Theodore Kascis is the first prince of Kassiel however, he is not biologically related to the king or the queen. Even without anyone telling you, it was already clear that he was not related to the royal family since he has black hair while both the king and queen have blond hair.
Theodore is the child of a prostitute that the king fell in love with. The king fell in love so deeply with Theodore's mother that he didn't demand her to get an abortion even though the baby wasn't his just because there could be side effects however, it didn't matter in the end since Theodore's mother died in childbirth; making him hated by the king.
"I came here to stop the fire with my magic," smiled Theodore. "I already put out the fire back there, but I need to get to the other side of the wall to stop the fire there as well. Do you know how to get there?" he asked. Just when I was going to say 'I don't know', Wren appeared.
"Follow me your highness," Wren said.
"Thank you lady Arla."
"No need to thank me your highness, you are saving my village after all," replied Wren, "there's no need for you to call me 'lady Arla' either, just call me 'Wren'." Hm? Well that's a first. I've never witnessed Wren telling someone they could call her 'Wren' instead of 'lady Arla'. Even when it's Owen who's the crown prince and is actually related to the king, she didn't let him call her 'Wren' however, she let Theodore do that.
"Well it's more convenient for someone with water magic to put out the fire right? I'm just doing what I can to help," smile Theodore. What he said made it seem normal, but I've seen people with powers that are helpful in certain situations just sit back and watch. Plus, even if he doesn't have royal blood, he's still a prince so he doesn't actually need to help in person and just send people here instead. Maybe this is why Wren let him call her by her first name.
We follow Wren and approach the wall when all of a sudden, it explodes and many pieces of rubble get flung everywhere. Before the rubble could hit anyone, a water snake appeared and engulfed the pieces of rubble in its body. Wait... a snake?
"Oh sorry, do you not like snakes?" Theodore asked as the water snake curled around his body, "I adore snakes quite a lot. Look, doesn't she look alive?"
"You have great control over your magic your highness, she really does act like a real snake," I replied. "I apologise if it seemed like I disliked your snake, it's just the one who caused the fire also seemed to like them-?!" When I turned to look at where Lucas's body or at least his ashes should've been, he wasn't there. On the burnt grass was only a pile of burnt human skin that seemed to have been cut off.
"Infermel," Theodore tapped me on the shoulder, "is that the person you were talking about?" he pointed to a familiar brown haired male who was on top of the wall. When the brown haired male turned around and gave me a smile- the smile that always made me shudder, I knew that it wasn't an illusion or someone else pretending to be him, it is Lucas. He's alive.
"Yes," I said in disbelief, "it's him."
"Then we shall capture him before he escapes," Theodore turned to the knights behind him, "go through the gap that opened from the explosion and block off all exits from the other side. Do not let that guy escape."
"Yes your highness!"
"I hope this will be able to put the fire out as well as capture him," mumbled Theodore. He lifted both his hands up in the air, making an 'X' with his wrists touching each other, his blue jewel-like eyes glowing. The snake that was curled around him transformed into a massive female with a crown and a mermaid tail, holding her hands together with her eyes closed.
I was astonished by this. I've always heard of this mesmerising but strong power that Theodore Kascis possessed in the future, but I was never able to witness it before. Even if he can't possess title of 'Kassiel's king', in future he was known as 'The King of the Sea' and people even crowned him with the title of 'The Uncrowned King', the true dark horse of Kassiel nation. He is truly worthy of it.
This may be the first time that I've seen Theodore's power, however I can undoubtedly say that this attack not only strong, but it also seemed to be able to make people freeze from the beautiful looks of the mermaid; which is quite helpful if you're trying to aim at someone. It was like looking at the mermaid had the same effect as being hypnotised by a siren. A siren... was this gorgeous lady created by water a mermaid, or siren? I can't tell. My mind felt fuzzy staring at her and I felt like it didn't matter whether she was a mermaid or a creature who devours humans.
"Please don't stare at Vera for too long Infermel. We're in the middle of something and it would be quite troublesome for you to lose focus now," Theodore's words snapped me out of my thoughts, however it also made me question his ability.
Can his mermaid also make people lose focus by staring at her? If you stared at her long enough, could you lose your mind? Would she devour every one of your thoughts just like how a siren devours humans? The only thing that I know is that it's best to keep your mind off her, which is exactly the opposite of what I'm doing right now. I just can't help it. I can't at all. Her looks seems to have a similar effect to a siren's song.
The more that I thought about her even though Theodore told me to focus, the more I pictured her as a siren. So alluring but deceiving. I felt like I was going to lose my mind but luckily, my thoughts of her being a siren made me imagine her trying to pull me into the water with many sharp teeth which scared me enough to bring me back to reality.
When Theodore lowered his arms down to the side with them still held out in the air, the mermaid's eyes snapped open and the ends of her hair split into many water balls moving rapidly towards Lucas and over the wall. The once bright village lost its light due to the pale blue flames being put out and it was harder to see. I could tell that the water charging towards Lucas missed from the lack of the sound of water hitting someone. At least the fire was put out though.
"Infermel," Theodore turned to me with a serious expression, "is boy a zombie?" A zombie? That could be possible since I was sure that I had landed my attack on him earlier, but at the same time, Lucas might have just survived somehow. Plus, I'm sure that he was alive when I talked to him before he started the fire. Why is Theodore asking me that anyways?
"Why do you think he's a zombie?" I asked.
"Because my attack shouldn't have missed even if I can't see him. My magic can locate a person in the dark by their temperature, but it missed when I tried to attack him. The only explanation to why I can't locate him is that he's dead," answered Theodore.
"How can you tell the difference? Doesn't a dead person still have a cold temperature?"
"An alive person's temperature is warm so I can find it, but a dead person is seen as an object from the lack of an alive body temperature," explained Theodore, before turning back to the direction of the wall. "He must still not be far from here. Do you mind giving me some light?"
"Sure," I said, creating orbs of fire and sending them around. I used the orbs to search around in the dark and when I caught a lock of brown hair in my sight, I immediately called it out. "He's right there."
"Thank you Infermel," said Theodore, the mermaid's hair extended out towards Lucas.
"It's about time that I helped," Wren winded her right arm that was holding a small dagger back before throwing it and shouting, "go!" The small dagger was then engulfed by what looked like purple mana shaped as a bird with lightning boosting its speed.
"Hah!" Lucas smiled widely, "you got me!" The hair of the mermaid wrapped around Lucas like ropes and when the lightning covered dagger made contact with the water, it electrocuted Lucas, making him fall to the ground with a 'thud' noise.
"Is it just me or there was something wrong with that noise?" questioned Wren. The noise Wren was talking about is the sound of Lucas hitting the ground.
"It's not just you lady Arla," spoke Theodore, "I feel that there's something sketchy about him."
"Your highness! He's knocked unconscious, but I don't think he's normal!" one of the knight shouted.
Theodore, Wren and I went over to check Lucas's body and saw that he was disfigured and he looked like he was made out of wood. All of a sudden, his head popped off and his eyes opened with a wide, psychopathic smile stretching across his face.
"I'll get those eyes from you awakener of Cyrus," Lucas's voice sounded like there was two people speaking. "See you next time," he said before tree roots grew out of his eyes and mouth, planting firmly on the ground. The limbs attacked to his headless body also did the same, it was as if he turned into a tree.
"This type of tree only grows in Floran," said Theodore, examining what use to be Lucas's body. "It looks like he's a human doll created in Floran."
… A human doll?