Zeke, September 14th, 1546

  Ezekiel Clockwise did not exist. Most villagers would probably say that they'd seen him in passing. But if you asked any of the villagers where he had come from, they'd likely shrug their shoulders in confusion. A knight or two might say they saw him fending off monsters. But if you asked any of the knights if he was one of them, they'd say he hadn't been someone they'd trained with. Most could say they had seen him. Some could say they had talked to him. But none could say that they truly knew him.

  As Ezekiel walked through the village of Bogasta, he had the feeling he was being watched. Not that it was surprising. Most of the villagers had clothes caked with dirt and dust. Some even had tears in their clothes. Ezekiel himself had clothes that were a bit dirty. The current black suit he wore was covered in dirt. But the suit was far too fancy looking to make it believable that he was one of the villagers. Everyone knew he was an outsider.

  “Mr. Clockwise. It is always such a pleasure to see you.” The elder leader of the village stepped in front of him. His grey hair and tan skin were a stark contrast to Ezekiel's black hair and very pale skin.

  Ezekiel adjusted the bag on his back and smiled at the leader. “Ah. Hello there. I'm surprised you came to greet me. Is something wrong?” In truth, the reason Ezekiel didn't address the elder by name is because he'd forgotten his name. This was a very fortunate situation where he hadn't had to initiate the conversation.

  “As luck would have it, something is very wrong. I am grateful for your presence here. I truly am. But lately, I wonder if it is truly a good thing.”

  Ezekiel's polite smile faltered a bit. “And why might that be?”

  “You just can't keep coming ‘round here. The knights come by every now and then. And you know how the King likes things to be. If you aren't a knight, you aren't allowed to fight. Those are the rules.”

  “Screw ‘dem rules!” A familiar female voice came from Ezekiel's left. He instantly knew who that was. An old woman with skin nearly as pale as his own shook as she stumbled over towards them. Penelope was her name. She always made sure to come by whenever he was around. That was exactly why Ezekiel remembered her. “I say we let the boy stay. There ain't no harm in it.”

  “There is harm in it. A great deal, actually. If the knights were to ever come by-”

  “The knights hardly EVER come by here. And the only times they do is to take something they want off of OUR land. Our land! They don't come here to protect nobody. They don't come here to save us from bandits or monsters or nothing! They come by when they need something. I say we should let the boy stay.”

  “Well it's a good thing you're not the leader now, is it?”

  Penelope grasped Ezekiel's hands through his bright red gloves, which were the same color as his eyes. His gloves were very odd because they left the tips of his fingers exposed for some reason. “I'm so sorry. I really wish you could stay. I truly do. You're the only one who doesn't listen to that man's nonsense.”

  “Thank you, Ma'am. But it's quite alright. I wouldn't want to stay in a place where I'm not wanted.”

  Penelope reluctantly nodded and turned back to the leader with a scowl on her face. She jabbed a shaky finger at him. “You can go ahead and send this nice boy away if you want. But when our village gets attacked and we ain't got no one to save us you remember this moment. When we go hungry because the knights come in and take all of our crops, you remember this moment. When we're all dead and you're the last one standing, you remember this moment. You remember that you threw this nice boy out. All so you could go ahead and lick the dirt out of the King's arse!” She spat at his feet and walked away in disgust.

  The elder sighed and gave Ezekiel an apologetic look. “I really am sorry. It's just-”

  Suddenly, everything shifted. It was as if the very air itself had let out a sigh. Something flickered in the sky, and all of a sudden, everything felt much more exposed. There was only one thing this could possibly be.

  “The barrier!” Ezekiel and the elder cried out at the same time.

  “Everyone! Get inside at once!” The elder yelled and began to move as fast as his legs would take him.

  Most villages in Akhia had barriers surrounding them that were created using light magic. Poorer villages that didn't have anyone with enough mana to create one or enough money to pay someone to create one usually relied on crystals or other tools that held mana within them. The fact that this barrier was down now could mean only one thing. One very terrible thing. And that terrible thing was that…

  “Monsters can get in at any time now!” Ezekiel ran through the village as the villagers all rushed into their homes. He focused on the mana flowing through his body and sent it down to his legs so he could move faster.

  As Ezekiel approached the edge of the village he heard screams. Upon getting closer he found the source of those screams.

  On the ground was a male with dark brown hair and what looked to be a little boy with silver hair.

  In front of them was a small creature with bright red skin and thick black veins along its arms. It looked to be about four feet tall. Its teeth were pointed. It had a small black tail that swung back and forth as it walked. It also had sharp black claws, two black horns protruding from its head, and baggy clothes, which happened to be covered in dirt. This creature was an imp.

  Walking behind it was a towering black dog with red symbols all over its body. Even while hunched over, the dog was over ten feet tall. About four feet taller than Ezekiel was. A hellhound. It opened its mouth and revealed a seemingly endless throat coated with dried blood. A faint glow suddenly appeared at the back of its throat.

  Ezekiel jumped in front of the boys and held his hands out. He created a small barrier that functioned as a shield using light magic right as the dog shot a bright fireball at him. He grunted as the ball of fire struck his barrier and nearly sent him back. Even with the barrier, he could still feel the heat of the flames on the other side. He couldn't afford to be pushed back. For if he was, the two boys behind him would become nothing more than scorched meat.

  “Wow. We has a hero on our hands. And he ain't even dressed like a knight either. What is your name?” The imp smiled at Ezekiel.

  “Ezekiel Clockwise. I come from a small family of inventors. What is your name?” If conflict could be avoided, Ezekiel would try his best. He undid the barrier but grabbed the handle of the sword on his left side.

  “I don't has one.” The imp’s smirk grew. “My parents were killed before I even knew how to speak. And the human who raised me didn't gives me one either. Just forced mes to work and work! All days. Every days. Just work and work or else I'd bes cut up into a bunch of pieces.” The imp held a hand up and the hellhound stopped charging up another fireball. It had a pickaxe that was almost as big as its entire body on its back.

  “Is that why you've decided to attack this village?”

  “You got it. Got tired of working in them mines all day. Yes I did. Real tired. That's why I came here. To make things better.” It flicked a blackened tongue across its lips.

  “In that case, might I ask you to kindly surrender?”

  “Huh?” The imp tilted its head in confusion.

  “Well, pardon my bluntness, but these people have nothing to do with your suffering. They're people who struggle to get food on the table every day. People who suffer because of the King and the people in charge. Just like you. If you really wanted to kill someone, shouldn't you be going after the King's people?”

  The imp's expression quickly became one of bewilderment. Most people would have suggested that killing innocents was wrong. But this boy didn't say that at all. In fact, he had only suggested that the imp's desire to kill was misplaced. The imp could only deduce one thing about this conversation. The one who called himself Ezekiel Clockwise wasn't very normal at all.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “I guess he was right.” The imp chuckled.

  “What do you mean?” Ezekiel tilted his head to the side.

  “A certain man tolds us that you would bes here. That the barrier of this place would go down if you showed up. He also told me who you really are. I didn't believe it at first. But now I think I see it. You ain't like the others here. You're different. So I am doing exactly what you said I was.”

  Ezekiel's grip on his sword tightened. “I'm Ezekiel Clockwise. I come from a small family of inventors.”

  “Liar! You're actually Z-”

  Ezekiel vanished in a blur. Or at least that's what it looked like. He darted forward so quickly that it practically looked like he had vanished. Compared to earlier, he was much faster. He pulled his sword out of its sheath and prepared to cut the imp in half.

  The imp lifted the pickaxe off of its back and swung it towards Ezekiel's face. Imps were naturally quick, and that was the only reason it was able to react in time.

  Ezekiel created a barrier where the pickaxe would've struck and sliced through the imp without hesitation. Black blood flew into the air. He flicked the blood from his sword and glared up at the hellhound.

  The hound, who had calmed down after the imp stopped it, now roared in anger. It swung its paw at Ezekiel's shoulder.

  Ezekiel created a barrier there but was nearly sent flying when the paw connected with his barrier. A large crack appeared on it a moment later. This beast was too strong for his barrier to hold it back for very long. He moved back and slashed at the beast's arm as he did so. But the cuts were shallow at best. Both his sword and barrier were essentially useless. This current situation was most definitely…

  “Not very good.” Ezekiel gave the beast a large polite smile. But the smile held no warmth. He had two ideas left on what he should do in regards to magic. But one of them was definitely more preferable than the other one.

  The hellhound opened its mouth. But there was no orange glow this time. Instead, there was only drool as it glared at Ezekiel.

  “You’d like to eat me, huh? Good.” He put his sword back in its sheath and created a barrier just above the ground in front of him. He lunged forward at the same time as the beast. He jumped on the barrier. But this time, it wasn't solid. Ezekiel had changed the barrier instead so that it would stretch when he landed on it. And stretch it did. He shot upwards when the barrier flung him forward. Upwards toward the beast's throat. “I just hope you don't choke when you swallow me!”

  The hound roared in victory as Ezekiel shot into its mouth. He slid down its purple tongue and began to fall down its throat. Ezekiel immediately created a barrier around himself and expanded the sides so it would catch on the hound's throat and slow his descent. Immediately, the beast began to whine, and the sound of it shook Ezekiel's very bones. But he didn't stop. He continued to expand the barrier inside the hound's throat.

  A bright light appeared from the pits of the hound’s body. A fierce flame coming up straight from the stomach. Ezekiel strengthened the barrier right as the flames hit. He could feel the heat all around him. He was surrounded. Surely, he would run out of mana and be burned alive. Then, he would fall down the hound's throat and be dissolved in its stomach. And yet, Ezekiel found that such a fate was…

  “Absolutely unacceptable!” He roared like he was a beast himself and continued to expand the barrier. Expand. Expand. Expand. Until blood began to pour in from the torn inside of the beast's throat. But even so, he did not stop expanding. With a fierce yell, he exploded out and tore the beast's throat open. He landed on the ground and undid his barrier once again.

  The hound let out one final whimper before it toppled over. It did not move again.

  Ezekiel walked over to the imp to be sure that it was dead and was surprised to find it still breathing. But just barely. He couldn't help but look into its dark black eyes.

  “You killed mes. As if I was just some thing. Monster.” It…no…he was right.

  “Were you not about to kill the fine people of this village?”

  “Maybe. But wes both know that ain't why you cut me down. It wasn't cuz I was threatening nobody. It was cuz you didn't want your secret to get out. Monster.” He croaked out as the blood continued to spill from his mouth.

  “Stop it.”

  “You did this. You’re a part of the problem, Zeke Washington.”

  Zeke seethed. “I am Ezekiel Cloc-”

  “It's just us talking right now. You can stop lying. Monster. Murderer. You killed me. This is yourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyourfaultyour…”. The imp let out a small gasp. And then his gaze relaxed forever.

  Zeke held a hand to his head as it began to throb. He didn't know why. But something about this imp made him deeply uncomfortable. The more he stared down at his body, the more disgusted he became. It wasn't the act of killing that disgusted him. But rather something else. When he stared down at the pitiful little body, he felt the urge to vomit. But he didn't understand why. His vision began to darken as he stared into his eyes.

  “Mr. Clockwise?” He felt a hand grab his shoulder.

  “Don't touch me!” Zeke smacked the hand away. His arm trembled as he looked back and saw the village elder. “My apologies. Did you hear what the imp said?” He spoke in a polite tone again.

  “I only heard what it said before you struck it down. Nothing after that.”

  “Good…”.

  “But this only proves it to me further. Someone was apparently tracking your movements and timed the destruction of the barrier with your arrival.” He held up a shattered white crystal. “Forgive me for this, but you need to leave. Immediately.”

  “Not even a thank you, huh?” Zeke gave the elder a strange look.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Nothing. My apologies. Don't worry. I'll be leaving soon.”

  The elder nodded and gave Zeke one final glance before he walked away.

  “Umm excuse me?”

  Zeke was prepared to take his leave when he suddenly heard a voice speak up from behind him. He turned to see the two boys from earlier standing there.

  The boy with dark brown hair stood there. His tanned skin was a stark contrast to how pale “Ezekiel” was. His clothes were torn, dirty, and quite small on his body. “Are you a knight?”

  “Yes.” Zeke lied as easily as he breathed. “Why? Is something the matter?”

  “Well…”. The boy with silver hair spoke up. “You see…uh…”.

  “What Ben means is we want to know if it's possible to become a knight. Like you.”

  The boy, who was apparently named Ben, nodded. “What Mercurius said…”.

  “Anything is possible if you have a lot of determination and a strong mind.”

  Mercurius huffed. “Well I'd agree with you, but there is one issue.”

  Zeke raised an eyebrow. “What's that?”

  Ben looked up at Zeke and clasped his hands together. “We have no money, sir. We'd need money to get to the capital. Or find someone to take us there. But…we don't have that."”

  Zeke realized what the boys were asking for. He ruffled Ben's hair and sighed. “It's quite alright, son. A little kid like you needs all the money you can get to grow up big and strong.”

  Mercurius let out a big cough that sounded strangely like laughter.

  Zeke reached into his bag until he found a bag of gold coins he'd been carrying for quite some time. He handed the bag to Mercurius. “There you go. Take care of your little…brother?”

  “Oh no. We're just friends.” Ben explained. Which made sense. Ben's skin was about the same shade as “Ezekiel's.” He cleared his throat. “And I'm actually older than him.”

  “What?” Zeke spoke as the two boys dashed away.

  “Yes! I'm actually nineteen, sir!” Ben waved back at Zeke.

  “How can you be that much shorter than me but somehow be older?” Zeke shook his head in disbelief. “If you aren't kids, why did you ask for money?”

  “Sorry sir!” Mercurius waved the bag of money as he ran. “Thank you for saving us. I'll pay you back whenever I'm a knight. Or whenever I see you again. So let's not see each other again for a long time!”

  Zeke let out another sigh. He could probably catch them if he wanted. But he'd already wasted quite a bit of mana today. He gave a small bow to the people who had started to come back outside. “It was a pleasure.” Then he turned on his heel and left the village.

  Once he was outside, Zeke got the sense that something was wrong. He traveled on his own quite a bit as Ezekiel Clockwise. And because of that, he had grown familiar with these kinds of things. A faint sense of mana nearby confirmed his suspicions.

  “You can come out, you know? I don't bite.” Zeke huffed and crossed his arms.

  A moment later, someone did come out of the woods. A skinny young guy in ragged clothes. He had curly black hair, a very small mustache, and was holding a small knife in his hands. Zeke had seen him a few times before in the village.

  “Were you also working for whoever's been watching me?”

  “Huh? No. I just saw you got kicked out earlier. Thought I'd take all your stuff.”

  “If you saw that, you should know that I gave away most of my money to those guys earlier.”

  “Maybe. But you definitely have more valuables than just money.” The guy smirked and lunged forward.

  Zeke's irritation exploded as he easily grabbed the guy's arm and twisted it until the knife flew out of his hands. Before the man could even cry out, Zeke wrapped his other hand around his throat and slammed him down onto the ground. “What's your name?”

  “...Manny. Manny…Barkley.” He choked out.

  “Listen, Manny. You picked a really bad day to screw with me. So I apologize.” Zeke tightened his grip around his throat.

  “Wait. Wai…” He tried to speak, but his air was quickly cut off.

  “Choking out a common thief. That's low. Even for someone like you.” A familiar male voice spoke out from behind Zeke.

  He groaned and instantly let go of Manny's throat. Zeke walked over to his knife and handed it back to the gasping man. “It's your lucky day. Get out of here. Try and turn your life around. Or else.” He pushed him away.

  Manny bolted as fast as his legs would take him.

  Zeke turned to see the boy standing behind him.

  The boy was of similar height, if not slightly shorter than Zeke. His skin was nearly as pale as “Ezekiel's.” His hair was fluffy and white. His eyes were a bright blue. And his clothes were fancy and white. He was Michael Bennett. Standing behind him was a much shorter boy with dark black hair and bright green eyes. Zeke had never seen him before.

  “Is this your new toy?” Zeke rolled his eyes.

  Michael gave him a smile as if he'd expected that response. “This is my new husband, yes.”

  “You shouldn't force people to marry you.”

  “Luckily I didn't force him to do anything. Ronan here didn't know who I was. He mistakenly thought he could challenge me. So I told him if I beat him, he'd have to do anything I wanted. I won, obviously. So now he has to be my husband. I don't see how that's my fault. Could you maybe not associate your delusional values with me?”

  “Right. And you just so happened to be in the exact village I was in?”

  “Well, Anderson did ask me to look for you. I normally wouldn't have agreed, but I felt like I wanted a new wife. Or husband. It was just luck that I happened to find a new husband who lived here and you so quickly. I do love when the world smiles upon me and validates my pure existence. Surely, if I were wrong, like you said, the world wouldn't bless me so.”

  “I'm surprised. I didn't think you were the king's little dog.” Zeke sneered.

  Michael chuckled. “You shouldn't talk about your father that way.”

  “Don't you DARE call that thing my father!” He practically spat at Michael.

  Michael's grin twitched ever so slightly. “Listen. You seem very frustrated today. And I'm in a good mood. So I'm going to let your attitude slide. Luck is really in your favor today. But if you keep pushing me, I’ll have no choice but to show you I'm not to be pushed around. I've been nothing but kind towards you for this entire encounter, and all you're doing is trampling on my kindness. I really don't care if you're frustrated or angry. Why are you taking your frustrations out on me when I haven't done anything wrong? Are you fine just blaming others for the problems in your life? If so, you should really sort that problem out before it gets you hurt or worse. Once again, I am quite kind, so I'm willing to let things slide just this once. But let me correct you on this. Just because you're the prince or whatever doesn't mean you can talk to me however you want. Anderson just asked me to bring you home. You know? He didn't say what condition you had to be in. And if I have to drag your body to him in pieces I'll do it! Don't get cocky with me!”

  Michael was unfortunately right. Zeke was letting his anger turn his mouth into quite a reckless thing. The boy in front of him seemed fairly ordinary if not quite arrogant. But Zeke knew he was anything but ordinary. The safest thing to do right now was simple.

  “I’m sorry for my rudeness.”

  Michael nodded slowly as if he were truly thinking about it. “You were quite rude. But it's alright. You're forgiven. Let's go back home.” He held his hand out to the side.

  “Do we really have to go back?”

  “Yes. To the capital of Akhia we go!” Michael opened up a hole in space that quickly turned into a portal using light magic. On the other side of the portal was the capital in question.

  Zeke sighed as the three of them stepped through. The portal closed behind them, and then they were gone. As if they'd never been there to begin with.