Raven trembled as his mind reeled from the powerful voice that had boomed within. Everything was silent around him, but it was far from silent within him. The voice no longer spoke, but his mind was chaotic.
Everything. Everything was... gone.
A couple of hours later, when the sun had begun to show signs of setting, Raven finally stopped shaking. Tears no longer ran down his face. Instead, his expression was blank, as blank as the void that now laid within his heart. He stared at the clothes that Elizabeth had been wearing earlier. It was stained with blood, but laid on the floor with no body present to fill it up. Her body had also been vaporized in the blast earlier.
"Mother..." Raven grasped the edges of the gown Elizabeth had been wearing earlier. He could not cry, but his heart wept.
Eventually, he got to his feet and packed up his mother's clothes. He turned and looked around, taking in the desolate village. Black ash and clothes laid all over the ground. No sign of human life could be seen. A faint stench that Raven could not pin lingered in the air.
No one had survived the blast. Not even the other children in the village. Everyone was dead.
"I..." Raven's voice was hoarse. "There is no place for me here." He whispered.
Ever since he could understand, his mother had taught him about the dos and don'ts. She taught him about how he was special, but his own specialty was something that was frowned upon. She taught him about his affinity for Dark Magic.
He knew that the White Empire frowned upon this use of unorthodox magic. When they heard of how an entire village had been wiped off the map and sent an inquisition to find out the cause, one of two things would happen.
First, he would be captured and burned at the stake to atone for his sins. This was the most common outcome whenever a practitioner of unorthodox magic was discovered. They were swiftly dealt with.
The other outcome was that he would be captured at taken back to the capital of the White Empire. There, he would be put under heavy restrictions and allowed to practice Dark Magic in service to the empire, but he would forever be looked down upon and oppressed, treated with scorn.
Despite being only seven years old, Raven was very intelligent for his age. It was something that came naturally to him. He thought in a much more mature pattern than other children his age.
It was with this mature thinking pattern that he quickly realized that he needed to flee from the village and go as far away as possible. He did not have any maps or much knowledge about the world, but he would try and survive, or at least, die on his own terms, out in the wild.
With this mindset, Raven slowly made his way into what had once been his home. The fire that Elizabeth had been cooking with had long since gone out with the powerful shockwaves that had shaken the village only hours earlier. The food was undone, but Raven was not of the mind to even feel hunger.
He made his way into his room and searched for some clothes that he could rely on. His body was small and he could not carry much, as he lacked the strength, but a couple extra pairs of clothing would go a long way. He also picked up a book that he liked to read. It had information about the wild - animals, edible plants, dangerous plants, and all other sorts of things. It had been his fifth birthday present from his mother.
"I'll need this too." He said, his voice a low whisper as he put everything into a cloth sack. He tied it, making loops with the cloth until it formed a strap that he immediately put across his shoulder, hanging it like a bag.
After doing that, he made his way to the kitchen and picked up a knife. That was the best he could use to protect himself in the wild. He was too small to wield a sword, and knew nothing about using magic properly. His earlier outburst... He did not know how to explain it.
As Raven swept through the house, he came across something that his mother held very deer. It was a wolf skull. But it was not just any wolf skull. It was the skull of the alpha wolf that his father had killed during the hunt that claimed his life. Many times, his mother would sit him down and tell him stories of his father's heroics from when the man was still alive.
Raven looked at it and hesitated. His bag was already quite full, but he could make space for the skull. It was something his mother had cherished, so he would also cherish it, as it was now what linked him to his parents. After a bit of pondering, Raven made some space and stuffed the skull into his makeshift bad, putting it in the middle of clothes to protect it.
He took a deep breath and stepped out of what had once offered him the comfort of home. No longer did it offer that same comfort. Now, all he felt was a deep emptiness and coldness emanating from it. There was nothing left here for him.
"Farewell."