I leaned on a wall in a dark corner of the bustling streets, looking at the people passing by. The music of traveling bands filtered the air and the strands of mana in the streets were thicker due to the festivities.
The sound of a kid laughing passed through the street, and I saw a kid smiling with his parents. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
Why can’t I have a normal life? I thought to myself as I didn't see or sense anyone looking at me. I narrowed my eyes a bit looking around me, at the shadows, at the streets and at the sky.
But I sensed nothing, no sudden sound, no shimmer or disturbance in the air, no substance in the shadows.
No lurking sage following after me to give me nightmares.
I clenched my teeth and shook my head, pushing myself off the wall, I got out to the packed street. While walking fast and bypassing people as they all walked towards a large stage in the town square, I managed to let out some steam.
“Come everyone! And see the Three Sages! Ballad of Vianola! And most importantly, Hammer of the dwarf!” An announcer called out from the stage while people gathered.
I slowed down a bit and looked towards the stage, feeling the calm and happy emotions carried by the ambient mana. After taking a deep breath I decided to give the show a try in order to clear my head.
A while after I sat down on one of the prepared seats, I heard loud footsteps walking towards me, before I could turn around I felt my ear being pulled up.
“Dante, where have you been?” I turned around to see Charlotte staring at me furiously, I could feel my blood drain from my face as I remembered that I had to wait for her near the corner.
“I have been worried sick!” She quietly hissed between her teeth into my ear, her eyes were glued to mine, making my heart clench, “we agreed that we would stick together, I don’t want some sage kidnapping you.”
“Mom, nothing is certain,” I tried to calm her down, “and anyway, what better place to be other than a light crowd, it's not like someone would kidnap me here.” I beamed at her.
Her face contorted for a moment as she looked into my eyes and onto the stage, only to settle down with a small pout, “alright, but you can’t do that again, okay?” She asked weakly to which I nodded quickly.
I’m such an… I stopped thinking before I could think badly about myself. Looking at Charlotte who started to fix my messy hair I gave her a small smile. “Thanks mom, I won’t run away again.”
A wide warm smile spread on her face, and her eyes turned from worried to gentle, she leaned and gave me a small kiss on my forehead.
With my heart not hurting anymore, I turned my attention to the stage, only to catch in my eyesight cut ears right in front of me, belonging to a woman and her child.
At first, I looked at the child and at her cut ears which made my stomach turn.
But I noticed how straight their backs were, even though everyone in front of us who even peeked at them, immediately grimaced and turned to look away. Still, they sat proudly. I couldn’t help but keep staring at their backs, with some sense of lounging.
Only the sound of the stage announcer made me stop staring, but the sense of lounging didn’t fade.
As the actors started to get up on the stage, and play the story of the three sages, I looked at Charlotte and whispered. “Mom.” Charlotte leaned closer with a smile. “Yes deary?”
I gave a small look to the mother and child in front of us and faced Charlotte again, “why…” I whispered, lacking the knowledge of what made me feel so infatuated, “Why? Why does the child have those scars? That’s cruel. Why are their ears cut? Why do people keep looking at them badly?” I inquired quietly, pouring all of my questions in order to understand the feeling.
Charlotte had her mouth slightly open after I flooded her with questions, she took a small look at the pair in front of us. She looked at them for about four seconds, until her face fell.
“Oh,” she quietly mumbled, “well um, deary, you se-”
The pair in front of us got up, and from their sharp looks I could instantly tell they were elves.
The teaching from James, Charlotte, and Amara came into my mind.
Due to slavery, assassination attempts on noble high elves and wars waged against elves for their prolonged lifespan, elves could sometimes be very exclusive and hateful to the other races. And most importantly, they have great senses, especially hearing.
The sight of the mother leading her crying daughter away from the crowd, made me grimace. I instantly got up, wanting to apologize, but the pair was already swallowed by the crowd.
Charlotte lightly touched my hand, and gently pulled me to sit. “They were most likely slaves.” She whispered into my ear with a glum look on her face. A hot fire started in my chest as she said this, Charlotte massaged my back in circles as I looked into the air mindedly. Mana slowly gathered around me because of my emotions.
Some people turned their heads to look at me, but I didn’t mind them.
I had a similar reaction the first time Amara taught me about slaves, I understood that for some people it's the only option, But I couldn’t help but feel like giving one of the slave owning nobles a gruesome beating.
“I know deary.” Charlotte crooned. “But don’t mind it now, the show is about to begin.” She said joyfully, trying to distract my mind from the cruelty that I couldn’t stop.
Breath in and out, just like Amara taught. I thought to myself while taking a deep breath and turning my focus to the stage. The actors were half way through the play of the three sages, and at this point they were talking to the dwarf king of the spire mountain right as it fell.
“Criavard! Oh! How can fate be so cruel?!” One of the sage’s shouted to the royal dwarf king, the stage scenery was full with broken buildings up aflame.
“We must evacuate everyone!” The king roared in fury, as women, children and men ran from side to side of the stage, all the while beings in dark clothing chased and gnarled after them.
“Go sage! Tell the council to bring reinforcements! I will hold them off with my royal guard!” The king pointed with his arm to the sage, who was wearing a cloak and a hood which hid his face.
The king dramatically put his emerald sword, Djerg's Tomar, up in the air. “Even if my blood runs dry! I won’t die before every single one of my people Are saved!” He declared, looking unto the crowd, sending a small chill down my spine.
The dark beings, men with ragged cloaks that hid their faces and their figures, came at the king and his guard. They fought, each of the guardsmen taking one or two before falling, while the king struck down his foes, his emerald sword covered with actual mana around it, left dissipating emerald on his stricken foes.
After a fierce battle, the king stood alone, his guardsman had all fallen.
“Brother,” The king muttered between heavy gasps of air. “Forgive me.” He said before three of the wretched devils struck him at once. The king let out one final scream and the stage was covered with a long black canvas, which represented the end of the scene.
Cold sweat ran down my forehead as I was sitting on the edge of my seat. Before I could wipe the sweat, Charlotte took out a napkin and slowly wiped my forehead, making my ears warm up.
After the three sages, Charlotte was very focused on the elvish ballad, while I found myself bored out of my mind. Only in ‘Hammer of the dwarf’ I found myself chuckling sometimes with red ears, though Charlotte did pull on my ears a couple of times, asking me if I understood the meaning behind the innuendos.
By the end, it was already dusk. I had a beaming smile on my face thinking about the exciting and the amusing shows, while trying to forget the boring ballad.
“Did you enjoy your time at the festival?” Charlotte asked as we walked towards our last stop at the town.
A wicked smile ran across my face “I’m going to tell dad about Hammer of the dwarf!” Charlotte sighed as her jolly expression wavered a bit.
“But yeah, I really enjoyed it mom, thanks.” I gently replied to her question and she beamed in return.
“You see? There is no need to worry deary.” her voice trembled a bit towards the end. “No one is going to do anything bad to you, and those nightmares will fade away soon enough.” She placed her hand on my back. “I’m sure of it”
A warm sensation spread through my chest. “You’re right” I agreed, right as we came to a butcher’s shop at the edge of town.
The sounds of shouting and animal screeching were coming from within.
“Darn it boy! Hold and cut! You are spreading blood everywhere!” I heard muffled screaming from within.
Charlotte’s hand went to cover my ears as she looked at me, “o-okay, it seems as if the butcher has a new apprentice, deary, stay here while mommy buys some food alright?”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “I can come inside, I don’t mind.”
Charlotte shook her head, “you shouldn’t see anything like that, mommy will be in and out.” She got in and left me outside.
With my foot against the wall of the shop, I leaned on the wall, and waited. Seeing people going to the center of the town with a happy expression on their face, All of them enjoying the dragon festival, while I sunk into my thoughts again.
I thought about the various methods Amara and my parents tried to stop the nightmares, or to sneakily find the sage, only to achieve nothing but a small ease during the nights.
If it weren’t for those calming potions, I would still be waking up with my heart in my throat. I thought to myself, my eyebrows furrowed as I sunk deeper and deeper into thought.
A group of kids ran down the street, and at their lead was Zen, the same kid who kept on casting me out.
Only after they got past me, I could see an elf girl with cut ears running after them. I looked at her blankly as my mind slowly cleared up, remembering her from the show.
Without thinking I got off the wall and started to walk after her. At my third step, I looked back to the butcher’s shop where I told Charlotte I would wait.
Shaking my head, I returned to the shop and gave a little glance at the children group. I saw Zen and his group running away from the elf, with the same looks they had towards me, only worse.
If the grown ups barely wanted to look at her, what would the children do? I thought to myself, remembering the last time I met Zen.
Couple of months after Amara suggested that there might be a sage after me, I had been wandering around the town a bit, Trying to see if everyone was spying on me, But instead I bumped into Zen and his group, which Immediately tried to chase after me, accusing me of ‘following after them again’.
At the time, I had run away, fearing that something like what happened with Koll would happen.
With clenched teeth, I ran after the group. Sorry mom, I internally regretted it, as I tried to find where the group went.
I almost thought that I lost them when a loud yelp rang out through the empty edges of the town. With quick steps I came upon the group circling the little girl on the ground, pushing and kicking her down whenever she tried to get up.
My body burned and my jaw clenched.
Forcing mana into my legs I took one step and appeared in front of the group, stopping one of the kids from giving a kick by pushing him away.
The group turned to look at me, while the girl cried and stayed on the ground.
“What are you doing?!” I shouted, looking at the entire group with clenched fists.
“Oh great,” Zen chimed from the side, “the freaks are banding together now.” He said while pointing at me, making most of the group laugh. He took a couple of steps towards me with a wide smile and tried to push me.
In return, I swiftly grabbed him behind his neck, and pushed him to the ground. “You should all stop.” I warned the group.
Zen stared at me from the ground and shouted. “Grab him!”
A couple of kids from the circle came at me from a couple sides, with their arms stretched out trying to grab me, but they were slower than me.
The first two dashed at me from opposite sides. I simply stepped to the side in the last second, making them crash into each other hard.
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When another came at me with a wide swing, I side stepped again and put my feet in his way, making him trip on his face.
The circle around me slowly started to back off, sending glances between me and the three kids on the ground.
Someone roared from behind me and put his hand around my neck, trying to lock me in a hold. I grabbed his hand and used his weight against him, throwing him into the floor in front of me.
By this point everyone was looking at me with wide mouths, they all made sure that they were not in my reach.
Zen however didn’t care for the spectacle. He charged at me, ducked, and threw his hands to grab my legs. In return, I swiftly grappled him and threw him to the ground.
The boy quickly wiped the dirt from his face and stared at me with a red face. He charged again with a scream, his hands spread out towards me.
I gave him a quick punch to the nose, making him fall to the ground while screaming and holding his nose with his hands.
Only when he let go of his hands, did a small trickle of blood come out of his nose. Zen’s eyes went wide and started to moisten with tears, he got up and ran, screaming as the rest of the group hastily dispersed.
I clenched and unclenched my fist, I hadn't heard his nose breaking, so I figured out it must have been a blood vessel that made him bleed.
Those insufferable lowlif- I shook my head before I could finish the thought in my head, they are just kids, just kids. I reminded myself, smiling a bit at the fact that I was too, a kid.
With a small frown I looked at the elf child who was still sobbing in an unknown language and wiping her eyes with her hands every second.
“Hey, everything is alright, no one is going to hurt you anymore.” I told her gently. When I reached out to her she flinched to the touch without even looking.
Only after a couple of minutes of trying to reach out to her, she calmed down.
When she finally looked up at me, I gave her a small smile, and helped her get up.
“It's alright to cry.” The words came out of my mouth, in a tone as sweet as honey. “But when you need to be strong, be strong.” The girl’s silver eyes shone for a moment until she nodded.
I wiped the dirt off her face and golden hair until it was a bit cleaner. Not only that her ears were cut, she also had a scar on the side of her neck, as if her skin was torn off.
My chest almost filled with hot flames before I took a deep breath and calmed myself.
“I’m Dante, do you know where is your moth-” I stopped talking when I saw Koll standing at a dark corner of the street. When our eyes met, he flinched and got out of the corner with his pipe in his hand.
We looked at each other while the elf girl looked between me and him until he grunted and started walking away.
I blinked a couple of times, trying to process why he was there in the first place until I felt a light tug on my shirt.
“T-thank you.” The girl muttered quietly. She sniffed a couple of times and looked like she was about to cry again.
“Hey it's alright, it’s all over now, what do you say about finding your mother?” I asked her quickly, trying to stop her from crying again.
But it was useless, the girl started to cry again, her tears flowing like a river.
Taking a deep breath, I grabbed her hand and took her along with me to the butchery, towards the center of the town. The walk through the streets that were slowly getting fuller, had caused people to stare at us. I saw some people take one look at the girl and quickly turn their head away, not daring to look.
I casted a glare at any adult who stared at her with a grimace, not that it really helped, as they simply started to frown at me.
The sound of loud footsteps behind me made me turn and look.
Charlotte stood behind us with a bit of sweat on her forehead, as if she was running. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes darted between me and the crying girl.
Her sight made me slump my shoulders, as I felt my heart clench.
“What happened to her, Dante?” Charlotte inquired, her voice a bit rough.
“Some kids bullied her, I helped her, mom I’m sorry I didn’t mean to worry you.”
Charlotte put her warm hand on my cheeks with a smile. “I’m proud of you deary.” She kissed my forehead and turned to look at the girl. Charlotte embraced her in her arms and slowly petted her hair until she calmed down.
“What is your name child? Do you know where your mother is?” She asked the girl.
“I don’t know where mommy is,” The girl sobbed. She turned her head to look at anything besides me or Charlotte.
“Mom,” I grabbed Charlotte’s attention, “when I was waiting outside the butchery, she came running from the side of the town square, maybe we could go and search there?”
Charlotte wiped the girl’s tears with a napkin, and nodded, “yes let's do that.”
Still holding the girl’s hand, The three of us walked through the town, looking for the girl’s mother. Though at first the girl, who’s name was Eleanor, was still a bit sad, until we got into the town square in which the festival was still up at full swing.
Eleanor looked around herself, completely entranced, while Me and Charlotte kept on looking for her mother.
As we walked through the loud celebratory streets, Eleanor started to pull me in the direction of a crowded festival stand filled with what seemed to be a fractured glass mirror made from mana.
The stand owner narrowed his eyes at Eleanor for a moment, but he quickly replaced his expression with an inviting smile. “Welcome! Welcome! Do you want to try your luck at finding the prize? Takes only ten silver coins to participate!” He enthusiastically greeted us as we approached closer than the crowd.
Eleanor’s eyes glazed over the stand, with a wide smile she looked back at me and Charlotte only for her fascination to break, as she seemed to remember that her mother wasn’t with her.
Before her smile turned into a frown, I looked at Charlotte and she nodded with a small sigh taking out coins.
“Yes we will like to participate,” I said and Eleanor looked up to me. “Just, could you explain the game?”
The crowd around us sighed and muttered. The stand owner’s welcoming smile turned wicked for a fraction of a second.
“But of course,” he said slyly. He gave a grand gesture toward the glass wall that was made out of mana. “Behold! Behind this glass wall, there is a polished red ruby, straight from the dwarf kingdom Kamrvhm! All you need to do in order to win it, is to point in the direction of the ruby with a stick, and it’s all yours!”
While Eleanor stood right by me with her jaw slack, I took another look at the big glass wall. It was made out of many small portions of glass, all stuck together in different angles, so that each of them was showing a rubby. Although some portions of the glass were showing a more distorted ruby than the others.
I tried to process the wall only to click my tongue. “You could also move the ruby from place to place using mana, that’s cheating isn’t it?” I asked a bit loudly.
The owner raised his eyebrow and shrugged, “that sounds like a problem for you.” He said casually, drawing no ire from the crowd.
Were they really this braindead to get conned by him? I found myself sending small glints at the crowd only to shake my head.
“And I doubt I need to say this, but you are not allowed to break or touch the wall in any way, you just need to point at the ruby.'' The owner quickly continued, taking out a long stick to point with and handing it out to me.
Oho, this is amusing. The thought went through my head as I smirked.
“That one, that one!” Eleanor pointed at one of the sections of the mirror.
“Maybe it’s that one?” Charlotte also pointed to another section.
Other people, and even kids from the crowd chimed here and there to give their suggestions.
“How can I know that there is even a real ruby in there?” I asked the owner who looked quite amused.
He shrugged again, “people have already seen the ruby after some failed. And if someone was to get it right, only to find out that I was lying all along, this crowd would tear me to shreds!” The owner laughed out.
My attention mindlessly turned to the crowd again, to look at anyone who looked associated with the stand owner only to come out blank.
Shit.
I turned again to the glass wall, and thought. I looked through all the parts and asked a couple more questions about the wall.
It was a one layered wall, there was only one item behind the mana construction, and it was a ruby, not made out of mana, he will not change the glass wall in any way using his mana. I just needed to point in the right direction and it was mine, the moment I pointed in a direction, the wall would break and reveal the ruby.
It’s an optical illusion. As if it was second nature, my mind started to crack the problem. If the ruby looks too disfigured then it's not the one, a simple process of elimination.
I know that it’s that one. My attention sprang to one side of the mirror, reflecting a small ruby. but he keeps on moving it.
A plan formed in my head and a wide wicked smile took over my face. that fucker is going to regret it. The thought went through my head with intense glee.
I started manipulating mana through my eyes and brain, making the blood flow faster, the blood vessels more durable, and time started to slow.
The owner’s eyes went wide.
I pointed towards the place in which I knew the ruby was at. I could see the reflection upon numerous glass panels change as the ruby was definitely moved, making the visual of the real ruby hard to detect.
Before the owner could take the glass wall down, I used mana on my arm to move faster and caught up with a new reflection that looked the least disfigured.
The wall broke down, as the owner said it would when I pointed.
Revealing a ruby, that was pointed at by my stick.
It took a moment for everyone to understand what they were looking at. The crowd broke into cheers, children and adults alike celebrated. The stand owner was clapping his hands with a large smile looking directly at me.
I gave a smile to Eleanor that was jumping up and down and to Charlotte that celebrated with the same energy.
Suddenly, my legs started to wobble. My entire body felt like it was made out of lead and I staggered a bit.
I felt a gentle large hand hold me up so that I wouldn’t fall.
It was the stand owner, his narrowed eyes gazed at my own peering into them.
“Deary?” I heard Charlotte worriedly call out from the side. “Deary is everything alright? What happened?” She leaned down a bit, looking between me and the stand owner.
“I-is everything okay?” Eleanor chirped from the side. Her voice was a bit muffled by the cheering crowd.
“He might have ruptured a blood vessel in his brain or eyes, what he did was very foolish.” The stand owner said quietly. Charlotte looked at him for a moment only for her eyes to open in horror.
“We are going to Amara right now!” Charlotte grabbed my arm.
I shook my head, trying to lift some of the tiredness off me. “I’m alright” Charlotte and the stand owner looked at me. “Just a bit tired, I’m feeling no pain or numbness.” I quickly continued, drawing a bit of my knowledge about strokes from Amara’s side lessons.
Charlotte’s eyes softened as she pulled me into a hug.
“Who would have guessed?” The stand owner joyfully said, bringing up his crowd smile. “Well ladies and gentlemen we have a winner!” The man announced to the crowd which started to cheer all over again.
The man took my hand in his own. He put a red ruby, the size of my small fist, in my hand with a wide pleasant smile.
I stared at it numbly, rubbing my thumb against the gleaming ruby.
“Well? What are you waiting for boy? Raise it up for the crowd to see!”
In return, I looked numbly at the crowd and lifted my arm in the air, revealing the gleaming ruby. The pent up crowd roared in delight, some of the children came and gawked at the ruby, including Eleanor who was right beside me.
In the side the stand owner was speaking to Charlotte with his crowd pleasing smile, who Charlotte herself nodded excessively.
I gave Eleanor the ruby to hold and made my way to the pair of adults.
The man looked at me with his smile “Ah, and here is the wonder boy.” he said casually. He raised a finger and pointed it at me “I was just explaining that what you did was very dangerous, and that you shouldn’t do it again.”
Even with the fatigue, I felt a wide smile growing on my face. “You are just buthurt that I won, even though you were moving the ruby.” I commented to which he shrugged.
“Dante! That’s no way to talk to others!” Charlotte reprimanded me. I blinked a couple of times and shook my head, feeling my ears get warmer.
I looked up to the man and quickly apologized.
The man waved his hand in dismissal and returned to his stand, bringing out an emerald from a bag inside his stand and putting it behind a glass wall. “Who wants to try their hand in winning a flawless emerald?!” he announced and the crowd gathered again with greater drive than before.
“I’m sorry mom.” I said as we returned to Eleanor, who was full of smiles.
Charlotte put her hand on my back and smiled. “You need to respect others, just as you wish to be respected deary, alright?” She asked and I nodded.
Eleanor approached me and handed over the ruby.
“Oh, you can keep it.” I said, not thinking about the ruby. Eleanor stood frozen like a statue with the ruby in her hands.
“Deary? You know that you can sell it, and then buy other stuff right?” Charlotte asked quickly. I tried to focus on her words as she kept on explaining what I could buy with it, trying to convince me. But It felt as if my mind was swimming through mud.
“Eleanor wanted to play the game, if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have gotten it in the first place.” I answered back looking into Charlotte's eyes as she opened her mouth, only to look between me and Eleanor.
Her eyes glossed over the frozen girl’s scars and nodded. “Whatever makes you happy deary.” She said weakly and smiled, to which I smiled in return.
I turned to look at Eleanor who was still frozen in place, our eyes met and she shook out of her shook, shaking her head strongly. “n-no. t-this is yours, n-not mine!”
“And now it's yours, I don’t really care about money, and we are not poor so it’s alright.” I said, feeling Charlotte rub my back gently.
The three of us stood there for a while, trying to convince Eleanor to take the ruby, Until someone called out for Eleanor.
We all turned our attention to the caller, a young looking elf man with cut ears and golden hair, accompanied by Eleanor’s mom.
“Dad! Mom!” Eleanor cried out and ran to her parents hugging them.
Charlotte leaned down and put her hand over my ear, to speak quietly “I’m very proud of what you did, but I don’t think their family is poor deary.” She whispered.
I raised my eyebrow and looked at her direction.
Because they used to be slaves. I realized. “I just gave her that, because I didn’t really need it mom, and if it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t really play the game.” I whispered back. drawing a blank look from Charlotte.
“I’m still proud of you deary.”
“Thanks mom.”
We whispered quickly, and Charlotte gave me a kiss on the forehead right before Eleanor’s parents came before us. The father had sharp and cold eyes, so cold that I felt like he would like no better than to beat me, or Charlotte up.
I numbly took a step before Charlotte, and stood in a small stance, making sure to keep an eye on the father.
“I heard that you helped my little Eleanor.” A warm voice made me relax, “but the ruby is truly too much, it belongs to you.” The mother said with a warm smile.
Charlotte chuckled a bit and rubbed my hair. “Dante said that it belongs to her, so it belongs to her.” She warmly replied back. “Oh, where are my manners, my name is Charlotte, I’m Dante’s mother.” Charlotte shaked hands with the mother.
“My name is Freda,” the mother introduced herself. She, just like her husband and daughter, looked young, had silver eyes, and golden hair.
“And this is my husband Aubree.” Freda took Aubree’s arm in her hand, while he himself kept on looking at me and Charlotte with a tight jaw.
“It’s a pleasure to meet the both of you.” Aubree calmly said, with a soft voice. “While I am very grateful for what you have done, it has been a very long day of searching, and Eleanor is very tired.”
Eleanor looked up to him for a moment, only to look at the ground.
“As for the ruby, we highly appreciate the offer, but we cannot in good conscience take it with us.” Aubree diplomatically continued.
“I insist that you would take it with you, it is a gift from me to you, I would be very saddened if you were to decline it.” I retorted before Charlotte could say anything, drawing surprised looks from everyone except for Aubree, who stared at me.
Freda took her husband’s arm in both her hands “Nin mel,” she whispered something in elvish. “It is a fine gift.” She continued quickly and smiled. She gently pushed Eleanor to her father who escorted her back through the streets.
Right before they were lost in the crowds, Eleanor sent me one last look and waved.
Without even noticing, Charlotte and Freda were deep in conversation, with genuine smiles on their faces.
I stifled a yawn and waited, feeling my eyelids get heavier.
At the end I clung to Charlotte, and shortly after she picked me up, I fell asleep.