The Third Power: TTS AU

Chapter Thirteen

Thirteen years ago...

"Daddy, look!"

Varian ran up to his dad and held out his hands. In his palms sat an array of colourful seashells.

Quirin smiled at his son.

"They're lovely, Varian," he told the toddler.

Varian grinned and put the shells down next to his dad on their beach towel.

"I'm gonna find more!" he yelled as he ran off back towards the sea.

"Don't go too far!" Quirin called.

He sat back as he watched Varian run off and start digging through the sand again. He wished there were more days like this - days where he and his son could just relax together. They were rare since Quirin was always working in the fields. He had to make each one they got count.

Quirin lay down and closed his eyes. It was a beautiful day.

—————

Varian scrounged around in the warm sand of the beach as he hunted for shells. He'd found a few he thought his dad might like: a rather large one with a giant pink stripe roughly in the centre, a smaller one that was broken in the shape of triangle, one that-

The toddler looked up to see the most beautiful shell he'd ever seen. It was large, undamaged, pale blue and with a black stripe in the dead centre. It was perfection.

Varian put down the shells he already had, burying them under a little bit of sand so that no one would steal them but so that he could still see them, then ran to the ocean where the shell was just peaking out under some shallow water.

"Daddy's gonna love this!" he said to himself gleefully as he waded into the water.

He jumped a little. It was freezing and soaked into his trousers, but he quickly recovered and continued. He needed this shell.

The toddler leaned down and started to tug the shell from the sand. Or tried to. It was stuck.

He frowned for a moment. How stuck could it be? Would it be too much for him to pull out?

If that were the case, then he'd just dig it out instead.

Varian got down on his knees and started removing sand from around the shell. It was really stuck. Even after a good few minutes of digging the shell refused to move.

Varian quickly glanced in the direction of his dad. He couldn't see him. Had he moved?

He stood up and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his dad was still there. He kneeled down again and realised that the water had started to rise in the few minutes he'd been here. He shrugged. He only needed a little longer then he'd have the shell.

—————

Quirin opened his eyes. When had he dozed off? And when had the sky started to get dark and the wind so strong?

He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He looked down, expecting to see Varian next to him, but Varian wasn't there. In fact he realised, as he looked around, that his son was no where in sight.

"Varian?" Quirin called as he got up from the towel. He could feel panic begin to build in his chest. "Varian?!"

"Quirin?"

The warrior turned to see someone, a villager from the kingdom's capital, running towards him.

"Yes?" he asked. "What is it?"

The villager was too out of breath to explain. They doubled over as they took in oxygen but pointed towards the sea.

Quirin ran over in the direction they were pointing, eyes scanning the area for his son like a hawk eyeing its prey.