Several months have passed since that fateful day and Edwin, true to his feelings… lost interest in magic training, as well as swordplay, abandoning it altogether.

He still practiced spell casting in his free time, but not nearly to the extent he had before.

He also continued to attend Taft’s classes but wouldn’t show as much enthusiasm as before. This ended up in the lessons dragging and the breach in skill between him and Lan growing larger still.

Summer came and went with nothing of interest. The yearly festival ended without issue as well. Nothing of importance happened, except for a lot of fifteen-year-olds frowning at Alden’s absence, Edwin couldn’t understand the reason behind the dark mood seeping out from so many young men. Even Lucius had been a bit pricklier that day.

From what he managed to gather from Ebin, it had to do with the coming-of-age tradition, but he wouldn’t elaborate further on it.

Now, towards the ending of winter and four days past Edwin’s eighth birthday. Something occurred.

It was late at night and the only sound Ran could hear besides that of his own breathing was the wind howling outside, a heavy snow had been falling for the last three days and hadn’t let out at all today.

The village of Hillside lay covered under a snow blanket. The sound of the branches swaying with the wind kept him awake, that, and the book he was reading with the help of a small candle.

“fufu so cool!” it was a story about a brave soldier and his fight against a demon in order to save his unit from certain death, the fight took place on a snowy mountain in the middle of the worst winter the lands had ever seen, the demon used magic against the soldier, but he was a veteran of a hundred wars who used his superior intellect and experience to defeat the demon, even at the cost of his own life.

Suffice it to say, the climate only served to enrich the story. He was immersed in the book and despite this level of concentration.

He heard a knock on the main door, strong enough for him to hear it on the second floor.

Who could it be at this hour? Not gonna, I’ll let someone else go.

He closed the book and pretended to sleep even though no one was looking.

Another knock,

So annoying, Madi Granny, You go!

The knocking continued. Despite that, no one went to open it.

How come they all sleep that hard?

Since the knocking didn’t seem to end, he found no other alternative but to go and answer the door. He got up and descended the stairs, walked slowly through the main corridor with no other light than the lone candle. He reached for the door handle.

Ran opened the door.

Years later, he would question himself, why? Why did he open that door? wouldn’t it have been better to ask someone else to do it? What would have happened if, instead, he had gone to Madi’s room and asked her to answer the door? What if he had just remained in his bed for just a few more minutes? What if Lucius wasn’t in such a bad mood that night and had gone himself instead of playing dumb?

He knew that if Freesia had gone herself, then things would have definitely been different, but she had a cup too many that night and fell asleep so hard a few simple knocks wouldn’t be enough to wake her.

Would it have changed something? Could things have gone differently, or was it always a part of the plan? Was the hand of fate always so strong?

More importantly, Raanan would ask himself… if he could, after all this time, change things, even after such a long chain of events and memories, after so much pain and bliss.

Would he… do it?

On the other side of the door was a girl, her skin was of ashen color clearly inhuman and at first glance, it struck him as a sickly color, her hair was bright red and from the sides of her head protruded what looked to be a pair of small horns, her ears where elven like, but not quite. Her eyes possessed a strange combination of scarlet red and purple that almost made him dizzy if he stared at them for too long.

They both stood still for a second until the implication of her appearance finally dawned on him. Of what kind of monster was standing in front of him.

“aaa-Aaaah d-de-DEMON!” he shouted in absolute fear.

A pang of fear and hurt reflected on the demon’s eyes. It almost made Ran feel regret at his words, but he was too scared by all the books he had been reading on the subject.

The demon laughed, exaggeratedly so and once her laughing fit finished, she talked to him in a boisterous tone.

“I’m no demon!… Such rudeness! You would best stay your tongue when talking to me. I’m not such a lowly being. I’m the future regent of the night, the queen to be of the strongest of races! Rania Mina Illyria, daughter of Nero Agron.

She said all this with her hands on her waist and a big, challenging grin on her face, pointy white fangs popping from the sides of her mouth.

Peaking from behind her, he saw Alden. Father was finally home.

Edwin passed out.

ARC 0 "The lonely village," END