A World With/Out Home

Chapter 25: Perspective (Part1)

Chapter 25: Perspective

"So where should I begin?" Arvel, Kyle's father, began. He sat with an earnest expression and in front of him a full glass.

"Are you drinking?" Kyle had to ask. While they didn't have any proper wine glasses and instead his father used a standard mug, it was hard to disguise the aroma of the alcoholic beverage.

"Can you blame me?" his father laughed.

"No, I just wondered where's mine."

"And here I thought you didn't like to drink," Arvel leaned over and picked up the hidden bottles beside his feet, pouring his son a glass.

"I don't but I feel like it's going to help." He turned to Lillia, "Do you want any?"

"Umm sure," Lillia nodded tentatively and soon the tea in their cups was replaced by a deep red liquid. She sipped at it and widened her eyes at the adult taste. "I could get used to this."

Arvel chuckled, "Well don't get used to this one. It's something I saved from a long while back." At Kyle's curious gaze he added, "Not that long back. About when I first started raising you. Saved a wine merchant while I was trying to find a village to settle in."

"Well cheers to that then," Kyle raised his glass and together a subtle clink ran through the kitchen.

A minute passed as the three around the table savoured the flavour of the wine. Each of them preparing themselves for the conversation to come. Finally with a deep breath Arvel began again,

"So where should I begin?"

Kyle glanced at Lillia who squeezed his hand above the table, "From the start I guess. Who are you all? I mean I know Estile from when she was part of the Ever-Garden but I feel like there's a lot more to it than that."

"First it's who 'we' are. The sooner you get used to being Estile the easier it will be. And a lot would be a decent description," Arvel sighed with a shadow of a smile. "Before I begin let me tell you this isn't easy for me either. You'll get them back one day, all your memories that is. You start with your most recent ones, then soon enough the rest will come back... even the one's you'd rather forget. It just happens those are the memories we'll begin with."

"Dad... if you don't want to then-."

"No it's fine," Arvel firmed himself. "We, all of us, the Mercenaries of the Ever-Garden or whatever other name you want to call us. We all appeared about the same time. Just over 2000 years ago."

Lillia choked on her wine spluttering, "2-2000 years!?"

"Yeah, and back then was a different time. We didn't have the technology we have now, in fact it was just about the time the world first started to discover magic. Humanity however wasn't the first, no, it was the devils. Devil-kind as a race are powerful and discovering magic turned the scales of the world in their favour. Humanity were the most numerous and they also made the perfect source of slaves."

Kyle's grip on his cup tightened as he felt a scarily nostalgic hatred. The stone tablet Lady Marigold had was true.

Arvel continued, "For a good while the Archdevil's ruled the world. They kept magic to themselves and although the other races had it better than humanity, they were barely keeping afloat themselves. And that's where we came in. That's when we first born. I never did hear the details of your, Estile's past, but we all had similar starts.