20th Aurum

Emilia stood with a blank face as her mother smothered her with a plethora of hugs and kisses.

'This is embarrassing. People are watching!' She squirmed.

'You will come back to me, right?' Julia asked with worried eyes. She preferred the ordinary life and hard work, the tales of the mighty never excited her. Her daughter would be the first in her family to lead such a different and unknown life. She couldn't dismiss the lingering fear that Emilia would soon forget about her.

The path to power and authority was a treacherous one. Her daughter acted tough but she wasn't cunning enough to walk through it, Julia thought.

'Of course, I will! It's six hours by train from here, so stop being so negative.'

'Don't come back, I will inherit the property and business that way.' Bato spoke suddenly with a spirited tone.

'Yeah, right. I don't even want this mess, just look at it.'

Everyone looked at the building at the same time.

'I get what you mean.' Samuel said. Julia sent a burning gaze his way. 'I'm joking, of course.' He added, frightfully.

'I know that unlike me, you have big dreams and all. Just don't forget about us.' Bato said.

'I will never forget you two. Especially you, Bato. In fact, when I get back we will certainly do it.' Emilia said with a malicious face.

'Do what?' He asked inquisitively.  

'Stop messing with his head!' Her mother screamed at her.  

The carriage moved with a comfortable speed, it still wasn't subtle enough to protect them from the occasional shakes. Their destination was the Silvergreen station.  

'Now that you are a part of the Academy, the military won't be able to conscript you.' Samuel said while glancing over his notebook, he then wrote something in it with a pencil.

'You don't have to hide your gift anymore, you can trust Forlo. He will protect you and mentor you, he is a master of Flame Arts.' He added.

'If you say so.' Emilia said dismissively. The feeling of leaving behind something precious caught up to her.

'I just don't understand why your mother is so upset about this. This is a great honor,  you don't have to feel bad about her.' He stopped writing and looked at Emilia. 'I will pay her a visit from time to time to make sure that she is alright. Besides, Bato is quite capable. He will take good care of her.' He added.

She looked out of the window. The buildings did not look bad anymore. They had left Ludemborg.

Forlo asked Emilia to come earlier than the other students. The Ceremony of Swallows will be held on 1st Ophronir, ten days from now. The classes will start from 2nd Ophronir and Emilia couldn't understand why only she had to come earlier. Samuel vaguely explained that Forlo wanted to show her around the campus and talk about the special training that she will be undergoing.

She had read about how huge the campus was. But as someone couldn't grasp the life of an orphan by reading a book, it too was impossible for her to imagine the enormous scale of Oplor Academy of Arts and Philosophy. It was nothing short of a self-sufficient small city and reportedly had control over fifty thousand acres of land.

Samuel brought her to the new arrivals building. From there, a clerk accompanied her to the students quarters. The non-essential education sector of the Academy had two thousand acres of dedicated land. The rest of it was for higher education, staff housing, and agriculture.

Her room was on the second floor. Walking through the corridor, she could do nothing but stare at the marble floor. It looked like a chess board.

'Fancy.' She whispered.

Her room looked refurbished, there was a table, several chairs, a fluffy bed and other necessary furniture. The walls were covered with elegant wallpapers and there was a bookshelf filled with too many books.

She loved the idea of an attached toilet. The feature that excited her the most was electricity. She had heard about it but she never thought that she would have her own electrical lights and a ceiling fan someday.

Samuel walked through a lengthy polished marble corridor, his steps created echoes and returned to him. They reminded him that he was somewhere important.

'Here to see the Director.' Samuel said to the receptionist.  

She looked tired but gave off a vibe that she liked to overwork. Glancing at him for a moment, she nodded, which meant he could go in.

He pushed open the unnecessarily large door and went in. Inside, behind a big wooden table, sat an old man. There was a blackboard that covered the extensive wall behind him, filled with many calculations and symbols, it was impossible to shove in another word.

'Good afternoon, Sir.' Samuel said.

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'Hm. Take a seat.'  The Director replied, without even looking at him.

He looked old but surely was not weak or fragile, on the contrary, he gave off a powerful aura that would compel anyone to be respectful around him.

'Very good.' The old man said. 'You looked after a white flame and brought her to us for guidance. I'm sure she’ll be a great asset.' He added and looked at him.

'She is like a daughter to me. I tried to teach her well.'

'You're a bit too young to have a sixteen years old daughter. So... Forlo told me about your research. Something about rats and a modified version of Salamander binding.' He said with a curious smile on his face.

His smile made Samuel really excited about sharing his work with him.

'I have found an ingenious way to control swarms of rats using the binding. Broadly speaking, I think I'm closing in on Blood Arts.'

'Blood Arts? Without the touch of the woman? That is indeed groundbreaking. Do you have your notebooks with you?' The old man asked.

Samuel hurriedly brought out his notebooks from his bag. He admired the director and felt happy that he was willing to see his work.

'Four years of work, all compressed into two notebooks.’ He passed the notebooks to the director. ‘If you want to read them, please do feel free to keep them. I wonder if I could publish under the Academy..'

The old man skimmed through them.

'Outstanding work.' He said but soon his smile disappeared. 'Of course. Our journals will not publish your work.' He added, his face expressed a subtle anger.

'It has been many years... I have changed.' Samuel said, with a weak voice

'I am not a man to hold a grudge, it’s just that I don't like your face.' The old man said,  and a sudden burst of flames burned the notebooks to ash.

Samuel looked down and tightly clenched his hands.

'You didn't have to do that.' He muttered.

'Is that irritation in your voice?'

Suddenly two men appeared from the shadows and forced Samuel’s head onto the table. He struggled and looked directly at the old man, not with anger or disdain, but sadness.

'Looking after some girl for a couple of years didn't change anything.' He said. 'Break two of his fingers and throw him out.' He ordered the two masked men.

'Remember this hospitality before you come back again, and stay away from the girl from now on.' He said, the two men pulled Samuel up and dragged him out of the room.

'Send someone to clean this mess.' The old man yelled after they were gone.

21th Aurum

Excessive banging on the door roused Emilia up.

'APOCALYPSE!' She shrieked and sat up on her bed. She breathed heavily and couldn't recall where she was for a while.

The morning rays hadn't pierced through the light curtains of her window.

She felt extremely irritated by this sudden disturbance. Who could it be so early in the morning?

She tied her messy hair into a ponytail and hesitantly opened the door to take a peek outside.

'Get ready. Your training will start from today.' Forlo said, he shoved in some clothes through the gap of the door.

'Hey! I don't wake up this early!' Emilia complained.

'Then you'll be making a new habit.' He said with an austere voice.

Emilia was wearing specialized workout clothes. They were made to give effective support during hard training, the top was sleeveless. She felt a bit uneasy, it was unusual for women to wear sleeveless dresses. Thankfully she had shaved her armpit a week ago. She shuddered at the thought.

At first, they walked the paved road, lit by electric lamps. Then Forlo went off the beaten path and lead Emilia to a secluded area filled with greenery, trees and grass wet with morning dew.

'I thought we were just going to talk.' Emilia said.

'We will talk.' Forlo replied.

'Look, I want to be a bureaucrat. I don't need this physical training or whatever.' Emilia said, with a blank face.

'Now, you have two choices. Either follow my instructions or defeat me in a fistfi....'

Before he could finish, she aggressively came forward and threw a feral punch, it got intercepted in mid-air.

'I didn't think you had it in you... Not bad.' He said with a grin spread all over his face.

His palm landed on her torso.

She couldn't follow his movements and could only hear a rustling noise of dried leaves breaking beneath her. Before she could realize what had occurred, she was lying on a bed of grass and dried leaves, breathing through her mouth, wriggling like a fish with her hands on her stomach.

'I'm so fucked.' When the pain stopped, she murmured while looking at Forlo.

21th Aurum, In the mind of someone else

I grew up here in this small village, surrounded by pasture and the love of my mother. You could say, nature holds a special place in my heart. The houses are far apart from each other, the suffocating and congested feeling of cities is not felt here. We have two cows, several chickens, a dog and a cat. I love them like family.

I can vaguely remember the time when things were much different when my father was the Emperor of the strongest empire in the known world.

They killed him. I was too young to understand back then. Soon enough, I learned that his death wasn't pretty. They tortured him for days and then burned him alive in front of the public, they rejoiced.

The Massacre of Blue Bloods, the scholars named it. The world was changing. People were bored and tired with emperors and tyrants. My father was just unlucky,  he was not a bad ruler really, he tried to do good.

Later the people realized their mistake.

'It was bad, how he died.' They said. 'Could've just given him a merciful death.' They often added.

Power is a dangerous thing to have. Me and my mother, the former empress, we knew it all too well. In exchange for her dignity, a great revolutionary spared me.

My mother was a beautiful woman. At first, he would visit us once or twice a month. During nighttime, I could hear creaking noises, unpleasant sounds and moans. I couldn't sleep for days after each of his visits.

One might ask, what could a six-year-old understand of that? I understood that it wasn't right, what he was doing to my mother. After breakfast, he would throw a pouch full of gold on the table.

'Buy something nice for the boy.' He said while patting my head and she would do just that. She would take me to market later that day, buy me sweets and treats, clothes and food.

I often saw her cry silently. Throughout my life, I never asked her why she cried.

Maybe the taste of flesh is too strong sometimes. One day I saw the same man rush out of our house with a sword in his hand and fire in his eyes. Someone had disrespected my mother. He tore him to pieces, I heard, and villagers learned not to upset her again.

Soon she stopped crying and started to cherish her tormentor.

He gave me many books and trained me, I learned sword fighting and arcane arts from a true master. I could not remember when I started to call him father.

I am now sixteen, leaving behind my mother and my home. I ranked first in the hardest exam of this country and made her and my mentor proud.

'I knew that you would turn into a fine man someday. A man full of courage and good intentions.' She said.  

‘Am I?’ I often wonder.