Varian's done some pretty terrible things thanks to Deerington's workings. But he's also done...really bad things of his own volition. As Luca's about to learn. Varian exhales, rubbing his arm subconsciously, telling himself it's better Luca learn this way than Trench forcing it out for him to see.

"Okay, so you've seen her hair? Obviously, you have it's...right there. It's powered by a magical artefact, called the sundrop," fun magical lesson there. "Anyway, back when we were getting to know each other, these black rocks started appearing in my village. They...reacted to her. It was like they were growing in search of her."

That's exactly what they were doing, even if he didn't know it at the time.

"I wanted to do something to help. They were destroying my home. Dad forbade me from doing it, but...hah, I think you can guess I didn't take to that all that well."