//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait // Story: The Immortal Hero And The Nightmare Queen // by Gravitiaxis //------------------------------// The woman snapped her fingers as you told her which personality you wanted. You began to feel a little different, there was no way you could actually explain it, but just different. "You'll have fun with this personality, though labeled as insane by the rest of the world, it will take a genius to realize that you are actually a lot more sane than you let on. Now that you've chosen who you've wanted become, it's now time for you to leave." The lady said pointing towards a door that had just materialized from out of no where. "Entering through this door will lead you to your new life as Aetherraent, The Archmage. Your life will be a glorious one. It will be filled with plenty of laughter, tears, and joy, but I promise you, that by the end of your journey it will be worth it." She said signaling you to walk through the door. You nodded your head and began to take a few steps towards this mysterious doorway. You placed you hand on the know of the door and began to twist it, but began to hesitate. "You know, you haven't really told me your name." You said slowly facing her. The woman gave you a weak smile. "I've abandoned my name a long time ago. When you become as old as I am, you will realize than names will eventually become meaningless." She said, pausing for a few quick seconds. "But I guess I will need a name, so that you can better address me when we'll be conversing with each other...from this moment forward you shall call me The Visionary." She said sounding proud of the name. "The Visionary, huh. It suits you. Strange and mysterious." You said giving giving wide smile, before opening up the door and stepping through. As you stepped through the door quickly closed behind you, leaving The Visionary alone. The newly named woman let out a small sigh as she began to sit down on the floor. "Now, all I have to do is wait. I'm curious to see what type of choices you will make Hero. Will they be good? Will they be Bad? Only Time herself will be able to tell." The Visionary said, letting out a small chuckle as she began to fade away. ----------------------------------- Age 10, The Orphanage The Orphanage, you hated this place so much. It was supposed to be a place where you were going to forget about the tragedies that had been just recently inflicted upon you, but instead this became a place of even more suffering. A constant reminder of how your family were all dead, leaving you the sole survivor of a family that had been prospering for generations. Though ten years old, there was no doubt that you were wise beyond your years. It was required in your family if you wanted to be worth something in your family. By the age of just eight, it was required that you have a solid comprehension of abstract concepts, good foresight and an understanding of human nature beyond what most kids your age were supposed to have, but don't get it twisted, your life may sound hard, it was generally a pleasurable one. Your parents were a rare breed that were able to balance their need for wealth and social standing, while still managing to love and comfort their only child, as a parent should do. In return for the love and support, you did as your parents asked of you. Learning became a first nature to you, with the natural talent of magic becoming a close a close second. Your father was an earth human, while while your mother was a winged human. You were born a horned human. Both your parents mothers, were horned humans. It just happened to skip a generation. Usually, most horned humans aren't able to learn magic until their between the ages of ten and thirteen, your magic kicked in at the early age of five. While being charged with learning knowledge that most people wouldn't even learn throughout their entire lives, and dealing with the rough teachings of a very advanced magic instructor, you found yourself very busy during your young life, but that all changed when war engulfed your city. Forces from a rival city attacked your home, and began slaughtering everything moved, including your family. You only lived because your mother had hid you in one of the many hiding spots within the house. When you finally exited from your little safe spot, you saw what no child should have seen at your age. All you can remember...all you wished you couldn't remember was the blood soaked hallways and bodies that were littered everywhere. Their faces, their last expressions, which will be forever engraved into your mind. Like all the countless other kids who lost their parents during the conflict, you were sent to an orphanage where you would tormented by the constant screams that were both real and dream, and were most of the time not by you. At this broken moment in your life, making friends was not something that you would be considering. Since all of the orphans pretty much had similar back stories, there was nothing much to talk about except home depressed and lonely each other were. Luckily this place had a library to keep you company. Most of the kids couldn't really read so the library stayed relatively empty, which allowed to read as many books as you wanted without being interrupted. Ever since you entered the orphanage, your life had been relatively easy, of course the constant memories of your parents being slaughter in front of you, kept plaguing your mind, but as long as you had your books you were fine. You spent most of your time in the orphanages library reading, rather than spending time with the other kids and getting to know them. This act of solitude lasted for two years. It wasn't until an unexpected visitor showed up looking to adopt a child. Usually all the children would be lining up to present themselves to their potential new family, but this man was only looking for a child that was skilled in the art of magic. Majority of the orphans were just earth humans and Winged humans, while horned humans were scarce. There weren't a lot of them that could use magic, and those that could weren't really skilled at it. Making you stand out above your peers. You weren't taught much, but you were surely a step ahead than anyone in this orphanage. All you knew was basic telekinesis, teleportation, and a minor invisibility spell. Your telekinesis was more developed than your other skills due to the fact you used it more times in a day than your other skills. You often used it to pick up books that you couldn't usually grab by yourself. Despite being a prime candidate you had no interest in leaving to go live with some stranger that may or may not take care of you, and hoped that this person would choose someone else. You used your invisibility spell to hide yourself in the library like you usually did. Your small body frame allowed you to hide on top of one of the bookshelves while still being invisible. You were left largely uninterrupted, until two kids around your age had walked into library seemingly looking for someone. "Lin, are you sure he's in here? Because I don't see him." The oldest looking kid said as he began to look around the room hoping to see anything that resembled you. The girl known as Lin sighed as she began to look around as well. "Of course he's in here. Has my magic ever failed you?" The girl said inciting a glare from her companion. "Uhh, don't answer that. Just trust me. He's in here somewhere. He's probably just hiding." She said looking underneath a nearby table. "Why in the world would he be hiding? He should be glad to get out of this hellhole, the gods know that I was." The boy said climbing up the ladder so he could check the second floor. "Well, we were bullied at our orphanages. Maybe he's shy?" "I don't think so. The other kids didn't really seem like they were bullied in any way, shape or form. So I doubt this kid is any different." The boy said. "The caretakers here seem to generally care about the kids their tasked with taking care of." "Maybe your right, but looks can be deceiving..." The girl said. You watched as the boy began to close the distance between you and him. You were hoping that he was going to walk right past you which he did before quickly stopping. He looked towards the bookshelf that you were laying on and began to look in your direction. At first you thought he was able to see you, but you noticed that, that wasn't the case. He could sense you but he couldn't exactly see you. It was a good minute that he stood standing there seemingly staring at you. It was needless to say how uncomfortable you were feeling at the moment. "What are you looking at?" The girl asked the boy. At this moment it seemed to better to just show yourself to them. "Nothing really, I was just-" At that moment he stopped upon seeing your full body materialize seemingly from out of no where. "HOLY CRAP!" He yelled backing up towards the wooden railing. He gripped his chest as you could almost hear his rapid heartbeat. "What happened?" The girl asked. "Fenris?" The boy couldn't answer back. He was still in shock. "I believe I just scared your friend. He'll be fine in a few seconds." You told the girl as you jumped down from the bookshelf. You lead the boy back down the ladder onto the main floor, so the three of you could have a proper conversation. After the boy had calmed down, you decided to introduce yourself. "I am Aetherrant. Nice to meet you." You said giving a small bow. "Nice to meet you Aetherrant. I am Linnan and this is my best friend Fenris. Say hi Fenris." "H-hey." He said slowly recovering from the near heart attack you almost gave him. "Sorry, he's still a little shocked. So tell me, why were you hiding in here?" Linnan asked as she pointed up to the second floor. "I wasn't hiding." You lied. "I was just reading a book." "While invisible? That seems kind o unnecessary, don't you think?" "I don't like to be disturbed. So I turned invisible when you and your friend came barging into my library." "It's hardly your library. It belongs everyone in the orphanage." Fenris said speaking up. "Your right. It does belong to everyone in this orphanage, but your not from this orphanage, are you?" You asked raising an eyebrow at the two kids in front of you. "I didn't think so." "Looks like someone has an attitude." Fenris said looking down on you as you sat down on the floor with your back to a bookshelf. "Yes, it appears I've woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. If so I'd think it would be in our best interest if you just leave me alone." You warned. "Calm down. I'm not trying to start a fight with you. I'm just trying to be friendly." Fenris said backing up a few steps to show that he wasn't trying anything. "If so then you're doing a bad job at showing it. Out of the two you the girl is more a friend than you and I just met her." You said letting out a small yawn as you turned your attention towards the girl known as Linnan. After a few seconds of staring she realized that you were waiting for her to explain why there were here. "We're here in search of a child mage." She said truthfully. "And if I may ask. Why are you looking for a mage?" You asked. "Before I tell you can I ask you to do something for me?" The girl asked while pointing towards a large book that laid flat on the table next to her. "I want to see how good you are at some basic magic. I want you to levitate the book from off of the table and into my hands." You looked at the book for a few seconds before looking back at the girl, raising an eyebrow as you did so. "Just do it." Lin sighed. You rolled your eyes and turned your attention back to the book. Your horn began to glow a light blue as you began to concentrate on moving the book. The book slowly began to levitate into the air and towards the girl. You weren't really having much difficultly with moving it. Upon reaching her, She quickly grabbed the book from out of the air and congratulated you for levitating the book. "Good job. I could see the expression on your face that it wasn't really much of a test." She said laughing awkwardly causing Fenris to roll his eyes. "Who taught you magic?" Fenris interrupted. "My parents paid for a magic tutor back when my magic first began to show. She was able to teach me a few spells before she...uh, left." You answered. "And how long ago was that?" "When I was about five years old. I''m ten now." The two of them looked at astonished by what they had just heard. "Your magic appered when you were five? Mine came to me I was seven and Lin's came when she was six!" Fenris said face palming. You looked at the two of them and raised your eyebrow once again. "Oh, uh sorry. It's rare for a child under the age of ten to show magic." Lin stated. "But it's even more rare, when a child at the age of Five can show it." Fenris added. "Ohh, do I sense jealousy, Fenris?" Lin joked playfully. "Piss off." Fenris replied. "Come now, don't you think he's abilities are just splendid?" Lin said clasping her hands together. "Yes, yes. He'll do just fine." Fenris said enthusiastically. "What do you mean?" You asked. "Allow me to explain." An unfamiliar voice said coming from outside the door. You looked towards the direction of the door to see it slowly open. There was a large man with a wide smile on his face, he had a deep tone of voice that seemed to be filled with both power and wisdom, despite saying only four words to you. "I am Master Titus. I am a world renown researcher and scholar of the arcane arts. I've given hundreds of lectures and written dozens of books based on the newly discovered knowledge hidden away from The Dark Times." He said giving you a small bow. "I've read a few of your books. There were very interesting to read. What is an educated man such as yourself doing in a wonderful household such as this?" You asked with a bit of sarcasm behind your voice. "Ohh, Sarcasm, I love sarcasm." He said walking around the library checking out the books that were kept on the bookshelves. "Judging by your looks and tone, and the way how this orphanage is being held together. I'd say you kids are barely getting by. Am I correct?" He said taking out a book and began to flip through the pages. "We're doing better than most of the other places. This place runs on the donations of all the kind souls that like actually thinks about the children that the gods are seemingly too busy to look after for themselves. So I'd say we're doing alright." You said giving Titus a small smirk as you began to fold your arms. "But how long from now will alright not be enough? Due to the current state of things, you know the war and all that. How long do you think these donations are going to last?" Titus said inciting a small glare from you and a glance at Lin. "Excuse me?" You asked trying hide the steady growing annoyance that you were feeling. "What the Master, is trying to say is that, wouldn't you like to live abetter life than the one you're living now?" Lin asked as she pointed towards the old, cracked walls of the orphanage. "I don't know...I rather like the creaking of the floors at night, and the steady dripping sound that often drives me insane at night, due the lack of sleep. Without those things I just don't know what I would do." You joked. "Oh, I'm sure you will be fine." Lin said causing you and Fenris to face palm. "He was being sarcastic Lin." Fenris said shaking his head. "Oh..." She said trying to hide redness of her cheeks. "That all sounds tempting, but there have been a few rumors going around that necromancers are going around taking kids from orphanages and using them for their dark experiments. So don't be offended if you realize that I'm a little pessimistic about your offer. It seems a little to good to be true." You said shrugging your shoulders. "He has a point you know. I said the same exact thing when you approached me with the offer. You can't really-err" Fenris stopped upon seeing both Titus and Lin glare at him. "I'll...be quiet now." "Look Aether. I'm not going to force you to come with me, but I am going to need you to trust me." Titus said now face your direction so he could look you in the eyes. "I swear to you." Lin said stepping forward/ "On my life, that The Master is very trust worthy." "But I don't care about your life and besides I was speaking to him not you. I can't really take you seriously when the two of you call him The Master. That name doesn't sit well with me." You said shaking your head. "but I will take you up with the offer if a better life to live." You said causing all their of their faces to light up. "Is that so? Why the sudden change of opinion?" Titus asked. "Call it a hunch. Besides if you were a bad guy, I'm pretty sure one of these two would have tried to warn me." "Glad to know that you trust me." Titus said walking over to you and extending his hand out for a handshake. "I'm sure we'll all be one big happy family." "Yeah...one big happy family..." You said weakly as you gave him a firm handshake.