Solis

On this great continent of Precia, where people can practice their own religion, follow their own teachings and preach their own word, there is only one shared value among the population. That single united value is,

'Eyes are the key to the soul'.

In this wold, It is common sense that you can judge a person based on their eyes. Of course, your fortune can be read based on the shape of your lid and iris. Having eyes set wide apart or close together can be the difference between you being destined for nobility or poverty. Your type of eye crease can suggest the length of your life. The number of eyelashes you have can determine how many misfortunes you will come across. All these superstitions come from the belief that one's eyes mirror one's soul.  I know that it might sound ridiculous, but so many people wouldn't believe such things if there wasn't a great deal of truth behind it. I wouldn't have been locked up as soon as I was born, if people's fear of my eyes wasn't for a good reason.

I was born special. Terrifyingly so, according to the holy monks that raised me. You see, my irises glow a bright ocean blue. They told me that the power of my soul was so bright that the sparkle could be seen in my eyes. It was decided shortly after my birth that my kind of power wasn't safe to be left alone for just me to command. Hence I was taken from my birth parents and confined to the deepest dungeon of the Holy Belrynia Church.

I am not a criminal, that is not the reason I was confined to this dungeon. In fact, I am possibly the only person alive that has not committed a sin, because I have been kept here since birth and haven't been able to do anything. My only misfortune in life is that I am a descendant of the subjugator - A legendary hero who defeated the demon legions with nothing but his own power. From what the monks told me, his eyes shone like jewels too. His eyes, and my eyes, tell of a kind of strength powerful enough to make demons shiver. Consequently, that power is enough to make humans cower as well. Hence, I have been locked up and have never seen the outside world.

I resented them at first. I hated them for taking away my freedom and locking me up. But as I've grown older, I've come to understand them. The power that resides in my soul allowed me to access the memories of my past life, and from that life's experiences, I began to understand their fear of me. Humans fear two things: what they do not understand, and what they cannot control. I fall into both categories in this world, hence they thought it was best to lock me away.

To some extent I actually agree with them, if my power hadn't given me access to the well of information from my previous lives, I wouldn't have been able to cope with my power. Especially now that I can feel this enormous power swelling up and spilling out. Sometimes it feels like I'm going to explode if I don't use it. If I didn't have the wisdom and patience from my past lives, I probably would have gone berserk and unleashed my wrath upon the world, and I'm confident that much more than a few people would have died if I had done so—a few kingdoms of people more like it.

So I've stayed patiently waiting in this secret dungeon many meters below the church. I've been quietly focusing on my power and honing my skills, learning control and mastery. Through the meditation I remembered from my time on Earth, I learned to relax and channel my power. Strengthen my mind and increase my awareness.

Soon I learned that my magic was not limited to the vast supplies within my body, I could in fact draw power from nature. Although I had been locked away, many meters below the ground, the soil outside my cell was thrumming with natural mana that I could slowly extract and consume. For years I struggled to learn the method to extract mana from my surroundings. Every minute, when the priests who were guarding me were not looking, I closed my eyes and focused on the mana I could sense laying dormant around me. Every grain of soil, every unhatched seed, every insect, I drained them all of their power.

By the time I turned six years old, I had enough power to break through the sealing spells that had been cast on this dungeon and break free to join the mysterious world above. However, I decided to wait. Although the dungeon was by no means a comfortable place, it was an effective training ground where I had peace and quiet, where I could train and regain my memories from past lives without interference. So I decided to stay and pretend to be helpless until I felt the need to break free.

The monks and priests who guarded and took care of me were clueless. They all thought of me as the 'poor child' who had 'too much power for his own good', and needed to be 'kept away from the world'. They never realized how capable I really was. I had become so good at channeling my power that I learned how to channel power to specific body parts to increase their function. For example, my ears. I could channel mana into my ears and allow them to become several hundred times more sensitive, thus enabling me to hear the chatter of the churchgoers above. Through their chatter, I learned about this world. I learned that this world has a well-defined class system, where the powerful and beautiful stand at the top while the rest scavenge for scraps below. When noble folk come to the church, the lower-ranked priests make sure to be as attentive as possible and curry favor with the overlords.

Although the senior priests were unbiased, believing all were equal in the gods' eyes, they never tried too hard to correct the behavior of the younger priests. It seemed they too knew the importance of currying favor.

Another practice of this church that kept me entertained was the Avowal Hours. From late at night to early in the morning, people would arrive at the church and sit down in small booths all around the church grounds and admit their wrongdoings. From one of my previous lives, I remembered a similar practice belonging to a religion called Catholicism. In the Tanith religion, these confessions were only between the person and the gods, therefore no one else was allowed to hear them. While a booth was in use and a person was declaring their wrongdoings out loud, no one was allowed within ten meters of a booth. Only I far beneath the ground heard the secrets that people spewed out.

"Dear gods I ask for your divine cleansing for I have strayed from my wife..."

"Dear gods I ask for your divine cleansing, for I have stolen from my father..."

"Dear gods I ask for your divine cleansing, for I have poisoned my husband..."

"Dear gods, I ask for your divine cleansing, for I cheated on the Academy entrance exam..."

Through my years of listening to confessions, most of them were light offenses, like stealing and cheating, but once in a while I heard something horrific and committed the voices to memory for safekeeping.

Strangely the church was silent today. I could only hear the footsteps and hushed whispers of the monks and priests walking through the church. From listening through the ground for years, I could tell this particular church was quite large compared to what my memories of churches on Earth were. The building itself was about seven stories high and at least the size of a football field, truly massive and complicated.

It was the morning, which was usually the busiest time as people would stop by the church for a morning prayer on their way to work. Yet today, the church was silent. I didn't hear the usual conversations of the townspeople who came to pray or the sound of the choir singing. Just the hushed footsteps of the monks and priests silently going about their chores.

Tap, tap, tap...

Even stranger was the sound of Count Ellmire's heavy footsteps descending the stairs to my dungeon. Now was the time I was usually woken by footsteps coming down, but it was usually just the lighter steps of the younger monks coming to give me my breakfast of bread and cheese. However today, I could hear the steps of the head priest making his way towards me, as well as six other high-ranking monks. Today was a special day. Something, possibly the thing I had been waiting for, was about to happen.

*****

Count Ellmire had avoided going down to the dungeon to see the boy for seven years out of a mixture of shame and fear. The shame was from locking him up all this time, and the fear was that the boy would hate and loathe him for the decision he had made all those years ago. However the visit was unavoidable today, because the child was being taken away from the church.

Today the child would be adopted into the powerful Duke Household. Count Ellmire had long since been in debt to the Galbraith family, since they had given him great support and had helped him establish the church, and introduced him to so many nobles and thus created many opportunities for him to expand his influence. When the church needed funding, Ellmire would turn to the Galbraith's. When he was in trouble, he would turn to the Galbraith's. It was all due to their support that Ellmire could lead a successful life. So when he found out the duke was looking to adopt a child, Ellmire knew that giving them Solis would be an act of repaying them and solidifying their good relatioinship. Furthermore, Ellmire could sense how powerful Solis was becomming and he knew the church would not have the resources to keep him in check for much longer, hence this deal was as much a win for Ellmire as it was for the duke.

With the six most powerful monks in the church standing behind him, Ellmire turned the corner and entered Solis's cell.

Although he had never seen Solis, the other monks had always told him about the boys unnerving eyes. The monks and priests who served Solis his food could go on for hours talking about Solis's apparently unforgettable eyes, that glowed a cold blue in the dark dungeon. They would talk Ellmire's ear off about the child's defined crease and sharp shape, that signified honesty and intelligence in Eye Lore. For all these years Ellmire has been frightfully curious about the child's appearance. And now, as he finally looked down at the boy for the first time, he saw that the monks were not exaggerating.

The child had extraordinary eyes that seemed to look straight through Ellmire and see past the generous fatherly facade he had been putting on for the public. That cold intelligent stare made Ellmire shudder under his robes, the feeling of having one's soul invaded and probed. That was the feeling of looking into the boys terrific blue eyes.

Solis stood at the entrance of the cell. Since he heard the group coming down the dungeon stairs, he waited for them patiently. When they finally arrived, he looked up and got to see the Count Ellmire that he had heard so much about for the past years. The head of this church and the reason he had been taken away from his family and locked up underground all these years. Solis didn't think he would get emotional, but looking up at the man, he couldn't help but feel some resentment. He had enough power stored away to break through the barriers and just kill him, but Solis decided to wait and see what would happen. For the moment he took pleasure in seeing how startled the fat old man looked when he saw Solis's eyes.

Ellmire suddenly snapped back to reality and realized that he had been staring at the boy for too long. He cleared his throat and then spoke down to the child, while avoiding Solis's gaze as he found the boy's stare too intense for him to handle.

"Solis. You will be leaving the church today, as we have found a new home for you."

Solis remained silent at the shocking news, his whole body was unmoving, only his heart wavered in his chest for a moment. Ellmire continued speaking since the boy stayed silent.

"You have been adopted by the Galbraith family. They are a highly influential noble family who have the proper resources to look after you. We hope that you will remain polite and courteous to your new family since we worked hard to find this opportunity fo you. Will you do so?"

Ellmire asked the boy, while still avoiding eye contact.

"I will." Solis replied quietly. All these years Solis had been waiting for something exciting to happen so that he could avoid making a large ruckus and destroying the church when he went on a rampage. This news was exactly what he had been waiting for. From all the years that he had been listening from the dungeon, he had heard the name 'Galbraith' many times. Duke Galbraith was the unmatched warrior and right hand man of the king. His power and influence was known by everyone, at least all the people who attended this church.

Becoming a duke's son... that might be interesting...

Solis knew that he would receive proper training if he were to become a duke's son. He would grow much stronger and get better control over this power. Solis couldn't help but feel excited at this prospect.

"When do I leave?" Solis asked softly.

"Right now." Ellmire signaled his hand and the monks walked into the cell. They each held a magical staff and surrounded Solis, pointing the staffs at him as a warning. In reality those staffs were no match for Solis's power, but the boy played along and allowed them to think they were safe.

One monk approached Solis directly with a brush and pot of ink in hand. Solis held still as the sealing marks on his face were repainted. Thick black lines were painted on both eyes, from the center of his eyes brows, over his eyes lids, to the start of his cheek bones, and then a horizontal line connecting the two vertical lines. The monks whispered a spell and Solis felt the weak magic seal away some of his eye's power. It was a magic that he could break anytime, but he didn't want to put his adoption in jeopardy so he remained still.

Lastly a thick black cloth, with yet another sealing ruin was placed over Solis's eyes. A much stronger magic was tied to the cloth in order to keep Solis from channeling power from his eyes.

After the monks were satisfied. Two monks took hold of the child's shoulders and walked him up the dungeon stairs. Ellmire and the rest followed behind them quietly. Solis smiled for the first time since he could remember as he though about his future, and realized that this was only the beginning.

******