Revelations

After those words, Orpal fell to his knees. His world was crumbling beneath his feet. All he knew, all he had planned and dreamed about, had disappeared in the space of a single word.

Disowned.

It meant that he was dishonorably banished from his own family, leaving him with nothing he could call his own. He had just become a nameless and penniless orphan.

When the parents of the other boys arrived, things escalated quickly. Seeing their boys broken and unconscious in a foreign house, stinking of their own feces and urine, they demanded an explanation.

They were all long-time friends, so it was easy for Raaz to make them calm down enough to have a civil conversation.

"You," Raaz ordered the nameless one "explain what you did."

Despite still being shocked, he was already angry enough to return to his old self.

'If I must go down, I'll bring them all with me. We'll share the same destiny, so I won't be alone. I refuse to be the only one to pay for this!' He thought.

The nameless one confessed that he had always hated his brother, and how he had planned to teach him discipline and respect with the help of his friends.

When he had finished, everyone in the room was appalled, refusing to believe those words. They had always known Orpal as a good and kind young man.

"Lith, can you tell us what happened here exactly?"

Lith acted like he was reluctant to leave his mother's embrace however, after a dramatic pause, he stepped forward. He made sure to emphasize his wounds by limping and holding his left arm. He winced with pain at every step.

"As you all know, my family has a lot of expenses, and my sister is ill. Since I am quite talented in chore magic, Selia pays me to clean her house. I give the money to my parents, to help them make ends meet."

'I have carefully picked the words for this speech.' Lith thought. 'If they don't feel pity and compassion for a beaten up five year old after this sob story, these guys are full blown psychos.' Lith thought.

"Today miss Selia is out of town. I was alone in here when your sons suddenly barged in and started beating me." He held out his arms, turning around to let them see how battered he was.

"I tried to defend myself as my dad taught me, but they were too big and strong." Lith started sobbing again. "I had to use magic to defend myself, I was so scared! I really thought I was going to die." He returned to Elina's embrace, weeping non-stop.

"Poor kid." Said Bromann, Rizel's father, picking up the wooden stick from his son's hand.

"This piece of trash even dared to use his grandfather's only memento. Elina, Raaz, Lith, I offer you my most sincere apologies. I have failed as a man and as a father, to raise such a snake in the grass. Whatever your decision is, I will comply without questions. But first…"

Bromann splashed Rizel's face with a bucket of dirty water to bring him back to consciousness.

He needed to hear the truth from his own son. He still could not fully believe his own eyes.

"D… dad? What are you doing here?" Rizel held his throbbing chin when he suddenly recalled what had happened.

All the eyes were on him, including Lith's. The same cold eyes that glowed with blue energy right before he would unleash a bolt of lightning.

"I ask the questions, young man. If you don't want another beating or worse, you'd better tell the truth. What in the gods' names were you all doing here?"

Terrified by both his father and his tormentor, Rizel could only speak the truth.

One after the other, the four remaining boys were woken up and forced to tell the whole story. One of them tried to expose Lith's torture, but his father made him shut up with a strong slap in the face.

"Five against a little kid and you have the gall to blame him for going all out? Our families have been friends from generations. Your actions dishonored us all! When we get back home, I will show you what real torture is!"

'What a moron!' Lith inwardly laughed. 'Their credibility is less than zero, they can tell whatever they want. It will only appear like the pathetic excuse of a criminal caught red-handed.'

"Raaz, what do you want us to do?" Bromann asked.

"I am going to disown Orpal, and then report all of them for attempted murder. I won't ask anything from you. We all know how hard it is being a parent, especially in moments like this. I just wanted you to hear it from me before I go to the village chief."

"I will not disown my son. Not yet at least." Bromann said. "But I can promise you that I will do nothing to defend him in any way from the consequences of his actions. And when he gets back home, I will make sure that he will never have the opportunity to harm your family again!"

They all went to Lutia, where the village chief listened to the six boys' confessions before pronouncing the sentence.

"After hearing all the facts and testimony, I hereby sentence the six of you to four hours of pillory, where you will be shaved of all your hair and whipped ten times for your crimes. After that, you will spend three days in jail to reconsider your actions.

Any objections?" All those present shook their heads.

"I have a question." Lith said.

"For me or for the prisoners, young man?"

"For them. Can I ask them?"

"But of course. Ask them whatever you want."

Lith nodded and moved in front of Rizel.

"Did Trion know?"

"Of course he did!" Orpal screamed. "He has always stood by my side, unlike you, Leech." Lith ignored him.

"Did he?"

"No." Rizel looked at Orpal with eyes filled with disgust. "We planned everything when we were alone. Orpal said that he didn't trust Trion enough. That Trion is a spineless coward and that he feared that he would rat us out."

"Thanks." Lith then spoke to the village chief again.

"Could you please reduce his sentence? His sincerity helps my whole family. It clears our doubts and my brother's name as well."

"But of course! If the victim asks for mercy, how could I possibly refuse? Rizel will only receive five lashes, and after the pillory time has passed, his family is free to bring him home. Is that okay with you?���

Lith nodded, and Bromann shook Lith's hand while his wife was weeping with joy.

"Thanks, Lith. That means a lot for my poor Lisa. I will not forget your kindness. I'm sure you'll become a great man, just like your father."

Lith was completely satisfied with that outcome.

'I didn't know that disowning a son, especially the firstborn, was possible. Everything went even better than I imagined. Orpal's friends can't wait to get some alone time in jail with him, and once his sentence is over, he is doomed.

'Either someone from the village adopts him, something that I find hard to believe, or he will be deported to the nearest orphanage. I hoped to get rid of Trion too, but maybe that's for the best.

'I don't think my parents can bear losing two sons at once. Between their happiness and getting even with that idiot, they come first by a landslide.' Lith thought.

The following days were really hard for Raaz, Elina, and Trion. The couple needed quite some time before overcoming their grief.

It was really hard for them to accept that the kind and bright boy that they brought up for almost twelve years was gone forever. Even worse, they started to suspect that the Orpal they knew never really existed.

Thinking back about all the bad things he did and said over the years, he might as well have been deceiving them all along, 

Trion was the one having the hardest time. He had lost his favorite sibling and his family's trust at the same time. Despite Rizel having cleared his name, the suspicions remain. How could he have been so close to Orpal and yet never notice anything?

'I can't blame them. In their shoes, I would think of me as either a liar or a complete idiot.' Trion didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Lith, Rena, and Tista, instead, were having the time of their lives, even if they did their best to avoid their parents from noticing.

They would get more and better food, clothes, and they didn't have to tolerate Orpal's mean words nor his petty jokes anymore. Plus, there were all the gifts that the five families sent them as an apology.

Both the girls had stopped considering Orpal as a brother from the day he had made the proposal to get rid of Tista, calling her a cripple.

Lith, however, had never considered Orpal as a brother. His only worry was for his parents, so he tried to lessen their burden as much as he could.

Lith's magic was now strong enough that he could till and plow the fields with earth magic.

He could also hunt for much bigger prey. His aim was now set on deer, boars, and bear, all of whose pelt could be sold for more than a pretty penny.

The time for the spring festival was nearing, and Lith wanted some extra pocket money to buy something nice for his parents and sisters. Trion was still a stranger to him.

The spring festival was held midspring, during the equinox, to celebrate the time when the light finally overcame the darkness and cold of winter.

Lith was happily playing around the Trawn woods, looking for the best opportunity to kill a huge boar.

'Dammit, it's neck and skin are too thick to break with my current level of spirit magic. Fire and thunder could easily put it down, but that would mean damaging either the pelt or the meat. I need to get creative.'

The boar's movements were easy to predict since it would always charge in a straight line. Thanks to air fusion, Lith's body was fast enough to dodge the charges with ease, as long as he managed to prevent the beast from coming too close.

'When an ox went mad, my father told me that the best way to put it down is to strike at the legs, instead of the head. Once you take away their mobility, beasts like this one are easy prey.'

At the next charge, Lith conjured a thick layer of ice before dodging. When the boar stepped on the ice, it lost its footing and spun like a top.

The boar crashed against the huge oak Lith had aligned it with, its bones snapping on impact. Lith closed in enough to not miss his next shot, but always keeping a safe distance.

'Cornered prey is the most dangerous prey. Always respect the prey, never underestimate it. It only needs one hit to kill you.' Lith remembered Selia's teachings.

Lith made a finger gun, aligning it with his target before shooting an ice arrow that penetrated through the boar's right eye, puncturing its brain.

The beast collapsed to the ground, but Lith shot another arrow in the left eye too, just to be on the safe side.

"Okay, it's dead. Now the problem is how the heck do I carry it out of the woods? My spirit magic may not be enough to carry a several hundred kilograms dead animal all the way back to Selia's house. Even if I actually manage to do it, how can I explain it?"

Lith was nervously tapping with a finger on a nearby tree, trying to think of a solution before he had to fight to defend his game, when the dead animal suddenly disappeared.

"What the f*ck? Since when do boars vanish into thin air? Who's there?"

He promptly activated Life Vision, scanning the surroundings in search of his enemy, but the only living beings he could find were small birds and rodents.

"Okay, this is getting creepy, but I need to get my boar back."

The boar appeared back on the ground, very close to Lith, making him jump away in fright.

"Why are you messing with me? Who are you?" Lith screamed while checking out the best escape route.

'An invisible enemy could easily kill me. Screw the boar, I need to get out of here fast.' He thought.

'There is no need to escape.' A gentle feminine voice replied in his mind. 'I'm not your enemy, my host.'

"Okay, if you want to scare me to death, you're doing a great job. What do you mean by host? Where the heck are you?" Lith kept looking around, the enemy somehow was untraceable even by his magical senses.

'Stop looking around, host. I'm where you put me. Around your neck.'

Lith instinctively grabbed the pouch and threw it away. He could finally see that both the life force and the mana flow of the stone were bigger than ever.

Lith had always kept it in a blind spot, and since it was useless, he forgot to check it with Life Vision since the day of the ambush.

"Okay, I hate riddles. Tell me who or what you are, or I'll leave. As much as it pains me to lose such a game, it's not worth having a creepy, mysterious stone talking in my head 24/7."

'Please, don't!' To voice turned desperate. 'I'll die without my host.'

"Enough with the riddles!" Lith said. "What the heck are you?"

'Our minds are linked, it's easier to show rather than tell.'

Suddenly Lith's mind was filled with images and memories that were not his own. He could have thought he had been teleported away, if the images weren't full of holes, allowing him to still see part of the woods through them.

'I'm sorry, but my powers are almost depleted, this is the best I can do.'

Lith could see a gigantic tower, whose vault was so deep it could reach the bottom of the ocean, it's top so high it looked like it could touch the sky. He could perceive that the whole structure was a giant magical artifact, pulsing with mana.

At some point, the owner of the tower had died, and without their mana to nourish its core, the tower began to decline. Centuries passed, while the tower kept looking for a next host, using illusions to send away those it deemed not talented enough or unworthy.

Over time, the tower spent all its powers, and to avoid death it had been forced to self-sacrifice.

To prolong its existence, it started to consume its own walls, floors, everything within itself, even its memories.

More centuries had passed, now only the tower core was left, barely the size of a pebble. It had nothing left, except for its sense of self. Preferring death over becoming a mindless tool, the tower core attempted a desperate gamble.

It sent a signal that any being with the bare minimum of magical power to sustain its life could perceive. The clock was ticking, every second that passed, the tower core could feel its life slip away.

When the first one to answer its call turned out to be a Ry, the tower core had tried to communicate with the beast, but to no avail. The beast's mind was too different from the first host, making the mind link impossible.

Hope was lost, the tower core could only wait for its end.

But then a savior arrived, rescuing the tower core from the beast's maw. He even used his own blood to bond himself with the tower core, right before it fell into a deep slumber to recover from its wounds.

The images disappeared, leaving Lith alone with the pouch and the dead boar.

Lith's mind was overwhelmed, incapable of any thought outside stupid jokes.

"Does that make us married or what?"