[Of Kings and Demons]

Chapter 4

Coming to after passing out from a head injury was a weird enough experience without finding yourself in a place you definitely were not in when you lost consciousness. The fact that this particular place was a familiar one only did so much to ease Cyra's anxiety.

What really did help was the calming voice of someone the elemental hadn't seen in years talking to someone else in the vicinity in a shushed tone: "Honey, go to my office and grab a lapis lazuli and a hematite for me, will you? They're labeled, don't worry."

No response could he heard but footsteps indicated that whoever the woman had spoken to was doing as instructed.

Soon after Cyra's vision faded back in she was met with a friendly face looking down at her. "Good morning, darling.", the much older woman smiled at the girl whose head was placed down in her lap. "It's actually evening, I was preparing dinner when you and your friend came around. It's almost ready too, Lorian's finishing up as we speak.", she added with a gentle laugh.

"Hi, mom.", Cyra mumbled with the hint of a smile creeping onto her face.

No, Klarissa was not Cyra's mother but she was the closest thing she had ever experienced to having one. After the most unfortunate events that were the first ten years of Cyra's life she was taken in by Klarissa and Lorian Pine. She wasn't the first and likely would not be the last child they provided a home for. When she got there they already had two boys her age, one of which was currently rotting away under a fallen tree in a burnt down forest.

The sudden realizing that neither Klarissa nor Lorian knew about Caspian's passing made Cyra's heart drop. Should she tell them? When would she even do that?

Of course, the older woman could immediately tell something was wrong and interrupted her almost-daughter's train of thought before it could travel too far: "Don't worry, darling. Let me just take care of your head and we can talk about everything that needs to be discussed during dinner, alright? Atlas should be right back with the gems I need, if he found everything alright."

Atlas, Cyra hadn't heard that name in ages, five years to be exact. She began to wonder how much he might have changed after all this time. When she thought of Atlas, she thought of a scrawny teenage boy that had his nose stuck in a book on the sideline while Lorian taught the other two how to throw a punch. With them both gone for such a long time could it be that Atlas took up his father's self defense classes? He never used to want to train with the others.

"Where's Bastian?", Cyra suddenly spoke up after remembering Klarissa mentioning 'her friend', the one that had thrown the rock at the back of her head and choked her until her neck was bruised.

"Oh you know, helping Lorian, probably being interrogated.", the witch chuckled in a slightly mischievous way. So she did already know how Cyra got hurt, that saved her the explaining.

When an unfamiliar figure appeared in the doorway Cyra's eyes darted towards it only to be pleasantly surprised when recognizing the limping man.

He had grown quite a bit but for the most part he still looked like himself. The baby face never really went away, even with the soft stubble that he was using to try and hide it.

"Atlas, hi.", she grinned back at him as he made his way over to the pair and handed over the crystals, her voice still very much raspy from being attacked as well as the hour long crying session beforehand.

"Hey.", he sat down on the end of the couch opposite from Klarissa, lifting Cyra's legs up in a swift motion to create room for himself and setting them down in his lap. The metal part of his prosthetic leg felt cold against her calves, though it was bearable.

"Who's that guy you fucked up?", he asked nonchalantly while Klarissa got to work.

"I didn't do too bad, did I? He kinda attacked me in the forest so I flung fire at him, I never meant to actually hit him with it, just scare him off.", the fire elemental sighed as she closed her eyes, Klarissa's healing magic felt incredible on the back of her head.