1 Humiliation
The sky was closing more and more with dark clouds. Soon small drops were wetting the earth. People ran around looking for places to get sheltered, tents, shops, game houses. Others with greater control of their power covered their own bodies with energies of their crops in order to avoid wetting their clothes.
At the bottom of the city, called Toravan, stood part of the empire of the Torres clan. It was one of the five largest clans on the southern continent, it was among the region's most respected clans ... until a small incident occurred.
Rael, the son of the patriarch of the Torres clan, Romeo, had been born with a physical problem, he had no right arm, without him, Rael could not train his spiritual cultivation, having as the only means of strengthening physical training.
To train cultivation it was necessary to use two-handed movements, to synchronize the mind and body to manipulate the inner energy within the initial steps. Rael could never do that because of his physical condition.
Soon after his birth, his father tried everything with his mother, Elisa. They searched for doctors, alchemists, cultivators with curative powers, nothing worked, no miracle could retrieve the arm Rael did not have.
Family status fell into disgrace soon after the following year, where the couple's second child was born, a girl. The patriarch wanted a man to continue his lineage after his retirement and keep the family in power.
Moreover, the sage of the mountain had visited the patriarch Romeo, and said that he would only have two children and nothing more. This was due to a vital problem in Romeo himself.
Rael was now ten and spent most of his time training and exercising his body, he did not have a teacher like most boys his age.
He barely had clothes to wear, he walked in tatters, torn and dirty clothes. That's because no one cared about him, his clan, or his parents. The only one who still cared about him was her younger sister, Natalia, she was being harshly reprimanded every time she tried to approach or tried to talk to her brother.
"Anyone who approaches garbage, turns trash too," is what they said to her. Even in eight years, the couple had numerous attempts and did not get any other child, the wise man's words seemed not to be wrong. This made the name of the clan even worse.
Every time people saw Rael, they would close their faces, even if they were laughing, they saw him as a miserable, lame, stinking beggar, to whom only they seemed to be sick.
With his parents he was no different, they did not speak a word to him, they treated him as if he did not exist.
Rael slept in a small wooden room within the walls of the Torres clan. The only ones who did not treat him badly, besides his sister, were the slaves, and women taken by the clan to be concubines of their members.
Like him, these people also lived abused and humiliated, of course, no one went through what Rael spent every day.
Rael had heard things like, "Damn child! Why not? The Patriarch should have killed him as soon as he was born, "among other disparaging remarks.
Rael never gave up, never stopped training or doing his exercises, always trained strokes even with only one arm.
He also kept picking up boys of the same age from other families, they could use special techniques, even if they were something much less than the adults already helped to beat and humiliate poor Rael.
No one asked if he came back wounded or not, the slaves, they only did his job of treating him when needed and hiding from the clan for no one to see, if they saw it would be another fight.
It was ten years of his miserable existence following the same days and seeing the hatred of all for him. Even a strong child could not bear it.
Rael could not take it any more, sometimes he cried and lamented about his destiny to be trash, to be so hated, because of him, the Torres family was known to have a crippled one-armed son and that was cause for laughter there outside, of course, no one dared to say anything to any of the Torres family directly, but outside, the jokes spread like wind as the family's name went from bad to worse with each passing year.
Until one day, Romeo could not take it anymore, he forged a plan to take the life of his own son.
Rael was awakened at dawn by four masked figures who pulled him from inside the wooden house, he tried to hold onto the cloths in which he slept and ended up taking them along.
The masked men laughed as one of them held the boy's two legs and lifted him up, leaving him upside down. Rael screamed, he knew the guards of his clan were close by the walls.
But why did not anyone come to help him? He then opened his eyes wide awake to the harsh reality of his life, and he calmed himself by ceasing to scream or react, dropped the cloths that would be his bed and remained motionless, it would be better if these men took their lives their parents would be happier and the whole clan would stop being ridiculed.
"He's not responding anymore, has he lost his will to live?" Asked the cold voice of the man holding him. They were all wearing gray robes and white masks.
"This kid lives like a pig, that whole room stinks," said another masked man staring into the small, narrow room beside the wall.
The Torres clan had a large territory, surrounded by a wall, in the middle was the main fortress where most of the patriarch's family lived and around other families of lower branches, also had a large patio for training and the ground was grass soft
"Foolish, I had more important things to do, and I'm having to come get rid of that shit," another said, his arms folded.
"Take this garbage right away and do as you are told, even if some people listen, no one will call," another said.
The man released Rael on the ground, who instinctively trimmed part of the fall with his only arm, turned and managed to finish his back avoiding the head injuries, then was pulled by the shoulder and placed on his feet.
- Come on, you shit! Said the same man who had let him go.
"You better not try anything, if you do anything we'll kill you," another said.
Rael did not intend to react, he knew that it was better for his family and the whole clan, he had only brought disgust and disappointment to everyone, even if he was angry with the way he was treated, in a way he could understand someone worthless in this world would never be respected.
After passing through the deserted wall that had no guards they followed a trail through the dense forest. The men kept laughing and saying that now perhaps the Torres clan could rise again, some of the men even said they should do the same with Natalia.
Rael began to find it strange that these men seemed preoccupied with his clan, but at ten his wit was not sharp like that of an adult. The only thing that came into his mind was his sister, a girl with almost dark brown hair, she was the only one who ever smiled at him the few times they talked.
After two hours of walking they seemed to get where they wanted to, it was the edge of a cliff.
"I do not think we need to wear those masks any more," one of the men said and pulled her out.
Rael recognized him from sight, was one of the guards of the wall, his name was Reges. That made Rael confused until he saw everyone else pulling off their masks and realizing that they were all guards as well.
"Why are you looking at us like that, you shit?" Asked one of the other guards staring at Rael with disdain.
Rael stared wide-eyed at them, hoping to be hated, but he never thought his own clan might want to take his life. It changed everything inside him, making his few feelings of understanding be thrown away.
Rael felt strange, everything seemed to be inside. He felt as if he was going to throw up, even if he had not eaten it today. Since there was an evening meeting in the clan, they did not let Rael in or eat the remains as usual.
"Do you know who gave the order to take your life?" They were their own parents! Said Reges and punched Rael in the stomach, knocking him to the ground, barely able to breathe, his hands on his stomach, all the guards laughed. Obviously a child would not hold the hand of an adult, even if his body was a little sturdy.
Rael did not want to take on that feeling he'd been having a few years ago, anger. He always avoided thinking like this, but when he heard that it was his own parents who had decided to come up with that plan, he did not control himself, tears came into his eyes, they were not tears of pain as the guards thought, they were tears of hatred.
"He's crying, you see, how pathetic he can not stand a single punch," one of the guards said. All the guards laughed again.
Rael knew of his situation, but all he could do was cry, cry in anger at not being able to do anything, if at that moment he could, he would surely destroy everything.
His family, his clan, and anyone else who abused people like him would completely rewrite the story even if it had to become a monster.
"Come on, let's get on with it," Reges said.
He stepped forward, held Rael tightly around his head, turned him to face his fate, a land of stones, earth, and few trees, and a fall more than a hundred yards away.
Rael's heart was beating fast, knowing what was about to happen, and at that moment he understood that it was not worth losing his life to such an evil clan. But what strength would he have to fight? Even if he wanted to, he could never avoid it.
"Will such a fall kill him?" Asked another guard.
"He has no power, until a twenty-foot drop could already kill him, but I'll make sure he dies, that's more than enough," Reges said.
Rael felt his back being ripped, an absurd pain passed between his bones, his clothes were soon wet with his blood as Reges turned the blade of the dagger causing a bigger wound.
Rael's heart slowly began to slow as he was let go and pushed forward. Rael felt the intense pain and was losing his senses as his body flew in the air against the rocks.
The spirit of a celestial being was wandering around looking at the monotonous lives of the great families and their miserable slaves when he caught the strong vibration of Rael's feelings. A smile from end to end grew on his lips as he flew lightly to the spot.
"Finally, something interesting, hahahahaha!" The spirit could not help but laugh as it crossed the skies and ran against the boy's body.
