SYLIFAN

This thing called thinking is pretty cool, at least that’s what my parents said. Now how would I go about that running thing? I can walk, so does that mean I just need to move my legs faster to run? Oh no, I wasn’t fast enough.

“Sylifan, what is our world called?”

As I’m being lifted up in the air by the beings in my nightmares, I can only ruefully reply, “Aphron…”

“And how many continents are there?”

“Five: Infira, Azwo, Shida, Irmo, and Qualogi.”

“Which one are we on?”

“Shida.”

“What is the name of the kingdom we live in and who is the ruler?”

“Uh… Solus and its ruler is Emperor L-Lu...Lumos! Chosen of Light.” Phew, the last time I got that wrong, they forced me to study for another 10 minutes. Might as well have been 10 years. How long is a year?

It’s been 3 weeks since the day I hit my head against the floor and these evil beings known as parents have recently decided it was time to teach me just about everything about the world we live in. So now I’m being carried to our family study again. In those three weeks, I’ve learned a bit about the geography and the basics of culture and history. It’s all kinda boring. But I did see something that sounds like it might not be as boring. I think it was something about aspects?

It said something like “Aspects are the fundamental elements of the world… Humans can use the mana in their bodies to command these aspects to do their will.”

And even better, I’m pretty sure it’s real-whatever being real entails. ‘Are those broccoli monsters I saw when I went to sleep real?’ Terrifying. Back to what I was saying earlier, 2 days ago it was raining and my sister came back from her tutors drenched, then my mom just pointed at her, and suddenly some air thing dried my sister. That sounds like fun. Oh and the rain was fun as well, though apparently I'm a little sick now.

But everytime I bring up anything related to aspects, my parents look at eachother and sigh. I wonder what that’s about. Then there’s my sister, Itheia. She’s great! She’s got really soft, dark-red hair that she won’t let me touch. Her eyes are really pretty. Papa told me she’s 5 years old-whatever that means-and that it’s my responsibility to protect her when I grow up. Mom proceeded to hit him on the head after that comment, though she seemed to agree.

I'm saved! This book is just about some vague pieces of history that no one cares about. They’re practically myths at this point. How do I understand what myths are? Good question. Anyways, my mom and dad won’t be too angry if I don’t remember this one. Though I still have to read it. Let’s see.

“Dalivanis, the day the world fell to disarray. This date is noted down as one of the earliest known parts of human history. It is said that on that day, a calamity capable of wiping out the entirety of Aphron came to be. Sparse records say that the sky darkened with an infernal luster and the earth trembled in terror. Yet, we know nothing of the event other than its name. It could have occurred centuries or even millennia ago. Nothing is written about who or what had stopped the calamity, or what they faced. Confoundingly, the time keeper of each generation has confirmed the existence of Dalivanis but have never been able to confirm any details regarding the event.”

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Well that’s just great, I’ve learned absolutely nothing interesting.

“Mom what's a cawamitee? Is it like a manatee? Also what’s a manatee?" I inquire after reading the short record.

Not missing a beat, whatever that idiom is meant to mean, my mother responds with, "A calamity, remember to enunciate your Rs and Ls Sylifan, is a major disaster… and, well, a disaster is a very big problem. Where in the world did you hear the word manatee from? I’ve never heard of anything of the sort."

I’ve learned nothing from this experience. Where’s Itheia when I need fun things to do? I could just ask. Actually I will.

“Mom, where’s Itha?”

“Your sister is in her room resting. Don’t go and bother her right now.”

No fun. What do I do now? Wandering around the study, I see nothing fun. There’s just books, a lot of books. I dread the day they make me read more of these life draining demons known as books. Out of the corner of my eye I notice something red and shiny. It’s coming from the main room. Proceeding with zero caution at all (never heard of this caution thing before), I make my way towards what appears to be logs under what I’m being told by the word things in my head to be a chimney. As I get closer to what is apparently a fireplace, the red lights increase in number and I can see them better. They’re like tiny birds made of burny stuff. What does burny mean?

“Sylifan get away from there!” comes the semi-panicked scream of my mother as she finally notices me walking towards fire, that, yes, I know is dangerous.

It can’t be that dangerous though. I proceeded to walk away from the fire, but not before trying to touch one of the fire birds. Weirdly enough it seemed like they were all trying to avoid me. Mean birds, I just want someone to play with.

And now I’ve been picked up, with my mother scolding me. I think it was worth it. My hands feel weird. Eh, back to napping.

FEI

How did my mother raise me? Too often I have to stop Sylifan from putting himself into danger. I deeply hope that he won’t do something that’ll put him in real danger, but he’s fairly reckless.

As much as I’d like to say he probably got it from his father, my mother would probably come out of her grave and hit me for saying something like that. I was not the most… obedient child. Sorry mom.

He will probably be fine in the end. He has shown that he’s capable of so much. Sure, he almost drowned in that fountain 2 weeks ago. Sure! He almost got run over by a horse… or 7. Sure! He might’ve just tried to walk into fire! But it’ll be fine!!

“Haaa… What am I going to do with this boy?” I say to myself aloud, exasperated. Itheia was never as active as Sylifan. At most she started a couple of fires. I know that might seem bad, but Sylifan almost managed to flood the town and that’s without an aspect. I still don’t know how he managed to convince that lovistin to provide rain to us for an entire month. Anyone who asks him will just get the reply “I told Rurru we needed water”.

…I’m lying to myself. I know why my boy is so special. This stupid lineage of mine! Why couldn’t it have just kept quiet! It did so with Itheia, why not Sylifan!

As of late, my thoughts have wandered to how I can tell Sylifan about his condition without causing him to panic. He deserves to know about what is going on with his life. I don’t want him experiencing what I did all those years ago. But how do I do that? He’s too young to handle this!

…What can I even do?