Oracion's POV

"Up, c'mon." Freya tugs at my arms, eventually tipping me enough to where I either fall off the bed or decide to stand on my legs. "Don't you want to go see your brother?", She asks with a semi-pouting face.

"Of course" I rub the back of my head after flipping on some new clothes she put beside me. Feeling her eyes linger across my scarred body and catching a glimpse of her sad gaze.

She opens the door, waiting for me to exit first in front of her. "What's with the hesitation?" She holds her hand out for me to grab.

"I-uh...broke another one." I admit, referring to the sword.

"Again? How?" She continues to question as we walk along the lit street path.

"I'm not sure, I'm using it right. I know I am!" I try to explain, getting a little bit too in my feelings and shouting a little. "Sorry" I state as we continue walking, noticing she covered her ears in expectation of my raised voice.

She uncovers her ears, continuing to walk beside me, "Maybe it's your brother who can't make the swords properly?" She laughs a little.

"Not at all, he makes everyone's weapons, it's just only mine that we find to be broken or chipped." I jump to his defence, taking another step forward but being pushed by Freya to the side as she tries to make room for herself.

"Walk in a straight line Oracion, how hard is that?" She keeps an arm between us, attempting to force me into my side of the street.

"How's it my fault you ended up in my path?" I ask.

"How's it my fault you walk like a toddler, did you skip that age or something?" She asks back rhetorically, receiving nothing more than my smug grin in response.

"Oh look, we're coming up to his place already, let me go on ahead and ask Aeron myself." She grins back, suddenly getting a hop to her step as she speeds up to enter the blacked out building before me.

"Wait!" I try to catch up to her as she barely opens the doors, sliding through with her smaller body before closing it on my face. "Oi Freya!" I bang on the door as an audible click sounds from the other side, indicating she's locked it.

I take the time to look around, seeing the walls on both sides having weapons hung from it, free for anyone to grab and use. 'Not very safe, but I doubt anyone's dumb enough to take from Aeron'. I think to myself, eyeing up the weapons from a mace, to a shield, to a crossbow. Nobody's quite too sure where he's learned his craftmanship from, and honestly not enough people have questioned it, not that they've needed to anyway.

"So?"

"So what?" I respond to the voice from behind me.

"So why are you outside, and not in?" He asks.

"Cause my wife locked me out, again." I laugh while continuing to slide my finger down the steel.

"Freya, again?" He confirms as a large arm is placed around my shoulder. There's not a lot of people taller than me in this place, and he for one, most definitely would be able to.

I spin around in his arm, glancing up at the only other emerald eyed man in this place. His head carrying jet black hair striped with a grey line on the side. "You broke another, didn't you?" The muscles in his arm begin to tense as if warning me of the wrong answer.

"I actually just lost it this time" I smile with glee but he continues looking down at me with an unsatisfied glare. "I lost it after chipping it." I look down, expecting to be choked out quite frankly but his feet move away from my sight and instead replaces his arm with a meaty hand that roughs up my hair.

"Let me see what I can do about it this time, let's head in." He grabs the handle to the large doors.

"But Frey-" He opens it as if it wasn't ever locked, giving me an awkward facial expression before continuing to head in.

"Drink too much?" He asks as a joke.

"You know damn well I'm too pure for that shit." I answer with a rough honesty.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Sure you are bud, I'm quite the Saint myself" His deep humble laugh causes the room to radiate with an emotion I haven't felt in a while. A comfort that I can only feel from being in his presence alone. "Freya's in here right?" He puts his hands into the flames of a furnace, an act that we're for some reason used to. Carrying out a burning stick that he uses to light the torches inside one by one, meanwhile both our eyes scan the room for Freya.

"Hey! What's this for?" Her voice causes me to jump from the immediacy of it hitting my ears. Aeron lights a torch to show off her legs slapped on top of a table as she plays with something that resembles iron nails.

"A project of sorts that just sprung to me, they're sharp, be careful." He alerts her as an excitement overwhelms her.

"Got anything to test it on?" She asks as he immediately points to a corner filled with numerous human shaped dummies. "Thanks!". She jokingly pretends to place the sharp gauntlet on my chest before pulling away from my clothing.

"No no, go ahead. Just remember that only one of us know how to sew." I remind her, knowing it'll just be extra work if she tears all my clothes up in one day.

"True, wouldn't want you having to do all the work yourself, now would I?" She playfully suggests while tensing up her fist, beginning to punch the dummy left to right over and over.

Aeron begins to speak over her smashing, "You're using them like a human, Freya, when in fact they're designed from a monster. Open your claws and swipe, simple as that." He advises.

"Gotcha!" She laughs before resting a bit, feeling her hand glide through the material as the actual sharp points dig into the stuffing of the dummy.

"So...we're taking those off of her right?" I ask him.

"Sure, good luck." He lays back against a wall before eyeing me up and down. "Have you grown? Shrunk? Died and came back? What looks different about you?" He asks to me.

"I'm not too sure? I've always been me." I answer honestly.

He smiles before continuing, "Yeah you've always been you, this world's gift, continue being exactly that Oracion." He snaps his fingers without warning, bending to reach down to a metallic material. "I can either give you something old like what's outside, or make you something fresh, better this time." He asks.

"New?" I answer as if it's a trick question considering he's already gathering the raw materials and heating up the flames more.

"Good" He answers back.

Amidst our chat, we begin to hear voices from outside the doors. "So he has a problem!?"

"This was mine to bring up, why are you dragging him into this!?" A familiar feminine voice barges through ahead of Xandier's tall frame, one equal to my brother.

"Ah here you are." He crosses his arms while talking to me. "I heard you have an issue with where I've been placing you around The Veil!?"

"What?" I respond.

"Am I wrong to understand you cannot handle the Shadows on your own!?" He continues shouting with his overwhelming voice.

"Aeron, please tell Oracion that he can't keep going out there, barely escaping death each and every time." Requis pleads to him.

"I'm not quite sure of the context besides what Requis has just said, but if you're knowingly placing my brother in harm then I will not stand with you." Aeron stands up, placing his arm along my shoulder while meeting Xandier eye to eye.

"Most people become mature enough to fight around the Veil around 18? Do you even know what age Oracion was before he could fight on his own?" Xandier questions.

Aeron's posture changes as he takes a more aggravated stance, twitching as if to hold back his actual motion, "I'm very much aware, I was there when he first gripped a weapon, who do you take me for?"

Xandier switches targets, instead looking to Requis, "Speaking of which, your brother is of age. You're sending him outside, Requis."

"Who said I'm going to allow that when you aren't even watching over your current warriors!?" They begin to argue.

"Me, I said that. Give him to Oracion, the boy will comeback without even a scratch on him. That's how much faith I have in this man in his ability to lead the Alpha group." He places his hand on my spare shoulder but Aeron quickly smacks it off of me.

Xandier glares at him before gripping his hand as if hurt from the action, "I need you back out there in two days, Ira's group is out tomorrow, giving you all a break for the day. Get him another sword, get Indura and go outside." He orders, pissing off Requis more as she stomps to get his attention but he ignores it, turning to leave.

"Be careful!" Freya yells, tripping over seemingly nothing as the gauntlet's nail tears his clothing from his arm and down through his trousers.

She quickly bounces back up, "Whoops" She laughs before continuing back with the dummy.

"Freya" He states.

"Xandier" She mimics. "You're done here right? Leave" She bashes the dummy, once again using it like a human fist.

"Aren't you going to apologise for doing that to your chief?"

"Aren't you just about to leave? I said whoops." I can hear her smile despite her not even facing us.

He huffs before barging back through the doors with his newly torn clothes flapping from the breeze.

"I'm sorry Oracion, I really did try to get him to listen." Requis apologises.

"It's fine, do you mind if I go see Indura now? I promised to tell him a story." I state, attempting to change the subject and remembering to keep my promise.

"For sure, we heading off now?" She prepares to open the door, having her hand on the handle.

"I'll meet you back at the house Oracion, I still want to talk to Aeron about whatever this was." She gestures to the area, referencing the still fresh argument.

"Don't stay too long, it's already dark." I advise.

"You don't trust me to protect my sister in law?" Aeron's side eye lingers as he bites down on a metallic tool in his mouth in order to free up his hands.

"Oh no, not that! I just didn't trust you'd be able to protect yourself against her. But that way works too, see you later." I rush out the door.

I wait for the silence, knowing their exact reactions. Hearing a small gasp from the two just before their voices begin speaking in unison. "Wait what's that supposed to mean!?" I laugh at them, proud of their close relationship before listening to the door slide back into place and cutting my line of sight from them.