Alister sighed, straightening his back as he sat there. He offered a glance to Marble, considering what to say. He felt himself crying again. He was so tired of crying. He shrugged, a weak motion, “It’s okay. It’s the past now… I guess. Hah…”

“You’re loved. I really mean it,” his father repeated, squeezing his shoulders, “I am sorry for stopping you. Are you alright to continue? If you don’t want to, it’s alright.”

He shook his head, “No… you were right. It’s important to share this with you. You can’t help if you don’t know anything. You deserve to know that you've gotten into with me here,” Alister hefted himself upright and walked over to Marble. He sat beside the giant feline and pet it, garnering a warm rumble. How was he supposed to explain his vendetta?

I learned magic… or maybe more correctly, I was introduced to magic… in the church orphanage. When I unlocked my core then, I was nothing special. I remembered little of my past life. Before… well, before Raalin, I was Darrium. Darrium was a simple farmhand who knew some fancy weather spells to aid with their crops. I honestly do not even know if I was male or female in that life, much less anything more relevant.

At the time, I thought the revelation of this past life of Darrium was incredible. It fueled curiosity. Carlia had her core unlocked from an impressively young age, I think it was around four years old. She was curious too. Her past life was of a court mistress. A life of intrigue! We thought it was so fascinating to wonder about, imagining dramatic scenes that likely would never have happened.

We stayed in the arms of the Church of Iker until I was fourteen and she was twelve. We ran away together. We had tried to run away more than once before, but we never made it far before the cold and hunger and fear of the darkness brought us back.

This time, we kept running.

“I can’t believe we’re really doing this!” Carlia laughed, giggling as she ran with Raalin through the grass field. The elf girl had grown up nicely. She was taller than him already, even though she was younger, and was a slender thing with her brown hair grown down to her lower back in a thick, loose braid. Raalin’s hair on the other hand was still fairly short. It was a white mess on his head that reached his jaw in some places. He, too, was grinning like a madman.

“We’re ready this time. I know it. We can run away to a city on the coast! Become adventurers!” he practically sang, spinning around with arms wide. It was the middle of the day, but far enough off that no one was there to judge them.

“We could become real mages!” she added. It was their dream to learn magic at a school, or at least from a professional. She wanted to learn healing magic most of all, that and nature magic. A druid at heart.

“Hah! I’m already a mage!” Raalin put his hands on his hips rather dramatically. He had been practicing all the time on his own - even stole some books to read up on it from the church’s library.

Carlia laughed and shook her head, “Mhmmmm. Such a strong mage, Rally. I’m so scared~”

“Oh shut it! I’m great! I’m already at orange!!”

Carlia bowed deeply and dramatically, “Oh great orange core! How will I ever compare to your great greatness?!”

Raalin’s cheeks tinged red and he lightly shoved her shoulder, “Stop it! I get it, I get it!”

She broke into giggles for a few moments before calming herself with a satisfied sigh, “We gotta work hard. We can’t get comp… erm…”

“Complacent.”

“Yeah that word,” she wasn’t taught to read by the priests. Raalin was lucky, being a boy, getting to read books. He tried to teach her himself but her reading skills were still subpar. On top of that, having a big vocabulary wasn’t deemed useful for a girl like her. That was all fine though! They were on their own, leaving the church for good! She could learn everything now!!

“You’re right. I'll make sure to work so hard you never have to work again yourself. Ok C?”

She nodded, snapping out of her thoughts as they continued their trek, “I wanna work hard too… but it’d be nice to not have to…”

“Exactly. You won’t HAVE to but can if you WANT to.”

“We still have to for now though.”

“Mhm,” Raalin nodded emphatically, “The scars on my back are healed, too. It’s the perfect time for it. For real this time.”

The two walked south until nightfall, until their feet were sore and they wanted nothing more than to sleep.

It took a couple weeks of walking before we made it to the coast. We were so sore, so hungry by the time we reached the city. It was there that I really learned how to utilize magic… but that’s where I furthered my hate of the churches and gods, too.

It was another year later. Raalin was 15, Carlia 13. He had let his hair grow out more, and it was long enough it could be pulled into a small white ponytail. Hers was still in the same big braid she always wore it in. Another benefit of being a boy, Raalin was allowed to work as an adventurer. They kept saying Carlia was too young. She hated that bullcrap.

Raalin wasn’t getting much work, and certainly nothing high-paying, but anything was appreciated. It was still easier than the streets, and easier than living at the church, but… it wasn’t easy. Today, he was heading to a job for one of the most common clients - the temple of the gods.

It wasn’t like a regular church, where they worshipped one. It was a big temple where many gods could be worshipped. In theory, all were welcome. There were some gods and their faithful that weren’t welcome, as an unspoken rule, but for the most part as long as you worshipped a god, it was all good.

He heaved the same, exasperated sigh that he always did when he had to go straight to the temple for the job. At least when it was just some gathering job, he didn’t have to deal with the stupid priests directly. Raalin smacked his cheeks a couple times. No! Don’t assume everybody’s bad! Even back at the Iker Church, there were nice priests. He groaned… well… even if he tried not to hate them on principle, he could still hate dealing with being social with them.