The cabin smelled of dried herbs, damp wood, and—to Seraphina's senses—the metallic tang of impending vomit.
Seraphina vansin, once a celebrated scholar of the High Tower, leaned against the kitchen counter, taking shallow breaths. Across the room, a five year old Lucius was sitting on the floor, stacking wooden blocks with intense concentration. But everytime lucious placed a block, a purple aura overflowed around him.
It wasn't that Lucius was trying to be malicious. He was simply exciting. The demonic mana of the Pride Admiral was too potent for a human vessel, even one born to it. It leaked out like radiation.
"Auntie Sera?" Lucius looked up, his violet, slit-pupiled eyes wide. "Are you sick again?"
Seraphina swallowed the bile rising in her throat. Her skin crawled, a primal instinct screaming at her to destroy this child, or to run away from him. She forced a smile, her face pale. "I'm fine, Lulu. Just... a headache. Keep playing."
She loved him. She loved him with every fiber of her being, and she had sworn to protect him no matter what, so she had learn to love him for who he is.
Lucius frowned, sensing her distress. He stood up, and the pressure in the room spiked. He walked toward the door. "I'll go play outside. With Scruff."
"Stay within the barrier!" she called out, her voice trembling slightly.
There was a time when Lucios was too curious of what the world is like behind the barriers, so he sneak through it. He found a small village where kids were playing, he came to join them as a natural reaction from a kid, it was the first time he saw another child his age. But when he came to the playground, people around him suddenly came rushing towards their kid, shielding them, taking them away, people look at him with fear, disgust, even knights showed up to arrest him, thinking he was one of the demonic cult using magic to impersonate a child, because his demonic aura was too overwhelming, Lucious was so scared and frightened, he just sat down cover his face and cried for auntie to save him. If it were not for Seraphina using water magic to transport him back safely, he could have been killed right there.
Outside, the woods were silent. Animals usually avoided their cabin within a mile radius. Birds didn't sing here. The insects were quiet.
Lucius walked to the edge of the clearing, where a shivering raccoon waited. Lucius had found it a week ago, its leg broken by a trap. Any other animal would have all run from Lucius's aura, but this one was too weak to run.
"Hi, Scruff," Lucius whispered, kneeling.
The raccoon hissed at first, his fur standing on end. It was terrified. Every instinct in the animal's brain told it that the boy was an apex predator, a monster of the highest order.
"It's okay," Lucius murmured. He didn't know how to suppress the heavy, suffocating dread he emitted. He just wanted a friend. He reached out a hand. The raccoon slowly accepted it, its eyes rolling back in fear, but it didn't bite or run away. It sensed the nice intent of lucious. Slowly, Lucius stroked its fur. The boy's touch was gentle, contrasting the terrifying aura. Scruff was Lucious only friend, the only animals that let Lucious get closed to it. Even though Scruff is still afraid of Lucious, it had learned that Lucious is not a bad person.
"See?" Lucius smiled, a lonely, sad smile. "I'm not scary."
Years passed in isolation. Seraphina taught him Water Magic, wanting Lucious to follow her and become a water mage as Lucious primarty magic was mage. "Focus, Lucius. Flow like the river," Seraphina instructed in the backyard.
Lucius held out his hand. A globule of water formed. It was shaky. Then, the violet energy seeped in. The water turned black, boiled instantly, and evaporated into a hiss of steam.
"I can't do it," Lucius threw his hands down. " The water was too hard to control,."
"You have to control it," Seraphina said sternly, "Always practice it in your free time, promise me that."
"I promise," he grumbled. He walked over to a fallen branch, picking it up. He swung it with a whoosh. "I don't like magic anyway. I want to be a Knight. Knights are cool. They don't need mana. They just need swords."
Seraphina watched him swing the stick. His form was sloppy, but the speed... the stick cut the air with a sound that shouldn't be possible for a ten-year-old. The passive enhancement of his body was terrifying.
The turning point came when Lucius was twelve.
Seraphina had gone to the nearest village for supplies—a place Lucius was forbidden to go. She returned late, her eyes red from crying, but a frantic smile on her face.
"Lucius! Come here!"
She pulled a necklace from her pocket. It was a dull, rusted iron chain with a gray stone that looked like a common pebble.
"I found it at a junk stall," she gasped, her hands shaking as she fumbled with the clasp. "The merchant said it was 'useless junk' from the Old War. A Null-Stone. It suppresses mana output, but it drains the user's stamina so fast that no mage wants it. It was only 100 gold." It was a lie, Seraphina had used all her life savings to buy the relics from the blackmarket, but it was all for Lucious, so that he could live like a normal child.
She clasped it around Lucius's neck.
The effect was instantaneous.
The heavy, suffocating pressure vanished. The air in the cabin became light. The metallic taste in Seraphina's mouth disappeared.
For the first time in twelve years, Seraphina looked at her nephew and saw just a boy. Not a monster. Not a vessel. Just a boy.
"Auntie?" Lucius touched the stone.
"It's working," Seraphina sobbed, dropping to her knees and pulling him into a fierce hug. "Oh, thank the Gods, it's working."
Lucius stiffened. She had never hugged him like this. She usually flinched when he got too close. He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder. "You're not sick anymore?"
"No," she wept. "I'm not sick anymore."
With the necklace, the world opened up.
They visited the villages around. Lucious got to play with real children that are his age, he was having so much fun that he never had before.
Finally, for his fourteenth birthday, they visited the Capital of Aethelgard. When Lucious was waiting for aunt Seraphina, he saw a bandit threatening a store, suddenly armored knights neutralize the bandit imediately, Lucious followed the knight back to the palace. Lucius stood before the White Palace, his mouth agape. Banners of gold and crimson fluttered in the wind. And there, standing guard at the gates, were the Royal Knights. Clad in silver armor that shone like polished mirrors, capes billowing, they looked like gods among men.
"I'm going to be one of them," Lucius whispered, his hand gripping the cheap iron necklace hidden under his shirt. "I'm going to be the best Knight in the world." That's when Seraphina came hugging to Lucious,
"Lucious, promise me to never run away anymore, I was so worried."
"I'm going to be the strongest knight ever auntie."
"I sure you will." Seraphina looked at him confusingly but she slowly light up a smile.
There was many ways of becoming a knight, but the quickest way to achieve that title, is the Aethelgard Royal Academy, where the strongest knights were from. And with Seraphina introduction letter as one of the mage tower scholar, Lucious was getting participated in the entrance exam of the academy, a privilege that not everyone gets.
"I will help give you a recommendation letter to the academy Lucious, but you have to remember, that there are also thousands of competitors, and they only take the top 100 students one per year for each department, so you will need to train hard." Seraphina writing the recommendation letter as she said.
"Yes, I will practice to be the strongest knight ever auntie." He was jumping from excitement, swinging his blade that were brought as his birthday present as he speaks.
4 Years came by quickly, Lucious was practicing each day swinging his swords daily, keeping his promise, he even threw away all the water magic that Seraphina taught him, just swinging his swords daily. Though Seraphina was not sure if without proper practice, can he have a chance again well educated knights, since most of the Cadets there are from noble family that were proper trained by knights. But she could only with for him the best, Seraphina was a high tier mage, but she wasn't a knight, she couldn't teach him how to swing a sword. And the day when the entrance test came.