"I did a little research into your situation, Willem. As I understand it, your Mother and Father both passed away." The Grand Mage and Willem were finally alone as they walked through the corridor of the Private Sanctum.

The corridor they walked down was filled with moving paintings of roaming beasts and humans, which Willem had never seen before.

"Yes, that is correct." Willem looked down at the ground while he spoke.

"Trauma is sometimes of a rare gift for a Mage. The trauma of losing someone can often be the impetus for becoming stronger. More often than not though, it is a detriment, weighing on the mind of a young Mage bound for glory." The old man continued to walk around a corner to face a door with a large lock on it.

"..." Willem was unsure of what to say, or if he should say anything at all.

"We are here. Step inside and find yourself." The Grand Mage unlocked the door and opened it slowly.

A large gust of wind burst forth from the opened door, and a low hanging haze began to form around Willem's feet.

"A word of caution, Willem. Nothing you see in here is real. You must remember that." The Grand Mage gave Willem a warning with a stern gaze.

"I understand, Master." Willem bowed and briskly walked into the room.

Upon entering, Willem noticed the distinct lack of elegance. All four walls of the room were a deep purple, with a black throw pillow exactly in the middle of the room. Willem could not tell where the haze was coming from, but it had now reached up to his knees.

There was essentially nothing in the room besides the throw pillow. With nothing to lose, Willem sat on the throw pillow and assumed a meditative state.

Willem crossed his legs and placed his hands on his knees before attempting to connect with his magical power through the strings he had previously established.

When he successfully established the connection, he saw that he was no longer in the room but instead was back at his house in the Bastion of Hope.

Looking at his hands, Willem had significantly less callouses and they were much smaller than before.

Unsure of what to do, Willem began to run inside his house while calling out.

"Housekeeper. Housekeeper!" Willem yelled as he opened the door to his home.

"Willem, stop yelling. I am not your housekeeper!" A familiar voice reached Willem's ears, a voice he thought he would never hear again.

"Mother?" Willem saw his Mother standing at the end of the hall in a beautiful red dress.

"Willem, what are you still doing in those tattered rags. We are invited to the Royal Palace, go wash up immediately. Your Father will be home soon." Sarah brushed some dirt off of Willem's face and smacked him on the butt to get him moving.

"Right, Grand Mage said this was not real." Willem remembered as he ran toward the bathhouse in order to clean himself. In a stained mirror, Willem saw his body, as he had reverted back to that of his thirteen year old self, right before his Mother's suicide. "So why am I here?"

Before he had even realized it, the magic of the room had already slowly trapped Willem.

Once Willem was done washing up, he donned some finely tailored clothes that his Mother picked out for him.

"Thanks, Mother." Willem said as Sarah pecked her son on the cheek.

"Wife? I am home." A gruff but pleasing voice could be heard from the front entrance of the Saye family home.

"Father! You are back!" Willem could not help but be overwhelmed with joy as he saw the figure of his tall and muscular Father through the frame of the door.

"Do not touch him Willem!" Sarah began to hiss at Willem as if she was a demon, her hair whipping about forcefully.

Willem was taken completely off guard by his Mother's actions.

"We do not want to get your clothes dirty." She explained as she quickly returned back to the way Willem remembered her to be.

Willem was hesitant to look at both his Mother and his Father until his Father returned from the bathhouse.

The tight fitting clothes that Sarah picked out for her Husband made him very uncomfortable. After working in the fields of his home or at the Army Training Grounds, Alexander had become accustomed to being able to get his hands dirty wherever he went.

"This really is not like me." Alexander pulled at the neck of his shirt that was tightly wrapped around his muscular body.

"It suits you just fine." Sarah grabbed his hands in hers and gave him a deep, passionate kiss.

Even Willem got embarrassed when seeing his Mother and Father acting this way, and headed out to the carriage waiting at the front door for the family.

"Well look at that. Is that the young master of the Saye family!" The carriage driver had a crooked nose and boils all over his face and neck, but he had a large genuine smile.

"Hello, Mister. Thank you for your hard work. I will be in your care." Willem shook the carriage driver's hand in greeting.

Sarah and Alexander joined Willem in the carriage and they were quickly off to the Royal Palace.

"Now remember to be on your best behavior. If you embarrass me, you will regret it." Sarah gave a gentle warning.

"Yes, Mother." Willem smiled.

The fog in the room continued to increase, and was now at Willem's navel.

At the Royal Palace.

The carriage finally arrived in front of a red carpet leading up the steps into the Royal Palace.

Since this was Willem's second time at this place, he took in all the wondrous sights in front of him.

Rows upon rows of attendants, chefs, and maids lined up in front of the guests of honor. Willem looked at each other their faces, but only a few of them could be made out. Even after Willem rubbed his eyes and looked again, the faces still could not be seen.

Willem ignored the attendants and instead looked at his smiling Mother and Father.

"Willem, are you actually smiling? How long has it been since you smiled!" Alexander joked at Willem who was the happiest he had ever been.

After climbing the twenty steps, the family was lead inside by the head butler and was shown around the Royal Palace as if on tour. Willem gasped at the moving paintings and the golden tapestry of a Black Dragon burning down a village.

"Saye family! Welcome to the Royal Palace!" The One True King appeared in front of the family.

Though Willem knew it was The One True King, his face was also blurred out, like his attendants. His clothes were vibrant and full of color, lending to the atmosphere of an otherworldly King above all his people, but his face looked as if it was covered in a grey haze.

Willem could only choose to ignore this little discrepancy and offered his greetings as his Mother nudged him from behind.

A deep laugh bellowed throughout the Royal Palace, and it came from The One True King, despite him having no mouth.

"That is a very good greeting." The One True King knelt down in front of Willem, where he was now inches away from touching the boy's face.

Willem could not understand but felt an undeniable pressure coming from the King as he stared into the haze.

As if the moment had come and passed, the King retracted his gaze from Willem and motioned for the family to go to the Dining hall.

Upon reaching the Dining hall, a full course of meals was displayed for the family. From one end of the table to the other was a complete array of beautifully crafted dishes.

Alexander stood on the side of the table, salivating but holding back in front of the King.

"Please sit, dig in. We are ALL family here." The King said as he took his seat at the head of the table.

Three other people joined the King and the Saye family at the table. The Queen, looking majestic and gentle, the Prince with a fiery red attire and the Princess with an icy blue dress. Not one member of the royal family had faces, as they were all covered in haze.

When the dinner was finished, the King called upon Sarah.

"Sarah, we have some matters to discuss privately, would you please excuse us for a moment." The King bowed to Willem and Alexander before the two left the Dining Hall.

Alexander and Willem continued to speak with the royal family, but even after ten minutes had passed the King and Sarah had yet to return.

Willem asked to be excused to go to the restroom, and his Father looked completely busy talking to the royal family about his work at the Army Training Grounds. Taking it as a yes, Willem hopped off the chair and began to roam through the chambers of the Royal Palace.

The attendants were nowhere in sight, nor were there any guards or maids walking around doing work.

Eventually Willem found the bathroom and used it quickly before heading back to the Dining hall. Unfortunately, Willem got lost on the way back and ended up in front of the King's private chambers.

When Willem pressed his ear to the door, he could hear his Mother's voice and the voice of the One True King.

Willem grabbed onto the handle of the door and pulled with all the strength he could muster to open it up.

When he walked inside, he saw clothes strewn all across the floor, clothes he recognized to be his Mother's.

On top of the bed of the King's bed chambers, Willem witnessed his Mother being taken by The One True King from behind, her face buried in a pillow while the King had one hand on her voluptuous hips and a full fist of her hair.

Riding her from the back, the King glanced over and saw that Willem had entered the room.

"Why do you think your Mother worked in the Royal Palace. Of course she is my concubine." The King said as he aggressively began to thrust harder into Willem's Mother.

Willem was in complete shock and tripped over his Mother's clothes while trying to leave.

The sounds of his Mother moaning like a whore bounced around his head as he lifted himself from the ground and ran out of the room.

Running down the hallway and back to the Dining hall, Willem screamed for his Father. However when he arrived at the Dining hall, the only thing that awaited him was his Father's corpse, gored by a red-winged wyvern. The wyvern screeched as it fed on the flesh of Willem's Father.

The royal family looked on at the scene from a balcony overlooking the Dining hall.

Willem screamed for his Father, and finally the red-winged wyvern turned to the little boy.

Willem did not hesitate for a moment and turned from the Dining hall to run for his life toward the entrance of the Royal Palace, crying and screaming for help.

Once again, he was the helpless little boy that had everything he loved taken from him.

The fog in the room was now at Willem's eye level. The Grand Mage sat quietly outside the door, listening to the screams of a boy tormented by his own delusions.

As the red-winged wyvern crashed into the pillars of the Royal Palace, Willem attempted to elude it by ducking out of it's vision.

Willem held his head in his hands and prayed for someone to come save him from the vicious beast.

A young woman appeared before Willem, a beauty with a black dress and sharp eyes like a cat.

"I can save you, but I need something from you." The beautiful woman said.

"Anything, I will do anything." Willem cried as he embraced the woman.

"Give me all your magical power, and I can use it to save you." The woman patted Willem's head.

"Okay." Willem nodded his head as he noticed the red-winged wyvern had turned around and finally noticed Willem and the woman.

"Give me a kiss." The woman knelt down to Willem's eye level as she puckered her lips. Her face slightly distorted as if it was partially covered by haze, as she closed her eyes.

Willem closed his eyes and puckered his lips as well, just as he saw his Mother and Father do before they left for the Royal Palace.

"Willem!" A faint, almost imperceptible voice that sounded like his Mother came from the back of Willem's mind.

When he opened his eyes in shock, the woman's visage had twisted from a beautiful and gentle face to a hideous beast with multiples rows of teeth and tendrils for eyes.