Tyros woke up feeling like he slept on clouds. He wanted to stay here all morning. He was awake and didn’t want to sleep anymore, he simply wanted to laze around in this heavenly bed watching the morning sun rays evolving as the sun came up. Alas, he was interrupted by a knock on the door:

“Miss Evette is expecting you in the kitchen”

Startled, Tyros answered

“I’ll be right there !”

The kid got out of bed, full of energy, and got dressed swiftly. The maid that knocked at his door was waiting for him, in order to guide him through the mansion.

He followed her to the kitchen where he found Evette talking with the maid that accompanied him the previous day.

“Tyros ! I hope you slept well, Hillshire is a bit of a walk from here. Well, you won’t be walking but still.”

Tyros made the connection immediately, Hillshire must be the city ruled by the lord of this estate.

“Hello Evette, When will I be going ? And how? Can I eat something before ?

Calm down boy, yes you can eat breakfast” She made a sign toward one of the cooks and resumed her speech while handing a letter to the maid on her side: “Neza, here, will com with you and bring this letter to lord Grudal. Both of you will ride a cart and I’ll send two guards to make sure nothing happens on your way to the city.”

Tyros nodded and grabbed the food that was handed to him. He finished his meal, chatting with the two maids. When he was finished, he was led outside by Neza, toward a cart waiting for them. As Neza did the talking with the guards, Tyros took place inside, with his feet dangling at the back of the cart.

Neza joined him and promptly the cart was rolling, pulled by two horses. Neza was a young maid, if Tyros had to guess he would have said that she was around twenty years old. She had a kind face, framed by red hair. Tyros though were interrupted by the maid:

“Don’t furrow your brow like this or you will end up with wrinkles.”

The boy blinked a few times and laughed.

“I am too young to have wrinkles.

- Maybe not right now, but you should be careful, I heard that progenitors are more susceptible to having their face matching their behavior and personalities. It’s called physiognomy.

- So if I’m a good person I'll be handsome ?

Neza smiled brightly to the kid:

“Yes, that’s what they say about progenitors.

- Progenitors, what are they and why do you think I am one of them ?

- Your mother didn’t talk to you about it ? Do you know how you were born ?

- I know that she isn’t my biological mother, she told me the Weaver created me.

- Well yes and no. The Weaver created your soul. When a soul is created by the Weaver, it is so potent that your body will naturally form from. That is why you are a progenitor, your soul created your body. It is easy to notice because amber eyes are a big giveaway. Even if there are not many progenitors born nowadays, this is well known all over the world.

Basically you are not born from mortal parents unlike the rest of the world, you're a clean sheet.

- Why does it matter that my soul is new ?

- Unlike you, our soul has already lived and been reborn into a new body. If we are lucky, we get glimpses of our past lives. Sometimes it is useful, sometimes it is useless and sometimes it is a poison. But the most important thing is that your soul created your body, it means that they are in perfect harmony and your soul is unharmed. For people reborn, our soul is harvested by the gods when we die, they refurbish it and send it back to the mortal world and into a body. The process weakens your soul bit by bit until it is too damaged to be reborn.

- And why can it be poisonous to have memories of your past lives ?

- Well, imagine that you remember something atrocious done to you. It can be better to forget these kinds of things sometimes. Or what if in your past life you got betrayed ? You would like revenge. Revenge can’t be the purpose of a life, it will slowly eat at you. That is why it can be poisonous. But that is not so common, and it’s not only bad things obviously. For example, you can wake up one day and realize that you are able to do something you never trained for in your life. Reincarnation can be both bad and good.

- And why have I never heard of people remembering things from their past lives ?

- Because those things are not shared most of the time and it’s very impolite to ask people about their past lives”

Tyros nodded, there was a lot of information to think about. He gazed at the passing landscape as they made their way toward the city. He had never seen such an open space. Obviously there were some trees here and there, he could spot small woods from afar, but mainly it was fields and hills spreading to the horizon.

As he was thinking, he realized that he knew nothing of the world he lived in. In a few days only, his world was turned upside down and he discovered more than he had in the past year. And the most frightening in all that, is that he was fully and wholly unprepared. He survived only thanks to luck and other people, and that’s it, he barely survived. He couldn’t even protect his mom. He needed to learn and prepare for the big bad world.

They went on, only stopping to eat, and resumed their travel right when they were done. Tyros kept his thoughts to himself most of the time as he watched the sun move in the sky. By the end of the afternoon, they were close to the city and as he turned around to look at the city, he was dumbstruck by the sight. The city was near the mountains, and expanding far from its foot. The walls were huge and made of rocks, with towers at regular intervals. Behind the walls he could see buildings built on the side of the mountain, the view was breathtaking.

As they were getting closer, Tyros started to notice soldiers manning the wall, as well as the gates.

There were two gates, a big one that was open and where some carts and people were lining up to enter, and a smaller one, a cart could fit in but not much more. The second one was closed with two soldiers guarding it. That’s where their cart was heading. The guards escorting Tyros and Neza went talking to the ones keeping the gate.

They were easily led in the city and Tyros suffered from a second wave of shock as he discovered the inside of the city. There were so many people, and so many houses that they were stuck to one another.

Their cart didn’t stop until there was another wall cutting the city in two, this one was smaller and had only one gate. As they passed through, the boy noticed that this part of the city was probably reserved for rich people, their houses were bigger, the streets cleaner and there were less people.

As they stopped one last time and were asked to step down from the cart Tyros could finally see his destination. It was a castle which you could access thanks to an impressive set of stairs with unmoving soldiers and statues at each side. If not for the colors differentiating men from statues, you could think one was the other.

Neza took Tyros’ hands and smiled at him. She guided him through the stairs and finally into the castle. They were received by a white haired man with an imposing mustache. His name was Aldwin, he was the head butler of the estate. Neza handed him the letter and explained why they were here. He gave a look at the letter and said:

“I hope Evette is doing fine, and that your travel went fine. From what the letter explained I get that Tyros, the boy, could have information for lord Grudal.”

- Yes, The sooner the better, we have no idea how important the information could be for the lord.

I will notice him right away. Would you please follow me, I'll let you into a room more comfortable to wait in.

Without another word they followed the butler to a room where servants came with biscuits and offered them cider, wine or water. They both declined as Tyros started to be nervous. The world looks so estranged to him now, and he would meet a man that was probably very rich and powerful. If it was not for his mother, he didn’t know if he could go through this. Luckily he didn’t have much more time to panic as, only a few minutes after they were set in, the butler came back and told them:

“The lord will receive you in his office right now, please follow me.”