August stood in the old wooden cottage surrounded by various weapons of different kinds. This was the store where his father kept all his gear.
Standing before August, his father was polishing a sword as August watched him quietly wondering what suddenly he was called for.
"What do you think of this place?" his father finally spoke.
"It's alright?" he replied not sure all of a sudden, "a bit rundown maybe?"
His father chuckled at his words. The tense mood that for some reason got built up was finally easing up, "seems like time is catching up to it" he looked at the wooden planks of the cottage around him, "an old friend of mine made it up for me."
This was August's first time hearing about any old friend of his father's other than Lord Victor. Honestly, there was a lot more August thought he didn't know about his own parents. Well, how could he have known, they never talked as much about their past anyway.
To August it felt like they were keeping a secret from him but that didn't bother him much. Actually the thought that his parents were also keeping something from him, helped him to deal with the guilt he had about his own secret.
And the second reason was he simply didn't care about it anyways. He thought all is well as long as he has his peaceful life, as long as he has his mother and father. He never needed anything other than that.
So it came as quite a surprise that his father was sharing something about his past with him.
"Your old friend made this?" he asked in a curious manner, "I always thought your friends were all warriors."
"Yeah. A nice guy" his father stood up putting the sword into the sheathe, "more of a creator than he was a warrior."
"What's his name?" August asked.
"Name, you ask?" his father replied, "do you even know what importance a name holds?" he turned to August, "when people find their core element, you know what it takes to master it? You know what the last step of gaining the full understanding of any elemental aspect is? "
August wasn't sure how to respond so he stayed quiet. In reality he had no idea of what lies beyond gaining a core element. He never had one to begin with. For a moment he thought about his father who knew all about his condition and how August felt about it, why was he suddenly talking about that particular topic to him.
About something that August might never know.
"It's the name of that element. It's not just elements, it could be anything but the fact remains that a name happens to be something so important that could only be known at the end of the journey" he patted August on his head, "So, never tell your name to anyone easily, never. Alright?"
August listened to something that was very new to him, something he couldn't learn from books but only experience. He nodded in agreement,
"Good. Now grab a sword and meet me at the usual training spot."
— — —
August stood before his father in the garden. At the place his father used to teach him swordfighting. It has been quite a few days since he has trained with his father, so he felt excited. But there was something off about his father today. It seemed there was some thought bugging his mind.
"You ready?" his father said, making him snap out of his useless thoughts, "good then. Let's start."
August held a blunt training sword in his hand and suddenly missed the comfortable feeling of Fallen star. Thinking of which he was about to ask his father where the new blade was? He hadn't seen it since the monster horde attacked the town.
"Are you looking for this?" as though reading his mind, his father handed a sword to him.
He pulled the matte black blade out of his sheathe and it looked exactly like he remembered from the last time. Only, the runes weren't shimmering now. Looking at the blade August realised how lucky he was to be left alive and even killed some monsters when he wasn't even familiar with his new weapon.
August's eyes shone with realisation, "The Fallen star"
"Fallen star?" his father repeated.
"Yes, it's the name of this sword," he replied.
"What? Name? How do you even…? Ah," his father let out a long sigh, "you can read the runes. So that was the reason."
"Reason for what?" he asked, not sure about the matter.
"That you couldn't control yourself and behaved like an immature child on the battlefield" August knew his father would confront him about that matter and it seemed like the time was now, "look son. A warrior cannot behave how you did, how you were unable to hold your rage and jumped on one monster after another" his father's words were sharp but there wasn't a hint of scolding behind them.
It felt like he only wanted August to understand, "you were extremely lucky to be returned alive from there. I know you only wanted to help, you wanted to save people of the town but putting your own life recklessly in danger is not something I could appreciate."
After a moment of silence his father spoke again, "I've confirmed it, there isn't any curse on that weapon but it is a powerful blade after all. It fueled your rage when you read its runic name, the only thing you weren't supposed to know but even after that you handled yourself quite well actually, even if it was only in combat."
August listened to his father and he had to acknowledge, every word his father spoke was true. He was on point with the fact that August felt more enraged only after he had read the runic name of Fallen star. Therefore August thought his father would take the sword away from him but the next words he heard were completely opposite.
"Starting today, you will devote yourself to understanding the weapon in your hand. This will be the last step in your sword training. The training could be more difficult now when you know the name of your weapon. It could be like opposing the will of the person who had given the name to that weapon."
He remained quiet for a while and then spoke again his gaze distant,
"You have six months to prove yourself. Till then you have to try your hardest and prove that you are capable of protecting your mother, our people and yourself."
August's father turned towards him and looked him in the eye,
"At the end of your training I will tell you the name of the swordstyle you have been taught. Only then I would feel like you've earned that."
August was silent for the whole time and now only he thought was the right time to speak,
"Why exactly six months?" he asked his father.
His father sat on his knee placing a hand on his shoulder,
"...because after six months I will be leaving for a very important place. And I don't know when I will be back."
The silence grew deeper, the knowledge of his father leaving was new to him. It was his father who broke the silence,
"So, promise me son that you will protect your mother and the people of our town with your life."
August looked back at his father with a determined expression, "I promise, I will."
— — —
August lay on his bed looking at the stars outside from the window. Among which he could also see some wisps of golden thread weaved over their small town. He had looked at them always and always the spells woven into them seemed more beautiful. Magic was really extraordinary.
He always wondered who might be powerful enough to come up with a huge barrier like this.
He thought about the day, so much had happened in a short amount of time. Shelly wasn't around, May and Damian were gone and it seemed his father was about to leave as well. For a moment he thought if people kept leaving him like that he would ultimately end up alone.
That would feel good right? Wasn't it he always wanted. To live alone and in peace.
'That would be terrible'
Indeed, he wanted his life of peace but he wanted to spend that life with his loved ones too. People might think him as greedy but this was reality, his reality. Surely it wouldn't hurt for a boy of his age to be a little greedy.
His mind wandered into different thoughts altogether. Speaking of which yesterday was the same date on which he attended his first and last class. Which would probably mark the seven years that have been successfully gone by after that unfateful incident.
'I don't wanna think about that'
The memories of the incident were too painful for him to be remembered.
Slowly his eyelids grew heavier and at last August fell into a sleep.
"Are you asleep?" the myriad of voices he thought to be a dream suddenly spoke.
Yes, he was asleep, and yet the strange voices sounded perfectly clear. As if this was reality. He couldn't feel his body and so as it turned out he wasn't able to speak.
"Ah sorry. My bad" the voices spoke again, "I forgot you cannot reply in a dream" the tone of the voices seems to change a bit, "I know you might have many questions for me and if you want to know come meet me in the conscious realm" the voices spoke the next words as a whisper sending chill down his spine even if he wasn't able to feel his spine,
"...this is not a dream. You know that right?"
After that the voices grew silent as if there was no one talking to him from the beginning.
August found himself awake staring at the stars outside realising he fell into a daze for a moment and met that strange voice again. Having experienced two times for now, he knew better that it wasn't any dream or illusion. It was reality. Something strange was happening to him.
And where was that place the voice had called him to meet?
Conscious realm?
The place was very far away from a person like him. Not a day could pass without the world reminding him of his weakness. Hell, he didn't know the place was even real or not.
He had read somewhere that the core element forms a domain into the bearer's soul. The domain works like a pocket realm aiding the bearer of an element to gain insight into it. Simply put, it was a place where only one could develop his understanding of a core element.
And what business does an ambivalent like him could probably have in the conscious realm. To him the concept seemed like a total fantasy. An imaginary place created by the ones with a core element to fool other people. How could he possibly believe that a place like that exists when he had not seen it with his very own eyes.
Now he suddenly thinks the place could be real. If the voices in his head say so.
And how was he supposed to even enter the place?
A magical realm where you can practice with your core element. Your own domain.
'Meet me in the conscious realm'
At this point he thought the universe might be toying with him. Maybe the gods were so desperate for entertainment they thought of making the life of a young boy so miserable and kept reminding him again and again.
Like they had done with the immortal sovereign King Rhenos.
Rhenos was an undefeated king so the reason was understandable why gods could not have liked him. But August was nowhere near that mighty exalted personality. Why was he supposed to entertain the gods?
He gritted his teeth with an annoyed expression,
'I swear I'll kill the gods one day'
— — — — —