A year ago in a small village town called "Oakvale", I was the mother of two seemingly normal children. My daughter: Theresa: the eldest, experienced frequent nightmares. On a night like many others, I awoke to her screams ready to reach for my ax. This time Arn: my son, had fallen out of his bed. He hit his head in doing so and at the time I had been very worried. Many children who hit their heads went to sleep and never awoke ever again. I brewed him some Willow bark tea to reduce the swelling in and on his head.

He didn't wait around though after staring at his clothes for a few minutes suddenly running barefoot outta the house before I could give him the tea I'd made. I would have chased after him but Theresa started crying about something she couldn't remember. I believed my daughter was in more need of being consoled at that moment than he may have needed me. So I embraced her and patted her small head.

"There, there, child," I Soothed.

As days turned to weeks events became stranger as Theresa no longer woke us with screams and she seemed different... It was like she was many years older or more confident. Like the world was all under her control. Arn was often nowhere to be seen and when he was I didn't know what to think. Sometimes I saw him writing notes on paper. When and who had taught him to write? Brom and I never had! Even his speech was better or as he had once said, "More proper".

As I got ready to once again head to the guild like I always do annually, a servant of the Mayor of Bowerstones brought me a letter. At first, I cursed my terrible luck. Why is such an important Noble writing to me all of a sudden? My suspicion had been completely wrong and it was a good thing. The Grey family's youngest daughter Elvira had met Arn and was completely taken with him. The letter was a request to both accept extended leave and to let her visit us. Arn must have been playing with her all this time not knowing who she was and Elvira must have been teaching him language and writing skills! It was all seeming to make sense.

The letter even stated that as of now Arn was the only suiter candidate the Mayor was looking into for Elvira. What great luck! For such a thing to happen for Arn at such a young age. I'd once dreamed as a young naive girl of a noble knight coming and sweeping me off my feet and marrying me. What came at me as a girl was a Balverine instead. Which led me into a life of being a hero. I'm glad I never married a noble as otherwise, I'd never have met the love of my life "Brom".

Life had more surprises for me though as Elvira brought up Arn having the Will power of Time at one such visit. It turned out to be true and Arn did not take being cornered in a conversation well. He ran away...

Theresa took this time to explain that she too had a Will based power and could see the future. I didn't believe her at first but several immediate instances of her accurately predicting events perfectly proved it the truth. How else could she predict Arn would use his power to make a Demon door disappear completely. I'd never seen or heard of such a thing ever happening. Just as she'd predicted he'd been carried back days later starved as if he'd been gone a month. It broke my heart to see him like this and worse yet when Theresa explained why he did this to himself.

In a timeline that Arn would do anything to prevent, Jack of blades would ruin our lives in little more than a year from now. I'd fail to protect them and be captured. Brom would be killed and Theresa would have her yes cut out and worse. All of this was unavoidable or it originally was until Arn interveined.

My son turned out to be more special than I could have fathomed. He also knows the future but not from visions. Theresa Explained to me that when he hit his head that night he awakened some unknown power. A power possibly greater even than the Archon from which we are descended. According to her, Arn gained the knowledge of a being who lived outside our time and yet parallel to it. One that knew events that had yet to unfold. This made no sense to me no matter how she tried to explain it.

How in Avo's name could that knowledge get inside his head? Then came the moment when I saw what she described as the cost of this knowledge. She called it, "Identity Crises". Fighting with himself and being confused about who he's always been.

I asked her, "Are you sure that's really Arn?"

"How do you define who someone is mother? Is it their soul? Is it their memories? Well, the Arn we know is still in there. I can still recognize his silly personality bleeding through an otherwise adult mind." Theresa declared.

"Then what's the cause?" I asked.

"Imagine two different people's Wills. Now imagine the two were very similar to the point they nearly overlap and then one said individual didn't have a body of their own. Somehow these two minds or "Wills" ended up fused," Theresa stated her theory.

Somewhat enraged I said, "Then this other person is possessing my son?"

"No, they are fused to each other. From what I can tell this could only have happened if both persons were willing to do so. Do I need to point out to you who got the raw deal in this fusion? The other Will bears all of Arn's pain and suffering. It shields him from the costs of this world and builds his power. All while taking nothing in return."

If that's true then why? Why help us? Looking back at Theresa I asked, "Who was he?"

"I don't know. An old and forgotten hero maybe? All I know is that that person is a very beautiful mind who somehow lost their life." Theresa shrugged while responding to my question. I could tell that just thinking about it seemed to bring tears to her eyes.

"That sounds incredibly sad. He must have been a hero then. Possibly one who died fighting a demon or something..." I guessed.

Children often inherit from their parents Will's but that is just a document giving them the parent's possessions. To inherit the Will of another hero is something else altogether. I doubt that has ever been done in Albion or any other world. So the Arn we have now is still my son but has a fallen hero within him along for the ride. I can live with this revelation!

Months passed as I helped train my family into a true unit of combat specialists. My husband's becoming a splendid tank, my daughter will be the greatest archer, and my son the most powerful mage. Even Archmage Maze won't be able to hold a candle to my boy. He did puke like crazy when he killed his first bandit though and I had a hard time holding back my laughter. I guess he too has his shortcomings like us mere mortals. I maintain a stoic and approving face in front of him because I didn't want to hurt his pride.

One morning Arn asked me to take him to a specific place in Greatwood. There he consumed a rare potion called the "Willmasters Elixir". I was shocked he actually drank it! Who drinks potions? They taste terrible and work from being poured on wounds.

The day got weirder from there as he saw something just over the hill. Taking off into a sprint towards it before I could properly react. One I saw the foul beast luring him my instincts took over. I rushed towards the creature with my ax ready to strike!

"A NYMPH!!!" I screamed in panic.

I barely noticed when Arn yelled, "STOP!"

If I didn't know better I would not have recognized it as coming from him. It was less a shout and more of a "command". It was said with such authority that my mind almost went blank in confusion but my ax remained true. I would have ended the Nymph's life except oddly my blade hit an invisible and immovable object.

"Let me kill it that things EVIL!" I demanded.

"NO!" He shouted with a sharpness in his eyes I'd never seen before in man or beast alike.

"You don't under..." I tried to argue but he cut me off.

"YOUR WRONG!" He interrupted.

I was literally at a loss for words.

Next, he lectured his perspective, "I've seen EVIL and I know when I see it. From what I've seen so far I doubt that thing is evil. Its most likely just misunderstood and with humans infringing and polluting its home thinks were an enemy."

I angrily rebutted, "They kidnap children and most likely eat them!" Also, when and where have you ever seen evil?

The argument continued on in a way I really didn't like as he claimed humanity itself was also capable of great evil. How could that be we are the good guys? So what if they don't kill kids they turn them into monsters. How is that better and not worse?

I tried to overtake the conversation by saying, "Boy" and a threat but I was once again cut off first. "Boy" was met with a Will power-filled glare that no mere child could ever manifest. Those were the eyes of a man that had walked uphill barefoot through broken glass. The kind of eyes that do not belong to someone who is going to yield. Like the eyes of a parent protecting their child. At that moment I realized I was just thinking of the hero within as just a part of my son. True he is still my little boy but he is also more. Even if that other Will forgot who it once was a lion is still a lion. Look who is no longer just a cub!

He said he'd fight and kill me if I made him do so. His statement of him being in charge left me with many questions too. What old man is going around saying such perverse things to children? Stong as I am I knew I wasn't a match for him anymore. I was forced to yield.

I shrugged, "They grow so fast" was all I could say.

Next to my surprise, Arn spoke to the creature. Honestly, I had expected trickery from the dying creature but all it wanted was to live. It offered gold and gems for its life but Arn refused to risk letting it go and kill innocents. He put the burden of proof it would not harm innocents on the creature itself. So it offered a familiar pact. Something I had heard of as rumor but never seen. The rumor was that any being could become heroes familiar's with the right spell or ritual but no one knew them anymore. Not since the fall of the old kingdom that is. Magic creatures were an exception as they could initiate the pact themselves but most were evil and untrustworthy beasts. The boy accepted the offered pact and I did not stop him. I doubt he would have stopped even if I did speak up.

With the pact complete Arn released the Nymph from the trap that held it. The following conversation threw me for a loop. Nymphs are practically immortal but this one was only 5 years old. It was a baby! When asked to heal my son's new familiar all could muster to say was, "Oh, Right!"

Healed the Nymph was asked by Arn to reveal their history to him. The creature went into vivid detail of accounts from its elders. Nymphs don't truly have gender but all look like a female child. The story was an account of these beings getting molested over the course of hundreds of years. It was truly sickening and I was forced to remember times I'd been hired to hunt Nymphs. Several where the request was to bring them back alive for "research" by various noble wizards. I'd been tricked into taking children to the real monsters. What kind of hero does that?

They had said research to make peace but we never saw the fruit of their supposed labor. Some said magical research but we saw no new spells invented from it. How great are my sins? Had I brought Jack upon us with my own wicked deeds? Then came the rage and hate of being lied to by those Bastards!

My daughter then offered the Nymph candy which turned out to be a thing for them. They look like children and do like sweets.

That's when a trader came by expecting to see a nymph in a trap. I lost myself to the rage when I realized he was one of THEM! This time I was faster than Arn's reaction time. My ax nearly cleaved the scum in two. I wanted to tear him into a million pieces!

I felt a hand touch me and in my unstable mental state I nearly lashed out. It was Arn, "You are only human and as such, you cannot know everything that has and is happening".

Even my daughter comforted me but I was forced to ask myself, am I worthy of such sweet children. All this time I'd been blissfully ignorant of what was happening around me in this world. So I had to ask, "How did you know she wasn't just a monster?"

The answer was he could see it in her eyes. What a pure soul to see innocense within another.

We spent the rest of the day destroying the bastard's body even though some beast in Greatwood would most likely consume him anyway. He was oddly insistent on doing so and used a simple method I'd never heard of before.

After that, he came up with a clever solution for how to bring his familiar into town. Brom and I hadn't even foreseen the problem until he pointed it out. What a clever person he has become.

A few weeks later we left for the void within the Demon door Arn had named "Nemo". There we trained for the battle ahead. My whole family worked hard but my husband especially. All this training had made him a wall of muscle. It highlighted his already handsome features. His rock-hard abs! His thick rippling biceps! Let's just say I couldn't resist rewording his hard work.

It was like we were newlyweds again. We went at it often as we were at our most attractive and other than training had little else to do.

We got caught in the act once though because we forgot about the Nymph. Our children pranked us and had a good laugh over our reactions. To our relief though they seemed to not really care what we actually did. Both our children knew what sex was and that married couples did it. They even knew the importance of waiting until marriage before having sex with someone. So in due time, everything calmed down again until I got sick.

That's when once again my son revealed startling news. I'd become pregnant at the worst possible time. I'm 34 years old not that I'd ever admit that to anyone but how the hell can I be PREGNANT?!

I was surprised that not only did Arn not blame me for this but he consoled me instead. He said something about, "Well, I should have guessed contraceptives weren't a thing in this world". What the hells a contraceptive?

Here I was once again creating a situation that put my family in danger. Now I would barely be able to participate in the upcoming battle. Arn assured me he had it all figured out but I couldn't help but worry. What if? If anyone of them dies it will basically be my fault.

Arn called me out on my self-loathing. He claimed that no one has the rights over death and everyone dies. That's my sweet boy, I hope we all live to see how great you become someday.

"So for baby names how does Granok destroyer of worlds sound?" Arn blurted out. I couldn't help but burst into laughter.