together and the barrier fell, Owal dropped into the hawk’s shadow. Heline rose a barrier of vines in front of the Guardian and their friends - too many for them all to be real, so at least she was using her illusion magic effectively.

Damn kids, Drazaria thought as he cut to the side and charged Flaro directly, recognizing the way his charges were distracting the other teens for his benefit. He couldn’t really complain, but it was still irritating.

Flaro seemed to anticipate this action and waved his arm wide as small balls of lavender magic surrounded him, “Oh, well, if you’d rather let the children play, I’m happy for a one-on-one with you!”

Distortions, Drazaria realized, jumping back with attack magic coating one arm - his other reached into his pocket and grabbed a handful of swap stones. He tossed them out at random as he made a circle around the pelatia wizard, scattering them across the floor.

“Are you trying to find my best angle?” Flaro asked, fanning himself lightly while continuing to float off the ground, “Because the answer is all of them!”

Drazaria ignored him, and charged forward again - while he could have used attack magic blasts to break the distortions, Flaro could easily make more and then it would come down to who had more magic to burn. So, he went with the more conservative option.  

When he ran into one distortion, it immediately pivoted him to another - a common defensive technique among spatial wizards. As Drazaria had anticipated, Flaro had also chained them so he would bounce between more than one. Except he interrupted the chain by activating the nearest swap stone, using his magically enhanced reflexes to land on his feet and charge again. He repeated this, ignoring the dizziness the bouncing around was causing as he finally got in close enough to swipe at Flaro directly.

The pelatia wizard dodged his swipes, giggling, “I see you can’t wait to get your hands on me, but I’m afraid I’m a little shy!”

With that, Flaro swept out with his fan, sending out a magical gust that blew Drazaria back - breaking the distortions it hit along the way.

Drazaria rolled to his feet and sank his magically enhanced claws into the ground to come to a skidding halt. He held strong as a second gust hit him. He activated a swap stone off the wizard’s side and jumped to avoid another wind blast.

“I see it’s not so easy to sweep you off your feet!” Flaro declared, keeping up the wind blasts - strategically using them to blow all of Drazaria’s swap stones away.

Does he ever shut up? the sorcerer thought, dodging more wind blasts. He started sending attack magic blasts back to keep the exchange from remaining so one-sided.

Of course, that was as much time for a one-on-one Owal and Heline could buy him in a limited area.