Unfortunately, there was still more left to do, even after I crushed Paimon's skull under cast-iron knuckles. I was just about dead on my feet, and nobody else was doing much better, besides Emily- and Emily was still ed to the altar by her ankles.

  I didn't have much magicka left in my body, but I had enough for o spell- a simple ohat broke the s tyio the altars. That was it, though- any further magicka I tried to use would be pulled out of my vital essence, and I'd suffer a nasty long-term injury called mana burn, which even a full-on Healer like Emily wouldn't be able to cure, only treat. It would put me out of a for months, before I was finally able to cast a single spell again.

  "Joseph!" Emily cried, rushing forward to catch me in her embrace. "My hero, my knight in shining armor, I'm so gd you're here. Oh, I don't know what I did to deserve you..."

  "You could start by healing my heart," I said quietly.

  "Of course, I-"

  "Literally, I got stabbed through the left atrium, which also cerated my aorta. The spell that's keeping me from bleeding out expires in a few minutes, and I don't have the magicka to re."

  "JOSEPH!"

  To her credit, as soon as she realized just how badly I was doing, she went into full Healer Mode, ing out the wound and also the impromptu operating theater with bright fshes of golden light. All I could think, as I id down oone floor atop the Ziggurat, was that I was very gd to have Emily.

  "With your bare hands, huh?" Lysander asked.

  "ly bare, but... Close enough," I said with a shrug, before taking a sip of that imagined future beer. It didn't actually have a defiaste, the way tea and beef stew and other food I'd actually had did. Rather, it gave the impression of a beverage I liked and had made myself, after years of learning how to make it for myself just the way I like it. "Definitely close enough to be one hell of an Occult anchor. That's the shit legends are made of."

  We were ba the rooftop of my house, in the folding chairs I would try to make sometime soon, each holding a cold bottle of beer, watg the su over the Red River.

  I'd died for the third time, on top of that ziggurat. Emily was damn good, but there was only so much she could do about a guy who got his heart perforated and the fighting. But, well... Everyone knew a good cleric could raise the retly dead, with an intact body, and Emily was that good cleric that everyone imagined. I'd be fine. Just meant more time talking to High King Lysander Rosewood, my great grandfather who roud of me.

  "Yeah, no kiddin'," Lysander said. "You know, I was kinda leery about you brang out into Occultism, back when you first started. But... It's worked out for you. And you haven't used it to be an obnoxious twit."

  "If yonna keep watg me from Heaven, yonna be disappointed," I said. "Yoing to start seeing a lot of me learning how to py an instrument, and it is going to be bad."

  "It 't be that bad," Lysander said, incorrectly.

  "Great-Grandpa- no, no, that won't work," I said, frowning. "I need some kind of familial address for you, but 'Great-Grandpa' has as many sylbles as 'Lysander,' so what's the point? But I also 't call you 'Grandpa' ramps,' because that's reserved for Ariel's blood-father-"

  "We have no idea who that is," Lysander said.

  "Wait, really?" I said, blinking.

  "Helen was... oh, seventeen, when she had her first heat?" Lysander said idly. "She snuck out, found herself a handsome d who'd been visiting the Pa business, and a month ter, she realized she regnant, and he was long gone, having never exged names with her."

  "...Huh," I said. "So Helen and Ariel are, on the scale of elven ages, effectively the same age as each other?"

  "More or less," Lysander said, nodding. "Now, if you're done defleg- I know you're about tue that your early days of music practice are going to be torture to the ears. But more important than that..." Lysander sighed, setting his bottle down and sitting upright, then leaning forward a little. "...There are a few weakhat need addressing."

  "Andy, I just killed a Demon King with my bare hands," I said. "I did so in a manner both more perma and less colterally-damaging than you did. As far as I'm ed, I did better than you, and I'm not gon you talk down to me."

  "I'm not talking down to you, Joseph," Lysander said, quietly. "You're my heir. My job is to help you, to make sure you avoid all of my mistakes. I'm not going to pretend that taking criticism from the lo reigning monar history is easy, but... I need you to uand, I'm not doing this as a power py. I am trying to help you, in what limited ways I ."

  "...Fine," I said quietly, closing my eyes. "I'm listening."

  "You o spend some time w on your teamwork," Lysander said. "There were multiple occasions where Faith and Talia were present and willing to help you, but where you simply ighem, ahem sitting ohumbs."

  "That's not-" I began.

  "You also o spend some time training them," Lysander said, interrupting me. "I know that you haven't even formally started uy yet, I know you were probably going to let the teachers haraining them- too bad. You o start teag them now. Because I know why they didn't tribute- mounted bat is hard, fighting a tough and highly-mobile oppo when you're not mobile is hard, aher of them had been traio do that. You have, and you o share that training as soon as you . You've got your weird rapid-fire explosion-bow; that's a good on, that you made, and I know you teach yirls how to use 'em too."

  "Alright," I relented. "Soon as I'm bay feet, I'll make another batch of guns, and teach 'em how to shoot straight. Quality's not gonhe best, because I don't have my full workshop, but... I'll make do, and it's better than nothing. What else?"

  "Well, that brings me to another point," Lysander said. "You should stay off your feet for a little while. Let them take care of you. I know you're trying to be the Big Man, carrying the unity on your shoulders, but if you try t off a perforated ventricle, they will kick your ass. Be reasonable about this, aowledge that they're capable adults too, ahem worry about running things while you recover."

  "...None of them know how to drive the van," I pointed out.

  "Volex will know," Lysander said with a shrug. "It's Occult stuff- ask her about it after she's done driving yroup to Mount Fate."

  "Fair," I said.

  "Also," Lysander tinued, "you are eighteen. This is not to say that you are incapable- this is to say that you are still young and malleable. You o set the habit of taking time to rest and recover after serious exertions, if you want to avoid grinding yourself down to dust. So... Talk to The Father about time dition, so you have a longer break before you get to Mount Fate. You spend that time doing things, but only as long as they're unproductive and fun."

  "That's..." I paused. "...Huh. Well, I could try making that braiding mae and using that with the straw bale from the Coursers. See if I figure out how to make us some straw hats. Is that unproductive enough for your liking?"

  "Of course," Lysander said. "You just buy hats if your only goal is to have hats, and making hats isly a prime money-making strategy for you. I've been watg you for a long time, Joseph- I know you a lot better than you know me. When I tell you to rex a some rest, I am fully expeg you to get bored of lying in bed, a up to py a game with your toys."

  I opened my mouth to protest, then stopped.

  "...There's not really anything I say that'll vince you that my mae shop is not just an eborate toybox that I've mao vince everyone else is a practicality."

  "You're not fooling anyone. Even Emily tell you love making things, and she's known you for all of a month."

  "Yeah, that's fair," I admitted. "It's just... Actually, no, I don't o expin why I like making shit, do I? That's what, like, every High Elf was like, back before the war."

  "Not all of them, but... a lot, yes," Lysander said, nodding. Then... he sighed. "When you see Hele... Be o her, Joseph."

  "She's got depths I don't know about?" I asked. "I suppose whatever happened between her and Mom isn't really my business-"

  "Oh, it very much will be," Lysander said. "And before you ask- Helen is actually worse than you think. I'm not telling you to be o my daughter because she's family and she's had a hard life, I'm telling you to be o her so that when you do talk, she might actually listen."

  "Okay, what the fuck did she do to this 'Jason' guy?" I demanded.

  "Well, he-"

  "He's awake," I heard someone whisper.

  "Lysander was just about to tell me what Grandma did to piss off Mom so badly," I said, my throat dry. "How long was I out?" I opened my eyes, and beheld Volex and Emily- Volex by my side, and Emily more in front of me. I could feel that my jacket had been wadded up and stuffed under my head, to act as a pillow. A nice gesture, but in all hoy, without its protective charmwork, I was really not liking the desert sunshine.

  "You were dead for three minutes," Emily said, drying her hands with a sheet of weirdly-absorbant paper- I had to teach her how to do that with Are magic, it was so much easier than having to wash towels. "Then you were unscious for a half hour. You kept trying to wake up, but that would've interfered with the healing; luckily, Volex and Talia both knew some sleep spells to keep you down until I finished."

  "Fair enough," I said. " someone prop me up so I drink some water?"

  "Of course," Emily said, nodding. Whatever shyness she might have experie any other time, it was gone when she was in Healer Mode.

  Volex offered me a cup of water with a beal straw in it, which I accepted without pint. It rankled my pride a little, to have to drink from a straw- that's the sort of thing people like Uncle Frederid Amelie Rosepetals do, because they're frail and feeble, and I am a healthy, vigorous young man, full of piss and vinegar, who drink out of a cup like a normal person.

  However, as Lysander had pointed out... I was not currently a healthy and vigorous young man who could take care of himself. I had to let the others take care of me for now.

  It wasn't like I had any other choice, but... well. It felt better to feel like I was making a choice.

  "...And I please get out of the sun?" I asked. "It is... so fug hot out here."

  "Well... there's a problem with that," Emily said, wing. "See, we're at the top of a big pyramid, and, um... We 't bring the van up here, and I really don't think you're in any shape to be walking dowairs."

  I blinked, and then sighed explosively.

  "But!" Emily tinued, perking up. "I sent Talia and Faith down to go get some stuff to make a stretcher, so we carry you dowairs. They, um... They might be a minute."

  I sidered the situation carefully. Was this taking lohan I'd like? Yes. Was there anything I could do about it? No. Was there anything really at stake, here?

  "...I'll live."

  AnnouMerry Christmas, you filthy animals.

  As always, if you like Iro and wao keep making it, the best way to do that is to leave a ent, here or on my discord server.