The ashes before Strife

Episode 0 : Suspense Of Waiting ; 4

"Alright everyone this is the biggest job that we'll have ever done, we just need to stick to the plan and everything should go smoothly as long as no unexpected variables pop up."

My father spoke in an uplifting tone that seemed to raise everyone's morale but their faces still held worry in them so I decided to try and lift the mood as well "if everyone succeeds then we'll get to live carefree from now on right?"

Gunther and Denny looked at me with mellow expressions while the others waited for me to finish "so if you succeed we'll be happy and if we're happy we'll get to eat lots of sweets won't we?"

They then gave subtly laughs of amusement until Gunther spoke "yes that's right Cayde we'll eat a feast of sweets once this is all over."

The group then stood up and started leaving one by one once my father said it's time to go, but before he left he told me the job would require a lot of patience so they might be gone for half the day and to protect the house.

Once they had all left the house grew deathly silent. All I could do was wait in agony for what was going on.

I tried to distract myself by practicing my magic, it seemed the suspense had helped me improve as I could now finally pick up shadows as if they were solid objects.

At the second hour of waiting my experiments with dark magic had grown wider. I had tried to tear shadows into pieces to see if they would fade away which they didn't, I had eaten some shadows which gave my mana circuits a small jumpstart improving the circulation but making me feel as if something was missing in them like a body without a heart. I couldn't define it but I could tell something wasn't there when it was supposed to be, the only question I had was why?

I tried to find ways to fill the void inside me using multiple methods but none ever succeeded. I figured it was something I'd only be able to do once I was older.

At the fifth hour of waiting after eating untold amounts of shadows from boredom I had now been able to create poles from the shadows that I could swing around as a weapon, all I needed to do to summon or conjure it was clasp my hands together and then spread them creating a short stick made of shadows.

In my boredom I ended up creating a hat using the shadows and used it together with the stick to create a little dance that would at least serve to entertain my parents as well as get used to this tiny body as I was once a full-grown adult, tripping repeatedly as I practiced.

At the seventh hour, I had crawled out of the window of the top floor and sat on the roof watching the mansion from afar hoping nothing bad had happened, fortunately, I couldn't see any fire or smoke coming from it so I believed this was a good sign but just as I thought this a gleaming white beam of light emerged from the mansion that pierced the clouds.

I panicked when I saw this and thought something bad happened, that my family needed help so I immediately started climbing back through the window from the patio and waddled as fast as I could to the door tripping multiple times but as I got to the door I realized that there was nothing I could do no matter how much I tried. I'm still just a man inside a 3-year-old infant's body.

I then slumped my way away from the door until I heard shouting from outside, I was curious but figured it was some delayed reactions from people seeing the beam of light until I heard a bang against the door.

I quickly hid under the table as I thought it was someone trying to break into the house. This hurt my pride as a former knight but I sucked it up, then several more bangs occurred on the door followed by more shouting I waited in suspense of who it was until finally, my father crashed through the door with blood dripping down his head as he called for me. "Cayde! Where are you we need to leave now!"

I revealed myself and he gave a quick smile before picking me up and darting off with uncle Theo who was waiting outside for him, I was scared for the reason he returned bloody and had to crash through the door "dad what happened? Why are you bloody?!"

"The manor had a surprise guest and they mistook us for assassins! Right now the entire city guard is after us!" As he said this a yellow smoke was shot in the sky above us "Just make sure to do exactly as I say and we'll get out of this son!"

My father's breath was tired his voice filled with anger thinking it was his incompetence that got us into this situation, I didn't dare say anything yet as it would only distract him "ALLEN WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"

Theo shouted as I saw several yellow cloaked figures running after us from down the street, I shot a black spear at them knocking one down surprising them and Theo but not my father as he couldn't see it "you've certainly been practicing little fella! Your mother will be proud!"

Admiration covered Theo's face until he asked changing his face to seriousness "Do you think you can hide us in a dark alley Cayde?" I thought about if it was possible and figured with the speed of our pursuers we'd be caught if I don't at least try.

So I gave Theo an affirmative nod and he then said to get ready, I had started circulating as much mana as I could hold inside me until Theo tackled my father and me into an alleyway and screamed at me to do it.

I did my best to cast a dark veil over us hiding us in the darkness catching my father off guard and was about to shout until Theo covered his mouth and put a finger to his lips.

"Where did they go!" I couldn't see the pursuers but I could hear them shouting at each other at how they lost us, the wait for the yellow cloaks to leave was agonizing.

I started to sweat heavily as I reached the limits of magic my body could withstand until the final yellow cloak left the alleyway allowing me to dispel the curtain of darkness and take in a heavy breath to calm my shivering body. "Well done Cayde! Thanks to you we escaped."

Theo gave me an endearing look that quickly turned to sorrow as he saw my deathly pale skin, my father then gave him an unsuspecting punch to the face as he grew angry at Theo saying he forced me to do this. Theo tried to calm him down but failed so I gently touched his cheek and told him "it's okay" he had a concerned look while he looked at me but I just smiled.

He then took a deep breath to calm himself and apologized to Theo for punching him but he didn't mind it "come on, we need to reach the carriage before it's impossible to leave the city."

As we crossed the city my skin slowly returned to its natural color relieving Theo and my father but I noticed that emptiness inside me had grown smaller concerning me slightly as I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

We were able to quickly traverse to the city gate where I spotted Gunther pacing back and forth beside a carriage scratching his muddy hair and was elated when my father called out to him but quickly hopped into the driver's seat with two horses in front of him.

I saw the rest of the crew inside the carriage as I was passed over to my mother who embraced me lovingly "Gunther get us out of here as quickly as possible!" There was a response but I couldn't hear it then the carriage jutted forward as we prepared to leave the city.