Stealth didn’t come naturally to Thalia Mercer. Her Onslaught essence informed not just her power set but her inclinations in life, although her life had been strange for a long time. She hadn’t seen her daughter in years. Or, more precisely, Cassandra hadn’t seen her. Thalia watched from the shadowy side of a tall tree as Cassandra and her team walked across the Adventure Society campus in the direction of the trade hall.“It must be hard,” a voice behind her said.It was not easy to sneak up on a gold ranker, and Thalia reacted on instinct, whirling around and lunging with her fist as it erupted with power. The strike contained the force and magic to flatten a building, yet it was lightly caught in a man’s palm. All that power vanished in an instant, as if it had never been, leaving Thalia staring at the man who now gripped her fist in his hand.He had the metallic hair and matching eyes of a celestine, both a dark copper that gleamed in the sunlight. He loomed over her, almost seven feet tall, but slender and lean rather than bulky and imposing. His clothes were brown and muted red. She looked around, but no one seemed to have noticed her violent outburst.“To be so close,” he continued, “yet forcing yourself to stay away. You are wise to maintain a distance from your daughter. Your presence would only complicate a life that is going very well for her. A mother’s kindness is not always easy, is it? Not with your daughter, and certainly not with your son. Do you think of him that way? As your son? I can’t imagine you would go to the lengths you have if you didn’t. Or perhaps you honour what little of your son remains in that creature, however transformed.”He let go of her hand, but she made no further attack. Even if this had been the place for it, which it wasn’t, his power obviously eclipsed hers. That attack would have shaken anyone at gold rank, yet his aura showed him to be bronze. To carry off such a deception in the heart (...)