Hundreds of voices mingled together. The sounds of people in a busy street. Some yelled, while others talked, but all together they created a symphony of sound that gave life to the worn stone and cracked wood of Grey Stone.
In a worn down house two eyes opened. The noise was the first thing he noticed, the wretched sounds. At first all the voices rang in his head like someone was yelling directly in his face. It was nauseating. Worse though was the sensation when a carriage passed by and hit a bump in the road, the sharp sound bouncing around his skull and giving him an instant headache.
He grew used to it though, his body adjusting as he looked up at a moldy and dusty ceiling. Sitting up the boy looked around, taking in a small room with two people in it. One was a girl, about his age, covered in filth and dressed in rags. The other was a boy, a couple years older, that was equally as disheveled.
He was seated on a straw cot, and from what he saw there was little in the room besides some boxes and a table and a couple chairs. The boy and the girl seemed to be having some conversation about a bag they had on the table when the girl noticed him, stopping mid sentence to stand up quick.
"You are alive! I swore you would be carrion fodder... ahh! Your wounds... how...it's only been three days..." she said.
Taking quick steps towards him.
Alder reeled with each of her words. He wondered if the hearing pain was a result of the stabbing and beating he took. But as time went on it grew more bearable. He looked into the hazel eyes of the young girl with her dark brown skin and long black hair. She was quite beautiful, he thought, despite the dirt and torn clothes.
"Wait, three days?" He thought... but was distracted by the girl approaching him.
She stopped a few feet in front of him and stood looking over his body, as if inspecting his wounds, "really strange... are you a cleric or something?" She asked.
"Umm...no..." Alder managed. He looked at his own body then and noticed all the spots he had been either cut, kicked, or stabbed had almost fully healed. "Did you both... save me?" He asked, looking at the dark skinned girl and the odd boy who's face was covered with a large hood.
"Aah, if by saving you mean dragging you out of an alley while your wounds somehow closed themselves then sure... but no for real are you a mage or something?! There's no way..."
She sat down next to him and took his arm forcefully, running a small finger over a scar on his forearm. He pulled it away and she gave a short apology but he said, "ah it's okay... yeah I'm not a mage... I don't think.."
"Hmm.. weird.. anyway, you don't look like you are from a noble family or anything... though those clothes are nice. But dirty... where did you steal them?... are you from around here? I haven't seen you before. I would have noticed a one handed kid..."
Her line of questioning rattled on and on, a stream of consciousness that gave Alder a headache. Not that he didn't think it was cute. The hooded boy stepped in then saying, "Laelia... leave him alone. He will tell us when he's ready... Anyway, I'm Fenian, and this is Laelia.. You must be a street rat like us huh?"
Alder could make out sharp blue eyes under the hood and a pale face, though not much else. The boy clearly didn't want to reveal his face and he wasn't sure why. "Umm.. nice to meet you then, my name is Alder.. what do you mean by street rat?" He asked, look from the Laelia to Fenian..
"Why we steal from adults and live free of course! We get by with what we can get!" The girl said proudly, an odd thing to be proud of Alder thought. "Right..." Alder said. He sighed and wanted to go back to sleep, to escape. He had one shot to a new life, to maybe be a mage or at least get some nice food and a decent night's sleep through delivering the package and he blew it..
"Do you know who took my stuff?" Alder asked, to which both of them shook their heads.
"I saw three goons take your things..." The girl said, "I haven't seen them around.. probably from out of town.. I wouldn't worry about it, you aren't getting it back. Probably sold already..."
Alder frowned and moved to stand. He was starving and longed for some food, "Is.. there any food around here?" He asked shamelessly.
The boy and girl shared a glance before the hooded boy nodded and stood, "sure thing... if you don't mind potatoes..." he reached for a small pot near a box and opened the lid, pulling out a boiled potato. "Here.. take a couple of these.."
He approached Alder with the food to which he readily devoured. "Oh and there's water in a pump outside... just don't let the guards catch you using it. They don't care for street rats..."
He thanked the boy and nodded in understanding. The potato was delicious, albeit unseasoned and simple. It was a welcome change to the fish. Anything was at that point.
The girl seemed impatient, as if she was waiting for him to finish so she could speak. He hurried through the meal and on his final bite of the second potato she spoke up again, "right.. so where are you from? And what happened to your hand?"
Alder looked into her large eyes and sighed, "right.. I'm from a village not far from here.. well, it used to be a village. Everyone died but me.. then.."
He went on to tell his story, telling about the goblins and Helda, the Earl and living in the wilderness. He left out the book and the spells he had learned, not fully trusting the two. The rest of the information didn't seem harmful to share, and he could tell they weren't bad people. They were around his age after all.
"I see..." the girl said, "sounds like you've been through a lot.." he looked over at her, she seemed to carry a look that said 'I've heard that before'. This was solidified in her following words, "My father was a soldier... he was strong, and brave, but died for the kingdom... and how did they repay him? By pushing my mother to become a prostitute, where she died too.. I've been on the streets since I was seven.. and Fenian here.."
The hooded boy shook his head then, to which Laelia continued, "right.. he will tell you when he's ready to..."
Alder felt closer to the two. They clearly had seen hardship just as he had. This young girl had braved the streets of a city for at least a couple years, and the mysterious hooded Fenian must have had just as horrible a background.
"Well.. how do you get by? You said you steal? Would you mind... if I join you? I don't have anywhere to be..." the idea of finally having a place where he could eat and sleep filled him with hope, and he wasn't sure how much of a use he could be but he wanted to try... anything beat the wilderness and living off the land.. especially with only one hand..
The girl laughed and said, "I thought you might ask.. well of course.. but... we all pull our weight around here. One handed or not you have to bring in money for us all to eat.. that's how it works.. and if you get caught, well.. it's not like we can fight off the guards or anything so just don't"
Her last few words were serious, and she gave him a sharp stare. Clearly the two had seen their comrades caught before, and he knew just how severe getting caught would be... his nun throbbed at the thought.
"I will... don't worry... ahh, one more thing.. is there anywhere to train? Like a separate room or a field or something?"
"Train?" The hooded boy spoke up, "no offense... but what can you train with one hand?"
The statement made alder blush and filled him with mild fury. He was about to lash back when the girl interrupted him, "Aah.. he can be blunt don't mind Fenian.. if you need to train or whatever, there is the roof. You can also leave the city by the smallest gate and there is a large open field with no houses or anything."
Alder nodded and stretched his body, taking a few steps around the room. He breathed in and out a few times, de-stressing as he tried to cope with his new situation. Everything happened so fast... just a week and a half ago he was living with his parents.
He excused himself and made his way to the roof. The other two went back to talking about the small bag on the table and he was happy to get away, to let his mind relax for a moment.
The stairs were rickety, and had missing floorboards or were unbelievably loose. He ascended the two flights up to a small rooftop, that was equally sketchy. It had a couple holes here and there and the wooden platform creaked under his boots.
He looked out onto the world, the sun blinding him more than it ever had before, while the sound of the city brought a mild headache. He walked to the edge and looked down, seeing a small street that led off to a dead end one way, and the Main Street three hundred feet in the other. People moved in throngs here and there down the smaller street, and most seemed poorer than those he spotted on the main street.
Sketchy merchants and common folk stood hawking wares on the stained cobble path. Here and there people yelled or fought, some laughed and joked with one another. A few really young kids played with some dice on a corner, laughing and giggling while they occasionally would chase a horse or mess with a passerby.
There were other people on rooftops here and there but they were far away. Most of the buildings had sloped roofs, not platforms like the one he was in.
Alder loves to a corner away from the street and sat down on the roof. He checked to make sure no one could see him and he brought out the book. He vaguely remembered chanting the spell and his mana core disappearing. Beyond the pain and his new, ever changing situation, he knew that he had to keep progressing. He had to keep pushing on in the tome.
So far it had been the only constant in his life. He kept telling himself it was the only way he was going to escape the poverty, the pain.
Opening the ancient book he felt an odd excitement as he flipped to the current page, seeing that the spell he had cast was gone, a blank spot left where it had once been. He tried turning the page and found success, seeing a long two page wall of text that began,
"If you are reading this you have succeeded. You are now on the path, truly. Here is the danger... Soon, you will experience a trial, and you will die if you do not prepare. Your mana core has fused with your body, and you will be passively taking in mana from the world around you. This will nourish you at first, heightening your senses, giving you slight strength, though it will reach a tipping point... and that is the point you die... if you are not ready for it... I am not sure when the point will come but you will feel it, like a rising heat that will scorch your body like an inferno, 10x worse than what you experienced when it fused with you..." Alder shuddered at the thought.
"Move quick. You must work out on a strict regimen, pushing your body to the absolute limit. Here is what I recommend to overcome the first trial: run for three hours straight a day, more if you can. Find the heaviest rock you can lift and carry it as far as you can. Do as many push-ups as possible as well as sit ups and pull ups. Then.. after all that is over.. everyday you must fight. Preferably spiritual beasts... this will push your body to the absolute limit and you will gain experience in combat at the same time... Once you pass the trial, you may turn the page..."
Alder sat back and returned the book to his subconscious. His heart pounded faster and faster as the fear crept in. "I need to move..." he stood and brushed off his pants, turning to head back for the stairs. He steeled his resolve for the coming day. He had a lot to do...