Air demons connect to their power through joy and stress. This is perhaps the easiest connection to make. As many scientists have proven independently, changes in air pressure cause changes in weather. It stands to reason that similar changes in internal pressure would be linked to an air demon’s magic. Interestingly, while low pressure causes storms under normal conditions, high pressure– high stress– conditions cause air demons to create storms.

“Kids” in this case meant two harpy chicks who couldn’t have been more than five and two and an elfling who looked around three or four. The elfling’s father had a broken leg.

“If one of you can fly with Val,” Amron said to the harpies, “Luca and I can take two of the kids.”

The harpy father nodded as the mother scooped up the younger harpy. “I’ll take him. Thank you.”

“Get Kylli.” Amron nodded to the elfling.

“Hi,” Luca said gently. She looked nervous. “Want a shoulder ride?”

She looked to her father.

“Go on,” the older elf, Val, encouraged. “We’ve got to go on a little adventure and I can’t carry you, so Luca will.”

“I can walk,” Kylli said softly.

Luca knelt down. “If you ride on my shoulders, you can hold onto my horns and steer. And I’ll show you a magic trick.”

“A magic trick!” Val said brightly. “Hear that? He's got magic, Kylli!”

“But I wanna stay with you.”

“Kylli,” Val said seriously, “you can’t right now. I need you to be a big girl and go with Luca, and I’ll see you very soon. Okay?”

“...Okay,” Kylli agreed reluctantly.

Luca scooped her up and placed her on his shoulders. He felt her grab hold of his horns as he started jogging after Amron.

“Halt!”

Luca froze at the captain’s voice.

Amron spun, but he wasn’t Amron now. Long braids hung down his back, sharply pointed ears poking through them. The harpy chick on his shoulders wasn’t a harpy now but instead a wingless elfling. “Yeah?”

The captain approached with a frown. “Seen any suspicious activity?”

“Oh, yeah!” Amron nodded enthusiastically. “Saw a human boy running around throwing these glowing balls at people’s houses. Or, at least I think he was a human? I’ve heard there’s a felivir around who can full shift, isn’t that crazy? Anyway my cousins and I were on our way to find someone to tell. Lucky we ran across you, isn’t it?” He glanced to the side, put his hand to his mouth, and stage-whispered, “Between you and me, the local constable isn’t very good at his job. Never listens when you try and tell him about Dark activity.”

Luca stared. Unbelievable. He was telling the guard about himself.

“You think he might be involved with the Darkness?” the captain asked sharply.

Amron shrugged, steadying the harpy chick with a hand on his leg. “I don’t know. Maybe? I always assumed he just didn’t want to bother with the work. You’re the Lightguard, though, I figured I’d leave it up to you. Him, and the human. Concerning stuff, you know?”

“Indeed.” The captain nodded. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention…?”

“Adrian, ma’am. Glad to help out Lightguards wherever I can. I’d have tried joining, if my mom didn’t need my help with work.”

“Well, it’s good to see such a bright light in a town in such need of it.” The captain glanced around. “You wouldn’t have seen any other Dark activity around lately, would you?”

Amron shook his head. “Not since a few months back, and those were travelers passing through. If there are shadows here, they’re keeping their heads down right now. Except for that boy, obviously.” He shaded his eyes and looked at the sky, then back at the captain. “I’m really sorry I have to go, but my aunt is gonna kill me if I don’t get my cousins to school on time. Good luck!” He waved, and started off.

“I can’t believe you lied to them and it worked,” Luca muttered under his breath when they were far enough down the street.

“Yeah, me neither. I’m a genius, aren’t I? They’d never suspect an elf to be the same human he’s warning them about.”

“I can’t believe they didn’t recognize me.”

“C’mon. You thought I wouldn’t disguise you too? You’re an elf right now.”

Luca reached up.

“Ah, don’t touch your horns,” Amron said hastily. “They’re still there, just invisible, and the guards might still be looking at us.”

“Wasn’t Kylli holding on to my horns?”

“That was more difficult to fix.”

“You,” Luca said softly, “are an incredible illusionist.”

“Aw. Thanks.” Amron rubbed the back of his neck, looking down. “I’ve practiced a lot.”

“It paid off.”

Oddly, Luca wanted to keep complimenting Amron, just to see if he could render the other boy speechless. See if he could come up with something that would make Amron look at him the way he kept looking at Amron.

“Can we stay friends?” he blurted out.

“Friends?” Amron echoed. “Sure. Of course.”

Kylli jerked his horns abruptly, yanking Luca’s head back. “Magic trick,” she demanded. “Now!”

Carefully, Luca let sparks skitter along his horns, winking out at the tips. Kylli giggled and poked them. “Again!”

Luca had forgotten how exhausting small children could be. Rory had been this little so long ago, and they’d had servants to do most of the caretaking– that wasn’t something two boys still in school could possibly have managed alone.

“Again!” Kylli demanded, kicking those remarkably sharp little heels into Luca’s shoulders.

He sighed and sent sparks up his horns for the millionth time. 

“You’re being awfully patient,” Amron noted. Now that they were outside of town, waiting with a black-furred wolf and her flock of sheep, he’d relaxed and dropped the illusions. The little harpy had decided to play ‘chase the wolf’, which said wolf had taken to happily, so Amron sat beside Luca with one eye on the two.

Kylli still hadn’t agreed to get off Luca’s shoulders.

“Do I have a choice?” he asked. “The queen has issued an edict.”

“BLUE fire!”

“Your Majesty,” Luca agreed, and sparked blue flames in his hand. He raised it to his horn and let the flames ripple along it. They wouldn’t hurt Kylli; he’d long since perfected the ability to protect others along with himself. If he hadn’t, Rory would have burned herself on his flames a thousand times over, she’d been so fascinated by them.

“Do you have any siblings?”

The flames winked out, to Kylli’s displeasure. Luca swallowed. “No. No, I don’t.”

“But… you used to?” Amron asked quietly.

Luca nodded.

Amron looked up and held his arms out to Kylli. “Hey, I think I see Seph’s parents and your dad. How about you go with Seph and Mellony to meet them?”

“But I like the fire,” Kylli complained.

“Oh, okay. I guess Seph will just go meet your dad on his own.”

Kylli abruptly began to wriggle so hard Luca was worried she’d fall off. She did fall, right into Amron’s arms. “No! I go!”

“Whatever you want,” Amron agreed. He set the elfling on the ground and Luca watched her run towards Mellony the werewolf.

“They’ll be alright?” Luca asked.

“With Mel? Definitely. She’s Meredith’s daughter, and a shepherd, so she knows how to keep an eye on a lot of moving parts.”

“People seem to really respect Meredith,” Luca said carefully. How much could he push for answers? “You, the human from the tavern… Reyn, too, even though she doesn’t like him. And Janna listened when I told her your name.”

Amron chuckled. Luca darted a glance sideways to see the other boy leaning back on his hands and looking up at the bright blue sky. “He’s one of the leaders of the Darkness. My mom’s another. So yeah, a lot of people know him, and most of them respect him.”

“Really? But he’s…” A werewolf. 

Luca tried to push the thought away. What did it matter? Supposedly, demons were better than other people, but demons had killed his sister. Not humans, not fae, not shifters. Demons. Lightguards, the ‘best of the best’. Was it really so odd that the Darkness would have a werewolf leader? Why would they conform to Illustria's hierarchy? 

“He’s what?” 

“Nothing.”

Amron gave him a sideways look.

“I didn’t expect it, is all,” Luca said carefully. “I would have thought the leaders of the Darkness would be… hiding away somewhere, giving orders from the shadows. Not out and about in some random town.”

“They travel a lot. Perk of the job, my mom says.”

“How does someone join the Darkness, anyways?”

“You have to…” Amron trailed off, shading his eyes as he looked towards the town. “What’s that?”

Luca followed his gaze. The ground was moving, rippling like water away from the town and towards them. Mellony’s sheep bleated and began to run. Luca heard wingbeats as the harpies took to the sky. He started to stand.

The ground crashed into him like a tidal wave. Earth churned beneath his feet, and he fell over. The ground rose up to meet him, knocking the air from his lungs. He lay, stunned and gasping for breath, as Amron shook him. “Get up! Quickly!”

Luca pushed himself up on shaky arms. There was something coming towards him– a huge brown wolf, swerving to avoid– arrows?