Light shone through the cracks in the window, waking Nic up unceremoniously, just as it always did. The bed creaked as Nic sat up, rubbing his eyes groggily. As he did every day, Nic stood up and slowly dragged himself over to the cracked mirror in the corner. Draped over it were the brown pants he wore every day and a faded dark blue shirt. They had both been gifts from Aria on his birthday nearly two years prior, soon after they had first met. When she gave him the clothes, she said it was because she didn’t want to be seen with someone who only had ripped clothes to wear.
Nic didn’t blame her. He hated the fact that all his clothes were old and ripped. That they were hand-me-downs from when his father was the same age Nic was now. But his parents were poor, even for rad-town standards. They say it is because they are still relatively new to this town and had come here with nothing to their name. But Nic knew the truth. In reality, it was because of the family name that they were poor. That’s why they always hid it. No one wants to be associated with a Verilo, not after what their ancestor did. For the past two and a half centuries, whenever a rad-town found out that there were Verilo’s living amongst them, they always ran them out of town. And every time they were forced to leave behind all of their possessions. And so Nic’s family continued to live like this, even now. Moving from rad-town to rad-town whenever they were forced out. Nic felt lucky that they hadn’t been forced out of their current home in the nearly ten years they had lived there.
Nic quickly finished putting on his clothes, and after quickly running through his hair with his hand to comb it a bit, he turned back around and walked back over to his old bed. With each step, the wood beneath his feet creaked and groaned. Nic kneeled and reached beneath his bed. Fumbling about for a few seconds, Nic finally grabbed what he was looking for and pulled it out. In his hand was a small black journal. This journal was barely wider and taller than Nic’s hand but was fairly thick, nearly 3 cer thick of paper. Sitting back against the side of his bed, Nic opened the journal to the front page and read it again.
“If someone of my legacy is reading this, and the world is still ravaged by the Irradiation I caused, please learn magic on your own. Once you do, head to the house in which I will have died. Once there, you shall meet a trusted friend of mine. He is a demi-human and should live much much longer than I. He will continue to lead you on your journey for me. A journey to save this world. - Noah Verilo”
That was all that was written on the front page of the journal. And it was something that Nic read every single day. It was his motivation. His salvation. If he could learn magic and go on this journey, then no one will hate his family anymore. Even if his mother and father would try to stop him, they would be unable to once he turned 17 in a few weeks and became an adult as well. The rest of the journal contained a myriad of writings from Noah Verilo, some comprehensible, but most weren’t. They were like the writings of a madman at times. But the parts that Nic could read clearly showed that Noah felt remorse for what he had done. Nic knew that his ancestor had left something to make up for his shortcomings because of that remorse. And Nic was adamant about being the one to find out what it is.
“Nic! It’s time for breakfast, come on out!”
The sweet voice of his mother called out from outside of his room, his stomach rumbling in response to her offer. Nic slowly closed the black journal and slid it back under the old bed as he stood up, the floorboards creaking once again. He quickly grabbed his bag full of school materials before exiting his room and sitting down with his parents to eat breakfast.
“Are you actually going to stay in class all day today? I’m getting tired of being informed that you were missing for large portions of the day.” Nic had yet to take a bite of his food before his dad spoke up. His mother was quietly looking down at her food, ignoring the daily song and dance that was about to start.
“What do you care? It’s not like staying there will get me anywhere in life. Being a Verilo guarantees that.” Nic spat back his response, malice underlining his words. The hatred he held for his father tangled around his heart so much that nothing would ever unravel it.
A sigh came from across the table before his dad responded. “That won’t change. Not for a while yet. Instead, you should be focusing on finding a partner to live your life with. Living by yourself… It's a hard path to take.”
The face of his only friend flashed through Nic’s mind as his dad was talking. Nic swallowed the food he was chewing on. “I don’t want to bring someone else into this mess of a family until I fix it! Why don’t you understand that? If I just do what his journal says-”
“Why do you assume everything in that journal is correct?!” His father cut Nic off. The daily song and dance was in full swing.
“Why do you think it isn’t? You have never told me why it isn’t true! So why should I believe you? What proof do you have?”
Bam! A fist slammed against the table. “How many times have I told you; you don’t need to know the truth. Just trust me on this one thing Nic, please. I don’t want you to have to live with disappointment your entire life.”
Nic stood up from the table. Half of his food was still on the plate in front of him, but Nic didn’t care. He hated everything his father was saying. This was exactly why he hated him. Every day it was the same thing. “Trust me on this Nic”, “Believe me”, “It’s for your own good”. Every time it was the same thing, and every time it rang hollow in Nic’s ears.
As he walked out of the house, the door creaking as it opened and closed, he glanced back at his parents to see his mom consoling his dad quietly. She was always on his side. No one was ever on Nic’s, not in this family.
As he exited the house, the morning sun peaking over the treetops blinded him momentarily. A few birds chirped in the distance as the people throughout S-012 started their days.
The building Nic had just walked out of, the place he called home, was a dilapidated house. From the haphazardly boarded-up windows to the clearly visible hole in the roof on the right side of the building, its age was on clear display. It was also significantly smaller than any other building in the Rad-Town that Nic lived in.
This small village of just over a hundred people was known as a Rad-Town. Rad-Towns were small villages that usually only numbered in the few hundreds of residents, and S-012 was on the smaller side of that.
The labeling of Rad-Towns are decided by the larger City-States and Nations that hold power over the land of Kronul. Each Rad-Town was given an identification number as a name by these larger powers. In the case of the Rad-Town that Nic lived within, the “S” came from the nearby City-State of Sanum that looked over the Rad-Towns near it. The “012” signifies this Rad-Town as being the twelfth one to be created after the Irradiated Winter in the area.
Nic longingly sighed as he thought about the difference between Rad-Towns and the larger powers; mainly that the larger powers had seemingly been freed from the Irradiation that permeated around everyone else.
He knew his family was to blame for the creation of Irradiation in the first place, but how did those cities escape the same fate as everyone else? One of the hands at his side clenched into a fist as he thought about it.
“Oh, Nic is that you? Won’t you be late to class if you’re still here?” A sweet voice echoed across the small clearing in front of Nic’s home. It came from the back porch of the nearest house and the old lady standing upon it.
She was wearing comfortable-looking clothes that were well-kept. Her face warmed any who saw it and never looked down on anyone, no matter what life they had led up to meeting her. Her once dirty blonde hair was now interlaced with gray hairs to the point that you couldn’t tell what one covered more of her head.
But the most telling feature of all were the two floppy dog ears on either side of her head and the long, bushy tail trailing behind her. Those two features marked her as one of the few Demi-Humans living within the Rad-Town. Her name was Mrs. Carnie.
She had a first name, Nic was sure of that, but he had never learned it. He had also never even asked it, which had not too small an impact on why he didn’t know it. She was one of the few people in the Rad-Town that Nic had any interactions with. She would constantly appear as he left in the morning and say a few words to him as he passed by.
This morning, her greeting had snapped Nic back into focus and caused him to start his walk. His path took him towards the side of the Carnie house, and like always, he didn’t respond to Mrs. Carnie’s questions.
“Silent like always, huh? Let me guess, you got in a fight with your pops again?” Nic stopped in his tracks. She had heard the commotion yet again.
This was due to the enhanced hearing she had thanks to the canine aspects of her body. Beyond being a Demi-Human, Mrs. Carnie was more distinctly a Beast Person. The first Beast People, created during the First Irradiated Winter alongside the other side of Demi-Humans; the Elves, are the result of Irradiation merging the soul of a human with the soul of an animal.
While the human body kept its base shape, it would grow new features based on the animal whose soul was merged with it. Ninety percent of the time, the original human consciousness would be the one still around when the merge was complete, but there were the occasional Beast People where the animal's consciousness would end up in charge. Either way, the Beast Person would be able to do anything a human could, plus more depending on the type of Beast Person they became.
However, second-generation and beyond Demi-Humans would be born with the aspects of their parents. So a member of the Canine Tribe would give birth to another Demi-Human who would have the features of a Canine.
As for Elves, they came into being in a very similar fashion to the Beast People, but instead of their souls merging with the souls of animals, Elves' souls merged with Elemental Spirits. Once merged, their hair and eye color would turn into a certain color based on the Elemental Spirit that the soul merged with. Elves also have far greater control of their magic than any human or Beast Person would ever hope to achieve. One thing common to all Demi-Humans was the fact that their average lifespans were centuries-long, sitting at 250 years.
“One day you will finally speak to me. One day. I just hope it won’t be too late when you do.” Mrs. Carnie turned and began to open the door to her home.
“Um… Can I ask you something really quick?” Nic spoke up, stopping the old lady from heading back inside. He remembered something she had once said.
“So you finally talk! What is it you wanted to know, young Nic?” She turned back around, a large smile on her face and jubilation in her voice.
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“You used to live in Sanum right? Is it true that there is no Irradiation there?” Nic saw her smile slowly vanish as a deep sigh escaped her lips.
“I hope you aren’t asking this because of Dave. He and I both knew the risks of coming to live out here in a Rad-Town, even if we are Demi-Humans. But yes, there is no Irradiation in the bigger cities like Sanum.” Mrs. Carnie immediately believed that Nic was asking about her husband, who was currently suffering from Irradiation sickness.
Irradiation Sickness is caused by someone being exposed to large amounts of Irradiation over time. The longer someone is exposed to Irradiation, the more it will enter their body. Once it reaches the point that their body can’t handle any more Irradiation, they begin the slow and painful path to death. This process is what is referred to as Irradiation Sickness.
It is a fact that most people within Rad-Towns contract Irradiation Sickness that larger powers control the Rad-Towns near them. Most humans who lived in Rad-Towns would contract Irradiation Sickness by their late twenties or early thirties. The average lifespan of a human was barely 35 years of age because of this.
But for Demi-Humans, this fear of Irradiation Sickness was almost non-existent. Due to how Demi-Humans first came about, they had increased resistance to irradiation in the first place. So for them, succumbing to irradiation sickness was something that rarely happened. This was why Mrs. Carnie's husband, who was also a member of the Canine tribe of Beast People, contracting Irradiation Sickness was the first thing she had thought of.
“Actually, I wanted to know if you knew why they didn’t have any Irradiation. But, speaking of Mr. Carnie, is he still in a lot of pain?” Nic brought up his actual reason for asking the question, but also knew that he would sound too insensitive if he brushed past what she had said.
“He’s the same as he has been for the past few weeks. He’s powering through, but I fear it is too much for him.” Mrs. Carnie looked down, sadness passing across her face for a second before she bottled it up with a forced smile back at Nic. “As for why they don’t have Irradiation… I was born a bit after it happened, but I heard that there was this lady… I believe she was called “The Blood Elf”? But apparently, she went around and absorbed the Irradiation from a few cities. Those cities became the basis for the oldest City-States and Nations.”
The sound of a man coughing came from inside the house. Mrs. Carnie sighed and put her hand back on the doorknob that led inside.
“I’m sorry if that didn’t answer your question, but I should get back to Dave.” With that, the Beast Person disappeared inside the house. Nic said nothing as he turned and continued on his way. She had given him a lead. The Blood Elf. Nic tucked that name into his mind. He would need to see if he could find anything else out about them later.
S-012, the Rad-Town that Nic lived in was split into three distinct sections. The first two lay on the eastern side of the town, separated by the path that led to the town center. Both held most of the homes that people lived in. The third section covered the entire eastern portion of the Rad-Town and consisted of the massive farm that fed everyone in S-012.
The Southwestern section consisted almost entirely of homes, but did have one thing different from the others. Just past the wooden fence in the southwest of the Rad-Town was the local graveyard. Nic’s home was actually fairly close to the graveyard, nestled against the same length of fence as the graveyard.
The northern of the two sections held a larger building than the others. This building was the Rad-Town’s schoolhouse, something not seen in other Rad-Towns. A young researcher from Sanum had decided to start teaching in the Rad-Town, hoping to help its residents. Inside the building, roughly thirty children of varying ages were taught by this researcher every day. This is where Nic should have been going, though he usually went past it, through a small hole in the wooden fence that surrounded the Rad-Town and across the River to the northwest of the town.
As he sat on the rock with his eyes closed, Nic felt like he could hear the entire world. The loudest thing he heard was the water of the nearby river as it splashed against the rocks on the riverbed. The chirping of the birds and the quiet humming of the insects sat as the melody and harmony to the waters backing. Occasionally he heard the sounds of kids playing in the clearings of the Rad-Town, or their parents yelling at them to get back inside. But most of all, he heard her soothing voice every few minutes as she asked him the same question.
“Can you feel it?”
He could feel the hard rock beneath his butt and the hot sun beating down on his back, but that wasn’t what Aria wanted to know. Could he feel any magical energy was what she actually meant. And yet, he still shook his head no. He couldn’t feel anything at all.
Nearly two years ago, Nic had gone around the town, asking every magic user he could find if they would teach him how to use magic. Every one of them had turned him down. Everyone except for Aria. She had quickly said yes, and the next day had started trying to teach him. Most of her teaching techniques were simply having Nic try things she did when she used magic. When all of those didn’t work, she started trying techniques she had heard other mages use to teach people. So far, none of those have worked either. Two years later, Nic was nowhere closer to using magic himself.
Letting out a deep sigh, Nic opened his eyes, only to find Aria’s face right in front of his. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail gently waving in the breeze, her light blue eyes full of curiosity were staring at his face and her soft lips were open ever so slightly, letting in air. Letting out a startled yelp, Nic fell backwards off the rock, landing hard on his back and knocking all of the air out of his lungs. As he gasped for air, trying to refill his lungs, he heard a cry from Aria before she flew around the rock to his side.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt badly?”
Nic regained his breath and slowly sat up. As he did he felt the wind at his back, like it was helping him sit up. He put out one hand to stop Aria from getting closer to him.
“Why were you so close to me?” While he was asking this question, the truth was that he didn’t mind her being that close to him. He had come to find that Aria was a very caring individual. Whenever Nic got injured near her, she was always the first to ask him if he was alright. And if it was genuinely bad, she would use her magic to help him, like she just had when he was sitting up.
“Well, you looked so peaceful while sitting there that I thought you might have fallen asleep.”
“Even though I was shaking my head no to your questions?” There was a silent minute before Aria responded.
“Well, I, uh, maybe that was like something you learned to do. Or something like that.” Aria’s light blue eyes darted around sheepishly as she struggled to come up with her response. Nic cracked a small grin as he watched her.
“And here I thought maybe you just wanted to get a good look at me because you liked me.” Almost as soon as Nic had let that out, he was flying through the air, a strong gust of wind having knocked him off the ground. He flew for a few mer before landing on the ground. Standing up, he looked back at Aria only to see a red face staring at him.
“Wh-Wh-Why would you say that?!” Nic looked at her red face for a minute before responding. He had meant it as a joke, but did she actually feel that way about him? Should he bring it up again? But what if she hits him with the wind again? He definitely didn’t want to be sent flying a couple more mer if he could help it.
“It was a joke! I’m sorry!”
“Huh?” After hearing Nic’s apology, Aria looked at where he was and grew even redder in the face for some reason that Nic didn’t know. She quickly stood up and patted the dirt off of her previously clean clothes. She quickly walked over to Nic and bowed her head as an apology.
“I’m sorry for taking that too seriously Nic.”
“There’s no need for you to apologize, Aria, seriously. Please lift your head.”
Aria did as she was asked and relaxed a bit. Her face had returned to its usual color, no longer thoroughly red. Nic gave her a small smile and the two walked back over to the rock that Nic had been sitting on.
“So you didn’t feel anything?” Aria’s tone had gotten serious, dropping the soothing nature it had held just seconds ago. Nic shook his head in response and watched Aria begin to pace back and forth.
He understood why she was doing it. The two were running out of time for Nic to learn magic from Aria. She had plans to leave the rad-town as soon as she turned seventeen in three weeks. If the two couldn’t figure this out before then, Nic would be stuck unable to learn magic. If anything, Nic felt that he should be the one who was worried about this, not Aria. And yet, there she was, pacing far more than Nic ever had when thinking about this. Just as Nic was about to speak up, Aria stopped pacing and thrust one of her hands out in a punching motion. A couple trees a mer away all swayed in the force of the wind Aria had sent towards them. Nic thought he heard a couple snaps from them, but they all stayed upright in the end.
“Why isn’t anything working? We’ve tried every method I could think of, and yet we haven’t been able to move one cer when it comes to you learning magic! This is just unfair to you, right Nic?”
The anger and frustration in Aria’s voice caught Nic off guard, causing him just to stare at her. As she turned to face him, Nic saw her eyes. They were quivering, as if she was about to cry, and yet Nic could feel that they were just begging him to agree with her. But he couldn’t find himself to agree with her completely. Whenever someone else had refused to teach him Magic, they had always said the same thing.
“Training someone to use magic is too hard. It would be a waste to even try.”
He knew that it was natural for this to not work. But he didn’t want to tell Aria that. He knew it would break her to hear that. It was possible that she would refuse to speak to him for the next three weeks. Maybe she would even hate him for it. Nic was fine if she hated him for his bloodline, everyone would, but he didn’t want her to hate him for this.
“Maybe it’s not how you are teaching me, but where you are teaching me,” Nic said this, hoping to throw her off of asking him to side with her. Even if what he said was true, there was nowhere else for them to practice like this. Hopefully she wouldn’t hate him for that.
“Where I’m teaching you? I guess that’s the only thing we have yet to do… But, I’m leaving the town soon, there isn’t really time to go to that place.” Aria was talking to herself, yet Nic heard every word. There was nothing the two of them could do. In the end the past two years of work had amounted to a sum of nothing. There was nothing to show for those two years.
“Come with me to Sanum then!”
“Huh?!” Nic’s thoughts were cut off by Aria’s ridiculous request. “There’s no way. I wouldn’t even be able to get into Sanum! Let alone the city’s top school.”
“I mean, you will probably have to sit in quarantine for a while… but eventually you will be let into the city. And then you can come to the school with me. I’m sure the professors in the magic department there would have an easier time teaching you!”
“That’s easy for you to say! You probably wouldn’t have to even stay by yourself for a week! After all, you lived there didn’t you?” Nic instantly tried to shoot down the idea. After all, he didn’t want to step foot in that city, not while his family name was still looked down upon by the masses.
“Sure, but you know, it really wouldn’t be that bad for you. I would try to visit you as often as I would be allowed to.”
“I’m not doing it.”
“Why? It’s the perfect opportunity for you. You get to continue trying to learn magic and at the same time you get to leave this rundown town.” How Aria made it sound was the furthest from what Nic felt. His stomach churned at the thought of living in Sanum as he was right now.
“Look, I’m not doing it. Good luck on your own travels there in three weeks but I am staying here.” Nic made his stance on the matter clear. Turning around, Nic went to leave but was stopped by the wind in front of him.
“Fine. Fine. You won’t go to Sanum with me,” There was a hint of sadness in Aria’s voice as she spoke behind Nic. “Will you at least meet me outside of the village fence near your place tonight? I want to take you somewhere.”
Nic sighed and looked back at Aria. She was looking away from him, towards the ground to her left. Despite that, Nic could still see a tinge of color in her cheeks that wasn’t normally there.
He had no idea what she was planning. For all he knew, she could be plotting to kidnap him and forcefully take him to Sanum. Though based on everything she had done so far in the two years that they had known each other, that probably wasn’t the case.
Nic simply had to believe her that she simply wanted to show him something.
“Fine. Meet in the wooded area around there at sundown?” Aria’s head snapped onto Nic and a pleasant smile appeared on her lips.
“Good. Oh and make sure to pack a day or two’s worth of clothes. We’ll probably have to camp at least one night to get to where I want to take you.”
Nic felt relieved when she said he only needed a single change of clothes. At that short of a time frame, Sanum was definitely not their destination. On foot, the city took nearly a week to travel there and back from the rad-town that they currently resided in.
With nothing else to say, Nic turned once again and left, the wind letting him pass this time. The sun was already setting, nearly three quarters of the way through the sky. The two didn’t have much time before they had promised to meet outside of the city walls.