Seeing in Shades of Heat

Chapter 3 (Eclipse Lake part 1)

Hunter spend the next few days trying to get used to his new heat vision. It took hours for him to start being able to recognize certain shapes and be able to walk around without tripping over everything. He was also slowly learning that spells gave off different colors as well as people who were cursed or palismen. It was quite a shock to find out that the abomination goo on Darius's head was actually his palisman, Bell. Hunter couldn't bring himself to blame the man for hiding Bell since he knew what happened to the palismen that were taken.

Speaking of palismen, Little Rascal had surprised the teen by turning into a staff in his hands. He didn't know what to say to the bird. Hunter knew he didn't deserve this- not with how many palismen had been killed because of him. The Golden Guard promised himself that he wouldn't let anyone hurt Little Rascal. Even if Belos demanded it.

Not long after getting his palisman, the castle healer deemed Hunter recovered enough to start training again. He immediately jumped at the chance to do so. He hated not having anything to do. Sitting around for hours just twiddling his thumbs made the teen anxious like he was doing something wrong. But now that he could train without reprimand, Hunter would be able to focus on getting stronger rather than the dwindling visits from the Coven Heads.

About two weeks later, news came down from Belos himself: Kikimora would be leading the expedition at the knee, not the Golden Guard. This was something he had feared when he started training. He had known it was only a matter of time before Belos got tired of waiting and labeled him useless. But even with his accelerated progress, his uncle decided enough was enough and replaced Hunter.

To make things worse, Belos had even told Hunter that he wasn't to leave the castle until further notice. The way he said it was that until he was in better shape Hunter couldn't risk getting hurt. The hidden message was clear: You're not strong enough.

He wasn't going to take this laying down though. He'd prove to Belos that he could still be useful. He wasn't going to let Kikimora replace him. Or hold this over him for the rest of his life.

The first thing Hunter was going to try was to talk to his uncle. If that didn't work, then he'd just have to sneak out of the castle. He didn't want to outright defy his order to stay in the castle but would if he had to.

He found the emperor working in the portal room. The Golden Guard couldn't tell what the man was doing but knew there would be repercussions for interrupting him, even with no signs of the curse affecting him. So the blonde hid behind a pillar, waiting for him to finish. A weight landed on his shoulder and to his horror, Hunter saw that Little Rascal had followed him. He tried to shoo the bird away before Belos saw him, but said man's voice called out.

"Don't you know it's impolite to watch, Hunter?" Quickly stuffing the bird in his cloak once it had changed to wood, he stepped out of the shadows.

"I'm sorry, I just..." Hunter struggled to come up with an excuse. Immediately saying he wanted to go on the mission would only be detrimental. He needed to warm up to it and the easiest way was to talk about the Human Realm. "Is it true that the rain doesn't boil in the human realm?"

"It's true," the older man replied. "The trees are green, the sky's blue, the nights are calm... It's quite beautiful there. I'm looking forward to seeing it again." While talking he walked down to Hunter, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "But I doubt you came here to listen to an old man's ramblings."

Hunter bit the inside of his cheek before answering. "I don't quite understand why you replaced me with Kikimora on the mission at the Knee."

"You're still having issues getting used to fighting with your heat vision," Belos bluntly told him. "I saw how you kept missing those targets." He started leading the boy towards the door with a firm grasp on his shoulder.