Back in school, Dean used to face a lot of bullying. He was big, tall, strong, a little too huge for the age group. He didn't mind the teasing, just made it hard to make friends.
His family was famous for raising Defined, trained in close quarters. Dean was the only male child in his generation, so he had a lot of expectations from the family.
Dean's school friend, introduced him to some thing called 'cake'. Once he took a bite, Dean asked for more. The friend was kind, everytime he brought cake, he made sure to give it to Dean. Once his family found out, they killed the friend, sent assassins after the him. Dean stayed in his house ever since, quit school. His mom, a maid, she couldn't stop the Lann head from belting Dean over and over again.
Dean developed a certain distaste in people. He completely shut himself from other people his age. Once he turned 15, he had got Defined with a very different function, the Signum.
Dean, however, has yet to master that function. Whenever he tried to use his function, nothing used to happen.
Dean opened the door for the first time in years, went straight to his father's room, and told him about this. His father, threw the desk out of his way, dragged Dean outside the house, infront of all of his sisters and elder brothers.
"Don't you fucking come back here. I thought you could save our House Name. But no, you were born with a dud. You're a pain in the ass.
All those fucking resources I spent on you, because that slut of a mother couldn't even take care of you.
You are not my son."
Dean's mother got kicked out too. She wasn't her father's wife anyways. Dean had to walk all the way from Neure to Niels with his mother, and his unborn brother.
He came across a professor at an inn, his name was Ash. Ash gave Dean and his mother all the support he could, and admitted Dean to Zahl Academy. Dean joined in the first semester, became top of his batch, was unstoppable in duels, without using his function. He found the courage to talk to others, yet they ran away.
Even in Zahl, he felt alienated. That changed ever since he saw that guy. His name was December, specially admitted by the Headmaster himself.
Dean thought he wouldn't run away. He thought he wouldn't misunderstand his demeanor. He felt disgusted he was born with all of this brawn and muscles. For once, he wanted a friend, someone to relate to.
He accidently bumped into the new kid, he felt bad, so he extended his hand and introduced himself. Shockingly, he grabbed it! He didn't run away! Dean felt so happy, that someone didn't judge him.
He later realized that December would be his new roomate. The old one changed rooms because he got scared. Dean started to worry and bite his nails, worried that his only friend would do the same.
They talked all night. Some conversations were gloomy, others were self bragging, but most of all, Dean felt the happiest he'd ever been. He was always aware of his abilities. If December became a Prime, he must've been working very hard, harder than maybe Dean himself.
Dean was strong, he never took that as a defeat, but a sort of switch. The day after Dean and Decey talked all night, Dean decided to go on an early jog. The relief was like nothing else, he felt the rush of the air blowing past him, as he accelerated on purely his physical prowess. Dust had begun to fall behind Dean's pace with each swing of his arm.
One thing his "father" failed to see is that Dean was incredibly gifted in Domain Boost, and the fact that he was genetically built better than most of the Lann's. He only felt angry because Dean's potential would've been way more if his Function was related to Multiplication or Addition. Which he knew, but it still doesn't invite kicking him and his mother out.
Decey stumbled his way to the track field after a bad sleep and sat down on the wooden bleachers. He observed Dean's jogging.
He shouted,
"GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE."
Dean stopped half way, directly opposite to Decey, and screamed.
"GOOD MORNING!"
"MIND IF I JOIN?"
"FUCK YEAH!"
The two started to simply jog together. There was no race or anything like that. Decey noticed that Dean's muscles were literally shining in the sunlight, and he could hear the sounds his muscles stretch with every stride Dean took.
And this guy is 15…?
I look like a goddamn toothpick compared to him.
Dean was a bit surprised that Decey was able to jog with him for already an hour.
"You jog often?"
"Nah not really. I recently started training weeks before joining Zahl. Before that, I used to gas out after only a minute."
"You know what's your limit now?"
"I'd like to find out myself."
For a solid 30 minutes, the two were still jogging. Decey panted and panted and eventually fell down.
"45 minutes is pretty decent, December." Dean had no sweat dripping from his toned body, whereas Decey virtually took two baths out in the scorching sun.
"Uh huh. Man I bet you could run for hours."
Dean grabbed Decey's extended hand and lifted him up.
"Days. Not hours."
"Interesting… Well I see why you wake up at 5, since the Academy starts at 8. A solid 3 hours to do whatever the hell we want."
"Actually, since you're one of the Primes, you have to go around 6. The extra 2 hours is apparently used for some intensive training according to the rumours."
Decey sighed. All he wanted was a peaceful first day. Yesterday, the classes was cut short because Lye and the other faculty had a huge meeting on revamping the "battle" aspect of teaching.
Then he realized, all the Primes would be in private training. He could get the chance to meet Heet. The single thought of her woke him up instantly.
"You good? You've been staring into the sky for a while."
Decey felt embarrassed.
"Sorry, just thinking about stuff.
I should get going then. See you in class!"
Dean decided to not pry further.
"See you soon." Dean waved back.
>>
Lye somehow just appeared infront of Decey as he got ready. Decey expected this and groaned in the fact that his expectations were usually always right.
"Good morning, Headmaster."
Lye smiled, in a devillish way.
"Guten Morgan, December. I see you're ready for the meeting."
Decey was puzzled.
"Meeting?"
"Yeah, all the Primes get to meet each other. Besides they want to see the new people who I raised for weeks and weeks!" Lye theatrically said.
Decey decided to roll with it. All he cared about is that Heet would be there.
"Isn't that just a bundle of joy packaged just for me."
"You're not alone anymore, Decey. Now you have responsibilities that I know your curious ass would love. So go on and have fun!"
Decey nodded. He was right, Decey did need to interact with other people. Then there's always *that* problem he was worried about.
Fuck it, let's just wing it Decey.
>>
The meeting room was this room filled with glass panals and streaks of gold on the white walls. There were 5 chairs around a black roundtable. In those 4 chairs were the other Primes. And Heet.
Decey's heart began to race again.
Calm down you big dummy.
That's what Heet would've told me.
Calm down.
He sat down in the empty chair next to Heet, who smiled at him.
The other 3 Primes were all people from second, third and fourth year, each of them very unique.
Heet leaned slightly towards Decey and whispered,
"Hey baby. Let's 'train' together after this"
The subtle difference in the pronunciation of 'train' gave Decey the wake up call he deserved.
"I'll think about it, Heet."
Heet slightly looked down and smiled. Decey immediately put one leg on top of his other leg.
Heet scoffed and kicked her legs in frustration on the table. Decey grinned in victory.
"Now, this table is branded. So please no kicking." Lye appeared with gusts of wind following his presence.
"Welcome everyone! You three know the drill, but these two children have no clue what's going on. So I'll give you all a rundown. We don't want another screw up like before. Don't we Kyle?"
The kid named Kyle, sitting opposite of Decey nodded slowly.
"Anyways. You five are here because I've seen all of your performances and decided that everyone here will be the ones we will train the most. We have custom training rooms for all of you, better food, the sick amulets I've given you.
Your job here is to become as strong as the faculty in one year. It seems impossible, but I trust in your abilities. Take care of the other students here, you also double as the peacemakers. Most importantly, don't get drunk by your power."
As Lye said that, he looked at Kyle.
"We all know what happened once one of the Primes went rouge."
The mood shifted to a dark feeling. Lye saw this and acted immediately.
"Let's all introduce ourselves, Yeah?"
The fourth year stood up. He looked tired if anything. His dark circles almost look like tattoos. His hair was all over the place, like semi braids. He spoke with a very raspy voice.
"My name is Ralph Crey. Fourth year."
The third year stood up. Her presence felt similar to Lye, Decey thought. She had silver hair with a cyan tint.
"Hi! I'm Quera Falks. Third year."
She sat down, looking at Decey with interest. Heet felt ticked off and checked on Decey, to see if he was looking back. He, however, was worried about something much more abysmal.
He had to stand up, after what Heet did.
The second year stood up.
Once he took off his hoodie, Decey felt something was wrong.
The second year looked exactly like someone he knew. Mali.
"I'm Andrew Williams"
Decey thought this was just a coincidence. A kid who looked exactly like one of his friends. But he wasn't a Defined. He was just like Decey.
But,
The name…
"Heet, why don't you introduce yourself?" Lye asked.
The voices slowly began to get quieter for Decey. He was in utter disbelief, disconnected from reality. He suddenly felt as if he was free falling, as if the world had opened up on him.
"December, are you okay?"
Lye noticed his pupils dialating ever so slightly.
Decey couldn't hear anyone. It was soft muffled whispers to him.
The name…
Decey didn't want to believe it. The way 'Mali' stared at him gave him the creeps. His eyes were never off him. Decey would love to write it off as him being attracted to the other side but, he knew that this was much darker than that.
"Is something the matter, Decey?" Lye was observing him the entire time. He felt sort of worried for him.
"No, Headmaster. Don't worry about it." Decey said reflexively.
Lye didn't believe him, but decided to ask about it later.
Heet stood up, very confused and equally worried.
"I'm Heet Treaf, first year, and he's December Oris, also first year. We're pleased to work with everyone here."
Lye stood up and opened the blinds.
"Now that eveyone is aquatinted, let us go to the training rooms. You'll find that all of your *special* books will be there.
Remember, do not use your position in a way that'll disgrace your title."
Once all of the Primes, including Lye dispersed, the third year, Quera, stopped Decey.
"Hey, excuse me. Can I ask you something?"
When Decey looked back at her, she felt as if he would kill her. His gaze was enough to induce such a primal fear on her. Quera never thought that white eyes of his could inflict something like this.
Heet knew something was wrong with him. She felt the need to clarify with Quera that he isn't usually that rude but, jealously began to creep in.
{Delete}
"Hey, Quera. Sorry, December is in a bad mood. Please don't think you did something wrong."
Quera turned to Heet, still petrified. She nodded and left the room.
She stared at Decey as he walked off, as if he was possessed.
Heet caught herself as she was about to collapse, panting frantically. She knew she should stop doing that, it always used to take a big toll on her body.
It's fine, Heet.
It's fine…
You've done this several times, although you never remember.
You know as well as I do,
Emotions are just a hassle.
>>
Decey was in a trance. It was the same as those two times. He could think 5 minutes worth in a second in this state. It was almost as if time stopped.
Everyone around him began to move in slow motion, as slow as tar dripping. Someone around him spilled water. Even that appeared to look like ice. He was trapped inside his body, only having he privilege to think.
That guy, and his name.
Decey didn't know why that was a problem but, deep down, he knew this was something to keep an eye on.
Mali..
>>
{Five years ago}
Mali lived in a family of 5. He had 2 brothers, both appeared to be devil incarnate, always running around the house causing some sort of irreversible damage. His mom was a teacher at the local school, while his dad was an advisor for the Axis.
The whole lot were normal people, normal but hard working. Mali's father got his job due to his supreme intellect. Ever since then, they've upgraded from living with their neighbours, to a proper house in the slums.
Mali inherited some of that intelligence and some charisma to top it off, did well in the local school, and had his own group of friends. They used to roam around, inacting scenes from what they see in their everyday life.
One day, he was strutting down the road, and noticed a kid playing with rocks in the roadside. He was curious because he looked his age.
"Oi. What are you doing?"
The kid continued to play with the rocks. Mali felt a bit ticked off. He thought maybe he didn't hear him. He approached the boy and grabbed his shoulder.
The kid, he had blue eyes with black bags under them. He looked lonely, Mali thought.
"What are you doing?" He asked again.
The boy looked almost as if he's been waiting his entire life for someone to ask him that question.
An eerie grin crept through the kid's face.
"With these rocks and pebbles, I'm trying to create a built in abacus. You see, it's such a cooooooool way to count numbers. It seems weird at first but, wow. It works like a charm! So bascially, the-"
Mali felt like his brain was overloading and stopped the kid.
"Kid, you lost me at 'with'.
Isn't abacus the type of thing Defined people learn?"
"Yeah but, everything's in the books. I read them, so I got it."
Mali narrowed his eyebrows.
"You got it, huh…?"
Mali sat beside the boy, and extended his hand.
"I'm Mali. You seem like a fun dude. What's your name?"
The boy lifted his head up with ecstatic eyes.
"My name is Decey."
Mali stood up, dragging Decey up with him too.
"Come on then Decey, let's rediscover things together!"