born in siregal, the third youngest of thirteen. his father was distant, and the children were raised by nannies rather than their parents.

luci was not always eager in his studies, but he excelled in fencing and fisticuffs. from a young age, he was filled with stories of heroic knights and dashing heroes. he was going to be like them, he decided, and he wasn’t going to let anything stand in his way.

there were a lot less princesses to rescue in the real world, he learned, and a lot less opportunity for non-mages in a family full of them. however, he would not be deterred. seeing his stubborn determination, his father paid handsomely for him to have the best training possible.

eventually he would prove his worth, excelling past even those who had been gifted with magics to aid them in battle. it was luci’s strength of will and skill in combat that finally allowed him to be knighted - and he held his position with honour and humility, as he believed a knight should.

his tenure as a knight went about as well as he could have expected, though he began to grow disenchanted with his counterparts, watching them succumb to their hedonistic whims with disinterest. did they not desire to be heroes as he did? not that there were many chances to become a hero in those days, unless you were a battlemage.

in the end, his patience would reward him when the time finally came for him to be a hero. two children of a noble house came running to his battalion for help: their brother had been kidnapped, and was being held for random by another noble - one rumoured to be a corrupting mage.

the knights were successful in defeating the mage, with luci mostly in charge of defending the young noble victim and getting him to safety. to his credit, he did the best he could, and the burns would have been a lot worse if luci hadn’t leapt into the fire himself to get him out of it.

when the young noble - acheron, his name was - was returned to his family, it was luci who brought him. he was wounded, yes, but time would heal him, and he would be employed by acheron’s mother to guard him until he was recovered.

acheron’s mother paid him a handsome sum to do whatever she asked of him. mostly he was to watch over acheron. at first it was to ensure he stayed in bed, to make sure he healed … then he was confined to his chamber, and then the estate. she insisted she was worried that her son would be captured again, but luci had a sneaking suspicion she had her own motives for keeping her son in a cage. however, his pay was enough to ensure his cooperation, and he never questioned her orders, even when he wanted to.

he grew content with this life protecting acheron, but he knew there was unrest. luci was kind to all the children of the house, but one of them - mathias - seemed … different. aggressive, uncertain of any kind of kindness luci ever offered to him. it was worrisome, but he knew better than to stick his nose in where it didn’t belong. he was to guard acheron, not speculate on how well the family was functioning.

it was roughly four years from the beginning of his employment with the blackwell family when young mathias finally broke. he came to luci in the dead of night, covered in blood, telling him to get acheron and the youngest sister still in custody, elysium, out. something wicked had happened, of this he was sure, and further wickedness was about to happen. he didn’t hesitate.

when the rumour mill began the next day, and the papers began reporting on the fire that had consumed the blackwell estate, trapping and killing everyone inside, luci decided they needed to move on lest they be suspected.

using the gold he’d been saving for years, he paid for their papers and disguises to cross the border into ivras. with acheron being a mage, luci thought perhaps the order would be the safest place for him, yet he was ever the steadfast protector, and managed to convince the order to allow him to rent a flat for the three of them inside namarast while he attended.

this was roughly seventeen years ago, and things have changed a lot since then, most notably mage reputation, which has luci, once again, worried for acheron’s safety.

[ 764 WORDS ]