Dad's past.

LANCE

Now it's Magnus's time to feel awkward. Dad is refusing to look at me. And I refused to stand down and consider letting go of this matter. I already did earlier. Magnus is in the shower, so of course we can't talk in the bath. But now we have all night to discuss things, I won't let it go.

Not until he gives me a good reason for this. Magnus hinted Dad wasn't ready to talk yet so he spoke first.

"Lance, your Dad said he was forsaken in the land of his forefathers. I may not know what exactly happened but I'm sure his memories we're entirely wiped out. And there's no way to recover them unless…"

"Unless what?" Magnus eyed Dad warily.

"Unless other beings with mana or blessing removed the enchantments of memory erasure. I'm suspecting the Faeries are behind this. But I don't get the point in doing so."

"What's mana?"

"Mana are the powers Faeries wield. Blessings are what the Deities and Eklektos use."

I frown. "So what's the difference?" Magnus pondered. "Not sure what, I just know the blessings flowed from the realms of the Deities, while mana is embedded in the Faeries' bodies. To maximize its potency, they absorb human souls."

"Say what?"

Magnus shifted on his seat. "I told you the Faeries has tyranny across the human realm right? Apparently, after they have known the Eklektos are from here they moved their main base, the crazy super powerful with Class 3 and up are settling somewhere around here to hunt you down. And that also means they'll be killing more people to suck up their souls to give them more mana."

A repulsing fire burned in my stomach. I thought what I did to the cornfields, for consuming their life force was terrible – I couldn't imagine that there was more. A lot more horrible I can't even swallow the image when I tried to picture it out.

"Then we got to stop them. But wait – what does that have to do with Dad?" I asked, giving Dad the look. He met my eyes then averted them again, stubbornly staring down the floor.

"Well, Rank Elders condemning a Gifted People citizen is no great feat. Rank Elders don't do that often – except the Rank Ruler ordered them to or worse – that certain someone betrayed the kingdom. Believe me, forsaking the land of forefathers means he's no longer welcome to step into the land of the magical realm. And that concurs banishment, into the human realm, as a new slave for the Faeries."

My ears were ringing with Magnus's guarded voice. No wonder he's throwing distrustful glances at Dad. No wonder Magnus acts – different ever since he heard the real identity of my Dad. He's on guard. Weighing what are the chances of my Dad being the spy of the Faeries.

And considering what the 'Twylyth' said about traps… Deep down in my gut I wish this foreboding feeling is wrong. I wish this isn't real and it was just my misunderstanding. Dad looks terrible when Mom died. Dad trained me hard because he had a dream of me in danger. He prepared me… That should mean something…

At last, Dad sighed and straighten his back.

"Alright, I'll tell you." He takes a deep breath.

"When I was a resident of Pisces Kingdom, our King is corrupt. The economy and the people's health are collapsing. But the King and his loyal subjects couldn't care less. Me and my fellow men revolts. At that time, all the Rankers are gathered at the main kingdom, the Capricorn, so summoning for help is as close as impossible. No one was allowed to step outside. We are locked behind our city walls. Driven to death by starvation and corruption. In fact, our attempt to revolt proves nothing to change the King's ways. We were caught in the end. Tortured, then banished. Half of my men were fed to the Beasts, the others that are left behind, including me, are sold to the Faeries."

"Is that even allowed?" I asked, looking back and forth to both of them.

"No, it's not. But during the reign of the current Rank Ruler large illegal slave auction takes place. He ordered all the Rankers to stationed either outside of the Gifted People territories and kill some Beasts or stay at the walls of Capricorn Kingdom to guard the people."

"Why?"

Magnus slumped his shoulders. "Because other kingdoms, like Pisces and Virgo hated all the Rankers. I never got to dig deeper into the story as it was covered up. There was also the treaty between kingdoms to never get involved in each other's affairs unless requested. So I never got the chance."

I thought kingdom names like 'Capricorn' and 'Pisces' were just a coincidence. But the mention of Virgo confirms my stupid suspicion that they named their kingdoms after the 12 Zodiac Sign. They can't have possibly named their deities 'Pisces the Deity of Fish' or 'Virgo the Deity of Virgins' did they?

"I'm sorry to hear that, Dan. How many years have passed since then?" Magnus asked. Dad looked up at him.

"That was twenty-five years ago. Me and my other twelve comrades have indeed been subjected to slavery and torture in the hands of the Faeries. And when these newly captured humans from this realm got dragged on our feet, we were given a chance for freedom." He paused. Getting paler by the second.

Magnus and I are almost on our seats. Waiting for him to continue.

"This woman said...she said.. if we carved out the heart of those people with their souls entrapped, we could go free. Have a fresh start in the human realm. At that time, we were desperate for relief - from the tortures, from the maddening hell experience they put us through that not one of us hesitated to kill the mortal men bound in chains..." Dad is stuttering and sweating so bad I'm afraid his heart will burst from retelling his past.