The last thing I remember was getting stabbed while chasing a masked guy. Who stabbed me? No idea. How to find out? I don't know yet. Am I alive? If so, where am I? I can only see darkness. My overly underwhelming life may have come to a close. I have so many regrets. I could've at least lost fighting, but now Viktor will win by default, without having to fight. I wanted to win at least once and stand at that place, defeating him. I got so close to it, yet it had to end this way. I refuse to accept it. I gave up on so many things to raise my family's standing and worked for it my whole life. I cannot digest this ending. If there is any entity called God, I want justification!
Suddenly, I saw light. I took a sprint towards it. I wanted to get out of this darkness as soon as possible. I opened my eyes and saw a dingy room. The ceiling was made of stone, and it was mossy. The air was suffocating, and the stench in the room was so bad. I tried to move my arms, but I could not. I felt restricted. I couldn't get up or make any noise whatsoever.
"Oh, you finally opened your eyes! I thought you didn't make it," I heard the voice of a woman.
I tried to look around and saw a woman who appeared near my bedside. She moved my arms, and that's when I realized my arms were so small. It then dawned on me that I was a baby. The woman was wearing raggedy clothing. She had a relieved expression on her face. She had icy blue eyes and jet-black hair. She looked fairly young but very malnourished.
"You take after your father a lot! I hope he can meet you soon. I don't know how long I can be near you, but I want you to find freedom and happiness," the woman said, wiping away her tears.
I realized that my mother and I were trapped somewhere; she wanted me to find a way to free myself from this place and be happy.
To evaluate everything I know now, I am a baby again. For all I know, I might be living a new life in some other world, or I might've been reborn as a baby in another country in my world. The latter is so much more likely since I can understand the language. The woman has the accent of someone from the southern country, Meridon. Her features are very regal, and her pattern of speech is also refined; she might be from an influential family in the South.
In my past life, I was from the North. The North and South did not have a good political relationship at the beginning, but then it got smoother over the years. It was made smooth by Viktor, to be honest—by questionable means, of course!
BANG!
I heard an iron door opening, and a few footsteps followed closely after it.
"You are done here. Get out of this place. We will keep this tiny thing elsewhere. It will cry and create a nuisance!" a gruff voice told the woman while grabbing her by the arm.
"I want to stay with my baby! You monsters will kill him if I leave!" the woman cried out in agony.
The guards were not having it, so they dragged her away as she protested and closed the door with a slam.
The chance of me surviving even a week in my second life feels slim. I feel I took all my blessings in my past life. Now, I am suffering this horrible fate.
I was born in an elite family of the North in my past life. The only thing my family didn't have was the right to make laws directly. We had money, we had influence, we had everything a family could ask for.
In my past life, the classes were divided into common folks, the elites, and the ultra-elites. There are sects and hierarchies within each social class as well. The only thing that will elevate your status in society is the elemental power you are born with, which comes genetically.
The iron door opened again, and a burly man came into my field of vision. He grabbed me roughly, carried me through a murky corridor, and put me in the smallest room I have ever seen. The surface was hard, and the surroundings were covered with mold as well.
The days passed just like that. I was mostly occupied with my thoughts and the regrets I had in my past life. I was fed some powder once every day, and I never saw my mother after the first day. I hope she is fine; the last thing I want is to grow up an orphan.
Life was as gloomy as it could get until one night—I heard my iron door open.
I was startled. It was my mother rushing to me, trying not to make too much noise. But she was unsuccessful; the alarms went off loudly, alerting all the guards present. She quickly grabbed me and made a run for her life.
I had a really bad feeling. I could feel the bile rising in my throat. I could hear her heartbeat at an inhuman speed, and she was running out of breath. She still held me tightly in her lanky arms.
I heard a bunch of footsteps reaching us at a quick pace. My mother tried to hide in the niches she could find and tried to deceive the guards as much as she could. I prayed that we could make it out safely—and that we could live long enough for me to call her "Mum."
The gods who listened to me when I said I didn't want to die the first time turned a deaf ear to me this time.
I heard a zapping noise ring through the walls. I heard my mother fall with a thud, and I flew from her arms and started crying from the impact.
The last thing I remember about that day was seeing all the blood oozing from my mother's limp body. I was shoved back into the room I previously occupied.
Just like that, I lost the first and only family I knew of in this life.
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"Lalala, towards the sky!"
"Lalala, above and high!"
"Lalala, to the cloud and sun!"
"Lalala, it's bright and fun!"
A voice echoed inside the dark and dingy room. This was the only proof that it was bright and fun outside this premise. The entire place smelled moldy and had the intense stench of sweat and urine. The ceilings were high, and the whole space was divided into multiple cells, which were locked with rusted iron gates. Each cell housed more people than it probably should; all the inmates were sitting with their knees to their chin to accommodate everyone at a time.
"Lalala, towards the sky--" the old man started again, only to be cut off by a guard opening the iron door to lug a child in. The child looked like she was barely 5 years old, with curly black hair, covered in mud. The child looked intimidated with all the giant men in the cell and started to look around desperately to find a safe space. She spotted a small boy with muddy black hair, who was sitting with his head resting on his palm, looking up at her with wide blue eyes.
"H-HI..." she said to him shakily. The boy's eyes shined, seeing someone around his age for the very first time.
"Hello! It's my first time seeing someone my age. What's your name? Are you from outside? Why are you here?" the boy threw a barrage of questions. The girl was still shaking and suddenly started wailing loudly. The boy looked around for help, not knowing what to do.
"What happened? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?" he did what he knew best: ask questions. The girl moved her hands and started rubbing her eyes, and she continued to cry. The boy rose from his place and awkwardly wiped her tears with his dirty shirt sleeve.
"Don't cry now; tell me what's wrong. How will I help you if you keep crying?" the boy asked nervously.
"I wanna go home, I am scared," she replied in a small, shaky voice accompanied by a lot of tears. The boy facepalmed and sat back down, patting the small space next to him for her to sit. The girl plopped down next to him, with eyes red from crying.
"I will take you home, but it will take some time," the boy said confidently with a grin showing all of his yellow teeth. The girl looked at him with eyes filled with doubt and let out a shaky "How?"
"I don't know, we will figure it out," the boy replied with a shrug. "Now, tell me what's your name and how you got here?" the boy asked with a tinge of excitement, which he tried desperately to hide.
The girl wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and started, "I am Mirna. My mum and I lived at one of the outer villages of Anton. My dad was a fisherman; he went missing around the time I was born. Mum raised me by herself. We were poor, but we were living happily. A few days ago, mum was teaching me about element types and how people are naturally born with certain elemental powers depending on their parents. She told me both she and my dad were of the fire element, and I will also inherit the fire element. She wanted to do an aura induction ceremony, which is done when every child turns six. To do that, we were supposed to go to a place which naturally produces the element; in my case, fire." She continued her story while the boy listened, with realization dawning on his face.
"We lived near the ocean. My mum always believed that my dad would return home someday. The nearest volcano was on the Arno island. It took us half a day to reach Arno by a raft. The island was filled with greenery. I held my mum's hand and followed her so we would not get separated. We kept walking, but the sun went down, so we took refuge in a cave. I couldn't sleep, the bats were making a lot of noise, and I heard wolves and bears in the forest, which scared me a lot. I suddenly smelled something burning. I woke my mum up, and we went out of the cave to look for the source. A bunch of men walked out with black masks, and a few of them had their hands lit up with fire. We tried to hide in the cave, instinctively," Mirna said as her face turned pale, recollecting the memory.
"Lalala, towards the sky!" the old man started again. The kids got started and looked in his direction. The old man was without both legs and had an eye patch. He stopped the song and started laughing hysterically. Mirna looked spooked out and held on to the boy's arm.
"He gets like that at times, it's fine, he will go back to normal in a while," the boy shrugged like it's a normal occurrence. It gave Mirna little to no reassurance.
"He told me that he sings that song whenever he thinks about his granddaughter. So, what happened in your story after that?" he continued to ask.
"We were trying to not make any noise, but somehow we were found out. The masked men walked towards us. I was scared out of my mind, and my mum was shaking. One of them pointed his staff towards us. Mum pushed me behind her to protect me. They captured me and my mom to lock us up here. We have to get out of here somehow!" Mirna finished her story, slowly gaining some stability.
The boy remained emotionless for a while, processing all the information given to him. Mirna kept looking at him to get some sort of response from him.
"A lot of things make sense now!" the boy muttered to himself.
"What is your name?" Mirna asked.
"I'd like to know that too," the boy replied, finally realizing he didn't know who he was anymore.