Chapter 2

Lucian sighed as he looked through the reports. What he wouldn't give to just put them down and join his mother in the medic's tent and help those in pain instead of sitting in his own command tent reading reports. But certain things must be done. He already felt a headache coming on at his forehead. He should really delegate this task to someone. The only question was, to whom? Lucian had to pick someone he trusted implicitly. Some of the documents here needed his signature. Such as the approval to deploy a battalion of troops to foil one of Paras's envoy carrying supplies back to the capital. Lucian had to think on it.

Several hours later, when Lucian was thoroughly bored with the reports by then, he threw down his last one with a smirk to the offending document. Time to do something much more useful, Lucian thought. He strode out of his tent towards the medic's tent where he was sure his mother would be at. His two guards that were guarding the entrance to his tent, proceeded to follow him. It was another annoying thing that came with his station. But Lucian had already resigned himself to it. He only needed one near call of death to sympathize with their case on guarding him.

Inside the medic's tent, Freyja Celi was talking to one of the injured soldiers. He had a head wound and it looked like one or two broken ribs as well. They both looked at him when he entered. His mother smiled, while the soldier gave a bow with his head.

"My Lord," the soldier spoke. "Have you come to keep us wounded ones company?"

Lucian snorted, a smile tugging on his lips. "Rhinian, only you would come back and try and jest."

"Ah, my lord, if you don't jest, how would you look at yourself later? For me, I prefer to jest, because then everything is not so bleak."

The light was dim in his workroom but Granius needed the room to be that dim. The formula he was currently working with was very volatile in nature. He took the yellow chemical by his right hand and the blue one at his left. With careful precision, he tipped over the yellow solution into the blue. The vial hissed with smoke and turned into a deep blood red color. Granius laughed in relief. The solution had worked. Now all that was left was for him to give it Ales and the change would happen.

Ales would be turning ten tomorrow. Granius was resigned to another time where more secrets would be revealed to his young charge. Time was running short. Granius knew that it was only a matter of time before Paras found them. He only had to reveal all before he was killed so that Ales would know of everything he had to do and of what he was. A few more years and his old teacher's intelligence would find him, and Ales. The boy had to have all the training he could get before then.

So resigned but determined, Granius carried the vial of solution he was carrying out of his workroom to the boy. He found Ales deep in his meditation exercises that he had been told to do. The boy had heart, and he was prone to anger a lot. Sometimes, it was not the boy's fault, but if a fight started then he would finish it.

Ales was sitting cross-legged on his own bed. Like always, the bed was made. The dark blue covers to the bed were pulled up and over the pillow and not a wrinkle in sight except where the boy was sitting on. There was a little night table beside the bed and there were books sitting on it. The boy himself never opened his eyes. He was still unaware of the presence of his guardian in his room. Granius took it upon himself to wait. It was hazardous if he were to try and pull Ales out of his meditation. Particularly as he saw that Ales was not just doing only his meditation with it. He was exercising some of his powers with it as well. Pulling someone out just like that could put him or her in shock. So Granius waited.

Presently, Ales came out of his meditations an hour later. He opened his eyes and found his guardian looking at him from his chair at his study table. Granius's young ward cocked his head to the side inquisitively, an eyebrow going up in question. His eyes fell to the vial of liquid held in the scientist's hands.

"You've made it," Ales said in a neutral voice. His eyes gave away nothing now.

"Yes. I have," Granius told him solemnly. "It is time now, I think, to tell you more of where you came from. Before you take this and all changes."

"You will tell me more of Father and Mother and my siblings?" Ales asked, trying to suppress the eagerness in his voice.

"That, and more," Granius said. "Listen to what I have to say. Wait until I am finished before you ask you questions."

Ales nodded to indicate that he understood, keeping his silence.

"Your Father, was the last Emperor of the empire," Granius, "His name was Finian and your Mother's was Calor. Your siblings were Starin, Zamir, Piran and Aurele. Before I took you away, your Father was alive and well. People loved him, because unlike the other Emperors before him, he was a just and kind one. There was a sorcerer who wanted power. More power than he had at the time. He was not content with what he had. So he conspired to take the throne."

"There was a time when Paras cared for naught save his apprentice and that he was of help to people. I would like to think that he was content for a time. For I was his apprentice for many long years. But in the end, he turned his attention to power taking. In my foolishness of youth, I tried to vanquish him. I did not have the power then. I still do not. He is too powerful. I had just barely leftwith my life intact."

"So Paras turned his attention to the throne and he gained spies. And then one night, just a week after you were born, I received news that he would strike. I went to the palace, seeking an audience with the Emperor. I was too late. Paras was already there. He had killed your father and the palace was in chaos. I immediately went to where the guards were keeping the Empress and you children in safety. She begged me to take you. You were the youngest and most easiest to spirit away. The Empress wanted one of you to live. Even one was better than none she said. So I took you to safety while the guards tried their best to take your Mother and siblings to safety. I later learned that they had failed and they were all dead."

"You are the last of the royale bloodline, Ales. Your whole name, Ales Finian Gazini. You must tell no one who you are. No one except the lord of the rebellion against Paras. He is Frey Lucian Taranis Caedmun Urien."

"I am telling you all this now, young Ales, because I fear that my time is growing short. Paras's intelligence will find us within a few years. What little divination powers have seen this. You must learn all that you can before this happens. When they find us, you must go to the rebellion."

"Will you not be coming with me?" Ales couldn't help but ask, a frown marring his concerned face.

"When they come, I will die here," Granius told him gently.

"No! I won't let you!" Ales cried, jumping from the bed and fling his arms around his guardian.

Granius wrapped his arms around his charge, bowing his head to the smaller body. "You won't be here when they come. It will be for the best. Promise me that you will find the rebellion when this happens. It will be your only chance for survival. Promise me."

Ales shook his head fiercely, denying the fact of his guardian's certain demise. His arms clung harder to the only father figure that he had ever known. Granius couldn't die. He wouldn't let the only person that he considered a family to die at the hands of the family.

"Promise me, Ales!" Granius said fiercely. "I will die. It is inevitable. But I want you to live! Promise me this!"

Ales's teary eyes turned to look into his stormy grey ones. "I-I promise," he said through his sobbing. "But I don't want you to die!"

"Don't worry about me, little one. I won't suffer, and you will be safe again soon after," Granius said softly.

"Now take the vial and drink it."

Ales took it from the sorcerer and looked into it. "It looks like blood," he commented in a voice hoarse from crying.

"It won't taste like blood. And it might be painful. But the changes will help you fight against Paras," Granius told him.

Nodding resolutely, Ales tilted the vial up to his lips and drank the whole thing down. Surprisingly, it tasted like apples. What an odd thing to taste, his mind thought distantly as his body fell to the ground in convulsions. He distantly heard Granius shouting at him from very far away, and then, he knew no more.