Suffocated by the blistering summer heart, the duo trudged through the halls of Halford Castle. Auric was beginning to feel like he would melt under the tight, black and gold tux that Galavaine had forced him to wear today. Stifled by his necktie, he managed to choke out a few words.

“Hmph. Making me walk around like this while you’re wearing a V-neck. Not cool”

“Heh , you’re the king, not me. Plus, I’m not the one seeing the Exicsian today!”

"Y'know Galavaine. . . .I haven't forgotten what you said the other day. The whole we can't disclose this information to the public bullshit may work on the citizens, but I'm not an idiot. Why can't you just---"

"Look, my lord. I understand that you should at least know how your brother passed, even if you didn't care about him all that much, but it's a situation that's too complex to deal with right now. I'm not going to make things harder for you when they don't need to be."

Auric rolled his eyes and continued walking.

He’d been teased about the whole Exiscian thing for the past few days. Ever since the wonderful display he put on at the park, he’d been pressured by his subordinates to get this dreaded task over with. As they progressed further towards the castle exit, Auric began to notice something major: his eyes didn’t feel like they were going to burn out anymore. He surveyed the area and saw that large portions of the blinding gold paint, had now been replaced with a far more subtle shade of dark-bronze. Some of the hallways in the distance, were now covered in soothing shades of blue. Pleased with design choices of Lola and Tayn, he progressed towards the castle gates. Upon stepping outside, the warmth of the sun hit him like a meteor. Galavaine guided him down the long stone path. The royal garden was truly a sight to behold, where all sorts of exotic plants and vines intertwined, governing the entire area. Rows of colossal oak trees bordered the wide end of the path. As they approached the imposing golden gates, the eerie presence of a nearby figure caught Auric’s attention. It paced through the sea of plants, with a watering can dangling from its skeletal grip . The combination of a cage-like mask and a baggy hood shrouded his face, while gauze-like tattered rags were draped over the rest of his body. Laughing, Galavaine reassured Auric that there was no reason to be alarmed.

“Oh that’s just Chance, the Royal Gardener. Don’t worry about him. He may appear quite dubious, but as you can see, he does his job well.”

“I . . . see.”

The two were now facing the gates that separated them from the vast city. A giant lock levitated inches away from the gate. Galavaine placed his palm to the keyhole, and it began to spin rapidly. Suddenly, the gates began to slowly spread apart, causing somewhat of an earthquake to spread throughout the area.

Praying he wouldn’t have to walk more than a couple blocks, he stepped into the city of Halford.

The aged sidewalk crunched underneath his feet with each step he took. They passed the shopping district not too long ago and now found themselves entering the social district. Buildings could be seen on each side of the street, stretching to the sky. Dozens of extravagant signs and billboards advertised the many bars and nightclubs that occupied the area. Auric could only imagine what this place looked like at night.

Everywhere he went, he’d received a wide variety of looks from passing citizens.

“Why couldn’t we just take a car, or a carriage or something?”

“In the five, unproductive years you spent away from the Kingdom, not once had you set foot outside. Sightseeing is good my lord. It’s best of you to familiarize yourself with your domain.”

“I guess you’re right”

In the twenty minutes they spent walking, Galavaine was already starting to acquaint Auric with the structure of the city, and how things worked around here. Looking at a map, he noticed the city was shaped like a star, with six major districts spread about. In the center, rested the Kingdom, the “central point” , as Galavaine liked to call it. Stemming outwards were the shopping district, social district, business district, and the schooling district. The housing district, was split into tiny bits across the other locations. Galavaine hadn’t gone into great detail, but Auric figured it was due to the nature of it all being self explanatory. Galavaine disappeared into a nearby alleyway, and began to weave through a series of sketchy backstreets until the two of them found themselves standing before a garage. The area seemed like it was located behind one of the bars they passed earlier. An elegant painting of a blue star, tilted to the side with a line through it was painted onto the shiny steel of the garage door. In his mind, Auric debated whether it was graffiti, or intentional. Galavaine knocked and almost immediately, a voice from within followed.

“I’ll be out in a second.”

As an obtrusive screeching began to pierce Auric’s ears, the door began to slowly rise, revealing a surprisingly large area with a tiny wooden table in the centre. Behind it, sat a slender woman cloaked in a colorful garb. The same fabric covered the top half of her face, her eyes nowhere in sight. She rested two hands on the table, her fingernails painted in a multitude of colors. Each nail was marked with the symbols of a language long forgotten. She tilted her head towards Galavaine and grinned.

“Galavaine, your hair’s almost gotten longer than mine. You should see Tarea and get it cut. Beautiful, is not a description fit for a man.”

Galavaine nervously laughed while slightly turning his attention away. Over the course of the past few weeks, Auric came to realize that it meant he was offended but didn’t want to speak out and start to scene.

“And Auric. . . . .the 11th King of Halford. You mirror Preston in appearance, but are you truly the same as him down to every last bone?”

Before he got a chance to respond, Galavaine interrupted.

“This, is Grescia, one of the few Exiscians that reside in our city. Today she’s going to decipher your fate, and ultimately give you the power you need to command our Kingdom.”

“This isn’t going to be. . . .painful is it?”, Auric said

Grescia giggled.

“Not physically at least. By undergoing this process, it’s possible that future events in your life will be revealed, and old memories resurface. I am collectively reading your existence, and everything it’s stood for from the moment you were brought into this world. Any sort of frequent emotions and experiences from your past may influence this as well.”

A deafening blast suddenly shook the room, causing Auric to nearly fall out of his seat. Two familiar shields twirled around them, leaving sparks behind with each passing second. Galavaine displayed a look of triumph.

“Years ago, I sat in that very chair, and learned of my purpose in this world.

Grescia granted me the Savior’s Exis, which allows me to call upon the twin shields, Promise and Prospect. From that day forward, I put aside my life to safeguard another. I am forever indebted to what your family has done for me and will continue to serve until my soul meets it’s very end.”

The markings on Grescia’s fingernails began to glow brightly, and the nails themselves suddenly began warp and twist into the shape of a chalice. In its center, a ball of luminous white fog began to gather. At that moment, Auric’s headache worsened tenfold, and Grescia opened her purple-stained lips.

“To the force that courses through our very world, and to the force that moves existence”

Instantaneously, the ball of mist dispersed and Auric felt a sudden burst of energy flow through him. Memories from his sixteen years of life began to flood through his head. Cold memories of him wandering the castle halls as a child, of him being educated by faces that were long gone, of clashing with his parents, of being neglected.

Pleasant memories of his brother standing up for him, saving him. Memories of the day he left, memories of the day he was told he would never see his parents again, memories of five, lonely, boring years of his life that came and went like the morning sun.

An excess of doors, sucking each memory in and fading to black. Silver keys, wandering the blank space in his head and inserting themselves where they see fit. A golden staircase, forming in the horizon. Arrangements of new doors began to line the path, slamming open and swinging shut.

The abstract scene was interrupted by the porcelain face of Grescia bursting back into view.

The mist began to gather once again in the center of the chalice, but this time it glowed with the colors of the rainbow, swirling about.

“The way the world works, the wheels that turn history, the gears that move fate, I accept it. Through acceptance comes growth, and through growth comes life. I pronounce Auric Halford, holder of the Devourer’s Exis.”

Her nails retracted and the luminous ball of color flew itself at Auric. He felt weak for a second, and rejuvenated the next. The silence that followed the next few moments was broken by Grescia.

“Devourer. . . . . that’s rather strange. Oh right, I guess I’m supposed to lecture you on that now.”

She looked at the clock behind them and groaned.

“My shift starts in a few minutes so let’s make this quick. As I’ve been told by our worlds many forces, you’ve been granted the fate of the Devourer. From this day forward, it is in your life path to consume. By slaying others, you’ll begin to craft a road of your own, that will inevitably lead you to great heights. Looking at you. . . . that doesn’t exactly seem fitting. I must admit, I am curious as to how things ended up this way. I’m going to assume you’ve never killed anyone before, so perhaps this is the world’s way of calling you greedy? “

She laughed and continued

“I don’t know enough about you to judge, but anyways. As far as Exiscians like us know, Exis’ have three stages of power. Most of the time, you’re only granted one. If you happen to see one of us at a time where enough has happened in your life, you may start at a later stage. Each successive stage will grant you more and more, but with cost. These often come with life changing events. I don’t know. If I knew every secret about the way things work, I probably wouldn’t be here, everything I’ve said so far is just a highly educated guess, but that’s aside the point. You look kind of shaken, don’t worry, that’s natural.”

Auric’s eyes were growing bored of staring at the ground, and despite the process being over with, he still felt sick in his stomach.

“You’re saying. . . . . I need to kill people for this thing to take effect?”

His face was pale a ghost.

Grescia stood up and snapped a finger. Her nails began to give off a purple glow and in an instant, her exotic, mystic cloth outfit was gone and replaced with an apron. Her purple hair reached her shoulders.

“A king without a fate, is a king without purpose. Ambition works itself into the strangest of places. If success is what you seek, you’re going to have to use this someday. See ya'”

She waved a hand and walked through door on the other side of the room. Galavaine, sitting on the table began to laugh and clap his hands. Auric clenched his fist and viciously kicked the chair beside him.

“Don’t worry about it. It seems grave but you’ll find yourself ridding this land of the worst of people. Do you have an interest in ice cream?