The Sins of the Father

Chapter Three

Stephen gasped as he was slammed onto his back on the ground, rolling over and scrambling upright as his chest heaved.

"Fight fair!" He protested through gasps.

"Fair?" Cafos echoed, taking a large step back with his wings flared behind him. "In a real battle, your opponent would be using every opportunity they had to kill you."

"If I'm not allowed to teleport, you're not allowed to use your wings!" Stephen shot back. His chest ached from the blow, and he had a hunch that he would have a nasty bruise there later.

"Lucius only gave you a handicap. Not me." Cafos brushed him off. "Come on, then, Stephen." Steve grimaced, but found his stance again before he lunged at his opponent.

Ten minutes later, Stephen was sitting up against a tree beside the sparring grounds, holding a cool cloth over his freshly blackened eye. He was strong, fast, and trained by Notch's most elite fighting force. But, so was Cafos, and Cafos was a valkyrie. Also, he hated him.

Cafos was maybe six months to a year older than Stephen, and he had hated him for his entire life. For years, Steve had tried to befriend him, tried to mend whatever rift lay between them, but eventually he was forced to give up. Nothing he did worked. So he simply tried to avoid him as much as possible. Unfortunately, since Cafos was the closest to his age of the Sons of the Aether, they were frequently paired up together for training and sparring. Sometimes, Steve thought bitterly, it seemed like Lucius liked seeing him beaten.

But, his mentor had told him time and time again that being defeated would only make him stronger. So he had ceased his complaining a long time ago, enduring the harassment and bullying in the various forms it took. It was never too bad - outside of sparring, Cafos never directly attacked him. The worst he had to endure were shoves and dirty remarks.

The sound of a bell ringing came from the center of camp, and Cafos responded immediately, taking off to join the others for the noon meal. Steve lagged behind. Maybe he'd be able to avoid the bully if he joined them a few minutes late.

Eventually, Stephen made his way to the center of camp, grabbed his portion, and vanished off into the woods to eat alone. Usually getting beaten didn't bother him too much, but today he was in too much of a sour mood to endure comments about it. So, he teleported high into a sturdy spruce tree, and settled down on a thick branch to eat his meal.

It wasn't as if he had ever done anything to Cafos. He had always been a jerk, and his cruelty had grown to a peak when Stephen was around thirteen. Steve would assume that he was just a bully, but none of the other trainees had to deal with his abuse. His theory was that Cafos targeted him because he was different, something that he would hopefully one day grow out of.

Finishing the last of his meal, Stephen shifted and teleported back to the ground, intent on finding Lucius to get his next assignment.

"Hey." A voice behind him made him startle, and he spun to find Alexis standing behind him. "You- what happened to your face??"

"Alex- you shouldn't be so close to camp!" Stephen hissed, looking around frantically to make sure none of the valkyries were nearby. "What are you doing here??"

"Looking for you." Alexis lowered his voice, setting her hands on her hips. "You were supposed to meet me an hour ago." Stephen's gaze flickered up to the sky, and realized with a sinking feeling that the sun was far lower than he'd thought.

"Sorry..." he dashed a hand through his hair, grimacing. "I got lost in thought."

"Looks like you lost a fight, too." Alexis pointed out.

"I did, I guess. I was sparring."

"Badly?"

"No, my opponent just hates me." Stephen turned away, back towards the camp. "Go and hide, I'll... bring you something."