Lilly----X

Lilly, a little girl no more than five name days of age.

She is Leo's little sister, an adorable little girl that used to lift up his spirits at a time where his father's death crushed him, and his mother's illness weighed heavy on his mind.

A fair skin color, blonde hair and blue eyes; that is how Leo would describe her.

Were she real, everyone would have described her so as well. But she is just a figment of his imagination.

We never bothered to correct him because it would crush him to realize that his little sister was nothing but a trick of the mind. An illusion grafted by the sorrow and loneliness of his mind, an illusion so strong that it drew memories of great vividness.

###

The burial of Old Man Clarence.

That day the azure birds sung not their joyous tunes, but an elegy, honoring the shepherd of Willow shade village.

Around his grave, gathering of black garbed individuals stood mourning a loss of a great man and father figure of the village, the de facto head of this leaderless village.

His grave was not simple, not by far, for a magic caster had blessed it with his Aeter, transforming it into a monument rivaling even the reason for the naming of this village.

Elias used his knowledge of spells and earth manipulation, to raise the old man an alter tomb.

The altar tomb was encased in cooling lava that turned stone, smoothened out by the caster himself. Finally, the old man's decrepit Shepherds staff stood true at the tomb's forefront, marking the final resting place of its lifelong companion.

Slowly, the crowd whittled down until only the Elias and those he knew remained. All the tears had dried up, and the painful rope of attachment no longer squeezed their hands tightly.

"Let's go guys, let him have some space."

At Elias's notion, the three friends said they're goodbyes and walked back to their parents, knowing that Lester needed some time to himself.

"Patty dear are you sure we should leave your friend alone?" Teresa asked worriedly.

Patrick looked at his mother with his pudgy face and nodded seriously.

Leo did similarly, urging on his mother as he gently led her by the hand.

"Come on mommy. We need to go home now, you and Lilly might get sick"

Drea did not reply to her child, but closed her eyes as her lips clasped together firmly.

With a small sig, Drea smiled to Leo and brushed his burning hair lovingly.

"Of course dear. Thank you for worrying about me, my little lion."

Left alone with Lester, Elias patted his friends shoulder reassuringly before making his way back to the cabin.

The young boy walked away with his owl on his shoulder, the sun on the horizon devouring his figure.

"Thank you Elias." A voice suddenly called out to him.

His back turned to Lester, Elias paused momentarily before continuing on his way, a very small grin making its way to his face.

###

[Are you sure this is a good idea?]

Under the shade of the willow tree beside his cabin, Elias sat cross-legged.

In his hands, floated a metal sphere, manipulated by threads of Aeter. It was not iron, this was a new mineral Elias mastered its manipulation; silver.

"Yeah just wait. My strength is going to sky rocket!"

Finished with the transmutation, the sphere dropped to the ground and rolled beside a few dozen completed ones.

All these spheres of silver and had a small hollow tunnel in their center, spacious enough for a wire to pass through.

One by one, Elias passed a chain of twisted flexible copper turning the bare spheres into monk like bead bracelets, except each one was made of compressed boulders, weighing the same as well.

He made anklets, bracelets and a malas.

[Again Eli, this is a bad idea]

Brushing her off, Elias walked out of the tree's shade and into a bigger clearing wearing his new equipment gradually.

Perched on one of the willow's branches, Eset face palmed….face winged, as she shook her head in surrender at Elias's impulsive antics.

'AAHHH you and your 'brilliant' ideas…. seriously'

Unbeknownst of her thoughts, an excited grin tugged at the ends of his lips as Elias wore the anklets and the bracelets. He felt his body become heavy, each movement became strained as he struggled to find balance.

'Only way to go from here is ONWARD!'

Hyping himself up, Elias lifted the malas with both arms as he positioned it right above his head. In his geniotic mind, he figured that letting it fall into place was better than putting it on slowly. Or as he put in in his mind;

'It's cooler that way!'

And so, Elias held it steady before letting it fall heavily on his neck.

As it fell painfully, he endured the strain for mere seconds, before he was crushed under the weight. Sinking a few feet into the earth.

[AHAHAAAHAHAHAA DO IT AGAIN, DO IT AGAIN!]

Climbing out from under the rubble grumpily, Elias cursed Eset as her mocking voice hammered into his mind loudly. However, her contagious laughter soon infected him, a few chuckles escaping his mouth.

"AHHAHAHA Maybe I should only start with my legs…"

[You think?]

Elias took of the malas and rubbed his scabbed neck. He took to the shade of the willow once more as a magic tome made its way to his hand.

He read for a while, before his melancholy filled eyes trailed to his wooden cabin, a twinge of sorrow pricking his heart

'Where are you dad… '

###

Somewhere, in Eos's vast lands, an olive skinned femme fatale with snake like eyes nursed her wounded body.

Her left hand was rendered useless, and her enchanted robe too torn to function properly, turning into a worthless tattered black rag.

Slowly, she applied ointments and an assortments of crushed herbs as her stash of elixirs had run empty. Just as she was tightening a gauze with her teeth, a soft chiming sounded from under her robes.

'Great, just what I needed.'

Taking out a sleek disc-shaped device, she fed it a minute amount of Aeter as a blue hologram lit up her face.

"Agent 355, repo-. Agent, where is your platoon!"

"All dead sir"

The figure within the hologram was enraged at her response. He tumbled his big wooden desk and kicked a few chairs to try and appease his anger, but the girthy veins framing his neck was proof enough that nothing could calm him down.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN DEAD? YOU WERE A PLATOON OF FIFTY HIGHLY TRAINED MEN. HOW CAN ONE MAN, ONE INJURED A RANK ADVENTUER DEFEAT YOU! DID YOU ATLEAST CATCH THAT MONGROL?"

Unfazed by his emotional display, Visha responded to him in the same annoyed tone she had picked up the call with.

"Lord Judas, that one man is the champion of Kali, the guardian of the wild. Besides, you off all people should know that the ranks of the adventurers association do not always determine the strength of the individual. And no we did not."

The concealed figure of the hologram settled down, his hand grooming his small goatee in contemplation as her words circled in his mind.

"Keep on chasing him. You know our deal, it's either his head, or your tribe's"

With that threat, the connection was lost, and the grey device was left beeping.

Heaving a sigh, Visha's eyes softened as she looked at the heavens listlessly

'That is all the time I could buy you old friend. God speed.'