Ezrael peered down from the tree that he had perched himself on. He closed his eyes, searching for the familiar aura of his brother, unsure of where he had gone. The two had been locked in a game of hide and seek for the last two hours, much to Ezrael’s dismay. He loved Viktor, but sometimes he was just a little bit too much for Ezrael to handle and so he would often be stuck trying to hide from him.
Viktor was five now and he followed Ezrael practically everywhere. Ezrael understood it, to a degree, after all, Dameria was always pestering him that he needed to improve with his magic, but Viktor had shown no improvement as of yet. He was barely able to conjure a twig. Dameria had grown increasingly frustrated with him, pushing him further and further in to Ezrael’s closed arms. Despite Ezrael’s abrasive nature, Viktor still attempted to follow him basically everywhere, forcing Ezrael to learn new ways to avoid his sibling.
On top of all the stress that Ezrael had been dealing with from the growing pressure of his parents and siblings, he was still hearing voices. And not only voices. He was starting to get visions. They mostly happened at night while he was sleeping, but occasionally, he would get strange flashes while he was awake, crippling him mentally for a good portion of the day. Ezrael hated it, but no one had been able to figure out quite what was wrong with him. Many people pointed to his cursed eye, but he was always too afraid to try and release his cursed eye and check, no matter how curious he became.
Feeling content that Viktor was nowhere nearby, Ezrael dropped down from the tree and began to wander. Since he was constantly being pestered home, he would often come in to the woods around the town to try and get whatever he was thinking out of his system.
Almost as soon as he had started walking, Ezrael heard a strange rumbling coming from behind him. He wheeled around and stared at it, only to realize, too late, that it was his younger brother bolting towards him at top speed, using his eye of the powerful to accomplish that. In a matter of moments, he was shooting right past Ezrael.
“Hey, Ez!” Viktor called before slamming directly in to the side of a tree.
Ezrael sighed and made his way over to the collapsed boy, picking him up and slinging him over his shoulder. “You know you can’t control your eye well… Or at all… Why do you insist upon using it?”
Viktor smiled widely and flopped his head down on to Ezrael’s shoulder. “Because it’s fun!”
Ezrael smirked softly and carried Viktor back home. He knew what awaited him there, but he also knew that Viktor had hurt himself and needed to treated, even if he pretended like he was okay.
Approaching the house, Ezrael frowned, seeing that Dameria was sitting on the porch, impatiently tapping her foot and eyeing the two of them. They stepped on to the porch and Viktor seemed to shrink away from his mother, dropping down from Ezrael’s shoulders and hiding behind him.
“Where have the two of you been? It’s nearly sundown,” she asked curtly.
“We were playing hide and seek in the woods. I was… trying to show Viktor how to sense auras,” Ezrael lied protectively.
Dameria’s frown perked up ever so slightly. “And? Did he make any progress?”
Ezrael thought for a moment, but in the end, decided it would be better if he didn’t lie. “No. He still doesn’t seem to fully grasp the concept of it, but I’m sure in time he will.”
Dameria rolled her eyes and motioned for the two boys to go back inside. They nodded and made their way in to the house. Amelia was in the kitchen, but the second she saw them get back, her expressed turned concerned and she rushed to clutch Viktor in her arms, rushing him over to their stock of healing supplies and bandages.
Ezrael ignored the whole situation and made his way upstairs to his room. As he passed by Misra’s room, he thought about knocking and then decided against it, continuing on down the hallway. However, the door creaked behind him and when he turned around, Misra was peaking out from behind it.
“Where were you all day? Hanging out with your new best friend, Viktor?” she asked.
Ezrael shook his head. “Of course not. I was trying to avoid him, but he kept catching up to me, somehow…”
Misra scoffed. “I thought you were oh-so great at sensing auras. How could that no talent pipsqueak sneak up on you?”
Ezrael glared back, ready to angrily shout at her, but he stopped himself and simply turned around, heading back down the hallway to get to his room. When he got inside, he quickly locked the door and slumped down against his bed.
His room was fairly simple, compared to the rest of the family. In the far corner of the room, he had his plain black bed. On the left wall, opposite the bed, there was a desk with a few scribbled notes strewn about across it. Next to that, there was a dresser. Across from the bed, on the same wall as the door, there was a full-length mirror.
Ezrael sat up and stared at himself in the mirror. His dark hair was a mess as usual. Both of his eyes were fairly sunken from his many restless nights. He had a small scar on his upper lip from when he had been sparring with his mother once. Amelia was just as comfortable wielding weapons as she was with forging them and she rarely ever went easy when she fought, even if it happened to be against her own children.
Ezrael sighed and fell backwards, sinking in to his bed. His eyes were heavy and he’d had a very long day. Deciding to turn in early, Ezrael pulled the sheets over himself and was quickly consumed by sleep.
It wasn’t long before he was shooting awake. Usually, he would be awoken during the night by some kind of awful vision that made it almost impossible for him to sleep for the rest of the night., but this time, it was a sound coming from within the house that had woken him up. Grabbing a knife from his desk, Ezrael peeked out of his room, cautiously making his way out and in to the house. He continued to follow the sound, eventually realizing that it was coming from his parents’ workshop in the basement.
Ezrael lowered his knife and made his way downstairs, realizing that whoever was working had forgotten to close the door. As he’d gotten closer, he realized the sound was someone whispering or maybe it was multiple people. It was hard to tell from farther away and even as he’d gotten closer, it wasn’t any easier for him to tell.
Ezrael made his way down the stairs and found Amelia standing in the middle of the workshop, grinding down a very strange looking sword. She was using one of their much stronger grinders, so it was apparently a very tough material. Ezrael stepped down in to the workshop and Amelia immediately turned around to face him, initially concerned, but her expression softened when she saw that it was Ezrael.
“I’m sorry, sweetie, did I wake you?” she asked, her voice soft.
Ezrael had trouble answering her question because it couldn’t have been her whispering down her. The voice or… voices had sounded nothing like her. The more he stood there though, the more his attention was drawn to the strange blade of the sword. With the lack of sparks, he was able to get a better look at it. The black was primarily dark grey, but there also seemed to be other tints of grey within it and they seemed to be moving. Ezrael approached his mother, his attention fully fixated on the blade.
“What is that?” he asked, his voice a little hoarse.
Amelia held the blade up and then looked back at Ezrael. “Oh, this is a soul steel sword.”
Ezrael gave her a confused look. “What is soul steel?”
Amelia set the weapon down on the table and motioned to the small things moving inside of the blade. “It’s a special kind of steel that comes from Ser and allows the blade to absorb the souls of those it slays. They are extremely rare and very hard to make, but I have the privilege of being able to work on this one.”
Ezrael examined the blade closely, watching as the shapes moved through the blade, entranced by their movement. “May I… touch it…?”
Amelia nodded and picked the sword up, handing it gently to him. “Be careful, it’s rather heavy.”
Ezrael took the sword in to his hands. The second his hand touch the blade, his vision was filled with terrifying images of death and destruction before going completely black as he collapsed to the ground.
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