Childbirth

In a great chamber of a magnificent castle that stood a top a lone hill pained cries and phanting of a women can be heard.

Unlike castle's ancient appearance its insides we more mordern and magical , chandeliers made of monster gems with unknown usage , runic symbols run through the walls giving it a unique look , fingerprint scanners on the door and cameras carefully hidden and stratigically placed to leave only pre-chosen blindspots

Inside the great chamber , serveral doctors , few healers and some maids were standing around a bed , carefully monitering a lady's conditon.

"push my lady, just a little more", one of the maid said

Seeing the lady struggle ,one of the doctors muttered almost inaudibly ,

"we should have gone for surgical deliver ,with current technologically and healers there won't be any scars or anything But royals and their wierd traditions"

One of his co-workers who was close to him and clearly heard him replied

"its not about tradition , you see the room has barriers to ward off against curses plus a fail safe healing and area purification in case barrier fails to block of any"

"all the more reason to do a quick surgery and be done with it"

The co-worker chuckled , clearly expecting such responce , his colleague wasn't really fan of nobility , he didn't hate them or anything he was indifferent to them but... being called in on for a delivery on sunday 3 am can make you hate anyone

"you see the wedding ring on lady's finger?"

"yes, its quite beautiful but what about it?"

"that's a artifact connected to the castle

Any scratch on her inside the castle will heal

And a surgery will probably trigger the castle's defence"

"interesting" he said and went silent still having the same annoyed expresion

While they were having their conversation

Delivery was a success , lady had fainted from exertion but vitals were stabilizing when suddenly runes on the walls overloaded and a maid's hand turned into claws and she leaped towards the women

She was halfway there when she was stabbed through the heart by shadow of another maid

looking at the fresh corpse , the maid sighed , " looks like my lady was right , there was someone in the castle after her life "

"and her child " another pointed out after checking if the newborn child was breathing

It looked like curse was repelled by the barrier despite being overloaded , that is until one of the doctors noted lack of crying of the baby

Immediately following the he activated his innate ability which allowed him to see his target's overall physical health , heaving a sigh of relief thinking perhaps child was simply an oddball

Until another doctor , the one who called in on sunday used his own innate ability which allowed him to see outlines of souls and he was absolutely horrified by what he saw

Seeing his expression and knowing about his innate all doctors in the room knew something was wrong and the resulting unsual silence of doctors who were used to bickering to each other told everyone in the room something was wrong

One of the maid , the same one who killed the other using her innate eventually said,"so who should we infrom , the 3rd Prince is away on monthly border inspection and we can't trust other princes and ministers after this attempt "

As if remembering something she added

"we can contract lady's brother , he is in the city"

"but"

"no buts , its either we take the chance or we lose our heads along with the barrier management staff in a few hours"

She nodded to the third maid , who nodded back and then disappeared in a puff of smoke

Lady's brother was woken by a knock on the door . putting on his clothes he walked and opened the door to find his knight looking anxious ,

the knight handed him a letter

"Sir , this just came from the caslte , from one of your sister's personal maids "

After reading the letter , the man turned to his knight and asked

"Elias , when you swore the oath to me you said that you will give away your life to me

Do you still stand by it?"

The knight , Elias looked at the name with determined eyes and said ,"yes my lord"

The man looked at his knight for a look while the said , "very well, come inside and use your innate but before that

how far can you see ahead"

"it say from 24 hours after the activation to the next 19 years but whatever i see will be absolute and cannot change, will you still proceed? "

the man eventually said ," it was pleasure knowing you elias and yes ,i will"

"me too my lord", saying that he took out a dagger and asked , " whose future do you wish to see my lord"

"my dead nephew " ,man replied

"ok" , elias drove the dagger to his heart

His elias turned golden

And he relayed what he saw to the man

And ask , " why did you so far for a dead child ,my lord?"

The man chuckled , " i love my family and do you know of curse of rejuvenation , unlike the name it does not just make someone youthful , your age keep regressing until you cease to exist ,normally it is easy to cure but i was hit with 3 curses simultaniously on the battle for salt sea 15 years back , 4 years before i met you, so curing curse of rejuvenation might just kill me or it could cripple me and you know given my position being a cripple is worse fate of the two "

To say Elias was shocked by this revelation would be an understatement , he had served the man for the last 11 years along with others yet no one knew of the man's situation

the man then took of his pendent which Elias belatedly realised was a illusion type relic

instantly the man vanished and in front of him was a child no older than 10 year old

"besides in few years i will grow incapable of fight , after all my innate ability isn't suited for fight "

"but you are still a sword demon". Elias pointed out

The man turned to look at Elias , with sadness in his eyes he said ,

"what's the use of that tittle if my sword can't reach my enemies? "

Elias thought about about his reponse to the man's words hoping to change his mind but looking at the man's eyes which was beaming with acceptance of his fate and resolve to see it to the end he stop

He looked at his chest

Elias's innate ability allowed Elias to see future of any one target of his choice

When he was dying , such was the cost of seeing someone else's fate and realizing it

The dagger in his chest was a special relic he had ordered a named blacksmith to forge

The dagger only have ond ability and it is to prolong the victims life until the victim runs out of his essence

Elias looked at the man and smiled .

"Farewell Sir , may you accomplish what you sought to do "

And

"Farewell Elias , you were a good knight and ..... a good friend "

Elias's eyes widened in surprise moments before it lost its radiance.

The knight Elias have run out of essence and died

The man stood for a few minutes mourning death of his knight and a friend who, now turned into a corpse.

He then put the pendant back on regaining his earlier older appearance

He walked out of his room and reached the staircase where he called another one of his knight

"what is your command , Sir"

"Go to the castle , find my sister's personal maid and ask her to give the child to you

I will meet my sister later and explain things to her , you meanwhile take the child and go to free city of Vandor using the teleporter , one the eastern port of Vandor , you will meet a couple lining up to board the ship leaving the continent , the male would be recorgnizable , and give him some tips on how to remain low-key , get them to take care of the child by any means neccesary

ok, now go."

"Yes Sir"

Man looked at the departing figure of his knight and headed to his basement

In the dimly lit basement which was too large to be called a basement he closed his eyes

Focusing on his innate ability

Suddenly a change in air could be felt

and small vibrations ran through the ground

in front of the man a viel of impenetrable darkness materialised and then thinned out revealing a world of darkness , it wasn't made darkness per say , it was made out of nothing , the man didn't have time to think about the seemly impossible phenomenon

because the next second , the viel of darkness parted , yet nothing stepped out of it instead the man himself went inside the viel

Inside the viel was a realm which was not ment to be seen by mortals so the man closed his eyes and sealed his senses as much as possible and walked

He didn't how far or how long he had walk , it was hard to tell , as if time and space was twisted and everchanging here in this realm

He had forgotten which direction he was walking , his spatial awarness was useless here

He kept walking unti he felt something looking at him , something ancient , something incomprehendable , something vast , so vast that he couldn't tell where this being's body end or where it began or if it had a beginning and a end or if such concepts were simply beneath this being

And it spoke

not in conventional way but in images , shapes and numbers , as if a adult trying to communicate to a deaf illiterate child , if such analogy even applicable

the being knew why the man was here and

it send a string of images depicting a requirement of a price

Man pull out a obsidian black stone with runic carving

which was pulsing with power

He got another string of images ,stating that the deal was done ,

The being and the stone suddenly disappeared as if they never existed in the first place and the man resumed walking

He simply walked forward since directions had no meaning in this realm

After walking for an unknown amount of time he was found himself back in the basement

He looked around and proceeded to head up to leave

'today is going to a long day', he thought and sigh

walk from the estate to the main gate was a short one , nodding here and there and greeting employees on the way to the gate

he looked at the castle that stood far in the distance on a lone hill , took deep breaths and ran

The distance from his house to the castle was considerable but nothing a wanderer of his caliber can not make within few minutes.