Daney's magic affinity test made me feel quite complicated as I thought that as a mage, I would surpass that little jungle warrior soon but looking at his results, I felt a strange sense of respect growing in my heart for Daney's conviction of following the arduous path of a warrior even when being given the bright future as a respected mage on a silver platter.
I tried not to think of it too much as I walked towards the transparent ball that was glowing like it was packed full of the brightest stars of a starry sky just a few moments ago.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and put my hands on the crystal ball before I attempted to interact with the surrounding world. Everything seemed calm and the world was unaffected by my calls.
I knew the elders were staring at me, even when my eyes were closed and it gave me another sense of pressure.
Time passed and my thoughts continued to drift apart in random directions. Within the complete suffocating darkness, I thought of one thing that constantly reminded me that this place was very far away from my home, the stars. Unknowingly, I thought of the starry sky that I saw together with my elder brother once.
He was the most peculiar man I had ever seen. I remember how my father used to beat him senseless yet he would still be laughing and drinking after a few minutes.
Although my father lost all hopes in him, he couldn't bear to throw his eldest child out of his house, especially when he didn't do anything malicious other than causing a little harm to my father's reputation.
He allowed him to do as he pleased and turned his efforts towards me. My elder brother, Yunar, on the other hand, continued living as usual, reading books, drinking alone, and joking with servants and maids.
It was even more peculiar that I had never seen or heard of any of his friends. Something within him always stood out, whether it be his unusual lifestyle, calm temperament, or his humorous nature.
I always wanted to play with him more but my father, afraid that I would learn to waste my life and talent away from him, never allowed me to interact with him much. Therefore, most of the interactions I had with him were at the dinner table where our family of four ate our food in silence. That silence was occasionally disturbed by my brother's humorous remarks.
He was around 10 years older than me at the time, still a teenager, but his words and jokes seemed even more mature and wiser than my father at times. When it was my sixth birthday, I had a lot of expectations.
I was expecting my father to praise me, my mother to prepare my favorite food, my brother to light up the atmosphere with his humor, and our family, including our servants to celebrate it together but when nothing of that sort happened and father even slapped me once for being distracted while studying, I felt like an abandoned child.
I sneaked out of my room late at night through the window and climbed up towards the roof of my private single-story house. I sat there sulking for a long time, quietly gazing at the starry sky with a plethora of childish scenarios popping in my mind.
Suddenly, I heard some footsteps behind me and got scared as I was afraid of the punishment that would befall me if my father knew I had climbed up to the roof. But when I turned my neck and saw that it was just my elder brother smiling at my scaredy-cat behavior, I calmed down a little.
Before I could even begin to explain myself, brother patted my head and began speaking
"Don't sulk so much, Ryne. Are you jealous of the love and affection your brother is getting huh?"
I smiled a little and shook my head side to side as he laughed lightly and sat beside me as we gazed at the stars. He told me a lot of mysteries, legends, and fables about the stars, and I was amused by each one of them.
When the first ray of dawn was about to begin conquering the night, he stood up, smacked the dust off his clothes, and put his hand in his breast pocket as if he was searching for something.
He took an antique grey pendant out of it and held it in front of my eyes. I was fascinated by its timeless beauty. It seemed to be absorbing all light reflecting upon it. It had two holes, with intricate carving around them that sucked all my attention.
Suddenly, brother Yunar started speaking and his words broke me out of my trance as I listened with utmost attention,
"Don't think much of it if you don't get what you deserve. Don't think much of it when your expectations disappoint you. Life is a dream and you are the master, Ryne. Dreams might seem to fade away with time but you can always make time to do your bidding. When you come back don't tell anyone I gave it to you little bro. Good night and a belated happy birthday." He flashed another mysterious smile at me before he turned around and started walking.
I hastily spoke aloud to say my goodbye as well,
"I'll definitely keep it a secret. Thank you for the gift. I really like it, brother Yu."
He didn't turn around even when he arrived at the edge of the roof and just slightly nodded his head as he uttered,
"Good boy." and wobbly jumped off the roof. I ran towards the edge, dumbfounded, to check on him but he was already long gone. As a grade-2 warrior, jumping off the roof was not surprising but I wasn't able to comprehend how he could disappear so abruptly.
Ever since then, I have been wearing that pendant around my neck but I didn't know why I suddenly remembered that scene so vividly when I was supposed to interact with the world around me.
*crack*
Suddenly, I heard the sound of something shattering and opened my eyes. In front of me were Uncle Danulo with his mouth wide-open, kind-looking senior Golver standing up in a tranced state, Tribal Chief Hans with wincing eyes and a miserly smile, and the rest of the two burly senior warriors looking at each other, seemingly frightened by something.
I was about to ask them what happened when suddenly, I felt a stinging pain in the palm of my right hand. When I looked down at the crystal ball, I was dumbfounded as well as now there was no crystal ball there, only some shattered glass fragments, with a small shard piercing my palm.
I thought it was because of me breaking that ball unknowingly that everyone was so stunned and so I tried my best to calm them down,
"Umm, seniors, was it.. very expensive? I promise my father will pay you all back once I get back..ok?"