The few knights of the family were lined up in two rows, swords at their chests held in both hands, creating a corridor in the hall through which Ezer and his parents advanced. The atmosphere was so heavy it was almost palpable. His older brother stood motionless in a corner, watching them pass.
"Child! Time has passed and I see that you are growing magnificently! Your hair gives away the family you belong to." Ezer trembled slightly, but he pulled himself together and greeted the Viscount with his hand on his chest and a slight bow. From now on, his orders would determine the fate of his life.
"It is an honor to see you again my lord, I will be at your disposal." The Viscount's icy gaze was penetrating to his bones.
"Well, I see you at least taught your son some manners."
"Of course, it's my pride after all." Leiner replies.
"Oh... Pride? Then why are you giving me your pride?" Leiner's face distorts with humiliation and fury in response to the Viscount's words.
"It is... an honor that my son is under the tutelage of Viscount Boron, I am sure he will learn a lot." He could feel the blood on his mouth after saying those words.
"I don't have much time so let's go boy, follow me and get in the carriage." Boron turns and heads for the exit doors without responding to the fortress owner's courteous farewell .
"Goodbye son." His mother places a heavy cloak made of animal skins over Ezer to protect him from the wind and cold.
She had thousands of things to tell her son, but she knew she didn't have time, everything important had already been said.
"Goodbye, Mother." Ezer walks through the gates and is buffeted by the frigid wind and snow. He never liked leaving the castle very much, because of his attacks no one demanded much of him and they just ignored him. He spent his time reading books in the huge library that his ancestors left behind. But he did not know that in the future the snow would be his bed and the wind his lullaby.
And so Ezer took his first step into his dark destiny, which he would illuminate on his own with help and betrayal, love and death.
Towards the unknown
Wind and snow strike the carriage as it stumbled along the rough road, a couple of hours had passed since he left the castle in the shadow of the night. The coachman's hands were numb, but he forced himself to continue with his work, something much worse awaited him if he didn't. While the knights suffered to a lesser extent due to their training and the magic that circulated through their bodies increasing their resistance.
Ezer moved the curtain that covered one of the windows inside the well-insulated and relatively temperate carriage, the sky to the east was beginning to slowly turn orange, also revealing a cloud-free front that promised to end the snow, at least for now.
"It seems that this damned snow that has been going on for days will stop falling, this delays the trip too much." The Viscount pronounces those words after looking away from the horizon with an expressionism of irritation.
Ezer was simply sitting in a corner without moving, he no longer felt very nervous, after a few hours he managed to calm down when he noticed that nothing happened, at least until they reached their destination.
"Child, why do you think I'll take you with me? To put you under the guardianship of our family and thus have connections with the Inmerlan? Tell me what you think." He entered the conversation out of sheer boredom, looking for something to distract himself with.
"I-I don't know. You may want detailed information on my family or...
"You're stupid? We already know everything about the Inmerlan, much more than you can imagine. Furthermore, if we wanted to take over their lands, we would only gain ongoing expenses by constantly having to defend ourselves against the beasts... that is without taking into account the resources that we would have to mobilize in the event of a horde. No, those lands are nothing more than dead weight."
"What interests us is a rumor." The Viscount fixed his eyes on Ezer, as if examining how to get the best profit from a commodity. "A rumor about a child with visions, we wouldn't mind if it wasn't for the fact that he has elven blood in his veins."
"T-they're nothing but blurry images...and I can't control it...something's wrong with my head." His attacks were the cause of his suffering in the past and now they are again triggering the situation in which he finds himself at the moment.
"Yes, I think so too. It is nothing more than a story you created to get attention." But my father thinks otherwise... he thinks the elven legacy should not be underestimated..." These last words are spoken in his mind. "If it turns out you're useless... I'll use you for my experiments." He pronounces it as if it were something trivial, it was addressed to himself more than to Ezer.
"E-experiments...?" Ezer asks with fear and shyness, any attempt to appear strong had vanished a long time ago.
His question goes unanswered and the conversation ends, but Ezer continues to blame his bad luck for being born sick.
"Why? What did I do wrong? Me and my sister... why are we the only ones with problems?"
The journey continues and you can almost see the sun on the horizon, the monotonous movement of the carriage is only interrupted by some rocks or bumps in the road. But the peace ends due to the sudden movement of the Viscount when opening the door and jumping outside.
"Stay inside and don't move, or I'll break your legs." He closes the door and strides away.
Ezer began to hear the screams of the knights and the sound of swords being drawn, he couldn't stand his curiosity so he took a look out the window. Outside, four men could be seen in formation and behind them the Viscount. Ezer thought he saw a black aura emanating from his body, but his attention was taken by the shadows that approached and attacked the knights.
"Wild animals or perhaps... beasts." Wild animals were nothing more than wolves or bears, but if they lived long enough and accumulated magic in their bodies they evolved into something else, beasts. Their strength and ferocity could not be compared to normal animals, the population of the North was constantly stalked by them and slaughtered.
Every year in the fall, the beasts came down from the mountains of the North and foraged for food to endure the winter, creating hordes that tore apart towns, and in some cases, even fortresses.
The mission that was entrusted to the Inmerlan, by the royal family, was to protect the northern borders from the hordes of beasts by securing the wildest and most hostile frontier of the kingdom of Renia. At the time it was a great honor for the family, but now it is nothing more than an increasingly difficult task to fulfill.
The snow turned red with blood, the fight had begun.