ASKELADDEN: The Tale Of The Golden Quill

2. The Aldaric Curse

“Haha! I guess my family's reputation exposes me”, Aidan remarked casually, with a nervous chuckle.

The Rhys Family was a Noble family of high-ranking sorcerers, sitting at the top of society amongst the Three Noble Families of Dumnonia. The other two are the Fergus Family of Divine Craftsmen and the Aurelius Family of Scholars of Magical Studies and Research.

“Your H-highness", Orion stuttered, quickly bowing his head in reverence.

"Oh pleaseeee, we don't gotta do that. I don't even fancy being royalty. And besides, I'm basically the seventh in line from being Head of House”, Aidan said with a smile, dismissing the bothersome respect.

"Treat me as you'd treat anyone else. In fact, from today henceforth, we're friends", he added, stretching his arm again, offering a handshake for the second time.

“Uhmmm…I'm always getting into trouble, Sir Aidan. Surely there's nothing to benefit from being friends with me”, Orion said shyly.

"Nonsense! It means I'm always gonna have your back and I'll save you whenever you get into trouble. Okay?" Aidan reassured, looking at the helpless Orion with kind eyes.

“O-okay. If that pleases you, Sir”, Orion yielded.

“No, no, no. First off, drop the Sir thing. And secondly, don't be my friend because I want to. You have to be willing on your own too”, Aidan said, with a slightly stern tone.

“Alright, uhmmm… A-Aidan. I'd love to be friends with you”.

"Perfect. It's settled!” Aidan said excitedly, grabbing Orion's arm and tugging him along.

"Let's go to your house, Stranger.”

"Pardon me. It's Orion. My name”, Orion said, chuckling nervously as he realized he never gave Aidan his name after asking.

Orion grabbed his bag of food supplies and started in the direction of his home, with his arm locked in Aidan's gentle grip with their faces beaming with excitement.

***

***sniff!…sniff!!

Orion was woken up by the sound of his mother crying in the middle of the night. They shared a room in their little creaky cottage.

"Are you okay, Ma?” he asked, drowsy but deeply concerned as he rubbed his sleepy eyes.

"It's nothing, my boy. Don't worry about me”, his mother said shakily, sniffling and turning her face away to wipe her tears.

“You're obviously lying. Please, tell me what's wrong, Mother. Please”, Orion pleaded, sounding more serious and awake this time.

“I'm just scared, my boy. I really am", she finally said after a prolonged silence, heaving a sigh of exhaustion.

“Scared of what, Ma?"

“Scared of the future, Orion. Scared of YOUR future", she said in a hushed tone, more shakily this time. She burst into tears again. Orion was quite confused.

“You’re the only thing I have left in this world, my boy. You're priceless to me and it would kill me to know that being my child would robbed of all the opportunities and amazing possibilities that you would've had if I wasn't your mother. It's all my fault. You're always getting bullied, beaten, and ostracized because of me. You're powerless because of me and my stupid curse. I've taken your dreams away from you. I'm so sorry, Orion. I really am."

“It isn't your fault that you're cursed, Ma. It's gonna be alright eventually. You told me about faith, remember?" Orion consoled, with a weak sense of hope in his voice. His chest tightened and his eyes clouded with tears as he painfully watched his mother weep her heart out.

***

Phoebe, Orion's mother, belonged to the Adalric Clan, a bloodline that has been cursed for centuries. Orcus the Punisher cursed the clan when a predecessor of theirs, Lugh Adalric, cheated against a god at the Armageddon Games held once every century on Olympus, where gods and the most capable humans engaged in competitions and the winners of each of the games were granted a wish.

Lugh successfully outsmarted Athena and cheated in a game of chess, but he couldn't escape the watchful eyes of Orcus the Punisher. The penalty of his action was the curse that plagued the bloodline to date, subjecting them to a condition called Magialysiva. This condition forces them to drain mana and life force from any and every being, creature, or object that contains any form of magical energy that they come in contact with. The four-pointed star-shaped scar on her neck is the trademark of the cursed Adalric Clan.

Being the firstborn daughter of her family, she had a stronger and faster siphon power, forcing her to completely detach herself from people and avoid physical interactions.

When Orion was conceived, it was certain that every ounce of life force would be drained from him, due to the curse, but his father's blood and immense magical energy fought against it and balanced it out. Although, he's completely void of mana, he possesses an extremely high life force compared to normal, due to the blood of a god in him.

***

"I do wanna hear more about my father though. And how he left", Orion asked his mother with genuine concern after she had dried her tears.

“I never want to revisit those events, my boy. It breaks me every time I think about it”, she said meekly, heaving a deep sigh.

“But there's nothing much to hear anyway. He left in a fit of rage after telling him about my curse. The self-centred narcissist thought I used my condition to manipulate him, but how could I even? At the time, I was roughly over 6 months gone with you. It was tough afterwards, Orion. Some days felt like hell, especially when I delivered you. Had to do everything on my own. So let's drop the subject, please. It's not a pleasant memory.”

“What a big coward. He'll pay for this, even if it's the last thing I do!!" Orion swore, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist in fury.

His mother was his world, his everything, and seeing her in this state stirred up the deepest depths of wrath in him. All because of a god who called himself his father.

“Don’t sweat it, my boy. All I wish for right now is for you to focus on having a proper, full, and happy life, away from all the drama and tragedy of my curse and your father's shenanigans."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, Ma. I promise I'll make you proud. I swear it", Orion said passionately as he embraced his mother tightly and eventually dozed off in her arms.