The Eldritch Trials

Chapter 1: Happy Birthday

Mac

I didn't expect the morning of my sixteenth birthday to go well, but the Eldritch Horror that materializes in my bedroom is a surprise. I haven't had a lucky life. I nearly died when I was born, it is only through my mother's extensive witch craft that I remain alive at all. I have at least three curses put on me that we know of, because apparently in some past life I was enough of a menace to have multiple enduring curses put on me. Not everyone has past lives, but those who somehow got the gift or curse of reincarnation generally wind up amassing a few curses and immortal enemies. And I'm no exception. Things aren't looking good for me. In short I'm dying, I'm cursed, I'm living in a tiny flat on the worst side of town with my single mother who is desperately trying to keep me alive eventually she'll fail, and there's a ten tentacled, winged Eldritch Horror that just materialized in my bedroom. And I'm about to be late for school.
"Greetings young warlock! How—what the fresh hell is this place—?"
"Shut up shut up, shut up," I say, basically crawling on the thing and covering its mouth, succeeding in knocking over half my school books and a stack of clothes I was supposed to fold seven days ago. we're in my room which is less technically a room but more a loft with not enough space for me to sit up straight, which has my possessions jammed around the edge so that there's just enough room for my single mattress.
"You're the heir to the Soren family fortune and as of today have inherited the power of the Soren amplifier, why are you living in a dive? What happened to you people since—whenever I had to give your father this speech?"
"It's complicated! I'll explain later, quit knocking my stuff over," I hiss, "I take it only I can see you?"
"You would be right," the horror shakes me off, knocking me into three stacks of books. I wince.
"Cool, I can explain, in like—ten minutes, my mother cannot know I'm talking to you, she worries enough," I say, breathing heavily.
"How are you going to complete the Eldritch trials if you can't breath properly?"
"I'm not," I snarl, snatching my book bag and a jacket.
"What are you talking about, you're not? If you don't complete the trials the Seal of Fate is opened that's all kinds of problems—,"
"Mac? Are you all right up there?"
"I'm doing just brilliant!" I call, smacking the Eldritch Horror out of the way with a book, before snatching my own amplifier from where half my clothes fell on it. A simple ring in the shape of a human skeletal hand. I slide it onto my left thumb then climb down the ladder.
"Morning," my mother says, as she's laying out my breakfast things, "Happy Birthday."
"I love you, I'm so late. I overslept," I say, coughing as I hug her.
"Why don't you just stay home and go back to sleep?" She asks, checking my forehead. I'm burning up of course.
"I can't, I've got assignments, I'm fine," I say, as she puts a thermos in my messenger bag.
"Drink all of that okay? It should help that cough," she says, putting her hand through my hair, "Seriously? Come home if you don't feel well I'll call the school."
"It's fine, really, do you have work late tonight?" I ask, snatching lunch things I probably won't wind up eating as she offers me a couple of options.
"No, I get off at nine, we can still have dinner yeah?" She asks "Even if your father doesn't show up—,"
"Since when does he show up on command?" I scoff.
"He can be surprising, now, have a good day. I love you," she says, kissing my cheek.
"Love you too, I really will be late," I say, kissing her back and nearly knocking into the horrendous monster that's hovering a foot behind me but she can't see it. She is a witch she probably has an idea but the usual number of curses I have on me probably obscure whatever latent magic the horror is leaking.
I bolt out of the flat, nearly slamming the door on the monster and not really waiting for it to follow.
"All right. So explain," the thing growls, its voice gravelly, and slightly sarcastic, "What's the heir to the Soren amplifier doing in a one room dive flat with a single mother clearly not of the Soren family?"
"All right, so it's a bit complicated," I sigh, "I assume you know my biological father, Alec Soren? Forty, fifty something years ago you did this with him?"
"You're bad at math, but go on? He had you out of wedlock?"
"No, not exactly, he had gotten a curse put on him by some very vengeful Necromancers, which cursed him to be unable to produce a legitimate  male heir to the Soren name. As we both know the Soren Amplifier can be wielded only by the first born, direct male line, and each next male heir must complete the Eldritch Trials to re-seal the Seal of Fates, which can only be done with the Soren Amplifier which—,"
"So while I slept some Necromancers put a curse on your father so he couldn't sire a useful heir, meaning the Seal of Fates would come undone," the horror chuckles, "I've got to admit, that's clever. Even if our Alec chose to go and re-do the trials, assuming it would work, the line had already been broken."
"Correct."
"Yet you're here—?"
"A series of witches were hired to break the curse, of course, so that the heir would be born. It didn't work, my elder siblings as it were, died in infancy, four or five as far as my mother knows could be more," I sigh, limping down the stairs to street level. I've got five minutes to the bus and this walk takes twelve on a good day. I'm so late.
"Right, due to the curse, go on."
"My mother, who you saw back there, my real mother, she was one of the witches hired to break the curse. It wasn't working, but in that time one of the younger Soren brothers had an affair with her—"
"Oh, let me guess, that little hot head Shane?" The horror chuckles, "He nearly followed his older brother on the trials."
"Yep, that's him, anyway, my mother falls pregnant, and of course she can't do curse breaking while carrying a child that's a great way to get your unborn child cursed, that said the baby's father is long gone there's a war on so he's deep in a vampire crypt by the time she figures out she's expecting. She's about to be fired, can't practice witch craft, and was young and impoverished to begin with," I say.
"Tragic. And?"
"And, my biological father, comes up with a plan. His own wife is also pregnant but of course the child is cursed and won't live past birth. So he offers my mother a deal. Continued support during her pregnancy, and in return, she gives them her healthy infant, and she takes home the dying or dead one. After that, presumably, his biological child will die within a few days, and he can raise his brother's healthy, albeit illegitimate, child as his own," I say, panting as I try to run and nearly trip.
"Clever, in theory the bastard is even the next in line so he might even be able to wield the amplifier. It'd probably kill him, but he may be able to do it. That doesn't solve the problem of future generations if he dies before he can produce another heir."
"It was a band aid—but it should have worked."
"Except you're very much alive."
"Correct, my mother is an expert herbalist. Now, I wasn't her child, but she had just given birth she of course had sympathy for this ailing newborn who couldn't even breath on his own. She fully expected me to die and she at least had the solace that her child would have the best of everything in the world, but she still at least tried to ease my pain. Her cures worked, and she was able to cast a Mother's Love spell—,"
"Granting you a share of her lifespan, but those rarely even work—,"
"I'm hanging on by a thread, my lungs are half formed, she breaths for both of us, but I'm a Soren I'm not shabby with magic myself, together we can keep me alive just, barely," I say, stopping to lean against a street lamp.
"But you'll never be able to wield the amplifier in your condition," the horror growls.
"I know," I sigh.
"What does Shane know about this? When he finally limped back home that is?"
"Nothing, at that point my mother was terrified he would come to blows with his brother and take back his child, and she knew if he did that they could very well try to kill her real son, and take me back. She couldn't let the Sorens know I'd lived— I wasn't meant to, it would endanger both me and her real child. So it's a secret, only myself and my mother and of course my biological parents know of the switch, but only I and my mother know I lived. And now you," I sigh, "My father—,"
"Who is your uncle but continue—,"
"Correct. He just thinks that I'm his, and that since I apparently reincarnated all curses were earned in a past life. He has a past life too we think so he bought it. My mother told me the truth when I was old enough to understand the logistics, she had to explain why I'm like this," I sigh.
"All right, so you realize you have to bear the weight of the amplifier and save the world, right?"
"Yes," I wince.
"So why not take your rightful place? Inform your biological parents you're still alive? You look enough like that piece of work Alec, and go live in splendor in your huge house before you die completing the trials? Hell, at least we need to preserve you long enough to complete the male line and have heirs, you're almost old enough already—,"
"Ew, no, also, no, I'm not doing that, no," I say.
"Why not? Your cousin has been enjoying the life you should have had. It's high time you claimed your place and threw him back in the gutter where he came from."
"Because he's a freaking cinnamon roll! Okay? Yeah, when I was little I sort of figured when the trails came up I'd just do that, but I can't," I sigh, "My cousin, fake me, is really really nice and he's super sweet and nice to literally everyone I'm not gonna challenge him or tell him the truth it would break his heart to know we all lied to him, and more than that I love my mom she literally saved my life she has never, ever, made me feel like I'm less important or like she wishes she had her real son. I'd never choose my biological family over her."
"So what is it you plan on doing? It's not as though you can keep up the facade much longer. Alec knows damn well the heir to the Soren Amplifier can see me, because my soul is chained to it. So what's the plan when daddy realizes that you and he can both see me and his pretend son can't? He thinks you're dead?"
"He's not going to find out. I'll act like I don't see you—,"
"And what's stopping me from telling Alec about the switch now that you've told me? I'm only animated because an heir is able to claim the Amplifier. Once the trials are done I'll be back to sleep until you have an heir or the Seal of Fates is broken open," the horror snarls.
"Please? It's not really hurting anyone—,"
"It's hurting everyone in that you're not going to be given the amplifier. Someone totally unable to wield it is."
"No, I have a plan—,"
"Which is?"
"Ah—it requires your help, so what we're going to do—,"
"We?"
"We—we are gonna let Gale, that's my cousin— claim the amplifier, and you're gonna appear to him you can choose to do that—and then when he has to go on the trials I just sort of sneak along and I do the magic when the amplifier is required, and act like it's really weird and let him think he did it," I say, shrugging.
"Boy, I have been guarding your idiot family for close to a thousand years."
"Yeah—?"
"And that is one of the dumbest things any of you has come up with."
"Please?"
"Oh, we're doing it. This is going to fail horribly. It's no surprise you're carrying three unbreakable curses. One is over three hundred years old. I've probably run into you at some point," the horror snarls.
"I know, but I don't have a lot of choices," I sigh.
"All magic comes at a price, a physical one on your body, wielding that amplifier will maim or kill you at this point you realize that?"
"I know," I sigh, "But I have to do something."
"What does your mother think you're doing in all this? She knows about the amplifier and if she's a powerful enough witch to cast a Mother's Love on a child that isn't her own, she knows you've got unbreakable curses on you as well," the horror says.
"Oh, she says we're skipping it, she's gonna let the Soren's crash and burn when Gale—that's her real son my cousin—,"
"Got it."
"When he can't wield the amplifier she's gonna let them lie in that bed, as far as she's concerned they gave me up," I say.
"Then why aren't you listening to her? She's saved your life so far."
"Because if we can keep the seal in tact we have to try!" I sigh, "Maybe Gale and I can do it together."
"There's no reason that will work."
"I know."
"Let's do it anyway."