SOVEREIGNTY: THE ORIGIN

CHAPTER 1

My name is Jerome Aja, the firstborn son of the house of Aja one of the 6 pillar houses of Lugella the kingdom of magic, and in this world, where Magic rules everything I was born without any. Typically, I would have been either killed or abandoned to the peasants, but being born into the Aja family, such a disgrace would not be tolerated by my Grandfather, so to hide the shame of his family he had me kept away from social parties and galas for the first 12 years of my life.

My siblings were born during the fall, outside was getting colder and the leaves on the trees were beginning to fall and cover the ground in their greens, yellows, and reds. We had all gathered in the hallway outside of my parent's bedroom, the only ones allowed in the room were my father, Grandfather, and the family doctor. The hallway we stood in was like all the hallways we had, the floor was white marble that shone in the sun or moonlight, the walls were flat white stone, with one side covered in paintings of my family going back to its beginning. The other had windows placed every few meters to allow in light and provided a view of the courtyard below.

When my mother gave birth to my siblings a brilliant, dazzling light shone through their skin, their irises were like two pools of molten gold and their hair was an unblemished silver. However, when I was born my body seemed to darken the area surrounding it and my eyes were black with flecks of violet throughout and my hair was blacker than the void. When my Grandfather saw my younger sibling's eyes I knew that my worth as firstborn son was now no longer able to keep me safe from the wrath of my mother, Kathlyn, who had continuously cursed my existence and had pleaded to my father and Grandfather to have me killed or thrown out. Micheal, my father, had been able to convince his father that if they did such a thing it would only invite an even greater level of embarrassment to the family.

“Please father, let the boy stay,” my father pleaded. “He is still our blood, he is still of the Aja Family and can serve a purpose that could benefit the family,” this was a conversation I knew would happen as soon as my mother had given birth to her next child.

My Grandfather retorted, “why should I let that runt stay in this family now that we have been gifted with not only one grandchild with the eyes of the kings but two?” Whilst I hated to admit it, he had a point, why should they let me stay now that the family had two children with those eyes. All I could have ever been in his eyes was a disappointment and embarrassment to my family.

“Not even a day has passed since your siblings were born and they’re already arguing about your future here young master”, I didn’t need to look to know who that joyful voice belonged to, only one person referred to me as ‘young master’, my father's Older brother, Uncle Abraham. My Uncle was also in a similar position to myself in the family, despite both my Grandfather and Grandmother being a part of the Council of 12, he was born with a mana pool that was extremely weak, even compared to that of a low-class mage. Abraham was a well-built man with a sharp jawline and eyes that seemed to see into your soul, he had a scar across his left eye which he never said how he got it.

“Yeah, they’ve been going at it for nearly an hour.” I whispered to my Uncle, still looking through the slight gap in the doors to watch what was happening.

Abraham knelt down behind me and looked through the gap as well, “So who do you think is winning?” he whispered.

“At the moment I think Grandfather will just let me stay to shut my father up.”

"Ha,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “That sounds like my brother, stubborn till the end, but it would probably be a different story if your mother was in there." As he said this, I turned to look at him but noticed my mother coming out of her room as if she had been summoned by my Uncle's words. My mother was, despite having given birth just hours before, dressed in a very elegant blue dress that had all sorts of gems on it, making her green eyes stand out more, her skin was also whiter than normal and her hair despite her lavish dress was only tied back in a simple ponytail.

"Speak of the devil." I murmured to myself as my Uncle and I rose and turned to greet her, Abraham straightened his military uniform, it was a white two-piece suit with the trim on the blazer and pants a light green signifying what element he specialised in, on the left breast pocket was also the symbol of our house, two mages, one red and the other blue joining the two opposing elements in a ball between them.

"Greetings to the lady of the house"

“Hmph,” she pouted, looking down her nose at him. “What brings you here?”

“I came to discuss certain matters with our father.”

“Well as you can see, he is currently discussing other matters at the moment.”

“Hmm, yes that appears to be the case, perhaps I will come back another time.” As my Uncle said this, he looked down at me and I could see the subtle smile he had on his face.

“Yes, you should -” as Kathryn began to speak again Abraham turned around and entered the room that had both my father and grandfather in it. “Wait, how dare you -”

“Hello Father, brother, how have you been?” My Uncle knew that just barging into the room was extremely disrespectful, especially since despite his status he was only a platoon commander.

“What do you want Abraham?” Christopher questioned the commander. “I am discussing something of importance with Micheal.”

My father’s brow furrowed, “Brother, when did you get back from your deployment?”

Abraham continued into the room, unfazed by their annoyance and surprise. “I just got back after hearing that my lovely sister-in-law,” he threw Kathryn a smile that carried all the warmth of a corpse,”-had given birth to my beautiful niece and nephew. What a surprise it is for the both of them to possess those eyes.”

“Yes,” my Grandfather agreed. “It seems the Aja family has been rewarded for having to deal with that disgrace behind you.” he said, staring past my Uncle and directly at me. He no longer tried to hide the disgust he felt for me now that Judas and Elizabeth had been born, especially with those damned eyes.

“Father-”

“What Micheal? How long will you continue to defend this, this stain, this humiliation to our family's name!” As my Grandfather yelled this, he let out just enough of his power to bring everyone to their knees before him.

As the pressure of his power bore down on me with more face than anyone else in the room, I felt my anger towards my Grandfather slowly turn into a seething rage that I was no longer able to control.

“I … am not … a stain … or humiliation … on this family's name.” As I growled at him, his usual unemotional face changed to one of shock.

CHRISTOPHER

What? How can that boy speak under that level of pressure I’ve placed on him, only Micheal and Kathryn should be able to speak. It must have taken all his strength to say that.

“What did you say, boy?”

“I … said … I AM NOT A STAIN OR HUMILIATION ON THE AJA FAMILY NAME!” as the boy screamed out as loud and as powerfully as he could a maelstrom of mana burst out from him, and for a moment it all came crashing down onto me, forcing me to pull back all my mana to protect myself. But even that wasn't enough to fully protect me, in that instant his mana was more powerful than mine, but that doesn't make sense, that brat shouldn’t have any mana, but that was mana, and it was strong enough to suppress me, one of the 12, who are meant to be only second to the King himself. I looked down at the boy who had just collapsed after releasing such powerful mana, but instead of feeling pride in seeing that this boy had an incredible amount of mana all I felt was rage, not only at him but also at myself for not being able to defend myself against a mere child. I looked around the room to see my two sons looking down at the boy shocked at what they had just witnessed, however, the boy's mother looked at him with unbridled fury. It was at that moment that Kathryn summoned a blade of water and threw it at the boy

When I opened my eyes all I could see was darkness surrounding me, when I tried to walk forward, I found that I was unable to move any part of my body below my neck. This triggered something in me causing me to begin to sweat and my heart began racing faster than it had ever done before. When I looked down to see what was stopping me from moving, I found no trace of how a human body should look, instead where my arms, legs, and torso should have been there were shadows swaying like the leaves on a tree in a soft breeze. This only aided in making me even more terrified than I had previously been. This only aided my panic as I tried to scream out in fear, for anyone to help me, but when I opened my mouth, no sound escaped my lips.

“Hah,” a low voice vibrated through the darkness, “so you finally tapped into a bit of the power within you.” The voice sounded as if it was speaking directly to my mind, with a smooth, royal cadence in the way it spoke. Despite the circumstances I was in, it was oddly comforting and somehow felt familiar as if I had known this voice all my life.

“-” when I tried to speak again, I was still unable to make any sound.

“It is pointless trying to speak in this dominion … at least with the small droplets of power you have access to.” This voice, whoever or whatever it was, seemed to have an understanding of what had just happened in with my Grandfather, what did it mean by power, I had no power but how else could I explain what had just happened?

“There is not much time left for us to talk but you must know this, only when you can control at least 10 percent of your power will you be able to overcome the challenges and forces that are beginning to show themselves. What you used before was but a minuscule fraction of your power, around 5 percent of it all. If you wish to use more you must train your body to be able to withstand the toll that your powers will take on your mind and body, train, train to be the strongest being in this kingdom and protect what has long been forgotten.” The voice had begun to fade away into the void as it finished speaking. As I was left alone there in the endless darkness that surrounded me, all I could think about was what had that voice been and what it had said, the explosive amount of mana I felt that seemed infinite yet had been enough to overpower my Grandfather. I continued to think about what had been said and what that would mean for my future, as I thought of this, I slowly began to feel a chill crawl up my spine, yet for some reason, I wasn't scared of it, this chill slowly became warmer like the rays of the early morning sun rejuvenating my tired body. Turning around to see what was causing this feeling I saw an incomprehensibly gigantic ball of violet energy with its surface ebbing and flowing like the ocean on a calm, blissful day. But what caught my eye wasn't the orb of violet, it was what lay beneath it, another ball of energy wrapped in tendrils of violet energy.

I suddenly began to feel the whole world begin to shake around me and when I looked up, I saw a blinding light bombard my eyes. After a few moments of letting my eyes adjust to the sudden brightness, I looked at my surroundings and saw that I had been moved to my room, with my Father and Uncle waiting at the end of my bed.

“What?” I croaked out as relief rushed through me that I was able to talk again after what had felt like years of endless silence in that void after the voice had left. “What happened?” I asked, noticing how weak my voice was.

“We were hoping you could tell us what happened,” my father began. “One moment the room was densely covered in Father's mana and the next you exploded with a tremendous amount of mana that was able to overpower his.” He looked at me, confusion was written all over his face, and the hope that I could give him an answer or reason as to why or how I was able to overpower my Grandfather.

I looked into my father's eyes, and I could see something in them that the rest of his face didn’t show, fear, my father, who had defended me through the years and fought my Grandfather to let me stay despite my seemingly non-existent mana, was now looking at me with fear. I couldn't keep eye contact with him any longer.

“I … I don’t know, I'm sorry father.'' at my words my father's face fell, but the fear in his eyes also began to subside.

“It’s ok Jerome, you just need to rest for now.” At that my father began to get up and leave, he indicated for my uncle to follow him. Abraham went past my side and whispered in my ear, “did you hear the voice?” I looked up at him from where I was, shock plastered across my face. How did he know about the voice? Did he know something about what just happened?