Chapter 7

Darius sat behind his desk in this office, staring at the young woman who was shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Barely a few hours after he dismissed Lucas from his practice, his assistant, Nilm, told him that Mrs. Green was there to talk to him.

Millie Green shifted in her seat, squirming under the intimidating air that the knight gave off.

“So, Mrs. Green. I’ll be direct. What is it you need?” He said, being brief to save her some explaining and time.

“I came, I came to ask about Lucas. Is he okay? I haven’t seen him in a few weeks, and I got a bit worried.” She said, a little set off by the knight’s direct tone.

“He’s doing fine. He’s been able to keep up with the training. I’ve kept him busy, which is why he hasn’t been able to see you or the students. Besides, from what I’ve seen and heard, He isn’t a welcome presence for the students anymore.” His eyes grew a bit colder at the last sentence.

Millie took a breath and nodded shakily. The students which she had taught for the last year had somehow come to dislike Lucas. Lucas had always been someone who was in the background before. He didn’t get involved much, but he had been ignored because of his economic status.

While most of the students came from the richer class, Lucas’s family was from the middle class. Thus, he was isolated from the rest of the class.

“I don’t know why they dislike him now. They didn’t care much about him before.” She said after a moment’s thought.

“Either way, I want to minimize contact between them. Lucas would probably get distracted with them if he found out about their animosity. Rest assured, Mrs. Green, I’m going to begin teaching him how to use Aura soon. It’ll let him survive here no problem, even without the kings protection.” Darius said, trying to allay her concerns.

She nodded, a little satisfied. She was a bit disappointed that she couldn’t speak with him, but she understood what Darius was saying. If she talked to him, his attention and focus might have been diverted to other places.

Millie stood up.

“Thank you, Mr. Darius…” She hesitated, as if to say something. “Never mind, good day.” She stood up.

Darius nodded and showed her out of the fortress.

He returned to his office and picked up a report which was placed on his desk as he showed her out.

He frowned. The report detailed situation between the kingdom and the Republic of Saltire up in the northern most section of the continent. He sighed. It looked like he would be gone longer than he though this time.

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Lucas was meditating, focusing his mind and senses on watching his body. The meditation a knight went through allowed them to control and use Aura, at least, that was the explanation that Darius gave him the day before he left.

To Lucas’s knowledge, Aura was a type of energy, however, it defied every law of physics and every proven biological fact that he had learned. First of all, humans had no ability to exert a conscious control of energy. It was not something which could be physically done. Science had proven that all the ESP and psychics that appeared on tv and on the news, were fakes.

Energy was defined in science as the power stored within chemical bonds which allowed work to be done, or as a property of matter and radiation. It was not something which could be imbued into a living object or be manipulated according to human will.

It definitely could not be exerted and used in the way Darius said that knights use it.

Knights used Aura to strengthen themselves, giving them superhuman capabilities. It allowed them to face the monsters which would otherwise wipe them off the face of world. Advanced knights could exert Aura, allowing them to not only control the world around them, but also extend their senses beyond their body, giving them a sixth sense.

Darius demonstrated it by picking up a stick a few yards away and bring it close to him with his aura. The stick had simply begun levitating and then floated over to them. Lucas was dumbstruck because what Darius did was going against everything that Lucas was taught in school. Besides the fact that magic and monsters existed in the world, most things followed the laws of physics which were pressing on Earth.

This completely defied that logic.

Lucas was having trouble accepting that logic. Thus, he was having trouble finding that Aura.

It should have taken a normal trainee knight a month to sense and have a small amount of control over their aura, but Lucas couldn’t even get past understanding the power.

It frustrated him.

His mind wandered and opened his eyes, anger evident in his eyes. He couldn’t sense it.

He ground his teeth. It wasn’t working. The sense that time was a rope, constricting him grew ever a little stronger.

“I’m leaving to another country to settle somethings in a few days. I will teach you everything you have to know about Aura, and the rest will be up to you. I probably won’t be back for another year or so. Maybe more. If you need help, go the castle library. There are books and other instruction manuals which can probably help you.” Darius had told him. That was a week ago. He left two days after he taught Lucas about Aura.

Lucas stood up. What an irresponsible teacher. 

He glanced at the book on his desk. Seprie vyt ayurua, it was titled, a book written on the most fundamental concepts of Aura. The fundamentals that he was now struggling with.

There was no real direct translation into English, his mother tongue, the closed he could get to it was The Code of Aura.

The frustration came back, threatening to erupt out of him.

“Damn it.” He whispered. He wanted to go home no mower than ever.

It was clear that he didn’t have what it took to become a knight. He had realized that fact when he watched the knights train and practice outside the fortress.

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A real knight gave off an aura of fierceness. There was an undeniable authority in their visage, and a cold glint in their eyes marked their determination to do anything that was needed, from killing monsters to any person who stood in their way.

At least he was doing okay with handling weapons. He had understood some spear combat and his stance while shooting arrows was firm. He could hit targets at least 20 yards away, and it was becoming better and better.

A sense of disappointment came over him, threatening to wash away the little self-accomplishment that he built up for himself. That was all that he could do now? A little bit of fighting technique? Was that all that he could do?

Lucas stood up. Maybe a little lunch would make him feel better. He stepped out of his room and walked down to the kitchens. A thin tall man handed him some bread and soup when he reached it, and Lucas sat down at the mess hall.

He tore at the hard bread, thankful that the bread wasn’t stale like it had been last time. And at least the soup was hot.

A conversation caught his attention.

“… boy, what is his name? Mark? He’s got some strength in that arm. Surprised me, nearly sending my sword out of my hand. His magic is another thing as well. To be able to directly manipulate and shape the elements is truly a gift from the gods.” A man in a large robe spoke. He wasn’t wearing any armor or weapons, but Lucas recognized his face. He was one of the men who taught his classmates. One of the knights who surrounded him when he was accused of being an imposter, and would have killed him if not for Mrs. Green’s intervention.

Animosity grew in Lucas. He didn’t like the man, and he had never spoken a word to him.

His buddy nodded and replied. “Scary, is what it is. It took them two weeks to learn how to cast a spell. It took us two months. Some of them could do it even before they knew that they were casting spells. At least, if you call what they were doing with the elements a spell. It was like they had direct control over the element itself, rather than them unconsciously casting a spell.” He grinned. His short cut hair and scarred face made his grin somewhat crooked.

“Heroes, huh. They might actually turn out to be. I heard the other one who got kicked out isn’t doing so well. Good that he’s away from the others. They already don’t like him anymore. The rumors about him aren’t good. Stupid kid, he probably doesn’t even know he was thrown awa-” The knight who attacked Lucas clamped his buddie’s mouth shut and hissed a shut up at him. The knight had apparently seen Lucas sitting staring at them.

The knight gave an awkward nod and turned back, making sure to speak softly to his buddy so that Lucas couldn’t hear.

The bread in Lucas’s mouth tasted like clay. He looked down. He had unconsciously crushed the bread under his fist. Lucas stood up. Thrown away, was he? Something began to build up in him.

Lucas put the piece of bread down, and left it next to his soup. He began to walk toward the two. They looked up at him. He stood in front of them.

“Thrown away?” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. His mouth was dry, and the world seemed to turn beneath his eyes.

The knight grimaced and spoke. “Look, I didn’t mean-”

“Explain.”  Lucas cut him off.

His buddy, scarface, spoke up. “The princess doesn’t trust you. And neither does the king, by extension. He listens to every single thing his sister tells him. The princess still thinks you’re an imposter.”

The knight glared at his friend. “He didn’t need to know that.”

His buddy shrugged and smirked. “Who cares? He is going to disappear in a few months anyway.”

His words echoed in Lucas’s mind. It dawned on him that the man didn’t mean disappear in a good way.

“Disappear?” Lucas managed to get out.

“Disappear. Vanish. Mysteriously end up dead. Poof, gone like a puff of smoke. Get it kid? Now get lost.”  The man looked at him with disdain. He turned around, and a second later, the knight he was talking to moved.

Scarface jumped up and turned around to see Lucas holding a bowl of soup, just as he was about to pour it on the man’s head. A murderous aura appearing around him. “YOU SONNAVA WHORE!” The man reached out to grab Lucas, but was stopped. A hand held his arm in place.

The knight glared at Lucas, one hand gripped around his buddy’s arm like a vice, and the other around Lucas’s arm, keeping both immobile.

“Walk away kid.” Said the knight. Lucas shifted his stare at the knight.

The adrenaline began to fade, and Lucas lowered his arms. His shoulders sagged, the world returning to its solid state, and the anger fading away.

Lucas put the bowl down, turned and walked away, the world turning gray and monotone as the rush of adrenaline in his body faded away.

He walked back to his room, his mind a mess and his stomach still mostly empty.

Lucas entered his room, and locked his door. He sat down by the wall next to his bed, and began to try and process what he had just heard.

The princess was going to kill him.

She didn’t trust him. In any other situation, he wouldn’t have given two shits about her trust. But the repercussions of that loss of trust meant his life. She didn’t trust him, therefore would eliminate him. He had to care.

The princess was going to kill him.

Was that all a life meant to these people? What did his own life mean? Lucas felt fear. His life wasn’t worth anything here.

The princess was going to kill him.

Was it that important? Was her trust in him that important? Or was he looking into it too deeply? He could have just been an outlier in her plans, which could have gotten in the way and messed everything up. So, she was going to cut the problem at its roots.

What gave her the right? A small voice grew louder in Lucas’s head. What gave her the damn right to choose what to do with his life? To choose how he lived and how he died? She owed him. If anything, she and the rest of the world owed him much more than they were currently giving him.

A burning sensation grew in his mind. Anger. What fucking law stopped her? Which one of the shitty fucking gods stopped her? Nothing. They meant nothing. Not the rules, not the laws, not the god damn king. None of them. The burning sensation grew into a flood.

Lucas drew a breath. His pulse was high, and his hands gripped the post of his bed until they were white.

The world was spinning.

He had to calm down. He needed to fix this. He could leave. The first though came to his mind. If he left right now, without warning, he could probably make it a distance before people came after him. If they did, but something told Lucas that the princess, the whore, wouldn’t let him slip away.

Running away would make him suspicious. It would justify the whore’s thoughts and actions.

He could also go and plead for mercy or go ask for help from his friends. Scarface’s words about his classmates and the rumors about him echoed in his head. They weren’t likely to believe him or help him.

He was alone.

Loneliness crushed his anger.

Why couldn’t he have said no to Darius the first day? At least he would still be with his classmates. At least he wouldn’t be like this.

Suddenly, the face of a little girl appeared in his head. Reyna. The loneliness lifted a bit. The little girl who had turned into his best friend and was almost like a little sister was there for him. A small smile found its way on his face.

The memory of a conversation replayed in his head.

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“Hey, what’s the training like? Is it hard? My father and brother told me that it’s hard.” Reyna’s expectant face stared down at him from the tree branch she sat on. She was agile enough to climb up there, and Lucas had stopped worrying about her falling down.

He chuckled at her question. “It’s hard on the body, but the history lessons are worse. I don’t wanna know about King Yulcal the Rotund. I swear if they managed to get Master Darius to lecture history to prisoners they would all be pleading to every god that exists to get them out of there. They would reform faster than you can flip a coin.”

Reyna laughed.

“It can’t be that bad can it? I’m kinda glad I don’t have to do it now.” She said.

“You will soon too, I bet. And if you don’t, I will lecture to you, just cause I don’t wanna have to be the only one who has to endure it.” Lucas smiled with a glint in his eye.

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The memory ended with her laughter.

Reyna’s laugh reminded him of his older sister.

She always had a smile on her face, and was the one that he could trust. He told her everything, and she helped him out with advice and other things. She helped him with school work and they shared a lot of things together.

Maybe that was why Lucas thought of Reyna as someone he could rely on. She was a little version of his sister.

The anger was gone now. The world had stopped spinning, but the color had drained away.

The princess would find some excuse to either throw him in the dungeon or, even worse, he would end up dead and buried somewhere in the ground where nobody would ever find him.

Lucas began to muster some strength.

The only thing he knew for sure right now was that he was on limited time.

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