Titan Turn; A TDS Story

Chapter 55

Swordmaster had been treating him... differently upon returning home, borderline odd. After their training lessons he had personally asked Grave to stay over the usual time.
Rushing the others away to give them space, earning curious looks from Molten and Frost Spirit whilst Ducky usually rolled his eyes. Not only that but the elder had been asking him some rather bizzare questions too. It all began with inquiries about his day, about his hobby, how confident he felt in battle, if he had ever had his own sword before, if he would like one, normal sounding yet abnormal questions for the likes of Master. Who, until recently, avoided Grave all together or refused to even look him in the eyes with anything but anger. At first, the boy thought he might be feeling guilty over how he had treated him in the past but as the questions grew more and more peculiar, he could tell the elder was looking for something. A particular query after yet another round of fight practice set off the alarms in his head.
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"Your behavior was rather odd during our first lesson, you know.."

The elder trudged closer to the boy as he sat down for a breather, using Darkheart as a cane of sorts. The blade's tip dug into sand of the makeshift arena laying in the castle's gardens.

"A child to push away the strike of Void is not..." he pondered his words for a moment, "...an ordinary feat. Have you felt any power surge over you or any... nightmares in recent days?"

A tingle crept up Grave's spine.
He shook his head quickly, blurting out "no" before excusing himself to grab a bottle of water from inside.
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It had been half a day since that encounter and the elder hadn't pressed him about it since but he couldn't get it out of his head. What did he know? Not even his own father knew of his constant nightmares...What was Master trying to get out of him? Was he aware of Caster's presence? Could he feel it too? Could Void? Was she...was she the one behind his rampage that day?

Just... how much power did she possess?
Her notes were unlike anything he had ever seen before, the countless spells he deemed all-powerful, how many of them could she actually perform? Did she come up with them? Were they passed down to her as a cursed family heirloom by a crazed relative? He wouldn't be surprised if her family was even more horrid than her, some of those spells were truly gruesome even by Caster standards.

Yet, the one she subtly tried to cut out of her mind and work he had grown to appreciate the most.

The spell of "Unbinding".

Something made to destroy something else. It was simple, nothing fancy. He used it once on a pencil, it was reduced to strips of wood then a small flame and then nothing.

He knew it by heart. Only to have this tiny pebble to throw at her out of pure spite when she inevitably returned.
It was nothing, perhaps, to the unimaginable tortures she would try on them all, but even so, it felt good having at least one thing in control, just to wipe that grin off her face, even for a second.

Speaking of, Caster hadn't haunted his mind in a while, his nights were back to the mundane, dreamless sleep. Where could she have ran off to? Was he no longer fun to toy with?

He cracked open the door to his room, having finally reached it after walking down the torch lit hallways. He glanced back down the corridor before entering. Ducky had made a peculiar habit of following him around...

Molten was not inside thankfully, his bed was well made but empty.
He was probably out with uncle Krampus and Frost. Ever since the man returned his son was glued to his side. They cooked together, read together, they went on walks in the evening together, just like they used to before he disappeared. Frost had missed him so much no amount of words could come close to describing it.
The Titan was not a very forward person with his emotions, his face hidden mostly by his hood, but the bright smile he had whenever he spent time with his father could put the sun to shame.
And Molten, always having seen Krampus as something of a second parent, was thrilled to go with them out into the forest whenever they left. They asked if he wished to join them, and usually he did, but Grave was not comfortable going anywhere tonight.