Chapter 4

"Why does this place look like the nighttime in our world." "I think it just represents your state of mind." "What does that even mean?" 

"Its representation of what you are thinking." "The night. I'm thinking of the night of all things." "No." "Then what?" "Why are you being a jerk!?"

"Because were stuck here and I have no idea what to do!" "I told you already." "Then how do we do that! Since you know everything about magic!" "Stop yelling."

"We are stuck here because you wanted to be a hero. All of this is because of you." She stared at me with sad eyes. She wanted to cry btu she never showed her weak side. 

"I can't do anything Ivalyo. You are the only person that can break this spell." I hate how she is right in these moments. "Then what do I do?"

"Ivalyo. You must face your past. Right now, you may not realize it but you're refusing to show your past. You're not wanting to see the hurt that was done in you."

Is that true? Am I afraid to see my past? I have tried to forget my past Its just meaningless. My mother was part of it. "If you want. I can help you get through it." 

She sits on her side gracefully. She gestures to me to lay down on her lap. "This very strange." "Come lay down. I will help you. You just got to trust me."

There are no other options for me. Alie maybe be strange and makes it hard to trust her sometime, but I divulge. I reluctantly laid on her lap looking straight into her eyes. 

Those green eyes were very enchanting. This viewpoint showed me just how pretty she really was. 

Alie caress my head and lays her other hand on my chest where my heart would be. Maybe she was trying to calm me down in her own way of affection.

"I will open the memories of your past now. Once we get through all of what led you to who you are now. The spell will break."

"...Just forget everything you'll see after we get out of here." "Ok."

Alie releases her mana into my body. "I will use my mana to find your memories. All mana is connected from past and present."

A memory was forming in front of us like a mist was dissipating from the land.

"This is...it's the day my mother and me were sold to another noble. She couldn't stop crying that day. I was only 3 at the time but I remember her hurting a lot. She never told me why she was crying that day."

Another memory appears. I remember this one. It changed my view of life. But also showed me the life of our world. I was born a slave, but I was too young to understand that. I never understood my situation. Until that day

"Ivalyo come here. I got some extra food for us." "Really how?" "I... worked extra hard today and the knights were generous enough to give us and extra meal." 

Alie admired my mother beauty. "She's stunningly beautiful." "All Panther beast people are stunningly beautiful." "I see. A genetic thing." "Genetic?"

"Blood line I mean." "Yes, but only those of pure blood. I don't have what every person of my mother's people has."

"..."

"It doesn't matter anyway. Let's keep going."

The memory of my mother watched me as I eat the food appeared. "Is it good?"

What a weird question my mother asked. "It is. It's always good mama." Alie notices my hair. "Your hair? its black?" "I have no idea either."

Looking at mother made me emotionally silent. It has been 11 years since I've seen her face. I always wonder how she has so much energy to work. My mother keeps me in here, so I don't have to work as much.

I rarely leave this tunnel. But the days I have when the Knights actually care of the where abouts of us. I have to work. We stayed together as much as possible. We may be of the same people, but people changed after years of suffering.

A warden of the mine yells to us. "Listen up! The Duke of Tann has requested more marble on behalf of the emperor! No breaks at any moment. If you are. your feet will be removed." The beast-men never cried or flinched.

They just went back to what they were doing. Suddenly I was bumped by another slave. "Move out of the way."

My mother who saw me fall rushed to helped me up. "Sorry mother." Confused by my sudden apology. She shakes her head and hugs me. 

"No. I'm sorry for bringing you in this cruel world." I believed mother would have live a much easier life without me. She might have thought so to. "Have you heard of the white witch?"

"No. Who is she?" "She was a noble person. She helped clean the world of famine, but greed and corruption were something she could not take away. So, famine always came back."

"She spent her entire life trying to find a place for the people who were suffering a home to go to. But she never did." "Why?" "She was alone, and she could not do it all by herself. So, she never was able to achieve what she wanted."

"...Then one day. Maybe i can do it." "Do what?"

"To build a home we can come back to." "Hehe. We'll see. Hopefully the spirits will bless our future."

The memory fades while another appears in front of me. "It's night now." "This was a month from the previous memory." "What is it?" "The night when the only thing I saw as a light of hope. Was complete changed."

I followed my mother that night. She always came back with extra food and at night would leave late without telling me. She quietly steps into another family's den. "Mother? what is she doing?" 

She steps over the family to not wake them. She slowly removes a cloth that's laid over the ground like a bed. Beneath was a hole filled with dirt and in it were a few potatoes wrapped in another cloth. They were bitten and little dirty from dirt but were still edible.

She looks at the family. She seems unwilling to take their food. She whispers. "I'm sorry." She leaves the den without being caught by them. "She must be suffering mentally." "It's not over."

The next day she was confronted by the mother of that family.

"Give me back our food!" "I have no idea what you're talking about." They were deep within the mine where no one could see them. The whole mine was massive, and the knights never had any real patrol schedule.

They also hated being near us since we stunk. "My children are not liars. Give me our food." "I have nothing for you." I watched from a distance.

"You must be the one stealing everyone else food too! Even the ones who gave you food to help you!"

"You have no proof of it!" "I will report this to the humans. Having a thief in their mines is not what they would want." "Again, you have no proof." "They would still kill you just to make sure. You know how paranoid they are."

My mother went pale. The women then turn to leave but my mother grabs a pickaxe near bye. She swings it at the women jabbing the side of her. My mother was shocked and hurled at what she has done.

"You...no." She tries to crawl away to escape from her attacker. "I have to survive. My son needs me. "Please, I won't say anything." "It's too late. It's too much a risk to keep you alive." She grabs a marble block and hits the women in the head as hard as she could. 

"I wish there could have a have been a better way." "Mother." The child of the mother she had killed was standing in front of her shocked at the sight that just happened. "Mom...mom!?" 

The boy clings to his mother who had no face to show. My mother could not handle what she was seeing but she had to show she was willing to survive even to herself. "I don't want to kill but it is what I have to do to survive. You too will learn from this."

"I will!" "Don't do it. You know how this end. I have connections to powerful people. I can make you and the rest of your family disappear."

"Connections? What does mother mean?" 

"What does she mean Ivalyo?" "This brings us to the next memory." The memory disappears. "...What happen to the family."

"Gone. They went back to world after death." The boy would be alive had he not spread rumors of what my mother did.

Another memory shows up. ""We don't have any more food. Go and eat your own shit if you have to." "Please my son is not eating enough." "Mother what is going on?" "Nothing just the weak showing its most distasteful side."

"Weak?" Another knight drags the mother's dying child outside by his hair and throughs him like a piece of trash. "EL!" The boy was malnourished. He had no conscience of where he was. "You want my help. Fine."

"Ivalyo go inside." "But." "Now!" Mother raised her voice at me. I ran inside shocked by her yelling." The knight draws his sword to kill the child." "PLEAES NO!" The knights made her watch as he killed her son. "This is what happens when you lower races ask us for anything.

Mother went back inside our cave and sat down holding her head. "Mother what happened?" I asked. She didn't say anything she laid down on her side. I didn't bother her. The memory soon fades into another.

This must be it. A month would pass now. My mother still continued her daily life. I haven't asked her any questions. I never asked mother about what she did to that family's mother she killed either. She became more active. Rumor of her talking to someone outside of the slave mines walls spread. They kept it to themselves though fearing the wrath of the humans and mother's power.

My mother became conflicted with her feelings. Every time she would look at me, she was sad or angry. She became bolder. She would go to the person she was talking to on the other side of the wall even during the day. My mother had power in this place because of the people she was talking to. So, she could get someone else to do it.

It was apparent that she was planning something. "Who were these people?" "I don't know Alie. I never asked or tried to find out." "How come?" "I became afraid of my mother."

What was is mother planning? "Ivalyo." Mother. She was standing at the entrance with food. "She did not have that smile anymore. She became stern yet she still would slightly smile when giving me food. 

"Here." "Thank you. Mother." "You used to call me mama...what happened?" Mother looked sad. I did stop calling her mother. Maybe I matured a little or was it something else's. "I... wanted to sound mature and hopefully you can be relied on me mother."

She stared at me with her faint smile. She hugs me suddenly and kisses my forehead. "It's fine. Don't worry about your mother." "Mother?" "Whatever happens follow the smell of rain." "The smell of rain?" 

"Yes. Follow the rain that speaks to you. Not literally of course." "I don't understand?" "You will. After all you are part of our clan."

The night came. I dreamt about the future. I remember seeing a mountain covered in lava. Dragons sorting through the air. Before the lava could take me. I awoke from a loud bang. Outside I could hear the screams and shouting of men fighting.

"What is going on? Mother!?" She was not here. She must have gone outside. With all my courage I ran outside. The mine was completely in destroyed. The craters around the mine were bigger the marvel we could carve out.

Bodies of dead slaves and humans were everywhere. "Is this a revolt?" There are also warriors I've never seen before. The wore a blue short robe with silver armor that covered their entire body.

"Mother. I must fine her." There were only a few places she could go. This people must be the ones she has been talking to. She must be at the place where she is always talking with them over the wall.

I hastily made my way to the area. I almost died a few times along the way. "Mother!" My mother was standing at the broken wall. Something had broken through it. "Mother?" 

"Ivalyo." "We can leave now mom." "My son." "What's wrong mother?" "He is not part of our plan. Sera." A stern voice echoed in my head. His voice was the definition of authority. The wright in my body felt heavy. I fell to my knees shaking. "Please he still my child." "He is still half human. He can't stay in our world. "...I know." 

Mother steps away to dig something up. I could not make out the man's face. He had black mana with dark blue outlines covering his face. He spoke again. "I will respect your wishes, but you also must promise not to ever referred to him as your blood."

Mother graded what she needed. "Please. Let me say my goodbyes and do the last thing as a mother for him." "I will be waiting in the forest follow my mana. Only our people can see it." The man disappeared.

"Mother." I still can't get up. "Ivalyo." "What is going on mother?" 

"I can't say. This is not something you should know about." "Why?" "Mother must full fill her destiny. The age of our people is coming. An age of retribution is upon us." Age of our people? "Ivalyo. You must be strong. Not matter what happens. As of today. I will not be here."

"No... mama." "Don't say that. Please don't say that." "Mama." "Please follow the rain so you also may find your destiny."

"No." "I must go now.... I hope you survive this ordeal and if you do. Build a home you can go back to." I suddenly faint. The weight in my body became overwhelming. One thing after another I ended up in cage with captured beast-men. I awoke with my hair a different color. And my mother was no longer here.

"I'm kind of surprised you did not see this since we are one mind." "You are the master. I could only see things in your mind if you allowed it." 

"After the whole ordeal me and the survivors of the mine were to be executed. Since they did not want anyone of their ideals of revolt to spread. People of no human origins is a threat to human power.

"Ideas will break the social structure of the world." The memory fades the world around was breaking apart. "We broke the spell."

"Seems so." "Ivalyo. I'm sorry for making you go through it." "It was necessary." I hated to relive this whole memory. But it also remined me of who I once was. A weak boy that always relied on his mother. And that weakness made her abandoned me. "We must be ready." "I know." "Ivalyo."

"What?" 

"Do you still want a home to come back to. A place me and you can call home?" The memory of saying the same thing came back to me. It was only Childs dream. "I don't know."

"Then we can try it. And maybe you will know your answer."

A place we can come back to.... a place I can call home.... what a crazy idea.