Deviant: Worlds Apart (boyxboy)

Chapter 1

ONE

The day I remember the clearest was the day I not only saved my mother’s life. But I was deemed a deviant, an enemy to Erminde and the day that my father died. The day Jonas Grey died. I remembered everything in a haze yet, everything was perfectly clear to me. I remember my mother’s face, Lena Grey’s face, wretched with sorrow and an eternal frown. I caught a few of her words as she mouthed it. For one, I was somewhat an expert on lip reading.

I read from her lips, “Aiden. You have to run. It’s not safe here anymore. Run to Gaea and find…your father” she said with the frown still on her face. She grabbed hold of my face and cupped them in her frail hands. I couldn’t hear and could only read what she said because of the ringing in my ears.

Explosions could be heard all around me. But, I didn’t bother about them. Some of them were frighteningly near. I could see from the corners of my visions, people getting strike by lightning, fire and even falling rocks that seemed like molten lava. People were dying all around me. Father had just died. He laid a couple of yards away from us, dead and lifeless. He had a hole in the chest caused by a surge of lightning that struck him in the chest. At least he died instantly, but he didn’t deserve to die. I would learn later that Jonas’s death that day was far more merciful than what Erminde would do to him.

“Listen Aiden!” my mother said fiercely, looking deep into my eyes. My ears recovered from the ringing caused by the lightning surge and explosion that happened earlier.

“You are a deviant. You need to go to Gaea now! You have to find your father, Sean” She said, her brows forming into a frown.

I just stared at her, unable to comprehend what she just said. Maybe I was dreaming or maybe I heard wrongly. I looked at my mother by she didn’t change her expression.

“Do you understand? You need to go now. Find Sean!” she said, pleading with me. I could hear clashing of metal nearby. That was probably the Ermindal warriors known to us as the Dunamis, or ability in Greek. I looked at my mother and tried to memorise the features on her beautiful face. I could never come back here to Erminde anymore which meant I could never see my mother again. I could hear the sound of metal getting louder and louder. The Dunamis was near now.

“Go. Please” mother pleased as she clasped my hands. Tears were running down her face. I could see her sorrow. The dunamis was here. There were 6 of them in total. One dunamis could easily single-handedly take down a dozen Ermindal civilians. 6 of them was no joking matter. I could never win them in a brawl out. Just like mother said, I had to run.

And so I ran as fast as my legs could take me, I could hear my leather slippers hit the ground hard and in quick succession. And with each step, I was further and further away from Erminde. A city that I would probably never step foot into again. I heard the dunamis’ metal armour hitting the ground as they ran after me. I looked back, but I never should have. I saw my mother struggling against the grip of the dunamis. There were 2 of them on her. My mother was no strength gifted. She was magic gifted but she was a healer, not a fighter. When I saw her being wrestled to the ground like that, part of me wanted to go after those bastards and make them pay but more reinforcements would arrive. Even if reinforcements don’t arrive, I can even barely beat one duramis on my own.

I saw her mouth the words, “I love you Aiden” as I saw her being kicked in the head by one of the duramis. He smiled at me and I gave him a look, as if I wanted to rip his throat out there and then. But I was running. I was running away from them and could take no chance in fighting with them. My mother’s wish is for me to be safe and find Sean, so I will. I ran for quite some distance and I could sense that the duramis were all getting tired as their steps seemed to slow down. It was strange indeed that I could outrun the duramis who’ve had so much training that even the most trained person in Gaea can hardly challenge the weakest duramis.