All stories have a hint of truth in them.
- Storyteller Loco
---
There was a little bedtime story Ren liked to hear from his late mother.
The Story of the Cursed Dove of Blessing
Contradictory right? That was what he had thought as well.
It didn't stop it from being a great story and it went a little something like... this.
In Witch Forest there was a great Witch named Hex.
With the ability to turn a city into solid gold and the ability to trap the very same city underneath a mountain so large that its inhabitants starved to death, the Witch resided in her Witch's hut.
Then there was a man.
A man so Bright yet Sad, so Angry yet Calm, so Warm yet Cold.
Those traits attracted the witch out of her cabin as she met the man who deigned to travel to her abode.
Asking why he had come so deep into the forest, the man replied.
"To take revenge on the man who had slain my mother."
"So you want me to help you?" she asked with a curious tilt to her head.
"Yes." The Man nodded causing the Witch Hex to chuckle.
"You understand that a high price shall be paid for this?"
"No price is to high to slay my mother's killer, even if he is my father." The Man said resolutely causing the witch to laugh and give him a carved dove.
"This is the Cursed Dove of Blessing" She said. "If you can survive its three misfortunes, it shall reward you with four fortunes." The Witch explained.
"I shall watch you closely." The witch said as the man left the forest to embark on his quest for vengeance.
Then the first Misfortune struck.
It was a curse and a choice.
If he was to continue with his vengeance, the curse of the heart would steal all the brightness in his heart, leaving behind nothing more than a sad melted heart.
If he refused, he would forget all about his dead mother and murderer father and the dove would fly away from him without turning back.
He chose to continue and experienced many a nightmare from that day on.
Then the second Misfortune struck
Attracted to the scent of the dove growing in power, demons appeared blocking his way, bargaining for the power of the dove in return for the removal of all his Nightmares and the return of all his dreams.
If he were to refuse their bargain, they would feed the anger in his heart with the sins of the many, showing how unjust his world was and destroying the calm that once resided within.
He refused and grew angrier at the world as the unjust roamed freely, the just locked away by their schemes.
Then the third and final Misfortune arrived.
The Warmth locked in his blood turned into an ever approaching cold dubbed by one common name.
Death.
It had come for him.
He chose to continue.
Those events were startlingly similar to what Ren was experiencing right now.
Feeling the life seep out of his fingers, Ren stared at the ceiling made of cold unfeeling stone as an anguished roar echoed throughout.
'How did things ever get to this point?'
Closing his eyes which got heavier and heavier with each passing moment, he remembered the events of the day which had been the start of all this.
The day he was enlisted into the army.
---
He was the son of a candlemaker and a tailor with a little brother and little sister.
Before Ren's mother had died from the cursed disease of Bone rot, she worked with his father to sell clothes and candles alike in their little home.
Now only candles were sold in the shop front, Ren's Father making enough money to send all three of them to a public school where they would be taught the ways of the world.
That was before candle making fell on hard times.
Or rather, it was actually after candle making fell on hard times.
As it turned out, with the advent of Science developed by one of the towers, oil lamps and lightbulbs were more popular amongst the common folk looking to light up their nights.
And outside of a few religious sorts who remained their daily customers, the five or so regulars weren't enough to feed the four people.
Especially when three of them went to a public school
So one thing led to another and Ren had to watch as his father willingly went into the Summer tower to pay off their debts only to come back bleeding light.
Sunspots they called it.
Ren only ever knew that his father had sold himself off to the tower when they came over to his house to hand over a glowing man and a bag of one Ars.
It was a lot of money, but it did little good six of ten Mars went into paying their debts, the man who brought his father here wanting five Mars to cure his dad.
Something they were unable to do unless they either sold the store, stopped going to school, ate one paltry meal a day or gave all they had for their father's sake.
Ren decided to do none of those things.
Thanks to the fact that he went to school every other day, Ren knew that the Barbarians lived in a place filled to the brim with monsters and not that much food led to them to raid the borders every so often.
He also knew that the Noble lord watching over the land didn't want his food to be stolen, leading to the creation of an army.
An army that could provide one Mars to start with, with an additional one Jupes every month.
So he joined it.
"I want to join the army."
The man sitting at the table glanced upwards with dark eyes, heavy eye bags lying underneath before picking up a strange stick that spewed black ink.
"Name?" He asked
"Ren sir" Ren replied
"Drop the sir until you're enlisted. Age?"
"14"
"Not even an adult? Okay..." The man paused for a moment before penning down the numbers Ren recognized to be 1 and 4 then continued. "What do you do Ren?"
"I'm a Candlemaker's apprentice."
"Candlemaker's apprentice..." The recruiter's pen flew across the sheet of paper before asking another question. "Any known family members?"
"Do I need to tell you that?"
"..." The man turned and stared at Ren with a look that seemed to say how stupid that question even was prompting Ren to answer that it was just his Father, Brother and Sister.
"Date of Birth?"
Ren blinked his green eyes in confusion "What is that?"
"Unknown..." The recruiter murmured under his breath before looking at Ren a few more times and scribbling something down underneath what he already wrote.
"What is your address." He finally asked, marking the end of the questions that Ren had already answered.
Nodding his head and writing something down he said "Approved, now take the bag and get out of here kid. Next!"
Flinching at the loud voice but nevertheless following what he had seen earlier, Ren obeyed his words and nodded towards a soldier guarding a pile of several coins.
That was a lot of coins.
"You've got a day to say goodbye." The Soldier said, handing over the bag of coins which he opened to reveal Silver coins. "If you don't show up to the martialing area after dawn, a bounty of one Mars will be put on your head."
He waved Ren off as he stared at the Ten Jupes within, a strange feeling welling up in his chest. It was strange to see this much money in one place when Uras were what he usually dealt with, Sats being a much rarer commodity.
But a single Mars made of ten Jupes? That was... new.
"What are you waiting for? Get out of the way!"
Flinching as he was torn from his imagination, Ren nevertheless looped the string around his neck.
Feeling the heavy weight of the Silvers the size of a small cookie press heavily against his neck, Ren finally realized what it was that he was feeling.
Relief mixed in with fear.
'I'm actually doing this.'
Tightly holding onto his chest where his beating heart was, Ren hurried back home where he slammed open the door to his glowing father and the wizard who had promised to treat him if they could pay five Mars.
A wizard who Ren knew was the cause for his Father's currently glowing figure despite what they both said.
Despite how chummy they appeared on the surface, he could tell, the way that the wizard looked at Dad wasn't one of a friend looking at a friend.
But just as swiftly as Ren had appeared, the predatory gaze in that Wizard's eyes disappeared, a strangely delighted smile appearing on his face as their eyes locked onto the pouch hung around Ren's neck.
"Is that the remaining Mars needed for the treatment Little Ren?"
"I'm not little." Ren instinctively replied, his hand holding onto the pouch.
"I see." The Summer Wizard's orange eyes turned to look at Dad "You certainly raised some lively children didn't you Martin?"
"..." Glowing brightly, Ren couldn't help but feel like Dad was glowing angrily before turning to look at Ren "Ren" He began. "Where did you get the money?"
"He got the money from signing up for the army didn't he? You did sign up for the army didn't you Ren?" The wizard's smile spread wide across their face.
The light coming from Dad's face flickered for a moment before he turned to look at the Wizard.
"...Get out of my house."
"As you wish." The Summer Wizard lifted their hand "But I'm taking my payment, we don't want your children catching sun spots as well do you?"
The only answer to his words was a glowing glare
"I take it you agree."
The Wizard's turned his dispassionate eyes stared at Ren all the while they took the bag of Jupes with a wave of his hand.
Feeling the loop around his neck burn and singe his skin slightly causing him to flinch, Dad glowed brighter for some reason.
"Get. out. now."
"I'm loath to go against the man of the house."
Bowing low, the Summer Wizard received a slammed door on their face in response as Dad turned to look at Ren who fidgeted in place.
Glow abating somewhat as Dad took in a deep breath, Dad looked back at a slightly ajar doorway, Ren hearing the sound of hurried pitter patters running away from the door.
"Ren. Why- Cough- Did you do it." He coughed into the palm of his hand, Ren catching sight of a glowing liquid slipping between his fingers
"..."
The man who had raised Ren for all fourteen years of his life sensed what Ren's answer was when he just stared at the dripping and glowing blood.
"..."
Giving a silent acknowledgement of his own, the man got up from their seat and wiped the glowing blood against a piece of fabric already colored gold with how bright it glowed.
Moving past the hanging cloth and moving to a painting hanging in the center of their home, on it, a man who looked just like Dad except for the glow sat besides a woman and a child holding two sleeping babes.
Mom and his two twin siblings.
Taking something from besides that painting of their entire family, Dad handed it to Ren.
"Take this Ren."
Revealing a wooden dove, Ren blinked with confused eyes before staring at the man who had raised him for all fourteen years of his life.
"Do you remember that story Myrta used to tell you all the time?"
Nodding slightly as the name Myrta struck open a few memories of his mother in her green eyed glory before she fell sick, Ren's father slowly pushed the wooden dove into Ren's hands.
"This is the wooden dove that your mother's mother's grandmother had given her, it's our own little family heirloom."
Hesitantly taking the wooden dove, Ren held it in his hands as his dad glowed uncomfortably in place.
"I love you?" He tried.
Ren stared at the dove in his hand before nodding his head. "I love you to."
+++
Tree