By Way of Blind Faith

The ominous black fog around Saiph was quite intimidating. It whipped and whirled close around him, leaving him no space to breathe. But, it was distinctly fog, not smoke, judging by its smell. Saiph could keenly pick up on the light vapor odor percolating into his nostrils.

Coughing and hacking the fog up, Saiph wondered what the hell was going on. Was this Hell? The last thing the young boy remembered was falling into the silo- an absurd distance as far as he was concerned. It was very possible that he straight up died when he fell that far, but still, that didn't line up with the rumors of how Hell worked. As far as he knew, one had to physically travel to Hell to get there. After death…

He mentally shrugged it off and refocused his attention of the black vapor around him. It was toxic, or something. Saiph didn't know what was up with it but it certainly made breathing a chore.

It didn't matter why or how he was here- he was. He couldn't even see his surroundings through the fog so it didn't matter, anyway. First, the fog was the priority.

Bolting forward as fast as he could, Saiph tried to think of ways what was happening to him in regards to this fog. He was running forward, so he clearly wasn't still in the silo or else he would have ran straight into the wall.

Saiph's thought process started to reach a halt, however, as he kept inhaling the fog. He started to slow down his sprint and slowed down, falling over onto the ground.

As he slammed into the ground hard -- by result of him forgetting to bracing himself -- Saiph felt no real pain from the impact. The sudden realization led to him thinking about the rest of his body, his keen self-awareness momentarily unrivaled. He focused on his lungs. They didn't hurt per se, but just were physically disabled and hard to move.

Saiph gently closed his eyes and stopped thinking about such pointless matters. Who cared what was going on? He was tired. He wanted to take a nap.

Just as he started to drift to sleep, the whirling fog around him subsided and Saiph felt life and invigoration seep into him from some unknown source.

He quickly got up off the ground and looked around. Some strange white light counteracted the black fog and was reacting with it. It looked as if the white light was devouring the black fog and disappearing with it. The black fog was still inhibiting his vision, but it was clearly dimming and dissipating.

After a few moments, the rest of the blackness faded away into nothingness alongside the strange white light, leaving Saiph alone in some form of room.

This room wasn't as endless as he had previously thought, somehow only being a few meters across despite his prior travel length being many times longer. In terms of physical appearance, Saiph wasn't quite sure. The walls, floor, and ceiling were rounded out, almost like the room was some form of ellipsoid. However, the room's actual appearance couldn't be determined by the boy. It faded in and out of reality, flickering like a flame. Outside of the room, there was nothing. Not blackness- absolutely nothing. The concept of space itself seemed to not exist beyond these strange walls. Saiph wasn't sure if his rough evaluation was even close to correct, but that was how it felt to him.

"Hello?" the cripplingly alone boy called out in no particular direction.

"Is anyone there?" This time it was slightly louder, but nothing came of it.

Saiph walked around the empty room a bit and felt around, trying to see if anything would come of it to no avail. Soon, Saiph felt himself fading away and then, nothing.

…

Fever dreams galore- that was the life Saiph lived for a while. Everything was just an abstract blur as he fell in and out of consciousness tens of times over and over.

Eventually, Saiph opened his eyes and felt… alive. He had a horrid headache and felt as though his throat and mouth had hosted a desert as he slept, but besides that, he was somewhat awake- the fever broke.

The boy perceived his surroundings slowly and took it all in one step at a time. He was in his room, naked. Both of his legs had sticks parallel to them with linen wrap of some sort wrapped tightly around them. His left arm was the same.

Trying to take a deep breath to relieve his minor feelings of asphyxiation, Saiph felt an incredible agony erupt in his chest and quickly took shallow, bated breaths once more.

The poor boy tried to raise his voice slightly to gather someone's attention but was inhibited by the gnawing pain in his chest.

Time passed. At some point, Saiph's mom came in to check up on him. She didn't say much and just barely acknowledged that he was awake.

Soon after she left, his father came in and took a seat at the end of the bed and gazed at his son momentarily before speaking.

"Saiph, I'm sorry that this happened to you. You know I had to do what I did, right?" His voice seemed very genuine but Saiph wasn't acknowledging it.

After a few moments of awkward silence, the older man continued.

"Saiph, kiddo. C'mon. Look at me. I'm your dad. Your only father in the whole wide world. This War is Ours- we're in this together, kiddo. You know you can trust me."

Saiph merely stared back with icy daggers sprouting from his eyes.

"Bah, you're no fun. I'm not trying to beguile you here, really. You see, if I was given the same sentence as you, I would have died. I'm just too old these days. So, thank you, for taking the blame for your old man."

Saiph felt a wave of shock run down him. His father had never thanked him before, as far as he could remember. Maybe he really was being genuine. Maybe he wasn't really at fault. Maybe his father could be forgiven.

It was tempting, it was -- to just let go of everything and pretend that this had all never happened in the first place -- but Saiph still had questions. Everything was still behind smoke and mirrors.

"Then, Pa, why did this happen in the first place? Where were you these past few days? The quota could have easily been met. Then this scenario would never have come up." Saiph's voice was raw and raspy, but still audible.

Without missing a beat, the father replied, "My boy, I'm so sorry. My joints just aren't doing it for me these days; I have to take much longer breaks than I did in the past. Time is a fearful thing, my son- remember that. It will kill you just as decidedly as any Mage ever could."

Saiph sighed in relief. That made sense. He shouldn't be hard on his father, for he had his own hardships. It was a son's responsibility to help out their father as they got older, and Saiph was doing just that.

He was always skeptical of his father's nihilism in regards to the Academy, but truly they were stepping over the line. Mages should be benevolent to those less fortunate than themselves, anyway.

"Pa -- no, Father -- I swear to you that I will become a Mage of the Academy and make them take away your quota and endless laboring as soon as I do." Saiph made a solemn vow while looking his father dead in the eye, ignoring the clawing pain from his chest and throat as he spoke.

Immediately, an overwhelming grateful look emerged from the older man's face.

"My son, thank you for understanding. I promise I won't drink as much these next few weeks in preparation for getting you into the Academy and won't push as much labor off on you while you do so."

Twice! He had been thanked by his father twice now! Saiph felt rejuvenated, his spirit filling with confidence- enough to walk out of these casts right now.

Still, something didn't add up.

"Pa, didn't you say I should go to town to get some training in a field of magic beforehand? If I do, none of that would happen anyway."

His father froze up momentarily but soon melted back into a more comfortable look.

"Did I say that? I must have been drunk. No, Saiph, you'll stick here with us. You're too wounded to get into town anyhow, so just forget about the matter."

Shock stuck Saiph and he felt his blood drain from his face, but he just didn't know what to say in response.

Did he dare directly rebuke his father right now? The man was in a good mood, so maybe it would bear fruit. No, no. That would be bad. No matter the mood, he wasn't a man to be rebuked. That wouldn't fare well.

Saiph silently pondered his dilemma while his father sat across from him with a knowing smirk stretched across his face.

"I'll be off now. Rest up, kiddo."

Saiph was too busy thinking about the situation at hand to even hear the words of departure.

Alone in his room, the boy thought long and hard about what he was going to do with his remaining weeks before the legendary application process.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Saiph's mind. He needed some water. He tried to raise his voice but it hurt too much.

Alone in a room, the young boy pouted as he apparently had yet another matter to browse over mentally and try to solve.