"Whew, looks like we're makin' a lotta coin tonight!" the perky innkeeper exclaimed with her hands clasped together as their foyer became filled with people in cloaks, one man armed with a sword strapped to his back.

"They're customers, darling," the innkeeper standing next to her behind the counter reminded, wrapping an arm around her shoulder with an encouraging grin plastered on his face, "not money."

"Oops, sorry!" she apologized to the man, putting a hand to her mouth. She chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. "I'm still new to this innkeeping business," she told them, "didn't mean to be rude. Just excited, is all!"

"It's fine," Grace replied, stepping up to the counter with Liam, "we appreciate the enthusiasm!"

The woman continued to admire the lot of them as she asked, "Did you all just come back from a festival or somethin'?"

"Eh, somethin'," Liam answered with a shrug. Although they were definitely in high spirits, he was unwilling to tell them the details of the borderline brutal sparring session they just witnessed. "Anyway, we'd like three rooms for two, and a room for one. We'd like them to be as close together as possible, too." Then, he gestured at the sadistic redhead leaning against the wall behind him and added, "If all you have are rooms for two, though, she'll be more than willing to pay extra for it!"

"Excuse me?" Victoria responded, lifting her head in his direction, her arms still crossed.

"You still owe us!" Liam reminded through clenched teeth.

Victoria rolled her eyes and waved him off.

"Err, well," the man started, a little puzzled by the passive aggressive interaction between the two redheads, "lucky for you all, we do have rooms for one, and we have plenty of vacancies for you all to occupy. It'll be eight tokens per room, six for the single bedroom."

"Six...?" Victoria repeated with a grimace.

"Perfect," Liam replied as they all began to rummage through their pockets. He, Grace, Wade, and Phoebus gave the innkeepers their payment while William and Sophia stepped up behind them.

"Oh, Lord..." William mumbled after patting his clothing for a minute.

Sophia furrowed her brow and looked up at her husband. "What's the matter?"

Liam shot a worried yet annoyed look at William. Oh, don't tell me...

The swordsman groaned and dragged a hand across his face with exasperation. "I left my money at home."

Liam groaned out loud with little compassion. "You couldn't have checked that before we rode all the way out here?" The lot of them had taken a carriage to go miles away from the Swordsmen's Guild using Grace and Liam's horses. In order to get to William's home, Liam would have had to make the long trip back along with him to make sure his and Grace's horses came back safely. Liam never had any problem with William or Sophia, but the only people he trusted with his horse were Grace and his parents.

"It's alright!" Grace insisted. "We can help—"

Liam tugged at Grace's sleeve gently to get her attention. She looked up at him with a slightly bothered expression. He shook his head to let her know that they could not afford to keep paying for other people, especially not for a swordsman who was already rich.

Grace sighed, knowing that they still had to stick together in order to avoid falling victim to the stalker but understanding where her husband was coming from. She poked a corner of her lip and redirected her attention at the couple, rubbing her wrist with embarrassment. "Actually, we can't this time, sorry."

"It's fine," William assured, yet visibly bothered by Liam's vocal frustration. "We'll just need a ride back to our home and I can pay for any trouble I've caused."

"A-actually," Phoebus stammered, an uncharacteristically optimistic grin on his face, "I can be of assistance!"

Wade raised an eyebrow at the stammering sorcerer, pointing a finger at him and then pointing into the palm of his hand.

"Well, I don't have a lot of money either," Phoebus explained, shifting his gaze away for a second, "but I do have..." He glanced back at the innkeepers, wary about speaking of his taboo sorcery in public. Then, he smiled widely and finished with, "...my methods!"

Grace looked on at Phoebus with awe, noticing a glimmer in his eye and an elated pink across his cheeks. Huh, I don't think I've ever seen him like that before...

Sophia knit her eyebrows at the proposition. "Are you sure? It's quite far from here."

"Not a problem!" Phoebus assured in a chipper tone. "I had a lot of practice, so I can do long distance..." He glanced back once more, and finished, "...travel!"

The innkeepers exchanged confused looks, the man appearing more impatient than the one who greeted them.

William smirked and stated, "You'd be saving us some trouble, Phoebus."

Liam pressed a hand on Phoebus's shoulder, to which Phoebus responded with an inward jump, and he persisted with a forcefully aggressive smile, "You really would!"

Phoebus's eyes got wide and he gulped, seeming to take the hint from his fellow guild member. He maneuvered his shoulder out of Liam's grasp and clasped his hands together with a closed, nervous grin. "A-alright, let's go!" Phoebus marched merrily ahead of the couple, while they followed behind. With that, the three of them left the inn.

Once they were gone, the male innkeeper cleared his throat and asked, "So, would you like us to show you to your rooms now, or...?"

Victoria pushed herself off of the wall she was leaning on and walked towards the remaining three with a sly smile. "Now that it's just four of us," she started, "does that mean I share a room with the mouse?"

"Absolutely not," Liam snapped with a glare, refusing to let her be alone with the boy she tried to kill not too long ago.

"Ah, you have a point, ginger," Victoria said, backing off with her hands in the air, and then shooting daggers at Wade. "Wouldn't want him to get the wrong idea now, would we?"

Wade frowned at her and then looked away with a quiet huff.

"Anyway," Grace started, redirecting her attention back at the innkeepers with an antsy smile, "you can show us to our rooms now, if ya don't mind."

"Of course not!" the woman responded, walking out from behind the counter and towards the hallway. She swung an arm towards the corridor and ordered, "Come along, you three!"

The three of them nodded and followed the innkeeper to their rooms, leaving Victoria with the other innkeeper. She gave him a stale expression and asked, "So, six tokens for the room?"

"That's right," the innkeeper answered with a firm nod.

Victoria sighed and pulled a pouch out of her pocket, mumbling, "For your sake, I hope the pricing's worth it."

The innkeeper had an absent-minded grin on his face as his arm was extended to take her payment. Before putting the tokens into a drawer, he froze and his expression dropped. "Wait, what do you mean by—"

"Is there anyone here who you or your wife wouldn't mind seeing get burned to death?" the sorceress asked with a curious smile as she leaned over the counter.

The man's mouth dropped wide open and his eyes got shifty.

Victoria pulled herself back with a laugh and spread her arms out. "Can't you take a little dark humor, mate?" She narrowed her eyes at his stunned disposition and placed her hands on her hips. "Well? Are you going to keep gawking at me like a ninny or are you going to show me to my room?"

As Victoria continued to taunt her host, Grace, Liam, and Wade followed the woman down the hallway. Grace looked back and thought about the rare smile on the awkward sorcerer's face before he left. She looked up at Liam and asked, "Phoebus was a lot happier than usual, wasn't he?"

"I guess," Liam responded. "He usually doesn't offer to use his, uh, 'methods' like that very often, that's for sure." He let out an irritated sigh and grumbled, "I wish he would..."

"What do you think he was so happy about?" Grace persisted, trying to ignore her husband's griping.

Liam shrugged and dismissed, "Whatever makes a nervous wreck happy, I suppose."

Wade tapped Grace on the shoulder from behind. She turned to see a wide, knowing grin on his face. With some big, obvious lip movements, Wade mouthed the name, "Mallory."

"Oh," Grace cooed as she lightly smacked her forehead, "obviously! He's happy for Mallory! She really was awesome tonight, wasn't she?"

Wade nodded in agreement, but then held up a finger indicating that there was something else about his behavior. He pointed at his heart and raised his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

As soon as Grace realized what Wade was saying, her heart swelled and her facial expression brightened. She gasped with a chuckle and figured, "You think he likes her? Aw, that's so—"

"Gross!" Liam intruded. "Phoebus isn't that much younger than us, y'know!"

Grace narrowed her eyes at him and added, "And he's not much older than her or Wade."

Liam smirked at her in a mocking way and replied, "Well, I'm not surprised you don't see the issue!"

Her eyes flashed wider, reacting to the comment by punching him in the arm with a tight smile. During his laughing, she whispered, "Not in front of Wade!"

Liam rubbed his arm and smiled down at her. "I know, I know."

The innkeeper stopped between two rooms and opened the doors to each of them. "It's been a pleasure meetin' you all!" she stated with an ear-to-ear smile. "Hope you all have a nice night!"

"Thank you so much," Grace replied with a nod as the innkeeper walked back towards the entrance.

Wade stretched his arms high over his head with a long yawn and waved to Grace and Liam as he entered the room on their left.

"We'll see you in the morning, buddy," Liam assured, waving to him as he and Grace entered their own room.

After Liam closed the door behind him, Grace sat at the edge of the bed on her right and looked out the window above the nightstand. "You know," she started, "Mallory actually told me that she talked to Phoebus not too long after Victoria showed up."

"Ugh, she likes him back?" Liam groaned, dropping his knapsack to the floor and resting his staff at the corner of the room. He plopped himself down on the edge of his bed and began unlacing his boots.

"No, no, I doubt it," Grace admitted. "She was just telling me that she was trying to encourage him. We all know he's nervous and clumsy all the time, but she figured that it might be something he could grow out of with support."

Liam halted his undoing of his boots and raised an eyebrow. "What makes her think that? He's been the same way since I've known him."

Grace turned her gaze to her husband and answered, "I think it's because of the reaction he had when she cheered him up. She said it was like he really took her words to heart." She looked down and shrugged, somewhat ashamed of how indifferent she had been towards the sorcerer throughout the years. "Maybe that's all he really needed this whole time, y'know?"

Liam blinked at her for a moment, and then went back to unlacing his boots. "Could be. Frankly, I'm not good with weirdos." He kicked off his boots carelessly and spread himself out against the bed and turned onto his side. "Maybe your dad can talk to him. Now he's really good with weirdos!"

Grace poked her bottom lip to the side, a tad disappointed by Liam's lack of concern. She found it strange that he would be so unattached to someone he had worked with for years, yet at the same time it made sense given their clashing personalities. What struck her as even more bizarre was the fact that she had become more worried about Phoebus after seeing him happy. It was like a sudden weight on her chest that she never felt for him before. She knit her eyebrows and glanced out the window again. It was almost pitch-black outside at that point, making it especially unsafe for travel. Nevertheless, she laid down knowing that Phoebus would just be using his portals to return to the inn, so the darkness would not affect it. Still, she felt there was something wrong about letting the often-nervous sorcerer go off with William and Sophia, something she could not explain. She sighed and tried to push it out of her mind. It's not like he's a kid or anything. We'll be fine. He'll be fine.

***

"Are you sure you'd rather stay here?" Phoebus asked the couple before they could go into their home.

"I don't see the harm in spending one night away," William explained. "Besides, Sophia's mother got ill recently and it's best we stay close by so that she can tend to her."

Phoebus shifted his eyes away. "But...I-I don't think Liam would like it..."

"It'll be fine, Phoebus," William assured. "Remember, should that fiend make an appearance, you'll have all of their strength to fend him off. All you have to do now is warp yourself back to the inn as easily as you warped us here. You'll do that, and safety will be right there in front of you."

"Right..." he reluctantly agreed.

After a moment of silence, Sophia smiled and said, "Thanks again, Phoebus."

Phoebus locked eyes with her and read the timid sincerity in them. He could tell his fellow sorceress was genuinely grateful for his help. Some pink spread on his cheek and he smirked in return. "You're welcome."

"You'd better hurry back, then," William advised, turning towards their front door and opening it, "before they get worried."

"Have a good night, okay?" Sophia called back as she and her husband went inside.

He nodded back to her and replied, "I will." Right after his reply, he felt a sharp pain in the side of his head. It made him wince, but it was spontaneous enough to ignore. He noticed that Sophia had a subtle reaction to his wince, but she must have deciphered it as one of his habitual jitters as she continued into the house.

Once they closed the door behind them, Phoebus looked around to see if there were any bystanders before making his next portal. Their house was in the middle of a vacant lot, but he figured it would be best to be extra careful considering how flashy his portals were. When he decided it was safe, he took a deep breath, his chest slowly rising and falling as he steadied himself. He hardened his gaze straight ahead and imagined the inn as vividly as he could. The village in which the inn was located was sparse with larger buildings made of bricks. The inn stood out with its lantern glow shining from the inside. There was a wooden sign hanging over the front door that read, "Luke's Inn." As soon as the destination was clear in his head, Phoebus rose his arms with his palms facing the ground. Then, he swiped them down to unveil the shimmering, oval distortion of space in an instant. He brought himself back upright and leapt through without hesitation, the spatial gate closing behind him.

Like always, passing through was a rush as his body zipped from one end of space to another, making what could have been a half hour trip to an instantaneous one. In spite of how disorienting the feeling used to make him, the years of experience helped him glide through with ease. Most people stumble slightly when they make it to the other end, but he was able to stop his momentum just in time to step out of the portal in perfect control of his movement. One thing that he always did to make his transition smoother was close his eyes right before making it to the other side. The sense of vertigo one feels when warping is often perpetuated with the instant change in what is seen, so that is how he found out that keeping his eyes shut helped. With a nod, he murmured to himself, "Made it."

When he stepped out onto the ground with his other foot, though, he noticed something different with the crunching sound under his shoe. His eyes shot open as he looked down to discover that he had stepped out onto dark green grass. "Wait...grass?" Grass never grew that well in Autumnfront, yet when he took a look around, it became apparent that he was standing in an entire field of it. At first, he assumed that he warped to the wrong place, but then he realized how well he could see the grass, given the fact that it had somehow become daytime. He shot his head toward the sky to see that the sun was shining indeed, despite it being the middle of the night a second before he warped. His whole body began to sweat as it became clear something had gone entirely wrong with the transition.

He turned around to hop back through the portal in hopes that it would lead him back to William and Sophia's house only to realize it was gone. Right as he began to panic, an even more peculiar realization dawned on him. As he gazed at the house made of stone several yards ahead of him, it occurred to him that he was standing in the field of his childhood home. That is when his breathing became calmer, staring at the crooked planks that made up the door to his house, the open windows that never shut properly, and the chimney that was missing bricks at the top of it.

Phoebus blinked a bit and shook his head. "This...th-this is some kind of trick!" He rose his arms to create another portal, but then the door to his house opened, and he saw the man in wool clothing he never thought he would see again. There, he stood at the doorway, with a white, scraggly beard that reflected his own. If he had any hair left, it probably would have been just as messy, too. The biggest difference in their tensed faces was his downturned nose, contrasting heavily with the pointed tip of Phoebus's nose. What was normally a look of severity on the old man's face was a look of sorrow and relief upon seeing the sorcerer. Phoebus felt his eyes water as he lowered his arms. "Papa...?"

The old man pursed his thick lips and began to trudge his way over to his son. The moment Phoebus realized that his father was walking towards him, he ran to him without question. Tears streamed down his face as he wrapped his arms around his shoulders and buried his face into the side of his neck.

"Phoebus!" the old man exclaimed, wrapping his own arms around the young man. "You've come home!"

Phoebus could feel his father heaving in his grasp, confirming to Phoebus that he was happy to see him. Not only that, but feeling him in the embrace helped Phoebus decide that everything he was seeing was real. "It's really you, Papa!"

"It is," the man replied, patting his son on the back of the head. He let out a breath and added, "I missed you, son." He pulled back from his son's grasp and set his hands on his shoulders, examining him with joy.

"I missed you, too," Phoebus sputtered, his eyes blinking away tears rapidly. After a moment of basking in one another's presence, Phoebus glanced at the house as another thought crossed his mind. "How's Mama? And Aunt Lilith?"

"They're doing fine, just fine!" his father assured with a nod. "They'll be happy to see you, too!"

Phoebus let out an emotional laugh and wiped the tears off his cheeks. "I'm surprised you're happy to see me," he admitted.

"Oh, Phoebus," the man started, "if you're here, then that means you've stopped it, right?"

Just like that, Phoebus's smile dropped along with his heart, knowing full well where the conversation was headed. He furrowed his brow and stammered, "B-but you saw it, didn't you?"

The man frowned for a second. "Saw what?"

Phoebus's lip twitched as his heart returned with a pounding. "H-how else do you think I got here...?"

His father's smile vanished gradually once he realized what he was insinuating. He took his hands off his shoulders and took a step back. That look of strictness and severity returned, but some tears still shed as he looked at his son. "I told you not to come back until you were through with that witchcraft!"

"P-Papa, please, there's nothing wrong with it—" Phoebus reached a hand out only to have it slapped away. His father whipped around and began to storm back to the house. "Papa!" Phoebus yelled, chasing after him.

The man spun himself around once more with a furious, yet mournful expression. "I didn't want to do it, Phoebus! I gave you a choice between us, or that magic, and you chose the magic!"

"I just wanted to help people!" Phoebus pleaded. "And I have been! Other people can accept it, why can't—"

"Because it's the devil's work!" the old man roared as he stepped closer to Phoebus and the wind began to pick up around them.

Phoebus's eyes grew wide as his father suddenly grew taller before him. In spite of seeing the physical change, all Phoebus could do was shake his head in opposition to what he was claiming. "No, no it's not!"

The sky became dark as the old man continuously grew in size. His stern face bore over Phoebus's figure as dark veins became visible underneath his skin. In a booming voice, he continued, "We never stopped worrying about you! It was all we could do for you these years! Do you have any idea what it was like?"

"W-what do you m-mean?"

His father's face became wrought with grief. "Do you know what it's like to know your son will face eternal damnation?"

Phoebus puffed out with a cry. "Th-that's not true, though! It has nothing to do with the devil!"

The man's face fumed with rage, reiterating to his son, "You left your family to pursue the devil's work!"

"No, y-you kicked me out! I didn't want to leave you!" Phoebus stumbled backwards as even the landscape turned itself into a steep hill. His father's darkening face loomed above him, his breathing becoming frantic with the wind.

"Devil's work, devil's work!" the man chanted in a mutated voice. The dark veins overtook his face along with the blackening sky.

Phoebus could no longer form any words amidst his terror. All he could do was shake his head at the relentless chant until the world became fully enveloped in darkness. His body went into a state of limbo as the ground beneath him dipped in such a way that it was as if it were made of some thick liquid. The only thing left from the place he had grown up in was his father's deafening chant ringing in his ears.

Then, everything went silent as his body was forced upright. He blinked and was able to make out a glimpse of a man notably taller than him wearing a black hood. The hooded figure broke the silence with a deep voice saying, "Phoebus of Portals." In his state of shock, Phoebus could not react fast enough when the hooded figure slammed his hand onto his mouth and raised him off of the ground. The mysterious man forced him against a wall with a thud. In doing so, it was like Phoebus was snapped out of his shock, and he pressed his hands against the man's wrist in a feeble attempt to remove his hold on him. His screams were muffled under the man's silk glove.

"I thank you," the man continued as wisp like shadows began to lash from the back of his hand and around his victim's mouth. "I know it was cruel, but I had to use something to lure you here. And I had to test my proficiency with his sorcery, of course."

Phoebus struggled harder as he began to feel the life from his body being sapped away. His cheeks started to sink in as the unknown sorcerer pressed his hand harder onto his face.

"I thank you for your passion," the assailant continued, an eerie, purple glow emanating from his hand. "Without it, you would not have gained the courage to choose sorcery over your loved ones."

Phoebus felt his grasp weakening on the attacker's wrist, his fingers becoming bony and frail the longer he was under his hold.

"I thank you for your courage. Without it, you would have never had the chance to join the Sorcerers' Guild."

The hairs on his head and his chin had all fallen out onto the ground. Phoebus's body became limp, as it was reduced to little more than skin and bones in the clutches of the dark sorcerer.

"I thank you for joining them. If not for that, we never would have crossed paths." A smirk curled at the corner of his lips, finishing with, "And lastly, I thank you for your sacrifice. With your death, I'm another step closer to restoring our world. Everything you've ever done has led up to this crucial moment. Thus, your life has ended well, Phoebus."

With his eyes rolled back into his skull and the flesh from his body completely drained, his arms dropped to his sides, becoming nothing but a skeletal corpse.

The dark sorcerer took a deep breath and lowered the heap of bones onto the ground so that it was sitting upright. He took his hand off to reveal the haunting, silent scream of Phoebus's last breath. The sorcerer averted his gaze and focused it on the palm of the hand that stole his life. He ignored the faint bruises on his wrist to notice the violet surge in his veins, pumping from there throughout the rest of his body. With the gain of his vitality and knowledge, the sorcerer smiled and balled his hand into a fist.

Then, he looked down at his fallen victim with a hint of sorrow. "Poor boy. If only it were someone else who had what I needed." He sighed and knelt over the corpse. "Your sacrifice will not be in vain." The sorcerer glided his hands across Phoebus's clothes and whispered, "Wither." Thick shadows erupted from both of the sorcerer's hands and Phoebus's clothes crumbled into dust, from his cloak to his shoes. With the clothing gone, the sorcerer planted a hand on his rib cage. "Rot." A thinner shadow flashed out of his hand and into the remains of Phoebus's body. In a more gradual manner, the young man's body began to disintegrate like his clothes, starting at the ribs. The crumbling spread all throughout his body like a virus, until what was left of Phoebus of Portals was nothing but a pile of ash.

With his body gone, the sorcerer stood upright and fixed his gaze toward the wall at the end of the alleyway. In the same fashion Phoebus rose his arms in the air to create his portals, the sorcerer did so while concentrating on where he wanted to go. He brought his arms down just like Phoebus would have, and his desired portal formed before him. He grinned with satisfaction. "Excellent. With this, I'll have everything I need soon enough."

The hooded figure turned back to face the general direction of where his subject of interest resided. In the midst of the shimmering portal, there stood a tall man shrouded in the darkness of his robe and hood, making only his mouth and the top of his chest visible. His upper body was lean with muscle, and his legs were long and slender. He beamed in the excitement of his plans coming to fruition, lifting his head with conviction to reveal a narrow, dark eye. "It won't be long until you and I finally meet, Mallory." As he turned around to face the portal, the impending overthrow of the kingdom crossed his mind and his smile lowered, his heart racing with an amalgamation of anger, sadness, and anticipation. "And you, too. Father."

***

And so ends Book One of Malicious!!! It's been so much fun writing this piece for the past year, receiving feedback and reading your reactions to it all. To my silent readers and my vocal ones, thank you so much to the few of you who made it this far! I'd love to hear your thoughts about this journey and what you expect to see in the next book!!