"What do you mean all the familiars died? It's just one child, Azul." Gigas' irritation was clear in his voice. Though it was squeaky and childlike, there was a certain timbre to it that gave it a somewhat demonic and dark feel.

"You should have seen his factor. It was terrifying to say the least. If that danzian child knew any better he would have run instead of trying to save the dianian." Azul replied, she sat on a luxurious maroon chair. She and the demon Gigas were currently in her room situated in Jija's Royal Castle.

"What made it so terrifying? To me it looked just like an ordinary blot of corruption. I don't have a witch's eyes, so pray tell, what got you so terrified that you immediately cut connection with the familiars you were supposed to use to assassinate the child?" Gigas asked, his tone was sharp and his face was twitching with irritation. "We were so close to claiming the seed, Azul."

"I know. But patience, Gigas. The reason why I let the assassins die is because his Witch Factor was terrifying. A grand ball mocking the prince of a fallen ancestry. Do you know what that means? He was a toddle away from insanity. If I went through with the assassination attempt then I would have most likely sustained major injuries via the conduit that linked me and the familiars together. The corrupted mana in that area was so dense and thick that normal humans would suffocate." Azul calmly said as she manipulated a glass ball in her palms, when she finished, she whispered to it secret enchantments.

"Terrifying? You? Scared? Don't make me laugh." Gigas snarkily said.

"It's true. I'm sure that the danzian child that tried saving him was just ignorant. Even just remembering how those bony appendages moved as he stitched is enough to give me nightmares." Azul sighed and put the glass ball down on a beautiful vanity.

"Tsk. Fine, I believe you. We can't let him grow too much, Azul, if he does then there's a large chance he'll have a bullshit power lever like his predecessors." Gigas retreated into the shadows, and disappeared.

"..." Azul kept quiet, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes that looked like the last few days of autumn—a mix of deep oranges, reds, and browns that signified the coming winter—shone in the candle light. Confirming that the demon was gone, she took a deep breath and sighed.

"Clailip… so that's his name… Diancias never do change, always as cruel as ever. Did his parents find out about his connection to Lilianna and named him so…?" Azul summoned a ball of water in her hands, it was a deep and cold melancholic blue. "My heart weeps for him. But it must be done. I'll let him live for a few more years, make him experience the joys of life for a while." Azul started removing her makeup, with one swipe of the water a patch of pale, flawless, chalk-like skin was washed off.

"Sacrificial lamb… how cruel. I never took the Unbridled Queen of the Seas to be the type to give children such names." She hummed.

"Poor child, deceived with promises of love, not knowing how hated he truly is. Exactly how I was, and how Mother was too…" Azul stopped and shed a tear for Clailip, "Diancias…"

"Still, the sun forces thee to toil away, but rises the moon and you shall rest. Once I have the seed then he shall slumber forevermore, oblivious of the hate, and oblivious of his presumed fate. It's the only kindness I can give to the wretched." She stood up and changed into her sleepwear, a black nightgown woven with the finest silk.

She walked on over to the window, and gazed at the moon, her toes tipped as she tried to get closer to the celestial body.

"Mother… Look at your little girl go… soon enough I'll make sure that no one will ever be able to try to bring the islands down. I just need that seed… I'll fulfill your wishes, if it's the last thing I do."

"Tres Calamitas. Three extremely important people in contemporary Western Isles history.

The Dragon, the Witch of Extinction, Cadence Brutevark.

The Tyrant, the Witch of Storge, Christina Dal Brackenridge

And The Equalizer, my master's older sibling, the Daydreamer of the Deep, Vale Corvick.

These three people currently are the powerhouses of the Western Isles, they serve as both their greatest weapons and greatest defenders. They also keep peace within the continent.

Here in the East, the current generation of your protectors and most powerful people are retired, currently a crowning and scouting process is going on. But I do know that traditionally there is only one crowned and five stand-ins. They don't have an official title as far as I know. Though, I do know one of the past generation's members personally. The Black Fortress, before she retired, I got to see how powerful she was when she stopped Gaela's war with Jijia with a single array." Collin babbled as Clailip half-heartedly listened.

They walked the forested path, the topography of the Eastern Isles was unique because of its overly-lush greenery. It was blessed with so much vegetation of all kinds, even deserts are full of plants.

Collin glanced at Clailip, he was unusually quiet and behaved, quite unlike the Clailip that he knew. The little boy was staring into a far-off distance as they walked, he asked a few questions here and there and kept the conversation between Collin and him going, but other than that he made no other sound.

"If you want I could take you to her." Collin smiled at the boy, who just gave him a quiet 'sure' in return.

Collin turned to look at the spirits, and saw that they were worried. He sighed and told them that this was normal behaviour for a child who just lost something they valued. He was worried about Clailip too, he didn't know what his germination skill was, he just hoped that he wouldn't hatch into a witch while he was this young. Witches weren't accepted anywhere, unless they've proven themselves to be benevolent, they would always be seen as aggressive monsters that only crave destruction.

Of course this wasn't the truth, but ever since the Great Burning of 150 years ago, the people—humans specifically—couldn't take any chances.

Clailip stitched together undergarments, a shirt, and shorts for him to wear, after witching-out, he found that his clothes were tattered and were totally unfit for further wearing. So with sheets of mana, he started making proper clothing.

'Spell for the river dance thing Mommy does, spell for ice needles, and spell for wind-based speed enhancements.' Clailip thought as he stitched. His magic wasn't that strong yet, sure it was at a decent-looking level, but the level for basic magic were more or less just indicators of how far one is to their first evolution.

"Are you sure your hands are okay?" Alon piped up, staring at Clailip's terrible wounded fingers. Her face was a mixture of worry, and disapproval of Clailip's current activity.

"Mhm." Clailip continued.

"'Mhm'? Is that it? Aren't you gonna say anything else?" Lawod asked, as he was walking behind the little boy. His form seemed to have been distorted from the incident yesterday.

"I don't know what else to say. Sorry." Clailip answered.

"Why are you apologizing?" Simoy spoke this time.

"I don't know." Clailip answered once again, his tone was flat and without a single speck of care.

"Clailip's still upset about his… you know, beloved companions. It would be best if you stopped bothering him for a while." Aery said from beside Clailip.

"No, it's okay. Death is a thing and it happens all the time. I'm okay now, they're not coming back." Clailip's voice wavered but was still mostly flat as he finished making briefs. "It's not like I can get them back by crying anyway." Clailip muttered.

"Plus, they may not be here in body and spirit. But Niyebe is here and they're made up of Nawa and Kabao, that's good enough." Clailip's eyes shifted towards a crystalline butterfly flying beside his head, fluttering and raining down glittering powdered snow from its wings. "I like to think Niyebe's their parting gift for me."

Clailip then continued stitching, three metres of fabric floating around his body and trailing behind him. He stitched and sewed, making a simple button-up white shirt for himself. The white fabric was made up of a combination of wind mana, while the buttons were crystallized water using ice magic. Thinking that this wasn't enough he planned to make a light-blue vest for himself to contain the water spells.

For his shorts, he planned to make a light-blue one to complement his vest. 'It would be a waste to not attach a spell to the shorts, so I guess I'll just make it so that the water dance thing could be used by my leg movements too.' He thought. He had enough mana to make it happen, so why not?

'Mana huh… I guess it IS draining pretty fast.' Clailip hummed, feeling the mana inside him flow out like a running faucet. '100 mana a second as I stitch… and that's with my mana regeneration on, if it was off it would consume at the very least a thousand points of mana a second. More realistically it's probably eating up 3,000 points per second.' Divorakks were extremely close to mana and magic itself, so they could have a feel of how much mana they were currently using up. But in exchange their physical senses are duller than the average human.

'It's a good thing I have lots of mana stockpiled.' Clailip thought, as he finished up stitching his white shirt. 'The sewing skill really makes things a lot faster'.

He hummed as he stitched, not minding the ache of his damaged fingers.

'At least I can feel semi-normally now. Harmless Sweetie is on a break right now. God, I really do hope it stays that way for a while, I can't keep being such an advocate of toxic positivity.' His thoughts are the product of his realization that Harmless Sweetie was messing with how he felt emotions, he didn't understand then why he was so numb when he saw how destroyed his village was. But now he knew that he wasn't the culprit, his skill was.

"Niyebe, stop snuggling me. You're cold." Clailip whined as he pushed away the icy butterfly that kept brushing itself on the boy's cherubic cheeks.

"Thanks." He muttered when he saw the butterfly flutter away to bother Glacies instead. 'He's awfully quiet too…' Clailip let his thoughts wander as he kept sewing together a vest for himself.

After an hour, he finally finished the vest and shorts. The vest was extremely tricky to make, he didn't know how they worked, he had a very strong dislike of vests when he was still Gabrielle. So he didn't really know how to stitch one together and just experimented until he successfully pieced one together.

He excused himself to get changed, the group stopped for a bit and waited for Clailip.

A few minutes go by and the boy was done, he threw away his tattered clothes and washed his body with water magic, then dried himself off with gusts of wind. He was completely clean and with his new outfit, he looked completely brand new. The white shirt and light blue vest went together very well and his shorts were very pleasing too. The best part was that his clothing wasn't only for fashion, with them, he can perform spells and defend himself.

"You look suspiciously like an otherworlder…" Collin pointed out, it was true, Clailip's fashion sense wasn't really something that could be found everywhere on Magamundo. So he could definitely be picked out in a crowd easily and identified as an otherworlder as they were mostly the only people that wore the type of things that Clailip thought was a 'good outfit'. "No, you're a very peculiar kid. It's probably just you really. I don't think otherworlders are rampant here in the East, much less the Forest of Illusions."

Clailip let out a heavy sigh, he was interested in the term 'otherworlders' that flew out of Collin's mouth. But he kept his mouth shut as he was too nervous that he'll be found out as someone that was reincarnated into this world. He didn't want that, he would be seen as an adult then, and as much as he hates to admit it, he wants to be spoiled like a child for as long as possible.

Maybe that's just him missing the warmth of his parent's touch, or maybe it was his regressed mental age. Maybe it's both. Either way, Gabrielle was never allowed to be a child back on earth, Clailip wanted to stay as one and relish the feeling before he grows into an adult.

Though the adult part of Clailip definitely did not want to admit this, it was too embarrassing. Even though logically it would make sense as he did have a complete reset. He only had his semi-hazy past life memories and knowledge after all.

Knowledge does not equal wisdom and maturity, neither do memories. 

"Other...worlders?" Clailip asked, he was finally free from his petrification and finally asked what piqued his curiousity in the first place.

"Oh, yes, you're a sheltered child and this is the East after all." Collin's tone was belittling and rather insulting.

"Didn't you grow up here too? You lived in a Gaelan orphanage... You told me that last night…" Clailip said quietly, but loud enough that Collin could hear.

"Well, yes. But I grew up in the west. I was transferred here when I was already thirteen. I've only lived here for five years. I escaped the orphanage and adventured for a living here in the East then rode my way back to the West. It's just a coincidence really, I traveled here to the east with my Master to collect samples from the ongoing magical phenomenon in Blackfrost Mountain. Then the Guild that I am registered in suddenly contacted me about this whole job." Collin explained his history, "Don't worry, my tone of speech may sound belittling but really that's just a result of me catching some of my master's audacity. I didn't mean to offend you. The East is a wonderful place, it is full of elemental mana."

"Oh… sorry I thought you were saying… nevermind." Clailip shut his mouth, and just prepared to listen to Collin explain about otherworlders, when numerous shouting caught both of their attentions.