Gloria Alistair POV:

I gazed down to see both of my sons on their knees. Albus’s light grey shorts darkened by blood; droplets of blood had also made its way to his light grey tunic. Tadashi, on the other hand, had dried blood on his hands. In comparison to Albus – who was the cause of the blood – the copious amounts of dark spots on Tadashi was greater.

I attempted, yes, I attempted to not show any malice within my voice. I spoke softly, delicately, enough to lull a child to sleep. Because, surely, malice isn’t the route to go to. Malice isn’t what’s needed for me, currently.

I breathed through my mouth, forming an amicable smile on my face. “So, who’s going to explain?”

Albus’s amethyst eyes shifted wildly on the wooden floor, visibly showing his intent on searching for the correct words. Albus’s eyes met mine, mouth now opening as he spoke precariously. “Well, um, ok… you see mother-”

“I apologize. It was my fault that he got his injury.” Tadashi said quickly, cutting Albus off.

“Huh? You dumbass, I don’t need your help. I was the one that stabbed my leg not you. Stop trying to, oh-” Albus caught what he had said and instantly put both hands to his mouth.

Tadashi’s head flicked towards Albus; face the embodiment of dismay.

They both immediately bowed their heads; heads practically hitting the wooden floor. “WE ARE BOTH VERY SORRY!”

“Oh my, what did you guys do this time?” I turned to see my husband put down a giant bag of meat on the kitchen table. His black hair messier than usual, dripping sweat onto his grey muscle shirt. Tall; muscles lean, striated; veins visible on arms and hands. His eyes are an amethyst purple, similar to Albus’s, and had beige skin – different from his original alabaster skin – tanned from having been outside for so long.

Albus gets a majority of his looks from his father but stubbornly refuses to admit it. In fact, should Albus have black hair, he’d be identical to Samuel when Samuel was a child.

“Are you just arriving from the hunt? Did it go well?” I asked, turning my attention to my husband.

Monthly, my husband takes the men from the village to hunt animals that overpopulate within the great forest that surrounds us. The time for the hunt was today.

“Yes, my dear wife! Look, look at the amount of meat I’ve gotten us! Are you proud of me, hey, are you proud of me?” My husband exclaimed, ignoring our blood stained children, with excitement.

“Yes, yes, I’m proud of you. Good job. Anyways,” Shifting my gaze back to my sons, I continued. “do inform me as to what happened boys.”

Albus Alistair POV:

‘She’s going to kill me. She’s going to kill me. She’s going to kill me.’ I repeated in my head, horrified at what’s to come.

I could tell my older brother was thinking the same thing just by the scared look in his eyes.

Well, I’ve lived a decent life. Short, sure, but not necessarily the worst. At least I get to die with my older brother. What was the phrase? “Dying with the one you love is truly a death worth dying.” Mhmm, beautiful…

‘What the hell am I thinking!? I haven’t even gotten a girlfriend yet!’

I looked up, attempting to speak to my father with my eyes. ‘Help us! Please!’

I even made a tear fall from my eye to further guilt trip my father.

My father – now sitting on the couch – and I locked eyes for a while; my mother staring at both Tadashi and I with kind, but malice filled eyes, before I got a response from my father who looked at me expressionless.

‘I’m too young to die. Sorry.’ My father’s eyes spoke.

‘You traitor!’

My older brother was the first to speak up. “A-A-Allow me to start from the beginning.” He stuttered in a high-pitched voice.

Explaining everything from the beginning, both my father and mother stared at me with a myriad of expressions; shocked, horrified, but my father gave an acknowledging grin, while my older brother’s gaze remained lowered. Tadashi withheld information about his form – or whatever it was.

He then, face remaining slightly bowed, turned to me. My gaze fixated on the floor beneath us, but out of the corner of my eyes, fear having been the catalyst to the adrenaline pumping through my very veins; time slowed to an extent. I saw something.

Though a transient, brief encounter, I swear I saw Tadashi smile and put a thumbs up.

‘Premeditated, huh?’

I live in a house full of traitors.

“Son, I didn’t know you wanted to leave that badly. But is it true you were able to withstand Tadashi’s bloodlust?” My father inquired, excitedly.

My mother slapped the back of my father’s neck.

“Ow! What the hell did I do- oh-”

My father realized what he said and immediately apologized. He stayed silent looking down like a child that had just gotten scolded.

‘Heh, idiot.’ I snickered inside my head.

“Albus, if you want to go outside the village then your father and I let you. The only reason why we didn’t was because we were afraid that you wouldn’t be able to adjust to a different atmosphere than over here. But both your father and I agree that you’ve gotten stronger not only physically but mentally. Though you’ve always been mentally stronger than most.” My mother giggled.

“As your mother said.” My father added, crossing his legs.

I turned my head, ignoring my father’s addition of words. He looked like he just had his heart broken while my mother and Tadashi stifled their laughs.

“Ahem, Anyways.” My father continued. “Like your mother said, we’ll allow it, but Tadashi always has to be with you, regardless of the situation. No exceptions.”

“Understood.” Both Tadashi and I said in unison.

“By the way, Albus, if you’d like we can take a trip to the city in two weeks.” My father said, grinning.

“Wait really!?”

“Oh yeah, isn’t the Allen family having a birthday party for their eldest daughter?” Tadashi asked, standing up and stretching.

I tilted my head, sitting loosely on the ground. “Allen family?”

“Do you remember the last time we went to the city for a party? We had stayed at their manor. You may not remember since you were only a couple of years old.” My mother answered.

“Allen family. Allen family, huh? Allen family… Ohhh, their daughter?  Her name was Iris, right? The extremely introverted, cute, purple headed one that always hid behind her father when I tried to talk to her?”

“What???” My father gasped. “You actually thought someone was cute? My son that doesn’t even bat an eye towards any of the girls in the village thought a girl was cute?!”

“Quiet father. The adults are talking.”

Heart visibly broken; my father remained silent the remainder of our conversation.

“That’s the youngest daughter.” My mother corrected, ignoring my depressed father.  “I’m pretty sure that when we were there the eldest daughter was still at school, so we didn’t see much of her.”

“I see, how old is she turning?”

“I believe she’s turning 21, the same age as me.” Tadashi said.

I wryly smiled. “Oh my, this is the perfect chance for older brother to find a wife, isn’t it, mother?”

“Huh?”

My mother immediately caught on and a sadistic grin tugged at the corner of her lips. “Oh yes, I agree with Albus. The eldest daughters name is Mary and I hear that she specifically wanted Tadashi to attend… she’s also single!”

“MOTHER!” Tadashi squealed.

My mother and I chuckled at Tadashi’s embarrassed face before my father spoke, momentarily cured of his depression. “Then it’s decided. We’ll all go to the Allen manor for the party.”

With the conversation ending, my father and Tadashi – after washing himself – went to the village to gather ingredients for my mother, while my mother prepared the meat my father had brought.

I, too, washed myself and stol- borrowed Tadashi’s charcoal grey long sleeved shirt, before proceeding to my room.

I was expecting to see the mess I had left when I went outside to train, but much to my surprise everything was set up neatly. My room wasn’t too small, but it wasn’t too big either. A good sized, humble room, larger in length – akin to a rectangle – than the width. My bed was placed on the right corner, so I could stare out the window, and my desk was in the middle of the right wall, next to my bed. My dresser was also placed on the right wall, but on the far-right side of the wall, away from my bed along with my closet right beside it.

My room, albeit bland, was mainly empty on the left side where the door was. There was no pattern or reasoning behind my rooms arrangement – other than the reason that I positioned my bed next to the window for the purpose of gazing out of it.

I laid in bed and began to look out the window that oversaw the entire village. “What to do now…”

 ‘The lesson ended early since I got injured. I’m too tired to visit the villagers; the strenuous mentality needed to talk is currently dragging my body down like cinderblocks tied to my feet.’

A vision, a remembrance flashed within my head of Tadashi healing me.  

‘What did older brother do to my injury though? I didn’t know he was able to heal wounds. I knew that he had a strange element, but they said nothing about him being able to heal wounds like that.’

Usually, when a wound gets healed by the doctors or healers, it feels as though your skins tissue is being stretched to the center of the wound to close it. Though it heals most minor injuries, it hurts beyond belief. Even so, even through the pain, the magic does it job at healing, leaving only a scar.

When Tadashi did it, it felt as though he grabbed a piece of the air, (maybe something within the air?) and put it inside the wound perfectly, like placing the final piece within in puzzle; a perfect fit.

It didn’t hurt, nor did it leave a scar; it was as though the wound was never there.

I stretched, yawning loudly. “Well, doesn’t matter I guess. What’s done is done.”

Magic itself still remains a mystery to me, so Tadashi’s healing ability is probably answerable, just not attainable to me currently. An anomaly, an oddity whose very essence is an enigma; transparent, but visible, to few and all.

Within magic lies elements: fire, wind, water, earth, and lightning. Where these elements come from, I don’t know. My father and Tadashi ignore my words when I bring up magic, so I never thought to press them further than what was told.

Unfortunately I’m like my father when it comes to magic. It’s not a bad thing, but because of him I don’t have an affinity towards any elements. But I did inherit his large mana pool.

Mana, as I was told, is what’s used to power magic. Kind of like its catalyst, or perhaps fuel is a better analogy. Mana exists within everyone; it’s our very life source, after all. The more the better, I’m assuming. I mean, who wouldn’t want more fuel? That’s just better living!

I would’ve liked to be able to use water like my mother: no use complaining. It’s already set in stone that I won’t have an element.

“Wait. Now that I think about it… damned older brother! How have I not realized? These entire three years he’s never trained me to use magic! He’s been teaching me martial arts and swordsmanship.” I pouted. “I bet that if I learned how to use mana, I could be able to beat my idiot older brother.”

Well… yeah, probably not. No, most definitely not.

That form of his that he showed me at the end was really something though. It was majestic. Angelic, even.

The pressure that form emitted was far stronger than what I’ve experienced from my fathers. He might actually be stronger than our father, but why doesn’t he want me to tell our father about it?

My older brother is still full of mysteries even though I’ve lived with him my entire life. ‘I guess it’s what makes older brother… older brother?’ I thought, laughing at my own joke.

Although the pressure emitted from his form was heavy and far too suffocating to be around, it felt as though it radiated something else.

A feeling of sorrow, not a visibly experienced sorrow, like sympathetic sorrow; superficial in other words. But a beautiful kind of sorrow, the type of sorrow that’s inscribed in paintings. The type that makes one weep from its beauty. The type that hurts to have but hurts to not experience. The same sorrow that births a vague sense of longing for change with an inevitable end.

Staring at the ceiling, I felt my eyes becoming heavy.

“Sorrow… Sorrow… Sorrow…”

The more I tried to keep my eyes open the heavier they became.

“…Beautiful.”

My eyes, then, came to a close.