Lady Sophia sat on the wooden verandah holding her son in her arms. He looked so adorable while sleeping that she couldn't take her eyes off him. Smiling and still feeling proud of her little baby boy.
He really was a brave and protective son to think about saving his mother even when he himself was afraid. She smiled while gently caressing the cheek of her son in the brilliant warmth of setting but radiant Sun.
In that gentle moment something from the distant past came to her. A painful memory that she tried to forget every time. One day when her baby boy suddenly came to her, an expression of severe pain clearly written on his face. While holding his ears with both of his hands, he approached his mother to say something.
Maybe to complain about something. All the children were like that after all. It was normal for them to complain about anything that made them cry. And parents had to play along with that also.
Like when August fell on the floor one time and started crying. And his father accused and beat up the floor for hurting his son. Sophia had also done something like that before too. It was a matter regarding her precious son after all.
They could never be too careful.
But this time however, the matter seemed different. More serious. Judging from his red grown eyes it seemed as though he had endured something for a very long time and now when he couldn't deal with that himself any longer, he had come to seek the help of his mother.
"What?" She asked her son in a hurried voice, "what happened baby?"
Her son was not a child to worry his parents over small matters. If he had come to her in this state, it meant there was something going on with him that she doesn't know.
It made her heart ache. She felt like a failure of a mother. Only the thought of not being able to take care of him properly made Sophia hate herself. The moment he spoke however, her heart dropped as she got suddenly overwhelmed by a deep sense of fear.
"Mommy", August spoke holding his ears with small hands, sobbing with tears still falling down, "I—I hear something, there are voices in my head."
As though making her worst fear true, her son was recognised as an ambivalent. While his peers were sharpening their abilities with their newly found core element, not to mention she herself was teaching them how to control it— her baby boy was suffering from the worst fate possible.
There were many things in her past that Sophia did wrong. The regretful decisions she made were all for her to bear. Well, that was what she thought. However fate had something else up its sleeve, stored for her.
It knew well what might make her feel helpless and it did just that.
Sophia was a mage who had acquired this status by her hard work and dedication. She knew well what it took to master an element. However she also knew what problems people like August, her son has to face constantly.
She had seen many ambivalents in her lifetime go insane and take their life themselves, under the pressure and strain of echoes on their minds.
For her son to suffer such a fate? Wasn't it very cruel?
She started spending all her time make August comfortable with the voices so that he could grew used to them. She strictly prohibited him from using the elements and trying to form a spell however.
Sophia knew that these elements were only trying to lure her son out. To make him use them. The echoes or the will of the elements was a constant fair after all. The only thing she can't stop. But she can make her son endure all that and make him feel like it's natural.
It was the only way to make him comfortable with his condition and save him from a fate far worse than death. Sophia also had to acknowledge that for a mage, death was a far better option than being the subject to echoes.
She couldn't let her baby boy die. So she had to do everything she could. May it be banning him to perform the special phenomena called magic.
While everyone around him was using magic August, even after having an excellent perception of mana he had to live like a mundane human. Like he never used to have this blessing.
While making August used to echoes wasn't that hard for Sophia. He was good when he practiced meditation regularly. The challenging part however was the perceptive eyes of her son.
If he was an ordinary child with ambivalence, things couldn't be gone too far of her hands, never. But August was able to look and feel the nearby elements without fail. May it be occasionally but his perception could definitely get better overtime.
This was the reason, elements tend to be more violent towards him while he tried to form a spell. They never wanted to leave a person of this keen insight for another element.
While the elements weren't living, the spirit of competition was still there. Fueled by something similar to greed and pettiness.
Therefore Sophia prohibited her son from forming any spell and harming himself. As well as someone else.
To make his curiosity satiate, she made his father teach him basic swordsmen style.
Lord Valerius, the man she loved, married and had a child with— was extremely positive person. Looking at him one could feel a sense of ease from him.
When he got the news that his son is an ambivalent mage, he never let himself fret over it. On top of that he boosted the morale of his family by giving them hope. That August would definitely descover his core element one day.
One could say, he was all alone balancing his worrisome family with a bunch of positivity.
Even under the strain of echoes August was at peace. His life was moving at a steady pace.
Sophia's worry for her son lessened a bit. It's not like they were completely gone though. August's condition was a ticking time bomb. And she was on a time limit, obviously.
Therefore Sophia tried her best to convince her son to join the classes she used to teach. With that she thought August might lose interest in becoming a mage and chose a simple or so to say a less harmful goal in life. She knew the effect of echoes will also fade away with time. Only if not provoked, there was a chance her son could be freed from these chains.
But things rarely go as planned. Her son began to learn the methods of spell formation from the various books he used to study or stare at.
Not to mention it was Sophia's own idea to make August deviate from the path to become a mage.
She tried everything to keep her son out of harms way. But the child who could see the golden threads in the sky above could never be strayed from his path.
Just like one day he tried to form something out of nothing. To form a spell. To use magic.
———
Sophia flinched, she found herself face to face with her crying baby boy who still covered his ears with two hands.
Hurriedly she also put her hands over his to make him feel at ease, if not more. As it turned out though, her son wanted just that. To be with his mother at that time.
Sophia had a fear. And it seemed came true.
Making the ice heed her call, she formed a barrier around him. The mana particles of the ice around August shimmered, then gathered and spread to take the shape of his body. They mirrored his movements and made themselves attach to August. Covering him like a blanket.
Suddenly, August was free from all the voices. Removing the hands from his ears, when he opened his eyes. He found a layer of icy white sparkling around him. Which he also somewhow felt blocking those voices too.
His eyes glistened as his smile grew wider jumping into the embrace of his mother. He Said in his tone exhausted from continuous sobbing,
"Thank you momma, you're the best"
———
Sophia flinched as she found herself sleeping beside her son. Her hand patting him constantly on the back habitually. It seemed as though it was night already.
Valerius wasn't home yet. She wondered how long she've been sleeping like that. Sophia recalled making August fall asleep when he got terrified by that bird-like creature.
Sophia gently picked up her sleeping son in her arms and put him to sleep on his bed. She felt like sleeping again. But it was already time for her to start preparing for dinner.
But it will not hurt to take a little nap will it?
———
Sophia flinched again, this time as though waking up from a deep sleep. Her body weighed heavy. Even her breathing felt difficult. She tried her best to remain concious.
As she opened her eyes, a deep sense of deva vû overwhelmed her thinking. It was dark, all dark. What? Where was she? Sophia wasn't able to do anything, even moving was difficult.
She searched for a son who was sleeping just beside her sometimes ago. But she found no one. Or rather nothing.
Suddenly a deep fear struck her heart.
Memories came to her, hazy but not quite far off. She recalled battling the wall-like winds, remembered walking across bone melting fire. Not to mention when her own core element rebelled against her.
All that to save her son from harming himself over something so trivial as a matter of children's trial magic class.
But she failed. Failed to counter the situation. Failed to save her son. Failed as a mother ...again.
If it wasn't for her son to stop the process himself, Sophia would've lost her baby boy today. And god knows how she could've handled that situation.
In that moment she hoped for something.
Anything.
She hoped her husband will come like always at the last moment and undo her mistakes. But she was wrong. All that of a high class combat mage and a licensed magic instructor Sophia remained that day was a helpless woman who couldn't save her own child nonetheless.
She rushed to him when the storm of greater elements settled down. He was unconscious.
Looking at her seemingly lifeless son, she hugged him with her hands trembling with fear. The fear of losing him.
It was been a week since she cast a house sized barrier to keep her son safe from any other threat. Her husband pleaded her to rest properly but there isn't something as fragile as a mother's heart and something as strong as a mother's will to protect her child in the world.
She will keep this barrier up for life if she have to. If it meant keeping her baby boy safe she would gladly give her life. Sitting in the loneliness with her worrying about her son who was still unconscious from that previous incident, Sophia felt tired but never gave up.
She endured thirst and hunger but never gave up.
Her husband pleaded again and again, even though he himself remain hungry in worry, she never gave up even then.
And her prayers got an answer when she saw her son suddenly standing before her covered in bandages.
Sophia was overjoyed to see him move again.
Then she felt a sudden urge to sleep. As though her tiredness of a week catching up to her. She wanted to sleep. And just sleep.
———
Sophia flinched again, now somewhat early. Before losing herself in another memory of a close or distant past.
She swallowed and sighed helplessly, her breathing quick and voice hoarse,
"So I'm still under his spell huh?"
—————