Sins of the Father: Chapter 06

Growing up with family, parents naturally pass on what skills they have unto their children . Of course it wasn't until shortly after little Avery’s third birthdays that he actually learned what a medic-knight was.

“Mommy, what do we do for money?” A wide-eyed Avery inquired as his family began to walk to their next destination. 

Looking down at her precious son, Dawn began to answer “Well Edel and I are Knights but a special class of Knights called medic-knights”

“M-medic-knights? Can I eat that?”

Finally making his presence known a young man with pretty facial features and long black hair began to speak “Well, no you can’t eat it. What’s with your obsession with eating things?

Ignoring his brother and looked towards his mother for a response to his previous question, Avery waited with bated breath. It was a few moments before his mother replied.

“Well were heroes, yeah super heroes we always save the day and the entire world depends on us!”

“SUPER-HEROES, I WANNA BE ONE!!!!” Avery exploded with excitement.

“Master Dawn!” Edel began with a squawk, as Avery continued to scream about becoming a legendary hero. “Don’t lie to him were not super-heroes”

Dawn stopped suddenly in the road and turned towards Edel. “Speak for yourself Edel, I consider myself a superhero I can pretty much heal anything and I have super strength if that doesn’t make me a hero I don’t know what does!” 

With that Dawn, began to run around and scream with her son.

“Hero!! Hero!! Hero!! Hero!!”

“Gods, I’m surrounded by idiots.” Edel commented as he watched his Master making a complete fool of herself with her son.

And though Dawn now had a son, she did unfortunately retain her status of a traveler. In fact, it was years later past Avery’s eighth birthday, when his family was staying through the small town of Lakeside that Avery first encountered the last piece of what would be his nuclear family at the local spa.

“Hey, kid, what's that you've got there? “A tall and bulky middle aged man, with spikey-short orange hair questioned the kid.

“Huh?” Avery eyed the strange haired man, “What do you mean old man?”

“That thing on your back” The man insisted, indicating the intricately stylized lines covering the majority of Avery’s back.

“Oh, that? It's a tattoo.…” Avery trailed off evasively.

“That's no tattoo kid, it's a rune” The man said shortly, causing Avery to narrow his eyes at the stranger

“If you know what it is, then don't ask!” Avery snapped. How did this guy distinguish the rune his mother put on his back from a tattoo?

“I meant,” the man growled out slowly, “What’s it for?”

It wasn't a question.

“Who the hell is asking?” Avery shot back. Obviously, he had picked up how to swear from his mother.

Hearing his cue, the man amazingly managed to perform an impromptu introduction. “I am the man who makes men quake in fear and woman shiver in ecstasy, I am the greatest bastion of knowledge in this decaying world, I am the one the only the immortal blazing dragon, Lance!” With the conclusion of his introduction he haphazardly threw a rather large business card at Avery.

Avery eyed the card. “The world's greatest adventurer and Knight,” he read flatly, “The wonderful Master Lance.”

Avery sighed at the evidence. “Tacky orange hair: check” he muttered aloud, “Lame introduction dance: check. Abnormally loud. Yeah, it's him.”

Avery suddenly turned his head to the wall separating the men's bath from the female's side. “Hey Mom, I found Uncle Lance!” Though Avery had never met the man, his mother had regretfully informed that: Lance was an intricate part of a childhood and has done more then enough to earn the title Uncle.

Dawn swore. A lot. In fact, if Avery hadn't been so used to it by now, he'd have been scarred for life. “Avery! If that idiot starts trying to get into the house beat the living hell out of him!”

Three years later, after Avery’s first encounter with his uncle, Avery is found standing in a small clearing within the forest behind his current home one night.

Once again, Avery’s fist made contact with an unforgiving tree. The resounding sounds going unnoticed by the redhead as he continued to pound away relentlessly at the tree in front of him. His strength was steadily, if achingly slowly, approaching his mother's astonishing level. Standing in the clearing with a white tank top, his wild redhead moving with each punch and his cerulean eyes portraying his immense concentration.

“Isn't it past your bedtime, brat?”

“Huh?” Avery snapped around, spotting the familiar orange hair. “Oh. Hi,” Avery greeted. “Didn't mom tell you to stay away from us?”

“Silly Little nephew, you have much to learn.” Lance lectured. “When a woman tells you to stay away, it means she obviously wants you to be near her!”

Avery stared at his unofficially adopted uncle. Was he serious? “Uncle…” Avery sighed, “Are you an idiot, or just in denial?”

Lance merely grunted and settled for a change of topics as he sat down on the floor of the clearing. “And what about you brat? You're out late, sneak out of the house?” he asked, bringing the conversation to a respectable level. Pulling out a can of juice, which he tossed to Avery

“Thanks.” Avery made a responded as he reached up to catch the cold beverage arcing through the air.

“Crap!” Avery suddenly swore as the can slapped into his open palm and unexpectedly sent laces of pain shooting throughout his open hand. A dead silence ensued, only broken by the sound of the dropped beverage bouncing off the floor.

Avery looked at his palm in surprise. For the first time that night, he noticed the bloody mess that his knuckles had become.

“Need me to patch you up, kid?” Lance asked, only half joking.

“Nah, this is nothing.” Avery explained and proceeded to begin the incantations for the healing spells that were clearly interrupted by the insane pain his hands had to suffer through. A few agonizing seconds later Avery picked up the fallen beverage and joined his uncle on the impromptu seat, completely healed. “So what's up? You come here to find inspiration for what you're going to research next.”

“Inspiration? No don’t need it,” Lance explained, “I actually came looking for you, kid. Haven't seen you for a while...”

Avery felt the older man reach over and mess up his hair affectionately and asked “Really?”

“Sure,” the man grunted, “I even missed your birthday, remember? Though I'm not saying I won't do some 'sightseeing' before I go”

Avery ignored his uncle's sudden perverted chuckle. “No, it's fine. You sent a card with one of your summons.”

Lances sounded thoughtful. “You know, any normal kid would be complaining or demanding presents by now.”

Avery merely scoffed at the thought. “Normal? What's that have to do with me?”

“True. You're a pretty weird kid. 'Normal' isn't sneaking out at night to punch some tree.

A silence stretched out to follow Lance’s last statement. He held his tongue as he observed the medic-knight in training frown at his can of juice. “You know how I never told you what that rune on my back was for?”

Indeed, Lance remembered the rune well. Frankly, he was impressed that Dawn could pull something so complicated off. How many months or years had it taken her?

“Well,” Avery continued, “It's not really for sealing anything. It just… contains a certain power” he mumbled, lifting up his shirt and exposing nothing.

“You can't see it, but it's there. My Vaconic magic…” Avery muttered. “You know, when runes are put on people they only show up when you channel Magic through them” Avery informed

Lance’s brow furrowed, that was true. Very true. “Kid, I've never seen the one on your back disappear.” He informed gravely

“Yeah,” Avery’s head lifted up, now contemplating the stars, “Magic's always running through it.”

Lance was almost afraid of where this was going. “What is it?”

“A lock.” Avery promptly answered him. “It's just a lock. It keeps my Vaconic magic from touching my human magic.”

“But… why?” Lance asked in confusion.

”Every medic-knight needs a specific amount of magic in order to control” he stated as if it were a simple and normal fact of life.

“And even Mother’s battle techniques need a lot of control…,” Avery sighed, “I can't reach the right level with my two magic’s mixing.”

“I don't understand it much, but it’s a lock” Avery re-stated “It cuts the inhuman magic out of the loop. And it seals off about half of my magic to stay active all the time”

“Fifty percent, huh? That's pretty steep.” Lance carefully informed, “Your Vaconic magic will grow with you, so you're mothers rune will have to grow to match it. That's fifty percent of your magic that you'll never see for the rest of your life. Just to make it seem like you’re not a Semideus.”

Avery didn't seem fazed; in fact the little boy seemed much older than he was. “There's more to pay than that. My body continues to keep the vaconic magic in check. And to keep that magic in check, mother’s rune will fade once a month and readjust my body”

Lance grimaced. “So once a month as your Vaconic magic is open to you and your body is forced to alter itself… which day is it?”

Avery nodded. “Edel picked out the day. He said making it work once every full moon would be more convenient. It's not bad, but I can't fight or train very well.”

Lance couldn't hold it anymore “I knew Dawn was paranoid about you being a Semideus, but I hadn't even thought of this… Listen Avery, having the Vaconic magic mixes with yours shoots your control to hell, but it's not all bad! Being a Semideus will give you access to amazing . It balances out. You can't reach the ridiculous heights of control that Dawn has, but-”

Avery stood up and faced his uncle with a determined look. “I need control to be the heir to mother's techniques” he said firmly, his face taking on a more fierce tone as he continued. “And I don't need to be a Semideus to do that!”

Lance looked surprised, but ended up chuckling and conceding the point after a time. Once Avery’s made up his mind like this… well, you either agree or get out of the way. And Lance could very well understand the boy's sentiments regarding getting far under his own power. “Alright kid, I get it.”

It was then that Lance made an observation while rubbing Avery's head “All children have the desire to surpass their parents. Such a sweet little kid, aren't you, Avery?”

Avery smiled, bearing the brunt of Lance's jibe, just glad to see that his uncle understood his decision “Don't sound so laid back, old man,” Avery countered cheekily, “I'll surpass you, too!”

“Humph!” Lances snorted contemptuously as he made a show of flipping off the log dramatically. “A brat like you? Being a Semideus shot your control to hell! You have absolutely no natural talent for it at all! You can only use fifty percent of your magic, and to top it off, you're a idiot!”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Avery demanded, lunging for the self-proclaimed ‘legend’.

“And you're disorderly!” Lance yelled back as he dodged Avery’s lunges with ease, “You're the worst possible person to try and become a medic let alone a Knight!”

Avery growled and charged again.

“BUT!” Lance thundered, causing Avery to pause in his tracks and listen interestingly. “… You got guts, Avery, just like someone else I know.”

Lance smiled proudly as he continued. “You built your magic control up from scratch to something damn impressive for your age. And you never let your fifty percent magic handicap slow you down, you just worked harder. You really aren't a genius like some other kids: you're book-smarts isn't anything impressive. You had me, Edel, and your mother to teach you, but in the end you grew damn strong kid: under your own power.”

Avery almost got teary-eyed. The boy walked up to the man and gave him a wide smile. “Thanks Lance, I really needed that but…” with a swift punch in the stomach, Lance fell over. “…don’t insult me and think you can get away with it by completing me.”

”Ungrateful brat” Lance groaned from the ground.