In Lutia, adherence to the oath of silence is requisite across various strata of society. Everyone, from academy students to alumni, guild members, templars, and nobles, is bound by the oath. Yet, notably absent from this clandestine pact are the commoners, particularly those inhabiting the lower sectors, who proceed through life ignorant of the truth, naively accepting the “limit” as a natural constraint...

  Baroness Alicia Ravenborn.

  Human rights activist.

  Central Kingdom (Lutia). Year 2167

  The next few minutes were torture for both Aodhán and Aldric as the villagers slowly trickled in. Aldric's pain had increased, and they'd had to move to the edge of the clearing to prevent anyone from noticing that something was wrong with him.

  While they waited, Aodhán's mind roamed and he thought of many things. One of the most recurring questions he asked himself was why. Why did the kingdom keep its citizens in the dark? Why had other people not figured this out? What would happen if someone else somewhere figured this out and spread the information without taking an oath?

  He voiced some of his questions, and Aldric tried his best to answer them. Aodhán wasn't content with most of his responses, though, as they mostly ranged from 'I don't know' to 'I'm not sure.'

  One thing he kept reiterating, though, was that Aodhán shouldn't have been able to figure it out, a response that Aodhán found completely unacceptable. There were billions of people in the kingdom; surely, he couldn't be the first to figure this out on his own.

  It was evening when the last villager arrived, and when the mayor suggested they return to the Warren immediately, they all agreed, thanks to a subtle manipulation on Aldric's part. The simple feat seemed to drain him even further, but Aldric was stubborn, insisting that he could endure the pain for a while longer.

  The trek back to the Warren was thankfully silent and uneventful, and just as the sun dipped below the horizon, they arrived at the edge of the forest.

  Despite resigning himself to his fate, Aodhán's mind had worked tirelessly to find a way out of this mess. He had definitely come up with a few ideas, but they all came with a cost Aodhán couldn't afford to pay. For instance, Aodhán could always run away, but doing so would most likely lead to Aldric's death, and he couldn't have that on his conscience.

  Ultimately, Aodhán's decision to stay and take the oath boiled down to one thing. He had found a group of people who loved him, or at least loved him enough to consider him a part of their family. He didn't want to give that up, not when all he'd ever known were the droning voices of monks and their sagely advice.

  When they finally stepped out of the forest, Aodhán turned his gaze to the Warren, which shone like a beacon to his senses, and as they neared its entrance, shouts and cheers echoed out as the villagers celebrated their arrival. Aodhán couldn’t help but smile at the joyous welcome, and when they entered the village, people rushed towards their families and loved ones, hugging and crying as they blessed Raol for their arrival.

  Aodhán stood with Aldric, physically supporting him while the mayor gave a small speech to inform the villagers that they were now free of the horde and that they could sleep without fear. A wave of sorrow passed when he mentioned the death of Councilor Balor, and by the time the speech was over, the celebration was tinged with sorrow as the villagers honored their fallen councilor.

  While the mayor spoke, Aodhán began building his own speech in his mind. It wouldn't be easy to convince the council of the truth, as they all believed that the limit was a natural phenomenon, even Unrid. Getting them to believe otherwise wouldn't be an easy task, but first they had to make the mayor set up a meeting first.

  For the next thirty minutes, Aodhán and Aldric tried to get the mayor alone, but he was either talking to a group of people, consoling others, or simply moving about erratically. It took them an extra fifteen minutes to find the perfect opportunity, and they quickly rushed forward, only for the mayor to begin a discussion with a group of widows before they arrived.

  Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long, as only a few minutes later, the mayor's gaze landed on Aodhán, and he grinned. “Aodhán, I must say, I am impressed by your abilities; you really are an asset to the Brystions.”

  “Thank you, Sir, but I’ve come to speak to you about a very important matter; I wonder if a council meeting could be scheduled immediately after the celebration.”

  The mayor frowned and shook his head wearily. “Whatever it is, kid, it can wait till tomorrow; we are all tired, and we need rest. No one will agree to a meeting at this hour.”

  “Unfortunately, it can’t wait.” Aldric spoke through gritted teeth, his face as white as a sheet, and in a grave tone, he added. “It is extremely important that Aodhán speaks to the council tonight.”

  The mayor hesitated for a moment, his gaze darting from Aodhán to Aldric worriedly. He eyed Aldric's pale form for a long moment before he sighed. “Fine, I’ll call the meeting, but you better make sure that whatever you have to share with us is important, or there will be severe consequences.”

  He left a moment later, grumbling under his breath, and a few minutes later, Unrid walked up to them, grumbling, “The mayor has just called for a meeting; whatever it is, I hope it’s short because I have a wife and child to get back home to.”

  When he noticed Aldric's pale expression, he frowned and asked. "Are you alright? You don't look well."

  Aldric forced a smile and replied. "I'm fine, Dad; I just need to rest, but I'll do so after the meeting."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes, don't worry about me. I'm a big boy."

  Unrid frowned for a moment before nodding. "Okay, let's go. The meeting shouldn't take too long anyway."

  They made their way to the mayor's office, weaving through a ton of merry villagers. Aodhán placed himself between Unrid and Aldric, trying to make a wider path for Aldric, whose pain only seemed to be getting worse.

  It didn’t take them long to arrive this time, but when they got into the meeting room, everyone was seated except Balor, whose seat remained empty. The empty chair stood out like a sore thumb, creating a somber atmosphere amongst the already weary councilors.

  As usual, Aodhán and Aldric moved to stand behind Unrid, and a moment later the meeting began. Of course, it was Minerva who spoke first.

  “Now that we are all present, I would like to know why we have been summoned here.” Minerva asked, impatience and weariness clear in her tone, and the mayor turned to glare at Aodhán and Aldric before speaking.

  “I called this emergency meeting because Unrid’s guest informed me that he had something very important to share with us.”

  The attention of the entire room fell on him, and Aodhán didn’t miss the look of surprise on Unrid’s face. He glanced at Aldric, who gave him a small nod before stepping out from behind Unrid to stand before the council.

  With a deep breath, he began. "Councilors, I apologize for this unfortunate timing, but I asked the mayor to call this meeting because I have important news to share.” He paused, assessing the room for a moment before proceeding. “I know how to prevent the limit disease.”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Aldric shuddered violently and somehow managed to grow even paler, but in the silence that descended after his very shocking words, none of the councilors seemed to notice.

  The silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity as his words hung in the air, and Aodhán thought that perhaps they had taken his words seriously. That delusion was ripped apart an instant later when Minerva suddenly burst into mocking laughter and asked the mayor. “This is why you called us here? So this child can play clown?”

  “The more important question is: when did this council become a circus that can be ordered around by a mere child?” Carvahl sneered.

  “I am serious," Aodhán began, but Calithen cut him off with a shake of her head. “You expect us to believe that a child has suddenly found the prevention to a disease that has eluded the greatest minds of the kingdom for generations?”

  “The limit is not a disease," Carvahl corrected loudly. "It is only referred to as such. It is not something to be cured or prevented; it is a natural phenomenon.”

  “It is not a natural phenomenon.” Aodhán insisted. “Believe me, I have—”

  “This is an insult to the dignity of this council and a waste of our valuable time!” Minerva cut him off with a scowl, but the mayor called for silence, glaring at Aodhán, and a moment later, he turned to Unrid.

  “He is your guest; what do you have to say on the matter?”

  Unrid was shocked. First of all, when the mayor called this meeting, he'd had no idea it was because of Aodhán, but now the boy was talking about the limit? Unrid had always known Aodhán was strange; his mannerisms and attitude clashed too much with those of the people he supposedly originated from.

  He observed Aodhán in silence, his expression flitting between confusion and doubt, but after a long moment, Unrid finally responded. “I have not known Aodhán for long, but in the little time I’ve spent with him, I have had no reason to distrust him, so I suggest that since we are here already, we might as well hear what he has to say.”

  The mayor nodded and gestured for Aodhán to speak.

  Aodhán thanked Unrid with a nod and continued. “Like councilman Carvahl said, the limit is not a disease; instead, it’s an accumulation of impurities within your core as a result of the absorption of unaligned cores. For instance, as an elemental awakened, absorbing conceptual cores will cause impurities to accumulate in my core, and before long I’ll reach a limit.”

  There was a beat of silence as the council pondered his words, but it was broken a moment later by councilor Elora, who hadn’t spoken a word since he came into the room.

  “That’s a very good theory, but I doubt you’re the first to come to this assumption.”

  “It’s not an assumption, Councilor Elora; I know it for the truth."

  “Can you provide proof of your words, or are we to follow you blindly as you stumble around in the dark?” Minerva asked with a tone richly soaked in disdain.

  Aodhán didn't respond; instead, he let them slowly come to see reason, and a few minutes later, Calithen did, saying, “Surely, the academies must know of the validity of this theory; they do research all the time.” She glanced at Aldric and asked. "What do you have to say about all of this?"

  As one, the entire room turned to Aldric, who was standing so still that one could have mistaken him for a statue. He remained silent for a long time, his lips pressed tightly against each other, as if to prevent any words from clawing their way out.

  After another moment of silence, the mayor shouted. "Speak, child; tell us what you know.”

  Aldric paled further, and he shook his head vigorously. "I can't."

  "What do you mean you can't?" Minerva asked pompously. "Do you learn nothing in that academy of yours?"

  Aodhán glared at the offensive woman, wanting to tear out her tongue, but he managed to keep his cool. He wanted to speak up on Aldric's behalf but decided to let the whole scene play out for a while longer. Aldric's silence would only reinforce his statement and force the council to see the truth.

  Unrid looked at Aldric in concern and asked, “Aldric, what is wrong with you?”

  Aldric shook his head again, and after a few seconds of confusion, Aodhán finally spoke again. “He cannot tell us what he knows because he’s under an oath not to speak of it except to people who are already aware of it. This is my proof that the limit can be prevented and that the kingdom itself is the one keeping the truth hidden.”

  There was another beat of silence as the councilors exchanged shocked glances. Unrid’s mind spun as he stared at Aldric. The fact that he hadn’t refuted Aodhán’s claims implied that there truly was a way to prevent the limit.

  Unrid couldn't understand why the kingdom was keeping it a secret, though. To what end? Without the limit disease, wouldn't there be a lot more soldiers and warriors? Why would they cripple the advancements of their own people?

  It was Elora who finally broke the silence and asked the question they were all thinking. “Why?”

  “They do it for control, or at least, that's one of the reasons,” Aldric suddenly replied, shuddering in relief as he was finally able to speak again. Taking in a deep breath, he continued. “Without the limit, there would be millions of extremely powerful Awakened roaming around the kingdom, wrecking havoc and spreading chaos, so we were told that many years ago, the knowledge on how to prevent the limit was wiped from the minds of the masses, leaving their fate to chance.”

  “ The councilors stared at each other in shock as all they had believed crumbled, and Minerva gasped. “We’ve been living a lie!”.

  Chaos erupted after that, but the mayor shakily raised a hand, looked at Aldric, and asked. “So, if it can be prevented, can it be cured too?”

  Aldric sighed and shook his head. "I don’t know.”

  “All hope is not lost yet.” Calithen murmured. “If there’s a prevention, surely there must be a cure.

  “We have to inform the awakened villagers as well as anyone who might awaken soon.” Minerva stated, but Aodhán cut her off with a shake of his head.

  “We cannot do that.” The councilors turned to him again, and Aodhán continued. "This is where things become tricky. I apologize for not telling you all earlier, but you wouldn't even have listened to me if I had mentioned it earlier."

  "Mentioned what?" The mayor asked impatiently.

  "An oath." Aldric responded, his tone cold. He walked to the center of the room, coming to stand beside Aodhán before proceeding. "Aside from the fact that I am oath bound to bring you all under the oath now that you know the truth, spreading this information will be very dangerous for the Warren."

  Another round of chaos ensued as the councillors rebelled against the idea of being shackled by oaths.

  "Preposterous!" Minerva exclaimed disdainfully. "How dare you suggest we do something so foolish when we can simply pretend this never happened."

  "I cannot do that." Aldric glared at all of them, his gaze intense. "I cannot let this knowledge spread out of this room. I have already suffered damage to my advancement just by allowing this meeting, but letting you all out of this room without an oath would be courting death itself. Besides, I do not trust any one of you in this room, especially you, Minerva. I can already sense your selfish and greedy emotions."

  Minerva winced, shifting uncomfortably as the gazes of the entire council came to rest on her, and Aldric continued. “My intent for letting Aodhán do this is so that you can guide the coming generations better and help them avoid the limit for as long as we can. We can become stronger slowly, but without the oath, it's only a matter of time before agents of the kingdom come here to investigate our sudden rise in advancement."

  "Think of it this way. Although the academy believed that no one can figure out the truth of the limit except being told, what if there are outliers like Aodhán? What if there are or were people who figured it out on their own? Where are they now? Why have we not heard of them? Why has no one ever heard of them?"

  Unrid leaned back in his chair, eyes wide, and asked. "What are you insinuating?"

  "I...I don't know." Aldric shrugged helplessly. "All I know is that this world is more dangerous than we know, and it will be in our best interest to keep this knowledge amongst ourselves."

  The mayor sighed and straightened his spine, obviously very weary. "The oath is not an easy thing, child."

  “I know.” Aldric responded solemnly. “But it truly is harmless unless you break it.”

  The councilors exchanged wary glances, and after the silence stretched for a long moment, Aodhán suggested. "How about we simply swear an oath to keep this to ourselves? We don't have to include forcing others to take the oath. That way if any other outliers reveal themselves, we don't have to force them to take the oath.

  Aldric contemplated Aodhán's words for a moment before nodding. “As long as we take an oath.”

  The mayor observed them for a long moment before nodding. “Then that is what we shall do.” In a lower tone, he added. “The oath will protect the Warren and help us grow in strength, albeit slowly. It will also make sure that this information stays within this room and that the Warren is protected from whatever fate befell those who learned of this before us and were lax in handling it."

  “Is it not possible that we are being overly paranoid?” Elora asked.

  Aldric turned his gaze to Minerva and smiled thinly. "I believe I am just the appropriate amount of paranoid."

  Silence descended on the council once again as they processed Aldric's words, and a moment later, the mayor asked. “What are the words of the oath?”

  Fifteen minutes later, Aodhán found himself repeating the words of the oath along with the rest of the council, grimacing as ethereal chains slowly bound his core.