"Why, just why did I do that." 

A feeling of regret finally washed over me. The pub was a nice break from working on the farm, but now it would be gone. I was done for.

 I sat at the corner, as close as I could to the comfort of the heat emanating from the wall.  I looked around for the last time. It was a cozy place: the hostess was nice, there were many plants and natural life embedded into the wall of pipes that provided heat, and the food was excellent. It was also a great place to check your status if you didn't have a board that the town provided. 

 I flowed a bit of magic into the stone slab on the table and words started to display. To my dismay, nothing changed. Those words…. They are ones that I have seen for almost my entire life, at least the part that I could remember. They were words that I couldn't change, but I wished for it so desperately.

Tears started to well up in my eyes. I wanted to smash the slab, but instead, I hugged it closer to me, taking comfort in its coolness as I did the heat around me. The impulse to cry out wormed its way through my head. The feeling of frustration instilled a desire to punch something, anything, but I knew it would be in vain. 

**********************

Hours went by, and a man went up to me. I could only see his blurred feet as I kept staring down. He started speaking in a gruff voice:

“Hey kid, you know, you don’t look too good. like dam your face looks like you took a few."

I refused to reply. After a bit, he let out a tired sigh.

“Well, I can guess what happened. You resisted them didn't you?" 

I nodded slowly in shame. 

"I understand. I spent decades dealing with this CRAP, but it's no use in the end…" 

A burst of frustration erupted from me as I looked up at the man, struggling see his face through my tears. 

"If you're not gonna help, go away. I don't nee–"

I was interrupted as he slightly raised his voice with and edge of agitation.

"Here’s some advice then: don’t try to act strong, kid. I found that out the hard way in the mines. Todays my first day back after all." 

I finally realized who the guy was. Not that I have any memory of him, but his tattered clothes, thin figure, and dirt covered face said it all. He was a miner. 

"In any case, the mines teach you a lot. There, you are the weakest, and you'll find out that the weak really only need three things to survive: Selfishness, Arrogance, and Laziness.”

I looked up at him, and let out a confused sound.

He started to explain

“I not gonna tell you that you are a warrior or a saint. I'm giving you reality as a regular guy with these sins just like you. You need enough selfishness to not care about problems. You need enough arrogance to ignore any problems from the past, and you need enough laziness to not do anything to create problems in the first place, say, revenge."

I started to question him but he interrupted again.

"That is how we live kid, we aren’t holy or great beings, just humans…. Our sins are all we have.. This is how we can live…”

 He slowly walked back to his seat and chugged down whatever drink he had ordered then promptly slammed his fist onto the table and passed out in a drunken stupor moments later. 

Well, at least I thought he did, until he got up again and ordered another large mug of cythin tea with sugar. 

*****************************

I tried to ignore what the miner had said, but the ramblings of the supposed drunk stuck in my mind. It enraged me and cut into me at the same time. I didn’t want to live like that. I wanted something better. I wanted to feel great. I wanted to be happy… 

I ran outside and sprinted back to my farm. The sun beat down on my back and beads of sweat formed on my brow. Everything was mocking me: the chirps of the birds, the rustle of the bushes,and even the reflection of the brook. I passed the tree where I had resisted the collectors. 

I couldn't help as the trauma came back into my mind. 

***************************

"You pieces of shit, you lowlifes! You keep scamming me, scamming us, just because you have a little power" 

SMACK 

A sharp pain shot across the side of my head as I fell. 

"So?"

The collector kicked me in the stomach and I let out a gasp and curled up. His buddies tried to join in but he held them back and crouched in front of me. 

" Look at me, look at me." 

I refused, but he forcefully turned my head and stuck his face so close to mine that I could feel his breath. 

"You think I want to do this? You want to know?" 

His body started to glow and I trembled in fear. 

"You really thought it was a question? Of course I do, it's a good life, until people like you come along, thinking they can do WHATEVER.THEY. WANT!" 

He slammed my head into the ground, accentuating the last three words with violence, and brought me back up to face him. 

"The guide gave us our paths for a reason. They are our purpose, our unspoken rules, and you want to try to break it?"

I groaned in pain as he shoved my face into the tree, its bark scraping against my face. 

"Why do you people keep coming out of nowhere? Why do I always have to deal with you unsophisticated, delusional, frisps!" 

The sound of his heavy breaths pounded my battered head and gradually became shallower. He motioned for his buddies to come over then pointed at me. 

"Make sure he remembers his place,bring him to the mines tomorrow, and recover any value from the farm." 

*****************************

As the memory receded, I found myself in the middle of my field. Throwing my head up to the sky, I screamed as loud as I could and fell to my knees. However, in the middle of the drop, a voice, identical to my own, sounded off in the back of my head. 

[Modifier obtained, skill ad.. ded…. wait.... WAIT...... No, STOP!...... @@#(*&$^!(_-+-&] 

Wind started pouring out of me. It was a storm, I was in the middle of it all. Letting my raw emotions take control, I let out every drop of magic in my body and channeled it into the wind. The wind cried for me, it howled for me, it raged for me, and it embraced me in a bubble where nothing could reach me. This continued until I blacked out and fell into a dreamless state.

************

 I woke up, startled, fuzzy, telling myself off about the weird dream. Until I looked around and I was in a field of flattened crops, covered in mud, and feeling as free as I could've been. It was enlightening.

I didn’t need to follow the path the guide gave me. I can pave my own path forward. I am at a place where the guide’s path does not have power, a wind's shadow.

After luxuriating in my discovery, I lifted my palm and focused. A small bit of air moved. It was all real. I was elated and excited at the new possibilities, but little did I know, that I would end up being the pioneer of this field, that I would open the school of the Wind's Shadow, and I would be teaching one of the most powerful and influential Remnants in Ethra. 

-Notus, The Wind’s Shadow