ILIAS PAYNE

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The first months of being a baby aware of its situation were painful.

Not in the physical sense, but the mental one.

Not only did I have to depend on Trisha, who I put together was my new mother, but it itched waiting for the right time to start investigating and asking questions about my previous life.

I couldn’t even speak yet and the most I could get out of my mouth were baby sounds. So not only did I have to relearn how to speak, but I would also have to wait until I was the right age to start asking questions.

There was a filled-up bookshelf in our house. I wanted to check if any of the books told the story of what happened after my execution. But since I was still so young and Trisha was such a good mother, I never got a chance as she kept a constant eye on me.

Even though it was a pain that she was watching me all the time, I couldn’t help but think of how good of a mother Trisha was as her top priority was always me. I never had a mother figure growing up so something like this was an entirely new experience and a heartwarming one at that. She’d play with me, read me stories, and bring me into the village every time she had to do errands.

I think Trisha was the town’s doctor. There was an extension to our house that served as a clinic that had two rooms which she allowed me to be in. One was a room where my mother talked in private with her patients. The other was filled with medical books, supplies, and ingredients. By the looks of it, Trisha made her own remedies.

Since she was the town doctor, I’m guessing that the wrinkled man was called in from a nearby town to assist in my birth and take care of our clinic until my mother recovered.

The wrinkled man never showed his face to me again after my birth.

I didn’t have any doubts that I was in the same world as my previous life, but it was normal to doubt some things and this was one of them.

That doubt disappeared when the Krauts (a family in the village) visited the clinic. Mr Kraut had apparently gotten hurt while he was repairing a roof and broke one of his arms.

My mother brought him into the private room, rolling up his sleeves. She went through a few drawers and put on a white leather glove.

Trisha put a hand on the opposite elbow, making a flag shape with her arms for anyone directly in front of her. She hovered her hand above Mr Kraut’s broken arm. “Bone Healing!”

A green glow began emitting from Trisha’s hand and Mr Kraut’s twisted arm contoured back to place.

So jynx still exists and my mother can perform it. It seems as if she has a high skill in healing.

It also looks like they’ve figured out a way to summon spells without any incantations. It’s great to see that things have progressed, but it makes me wonder how far into the future I am.

Maybe I’ll be even able to perform jynx in this body, but I’ll have to wait. Even Salazar didn’t begin training in jynx until he was eight.

Mr Kraut began spinning his arm. “Thanks, Doctor, it doesn’t even feel like it was ever broken.”

“Of course, but you mustn’t lift anything heavy within the next week.” She handed him a vile of liquid. “Just put two drops of this in your water every morning.”

“Thanks. We rushed here so we didn’t bring money. Is it okay if we come back tomorrow?”

“That’s fine. I’ll just have the colonel pick it up for me.”

The black-haired man present during my birth was the colonel and his name was Ray Van Camaro.

He showed up just before sunset with an unamused face. “Why did you call for me?”

“Why must you always give that attitude?” Trisha asked.

He sighed. “I have to wake up two hours before I usually do to take care of Jaime. Then I’ve got to do morning rounds before starting paperwork. I just finished investigating reports of monsters gathering near the edge of the forest.”

“I thought you were glad to become a colonel and become a watchful guardian of this village?”

“That was before I underestimated the difficulty of raising a child.” Camaro glanced at me. “Now that I think of it, you’ve never asked anyone to take care of Ilias. And every time I see you, it looks like you’re not even that tired.”

“It’s Ilias. He never made a sound when he was a baby. He would just stare off and shake things off when he got hurt. I thought maybe something was wrong with him, but no, he’s completely fine. I was just blessed with an easy-to-care-for child.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Oh, how I wish Jaime was like that.”

“How is Jaime, by the way?”

“Gods, she’s got too much energy. So what did you call me in for?”

“Can you please drop by the Krauts and pick up their payment for me?”

“I heard Roger slipped and fell off a roof. Did they refuse to pay you?”

“They just forgot to bring the money. Could you pick up their payment?”

“Why am I being forced to do this? You’re the one getting the money.”

“Please, Ray? You're closer to them and I have to go in the other direction for a house visit.” She handed him the receipt. “Please?”

Camaro sighed. “Fine. I’ll pick up their payment.”

By this time, I was two and a half and able to convince Trisha that I was smart for my age. I learned how to speak far too fast and sometimes I thought I might’ve blown my cover.

“Mother, how do you and the colonel know each other?”

“We were friends when we were young. He joined the military when he turned sixteen and was gone for a while but he returned and is now in charge of taking care of this whole place.”

I’m guessing he’s the mayor of the town. Or maybe something changed during the time when I was gone and he was some sort of new role.

Trisha never talked about who my father was and for the longest time, I thought it might have been the colonel.

But as time went on and I was exposed to more of their interactions, it became obvious that they were just close childhood friends who have remained just that.

We didn’t even share any resemblances.

But just to make sure.

“Do you love the colonel, Mother?”

“Of course, we’re friends who had to share similar ordeals.”

“I meant love-love.”

She laughed. “Now where did you learn to speak like that, Illy?”

Illy was the nickname she gave me.

“The colonel and I are just friends,” she reassured. “His parents passed away in a fire when he was young and your grandparents and I looked after him. We spent a lot of time together and I see him more as a brother.”

“A big brother?’

“I was the one taking care of him so a little one.”

That just confirms it. They were nothing more than friends.

I can clear him from my list of who I suspect might be my father.

As of now, the identity of my father still remained a mystery. He wasn’t present when I was born and he never visited once since then.

All the features I didn’t share with Trisha came from my father, so I could use those as clues.

My mother and I had heart-shaped chins, cute short noses, and even three little moles at the edge of our left eyes.

That was where our similarities ended.

Trisha’s hair was a shade darker than golden while mine was a bit darker with her shade mixed throughout. She also liked to style her hair in a side plait.

Her skin was a light peach and mine was a light tan.

But the most different features were our eyes. Hers were dark hazel, almost like the ones my previous self used to have while mine were gems of polished jade.

Those were the clues I had.

My father was a man that had brownish hair, tan skin, and green eyes.

The first thought I had was that maybe Trisha was widowed, but she seemed too young for that. We also would’ve visited a grave, but the only ones we did visit belonged to my grandparents, who died of a plague during her teen years.

And if my father did die, there was no doubt that Trisha would’ve told me countless things about him, but she was rather silent about him.

The second thought I had was that maybe I was the byproduct of love. But the more I thought about it, the harder that was to believe. Trisha would always brush off flirts aimed at her and she never made an attempt to hit on anyone.

The more I tried to find answers, the fewer my options became.

Trisha noticed that I had no interest in playing with the village kids, so she let me stay with her. Which I’d rather do. I would stay home and become her helper, bringing things she asked for and holding things for her when she was tending a patient.

During our free time, we took care of the garden and trees in our yard. I think planting was Trisha’s hobby as she took pride when they bore fruit. She also loved to show them off whenever visitors came over.

Back when I finally relearned how to walk, I was messing around in the yard and found an apple that must’ve dropped after a trip into town. Trisha found me playing with it and decided to plant its seed in the middle of the yard.

“Okay, Ilias, this tree will symbolize you,” she explained. “You two will grow together and help each other out. You will be the strong one first, so you must nurture it and give it all you have. It’ll take a while, but there will come a point where this tree will surpass you and it will repay all the love and friendship you gave it over the years.”

The Payne estate was the largest in our village. Our yard was big enough that one could mount a horse and ride around without worry of running into the cobblestone wall. There was a stable at the side of our house, but we only used it as a storage area.

We might have had a horse at one point that belonged to my grandfather.

As I grew up, Trisha loosened her watchful eye on me and so I snuck off to read the books in the house. I did this when she was busy with patients as she assumed that I was playing in the yard.

None of the books provided information about history as most of them were encyclopedias or novels. I knew there was a library somewhere in the village and I had an urge to visit and do research there instead, but it would be too suspicious for someone my age to be so interested in reading.

Reading shouldn’t even be a part of my skillset yet.

I could’ve simply snuck off, but I wanted Trisha to trust me.

That was also the reason why I haven’t tried to enter the mysterious room under the stairs. I found a boarded-up window while practicing swordsmanship with a stick. I did some investigations and discovered that the window would’ve been under the stairs and low and behold I found a door outline behind the dresser which meant there was a hidden room.

Trisha had a serious talk with me about this. “Ilias, you can play anywhere in this house, but you must not open that door. There will be a time when you can, but promise me to never open it on your own.”

I offered her my pinky and she gladly accepted it, wrapping hers around mine.