While the daytime was lovely and the sun energized the world around him, there was something about the dead of night that truly enticed the young boy. He couldn't quite place it, being as young as he was and his mind not fully wrapped around the expansive thoughts of the world, but he knew the darkness was something spectacular.

    And the moon was the pinnacle of the night.

    Morgan Pendragon sat with his toys on the back porch of his house, the house he'd grown up in. After he turned seven recently, he began to notice this exhilarating feeling of the night time more often. It started off as a faint familiarity, and over time grew to a consistent repetition. He yearned to be outside with the moon's light and the sky's darkness, especially on nights with a full moon.

    Those were the most tempting.

    He pushed the black locks that covered his eyes, the tips of his hair glowing a delicate white. Even when he was young, he noticed that he shared qualities from his mom and his dad, and that made him giddy inside. Though he was too young to understand most things, family and friends always told him that he had his father's eyes, his mother's heart, and both of their tempers.

    "Heen, watch this." Morgan said with excitement. The elderly dog lay next to the boy. Though his body was sagging and depleted, he was still very much attentive to Morgan. He had been the butt end of many tricks and games, yet they weren't nearly as torturous as the days when Markl was young. Morgan hadn't gotten to the age where magic tested his character - he was only an innocent child.

    Morgan waved a tiny hand around his toys, his fingers dancing above them in an invisible circle. The toys rocked back and forth before levitating off the ground between his waving hand. This was one of his favorite spells that he recently learned - his father called it Gravity Manipulation, but Morgan simply called it fun.

    He laughed and kept the toys spinning in the air. While he wished he got to see Wynne, Ryo, and Griff tonight to show off his new skills, he still enjoyed his time alone at home. It was strange; he knew he should normally want to be around kids his age, yet he always chose his time in solitude whenever he had the chance.

Once he heard subtle footsteps approaching the backdoor, however, he lost his concentration and the toys dropped with a sudden thud. He knew what was to come.

"Practicing your new trick, huh?" He turned around and smiled. His mom bent down to his level and tickled him incessantly, forcing his laughter out once again. Her starlight hair grazed against his reddened cheeks, and she laughed with him. "You're just like your father. He likes to practice at night, too."

"Really?" Morgan smiled so all of his teeth shone through except for the two empty spaces - one on top and one on bottom. "When can I practice with dad again?"

Sophie dropped her smile abruptly. "Oh, right." She didn't know what to say; she never did. Though Howl rarely left as often as he used to, this time was more unpredictable than the rest. Even though she hated lying, her son's smile was too innocent to break the truth to him.

She looked up to the sky and noticed several bright stars directly above them. She tilted his chin upward and pointed at them. "I bet if you make a wish, maybe dad will come home soon."

Morgan's eyes gleamed and he immediately set his eyes on the brightest star he could find. As he whispered a soft wish, Sophie couldn't help but stare at him. She greatly admired his optimism. As he grew and learned more about the world they lived in - the good things as well as the bad - she was relieved by his purity. No one had the power to erase his goodness and grace.

And she was prepared to do anything to keep it that way.

"Now, it's time for bed." Sophie said, ushering him inside. "Heen has had a long day. You both need your rest."

Morgan pouted softly, but couldn't disobey his mother. As much as he'd rather play his games and work his magic tricks, he slowly felt a wave of exhaustion flood over him. Even he couldn't say no to the beauty of sleep.

    After Sophie tucked Morgan in for the night, she noticed Heen scratching at the front door. He turned to Sophie and wheezed, ushering his nose from her to the door. Though his mind and body had aged, his instincts were still intact. She wondered why there would be a visitor, especially this late at night.

"What is it, Heen?" Sophie opened the door and, much to her surprise, stood an old friend. He gazed at the side of the house, and though she couldn't see his face, his fiery red hair was far too obvious to be mistaken for anyone else. "Calcifer."

The former fire demon stood to his side until he heard Sophie's voice. She hadn't heard him knock, which begged the question if he had gotten around to that before Heen's scratching. Yet she was more curious as to why he was at their doorstep. "It's almost midnight. What are you doing here?"

Calcifer chuckled. "A simple 'nice to see you' would have sufficed."

Sophie smiled. Even as a human, Calcifer hadn't lost his humor. "I'm sorry. Come on inside. I'll make you some tea."

Sophie opened the door wider to let Calcifer in. She walked past him to the kitchen, but he stayed where he was. Though he'd been to their home dozens of times, even lived here before he and Gwenda found a home of their own, he still had a strange feeling.

It was a small cottage not too far from Kenta and Lona's home, but far enough from his apartment in Porthaven. When it was only Howl and Calcifer traveling the world, the concept of home didn't seem to matter. It wasn't until their partnership expanded into a family that home became a necessity. They had travelled for years, spent time in so many different parts of the world, that to finally have somewhere to call home was foreign to him.

"Take a seat wherever you like. I still have the fire going." Sophie called out from the kitchen.  Calcifer sat on the couch directly across from the fire and simply stared into the flames. He noticed the fire almost immediately; it was like looking through a mirror into his past.

So, this is how I looked. He thought. Grey ashes built up in the firepit as the final log still had some life left to give. No beady eyes stared out of the flames this time. No snarky comments or over dramatic flair to combat that of the wizard who lived here. Yet this is how he looked to them, from their perspective. It wasn't that he'd never seen a fire since his final transformation or never had these thoughts before - but rather every time he saw a fire, he couldn't shake the memory.

"It's hard to put it behind you, isn't it?" Calcifer jolted as Sophie stood to the side of the couch, two warm cups in her hand. She handed one to him and he thanked her.

"It was my life for almost two decades." He said before taking a cautious sip. Though tea didn't help rejuvenate him the same way coffee did, it was still a calming drink. "It's not something I can just put in the past."

She sat in the armchair across from him. "It took me a while to get used to you not being a fire demon. I'd only ever known you as one, so to see you as a human was a bit shocking."

"For you and me both."

Sophie took a sip and then pointed at the front door with her thumb. "Why isn't Gwenda with you? Is she okay?"

Calcifer nearly burned his tongue at the mention of Gwenda's name. He set the cup down on the coffee table and swallowed the searing drink quickly. "Oh, she's fine. She was tired after dinner, so she went to bed."

Sophie nodded. "Ah, I see. Then why didn't you go to bed with her?" She met Calcifer's gaze, her eyes saying all he needed to know. There was hardly anything he could hide from her, especially when it came to his love.

She smiled softly. "Come on, Calcifer. I know when something's bothering you."

He reached back for the cup and sat back against the soft cushions - he noticed how much softer this one was than the couch in his own living room. He closed his eyes in order to build a picture of Gwenda, to envision her beauty and charisma. However, once again, the vision of her was nothing compared to her actual beauty.

Closing his eyes at least helped rest them for a moment. He yearned for the sweet slumber that was hard to come by these days. As he heard haunting voices bellow in his ears, he shot open his eyes. No sleep for him - not right now.

"We had a fight tonight." Calcifer said, rubbing his temple harshly. "A pretty big one, actually."
    "Care to talk about it?" she asked. "It might help to get it off your chest."

"I don't want to bother you, Sophie." He snapped, trying to avoid the conversation. "I actually came here to talk to Howl, if that's okay. Something's been on my mind lately and I was hoping he had some answers."

Sophie tapped her fingers against the porcelain cup, one right after the other. She surveyed her eyes down to the floor, and her cheeks grew red with embarrassment. "Howl's actually on a mission. That's why we didn't join you all for dinner tonight. I didn't want to explain his absence again."

    Calcifer rolled his eyes and muttered, "Why did I think he could ever change?"

"You know he has." Sophie said, her voice stern and candid. "He's not the same wizard as when you met him. There's just something he needs to take care of."

    "There's always something he needs to take care of." He said. Howl's routine was quite easy to pinpoint, after knowing him for so long. When they were first on the run from Madame Suliman, Howl would be gone for weeks on end, leaving Calcifer to wonder if the evil sorceress had already taken him. When Markl was a young boy, he left Calcifer to raise him while he played under his many aliases. And when Sophie needed him to stop lying and finally commit, it was almost too late before he was ready to fulfill his responsibility to her.

Calcifer scoffed at his thoughts and blurted, "Can't he take care of his wife and son for once?"

"Calcifer, with all due respect, you are no longer living in this house." Sophie said as she pressed her drink down on the table. "You have no idea who he is anymore and how wonderful of a father and husband he is."

    Calcifer shrugged his shoulders. "It seems like he's stuck in his old ways to me."

"Oh, because you're so different now."

"All right, that's valid." He rested his face in his palms, rubbing his fingers over his tired eyes. "I'm sorry, Sophie. I keep snapping at people and I don't know how to hold my tongue."

"Is that what happened with you and Gwenda tonight?" Sophie said. As much as she enjoyed Calcifer's company, there was something too familiar about him tonight.

The fire demon who always had a comeback, always had a retort to input his own thoughts - somehow she thought Gwenda was enough to help simmer that side of him. Yet what concerned her the most was not the familiar side, but the oddity of his behavior. She watched his slow movements, how agonizing it appeared for him to simply hold a cup of tea or even look her in the eye as he spoke. Her mind was always curious about something, and now this had taken her full attention.

Calcifer blinked rapidly, replaying the last words he and Gwenda spoke that night. He hadn't stopped playing them in his mind since it happened. He tried rephrasing himself or even adding in an apology somewhere, but revising his memory of the conversation didn't change what had actually happened. It only forced a false perception to relieve him of his guilt.

He sighed. "I told her I wanted to deal with my problems on my own, but she insisted on helping me take care of them... and then I said she should have thought about what that meant before she married me."

Calcifer took a long sip as the room filled to the brim with unbearable silence. It took him a while to muster the courage to see Sophie's reaction, and she did not surprise him. With her eyes wide and mouth agape, she appeared exactly as he expected.

Eventually, Sophie spoke. "Wow."

"I know," he said, his voice low and dejected. "I'm such an idiot."

"I'd have to agree with you there." Sophie said with a distinct disappointment. "Honestly, what were you thinking? Gwenda loves you more than anyone in the world. That's why she wants to help you with your problems."

"Well, I wasn't! I wasn't thinking." Calcifer snapped, then slapped his forehead. "I told you. I keep spitting out nonsense and yelling at people. Nothing makes sense to me anymore."

"You look like you haven't gotten much sleep lately, either."

"Try in the last month."

"Calcifer, that's unhealthy!" Sophie said in shock. "What is really going on?"

Calcifer stared off into the distance. He wanted to know the answer to that question, as well. Ever since that letter appeared, he cursed the changes he witnessed. No, even before that - when the night wouldn't let him sleep; when his powers started acting up and not producing magic; when he fell from the sky.

That was when everything changed for good.

But he couldn't admit that. Not aloud. "That's why I need to talk to Howl. I need his help to clear my head and figure out what's going on before I really blow up and can't reverse what I say or do."

Sophie slumped farther into the couch, hiding her lips with the cup of tea. "What are you afraid of doing?"

Calcifer looked over to her, his eyes terrifying and frightened at the same time. "More than you can imagine."

Sophie had known Calcifer for a long time. While there were centuries of time between their first meeting, she felt like she truly understood him. She was the first to recognize his feelings for Gwenda and his agony of living as a simple fire demon. She acknowledged the spark inside of him, greater than the flames or his magic. She saw his heart - now he needed to see it, as well.

But first, maybe a good night's sleep would do him some good.

"Hold on a minute." She set her cup down and walked out of the room to Howl's office. It wasn't much of an office, really, as it was a training ring for Morgan and Markl over the years. The bookcases that shelved entire walls were filled with the most exquisite and detailed spellbooks any magician could dream of having. Markl and Morgan were lucky to have a father and master so desperate for knowledge, that he accumulated such a vast collection over the years.

Sophie returned moments later with a small vial filled with a dark blue liquid, glistening from the sparkles inside. "Howl's been teaching Morgan to create potions, and this is their most recent concoction. It's an anxiety reliever. It may not put you to sleep, but maybe it'll relax your mind to give you a few hours of rest."
    Calcifer held the vial gently in his grip, his eyes nearly tearing up from her generosity. "Thank you, Sophie. And thank Howl and Morgan for me as well. You have a really great kid there."

Sophie blushed at the thought of her son. "He's the sweetest person you'll ever meet. Howl sees him as a promising magician as well." Though they weren't sure of his source quite yet, she had a feeling he had something beautiful in store. They always assumed he would be an electrokinetic source, like she was during the pregnancy, but he felt no affiliation toward light or electricity.

Yet there was something special inside of him, and she couldn't wait to see it.

"Considering Suliman went to such lengths to take him, I would agree." Calcifer said. He widened his eyes as Sophie bit her lip. The memories of the terror that Suliman bombarded upon them all those years ago revived in her mind and she couldn't shelter the misery.

Calcifer waved his hand back and forth, hoping to take it all back. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"I know." Sophie interrupted. " It's just painful to remember that we almost lost him."
    "He's your son. Even if some of her magic made him possible, Morgan will always be yours and Howl's."

Sophie wiped her eyes clean, but they still glistened against the light in the room. She rested a firm hand on his shoulder, looking up toward her friend. "Thank you, Calcifer. And remember that no matter what you've said or done, no matter how far you've fallen, you can always come back. Just forgive yourself and do better."

Forgiveness. Bettering himself. These were the things that tore at his soul and suffered his mind. How could he forgive himself of the mistakes he made? How could he move on from the decisions that tormented his mind? These were the thoughts that kept him awake at night; these were the nightmares that he lived every day.

After a long hug and more encouraging words, Calcifer knew it was time to go home. It was nearing the next day, and he prayed for a restful slumber this time.

As he stood in the doorway, he turned back once more. "I do have one more question. How's Markl doing?"

Sophie was stunned by his question, and scratched the back of her neck with sharp nails. "Oh... he's fine. Training is going well with Xarx. Why?"

Calcifer tilted his head with a smirk. "Because I can see through you the same as you can see through me. And Kenta mentioned something tonight about him."

Sophie sighed. She had asked Calcifer to open up about his worries, so it only seemed fair that she opened up about hers. She also hoped it would relieve her mind that another friend knew the truth. "Well, Kenta doesn't know everything."

Calcifer raised his eyebrows and dropped his smile. Sophie looked up, and he finally noticed the dark circles under her distressed eyes.

Her lips trembled as she said, "That's why Howl is away, but it's not like his other missions. Markl is missing."