Chapter 4:

Storytime III

Legends of Adora: This Halfryta's, Garden


Storytime III

This story takes place early in the year x289. Another fall season rang into the church-school in Hal Astu. By this time, it’d been only a year since the coronation. Rumours and talks spread far and wide over how the church was beginning to establish new heights of power as the scions for the first time in history attended the church for schooling. However, in all the news which spread about, the most talked about was Eurus. To the world, he’d simply been missing. Just as is Diane Aira, the previous Ventus Scion. She had disappeared on a strange chaotic night almost a decade ago, but she was a well-known, powerful wanderer, so many simply thought it best to wait for her return. Imagine their surprise when, years later, a blonde boy with the same green eyes would appear from the house of Cephas, bearing the same vagabond’s medallion. He was, without a doubt, shrouded in such deep mystery. The biggest concern was directed to the north, but that is a story for another time. A month has now passed since term began... and while all our pieces were present, not all of them were playing.

At the church’s great library, an austere array of ebony oakwood and paperback text ran in droves through a great stretch of space. Two floors stood separated by ten mets from ground to ceiling, several spiral stairs winding in and out of them. Only scattered rectangles of study spaces existed between the storage of aging history books. Young Fenris sat along, reading, on the second-floor corner space.

Maralah, quietly clicked into hearing range. Fenris flipped a page, un-phased, as she sat in front of him.

“So?” He said after a while. “What is it?”

“Nothing. I was admiring some flowers outside, and I thought of home.” She replied with a soft sigh. “Where’s the fire-boy?”

“Marise is outside, like a normal child.” Fenris yawned. “I didn’t think you’d be so quick to feel homesick.”

“Maybe I didn’t either.” She retorted.

He stopped flipping the pages. “Your bandages aren’t weakening, are they?” Fenris glanced from the corner of his eye, moving to rest the side of his head on a hand.

She shook her head lightly.

“So, what is it, really?”

“Maybe something’s missing.” She said.

“I haven’t seen Eurus since move-in day. Is that why you’re here?”

Maralah nodded lightly. Fenris promptly closed his book after sliding a mark between the sheets. She placed her hands on the table and bowed slightly. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologi-?”

“Because you’ve already done enough for my sake, but I feel this is something only you can do…” She cut him off. A pause. “Even though I know I have no right to ask.” Fenris was just nine years old[A5] , and yet, even at this young age, he was intuitive to a fault. He knew when he could be used by others—he’d spent enough time learning so. Whether friend or foe, young Fenris would stare at anyone with the same logical eye. It was sincerely a part of his genius that he could be so unfeeling. Maralah knew that, and that’s why she didn’t want to ask. So, instead, she placed a bet.

Maralah told him about Eurus’ life in Cephas. “Truthfully, he’s been around forever.” She began. As circumstance would have it, they were never allowed to meet. In many cases this would be strange, but there was far too much mystery around how Eurus himself had appeared. “His medallion never lit up in the whole time he was with it. It was his only proof of relation to his mother. What’s more, his powers never showed up back at the castle - before coronation, He lived just as a servant boy…” Maralah stopped, thoughtful. “No. That’s a complete lie. He was no less locked up and caged than an animal. They told me it’s because of how uncertain they were about him. He ate only when necessary and never left the grounds. For him, coronation meant freedom… but it didn’t open him up. It had the opposite effect.”

“Where is he?” Fenris asked

“We don’t know. The few times he’s disappeared, we have never known. But whenever an instance came where he wasn’t locked up, we knew he’d disappear again. He’s been taught poorly, and treated badly… I believe that at the very least, he deserves the chance to accept his name and to know that he’s always been accepted.”

Fenris paused for thought, half-staring between her & the crunch of numbers in his head as he processed the story. He let out a deep uncanny sigh: “Obviously, I relate. So, how am I supposed to find him?”

“I didn’t come to you with an easy job... I know. But it’s a favor for both of us… You know. Since he’s one of us.”

“You want me to ask my parents to allow me to visit Cephas, to look for a runaway boy who doesn’t want to be found?”

“He’s my brother.” She said, her demeanor crumbling.

Fenris winced at the fact that she did not include a ‘now’. Her eyes held their opaque grey. She was being completely serious.

“Never mind the fact that the caretakers, and probably high-level guards, couldn’t find him. I’m only nine, you know?”

“Usually, I wouldn’t ask… but I think if you met him for yourself, you’d get it.”

He sat with his chin on his hand. “Probably. This’ll be a challenge. I guess.” Fenris got up from his seat. “Set an extra plate for dinner in the hall tonight.” He left with no more, and leapt down to the ground floor, walking away from the library.

“You’re not going to start in Cephas?” She called from above the deck. No reply from below. He was gone without a word.

Fenris took a lap around the library to think. He would stop often at the windows and peer around quietly. The young genius finished a thought, then escaped outside. He was a child ahead of his time, indeed. Under Edgar’s tutelage, he’d always studied the roots of Arcane and his connection to it as a Scion. Now, that knowledge would come to fruition.

Fenris pondered deeply to himself “He reached the church with Ralah before going missing. So…. where could he have gone? Unless…”

He turned at the corridors leading out to the south field, heading in the direction of the Holy Sequoia Sapling. “No one Cephas has sent over has been able to find him. No one in the church has seen him. Makes sense, since very few people even saw him arrive. Caged and alone your whole life, kissed by the aspect of freedom for the first time—where do you go? You never really left did you?” Fenris tilted his chin to the sky. He reached the sequoia and placed a hand on it. “I certainly wouldn’t stay grounded either,” he said. The sequoia gave a faint ring, somberly birthing a warm pulse as the young prince allowed the energies of the earth to flow into himself. His mind suddenly expanded, and his senses tingled, as a scene appeared in his mind. A vision, growing from the ground to the church, the city, and finally the sky. A few moments passed then–

FLASH! Suddenly, he was back again. Leaves rustled, and the scene around him rumbled.

“Welcome back.” Fenris greeted the figure that appeared from behind the tree.

“How did you do that?” A short, skinny blonde boy asked, staring at Fenris, a plate of mossy hazel around his iris. He was dressed neatly in a green and black combo-short attire.

“Where have you been?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense, since - I’m the one that found you.”

“No… it’s more like I found you.”

“Says the guy who can’t control his flight. Very well. How did you find me, then?” Fenris asked, laying down the bait.

“I was flying over the city... But I couldn’t land. I then saw a flash of light and the sky got split up in two. A bolt of lighting hit the tree and brought me here, and I thought…” He suddenly stopped as Fenris gleaned a victorious grin in his direction.

A child’s naivety is always to give himself up. That’s what nine-year-old Fenris’ smirk said to Eurus. Fenris gave a chuckle. He could tell Eurus hadn’t yet told anyone about his new ability.

“You’re talented, Eurus. There aren’t a lot of people who can fly at age nine. I get it. You’ve been caged until now. It makes sense. But that doesn’t mean you should go off on your own, no matter what your thoughts on the matter are.”

“What if I can’t control it? What if it takes me away even when I want to stay put? What if you can’t follow me?” He half-sympathetically asked.

“So what? Does that mean I should accept you any differently?”

Eurus gave a hiccup in surprise. A gurgle in his stomach roared.

Fenris shook his head – walking along with a chuckle.

“Either I’ll find you, or you’ll find me. Besides, we’re kids. Whenever you’re alone, or whenever you have a problem, you go looking for someone who’ll help or at least listen, even though I know there are some things in life you absolutely must do alone. I just think real freedom is being able to choose your path for yourself.”

“Even if I choose to leave?” Eurus asked. “Even if I can’t stop myself, no matter what?”

“It’s your job to fight so you can make that choice on your own. That’s what it means to live.”

“What’s yours? What do you fight for?”

Fenris gave a look that faded from despair to contentment. It was the face of someone tossed in eternal conflict. “Balance,” he finally said.

Eurus couldn’t help but wonder with a stare. “Heh-eh, are you really a kid? I don’t get that at all.”

“Hmph.” Fenris crossed his arms and led Eurus up the field.

“So… now what?” Eurus asked to Fenris’ back.

“As long as you keep fighting for your freedom…” Fenris stopped. “Well… I’ll be there for you at least.” He said with a smirk.

Story III End