A cold mix of fury and fear traced chills down Ezekiel’s back as the girl in front of him introduced himself. Fury at the fact that he was being attacked by Horace’s sister the first day he’d left his house since their fight, and fear at the consequences of what was about to happen.
Glancing down the alley, he noticed a familiar flicker of shadows reaching up behind Hestia in a threatening manner.
“So, you’re the one who took my brother’s girl, huh?” Hestia said as she came to a stop a few feet away from Ezekiel. “Y’know, I was gonna cause a bit of a ruckus with that commoner, Drick, Dude, D-something. To make sure that he knew his place and stopped hanging out at the Alkena’s where he doesn’t belong, but it seems like the Ancients are smiling upon me today, since I get to teach an overreaching Void brat his place in the world.”
“Where might that place be, if you don’t mind me asking?” Ezekiel said in an attempt to buy himself some time to think. The shadows were further crawling up the walls but hadn’t reached out to grab any of the teens just yet.
“In the ground, six feet under, of course.” Hestia said with utter seriousness as she stomped on one of the wood pieces that had rolled close to the area where she was standing. It shattered into countless pieces underneath her boot.
For the first time in his new life, Ezekiel was truly shocked. He knew that there were stupid people in this world. Aldor and his burning hatred being one of them, but a part of him had always thought that Aldor’s behavior was due to a bit of elemental influence, so his death threats were out of rage more than anything.
But here was a girl, one he’d never met before, who was telling him that the only thing he and other Void Mages deserve was death.
The shadows on the wall reached further.
“Interesting.” Ezekiel said as he put on a brave face and locked eyes with Hestia. “So, I guess this is my chance to deal with you like I dealt with your brother? Or at least my chance to see if I can?”
Ezekiel had no intention of fighting, of course, but his words had two effects. The first, was that Hestia and her gang got angry. Hestia in particular got to her feet with a crack as she stomped the ground as hard as she could. From this, Ezekiel could tell that she was definitely a Tier two mage, if on the lower end of power for a Tier two.
The second, was that the shadows seemed to struggle for a minute before going back to normal. Luckily, it seemed like none of the older teens noticed anything wrong.
“What was that you little brat!?” Hestia asked with fury in her voice. “It sounds to me like you think you’re better than my brother, maybe even better than us.”
“Oh, you understand the common tongue, how great.” Ezekiel said. “Now be a good girl and give me a moment.”
“Wha-”
“HAAAAAALLLLLPPPPP” Ezekiel screamed at the top of his lungs, channeling a single mote of his seventy-two motes of Void mana to enhance his body enough to make the windows and boards laying loose along the alley rattle, forcing Hestia and her followers to cover their ears and flinch back lest they burst their eardrums.
Looking at the three teens guarding the alleyway, he noticed a slight flicker behind them as one of the boys raised a hand towards the entrance of the alley, and the girl next to him raised a hand towards the sky. The flicker faded away and the entrance returned to normal.
From this Ezekiel could tell that the boy was likely a Radiant Mage and the girl a Tempest Mage. The fact that no one was coming to see what was going on after that scream meant that the girl had put up a zone of silence, and the boy had likely put up a simple light screen to project the image of an empty alley. Their eye colors matched his assumptions, but whilst they were of concern, it was the boy who’d grabbed him that was causing him worry, as his eyes were a dark indigo color.
While he wasn’t letting it show on his face, Ezekiel was internally freaking out as he made these observations, and internally confirmed that discretion would be the better part of valor in this instance, as there was no need to get hurt when he had nothing to protect
So, while the four young adults were recovering, Ezekiel dashed forward to pick up as many of the wood pieces he had been gifted as possible before jumping back to a stack of crates lining the alley’s walls.
Jumping on top of them, Ezekiel began running as fast as he could, without the use of his mana, to get past Hestia and make his way further into the alley. He made sure to hop from crate to crate, as he knew that stepping foot on the ground was a sure-fire way to get his feet taken out from underneath him.
“GET HIM!” Hestia screeched as she and her posse gave chase.
Ezekiel had just made it around the corner when he saw that there weren’t any more crates down this part of the alley. Looking around, he saw a stack of pipes laying on a barrel near him. Picking one up, he turned and braced himself, knowing that the girl with the Tempest affinity would be the first to round the corner as she boosted her speed with gusts of wind.
Using another mote of his mana, he briefly boosted his strength to throw a few of the pipes at where he assumed the girl would be when she rounded the corner.
“Oof!” Ezekiel gave a fist pump in triumph as a couple of the pipes made contact, hitting her right in the face, and if the muffled crack he heard was any indication, he also broke her nose, thus forcing her to stumble as she lost her footing and fell to the ground.
He didn’t stay to admire his work, however, as he knew that he didn’t have time to stick around.
Using another mote of mana, bringing him down to blow seventy, Ezekiel leapt off the barrel with the pipes and launched himself up to a gutter pipe and began climbing upwards. He was lighter and nimbler than the older teens, so it was unlikely that they would be able to do the same, as their weight would pull the gutter from its wall mountings.
Of course, all thoughts of getting away via rooftop went out the window as a ball of hazy dark purple mist splattered across the wooden walls just above his head.
The mist immediately seeped into the walls, which started to rot and decay as the wood began to die. Realizing that he was going to fall no matter what he did, Ezekiel used what momentum he still had to shift his position in the air as he let go of the pipe and fell to the ground with a tuck and roll.
He immediately turned towards the four teens to see that the Death Mage had his hand out with a glowing purple mist coiling around it.
“HA! Good one Tristan! This time make sure you get that little brat right in the face!” The other boy, the Radiant Mage said as he finished helping the Tempest girl to her feet.
She was holding her nose with a handkerchief that the boy had given her. It was covered in blood, and she was crying as he pulled her nose back into place.
“Little bastard broke Emma’s nose.” The Radiant Mage said.
The Death Mage, Tristan, didn’t say anything as he looked around the alleyway. The others didn’t notice it, but it was clear to both Ezekiel and Tristan that the shadows were moving.
“... Regardless of what he’s done so far, I’m not about to kill a kid just because he pissed you off.” Tristan said as he lowered his hand, letting the mist around it fade away. “Don’t let him scream like that again and you’ll be fine, now that he can’t get off the ground Hestia can keep him from running. Maybe Emma can even catch him this time around if he does. Either way, I’m done here.”
Hestia, Emma, and the other boy were all shocked at Tristan’s words. They’d spent most of the day staking out Drew’s family store in order to cause a ruckus for what had happened to Horace three days ago. Tell him that he needed to stay away from Shari and the rest if he knew what was good for him.
The fact that Ezekiel was here was all the better for them, as far as Hestia was concerned, as it meant that she could take out some miss-placed aggression on the one who her brother told her had ‘stolen’ Shari from him.
“The hell you mean you’re leaving?” The Radiant Mage asked. “He’s right there, let’s finish this!”
Emma, who was still holding her bleeding nose, and the Radiant Mage looked angry at Tristan’s words. Hestia, on the other hand, didn’t take her eyes off Ezekiel after Tristan mentioned the possibility of him running away again.
“I mean exactly what I said, Markus. I am done, and I am leaving.” Tristan stated as he immediately broke into a run and made his way as far from the group as possible.
“Tristan! Hey, Tristan!” The now named Markus called out as Tristan turned the corner and made his way out of the alley. “Spirits be damned! What the hell do you think is wrong with him?”
Emma just looked confused as she plugged up her nose, whilst Hestia just started marching forward. Each step shifted the ground beneath Ezekiel’s feet until he had sunk down to his knees into the ground. The earth had also reached upwards, looking his arms in place out to his sides, and forcing him to drop the remaining wood pieces that he had managed to grab before.
“It doesn’t matter. This kid’s the son of a guard captain anyway, so killing him isn’t an option. We’d get too much heat from the guards if we did, and even our nobility wouldn’t keep us from facing jail time or exile.” Hestia said as she loomed over Ezekiel, who had appeared to have a defeated and resigned look on his face. “We’ll just break some bones to make sure that he knows better than to make friends with nobility. If his limbs just happen to be too broken for him to get home before someone else comes by and finishes the job, oh well.”
“Ha! Sounds good to me. We’ll just have to make sure we take a piece of proof to Father Alphonse. To prove we’re doing the Radiant Lord’s work.” Markus said as he formed a ball of light in the palm of his hand.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
However, the shadows didn’t change with the new source of light. Something that no one in the alley but Ezekiel noticed.
“By the Ancients.” Ezekiel said as he put his face in his hands. “Please don’t tell me that you are all cultists, are you?”
Hestia and Ellen looked indifferent as they heard the accusation made by Ezekiel. Markus on the other hand, got angry.
“You little brat!” He screamed as he raised his hand and shot a beam of light directly at Ezekiel's face.
Ezekiel grunted in pain as the light hit him, but it was Hestia that was freaking out the most.
“Markus! What the hells? I told you we can’t just kill him. You want to burn his limbs a bit with lasers, that's fine, but don’t go for the head!” Hestia yelled.
Markus didn’t seem to care, however, as he continued firing a beam of concentrated light at Ezekiel’s face. It was too bright for Hestia or Emma to tell, but as the one firing the beam, Markus knew that he wasn’t actually doing anything to Ezekiel as he pushed more and more of his magic into his attack.
“Why... won’t ...you...” Markus grunted as he focused more and more magic into his beam.
Hestia and Emma finally realized something was wrong when they didn’t hear Ezekiel screaming in pain. Instead, they hear just two words from him.
“Mom! Help!”
The moment the word ‘help’ was uttered, the shadows immediately burst from all around the alley. Hestia and Emma were restrained similarly to Ezekiel; arms out, legs together, causing Emma’s nose to start bleeding again. Their mouths were also covered, preventing them from calling out.
Markus, on the other hand, was fully bound, with only a single eye not bound by shadows.
The shadows continued to creep higher and higher, until all four of them were surrounded in nothing but darkness, yet somehow there were all able to see each other just fine. As if they were standing in front of a black painted wall, rather than in total darkness.
Suddenly, a human figure pulled itself from the wall of shadows surrounding them.
“Oh! My poor baby!” Evelyn cried out as she rushed forward, shadows sinking into Ezekiel’s restraints and breaking them apart, as she reached down to pick Ezekiel up and hold him in a tight and loving embrace. “Did those mean little insects hurt you? Why didn’t you ask for help sooner? If you knew I was there, then you should’ve let me handle things instead of saying you’d handle it yourself. Reya insisted that we see what you could do when you said you’d deal with this.”
Speaking of Reya, a large panther crept from the shadows. She circled the restrained teens and let loose a rumbling growl as she glared at them. She didn't quite tower over the restrained teens, but her appearance did cause the smell of urine to emanate from Markus and Emma.
Hestia, on the other hand, just looked angry as she continued to glare at Ezekiel and Evelyn.
“Sorry mom. I kind of figured that this was my best chance to see how well a dealt with Tier two Mages. It’s not like the guards at the Alkena’s actually use their magic when they spar with us after all.” Ezekiel said as he attempted to defend his actions.
“Well given that you don’t have any magic to use, I’d say you did fairly well, but you’re still going to be helping me out with the shop for two weeks instead of going to the cathedral.” Evelyn stated as she held Ezekiel at arm’s length.
“What? But I need to go back as soon as possible! I need to do my work!” Ezekiel complained.
“No buts, mister. I can’t punish you with grounding, as that’s more of a punishment for Shari and your other friends, so I need to take away the stuff you like doing instead.” Evelyn explained. “Now go and pick up the rest of your soon to be gifts. I think most of them can still fit in here.”
After handing Ezekiel the bag that Macy had given him earlier, Evelyn gently pushed Ezekiel in the direction of where most of the wood pieces were laying scattered about.
Walking back down the alley, and taking his time to pick up the pieces, whilst ignoring the possibilities of what was happening around the corner, Ezekiel let his thoughts wander.
He knew that he wouldn’t have been able to fight four Tier two Mages on his own. Not without using any magic himself. But he had at least thought he’d be able to get away. This event had really shown him just how far he still had to go, because he could tell, even if he had used his mana, there was still a high chance that he wouldn’t be able to get away.
The four teens had barely used any magic at all, as they didn’t want to cause so much trouble that they caught the guards’ attention. That beam of light was enough to tell him that, if they’d been taking this seriously, he’d be either broken and bleeding, or dead right now.
He’d used nearly two thirds of his remaining mana to boost the protective enchantments his mother had stitched into his clothing, and that was barely enough to withstand that attack for as long as he did.
Worse yet, whilst it seemed like he was straining to channel his mana, Ezekiel could tell that Markus would’ve been able to keep going until well after Ezekiel had run out of mana.
Tier two Mages had ten times the mana, at minimum, that the lowest ranking Tier one Mages after all, and he wasn’t even Tier one yet.
CRACK
Ezekiel was yanked from his thoughts as the piece of wood he was holding shattered in his grip. He closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down as he realized he had just wasted yet another mote of his precious mana.
Sitting at only twenty-two motes of Void mana left, Ezekiel turned to walk back to where his mother was still dealing with Hestia and her stooges.
Coming around the corner, Ezekiel saw that Reya was nowhere to be seen, and the three that had attacked him were unconscious next to a pile of crates.
“Will we be turning them in, to the guards?” Ezekiel asked.
“No. If we did that ourselves then there might be some issues that we’ll need to deal with. Unfortunately, these kids are all a part of noble families from the inner city. Lesser nobles, and I know for a fact that they don’t even have any Tier three family members, but they could still stir things up if it comes down to it.” Evelyn explained.
“But you heard what Markus said. He’s tied to the Cult of Light!” Ezekiel exclaimed.
“Words are not enough in this instance. Besides, even though they aren’t an official organization within Harkem, they still have sway with the Count, who holds his brother’s seat.” Evelyn stated.
Ezekiel fell quite at that. Here was someone who likely had ties to an organization that wanted to kill him just for being born, yet there was nothing they could do about it.
“Ezekiel, I’ve alerted your father about the situation. Reya should be back home soon, and there will be guards coming by in an hour or so that will pick these three up for back-alley brawling. So long as they’re smart, they won’t mention anything about what they tried to do.” Evelyn said as she ruffled Exekiel’s hair. “Now c’mon. We’ll go pick up your sisters and head straight home. You’ve got an apology gift to make, and I want it done by tomorrow afternoon so you can go and give it to Shari.”
“What about Tristan?” Ezekiel asked. “That guy almost got closer to killing me than this idiot.”
“Tristan didn’t actually do anything to you though, did he? Honestly, if he had told his friends that I was here, and they had all just left then I wouldn’t have done anything.” Evelyn said. “As it is, he was smart enough to leave, which means he’s smart enough to learn that he shouldn’t be doing these things.”
“Or he’s smart enough to learn how to pick out easier targets.” Ezekiel rebutted.
“That’s a possibility, but we can’t let what ifs, and possibilities define how we treat other people. If that were the case, then hatred for Void Mages would be justified, as it’s possible for them to become Brood Lords.” Evelyn stated in response.
Ezekiel didn’t say another word as they walked away from the people who’d tried to break him not five minutes ago. Fear gripping his heart as he knew that this would happen again, and fury blazing in his soul as a determination to face such problems himself settled deeper inside him.
----------------------------------------
The rest of the day and evening were fairly uneventful for Ezekiel as he and his mother picked up Wendy and Ellen. Given the year difference, there was no chance of running into Shari or the others when they went to the Church sponsored school. Ezekiel couldn’t help but think that the different areas for different years were well thought out in this instance.
Ezekiel ultimately spent the evening familiarizing himself with the different tools in his new kit, while also showing off as best he could to Wendy and Ellen, who were very interested in their brother’s new ‘toys’ as they called them.
When he explained what he was going to use them for, they immediately pestered him into promising to make them something as well. He tried to say no at first, but when the two brought out the waterworks he finally relented. Agreeing to make them a set of matching bird pendants in their elemental colors when he had the chance.
Luckily, after explaining that he would need to practice beforehand if he wanted to make anything good, his sisters soon left him alone, and he was finally left to work on his gift for Shari.
Taking out the large number of wood pieces, he went through what was available to figure out what would be best to use and what would be good to practice with. Not realizing just how drawn into his work he was getting as he fell into a practically meditative state.
Dividing the piece by quality and color, he finally got to work, spending essentially the entire night working on trying to carve something simple, but unique, following the instructions for the basic shapes provided by the notes Drew had given him.
He settled on a simple dog pendant. It was shaped using a somewhat circular and flat dome as a base, with small points for the ears. Material and lines were slowly carved away until details were made visible, and it slowly began to look more and more like a dog, than a rounded piece of wood.
He ended up using a little over half the waste pieces of wood as practice, before going through three pieces of the good wood to make the final product with a red piece of wood. But finally, he had a little red dog pendant that he could give to Shari as a gift.
Looking up from his desk, he wondered how much time had passed, only to see that the Sun was now starting to rise. He was shocked to see that he had stayed up the whole night, and that he hadn’t rested or eaten anything.
Knock knock knock
“Ezekiel, are you still up?” Evelyn asked as she knocked on the door.
“Yes-” Ezekiel cut himself off as he heard how hoarse his voice was. It seemed he hadn’t drunk any water recently either.
Opening the door and entering Ezekiel’s room, Evelyn took in the wood chips and scratches that lined Ezekiel’s hands. Still dressed in her bed clothes, Evelyn took in Ezekiel’s appearance with a look of exasperation on her face as she saw her son’s sorry state. His eyes had dark circles under them, and it was obvious that he was barely staying awake.
“Come here.” Evelyn said as she pulled Ezekiel to his bed. “I know it’s morning now, but you need some sleep. I’ll wake you up, so that you’ll still have time to get to the Alkena’s after school lets out.”
Evelyn tucked Ezekiel into his bed as she said this.
“Did you finish your little gift?” Evelyn asked.
Ezekiel nodded before pointing to the desk he had been working at before quickly falling asleep.
Evelyn went to the desk and took a look at the gift. Her eyes opened in shock as she saw the detail that went into it. It was a simple flat pendant with a cartoon dog face shaped into it, but there were no uneven lines from what she could tell, nor were there any cracks in the wood from digging into it too hard. Though, from what she could tell, this was certainly not his first attempt, if the mess around the desk was any indication.
This was definitely more work than she thought Ezekiel would be able to do. Even if he did work for more than twelve hours straight.
It was roughly eight hours later that Ezekiel was woken up, with roughly an hour or two to spare before he needed to head to the Alkena’s. So, he decided to spend his time meditating, in order to try and get back at least some of the mana he’d lost.
Lucky for him, it seemed like today was a good day, as he managed to accumulate eight whole motes of mana, bringing him back up to thirty motes even.
This brought a smile to his face as he quickly grabbed some food from the ice box and left his home, locking the door behind him after making sure he had Shari’s gift in hand, as well as the bag and notes he’d gotten from Drew and Macy. He’d return the notes and bag to Drew today, as he’d assumed that Drew would be at the Alkena’s after school today.
He stopped by his mother’s store, ducking though it on his way, to say goodbye and make sure that she knew where he was going. She called goodbye back and left him to head to the Alkena’s, knowing that he’d be safe, as he’d taken that path countless times before, unlike yesterday where he’d gone to several areas that were new to him.
It wasn’t until he’d reached the Alkena’s that Ezekiel’s mood turned sour.
Standing outside the gates to the manor were several more guards than usual, as well as several people with Guild sashes tied around their arms, all black or gold in color, and each with a bonded Spirit nearby, as well as a couple of Church of Ten acolytes.
Whilst he wasn’t sure what to expect, Ezekiel could tell that his enforced break from the Church was at an end. As the Alkena guards noticed his presence, waving him down as they did, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was too late to turn around and go home.