by Za1d3
the only ones whom she did not feel such gazes from were: her husband, children too young to understand, and those who have known such scrutiny and contempt.
Then there was the child. As if sticking to his middle name, Kaidus grew up in silence. there were times when she feared that his eerie silence helped to reinforce the rumors, but such thoughts are quickly extinguished by her maternal instincts. Kaidus always remained queit, but whenever hungry, he would cry at the top of his lungs just like when he was born. As he grew and his vision became apparent, she would sometimes notice eyes filled with intelligence; observing and examining his surroundings. Occasionally when looking at him, she would notice him staring back at her. love and fear would war inside her. upon staring at such a small and inquisitive face, she remembers how happy she felt when she gave birth to him, but adversely how unfortunate he is to have been born with such traits. This regret would overwhelm her often causing her to break down in tears.
By the beginning of Grunei, Kaidus had already started to crawl, and the silence became more prevalent. instead of crying, he just tugged on her for her milk whenever he was hungry. at home, setting him down while she cooks, he would often disappear but would always be found in the backyard sitting in the grass, just staring into the distance.
As his curiosity grew, and as if he can understand what she says, Adalina would often talk to her son and tell him stories. she would spend hours just talking to him while she worked. she talked about insignificant things such as; having pets, what she liked to eat, who wanted what to be washed, how sharp her kitchen knife was, etc… other times, about life, how to farm, how she grew up, what kind of plants she used to pick in the forest when she still lived with her parents, and other useful tips of life. catching him looking at something, she would pick him up and name it for him while pointing it out.
Towards the end of Grunei, Kaidus had already started toddling around, and had started to refuse her milk whenever she tries to feed him.
– as usual he would tug on her signifying his hunger, but instead of drinking her breast milk, he push towards her own meal. knowing that a few of his baby teeth had already came out, she spooned him a small piece of mashed derilt root from her bowl, and he had eaten it. –
ever since then, he only ate solid food and would refused her milk.
————–
After a hard days work on the field helping to weed the newly planted furuce, Adalina’s pay was 5 erns. the usual pay was 15 erns per day, but since less and less people had started employing her, she had begged for the job to help with the farm, and was reluctantly accepted at the measly pay of 5 erns.
Walking home from the field, Adalina would take detours along paths less traveled and used her talents from her old life to scavenge and scrounge for edible herbs roots and plants to supplement the need to shop for such things. she met a hunter on the way back to the village and had procured a small piece of a scaly hare for 2 erns. Meat was expensive, but since today was a special day, she decided to surrender the money.
Kaidus watched her patiently as she cooked the piece of scaly hare into a stew – with plenty of derilt root and dry ciscut leaves chopped into fine pieces. dried herbs were also added with salt to season the stew. after the stew was ready, Adalina scooped most of the nutritious scaly hare into a bowl, and blew on it to cool it down before giving it to Kaidus.
meat was not a rare treat in the house due to the fact that Troyle would bring some home whenever he comes back, but scaly hares were extremely rare within the village. They were also very delicious and rich in fat while the meat were filled with unfathomable flavors, coupled with the fact that they spent their lives underground only appeared nearing the end of Alivai to breed, she was quite lucky to have procured some. a whole hare would have cost about 30 erns, so getting a small chunk of it for 2 erns was definitely worth it.
as she finished what little scaly hare she got in her stew, and began to eat the roots and sip the broth. she lifted her head up to watch Kaidus eat, only to see him staring back at her. with his cute adorable face looking at her curiously, she smile at him and said “happy birthday”.
Kaidus has never troubled her ever since he was born. he never makes a sound even when people are yelling around him, he never cried out besides when hungry, even when the pressure of life and the village has gotten too much to bear and she would cry, he would just stare at her as if unsure of what to do. he was quiet most of time and she could never figure him out. yet his actions never bothered her or caused her to worry, instead she would talk to him about various subjects even if he never made a sound back.
‘such a wonderful child is regarded as a demon, and all I can do for him is to try and shield him from the hate. even for his birthday, I could do nothing but give him something to eat. how i wish i had more to give him.’
with such thoughts, tears began to swell out of her eyes.
staring at her, Kaidus slowly opened his mouth and asked her –
“Why do you cry?.” – with crisp clarity.
“!!” – surprised, Adalina was at a lost for words.
Chapter 4 – Flow of Mana
Along with the villagers, Adalina had assumed Kaidus was a mute, but that was no true. The child was now emanating an air of intelligence.
For his first few words to be a question inquiring about her sadness was beyond her expectations. She knew he was different due to his usual demeanor, but this something else.
‘It’s a Demon!!’ – The voice of the midwife from a year ago resounded in her head.
Fear and surprise overtook her for an instant and her legs gave out. Kneeling on the floor, order returned to her mind and the fear quickly dissipated.
“Are you okay?” – Kaidus asked as he walked up to Adalina.
Looking at the cute little face before her, she slowly began to speak.
“You know, mommy was afraid you were never going to be able to talk. Yet, here you are asking me about why I am crying all of a sudden. I feel like such an idiot for worrying about nothing.” – neglecting that fact that a toddler at his first birth cycle had clearly and proficiently spoken to her, she had replied as if normal.
“I’m sorry.” – was the reply she got in return.
Not completely convinced that this was real and not a figment of her imagination,
“And how long have you been able to understand?” – Adalina wavering, tried to make sense of the situation.
“Ever since I started crawling.”
‘Ever since then?! But he was barely six months old!’ – Adalina could not believe it. Out of loneliness she had always talked to him ever since he was born, but to have been able to understand her since he was that young was extraordinary. Her fear grew stronger as no human child could have done such a thing.
“Why do you cry?”
Lost in thoughts, Kaidus’s question shattered her delusions and brought her back.
—————–
As if a dam had broken inside Adalina, all the reasons came out.
‘It was me. Because of me, the villagers are mistreating my family. Because of me, she suffers. Because of me, she blames herself and kept it all in all this time.’ realization dawned on him.
“Let’s see, I think like this” – closing his eyes, Kaidus concentrated.
The gray on his hair slowly split into two different colors; a pitch black, and a pure white as if to start glowing any second. Then the white suddenly vanished and all that was left was a head full of black hair like Adalina’s.
Astounded, Adalina knelt silently while watching the event unfolded.
Opening his eyes, Kaidus spied a terrified mother who looked like she had lost her voice.
For a span of minutes, mother and child stared at each other, unsure of what to say.
“Are you a -” catching herself, Adalina tensed up at the question she had unknowingly blurted out.
“?” – tilting his head to one side he wondered at her words
> “I’m sorry, I mean, how did you do that with your hair?” Adalina asked unconvinced
“Some of my mana may have been leaking out without my notice, I just absorbed them back.” was the reply Adalina got.
“MANA?!” another shock of surprise escaped Adalina’s mouth. Being able to talk and converse at his age was unheard of. but for him to also have mana – not to mention know what it is – and be able to control it, is something that is borderline out of this world.
She quickly revisited her prior thoughts, but refused to go further.
Mana was not rare ages ago, but eventually, those who could control mana had slowly diminished. Currently, the majority of those who have mana were Nobles – primarily nobles hailing from a distinct line of ancestors with overwhelming mana. She herself has no knowledge of either of her parents having mana nor theirs, Troyle’s ancestry from what he has told her also doesn’t go back far enough to tell if mana was in his line or not.
Although it was not strange for families from a line without mana to suddenly birth a child with mana, it takes years before any such sign could be physically viewed, and developing it would also take years. Not to mention such situations were one in a million. Yet, here was a child, for all she knows, knew what mana was, and could control it ever since he was born.
“Why did my hair estrange us from the village?” – Kaidus questioned while Adalina was in her state of shock.
“Huh?”
“You said it was because of my hair that we’re living in such a state, and I would like to know why” – a prompt reply
————–
A long dead religion, a long dead demon, a long dead legend.
Thousands of years ago, the world was prosperous because of mana.
One day, a demon with a great amount of mana raised an army and overtook one of the seven continents, slaughtering the beloved Emperor and his subjects. The other six continents sent in reinforcements to stop this evil. For surely for if it was not stopped, it would swallow the entire world. The battle took seven days and seven nights, and on the dawn of the eighth day, Heroes emerged. These heroes, having fought to exhaustion sacrificed their lives, and finally sealed and destroyed the demon.
Shortly after, the Church decreed an order; anyone born with white hair was to be denied life because they are demons.
After the order, a crusade swept through the seven continents.
Ages passed and such battles became legends. Legends became myth. And all that was left, was a dark period in history.
Although the Church that made the decree was long dead and new religions have sprouted up to replace it, the idea sown into the mind of the public that; ‘white hair was unnatural and the only explanation is that it was a demon’ continued to prevail into modern-day.
Due to having grayish white hair, superstitions kicked in and caused the village to behave the way they do.
——————
The majority of the reasons were contrived and unsophisticated superstitions, but Kaidus was able to question his way to some semblance of information from Adalina. While Adalina fancied all this as some sort of bedtime stories about heroes and demons kings, Kaidus knew all too well the truth. He lived it.
It seems, the church had known that their seal was not perfect and would not be able to completely destroy him. Thus, putting into motion a failsafe in case he is ever reincarnated.
‘Well, that explains that.’ Kaidus thought to himself, remembering the other 26 times he was sent back to the void. It was because of this ridiculous reasoning, and his lack of control at birth.
It would also appear that an enormous amount of time must have passed in this world for the Church of Hainl to have been dead for so long.
‘If it’s been that long, then what is my purpose here now?’ he wondered to himself.
Not wanting to make Adalina even more suspicious than she already is, and not wanting to reveal himself,
“Is having mana a bad thing?” – Kaidus questioned innocently.
“No it is not. In fact people born with it are extremely rare, and those with talent are always sought after.”
“Then there should be no problems from now on?”
“I don’t know Kaidus… sometimes people’s minds are harder to change than their appearances. The villagers will probably never get over the fact that you were born with white hair despite knowing you also have mana.”
Attempting a solemn bow with his tiny body,
“I am sorry for causing you trouble. It is because of me, that such unfortunate -” events befell you.
But before he could finish the sentence, he was in a tight embrace.
‘This is…’ warmth filled him.
“It’s going to be alright.” – Adalina whispered.
Disposing of everything that she had just witnessed, Adalina held onto Kaidus. Whether he was a demon or not, did not matter. The sorrow in his tiny eyes when he tried to apologize practically killed her inside. A sorrow unfitting his age.
“You are just a little different from everyone else, you have nothing to apologize for. Everything will be fine.”
———————
The next few days were uneventful as usual. The only thing that seemed to have changed were the number of stares. Seeing the once gray-haired child with black hair like his mother, the villagers were confused and bewildered.
‘Was it dyed? If it was, how was she able to afford such? How long would that facade last?’ the villagers whispered amongst themselves.
Cheap dyes were easy to come by, but they usually wash off or weren’t very good. Seeing the state of poverty the Paltos house was in, no one would believe they had enough money to afford good dyes that don’t wash off.
The idea of having a demon trying to fit in and become inconspicuous within the village rattled a lot of nerves with the villagers, and whispers quickly became outspoken disdain.
Even people who had sympathized with the Adalina’s situation eventually felt as if the whole thing was to trick them into forgetting she was not parent of a demon.
——————
Troyle came home for his break to find a village full of disgruntled villagers.
“Get out of this village you liar!”
“Demon worshipers!”
“Don’t think that this changes anything, just because he has a head full of black hair now, doesn’t mean we don’t know what he really is!”
Confused at the outcries filled with anxiety towards him, he quickly made his way home to find his wife and child.
Upon seeing his son with a head full of black hair sitting by Adalina, he finally understood.
the villagers had assumed the child’s hair was dyed as to fit in with the community, and because of such blatant attempts at hiding the unnaturalness of the child, the action angered a lot of people. They had assumed it was both Adalina and him downplaying the intelligence of the villagers, and so such words were also directed towards him.
“What is going on?” – Troyle irritably asked.
Kaidus just started at him, while Adalina was trying to come up with words that would diffuse the situation.
“Adalina, what is going on here? What happened to his hair? What is wrong with everyone in this village?” – Troyle questioned while staring at Adalina. He could see she was trying to come up with an explanation.
“My apologies, it was because of my selfishness that caused such a problem. Please do not blame mother.”
“?” – The one who answered him was not his wife, but someone else entirely. A voice he had never heard before, a voice that carried itself through the room as if it were alive, coiling about. Meek but powerful, humble and dignified. Looking around the room for a stranger or one of the villagers, Troyle failed to spy anyone. His eyes eventually rested on the small child sitting by Adalina’s side who was staring at him.
‘Mother’ – the voice said.
Willing himself to tear the gaze away from the child
to Adalina, he saw her merely nodding as if to confirm his unspoken curiosity.
“W- What the hell is going on here?!” – Troyle asked again, this time stupefied.
———————
‘This child was born with mana!’ surprise, fear, relief, happiness, and a plethora of emotions came into play at once for Troyle.
after hearing about what happened a couple of days ago, the revelation that his child could understand and talk, in his body contained one of the rarest commodity in this world ‘mana’ which could work miracles, and that he might even know how to control it, was unbelievable.
If it were anyone else explaining it to him, he would not have believed it. But in this situation where the party in question itself was explaining it to him, there was no denying it.
His son who has never made a single sound, this child who he had thought a mute and addled in the head, was explaining the things that transpired over the past few days to him with crystal clarity.
‘So… the hair was because of his mana leaking, and by absorbing it, the hair returns back to their normal color. But that does not explain why he is able to talk already at that age… is it because of the mana? No one really knows what ‘mana’ is or where it comes from, just that some people are born with it. Could it also have the power to accelerate understanding in newborns? There has never been any such tales, but that’s not to say there couldn’t be one, seeing as how it’s happening right now.’