Blessed are not human

An older man towered over a black-haired youth deep within the castle's walls. His body was thin, frail and yet, his presence, overwhelming.

"As I understand your project has been progressing, favourably?."

"Yes, father"

"You've done well Machia, just as I expected. I'm sorry to say, but waiting, waiting is no longer an option; you understand that, correct?"

The darkness had warped the castle. The mood hid behind a veil of dark clouds, again refusing to share its light with the kingdom.

"I understand"

"My boy. I don't think you do, no seriously, you know I have my doubts. It's not like you to wait for me to order you around. How... uncharacteristic. No, no, I'm convinced at this point. You're stalling, aren't you?."

"..."

"I won't pretend to understand your struggle entirely, but don't you see? My. Our people, every day, we lose more and more and yet we still don't understand why. How could that be? it's unacceptable. I'm afraid to say that at this rate, by the time aid arrives, we'll already be gone, all of us. We'll have simply disappeared.

"..."

"Do you even know how many people we lost yesterday?, no you wouldn't I suppose. Twenty, twenty people, to be exact that's fifteen guards, experienced ones and of course 5 civilians. Now I want you to try to understand what I'm getting at here."

"..."

"Come on, you know this one, you know it. Sure, maybe those numbers don't mean anything to us at face value, but after you lose all the guards-"

"Everyone dies"

The old man smiled, entertained by the boy's curt response, "Yes, yes, that's right, so you do get it, and were losing more every day. You simply don't have any choice."

"But father, hold on before that. I mean, there's something else I don't quite get."

A sinister grin curled its way onto the old man's face; his eyes radiated with both challenge and rage as he faced the dark figure confidently. "Oh, please tell, what is it you don't get?".

"Why is it exactly you insist on using guards to solve our little problem? Surely you haven't forgotten about our army. Afterall it's stationed far closer than any aid could possibly be. Could it be the one who is stalling is-"

"Crash"

The older man crushed the wall of the doorway with his bare hand. The man's lean, thin and elderly state did nothing to hamper his ability to crush the solid brick doorway barehanded.

The youth didn't flinch from the strength of the elderly man even a little. He raised his head for the first time, a crooked grin of his own twisted onto his face.

As though utterly unperturbed by the destruction caused by the elderly man, the boy continued to stare at the old man with adversity.

"...Soldiers or not boy, you must fulfil your role. We need information. You are the only one I can trust with that."

"Don't wanna"

The youth raised his head with a new wave of resilience, "So come on already, share with me. What exactly were your plans to make me? force?"

The man grimaced and snarled, simultaneously taken aback and disconcerted by the youth. This brief respite, however, was short-lived; a sick, devilish grin returned to the man's wrinkled face once again. The feverish smile of the old man made Machia recoil.

"Oh well then, I suppose, I suppose you may have a point. I'm simply at my wits end, just a useless father who can't even discipline his son. Very well you win."

It was at this moment an insidious, sick feeling resonated within the youth. Realising his mistake, he looked down in anguish. Despair now decorated his figure.

Noticing this, the old man's eyes gleamed with ecstasy and bravado.

"To protect the lives of my citizens and my most loyal constituents, I'm simply left with no other option. I must order the entire army to return and send them straight towards the source of my kingdom's most mysterious adversary. Come on, Come on, Come on, Machia, don't you agree?"

"No"

"Great, I win. You had me worried for a moment there. Now just where did you learn to bluff like that again? Oh wait, me. PHHHHHAAAHAHA"

The old man clutched his stomach in agony as he laughed uncontrollably, his thin frame recoiled with laughter. His face tensed as he desperately attempted to keep himself upright. Instead of regaining his composure, however, a raspy snort and giggle broke through despite his desperate efforts to hold it back.

Grasping the shrewd meaning behind the old man's fit of laughter, the boy couldn't help but flinch and surrender to the man's macabre grin, which continued to eye him menacingly as he looked back down shamefully at his feet.

"Ahh ahh that, that was good thank you, nice try though. I thought I taught you a little better than that but I guess not. To spell it out for you in case you didn't notice, I already know what it is you care about, and so do you. So answer me, what is it you are going to do now ,Machia?"

Wordlessly, he accepted this response with painful resignation. With a fake composed sigh, he surrendered his conscience willingly once more.

A shadow with frightening speed ventured out into the night as it dived through the capital's darkness. Its distance knew no bounds. After only a short time, an all too familiar sight entered its view. Here, it found large numbers of dark entities crawling out of pitch-black water. Their figures resembled that of humans. However, they likely wouldn't for much longer.

Ignoring the entities and paying them little mind, the shadow descended into the water. The darkness embraced its tiny form and accepted it into its being. The shadow dived further and further, yet saw nothing, no strange entities, no monsters, nothing. Their absence was sorely missed.

There had been a time when the ocean was brimming with all forms of corrupted life. The change and relative newly found safety of the ocean had not gone unnoticed by those of the kingdom. Many stories had been told of what persisted in the depths. In some strange perversion, it had even been worshipped by many for this blessing.

Unknown to humankind, it was this very same worship that had attracted the ire of the being. There would be no forgetting or forgiving. It was far beyond such things.

The shadow could not see. After all, it was in true darkness with no light left to cast even a flicker of a shadow, and so it sought to retreat. However, at last. Its sense would catch something before its departure. Although brief, its wielder was forever tainted by its unearthly presence.

Rumours of a monster's deranged shrieking from the castle would begin to spread between the citizens of the inner walls.

################

Daylight had just started trickling into the capital, waking Perses from his slumber as his stomach growled hungrily. He hadn't noticed the night before, but his dinner had been left in the centre of the room. He had likely fallen fast asleep before it had arrived.

Not used to his schedule of food or sleep yet, he had likely wasted it... or had he.

"Wait a minute".

His food had disappeared mysteriously again, making the only meals he had eaten with Machia the previous day. A trail of crumbs leads towards his bed.

"Hmm"

Sitting on his bed, he pondered what was happening. Rather than rely on Machia as usual, he contemplated the problem alone.

'Surely it won't be that hard.'

'Wait a minute, it has to be that thing again. How could it not? I thought it had died, but-.'

Interrupting his thoughts, a "knock" rang out, and without any pause, a short man delicately opened the door. His eyes were mostly closed as they had been before, yet only now did he notice his shrewd gleam, as he tightly clutched a dark black book.

"Good morning, Perses; I'm afraid to inform you Master Machia will not be making an appearance today. Instead, I was told maybe you'd be interested in attending school today?"

Perses stared back at the man blankly. His indifferent demeanour, followed by a nod, caused the Reverand to smile wryly.

"Very well, it will do you some good to talk to children of your own age, but I should caution you of a few things first. You see, if possible, I would like you to keep your identity as 'blessed' a secret. Is that alright with you."

"Ok"

The man was taken aback by the abruptness of the boy's response. "Well... great then, as for the class rules, hoh, never mind. I suppose there isn't any real need. Alright then, I'll lead the way. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

Standing from his bed and following the Reverand, he eagerly questioned the man as they walked. A little taken aback, the Reverand answered joviality in quick succession. It was only a short while later that they arrived. The school appeared to operate as a short extension of the cathedral.

As the man entered the classroom, a tide of silence overcame the group of boisterous playing children as they quickly returned to their seats. Noticing the man's absolute power over the children confused Perses as he zoned out in thought.

Noticing this, the short man sighed and announced to the class, dismayed, "This here is Perses. He'll be joining us today. Give him a warm welcome."

The children erupted with gentle waves and cheerful greetings. Perses found himself stunned as he examined the crowd utterly bemused. This reaction. It was so noticeably different than that of the children from the training grounds, who had opted to simply ignore him.

"Perses, you may go pick an empty chair-". Interrupting the teacher's words, a few children jumped at the chance. They called out to Perses with "Here" or something similar whilst motioning towards a free space.

'What the hell is wrong with them? These people are weird.

Confused by the student's boundless energy, Perses wandered through the rows of seats as each student jumped to get his attention, undaunted by his dumbfounded expression. He settled in an empty chair in the far back corner of the room. However, his attempt to hide in the corner failed miserably, as all the nearby children turned around and spoke to him all at once.

Despite the commotion, the Reverand permitted them to talk amongst themselves for a while, smiling kindly from his stand. As Perses was bombarded by questions, he finally spotted Mars in the seat before him.

"Hey, Perses, did you come from a different class or something? No, wait, are you gonna come back for sword practice sometime?"

"I dunno. Maybe"

Mars seemed satisfied by his typical curt response and grinned at him before turning back around.

His gaze of Mars's back was quickly blocked out by a girl who forced herself in front of him. He noticed the other gathered children made a point of not standing too close to her, giving him a little breathing room as he flinched from her strange, fixed gaze. 

"Are you magic?"

Perses tilted his head with mild confusion, "Uh I don't know. What's that?."

Perses couldn't help but cringe as awkwardly he leaned back in his chair away from the girl. For a moment, he could have sworn he could sense something else off about her.

It wasn't only Perses who appeared confused by the strange girl's question. The Reverand, too, seemed deeply startled, as if question marks had appeared above his head. Perses noticed the man's eyes slowly widen in realisation at something beyond him. He abruptly opened his black book and tapped the wooden stand three times in a peculiar rythem.

Immediately the chaos in the classroom ended, and the students returned to their seats uniformly. Although it may have looked like the students were simply well-behaved, something about the immensely synchronised reaction also felt off.

The class sat with straightened backs in utter silence as if it was completely natural. Completely still as if frozen, they gave their full undivided attention to their teacher, who began reading from the black book he always carried.

Whilst everyone else inside the class keenly listened to the words of their teacher as if entranced, Perses, however, gazed listlessly around the room. The lecture discussed the kingdom in detail but Machia had already fully schooled him on this. Supposedly the kingdom was the only country there was nothing beyond it, Perses scepticism had ended there.

At the moment though He was unfathomably bored. He had got the chance to explore and see so much these last few days. Being stuck doing nothing in the same place bothered him. He was starting to feel out of place.

It was then that, for the first time, something stood out to him. A girl crouched on her chair on the other side of the room. She was also aimlessly looking around the room. Her mouth was also slightly agape as if mirroring Perse's expression. Eventually, her eyes fell on Perses, locked in an awkward stare.

No one paid attention to her oblivious strange sitting position. Bewildered, Perses looked towards the teacher before repeatedly facing back at the girl.

Noticing Perse's strange actions, the Reverend caught on that the boy was trying to show him something but, after a short while, gave up and sighed, continuing to read to the class. At some point he had begun to read from the book he always carried.

"The world of demons, fallen Angels, is very real – a fact we need to know. We have to face up to this terrible reality, so that we do not fall unsuspectingly into their hands and come under their tyranny."

The other strange girl from earlier, the one that called him magic, raised her hand, "What do fallen angels look like?".

The man's smile disappeared briefly as though reminded of something mildly unpleasant. Shaking his head, he hid it behind a smile and humoured her inquisitive nature, "Who knows, I've never seen one".

Perses was surprised by the girl. He hadn't realised he was even allowed to move. He also raised his hand, copying the girl noticing its importance, "What about demons? What do they look like?".

The man smiled wryly, "I'm not sure either, though they are usually evil beings."

Whilst the Reverend spoke, Perses couldn't help but stare a little at the crouched girl.

'hmm, she looks a little evil now that I think about it'.

"But of course, perhaps their most defining feature would be their horns."

Perses couldn't help but stare even harder at the girl noticing those all too familiar black horns protruding from her head.

'Huh'.

"So could a demon be, um, in this very room, like right now, in that chair."

At this announcement, the class all turned around, giving him strange looks as if awoken from a trance. The Reverend looked equally bewildered.

"Um no that's, this is a holy building and is part of the cathedral no demons would be able to get in here."

The crouched, horned girl had turned her head towards the teacher and listened earnestly for the first time, nodding as if in complete agreeance. Until she got bored and began casually chewing a chunk off of a pencil she had grabbed.

Perses stared at it for the remaining class time, entirely bewildered by the strange demon's presence that no one else seemed to notice. At one point, she even began jumping from desk to desk, walking across them like she was balancing on a tightrope, yet no one batted an eye.

The class had ended without Perses even noticing, and the man had already left, announcing a different teacher would arrive shortly. Captivated by the strange creature, his vision was soon blocked by the other strange girl, who got right up in his face again. She looked to be the oldest member of the class and had long blue hair that was accompanied by tacky items such as stars and tiny blue globes that stuck to it through unknown means.

Her eyes were her most peculiar features; not only did her pupils slowly shift in shape, but they also radiated a very real bright glow that blinded Perses, whom she was too close to. The girl stepped back, her eyes dimmed, and her pupils reverted to circles.

"Ha you really are magic, that is my only expert conclusion."

Perses began feeling overwhelmed by her outlandish persistence and leaned back in his chair, still startled.

"Hey let me show you to my mum. A strange creature like you would make her so happy."

"Strange creature. The only strange creature is you!"

She tilted her head slightly, amused, "Ha your funny I'm not a strange creature, unlike you I have a name, I'm Hectate, not that anyone calls me that".

"I have a name too remember, did you already forget and why do people not use your name?"

Her passionate smile fell for the first time until it was replaced instead by an audacious grin, "Who these mortals, ha, I wouldn't tell any of them my true name?"

"Mortals. You mean humans?, anyway leave me alone I'm supposed to be experiencing school for the first time."

"Yeah, but school sucks, clearly. So why not come on."

Avoiding Hecate's gaze, Perses just happened to notice the small devil girl sneak out of the classroom, causing him to stand up knocking his desk forward. Looking around at the class, his actions drew the attention of all the remaining seated humans. These children looked up at him, some with ire but most with nonchalant confusion. The longer he had stayed here, the more they had begun to stare at him.

Then there was him; everything these children did, he couldn't comprehend, nor could he keep up. The longer he spent here, the more out of place he felt. Parents, food, birthdays, school, rules, strange books, swords, magic and violence. No matter how effective his learning capabilities were, every conversation held something new. Rather than be full of excitement and curiosity, his attitude had changed. He had started to think of these things as something he had missed out on while sleeping in complete darkness.

That harrowing sight of the coffins was forever etched into his brain, reminding him of what exactly he was. Every conversation about these new things made him feel a little less like everyone else and a little more like the corpses, empty, different and lost.

'I wonder, is this how Machia had felt all these years being the only blessed. Did he choose to fit in?'

Before he had even realised it himself, he had already got up to follow the devil girl out of the room; he was blessed, so he didn't need to stay locked up like the others. He was also curious and more sure than ever that he recognised the girl from somewhere.

"Hey wait for me."

But first, he had to get away from the really weird one. The students watched on, appalled as one unhinged student after another escaped out of the class running and not without slamming past their next teacher in a hurry.