We met up with Daniel Winter in the afternoon in the study room.

Ohda was right --- I wasn't taking school seriously. I decided, then, that I would apply for the optional third year at the Academy, so that I would learn more about magic.

"I don't get why we should visit the Autumn family," Raegan said. She looked plainly disgusted.

"And not just anyone in the family," Jeff backed her up. "But Branard Autumn II of all people!"

"I don't get it," I said. "Is Branard even a name?"

"An old surname, I think," Jeff replied. "Either way, they think it's a name apparently."

"Well, sorry if I wanted to help you out for once," my grandfather said. "They own the Everto stone, a magical onyx that breaks curses."

"Maybe you should have contacted him as soon as your son was cursed," I suggested. 

"Do you think I don't regret having done the minimum effort, when it came to Sam? I want to make things right. Let me introduce you to Branard. Besides, there is a side effect --- the curse stops the soul from rotting but it tears away a piece of it. Still, it might work wonders if someone went mad with bloodlust again."

"That's actually... not a bad idea," Raegan conceded. "Are you friends with Branard Autumn II?"

"As a matter of fact, I am."

Jeff and Raegan looked at him like they were about to be sick. I didn't know anything about Branard, so I tried not to judge.

Daniel Winter insisted on taking us to the Autumn mansion by car. They lived far away --- near Leeds.

"Please, I hate car trips, I have motion sickness," Jeff pleaded. 

"And by the way," I added. "It takes almost four hours to reach Leeds by car."

Jeff became very pale. "Please! Edgar can teleport us!"

Our grandfather smiled like a sadist. "I insist."

I was about to brace myself for the worst experience of my life --- four hours of a car drive with Mr Winter could be worse than the nightmares about Advi --- when Jeff stood up to his grandfather.

"No," he said. "I insist. I'm tired of people not helping us. I don't want to divide people, like my father did. I want to unite them. I'm going to contact Edgar and tell him he should teleport us right this instant."

Daniel seemed to think about his words. He was impressed by Jeff's words.

"There's no need," Alice said, arriving just then. "I am a Jurist, too. I can teleport you. And don't worry --- I won't follow you all the way to the house. I know where I am not needed."

The Professor shrugged. "All right then."

Thanks to Alice's portal we found ourselves in the garden of the Autumn mansion in no time.

"It must be as big as Bramham Park," I said, thinking of the park where the Leeds festival was held, a festival of rock music I'd always wanted to attend.

The Autumn mansion did not cover 900 acres like the park did, to be honest. But it was very big, probably counting between 300 and 400 acres if my maths didn't suck (which it did). Even the mansion itself looked very similar to Bramham Park.

"I suppose we ring the door bell?" I asked.

"No need," Raegan said. "Their servants will probably be here any minute."

Just as Raegan was speaking, a small modest looking woman came to greet us. "We prefer the word help," she smiled.

Jeff nudged Raegan. "Yeah. No need to be rude."

"I guess you want to see Mr Autumn," the woman said. "I'll bring you to him. He's having lunch."

Raegan laughed out lood. "Poor us!" she muttered, a beat later.

The woman flinched at the comments. Since she didn't look like a bad person, I smiled at her.

"Come now, let's try to be civil," I said.

The woman looked at me gratefully and let us enter the mansion. It was huge, and beautiful. Everything was decorated with taste and expensively. I couldn't help but think it would have been Ohda's dream to decorate a house like that.

When we got to the living room, an old man was sitting at a table alone. Thankfully it looked as if he was done eating --- he was about to clear the table, or ask the help to do it for him.

"Branard, here I am. I promised you I would have you meet my grandchildren," Daniel said.

Up close, Branard looked a bit younger than my own grandfather. But not much.

"I have many daughters and sons," Mister Autumn replied at last. "And a few grandchildren of my own. I will have to introduce them to you sooner or later."

"Please, take your time," my grandfather said. "You have seven sons. I haven't met all of them yet. I think I'm missing a few of the younger ones."

"He's got children who are significantly younger than us?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Well, who out of these three are your grandchildren?" Mister Autumn asked. "I've heard you've only got two."

"Only?" Raegan snapped. "Well, of course with seven sons in the future you'll have millions of grandchildren!"

"Seven sons and two daughters," he replied proudly. "I couldn't have daughters for a long time. I had four male heirs from my first wife and three from my second. Then, from my third marriage I had a son and two daughters."

"How... nice," Raegan commented.

"This one isn't mine," Daniel interrupted her. "I have Jeff, whom you've seen several times when he was a child, and Ryan. He's Nathan's son."

"Ah, the bright one," Mister Autumn said sarcastically. "I didn't know Nathan had a son. With whom?"

"My parents got married in secret. My mother was Brooke Summer," I replied.

"A human?" the man laughed. "How scandalous! But I suppose some people like them."

"She was a hybrid, just like me," I snarled.

"For the law of the Senate, she had to be considered like a human who lived in our realm unless she could show she had inherited powers. And she never showed any sign of power, did she? You, on the other hand, are a hybrid. I agree. I'm happy to see you know your place."

"Branard, please," Daniel Winter said very drily. "He's my grandson after all."

"Oh yes, I guess he must be considered like a real grandson now that he's famous. Tell me, son, did your grandfather wait to tell you who you were only when you returned home as a hero?"

I didn't know how to reply to that. It was exactly what had happened.

"It was dangerous to let him know about his father! About his uncle!" my grandfather said, but he wasn't making much sense.

"Why? He didn't even know what he was doing. I guess we could say he and his friends found the Enemy Mirror and defeated Set only with luck."

I was aware that there must have been people who thought that way of me, but I wasn't ready to meet one in person.

"We used our combined powers to space-shift and we did not disrupt the time-continuum. We journeyed to another dimension and sealed it," Raegan said proudly. "How could that be only luck?"

Branard squinted at her. "Ah, but I know who you are. Raegan McIntosh, the mad woman."

Raegan's smile turned into a frown. Everywhere we went, her terrible reputation kept coming up. Of course, she excepted things to change since she saved the Aether realm...

"My mother was a Rivers," Raegan said. "Our families are allies."

Branard looked at Mister Winter. "Oh. You came to ask for something?" he asked. "Explains why you showed up just now. I wouldn't show up anywhere at all, especially not asking for favours, if I had just told the world my son is one of the most blood thirsty killers of all time."

"We are here to ask you a favour, yes, it's true," I said. My grandfather and my friends looked at me shocked, but honestly things couldn't get worse, could they?

"We are not one hundred percent sure the family curse is gone. It's not flowing in our veins, but I'm sure a cultured and clever man like you knows how curses are... it's not so easy to break them! We might use the help of a famous Enchanter like you."

I hated being a bootlicker more than anything. But I knew the best way to convince someone like Branard was flattery, and I wasn't getting out of that house without the Everto stone.

"I know what you're about to ask," Mister Autumn said. "But using the Everto stone is not an easy choice. It destroys the part of the soul the curse is attached to --- there's no telling if the person whose soul is partially destroyed will ever be the same again."

I exhaled. It was terrible to hear, but at least, we already knew about it.

"It is a huge risk," Jeff declared. "But we're willing to take it."

I looked at him, surprised. He looked confident. I decided to trust him. After all, I didn't have to do everything alone --- there were three of us.

"Now, what makes you think I'll give it to you easily?" Mister Autumn asked, and he reminded me of Luna. I almost missed her. I thought she wasn't so bad, after all. She was calculating and icy cold, but not evil.

"Do we have to... complete some sort of task for you?" Raegan asked. She was probably thinking about the head of the Circle as well.

"What a nice idea," Branard said. "I hadn't made up my mind yet, but I think I could really make you do something for me."

What could we do to help somebody like him? Murder someone in cold blood? Help him bury corpses of his enemies? Boss around the help?

"In this moment, though," he added, while the maid was folding the burgundy tablecloth. "I'd be content with you going away."

"Go away, huh?" I asked. "Is that the task? That, we can do."

"We'd be walking away without the stone, you idiot!" my grandfather hissed. Being called names made me flinch.

"I'm sure I'll find something you can do for me," Branard mused. "In the meantime, clean my garden."

"What?!" Raegan exclaimed.

"Jeff and Ryan can use the air to get rid of the leaves and whatever else is on the ground. I don't know if my garden is polluted. I'm too busy to check it out for myself."

"Are you kidding?" Raegan burst out. "We're not your..."

"Help" I finished the sentence for her.

"Well, speaking of help," the man said. "If you want my help, then you better do something for me."

We grunted, but we went out into the garden.

"I can't believe it," Raegan said while she was cleaning the water in a fountain.

"Hey, at least now you get to use your powers!"Jeff joked. Raegan didn't take it well. She created a wave and splashed Jeff with fountain water.

"You bastard!" Jeff exclaimed. But Raegan had restrained her powers --- the wave looked very weak and not like the ones she summoned in the ocean the other day.

"Guys, stop fighting," I said. "If we need to do some work to get the Everto stone, it's not so bad. I used to help my adoptive mother with the house chores."

"Well, I've never done this before," Raegan said matter of factly. "I didn't have a house where to live in."

She didn't say it as if she wanted to be pitied. I didn't quite know what to reply.

"Jake used to clean houses," Jeff joked. "And look what happened to him!"

"You're in a good mood, I gather," I said. Jeff never joked quite as much. 

"We're finally onto something," he said. "We might get the Everto stone after all. It's true, it's risky, but at least the next person won't have to die like my father did."

The smile immediately faded from his lips. I damned myself that I had to ask him about it.

"You know, some would rather die than have their sould partially destroyed," I muttered. It certainly applied to me.

"And do you really think Mister Autumn will give us the stone simply after having cleaned his garden? That's too perfect to be true," Jeff grunted.

"That's reality, sometimes," I offered.

"I can't do it anymore. I'm quitting," Raegan said all of a sudden. 

"What's the issue?" I asked.

"Tell him the truth," Jeff advised her. "It's not as shameful as you think it is."

Raegan only snorted, but then she spoke up. "Do you remember on KI, when Samuel used his magical staff against me and said my powers would be weakened? In the months after the quest, I never noticed anything, but I think I overworked myself. Now they're slowly getting weaker and I cannot use them as much. I can barely manipulate the water."

I was appalled. Jeff and Raegan cared more about their powers than almost everyone I knew. Jeff, too, had returned with repercussions from the quest --- he now limped, and sometimes used a cane. But I knew the matter of having one powers' weakened seemed much worse to the two of them.

In that moment, the woman who let us in the first time made her way towards us again.

"Mr Autumn wants to see you again. Only one of you --- Ryan Barnes."

"Well, just my luck," I told my friends.

"You just get on people's nerves, that's all," Jeff said. "What? Don't look at me like that! You don't get on my nerves, I swear."

I followed the woman into the house.

"So, what's your name?" I asked her.

She blushed. "We're not supposed to make small talk."

"Why not?" I arched my eyebrows.

"I'm only the help" she said sheepishly. I didn't like the way Branard Autumn was probably the one who had convinced her that she had no worth. I thought if I didn't need the Everto stone so badly, I would have talked to him about it.

"I've... I've heard about you," she said, then. "You can do black magic."

"We all can," I replied uneasily.

"You seemed to be drawn to it, from what I heard."

"We're not supposed to make small talk," I sighed uneasily. A bit of a low blow, I know, but I couldn't stand to hear those things a minute longer.

"Where is lady Autumn?" I asked then. "The third wife, I mean."

The woman blushed. "She's not here right now," she mumbled. "But we should hurry. The master... I mean, Mr Autumn, really wants to see you."

I couldn't help but feel that she wasn't supposed to act like that. 

When I entered the house, I found out Branard II in the hall. Thankfully. I wouldn't have been able to stand if he was still in the living room.

"Are you ready?" he asked me.

"We're not used to doing things alone," I decided to be truthful. "We always work as a team."

"That's why I decided to talk to you alone," he smiled coldly. "The three of you need to take different paths sometimes. You're the... most interesting one. A mysterious hybrid who was raised in the human realm, goes back to the Aether realm at the age of sixteen and saves the world. Don't you think your story is a little suspicious?"

"I wouldn't know," I gulped. My story was certainly suspicious --- it was the Awakened who had contacted me to find the Enemy Mirror after Samuel had seen me in the vision. I wasn't going to tell him that.

Besides, it would have made Raegan, Jeff, Edgar and I seem less brave and smart than we had been, and I wasn't having none of that.

"I had the help of two friends," I said. "And of my bonded warrior Edgar."

"Well, let's see how you act when you have no help."

When I flinched, he laughed. His laughter could chill my bones. "Don't worry. I'm not threatening you. The job I'd ask you to do is very simple."

"What it is?"

"I guess you could say it's an accountant job."

I opened my eyes wide. "But I'm no good at Maths like... at all! Why would you make me do that? I'd rather fight."

"Sir," he said.

"Okay, I'd rather fight, but I'll do your accountant job for you, sir," I amended.

He led me to a room. It seemed to be his studio, by the look of it. There were trophies and maps of the world with some routes charted --- I guessed they were places he had visited. There was a banner of the Autumn family, red with a crown on it. It struck me as peculiar. I had never seen a descendant of the Ancient Families as proud as Branard was.

He let me sit at his table and gave me what looked like a dossier about his activities.

"Am I supposed to know about it?" I asked. I really couldn't help the stupid questions. I was afraid it would turn into one of those situations where people show you something you're not supposed to see, and then they kill you.

"None of this is a secret," he replied. "There are mostly information on how I got rich."

"And what do I have to do?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to show you how relevant I am and why you shouldn't cross me. But do something else for me, too. Open that box in the corner." He pointed at an antique mahogany treasury. "If you come back alive, you passed the test."

I was about to complain that I didn't deserve to be threatened, then I realised that when I was done with this job he would have given me the Everto stone. I highly doubted he would keep in the house a box that destroyed whomever looked into it, so things could be worse. Thinking of the dossier, I wondered if I should have used my wits to try and make an alliance.

But it was no use. Mr Autumn was the kind of rich person I couldn't help but detest. He had everything he wanted and more. But what he had in money, he lacked in his soul. It was apparent in the way he treated his son and his maid.

I opened the treasury, and gazing back at me there was... well, it's not like I knew what it was. It was similar as the Void, the space Aeons like Vitaly created. But squinting closer, the dots that formed it seemed to be little eyes, looking at me.

And then I heard a voice in my head, and it seemed to say, God.

"God?" I asked. "Like... like the creator of the universes? Like the Christian God?"

No, the eyes replied. A different kind of God. This box doesn't always show me, but you needed to see me. But you have many trials to go through and our paths will not meet anytime soon.

"What do you mean? Will our paths meet in the future? Can you tell what's going to happen? Can you see further in time...?"

I am time.

That said, the lid closed on itself. I had the terrible sensation that Branard Autumn II had probably drugged me, and decided not to tell anyone what I'd seen when I was out. In fact, time seemed to have passed judging from the windows, and I had trouble breathing. My heart was skipping fast and beating loudly.

I found my footing, and returned to Mister Autumn.

"Good boy," he said. I almost expected him to pat on my head, so I moved away. "That was an easy job, but I hope it taught you patience and respect."

I did my best not to flinch again. From his words, I gathered he'd really used a substance on me.

"However," he added, snickering. "It was not enough to give you the Stone. The respect it taught you was meant to make you stay away from my house forever. Now go. You are not welcome."

I cursed under my breath. When I went back to the others and explained, they didn't look too happy. I imagined my grandfather would find a way to blame me, but he didn't.

Instead, he gave me back my cellphone. I had given him mine before I entered the house alone, so that Branard II wouldn't see that I kept one with me at all times.

"It kept ringing," my grandfather said sourly. "It was your adoptive parents."

"Again?" I couldn't believe they would want to hear from me three days after I met up with them. They had never cared that much.

"They left a message," Jeff said. "They want to see you. It sounds like they really care about you, now."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" I asked. Nobody was smiling.

"Not really," Raegan finally admitted. "They've been saying that they want you to come home."