There was nothing mystical about our water, but in the warm bath all my pain seemed to evaporate with the steam. I soaked in the tub for some time before I heard a series of knocks to the beat of ‘The Heroes Blessing’ at the door.
“Master Fey, the lord of the house wishes to see you right away.” Sebastian declared, with his usual dramatic flare.
Emilia must’ve been pretty upset if she went and tattled to my father.
Water sloshed across the floor as I got out of the tub. I didn’t bother cleaning it, most of it would drain on its own anyway and Sebastian would get the rest.
Sebastian had prepared a clean set of clothes in a neat stack next to the sink. A plain black shirt and dark pants with matching black socks; the outfit was rather mundane, but it was comfortable so I didn’t complain.
When I opened the bathroom door, the butler was waiting with a pair of matt black boots and a scowl that told me he was anything but pleased to serve me. I mockingly returned his expression then took the boots and went on to my fathers study.
It was a room filled with both joy and sadness for me. As a boy my father would often read me stories by the window between the bookshelves. As he read I’d stare out into the yard watching Kyla practice magic. At that time, she was only learning basic forms, but I’d imagine she was one of the heroes.
I never noticed as a child, but nearly every book on the shelves was a children's story.
As soon as I entered, my father asked a rather strange question. “Power. What does this word mean to you?”
After a moment of hesitation I answered, “Strength I guess. For most people, probably strong runes or a spirit companion. Kyla seems to think her magic is enough, but Sven said she still needs a rune. Power can be a lot of… uhm.” I stopped talking when I realized I was starting to ramble. I didn’t really think he was listening anyway.
A grunt of acknowledgment was the only reply my father gave.
For several minutes he sat silently behind his desk, analyzing the pages of an ancient fable. “King Trestin and The Last Battle For Vania” the story was a familiar bedtime favorite from when I was little. However, I struggled to understand why my father was so diligently studying the pages of a child’s fairytale.
As he continued to read I found my gaze wandering around his office at various gadgets and screens. On his desk was an assortment of experimental technology. Most I didn’t recognize, but one looked familiar. It was similar to the mana sword my father had made for me using a mana crystal to supply the mana. There was also a customizable auxiliary device unlike any other CAD. It belong to my father and I had no idea what it was capable of, but it’s energy glowed purple instead of blue.
A screen was open on the wet bar behind my father. It had probably been on for a while, because it was in screensaver mode repeating the same message over and over. “Nowhere is safe except our SAFE society, where serenity abounds for everyone…”
Everyone with magic, I silently corrected.
The heroes might keep out the beasts, but they can’t stop prejudice.
“…remember, enforcers are there to keep you safe.”
Dreading the silence, and hoping to move things along, I swallowed then cleared my throat. “Father, I’m sorry for disappointing you,” I began with a whisper. Then, in a louder voice, continued, “but I promise I won’t embarrass our family during the entrance exam.”
“What’s this about disappointing me?” He mused, wrinkling his eyebrows but not looking up from his book.
For a moment I stood dazed, wondering why else he might’ve sent for me. When I couldn’t come up with anything I asked, “didn’t Emilia tell you about today’s lesson? I thought that’s why you called for me.”
“She did, she told me that you’ve improved quite a bit over this past year. Not only your technique, but particularly your endurance. She seemed very impressed.”
Endurance… is that how she described things.
I barely managed to suppress a frown as I recalled her brutal instruction.
“From what she said, I got the impression things went well, but if there’s something she left out…” Titus raised an eyebrow, closed his book, and for the first time since the conversation began, his attention was entirely on me.
I waited a moment to be sure he was done speaking. A minute passed and he still didn’t finish his sentence. He only looked at me with a patient curiosity as if he was waiting for me to fill in the missing information. Another minute passed in the same way before my father leaned forward and rested his head on one of his hands. I knew I had to say something, but I didn’t want to admit my own embarrassment, or make Emilia sound like a liar.
“No, no... I just meant since I can’t use magic and all,” I blurbed without thinking.
There’s no way he’s going to buy that lame explanation! Fuck, why didn’t I say—
“Listen son, magic isn’t everything. Lenora and I… Well, we were surprised when we realized that you didn’t have the aptitude, but that doesn’t mean we’re disappointed or embarrassed by you.”
Or, maybe he would.
I never thought he cared. My mother definitely did, but dad had always taken a more objective approach to parenting.
Sure he read to me as a boy, but he still read the same stories long after my interest faded.
Either way, I thought it best to just run with it. “I know, but I’m still the only noble with no magic.”
His eyebrows pressed together as his lips pulled slightly down. “Do you know what I think, Fey?”
“Sometimes I wish I did, but no… I don’t know what you think.” I answered honestly.
“If I had different parents then it wouldn’t matter if I had magic.’ You’re probably thinking something like that, but it isn’t true. Lord knows your mom hasn’t cast a spell in years.”
The difference is, she stopped casting by choice. I fought the urge to roll my eyes as the thought passed through my mind.
Anyway, he couldn’t have been more wrong. For me magic was more about proving myself. If I couldn’t use it, then most people would never respect me. Without magic, my dream of being a hero would remain only that. I’d live my entire life being called inept, nabler, beast meat, or worse.
Rather than explain all that I just nodded and said, “yea… something like that.”
“Fey I don’t care if you have magic or not,” he said as he reached into a drawer. “I was planning to save this until after you passed the entrance exam, but I think I’ll give it to you now.”
He placed a small rectangular box on the desk between us and motioned for me to open it.
Receiving a gift directly from my father was rare. He never forgot our birthdays and always had something prepared for us, but somehow, even as a failed hero candidate, he was busy as a politician and frequently gone for months at a time.
I opened the small box expecting a pen or perhaps an ornament for my sword's hilt. Instead there was a chain with a silver shield dangling from it. The shield was a bit smaller than my palm, it had a snake engraved on the front and three gems, one at each of its points. After briefly fingering the engraving I returned the chain to its box. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad you like it, but that isn’t why I called you. Actually I was going to apologize to you and your sister. Where is Ky by the way?”
“Apologize, for what?” I asked, ignoring his question, knowing he didn’t expect an answer.
That’s odd, the last time he apologized for something was…
Thinking of my fathers work, I realized what this was about.
“…Unfortunately by the time I arrive I’ll have missed the entrance exam.”
I missed most of what he’d said, but his last words were enough to confirm what I’d suspected. Work was pulling him away again.
I was used to him missing important events and didn’t think I cared anymore. However I found it surprisingly difficult to reconcile with that in light of my current struggle to keep from frowning.
“Thanks for the chain,” I said, barely managing a smile, then turned to leave.
----------------------------------------
Back in my room, my custom feed alert was tinkling away, it was the special jingle I set up for heroe deployments.
I had a favorite, of course; he stared down at me from everywhere I looked. My walls were layered in holographic posters of his exploits. My bookshelves held every record of his deeds; serialized, novelized and in an unauthorized screenplay I bought off a shady collectors site. Pyro figurines held my collector cards in their poseable arms, I liked that display arrangement.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
That alert, though. It was the alert set only for the heavy hitters. It was either Pyro or Irina, and judging by the chatroom activity, I was already late to the party. I flicked on my holoprojector and the feed went wild, ‘casters were showing footage from pro setups, rigs held out high rise windows, even people cowering in the wreckage were broadcasting from their comms.
“Get right into the action with #LameGoose I might have a limp leg, but that won’t stop me getting closer to the action and then any other streamer.” His advertisement ran on repeat. LameGoose was known for being a crowd pleaser and pulling dangerous stunts, to get arms length from the Heroes.
I’d watched his stream before, I vowed never again after he bumped a nine year old girl out of a broken window. He didn’t mean to bump her, but that didn’t stop him capturing the gore when an aura fang launched itself toward her. I watched in horror as it ripped and pulled at her innards. I’ll never forget the way she screamed as entrails and blood spattered all over the lense.
“Oh fuck, that’s gross. Keep your lunch to yourself or my viewers won’t be able to see!” He shouted.
The beast growled and walked away, but LameGoose thought it would please the streamers if he got a close up shot of what was left behind.
I had nightmares for weeks after that, but LameGoose got even more popular. I checked his broadcast just to see how it was doing and there were over a billion viewers on the stream.
Is everyone in Vania watching this guy, what the fuck!
There were a plethora of other streamers to choose from, but I was looking for one in particular.
A semi pro holocaster I had viewed before, he had a quality rig and he wasn’t ruthless like most of the others.
With a silent flash of colors, chaos bloomed in my quarters. A city in flames and roars of bestial fury momentarily overwhelmed my senses. Then sounds of pitiable human screams shook the night. “This is Sh33tstorm, coming live and unfiltered from Baldier, we’ve just been told that Pyro is en route so this should get—”
With a blink of static sh33tstorm’s feed cut, dropping me back into the lounge. Chat was going wild:
#Did Sh33tstorm just get flamed?#
#Yeah, black dragon, i caught it on my feed# “watch the moment Sh33tstorm is incinerated. Death of a Legendary Streamer”
Nope!
I found a random stream with less tacky advertising. “#Brave4U streaming live from Baldier.”
“If you’re just joining us then you’re in luck. Pyro, the flame of heaven, has just arrived.”
Unlike the previous stream there were only whispers and hopeful gasps in the background.
A girl standing with what might’ve been her parents, pointed out the window. “Look, there he is! We’re saved. Pyro will save us.”
She looked young, maybe school aged. Her hair was pulled into pigtails. Her face was covered in grime and ash, like the faces of her parents. Though her optimism wasn’t mirrored on the faces of her parents.
Baldier was a border city not all that different from the one I lived in. Well I supposed the difference would be that Sordiev had never been attacked while this was already the third time in a few months that Baldier had become a battle site. Perhaps that was why so many of the streamers had gathered there.
When #Brave4U went to the window, I saw that half the city had already been razed to the ground. Violet flames danced victoriously atop the rubble as dozens of mages worked to put them out. Even with magic, the flames seemed unquenchable.
An earth shaking roar drew my attention to the sky where the hulking form of a black dragon hovered menacingly above his masterpiece.
His purple eyes glowed like ether in the night sky. Violet fire danced between the dragon's white teeth. Smoke bellowed from each of the beast’s nostrils as it faced off with Pyro.
Pyro was like a bug next to the dragon. If not the white fire cloaking his body, he’d have been completely unnoticeable.
Seeing such a terrible beast and the destruction already wrought, I felt bad for my earlier excitement at the alert. Seeing Pyro in action would be a treat for me, but what about those whose lives had been lost or upended like the girl and her family.
“Pyro will save what’s left.”
Brave definitely didn’t have professional quality equipment, but it was enough to make me feel like I was right there, watching as the dragon's mighty wings spread the purple flames with each flap.
Pyro darted around the beast, shooting fireballs rapidly as he went. Pyro’s incredible speed was difficult to follow as he zoomed around the Dragon. I was only able to track him by watching for the white fire he wielded and following the flames to their origin, but by then he was already somewhere else.
The dragon wasn’t slow by any measure, but it couldn’t keep up with Pyro’s speed. When a violet glow surrounded the dragon, it became apparent that speed didn’t matter, all of Pyro’s attacks were either absorbed or redirected by the violet glow.
The dragon seemed not to mind Pyro at all and resumed its rampage. The beast flew away from the city then immediately returned, spreading a fresh blanket of purple flames across the city.
“Come on, we need to get out of here!” Brave urged as the beast flew towards the building he was in with the girl and her family. “Sorry viewers, gonna have to cut the feed.”
I jumped to another stream as quickly as I could and hoped it would be in the same area. I wanted to see if they made it out.
I didn’t notice the streamer's name or advertisement and when I joined the stream, I couldn’t make out anything she said over the sounds of roaring fire and unadulterated horror in the chaotic scene.
The dragon's purple flames and a collapsed building had all but trapped this group on a crowded street. The dragon kept making passes over the area, kicking off buildings and spreading more fire.
It was only a matter of time before everyone gathered here would die. Some tried climbing the pile of rubble, but most were caught up in a frenzy as more and more people crowded into the narrow alleyways.
Pyro flew above the dragon and began blanketing it in white fire. The fire seemed to be slowly eating away at the glowing energy that protected the beast. The crowd stopped compressing and cheered at the sight.
The dragon seemed to be weighed down by the fire. It lost its balance and hurtled through the upper levels of a high rise. People and debris were sent flying from the crash.
Panic and horror only grew when Pyro’s white fire fell from the dragon into the crowd.
“Oh shit!” Someone screamed.
“Move, move, fucking move!”
“Ahh!”
Chaos consumed the scene completely. I didn’t know which voice belonged to the streamer, but the crackle of fire grew louder as a warm white glow enveloped the scene. The images distorted then faded completely.
Fuck! I wasn’t going to waste time trying to find another stream only to have it cut off when the streamer died or they disconnected for some other reason.
There was an official website with a dedicated live stream. The stream was captured by a robotic observer, which was programmed to stay far from the action, but at least I’d be able to see what happened.
When I connected to the stream, the observer was floating above the city. I could see where the dragon had crashed, Pyro hovered above it, continuing to pour fire on the beast.
Isn’t it dead already? Why doesn’t he stop?
Then, with a swipe of its tail, the dragon sent Pyro crashing through several buildings like a rag doll. The observer automatically tracked Pyro, keeping the scene focused on him.
“Come on… get up,” I said under my breath.
There’s no way that was enough to kill him… right?
Some evacuees in the alley below panicked as a wall groaned and crumbled above them. Stones fell like hail, but clattered harmlessly on the ground.
The tense group relaxed and three of them began rushing towards one who had already gotten to safety. He stood at the end of the alley, hurrying them along as the path back was already blocked.
I recognized this group. Not the man at the end of the alley, but the girl and her parents. It was the same group from #Brave4U’s stream.
Is that man Brave?
Then, the girl twisted her ankle on a crack in the pavement and stumbled, hard, into the compromised wall. Blood ran down her cheek and her eyes rolled as she bounced backward and fell unconscious on the ground.
I could almost hear the crack when her head thumped against the cement. The two people running ahead of her didn’t seem to notice until the man at the end of the alley jerked with horrified sympathy. He hesitated at first, but eventually ran past the other two evacuees to help the girl.
Seeing that they seemed safe, I started scanning for Pyro again.
As the man reached the girl, a grinding groan came from the wall next to them. It seemed to be teetering with the wind. Brave picked up the young girl and hurried back toward the end of the alley, but he only made it halfway before the teetering wall fell into the adjacent building and started to crumble as it scraped its way down.
“Nooo!” I yelled as I helplessly watched bricks and metal pipes plummet above them. I wanted to help, but this was only a holofilm. The actual people were half a continent away.
I watched in tears as the parents turned back from the end of the alley. Brave had laid the girl next to a solid section of wall and used his own body to protect her from the falling debris.
As the bricks continued to fall Pyro rolled out from inside the crumbling building. Not realizing what happened below, he kicked off the wall and flew off.
”No, no, no, no!“ I protested as the observer turned away from the alley. “What about Brave? What about the girl!” I cried, wondering whether Pyro would’ve saved them if he’d known.
When Pyro reached the dragon, it was already back in the air. Pyro rejoined the fight, then the image glitched and flickered off.
For a moment I thought the observer had been destroyed too, then the dragons roar nearly startled me out of my seat.
Kyla playfully poked her face into my room and I realized the door was open, that was why the image got disrupted. My sister smiled in the irritating way she did when she wanted a favor.
“Feyyy,” she sang. “Want to help out your sister?”
“Go away! I’m trying to watch something,” I shouted over the noise of a roaring dragon.
“It’s just another hero fight. I’ll spoil it for you. Monster rampages through the city. Hero swoops in, saves some people, blasts the monster with some powerful magic and boom bam shabang! The whole thing is over and the city is safe again.”
It wasn’t that simple, but she hadn’t just seen #Brave sacrifice himself to try and protect a young girl, who might still die anyway. I doubted she’d ever seen any of the heros save a city. It was always messy, never clean and simple like everyone liked to believe.
The two of us just stared at each other in awkward silence until she stepped all the way into my room.
“Come on, Fey. I need your help,” she whined.
“Aren’t you a bit old to be acting like this?”
“Aren’t you a bit old to be obsessing over heroes?” she shot back.
Again, there was silence
Wait… silence… is it over? I wondered, frustrated by the interruption. “Get out Ky!” I yelled as I scrambled to shove her out of my room then slammed the door.
“Is that a no to the favor?” she yelled back as the holofilm’s images returned.
The city was a wreck but no one was evacuating anymore. Instead some were doing their best to contain and put out the purple fires while others searched giant piles of rubble for survivors.
Neither the dragon nor Pyro could be found anywhere within the scene. I still couldn’t see the alley where Brave had died either. With an expected beep, the holofilm came to a stand still then faded away.
“Damn it, Kyla!”