Riven and Talen had spent years experiencing the horrors of childhood. While Riven and Talen were physically five, Johnny and Anthony were both mentally in their twenties.
The two sat under the shade of a tree as the cool grasses dew dampened their clothes and their hair danced in the soft spring breeze.
Johnny was focusing on his hands, the space between them empty, though try as he might Johnny had no clue how to bring forth the power of magic. A foreign property, by design it was out of Johnny and Anthonys reach in their previous lives. However, Johnny still held hope that it was within their grasps in this life.
There was no word for magic that they knew of, no children's books mentioned magic, only heros of old and the power of the first queen.
Johnny and Anthony had learned not long after establishing themselves within this world that it was a matriarchy of sorts. The people revered this first queen and built their entire social construct on their belief in this one person.
"So if I ever get married does that mean that all I'll need to do is cook, clean and occasionally get drunk cause my wife is expected to bring money in?" Anthony said.
"Dude our dad has a job, what makes you think you're gonna escape work."
"Well if you can ever figure out how the hell to use magic then maybe I won't have to work and a powerful and wealthy noblewoman will marry me and just use me for my exceptional magical genes."
"We're making assumptions Anthony, we were told we were blessed with the energy of the world, not that it was specifically magic. It could be some belief that if this rock glows then you will remain fertile or something. You gotta remember this is basically a primitive world compared to what we've come from."
"You're a fucking idiot."
"Y'know it's hard to concentrate when you keep talking to me." Johnny said as he continued to stare at the empty space between his hands.
He struggled, reaching within himself, trying to pull an energy he did not feel out through his hands. He concentrated and searched and still nothing was there. Finally he breathed and collapsed to the ground. Johnny hadn't even noticed that he was holding his breath.
"Still no luck huh" Anthony said, standing over him.
"Fuck this is frustrating! How the Hell does anybody figure this shit out it's like watching a walkthrough of Black Souls. Full of convoluted and elaborate bullshit!"
"Hey Black Souls was not that complicated!" Anthony argued
"One of the quests has you going through multiple zones and if you fail one of the steps the whole questline collapses! And after all that bullshit you get a ring that boosts elemental resistance!" Johnny threw his hands up in frustration.
"And a shield." Anthony added.
"Well Whoop-de-fucking-doo, I didn't even use shields so It was useless for me!"
"I told you if you used a shield it would have been better."
"Kill yourself Anthony"
Johnny sighed as he looked up at the bright blue sky, the clouds moving at a snails pace. The grass began to make his back itch and the dew felt uncomfortable soaking through his thin tunic shirt.
"I'm open to suggestions on how to use magic man, if we want to really want to get ahead in this world we need to be geniuses among prodigy's."
Anthony thought for a moment.
"We could try drowning ourselves?"
"I said kill yourself not us."
"No think about it man, a near death experience could help us unleash our hidden power."
Johnny sat up, staring at Anthony for a moment in stunned silence.
"This is a fucking terrible idea..."
The two boys emerged from the river almost at the same time gasping for air.
"Huff...Huff...Fuuuuck." Johnny said
"We...huff...cant do it at the same time...huff...one of us needs to hold the other down."
After a few minutes the Anthony had was standing behind Johnny as he explained how to not kill him.
"Okay look ten minutes is the average time before a human becomes brain dead maybe less for our age so 2 minutes im gonna push all the water out of my lungs and force myself to start to pass out, I'm going to struggle make sure I don't come up before the two minute mark and if im passed out when you bring me up then you have to give me CPR."
"So you gonna a come over here and kiss me on my hot mouth, I am feeling romantical."
"Shut the fuck up Anthony this is serious I don't think im gonna get reincarnated twice so make sure you're prepared."
"Okay, but if I fuck up what do i tell Zevran and Serenya?"
"Tell em I got mauled by a bear, no one can find out i went out like a bitch."
The boys stood in water up to their waist, when Johnny nodded to Anthony he shoved his head under water and held him down with two hands.
As much as he wanted to hold his breath in he forced the air out of his lungs. Though he didn't mean to he tucked water into his lungs sooner than he meant and panicked, he thrashed and squirmed but Anthony held him tight.
"He's gonna fucking kill me!" Johnny thought
His lungs burned his eyes blurred, his limbs ached, Johnny was drowning. His heart raced his head felt light and soon his struggles slowed. The water began to become peaceful and for a moment the feeling of nothingness engulfed him.
Johnny stared into the black, his entire being numb and cold, but he could still hear it, his heart drumming in his ear. It was deafening, he tried to move his body but nothing happened he screamed at his limbs to do anything, but his voice failed him and his heart began to slow.
Nothingness....
Emptyness....
Pain....
Light?....
Johnny forced his eyes to focus, the light before him wasn't at the end of a tunnel like he expected, it emminated from him, his limbs shone a bright blue how. It was amazing, it was beautiful, but it was fading, Johnny knew what this meant. His life was fading and he couldn't do anything except hope Anthony didn't fuck up.
The light was almost gone now and the cold could be felt all the way to Johnnys bones, he would shiver if his muscles would listen to him.
"Breathe!"
Johnny tried looking around convinced the voice came from someone else, but it was him, it was his own voice screaming, it was his body refusing to die.
Johnny summoned all his strength but couldnt find the energy to use it, it was like he forgot how to use his own lungs. He tried and tried and tried but even now his strength was draining. Panic began to set in again, he tried but he still couldn't move, finally all his strength was gone.
Then, Johnny felt a pain in his chest, a deep pain that forced its way through the bone chilling cold, he felt it again and again and once more even harder, it felt like his ribs had broken. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his face and his eyes burst open.
The moment light reached his eyes he turned to the side and expelled the water from his lungs, coughing and sucking in air greedily.
"OH THANK FUCK!"
Johnny still coughing and weak looked to his brother, even though Johnny was the one that drowned Anthony was breathing just as hard as him."
"How...Cough...long?"
"I couldnt get you to fucking wake up man I spent like five minutes on you."
Johnny laid on the rough river bank and Anthony sat nearby, his coughing had ceased, but his lungs, throat and sinus still burned.
"So it worked then?" Anthony said
Johnny turned to look at Anthony
"I don't think so I couldnt feel much of anything on deaths door."
"Then what was that glow?"
Johnny sat up and felt an ache in his chest.
"Ah, fuck! What are you talking about?"
"Bro you were fucking glowing man. You looked like that one transcendent meme."
"Are you serious!?"
Anthony simply nodded his head.
Johnny looked at his hands and put them close together. He focused searching for anything he hadn't felt before, closing his eyes he remembered the numbing feeling of death and the darkness, imagining his body glowing like it had before. He focused for what felt like forever and though he couldnt feel any major difference in his body he did feel a slight warmth, one that could be felt through his still numb hands.
Johnny opened his eyes and the space between them was still empty, however his hands did have that faint familiar blue glow.
After his concentration broke the glow disappeared and he felt weak again. He laid back down, the cold returning to his hands and an ache settling in his chest and his face.
"Did you fucking slap me to wake me up?"
"Yeah I also gave you the Captain Price treatment and slamed my fist on your chest."
"You're a dick man, I think you bruised my ribs you asshole."
"I was panicking man, you hadn't woken up and the last thing I wanted was a special needs brother with a speech impediment cause of brain damage that "I" caused."
Johnny stared at Anthony in silence for a moment.
"Hurry up and get in the water so I can drown your ass."
Johnny and Anthony were now back in the water except this time the roles were reversed.
"Okay just give me a sec to—"
Before Anthony could say anything else Johnny had kicked his brothers feet out from under him and forced his head under the water. Anthony thrashed and bubbles eventually stopped rising. Soon enough Anthony also stopped struggling and his movements stopped.
***
An hour later the boys arrived at home soaked and bruised, their gamble worked despite the idiotic and questioning logic behind it. A small glimmer of satisfaction swirled inside of Riven, his brother while irritated with him was still overjoyed with the next step in their path to magic.
"What in the name of the Queen have you boys been doing!"
Nora rushed over to the boys, who like idiots didn't think to take off their clothes before their attempted suicide pact.
"We were playing near the river and we fell in." Said Talen
"Look at you two, You're cold as the dead. Go change before you get sick i'll make something to warm your souls."
Talen and Riven proceeded to their shared room and began to swap out the heavy soaked linen with warm dry clothes. They hung their clothes to dry and waited in their room for Nora to call them.
"So what's our next step?" Said Anthony.
Johnny stopped for a moment and looked blankly on in silence, thinking.
"If this were a game we would start thinking about our builds and what we wanted to run with. There's no walkthrough for this though so my best guess would be to experiment and see what we can do with a bit of trial and error."
"Okay, so what are the chances I become more broken than you." Anthony said smacking Johnny on the back.
"Not good if I have anything to say about it fucker, I got all the time in the world and I don't need caffeine to function properly like your addicted ass."
"I actually haven't had any cravings for caffeine since we got here. I know the feeling and I know the boost it gives me but my body doesnt crave it like before."
"Yeah I haven't been craving nicotine like before either." Johnny said.
"Did...did we lose our addictions?" Anthony said.
"What do you know Anthony, death gave us free rehab."