The day the utopia in Everward ended was when a boy named Demien Tempest was born. The day his birth took place, one of the largest storms in the entire history of the continent blew over its southeastern side, destroying cities and towns along its path. Soon Hycadia needed to call upon the kingdom’s strongest mage, Virelion Sareth, to stop the hurricane.
In a faraway, unnamed village, a man named Kalen looked into the sky, following the quivering pointed fingers and terrified but fixed gazes to see a twister of gray swirls of dust approaching. Lightning flashed across the sky as thunder boomed and shook the ground; the earth itself knew of its predicament, trembling in its terror.
Screams came from the villagers’ inadvertent mouths as they dropped whatever they held and rushed into their houses to retrieve their valuable possessions, children, or younger siblings. As the hurricane neared, the deserted houses began creaking and Kalen sprinted to his small cabin, taking the pendant that his great-great-grandmother had passed down, which her descendants had devoutly believed to be a relic given by the gods to help them in the worst of situations.
Kalen put the pendant on and, leaving everything else behind, raced with the other villagers in the only particular direction that made sense in the flurry; the direction that lined up with the storm’s path. However, logic did not serve them well enough for them to realize that it would have made more sense not to stay on the path of the cyclone and instead deviate from the path so that they would not eventually be uprooted by the monstrous winds as the earth, pebbles, and trees were.
After Virelion ended the hurricane, its residual energy suddenly disappeared. Even he was confused as to where it went, though no one else cared about the fate of the storm’s power; the disaster was over and they could breathe again.
The moment the hurricane stopped, Demien Tempest obtained the ability to control wind, rain, thunder, and tornadoes. He was sent to the empire’s most famous school, the Sacred Heart, to bring his family some prestige. However, three months into his first year at Sacred Heart, he vanished. No one knew where he went. He never confided in anyone. He was assumed dead.
His family, understandably, was terribly depressed by the news. Demien’s mother died from heart disease a mere three weeks later. The father became a drunkard and was killed in a feud at the local tavern, thus ending the Tempest bloodline.
Then, thirty years after the disappearance at Sacred Heart, a seemingly average boy was born. Lucas Drake, the town said, had no magical potential. Of course, they hadn’t expected anything. After all, the only luck the village had was Demien Tempest, who had died thirty years ago.
Lucas never openly displayed any show of magic, but his hopeful parents said that they could sometimes hear odd noises coming from his room.
As Lucas entered his sixth year of life, a young woman with her daughter came into his village. They settled down in a vacant house on the edge of the small town, and for the first few days, no one bothered them. However, after a week, Lucas's mother suddenly decided that they were to go greet the newcomers.
Lucas looked at himself in the water basin in their four-room home. A boy who had black eyes that had the slightest tinge of red stared back at him. The basin reflected his rather sharp features but couldn’t capture his above-average height, which wasn’t saying much since he was six years old. He tried to manually curl his obstinately straight hair in an attempt to make himself look better for his first impression. He noticed that his hands were slightly calloused, which caused him to feel mildly downcast. But he put these thoughts away as his mother yelled, “Lucas!” from the doorway.
Responding with an “I’m coming,” he gave a last unsuccessful attempt to restyle his hair before grabbing his leather coat and extricating himself from his room. As the mother and son walked along the dirt path to the strangers’ house, Lucas took notice of the things he hadn’t noticed before. The beautiful glinting of the pale blue lake, the majestic reaching-to-the-sky of the mountains, the bright, cloudless sky, the vast plains purely of verdant, green grass and delicate flowers, the cool breeze flowing throughout the entire valley, and the sweet spring smell that came along with it.
When Lucas and his mother finally reached the cabin of the newcomers, which was located on a small grassy hill, Lucas's mother softly rapped on the wooden door. They waited for a few seconds, after which the door slowly creaked open, revealing mother and daughter. The woman seemed to be in her prime while her daughter looked around the same age as Lucas. The pair both had shining blond hair, bright, sapphire eyes, and very similar round faces.
As soon as the woman saw the basket of food that Lucas's mother brought with them, she excitedly welcomed them in. As Lucas's mother spoke with the newcomer, Lucas and the girl sat in awkward silence. Finally, Lucas got bored of waiting for the girl to speak, so he looked around the small cabin. There were a few cupboards under a window, and atop the cupboards was a high-quality, extremely well-polished sword that seemed to have once belonged to a master swordsman. There was also a small, portable cooking setup placed on the wall opposite the door. The north window held a breathtaking view of the valley.
“So. Uh. What’s your name?” the girl asked, tentatively.
Relieved that the girl started the conversation instead of him, Lucas said, “Oh, my name is Lucas. What about you?”
“My name is Rebrixi,” the girl replied.
“Where do you come from?”
“Velbrin, a city to the north. We moved after it was invaded.”
“Oh… That’s sad.”
“That’s also how my father died, but I’ve gotten over it by now. What about you?”
“Well, I think it’s pretty obvious; just a bunch of domestic stuff.” Lucas gestured with a wave, signifying the fields and workshops that lay beyond the confines of the house.
As the two children grew, they realized that their feelings for each other exceeded those of just friendship. By the time they had reached the age to be sent off to school — that is, if you could afford it — they had already confessed and made vows that lovers made, spent time that lovers spent, and developed a bond only lovers could develop.
When the topic of going to the academy finally fell upon their lips, Lucas was hesitant about going. Only with Rebrixi’s encouragement did he decide to enroll. His parents could not afford it, but Rebrixi’s mother had his back, saying that it was only a small payback for the hospitality they had offered.