8 A MOTHER'S TEARS, BROTHER IS SECRETLY A HUGE NERD

Azaire looked at the two heirlooms solemnly for a moment before looking up in askance for a moment as if to say "Are you sure" but his mom just nodded with that same look in her eyes as if her world were shattering around her.

Instead of going straight to the heirlooms Azaire went to his mom and pulled her into his arms silently but tightly and without resistance his mother clamped onto him as if he might fly away if she didn't hold on tight enough. She may have put on a brave front but how could she possibly just be okay with having to let her baby grow up?

How could she be okay with just letting him leave? This world was so cruel. Not that he hadn't experienced plenty of that unpleasantness these past 16 years. But a mother will still worry. She may be the only one to know just how much she was enduring this time and just how much they had gone through. She'd lost so much already.

After partially pulling herself together she made to pull away when she heard her son whisper something in her ear and her carefully put together facade came apart, all the walls she built crumbled, and the strength she had been holding on to for so long finally wavered. "Pella Florum." Just those two words and now she was bawling like a child against her son's chest.

The son who reminded her so much of him more and more each day, the son she both knew and did not know, the son she had to be strong for ever since that day. In sixteen years she had not cried, she hadn't complained, she hadn't let her children see a single sign of the weakness deep in her heart. But just those two words...

Azaire held on tighter to his mother in relief. He had always been a particularly sensitive boy growing up, mostly to animals though, but he had always been able to sense the pain his mother held onto all this time. For the past five years he had been trying to get her to share them with her family, and to lean on them for once. To let her know she didn't always need to be so strong.

The last time he'd peeked at the picture he noticed there were some words handwritten in a fancy script on the back. He had been reluctant to use these words that were obviously some type of personal message from his deceased father, and it would also reveal he'd been spying in on his mother's personal moment, but something told him now had been the perfect time to use it.

After a while her bawling had turned to sobbing and that sobbing had turned to hiccuping before she'd finally calmed down. During that time his his dad had come from the kitchen and come straight to his wife and son holding on to both of them without a word while, for once, Jared did not take the opportunity to cuddle, and instead went back into the kitchen. Even he could tell this was a personal moment for family only. Although he desperately wished Skye was with him right now.

When Azaziel had finally finished crying she wiped her puffy eye's, and taking out a handkerchief, she wiped her ruined makeup away leaving her face bare but still very beautiful. After a moment of comfortable silence Robert spoke up,

"Food's ready." Azaziel nodded for a moment before remembering and asking her husband, "How was he in the kitchen?" Robert's eye twitched a moment before replying, "He's excellent dear. He's already more then a match for me in the kitchen.

'This woman after all that and she's still worried about that?' But Robert was clever enough not to voice this aloud but instead turned to Azaire. "Please go and grab your brother. And we'll let you kids get on your way." Nodding Azaire headed upstairs to grab his brother.

Azaire already knew just where he would find his dear brother. After going upstairs Azaire went straight to his brother's room and opened the door without bothering to knock or call for him. After all he knew Roran wouldn't hear him anyway.

As he walked into the spacious room afforded to the eldest of the siblings, the first thing one would notice was that the room was split in half. One half was like a very miniature gym training room with a weight bench, weights, workout mats, etc. After all his brother was known to the whole village, and many in the kingdom as the best athlete and sportsman of his generation. If there were a sport out there that he could not excel in no one had discovered it yet, and for almost any athletic event he participated in, if he claimed he'd be second, no one would claim to be first.

To everyone around the name Roran Blackhand was synonymous with the term godly jock, and as if he wasn't enough of a package, his main occupation was one of the five major occupations: Blacksmith. The five major occupations in the human country were blacksmith, tailor, scholar, knight/soldier, and beastmaster. Roran actually had a lot of potential suitors and many people had come to his parents seeking to arrange a marriage with him, and even some nobles had inquired as well.

However their mother was very proud and always felt scornful of those people and turned them away, one and all. She turned them down saying Roran would choose his own suitors when he was old enough to do so. Meanwhile she had purposely inflated Roran's standards so that even the daughters of dukes would have to first consider themselves before he might think of them.

All of this amazing publicity but Azaire's brother had a secret no one but his family knew, and it was revealed looking at the other side of the room:

Filled with posters and paraphernalia of anime, games, manga and other such things. While against the wall was a complex custom computer with multiple screens and keyboards and a few different controllers connected on a very sturdy desk with a variety of snacks, emergency empty bottles, and other necessities professional gamers to use when going on one of their sleepless campaigns were they would sit in the screen for insane amounts of time, maybe even days, as they grinded in this game or that one.

His brother just so happened to have one particular avatar build he used in most games, and always went under the same username. No one else but him dared to use this username. Partially because no one could compare to Roran in whatever game he happened to play in, and would only embarrass themselves using his legendary username, and partially because his brother had built a particularly nasty viral scipt to protect his username. Even the powerful wizards who had built up the transcendent scripts that powered the magiweb in the first place couldn't figure out how to completely undo the virus.

"Phantom Gentleman" was his famous moniker, and he was famous world round in all the countries through this name. The Phantom Gentleman was the king of the apex gamers. He was revered by many with multiple fanclubs, endorsements, and all other types of acknowledgement from media.

But what all those adoring fans of his did not realize that Roran was deathly embarrassed of this extreme otaku part of himself and in real life hid it like his darkest and dirtiest secret. So it came to no surprise to Azaire that his "mighty" big brother was sitting in his swivel chair on his computer playing one of his current favorite games, WOWO. World of Warriors Online.

Azaire felt his eye twitch, and he had a sudden urge to punch though the screen and crush the small crystal ball inside the computer that allowed it to function. Just leave his brother staring at an empty wooden box.....but his brother would go berserk on him if he'd done that, besides with as many screens and extra crap his brother had who knew how many crystal balls powered that thing.

'Where did he even get the money to set up so much?' Azaire sighed inwardly as he started towards his brother's chair. Azaire was not a mean spirited person, (No really!) but he also had a lot of irritating memories of being ignored by his big brother in favor of this dumb contraption.

A mischievous smile slid onto Azaire's face as he slid behind his brother and took a deep breath before quickly lifting the ear of one of the ears of the enchanted headphones. Connected to the game most likely, and shouting in his brother's ear, "TIME TO GO BRO!"

Roran immediately shot up in fright letting his ear phones fall to the ground breaking the connection to his game, as he looked around quickly here and there before seeing the culprit and glaring at his brother, who smiled back at him innocently.

Suddenly from the computer a voice of complaint came, "Come on man you let it past you what the hell!" Snorting Roran picked up the head phones and spoke into the mic that was still connected and simply said, "Little Brother." The voice on screen snorted and replied, "Ah so even the great and mighty Phantom Gentleman has a snot-nosed, bratty little nuisance!"

Before Azaire even had the chance to get offended Roran's face contorted and his voice dripped poison as he questioned, "What did you just say?!?!" With a practiced and fluid movement his brother sat for a moment and moved his hands swiftly over the keyboard for a moment, and suddenly on the screen an avatar blew up after a barrage of fierce attacks, and a mournful wail came from the voice,

"My Levels! Noooooo!" A vindictive smile graced Roran's face as he replied smugly, "No one insults my annoying little brother but me!" And with that Roran turned off the computer in disgust as he turned to his little brother.

"Welp let's get going imp, don't worry I'll get you back later when you least expect it." With that final promise Azaire's brother walked steadily out his door. 'Why even as a gamer he's still so scary!' Azaire felt a chill run down his back. He suddenly started to regret a few of his recent life decisions.