Tear Jerker / How To Tame Your Demon Beast

• Hunter first seeing how pitiful the demon beast's prison is. On a second reading, when you know what the beast actually is and why Belos is keeping it locked down under the castle, it becomes even more tragic.
• Belos walking upon Hunter tending the demon beast and getting infuriated that the teen would try to protect the creature instead of letting the Emperor whip it. He actually decides to murder Hunter over it and create a new Golden Guard for his defiance, forcing the boy and the beast to run away in the woods — and when they're safe and sound, Hunter has a meltdown over the fact that his uncle, the man he basically worships, tried to kill him.
• As the escapees stumble upon Luz in the woods, she takes a look at the demon beast and immediately asks Hunter how long it has been since that person was cursed, just like Eda was cursed. Hunter almost throws a fit, refusing to believe Belos would be so cruel that he would imprison a curse-bearer to be abused and mistreated instead of trying to help them, and only agrees to feed the beast an elixir because he doesn't think it will have an effect. He's wrong.
• Imagine you are Caleb Wittebane. You are a Palisman carver, and you are hopelessly in love with your witch bride who's currently pregnant with your firstborn. You are going home after spending the morning to the market, only for something to go wrong and you cannot remember what. When you wake up, it's in an unknown house, and there's one kid looking too much like you for it to be a coincidence. And you learn you are cursed to become a monster, and this boy looking just like you starts to scream and fling accusations, that you shouldn't be there because you're supposed to be dead, as everybody else in his family is dead, except that you're not. Because you are the reason why they are dead. You were cursed, and you went on a rampage, and this boy had to grow up unloved because his mother had been mauled to death by her cursed husband. You did that. And no matter how much you beg for forgiveness, it won't bring your wife back, and it won't erase the years your son has spent without his parents.
  • Imagine you are Hunter. All your life, your uncle told you wild magic was dangerous, that it killed your whole family except for him and you. And then you find this demon beast and it's actually a man, who looks just like you, too much to not be your dad. A man who could have loved you, raised you but was stuck in a dark basement because he was cursed. Stuck in a dark basement because your uncle stuffed him there, and for why? Obviously, it has to be punishment. Obviously, you would hate the man who slaughtered your family, even accidentally. And obviously, you would hate to be reminded of him, especially when you look at the boy who's growing up to look just like this person.
  • As pointed by a few readers, bits and pieces of information led Caleb and Hunter to draw an horrifying, tragic and awful conclusion... and it's less horrifying, tragic and awful than the actual truth of the matter.
• The reason why Flapjack has lost an eye in this story? Caleb attacked her when he was under the curse's influence. Immediately after that, she fled for the Bat Queen's den and never left until she met Hunter.
• Caleb describing the man he was before meeting Evelyn as someone who harmed innocent people and his loved ones because he foolishly believed he was doing good — it's obvious he's not proud of his past as a witch hunter in spite of having grown beyond his prejudices.
  • He later admits he enjoys the Boiling Isles because Gravesfield wouldn't let him be what he truly wanted to become, consequence of the Puritan beliefs on grace and duty. And when Hunter innocently comments on his hometown needing to band together to hunt big prey, the poor man suffers a flashback to a witch's hanging.
• Luz starts to suspect something is wrong with Caleb when he mentions he was born in the Thirteen Colonies, meaning he has been cursed much longer than previously believed and as such cannot be truly linked to anyone in the current time period. Thing is, every time she tries to say it, she cannot bring herself to do so because of Hunter. Every time she wants to say the words, Hunter is there with Caleb, happier than she ever saw the Golden Guard be, just enjoying having a dad who teaches him how to fix the door and whittle small trinkets and cooks pancakes at breakfast, and if Luz dares to tell the truth, Hunter is going to lose that. Just like Luz lost her own dad.
• Lilith knew Belos was keeping a demon beast chained in the castle's basement. And she knew it used to be somebody cursed with Eda's affliction, because the Emperor showed it to her and claimed there was nothing left of the curse-bearer, only the demon beast, and that would be Eda's fate if Lilith couldn't bring her sister to heel. Not only he was lying about curing Eda, he was lying about Caleb being entirely subsumed by the beast — cue Lilith suffering My God, What Have I Done? when she watches Caleb turning back human and understands she left him to suffer in the dark.
• Hunter finally realizes the discrepancies in the timeline are too important to be brushed off, so Caleb cannot be his father. He's not angry as he says that, merely resigned as he comments Belos was right — when something is too good to be true, then it's not true at all.
  • What makes it really sad is that Hunter isn't just losing a potential parent, he's losing an entire identity. For one week, he was growing used to be the half-human son and grandson of Palisman carvers, a boy with a future not reliant on Belos and being the Golden Guard. And then he learned it's only a fancy dream, he's still a powerless witch whose uncle treat more as an attack dog than a nephew and nobody else to care about him as a relative.
  • Him quietly begging Luz to let him be the one to break the news to Caleb... and sobbing on the man's shoulder when Caleb promises he won't let Belos harm the teen, because Hunter is his son.
• Caleb having to accept he was stuck as a cursed beast much too long to have sired Hunter, and being completely heartbroken at the prospect of the teen being left alone in the cold, since the Emperor blatantly couldn't care less about his nephew. Also, the lack of blood relation means Caleb has no idea of what happened to his unborn child — when he thought Hunter was this child, he lamented the lost years but he still could make amends by being there now. Only for it to be untrue, because it's far too late for him to be reunited with his child.
• Heavily rattled by the sudden loss of Caleb as his birth dad, Hunter decides to closely investigate the legend of grimwalkers since Belos carelessly called him such before trying to assault him. The more he investigates, the more requirements he fits, meaning he is a grimwalker, an artificial creation only good to serve as a replacement to the previous Golden Guard and just as disposable.
• Caleb's first meeting with Evelyn was actually very far from Love at First Sight, for the simple reason that Evelyn was an outsider and as such automatically suspect for Gravesfield's inhabitants, and anybody talking with her would immediately draw the crowd's hostility as a consequence. Seeing Caleb pulling Philip away from Evelyn because that's being cold or potentially egging their neighbours to discriminate against the brothers is quietly sobering.
• One of Caleb's memories is him being tried as a witch and almost dragged to the gallows, because the harvest was bad, and the town needed a scapegoat, and Caleb will do since he won't stop talking with Evelyn who's too different to be palatable to Puritan mores. He barely escapes death when Philip claims his brother is nothing but a weak-willed victim enthralled by the true witch, Evelyn, and when his lover rescues him and takes him to the Boiling Isles, he's somberly aware he has to outright abandon Gravesfield if he wants to survive.
  • Philip's reaction to Caleb's departure. He's right to feel bitter over his brother running away and leaving him behind but at the same time, Philip willingly blinds himself to the fact that Caleb would have been killed if he insisted to stay in Gravesfield, as a consequence of having been accused of witchcraft merely because he couldn't stand the toxic Puritan atmosphere anymore. For all of Philip's resentment against Evelyn and the Boiling Isles, Caleb couldn't go anywhere else after his trial.
• When Belos appears within Caleb's mindscape and is identified as Philip, Caleb asks if his brother knew he was the demon beast locked in the castle's basement... and Belos confesses that of course he knew, since he was the one who cursed Caleb to begin with. Since his brother wanted so much to dwell among monsters, then he deserved to be turned in a monster, didn't he? And he thinks Caleb should be thankful to him for the deed.
  • Just like Lilith, Philip cursed his sibling in a fit of spite. Unlike Lilith, Philip deemed Caleb in his cursed state would be the perfect tool to further his political ambitions and used the demon beast to rampage through villages before showing himself and pretend to subdue the wild magic monster. That's how petty and monstruous Belos' behaviour was — his brother abandoned him for love of magic, so Belos would force him to destroy the magic Caleb loved. And potentially to kill Evelyn and her baby by Caleb, as the ones who introduced Caleb to magic.
  • Caleb going Laughing Mad after hearing his brother's confession. From the sheer disgust he then shows towards Belos claiming they can put that behind them and go back to Earth together, that was the moment when his bond with Philip was permanently wrecked beyond any hope of salvation.
• Hunter not only confronts Belos on his nature as a Grimwalker, he also confronts Caleb on the man's past activities as a witch hunter as he tearfully confirms Gravesfield' inhabitants weren't hunting for big game but another kind of prey entirely. After spending years stuck under the Emperor's abusive thumb, Hunter desperately wanted to trust Caleb was nothing like the man, only to stumble upon the shadows in the older Wittebane's past. When everyone wakes up from their trip in the mindscape, it contributes to his decision to run away, after throwing at Caleb that the man cannot call him out on taking the coward's path since he himself indulged in it.
• Steve fretting over the Owl Beast potentially hurting Hunter, as he and another scout remember the previous Golden Guard losing half his face to the creature's rampages. Poor Caleb is nastily hit by the fact that not only Hunter wasn't the first time he was cloned, all these other Grimwalkers are now dead, and some of them were likely badly hurt at his hands.
  • As he faces Belos, a quietly seething Caleb asks the Emperor how many of his children Philip ultimately killed. His brother's casual admission of losing count, following Philip's insistence that he left Evelyn's descendants alone, showcases just how little the Emperor cares for anyone who bore the mantle of Golden Guard. And it's later compounded by his attempt to kill a helpless, terrified Hunter, as he tells Caleb he can provide his brother another one if the older Wittebane wishes so, entirely unable to consider the possibility of Caleb genuinely loving Hunter for himself.
• Caleb outright begs Philip to not implement the Day of Unity, swearing he will follow him back to Earth and Connecticut, that he will do anything as long as the Boiling Isles aren't destroyed by a genocide. Hunter looks down in complete incredulity, fully aware that Belos will never agree to stop his murderous plan, not even if the brother he claims to cherish above all is pleading him, and sure enough, Philip refuses... after spending a moment considering it, before deciding the proposition is coming a decade too late, he's too committed to the Day of Unity to discard his preparations now.

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