At first glance, it might as well have been just another snowy forest, but if you were to go and look beyond your eyes, you would see just how much different it was. Whispers were all over your ears, not letting you think one bit, like devils on your shoulder, yet this time, there was no angel, only the bad thoughts. The smell... You would expect in a snowy place not to smell anything, or not to be able to smell because your nose would be frozen, but this whole place smelled of regret. He didn’t know how to explain it, but it made the hairs on his body rise. It was an awful feeling every time he inhaled, as that regret and grief traveled through his whole body.

The forest feels alive, but not in the way you would think, but rather because just how many creatures, since he really didn’t know what to call them, lived here, they were what made it feel alive, he felt watched, as if somebody was examining each of his steps, except this time, there was more than one watching, a whole forest even. Aether paused, as lying against a tree, he saw a humanoid.

It didn’t have a physical body; rather, if he had to say, it was made by its own frequencies. It glowed against the snow, not moving an inch, yet he felt that it was alive, just not able to move; it felt his eyes on him, all the envy and jealousy evident through its gaze.

This frequency belonged to a human, someone who had died in the Tides and lost their lives forever. It held their emotions and memories, specifically the bad ones, all trapped here, never to be let to rest...

And it wasn’t the only one... There were more...

A lot.

Aether’s eyes widened as he saw the sheer number of these bodies, all lying without a soul. He felt their gazes, all locked onto him. He would have been lying to say that even now, he was a bit nervous.

Maybe because the dead were watching him?

He felt as if he had gone to someone’s grave, dug them up, and the body inside the grave would watch him with envy, because he was alive and he was not.

He clenched his chest, trying to keep his soul safe. He knew that they couldn’t take it... or at least before he went into their memories, they couldn’t, but he really didn’t want to risk it.

Aether sighed. Calming himself down, his nervous face instantly falling back into what it was before. "I need to learn five of your names, huh? And I might die if I let my guard down too much... it wouldn’t be that much of a tragedy..."

Aether walked up to one of the bodies, looking into its hollow eyes, well, eyes would be an overstatement, an imitation of what eyes were supposed to look like rather than actual eyes.

’Now, how do I do this?’ He said, raising his arm and putting it on the dead’s head.

...

...

...

Born into a noble family, one that was known for their powerful Will users, you would expect the firstborn to also hold a Will, but... that wasn’t the case. Or at least not in his case...

Ramius walked through their mansion, avoiding looking at the gazes of the maids. Scared of what he might see... after all, in this house, even they hated him. His father had called to meet him... which was surprising, but at the same time, he had not seen him ever since he was born, so at least he could finally see what his face looked like.

Yet, as he slowly walked to the door of his office. He felt something wet fall on his neck. He stopped, wiping the spit off with his palm, as he gazed back at the maid who had spat on him.

"Don’t you dare look at me, you brat!"

Ramius quickly gazed away after she shouted at him. He knew that if he angered them too much, he might get a beating, which he really didn’t want.

So he just clenched his hands and moved forward, even if his soul was screaming at him.

Finally reaching the door to his father’s office, he took a deep breath, putting a smile on his face, as he opened the door, and stepped in, happy to see his father... but not seconds after, he felt an intense pain, as he felt his face catch on fire.

He dropped to the floor, clenching his face, as he screamed. He had never known he could make a noise like that, but the amount of pain he was in right now was beyond anything; he felt his tears instantly evaporate the moment they appeared.

This lasted a whole minute, a whole minute of agony. Before the flame finally disappeared, not before leaving a scar around his eye. He looked at his father with a disgusted look.

"Truly pathetic, I can’t believe you are my eldest son, when all your siblings have gotten Will and are all strong, you just rot here like a rat in my mansion. How dare you..."

Before he could react, the man walked up to him and slapped him, making him fall back to the ground.

"Pack your stuff... and leave my mansion before I kill you myself. You don’t know how merciful I am right now; if it were any other day, you would be long dead."

Ramius didn’t react; he stood frozen... but as his father raised his hand again, he quickly opened the door and left. Outside, he lay against the door. Yet, the laughter of the maid around him was too loud. He covered his ears, trying to make them stop, but they only got louder. He gritted his teeth.

...

...

"I hate everything..." Ramius let his hands fall to the ground, staring into the darkness that had corrupted him.

...

"I hate this world, I hate them, I hate Will’s, I hate myself."

...

All his life, he had been judged for one thing he could have never done anything about. He couldn’t chose wheater he was born with a Will or not. So why did everyone hate him? Why was he suddenly worse than anyone else? Why was his life valued less than a dog’s?

All because he couldn’t some fire? Was that really enough to ruin someone’s life?

"Bullshit!" Ramius felt his emotions take over him. The hatred, the grief that he had been keeping inside him all coming out. All the regret, it was all coming onto him, all at once... too much for his mind to handle. He felt it slowly break, alongside all his morals.

...

"I-I’ll kill them all..."

...

And suddenly he felt relaxed... his bones felt... warmer, and it wasn’t just them, everything felt. Warm...?

Ramius saw a fire in the darkness.... what was it? He didn’t know. But he felt as if he needed to follow it... like a weird attraction. He swallowed, as he got up on his feet, and walking towards the flame, the moment his fingers made contact with it... he felt weirdly good.

A smile appeared on his face, as another flame appeared. He ran towards it and watched as, the moment he touched it, another appeared, and so on. He chuckled, finding this game fun. Even more so as it slowly got harder, as more flames appeared at one time. And as they started to become more distant.

He hadn’t had this much fun ever in his life... it was as if a whole new world had revealed itself to him. A world... he really wanted to explore. Then, the last flame appeared, and the moment he touched it... he appeared back into the mansion. At the end of the hallway. How he had gotten here, he had no idea.

It was also... quiet.

Ramius looked back, and his heart stopped. As he saw a horrifying scene, the whole corridor was burning, completely gone in flames, and the maid... they were all badly burned... and interesting enough, most of the worst stops were all weirdly close to where the flames had been...

Had...

He...

...

Had he done this?

Ramius quickly looked away and ran, not looking back once. Not stopping to run. He was scared of what might happen if he did.

...

...

...

Aether clenched his head. A deep pain made him slowly groan, as the frequency of the body slowly disappeared. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

..."So this bastard died in the Tides?" Aether stopped talking, letting his hand fall against his sides, as he stared at the place where the body used to be. Safe to say, he had not expected to see his memories, and even if he had known it was him, he had not expected to see what he had seen. To feel what he had felt.

...

Aether sighed... and a soft smile appeared on his face. "Rest..."

If you thought about it, both beginnings were the same, just that they had taken two different paths.