Grief

Chapter 12

"Sozec! Sozec, wake up," Irene yells at Sozec who stands holding his chest through his torso.

The flowers that had greeted Sozec wilt in record time and the sky turns blue followed by a pronounced crack in the once perfectly bright sky.

The sound of Sozec's heartbeat grows louder with each stifled breath until he's suddenly falling backward. Irene catches him before he hits the ground struggling to lay him down gently.

"Sozec, what's going on?" Irene asks rubbing his bare arms. 

Sozec can't hear a word she utters, his thoughts are too loud. The numbness from his childhood settles in and he can almost hear the conversation between his parents just days before he became a mage.

"He's a strange kid, is he not? What more can we do for him, he can't even make friends. The only use he'll have to us is that of a son sold into marriage for our kingdom and that's if he doesn't scare off his bride," Sepha says adamant about her statement.

Sepha's hair is pinned up with a gold pin that matches her red dress with gold stitching. She speaks to Mondel in their bedroom while Sozec sits outside the door awaiting his father who had promised to take him horseback riding days prior.

"He's fine. I won't hear any more of it, Sepha. If you're truly worried about our son then you'll see that he pursues areas of interest such as the arts," Mondel says.

"You know what I'm talking about, the prophecy," Sepha says her voice lowering to a near whisper. 

"It can change as we've already been told," Mondel says sternly. 

"But-"

"You're not to bring up the prophecy in my presence again. We'll change fate as it comes to us," Mondel says.

"After all, a woman as beautiful as you shouldn't worry," Mondel says suavely.

Sozec hears shifting from inside the room and knocks on the door left ajar. 

"Are we still going?" he asks unamused by the awkward position of his mother under his father. Sepha quickly covers herself before staring in horror at Sozec. Any person would have thought that he'd committed a heinous crime the way his mother looked at him.

"I didn't forget about you," Mondel says patting the boy on his shoulder.

From that day on his mother smiled particularly often when in Sozec's presence. It wasn't until later that he'd find out that there was malice behind her smile.

"Sozec, you have to wake up," a soothing voice brushes against the painful memory.

"Sozec, can you hear me?" The voice asks again.

Sozec blinks away the tears that had formed in his eyes and as his eyes adjust he sees the dark sky with a crack illuminating light. The flowers around him are brown and the smell of dead vegetation fills the void. 

"Vincent calls out to you. Why do you answer him and not I?" Irene says involuntarily tilting her head in thought. Sozec closes his eyes focusing in on the distant calls of his friend.

"I think you should take a break from The Void, Sozec but before you do. I need you to return it to its original state," Irene says. Without another word, The Void returns to its original state. It's done in an instant surprising Sozec. The crack in the sky remains but it's closed in so that it's nearly invisible. Flowers begin to populate the area around them, replacing the dead ones. 

"Irene, why did you say those things to me?" Sozec asks his back turned to her.

"About your powers?" Irene asks dumbfounded.