Spoiler! :
I was wiping all of the sweat off , wich had formed on my forhead while i was using the plow to loosen up the ground for the new seeds. It was a rather hot day for early April and no clouds could be seen. I grabbed the leather skin wich i filled up with water before i went to the fields , in a nearby river.
" Stop slacking off , Iljian!" said my father
"Yeah yeah , old man .... Its not like the work is going to run away from us anyways"
At that statement my fathrer could do nothing but shake his head, while i was grinning with my back towards him.
I resumed my work after i took the plow back into my hands.
It was a rather dull job to do with my 17 winters. Nontheless i couldnt do anything else as i was the oldest son of a farmer Family .
My grandparents and 2 generations before that all were farmers, so i couldnt really complain as it was laid out in my genes.
I heaved a long sigh. Naturally i wanted to do something else but didnt want to deal with the annyoing fact that i would have to leave this comfortable life wich was laid out before my Birth.
Not like i could either.... . When i was younger i alwaysed phantasized about being one of the Guards off a Town or a Soldier in his majestys Army.
I alwayse fight with the other kids of this rural village with sticks or sometimes wooden swords wich have been given to some kids as presents or such.
I was rather good at it too as i always won... most times tough with dirty tricks but you know everything is fair in Love and War .
I was off a rather bulky build , all of the work with the plow sure had some benefits. My arm muscles even showed under this loose Tunic wich i had on and my refined leg muscles showed trough the cotten pants wich i was wearing.
Compared to other males around my age in this village i was even quite tall.
I streched over a head to the next tallest male. There was neither an Adult who was taller than me.
The only things i didnt like about my self were my eyes. Not the coulor they were a really light blue with some golden spots in them , but how i always looked a little annoyed even if i didnt intend to.
The other thing was my belly... i had a few kg to much but hey i never lived in hunger like other people of our town did .
See sure has some benefits to be a farmers son. During winter we helped out other town inhabitants with food too, my father didnt want to but i begged him so long until he did it.
I cant stand people dying from hunger while our family has way too much even after the high taxes from the King.
We lived on the very far edge of the Alycar kingdom wich was ruled by the Royal blood of the Alcyar Family for generations.
The more to the edge u lived the more taxes you would have to pay. Not fair , but as it has worked for all past generations nobody complained . Even if somebody did nobody would listen to the poor soul wich was fretting. If u did u would get arrested.
In this Town of Surrecas lived about 70-90 Familys there even was a barracks for the Army stationed nearby .
We even had a few rivers and a lakes around wich made life rather convenient. We had a school wich i visited to about the age of 15 .
There was a church for our gods around too.
We believe 7 gods around here,wich are even displayed if u allign the stars in a certain way,
Efreet wich was associated to Fire , the sun and honour.
Zygidal with water , the oceans and judgment .
Zephyr with wind ,Tornados and fickleness.
Ryuhlik with earth , mountain ranges and sturdiness.
Darkrend the moon , darkness and indecesiveness.
Scymar with Thunder , storms and quick temperedness.
The last one was Void with everything incorporal , death and ambioutsness.
Most people were born under one sign , some have 2 or even 3 , there was even a rumour that the King was born under 4 .
I was told that in the Night of my birth Darkrends sign could be seen clearly in the sky .
Not every sign was visible all the time they keep blurring or brightening up and u would never see all 7 signs brightened up at the same time.
It was clearly not possible. That is because it is said that when a sign is especially bright that God has more power over the land and if its blurred he lost alot of his Power.
The one exception was Void u cant really see him at any time , some say u can see him more clear during the day , thats because his stars are black and only his followers can cleary distungish them at night. Darkrend and Void arent to well accepted i even got bullied during the time i was in school.
So i really didnt have any contact with alot of kids my age. Except for my 2 younger sisters one was 15 the other 14 and my little brother wich was 10.
There is one exception tough , my Uncle in law, whom lived a half a days march away, is what he is offically but to me he is rather my buddy or friend what ever u want to call it.
He is 19 and a black smith. A few years prior he took over his fathers smith shop , as he died during Winter wich left him and the sister of my father all by themselves.
Naturally we help them were we can especially during winter as we dont have alot of farming work to do during the cold period.
He is even about to become father , it should be 3 more months until the birth.
He lost his heart to forging weapons and armor , he is especially good with shields, but all he can do for work around these parts are repairing common tools and a few times a year repairing the Arms of travelers. He still forges weapons and Armor when ever he has free time and material from old tools. He smelts old tools and remakes them to weapons wich he is really proud off and he lets me test them from time to time too. He was born when Ryuhlik was especially bright with a few traces of Efreet in the sky.
Before he married his wife we even went to drink some times when i was still 15. We always walked to the only Bar around here and most of the time his to be wife at that time and my Aunt came to pick us up , as we were so drunk we even needed help to lift up the Met kegs we had been drinking.
She disliked it that we always went there as we both drew alot of attention from the female waitresses , whom always revealed a litttttle but to much skin , not that i mineded it though.
Me because of my eyes and the red blond hair wich wasnt common around these parts with almost everyone with black hair and almost black eyes.
Him because he was well known around town especially to the female citizens . As he already had alot of contact to the other side of the population, and he was born under good signs.
I couldnt even think about girls as i was born under unlucky stars and my mother died when she gave birth to me, wich was even more unlucky from the standpoint of outsiders as a bad omen.
My sisters and my brother were from another mother so i didnt even fit well into the Family i have now.
Except for my father he would do everything for me and was very kind. I even started to ignore every annoying person wich made fun of me wich happend every day.
While i was in school i didnt , i always came home bruised or some part of my skin ripped open and was bleeding.
They always ganged up on me with 5 or more kids and i always won but still that was goin way over the top.
Even my eldest sister told some guys strange rumors of me and they started ganging up on me.
So i didnt exaggerate about me not fitting well into my Family.
My other sister always throws my clothes wet into the cupboard and doesnt even let them dry.
My "mother" always gives me the smallest amount of food. My younger brother is except my father my only hope.
He was born without any signs in the sky , wich means he was born under Void.
The worst sign there is even worse than Darkrend. I dont care if he is even more "cursed" than i am , i know how much it hurts to not be accepted into the community.
As i always take care of him he started looking up to me and i always bring him some good looking rocks or even a wooden sword wich i made for him once.
Enough of that now though , it is sunday and that means at around dusk our whole village will gather at the church to pray to the gods and bring a small sacrifice to the Towns gate wich was located there.
The Townsgate is a transportation method, wich looks like a lying down stone ring. As the name impliys u can walk through it to get to any other town in a 10 days march radius.
If u want to go farther u have to stay 3 days in that town and then u can continue your Journey.
But it has its downsides too. You will always feel nauseas and u cant transport goods with it.
We dont even know how it works or who build those things. There is even a large Townsgate in the Central city of Alcyar , where the King has his castle , wich couldnt be used.
As of why nobody could use it we dont even know that. Normally a towns gate would have a bluish substance in the space between the ring and u would have to shout out the name of the town to which u wanted to travel too.
But the Great Townsgate in central Alcyar doesnt have that blusih substance. But there is still magic emanting from it , or so some mages and the church claims.
At around noon one of my sisters came by with basket with food. It was just some bread and cheese from our cows around our farm. Also some milk and freshly filled up leahter skins full of water.My father hurriedly went towards her as soon as he had spotted her.
"Thank you Myriam for your hard work "said my father.
"No problem Dad , and dont thank me you are doing all the hard work around here"
"Dont forget Iliyan , he too does alot of the hard work" countered my father at the rude behaviour of my sister , as she always ignored even my presence.
"Oh ? Ah.... didnt even see... you..."Claimed my sister.
After we ate and drank some milk she gave us the leather skins and quickly packed everything up.
She quickly departed back to the house. An hour passed and as i was sweeting again i took the leather skin untied it and put it to my mouth. As the first few drops reached my tongue i coughed up and threw the leather skin away.
"What the hell...? Did she mix bulls piss into this or what?!" i started shouting out.
"....Im sorry son , i wish ur mother would still be alive then u wouldnt ahve to go through so much ...." said my father with a almost inaudiable voice.
"Dont worry father, im used to it. I did wonder this time that the milk wasnt rotten like last time too. And stop saying so much about Mum please... ."
After this little incident we started working again and my father and me shared the one leather skin with water wich was edible. We continued for quite some time until the shadow became very long.
"Son enough for today lets pack it up."said my father those words wich i longed for.
We packed up and left the fields for the house. We came by our cow flock we even put some straw in the enclosure they had.
The only thanks were a few deep "mooooohhhs" as they came trodding by. After we passed them i quickly went to our chickens and strewed a few corns around. I also collected a few eggs wich werent there in the morning.
As i reached the house i heared another argument with my father and his new wife.
".... needs to find his own place soon and leave this house!"explained my step mother
"He is my oldest and he will take over the farm one day!"said my father as he stood up for me
"Why one of the grooms of my 2 cute little girls can take that over or little Martican" "They arent even at the age for becoming brides yet and u already claim there Husbands will take over? Martican is intelligent i dont want his talent to go to waste!"
I took the stairs quickly to the 2nd floor and then the next stairs wich led me under the roof.
My room was located there. As i just reached the upper part of stairs i heard a sniffling sound.
"Hey Martician , is everything all right?" My little brother always ended up somewhere in my room if something bad happend,
Be it the discussion of my parents or bullying at the curch where kids his age usually went for eduaction.
He was rather short for his age had short thin jet black hair and dark eyes with a hint of blue in them and was really shy.
As i drew closer to him i saw he was sitting between my desk and wardrobe. He quickly stood up and ran at his full speed into me as i catched him in my arms.
He used to be sick alot but this year he has gotten alot better and he was crying as usual when he was in my room
"Th-Those kids at school hid my outdoor shoes ag-again... this time they threw them into the pond behind the ch-church... . When i told the Sister Anchora about it she just sayed "hmmm that again" and quickly left me behind without doing anything."
Yeah that was how they treated people wich were born under unlucky stars....
"Did u bring them back home tough?" i asked my little brother.
"No i-i couldnt get t-them out w-without getting w-wet"
"You said behind the church im going to get them right now okay? Then well dry them at the fireplace down stairs okay?"
To my response he just nodded.
I quickly left the house and tried to not grab any more pices of the argument my father had with my step mom.
Shortly after i arrived at the pond behind the church i could see something dark exactly in the middle of it.
"Those got to be his shoes..." i said to nobody in particular.
I grabbed a branch from a tree that was nearby and put it in the pond to drag them to the outskirts of the pond wich was about 3 m wide.
As soon as i had both of them so far that i could grab them i lifted up the sleeves of my tunic and grabed them both with one hand and drew them out of the water.
I just wanted to leave as somebody started yelling
"... You what are you doing there?" i turned around and saw the sister that held the classes my brother was in.
"Im just getting the shoes of my little brother out of the pond... wich was acutually your job!" the last part i muttered under my breath.
She looked at me with strange eyes and said something with an almost inaudible voice
"Not Iliyan again...."Then in a louder voice.
"Just make sure that never happens again!"She turned around and left me there.
Some would have been speechless but as i was used to the treatment people gave me because of my birth under unlucky signs i just turned around.
I still had to calm myself down , as i was just so angry that they didnt treat my brother better.
Without saying anything i returned to my house and went up the stairs until i was back to my room.
I put down the shoes and patted my little brother on his head.
"There there nothing to worry about ."As he was already crying again
"Thank you so much big brother for always caring for me" Oh i see he was crying out of joy.
I just smiled went to my wardrobe got some clothes out of them and went towards the bathroom to take a quick bath before the ceremony for the Townsgate began.
"Oh lucky day my clothes arent moldy and not even wet this time " I said as i entered the bath.
I went inside the bathtub wich was filled with the water both my sister my mother and my brother used before i did so it wasnt really clean.
My father always took a bath after me , that was his way of showing that he loved me or something like that.
After i finished i went back to my room and Martician had a book in his hands as he was lying down on the floor and read it.
When i entered the room he looked at me and his face shone very brightly as he pointed to his book.
"This book is really interesting its about magic basics "he explained to me.
As i just went to my desk to sit in the chair to comb my rather long hair wich i used to have in a short ponytail bound at my nape.
"They told me i have an affinity to magic , can u believe that?" he told me that with an expression of utter joy on his face.
As he was used to me not saying alot , most likely a habit we both have because of our unlucky birth signs, he just kept on talking.
"A magician came to the church today and tested us we just took a weird stone in our hands and if it light up we would have magic .
Even the colour in wich it lit up was important , he said that the colours wich lit up after i took it in my hands is reveered to Void and that i had the strongest affinity to magic out of the whole school.
He even gave me this book , Hehe im so happy"
I smiled with my usual crocked smile back at him and give him a thumbs up, at wich he started to wiggle around on the floor not letting the book out of his sight.
After i finished combing my hair and looked at myself in the Mirror i stood up and said
"Hey lets go..."
Martician quickly stood up and put his book into one my my cupboards then he went racing down stairs.
He seriously is interested in Magic ,huh? I thought to myself while walking down the stairs. How come i never had to touch a stone while i was in church school? I took my train of thoughts a little farther .
Oh well doesnt matter.
After i went downstairs we had dinner with no misgivings this time truly lucky day today for me.
Then we cleaned the table off and went towards the church me and Martician in the back while our 2 sisters took the lead and where happily chatting with eachother.
As soon as we arrived there the 2 girls took off and stood with a large group of females around their age , they surrely knew from school.
I took Marticians hand , to prevent him from getting lost ( Not that he would run away , but just to be sure) and waited for the speech of the Church elder to begin.
After a while i felt somebody watching me and i quickly scanned the area for the culprit. As soon as my gaze fell upon the female group our 2 sisters were at i found the culprit.
Natuarly it was both of them with a few other females as they laughed as they were hiding there lips with their hands.
Yeah like thats gonna drown out the laughing sound of ur voices u idiots i thought to myself.
Then there was a commtion over at the female gathering as one of the girls with beautifull black and glossy hair told my 2 sisters something after wich they had vile faces on themselves. Not that i care though . I thought to myself.
As the sun sunk behind the Horizon the church elder came out of the church and began his boring and humble speech to us and the gods.
I really didnt listen to much into it i never have i just wait for our familys turn and then bring the sacrifice i prepared as usual to the Townsgate before i call a gods name and ask for a wish to be granted.
I picked up a black stone this time wich had a Metallic shine to it this time and thought it was rather pretty.
Normally i offered something to Ryuhlik for a good harvest as a farmer and all, but not this time .
This time i wanted to thank Darkrend for his sign at my birth , because i didnt have to surround myself with idiots because of it.
We were one of the last few familys to sacrifice something.
My father but some wheat into the portal as he claimed Rhyuliks name.
For a good harvest My Step mother and her 2 daughters offerd sheeps wool to Zygidal. For good rain periods for the harvest
My little brother offered a few berris he found in the woods for Efreet.
For him to loose his shyness
As soon as i stepped towards the portal everyone become silent .... As usual all of those people are idiots ...
"I offer this Ore to Darkrend , as for my wish i wish for nothing just that things to stay as they are!"i Exclaimed in a loud enough voice that everybody could hear.
It reamained silent..... a few moments passed and suddenly the sun sank and the stars were bright and clearly visible.
The crowd laughed at my childish wish as they started looking up into the night sky.
As soon as the first few looked up an eerie silence could be felt in the crowd as they look at the stars and tried to decipher wich sign was clearly visible today and wich was not.
The only visible sign was the Skull with a crocked smile from wich you could almost feel the weird and eerie laughter in your head.
All of the participants were stunned speechless , as i looked up and saw the sign and put up my usual crocked smile wich almost looked like the exact same thing they could see at the moment they locked into the night sky.
And threw the stone i found into the portal as soon as the stone touched the blue substance a loud bang could be heard and a smell of ozone , exactly like right after a lighting bolt hit somewhere near you, could be smelled.
The blue substance turned green and on the stone ring Green scribbles could be seen.
The community of gathered people started to panic and ran everywhere without a certain goal in mind.
I couldnt do anything but laugh at this strange phenomenon, and leaned onto a nearby huge boulder wich was stuck to the ground.
After the comotion died down and almost nobody was left at the Townsgate it returned to its usual blue colour.
I started walking back home. I didnt even meet one person on my way back , i even wondered where my little brother was.
As i reached the house i wanted to open the door , but to my suprise , it was LOCKED?
I didnt even know we had a lock and of all times now it is locked after something this scale of wondrous thing happend?
I banged on the door and shouted
"Hey.... open up its me "
After a while i started banging even more fierce at the locked door and shouted again.
"Go away i always knew u were a harbinger of bad Omens ... but to this extent ...."said my step mother through closed doors.
"And where the Hell do u think im suppose to sleep, u old Hag ?"i shouted angryly at the door , behind wich my step mother stood.
"Go sleep with the fish for all i care!!!" whailed my step mother back.
"Fine u Mikuru , i hope u get eaten by some wild wolves around here!" i replied still in an angry voice.
As i was all alone i just went strooling around the village. I landed back at the townsgate lay back on one of the benches wich were placed around it and placed my hand over my eyes and started to rub the inner corner of my eyes.
"Great the first time i offer something to my birth sign and something weird happens .... this is just great ...." I just said into the empty night.
"You are Iliyan, the farmer ... right?" came a voice out of nowhere wich i never heard before.
I straightend myself back up and saw the girl who was arguing with my 2 sisters back at the meeting.
She sure has a beatifull face and those glossy shiny hair with those neatly cutted bangs to one hight on her forehead.
As well as beatifull small pink coloured lips....
What the hell am i thinking in this situation?
".... Yeah and you are?" i said after a few minutes , while i was looking at her.
"My name is Aylin , the mages apprentice ...."claimed Aylin.
"So what do u want with me Aylin mages apprentice? After all these strange occurences...."
".....You need to go to prison" Aylin told me with a rather frightend face on herself.
"Oh yeah ... sure .... okay so where is that prison to wich i have to go too?" did i sarcastically reply.
"In the Mages tower of Nordruk...."
"....You know that Nordruk is about 7 day marches by foot away from here?"did i state after a short pause.
"Yes by foot , tough not by magic " did she claim as she snipped her fingers and circle of Greyish colour appear before me.
"What the heck....." Was the only thing i could say before i found myself in something that lokked like a cell in some sort of dungeon.
"You are serious ...." did i yell out into the pitch black cell of wich i could only see a pair off metall bars right before me and a small window with bars on it.
"... Yes i was very serious ..." said a almost inaudible voice back to me wich came out of no direction almost as if it was direct in my head.
___________________________________________________________________________
" Stop slacking off , Iljian!" said my father
"Yeah yeah , old man .... Its not like the work is going to run away from us anyways"
At that statement my fathrer could do nothing but shake his head, while i was grinning with my back towards him.
I resumed my work after i took the plow back into my hands.
It was a rather dull job to do with my 17 winters. Nontheless i couldnt do anything else as i was the oldest son of a farmer Family .
My grandparents and 2 generations before that all were farmers, so i couldnt really complain as it was laid out in my genes.
I heaved a long sigh. Naturally i wanted to do something else but didnt want to deal with the annyoing fact that i would have to leave this comfortable life wich was laid out before my Birth.
Not like i could either.... . When i was younger i alwaysed phantasized about being one of the Guards off a Town or a Soldier in his majestys Army.
I alwayse fight with the other kids of this rural village with sticks or sometimes wooden swords wich have been given to some kids as presents or such.
I was rather good at it too as i always won... most times tough with dirty tricks but you know everything is fair in Love and War .
I was off a rather bulky build , all of the work with the plow sure had some benefits. My arm muscles even showed under this loose Tunic wich i had on and my refined leg muscles showed trough the cotten pants wich i was wearing.
Compared to other males around my age in this village i was even quite tall.
I streched over a head to the next tallest male. There was neither an Adult who was taller than me.
The only things i didnt like about my self were my eyes. Not the coulor they were a really light blue with some golden spots in them , but how i always looked a little annoyed even if i didnt intend to.
The other thing was my belly... i had a few kg to much but hey i never lived in hunger like other people of our town did .
See sure has some benefits to be a farmers son. During winter we helped out other town inhabitants with food too, my father didnt want to but i begged him so long until he did it.
I cant stand people dying from hunger while our family has way too much even after the high taxes from the King.
We lived on the very far edge of the Alycar kingdom wich was ruled by the Royal blood of the Alcyar Family for generations.
The more to the edge u lived the more taxes you would have to pay. Not fair , but as it has worked for all past generations nobody complained . Even if somebody did nobody would listen to the poor soul wich was fretting. If u did u would get arrested.
In this Town of Surrecas lived about 70-90 Familys there even was a barracks for the Army stationed nearby .
We even had a few rivers and a lakes around wich made life rather convenient. We had a school wich i visited to about the age of 15 .
There was a church for our gods around too.
We believe 7 gods around here,wich are even displayed if u allign the stars in a certain way,
Efreet wich was associated to Fire , the sun and honour.
Zygidal with water , the oceans and judgment .
Zephyr with wind ,Tornados and fickleness.
Ryuhlik with earth , mountain ranges and sturdiness.
Darkrend the moon , darkness and indecesiveness.
Scymar with Thunder , storms and quick temperedness.
The last one was Void with everything incorporal , death and ambioutsness.
Most people were born under one sign , some have 2 or even 3 , there was even a rumour that the King was born under 4 .
I was told that in the Night of my birth Darkrends sign could be seen clearly in the sky .
Not every sign was visible all the time they keep blurring or brightening up and u would never see all 7 signs brightened up at the same time.
It was clearly not possible. That is because it is said that when a sign is especially bright that God has more power over the land and if its blurred he lost alot of his Power.
The one exception was Void u cant really see him at any time , some say u can see him more clear during the day , thats because his stars are black and only his followers can cleary distungish them at night. Darkrend and Void arent to well accepted i even got bullied during the time i was in school.
So i really didnt have any contact with alot of kids my age. Except for my 2 younger sisters one was 15 the other 14 and my little brother wich was 10.
There is one exception tough , my Uncle in law, whom lived a half a days march away, is what he is offically but to me he is rather my buddy or friend what ever u want to call it.
He is 19 and a black smith. A few years prior he took over his fathers smith shop , as he died during Winter wich left him and the sister of my father all by themselves.
Naturally we help them were we can especially during winter as we dont have alot of farming work to do during the cold period.
He is even about to become father , it should be 3 more months until the birth.
He lost his heart to forging weapons and armor , he is especially good with shields, but all he can do for work around these parts are repairing common tools and a few times a year repairing the Arms of travelers. He still forges weapons and Armor when ever he has free time and material from old tools. He smelts old tools and remakes them to weapons wich he is really proud off and he lets me test them from time to time too. He was born when Ryuhlik was especially bright with a few traces of Efreet in the sky.
Before he married his wife we even went to drink some times when i was still 15. We always walked to the only Bar around here and most of the time his to be wife at that time and my Aunt came to pick us up , as we were so drunk we even needed help to lift up the Met kegs we had been drinking.
She disliked it that we always went there as we both drew alot of attention from the female waitresses , whom always revealed a litttttle but to much skin , not that i mineded it though.
Me because of my eyes and the red blond hair wich wasnt common around these parts with almost everyone with black hair and almost black eyes.
Him because he was well known around town especially to the female citizens . As he already had alot of contact to the other side of the population, and he was born under good signs.
I couldnt even think about girls as i was born under unlucky stars and my mother died when she gave birth to me, wich was even more unlucky from the standpoint of outsiders as a bad omen.
My sisters and my brother were from another mother so i didnt even fit well into the Family i have now.
Except for my father he would do everything for me and was very kind. I even started to ignore every annoying person wich made fun of me wich happend every day.
While i was in school i didnt , i always came home bruised or some part of my skin ripped open and was bleeding.
They always ganged up on me with 5 or more kids and i always won but still that was goin way over the top.
Even my eldest sister told some guys strange rumors of me and they started ganging up on me.
So i didnt exaggerate about me not fitting well into my Family.
My other sister always throws my clothes wet into the cupboard and doesnt even let them dry.
My "mother" always gives me the smallest amount of food. My younger brother is except my father my only hope.
He was born without any signs in the sky , wich means he was born under Void.
The worst sign there is even worse than Darkrend. I dont care if he is even more "cursed" than i am , i know how much it hurts to not be accepted into the community.
As i always take care of him he started looking up to me and i always bring him some good looking rocks or even a wooden sword wich i made for him once.
Enough of that now though , it is sunday and that means at around dusk our whole village will gather at the church to pray to the gods and bring a small sacrifice to the Towns gate wich was located there.
The Townsgate is a transportation method, wich looks like a lying down stone ring. As the name impliys u can walk through it to get to any other town in a 10 days march radius.
If u want to go farther u have to stay 3 days in that town and then u can continue your Journey.
But it has its downsides too. You will always feel nauseas and u cant transport goods with it.
We dont even know how it works or who build those things. There is even a large Townsgate in the Central city of Alcyar , where the King has his castle , wich couldnt be used.
As of why nobody could use it we dont even know that. Normally a towns gate would have a bluish substance in the space between the ring and u would have to shout out the name of the town to which u wanted to travel too.
But the Great Townsgate in central Alcyar doesnt have that blusih substance. But there is still magic emanting from it , or so some mages and the church claims.
At around noon one of my sisters came by with basket with food. It was just some bread and cheese from our cows around our farm. Also some milk and freshly filled up leahter skins full of water.My father hurriedly went towards her as soon as he had spotted her.
"Thank you Myriam for your hard work "said my father.
"No problem Dad , and dont thank me you are doing all the hard work around here"
"Dont forget Iliyan , he too does alot of the hard work" countered my father at the rude behaviour of my sister , as she always ignored even my presence.
"Oh ? Ah.... didnt even see... you..."Claimed my sister.
After we ate and drank some milk she gave us the leather skins and quickly packed everything up.
She quickly departed back to the house. An hour passed and as i was sweeting again i took the leather skin untied it and put it to my mouth. As the first few drops reached my tongue i coughed up and threw the leather skin away.
"What the hell...? Did she mix bulls piss into this or what?!" i started shouting out.
"....Im sorry son , i wish ur mother would still be alive then u wouldnt ahve to go through so much ...." said my father with a almost inaudiable voice.
"Dont worry father, im used to it. I did wonder this time that the milk wasnt rotten like last time too. And stop saying so much about Mum please... ."
After this little incident we started working again and my father and me shared the one leather skin with water wich was edible. We continued for quite some time until the shadow became very long.
"Son enough for today lets pack it up."said my father those words wich i longed for.
We packed up and left the fields for the house. We came by our cow flock we even put some straw in the enclosure they had.
The only thanks were a few deep "mooooohhhs" as they came trodding by. After we passed them i quickly went to our chickens and strewed a few corns around. I also collected a few eggs wich werent there in the morning.
As i reached the house i heared another argument with my father and his new wife.
".... needs to find his own place soon and leave this house!"explained my step mother
"He is my oldest and he will take over the farm one day!"said my father as he stood up for me
"Why one of the grooms of my 2 cute little girls can take that over or little Martican" "They arent even at the age for becoming brides yet and u already claim there Husbands will take over? Martican is intelligent i dont want his talent to go to waste!"
I took the stairs quickly to the 2nd floor and then the next stairs wich led me under the roof.
My room was located there. As i just reached the upper part of stairs i heard a sniffling sound.
"Hey Martician , is everything all right?" My little brother always ended up somewhere in my room if something bad happend,
Be it the discussion of my parents or bullying at the curch where kids his age usually went for eduaction.
He was rather short for his age had short thin jet black hair and dark eyes with a hint of blue in them and was really shy.
As i drew closer to him i saw he was sitting between my desk and wardrobe. He quickly stood up and ran at his full speed into me as i catched him in my arms.
He used to be sick alot but this year he has gotten alot better and he was crying as usual when he was in my room
"Th-Those kids at school hid my outdoor shoes ag-again... this time they threw them into the pond behind the ch-church... . When i told the Sister Anchora about it she just sayed "hmmm that again" and quickly left me behind without doing anything."
Yeah that was how they treated people wich were born under unlucky stars....
"Did u bring them back home tough?" i asked my little brother.
"No i-i couldnt get t-them out w-without getting w-wet"
"You said behind the church im going to get them right now okay? Then well dry them at the fireplace down stairs okay?"
To my response he just nodded.
I quickly left the house and tried to not grab any more pices of the argument my father had with my step mom.
Shortly after i arrived at the pond behind the church i could see something dark exactly in the middle of it.
"Those got to be his shoes..." i said to nobody in particular.
I grabbed a branch from a tree that was nearby and put it in the pond to drag them to the outskirts of the pond wich was about 3 m wide.
As soon as i had both of them so far that i could grab them i lifted up the sleeves of my tunic and grabed them both with one hand and drew them out of the water.
I just wanted to leave as somebody started yelling
"... You what are you doing there?" i turned around and saw the sister that held the classes my brother was in.
"Im just getting the shoes of my little brother out of the pond... wich was acutually your job!" the last part i muttered under my breath.
She looked at me with strange eyes and said something with an almost inaudible voice
"Not Iliyan again...."Then in a louder voice.
"Just make sure that never happens again!"She turned around and left me there.
Some would have been speechless but as i was used to the treatment people gave me because of my birth under unlucky signs i just turned around.
I still had to calm myself down , as i was just so angry that they didnt treat my brother better.
Without saying anything i returned to my house and went up the stairs until i was back to my room.
I put down the shoes and patted my little brother on his head.
"There there nothing to worry about ."As he was already crying again
"Thank you so much big brother for always caring for me" Oh i see he was crying out of joy.
I just smiled went to my wardrobe got some clothes out of them and went towards the bathroom to take a quick bath before the ceremony for the Townsgate began.
"Oh lucky day my clothes arent moldy and not even wet this time " I said as i entered the bath.
I went inside the bathtub wich was filled with the water both my sister my mother and my brother used before i did so it wasnt really clean.
My father always took a bath after me , that was his way of showing that he loved me or something like that.
After i finished i went back to my room and Martician had a book in his hands as he was lying down on the floor and read it.
When i entered the room he looked at me and his face shone very brightly as he pointed to his book.
"This book is really interesting its about magic basics "he explained to me.
As i just went to my desk to sit in the chair to comb my rather long hair wich i used to have in a short ponytail bound at my nape.
"They told me i have an affinity to magic , can u believe that?" he told me that with an expression of utter joy on his face.
As he was used to me not saying alot , most likely a habit we both have because of our unlucky birth signs, he just kept on talking.
"A magician came to the church today and tested us we just took a weird stone in our hands and if it light up we would have magic .
Even the colour in wich it lit up was important , he said that the colours wich lit up after i took it in my hands is reveered to Void and that i had the strongest affinity to magic out of the whole school.
He even gave me this book , Hehe im so happy"
I smiled with my usual crocked smile back at him and give him a thumbs up, at wich he started to wiggle around on the floor not letting the book out of his sight.
After i finished combing my hair and looked at myself in the Mirror i stood up and said
"Hey lets go..."
Martician quickly stood up and put his book into one my my cupboards then he went racing down stairs.
He seriously is interested in Magic ,huh? I thought to myself while walking down the stairs. How come i never had to touch a stone while i was in church school? I took my train of thoughts a little farther .
Oh well doesnt matter.
After i went downstairs we had dinner with no misgivings this time truly lucky day today for me.
Then we cleaned the table off and went towards the church me and Martician in the back while our 2 sisters took the lead and where happily chatting with eachother.
As soon as we arrived there the 2 girls took off and stood with a large group of females around their age , they surrely knew from school.
I took Marticians hand , to prevent him from getting lost ( Not that he would run away , but just to be sure) and waited for the speech of the Church elder to begin.
After a while i felt somebody watching me and i quickly scanned the area for the culprit. As soon as my gaze fell upon the female group our 2 sisters were at i found the culprit.
Natuarly it was both of them with a few other females as they laughed as they were hiding there lips with their hands.
Yeah like thats gonna drown out the laughing sound of ur voices u idiots i thought to myself.
Then there was a commtion over at the female gathering as one of the girls with beautifull black and glossy hair told my 2 sisters something after wich they had vile faces on themselves. Not that i care though . I thought to myself.
As the sun sunk behind the Horizon the church elder came out of the church and began his boring and humble speech to us and the gods.
I really didnt listen to much into it i never have i just wait for our familys turn and then bring the sacrifice i prepared as usual to the Townsgate before i call a gods name and ask for a wish to be granted.
I picked up a black stone this time wich had a Metallic shine to it this time and thought it was rather pretty.
Normally i offered something to Ryuhlik for a good harvest as a farmer and all, but not this time .
This time i wanted to thank Darkrend for his sign at my birth , because i didnt have to surround myself with idiots because of it.
We were one of the last few familys to sacrifice something.
My father but some wheat into the portal as he claimed Rhyuliks name.
For a good harvest My Step mother and her 2 daughters offerd sheeps wool to Zygidal. For good rain periods for the harvest
My little brother offered a few berris he found in the woods for Efreet.
For him to loose his shyness
As soon as i stepped towards the portal everyone become silent .... As usual all of those people are idiots ...
"I offer this Ore to Darkrend , as for my wish i wish for nothing just that things to stay as they are!"i Exclaimed in a loud enough voice that everybody could hear.
It reamained silent..... a few moments passed and suddenly the sun sank and the stars were bright and clearly visible.
The crowd laughed at my childish wish as they started looking up into the night sky.
As soon as the first few looked up an eerie silence could be felt in the crowd as they look at the stars and tried to decipher wich sign was clearly visible today and wich was not.
The only visible sign was the Skull with a crocked smile from wich you could almost feel the weird and eerie laughter in your head.
All of the participants were stunned speechless , as i looked up and saw the sign and put up my usual crocked smile wich almost looked like the exact same thing they could see at the moment they locked into the night sky.
And threw the stone i found into the portal as soon as the stone touched the blue substance a loud bang could be heard and a smell of ozone , exactly like right after a lighting bolt hit somewhere near you, could be smelled.
The blue substance turned green and on the stone ring Green scribbles could be seen.
The community of gathered people started to panic and ran everywhere without a certain goal in mind.
I couldnt do anything but laugh at this strange phenomenon, and leaned onto a nearby huge boulder wich was stuck to the ground.
After the comotion died down and almost nobody was left at the Townsgate it returned to its usual blue colour.
I started walking back home. I didnt even meet one person on my way back , i even wondered where my little brother was.
As i reached the house i wanted to open the door , but to my suprise , it was LOCKED?
I didnt even know we had a lock and of all times now it is locked after something this scale of wondrous thing happend?
I banged on the door and shouted
"Hey.... open up its me "
After a while i started banging even more fierce at the locked door and shouted again.
"Go away i always knew u were a harbinger of bad Omens ... but to this extent ...."said my step mother through closed doors.
"And where the Hell do u think im suppose to sleep, u old Hag ?"i shouted angryly at the door , behind wich my step mother stood.
"Go sleep with the fish for all i care!!!" whailed my step mother back.
"Fine u Mikuru , i hope u get eaten by some wild wolves around here!" i replied still in an angry voice.
As i was all alone i just went strooling around the village. I landed back at the townsgate lay back on one of the benches wich were placed around it and placed my hand over my eyes and started to rub the inner corner of my eyes.
"Great the first time i offer something to my birth sign and something weird happens .... this is just great ...." I just said into the empty night.
"You are Iliyan, the farmer ... right?" came a voice out of nowhere wich i never heard before.
I straightend myself back up and saw the girl who was arguing with my 2 sisters back at the meeting.
She sure has a beatifull face and those glossy shiny hair with those neatly cutted bangs to one hight on her forehead.
As well as beatifull small pink coloured lips....
What the hell am i thinking in this situation?
".... Yeah and you are?" i said after a few minutes , while i was looking at her.
"My name is Aylin , the mages apprentice ...."claimed Aylin.
"So what do u want with me Aylin mages apprentice? After all these strange occurences...."
".....You need to go to prison" Aylin told me with a rather frightend face on herself.
"Oh yeah ... sure .... okay so where is that prison to wich i have to go too?" did i sarcastically reply.
"In the Mages tower of Nordruk...."
"....You know that Nordruk is about 7 day marches by foot away from here?"did i state after a short pause.
"Yes by foot , tough not by magic " did she claim as she snipped her fingers and circle of Greyish colour appear before me.
"What the heck....." Was the only thing i could say before i found myself in something that lokked like a cell in some sort of dungeon.
"You are serious ...." did i yell out into the pitch black cell of wich i could only see a pair off metall bars right before me and a small window with bars on it.
"... Yes i was very serious ..." said a almost inaudible voice back to me wich came out of no direction almost as if it was direct in my head.
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