While Charliette and Eiri conversed about Dalat and the crimes they’ve been accused of, Lio was in a daze. He paid no attention to the conversation nor added to it, merely sitting in his chair beside Charliette and staring off at the wall behind Eiri. He could not stop pondering about a single thing that left a scar in his mind: that damned magic resistance shield the knights held. He never thought he’d see it again, and he never wanted to, which was why suddenly seeing it at the Soaran Bull Head made him freeze up in shock. The triangular glow on the shield unpeeled trauma he long tried to cover up, yet he could not fully contain him.

His mother died when he was ten years old, to those same shields, their glow signifying the death of his own mother by the hands of knights who knew not what they went through. They punished everyone equally without even thinking of the ramifications. Lio could remember it clearly now.

X X X

Lio remembered the very week of his mother’s death, in the second largest city in Kori Soaro, Chautington. He was only a boy then, barely beginning to learn Fire Magic from his own mother. He still could see her puffed, bloodshot eyes as she walked through the door one day.

“Eliott, I’m so sorry…” She pushed away her long, wavy chestnut hair and ran up to her son and hugged him tight. “Mom is so sorry.”

“For what, Mother?” Lio stood there confused, grasping the tiny little wand in his hand that he uses to practice magic. She hugged him tighter and buried her face over his shoulder. She wept so hard that it made Lio’s throat tighten. There was something disturbing about seeing an adult cry, one’s own parents nonetheless. He averted his eyes from her as she broke down in front of him.

“Dear, they let me go, I’m jobless!” She cried harder than ever before. “We have no money, no food.”

Lio’s face distorted in terror as he heard her mother say those words. They had nothing left. His father left him when he was only four, taking his esteemed job as a magic professor with him, and his handsome salary. Therefore, Lio had to rely on his mother to provide for him, working endless odd jobs from dawn to dusk. But all of that was gone in an instant.

“Mother.” Lio tapped his mother on the shoulder. She looked up to him, tears streaming down her face. “It’s okay, I can help. I can pick up adventure quests to earn money.”

Her face softened, and she leaned in to give her son an endearing kiss on the cheek. She was sniffling uncontrollably. “Thank you for being so sweet, but I cannot allow that. It’s too dangerous in those places. I lost everything, but I won’t lose you too.”

Lio was stumped and left without any other ideas to help his mother out, but she tapped him on the head. “I know that face from anywhere, you’re thinking hard, aren’t you? Well, I’m sorry I acted that way in front of you. Mom is okay now. Just don’t worry.” She put on a smile for her son and rapidly recovered from her break, all so that her son wouldn’t have to carry the same burdens she had to. Looking back at this, Lio regretted not doing anything more.

He could see his mother stand up, crack her back, and scurry off to her room. She wiped the endless stream of tears that began seeping again out of her eyes. Lio turned away, he didn’t have the strength to see his mother cry again. He sat on the couch and grasped the wand tightly. The sun bore down on him from the ajar window letting the warmth of nature in. That nature moving freely: the blowing leaves, the flight of birds, the slow movement of the clouds, all made him wonder why his life was like this. Why did his father have to leave, moving along with nature? He still never quite understood the entire situation, only sitting silently and staring out the window, letting the gust of wind caress his hair like his mother did.

His mother got up early in the morning the next day. She slipped on her worn out boots and attempted to walk out as silent as she could, but Lio had woken up. His hair was a mess and his eyes still drooped, but he ambled towards the front door to see his mother dressed up in an old hooded poncho, and a kitchen knife at her side.

“Mother, where are you going?” Lio asked, then yawned.

“To find work, dear.”

Lio never questioned that for one second. He nodded, then gave her a hug. “Good luck.”

She had a radiance to her smile that Lio felt never could be replicated. Not the sunlight beaming through the window, nor the warmth of a fire could replace the warmth of his mother’s gentle smile and her strong embrace. She pushed him away after their hug and waved back to him.

The door slammed shut, Lio was all alone again.

X X X

Blocking the sidewalk next to the busy roads of merchant wagons and carriages in downtown Chautington were four boys huddled in a circle and blabbering on to one another. Lio was among them, silent as one of the other boys his age handed out sticks. He grabbed a stick from the boys hand and groaned.

All the other boys exploded into laughter. “Eli is it! Eli is it!” They chanted a dance around while Lio frowned at the stick he held.

The shortest one out of the bundle, marking his terrible defeat. That means he would be someone who he always hated to be.

It. He’s it.

All four boys scuttled in different directions, and Lio turned to face the cobblestone wall behind him. “One, two, three, four…”

Lio never liked being the one to find the other boys, he was never good at it. Every time he ended up being “it” the boys playing with him would find spots that he would never think to look at. It was a guaranteed win anytime Lio was the seeker, which explained their gleeful chants. He was never good enough.

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After he finished counting, he turned around and sauntered around the area to find them. He held his wand close to him, pouncing around corners where no one hid, and fished through trash cans in alleyways that no one was in. It was almost like they disappeared entirely to make it impossible for him to find them.

He got to the point where he asked people around him for clues, but they shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads to his dismay. Lio was even desperate enough to bend down and search under carriages, despite there being people inside. No luck, Eliott Meyne was born luckless, so he was used to that anyways.

He’d given up an hour into the game and instead posted himself up on a bench to observe the people that went by. Some were knights commuting to their barracks, some were scholars in their colorful berets and hardcover books in hand. A lot of them, however, were commoners, people in ragged clothes and skinny bodies. Rarely there were plump bodies of the nobility, strolling through town in their luxurious carriage bedecked in gold.

Lio couldn’t help but stare down at his own clothes, just as worn and stained as the people around him. If all those people, who are hardworking and knowledgeable, are in the same position as him, then how much worse will he be then later down the road? No skills, no talents, and average intelligence. There was nothing going for him, and it showed in this game of Hide-and-Seek.

Two hours passed and the boys finally came out of their hiding spot to reconvene and meet up with Lio. Of course, they’d won again without a single person found. Not that Lio gave it his all those entire two hours, but they still won nonetheless.

“Haha, yes!” They all cheered and high-fived each other with an enthusiasm that made Lio nauseous. He was sick of it, sick of their gloating and their positivity while he lost yet again in the same fashion as always. They always managed to hide in spots that he never found.

The leader of the group recollected the sticks and shuffled them again. “Okay, let’s play another game, with magic this time!” The boys all got giddy.

Lio stared back and sighed. No way was he going to play again, he’d surely lose again or get the shortest stick yet again.

The giggles of the boys went silent in an instant, which sent chills down Lio’s spine. He didn’t know why, but something was off. He looked up to see half a dozen Military Knights in complete battle gear rushing down the street, yelling “Criminal suspect detected in the Western Residence District in the surrounding area around Gideon Park!”

The boys stopped in their tracks and dropped the sticks in their hands. Lio was too stunned to process it. “Eli, isn’t your house that way?” One of the boys gave Lio a terrified look. It now clicked in his head.

“Mother…”

He bolted after the knights, but he never was good enough. They left him in the dust, gasping for air. He could never reach them in time. Even when he did, it was too late.

Once he’d built up enough strength to keep going, he kicked up the dirt into the fastest sprint of his life, all the while his brain cried out in horror.

Mother! Mother! No…

He knew his mother was out looking for work, but the thought of her coming home to a criminal ravaging the neighborhood made his blood go cold. He had to see if she was okay, or at least warn her.

Oh how wishful his thinking was, that he would be the one to save his mother from the impending doom befalling his family. But anyone is wishful when their family is involved. Lio just wanted to save the only one left in his life.

He arrived at his house, only to hear various voices ringing throughout the hallways of the building. He gently cracked open the front door and slid inside. None of them were the voice of his mother. They were all foreign to him. But he had to see who exactly was in their homes. The Military Knights? Criminals? He had to get a look, and see if his mother was among them.

He could feel his gut churn inside of him, his breathing becoming sporadic. Lio knew he was heading into the den of the unknown, even though he was in the very house he was born in. Right now it’s as foreign as anything else.

Lio inched towards a corner and peeked. There were knights dressed in a pearl white suite of armor, gathering in a circle around a thing he could not see in its entirety. It spooked him. Yet he drew closer and squinted his eyes. He only had to see the top half of that object.

Lio jumped out from the corner and dashed towards the knights. Tears burst from his eyes and he let out an ugly sob. He fell upon the object in the middle of the group of knights.

It wasn’t an object.

It was his mother, torn to pieces by dozens of sword slashes. Her body, even the kitchen knife that still stuck in her palm, was drenched in a dark red. And soon Lio would turn that very same color as he embraced her corpse.

The knights all around him began murmuring to one another. They never said a word to Lio, but only stared at the body that they’d struck down. Lio looked back at them hiding their faces behind the visors of their iron helmets. Cowards. Blood dripped down their swords, but what caught his eyes were the shields they held. The shield glowed bright, but was blemished with black char stains. It was from fire.

“Mother,” he said out loud, staring at the stains on their white shields. The glowing triangles on them were burned into his memory, a symbol of his mother and himself. A symbol of his failure.

Eliott Meyne came to his house to warn his mother of a criminal in the area, yet he would never suspect her to be that criminal. He couldn’t save her from herself… that voice digging deep inside of her that led to this very moment.

The next day, the report of the crime came in, and Lio read it. His mother, after being let go from her job as a waitress due to having poor service skills with food, switched to robbing people off the streets. She threatened people with knives and Offensive Magic, which quickly caught the attention of the Military Knights. She was soon tracked down and besieged in her own home, where she died engaging in combat with knights.

She did all of that for her son. Lio crumpled up the paper and threw it away. It was all his fault she turned out like that. If only he was competent enough to help, then petty crime wouldn’t have been an option.

He went back into the house, the floor of the living room stained in dried blood. Her body was gone, but remnants of her still existed and made him churn. Lio followed the thin trail of blood that led to his mother’s room. She must have gotten injured while running, but why would she find the time to go inside her room when knights were closing in on her?

Lio went inside for answers, only to see the room completely emptied, save for a note sitting on her bare bed. He picked up the note, only to see a necklace under it. This note, it was her final words to him. He didn’t have the strength to read it all, yet only read the last half of it.

“My dear boy, I’m so sorry. Mom let you down. We all did. I wish I could make things right, but alas I can’t. What I can do is be with you wherever you go, so please take this necklace. It is my final birthday gift to you, and my final embrace…”

He took the shining necklace and wept. “No…” he whimpered. “I failed you…”

X X X

“Hey, Master?” Lio opened his eyes to see his vision filled with a familiar face. Charliette, looking as lively as ever. “Were you even paying attention?” Eiri sat across from her, chuckling a bit.

“Let the man sleep, I’m sure he went through a lot. You can inform him about the details later.” Eiri had a slight smile on him. Wasn’t the type to smile often.

“Oh, alrighty then.” Charliette patted Lio on the shoulder and put a thumbs up. She was always the strange one, Lio thought.

He figured he must have fallen asleep. It was as if his recollection was like a dream, or a trip into the past, but that was stupid enough even for him to think. He just shook his head. His constant pondering on his past put him to sleep, that was all.

He couldn’t help but grasp the necklace around his neck tight, though. He could feel its warmth even more now, which warmed his cold fingertips.

She was watching over him, he was sure of it.