Roman

Their father was a noble warlord named Vinro, and they had different mothers. Roman did not ever meet his own mother, but he knew Nile’s. Her name was Benvolia, and she was a healer.

Her magic seemed to always waver from some form of disease, and while she lived, Roman saw many times that she took out a fern - like grass stem from her purse to chew and consume. She told him that it was her medicine.

Benvolia had her good moments; in those moments, she was a gentle soul, blessed by the Flame to immortality. But she also had her bad moments. In those moments, she was frightening and hysterical. She’d hit Roman if she was triggered, and when Vinro tried to intervene, she would bit him and curse them. It was very difficult growing up with Benvolio as his mother, but luckily Roman had Nile.

Nile was a skinny boy with perhaps too late of a bloom. He was born extremely early, so that had to be taken account when his developmental delay was discussed. But well, he was never a bright lad.

He had wavy gray hair and off white red eyes, so faint that Roman questioned if Nile truly could see. His skin was a pale dull tone, lacking in any blush of life and lined with patches of darker patterns, like some sort of a grayscale tropical fish. He had two little, slender horns on his head and a thin, spaded serpentine tail. Nile was an Ember demon, alike Vinro, but his paleness and personality were more like Benvolia, but only the good side of her.

He was gentle and quiet, and when he spoke, he spoke with small words and a soft tone. Whenever Benvolia had one of her fits on Roman, Nile would run over and hug Roman’s legs to comfort him. The first word he ever uttered was “brother”, and Roman deeply loved him.

Things were looking up. Roman, at twenty two years old, was going to join his own father’s army to learn the ways of the soldiers. He dreamed of getting himself his own little flat when he saved up enough money, and he thought that he was going to bring Nile along with him, and they would no longer have to deal with Benvolia and her fits.

Little did Roman know that his life was going to fall apart.

They came; a dozen armed men, and they were forces of King Omeis. They searched the house, and they took all four of them -- Father, Mother, him, and Nile away to a military purposed building. They were seperated, and soon Roman found himself alone in a room with an interrogator across from him. Soon Roman was told that he was going to be asked questions.

“Have you eaten or helped growing Bloodfern in anyway?” he was asked.

“No; I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Have you seen people in your family eating or growing it?”

Roman thought that maybe the interrogator could do good to both of them by telling Roman what Bloodfern was first, “I don’t even know this thing you’re talking about. What even is Bloodfern?”

“A fern - like plant with red leaf tips; they are highly addictive, and illegal. Have you seen people in your family growing and eating a red tipped fern plant?”

A shock of realization washed over him. He remembered Benvolia’s fern leaves, “I -- I think that’s my mom’s medicine --”

-
And Roman thought that he was so sheltered throughout his life. He barely knew anything outside of his trainings. He thought back on how he was only allowed to have a few friends that his father approved of, and wasn’t allowed to read anything that his father did not approve of.

Apparently, Bloodfern was a strong, addictive magic enhancer. A mortal could rival a god under the effects of a Bloodfern leaf, and under the effects of Bloodfern, a mere mortal could pass the ordeal of the Flame and gain immortality. King Omeis and his men had been fighting against the usage of the plant.

Benvolia was a mortal who used Bloodfern to gain her goddesshood, and Lord Vinro knew that. They hid it from everyone, including Roman, which, was honestly for the best of him.

Nile, who was Benvolia’s son, that had been exposed to Bloodfern all through his life, was a False Blood; off springs of the first Bloodfern users, immortal by nature but often had mental disabilities and innately addicted to Bloodfern.

Lord Vinro was to be serving in jail for some years, and Lady Benvolia, who cheated her way into immortality, was going to be publicly executed.

Nile, who had done nothing wrong, was also going to be publicly executed, for being born a False Blood.

Roman was shocked. He almost couldn’t feel anything in the astonishment. A few days, that was it. It only took a few days for his entire life to fall apart. Father was going to jail, Mother and Nile were going to die, and he was the only one who would be released, being innocent.

Damn them. He couldn’t let it happen.

-
“Roman… Romannnnnn,” Nile was whining as they ran.

“Shut up!” Roman cursed, shoving both of them into the tall shrubs. He led them through, the sharp tips of the brushes prickling their skin.

The nearest hyper portal was a few towns, some miles, away, but maybe he could take Nile and make it.

“What’s happening?” Nile cooed as they rushed on.

“Just shut up and run,” Roman told him.

Nile silenced, and they roughly weaved through the shrubs, gaining small cuts on their faces and arms. Now Roman could hear men’s yelling from a faint distance.

Roman stopped as their way was cut off abruptly by a bank with a wide river running below. It was almost like a small cliff. He looked down; the river seemed to be a good twenty meters below, its dark blue water running fiercely and wildly.

Roman could hear their pursuers being nearer now.

“What are we gonna do?” Nile asked with a frightened whine.

Roman took Nile’s hand in his and looped his other arm around Nile’s shoulder, “Hold on to me tight, okay?” They had to take chances.

Nile nodded, and grasped Romann’s hand, too.

“On three, we jump. One… two… three!”

Nile did exactly what he was told and jumped, bringing Roman, who paused for the slightest moment.

They were in the air for a few seconds, then they hit the water. The rushing cold engulfed them.

Roman held his breath and held onto Nile. He felt that Nile loosened his grip, and then grasped at him hard.

His head bobbed above the water and in inhaled deeply, pulling Nile up as well.

They struggled to keep their faces above the water, and hen Roman looked back, it seemed like the point where they jumped was already a far distance behind. He doubted that the search team could see two small heads bobbing up and down in the distance.

The water was threatening to choke them, and Nile coughed loudly.

“Shhhhh!” Roman hisses, keeping Nile close.

“I can’t help it!” Nile protested; Roman figured that it was alright; the running water was drowning out their voices anyway.

-
A day later they were going through some marshes away from town. The river helped them, as it actually flowed toward the direction of the hyper portal. Roman hunted some fish, and the two ate them raw.

“Where we gonna go now?” Nile asked Roman.

“They’re still looking for us here,” Roman replied, “but with the help of the river, we can run to the Mortal Realm in just a few days; then they’d have absolute no idea where to find us.”

Nile nodded, though his attention was on the fish and Roman couldn’t tell if Nile understood what he said.

Roman thought of what they could do once they were in the Mortal Realm. They could get a change of names and start anew there; he thought. They were young, strong men who would always be young; work shouldn’t be hard to find.

-
They arrived at the hyper portal a few days later. Roman’s heart sank when he saw that soldiers were at the gate of the massive portal gate, inspecting everyone passing in an attempt to catch them. The portal plaza was crowded, with people complaining that they would never get to the Mortal Realm before the portal switched destinations.

Roman started looking around for anyone who could help them.

The hyper portals instantly led way to many faraway places. It was first created by Firsts in the Ancient Age, though the scholars studied them thoroughly and made their own to deploy in Skyland to make transportation even easier. Some hyper portals were manual, meaning that the passenger could choose where to go. This one wasn’t. This portal led to different places during different times of the day. During about all of the afternoon, it led to different places in the Mortal Realm. It was about 3:45pm by now according to the clock on the square.

Nile whined as Roman tugged him to weaved around the crowd, searching for a solution.

He set his gaze on a tall lilac nymph with horns that resembled that of a young buck’s. The nymph was pulling a large wagon, and he also carried a demon cub in one arm. In his wagon were bundles of hay.

Roman led Nile and walked closer.

Up close, Roman could see that the hay was moist, and inside the hay were toads, with their brown red eyes open, sometimes blinking slowly. The nymph was dressed in a farmer’s attire, strangely.

“What do you make of this new searching thin’?” Roman asked loudly to the nymph, who turned his head toward them.

“Unreasonable,” he grumbled, and fell silent.

“Say, how long have you been waiting?” Roman asked again, “My bro and I just got here.”

“‘Bout twenty minutes,” the nymph told him, and started gazing at them with suspicion. His eyes were a pure purple, with goat - like horizontal dark irises.

The cub, who had been studying Nile, reached out with small, baby fat hands, “Cous! I wanna touch his horns!”

The nymph seemed alarmed, “Please pardon her.”

Nile had a warm smile, “It’s okay -- she can if she want to.”

The child had a wide smile now; she grabbed in the direction of Nile, who stepped forward and tilted his head toward her. She grabbed and felt his smooth, hard horn with one hand.

The man sighed apologetically, “I’m sorry.”

“No prob,” Roman replied, “I’m Roman, Roman Lynch; my brother is Nile.”

“I’m Avivo, and she’s Anemone,” the nymph told them.

“You two are cousins?”

“Yeah.”

Roman knew not pry on how a pure nymph would have a pure demon cousin. It wasn’t impossible, but it was unusual.

Nile whined as Anemone jerked his head forward by the horn. Avivo scolded Anemone in the ancient nymph language.

“My brother isn’t very bright,” Roman told Avivo, “By the way, do you know what they’re checking?”

Avivo shrugged, “Probably just checking if you have a pass.”

Roman saw an opening, so he was going to use it.

“Damn,” he cursed, “We didn’t bring our ribbons.”

The man dragged his wagon forward as they had space to move, “That’s very unfortunate.”

Nile whined in distress and Roman glared at him to not say anything stupid.

“But we gotta get to the Mortal Realm!” Nile whined.

“Cous! Can we help them?” Anemone asked, now looking worried, too.

Avivo hesitated, and then looked to the wagon, “I need to think about this.”

“Pleeeeeeeeease?” Anemone whined in harmony with Nile.

Roman gazed at the slow moving line and the hyper portal. He didn’t need to fake his concern.

“Alright,” Avivo finally gave in to Anemone’s begging and whining, “I have an idea.”

-
The wet hay felt terrible, but was even more terrible when there were slimy toads in there. Roman and Nile both hid covered by hay, the toads’ cool skin pressed against their own.

A long while passed. Then another long while. All these whiles the wagon barely moved.

Nile stayed silent, and Roman set himself after that example. If his dumb brother could do well at hiding, he could do well, too.

Finally, the wagon was moving constantly forward. Roman heard Anemone asking about them, and Avivo shushed her. A bit while later, the wagon slowed.

“Stop!” a man’s voice.

The wagon stopped.

“Who are you and what do you have there?”

Roman felt his heart in his throat. He stayed absolutely still and silent.

“I am Avivo, and this is my cousin Anemone. We’re puling the herb toads to her parents’ medicine stall in Old Montage,” the nymph explained.

There was a short pause before the guard said, “Alright, go.”

Roman bet that the guards just casted a glance at the wet hay and the toads and decided not to check.

-
They still scrambled as fast as they could to avoid searchers; Roman was thinking about changing their names, but Nile didn’t quite like that idea.

Nile was growing more and more gloomy each day, but Roman barely paid any attention due to how caught up in stress he was. Until Nile snapped, at least. They were always on the run; they often had nothing to eat. Nile missed home terribly, and they hadn’t found a job -- they had barely set a foot in any town -- at all.

It was a screaming fit, and Roman fought back. If he didn’t save Nile, Nile would be dead by now. The king’s men wanted him, not Roman. Roman could’ve been living a normal life if he wasn’t helping his brother.

Screaming turned into crying, of how Nile had no friends, and struggled hard on reading and writing, and how Vinro had hit him and called him useless. Roman remembered Benvolia, who cursed at him and used all the insults possible; she was jealous of him. He was smart, healthy, and born immortal as a demon. It took him so long to figure out that their family was messed up, but now he could see.

None of this was their fault.

He comforted Nile as best as he could, trying his best not to cry as well. This only strengthened his determination. He was going to take care of Nile, and he was going to find them a stable place to stay.

-
They eventually settled down in a small town in the woods, where Roman was able to make some money by teaching martial arts. Nile helped with building new places, as it turns out that he had a talent for quickly laying bricks. Life was looking up again, until Omeis's men caught up with them.

How naive Roman had been to think that they'd escaped them.

Flames went up everywhere; the tyrant gave his permission to slaughter. Everything -- the new life that they had been building -- was gone.

He held his brother and knelt down; this was how they were going to die. This town was getting destroyed and they could do nothing. The air was hard to breathe, and soot covered their frames...

"Roman, son."

Roman's eyes widened. The air was suddenly clear. He looked up to the tall demon approaching with the embers and ashes and death behind him. It was Vinro, his father.

He looked slightly sad, but angry and stern as well, "This game of yours has gone on for too long now."

Nile sneaked a glance at Vinro, earning himself a glare. Roman hissed.

"You don't deserve to be here," Vinro told Roman, "You should hand him over and come home. The king is merciful enough to count this as nothing."

"Merciful?!" Roman stood and advanced angrily toward his father, "He KILLED your wife, remember? And he is going to kill Nile!"

Nile whimpered anxiously, standing up as well. He messed with his fingers.

"He's a False Blood!" Vinro raised his voice as well, "I was stupid. Marrying Benvolia was a mistake. Creating him was a mistake! But you, Roman, you are not. Come home with me; you don't deserve this."

"My brother ISN'T a MISTAKE!" Roman yelled in anger and pounces toward his father. But before his attack could be carried out, a sharp pain ran through his lower stomach and he was suspended in midair. He felt his clothes becoming soaked.

Vinro flung him off from the spear, now looking to Nile, who screamed, and started backing off frantically. Vinro chased after the frail demon. Roman protested, and did his best to crawl in their direction... but he was wounded badly...

-
Roman could barely see. He could barely breathe as Vinro dragged Nile away, passing him. He couldn't tell if Nile was dead or unconscious.

All around him now, the fire raged. Another building collapsed, but he felt too weak to do anything. He lost so much blood...