a few more months has passed and william didn't feel any different, he expected his powers to manifest but nothing happened. he tried focusing on the shadows, breathing techniques, he even copied the hand movements his mother made whenever she was cleaning the dishes. but alas, nothing changed
'what if this was some sick joke and that god decided not to give me powers anymore?'
he was paranoid to say the least, he rushed his decision when he accepted the deal but now it was too late to back down
' that night a lot of shit happened, i was still drunk on the rush and my mind wasn't stable. i won't deny that for now, even though life is boring, it's still nice. i can always just off myself if i didn't like it'
william's second mother always woke up early and went somewhere, he assumed work, and then came back around 3pm. in that intevral of time, zephyr would take care of him.
william was annoyed that he still didn't know his new name nor the name of his relatives, so he tried his best to understand the language
'this is harder than i thought' his eyes scrunched as he tried his best to understand what his mother was saying to zephyr. he could tell that she wasn't too happy from her expression
"* i told you zephyr, don't leave your toys laying around! what if vols picks one up and tries to put it in his mouth? he might choke"
"* i'm sorry mama, i promise i'll pick them up" he looked ashamed
'mama is right, what if i hurt vols? dad will be disappointed in me if he was here' zephyr thought to himself
william looked back and forth between them and picked up a few words. it seemed to him that she keeps saying 'ziphat' whenever she talked to him..
it sounded odd but maybe that's his brother's name. as for his, he still had no idea
william sighed and then went to sleep
'i can figure it out tomorrow, i'm beat'
..
a couple of months passed and william started to understand the language better. now he didn't feel too left out
he hated the feeling of being helpless, now at least he could understand them and play dumb obviously..
he realized that his name is vols whereas his brother's is zephyr and mom's yuna
' my name is pretty cool, very edgelord-y'
vols tried to learn how to walk but he always fell flat on his arce. he kept trying for weeks but to no avail.
he was frustrated, bored and angry most of the time. he couldn't do anything without being supervised and even if he understood the language more now, his vocab was very lacking
one day, on a cold morning his mother picked him up and kissed his cheeks
" today we're going to work!" she said excitedly
'finally!' vold smiled inwardly and outwardly
she took out a weird leather looking thingy and wore it above her white dress.
as she buckled it up, vols took his time to look at her properly. he already knew his mother was beautiful, he didn't know where his father was though. she had long silky black hair that framed her pretty oval face. big eyes that looked similar to zephyr's paired with a porcelain skin and a small button nose, she has big red lips and a petite curvy body.
he once crawled towards a floating mirror in the bathroom and was able to look at himself. he too had porcelain white skin that almost made him look sickly, his eyes though looked nothing like his brother's warm ones or his mother's honest ones. his were sharp and black in color. he didn't have the same colored streaks in his black irises like most of the people he met.
he came to the conclusion after seeing many people with colored streaks that each color indicated a magic type and the lack of color meant that one wasn't able to wield magic.. his inability to use magic and his black eyes made him worry
'maybe they'll appear when i grow up' he kept telling himself
yuna held him up and put him on her back inside the leather baby holder
'ah so that's what it was, nice! i can see from her eye level now' his back was to hers and he was comfortably seated.
he was curious to know what yuna's job is, he never heard her mention it.
and thus, they departed.
..
they walked out the front door and saw both zephyr and the man that he sparred with everyday. zephur called him master einar.
zephyr was sweating like a pig as he thrust the huge spear
" 25, 26, 27.. c'mon don't stop zephyr!" the old man yelled when the latter dropped the spear
'that spear is thrice his size dude! what the hell do you expect from him? this is not healthy!'
but vols knew all too well the strength of his brother, zephyr was almost 6 years old yet he had a strong grip
'man, i'm jealous though. this looks like fun, better than staying at home shitting and eating all day long' vols whinned
" sir einar, good morning" vols wanted to look at the man but his mother was facing him
"good morning, yuna"
"please go easy on zephyr, he's still young. i don't know why he's not using a wooden spear like all the kids his age."
"well it was his father's, everytime i tell him to take a lighter spear he gets angry and insists on using this one"
vols couldn't see the expressions they were making but he caught what they said
'was my father's? is he dead? well that explains a lot of things. zephyr's weird obsession with taking care of me and why yuna never talks about him'
"hey, let me see little vols!" sir erias said and yuna turned her back
vols stared indifferently at the man in front of him. he looked to be in his forties with brown hair with some streaks of silver. his eyes looked tired but still held some warmth to them, they were brown-green colored.
sir erias looked at vols and smiled " he looks nothing like julius, he does resemble you a bit though. his eyes though.." he didn't continue
vols wanted to roll his eyes but he knew better than to do so. he didn't know at what age kids started talking and understanding the language here but 8 months is too early in his mind, and he didn't want to make them think he's some kind of genius.
"well! i'm off to work. zephyr be good to your master and don't overwork yourself" zephyr nodded as he kept thrusting, with much difficulty, his spear
yuna and vols left the house and they started walking on the cobblestone street. average sized house were placed next to each other from vols' right and left. they all had similar architecture. built with plain colored bricks, steeply pitched roofs, red painted railings and canted bay windows. some had long towers but those were on the nicer corners of this town.
each garden was well kept with bushes and flowers of different colors, he couldn't recognized any of them though.
they neared the town's square where a huge fountain ornamented it. there were 3 crossroads, to his right it looked like it led to a fireroad, he couldn't see any houses or shops anymore. to the north there were more nicer looking houses and in the distance he could see a big castle like building.
and finally to his left, where his mother went, many merchant stands were lined up and the street was buzzing with noise. merchant were advertising their products and a lot of pedestrians were looking around holding bags.
a few carriages were parked next to some stands unloading the products. vols was fascinated by the produce, he found out that food here was quite different from earth's.
people here ate a lot of meat and apparently fish was rare to get, only the rich could afford it. fruits and veggies were nothing like he knew, each looked weird and their colors were not natural at all. yesterday his mother squeezed him what looked like a blue apple with yellow polka dots on it, the juice that came out of it was colored blue. at first he thought it was poisened or chemically produced and didn't drink it but when he saw her drink a gulp he swallowed his doubt and drank. long story short, it tasted like sour apple juice and he hated it.
as they moved along, the food stands were replaced by potion and jewelry stands. he saw long fur, wooden boxes that made weird noises, wooden toys that looked like beasts, light crystals, gemstones and so on
finally they arrived at the end of the merchant's district and right in front of them was a huge church like building. minus the cross on top of course.
yuna went up the stairs and opened the huge doors.
'holy mother of god-' vols couldn't believe his eyes. huge bookshelves that went vertically up to 6m long were placed horizontally from his left and right. books filled them, old and new. the place was huge, the ceiling went up to 30m and there seems to be an upstairs too.
yuna walked straight inside until she neared a counter. vols was still mesmeried by the colored mosaic windows and the many bookshelves that he tried counting them. when they arrived at the counter his mother took him in her embrace, he looked to their right where he saw a huge staicase that spiraled upstairs towards what looked like a sit in. many long tables and chairs decorated the open space and a few people were already sitting reading.
but what put the icing on the cake were the holograms next to some of the readers
blue screens above each table, he couldn't read the gibberish language yet so he was more than excited that his mother worked here
'this library looks like it's out of a fairytale, is yuna a librarian?? i hope so, i can read about this world and magic!'
'well that's after i learn how to read the language..'
yuna saw her son look around the library in wonder and chuckled softly
'he seems to like it'
she took him to one of the aisles and picked a book. it read 'beginner's guide to the togarian language'
she knew her son couldn't possibly understand the book but she saw the greed in his eyes when she picked up the book so she gave it to him happy that she finally saw his eyes spark. he's been quiet and grumpy lately.
" this is a book about our language, please don't rip it or it'll come out of my paycheck!''
her baby boy's eyes widened and his smile grew. for some reason she felt like he understood her.
she shook her head at this thought
'this book is pretty cheap so it doesn't matter if he burned it, it'll keep him busy while i work'
she went upstairs and walked to the end of the long opem space. vols looked at the holograms as he walked passed the people and tried to touch them. his small fingers went throught the light.
then they stopped and he saw her knock on one of the two doors. a man answered with '' it's open" and she opened it
" hello professor zorax" yuna smiled
vlos looked at the office. it was spacious with a big bookshelf that covered the whole wall in front of the door.
some books were pilled up on the floor, his eyes caught what looked like this planet's globe. on his right he saw a huge desk with hundreds of papers on it. some were even scattered on the floor. behind the desk was a huge window instead of a wall that looked down on the open street.
a man sat behind the desk, his back was hunched and he held a pen writing on a large scroll. he looked to be in his forties with blonde hair and half blue half purple eyes. the blue in his eyes was different from yuna's, while his mother's looked unaturally pale blue and shiny, the professor's were dark blue with little shine to them. vlos was mesmerized by the purple though.
' why is this man's eyes half purple whereas all the others i met had only but a few streaks of different colors?'
the professor looked up from his scroll and frowned at yuna
" what are you doing here? what is that in your arms?"
vlos saw huge black circles under the man's eyes. his hair was unkept and his long black robe wrinkly. his nose wa slightly crooked and his eyes held a hint of madness.
'i don't like that look in his eyes. and why the fuck am i a 'what' not a 'who' ?'
"i'm sorry for bothering you professor but this is my son vlos, i was wondering if he could stay here and read this book while i work" she asked sheepishly
looking at his mother's uncomfortablessness he felt discontent towards the man
" i don't want to hear him cry and acream, i'm busy with my research yuna" the professor waved his hand as if to shoo her
" don't worry professor, he's a very quiet kid and i'm worried he will crawl downstairs and make a mess of the books"
the man looked up once again but this time he glared at vlos. vlos glared back of course.
" he's quiet? is he brain damaged?"
'okay, that's it you old fart-"
"gods no! please do me this favour professor and i'll help you clean your office" his mother wasn't backing off
professor zorax sighed " woman if i wanted someone to move my stuff around and look through them i would've stayed working at the academy. fine, let him stay but if he makes the smallest of noise i'm kicking him out"
she smiled and bowed to him but he was already writing on his scroll
yuna put vlos of the chair that was in front of the man's desk and kissed him on the cheek
she put her finger on her lips to signal him not to make any noise and vlos almost nodded his head
yuna closed the door behind her and vlos was left alone with the old fart.
he didn't bother to look around the room and opened his book and then placed it on his lap.
he turned the first page and started looking at the words associated with each image, thankfully he knew what each picture sounded like so he compared it and deduced what each letter sounded like. it was hard work but it was fun nonetheless.
..
2 hours later, the professor looked up from his scroll to heave a deep breath. when his eyes caught the sight of a kid and he almost got a heart attack
'shit! who is that- oh right'
he observed the kid with bored eyes, surprisingly the latter didn't make a sound so zorax completely forgot about his presence.
' the kid looks focused on his book, what age is he?'
"hey kid, what's your name and age?" zorax asked him
vlos looked up at the man annoyed. he was in the middle of deciphering a word and was in deep focus
'is that guy dumb? i'm 8 months old. i can't fucking speak. well.. i can but that's not the point'
vlos looked blankly at him and then looked down at his book again ignoring the old fart.
"hey! i'm talking to you kid, didn't your mom teach you not to be rude to your smart elders?''
'smart my ass'
vlos was tempted to flip him off but held back
' remember vlos, you're 8 months old. flipping off a professor will only get me in trouble'
the professor gave up on talking to the kid and stood up, he walked towards the window his hands behind his back looking down at the busy people
" whenever i hit a wall i drop my pen and stand here looking down at those people to empty my mind. but everytime i see them laughing and walking with no care in the world, rage courses theough my body. these people are so ignorant to what's happening in this shitty kingdom.. actually, they do know exactly how fucked up it is yet they pretend that everything is fine. whenever one of them is killed, they cry and mourn them then they start talking big about a revolution between themselves. but once some soldiers come to check things out, they scatter and disappear faster than flies on a rainy day"
vlos was listening to the old man rant, his voice sounded hoarse in anger
' i don't know why he's saying all of this to a kid.. well maybe he is saying all of this beacuse i'm a kid. i'm glad though for the information.'
' so it seems that things inside this kingdom is really bad. maybe a tyrant is the ruler and these people are oppressed by him.. but i can't understand why strong mages would run with their tails between their legs in fear, doesn't matter if the tyrant is strong and has an army by his side, if the people joined together to take them on-' vlos almost laughed out loud at his own reasoning
'yeah right, because if i learned anything on earth about humans is that everyone has good team spirit and share the same beliefs about how the world should work' he sneered
zorax turned around and left his office, he couldn't take the quiet of it anymore.
..