Neiva Fallen

Stark white curtains towered around a pained silhouette of a woman and her midwife whilst screams broke through the rooms surrounding them, with more women with buckets of hot water and bottles of strange liquids coming through the room.

'We can't let both mother and child pass; not in the presence of the Lord of the house!'

The other midwives knew they had no chance of saving both, at least since they detected the abnormalities in both their heartbeats, but it didn't stop them from trying. There had been miracles in this family before, and perhaps, there would be another born tonight.

The Lady of the house screamed as Ether flowed through her haphazardly, but her grip upon her bedside did not falter. She had felt this pain before, and it wouldn't kill her this time. Not if she could do anything about it.

A servant whispered something in the Lord of the house's ear, breaking the firm solidity his brows had before.

He looked towards the Lady of the house once more before turning to leave.

"LUNAS ILIAN BLACKSTONE YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!!"

Miss Laurel, the poor maid assigned to watching over the second born of the Blackstone boys yelled in anguish as she discovered the latest of his 'mishaps'. The last five years of taking care of the failed son took their toll on her, and the boys discovery of mischief, blamed on her of course, had not made it any easier.

A strange assortment of vegetables and bone scraps laid as the remains of what once was an oddly cute replica of a puppy after she had slipped and fallen on it. Her room had always been safe from both Lunas and his older brother, Paulin, before him, but even one step from that doorway was war.

Her stomps resounded through the Blackstone Manor, a familiar and comforting sound to almost all of its residents. Tonight however, they didn't pass Paulin's room nor did they reach Lunas's room. His heartbeat moved faster and louder as he recalled her earlier warnings of involving the Lord of the Territory, Richter Orcai Blackstone.

His Father.

Lunas's rapidly pumping blood finally reached his ears and he tore off his bed running, hoping, praying he could reach Miss Laurel before she reached The Red Room, but even the ornately decorated hallways seemed to want him to fail.

The first pillar he crashed into, he bounced like a pinball towards the ground but caught himself in a strange running pace, bruising his heel badly but not stopping him, and the second was barely dodged. His foot caught the carpet around the final bend from The Red Room whilst his flailing hands managed to dig into a painting of his father which sent him into even deeper of a panic.

Lunas skidded to a stop in front of a deep red door twice his height, only to see it was already cracked open.

He managed to listen past the sound of his heart just in time for a shakily low voice to reach his ears.

"Come in Lunas, there's no point just standing there."

Fear creeped up from his feet with every little step he took towards Lord Blackstone until he saw him, then it surged through him.

His fathers black war cloak, made from a Calamity he had slain himself, sat over red and grey striped pajamas. The desk which he used to climb onto to speak to his father was in pieces to his left, and Miss Laurel stood to his right with a smug look on her face and her hands held behind her back.

'This is it. The brat will finally be gone! To think I would have come to his father at such a time, the rat's timing was his downfall!'

Lunas knew Miss Laurel had wanted what was best for him in the beginning, but after Paulin had rejected her advances as his maid, she changed. It was subtle at first but Lunas was too much of a messy child for her to not begin to get angry. His habit of leaving the "bad parts" of his meals in strange places for her to find had been the final dozen straws.

"Sit."

A chair managed to find its way beneath Lunas before his knees gave out, but it didn't help much.

He knew what was coming. He may not have known what the words meant, but Lunas heard the threat from Lord Blackstone more times than he could count.

Exile.

Palin had tried to explain it to him, but the notion never stuck.

"But I can just find my way back, can't I?"

"I'm sorry Lunas but it's not that simple. At least you might get to keep your name. Father won't leave you to die."

The sound of a glass hitting the desk broke the boy out of his stupor, only to see the previously broken desk in front of his sitting father. Though Lunas had long grown used to the strange magics his family conjured, he always wondered when he'd get his own abilities to wreak havoc throughout the household with.

"Child, I warned you so many times because I didn't want to do this. And yet, you must have your fun. You treat Miss Laurel in disdain, and you force my hand. Your mother won't be happy when she hears of what you done," Richter Blackstone said with his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry father, I didn-"

"Yes you did," his father roared, "I warned you only Gaia knows how many times!"

With nothing but the sound of his cloak fluttering, Richter gestured at Miss Laurel for her to move aside and arose from his seat. A red and black clawed ring on his index emitted a gentle glow before he slashed at the space beside Lunas, opening up a strange portal.

"Come back when you've developed our legacy, boy. Don't bother until then."

Lunas felt the back of his shirt pull as he was flung through the gash in reality.