What Lies Between... Family and Foe

Whát Líés Bétwéén…

Family and Foe
Chapter 1: Life & Death

Arvandor is a land of mixed culture. Those advancing technology to new levels, those focusing on olden times values, and everything in between, coexisted. In the eastern reaches of Arvandor, outside the main city of the empire, there lived a group of people who were caught somewhere in the middle. They eagerly grasped for advances in technology that aided the lives of people in health and comfort, but when it came to other things, they still clung to the ways of older times. Outside of the jurisdiction of the empire, however, this land was also ripe with crime, as various different groups warred for control of the land, and forged to carve out a life, even under the oppressive heel of the empire.

In a hospital in the eastern regions of Arvandor, like so many others, a child was born. Jillian Cavanagh was married to Liam Blackwood, and she was in labor, giving birth to her fifth and last child. There were complications. What those complications were, I do not know, for you see, I was that child. I remember a lot of chatter around me on that day, however. A lot of worry of course, for there was fear both for her and for me. Following events considered, however, I place more faith in the fact that those fears were more for her than for me. One thing I can be sure of now is that she cared that I would make it.

In that hospital, a life was brought into the world, but that life would not be beautiful. That life would not be amazing. It was hell brought to life.

The Cavanagh family was the head of a group called the Serpent Syndicate, one of the many criminal organizations that plagued the streets of Kadmos, the city to the east of Arvandor proper. The Blackwood family was the head of a group called the Draconic Cartel. To my understanding, these two groups were kings of the criminal world in Kadmos, and much blood had been shed as they warred for control of the whole region. Somehow, sometime long before my birth, the two families sought to stop the bloodshed. They sought to come to an agreement on how the criminal world in Kadmos should be run, and organized an arranged marriage to settle some manner of peace between the two families. If the stories I have been told are to be believed then my father and mother actually loved each other. I do not know if I believe it.

My mother died that day. I was born into the world mere moments before she left it. I have never heard the end of it. I do not know if my mother truly cared for a man like him, but my father clearly felt some form of love for her, though I would classify it closer to obsession. He blamed me for her death. He had it fixed in his mind that I was the reason she died. She had four other kids before me with no complications, but she died when I was born. It made me angry. Even before I could speak, I felt contempt for my father. Before I even knew what contempt was, it burned within me.

I had three older brothers, and one older sister. Mathias was the eldest. When I was born, he was twelve years old. He was the budding impression of our father, a perfect replica of father when he was twelve. Appearance was not enough for Mathias, as every day of life, he attempted to replicate every aspect of father’s personality and in short simply be like father. Mathias was loved and treated well. Lance was the second son, and was nine years old when I was born. While he differed from father and Mathias in appearance, he too strove to emulate father. He never got as close as Mathias did, but he was still commended, praised, and loved. Harlan was the middle child, and was seven years old when I was born. He did not strive to be exactly like father, but he did anything father asked of him, and put forth every effort to please father. He too was treated well and was loved. Raina was six, and Raina was quiet. Raina was not loved. Both of our families were known for the unique skills that earned them their positions at the top of the criminal hierarchy. Raina could not control her skills well. Raina also was the only one to show me any care. When father and our brothers refused to be kind to me, she was the only one that held me. She took up the role of mother for me as a six year old girl. She held me in her small arms, fed me from a bottle, and did what she could to shelter me. This earned her rebuke anew, which only served to make me angrier. Eventually, when I learned to speak, I voiced the anger that had been stored up within me, which only earned me rebuke.

Criminals do not offer their rebuke verbally. The basement of our home was not a place anyone would willingly wish to see. It was a stone wall chamber, with chains dangling from the ceiling, shackles attached to the walls, and other implements of torture strewn about. It was not a basement, it was a dungeon. I had seen it many times in my early years.

Raina was always trying to better control her magic, she was naïve and seeking for a way to stop the pain. She felt that if she could master it, she could stop the pain. Mathias, Lance, and Harlan though, were gifted. They developed their skills early, and father thought that as children of the same pairing, that Raina should equally develop early, and be on the same level her brothers were when they were her age. She was not, but she still tried, harder and harder, just to please father, and stop the pain. It only managed to earn her more pain, as Father and our brothers were given more reason to despise her.

“You must get your skills from your mother’s family. She was the only gifted one among them,” father said. “Or I should say, your lack of skills.”

To this, Mathias, Lance, and Harlan laughed along with father’s jest, of course to show they agreed with his wise little poke of humor. Of course, the anger built.

“She’s still just a little girl!” I screamed. “You’ll only cause her pain by expecting so much from her!”

“Silence, killer!” Mathias chimed in before father could retort, pulling his arm back to swing and lash a whip across my back.

I must have picked up something from her in time. I too wished simply to make the pain stop. In time, I learned that speaking my mind to them was of no use. I could never advance quickly enough to do anything. All I could do was focus on self preservation, despite how much I wished to help Raina. I stopped speaking out, I bottled up my anger. I kept it sealed away no matter what happened, even when that whip was turned on Raina. And it would not be the last time.

I am not a very strong person. I tried to keep the anger bottled within, and do nothing, but I could not keep such up forever. When I was eight years old, I seemed to be in the house alone, and I went wandering, looking for Raina. I thought that it was some rare silence, and with her was where I wanted to be, in that momentary time of silence. In the ‘basement’ is where I found her. She was laying on her back, father standing in front of her, Harlan and Lance on either side. I could not see Mathias, at first. Mathias was on his knees between the others, over her. She was bloody from the lash of the whip, but the most important fact in that moment, was the recognition that Mathias had been raping her. All restraint was thrown away, as I ran in, and pushed Mathias away, and stood over Raina. I could hear her pleading with me not to interfere, but my anger was free and loose, and it seemed to deafen me to all else. The whip struck me in that moment, from the side, Mathias nor father had it, but Lance did. It struck me so hard, I actually lost my footing, and spun about as I fell. I remember falling face first into Raina’s bare, early blossomed, breasts. I saw a bright light reflected in a dome of energy that surrounded her and me. A bright red and orange light, that even reflected off the walls, but then I passed out. After that, I remember nothing. However, years after that night, I had been told what happened.

My father, Mathias, Lance, and Harlan perished that night. I did not pass out, but instead, I had developed what is called a Multiple Personality Disorder. My anger became manifest in a separate personality that took over my body, shutting the fearful part of me away. The anger in me tapped my dormant magical skill and called up flames. My father and brothers burnt to ash in that dungeon, no sign of them remaining afterwards. Even the stone walls were charred black before Raina could soothe my anger away, and bring me back to myself. In that moment, then, I was unconscious, and would not awake till the next morning, with Raina still holding me.

And so, that was how life in Kadmos began. Raina and I were to live our lives with only each other. We could not afford to tell anyone what happened. We would become objects sought after by both sides of our family. We had to go into hiding. She tried to protect me, raise me, and once more act like a mother to me. She would even try to shield me from the danger of myself. But how could she shield me from a part of me I could not even control?

Chapter 2: Love & Hate

Life was difficult. We did not stay in the home that belonged to father. We abandoned it, and went to the streets. Raina did what she could to take care of me, and though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, she became quite the apt pickpocket in the process. At the same time, unbeknownst to me, she developed skill in her own magical skills quite quickly. Perhaps it was the deplorable living conditions that hindered her. Such is an ever spinning circle of logic, if I ever heard one. I would study with her, and tap into magic more myself. She studied and became adept at using Aeromancy, whereas, I studied and became adept with Electromancy. I didn’t notice it at the time, because I still did not know the dynamics of that night back home, but it is an interesting fact that I had skill in such form of magic, when my angered half tapped instead into Pyromancy. Such was only the beginning, but I shall speak of that later.

We lived off the streets, and even ventured into the wilderness outside the city of Kadmos. Eventually, I took up similar tactics as Raina in order to thieve our way to a living. Of course, this would not go without notice. Our blood families may have been the heads of the criminal world in Kadmos, but they were not the only groups at it. And we would stir up attention from many groups. We could not afford to reveal who we really were, lest word of such reach back to either side of our family. I never knew mother, and Raina only knew her for a short time. There was no clear way to know how either side of the family would respond to us. We had to take on new names. Formerly Dorian, she would give me the name Jett Kuroi, which means Jett Black, in response to the stark and deep color of my hair. And even though she too had hair just as dark, I gave her the name Reiko, which means Beautiful. Many have told me it was quite sympathetic and endearing, given her past. I never thought of it that way. She simply is.

The weaker families of the criminal world we could deal with. We were after all, descendants of the strongest two. I should not feel pride in that, and yet, I do. Our plans to remain obscure and unknown were not successful. While we kept our true identities unknown, we simply made new names for ourselves. Soon, Jett and Reiko Kuroi were well known names in the streets of Kadmos, and despite our intents, we would get the attention of both father’s family and mother’s family.

It was not till I was twelve years old, and my sister eighteen, that she would tell me about the events of that night in the dungeon, and what happened with father and our brothers. I began to fear being near her. It was not anything against her, but instead my desire to protect her that took over. I did not wish to be near her, in fear that I would once more lose control of myself. Anger being my trigger was not known to her, or to me, at that time, and so I was not sure what caused the sudden change in me, and I did not wish to kill my own sister. As if a trick of fate or kharma, it was in that same year that mother’s family found us. We were in one of the many forests further east, when they came out of the trees.

“So, you are the Kurois?” came a deep voice. “Just children? How humiliating it is, that children had escaped us for so long.”

“Who are you!?” Raina demanded, as she put herself in front of me, despite my own attempts to guard her with my own body.

“I am…” His pause was confusing at first, but it would not take long for him to explain himself. The reason was unsettling. “You both have her eyes…” he said softly. I growled in anger, and finally got myself in front of Raina. “Yes, and her spirit,” he said, as he looked at me specifically.

“What are you dulling on about!?” I demanded.

“You are my sister’s children,” he said bluntly, with a more hostile look on his face now.

I and my sister looked at each other carefully for a moment, and then turned back to this man, questioning him with the look on our faces. His hostile look shifted then, to one of amusement, letting out a short chuckle as he shook his head.

“Her eyes and spirit, but there is that dimwitted intelligence of that foolish Blackwood son.”

There, recognition dawned on us, and I pushed Raina back some, hoping to cause some sort of distraction, to get her away. He noticed this, and followed our movement. “No, no. You shall be coming with me. Father and Mother shall be deciding what to do with you.” He came at us, quickly, but we had made ourselves adept to the streets, and had spent much time in the forests. We had learned much about close quarters combat and escape. I pushed Raina out of the way, and ducked under a fist that only barely whisked above my head. In that moment, I was grateful for being short, and at the same time, cursed it, because it was still all too upsetting. Of course, my overactive mind was a curse to me, for it was in that moment that the man managed to knee me in the gut, toppling me over to the grass.

“Honestly, boy… you may be slippery children, but you are still children. Do not resist, it will hurt less.”

Clearly, he was an ignorant fool. At the mere mention of pain, father came back to my mind; Mathias, Harlan, and Lance as well. The crack of the whip, the sound of rustling chains, the sound of my sister’s pained gasps and moans. This time, I did not black out. This time, I remember with full clarity what happened next.

My head jerked back to the man, as he stood over me, reaching down to grasp at me. I felt fury and heat within me, and from the reflection of something attached to his collar, I saw a red glow in my eyes. It frightened me, but I was no longer in control of my own body, but along for the ride, as my body shot up. A fist blazing with fire jabbed into the man’s gut, charring away the material of his shirt, leaving a gaping hole over his stomach. He did not stagger, or get slightly knocked back. Instead, his body was actually lifted into the air, completely off the ground, and sent hurtling away, till he collided with a tree. I distinctly heard the trunk of the tree crack.

“Jett!” came the shout. It was my sister, behind me. But I could not turn to look at her, to see what was up. Was she in trouble? Did she need me? I had no idea, and my damned body would not obey me. Eventually, however, the other within my mind would slowly turn to face her, only to be greeted with a gust of wind. My body was knocked on its back, the wind knocked from its lungs, and yet I felt no pain from it. I felt the other part of me lose consciousness, and I soon followed. Before I fully passed out, I remember being able to tell my body to smile.

When I awoke, I recognized that Raina had managed to get me out of the forest, and dragged me back to a small abandoned apartment in an alley in Kadmos that we had been using as our new home. I was laying in bed, and I couldn’t move. I heard wind, and felt as if I were laying on a very soft pillow the size of my body. I could turn my head at least, and when I did, I found that Raina was with me, and that the pillow I thought I was laying on was actually her. Once more, I woke to find my head resting on her chest. My arms and legs were bound by magical bonds of wind forged by Raina herself. Such made me frown, despite the comfort of the rest of my situation. She saw I was awake, and spoke one single word.

“Jett?” she questioned. I nodded softly, which brought a smile to her face, which made me in turn happier. The wind bonds faded, and I could move again. I curled about, and embraced her.

This was only the beginning of our encounters with mother’s family. We eventually made a trip back to the old home, and searched the place. Apparently no one had even gone in since we departed. We found a lot of books that belonged to father. Many were learning texts for practicing magical skills, but others were from mother’s side of the family, and we got to see a bunch of things mentioning her family. The man who claimed to be her brother, if he indeed was, was named Logan. It would not be the last time we saw him.

Chapter 3: Happiness & Despair

Oddly, things were quiet after that day. We did not hear back from Logan, did not have the rest of mother’s family chasing after us, and everything otherwise seemed quiet and peaceful. That should have been the first clue that we were in deep trouble. Father’s family never seemed to find out about us, much less start looking for us. He was gone, and dead. Did they not care? That should have been the second clue…

I was fifteen years old, and Raina was twenty-one. We were often off on our own endeavors, spreading out the work between us to handle on our own, because theoretically, we could do it alone now. Got more done, got more money, a little more buffer in life. I returned home one day to find that Raina was not waiting. All things considered, there was no reason to be concerned, and I wasn’t. She could handle herself, and was a strong girl, despite her earlier mastery of skill. However, she was often home before me. Being the model replacement mother for me, she would even have dinner waiting for me. Now, I could make dinner myself, I was a grown boy, and so I did. The hours ticked away, and there was still no sign of her. I waited up, as long as I could. I was worried, but no matter what manner of skill I had, there was no way I was heading back out in the thick of night.

Morning came, and there was still no sign of her. I gathered some things, and went out to where she had her job the previous day. Nothing could prepare me for what I would discover. Raina was fourteen, and I was eight that night in the basement. Between the blaze of fire, the dome of wind to buffer the fire away from us, and the fear that was within her, it should have been obvious that perhaps she hadn’t seen all that occurred. Well, there was no need to wonder anymore, as in that small little marketplace, I saw father standing leisurely, leaning against a mail post.

“My, how you have grown, killer.”

Amazing how one word can stir the deepest of hatreds, the most intense of anger, and the purest of flames within, no? And amazing how once that anger brews, all rational thought, all logical thinking, goes right out the window.

“What have you done with her?” I asked.

“Do not ramble on, boy. Please, let us stay on topic.”

“What have you done with her?” I repeated. I’d like to think I was intimidating. I was fifteen though. I had all the spunk of someone twice my age, but my body had ceased to grow. I was five foot, seven inches, thin and scrawny, with no muscle mass. I probably looked humorous.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such lack of manners, but what can one expect, when their mother is gone, and must depend on a second rate substitute.”

I’d like to think I had exceptional control by this point in my life. The mere fact that I still had any control is noteworthy in my opinion. However, while still in control, I did not lose any of that spunk, and in fact, I had launched myself at my father. The mail post was splintered, wood and stone falling to the ground, paper blowing away into the wind, and screams ushering upon the air, as now … we had the attention of others.

“Killer, you really should learn to control yourself.”

“Don’t you dare lecture me, you son of a bitch!” I was a foul mouthed kid; if that bothers you, well… tough. I launched myself at him again, because I didn’t learn quickly, it seems. This time there was not another mail post to destroy, but a section of the ground began to emit smoke, as I pulled my hand from a small hole I had supposedly created.

“You didn’t succeed the first time, and you haven’t had a proper teacher to show you how to fix your mistakes. Stop making a fool of yourself.”

“If I am a fool, I get it from you, father.” I spat out that last word.

Apparently, people knew who he was. And the fact that I so openly stated my relation to him made people give a wider berth to our actions. I noticed this right away, and looked around. After a moment, I noticed Mathias, Lance, and Harlan, all still alive as well, in the crowd, and Raina was with them, held firmly with her arms behind her back. Father saw that I noticed this, and grinned.

“We are going to make you pay for your rebellion, son. It was not very nice of you, tossing those flames at us.”

It should be mentioned, that night in the dungeon, I heard a voice. There was a voice of some recognition that spoke before I seemingly blacked out. Of course, I mentioned I had a multiple personality, and so the voice I heard was that other personality. It was all still confusing to me, even at age fifteen. So, when I heard the voice again, it startled me. Father thought that fear had finally dawned on me, and he laughed.

“You are a fool, and so is he,” the voice said.

“I love that look, boy. Yes, fear me as you should. Fear me as you did when you were too young and stupid to do anything else.”

“He is weak, and so are you,” the voice continued.

My look of fear once more turned to frustration and a tinge of anger once more. Father kept laughing.

“Oh yes, I can see your feeble mind warring with itself. Can I stop him? Can I protect my sister?”

“He thinks he is top dog. He spoke ill about her family, that she was the only gifted one. You read the same books. She was the least gifted of the family, and she was no weakling.”

Mother’s skill was credited in the books. She was not as advanced as the others of her family, but she easily exceeded Father’s skill. He spoke ill of her family, when he was the weak one.

“Ah, so the clan of fools assemble…” came another recognizable voice. It was Logan, and he stepped into the streets with two others. “I see you found the children, as well.”

“Ah Logan, I wasn’t expecting a family reunion.”

“You aren’t my family. Your wife was. Now, how about you hand over the object we’ve spoken of, and I’ll let you deal with the kids yourself.”

“It does not leave my possession,” father said.

“If you do not hand it over, we will be inclined to take it by force.”

I had no idea what they were talking about, but each word boiled my anger further.

“He is mine to destroy!” I bellowed aloud, my voice dripping almost literally with the hatred within me.

“You’ve raised a fine son, Liam. Oh wait… you didn’t.”

“Do not lecture me about my own family.”

“You are not my family, but he is, Liam. He is still a product of my sister as well. So I shall speak freely of my own family.”

The crowd that had been around us had now vacated. Knowledge of my kinship to both families pretty much made it crystal clear just who I was. The Jett Kuroi name was now pointless, the entire city would know who I was by my appearance.

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here!” I yelled out. However, I had by the last word, lost control, and the other half of me launched forward. A lash of flame, appearing like a whip, was sent forth. Liam and Logan evaded a direct hit, but their clothes did catch on fire, and they had to stop, and pat it out.

“I do not understand,” I said, within my own mind.

“You read that book,” he said, in response, “in order to learn of your enemy. Smart, but you ignored the magical teachings within it; stupid. I recognized those teachings, and applied them myself.”

I became a passenger within my own body, watching as … he did what I could not. I managed to hurt my own father. Lance and Harlan attempted to jump in and help, but amidst yelled rebuke, and my fists, they were on the ground in moments, in shock. Mathias remained out of the fight, holding Raina, and he recognized such. I leaped at Mathias next, but stopped short as all the others surrounded me once more. I tried to tell him to back out, and rework strategy, but… he did not listen.

“You shall all burn in my fury!” he yelled out. I passed out.

I awoke many hours later, at night still in the street. My clothes were burnt, tattered, but still in place enough. However, that was of no concern to me at the time. I looked around, and father was not there. Harlan was not there. Lance was not there. Mathias was not there. Logan was not there. Most importantly, Raina was not there. No one loitered on the streets, and so there was no one to ask what had happened. I returned home, to the old home, and searched once more for anything that might clue me in to where father may be hiding now. It took many trips, but I took everything out of the old home, and brought it to the alley apartment. Lastly, I burnt the place to the ground.

I would search texts, examine material possessions, and random other things I found in the house, for some sort of clue as to where father may be. I would not come upon answers quickly, it would take some time. But that did not matter. I would find Raina, and I would bring her back. That’s what I told myself.

Chapter 4: Success & Failure

It took two years for me to go through the things I found in father’s home, and find out where he would be hiding. This was of course because father had many places he could hide. I visited them as soon as I found out about them, only to find them empty. I was an impulsive kid. If I had kept reading and searching before leaping to go chasing, I would have discovered notes regarding his abandoning certain hiding places. Even after two years of this happening, repeatedly, I never seemed to learn. In the late autumn of that year, when I was seventeen, I ventured north of Kadmos. The place was beautiful, and had I not been intent on finding Raina, I would have taken some time to admire the browns, reds, yellows, oranges, and greens that decorated the place.

It wasn’t a very populated region, large open fields, with lots of trees and other plant life; there was only one small location with any form of structures. Those structures were hidden within a forest, and its only occupants were more than likely my father and brothers.

Once in the clearing, it was a wonder no one ever found the place. Flamboyant was much too mellow a word to describe it. Granted, the structures were shorter than the trees, but they were ornately laid out and built, as if specifically built for father and his endeavors. They were made of an odd sort of stone, and colored and carved to resemble the family’s criminal connections. In short, the building looked like a dragon. I went inside, and began to explore. It was quiet, and empty. Ever heard the saying, it is too good to be true?

I kept ascending stairs after stairs, moving from one empty section of the building to the next. In the final, uppermost chamber is where I found father. In the head of the dragon, I stared at him, as he stood, looking out a window. He had seen me arrive, there was no doubt. So he had plenty of time, while I explored the empty building, trying to find him.

“So, you found the journals, hmm killer?”

“Let’s cut the pointless chit chat, where is she?”

He turned towards me and gave me a look of anger and frustration. “For once, killer, I shall agree with you. There is no time for the pointless banter I usually enjoy so much. However, she is not here.”

“Do not lie to me!” I bellowed.

He shook his head. “I do not know where things went wrong with you. Your brothers grasped things so easily, I was barely involved in their teaching.”

Fire bloomed around my body, the irises of my eyes mimicking such within.

“They did not even need normal guidance as much, in learning logical deduction.”

The room grew hotter and hotter, and my body seemed to begin to emit the flames on its own as well, as if the flames came from every pore of my being.

“And then physical combat training… that was equally simple. My father had to work tirelessly to mold me into what I am.”

That was it for me. My body leapt forward, swinging a fist forward. Father was gone, and the window would be shattered. Glass flew about, a tidal wave of force keeping any of it from touching me. Before I knew what was going on, my body was in motion again. This time, I moved to the far left wall, and caught father this time, fire ringing on the floor about his feet. He skidded to a halt, seemingly familiar with the spell, even though I was clueless. Father clapped his hands together, and spoke a single word in some language I did not recognize. Fire burst upward, like a pillar, from the ring about his feet, and shot through the ceiling. Stone crumbled and fell around us, but my body moved away. Father was unharmed behind a wall of ice that was suddenly rapidly melting, clearly from the heat pumping out of my body.

Mathias, Lance, and Harlan entered the room, and Harlan would be the first to leap in. My body spun about, and as a lash of water came forth, my body raised an arm, flat palm directed at Harlan. I was about to speak out, in my own mind of course. Water countered Fire. There was no way to beat water with fire, and that is when I was shocked. And so was Harlan.

Bolts of electricity arched from my fingertips, wrapping like slithering snakes around Harlan’s body, but not touching yet. Then the water would come in touch with the electric bolts, causing a surge of energy to focus inward, towards the center of the bolts; where Harlan was. He fell to the ground in a heap.

Lance was the next to move forward. Now, why he decided to, was beyond me. He swung his arms, hurling shards of stone, razor sharp and moving quickly. But, my body pumped out more electric bolts that shattered the shards before reaching me. A follow up single bolt of energy was fired at Lance. He rose up a stone wall to block, but the bolt merely pierced through the stone, and struck him in the chest.

“Brilliant tactics you’ve bestowed on these boys… oh wait, you just told me you didn’t,” came his voice from my own lips. It infuriated me further that I was not even wholly responsible for this enactment of revenge.

Mathias took the charge now, lashing out with fire. My body responded with fire, and matched each blow. Even when Mathias resorted to simple physical blows, each strike was matched, and neither my brother nor “I” had the upper hand. That all changed when my brother drew out a sword from his hip. It was a long, single edged blade, slightly curved. In Kadmos, it was foreign, originating from lands even further east, known as Higashi. There, it was called a Katana. Mathias’ katana blazed with fiery energy, and with it, he came at me anew. Each slash of the blade was evaded. Apparently even my other half knew that such was not something he could simply block, or counter, without a weapon of his own.

Another slash of the fire enchanted blade caught me across the chest, and my body went hurtling backwards to the wall. I tumbled on the ground first, saving myself some further harm, but my collision with the wall still knocked objects loose from their placement, to rattle on the floor. My body stood slowly, and a hand grasped at one of the fallen objects for leverage. The object I grabbed onto was instantly recognizable. Back home, there was something like it. Something I had found in father’s old home was brought back to my memory. I never really looked at it, because it was a simple crystal orb, and its importance was unknown to me. As soon as I touched this one however, the pain in my chest vanished, but was quickly replaced with a new, burning pain. My shirt vaporized into flame, reduced to piles of ash around me, but that sword wound slashed across my chest would soon be burned away, healed, and replaced with a colorful mark. The mark of a dragon, taking flight, was now emblazoned on my chest. I looked down at it with contempt, though my other half was simply glad to be rid of the pain, and cackled as he dropped the orb, and took charge. My body ducked low, as Mathias attempted another slash across my body. The blade whisked over my head, strands of hair going flying, before my left hand shot upward, wrist hitting wrist, to push the blade up and away from my body. Flame erupted around said hand, offering a buffer against any magical feedback in such a move, then, my right hand shot forward, surrounded and chirping with the conflicting sparks of electricity. My fist dug into Mathias’s gut, and sent him to the opposite wall. It was a much further journey for him. Mathias dropped his blade in the process, and did NOT tumble across the floor like I did. His body slammed into the wall, and he fell in a heap.

I had no time to think, or marvel over what had just happened, father was already on the move, and my other half seemed aware of it. He bent over, grasped Mathias’s dropped sword, and raised it to clash against father’s own sword. Ice enchanted blade and flame enchanted blade clashed, tossing sparks in all directions, ice and flame licking the ground around us; feedback from the clash of energies.

Despite how much my angered self seemed to excel at magic, compared to my non-angered self, I still noticed a difference here. I seemed suddenly quicker, and more skillful at the use of fire magic. I noticed “I” was not using as much energy to form the needed result, but the power behind such result was not being equally dampened. With swords clashed, however, father used his other hand to force a gust of wind into my gut, sending me back and away from him. My feet touched down, and I came to a skidding halt before I could hit the wall.

Here, was an interesting match-up. Father could control ice, which was formed through the use of cold winds to freeze water. That was his magical skill. My skills lied in the use of fire and lightning, which really did not combine into another force. However, water countered fire, and wind countered lightning, while lightning countered water, and fire countered wind. No matter how much flame I poured out, he could douse it with water. No matter how much wind he pumped out, my flame would grow stronger, and then theoretically be too much for his water to douse, however he could combine his water with wind, and make his water stronger to combat my flame. No matter how much lightning I used, he could blow it away with wind. We were at a stalemate, magically, or so it would seem. The deciding factor in this fight now would lie in who could catch the other by surprise. It was up to close quarters combat. And that is how the fight carried on from that point, for a while. We stayed within blade’s range, clashing steel over and over, with small bursts of varying energy tossed back and forth; wind to push me away, fire to make him flee, water to extinguish the flame, and lightning to electrify the water.

Something eventually came to me though, and apparently it dawned on my other half as well. Or perhaps simply my noticing it clued him in as well. Even now, this condition is a mystery to me at times. Father would use water, to extinguish my fire, and for a time, it would create a vapor, a vapor that hindered our sight. I started to use this to my advantage, spreading a thick vapor throughout the room. I did it often, I did it frequently, using fire over and over and over, just to have him put it out with water. He started to laugh, and call me a fool. When the vapor clouded the whole room, I kept it up, to the point where he could anticipate where the fire was and extinguished it even quicker.

“Really, boy? Do you expect to get anywhere like this? Using the same tactic over and over? You know, there’s a word for someone who does the same thing over and over again while expecting different results…”

I didn’t give him time to finish, I kept up the tactic, and he would continue to put out the flames. Eventually, he couldn’t even see the flames, but the heat clued him in. He was getting frustrated, and began to find it all tedious. I could tell in the pace of his breathing. Eventually, he called up his wind, froze his water, and pumped it at the flame, following it up with even more wind, to keep it from melting as quickly. This move dropped the temperature in the room quickly, all the vapor in the room turning back to moisture. It “rained” inside for a moment, and I could see a smirk on his face as this occurred. I stabbed at him with my blade, enchanted with flame, straight for his chest. He enchanted his blade with ice, and stabbed forward. Our blades met and stopped each other. The whipping wind in the room buffered my flame enough, stalemating it with his ice. I let go of the hilt though, but the sword did not drop, and that was when it dawned on him.

While the room had been filled with vapor, I had moved to one of the walls, and grabbed another sword. Now, the tip of the blade of the second sword was pressed into the base of the hilt of the first sword, keeping it in place. The second sword I enchanted with lightning. The ice shattered. So did his sword, and when all he held was a battered hilt, he staggered and my blade was pushed at his chest, and straight through him. I pulled back, now only holding the second sword, letting him drop to the ground with the fire emblazoned sword through his heart. He lay there, and I stared down at him, my fury still peaked. I looked around the room, for some secret doorway. I had already toured the rest of the structure, and had not found Raina. I finally killed father, a fact I could confirm with my own eyes, as the pool of blood spread underneath him, but the whole reason for coming here, was left incomplete. Raina was nowhere to be found, and my anger climbed higher. I let out a yell that seemed to shake the room. I would realize a moment later that bolts of electricity streaked out from my body, and smashed through walls. The building began to shake, and it would fall soon.

Anger would be reigned in, in time; however, it would not be till much later that such was true. I was back home, sitting before the gathered materials from father’s old house. I took hold of the orb that I was reminded of when I grabbed the one that healed me back in the tower. This time, the burning was along my arms. Thankfully, I had not been wearing another shirt to lose in the process, but when I looked, now two serpents were coiled around my arms, also in vibrant color. I wondered about its meaning, but that was short lived. I noticed new knowledge. Things I did not know seconds ago were suddenly clear in my mind as if they had been lessons hard etched into my brain over years of training.

For all the new knowledge I had, there was still confusion. There was much to learn, much to question, and much to wonder about in the years to come. I would not give up looking for Raina, and promised myself that I would still find her, someday.