Chapter 1: Visions of a False Flower

The door to a small house on the edge of the kingdom swung open and a man stooped down to avoid hitting his head while walking out. The man had broad shoulders and a slightly muscular frame with long legs. Over his shoulder he carried a leather bag with a simple drawstring. As he took a step Outside the wind blew making his deep green cloak flick about wildly showing off the simple black trousers and plain cotton shirt with a deep v neckline and string tying it tighter around the mans collar bone. On his feet he had simple brown leather boots that had most definitely seen better days. The wind continued to whip his cloak around until it had wrestled the hood of his cloak from him and whipped it off his face.

Yellow-auburn eyes flickered with annoyance as the man attempted once more to put the hood up. The wind blew strongly and flattened the hood to his back tousling his already messy black hair. Sol finally decided to leave the hood alone and go back to the task at hand. He turn and shut the door to the house taking quick steps away from it. He needed to be gone, now. If he waited any longer he's miss his window of opportunity.

Before he could get further the midwife who had taken him in, Henryetta, appeared on the other side of the lawn from him. It was nearly midnight Henryetta should have been busy with her patients and caring for the orphans she housed. She waisted no time waltzing across the yard and getting in Sol's face. She pointed an accusing finger at him, her brown graying hair pulled into its usual bun bounced along with her angry head bobbling as she spoke.

"What are you doing out so late? Haven't I told you a million times that you shouldn't be out at night? What if something like last time happens? What if you get hurt? What would your parents think of me if I let you get hurt under my supervision?" As Henryetta said each question she poked Sol in the chest to further emphasize her point, her deep purple eyes dared Sol to reply and add more fule to the fire.

Sol gently grabbed her finger and moved it off his chest. He looked into her eyes challengingly his eyes looking more auburn than yellow and said, "My parents are dead, Henry, you know that as well as I do." Henryetta faltered and let an expression of pain cover her features for a split second before regaining her composure.

"Exactly and in their place I have sworn to be your caretaker and protect you! I-" Henryetta begain but Sol could no longer hear her. Pain seared across his skin as he grabbed his head in anguish. Dark red angry spots covered his vision as he fell to his knees. From the red came something more, a swirling gray lifting from something beneath it before rising up to cloud his vision. The grey deepened to black and the smell of smoke assaulted Sol's nose. Sol's eyes became bloodshot as he tried in vain to blink the smoke out of them. He blinked rapidly and finally the smoke cleared showing him something that churned his stomach.

A huge white lilly was on fire, burning slowly from the edges of the petals inward. About an eighth of each petal had burned. He had had this vision before but the petals had only been slightly singed. Each time he had the vision again after the first the flames were slowly encroaching on the lilly. He had no clue what the visions ment but he only knew of one white lilly that big.

"-ol! Sol! Hey Sol are you alright?" Asked Henryetta ask she tried to shake him back to reality.

"I'm fine. I'd be better if I knew what was causing all of this." He said simply, shaking off Henryetta's concern and standing again. He looked towards the one place that might be able to give him answers. The center of the capital, the only place the stem of the great lilly came close enough to touch, the royal palace. The only place to truly asses the great lilly's condition. He looked up at the bottom of the lilly but it looked calm and serene in the late hours of the night.

"Why don't you come inside and we can talk about it? Come on, Sol, let's just go inside." Henryetta said in the voice one would use to coax a child into going to sleep with while walking towards the door. Sol scoffed and shook his head.

"I can't stay. Henry I know that you feel responsible for me but it's already been 13 years. I think it's time we both moved on. I can't even comfortably fit in the door anymore." Sol said with a slight chuckle trying to lighten the mood. He didn't know if he'd ever come back and if this would be the last time he saw her he didn't wanna leave on bad terms. Sol smiled gently when Henryetta didn't respond. He waited a few more moments and then turned on his heel and began walking away.

"You'll always have a home here! You'll always be welcome back at the orphanage too! Please don't forget us! And be sure to visit your parents to tell them your leaving!" Henryetta shouted from behind him. You could tell she was crying from the way her voice broke but Sol didn't stop for even a moment he waved behind his back and disappeared into the night.

Sol climbed the small hill to the little graveyard near his old house and stopped just shy of the iron gates. His hand reached up and then he hesitated. Sighing he pushed back his hesitation and the gate, the gate swung open with a slight screeching sound. Steeling himself Sol walked forward. He walked to the opposite edge of the graveyard and knelt down before a headstone that said 'In loving memory of Liyn & Anko Greyblade loving parents and dear friends'. Two sets of dates were engraved slightly below the text, (763-799) and (757-799).

"Hello mother, father, I know I haven't come to visit you in a while and I'm sorry about that. In all honesty this might be the last time I come visit. At least until I sort somethings out." Sol said looking not at the headstone but at the ground beneath it. He remembered well the day his parents bodies were lowered into the ground. They shared a single casket their hands clasped together at their side. When the casket closed on their waxy faces all Sol could see was their pained expressions as they died.

Sol closed his eyes tightly trying to shut out the unpleasant memories. His parents burning lilies dropping to the ground like stones flashed before his eyes. Sol stumbled backwards slightly falling on his backside as he did. He sighed putting his head in his hands and muttered, "Please just leave me alone..." Tears silently slide down his face.

From a short distance away, balancing on top of the graveyard fence, a person stood observing Sol in his moment of vulnerability. The dark clothes they were wearing blended in with the night around them. They thoughtfully placed their hand on their chin, pondering something. "Did Liyn and Anko ever have a child?" They thought to themselves. "If they did then they certainly didn't report it to the king. How very unlike them. The Greyblade's were quite loyal back when I met them. I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't inform his Majesty. I must go confirm it with my own eyes." The figure thought jumping from the post they were on towards Sol.

The person flipped effortlessly through the air landing next to Sol. A startled Sol jerked his head to the right looking at whoever had interrupted his moment of sadness. Standing in the darkness with little light to illuminate them stood a person with a black bodysuit stretched over a lean muscular figure. A tight black mask covering the bottom half of their face and their entire neck. On their waist they sported a black tool belt with a variety of pouches and a blade straped to their left thigh. Their long magenta-maroon hair was pulled up into a high ponytail with bangs that ended just above their eyebrows and long side pieces framing their face. Sol noted that even though their hair was up it still almost reached the floor. Deep hunter green eyes peeked out from benith arched magenta-maroon eyebrows.

Hyrion arched their magenta-maroon eyebrows in confusion looking at the figure before them. It was impossible to deny that this person was the child of the Greyblade's. Even with tears drying on his slightly tan skin his yellow aburn eyes swirled trepidatiously like a small storm was localizing itself within his irises. They were the same color as Anko's eyes and the messy black hair was reminiscent of Liyn's notoriously messy hair style that he always blamed on genetics.

"I guess it was true." Hyrion thought, kneeling down to eye level with Sol once they realized that they'd been just staring without saying a word. They pointed at the grave next to them, "Are they your parents? How did they die? They're not the kind that would go and get themselves killed." Hyrion asked in a deep silky voice.

The deep voice caught Sol off guard but what caught him more off guard was the questions about the very thing he'd been trying to avoid thinking about. A fresh wave of tears spilled forth from his eyes as he tried desperately to stop them. "I can't believe I'm crying when I'm the one who told Henry that we should be moving on. Who even is this guy? How does he? She? Whatever! They! How do they even know my parents?" Sol thought wiping the tears from his face with his sleeve. The tears continued to flow as he tried to contain them to no avail.

Hyrion looked on in shock unaware of the huge hornets nest they just awoke with their blunt string of questions. Sparing a quick glance at the headstone told them all the information they needed to know however and a look of regret crossed their face. "Both of them passed in 799. The year of the lost lilies. He doesn't look that old so he must have been young when it happened." Hyrion thought sending a sympathetic look towards Sol who was still crying without making a sound. His shoulders heaved up and down and tears flowed down his slightly flushed cheeks but no sound came from his lips. None of the usual sobbing that was associated with crying could be heard from the man.

Unbeknownst to Sol, who was crying with his eyes closed, a subtle glow begain to pool at the center of his chest moving slowly outward until he looked like someone had lit a candle benith his skin. The top layer became tinted with a reddish orange glow. He looked as though he radiated heat the same way one would think a red hot fire poker did. His jet black hair stood precariously up in direct defiance of gravity and stood completely still even when a strong gust of wind blew. The tears that rolled down Sol's face dryed quickly as though evaporating on a hot surface. They only made it a quarter of the way down before fizzling and steaming off Sol's face. The subtle glow slowly started becoming less subtle and much brighter and redder. The air around Sol started to warp with heat and energy.

Before the heat could get more intense and Sol could get any redder Hyrion muttered,

"Beautiful."

Sol stopped crying almost immediately, his eyes popped open and he looked at Hyrion with a look of absolute and utter confusion. Hyrion slapped their hand over their face and looked around wildly, unable to face the near puppy dog like expression the other was looking at them with. They really had no reason for thinking that let alone for blurting it out, but now it was time to make a quick escape. They had already gotten all the information they needed anyway. They glanced quickly back down at Sol who had since been staring at his hands as he watched the glow slowly subside from his skin. Then they jumped behind Sol and dashed away shouting over their shoulder as they did so, "I'm sorry!"

Sol watched them leave with confusion painting every part of his face. He had so many questions about what just happened, but he knew that he wouldn't be getting any of them answered, at least not right now. He had more important things the worry about. His previous vision of the great lilly slowly burning flashed in his mind. With one last sideways glance at his hands that made it look like he suspected his hands of a crime, he stood and dusted himself off. He slapped both hands on his face and smiled, turning towards his parents grave. He couldn't see them off with a frown now could he?

"I'll come see you both again, I promise. Goodbye." Sol said his voice hardly above a whisper. With that he grabbed his discarded bag from the ground and walked out of the graveyard heading for his destination. The city at outermost ring of the kingdom of Glade, the city of Wormwood.