"What brought about the curse?" Kiyan asked.
"Envy and hatred, a man who saw me as an obstacle in his path. He placed a curse on me." Agnar gave an answer.
His sons realized he had been teaching them magic, casting spells, that was the reason he almost died. The reason he had told them to refrain from using their actual name was finally known to them.
"Again I was that selfish. I almost left you both. I should have told the truth, but I was too ashamed. You both did nothing wrong. You did nothing to deserve the treatment you got." He placed his palms over his face.
Kiyan then went over to him. Placing his little hand on his father's shoulder, he said
"Everything you did, everything that happened was in the past. It all happened hundreds of years ago. Now, you've been nothing but a good father." He reached in for a hug.
Letting go, of Kiyan, he looked over at Raten who still sat, gripping onto the chair. Taking a deep breath. He looked at Agnar, the same stare from before. He then glanced at Demas and then back at his father. Shaking his head in disappointment, he stood to leave.
"Raten?" Agnar called out.
"I'm tired, I am going to bed. Goodnight you all." He said and headed upstairs.
"You should go to your room as well." Agnar said to Kiyan and he obeyed.
Days passed, the gloomy atmosphere slowly left the house. Kiyan was as every other day, energetic. To him, the conversation changed nothing. Well, it really didn't. He would meet with Demas and his father, Marie as well. Raten only stepped out of his room at intervals to join his brother to do other things or when called out.
Other than acknowledging his father's presence, he had not had any conversations with him. The smiles and everything were gone. He would only keep staring at him. It seemed as if with each passing day, he got angrier. What exactly caused the rage? No one knew. He had not said a word about how he felt about everything.
"I wonder what's going on in his mind. Hearing this part of the story and this is his reaction. What happens when he finds out I left his mother to die?" Agnar, sat on the open field at the back, said to Demas who had no answer to give. Not that Agnar wanted him to say anything.
A month passed and Agnar decided to have a talk with his son. At least to hear from him, what he thought of his father.
In his room with his brother, Raten stood looking out the window. That had become his favourite thing to do. While Kiyan laid on the bed.
A creaking sound of the door opening was heard as Agnar walked in. His sons looked in his direction. He walked in slowly, and sat on the bed.
"Raten, I want to have a word with you." He spoke softly, patting the bed, he signalled for Raten to sit as well.
Kiyan kept looking at the both of them. The tone his father used and the sudden change in mood was concerning to him. Since he was there, he would listen to know the reason.
Raten sat.
"You seem rather upset with me this past month, Raten. I can't help but feel you no longer see me in the light you used to. Are you really that ashamed of me, of my actions?" He asked, still speaking softly as he stared straight into his son's eyes.
"Ashamed of your past actions?" Raten raised a brow. "I only have questions for you. Why did you tell only one part of the story? The part that made you seem like the problem."
"What do you mean?" Agnar asked, confused by the question.
"You want us to feel that the actions of people towards us is justified. You want us to know we are suffering for our father's mistake, isn't that so?" He said and Agnar remained silent.
Kiyan couldn't see where Raten was leading with this.
"You said you were turned into stone. Three hundred years later, you were freed. Who exactly freed you? Who saw you a man worthy enough to do his best to free you from that predicament?"
Agnar's eyes widened as he now understood where Raten was leading, what his thoughts were.
"You said on one of your voyages, you met our mother. Three hundred years later, we were born. Doesn't that mean that someway, somehow she waited three hundred years for you. She saw you, that good of a man to wait for you!" Raten was beginning to yell. Agnar hung his head low.
"Your words were 'everyone who got involved was killed', they knew fighting against the rulers meant death, but they chose you over their lives. Mother chose you, chose us, over her life!"
"You were selfish, you were the cause, you were the problem, so you say." He was beginning to lower his voice. "But, you were a good person, weren't you? You didn't say that part. No one would throw their lives for the cause of their problems. Along the way, there was injustice, mistreatments, weren't there?" His voice croaked as he began to cry.
"You want to take the blame. The people are not wrong, huh? We shouldn't grow to despise them, that must have been what you wanted." Wiping his tears, he looked up at his father. "Ashamed of you? I respect you, father!"
Agnar's eyes moistened at his son's words.
"Yes, you did wrong, but you fixed it. Isn't that what matters? Why punish and curse a man for a hundred year old crime? There was another reason for their action, wasn't there? Right now, you are hiding it from us!
"Magic and it's academy, would it exist now, if you hadn't told those people about it? Focusing on the bad and not seeing the good it brought. No! You don't deserve any of this. We don't deserve it. Why not let it go?" He hung his head low.
Agnar then pulled him in for a hug, and Raten cried on his shoulders. Kiyan moved closer and hugged them both.
"Why kill our mother? Why?!" He said, sobbing loudly. Kiyan was beginning to tear up as well. Seeing both his sons like this was hurting him. At the moment, he didn't even know what to say to console them.
They stayed in that position for a while, before ending the hug.
"I don't know what exactly was said about me to the people. I don't know the root of their hatred. I do know one thing, the three of us have each other. Nothing else matters to me. You both would be great wizards, right ?" He spoke softly, with a slight smile. They nodded.
"You are Teferi, but for the sake of peace, for the sake of the happiness you pursue, you both will be Silverstone. Let everything that happened remain in the past." He spoke, wiping their tears with his thumbs.
"I don't want to see these tears fall anymore." He smiled and got up from the bed. Turning his back on them, he proceeded to the door. Holding onto the doorknob, he spoke.
"You boys shed tears over everything. Don't tell me I'm raising crybabies."
"Crybabies?" Kiyan scoffed. "What do you expect when our father is exactly that." He grinned.
Agnar smiled and left.
Heading to the back of the house, he sat on the grass letting the cool breeze blow past his skin. Taking in deep breaths, staring into space, he needed to clear his head.
'There was another reason for their actions, wasn't there? Right now, you're hiding it from us!' Raten's words kept playing in his head.
It was true, he didn't say the full truth. What he hid from them, is been kept from the people. For now, he wouldn't tell them. He wouldn't want to instill fear in them.
"Jadis, Lucian, are you still alive ? If you are, I hope you know what you're doing." He mumbled to himself.
He had asked Demas once if he had heard from them both. His answer was a negative.
'Over fifteen years, Agnar. I haven't seen or heard from them,' were his exact words. Making Agnar both disappointed and worried. But, there was nothing he could do.
Things went on as usual from then. The twins would train with their father every morning, run around, Kiyan asking numerous questions every chance he got. They spent most of their time with Marie, if not practicing magic. She was basically the first woman that has been in their lives. They snuggled up to her.
Agnar, on the other hand, was sick of staying idle. But, going out to work was out of the question. It was too risky. Besides, they weren't lacking anything. They had all they needed. Demas would constantly gloat about being a noble's father and the best healer in the city, if not Mulgard as a whole.
Having nothing else to do, he taught his sons horse riding.
Raten, at first, was too scared to get on. Whereas Kiyan was more than excited. First, a griffin, now a horse, he was filled with glee and would constantly tease Raten for being scared. Slowly, Raten became willing and eager to ride as well. He saw Kiyan was having a good time and thought why not give it a try. With time, he was getting the hang of it.
"I wonder what I'll get to ride next. Maybe a dragon!" Kiyan grinned.
"In your dreams." Raten walking beside him, spoke. They just came out of a stall. With a bag in their hands, it was clear they had purchased something. Raten was constantly staring at the pocket watch he had just bought in his hands.
"Come to think of it, we haven't seen, uh.. what's his name again ?"
"I think it's Connor or something." Kiyan replied.
"Whatever his name is, we haven't seen him in the past six months."
"It's like he just disappeared. I'm beginning to think we never met him and were only imagining things." Said Raten. "Anyway, do you think Marie would accept this?" Changing the topic, he took out a necklace from his bag.
"She has to, we've bought it already. What I don't understand is why you chose to buy such a cheap one when we could have gotten something better."
"If we got something expensive, she would be suspicious and ask how we got the money. Besides, this one is still beautiful." He replied.
"I guess you're right." Kiyan admitted. "It's going to get harder to hide these things from father."
"We'll find a way. Now, let's hurry back!" Raten said picking up pace.
"Why do we have to ?" Kiyan groaned.
"We're supposed to be back before lunch, remember ?" He stated, Kiyan mouthed an 'oh'.
They began jugging back home when they bumped into someone. More like, he hit them on purpose stopping them in their path.
"Ow! What the-- why did you do that?!" Raten yelled picking his bag up from the floor.
"I had to do something to stop you both." A rather familiar voice spoke. Looking up at the boy who had hit them, they saw he had a grin in his face. His appearance, very familiar.
"Connor ?" Kiyan called out realizing who it was. Though, he got the name wrong.
"It's Lecter." The boy corrected. "You forgot my name already ?" He raised a brow.
"You can't blame us, we only ever met you once. And that was six months ago." Raten defended them both.
"Anyway, where have you two been?!" He asked with a smile.
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Author here: Sorry for the slow updates. More chapters will come in, and more often as well.
Still a novice here, you can point out my mistakes in the comment section.
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