Aethelos: The Bastard of Light

(SCENARIO: Eli Cari’s modest house, now turned into a training refuge. Simple interior.) · The five days until the Selection evaporated. Yana settled into Eli Cari’s room, and his mother, cautious but driven by the pain of injustice, took care of both of them, sharing Terranova healing ointments and Aquila’s strategic discipline. The house became a refuge of Éteris in the heart of Aethelos. · The training had changed radically. Eli Cari no longer sought the brute force of Light. He sought the speed and cold discipline he had seen in Lygar, as well as the stealth and agility the apple thief used. His goal was to become the Mixed-blood who combined Order with the skill of chaos. · Eli Cari has short, slightly messy dark-brown hair. Eli Cari has golden/amber eyes. Eli Cari has an athletic body. Eli Cari wears a grey training suit with light armor details. · “Your Light is slow because you use it like a shield,” Yana explained. Yana has dark hair of medium length. Yana has green or light-brown eyes. Yana wears modest clothes. “Lygar turned Shadow into a fast, final attack. The morning thief turns speed into a cloak. You are Mixed. Use the quickness of your human side and the Light to cut, not to burn.” · Yana, who was Terranova and had a rare mastery over plants and seeds, surprised Eli Cari. Her power, Groien, did not manifest as rocks; it burst forth in fast vines or an explosion of hardened seeds. She taught him to react to what could not be seen. · “Remember what the thief said? ‘Tomorrow you won’t be able to see me stealing.’ He used focus to be faster than your eyes. Your Light needs you, not the other way around!” · In the following days, Eli Cari trained this new form. His body, with Vindicari blood, responded to the discipline of focus. He channeled the Light, concentrating it into a thin line at the tips of his fingers. · Zzzzzzt. · The Light shot out, fast and focused, cutting the tip of a bush with surgical precision. Eli Cari’s Light always appears as thin golden blades, never as large explosions. · “That’s it!” Yana shouted. “Use less power, more focus. Your Light is a knife, not a torch.” · He was learning to turn his power into speed without falling into Lygar’s brutality. The goal was to win the Selection using technique, proving that a Mixed-blood could be superior to any pure-blood Vindicari. · On the night before the Selection, Eli Cari’s mother placed her hands on her son’s healed arm. · “You are Mixed,” she whispered. “You are half of the Vindicari who judge you, and half of us — the humans of Éteris they try to hunt.” · “I know, Mom. That’s why I need to be the best,” Eli Cari said, his golden eyes now calm and determined. “I’m going to win the Selection. I’m going to enter the Solaris Academy, the most prestigious school. Only there will I have the power and the position to become untouchable.” · He turned to Yana. “You are my seed, Yana. The Groien seed that taught me how to grow. I’m going to prove that Mixed blood is the strongest. And you,” he looked at her with a confident smile, “will have to fight to enter the House of Éter. If you become the best there, you’ll need an ally in Solaris.” · Yana smiled, her Éteris expression calm. “I don’t need to promise glory. I just need to be fast. And you need to remember that not every Shadow is evil, and not every Light is pure. Win for yourself, Eli Cari.” · The stage is now set. Eli Cari and Yana are on their way to their destiny.