__________
(Alexander POV)
The boy stands up with much eagerness.
'Why is he so eager to die?'
"I'm ready."
His red gaze is profound; swirling with resolve.
A strange warmth stirs in my heart as I meet his gaze.
Memories of when I was once like him– filled with the determination to rise to the top flash through my mind, almost making me curse my past self for how stupid I was.
But now?
I scoff.
Not at the boy– but at myself. I scoff at how shallow I've become; I'm an empty shell, a human devoid of human connections.
Am I even human? I attained the height of power I had been searching for all my life, but now...
I nod repeatedly like a malfunctioning machine. My eyes are closed.
It's a habit that I have– a bad one, anytime I'm annoyed, it just happens.
My brows furrow and the warmth I felt in my heart switches to a hot writhing annoyance.
I'm annoyed at the sight of this boy– this new child of mine born of a servant, my drunken mistake, this child with the blood of a lowly commoner.
He has something I don't, something that I lost long ago– Desire.
I glance at Stilia who's at my left and give her a nod.
She nods back at me, and I stand up from my seat and walk toward the kid.
He's standing firmly.
He's visibly quivering as his looking up to me. But even as he's shaking, his firm gaze still layered with resolve.
His gaze... It's like that of those experienced noble scholars.
His fists are clenched.
A bitter smile forms on my face.
Not even his brothers and sisters were as strong-willed as he is. During their time, they ran away, pissed their pants and I had to drag them and hold them in place just to commence the ritual. All of them. Well, except from HIM.
This pool ritual is not just a ritual– it's torture, It's obvious that a halfling, one without the most significant trait of a Flameworth, our red hair, won't be able to survive it.
I better get this over with, he won't be the first child of mine to die in the pool. But he'll be the last, I'll make sure of it..
I'll never drink again no matter the occasion. Cake is better than alcohol.. it doesn't intoxicate me, so I'll only eat cake now.
"Follow me."
I open the door, and then turn my head halfway over my shoulder to get a glance of the boy following me.
His whole demeanor exposes his anxiety.
I remember when I was just like him.
My lips widen with a small smile.
And I walk out.
We walk together until we reach the end of the hallway, and arrive at a certain metal door.
___________
(Charles POV)
Me and the Patriarch– we're both standing in front of a metal door that has no design on it.
Immediately we reached this door, I felt the air change.
The air is no longer clear with a smell like dry wood. It smells like burning paper.
Badump Badump
It's the sound of my heart. The tension like a drummer playing with my heart.
The Patriarch brings out a key from the inner pocket of his robe.
He's wearing a long red robe on top of a finely tailored black inner shirt, suit and trouser.
The door slowly opens.
A gust of dusty hot air blows from inside the room.
It doesn't smell. Surprising.
Step Step
He starts walking inside.
"Follow behind me closely. Do not touch the walls." He says.
It's like some kind of tunnel. It's narrow and the stairs seems to descend endlessly. It's dark, narrow and filled with dust and spider webs.
There are torches of fire hung on the wall so it isn't too dark.
The sight of the place makes my heart tremble.
I'm behind him, following cautiously.
"Do you know what mana is?" He asks suddenly.
My brows raise.
"Mana? What's that?"
His question didn't make sense to me.
But I notice something that's even more strange than his question.
It's the torches of fire.
With each torch he walks past, the fire flickers and crackles– changing from yellow to blue and back to Yellow again. It happened to every single torch he passed.
My eyes widen.
Just what is this?
He exhales softly.
"This is why I don't like talking to kids... Mana is the fundamental building block of life.
It is stateless, formless and invisible to the naked eye. Only people who have trained and honed their senses to feel it, can use it in various ways– either to manifest the element their mana has an affinity with or to enhance their bodies and weapons and cast spells."
"So... Mana is used to do magic?"
My voice low and submissive, not wanting to attract any harsh action from him or trigger him in any way.
But I'm confused. Why is he talking to me? Does the mere sight of me and my black hair not disgust him? Odd.
He sighs again– clearly exasperation.
"Yes. Mana is used to do magic. And where you are going now? It's the sacred mana pool. Built by our ancestors for those of the Flameworth's bloodline.
The 'pool' ritual they told you about isn't just a pool ritual. It's a mana pool ritual. You'll see what I mean when we get there."
My tongue tastes funny– dry and salty.
Why the hell do they even do this ritual? Does it do anything special? I must ask him, after all, I don't know why but he's talking to me, this is my chance.
I swallow down another gulp.
"Um... But what exactly is the Mana pool ritual for?"
I want to see his facial expression– but I can't.. I can't see his face, because I'm behind him.
He turns his neck to look at me and I get a little glimpse of his facial expression. Only it's– unreadable.
Did I say something wrong? Why is he looking at me like that?
"How old did you say you were again?"
"Four."
"Right. Four, the official age for the ritual. Even I wasn't as sharp and smart as you are when I was your age, and your siblings– they were too scared to even think about asking any questions about the mana pool."
His voice sounds like he just wants to give up on everything and sleep until tomorrow. But he just keeps on explaining anyway.. like a student forced to read in front of class.
"The Flameworths– our family, are renowned for our fire magic.
And the mana pool does two simple jobs: Strengthening your body to handle the heat of the flames. And to increase your mana's affinity with fire. Thus the reason why every Flameworth must pass through it, is we can't risk the reality of one of our family members having an affinity to water or air, although it has happened before..."
His voice which was devoid of emotion now showed one emotion as he uttered the last words; sadness.
I shake the thought of him being sad off.
That's impossible. Let's just focus on this.
Finally, I see a shining bright white light shimmering below as we slowly approach the end of the stairs.
Mana pool ritual.. shouldn't it be an affinity pool ritual? Makes more sense to me.
I can see a rocky cavern just below the tunnel. The rocks in the cavern are shining with bright light, reflected from the source below.
My eyes widen as I descend my gaze.
There's a massive pool of stagnant glowing water.
I walk down the step, my head steady as I follow behind the Patr–
The Patriarch?
Where is he? He was right in front of me.
From left to right, I'm spreading my glance frantically in a bid to find where the man had gone. He was just in front of me, I could swear.
Suddenly, I feel a push from my back.
Splash!