“I told ya many a time. ‘Don’t’cha do somethin’ stupid, Kayam’. Now would ya look at ‘im. If he don’t wake up, won’t I hafta tell his sis’, that her only family is dead.” Mr. Hart’s voice echoed through the small cabin as he paced the floor in a circular motion, his frustration palpable. Kayam sat on the bed next to the rested Elijah. Eyes switching between his father and his lap, Kayam thought of excuses for why Elijah lay passed out on his bed. His father had moved him from the barn to the bed in their little cabin and since then, he had brought forward a barrage of questions.
“Dad, all I did was take out a piece of rock that was stuck in his knee. It wasn’t that serious.”
“Wasn’t that serious?!”, Mr. Hart said, his tone rising with each word. “It is serious. If it wasn’t serious, maybe I wouldn’t hafta bring ‘im here half dead.”
“He’s not… dead Dad. Look give it a few minutes,” Kayam pleaded, hoping Elijah would wake soon to dispel the tension.
Mr. Hart’s eyebrows furrowed in anger. He seemed to want to say something but Elijah sat up suddenly, dissipating the building frustration. “Elijah, yer up. Arent’cha a foolish lil’ kid!” Mr. Hart exclaimed, a mix of relief and exasperation in his voice.
“Wh-what happened,” Elijah felt groggy and head muddied with confusion. He looked around and realised what had occurred after he fainted. He aimed an annoyed glare in Kayam’s direction remembering how he had taken out the blue object with nearly no warning, to which Kayam responded with a sheepish smile. “Ah Mr. Hart, I’m sorry for troubling you. Kayam didn’t do anything wrong, he just did what I told him to do.”
“Trouble? Worry ‘bout ya sis’ will ya? She only got ya left. Dont’cha make her sadder than she already is.” Mr. Hart was serious now, looking at him with sharp eyes. “She already been through grief a dozen ages younger than most. Stick by yer sis’ and don’t’cha run off. I hear stories. Stories of lil’ boys workin’ for ‘em damn nobles. Ya don’t need that alright? Help ya sis’ out a lil’.”
Elijah laughed nervously. For some reason, he found it hard to meet Kayam’s father’s eyes. He felt annoyed and indignant about his argument with his sister earlier, but a growing sense of guilt was creeping up on him. Perhaps he was too brash in his approach to his sister. He should have been more understanding of how she had felt all this time. A realisation hit him and he stood up hurriedly.
“Thank you, Mr. Hart. I think I understand something important now.”
“Ya better. I lost me beloved wife not so long ago, and I don’t I know how it feels. And ya understand too ‘coz of yer parents. Don’t’cha bring more pain on yer sister now. Yer as precious to her as she precious to ya. Understand?”
Elijah nodded quietly in a moment of empathy.
“Now don’t’cha just stand there. Head home, and you boy, Kayam,” he beckoned to his ginger freckled son. “Take ‘im home. And make sure he don’t get hurt will ya?”
“Thank yo-” Mr. Hart interrupted him as he playfully shooed him out of the cabin.
“Get home safe will ya. And call me Kanel will ya. I told ya-”
“Alright, alright pops, that’ll be enough, I’ll see you later,” Kayam rushed in as he took Elijah outside and closed the door.
Kanel sighed as he sat down on the messy bed as his son left. “They grow up so fast.”
The door slightly opened ajar for a moment. “Pops, I told you, acting way too close. Kids find it weird. Next time, just let him call you Mr. Hart,” whispered Kayam as he popped his head in through the gap. “I’ll be leaving now.”
“That boy is turnin’ into his mother mor’ and mor’,” he exclaimed as he shook his head.
Meanwhile, the two boys were treading towards Elijah’s home. “Seriously Kayam? You barely gave me a warning before you took that blue thing out of my knee.”
“I did give you a warning,” Kayam protested, throwing his arms into the air. “I told you to bite into something.”
“Yeah, and then you just pulled it right out. Should have given me a second or something.”
“Yeah true,” Kayam replied quickly. “I’m sorry alright.”
“It’s fine, I was just joking with you. Now where’s this blue object stuck in my knee?”
“One second, I covered it with a cloth and placed it into your dad’s coat.”
Elijah dug into his pockets and pulled out a spherical object wrapped in a ragged white cloth. “It’s still glowing. Kinda faint though. I wonder what on earth this is.”
“Maybe think back to yesterday, you said you got this cut when… Raphael landed on you right?”
“Yeah, out of nowhere too.”
“It almost feels like you’re exaggerating the out of nowhere part. You sure he quite literally just appeared in the air above you?”
“Yes Kayam, look trust me or not, I know it happened. And I saw my professor too.”
“You said he was called Dr. Ranielle. And he sounds like quite a weird fellow too. Whatever, from what you said he doesn’t seem to exactly love nobles. We could be friends because of that alone.”
Elijah laughed cheerfully. “Yeah those damn nobles. One second let me put this object away for now, I’ll check it later.”
“Where was he from?” asked Kayam following Elijah’s hands as he returned the object to his pockets. Since he found the glowing sphere so interesting, he wanted to talk about it more and felt slightly disappointed.
“Oh yes, thank you for reminding me, Kayam. Vaiher’s Peak. Ever heard of that?”
“Vaiher’s Peak…” Kayam felt as if he recognised the name somewhere in the back of his mind but he couldn’t recall it for certain. “Sounds familiar, but to tell the truth I have no idea.”
“Yeah that’s what I thought too, I know Mienn is quite big, and we’re basically living in the countryside, but I thought I knew most of the places here.”
“Who knows, Elijah. You know ever since the world outside our kingdom got destroyed two-hundred years ago, the royal family basically keeps everyone in the low. We don’t know anything at all do we?”
“Well our King is definitely a sack of shit. Who knows what he’s doing to the kingdom. And it’s such a hassle to get documents to go into the other countries.”
“Yeah, Darpi went to Jezebel recently. That’s who my dad was talking about”
“Oh yeah that guy,” Elijah rolled his eyes. “I know I hate him and all, but he seriously went to Jezebel? That’s just too sad, going all the way to Jezebel just to become a slave.” Elijah shivered at the idea of it.
“Tell me about it. I mean, thinking about it, it’s not worth the hassle anyways. We can’t even think about going to Jordan. It’s brimming with nobles and the shit-lord king lives there. The only way we can enter that country is if we become slaves. And I am not going to Jezebel to become a slave.”
“You know, I heard that there’s plenty of consent, and rather than slaves, they like to call themselves ‘workers’.”
Kayam chuckled to himself as they entered the forest. “Workers huh. Anyways, Stiev isn’t any better, that entire country is filled with smoke from factories. And Lekha… maybe it would be worth the hassle for you, seeing how you like the education and all.”
“Yeah, Lekha has the smartest people in the world.” Elijah’s eyes lit up at the mention of his favourite country. From the five countries left in the world, he wished to go to Lekha the most.
“Sucks that the world was destroyed huh. Maybe there could have been more options then.”
“Yeah definitely. You know, Dr. Ranielle said that the world was destroyed by a single human.”
“Pffft,” Kayam scoffed at the idea. “I don’t know about how smart your teacher is, Elijah. A man destroying the entire world? By himself? That’s just crazy talk. And every single church teaches us that god destroyed the world as punishment for not obeying him right?”
“Do you believe that?” Elijah asked, genuinely curious.
“Nah, I don’t. It was probably some natural disaster,” he said laughing.
“Well, whatever it was, we were left with this boring kingdom of Bordenheim and I don’t like it one bit.”
“Neither do I,” Kayam said whilst shaking his head. “Well we can’t wish for what we don’t have. Now, can we talk about that little object we got out of your knee?”
“… Maybe not, Kayam,” Elijah’s voice was laced with a hint of guilt. “I think your dad’s right and my sister’s right. There’s no need to make life harder for my sister is there? Who knows what would happen if I get too deep into this magic stuff.”
Kayam stood in shock for a moment as they finally reached enclose surrounding Elijah’s home. Elijah, the most curious boy of their friend group was putting a lid on his desire to find out more. Albeit his own dying curiosity, he decided to respect his friend’s decision. “Sure, that’s no problem. Just keep it safe. Maybe your dad found something like this too. Just be careful of Father Biskmus and all the other priests alright?” Kayam advised, a hint of concern in his voice.
“I will Kayam, thanks for walking with me.” Elijah said gratefully.
“You better be thankful, it’s been a stressful day because of you.” Kayam retorted with a playful smirk.
“I can tell that it’s been a stressful day for you. You lost your farmer accent too, and all your mispronunciations,” Elijah teased, a hint of amusement in his voice.
Kayam smirked. “It’s funny riling you up with the mistakes. Also it makes my dad feel a bit better at home when I’m not talking like them posh people.”
Elijah smiled warmly, and waved his friend goodbye. “Bye Kayam, I’ll see you again soon.”
He felt nervous walking in through the doorsteps of their little bungalow, reminding himself of the argument of the day just passed. Taking a deep breath, he knocked three time on the wooden door and pushed it open. “I’m home, Agatha. Woah, what is that smell. It almost smells lik-” Elijah’s words trailed off as he stepped inside, only to be met with a horrifying sight. Agatha lying flat on the floor, one of her hands on the table next to her. Elijah trembled as he walked in closer, his eyes confirming the copper stench that exploded into his nose when he opened the door. Agatha was on the ground, bleeding. Or rather she wasn’t bleeding anymore as she was covered in dried blood, from head to toe.
Elijah’s heart beat against his chest rapidly, each beat echoing loudly in his ears. Nausea twisted inside him, threatening to overwhelm him. Gripping on to the chair for support, he struggled to steady himself, feeling like the ground was tilting beneath his feet. His breathing became loud, shallow and ragged. He glanced at the table where Agatha had written something in blood.
Elijah couldn't bear to look at it for long; the sight made his stomach churn even more. With a sudden surge of panic and horror, he bolted outside, tripping over his own feet in his haste. He stood on shaky legs and fell to the ground with a crash. Kayam who had not yet left, rushed over to his side. “Elijah! What’s wrong? Is everything alr-” he stopped himself when the smell of blood rushed into his nose.
“K-K-Kayam. Inside.” He stuttered weakly. Kayam rushed inside to see the scene and ran back out, eyes wide in fear.
“D-don’t worry Elijah. J-just sit still. Take deep breaths, I’ll call someone over.”
Elijah sat there in disbelief his hands instinctively covering his mouth to stifle the rising urge to vomit. “Agatha,” he whispered. He could not contain the tears any longer, they rushed out strolling down his face and on to his lap. “Agathaaa.” He had lost all control of himself now, sobbing into delirium. His sweet beloved sister was ghost white, her once shining blue eyes, now dull, staring into oblivion. Her once blond hair was soaked in a horrifying crimson red. Agatha… was dead.
