With a faint earthy-sweet scent in the air, a young boy walks along one of the many limestone slab bridges spanning the crystal-clear water running through the center of town. While watching the adults replacing one of the slabs, which had broken, a couple rows over.
"That's the fifth one this year, isn't it?" he asked his father, who had already finished crossing the bridge.
"It is, we've got to replace all of them again." He replied, with a solemn look on his face. With a bit of worry hiding behind his brownish-orange, almost auburn in color, eyes.
"Well, you're working on a way to prevent us having to do this every few years, right? I know you'll fix it!" the boy says with a proud smile running from ear to ear. "You're the town's best architect."
His father puts his hand on the boy's head, covered with the same black hair he has, and pulls him into a hug. "Yep, your dad is the greatest architect in this town's history. Now let's go see what your mom has planned for dinner, I'm sure your baby brother will be happy to see his big brother too." He says as he continues walking while he still has his son in a hug, shuffling from one foot to the other.
As the sky started turning from a pale blue to a reddish orange and the wind became cooler, the boy and his father came upon a small house towards the outskirts of town. The house's walls were a pale white, accented by the reddish-brown wood used for the windows, doors, and roofing. Inside is a hallway going to the back of the house with two doors in the back and two doorless rooms to either side as soon as they walk in. The kitchen to the left, where a woman with long dark brown hair was cooking, and a room with a table and chairs to the right.
"We're home Alice!"
"Oh, hello dear! How were the repairs in town going?"
"Good, we should be done replacing all of the slabs by next week."
"Well, you better take some time to spend with your family afterward, Mr. Stark." She responded with a sly smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
"Yes ma'am!" he replied, while hugging her from behind and gently kissing the back of her neck.
"Jackson! I can't cook with you hanging off me like this." She says while trying to wiggle free from him.
Suddenly, a knock could be heard from the front door.
"Aster, sweetie, could you get that? Your father is keeping me captive over here." She asked with a slight chuckle.
"Yes mama" the boy replied as he walked to answer the door.
As he opened the door a tall man with brown hair, taller than his father, stood in the doorway with a much smaller blonde-haired woman standing just behind him. But the thing that stood out most about them was that they had strangely colored eyes, the man had red eyes while the woman had pale yellow eyes.
"Hello little Aster, could you get your father for me?" the red-eyed man asked.
Jackson, Aster's father, walked to the door as his son called for him. Where he found that two familiar figures were standing there.
"Draco, Lyla please come on in. Alice was just making dinner; would you like to join us?" he asked the two.
"No thank you, we wouldn't want to impose." The woman, Lyla, responded.
"It's not a problem! No need to worry." Alice calls out from the kitchen.
"Then I suppose we can't just turn down your invitation." The tall man responds, with a slight chuckle. As Lyla politely lets herself in, with him following closely behind.
"Aster, why don't you go check on your brother while we wait for dinner?"
"Sure dad." Aster replies as he runs towards the door on the right side at the back of the house.
Upon opening the door, Aster looked around at the sparsely filled room before walking towards the cradle that his baby brother is sleeping in.
"Jason, it's me. Your big brother." Aster whispered, as a smile curled on his lips.
As he stared at his little brother sleeping peacefully, he woke up and started looking around the room. Eventually landing his eyes on a familiar face, to which he started giggling.
Upon watching his baby brother laughing away happily Aster couldn't help but to start smiling from ear to ear, as he stared into his light brown eyes. The same eyes as their mother's. While he had his father's darker eyes.
After playing with Jason for a while, their mother came into the room to call them for dinner. Aster ran off to the table while his mom picked Jason up before heading back to the table, where Jackson and their two guests were talking.
"I'll bring dinner out in just a moment." Alice tells everyone as she puts baby Jason into a high chair. "That means feet off the table, Jackson!" She says with a slight glare to her husband.
To which he sets his feet back on the floor smiling apologetically and chuckling quietly to himself.
"So, as I was asking, how're you liking your new home so far? It's been about a week since the two of you moved to our 'humble' backwater town, right?"
"It's quite lovely and beautiful here, not to mention much quieter than the capital." Lyla responds cheerfully before a hint of concern started to show on her face.
"Yes, and thank you for helping us get settled in. We cannot thank you enough." Draco cuts in, resting a hand on Lyla's shoulder.
"Don't worry about it." Jackson says with a grin. "What're neighbors for? I'm sure you'd do the same for us in the future."
"Of course!" Lyla responds with a warm look in her eyes.
As Alice starts to bring the food to the table, Aster walks over to Lyla and Draco. And asks; "Why are your eyes different from everyone else?"
The room goes quiet, Alice even freezing in place briefly. Draco looks toward Jackson, who gives a slight nod. Then Draco looks to Lyla before looking Aster straight in the eyes.
"We're not normal people. We're what some people call Spiritualists. A special term the Midnight Order, the government that rule all on this continent, calls us Vessels."
"What's a Vessel do?"
Draco lets out a small chuckle before answering, "Vessels don't really do anything different from everyone else. We laugh, cry, and love just like the rest of you." He says as he gently wraps his arm around Lyla's shoulders, who gives him a small smile.
"Then how are you not normal if you do everything everyone else does?"
"Because we have powers that no one else has, powers that transfers from one person to the next after the current Vessel dies."
"You have powers! Like what?" Aster practically shouts in excitement. Even hopping in place, a little.
After looking to both parents Draco looks at Aster with a small mischievous smile, "would you like to see?"
With a snap of his fingers, a flame appears and floats in midair above Draco's hand. The flame emits the same shade of red as his eyes. A dark red, crimson in color even. But so mesmerically beautiful and gentle to look at. Like that of the flames Aster would see in the stove while watching his mom cook, or in the fire place while his father told him stories before bed.
"It's so pretty." Aster says, much to Draco's surprise. He suddenly put out the flame just as quickly as the words left Aster's mouth.
After staring at the table for a moment, with a grim look of his face, he turns toward Aster. "Thank you, you're now the second person to call my flames that." Draco says with a gentle smile, while trying to hide the pain from memories that seemed to have surfaced for him.
The room once again went silent, while Alice finished bringing out dinner.
"So, what can you do miss Lyla?" Aster's question filling the void. Just as his mother had sat down at the table.
"That's enough Aster, let's enjoy dinner before asking them anymore questions." His mother advised, noticing the atmosphere in the room.
"Oh, no. It's alright. I don't mind." Lyla responds quickly with a polite smile. "My powers aren't as interesting as Draco's." She says as she turns toward Aster, who is taking his seat at the table next to his father.
Lyla opens her hand, palm up, and a light starts to emit from her palm. The light floats up and stops above Lyla's finger, which is now pointing up at the ceiling. "I have the ability to control and manipulate light. As well as heal injuries like cuts, bruises, and even old scars. I can also heal some more serious injuries but not without limitations or drawbacks." She explains all while making the ball of light dance in the air as she moves her finger around in circles and figure eights.
"Though I'm actually just a glorified torch most of the time." She laughs quietly at her own comment, as the ball of light fades.
"That's amazing!" Aster shouts. "You'll never have to worry about stubbing your toe in the dark or losing something under your bed."
After a brief moment, everyone starts erupting into laughter. Which only begins to intensify as everyone notices that baby Jason has joined in on the laughter.
Once everyone settled back down, they started eating the now semi-lukewarm food which had been awaiting them in the center of the table. Everything from lightly spiced grilled rabbit and fried potatoes to grilled fish seasoned lightly with some fresh orange juice, from the orange tree in the backyard, and vegetable greens. Once they started eating no one could utter a word, much to Alice's glee. Everyone enjoyed the meal in relative silence, leaving barely a crumb for the rats. Except for the onions from the fried potatoes on Draco's plate, which Lyla happily takes.
Patting his belly Jackson lets out a long breath, "I don't know how I get to enjoy food meant for kings every night and have the most beautiful wife in the world!" he gloats with a giant grin on his face.
"Yes, truly wonderful, thank you." Draco says. "However, I'm going to have to disagree about the second part. Lyla is obviously the fairest of them all." He says with a smug smile.
An amused smile crawls its way across Jackson's face, but right before he can open his mouth Alice has grabbed him by his ear and started dragging him into the kitchen.
"I'm going to steal away my husband before he starts letting his mischievous side start another argument."
"But Alice-"
"No buts!" She interrupts. "I'm tired of having to apologize to everyone after you pick a fight over 'who has the most beautiful wife' or 'the greatest wife'." She chastises him, before a smile slowly creeps onto her face. "But I do appreciate the sentiment."
"Oh well, we'll just let ourselves out then." Draco says as he and Lyla stand to leave. "Thanks again for the wonderful dinner!"
"Yes, thank you very much. I have a lot to learn about cooking." Lyla says with a slight chuckle.
"Come by again anytime! You could help me cook next time and pick up a few of my tricks." Alice replied as her and Jackson start washing the dishes.
"I'd be delighted to!" Lyla responds as she beams a bright smile.
"Aster, it's time for bed. Could you take your brother to bed for me?" Alice asks.
"Okay mama!" Aster responds as he gently picks up Jason and carries him to his crib, before going to sleep himself.