Chapter 5: Ephemeral Pt 1

Lynx Beta woke up from his deep slumber. Tears immediately began rolling down his face. He got up and silently cried, wiping off the unending ravine that escaped from his eyes. He tried to keep silent since most of the other children slept beside him.

They slept under one of the many abandoned buildings. The children usually kept together in groups of up to 8 and all slept in different houses. Essen'Seo was kind of like a sanctuary to Plague Children. Amongst the different minor villages and cities within Seo, Essen had the kindest outlook towards Plague Children.

Generally, they are not bothered or attacked so long as they keep to themselves. That being said...there were many cases that occurred throughout the years. -Cases of extreme brutality brought about from nothing other than the boredom of passersby’s. Other cases occurred from theft and other interaction with commoners. For that reason alone, they held a very strict rule. Do not interact with commoners.

They held their very own economic system. Their own safety system...and it just so happens that, while very minor relics in and of themselves, they could protect themselves against the common man that sought to harm them. They also could defend against maybe 1 or 2 guards. Currently, the 3 relic wielders were Rel, Lin, and Alel. They also happened to be the oldest.

In Essen'Seio, there was about 46 Plague Children. Their numbers decreased yearly as deaths occurred. But many times, other children from minor villages would travel to seek the refuge known as Essen'Seio.

As of yet, the Plague Children occupied about 4 of the houses: Usually living in a group of 7 or 8. They got up in the morning, maintained their household and went out to do activities and gather food. This usually consisted of scourging garbage within the more populated areas, and sometimes getting food from travelers. Though, the latter event was very rare. All in all, they all looked after each other. Abandoned from society, where could they turn but to themselves?

There was only one exception to this rule... their teacher. Amai was a very kindhearted soul. Truly, she was one in a billion. The fact that she had appeared within the city of Essen'Seo, was perhaps the only blessing that the gods bestowed upon the Plague Children. For years, they lived scattered and hated. It was only until her appearance in this city that she had begun to make life special for the Plague Children. Beforehand, there used to be upwards of 70 to 90 of them. They lived of their own accord and took care of themselves. Many of them just barely survived and were raised by relatives of their deceased parents. Once they were of age, they were discarded and left to fend for themselves.

Lynx' eyes darted around the room, hoping that no one else would see him cry. To him, tears were a mark of weakness. If the other children see him, they would surely mock him for his emotional failures. Yet still did he weep...he curled himself into a ball and the tears kept flowing. The dream he had just witnessed was much too shocking...much too real. He had never encountered such a dream before.

In the tale his mind had weaved him, a man passing by had given him immense power. With that, came the deaths of many of his comrades. His eyes looked around to make sure they were still living. Indeed, they were.

He exhaled quietly, making sure not to alert the other children around him. He didn't want any one of them missing sleep over him. "...maybe Miss Amai can tell me…what this all means."

He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth tightly, remembering the most worrying part of it all. It was when he lost all grip of himself. Succumbing to hatred, he destroyed entire armies without feeling even a shred of remorse. Though it was just a dream, he felt like that emptiness was lingering within him even now. He got up and left the house to go for a walk.

One of the rules technically forbade them from venturing out alone- even if they're still within the slums. But he figured this was more of a superstition than anything. The stroll around the block did wonders to clear his mind. The sky's very subtle light blue tint invaded the faint stars.

He had left to the graveyard where they bury the bodies of fallen children. They were the only ones that cared about such things. If left to the commoners, the bodies would be left to rot.

As he arrived at the graveyard, he noticed a patch of white hair behind a tombstone..."Ora?" He walked over to him and knelt beside him. "What are you doing up this early?"

Ora was surprised and almost jumped from his prayer. He didn't know who he was even praying to. He just did it because it’s the respect that everyone else deserved. He didn't believe in god. But if he did, he had thought himself to be the worst abomination in history.

The citizens of Sei'O often held a belief that those who were born in unfortunate conditions were those who committed atrocious actions in their past life.

As such, Ora must've believed himself to be the greatest evil to have existed within all 5 nations. He heard several stories from their teacher Amai. He likened himself to the great General Dao or Lawrence of Arabi.

Through this type of thinking he had convinced himself that the life he is living now is the product of his misdeeds in the past.

Lynx knelt right beside him and closed his eyes as if in prayer. Both he and Ora lived in an era where each of the 70 were very much alive. Most of them took great care of the newer generation.

The walk had cleared his mind, and he hoped the darkness of the night would sequester the redness in his eyes. Ora noticed this but pretended he didn't. "Remember that one day when Sela tried fetching water and ended up being carried by the rope?" He said with a big grin on his face.

A stifled noise came from Lynx and he soon found himself laughing uncontrollably. They both laughed. It was a fond memory for them.

A couple of years back, one of the other children, Sela went to fetch water from the well, but because of how light she was, she was left dangling by the rope instead.

They came to find the poor girl flailing around carried by a bucket of water and found themselves laughing hard.

Sela was a very sweet little girl, though she was incredibly airheaded and stubborn sometimes. They often teased her though unlike the other children her age, it would never phase her. Though the amount of times she had gotten in troublesome or hilarious situations due to her rebellious nature is too numerous to count.

Lynx stopped laughing and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Hey, Ora..." his tone grew serious. "Do you think we can...do you think we can take Sela with us when we leave?"

Ora was taken by surprise and could only muster a "huuuuhhh???" noise. "I mean when we leave for that place Lady Amai was telling us about...where everything is better. And we won't be judged for looking like this."

Ah..they've had this conversation before. Ever since Amai's lectures. She taught everyone how to be kind and slowly change the image of plague children to society. After she told them of all the other countries out there that wouldn't hate them or hold the same superstition, Lynx could only talk of going to another place.

"I don't think we're quite ready to leave. Where would we even go?" The world was much too vast. The chances of running into bandits or wanted criminals were very high as well.

Lynx shrugged. “Anywhere's better than this dump." He suddenly looked ecstatic "we can make a new sanctuary. Just for plague children. Maybe Qarat'il."

"Haha, Qarat'il is gone. Completely uninhabitable. We'd have to choose a different place to settle"

Qarat'il was a country bordering Foss. During the third era war, Yorba utilized the S-ranked relic "Goodbye Tomorrow" and leveled the entire country. There was no survivor from the single attack. Decades later when people tried to visit the land, they found that it rested below heaps of ashes. Shortly after, all 12 visitors died from a strange sickness.

"Heh, the last time they checked was 40 years ago. I heard there are animals there now. Let's check it soon." He laid back, staring at the star-filled night sky

"Why do you seem to want to go so urgently now. I thought we'd agree to go there once we got stronger and gain enough money."

"We can all move out of here along with Amai sensei." With his hands spread to the clouds, he observed the stars between each finger.

"You seem super fixated on leaving so quickly. What's wrong?"

There was a long moment of silence and it seemed almost as if he wasn't going to talk. His mouth opened several times as if to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.

"Hmm...it's okay if you don't wanna tell me. I think everything will turn out alright."

"--I...I had this bad dream." Tears rolled down his eyes and his hands began to shake profusely. "My hands haven't stopped shaking since..."

Ora had noticed it earlier but thought maybe it was the cold.

"It felt too real...like someone is messing with my future. I don't think I’m going to live long if I stay."

He tried to say more, but he couldn't. If he said it, he'd have to relive the hell of a dream he experienced so he kept his mouth shut.

"I want to tell you..but.."

"I.."

"Can't."

He made no effort to hide his tears as he curled up into a ball and started shaking.

"What I saw..."

Images flashed through his head of the death and destruction happening before his very eyes.

At the center of all this chaos, was none other than himself. The worst were the events leading up to this development. He wanted to experience nothing like that again.

And so, he kept it all to himself, internalized in his fleeting mind. In his head, the whole world went black and the only thing that remained was the utter horrifying cold.

The darkness jeered and poked at him. Raging winds of fear threatened to uproot him from the very ground he sat upon. To conclude it all, the images of everything that happened began to display themselves.

It felt like he was going to freeze and simply die until suddenly a warm sensation appeared on his shoulder. Everything stopped and he felt nothing but warmth. Back to the real world. His eyes opened to the embrace of his brother. They weren't related by blood, but for the plague children, all of them considered each other family.

"It’s alright to cry...but we never give up. If we give up every time we cried, then as plague children..we wouldn't be alive today."

Lynx could only wipe his tears and nod. "Hey Ora..let's go. It's already morning. We gotta wake up our holds." He stood up and slowly calmed his breath. He blocked out all thoughts about the dream and regained his composure.

They each then departed to their separate holds. The holds were the separate groups they divided themselves into living -wise. Each hold had a leader and were all mainly responsible for different things essential to their survival.

Lynx was the head of clean up and maintenance. While the slums were entirely run down and tattered, it was very clean. In fact, in comparison to the better parts of the city, it was cleaner. Once people started to notice this, the government sometimes hires plague children to clean up certain parts of the city as well as the sewage ducts. The money is then collectively shared and rationed for food.

Ora, on the other hand, lead and handled the food rationing as well as distributing money amongst the group. Usually, this amounted to 2 dollars and a piece of bread, but that was as best as they could muster. They all look after each other and made sure they were well off. It was the only way they've survived for so long.

A monumental 10 years ago, Lady Amai had made her way to the Capitol city and since then changed everything for them. Every plague child would gladly lay down their lives to ensure she survives. She taught them everything from strategizing, safety systems, teamwork, to history and math. Through her, they were able to get the education that they otherwise would have never got.

From her lectures and teachings, she discovered 5 geniuses amongst the group. Lynx, and Ora being among the most distinguished. The others were on a whole other level, but this may be in part, to their age.

"I wanted to tell you..." Lynx thought.