Act 1 Intermission: The Distillation of Alex Whiter

After an uncertain amount of time had passed, Alex could finally close the cover on the first in Auris' memoirs of Sarajin Stratos.

He kept his hand on the back cover and stared up at the ceiling, letting out a long groan as his eyelids sagged and he felt stiff all over.

Nothing as bad as when he first awoke from his near-death experience. This was a pain caused by the sheer drain caused by reading so many words.

But he wouldn't admit to either of his parents that he was engaging with the literature the whole time.

It was still late at night but closing in on the crack of dawn. His dad had been in a chair across from him the whole time while his mother was off stretching her tiny legs and doing a little fiddling around with the furniture.

When the book closed though, she snapped to the living room like a sprinting cheetah and proclaimed, "Oh, you finally finished?!"

Alex shook his head and then sat the book on the table, melting back into the couch with his fingertips stretched out to graze the arms of it.

His mother Lumina slammed her hands down on the side of the couch and shouted, "Well c'mon spit it out already, what did you find out?!"

Alex closed his eyes with a long, tired groan, "All those cups of warm milk must be getting to me..."

He lifted himself up just long enough to itch the side of his forehead and say in a snarky tone, "Well...The Elemental Overlord was a fucking bigger bleeding heart than I took him for."

His father Abraham closed his eyes and gave a serene nod, "Lady Auris always spoke highly of his benevolence."

"He's a moron!" Alex blurted out with a crude gesture towards his dad.

Abraham's eyes shot open while his mother inquired with some rebellious gruff, "Whaddya mean there, Alex?"

Alex pinched the space between his forehead and groaned, gesturing his hand out slowly as he said, "There was this woman, Ophelia. She was a tyrant who kept the planet at 'peace' with fear and was an unrepentent murderer."

He then rolled his eyes and threw his hands up as he flopped flat onto the couch, "And Sarajin, BLESS HIS HEART, chose to forgive her!"

Abraham closed his eyes and nudged his glasses a little, "And what would you have done if you were in his shoes?"

"Killed her, duh!" Alex said with a brutish swing of his arm, clenching his fist forward and gritting his teeth in anger, "She killed people, dad. Nobody who takes lives deserves forgiveness!"

"Ha ha!" Lumina cheered, swinging her hand out and exclaiming, "Yeah! That's my boy!"

"Honey..." Abraham groaned, while Lumina turned to him with a huge cheeky grin and bobbed her head enthusiastically.

Father and son met eye-to-eye for a brief moment and then, the father nudged his head towards his loving if not hot-headed wife and told her in a natural tone, "Why don't you check and make sure the babies aren't awake early?"

"Oh yeah, good idea. Almost lost track of time!" As Lumina turned and sprinted off to the second floor, Abraham shouted, "And grab the second book while you're up there!"

"GOT IT!" Lumina yelled from above, followed by babies crying, "Ah, crap...!"

Abraham smiled and then slowly turned to his son, his expression becoming stern and quiet. He reached for his glasses and took them off, prompting Alex to murmur dully, "What?"

"Son, let us keep this between the two of us for now..." He whispered, opening his eyes with a cold gaze more befitting of a man of darkness, "You have blood on your hands, don't you?"

Alex's heart was shook like an arrow pierced through it. He then looked his dad in the eye and shook his head, "I-I've only killed the people who deserved it!"

"Ok," Abraham closed his eyes, "I won't get into the finer details of my past right now but..."

Alex felt a haunting chill crawling down his body as his father uttered the words, "I killed my parents a few years ago."

His eyes then widened and a dew of cold sweat started to trickle down his face. Biting his lower lip, Alex could only utter, "W-What?"

And remaining perfectly calm, his father told him, "And I did it with little regrets. So by your definition of 'evil', how am I any better than Queen Ophelia?"

Abraham's pupils shrank and his irises began to glow crimson, "Well son? Are you going to kill your father now?"

Alex trembled all over, rattling his head around as his ferocity failed him in the face of this ease of willingness to die his dad was showing him, "I-I can't hurt you, dad..."

Abraham's eyes returned to normal immediately and he propped his glasses back onto his face. Alex then started panting, biting his teeth down and shaking his head.

"T-There had to be a good reason for what you did...Right?"

Abraham nodded and then looked him straight in the eyes with a slight lean forward, "But it shouldn't matter to you. Justice cannot bend the knee to hypocrisy."

"...!" Alex froze there and his eyes wobbled as he looked towards the floor. He then squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before thrusting his head out and declaring, "You're nothing like Ophelia, dad!"

"Prove it," Abraham challenged with no hesitation, "Do you know me well enough to make that judgment, son? Or are you letting your personal feelings get in the way of your 'justice'?"

Alex began closing his fists and gritting his teeth. With a weak, hesitating expression he halfway looked into his father's eyes and told him, "I...I want to believe you wouldn't take a life without good reason."

"And as far as that goes, I'm not different from Queen Ophelia," Abraham nodded, "She took lives but did so only when pushed to the absolute extreme."

He looked his son in the eyes and told him, "I imagine Sarajin understood that about her and though condemning the acts of murder she committed, his experiences in life informed him that she was not evil because of it."

Alex raised a brow and wondered, "And...how would you know that?"

Abraham smield warmly and said, "I never read the books but, Lady Auris always spoke highly of him, and named his ability to see the best in others as one of his greatest traits."

Alex's eyes narrowed and he shook his head, letting out a blunt and crude chuckle, "C'mon...even you have to admit it's a little much though, right dad?"

Alex sat up and swung his hand out, "There are people out there who are too evil to be forgiven. Ophelia didn't even accept Sarajin's forgiveness!"

"Some people just aren't strong enough to accept the good parts of themselves," Abraham remarked, "But that doesn't mean the first answer to murder is to murder back. Everyone has their own circumstances. Their own justice. Their own dreams. We're all more than what's visible on the surface."

"It's easy to take a life...Almost too much so. But true strength...is the willingness to try and save a life," Abraham cracked a warm, fatherly smile and chuckled, "I believe that's what Lady Auris wanted you to take away from that tale."

Alex stared at the floor and closed his eyes with a sigh, "True strength is saving a life...? Killing evil people has done a good enough job there. Why-"

A string of memories of a certain blonde-haired girl flashed in his head, including her endearing giggle echoing inside. It brought him to grimace and his cockiness wavered. He grabbed the side of his head and gave it a light shake, his pinky hiding the presence of a teardrop in his eyes.

"Son?" Abraham whispered.

"..." Alex closed his eyes and rubbed the tear out, "...Damn it. Always her. Why can't I just let the memories burn already...?"

He shook his head and murmured bluntly, "I'm fine..."

He then laid his hands limp on his knees and stared at his dad, "I don't get it though, dad. Why do you respect Auris' opinion so much?"

"Hell...Why am I supposed to believe that any of this story is true? She could've made all this up just to try and guilt-trip me."

"I can believe everything that's been said about Queen Ophelia to be true," Abraham nodded, "And, since the very foundation of Sarajin's beliefs hinges on her truth, ergo, the rest of the story must be true as well."

Alex raised a brow and murmured, "Why do you keep calling her 'Queen'?"

"Opinions may be mixed on her rule, but she was still our people's ruler for a time. I wouldn't want to be rude now, would I?"

Alex rubbed the back of his head as he felt a headache coming on, "Oh. Right...mom just had to casually drop that you're a descendant of Obscura while she said she's an Aurian..."

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions about that-"

"Can...can we save it for after this dumb story?" Alex said in a disgruntled tone, "I got enough crap in my head as is."

"Fair enough," Abraham nodded, "So you're going to read more right away?"

"Might as well," Alex shrugged, "I don't really need to sleep much these days and the sooner I satisfy this stupid stone the better."

As he lingered on said stone, he glanced down at his pocket and felt it wiggling around. He then gave it serious contemplation for a moment.

"...The girl in that story was named 'Temporis'...Just like part of the stone's name. It...couldn't just be a coincidence, right?"

He wouldn't admit it out loud but that, along with the curiosity at Sarajin's ideals handling the future was what was really keeping his interest held.

It didn't take long for his mom to return with less of a spring in her step and somehow, an even THICKER book wrapped in paper.

"J-E-SUS...!" Alex had the book dropped in front of him on the table and just looking at it, saw it was twice as big as the first one, "When the hell did she have time to...Oh right, immortality."

Alex went for the wrapping and pulled it apart, revealing a pink cover and slightly better looking pages than the last one.

"Hmm..." He put the book onto his lap and then looked at his parents. His mom was stretching her arms over her head and looking a little tired in the eyes.

"Kids, whatta pain...They'll grow out of that neediness someday though!"

Alex looked at his dad and asked, "Are you both going to stay up?"

"No point in going to bed now!" Lumina decreed, planting her fists on her hips and grinning.

She then plopped down next to her son and squeezing him around the chest, "Look at my big strong boy, devouring all those words with his animal ferocity!"

"M-Mom...!" Alex groaned.

"Ha ha ha...!" Abraham grinned, "So this is a taste of what could come."

"..." Alex got a little sad as his mom's warm hands withdrew from his body.

"Well, I'll let you get to the second book!" She gave him a rough pat on the back and then hopped off the couch.

"...I-I'll tell you some of the stuff that happens this time, if it's interesting." He murmured.

Alex then let out a sigh and flipped open the cover. Like before, there was a note from Auris to start things off...

"The day that black demon fell from the bleeding stars above was the day everything changed.

Sarajin, my sister, Justek...They were forced down separate paths towards an uncertain future, as the world was thrown back into chaos.

I was still a fool at the time, clinging to the sanctity of my father's ideals. Nothing more than a worthless observer, watching the birth of a new legend that rose from the shadow the demon had cast over us all...

This would be the true beginning...Of the legend of the Elemental Overlord."

Next Time: Act 2

Author's Note:

Thus we reach the end of Act 1. It's been a good start so far but this is by far, only the tip of the iceberg. Now that the general idea behind the world of Genestasia has been explored things are going to heat-up from here on out.

However, I require a break before I move on to the next act. Admittedly I was originally wanting to just get through all of Act 1 with no breaks but that didn't work out for numerous reasons. Still, this is necessary.

I will be taking two weeks off, maybe longer depending on circumstances, to get ready for Act 2.

So in the meantime, please leave reviews with your thoughts on the story so far, it really does help me gauge how this is going. I know there are people reading, so please don't feel shy.

Until then, later!