Across A Lifetime

Part 1

Once,
There was a boy.

He was not
Human,
Per se,
And it could be seen.

Once,
There was a boy,
And he had magic.
Parts of his world did not,
In fact,
Tolerate magic.

So he left his homeland.

Once,
There was a kingdom,
That thrived
On magic.

The kingdom said,
Work for us.
It will be
Worth your while.

And the boy
Had no better option,
So he said
Yes.

Once,
There was a man,
Who worked for a kingdom.
He cleaned up messes,
And tied up
Loose ends,
Which is to say,
He was a government funded
Hitman.

Once,
There was a man
Who stopped by the seaside
And wished
For something
More
Than what he had.

Blood stained his hands,
But he no longer cared.
So he sighed,
And turned away from the sea,
And walked into town.

Once,
Many years before,
A woman opened her bakery
For the first time,
In a small seaside town.

She was proud,
Of course.
It had taken years
Of saving up
To even buy the building,
Let alone make it habitable.

Once,
On a day when the sky
Was darkened by clouds
And the sea
Was thrashing from the wind,
The woman found a boy.

He was soaked,
And shivering,
And showed no recognition
Towards the language she spoke.

He cried
When she brought him inside,
And flinched away
From her touch.

What has happened,
She wondered,
To make a boy like this
Fear kindness
From someone like me?

His eyes
Were the bright, unnatural color
Of molten gold.
It was a sign,
Of something very rare,
And very dangerous.

Eventually, he learned
To speak the woman's language.
She taught him
Her trade,
And gave him
A room, wages,
A home.

When she asked
Where he was from,
He said

I am from a place
That no longer exists.
It was wiped away,
Like you wipe flour
Off of the counter
At the end of the day.

She did not ask again.

Once,
In a small, forgotten town,
There was a golden eyed boy
Who wanted more.

He had escaped a war,
A bloody, endless war,
Only to run headfirst
Into a place
Where his particular magic was
Coveted.

So he ducked his head,
And he lied,
And he slogged his way through life,
Hiding what he was
From everyone who didn't matter.

One day,
A man,
A stranger,
Walked into that
Golden eyed boy's bakery.

Once,
He had walked into that bakery,
And found kindness
And a home.

It was his now,
The bakery.
The woman who'd owned it
Was gone.

The man,
With his strange accent,
And stranger appearance,
Immediately sparked
A wariness
In the boy.

But,
The stranger only smiled tiredly,
Paid for his bread,
And left without another word.
As if he knew,
That he was inherently
Unsettling.

It was only after
The boy realized
That he'd met
A warlock.
And a very powerful one,
At that.