Ever since he was a child his entire life had been planned just like a script written solely for him.
Be smart, learn the politics of the royal family, marry the prince, bring prestige to the family and never forget that father is the only rule and law he should know.
His siblings were also raised this way. His older brother Maya eldest brother was one of the most respected mages in the continent married to the daughter of well known merchant from the east.
His older twin sisters were selected to be researchers at Lakeion, one of the oldest and most influential centers in the empire.
His younger siblings were also like this but for them they want to inherit his fathers position and their knowledge of politics and power strategy was enough to impress the emperor.
But he was different, it began after his father murdered his mother and nobody said a thing. He was just a pawn for his father to move, a doll set for his father's amusement, a pet for him to train as he saw fit and show off to his pretentious friends.
He decided he wouldn't act along in his father's play. That caused more dissatisfaction and existence went from being a bother to being an annoyance.
In order to get rid of him and at the same time make use of him his father decided to get him engaged to the crown prince. Which didn't woke well.
"Get up!"
He got off the floor, his silver hair sticking to his face due to the sweat and blood caused by being beaten for half an hour. He struggled to stand straight cause the pain in his body was enough to knock a normal person out.
His father was a warrior knight who practiced the sword arts. So for someone like him to hit an elemental was akin to giving a death blow, but Arissa Has always been different.
"Useless, can't even handle such a weak blow, just like your mother useless, weak."
He long grown numb to his words.
He was hated.
And he accepted the fact.
Accepting the fact made it easier not to have any expectations.
"Your usefulness for the Dahl family is slowly dwindling, I will exile you for ten years and I need you to come back useful. I want you to leave the grounds In half an hour and never show your face again till you are summoned. Cause if I see you before then I'll give you an end so gruesome, you'll find out your mother's death pleasant,"
He didn't beg nor did he complain, he just nodded agreeing with him knowing very well that he wouldn't be allowed back. Ten years was just for show so that his competitors wouldn't use his action of chasing away his son as a way of gaining public sympathy.
"Yes Master Dahl, "even though I wouldn't be here with out your contribution. Istill have to act like you are the most wonderful person cause you bestowed upon me such a 'wonderful gift of life. '
He bowed his head before limping across the room to the door.
Xanith who had already been accustomed to this immediately held him and Helped him balance as they walked down the stairs to a dilapidated hallway and they headed straight to the furthest corner of the small hall way. Xanith opened the door to the room and led him in.
This room was the one place in the castle which he loved and hated the most. A room filled with all his sorrows and the scarcity of his happiness. The first thing one would notice upon entering was the mirrors surrounding the room, either broken or covered. He hated mirrors, he would get rid of them if he could but they were placed by his father.
After his father killed his mother in front of him, he turned and saw him crying, he immediately took his whip and struck him twice consecutively causing him to faint.
He woke up the next day with no wounds just pain in his bones. The servant who was sent to apply medicine got up quickly and reported the abnormality. His father called a seer who was a healer and all he remembers was that while the seer was speaking his father turned pale in fear it was a second but he saw it. The next day there were twelve mirrors all around his room and the seer drew a rune on his right arm.
"young master?"
"we need to hurry,"
He quickly let go of Xanith's arm and limped towards his study table he opened the drawer and picked up a small bag and placed it in his pocket.
"Can you teleport,"
"I can do it but my power is still weak so I can't decide where we will go,"
Great.
His exile came at bad time. His power was weak and the only one who could used power between them had been forced to go to a training in the military camps and was power lagged from overuse of power.
The lord of the house of Dahl and the Duke of Rafion, his father, was unpredictable was unpredictable, he could decide to kill them secretly immediately they leave so they needed another way.
"Do it we don't have another way,"
Just then he felt his surroundings blur and when he opened his eyes and found himself in a different place and by the looks of the tree structures it was no where near the southern castle. Around him was an area with tall, mostly evergreen trees and the smell around showed that it rained a lot in the area. From his knowledge of the continent's geographical structure he was most likely in the rain forests of Meruthia which is located to the east of the continent, his home was on the south which means they moved half way through the continent.
"I don't think they'll find us easily now,"
"Ugh,"
A loud groan makes him look beside him and he spots Xanith massaging his head a symptom of burn out from magic over use.
"We are in a rain forest right now the rain and the trees should be able to hide our scent till we find a safe-
Snap!
He tensed stood still at the sound of a twig snapping his whole body went rigid. Xanith also stopped moving seemingly sensing the danger. Arissa tried to focus his senses as he listened trying to filter all the animal noises and concentrate on the one area the noise came from.
Suddenly a strong feeling of dread hit him, then Xanith struggled to get up but fell down soon after due to the burn out mixed with the aura of oppression around them.
Something was there.
He had this feeling that something strong was watching them. From somewhere around.
Then he heard aloud crack.
He was breath was becoming erratic as he turned to see what it was, before he could see it some force suddenly hit him on the head making him crash on the nearby tree. His heart was hammering in his chest, he tried not to focus on the pain that made his head throb and looked up trying to concentrate his vision on his attacker while at the same time gathering his thoughts. But everything was a blur even the sounds around him weren't clear. His chest felt congested and his breathing was irregular. He heard a low growl above him which carried enough force to push him down and he tried to look up but he was scared stiff. The sight before him was scary. In front of him was something that looked like It came straight out a horror story it looked like a ghost it was so pale with blood shot eyes and razor sharp teeth.
He'd never seen anything like it. He was so scared that his legs gave out and he couldn't get up. He could hear a sick laughter from it, it was mocking him . It was slowly advancing towards him . He tried to move away but he couldn't probably paralyzed from both the pain of hitting a tree and fear. He holds his breath hard trying not to show his fear.
Then suddenly he felt a sharp pain on his leg. Looking closely he could see a mouth like structure on its hand. It was biting him and he couldn't do anything.
Xanith tried to move but a force held him down and he fainted due to exhaustion.
Seeing this Arissa tried crawling away but his body wasn't cooperating, everything felt heavy.
With his eyes closed as he was slowly losing his consciousness he felt heat on his hand and before he could react all the energy remaining on his body rushed to his hand and then he felt the heat leave his hand and an orange light flew directly towards his attacker. It hit the thing and the grip on his leg loosened, it fell back moaning in pain. He was still weak, he slowly crawled away but his leg felt like it was coated with hot lead. His father had already broken it and now he was bitten by the monster.
As he was crawling he suddenly noticed something.
It was silent.
The sound of the beast morning in pain had stopped. He turned around and spotted it moving towards him and before he could react it lounged at him.
He waited for pain but didn't feel it instead he saw the beast laying on the ground looking hurt.
An arrow flashed past him and hit the beast on the head causing it to stop moving, but before he could see his savior everything turned black and he was down.
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