➳ 59 |𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭

10 6 0
                                        

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

AFTER WE HAD satisfied our hunger, Bell kept his promise to show us his new technique, and we became spectators outside, a few meters from the greenhouse

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

AFTER WE HAD satisfied our hunger, Bell kept his promise to show us his new technique, and we became spectators outside, a few meters from the greenhouse. Bell asked Crystal to hold his jacket, revealing an all-black outfit that accentuated his slim and lanky physique. Elegant cuffs covered half of his arms down to his wrists, and a sleeveless high-neck tank top hugged his masculine forms thanks to its very tight fabric.

Moyna and Ainnir focused on the silver necklace from which a skeleton with butterfly wings hung. The chain that fastened to the waistband of his wide pants caught the warm sunlight around his right hip.

"So, what is it you want to show us, little prince?" Blair stood behind the small Ainnir and draped his arms over her shoulders. She caressed his arms, watching Bell take a deep breath and position himself in front of a tree at a certain distance.

"I am no longer a prince," he replied, but with much politeness, and it seemed he was telling himself.

From his back emerged, by some unknown invocation, tendrils of darkness: dancing shadows born from him and everything he is. He breathed again, and as he did, he closed his eyes, focusing on controlling the tendrils that took shape. He molded them by spreading his arms and using his mind's control. The darkness now formed a bow made of black smoke that evaporated from the edges. A weapon that seemed to belong to a specter.

Bell opened his silver eyes, which appeared almost white due to the contrast created by the dark eyeshadow, drew in his abdomen, and pulled the string of his bow. The magical arrow that shot out, black like everything else that was part of him, had sparkles like the stars of the night and planted itself in the center of the trunk. A perfect shot.

Blair — as well as all of us — blinked repeatedly, and his enthusiasm, which Raor had told me about, burst forth. The approval that made our red-haired friend say: you are good, you are strong.

In fact, he whistled and laughed. "You are a warrior! Raor, maybe we have a new little brother!" He grabbed Bell by the neck and ran his knuckles over his scalp, messing up his curly raven hair.

"I-I still need to perfect my technique," Bell tried to say modestly, but then Raor joined in and did the same as Blair, only squeezing too tightly and almost choking him.

"It doesn't take much for us to like you. You just need to prove you're a real man, and you're immediately part of the circle," Raor says, laughing.

"S-so you won't laugh at me because I wear makeup or look like this?"

"Who cares about that, friend, dress as you like!" Blair gave him a pat so strong I worried Bell might break in half.

They continued to fuss over him as if they had adopted a new puppy to bring into the pack, and then Daven arrived, asking Bell for a high-five. The girls adored him more with every passing second. A prince who renounced the crown is rare indeed... but an archer sorcerer? I think he is unique. He might go far and become one of us since he has no desire to return to Ocleodathe.

"Come on, explain how you did it!" urged Raor. "I've seen you use this bow in a vision, you were in the Faroise forest but couldn't use it."

"I discovered I could control my accumulated negativity from many years of practicing dark magic and turn it into a functional weapon. True, in the forest, it was a poor attempt. I managed to use it officially, for the first time, in Alvernia. Well, before being kidnapped by the Fairies." The bow was absorbed by the swaying tendrils and faded away. "The first one I showed it to was Xirhel," he continued nostalgically. "He said: I feel like approving, human male."

"And the bow technique? Before using a magical one, you must have learned to shoot real arrows," Daven asserted, interested.

"I trained for many years in secret, at the castle, with a wooden bow. It's a weapon that fascinates me..."

"My brother is strong," Crystal whispered proudly to me, already aware of all his secrets. She too had to lock away her true nature, hoping never to be discovered. The siblings had each other's backs.

"Okay, this is tremendously cool. I have one last question from me and Raor, and the answer will determine if you'll be a new little brother officially," Blair says, barely containing his excitement.

"Go ahead, Blair, ask him," Raor encouraged, shaking him.

Daven rolled his eyes. "He's an archer and renounces his blue blood, what more do you want? He will certainly be a new brother of the guild!"

"...And you label someone you've just met as 'little brother' so quickly," Ainnir pointed out.

True, they were more hasty than an avalanche falling from a mountain cliff, but they were guys who lived outside the lines and chose who deserved friendship or hostility based on their standards and instincts.

Blair grabbed Bell's bare shoulders. "What are the first things you look at on a woman's body?"

Ainnir put a hand on her face, and Moyna giggled. So this was the important question... I probably find them adorable alone.

Bell's cheeks were crimson. "Oh I, well... it's hard to give an immediate answer and then... there are girls listening. My sister is here too!"

The redhead was dying to know. "They'll listen at their own risk. Come on, tell us!"

Bell bit a black nail. "I'd say... the gaze, the hair, and... the... the buttocks."

"He's one of us!" Blair exploded.

"A full-fledged member!" Raor echoed.

"W-wait, what are you doing?"

The two grabbed Bell and lifted him, making him jump while they continued to shout like two idiots that they finally had a new little brother.

It was a beautiful momentin its simplicity — okay, they seemed like children from the way they wereacting — but I wanted to freeze it and keep it like that, with my newcompanions laughing, two princes trying to find themselves after years ofdeprivation and prejudice, and Raor shining.

***

***

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Lost Souls | 𝟏Where stories live. Discover now