3 It Will Hurt Only A Little

"You little fucking snake! So at last, you were reborn!"

All three turned immediately to Mateo, who was rushing towards them.

"My lord…"

"Shut the fuck up, Estera! It's that little snake that needs to be spoken to!"

Karlin stood frozen; his heart pounded harder as he tried to make sense of the tense scene happening before him.

His grandfather, Mateo, looked more enraged than Karlin had ever seen him, and the intensity of his anger sent a shiver down Karlin's spine.

"Grandad, what's going on?" Karlin tried to speak.

Mateo's eyes flashed with fury as he turned to face Karlin. "So it was you," he growled.

Karlin took a step back; he was confused. He had never seen this side of his grandfather, neither was he seeing him at all, but the sight unsettled him deeply.

"What are you talking about, Grandad?" Karlin asked, hoping to understand the source of Mateo's wrath.

But before Mateo could respond, Estera stepped forward, "My lord, please, not in front of him," she pleaded.

"Karlin, so you're the snake!"

As Karlin couldn't exactly understand what was going on, he managed to see Karyan's eyes, 'What did I do wrong?'

Karyan couldn't tell him what was wrong because he also was confused, 'Was Mateo blind?' He thought to himself, knowing how messed up the situation was.

While Karyan and Karlin were lost in the moment, Mateo quickly conjured fire within his fingertips.

In a matter of seconds, he yelled, "Burn, you snake..." as he directed his fingers toward Karlin, and in that precise moment, the boy burst into flames.

Widened eyes and mouths of both Karyan and Estera gasped together, at the same time.

"Stop this!"

But Karlin's inability to burn stemmed from his possession of the same element as fire, allowing him to escape from Mateo.

"You can't touch me, Mateo," Karlin taunted as flames licked at his feet. "I wield the very same fire. You can't burn me!"

The boy was only five years old, but he was brave.

"I'm only five…" he whispered.

Mateo made more fire and yelled, "Burn!" as he watched the little boy burst into flames again.

"That's what you deserve, snake…"

Karyan was helpless.

One part of him wanted to help his twin brother and make Mateo pay for his own death, and the second part wanted to stay silent, undiscovered.

"How dare you!" Estera ran towards the boy with a small amount of healing water in her hands.

"Rawel..." she murmured as she embraced Karlin and disappeared like water soaking into sand, leaving the area empty.

"This bitch! She was a water wielder!" Mateo's voice was low, dangerous as he clenched his jaw.

Seeing the barren space where he was going to finish the young child only made his blood boil more; he turned around and saw Karyan, directly staring into his eyes.

"What are you looking at?" He spat.

No answer came out.

"Tttch!"

He became even angrier and yelled, "Your brother escaped! Did you know he was an evil snake?!"

Leaning in closer, he noticed a small grin forming on Karyan's face.

His fists clenched as he fought to control his rising frustration, especially as he saw servants getting closer.

"This one too..." Mateo whispered, then raised his voice, "Seal his power! Don't let him learn any magic, and keep him in the dark! I will teach you a lesson about grinning!"

As the servants approached and began to take the boy away, Barbara came running towards Mateo.

"How dare you hurt my children!" she shouted.

Mateo, feeling deeply insulted, couldn't believe that his own daughter would defy him in his own mansion, where he was the ultimate authority.

In a fit of rage, he conjured another burst of fire in his hands and hurled it directly at her face.

Barbara, with her singed hair, staggered backward from the sudden fire attack; her eyes widened with shock and pain.

The heat had caught her off guard, and she stumbled; her foot caught on a piece of debris as she fell to the ground with a cry of agony.

"Aaah! My skin! My face!"

Flames licked at the edges of her vision as she struggled to push herself up, but her strength failed her, and she collapsed back down; her body was wracked with pain.

"Help!" she shouted with a hoarse and desperate voice. "Somebody help me!"

Meanwhile, the servants had grim faces; they moved swiftly to restrain Karyan, who struggled against them with all his might.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

As they dragged him away from the chaos and towards the dungeons, Barbara's cries filled the air.

Karyan's heart twisted with conflicting emotions as he was forcibly taken away by the servants.

Despite his strained relationship with Barbara, and the fact that he had never felt true affection for her, he couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for her at that moment.

Seeing her in such agony awakened a sense of duty as her son, as well as a primal urge to protect her, if only for the sake of his own conscience...

As the distance between them grew, the sound of Barbara's screams faded into the background.

He struggled against the servants; his eyes darted back and to the sides to attempt to catch a glimpse of Barbara, but she was lost from his sight.

Knowing that she was in pain haunted him, and he cursed his own helplessness, "Damn you, Mateo!!!"

He wanted to break free and rush to Barbara's aid, to offer what little comfort he could in her time of need.

But the hands that held him were unbreakable, and he was dragged further and further away from the chaos.

"Let me go! Son of a bitch! Let me go!"

But even with his heavy movements, servants managed to finally bring Karyan to a dimly lit chamber with a cold stone table in the center.

"What are you doing?!" Karyan's voice cracked.

They laid him down and tied his hands and body, holding him tightly as he struggled to break free;

A man with a dark scar under his left eye approached. His voice was cold and emotionless, "it will hurt only a little."