For what is a great thing? She knew that the Idea of great things varied from society to society. What the people of Terroval called a great deed was often unheard of in the rest of Terrazil, and the things that someone from Tellerose considered a great deed would simply be considered a duty in Terroval. She wished however that it were as simple as that. Because not only did the definition of greatness change from society to society, but it also changed depending on the moral fiber of a person or society. Over the years a great many people had joined the ranks of the rest of the creatures exiled to this continent, and it was known that they had created cities, and their own civilizations. What she was afraid of was what those men would call greatness, and if that were the type of greatness that Victor would one day rise to attain. She knew that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and if Victor was going to be anything, he would be powerful. She also knew that the other side would have their chance with the boy.
Her main goal had been to instill in the boy the value of life, whether it be human, Elven, or otherwise. She also had taught him that his life was to be considered paramount, but not to get so wrapped up in saving himself that he allowed others to die needlessly. She had told him all of this more than once. She also explained to him that since he was to consider his life paramount that if anyone or anything was attacking him trying to take his life that he should kill them without hesitation. One of the biggest lessons had been explaining that you need not feel remorseful for killing something that was trying to kill you, but to be remorseful simply for the fact that you had to take a life.
She was not only amazed with his initial mastery of Shaping, but also of his love for combat. When he had turned five, she had gotten him a wooden sword and dagger, which they practiced with whenever they could. He had quickly learned all that she could teach him about melee combat, and he even outstripped her in close combat now because of the things he had taught himself through his reading. Eventually she knew she would have to find someone better than her to teach him; however, she already knew that he would eventually have a great teacher for these things, maybe several. He was also shaping up to be a good cook. His knife skills were already superior to those of most of the cooks she had met in her life, and she knew he would only become better as he grew into his body more.
Now, she just stood staring into the eyes of a boy that would become a great man in the eyes of all good people, as long as he stayed on the right path. She was now, and knew she always would be, in awe of this boy. Some of the things that had taken her around fifty years to even form opinions on had taken less than seven years to nearly master. She wondered what power this boy would hold if he managed to get as old as she herself was, or even as old as Elyas. With that thought, she felt a chill go down her spine and quickly forced her thoughts back into the present. She found herself staring into the face of a boy who looked like he had a million questions.
“What's wrong? Was I wrong in what I said?” Victor asked with curiosity marring his features.
She kissed him on the head. “No dear, I would say that what you said is just about perfect.”
“Then why are you crying?” Sadness darkened his features and compassion lit his eyes.
“I'm just so proud of you!” She stated as she realized that she was indeed crying. She hoisted him up in the air so that she could look at him better.
“Good, then can I cook breakfast?” he said with a smirk and then a bunched up nose.
“What do you mean, I was cooking breakfast. Is my food not good enough for you?” She said with a questioning glance.
He looked at her and grinned, “Oh no, you cook great, but I wouldn't tell that to the bacon just now.”
She turned her head around to see strips of what used to be bacon that were now in more of a charcoal form. She set Victor down and went over to the stove to remove the pan from the heat. When she turned around Victor was standing in a pose that somehow reminded her of her grandfather. Then he said something in a tone that she had not heard since she was with her grandfather. “This just won't do Shaylyn… won't do at all.” She couldn't help but pull him up into another embrace.
“You're going to be seven tonight Victor, do you feel any different?”
He once again managed to escape her grasp and backed up a bit to get out of hug range. “No, I don't feel any different than I did yesterday… maybe a little hungrier, but that's only because I have no bacon in my belly, and you know how much I love bacon.” He sent her a disarming smile that would charm the skin off a snake.
“You're going to be trouble with the ladies Victor Deus, mark my words.” She thought it was bad enough that he could master Shaping, and martial arts so quickly, but it was his shear will and personality that would really make him dangerous in the future. “I got you a present, but you're going to have to promise me that you won't use it until you need it.”
With that, his ears perked up, and his eyes went wide. “Oh really? What is it?”
“It's something that was given to me a long time ago when I was a little older than you, but you are much farther along in your training and understanding than I was when I received it.” She went to the stove to clean out the pan so that she could make a new batch of bacon. “It is very special to me, and I would hate to think that you would misuse something special to me.”
“I would never do that Shaylyn, I know better than that. What is it?” He looked up at her with eyes that could see through a person in a moments notice, but instead seemed to stop straight at her heart.
“It's in the chest over there. She motioned with her head, since her hands were full, and continued to cook the bacon. However, a smile had taken hold of her face.
With the speed and grace of a small fawn, Victor sprang over furniture and dodged this way and that to get to the chest on the other side of the room. He was not supposed to go into this chest, so this was a real treat. When he got there, he had to put all of his energy into stopping, and he managed to slow his momentum enough, with the help of a chair, that he came to a halt about half a foot in front of his destination. He looked back towards Shaylyn to make sure that he had her permission to open it. When she nodded ever so slightly to him, he just about jumped out of his pants with excitement. He had always wanted to look in the chest, but it was one of a very short list of limitations that Shaylyn had placed on him. Therefore, he had respected her wishes.
The chest was locked by what he considered to be a rather simple lock that only a Shaper could open. He had been able to open locks like this since he was four and a half, but he knew that she knew that he could open it. Therefore, he had always figured it was a kind of test to see if he would go into the chest without her permission. Never one to fail a test Victor had steered clear, but now he got to open it. Victor concentrated on the chest, and felt where the bond had been created. Using his will he pushed the molecules apart before moving his hands to the lid of the chest.
He reverently opened the top, and peered inside. In the chest on top of everything else, there was a sheath. In that sheath was a neatly adorned handle, that Victor had seen many times before on his outings with Shaylyn. He reached down and pulled the dagger from its sheath. It had a curved blade, and he could feel the shaping that had gone into its creation. “Thank you soooo much!” He then put the dagger back in its sheath and began to put it on.
“Everything in the chest is yours Victor, and it would take a mighty will for anyone to open it except you or me.” She was pretty sure that he had heard her, but he looked so engrossed in putting the sheath onto his belt that she couldn't be entirely sure. She continued anyway, “The great thing about the chest is that it can seemingly disappear, and wherever you are you can call it out at will.”
He looked up at her with amazed eyes. “You are the greatest!” He took a quick glance into the chest, which was bigger than he was, she knew that he wouldn't want to spoil any of the surprises until he was used to the idea of having a dagger. “Can I go outside?”
She smiled and knew that she didn't need to cook any more bacon than for herself, because she wouldn't see him until later this afternoon or this evening. “Sure honey, just stay out of trouble.”
He ran over and gave her waist a hug, “I will, I love you, See you later.” He turned and ran towards the door.
“Bye, have fun, and stay safe.” She watched him run out the door as he waved back at her. She then used her will to force the chest back into stasis, and thought about her long life.
*****
Victor had been out playing all morning and most of the afternoon. He was just about half way through the Dock's District when he got the feeling that he should be returning home. Sighing aloud, he started on his way back towards home. Most of the day had been spent watching day-to-day life go by in the Dock's District. It was a busy place. Victor loved to watch the ships and the tide come in and out. There were not as many boats coming and going now because it was Midwinter, and it was too cold to sit and watch the ocean for too long. The rest of his time had been spent in alleyways testing the sharpness of his new blade. He would slash at broken barrels, broken shipping crates, and whatever else he could find that someone had thrown out.
Wandering back towards the Civilian Sector at a steady pace, he could smell wood burning. This was not the normal smell of firewood though. He could smell cloth, and other things burning also. He had smelled this smell before a few years earlier when he had witnessed a house burn down. Victor looked around to see where the smoke was coming from; he wanted to see the fire before he went home. He saw smoke finally, and it was in the same direction that he was heading, so he quickened his pace. After about three blocks, he realized that the smoke was coming from his home.
Oh no, Shaylyn! That was the only thought that went through his mind as he broke into a sprint. When he got there, flames were billowing out from the attic, but that didn't stop him from running in the front door. People tried to grab him before he darted into the building, but none of them were fast enough to stop him. He got into his house and almost everything in sight was bathed in flames, but it also looked as if there had been a fight. Chairs had been knocked over, the stove was lying in a few different pieces, and there was paper everywhere. There was also a lot of residual energy in the air, and he could sense that something was terribly wrong. He heard a noise coming from his room, and he ran towards the door. He grabbed the handle, which was still surprisingly cool, and he swung the door open. He had just enough time to see the man in his room before the man disappeared in a blinding flash.
Victor felt like he would never forget the man's face or the clothes the man wore, for the rest of his life. The man had a hawkish look about his face and an impish grin that framed his bald head, and his robes were the color of fresh blood. He started to head in towards his room, to save as many things from the fire as he could, when he realized that the smoke was making it hard for him to breathe. He felt so stupid, it is a simple matter for a Shaper to change the smoke going into his lungs into clean air, but he realized he had waited too long as his world began to go black. The last thing he felt before blackness enveloped him completely were two strong arms wrapping around his body.
*****
Victor awoke with a jolt.
“You alright kid?” A large man whose hair was smoke blonde asked. His face was covered in soot, and his shirt was black and gold.
“What happened? Where's Shaylyn?” His eyes were darting this way and that through the crowd looking for his teacher, and mother.
“Sorry kid, you were the only one in there, I checked as fast as I could, but you were the only one in there.” The big man stated with sad eyes.
“No! Shaylyn!” Victor stood and took his bearings. He was only about forty feet away from where his house used to be, and where a burned out husk now stood. Amazingly, his house was the only home that burned down. There were no scorch marks on any of the other buildings as far as Victor could see. Something in his mind began to send out an alarm as he realized the other buildings were only inches away from the inferno, and yet unscathed. Without conscious thought, Victor listened to a voice inside his head that told him to run.
“Kid where ya' goin'?!” The man started after Victor, but soon realized that he was no match for the child's size and speed in such densely packed streets. “Kid, stop!”
Victor ran through the streets, and alleys. He ran until he couldn't run anymore, and then he ran some more. He didn't know where his feet were taking him; he just knew he had to run. He ran straight into the back of a familiar twelve-year-old boy.
The boy turned around to see who had dared run into him, and he saw an annoyingly familiar face. “You?! What do you want now, you want to make fun of me some more?” The large boy cooed before realizing that the child in front of him was crying. “What happened to you?” He said with worry coming through his voice. It had not been that long ago that the boy himself had lost his parents, so he listened to the young boy's story with a knowing nod. The evening sun was just reaching the peaks of the far hilltops. Dusk had begun, and it was going to be a long night.
Chapter 2
Getting a Little Dirty
Year 3041 AGD
Month: Year's End
Fourth Eighthday
Eve of New Beginnings
Continent of Terroval
Docks District
So that's what all the hub-ub is about eh?” The older boy looked down at the crying boy in front of him and tried his best to put on a welcoming face. “Them's the strokes of life though, lost me pa' to the army, and me mum to a bad cold. Been on me' own for near enough to four months now. Guess we poor uncivilized folk ain't the only ones who get a bucket of waste water dumped on our lives.”
Victor had told the older boy his story, using as few words as possible so he could be understood through his sobbing. He kept trying to pull himself together, but it just didn't seem to be working. The first thing he had tried was the breathing technique that Shaylyn had taught him. When he had started the process he had started remembering all of the lessons that Shaylyn had taught him over his few years of life and the tears would come back with a vengeance. Victor realized at that moment that everything he knew, he knew because of her, and now she was gone. Taken by the man in the blood red robes. Where have I seen those robes before? Trying to think of anything but his loss was nearly impossible and this made him so frustrated that he felt like he'd never stop crying.
“…. And that's when I met Ol' man Walkins. He's been teaching me and a few of the other boys how to survive on the cold hard streets. It's kind of him to take us in; he says so all the time. He says that the world belongs to rich men, and as long as it does they won't miss the things we take. Why just yesterday he had us…”
Wow he talks a lot. Victor was trying to listen, he really was. For some reason however, his mind wouldn't let him concentrate on anything. The only time he had ever felt like this before was when he had accidentally burned himself with a fireball that went off too close. It took him a moment to register what the big boy had been talking about. “You mean that you're thieves?”
“No, no, we aren't thieves. I asked the same question myself once, then Ol' Walkins he set me straight. He said that rich men were decent enough folk most of the time, and that if they knew of our… of the… damn what's the word he used… anyway, if they knew of the bad way we was in…”
“Plight?” Victor asked quietly
“Yeah that's the word… dang you sure are smart for a little kid. Anyway, if they knew of our plight they'd be givin' us stuff anyway. So, since they'd give it to us anyway there's no need to bother 'em about it. So we just slip in at night and take what's coming to us anyway, or we slip a wallet from a pocket here or there and lighten a gentleman's load for 'em.”
“So what your saying is… that you take someone's property without asking them, and your not thieves?”
“Exactly, see I knew you was a smart one. Ol' man Walkins is gonna like you. You'
re small and smart, and he says that's the best qualities for what we do. I'll bet he puts you at the head of the boys, under me of course. It's a really nice place, we got…”
A thief, I can't be a thief. What would Shaylyn say? He brooded on that thought for a moment before one of the lessons Shaylyn had given him came to mind.
*****
“Now remember Victor, just because you can spin a blade, or staff doesn't mean you should. There's intimidation, and then there's showing off. Intimidation will get you out of a fight, and showing off will get you dead.”
Victor was glad to be finally getting lessons with a dagger. Shaylyn had finally started teaching him how to fight last year. Sure, she called it playing, but about six months ago he had realized what she was really doing. It was just the way that she taught, learn by doing. That's what she called it. No matter if it was reading, giving shape to a spell, or wrestling, she always had him dive right in, and she'd be there to give him pointers on what he was doing wrong. Ever since he could remember he had been taught this way.
“If you can learn how to use a weapon effectively, then you can learn how to impress others with it, but not before you learn to use it well. Victor, are you listening to me?”
Victor Deus (Heritage of the Blood Book 1) Page 6
