Arthur Shraon, the leader of the northern islands, had four children, Enarys, Erina and two sons. Enarys was the eldest daughter behind only her brother of the same mother. Erina, on the other hand, was the youngest, having been born after her twin brother.
When Erina's mother became pregnant, it was only a matter of time before Erina's condition began to affect her. By the fourth month of gestation, Erina's mother began to feel her essence getting out of control, making the pregnancy dangerous, so she began to expend her essence with relics.
At first it worked, but over time her body began to weaken until when she went into labor, her body was unable to withstand the weakness she had accumulated for months, and she died.
Erina's brother was born without complications as Erina's condition only affected people with essence. But even though she too was born healthy, it affected all other aspects of her life.
The radius in which her condition affected her was almost ten meters, so they had to design a room as far away from the mansion as possible. This also made it impossible for her to go out, so she spent her whole life locked inside the mansion.
Her own family could only see her from afar, being close to her was simply suicide for any essence user. Nathan had experienced this himself that very day.
Enarys finished telling him the story while Nathan ate. He was so hungry he could barely pay attention to Enarys, but he managed to listen to the whole story.
"So" Nathan stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth, chewed it and continued. "Didn't you ever try to find the cause?"
"Of course we did. Many times in fact" Enarys sighed. "But we never found anything unfortunately"
Nathan finished the last of what was left on his plate and looked at Enarys with a tired expression. "So do I have to endure the same thing tomorrow? No... Until when?"
"...How long will you be able to endure it?" asked Enarys instead of giving him an exact time. "I really didn't expect you to manage to endure the whole day... I can't estimate how much you can help her"
"Help her? I'm just a guard, I can't help her" Nathan said as he yawned.
"I know... I just don't want to give up on her" Enarys muttered with a sad tone. "My family doesn't know what else to do anymore... besides, it's only a matter of time before she gets essence"
Nathan opened his eyes slightly losing the tiredness he felt. "If she gets essence... it's practically a death sentence"
"Exactly. So far we've tried to postpone her getting essence as long as possible... but she's going to turn 18, we don't know how long we can limit her" Enarys explained to which Nathan frowned in confusion.
"Postpone it? I thought for someone to get essence it's a random process"
"It's not" Enarys smiled slightly. "It's by genetics... or at least most of it. If one of your parents has essence then it's 50/50, if both have then the odds are close to 100%"
"Why didn't I know this?" asked Nathan.
"It's not a well-known thing" Enarys said. "Mainly because it's not the only reason someone gets essence"
"What's the other reason?" asked Nathan again curious about why some people had essence and others didn't.
"Usually if it's because of genetics, then essence appears at puberty. But it can also appear for other reason. The realms, if someone enters a realm, it doesn't matter if at some point in their life they were going to get essence, they immediately get it when they enter one"
Nathan's eyes widened slightly in surprise. 'So that's why...'
Nathan first entered a realm when he was ten years old, a couple of years before he started puberty. Both of his parents had essence, so he would surely have gotten it naturally, Boreas simply accelerated the process.
"How did you slow down the process?" asked Nathan. Erina was already going on 18, so she had already entered puberty many years ago.
"With medication" Enarys answered.
"Drugs that work against the essence?" Essence had appeared 80 years ago, but not enough research had been done to implement it in a medicine, or so Nathan thought.
"Compared to you, we were isolated from the world for many years, so we developed more technology regarding essence. There is also another reason, but it is still too early for you to know" Enarys explained. Then she stood up from the table and gave Nathan one last look.
"Any other essential details you have to share?" asked Nathan, bored with Enarys always skipping details.
She simply smiled and denied. "Too many to tell in one night. At ease"
Nathan watched Enarys leave and himself got up and went to his own room. Being around Erina had left him exhausted and now all he wanted to do was rest.
The next day Nathan stopped in front of the door of Erina's large room and sighed wearily. 'There are some very hard days ahead of us'
'You say that as if you were going to war' Amelia murmured with a tone of amusement.
'You only say that because you didn't feel what I felt. Feeling your essence out of control is like needles going through your veins' Nathan explained, remembering the pain he had felt the day before.
He gave all his essence to Amelia, this time a little more slowly so that he would not feel so weak so quickly. Finally he sighed again and knocked on the door three times. A few seconds later one of the maids opened and looked at him slightly surprised.
"You're back?"
"Yes..." Nathan answered unsurprised by the maid's reaction.
Regaining her posture, the maid invited him in and closed the door. Nathan could not see Erina or the other maids, so he assumed that she was still getting ready.
He simply walked to the living room and stood in the same place where he had been the day before.