Prologue Part 19
(One year later)
In the city of Cendrelys, Callistéa, a humble middle class wife, was busy setting up the table for her family's dinner. The table was full of simple yet delicious looking bowls of food and exactly four cups of juice. She stood back and exhaled with pride at the fruits of her labour, then made her way outside to gather the rest of the family. "Guys, dinner's ready." The sun was about to set and outside, the husband, son and daughter of the family were still playing around and gardening. "Coming!" They all said, putting their stuff away and heading to the sliding door.
They each washed their hands and sat at the table, said a prayer and began passing around the different bowls while engaging in light conversation. "Mom, I found a giant lizard in the garden, can I keep it? please!" The son asked. "But we won't even have anything to feed it. And besides, what happened to that mantis you caught the other day? Or the spider you caught the week before that? Don't tell me you lost it." The boy replied, "They're both perfectly fine mom, but I really want to keep this lizard. I learned how to catch flies so I'll be able to feed it. "
"Can we talk about this after dinner?" The dad interjected. "Fine," The boy grumbled. He practically forced the rest of his food down into his stomach less than a minute after that. He put his plate back in the kitchen, then ran back outside where it was now dark and windy. The sky was a dark blue without a single star in sight. The boy walked over to the area he had seen the lizard at before and searched frantically for it, but was disappointed when he realized it was no longer there. Yet still, he did not give up. He tried looking all over the garden, in the bushes, by the walls, everywhere.
He was about to give up when a strong gust of wind blew past him and while he couldn't exactly be sure, he could swear he heard something whispering to him in the wind. It unsettled him slightly but it wasn't a problem. He was about to head back inside when he heard it again, whispering in the wind. "Wh-whats that? Hello?" The boy's heart raced. He couldn't quite hear what this strange voice was saying. He looked around for where it could have been coming from, but saw nothing. He started thinking that maybe it was all in his head and was about to begin walking back, but then, the voice came again, not whispering but talking. What it was saying, he didn't know, but he tried countering it by changing the thoughts in his mind, which didn't work. He tried overtaking the noise, shouting "La la la la la la la!" over and over but to no avail.
When he realized nothing he tried was working, the only option left was to run and scream. He got inside the house and ran straight into his mother's arms. "Mom!" The mother wore a puzzled but concerned look. "What, what is it?" The boy stammered through his words, "Th-theres a ghost in the garden!" The mom couldn't help but laugh. "Oh no sweetie. There is no such thing as ghosts. It was just the wind."
"It wasn't the wind! It was a voice! It kept on talking in some random language." The boy protested. "Big brother, you're being stupid." His little sister added. "No I'm not! It's real! It's real! Its real!" the boy stomped his feet around. The dad stepped in, "Alright, why don't I go and see if there really is a ghost out there.
He reached the same area where his son claimed to see a ghost. He waited around for a while but didn't see or hear anything other than the wind. He exhaled and turned back but just as he took his first step, he felt a weird sensation against his ear, like someone was breathing against it. It stopped him momentarily but he kept walking. He took a few more steps but then heard these weird voices again, their words were indecipherable, and each sound made his brain hurt more and more. He looked around but there was nobody around who could have made that noise, the garden was quiet and empty after all.
Suddenly, his heart started racing. There was no one there but something was speaking to him, there was no ignoring that. He realized that there was no point in being there any longer and quickly made his way back inside the house. Back inside, his family rushed towards him, seeing him gasping for air with a distressed look on his face, the wife asked, "Darling, are you alright?"
The man took a few seconds to find his breath, then closed his eyes, trying to soothe the throbbing in his head. When he finished, he looked at his family and said, "there's nothing there, it was probably just the wind. It's late now, I think it's time for you kids to go to bed."
The young boy was stunned. "What?! That's impossible! I know what I heard!" "Maurice, stop it! I already told you there's no such thing as ghosts. If you continue like this you're gonna end up like the old Duchess of Solenne."
"Who?" The boy asked.
"She was just like you. She was convinced she saw a ghost somewhere in her house and she drove herself crazy for it. And you know what happened to her, she killed herself! Do you want that happening to you?"
The boy's inner fire extinguished, "No". "Then stop this now before you really lose your mind." The boy finally decided to let go of the topic. He brushed his teeth in the bathroom, got tucked into bed by his mother and fell asleep within minutes.
After leaving her children's bedroom, the mother went to go and check on her husband. He sat on the dinner table with his head hung low, his hand covering his eyes. "Are you alright, love?" The woman asked him. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you." He replied. She pressed on. "What happened out there? You looked so distressed when you got back."
There was a pause between them before the husband finally answered, "Maurice… he was telling the truth." The woman was stunned, "What? What are you talking about? There's a ghost in our garden? That's nonsense!"
"I heard it!" He snapped. "I heard it, it whispered at me over and over like voices in my head and now I have a horrible headache because of it so please be quiet right now!" The wife still refused to believe it. "Didn't you hear what I was telling Maurice just now? Do you want to end up like Isabella Dumont?"
"I said be quiet!" He slammed his fist on the table. "Look, we'll talk about this tomorrow but for now, I really need some space." The wife paused for a moment, then turned around and walked away, "Alright".
*****
Back at the Dumont mansion, the entire house echoed with the clanging of wood and the cries of a 9 year old boy with longer blonde hair. Inside the training room, Matteo and Thomas were in the middle of a sparring match. "Come on, get up!" Thomas yelled. "Do you want to go blind? Do you want to become disabled? Do you want to get corrupted?!"
Matteo dragged himself up using his wooden sword. Before he could stand up fully, he stumbled back down to the wooden floor while clutching his knee. As he tried getting up again, drops of blood ran down his nose and splattered on the floor, adding to the already large bloody canvas that was the training room floor. He wiped the blood off his face and got into his fighting stance. "All right, begin!" Thomas instructed.
But Matteo could barely stand. Now wobbling on his injured knee, he took a few steps, then swung his sword with all his might. Thomas dodged his attack with a sidestep and Matteo stumbled from his own momentum. He got back up and unleashed even more wide swings in Thomas' direction. Thomas dodged and parried his attacks, leaving many openings he chose to ignore. But after his final parry, another opening was created, and Thomas did not ignore it this time.
He hit Matteo with a quick, powerful and painfully accurate strike to his unguarded ribs, sending the boy rolling away on the floor with all the wind knocked out of his lungs. As he glared down at Matteo, he snarled. "It's been a year and you are still as weak and pathetic as ever. You are still unable to keep up your training and you still do not know the first thing about combat!"
He took a breath to clear his mind, then came to a conclusion. "Ah, I see. You're doing this on purpose aren't you? Hoping that one day I would give up on you and leave you alone?" "No…" Matteo tried to explain, but Thomas cut him off.
"All right then, how about we do this. Until you give me a satisfactory performance in your training, you are banned from indulging in any of the luxuries provided in my house. That means no wearing any of my robes, no sleeping in my house and no eating even the smallest crumb of my food."
Matteo was speechless, but the look on his face was enough to convey everything he wanted to say. "If you think that is unfair, then get up and fight for your privileges". Matteo dropped his head to the ground, grunted, then pushed himself up into his fighting stance.
But he only stood for about five seconds before The Heart of Seneva sent a terrible pain throughout his entire body, sending him back to the floor choking on his own blood.
"Well, it looks like it's settled then." Thomas returned his wooden sword to its hanger and left the dojo. Matteo still writhed in pain on the bloody floor.