Magnificent.

In the poor eyes of Airys the colossal mosaic that adorned the room where the Archmages had their ostentatious thrones deserved no less denomination. She had heard of the legend... Yes, a few hundred times at least, especially with the popularity that the whole issue of dyeing blue hair as the girl of the legend got in the last ten years. She had been told to change the dress for a silver shirt with blue accents that fitted her body and much simpler gray pants.

"Wait where you want for Seng, you are free to walk around the place." It was what Zhugan'ko told her after seeing her ready.

At first, she thought about going through every corner of the temple and she did so until she reached the Great Mosaic. From the bottom of her heart she doubted how someone had had the incredible ability and patience to somehow give colors so different to each centimeter of the glass —or crystal?— that made it up. When she touched it, she felt as if each texture were also different and concealed a meaning that not even the most learned could decipher using all his life. But what most caught her attention was the woman next to that huge silver dragon.

According to legend that must be the last Dragon, his father, on the final day of his long life. How will her life have been? Was it true that she never met her mother or another human before that terrible event? Those were not unique doubts of Airys but of the whole community interested in the subject.

"Was he really the last dragon ..?" she muttered.

It was mysterious, as being close and sticking her face against that work of art made her suffer from an immense painful melancholy, just like a mother who sees her children go forever one by one; a hurtful mixture of happiness and tears.

Airys had enough to think about. She would finally fulfill her dream, become an adventurer. She would help people. She would explore the world. She would see spectacular creatures. She would learn to use magic, really. However, she also wondered if she could fulfill the task of being the Chosen One. If the relationship with her family would change by not being able to see them as often as she was used to without notice, along with the issue of adoption.

And even if he thought with all her mental strength in anything else in her life she would be further from the truth than in her sweetest thought...

"Can I be friends with Seng?"

———————————————————————————————————

"Are you ok?" Arkgas asked.

Seng's room, to be part of the temple, was crap compared to the bathrooms. It was less than four square meters and there was only room for his bed and a book shelf that he had been forced to study since he had memory. The walls lacked decoration —no paint, pictures, marble or a cloth— their bed was in fact an old mattress on the floor and no windows had to see outside those four roof walls.

"If I kill her today what would you do?" He said it casually; he had no qualms about saying that while checking his books so he should load up.

"If possible I would kill you myself" Arkgas replied jokingly to hide the truth of his words.

"I see, that gives the brat two to three years to be able to run away from me"

"Hey, so weak do you believe me to overcome me in such a short time?" Arkgas smiled at last.

"No, I know how strong I am going to be"

That is the Seng who liked to hear Arkgas. The young man confident of his abilities, his talent and ability to progress. That he does not pay attention to the words of others unless they are strong figures of respect, which he does not suffer for anything other than the pressure and burden on his back. The baby who was immediately removed from his home... The boy who survived the training... The young man who saved a city from destruction with barely thirteen years... The man who was supposed to be the Chosen...

"True... there may be some mistake... it is likely that the Great Mosaic is wrong and Seng..." His irrational series of thoughts was interrupted by the strange trembling of his pupil with his back to him.

As a child it was not so strange that Seng cried, because they made him suffer the worst of life. However, Arkgas had not seen him cry since that horrendous night of five years ago. His crying was silent, for shame he was surely using his magic to achieve that and surely the tiny sobs Arkgas heard were the product of not being able to apply it well; which meant that Seng really agonized.

Arkgas took him by the shoulder.

"Neglect I already closed my eyes," he said.

Seng turned with his face as destroyed as his soul, saw the eyes of the sensitive and tender face of his liar master and could not help getting lost in his arms; wet the clothes so sacred that he wore and scream ruined.

Arkgas hugged him, and while Seng's deteriorated state squeezed his heart and the desire for everything to be false squeezed every molecule of his being, he endured the desire to imitate his student. Yes. There was no way Arkgas was worse than Seng, because he is not the one who has lost something invaluable. Those were the words that floated through his mind, covering the impossible reality.

"You are special Seng... more than any of us..."

A cold, bitter and contradictorily relaxing drop ran through was absorbed by Seng's shirt.

———————————————————————————————————

"What the hell are you doing touching the Great Mosaic?!" a voice of thunder roared in Airys' ears. The sense of echo that was perpetuated within her destabilized her and fell to the ground just like a spinning top that stopped spinning.

She was quite scared when she noticed Seng's figure walking straight to her with those silver eyes of lost brightness. She trembled a little because of the strange situation in which she had been, since not even the greatest of idiots would dare to blaspheme in such a way in the temple of the Archmages... Or at least that was what was reflected in Seng's aura.

I'm sorry!

She tried to say, but no matter how much she moved her lips or forced her throat, she didn't hear anything coming out, as if the sound didn't exist.

"I don't think there is a single explanation for this," Seng sentenced half a meter away from her, the way he looked at her over his shoulders made her believe that he would beat her up —in a lethal way or not— and then take care to scold her until she is deaf, if she wasn't already.

"Come on talk... I want to hear what stupidity you are going to say"

The moment Airys heard that word a blow of reality struck her and the psychological terror she experienced vanished before the absurd appearance of the boy.

I wasn't surprised that Seng measured thirty centimeters more than her, or how weird and fake the blue strands of his hair looked; anyone would think that it was the work of a lousy attempt to be fashionable, or that it was not very attractive at first, unlike the distance version she had in her mind. Worst of all was to see that toasted white boy with the ridiculous clothes he was wearing.

"Bffuffu!" escaped from Airys.

The shoes were black and normal, maybe for training or something. The pants were simple, light brown, somewhat old and with a single pocket on the left. And the shirt... the shirt was a mess.

Instead of being a decent shirt or half eccentric, it gave the impression of being the product of some mad scientist who used each and every one of his resources to create the definitive living being, and the only thing he achieved was the definitive clown.

Fifteen! The damned shirt had fifteen different colors! There was no pattern! They were pieces of cloth that were cooked with threads of different colors!

On the red cloth, yellow thread; on the blue, green thread; the white was cooked with brown thread... It was impossible to ignore that whoever was the madman who fixed that shirt I don't know how many times, he didn't even give a minimum for having common sense or hiding the threads behind somehow! What the hell?! The horrendous colors were stuck to the force! The textures, the very fabrics were of origins and fabrications foreign to others!

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Seng exerted his pressure on her waiting for a reaction of deep fear as at the beginning of their interaction, however...

"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Who made that aberration??!!" She laughed, long and hard, at the point where it was difficult to breathe.

Seng was embarrassed and blushed for a moment.

"You should have got rid of those clothes!!"

Airys wiped away the tears that arose from so much teasing and then suddenly stopped because she accidentally woke up a demon.

Seng's expression of grief changed to that of someone broken and lacking in humanity, his shadow rose in spirals and, with the calm of a snake; they slid down the floor and the air in his direction. Airys stifled a high-pitched shriek and the cold emitted from his feet gave him even more chills than he had.

"No" he said, revealing a deadly sincerity that broke grace in the environment.

And proceeded... to kill her.

Or that would have done if it were not for the steps of Kao'em that entered the room in a casual and serene way.

Seng turned and looked at his teacher's kind smile, knew that his eyes were lost in hatred and decided to sigh deeply to bury his true emotions.

"It's time to go, Brat" said Seng.

"Brat?" She thought altered and hurriedly ran to the Grandpa.

Kao'em smiled and continued on his way out, accompanied by squeaky Airys and his annoying questions. Seng on the other hand took a couple of steps to go to the same place as them, however, he could not help contemplating for the last time that work of art.

He was angry, that in the picture portrayed was a woman made his heart burn; and also stabbed him. Why didn't they think the woman in the mosaic was a kind of sign? That a piece of this was missing or that his incomplete blue hair was proof that he was not the Chosen One; because the other descendants of Silver Soul Dragons don't have the scalp of a complete dark blue like that girl either. Were they not too similar?

He clenched his fists and cracked his teeth, the blood was boiling, he shouldn't think of any of that, if he doubted he could never prove that it was a lie... that there is no one except him with that destiny.

He stood firm against the Great Mosaic and the glow in his muted eyes resurfaced as the first flash of light at dawn. He pointed his finger and exclaimed his oath with the pillars and thrones as witnesses.

"I AM THE CHOSEN ONE!! AND IF IT IS NOT SO... THE LEGEND... IS FALSE!"

He lowered his hand and decided to leave the place.

"If I am not the Chosen One... why did I have to sacrifice so much?" The one he promised would be the final one and he would never cry again for the issue.

———————————————————————————————————

"Very well, it's time," said Zhugan'ko at the entrance to the pair of young people. "I suppose you said farewell to Arkgas so I will be direct," Kao'em and he approached him and put his hand on his shoulder. "Do your duty... and Kao´em wants you not to forget that we love you and we will miss you"

Airys thought it was nice that his teachers talked to Seng, she was envious to think that she could have such beautiful relationships with them if they had found her before, but that envy left almost immediately because of the sadness of thinking about not meet herr mother, father and brother... adoptive.

"Of course" Seng replied.

"Anything you want to tell him before he leaves, Arkgas?" Zhugan'ko asked.

"Hmmm, are you sure you're not my son? You're just going on a trip and you find a beautiful lady to play with in spare time" he said with a disgusting expression on his face that disturbed Airys.

"That Brat is nothing you said."

"Hey!" Airys yelled "I didn't expect one of the Archmages to be an old green" thinked.

"Hahaha, anyway, you just have to be as you are and ready" Arkgas said with a laugh and shook his messy hair. "I know you can accomplish what you said," he whispered as he hugged him. Seng understood and closed his eyes to enjoy the warmth.

Thus, Airys and Seng embarked on their journey. She willing to learn and enjoy a life full of adventures and he decided to find a test that would return his life to normal.

"Well, it's time to leave too" Zhugan'ko said with a couple of tears on his face. Kao'em slapped him on the back; he knew that in his short farewell message Zhugan'ko had exchanged his messages because of that "discipline" he had exaggerated.

"I'm sorry Zhugan'ko, could you take care of that matter alone for a couple of days?" Arkgas said "I have a place to go before and I would like Kao'em to take me there" His face was covered with hate.

Zhugan´ko and Kao´em hesitated for a moment.

"Do not take it out too much, I will need you to take to rest" said Zhugan'ko and Kao'em advanced to Arkgas without erasing his calm smile from his face, a subtle effort to hide his concern for his friend.

"Thank you, I won't be long"

———————————————————————————————————

"H-hey Seng ..."

"What do you want?"

"Are we going on foot? When I came I did it in a carriage and then on horseback... Couldn't they give us one? I just don't wanna walk"

"Right"

Airys was glad and was about to return to the temple.

"We're going to run, you've already wasted fifteen years of your life," Seng sputtered. "If you do not reach me" repeated that murderous look from before, "you will refrain from the consequences"

"Ehhh?!" she shrieked, the very unfortunate one, Chosen one.