This morning before she left, Aiden had asked Lexie if she'd deduced what the intent in the poem was, and what card the poem had been used to create.

Lexie told him no. She needed more time and possibly more information, and she tried to get as much out of him as possible. But he refused to tell her more. He informed her she didn't need it.

Aiden simply smiled and told her, quite annoyingly, that she would figure it out once the time was right.

For some reason, that was the first thing that popped into her head now, as she stared at the [Hero].

Lexie's heart was racing. She felt caught, trapped even though he was only giving a friendly smile.

"Hey," he said. "Remember me?"

Lexie fought to hide her apprehension as she attempted to smile back. "Not really." That's right. Feign ignorance. After all, there was so much going on at that party that it was plausible that she hadn't noticed him.

"I'm Monty," he said, holding out his hand for a handshake. She couldn't find a plausible reason not to take his hand so she did. "We met at a party, with your friend Nunya."

Lexie frowned. "Who?"

He chuckled. "Never mind. Inside joke. Anyway, you're Lexie right?"

"Yeah." How did he know that? She never told him her name. Time to get away. "I have to go. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

As she turned away, he said, "Oh no, don't be weirded out. I'm not a creep."

That was exactly what a creep would say.

But Lexie for whatever reason felt obliged to hear him out, and she turned around to meet his bashful look.

"Yeah, um..." he said. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For what happened."

Why is he apologizing? We're the ones who broke into his party.

"Xena told me that there hadn't been a healer in your town for months. And then I saw on the news that they discovered an underground dungeon there and that was what was causing all the mayhem. And we all just ignored it the whole time." He shook his head as though heavily disappointed with himself. "I'm sorry. Us [Heroes] really dropped the ball on you guys, huh?"

Lexie cocked her head trying to figure him out. Was he being genuine or was this whole thing an act? It looked genuine. He wasn't speaking in a flippant 'well it happens' way, nor did he have exaggerated sadness. His tone was matter-of-factness mixed in with self-deprecation.

But why was he blaming himself? He'd had nothing to do with the dungeon, unless he'd somehow known about it and ignored it. But she wasn't reading enough guilt on his face for that to be the case. More so than guilt, his expression was disappointed, like he'd failed a test.

And suddenly she remembered a similar look on Theo Firebringer's face after he'd failed to capture Mouse alive.

Were all heroes like this, or just the ones she met? They all seemed to carry this huge self-sacrificing burden, like nothing they did was good enough and that they needed to be able to save everyone, even the bad guys.

Well, except for Luther Firebringer. Her memory of him was fuzzy and perhaps she was being too judgmental over that one tense conversation he'd had with Max, but he didn't seem like the bleeding heart type.

"It's okay," Lexie said. "Everything worked out. Oh, and a healer came and fixed the problem so you don't have to feel bad about that too."

"You mean the [Saintess]?"

Lexie's eyes flared in shock. "You know her?"

"She's a friend of mine," he admitted. "That's actually how I know your name. I should have led with that. She's been keeping in contact with your friend Xena who tends to talk about you a lot."

Xena does? Aw.

That thought was followed almost immediately by another startling one.

"Wait, are you the one who sent the [Saintess] to us?" Lexie suddenly remembered the [Saintess]' words, about how a friend called in a favor because two little girls needed help. Was he that friend?

From his half smile, it seemed that he was.

"Er yeah. But I wouldn't put that on me. Dee wanted to help. I just told her about you."

Lexie blinked. "That's nice of you. Thank you."

Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all. Now she felt bad for judging him so harshly based on how they met. Aiden was right. She'd let Uncle Max's perception of [Heroes] give her an automatic prejudice against them, where they were all guilty of neglect until proven innocent. But things were probably more complicated than she'd initially thought and there was probably vast range of [Heroes] and their specific approach towards their job. Monty did not seem like he was on the Luther Firebringer end.

Lexie relaxed.

"No problem." Monty tucked his hands in his pocket, glancing around. "Did you come alone? I mean the city isn't exactly safe to travel solo at your age."

Lexie shook her head. "No. I came with my Uncle Max. and my friends. They're in there, but I came out to get some food for all of us."

"Oh nice. Your dad didn't come?"

She shook her head. "He doesn't like stuff like this." Did he know her dad? She would need to ask Aiden.

"Too busy?" Monty quipped and then reached over, seemingly to pluck something off her shoulder.

"No he's…" Lexie felt something weird. She didn't know what it was but she continued talking. "He doesn't really like being around large groups of people. He's an ex-[Villain] and people stare and it makes him uncomfortable."

"Oh really?" he said. "Is he avoiding anyone in particular?"

Lexie opened her mouth to answer and then was distracted by the feeling of weirdness again. She couldn't put her finger on it at first, and then she realized what it was. She was oddly comfortable. It was strange considering how uncomfortable she'd been a few seconds ago. What was going on with her?

When she concentrated, she felt the pathways in her throat subtly loosening, the ones in her shoulders shifting to relax her muscles. It wasn't a strongly invasive effect, almost imperceptible. But now that she felt it, she was able to shift her pathways back in place and blinked up at him.

"What are you doing?"

His eyes flashed in surprise that he quickly shielded. "What do you mean?"

"You're doing something to me, aren't you?" Even as she said it, Lexie still wasn't feeling as alarmed as she should be. She still felt very unnaturally relaxed. Which meant he was still doing it.

His surprise expanded but before he could answer, Max's voice reached them, threateningly soft and deceptively casual:

"I'm going to give you a chance since we're in public."

Lexie turned to find her Uncle Max with his eye boring into Monty's face and a hand resting on his hip, exposing his holster.

"You either take your dirty paw off my goddaughter's shoulder, or I'm going to shoot that hand straight to hell."

Monty immediately ripped his hand back. "Sorry, I just….I know her. We were just talking. "

"Uh-huh." Max wasn't buying it. "That's what perverts like you always say."

Uncle Max looked like he wanted to fight Monty and apprehension filled the [Hero's] face. He must not have been a physical type, plus he was shorter and slimmer than Uncle Max.

He held up his hand. "Sorry. I guess I'll see you around, Lexie." He quickly backed away and then broke into a light jog.

As he left, Lexie felt her pathways shift back completely into place. Good. Relief swam through her. She was finally back to herself.

But then her delayed anxiety shot through the roof, shivers running down her spine. That was creepy. That man had done something to her, and it was the most bizarre thing she'd ever felt. It wasn't mind control. He wasn't taking over her body and turning her into a zombie, which was how she'd assumed mind control worked. She'd still had enough presence of mind to leave that conversation whenever she wanted to.

The only thing was that she didn't want to.

He put her so at ease that she'd stood there talking to him, despite clearly not wanting to do that prior.

And even when she knew something was up, she didn't leave, not because he was physically restraining her, but because she didn't want to leave him.

And it was so subtle that, had she not spent months training her pathways, she would not have even noticed.

Creepy.

"You okay?" Uncle Max asked.

She swallowed and nodded. "Yeah. I think so."

Monty fought the uncomfortable embarrassment flushing through him as he glanced around for Dearra.

It was a rare day off for her and she'd wanted to spend it watching today's fight and meeting a friend who worked as the circuit healer. That was the only reason why he was here.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Although it was more than a strange coincidence that he'd run into The Archmage's daughter while he was at it.

Lexie Sparrowfoot was a tiny girl who appeared much younger than her age until you looked into her eyes. Her eyes held a sharpness beyond her years. She was very mature and held this quiet fierceness especially when she'd explicitly asked what he was doing to her.

Monty had been taken aback. In all his years of telepathic spellcasting, he'd only been caught out a handful of times, and all of those were in his early years before he refined his technique and learned to cast silently. Since his skill worked with pathways rather than restraining the mind, it was a much subtler specialty but the beauty of it was that most people couldn't tell when he was influencing their emotions.

But the girl had instantly caught him. You're doing something to me, aren't you? She'd noticed, even though her pathways offered little resistance to him. How did she know? Did she detect it? Or did she just guess?

Probably the latter. There were fully trained S-Ranked mages who had never been able to detect Monty's magic, much less a pre-awakened girl. No matter who her father was, she would have to be a ten-year-old pathway expert to detect what he was doing. Monty himself had been raised on pathway manipulation from when he was a child, and it wasn't until he was in his late teens that he truly got the hang of it. So there was zero chance that Lexie Sparrowfoot did.

She was probably just extra sensitive because she didn't trust him. And he'd proved her right because of what he did. He shouldn't have done it. He'd felt a little sick with himself after, but as always, he justified it by telling himself that he hadn't looked into her mind, just relaxed her nerves a little so she would talk to him.

It was a necessary evil because despite whatever the association believed, he still wasn't comfortable with the thought of Aiden Sparrowfoot being free. The man terrified him and the fact that these underground dungeons happened to occur in the place where he was living…

No, something was up. And Vacek had assigned Monty, and others, to find out exactly what.

The association president had done it right after he'd put Luther Firebringer on special administrative leave because he'd deliberately disobeyed orders and hadn't properly monitored the situation earlier.

Monty shuddered when he thought about what Luther was likely going through right now. Probably tons of paperwork. He would feel sorry for the [Hero] had Luther been a better person.

But Monty couldn't claim the high moral ground either, seeing as how he'd just interrogated a little girl and got called a pervert by her guardian.

And he couldn't even blame the man, because Monty was sure he'd seemed like a pervert from the outside looking in.

All that because he needed to figure out the man who was quickly becoming his obsession.

Aiden Sparrowfoot. Monty sighed. Who exactly are you? Friend or foe? Misunderstood grieving [hero] or the worst [villain] the world has ever seen?

"Hey!" Someone called out and Monty turned around to find Dee walking towards him.

He waved at her. "Hey. What took you so long?"

"You wouldn't believe the line for the bathroom." She cocked her head at him, ever perceptive. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah." He gave her a tight-lipped smile, trying to hide the embarrassment he still felt. "Never better."

Lexie tried to put the [Hero] out of her mind as she settled in to watch the other two matches that day. These were exhibition matches to introduce a few new [Heroes] to the audience, but both of them felt like a letdown following the masterpiece that was Conrad Grace vs Top Dog.

The first one was a match that featured a campy, probable theatre kid who said things "Victory will be mine!" and "Justice shall prevail!".

It was clear from his caped costume and one-liners that he was really someone who wanted to be [Hero] but couldn't cut it for whatever reason. And his opponent, a surly emo-swordsman, couldn't decide whether to address the crowd or pretend they didn't exist, so he awkwardly waved at intervals. The fight was entertaining at first but between the theatre kid's grandiose posturing, and his opponent's confused stares, the crowd eventually started to throw popcorn at the two, booing their disinterest.

Lexie, Dewie, and Xena left before the second fight so they could catch their train back. On the way, Lexie asked Xena about her conversations with the Saintess.

"Yeah, we've been talking. Mostly about her job," Xena said. "If I ever do get magic, I'd want to train as a healer. Nothing else."

"You know you have to risk your life to do that right?" Lexie asked. "And it's a ton of damage to your pathways. And you'll die early."

"I know," Xena said simply and her tone of voice said she didn't want to argue about it.

Neither did Lexie even though she was worried that Xena was making a rash decision here. Then again, she was a kid. She would probably change her mind when she grew up.

And even if she didn't, the odds of her becoming a Healer were slim. Healers tended to have high affinity and capacity, with special pathways that were extra flexible. And they had to train like crazy too. Plus, most healers were pre-affixed for that very reason.

So Lexie chose not to worry about it right now, and simply spent time looking up Monty the [Hero].

His profile listed him as a telepathic spellcaster.

Hang on. Was he the one her dad was talking about? The one he'd looked so annoyed by?

Had Monty tried his weird emotion-control thing on him? If so she could see why her Dad hated him.

Beyond that, the NET didn't really have a ton of information about how his skill worked. Even though the words 'telepathic spellcaster' should seem pretty straightforward, it didn't give away the specifics of his powers, because he certainly hadn't cast a spell that Lexie could hear. She had also felt it in her pathways, not in her mind. And, now that she thought about it, his skill had worked better once he'd touched her shoulder.

So what was it exactly?

There were several theories online about it but there was nothing concrete. No one else had the skill, or at least no one popular enough for the NET to know.

Monty was also currently one of the top ten most popular [Heroes] in the entire District so there was that. Still, all the information told Lexie was that she had to stay away from him and learn how to guard against his skill.

After getting the basic information, Lexie closed out her SI and stared out the window. The rhythmic motion of the train slowly lulled her to sleep.

The sun was long gone by the time they got home and the kids decided to sleep over at Lexie's home rather than go back to their respective houses.

Of course, given that they'd napped for a long time on the train, they were full of energy that night and decided to reenact the final match.

"Oh come on, just one more time." Lexie pleaded with Xena. "No one does it as well as you."

"Not on your life," Xena said, but she was smiling.

"Come on, please. And here, wear the towel-cape while you do it."

"No! I'm not going to wear a silly cape and prance around just for your amusement."

"I'll give you twenty credits if you do it."

"You can offer me a hundred credits and I wouldn't do it."

As it turned out two minutes later, her price was actually a hundred and two credits.

"Stop!" Xena declared her towel-cape brandishing around her shoulders. "In the name of justice. The Justice which shall prevail!"

She looked and sounded so much like the caped fighter earlier, that Lexie and Dewie fell over each other cackling. The laughing got worse when Xena ran and attempted to bounce off the wall, flapping the cape up and down like a bird.

"Begone evildoer! And never return."

"Oh stop!" Lexie wheezed, holding her stomach. "It hurts!"

"I hate you guys so much," Xena said, but again she was laughing too.

A knock on the door interrupted and Aiden walked in with a tray of cookies. He beamed at them. "I made Snickerdoodles. You kids want to try some?"

"Yup. Thanks, Dad."

"Thanks, Mr. Sparrowfoot," Xena and Dewie parroted.

"You're very welcome, kids."

Aiden laid down the tray and left, and then they all ran for the food. As they munched, Xena turned to Lexie.

"Pay up Mrs. Moneybucks."

"Lexie'll give you another thirty credits if you eat in character," Dewie suggested.

"Hey, you can't just make her do stuff with my money," Lexie said then smiled evilly. "But I will give you thirty credits if you do it."

After about two or ten more of that, the kids finally succumbed to sleep. Well, Dewie and Xena did, sprawled out over Lexie' bed. But Lexie was still awake.

She opened up her system screen and finally searched for her mother's fighting name.

She'd been avoiding it before now because she didn't know what she would find. She didn't know what emotions it would trigger in her and curiosity warred with self-preservation.

But tonight, she finally gave in and searched her up on Video Alley. The top video was Jane Phoenix versus Mr. Amazing.

And Lexie saw her mother.

The woman looked like her. She had black hair and bright brown eyes like Lexie's. She was petite too–which didn't bode well for Lexie's hopes of a growth spurt–but you wouldn't know it from the way she charged into battle. Mr. Amazing swung at her, but she quickly ducked under his arms, delivering subtle nicks all around his body with a hidden blunt dagger. Her style seemed very similar to Bunny's–death by a thousand little cuts. She employed a sort of athletic dancing cadence as she swung around him like a bird. And she added a lot of flair to it too, winking at the camera whenever it was on her and working the crowd.

Again, just like Dust Bunny.

Lexie wondered if Bunny had learned her fighting style from her mother. At the end of a match, Jane Phoenix aimed what looked like a BB gun at Mr. Amazing's forehead and knocked him out with it.

Her mother had a lot of fans in the comments, especially fanboys, who wanted her to do various disturbing things to them. Lexie quickly stopped reading the comments, going back to the image of her grinning mother that ended the video.

She was real.

It was weird that putting a face to the name was what finally made it click to Lexie. Lara Sparrowfoot wasn't just a vague memory. She wasn't just the source of Aiden's trauma. She was a real person. A person who looked like me. A person that Aiden loved so much that he was willing to commit interplanetary crimes for her. A woman with so much vibrance she seemed to glow and now she's dead.

As Lexie rewatched the video of her mother fighting off-brand Superman, something subtle shifted in her chest, but she clicked out of the screen before she could figure it out. That was enough of that. She didn't need to think about her fake mother and her death. It was bad enough that she'd let herself get attached to Aiden and Max and Xena and Dewie and all the other people she'd met in this world.

Ultimately, she couldn't forget her goal. And it would hurt like a bitch when she had to leave.

Her sleep was ruined, so she got out of bed and padded downstairs. She found her father in the kitchen with a cup of Muan tea, staring in the distance. His head swung toward her when she got close.

"Hey honey bee," he said. "Can't sleep?"

She shook her head and hoisted herself into the seat beside him.

"I think I finally figured out which card that poem was linked to."

"Oh?" He brought the mug to his lips as he eyed her curiously.

"It's the <Out of Sight> card, isn't it?"

He paused and then a wide smile spread across his lips. "How could you tell?"

"I don't really know, to be honest. It was just something that happened today that made me think of it." When Monty had had his hand on her, the poem had popped into her head for some reason. And the card she felt like she needed at that time was the <Out of Sight> card. She wanted to no longer be seen by him. She felt frightened, like her soul was too big to hide from him, her heart racing and dancing to escape.

Still, there was no logical reason for her assumption. It couldn't necessarily be deduced from direct or even literary translation of the text, so she expected it to be wrong.

"You're correct," Aiden said.

"Really?" she cocked her head. "But I can't even properly explain why I felt what I felt."

"And that's kind of the point," he said. "Right now, you're not going to be able to properly explain it because you're not thinking like a human. You're thinking like a Fae. A lot of the Fae communication is about perception rather than anything verbal but humans find it difficult to articulate that. At this stage, think of intent as something you know without having to think about it. It's something that can often be hard to translate into human words, but you're deeply convinced of. It's a way you perceive a situation. And learning Fae culture and language will help, because the more you think like a Fae, the better you understand the concept of intent."

"So I won't be able to just put myself in a similar situation and have an 'aha' moment for the next card?

"No. It's not replicable in that sense. It doesn't work like that."

Lexie sighed. "I'm finally understanding how hard this is going to be."

"Yup. I told you." He winked at her. "But don't worry. You'll get the hang of it. You're the daughter of a generational genius after all."

And as though the system wanted to give her some kind of reward or encouragement, it blinked in the corner of her vision.

SYSTCALC...

+1 Perception.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.