“Aah… Daddy! Hello… Meet Sera and Akif. They were escorting me here”.

Eliyon’s father give us a short glance before returning his eyes to his daughter.

“Eliyon! Are you fine? Are you hurt?”

“No, Daddy… I am fine THANKS TO AKIF! Now… say hello properly, and not just glance at him. Do you have any ideas how many groups of kidnappers he has fought over the past month? Did my father forget how to receive guests while I was away?”, Eliyon growls at her father.

“Listen to your daughter, Louvian”, one of the women following the king reprimands him. She looks like a slightly elder version of Eliyon. She is a very beautiful woman. Her red eyes are just as captivating as Eliyon’s, but her figure is fuller. She has the beauty of age on her side. She doesn’t look more than a few years older than Eliyon, but there is an aura surrounding her that Eliyon hasn’t quite reached yet. An aura of maturity?

In her cerulean blue dress, she walks towards me and Sera with a grateful smile.

“Thank you for taking care of my daughter. My name is Aelynn. I am the second wife of king Louvian. Pleased to make your acquaintance”.

With a deep courtesy, she greets us. This is where the two girls failed to inform me how to act, so I am just improvising a response.

“Aah! Hello there! My name is Akif, and this is Sera. No wonder Eliyon is so pretty! I can see where she got it from”.

Phew! Finally done with that. Ooor… not…

I can see the horrified faces of their guards, and Sera sends me a stern elbow to my ribs. She isn’t even trying to hide it.

“I apologize for his stupidity. Let us try that again. Hello! My name is Sera Prestran – Daughter of Balfin Prestran. I am not on any official errands as a senator’s daughter, and merely here as a companion of your daughter. This blockhead is the one I am unfortunate enough to have fallen in love with, so please don’t harm him”, She glances over at the kings rather aggravated guards.

The sweet laughter of the three queens can be heard, but the burly voice of the king sends shivers down my spine.

“So… You are the one that was escorting Eliyon, huh? I’ve heard a few things about you from Atre, here”.

I glance over at Atre with terrified eyes.

Did he tell him everything? Including her cuddling up to me every night?

The king can’t hold his mask of seriousness any longer, and breaks out in laughter.

“BWAHAHAH! You should see your face right now! Atre didn’t tell me SHIT! OI! ATRE! Why didn’t you tell me that we would have guests?”.

The lofty demeanour is quickly broken, and since we are standing in the middle of the road in the inner circle, I can see some curious faces looking over at us.

Well… there goes the hope of keeping the two of them under wraps…

“Well… We need to keep your life interesting now that you are stuck being the king, don’t we?”, Atre remarks with a huge grin on his face.

“True… True… Thank you for bringing her home to me”, Louvian replies while hugging his daughter. The definition of futility is shown when Eliyon tries to struggle her way out of the king’s grasp.

The three ladies walk over to her, and Aelynn hugs her daughter with love. She is still trying to wiggle out of her father’s grasp, but it becomes impossible once her mother is added to the mix. She resigns to her fate as a temporary plush toy.

“I missed you too, birth giver and sperm shooter”.

Birth giver? Sperm shooter?

Sera looks questioningly at Eliyon, and Eliyon flashes her a grin. The parents don’t seem to care about the names, so I just shake it off and enter my own thoughts while the happy family reunion is happening.

This… makes me experience first-hand how special my circumstances are. Sera never experienced the stew in the slave barracks. It wasn’t too bad actually. I remember it taking me a while to get used to the tiny fragments of bone, but after enough chewing it was pretty delicious.

She never experienced sleeping with a bunch of dudes that hate you either! That was a thrill! Hah! When Joar tried to stab me with that spoon! He actually almost managed it as well! It was literally centimetres away from my eyes when I broke his thigh bone. That face he made was priceless!

“Gnoring me, kid?”

“Huh?”

“I said, are you ignoring me?”, Louvian asks me with a slightly miffed voice.

“Aah! No… I was just remembering when Joar tried to stab me in the eyes with a spoon while I slept in the slave barracks. You should have seen his face when I shattered his thighbone with my kick! It felt like his leg literally crushed underneath my foot. Blood was flowing like a waterfall when a piece of bone came out from his leg! That face he made HAHAHAHAHAHA!”, I laugh out while remembering the shocked and painful face he was sprouting as he realized his assassination attempt had failed.

“Yeah… Balfin literally hung him up by his ears after that. “No one fucks with my future champion!” He yelled to the rest of the slaves. Your father was pretty pissed then, Sera! They started distancing themselves from me after that… wonder why?”, I laugh remembering the fuming rage Balfin was oozing out.

“The weight of his body practically ripped his ears in two when the nails started slicing through his ears as they slowly lowered him down. Seriously! Must have been pretty painful”. I muse to myself.

The people around me are silent. The same deathly silence I got in the arena. As if they don’t believe what they heard – or in the arena - saw.

“Why do you look at me as if you don’t believe what I said is true?”.

The queens look at me with pity… I think, but the king looks… uum… frightened? That or sad. Don’t know… don’t care. It is a waste of energy to try to figure out which one.

I can feel Atre’s hand gently resting on my shoulder.

“Yeah… That is not something you should tell the queens and king of a country. Just keep them ignorant regarding how slaves are treated. Safer for everyone that way. They might want to start doing something if they hear first-hand experiences”. I would have laughed if it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t understand why I am doing something wrong.

“Why? It’s a funny story!”

“Akif, my love. What is funny to you is horrible to the rest of us”, Sera says while looking at me in shame and pity. She walks over to me and hugs me fiercely. I wrap my hands around her while looking questioningly at Eliyon, but she just meets me with a tearful face.

Why does she look at me like that?

“Fuck it. What were you saying, Louvian?”, I exclaim after deciding to let them be with their emotions.

Can’t understand shit of what they are feeling anyways.

The king regains his previous dignified behaviour.

“Well… I was going to ask you to join us at the castle, but now I think you should be talking with a specialist about your problems…”

“Why would I do that? Don’t I have your daughter and Sera for that? I don’t talk much anyways… It always makes them cry for some reason”.

“And that is why you should be talking with a specialist, Akif”, the queens chime in.

“Naa… I’m fine!” I tell them with a gentle smile while patting Sera on the back. Eliyon walks over to me with a lowered head, and wraps her hands around me from the back.

I am completely sealed in, so I just stand there looking at the king and queens.

“Anyways! Sure! I will join you! Sera bought a bunch of mead, so we can have a drink! We have some rum as well, if you are interested”, I tell the king. He just shakes his head at me, while the queens look at me with worried eyes.

“Ok, people. What is it that I am doing wrong? Isn’t it customary to give gifts when you meet someone new? That is what Sera and Eliyon has told me to do! Why do I feel like everything I do is wrong?”

Atre mumbles “because it is…”

“Why?”

“Ok… Akif… When someone asks you to their house, it is expected of them to give that to YOU, not the other way around”, Atre tells me.

“Aaah… Is that so?”, I look over at Louvian. He nods a small nod in my general direction, but ignores my questioning look.

More for me then!

“Akif… we need to sit down and have a talk about what you have experienced in life. You are a loving and gentle soul, and from what I have heard thus far it is an amazing thing that you still have those capabilities in you”, Eliyon tells me while her head is buried in my back. I can feel some tears running down my back, but I don’t really care about it. Don’t know. Don’t care. Waste of energy to try to figure it out.

What the fuck is wrong? Why is everyone acting like this?

Eliyon POV

I try to rub my tears away on his broad back, but the tears just won’t stop falling.

Why did he have to experience those things? He is the kindest man I have ever met, yet his life sounds like one of those stories parents tell you when they want you to behave! “Be quiet or I will hang you up by the ears”! HE HAS SEEN THAT HAPPEN WITH SOMEONE THAT TRIED TO ASSASSINATE HIM WITH A SPOON!

I can feel my emotions surge through my body as I start quietly sobbing while holding Akif. The shame… ooh the shame I feel right now.

He really doesn’t understand why we act like this, does he? To him this is normal. I heard from Sera that her father gave him ONE bowl of stew each day, and he had to eat bugs and lizards when he got hungry! And he even told her that his life as a slave wasn’t too bad!

What you lived, Akif, wasn’t the life of a human. You lived the life of a hated beast.

I can feel Akif’s hand trying to reach my back. He settles for my right side, and starts gently stroking me.

“But it looks nice to have a family. I wonder what that feels like?”, he exclaims with an innocent voice. That pushed me off the edge, and same with Sera. The two of us are crying in chorus. I can feel his rubbing speeding off as if he can wipe off the shame and guilt we are feeling right now.

I will never complain about my life again. “I don’t want to go to Viamyr! It is just a small shithole! They probably don’t have any private baths either!”. Oooh… if I knew then what I know now… I sounded like a spoiled brat!

Akif is getting tired of us crying on him, and manoeuvres the two of us in front of him. We both fit in his warm embrace. I can hear his heart beat inside his chest, and the warmth of his hands on my back make it so much harder to hold back the tears.

You really don’t understand why we start crying every time you talk about yourself, do you, Akif? We start crying because we have lived two very different lives, and we wish we could have given you something to make YOUR life easier. We have more than enough. We eat fancy food and drink expensive wine daily, but you… You, Akif… had to fry lizards you found stumbling in your room when you got hungry. If you didn’t find a lizard you ATE BUGS!

BUGS! AND HERE WE WERE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE MEAT BEING POORLY COOKED! A PEACE OF MEAT WHICH PRICE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH TO FEED YOU FOR YEARS!

I don’t think I will ever have the nerve to tell him that… He probably will just say; “But those lizards were delicious” or something like that. That is not the point, Akif…

He keeps gently stroking and tapping our backs. Sera tries to man herself up again, and with a deep breath, she regains her posture.

I wonder why I never asked him about this earlier…

I follow suit, and take his hand. After a quick peck on his cheek I look over to my father.

“Daddy. I want him to live with us”.

Luckily my father understands that wasn’t a request, but an order. I can see my mother looking at Akif with a tear in her eye.

I bet you didn’t expect the first meeting with your future son in law would be like this, did you, birth giver?

Sera grabs Akif’s hand as we enter the carriage my father came on. The soldiers are standing there with shocked faces and stare at Akif while he enters the carriage.

The trip to the castle is a quiet one. Quiet except for Akif asking Atre what Menskinesis is. Atre doesn’t seem too bothered about what Akif told us. I presume he already knew what kind of life he has been living.

He always did know more than the rest of the family…

“I think I managed to use some Menskinesis on your friend. I warned him to keep the dude that almost broke my mind quiet about who I was traveling with. He seemed to hear what I told him. He also knew I was going to send him flying if he did the same as that dude did. Is it usual for someone to hear your thoughts when they search your mind?”.

“I really should have been harder on that guy… I could actually feel something break in me. I think I am fine now though”.

“You used Distant Whispers on Roiss? Man… You learn fast, Akif!”

“Distant Whispers?”

“Yeah! That’s the name we have given the ability to talk to someone through the mind. Pretty cool name, right?”

“YEAH! Attacks have names?”

“Remember the two spikes you pierced my thighs with? They are called “Earth Strike”.

The two of them keep talking while I send glances over to Sera. She is holding his hand while resting her head on his shoulder. I do what she does, and grab his rugged hands. Somehow I feel safe when I lean my head on his shoulder. It is as if the world can’t hurt me.

I can feel my heart racing furiously at his touch. He slightly squeezes his hand, but doesn’t let go of it. I don’t know if he knows what I feel for him, but he certainly doesn’t mind me doing whatever I want with him.

A warmth erupts in my body as I remember the nights I spent cuddling with him.

I want to do that again…

My mother looks at me with a sweet expression, and I flash her a small smile before falling asleep on his soft shoulder.

“yon… Eliyon… Wake up! We have arrived at the castle! You live here? It looks amazing!”

I can feel Akif gently rubbing my shoulder as he tries to wake me up.

“Aah yeah… I will show you around”, I tell him as I rub the sleepiness out of my eyes.

A beaming smile meets me while he starts pointing things he finds interesting out to me. The wooden fountain is something that really strikes his fancy, and he bombards my father with questions on how it works.

I think Akif would have made a great inscriptor… Maybe I should show him some books about it?

I latch on to his arm again as we walk through the main hall. The scent of sandalwood is something I have missed.

It is amazing how this castle was constructed. It is basically a giant tree where the roots and inside of the tree has been hollowed out with telekinesis. Not a single fibre of the tree has been damaged. It is just hollow. Hollow and living.

Atre tells the story where Akif kicked his ass when they sparred for the first time. Akif always holds back when we ask him how the fights they did everyday went.

From what I can see – the more Atre regains his former battle capabilities, the more Akif learns about his abilities. The gap between those two keep increasing and increasing. I suspect Akif uses Atre as warm up before he returns to his daily practice. He even spends time with me and Sera when we have the time to spar.

“Soo… Akif… How do you like this place? You can stay here for as long as you want”, my father asks Akif with a proud smile on his face.

“Seriously? I was planning on living in Felis for a while. I was asked by Sera’s father to keep his daughter safe, and I intend to do so. It would make my life a lot easier if I had this place to rest in. I hardly believe human spies or kidnapping or assassination teams can enter here undetected”.

“Your former owner?”

“Yeah! Sera has been my friend for years, and when I gained my freedom, I wanted to help her out. Her family has been attacked before. So why not help when I have the ability to? She and your daughter are teaching me a lot of things I never thought I would need. Such as greetings! You see how that went”, he laughs while remembering his own mistake. I can’t help but chuckle at the thought of him actually offering my father - the king – mead and rum as a welcome gift.

You have so much to learn, Akif. Soo much to learn.