Eros slammed the sharp edge of his axe against the tree trunk he had chosen this morning, the cracking sound it made traveled through the forest, making him shudder. He was used to it by now. Used to the way his palm had turned hard with each swing of the heavy axe each morning and the way his small frame shook every time he hit the almost harder tree than steel. 

       Eros wiped the sweat from his face with the inside of the faded brown clothes he wore and gazed at the tree he had started cutting this morning. The tree was so massive and his hands barely span its edge and it was considered one of the smallest of the trees in the dense forest of Forestford.

       Eros smiled bitterly as he looked at the green forest, there were enough trees here to keep him employed and thoroughly busy throughout his life. He had begun his career in woodcutting three years ago when he turned fifteen and it had become apparent that none of the master craftsmen would take him in as an apprentice. 

     The master craftsmen like other villagers avoided anything to do with him mostly because of his unusual eyes— a blue so faded it almost looks like grey— but also because of the way his eyes always put them at the edge, made them uneasy for whatever reason. 

    Eros sighed and heaved the axe up for another swing, the axe was made of some black metal and it had been engraved with sigils that even an Empty like him could use freely. 

      "I guess I should be glad that even an Empty like me can find a job as a woodcutter," Eros muttered, bringing the axe down harder than he should and the rebound sent him staggering still clutching the axe that was now stuck to the wood, and yanking his shoulder back painfully. He scowled at the axe and the tree that barely had a dent with all the swinging had been doing.

       'Empty' was the word given to the people with no namespace in which to manipulate mana. A big disadvantage anywhere on Costide, their world because almost all jobs require the use of mana. 

   Even the woodcutter job requires the use of mana but Serena had pulled some strings to get him the job three years ago even though it was one of the most difficult jobs to get in the village since the villagers depended on the woods for money. 

     Eros loved the job though, the job gave him solace and gave him a purpose. He and Serena were the same in the way that they avoided people when they could. It was the reason Serena had made her home deep in the Forestford. The forest was a considerable distance from the village.

      Eros rubbed his aching shoulder as he thought of Serena, his adoptive mother. Left at her doorstep when he was just a baby and Serena has looked after him since then. Warmth flooded him as he thought of the grumpy woman who was his only family in the world. 

     At the same time, his eyes narrowed and his mouth twisted in worry he could not quite understand. He shook his head, dismissing the feeling, Forestford village was far away from the center of the continent or any major cities that it was safe but he still could not stop his hand from tightening on the axe handle. 

    Eros yanked the axe out of the tree and was preparing to bring it down when he heard it, a sound that pierced the air and froze the blood in his veins. His had clenched hard on the axe handle and he swung his eyes wide around noticing that the forest had suddenly become silent. It came again and this time his leg jerked him forward involuntar. 

     His heart hammered in his ears as he ran. He knew that sound, twisted as it was with pain and anger he knew it was Serena as he knew the sun would rise. He ran through undergrowth that snagged at him and ducked under branches as big as his torso. 

 Fear and anger made him faster than he had ever been in his life.

   It didn't take Eros long to bust through the forest and into the clearing where their house was supposed to be. He looked around in confusion, the wooden hut that was their house had been ripped to jagged splinters as if a storm had passed through but that wasn't what made him stop short. 

     It was the bodies or what was supposed to be bodies. They had been shredded, torn as if cut by thousands of Knives, blood, gore, and bones mixed with black clothes.   

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    The smell of blood and gore hit Eros and he heaved, his small body shaking. Something clattered on the ground and he jumped his muscles tensing, expecting whatever had done this to appear but it was the axe he didn't even know he was holding that had slipped from his hands.

     A weak cough followed by an even weaker voice called. "Eros, is that you?" 

       "Serena!" Eros shouted then he clapped his hands on his mouth looking around. What if those or whatever...people are still around? He picked his way through the gore, covering his nose and averting his eyes away from the remains that were once humans to look at his former home instead.

    Thick wooden walls had been ripped and turned to splinters. Some of the wood was blackened and charred, and the smell of burnt wood hung in the air. On the floor where the door should be was a huge gaping cater. Eros shuddered, trying not to imagine what could have caused that. 

     Eros knew one thing— a fight had happened here. A fight with mana users. Powerful mages had fought. He rubbed his arms as his eyes shifted among the ruin. 

     Eros's darkened when he saw Serena. He almost didn't recognize her, her clothes were soaked with blood and more blood and her legs were crushed while her left hand had been cut off cleanly. 

   Serena was leaning against the only untouched wall, she gave him a bloody smile, that didn't reach her eyes and she looked at him with....fear and regret. Eros rushed beside her and knelt beside her too afraid to touch her in case he might add to her injury. 

    "Ho..wh....," Eroa swallowed thickly his eyes roaming her, looking for what he could to help. He hated the helplessness that filled him. "How?" He whispered.

       Serena sighed and shook her head, his face shifted with readable emotion before her face clouded with pain again. "He should be here by now." She muttered. "He can't have been. impossible." She shook her head again.

      "Serena? What are you talking about? We should look for a healer! I should find a healer!" He was already turning but Serena's right hand gripped him with the strength Eros didn't know she still possessed. 

   He looked at her, surprised. He should be looking for a healer, gathering herbs that would help her. Serena said something but he had already turned to pick up a piece of a cloth he saw nearby. Maybe he could bind her legs to buy more time for the healers. 

                          "Eros!" 

        The sharp voice brought him back and he turned pleading eyes on her. Refusing to believe he was too late. That there was nothing he could do. He opened his mouth but she was already speaking.

    "Listen carefully, Eros. Always be wary of your back, it's always the target and often by people you trust." She smiled bitterly and continued. "Learn to lean on those you choose to work with." 

   She paused, seemingly gathering her thoughts. "Your mother... your mother wouldn't have wanted this you know. I don't want this but now they know where you are and there's no choice but to play. You have to play to win, Eros." Her hand on his shoulder tightened. "You have to win and live. I owe your mother that." 

      Eros started at Serena. "You knew my real mother?" 

    Serena smiled sadly. "She was the most wonderful person I knew," her smile sharpened in a way Eros had never seen before. "Her enemies would not say that about her of course." 

    Eros had spent his entire life thinking he had no family, nobody except Serena. He didn't care about some long-gone family, not when he had Serena. Who he should be helping now but his mouth formed the word. "What about my father?" 

   Her face darkened, her face turning briefly to that of a snarling cat and the air grew stiff as if the the wind were solid now. Then she sighed again and everything returned to normal as if nothing ever happened. 

                     "Let’s not talk about him." 

   Eros nodded, he did not want to see her face like that again. "We should look for healers...." 

     Stone crumbling was the only warning Eros got, he turned just in time to see a figure clad in black with his face covered, beside him was another black-clad figure. The first man opened his palm wide and floating on his palm was an orange fire the size of Eros's heart. The man started at Eros and Serena then hurled the fireball at them. 

    Eros flinched, moving unconsciously to shield Serena with his body, expecting pain and heat but nothing happened except for a loud banging noise. He looked up, awed and fear mixing.

         He saw that the man was already sending the second fire, the fireball slammed into.... a wall? A wall made of spinning air covered Serena and Eros like a bowl. 

     Serena groaned and Eros saw that her eyes were glowing, her brown eyes looked as if they had been lit from within. Serena can do this type of thing? She can use power like this? He knew she was not an Empty like him but this was an entirely different kind of mana manipulation, not the type that should be found in Forestford. 

   Somehow it was the least surprising thing that had happened today. He should have known with the mangled bodies a few feet from him.

   She shook her head at him "I can't hold it much longer, you have to leave. There are still a lot of the assassins in the forest searching. I have been out of practice for Seventeen years, I'm sorry. He should be near but he would be too late. He will protect you with his life. Trust him..." 

     A flash of light and a sharp cracking noise and Serena grunted, glaring at the two black-clad figures. The black-clad figures said nothing determined only to keep gesturing and sending fireballs and white energy balls. Even as Eros watched the air wall grew thinner with every hit it took.

       "Damn it," Serena shouted and her eyes glowed brighter and the air around was pulled oddly towards her, the air grew sharper somehow. 

         As Eros watched, the air wall that covered them broke apart and mixed with the splinters and stones on the ground then it blasted forward, ripping more of the ground towards the black-clad figures. Stones and pieces of broken wood hit the figures with such force it ripped through their bodies as it it were made of paper, they made no sound as they crumbled. Lifeless and bloody.  

      Eros's eyes widened in surprise, he opened his mouth but something gripped him. Something rigid and flexible lifted him from the ground and left him dangling in mid-air. He realized what was happening too late, as he was thrown through the air at eyes-watering speed. 

   His scream was swallowed by the wind. The only thing he heard was the whispers of Serens saying help was sorry and the drumming of his own heart.