Chapter 2 Being Frank

I felt tired, very tired.

My mother died less than a week ago after which we moved to this strange country that my father calls home.

I had to leave behind my beloved research facility where I had tinkered for hours on end often spending all my free time figuring out how stuff works.

Now in this new environment and with father gone, I had nothing to distract me from this emptiness inside of me.

This heavy sadness on my shoulders and the fear of losing my father had already caused me to cry many times during the night.

I hadn't slept much last night and I could only eat a couple bites for breakfast because my throat felt all clogged up because of all of this stress.

While my sister Isabella has her new friend to talk to all I could do to clear my head a bit was to take a walk.

I asked my homeroom teacher if I could leave as I wasn't feeling too well and was allowed to take a sick leave.

My baggy eyes and messy hair resulting from a long sleepless night probably helped with convincing the teacher that I wasn't feeling well.

As I walked I went up along the city wall having decided to walk around the city. From the wall it was easy to take in the new city that we had moved to. I was trying to enjoy the fresh air. much of my walk was spent counting the number of steps it took to walk around the city but each time I'd get caught up in my emotions again and lost count.

While making my third round around the city and having walked for what felt like ten minutes I saw a wounded soldier on a horse riding towards the southern gate.

Because of the distance and because the sun was coming from the west from where the soldier came from I was unable to make out what emblem the soldier had on its armor..

Worried I ran for the city gates and hurried down the stairs inside the gatehouse as I held onto any hope of the soldier not belonging to my fathers regiment. Hoping that my fears of losing my father right after having lost my mother and the place I called home.

Not again.

As I reached the gate I immediately recognized the emblem on the wounded soldiers tattered armor.

It was an eagle with an olive branch in its claws. It was a soldier that had accompanied my father to Jin.

My knees became weak as they collapsed from under me and I fell to my knees.

My back bent as I lacked the strength to sit upright. Pressing my face to the ground as the tears started to fall uncontrollably. I started wailing and crying I knew what this meant. It was not my hope but my worst fears that had become reality.

The guards that had rushed to help the injured soldier off his horse couldn't help but notice me but noticing the clothes I wore were bearing the royal emblem; no one dared approach me.

All I felt was pain. My throat, my back, my stomach, my head, everything hurt from the inside out.

Besides the sniffing and no sound came out of my throat as I felt a knot appear in my throat.

---

I arrived home late that night.

After calming down a bit the injured soldier reported what had happened after which I spent another hour or maybe more wandering around the city aimlessly. My mind was completely blank and all I could think of was what the soldier had told me. My dad wouldn't be coming home.

Upon arriving home I was met by a servant of the Moor family. His name was Kaito.

"Your sister was invited to stay at my masters place by young master Asa Moor, thus I was asked to tell you that she won't be home tonight."

Kaito then awaited me to reply.

But I didn't hear him as my thoughts were still continually repeating what the wounded soldier had told me:

"We were traveling to Jin through the valley escorting Yoran.

I was part of the rearguard.

Our captain told us to remain diligent and on guard but despite that we weren't expecting an attack while still in Joren.

When we entered the mountain-pass boulders came falling down from the mountain killing some and separating the back of the column that I was a part of from the rest of the troops.

Right after the boulders before we could even react we were attacked as a rain of arrows came down from the mountain. Many died in that first volley. Shortly after followed the next salvo's from the Dragoon Riders that came flying down from the mountaintops.

My direct superior had no choice but to give the order of retreat. So we fled back to Altara immediately.

As we fled we were chased by dragoon riders picking us off one by one until the city was in sight and I was the only one still alive.

I kept riding as fast as my horse could carry me."

Waking up from his thoughts Frank looked up as if awoken from a dream to see Kaito giving him an inquisitive but mostly confused look. Frank wanted to speak but no words would leave his mouth.

Tears welled up again as he remembered what had caused him to lose his ability to speak.

Kaito's became only more confused as he began to wonder if he had said anything wrong for Frank to cry.

After a while, Frank signaled for Kaito to enter the house with him. Frank walked into his fathers office and then walked to the desk as he got rid of the tears.

He then took a piece of paper from the drawer of his father's ornate desk but he couldn't find a pen.

After a few too many frustrating moments Frank slumped down onto the chair after which he crumpled up the paper shooting a mana bolt to incinerate it startling Kaito who was now wondering if Frank had become angry about what he had said.

In the past whenever Frank had been bored or stressed, his dad would throw some paper at him to dispose of.

Yoran saw that exerting his mana gave Frank stress-relief while Isabella got stress-relief from having someone to talk to.

Frank suddenly got an idea, he gathered mana from his surroundings and started trying to control the movement of the mana bolt which didn't work very well and it dispersed as quickly as it had emerged.

Then after gathering more mana he tried to make the mana stand still in the air which wasn't that hard. He then spread it into a square followed by a triangle, circles, orbs and finally he started making letters.

Kaito's jaw dropped as he could make out the letters 'y', 'e' and 's'.

Kaito hadn't seen something this amazing ever before.

Making letters or even forms out of mana had been completely unheard of up till now.

Most anyone has ever done is chain mana from an output to an input through and in doing so one is considered a master if they can chain it more than 5 consecutive times.

Yet here was Frank a young teen doing what many had thought impossible.

-

Before we go on you must first know what mana is;

Mana are the particles that give matter energy; though to call it particles would be wrong since it is energy itself.

Normally matter and its energy (mana) only separate under very specific conditions but the sentient races have a lobe in their brain that allows them to control and separate matter from mana to a certain degree.

Matter that has lost its energy will have different attributes or change into a different matter entirely, often the remaining matter will also try to draw its mana back thus separating mana from matter is only the first step.

To do this one needs to choose an entry and an exit point and get the mana to chain from one matter to another.

This however is hard to control and the more mana you use the more radical it becomes. But before you chain it you need to learn how to draw out mana and by focusing on one point you can create a mana orb but the moment you lose focus the orb dissappears.

The real professionals can hold up to 3 orbs at the same time.

A mana orb consists of its center where the mana and matter is separated and the outer rim where it reconnects with its matter. Then the matter that regains its mana is drawn back into the orb due to the vacuum created by removing mana from the matter in the center thus the cycle continues.

These orbs can also be created by drawing mana from a power source by use of machinery and storing it in a mana battery.

For the past 20 years Joren has had the peace it needed to develop various means of drawing out mana from natural sources like the flow of the water in the rivers and using it to heat houses or move objects.

We had entered into an industrial age which gave us more power than our cousins in the south who could do nothing more than devise more ways to kill one another.

When the Kirkwall's lived in Jin Frank had been the first to devise a way to make a mana shield by making a machine able to continually draw mana from the air in a line or circle.

The giants on the lavaline were the first to use it to defend their cities against the war between Jin and Jagun. I still remember how happy Frank was to find out that what I had tinkered on in my room actually helped save an entire race from eventual destruction.

Franks father then gave Frank his own lab in the basement of their house under one condition.

That Frank was to never make weapons of mass destruction. So instead Frank focused on improving his mana shield.

-

Regaining his composure somewhat Kaito asked Frank if he needed to repeat what he had previously said seeing as Frank had been daydreaming before.

Frank then responded with a 'yes'.

But he had made the mana a bit too bright due to his excitement and relief that he had regained his ability to freely communicate.

Due to this Kaito was blinded for a few seconds and as he was rubbing his eyes he repeated that which he had previously said:

"Your sister was invited to stay at my masters place by young master Asa Moor, thus I was asked to tell you that she won't be home tonight."

When Kaito regained his eyesight and looked up to Frank he saw that Frank had written 'sorry' with mana with way less brightness than before, it was barely visible.

Frank then having heard what Kaito had said, thought to himself:

'Maybe its better if Isabella doesn't find out about this till I figure out what happened to father, maybe he was captured and is still alive.'

Frank still held onto the hope that his father was fine as the wounded soldier hadn't been a witness of the demise of Yoran and only see the attack.

Frank then took another piece of paper from the drawer and started to try and burn a message into the paper using mana, the first tries set the paper on fire.

Frank needed to decrease the mana output even further. but on his 8th try (the first 7 got incinerated leaving burn marks 3 of those 7 burst into flames because Frank got frustrated) eventually Frank was able to make a line on the paper without burning the house down.

Then with pen-point accuracy he made connecting dots of charred paper to create letters as he wrote out a letter to Isabella. After the first paragraph he had to recline back into his fathers chair taking a short break and after gathering the next load of mana to be used for writing Frank tried to figure out what to write next.

Obviously Frank felt that he had to go and find out what had happened to his father.

It was also quite curious for the dragoon riders to prevent peace from being formed since a war could devastate their lands.

There had to be an ulterior motive and Frank felt compelled to find out what it was.

With regained vigor and mana he continued writing the letter even faster than before.

Kaito's eyes were fixed on the paper as he saw an almost continuous burst of mana moving on the paper burning it ever so slightly at the slightest touch of mana.

It almost resembled a pencil made out of pure mana.

A little over an hour later Kaito arrived back at the house of Moor with a message from Frank to Isabella.

Frank had done a decent job at writing the letter though the writing didn't look as neatly written as it would've been with a pen and his signature at the bottom looked kind of childish but as he didn't feel like redoing the entire letter Frank left it as it was.

Kaito walked into the living room, Isabella was sitting at the fire-place with some tea as she gazed into the fire. Kaito walked towards her and handed her the letter and saying

"I have notified Frank of your stay here and he gave me this letter for you."

Isabella wasn't expecting to receive a letter from her brother but when she saw in what manner the letter had been written she became even more surprised. On the paper was burnt/written:

"Dear Isabella,

I am happy to hear you made a new friend and I want to ask you to stay at their house for the next couple days.

This afternoon I was called to follow father and will do so this very night and I will be taking our guards and servants with me as an escort.

It is of utmost importance that I go now before a war breaks out and I will do my best to bring father back too.

Father has had a head-start so I don't know how long or if I can even reach him before he reaches Jin.

take care;

Your brother,

Frank"

Isabella was shocked, she thought to herself

"First mother then father and now my brother is leaving me."

She stood up and under her breath she said:

"I'm going too"

Having said that to herself she found courage and she bolted for the door through the hallway and out the house towards her home in the hope of catching up to Frank before he left.

Asa was startled by Isabella's sudden departure. After she regained her composure she ordered Kaito to follow Isa and bring her coat with him as it was still quite cold outside.

Isabella arrived home but she was too late.

The lights were out and not so much as a bird could be heard from her home.

The gate was shut. Isabella then knocked which didn't help so then she violently bashed on the door with her fists and to her surprise the door opened and in the doorway stood a guard who after recognizing who was at the door opened it up completely; letting her in as he asked;

"is there anything I can help you with?"

Between heavy breaths Isabella replied;

"Yes where is my brother?".

To which the guard replied,

"He left as he was ordered to take the rest of the guards with him to follow after Sir Yoran, he left me behind to guard the house till he returned."

Isabella then asked,

"how long ago did they leave?"

"Maybe 30 or 40 minutes, They left quickly so that they could leave the city before the gates closed. They've started to close the gates much earlier ever since we moved here. Probably due to the worsening relations with Jin."

"hello?"

Asked Kaito as he walked in through the door. Seeing Isabella Kaito handed her her jacket.

"Its getting late and dinner will be served soon, it'd be best to return to the estate, unless you would want to stay here of course."

Isabella quietly stared at her feet as a feeling of loneliness slowly clutched around her little chest even making it hard to breath.

She then turned around through the gate and walked with Kaito following close behind to the Moors estate leaving behind the guard who closed the gate shut again.