__________
I look at the boy as he stands up with much eagerness.
Why is he so eager to die?
"I'm ready."
He looks at me with a profound gaze, one filled with determination and resolve.
I feel a warmth in my heart as I see the look on his face, memories of when I was once like him– filled with resolve and determination to rise to the top flash through my mind. But now?
I scoff.
Not at the boy, but at myself, I scoff at how shallow I've become, I'm an empty shell, a human devoid of human connections.
Am I even human? I attained the height of power I had been searching for all my life but now...
I nod my head repeatedly like a misfunctioning robot, my eyes closed, it's a habit that I have, a bad one, anytime I'm annoyed, it just happens.
A wrinkle forms on my forehead in the middle of my two brows, and annoyance writhes inside of me, I'm annoyed at the sight of this boy, this new child of mine born of a servant, this child with the blood of a lowly commoner. He has something I don't, something that I lost long ago– Desire.
I stand up from my seat and I glance at Stilia at my left and give her a nod.
She nods back at me, and I walk towards the kid.
He's standing there, I can see him visibly quiver as he looks up to me, but even as he's shaking, his eyes are still filled with resolve and his gaze is firm and steady, like that of an experienced noble.
I look down to see his clenched fist.
I smile bitterly.
Not even his brothers and sisters were as strong-willed as he is, during their time, they ran away, pissed their pants and I had to drag them and hold them in place just to commence the ritual. All of them, except from HIM. This pool ritual is not just a ritual– it's torture, It's obvious that a halfling, one without the most significant trait of a Flameworth, our red hair, won't be able to survive it.
I better get this over with, I want to go eat some dessert.
"Follow me."
I walk towards the door, and turn my head halfway over my shoulder to get a glance of the boy following me.
He's following behind me nervously.
I smile.
I open the door and walk outside the dining room.
We walked together until we reached the end of the hallway, and arrived at a certain metal door.
___________
I glanced at the metallic door that had no pattern or design on it.
My heart is racing, beating like drums in my chest as the tension of the soon-to-come ritual weighs on me.
The Patriarch brings out a key from inside the pocket of his robe. He's wearing a long red robe on top of various finely tailored medieval 'Noble' clothes.
He opens the door.
He walks inside and I follow behind him.
It's like some kind of tunnel, the stairs just keep going down, it's dark, narrow and filled with dust and spider webs.
There are torches of fire hung on the wall so it isn't too dark.
The sight of the place makes my heart tremble.
We start walking down the stairs.
"Do you know what mana is?"
"Mana? What's that?"
His question didn't make sense to me.
But I notice something strange, with each torch he walks past, the fire flickers and crackles, changing from yellow to blue and back to Yellow again. It happened to every torch he walked past.
I swallow hard.
He sighs.
"This is why I don't like talking to kids... Mana is the fundamental building block of life. It is stateless, formless and invisible to the naked eye, only people who have trained and honed their senses to feel it, can use it in various ways, either to manifest the element their mana has an affinity with or to enhance their bodies and weapons and cast spells."
"So... Mana is used to do magic?"
I ask him, my voice low and submissive, not wanting to attract any harsh action from him or trigger him in any way.
But I'm confused. Why is he talking to me? Does the mere sight of me and my black hair not disgust him? Odd.
He sighs in exasperation.
"Yes, mana is used to do magic. And where you are going now, is the sacred mana pool, built by our ancestors for those of the Flameworth's bloodline. The 'pool' ritual they told you about isn't just a pool ritual, it's a mana pool ritual. You'll see what I mean when we get there."
My heart was tensed and a feeling of unease crept over me.
Why the hell do they even do this ritual? Does it do anything special? I must ask him, after all, I don't know why but he's talking to me, this is my chance.
I swallow hard.
"Um... But what exactly is the Mana pool ritual for?"
I look to see his facial expression but I can't see his face, because I'm at his back.
He turns his neck to look at me and I get a glimpse of his facial expression, only it's– unreadable.
Did I say something wrong? Why is he looking at me like that?
"How old did you say you were again?"
"Four."
"Right. Four, the official age for the ritual, even I wasn't as sharp and smart as you are when I was your age, and your siblings– they were too scared to even think about asking any questions about the mana pool."
His voice dripped with cold indifference, but he kept on talking like he was forced to read a textbook passage in front of a class.
"The Flameworths– us, are renowned for our fire magic, the mana pool does two simple jobs: Strengthening your body to handle the heat of the flames. And to increase your mana's affinity with fire. Thus the reason why every Flameworth must pass through it, is we can't risk the reality of one of our family members having an affinity to water or air, although it has happened before..."
His voice which was devoid of emotion now showed one emotion as he uttered the last words. Sadness.
I shake the thought of him being sad off.
That's impossible. Let's just focus on this.
Finally, I see a shining bright white light shimmering below as we approach the end of the stairs.
Mana pool ritual.. shouldn't it be an affinity pool ritual? Makes more sense to me.
I can see a rocky cavern, the rocks in the cavern are shining with bright light, the light is coming from below.
My eyes widen as I look down.
There's a massive pool of stagnant glowing water.
I come down from the stairs, following behind the Patr–
The Patriarch?
Where is he? He was right in front of me.
I searched frantically, spreading my glance left and right in a bid to find where the man had gone.
I feel a push from my back.
Splash!