Executives' Ruminations (2)

(General POV)

(Twilight Manor)

Finn sighed as he grabbed his cup of tea from the chef and made his way to his office. He did not really drink much of this stuff even though he didn't mind it. But he would only drink it when he knew he was in for a busy day in his office.

Being Captain came with just as many ups as it came with its downs. He rose to the position of highest authority in the Familia, with Loki being the only one above him. He had much influence in Orario, he had a lot of sway on people because of their standing, and there was not a Pallum in the world that didn't know his name.

But then there was the great terror of heaps of paperwork. Taxes, permits, management, applications, the list was endless. Not to mention he also had to oversee the training of new members, and there was plenty of those flooding in at the moment as the Loki Familia was seen as a new source of promise and power.

He smiled though as he realised how far he'd come, and that he'd actually managed to accomplish what he'd dreamed. Ever since his village was attacked, and he'd lost all that he'd loved, he'd sworn that he would become a beacon of light and hope for his people. Someone to represent them, and defy the notion that his race were weak and inferior to others.

Just like their Goddess Fianna, the one symbol of glory and pride of his people. Her magnificence predated even the likes of the fabled Argonaut, and Finn wanted nothing more than to be the same as her. And even though he knew that he had reached that position somewhat, it would be some time before he ever reached her level of reverence.

Finn's smile dropped though as he thought about the other heroes of the ancient times. As glorious as his hero was, even she could not compare to the others according to legends. Finn always wondered why it was that the greatest heroes seemingly came from humans.

As misfortunate as Pallums were, even they had some impressive traits to them such as being able to see perfectly fine in pitch black dark. Compared to other races such as elves with their grace and magic, dwarves with their endurance and rigidity, beastmen and their vastly superior strength, humans drew the short straw.

They were quite simply a talentless race in that perspective, and the only strength they had was how much they outnumbered the other sentient races in population. So why was it that from the weakest race, came the most promising and most powerful heroes of all?

With Ais, she was a half-spirit and the daughter of arguably the mightiest human to ever live. With such precious blood in her, he could accept the great talent and promise she held.

But Lyze? That boy completely shattered logic itself. He was nowhere near as powerful as a first class adventurer. In fact, Finn could easily kill him before he even knew what had happened. But what was the guarantee that things would stay that way for long? Any fool could see that Lyze, with his spirit and his potential was destined to go far in life.

Finn had spent the better part of two or three decades reaching where he was now. And he had a gut clenching as well as a thumb throbbing feeling that before long, the boy would catapult past him.

True, he'd technically only just met the boy and it was quite early to make such a judgement. But first impressions were very impactful and Lyze had put on one hell of a first impression alright.

Finn had nothing against humans altogether. He was happy that there were potentially more heroes to help maintain order and peace in this world. Although that was not saying much as Evilus was an ever present nuisance in the city. It was just the concept of the strongest beings born out of the weakest race that baffled him.

Finn sighed again as he reached his office door and turned the handle. He'd been thinking way too much about their new recruit lately and it was causing him more stress than was good for him. Perhaps it was better to leave the boy to his own devices for the time being, and hope that he returned with his group before sun-down.

He opened the door to a semi-unusual sight. It was not uncommon for Riveria to be in his office as she was vice-captain and had her own fair share of work to do in the Familia. But she never just sat in a chair with her staff gripped tightly in one hand, her eyes closed in extreme concentration with her other hand held up, palm upwards.

Finn cocked and eyebrow and purposely closed the door behind him a little loudly to announce his presence. That broke the elf out of her stupor.

"Oh Finn! I didn't hear you."

"It's okay." He replied. "What are you doing?"

Riveria looked down at her hand slightly caught off guard and a little embarrassed.

"Magic." She mumbled.

"Magic." Finn raised his brow even higher, scepticism evident in his tone. "What kind of magic would that be?"

Riveria huffed and dropped her hand.

"I was trying to use silent magic."

"And by silent magic, you mean...?"

"Magic that is not cast by words."

Finn sat in his chair and leaned back in confusion.

"I don't think such a casting method exists Riveria."

"But it does!" She replied annoyedly.

"How do you know? I've never heard of something like that. I'll admit I don't know a whole lot about magic, but I do know enough that magic always requires chanting, concurrent or otherwise."

Riveria sighed and slumped her head. "I thought so too. Until Lyze came along."

Finn's brows dropped, and he sat in silent frustration. He'd only just managed to get Lyze and his shenanigans out of his mind to concentrate on work, yet once again he had to confront yet another freakish thing that only he seemed to introduce.

"What exactly did he do?" Finn asked, eager to just be done with the subject.

"Remember when I said Lyze used magic various times throughout the dungeon?" Finn nodded. "Well, in reality, I noticed that most of the time he didn't utter a single word when casting it."

"Perhaps he was just muttering it then?" Finn offered as a suggestion.

"Have you forgotten about these?" Riveria pointed to her ears. "I would have heard it if he had. And besides, at the rate he fired off those spells there would have been no way for him to mutter any spells in time before the next one."

"So how did he explain it then?"

"He said that he did indeed still have to say something in order to use magical attacks. But I noticed that for elemental magic, something he appeared to be most proficient in, he didn't need to say a thing. He said that his master was of the opinion that chants were a big detriment to casters."

"But chants are how things have always worked. Since the beginning of time, that is how mages have always fought."

"But Lyze says that he could easily kill any mage several times over in the time it takes to chant. I find myself agreeing if it happened to be a one-on-one fight. Mages don't really know how to fight in close combat most of the time, so as soon as a swordsman like like Lyze closes in it's game over.

His master however believed that the true reason behind someone's ability to use magic was their mind, and that chants were merely tools to help a caster envision the spell. Lyze shares the opinion of his master, that it is better to train the mind to cast spells instead of memorising chants."

Finn tapped his chin in thought. As unorthodox as it sounded, for some reason it seemed to make sense. He was content to leave the judgement up to the expert though.

Riveria's obsession and unmatched skill with magic was no secret to those around her and as a princess of high elves, a race renowned for their arrogance due to being inherently strong in this field, she was the pride of elven kind.

"And what is your scholarly opinion then, Riveria?"

She pursed her lips and sat for a moment in silence.

"I've spent a human's lifetime studying magic to its greatest extent. It has always been my passion, and I am well aware of my level of expertise. But throughout that exceedingly difficult journey, I have never encountered such a theory. And yet, it just...it just..."

"Fits?" Finn offered. "Makes sense?"

"Everything synonymous with that." She replied. "I just don't understand. Had anybody come to me with this before, I would have called them mad. Yet I've seen it with my own eyes. The boy was talking to me while he summoned fire in the palm of his hand. He just simply willed it into existence and it came.

Why is it that that our numerous scholars in thousands of years of study have never come up with something like this? How did it come to be that such a casting method was discovered and achieved by a human?"

"I was just wondering myself about that before I came in." Finn said.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"I'm just saying that it always seems like the most gifted heroes and adventurers seem to come from humans, in ancient times at least. Nowadays, that concept is not so prevalent but in our own Familia, we have two extremely gifted children of the same age with human blood in them. Ais has spirit blood in her, but let's not forget who her father was."

"Indeed." Riveria said as she looked up at the ceiling in deep thought. "I wonder who his master would have been though? Was he a human? Or was he something else?"

"In all honesty, I don't think that's nearly as important as Lyze himself. He is after all a human that was born with the ability to use magic naturally it seems. Very similar to an elf. Have you considered that the silent magic thing might just be a result of inherent talent?"

"Yes I have." She replied. "I've also considered the possibility that he may have elven blood in him. But that doesn't seem likely as there would have had to have been a half-elf somewhere in his genealogy, and they are known for not quite being able to reproduce, even if they are able to know intimacy. And he doesn't even seem to carry any trace of elven heritage, at least to my senses."

"Stranger things have happened." Finn commented. "One comes in the form of a little golden-haired, half-spirit girl with a sword and an ambition to kill the black dragon."

"Yes." Riveria muttered as she took her eyes off the ceiling. "That is most certainly a strange case. To this day I find myself wondering how they pulled it off." She sat up in her chair though. "Something I have realized with Lyze though is that even though he is not an elf, he may very well be."

Finn became confused. "That doesn't make sense."

"Nor does the reason why I said that. He doesn't seem to have elf blood in him...but nevertheless, he appears to share a bond with nature."

"How can you tell?"

"I'm not sure. Call it an instinctive feeling. He doesn't seem to be connected in the way we elves are. It seems to be a little different...but nature just seems to flow harmoniously with him. It's the only reason why his magic is so fluid, so...flawless I'd say."

She sighed wistfully before she continued. "Ideally I would have liked to study this further, perhaps bring him back home with me so we could have all figured how to do it as well. But..."

"Your people wouldn't be able to handle it, not with their pride." Finn said grimly. "A human naturally born to use magic. What's to say that he wont pass that ability onto his descendants? Eventually, the human race in its entirety would be able to do the same and that would render your people's pride null. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to bump him off to stop that happening, if they don't do it simply because he's a human."`

"I know that is something my father would do." She said. She gripped her fist. "But regardless of my own interests, I would never put him in such a situation. It doesn't matter to me if he does not want to share his past with us, but anyone can see he has been through a considerable amount of pain. You can just hear it when he speaks, and you can feel it in his whole demeanour."

"Yes." Finn agreed as he closed his eyes. "I don't think it would do us any good if we pry into his past. It would only drive him away from us." Finn opened his eyes. "But all the same, I would like to know his back ground."

Riveria narrowed her eyes. "You sound like you have a plan."

"Remember when he said that he was brought up in Daedalus? Right smack in the slums? He said he was knowns as the 'Cursed Child' back there."

Riveria put her fingers to her chin. "I remember him saying something similar to me." Her eyes darkened at the memory of the malicious form Lyze took when he was trampled by the Goliath. She could literally feel the evil just oozing out of it, yet it went as quickly as it came.

His explanation of the form was a satisfactory one, and she wouldn't be wholly surprised if that was the very thing which earned him his reputation in that terrible place. It wouldn't be surprising to her if every child there were just full of hate and anger at the conditions they were born in.

"What do you have in mind?"

"I'm going to request a little investigation." Finn said as he drew out a parchment and a quill. "I'm going to send someone there to Daedalus, see what they can find."

"You literally JUST said that any prying into his past might drive him away from us!" She glared at him.

"I know. But from all of our interactions with him so far, we know that his master took him outside of Daedalus. No warrior of such calibre that could train a child to that extent of proficiency in combat would ever do it in a place like that. And so far, it is actually that period of his life under that tutelage which Lyze seems to resent nor does he want to remember. I don't remember anything being said about his birthplace."

Finn rolled up the parchment as he finished writing, then sealed it with wax.

"You know it's morally wrong." Riveria said.

"Perhaps. I want you to know that I do truly care for Lyze. I would never do anything to harm him. I'm doing this because I want to understand him. Just like him, I also lost everything at a young age. Any information big or small will help us learn how to help him. He's a child. If he keeps those feelings bottled inside, eventually they will spill over and he's going to hurt himself. I don't want a repeat of Ais' situation all over again."

"You're doing this because you see yourself in him, isn't it?" She asked him, eyes narrowed. "You empathise with him because you can relate."

"...Yes. Don't just focus on the negatives either. It's a well known fact that people in the slums of Daedalus are forgotten people. If we know who his parents were, perhaps we can track down any other family he might have still alive. Family that might give him an anchor, a shoulder to lean if he doesn't want to depend on us."

"What if he doesn't want to find out? What if he already knows about any extended family but wishes not to involve himself with them?"

"There is nothing yet to indicate any wishes of that sort. I doubt a child whose parent's died when he was so young would be able to make a conscious decision like that if he knew he still had family around."

"You're forgetting that he's a lot more mature for his age than other children around. While they are all out playing in the streets with each other, he's down in the dungeon killing monsters and focusing on becoming as powerful as possible."

Finn raised his hands.

"Then after this search is over, I will go to Lyze and hold my hands up like this and admit to it all. And I will take full responsibility. I can only hope that he sees it was done with the best intentions."

She stared at him a little longer before sighing. "You're captain so if you do this, you are perfectly authorised to do so. But if he doesn't take kindly to this blatant breach of his trust, you had better make sure that you do every moral thing in your power to make him stay. Because if he leaves..."

The unspoken hung in the air.

A/N. Now then, how will Lyze react to this? Will his path continue alongside the Loki Familia...or is he destined to go to somebody else? 'hint' 'hint'

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