Pentad of Un

Chapter 4 - Shayrow

     Shayrow Kyremour was five years old when he held a sword for the first time. It was his father's blade, forged and folded—a sword that had, time and time again, supposedly slain evil.

     So when he turned thirteen, it seemed obvious to him that he was to become a swordbearer the way his father and grandfather had been.

     Everything came naturally to him; the blade felt like a part of him that had been missing up until then. He didn't so much as consider switching classes before turning fifteen, loving every moment of his lessons with his sword in his hands.

     He was top position in his class for nearly three years in a row—and Captain Yuuf's favorite student.

     But under the cover of the thriving town, tragedy struck a vein in the population.

     While no vampires lived in Woei County, there was a healthy population of dhampyres in the area, although they rarely made themselves known.

     Shayrow was sixth-generation. It took a vampire and a human to create a dhampyr child, but dhampyr children were always dhampyr.

     He didn't need to drink blood the way vampires did, but he did have to avoid letting sunlight get in his eyes. His canine teeth were sharpened to resemble the fangs that vampires had, his body was practically boneless, and he had no shadow.

     Dhampyr or not, they weren't ready for the strange disease that infected nearly a third of their population and killed nearly a fourth.

     Trained apothecaries were few and far between in Yaruid, with the last count being twenty-one in the entire kingdom—which was one more than the three previous years.

     Three of them were in Woei, and it wasn't enough.

     Shayrow lost both of his parents, as did dozens of others.

     It was then that he realized his sword couldn't defeat some enemies. There weren't enough warriors to fight these invisible wars, no matter how infrequent they were.

     The problem was that he was sixteen and could no longer switch classes. He would be a swordbearer whether he liked it or not.

     But that didn't stop him from trying to learn the ways of an apothecary.

     When he had just turned seventeen, it was by sheer chance that he walked past a clearing where a sprite girl was talking with a friend—right as they said something about being in the apothecary class. The first girl had long, auburn hair and mallow-purple eyes while the other had a blond bob and jasmine-yellow eyes.

     They both screamed when Shayrow approached them.

     He didn't even flinch. It was a reaction that he was used to wherever he stepped out from the shadows.

     "Who are you?!" the first girl cried.

     "What do you want?!" the second girl demanded.

     Shayrow turned up his palms to show that he meant no harm.

     "I simply have a question to ask," he told the two sprites.

     "Are you from Quregu?" the first girl inquired. Quregu was the county adjacent to Woei, where the dialect was slightly different.

     "I lived near the border," Shayrow answered.

     "Oh."

     "My name is Shayrow Kyremour," he introduced himself, sweeping a bow.