* * *
The sun was up. A few dispersed clouds managed to fill the sky, though none were able to shroud over them as they spoke.
"We want to know if you'd like to return home."
The moment Nyx had heard those words, a deep chill ran down his spine. His vision began to gray and wash over. His mind began to feel numb. "Home?" He murmured, a deep sense of yearning lingering in his voice, "I thought... this was my home..."
This was two years after that day. The day his life would change forever. The incident the world knew as The Black Pyre.
To Nyx, he knew it as home. As Hearth.
A month after the incident, a local newspaper within the Orvul District managed to gain information and publish the story about 'The Boy Who Lost Nothing' to the world:
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'The Phantoms who had responded to its extinction saw and retrieved a boy, who, when first contact was made, immediately passed out and was seemingly comatose from too much smoke inhalation. Two weeks later, he finally awoke.'
'The death suppression was actively warping his mind. He can't remember his own family. He can't remember any of his friends. As a result, he can't even remember most of his own identity — who he truly was. After that day, it seems his mind had changed completely.'
'He was shyer because he was never taught to speak. His lexicon remained the same, though his memory of ever using it vanished into thin air.'
'He was colder because he was never taught compassion. To him, he had never seen a human until the Phantoms had arrived at the burning scene.'
'With that being said, though he fails to remember any of the fallen, the depression and trauma clearly show signs of persistence. The details and emotional pain are gone, but the aftermath still lingers inside this boy's head, even if the root cause is unbeknownst to him.'
'Such is the nightmare of the Gate.'
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He was only thirteen at the time. Now, he was fifteen.
And that's when the question was sprung; Two days after having joined the cadets, the morning of the first indoctrination and the settling into on-site dorms.
Of course, he had grown much since the days of the burning. Once they felt he was healed enough to be reintroduced to society, all they did was push him out onto the streets.
They were soldiers, not caterers. It was none of their concern what happened to the kid after the fact.
Fortunately, he was found by a kind family and was unofficially adopted as their son. That was the Faye family.
Over time, he began to heal. In the deepest depths of his mind, however, the lingering remnants of his hometown remained — curled up and pushed away, treated like a false reality and nothing but a nightmare.
Come the dawn of the question, however, and when the words first began to hit his ears, it was as though his entire world was shattered for the second time in his life.
"Home? I thought... this was my home..."
His response wasn't out of amnesia. Despite the suppression taking most of his memories away, he could still remember deep down who he was. He could remember the cobbled streets. He could remember the market stands which would always smell of fresh produce and scented perfume.
Nor was he blind to the fact that this wasn't his real family. He knew that they were gone. He knew he could no longer remember them.
The Faye family's hair was brown. His hair was black. Their eyes were blue, his were green. Every day, he'd be met with that subtle reminder that he didn't truly belong.
No, the truth behind his statement was that out of realization. He could continue living a happy fictitious reality, or he could finally let go of his qualms — let resurface the trauma he could never understand as to why he had in the first place, and return to where it all started.
Both where he was born, and where a part of his soul died.
Over the course of an entire year, he had yet to come up with a proper answer. Of course, until now; on the eve of despair.
"I think I want to go back. To Hearth."
Silas gave a brief sigh, slightly clenching his eyes before responding. "I can tell you've thought about this a lot. If that's what you feel... then I won't try and stop you."
Nyx gave a brief chuckle. "You know... for the longest time, I felt ashamed for being known as a Correon instead of a Faye. Now that I feel like I should start embracing my roots... I can't help but feel like I was a traitor to my forgotten lineage. Not only that... but now a traitor to you."
He shook his head. "You're such an idiot, you know that?"
"Oh yeah? To what extent?"
"The full extent, Nyx. It doesn't matter what your name is- Faye, Correon, who cares? In the end, even if you leave my family behind and embrace your own... we'll still be brothers, you know?"
"Yeah..." Nyx wasn't able to hold back a warm smile, "yeah, I guess you're right. We're brothers. We're... brothers."