The Ascension of the Nenormalni

Sacred Comfort

In a small & desolate room, a man woke up on a creaky wooden bed and sat on the edge of it, sighing to himself momentarily. Standing up and putting on his shirt, he winced as he rolled the clothing over the recent cuts on his chest and lower abdomen. Reaching to where his shirt was hung up, he grabbed his muddy jacket and put it on carelessly, not even bothering to zip it up or fix the collar. Before leaving the room, the man grabbed a strange black weapon handle with a rectangular slit in either end of it. He stared at this handle for a few moments, his mind attacking him with tormenting thoughts before he pressed both buttons on the side of it, causing a blade to emerge from either end. The tips of both blades were seemingly in perfect condition, as though they'd never even tasted blood. But the man knew this wasn't true, as he had just cleaned the blades the previous night with nothing but leaves and a rock to sharpen the weapon. Before he left he kept one of the blades emerged, using it to put a small cut on his arm and proceeded to sheath the blade and attach the handle to his belt.

Exiting the room, the man was immediately met by a blonde man of similar height to him, who placed his arm around the man.
"Morning Arkyn, how are ya?" the blonde man asked, grinning from ear to ear. Visibly annoyed from his fatigue, Arkyn shrugged the man off.
"I'm ok Aiden, just...tired." Arkyn responded, walking down a flight of stairs towards a group of people who all greeted him with joy. These people were all Nenormalni, and had been hiding out in an abandoned building in Maledictus that no one had any interest in anymore, therefore making it easy to hide a large amount of people in.
"Me too, I spent half the night on watch." Aiden exclaimed, pouring water into a wooden mug and sliding it over to Arkyn.
"I meant mentally. We've been waiting for three weeks now with no sign of him. I might need to leave for a while to look for him myself." Arkyn explained, drinking half the mug of water quickly and passing it back to Aiden, "Anyways, you can finish this, I'm going to take the rest of this morning's water rations to the rest of the group.". A majority of the group had been personally rescued by Arkyn, so he was naturally respected and seen as their leader. However, he did not want them to see him this way. A beacon of hope in a world of dark cruelty? Yes. But not a leader, not a superior, nothing like that. His goal is to help them live, but all he can do himself is barely help them to survive. There weren't many people in the group, but there were enough to make it difficult to maintain supplies consistently, which they struggled with almost daily.

Heading to a father and a 19-year-old son sat on stools near the water outside of the back of the building, Arkyn handed them both their water rations and sat beside them, watching them fish.
"So how much have we caught so far, Agni?" he asked the dad, already knowing the answer.
"Not enough." Agni responds, showing Arkyn their barely filled up bucket, "Igneus and I have been out here for hours without any luck, I'm sorry." Arkyn nods to reassure Agni before placing his hand on Igneus in a friendly way.
"And how're you holding up, Igneus?" Arkyn checked, as he did every day. Igneus was, as always, too shy to speak, so he simply nodded. He'd been shy ever since he became the third person in his family to become a Nenormalni, but didn't get the powers from his dad's artifact, unlike Agni whose fire abilities were claimed after his father passed away.
"Alright, well I'll leave you both to it then. See you around." Arkyn stated, getting up and heading back inside.

Walking over to a ladder and climbing to the top of it, Arkyn greeted a man named Archeros. Archeros was new to the group, having only been saved around a month ago. He was slightly younger than Arkyn, yet felt as though he had lived many lifetimes through his ability to see people's past and view glimpses of their future, as long as he had a sample of their DNA. He had short, black hair and dark blue eyes, with the word "bête" burnt into his right cheek. The guards in his hometown had done this in public when they caught him using his powers. They would've decapitated him after this and displayed his head in the centre of the town if Arkyn and Aiden hadn't shown up to save him.
"Here you go, Archeros." Arkyn exclaimed, handing the man some water, "Any sign of him?". However, like usual, Arkyn was met by a few moments of sullen silence.
"So, what's the plan for finding him then?" Archeros enquired, sipping his water slowly, "...Is there a plan anymore?". Arkyn shrugged, getting ready to head back inside.
"Why did your brother run away in the first place, Arkyn?" Archeros suddenly asked, stopping Arkyn in his tracks, "Did we do something wrong?". Sitting down beside Archeros, Arkyn hunched forwards and sighed before deciding to explain the situation to him.
"You see Archeros, my brother Armaros was cursed by an extremely small artifact that embedded itself in his skull so that he couldn't remove it. It cursed him to have a touch that replicates the effects of acid so long as the contact is constant." Arkyn explained, clenching the handle on his belt, "So, we had to lock him in a room that was essentially a big metal box to keep him safe. But this....it drove him mad. He attacked Agni and managed to use the keys to his room quickly enough to get out before they melted. But, one day, we found him. For some reason though, he did this again, and again, and again. Each time he gets closer to escaping permanently, but I just can't let myself lose my brother. We already lost our father and our mother is...well let's just say she's extremely against the Nenormalni. So, biologically, he's the only family I have left. And he's never been out in the world by himself, especially with his curse, so we have to get him back whenever he gets out. But right now, it feels like there's not a chance in the world that we will...Hey who's that over there?".

Looking in the distance, Arkyn and Archeros spotted a man in a fancy uniform enter a bar with two guards behind him.
"Him!" Arkyn exclaims, "That's our guy!". Archeros was confused by this but followed Arkyn down the ladder anyway.
"Arkyn, how do you know that man will know where your brother could be?" Archeros enquired, watching as Arkyn signalled for Agni and Igneus to follow them, "He might not even know who Armaros is!". Stopping in his tracks, Arkyn turned to face Archeros and slightly dipped his head.
"Listen to me Archeros," Arkyn snapped, "this is now the fifth time that my brother has ran away from our group, so I know what I'm on about here. Now you know very well that I care about you as much as I do the rest of the group, but if you ever question my judgement on finding my brother again, I will be extremely mad, and you WILL know.". Hearing this, Archeros nodded in agreement and the four men went to head out.
"Oh, wait a minute, we need someone to stay in lookout and I also need to get Aiden to come along as this will most likely get quite rough." Arkyn stated, thinking out loud.
"I'll stay behind on watch." Archeros claimed, "My powers won't really be useful or subtle in a crowd of onlookers. Aiden, you're up!".

However, before they left, Arkyn suddenly thought to ask the most mysterious member of their group of he'd like to join them. He was a man no one in the group knew much about, but he had saved Arkyn's life once when he needed it most and had therefore gained his trust.
"Oy, buddy, come on, let's go, you're with us today." Arkyn declared, moving the man's water just out of his reach. Surprisingly, the man just nudged the table up at an angle to slide the mug back towards him.
"It's not my time yet, young Arkyn." the man claimed, drinking a large gulp of his water. The man was a strong believer in fate and that he'd know when it was his time to step in. He had always told people that, apparently, using his power could in fact kill him after only a few moments, so he'd know when it was time for that. Arkyn was not having this today though.
"Listen you old bastard," Arkyn exclaimed, handing the man's drink to Aiden, "I know you're a strong believer in 'fate' and all that, and that's great and all, but I'd rather not have my brother meet his, alright? I know you say it's 'not your time yet' but here's the thing, we most likely won't even need your so-called 'powers', so it may not be your time yet, but what it is the time for is the time for you to get off of your lazy arse and actually be helpful for once, rather than just being another mouth to feed. This isn't a Nenormalni shelter buddy, we don't have the supplies for that! So how about you either pull your weight around here or get the fuck out!". Hearing this, despite not agreeing to go with the group to the bar, the man did agree to sneak down to the end of the bottom of the nearby waterfall to find a new fishing spot for them while the group was out of the building.

Surprisingly, as Arkyn and Aiden opened the main door, Igneus pulled Agni to the side.
"Dad, do we really have to find Armaros?" Igneus wondered, pointing to Agni's damaged bracelet, "I mean, look what he did to your artifact. You can't use your fire anymore without burning yourself!". Agni knew this was true, as Armaros had burnt the bracelet when he'd escaped three weeks ago, causing Agni's once painless fire ability to become dangerous to use, as he was no longer immune to the flames whenever he expelled them from his body. However, Agni also knew that this was not the right mindset to have.
"My son, that is not how you should be seeing this situation." Agni stated, placing both of his hands on Igneus' shoulders, "You should once again see this as the gods being on our side by allowing our leader to give his sibling sanctuary, despite this sibling's...uh, 'damaged' mental state.". Nodding his head in agreement, Igneus couldn't stop himself from embracing his father like he did every other time they left the building, as being around guards as a Nenormalni was extremely dangerous and rarely ever worth it.
"Aw, this is nice." Aiden suddenly said, having been stood behind Igneus for multiple moments at this point, "But how about we get going now?". As they went to join Arkyn, they failed to see in Arkyn's eyes that he knows what they were talking about despite being out of earshot.