Eldric laughed. "I'm sure she will."
Draven picked the sword up from the ground and got into a stance. He raised the oversized blade high above his head, then followed with a messy strike toward the earth.
Eldric didn't have much experience with swords, but even an absolute novice like him could see that Draven simply... sucked.
He let out a chuckle. "What are you doing, brother?"
Draven looked at him for a moment before focusing on his sword again. "Training..." He paused, reluctant to continue. "Training to be a knight."
Eldric smiled. He knew of his brother's aspirations, though he'd always taken them as the lofty dreams of a child. "Isn't that sword a little too big?"
Draven took another clumsy swing at the air. "It's... not."
Eldric sat down on a piece of worn oak beside his older brother. "Where'd you get it, anyway? I thought you refused to take a salary."
Draven struggled to raise his blade before taking another swing. "Yes, I did..."
The weapon hit the ground and didn't rise again. "Miss Hargette got it for me. As a present."
Eldric raised an eyebrow. 'That's strange... she and Aurel have always been against that dream he keeps talking about.'
Draven dropped to the ground, his chest rising and falling frantically.
Eldric got up and picked up the fallen sword. He weighed it in his hands for a moment. 'Heavy...'
It was impressive that Draven could lift it at all. "I doubt Miss Hargette would've gotten you something this oversized."
Draven looked up tiredly. "She got me a smaller one too..." He paused, lost in thought. "But that one's for wimps."
Eldric's mouth opened slightly. "Wimps?"
Draven nodded. "Real knights use these kinds of weapons. Not wimpy daggers."
He stood and politely asked for his sword back.
Eldric smiled. "Sure thing."
Draven got into his stance once more. "Knights fight honest and true. Their blades never falter."
His azure eyes lit up with determination. "They face evil with no fear... and protect those beneath them without expectance of reward."
His blade rose above his head. "Not like the nobles who use us as expendable soldiers. Not like the morons who raise their weapons for them."
He gripped the hilt tighter. "And not like the Sigiled who've left us far behind."
The blade came crashing down. The air beneath it seemed to part.
The sword stopped just above the soil. Eldric couldn't help but stare—this cut felt... different. Better.
Draven looked at his brother with a confident smile. "I'll be a true knight. One who doesn't abandon anyone. Who saves everyone. Who isn't held back by anything."
A smirk crept onto Eldric's face. "I think true knights are smart enough to know their limits."
He patted Draven on the shoulder. "Why run when you can barely stand?"
Draven scratched the back of his head. "What?"
Eldric chuckled. "Use the wimpy sword. You'll hurt yourself otherwise." He met his brother's eyes. "You won't be saving anyone if you're injured, right?"
Draven looked puzzled. "What do—"
Before he could finish, a loud bang came from the inn. Both boys turned toward the sound, and Eldric's face went pale.
The door had swung open, revealing a slender woman with pale skin and fair caramel hair. She wore a tasteful white dress beneath a dark coat.
Her expression was frantic, until her eyes landed on Eldric.
In an instant, that sympathy-inducing look twisted into one of unbridled anger.
"Where have you been?" She didn't shout, she didn't need to. Her icy tone could freeze even a volcano.
She stepped closer. "Do you want to murder me? Is that it?"
Eldric stiffened. He felt like a small child under his mother's wrath.
"Six years old!"
Eldric flinched. "Wha—?"
"You're barely six years old! What makes you think you can go gallivanting around until this hour?!"
He felt smaller with every word. 'I'm a thirty-one-year-old man! I'll gallivant wherever I damn well please, for however long I please!'
Unfortunately, those words brought him little comfort. A mother was a mother, after all. All he could muster was a meek apology.
"I'm sorr—"
"Where were you?!" she cut him off again.
'Okay, you're just doing this on purpose now.'
Aurel tapped her foot sharply against the ground, making Eldric jump. "A-Athenaeum! I went there, read for a while, then came straight home!"
He paused, giving her a pleading look. "I swear..."
She held his gaze for a long moment before sighing, her expression softening.
She knelt and hugged him tightly. "Don't ever scare me like that again... I thought they'd taken you."
Eldric could hear a small sob forming in her throat. He patted her back. "I'm sorry."
He hesitated. "...I'm okay."
After a moment, she finally released him. Her eyes bore faint red streaks, just like his, making it hard to tell if she'd been crying.
Suddenly, she turned toward the door. "Draven."
The dark-haired boy froze. During their talk, he'd managed to sneak over to the door.
"If I see you out here this late again, I'm taking away your toys."
Draven protested immediately. "They're not toys! They're swords! Kightly weapons!"
Aurel looked at him blankly. "Whatever they are, they're getting taken away."
Draven pouted. "A knight never parts with his blade..."
"What was that?"
He jumped. "Nothing!"
Aurel headed back inside. "Come on then, boys. Supper's getting cold."
Eldric smiled and nodded. "Coming."
---
Eldric went to sleep after eating a delicious mushroom stew. The food in this world tasted far more potent and intense than anything from Earth. He didn't know if it was the spices or his own taste buds—and quite frankly, he didn't care.
"Good food is good food," he'd always say.
After licking his plate clean, he headed to bed, the same one he shared with his sister, who was currently sprawled across the entire mattress, snoring like a gorilla.
Draven entered the room shortly after and let out a small laugh at the sight of Elaine. "Sweet dreams," he said.
Eldric rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."
With a sigh, he somehow squeezed himself onto the bed and closed his eyes to get some shut-eye.
Morning came faster than Eldric would've liked. The noise of the slums rose with the sun, a constant racket that made sleeping through it nearly impossible.
And so, awake he was.
Throughout the day, Eldric didn't do much. He sat cross-legged on his bed, hands resting on his thighs. To anyone watching, it looked like the small boy was meditating.
In truth, what he was doing was far more taxing. Outside of reading and study, which he was thoroughly burnt out on, this was the only activity that occupied his mind enough to stop him from… reminiscing.
Ether roamed freely throughout the body, seemingly embedded within a Sigiled's very bloodstream. But it could also be called upon to fuel action. Running, striking, even speaking. All could be amplified by ether.
And Ether wasn't unique to the Sigiled. Every living being carried it within their veins. The difference was that Sigiled could command theirs—control it, shape it, strengthen it.
This was done by manually guiding Ether through one's own blood. The process was grueling and painful. It involved purging impurities, as Rykard once told him.
Eldric didn't mind the pain. The searing, blinding ache was perfect for someone trying to escape his own thoughts.
He had been in the same position for about an hour before being interrupted. Of course, the one to disturb him was none other than his twin sister.
"Hey, Elly…"
Eldric opened one eye. "Yes?"
Elaine playfully swung her legs up and down. "Let's do something fun!"
He closed his eye again. "This is fun."
A lie, but better than dealing with a group of six-year-olds.
Elaine tilted her head. "It doesn't look like fun. You're just sitting there doing nothing!"
He sighed. "Doing nothing is fun."
She stared at him in silence for a few moments before her face suddenly lit up, you could almost see the lightbulb above her head. "I know!"
Eldric groaned. "What now?"
Her smile twisted into something devilish—or at least, that's how it seemed to him. To anyone else, it was the harmless grin of a little girl.
"If you don't get up and do something with me right now, I'll scream until I pass out!"
Eldric gave her a flat look. "…Fine."
'Why can't she be more like her big brother…'
Elaine beamed. "Yay!"
She hopped off the bed. "I'll go potty first! I've been holding it all this time."
And with that, she darted out of the room, leaving her twin brother speechless. "Did not need to hear that last part…"
If the past few years had taught him anything, it was that Eldric despised spending long periods around children.
Draven was tolerable, though stubborn at times. But the rest, including but not limited to his sister—were insufferable. It didn't matter their age or upbringing. To him, all kids were annoying, loud, and utterly devoid of respect for their elders.
"How the hell was I supposed to be a dad?"
'A dad…' Eldric slapped both hands over his face and decided to summon his Grimoire to pass the time.
In an instant, the elusive book materialized in his hands. He opened it, scanning the familiar text until something caught his eye.
"This… wasn't here before, was it?"
At the bottom of the page, beneath the word "Insignia", a new entry had appeared.
{{ Name: Ethan Hale / Eldric [Redacted]
Age: 5 years, 10 months, 3 days, 14 hours
Race: Human
Stigma: [Voidborne]
Stigmata: [Nihilic Veil]
Class: Acolyte
Insignias: [Grimoire of Void] }}
"Grimoire of Void?" Eldric murmured,
staring at the new entry. "Wait a minute… what even is an Insignia?"
Of course, no one answered him. He sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to decipher any meaning behind the words.
"It's that 'void' word again…"
An idea popped into his head. He held the book firmly in his hands, placing his index finger on the new entry.
Slowly, he let his Ether flow out of his body and into the jittering words. 'Here goes nothing.'
He wasn't sure if it would do anything — but he might as well try. What was the worst that could happen?
Luckily for him, his blind strike hit true. In response to his Ether, the pages of the book began to turn on their own — faster and faster.
Ten, a hundred, a thousand — it seemed the Grimoire wasn't confined by the boundaries of space. Pages kept spawning one after another, seemingly without end.
Finally, the book grew still. It rested on a page bearing the same eerie writing as the first.
"What the…" Eldric muttered.
The page's contents read:
{{ [Insignias] :
[Grimoire of Void:
A relic that appears to those marked by the Sigil. Its pages shift with unseen will, revealing what only the embroidered is meant to know.
Some say the Grimoire is born from the soul itself; others claim it is forged by beings who dwell beyond the veil.
Whether gift or curse, no two Grimoires are alike. Each speaks in silence, its secrets reserved for the one it calls master...] }}