Dream Beyond Life's Edge

City of Light

Nearly 2 years had passed since his brother was executed and just like that, Leo turned eleven. He took on a job as a hunter for a meat shop. Using his experience when running away, he rapidly rose the ranks and gained a decent reputation.

Occasionally, Leo would find an outdated forgotten poster of Blaetis hanged in a random alleyway with his crime description and bounty prize, causing the harrowing memories to resurface. He would take it down, throw it in the trash bin, and continue on with his life. Fortunately, it seemed that people had mostly forgotten about the incident.

Roughly a year ago, Lilay's facade broke. At Leo's tenth birthday, she suddenly broke down crying. He tried consoling her dozens of times and even admitted his snitching, but it hadn't worked. Nothing he tried worked. The only thing she'd done ever since was sit, bath, eat, drink, or sleep. She refused to leave the house, so Leo had to support them both.

When Leo and his coworkers were resting from a hunt for a giant fish-like animal called a percher, one of them asked, "Hey, do you know anything about the village colony southeast of here? My family's moving there soon but both my parents and I don't really know anything about it."

"Huh? If both you and your parents don't know anything about it then why are you moving there?" Confused, Leo's thoughts turned into some dark places for answers. It could be that his family was being forced to do it, but he quickly shook it off.

"Well... I don't know if this is true or not—since my parents are kind of paranoid right now—but apparently this city is close to coming into contact with the civil war. Y'know how previously this city was neutral? Because of Lohires' visit 2 years before, now we're considered to be on his side."

"So war's coming huh. Why now though? Isn't this a bit too late?" another person asked.

"I don't really know either. My father had just come back from a 2 week trip to the capital and immediately he began planning for our leave. Though he wouldn't say anything, I guess there was something dangerous there. My best guess would be that they were preparing for war. But who knows?" He shrugged his shoulder.

"Still though," Leo interjected. "Why there? None of your family members seem to know anything about that place. So why pick that place?"

"It seemed my father knew someone there. His name was Medensio I think. He's a healer and my father used to be one of his patients, then somehow my father became friends with him."

"Hey. Is he a good healer? If he can reattach chopped off hands maybe I'll move there."

"My father said he's amazing. Maybe he can reattach hands."

"Why does everything go back to your father?" one joked, causing everyone to break out laughing.

"Hey!"

Quickly, the conversation devolved into a speech equivalent of a brawl until break ended. After finishing the job, Leo went home with plans of telling his mother all about the potential war that could be coming.

But when he saw the gate was unlocked, a sinking feeling arose in his stomach. His mother couldn't have opened the gate. She wouldn't need too anyway. He rushed to the door and found out it wasn't locked either. Opening it, he saw Lilay happily sitting on the couch talking with someone who couldn't have been there.

Because he was dead.

"Blaetis-" Letting out an audible gasp, the words stuck to Leo's throat. The memories he had suppressed, the hate he had forgotten, the burning rage he had cooled; it all came back all at once, threatening to crush Leo under its weight.

"Ah... Sorry, I'm leaving now—" Blaetis stood up from the couch.

"Why aren't you dead?"

Furrowing his brow, Blaetis replied to Leo's baffled question. "What do you mean?"