Shock

"What now?" Rethys asked. "Talk about wha-" Yet before he could finish his question, a wave of excruciating pain overtook him.

It suddenly felt as if his chest was being hollowed out entirely, any sensation from it becoming replaced with pain, and not the kind he was used to and could ignore either. The pain intensified until he could physically feel the second heart in his chest begin beating violently and irregularly.

"Argh..." He grunted as he tried to remove the tatters that he wore, only to tear them off entirely.

And just as he tore away the flimsy rags that covered him, something dropped on the carpeted ground with a thud. It was a fist-sized, azure gemstone cut in the shape of a perfectly imperfect sphere, Sevi's soulstone.

Rethys collapsed on his hands and knees, panting with effort as he tried his hardest to overcome the pain washing over and through him. The pain never got easier, only worsening, but eventually his mind cleared enough to roll over on his back and be able to form words.

"Sevi... what the hell?!"

To his side, he could see the gemstone stirring, its gaze squarely fixed on him. It then began to slowly roll toward him, stopping just before his face.

"What are you doing?!" He snapped.

"Testing a theory... and nipping a serious threat at the bud." Sevi's voice resounded from the gem.

"What do you-" He tried to ask yet was interrupted by a different voice.

'Kindred!' It almost shouted in his mind.

Rethys' face sank and his blood froze, fear overtaking him.

And the Origin entity would not silence after just a word, and continued to hurl uncharacteristically furious cries at him.

'Duty!' It cried out. 'Gifts! Failure! Sinner!! TRAITOR!!'

"Argh..." Rethys grunted, clutching his head with both hands.

Yet just as abruptly as the entity's voice and emotions overwhelmed him, the connection between them was severed. Once more there was silence as the feedback subsided, yet the Entity was still there, still trying to connect to him. It was but a temporary respite.

"It seems I was correct; my presence did indeed shelter you against that patron daemon of yours." Sevi coolly remarked.

Rethys laid there, panting and clutching his chest as the pain continued to intensify.

"Alright, you made your gods-damned point! What's your problem?"

"My problem is that you seem to forget what we are up against and why we are here! Even though you were the one to urge me to do this! I will not stand idly by while you insist on sabotaging us for no other reason than your whims.

"And you seem to forget that this does not concern you alone. While you have the luxury of lashing out, I am trapped in a stone, constantly at work ensuring our survival. It is not cooperation if I must constantly deal with your mood, Rethys!"

"Is this all because I ignored that one noble then?" He asked, flabbergasted at her for overreacting.

"No, not just one noble. Your hatred of them could jeopardize everything we do. Master yourself. Cope with the presence of nobles, and do it now while we are at relative safety. For once at the capital, we would be among mages powerful enough to pose a threat even to me, and there will be no room for mishaps."

"As if you didn't almost get us killed back there." He snapped back.

"Yes, I did! I failed you in our most critical of moments, and I apologize. And now I ask you not to do the same."

Rethys frowned. If at first he felt a strong need to argue back, now that Sevi admitted her own mistake it felt petty to keep going. And as anger subsided, it gave way to confusion and disappointment with himself.

"You make it sound so easy..." He sighed.

"It is not so difficult to put your biases aside when your interests are on the line." Sevi argued. "I did not ask of you to forget your dislike of them, only to remember that this is for our own gain. Do not let your magic fuel your hatred."

"But did you really have to do all of that just to tell me this?" He groaned with effort.

"We do not have the luxury of lenient methods. I apologize, but I will not coddle your feelings when we are in danger. You need to... how did you say it... ah yes. Rethys, you need to 'cut the shit', for both of our lives are on the line. Do not take our cooperation for granted, for just as I aid you, you aid me in turn."

"I understand." He replied.

"You are better than this. With a little patience, we will get through this." She encouraged; her voice mellower than before. "Going along with some snob noble customs is surely more tolerable than fighting daemons in underground catacombs..."

"You're right. But-"

"Lord Rethys!" A voice resounded from outside as the door shook. "Open the door, please."

The ice still held however, and more calls continued to pour in as Ehriman pleaded.

"Worry not, they have not heard a thing." Sevi remarked as the gemstone disappeared in a gust of red ether.

The weakness and pain that pervaded Rethys' whole being then subsided, and the entity's presence in the back of his mind vanished completely. His second heart also stabilized and began beating softly and rhythmically again, its inhuman strength spreading once more throughout his body.

He got up and, taking deep breaths to readjust, headed to the door, laying his hand on the ice and trying to make it subside. Yet he couldn't do that, for once the ice was made, it wouldn't go away. This was no ethereal effect after all, but a material one.

'You need to order it to break apart.' Sevi noted.

Doing as she instructed, he felt it once more, the rush of using this new element. It would evidently take some getting used to. The ice, meanwhile, being made of Rethys' magic, instantly obeyed his command and broke apart, falling to the ground in a gentle cascade of white and blue. It seemed that he could command the ice he made even after time passes, unlike the ethereal Origin that would quickly fade.

'I apologize for my harsh words.' Sevi sighed with a weak voice. 'And I... hope that you too would stand against me, were I to falter.'

"It's fine, I understand..." He nodded gravely.

And as he was about to open the door and apologize, Ehriman and half a dozen attendants burst into the room, grabbing him and dragging him with them back into the room.

"My apologies, Lord Rethys, but it will not do to let you walk about as you are."

"Wait what are you-"

Yet they would not wait, and though Rethys protested, he had evidently lost the right to be treated with reservations. The attendants had jobs to do, after all.

*****

An hour or so later, the young man, or rather boy now, looking into the mirror failed to recognize the frowning reflection as his.

Not only did he look as if he were thirteen or less now, with a gaunt, small stature, but his appearance itself had changed. His face had more or less remained the same, as far as he could tell, yet his features were sharper, especially his eyes, which now sported a pale blue color that somewhat masked their natural Origin glow, which in itself subsided greatly.

His hair had not changed, which confused him at first, seeing as Sevi was insistent on the whole thing, but then also felt a bit comforting. His appearance had changed enough to make him look sufficiently different, but not so much so that he was unrecognizable.

But that wasn't what had him so worked up. What did was the fact that those damned attendants, for all their so-called etiquette, had no respect whatsoever for personal space, and handled Rethys like he was a child. His now small body couldn't protest, and summoning his mage strength would've injured the attendants, thus forcing him to endure the humiliation.

And he didn't at all appreciate that.

'Would you calm down for a bit...' Sevi sighed for the umpteenth time. 'This is standard treatment for mages...'

By the end of the ordeal, he looked like a completely different person, clean and presentable as he was, and would've looked stranger if he hadn't rejected all the attendants' attempts at putting him in noble clothes, instead settling with plain yet still silken black pants and white shirt.

"Dinner is served, Lord Rethys." Ehriman announced as Rethys walked back into the main room.

Rethys stared at the middle-aged man, confused to the moon and back by his genuinely professional and genteel attitude. This was not what he expected from a noble dealing with a commoner orphan.

He sat down and, looking at the strangely assorted food, began eating. As expected, it all tasted heavenly, though Rethys' temperament kept him from enjoying everything.

'Pfft...' Sevi snickered, barely holding back her laughter. 'They must truly be confused as to whether they are caring for a boy or an ungracious cat!'

At least she was having fun... though he still wanted to give her a piece of his mind.

Eventually he finished with the food and, refusing dessert, saw the attendants clear the room and leave.

"I leave you for the night now, Lord Rethys." Ehriman announced with a small bow. "Ring the bell on the table if you require anything else. For now, I bid you a pleasant night."

And as the butler left and silently closed the door behind him, Rethys was left alone in the room, with only Sevi and the warm light of the hearth to keep him company. It felt strange, feeling real warmth after so long. It didn't feel right.

Neither did it feel right to be treated that way by a noble. That Ehriman wasn't pretending, he truly did treat Rethys with extreme politeness. He was a lesser noble, true, but still...

"I can see the conflict clearly written on your face, read it on your expression." Sevi spoke once the room was empty and quiet.

Rethys didn't respond to her, his eyes instead darting from the sight of his left hand, to the lavishly decorated room around him, and then back to his hand which was now covered in small, sharp icicles. It all felt so strange, having what he had lost back and something new with it.

The ice felt cold, but that sensation was pleasant and familiar. A new power was now within his grasp, waiting to be learnt and mastered. He manipulated this power easily, shifting ice to water and forming shapes with it, it was nothing like Origin, so poorly understood even by its sole user. He now finally had what felt like true magic, one that he understood and that responded to his wishes.

"I know what you must think, but I would not advise it." Sevi spoke out, as if hearing his thoughts. "It would do us no good if you were to dabble in this new element before enrolling into the academy."

He sighed. Her words made sense, but he felt restless regardless. He didn't at all feel like sleeping.

He stood and walked toward the enchanted hearth, turning it off by resting his hand on one of its magic circles. He saw the magical fire flicker a bit before extinguishing entirely, and as it did and he further disabled the room's hanging magical lights, darkness reigned.

'Oh yeah...' He thought, he couldn't get around in the dark anymore.

He then carefully walked back to his seat and reclined in it, feeling comfort in its softness, before summoning his Water magic once more. At least ether always glowed a bit, allowing him to see what he was doing.

He gazed at the icy chunks in his hand and lingered on their blue color. Water ether bore a blue color, yes, but all magical ice he has seen so far was either white or colorlessly clear altogether.

"Sevi, why is the ice so blue?" He asked.

"Hm? Ah, because of Origin of course." She noted. "You are unknowingly infusing a bit of it into your ice every time. I would not worry; it is simply a slight modifier and is undetectable at this scale. The blueness of the ice is also not a worry, it is hardly noticeable and would be dismissed as a personal quirk of your magic, and those are not uncommon."

"What does it do though?" He asked, staring intently at a more solid chunk of ice he had created.

"If I had to guess, it likely renders it more magically resistant. A useful effect."

"I see." He nodded. "So, what will happen tomorrow? When 'my case' is handled?"

"From what I overheard..." Sevi began. "You will be introduced to a noble house of Water users who would help you acclimate to both aristocratic magehood and your new element. An adoption, basically."

"Yeah, I guessed as much." He nodded.

"Huh?" Sevi paused "I thought you would display a much more... spirited reaction."

"Not really." Rethys shrugged. "It makes more sense of them to do that than let me about on my own. If anything, it's easier when I know what they want from me."

"I see... Well, what they want from you is simple, becoming a descendant of their line and carrying their legacy forward. Mages care little for pedigree, you see, and are more concerned with magical prowess and affinity, and you pass in that regard."

"Is that so..."

"Oh, and they will also quite probably try to match you with another descendant of theirs, to capitalize on your... uhm... future..." Sevi revealed.

"Great... And we'll still go through with it?"

"Yes..."

"Then why bother telling me at this point." Rethys sighed as he walked to the large canopy bed and threw himself on it. "Never mind."

He felt the soft fabric of the covers against his skin, and though at first he didn't feel like sleeping, it didn't take long for him to doze off.

When morning came, Rethys found the room once again swarmed by attendants, though this time they took the damned hint and kept their intrusiveness to a minimum. And once the morning procedures were over, Rethys was informed that he was to meet the Archduke of Aldeno himself.

Guided by Ehriman, he walked through hall after hall, passing offices full of mages in heated discussions and rooms hosting nobles of all kinds. Many passersby in the resplendent corridors of the castle threw curious glances at him, yet he paid them no mind, instead wearing a face of cool aloofness and indifference.

His demeanor would have been different, were he allowed to extend his senses and immerse himself in the magical aura of the place, but as it stood, nothing about this place impressed him. If anything, all the richness around him only aggravated him more and more.

'I will not ask of you to flatter and bootlick, but at the very least do not make a bad first impression, is that much alright?' Sevi asked.

He made an almost imperceptible sign with his hand to express his agreement, a code Sevi devised for the two to communicate without the need for Rethys to vocalize things and risk having to deal with questions he had no answers for.

Eventually the duo of boy and butler reached an office on the higher floors of the luxurious castle, and passing through the Archduke's antechamber, which had an old, grey-haired noble waiting in it, he was guided inside the office proper.

Rethys was greeted then with the sight of an expansive room generously decorated and, from what his senses told him, also thoroughly enchanted. Everything from the Archduke's desk to the bookshelves and mounted decorations emitted strong auras that Rethys could clearly feel, as the whole room shimmered with dense magic.

It was nothing like the deteriorated sights he saw in Yvtar that, while impressive, remained dead and inactive. Here instead the room's magical feel was so intense that even Rethys with his innately high magical resistance still felt somewhat stifled.

He then moved from the magical aspect of the room to the physical one, seeing a dark-haired man in his mid-twenties sitting behind the main table of the office, the Archduke of Aldeno himself, and Rethys' object of generous contempt.

Still, he remembered his promise to Sevi and squashed his irritation, moving on to those sitting on a spacious couch before a glass table gilded with gold. A man in his later forties, a woman of similar age, and a young girl of around fifteen or so.

Their outwards appearance was more or less in line with regular noble attire, silken elaborate clothes, yet they strangely all shared the same features, with white hair and blue eyes. Their magical auras also felt basically the same, and carried a certain comforting familiarity, one of water and frost.

'They must be them.' Rethys thought.

The older man especially radiated a powerful aura, and his white mantle confirmed Rethys' suspicions. This was an Archmage, either an especially powerful unbound mage or an ascendant altogether, though Rethys couldn't tell.

"I present Rethys of Kalantor." Ehriman announced with a deep bow, motioning for Rethys to do the same.

He remembered the middle-aged butler taking the time earlier to inform him of etiquette, in a conversation he didn't really pay attention to. Yet even if he did, Rethys would not bow, and would not budge on it.

'A simple bow would not have killed you...' Sevi sighed.

From the looks of it, the nobles present picked up on the faint defiance that Rethys radiated, and to his complete surprise, ignored it entirely.

The white-haired nobleman stood first, approaching Rethys and crouching down to bring their eyes level with one another. His blue eyes shone with pity and sadness, and then, understanding. And before Rethys could react, the older man, an illustrious Archmage of the Kingdom, hugged him.

He couldn't even manage the simplest thought as he froze in his tracks. From all the actions and reactions he imagined from the nobles, none even came close to what had actually happened, leaving Rethys completely stunned.

"You know cold, but you don't have to endure it anymore." The nobleman patted him on the back.

When Rethys' brain resumed function, he felt all sorts of feelings rush through his head, feelings of understanding and a certain closeness, he felt that this man understood him, that he wasn't like the others and that he could trust him.

Yet just as quickly, those feelings were replaced with acrid thoughts of utter disgust and revulsion, and he broke out of the embrace, stumbling back and falling as he did.

He looked around the room, everyone was looking around with surprise written all over their faces, their mouths agape. Whether that was because of the Archmage's gesture or Rethys' refusal of it, he couldn't tell.

The Archmage himself, meanwhile, simply stayed as he was. He did not seem offended, only more sympathetic and understanding, which ironically enough alarmed Rethys even more.

"Even coldest ice, has to one day thaw, flowing as gentle water." The white-mantled mage spoke in a deep but soft voice as he extended a hand to Rethys.

Rethys hesitated, but eventually took the older man's hand, shocking even himself.

The Archmage then coolly and quietly walked back to his seat, earning him confused glances from everyone in the room, his family included.

"Ahem..." The Archduke cleared his throat and stood. "Rethys! Come, have a seat, for we have much to talk about.

After the Archmage's strange display threw Rethys completely off track, he just nodded as Ehriman guided him to the couch opposite the noble family's.