Rowan Stephenson, a sixteen-year-old teen with a fractured growth. Having had his father leave him and his mum behind when he was just two years old, his childhood could really be defined as rough afterwards.
His mum, once a full housewife, was instantly relegated to a menial worker just to make ends meet.
They had to work in mines and, at times, even beg for money to take care of their family of three, his younger sister Abby included.
Still, in spite of that low in his life, it was the best period of his life he had ever enjoyed.
Despite the arduous suffering and prolonged hardship, the warmth of his mother's love comforted his heart.
But after many years, his mother found someone who was interested in getting married to her. She wasn't against the idea, moreso when the man was financially capable enough to take care of Melissa and her two children.
They moved in, and life went on as one new family. But despite the better living conditions they now had, it was still hard for Rowan to accept how fast things had changed.
He struggled deeply to fully accept the man as his father. Well, months rolled on, and with time, his mother's new husband also didn't find him favourable, and he wasn't so warm towards Rowan either.
Despite being a lad a seven-year-old lad, Rowan's maturity couldn't be argued against or denied. He frequently heard and saw how his mother was too submissive to the man.
He felt like she was taking too much because she thought she wouldn't get another chance at a stable home if she left him.
But Rowan wasn't having it. At times, he even went as far as challenging the man. Well, which earned him a couple of bruises for his efforts.
With the situation getting worse instead of subsiding, Melissa decided to reach out to a friend in another city and asked her to take Rowan in, as she couldn't bear to see her son in such a state anymore.
Well, the friend in question was a recent widow at that time and had been lonely without a child of her own. Without much consideration, she accepted, and Rowan was brought over.
Melissa's heart bled at the sight, knowing the implications of her actions. Her son might hate her, but she believed she was making the right choice.
It was a sad time for Melissa, Abby, and Rowan. The idea of living without his mother and sister in the same space as him felt alien to Rowan.
In fact, he had suffered from insomnia for the first few months.
But with Verci's warmth, his mother's friend, he was finally able to accept his new life and that his stars had left their original constellations to align with another.
Rowan, a nine-year-old lad when he arrived at Vauli City where Aunty Verci lived, found himself in a modest but comforting environment. She worked as an orthodox nurse and ran a small inn, treating people for years.
One would think that in a two-star city like Vauli, such a business wouldn't survive. Yet Aunty Verci was a longtime inhabitant of the city and was highly respected among the locals.
Even the mayor allowed her to keep her business running. And despite the decline in patronage due to more developed medical services, there were still enough people who came to her to keep the business afloat.
She wasn't so rich, yet not poor either. In fact, if there was anything Rowan liked, it was the fact that this life wasn't too far from the one he had before his mother's husband came into the mix.
A new life was a lease from the toxicity he had put up with for years. With time, he got used to the new life, learning the craft from Aunty Verci and also helping her with the inn work.
Soon, he was ten years old and had hoped his mother would at least make it out to visit him. They had been talking on the payphone for months.
Of course, she made an excuse for why she couldn't come. His heart boiled with fury at her, but Aunty Verci was always there to anchor him away from that state.
He started his first day at school and began making friends. Friends he opened up to but who later betrayed him, sullying his image.
He got into a fight with some of them, which led to his suspension for a month when he was in his second year.
After serving his punishment and enduring Aunty Verci's gentle chidings, he decided to take school more seriously and just focus on himself.
Making that resolution, his academics saw an improvement. He moved from the low ranks in the class to a respectable position among the mid-rankers.
The joy on his Aunty's face was palpable when he showed her his results. Yet, his own mother admonished his efforts, telling him he could and should aspire for something more so he could get a good job.
Whenever he heard her talk like that, an immense anger boiled within him, and it always ended in an intense argument. Neither of them ever backed off.
Life went on, and Rowan kept increasing steadily up the academic ranks. By his fourth year, he already had enough credits to graduate.
Just then, a strong illness hit Aunty Verci. It was so bad that they had to sell her inn in order to procure the funds for her treatment.
The whole ordeal saw his life take a sharp turn. He often missed classes, which the teachers understood, but that didn't mean they would give him credits for it.
They battled the illness, selling everything they could in order to afford more advanced treatment in a metropolitan or three-star city. Yet, they couldn't make it happen.
Even with some people donating money, it wasn't enough. Every effort was proved futile.
At that point, Aunty Verci had already given up on living. Rowan tried all he could to find a cure, but no doctor was able to diagnose the cause of her illness.
She knew she was living on borrowed time, so she asked Rowan to promise her he wouldn't keep hatred in his heart.
She knew him too well to not see how her death would affect him. So, she made him promise he would do well to graduate school and get a job.
He joked with her, saying he'd do beyond that. He promised to become a mage, to which she laughed.
Of course, one would think she was ridiculing him, moreso because ninety percent of the time, magic is hereditary, and none of his parents had ever displayed any element. But only she knew the truth.
Just five months before his graduation, she left the world.
Her demise ultimately plunged his world into darkness as his life was wracked with grief. The light that had kept him going for years, the light that had brought him warmth, was gone.
It was too much for him to bear. So hard that he couldn't go to school anymore. Instead, his certificate was delivered to him.