Mystery and Promise

Gerard's POV:

Gerard moved through the snow with a heavy heart, he carried his sister, Gia and headed towards Mourne town where he would have the guild send a letter to Shadowmere manor, informing their father and Niss's family of Gia's passing. He was going to have a carriage bring him and Gia back to Rivenwood so the journey would be much faster than the one coming out here. 

Lost in his thoughts of what was to come, Gerard did not notice the black cloaked figure ahead of him in the road. A fairly large man dressed in all black with long jet black hair and short beard carried a crimson red blade hanging from his waist and waited patiently for Gerard to cross his path. 

'This guy doesn't look like a bandit, why is he just waiting here?'

Gerard kept a watchful eye on him as he approached but the man did not take any action besides looking back at him until he was close.

"Young man, I have a wonderful proposal for you!" The suspicious man revealed a wide smile as he took down his hood revealing his face more, he had burning crimson eyes and a scar running from the top of his right eyebrow down to his jawbone. 

"Who are you? What kind of proposal comes from a man in the middle of nowhere?" Gerard had one hand on the hilt of sword and the other arm clung tightly to Gia's blanket. 

The man chuckled inwardly and looked at the young boy, pitying his weakness and inability to save the one he carried dead over his shoulder. 

"You can still save her." His eyes looking past Gerard directly at Gia's body.

"W-What? Don't toy with me! She is gone and I will bring her home and lay her to rest!" Gerard was disturbed and in disbelief at the man's comment. 

"You are wrong, I am able to clearly see her soul still lingers around you." The man paused for a second as if looking deeply into some unknown space. "Ahh.. you do not realize it, you are twins born with all affinities split between the two of you. Her soul is bound to yours, meant to be born as one, and I can give you the power to bring her back." 

"There is only one thing you must do.... I will grant you some power, but there is a boy, claimed by another of my kind. You will kill him, and only then will I grant you the power to save your sister."

Gerard stared at the man thinking if anything he said was true, with his hesitation the man released a flicker of his aura to prove his words held weight. Gerard couldn't breathe falling to his knees in the snow, his blood felt as if it would seep out of his body and soak the ground. 

"You can see I have the power to back up my words." The man stated simply as he waited for Gerard to recover.

"You are truly powerful, please... I want to save my sister." Gerard remained on his knees sinking his head into the snow in front of him. "I will do as you wish, taking one random life is nothing if it will bring my dear sister back to me."

The man reached his finger into the air and drew several symbols in thick red strings of mana.

"Brehon!"

The assembly of runic symbols formed a magic circle that held more power than Gerard had ever seen. 

"Do not worry, It is a simple contract of what we discussed. If you sign it, your dreams will become reality by my hand." The man held and even tone and looked at Gerard with longing eyes. Although Gerard couldn't tell what the man was really staring at was the two swirling souls inside of him. 

"Release a bit of your aura, place your hand on the contract and say 'Brehon'. Then we can proceed."

Gerard looked down at the blanket that wrapped up Gia's body and he remembered the helpless and useless feeling he felt deep in his heart.

"Brehon!"

Glowing light erupted from the magic circle, swirling around Gerard flying inside him and surrounding his heart. It didn't only affect him but also Gia's body, as ripples of the mans magic ran through the blanket containing her. 

"Good! Good! You are wise! Now, come with me." The man was beside Gerard instantly grabbing his shoulder and Gia's blanket.

Whooosh!

Reddish darkness surrounded them for a moment before wildly crashing in on it self disappearing, leaving nothing but the empty, silent and frozen road towards Mourne town. 

....

Back to present,

Niss had realized something while he meditated, focusing on his aura. He could see strands of the foreign mana Nyx had granted him flowing wildly around in his body, he began pulling them outward from his body and purifying them before adding these strands more harmoniously into the ethereal shell that was his aura. Once Niss was satisfied with his efforts he finished out the hour he had before he had to go to breakfast by continuing cultivating. 

Niss was up and out of the inn, asking one of the town guards directions toward Frost manor. Heading there to meet his friends Niss also knew that impressing Duke Frost would be beneficial to his goals so he calmed his mind and moved forward with determination. 

.....

Inside one of the many extravagant rooms of Frost manor, a large group ate what would basically be considered a feast to most. Niss was seated in between the two pretty young girls, Lysandra on his right and Siarra on his left. Trevor was across from him and sat next to Curt on his side of the table, although he wasn't bothered not having either lady sit with them since he had more room to spread his legs and eat like a beast. Beside Lysandra was her father, Duke Erik Frost sitting at the head of the table with a bright smile, relief and a sense of pride shown on his face this calm and cold morning. 

"I wanted to take the time to thank you all for taking care of my sweet Lys, she does not have any friends an....."

"DADDY!!" Lys was burning bright red in the face after being exposed by her father.

"Ahem... well anyways, yes I wanted to thank you all for protecting Lys long enough for me to reach her. It truly means the world to me as she is my only blood and I could not stand to loose her."

Lys had a sweet look on her face now, her embarrassment faded, replaced by the deep bond she and her father had. 

"Yes, my father is a bit sentimental and overprotective so of course he's going to be very thankful to you guys." She turned to her father, "But daddy you don't need to do anything over the top, we just formed a group at the guild and cleared our first dungeon together." 

She said this and became flushed red again as she said it, she realized it seemed a bit harsher than she meant since she did already consider them her friends. 

Niss was very perceptive and knew he wanted to impress the Duke, so he seized the chance. "Well that is true but I would like to think we are all already great friends! Right Lys?" 

When they heard the nickname that only her father ever used to refer to Lysandra everyone's eyes widened at his forwardness.