Ojero was excitedly changing out of his clothes into his nightwear, his brother doing the same not too far away. Each of them kept glancing at two stone tablets placed side by side on a wooden dresser.
Their room was very large and was composed of two queen-sized beds, four dressers, two desks for studying, and a wall made of only mirrors.
They had both lived in the room since they were infants.
Originally they were supposed to each gain their own once they grew old enough, but neither of the two felt ready to fully separate from the other.
Ojero always wore a loose shirt and pants to bed, whereas Orpham preferred to go topless with baggy shorts.
While he was taller than his younger brother, Orpham was far stronger. He already had muscles all over his body, a sign of their father's training.
Ojero always tried to get out of it, instead preferring to spend time with his mother.
The younger brother, however, enjoyed their father's lessons quite a bit.
Before long, the two had settled into bed, the candles of the room long blown out.
As darkness consumed them, and Ojero felt his consciousness slip off into sleep, a sudden weight was felt on his bed.
Groggily opening his eyes, he saw his mother's green eyes gazing upon his sleeping face.
Noticing his movement, she smiled softly.
"I hope I didn't wake you, I had hoped to speak to you two sooner. Your father took longer than I expected."
Slowly sitting up, he turned to look at his brother's bed and saw that he was already in a deep sleep.
'Figures.'
"What is it, mom?" He asked, his eyes constantly fluttering closed as sleep beckoned him.
"I just wanted to tell you a story from when I was younger, around about your age."
Suddenly it was like a bolt of lightning shot down Ojero's spine. The sleepiness was banished, and his eyes widened.
'Mom never talks about her youth, even mentioning it is taboo!'
Her soft chuckle disturbed his thoughts.
"I figured you'd react like that. I don't like to talk about it because it brings nothing but bad memories for me, and you will soon learn some things are better left forgotten."
Her smile faded, but she kept speaking.
"Unlike you or your brother, or even your father, I was not born into the aristocracy. I grew up in Luminex City, in a part we called Haven. The name, of course, was purely ironic. There was no safety to be found in Haven. Most there were lucky to go a week without encountering trouble, and I was no different."
"I didn't have a mother, she was a brothel worker you see, and so my father raised me. He was a soldier who had been wounded by the Beasts, and so could not work."
"We lived off of the generosity of others. For most of my life, I was kept a secret from the world, hidden from view. If certain people in Haven learned a cripple was hiding a young girl, it would not have ended well for either of us."
"I grew up in the shadows, with my father teaching me everything I knew. He was a soldier from a different generation, and tradition meant everything. I had to know my manners and proper status as a lady, even if our dwelling was frequently at threat of collapsing. Whenever he could afford any luxuries, it was usually dresses or small pieces of jewelry for me. And then, when we had the chance, he would use the few military connections he still had to sneak me into balls and social gatherings, hoping some young man would find themselves fancied with me."
Turning back to her son, she asked a simple question.
"Do you know why he wanted young men to fall in love with me, Ojero?"
Not expecting her question, he had to take a moment and think.
"He wanted you to have fun?" He said tentatively.
"No, he wanted me to find love. To find hope. To be given a life he could never provide for me. He knew he could never truly make me a lady, only a gentleman could do that. He wanted me to find someone to replace him. Not so he could be free of me, but so I could be free of him."
"He wanted to see me leave him so that he could finally feel like he could still do things, that he could struggle against the world and win."
"It was at one of these functions that I met your father, and we fell in love very quickly. Soon after, I left with him and began living at this very estate. At first, his family protested him marrying a common-born woman, but you know your father. He never stopped fighting for the right to marry me, and his stubbornness beat their worries out in the end."
Ojero listened to her story attentively, and couldn't help but ask.
"Why does it make you so sad then? That sounds like a fairy tale!"
She smiled at his words, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.
"The year your father and I were wed, he and I returned to Haven to try and bring my father out of there and into a nicer home. When we arrived, we found his house occupied by another family. After a few days of inquiring, we learned the truth of what had happened."
A few tears began to stream down her face as she continued speaking.
"It had turned out, I was not a secret to everyone. My father had established a deal with the gangs on our street. They would not touch me until I turned eighteen, when I would be wed off to one of their leaders. My father then made sure I was married off to a noble, so the debt could never be paid. When they learned of his ploy, they had him killed, and paraded his broken body around for days as a warning against anyone else who would dare trick them."
"When your father learned this, he went on a rampage, destroying an entire block of Haven to exact revenge on my behalf."
"We never learned if he even hurt the right people."
She rested her hand on her sons, gently stroking the back of his palm with her thumb.
"I wanted to tell you this, Ojero, so you learn a very important lesson: There is no love like a parent's love for their child. We will fight, steal, and even die just for the chance of you living a better life. No matter where you go or what you do, please remember that we are here for you. Your father and I will never be disappointed in you so long as you return us safe and sound."
Giving him one last look, his mother stood up and slowly walked out of the room, her emerald nightdress trailing behind her, leaving the looming feeling of loss.
It felt like a weight had been added to Ojero's heart, while simultaneously removing one.
He had always known his mother had been through a lot, both his parents had, but he could have never imagined it was something like this. It felt like a dream, like he really had fallen asleep after getting in bed.
At the same time, he felt loved and cared for. Knowing his parents would be there for him no matter what gave him a sense of safety and security he didn't know possible.
'Did mom ever feel like this growing up? Or was she robbed of it just because she was born into a crime-ridden city?'
As he thought of Luminex City, an entirely new emotion became associated with it: disgust.
His mind was spinning and his emotions were in turmoil with all of these thoughts.
'What would my life have been like if I was born in the same situation? Would I have managed to escape? Would I have even thought to? Or would I have become the same as everyone else there, another gangster and criminal hoping to step on someone else to drag myself up?'
These thoughts raged through his head as he slowly lowered himself back into his soft mattress. His head sank into his now-cold pillow as he pulled the covers up his shoulders.
His eyes fluttered closed as his drowsiness returned, pulling him away from the land of the awakened.