Chapter Text
“...-r? N3v0xr?”
“Hm?”
The child looked up from their doodling to see their moms holding two bags full of all kinds of things that would be needed for a day on the beach.
Wait…
“Get dressed! We’re going to the beach,” Momma beckoned.
N3v0xr’s mouth split open into a toothy grin, a gap in their smile because of the tooth the four year old lost a few days before.
“Okay!”
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There were no clouds in the sky to block the heat of the sun, but N3v0xr didn’t mind too much. Though he did prefer the woods more, despite all the “dangers”.
N3v0xr squealed and ran back towards his moms as the waves rushed up the shore, chasing after his feet. Momma was laying out the towels and beach blankets while Mo put up the umbrellas. Mo’s flute case rested off to the side; N3v0xr hadn’t even seen it earlier.
The beach was completely empty besides the three of them.
“The water’s trying to eat me!” N3v0xr preached as it ran up.
“Oh, Aeqia. What are we ever going to do with you?” Mo sighed dramatically, calling them by their middle name.
He practically hung off her arm. “But Mo! It was so big!”
Mo laughed her loud, sing-song laugh and patted their head. “My brave boy.”
He whined and flopped down onto one of the towels.
“Tersi,” Momma looked over.
“What?”
Both women finished setting up their things, N3v0xr eventually getting up and helping as well. The sun was even higher in the sky by the time they were done, the waves washing up seashells from far out and the sun rays shining onto the beautiful waters. The family watched as a seagull dove after a small crustacean, but it dove away just in time before the bird could grab it.
The whole scene was majestic.
After they all ate their lunches, Momma and Mo followed their kid out to the water, holding its hand so they were safe from being pulled under. N3v0xr squealed as the water rose up to their hips, at which point they stopped walking farther in.
The three of them played in the water for an hour or two, eventually heading back onto the sand to dry off, and so N3v0xr could build a sand castle.
Barely five minutes into building the sand castle, Mo and Momma had to walk off to go speak to a man on a tall horse. N3v0xr couldn’t pick up what was being said, but by the looks on their faces, it was not good.
After the man left, their moms walked over.
“N3v0xr, sweetie, we need to go home a bit early today.”
“What? Why? Who was that weird-”
“Shh, it’s okay. He didn’t do anything, he’s just… an old accomplice. We have to go,” Momma gently led N3v0xr back over to their towels, where Mo was already packing things up. Momma moved to help, while N3v0xr watched and held back all of the questions on its mind.
The family took their horses back to their cottage on the treeline while the sun inched closer and closer to the horizon.
Mo never got to play her flute for them while the sun set.
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N3v0xr remembers that that beach day had been the last day before things went wrong.
Momma had gotten sick first. N3v0xr wasn’t allowed to be in the same room as her so it wouldn’t get sick as well.
Soon, Mo followed.
Both of their mothers were on bed rest in their shared room.
N3v0xr was the only one healthy in the household. Everything was so much quieter. Except for the good days, when their moms were healthier. N3v0xr still wasn’t allowed to be too close to them (they were allowed in the same room, but had to remain multiple feet apart), but it was good enough for him.
Mo would play her flute. Momma would cook the food from the garden, dancing around the kitchen. She hadn’t been outside in a bit, so N3v0xr had to care for their mother’s beloved plants.
Eventually, N3v0xr was old enough that Mo taught them an instrument they had taken an interest in when younger. The saxophone.
A six year old playing the saxophone. Ha! Not as unlikely as you might think.
But still, throughout all this time, despite all the good days, their moms didn’t seem to be getting better. Sure, they would smile at N3v0xr whenever they saw him, but he could tell it was actually getting worse .
Less good days. Frail bones, thinning hair, sad, bruised eyes. Sunken-in cheekbones.
N3v0xr dreamed of the day when they would be healthy again.
In their desperation, N3v0xr turned to books. Researching this strange sickness that had taken their mothers from them.
Oh, and that man from the beach day? An old family friend.
The one who had brought the sickness into the Nightrune family’s life, just from a few minutes of contact with Momma and Mo.
“‘Willow,’ he had said. ‘There’s a war going on. They’re calling it the Three Sun War. Just around the corner, coming right this way.’ Oh, I didn’t believe him at first, but he confirmed it, he brought proof right before my eyes. I couldn’t deny it anymore,” Momma had told him the strange man’s words on one of her good days.
N3v0xr was so angry with the man. He had caused its parents to fall ill and be restricted to lying on their bed, wasting the days away.
But how much rage could a six year old truly hold in their system?
N3v0xr’s research had bore no fruit. The only solution they could find to curing their moms was magic.
Magic! N3v0xr didn’t have any magic. No one in its family did. Only ancestors from long ago.
But N3v0xr was desperate. Surely, there had to be some sort of way that they could acquire the magic needed?
Lo and behold, the answer showed itself to the child eventually, after hundreds of hours of research and trips to the library when their moms were asleep and unaware of the danger N3v0xr was putting themself in by leaving their small property in a time of war.
“My brave boy.”
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“So. I have to… steal your magic,” N3v0xr said to the twitching blackbird corpse on the ground in front of them.
N3v0xr was sitting on a tree stump deep in the woods behind their house, a few objects scattered on the ground around them. For one, the corpse. There was also their saxophone, unattached to their neck strap; a dagger with the bird’s blood on it; and the book that had told N3v0xr the instructions for stealing a critter’s magic.
Everything had magic; humans just had a lot less of it. Animals, however, had quite a bit.
Some magical animals had more magic than regular animals. A good example of that was drifters. If N3v0xr were to capture one of those, they wouldn’t need to kill it to steal its spirit.
N3v0xr had done the math. They’d need to kill at least a hundred animals to gain enough magic to heal their moms.
A fine mist hovered on the ground, swirling around N3v0xr’s feet as they kicked around anxiously, waiting for the blackbird’s spirit to show itself. They were keeping a very close eye on the critter, holding their breath in anticipation.
They hoped this worked. This was their first time trying it out.
N3v0xr turned the incantation they had repeated moments ago to the corpse in their head, mentally trying to make sense of the gibberish. He’d been quite disappointed when he had first chanted it and nothing happened, but the book said it might take a few minutes it you’re inexperienced.
A few moments later, the blackbird’s spirit shimmered and rose up from its body, a vaguely bird-like shape.N3v0xr could see its soul floating around in it. N3v0xr yelped, nearly falling off the stump, and quickly held their hands out to the spirit and repeated the incantation.
“ Hercio ravaoadynia acraris ,” they muttered.
The spirit, a transparent pale blue, shimmered. N3v0xr repeated the incantation again, and the spirit started pulling itself towards N3v0xr’s hands. It tingled like tiny firecrackers across their skin as it wrapped around their hands and wrists.
Again, they repeated the incantation, and more of the spirits pulled away from the main glob and joined the two globs covering N3v0xr’s hands. He closed his eyes against the firecrackers.
Lights danced in N3v0xr’s eyes as the fireworks and firecrackers were set off in front of them, Momma and Mo each holding one of his hands in their own.
Something started tugging on N3v0xr’s skin, and when they opened their eyes while still repeating the incantation, they watched the spirit literally be absorbed into their skin. N3v0xr bit back a yelp.
As N3v0xr finished the last incantation, the spirit finally disappeared. N3v0xr fell to their knees, panting. The corpse in front of them was completely lifeless.
“Whoa.”
And, upon closer inspection, it was missing something that every other living thing in the woods seemed to have. Well, at least the plants. All of the animals had scurried off in other directions, far away from them.
N3v0xr blinked away the spirits, and they faded away. Still there, but N3v0xr couldn’t see them anymore.
He had done it.
When N3v0xr reached in deep into their core, they could feel it; the blackbird’s spirit becoming one with their own. Not two separate spirits, no. But one. His.
And the bird’s soul was completely gone. Nowhere to be found.
It gave the bird a funeral, bowed its head for the noble sacrifice the blackbird had made.
N3v0xr gathered their things and left the woods, too exhausted to continue on that night.
But they’d be back again the next night.