Tomas was born in the months of waning winter in a city of Aquileia, Venetian Republic - Byzantine occupied. It hadn't snowed for weeks and many were hoping for the arrival of spring now.
"The lady has given birth to a boy, My Lord." A servant in a long grey tunic spoke. The maid had just left the birthing room and found the lord waiting for news right outside.
The lord was tall and broad-shouldered, with a figure that speaks to both strength and aristocratic grace. His worry and concern for his second child's birth had made his face seem more darker than it actually was. Hearing the maid he was jolted out of his worry causing his thick wavy auburn hair swing into his amber eyes.
"A reward of three coppers. How is the Lady?" Lord Aemilius asked.
Lord Aemilius rush past the maid, not waiting for her reply, the room was lit brightly. The Lady Theodora, always loved brighten spaces and made the effort to keep all living space have ample light.
The lady was lying on her bed having just given birth her fair skin had lost is porcelain like glow, yet her dark-brown eyes still retained a strong vitality. Seeing the Lord Aemilius enter the room, she straightened her posture and waved away the servants.
"Lord, we have a son." She spoke. Her voice gentle and soothing. " Come look he has your bright amber eyes." She moved the babe in her arms to face Lord Aemilius.
"Yes. Yes. And he has your burgundy veins. A true heir to the Ash Von-Kade bloodline." Lord Aemilius said taking the young babe into his arms.
The Lady Theodora watched as the father and son's first meeting, she knew how much the bloodline needed a male heir. She watch Lord Aemilius take the babe, towards the balcony to see the morning sun just break past the horizon painting the mountainside in its gold and the coast amber. She got up to join the father and son pair, she herself enjoyed watching the sunrise.
Just as she got close, the babe seem to jolt and suddenly the his eyes grew brighter, his dark auburn hair became even darker and his burgundy veins further expanded. Lord Aemilius still holding him grew nervous but his face showed no change. While Lady Theodora welled up with tears threatening to break from her eyes.
"A true Ash Von-Kade. Just like his sister." Lord Aemilius said.
"Will this affect our standing in council?" Lady Theodora asked with concern.
"What council?!" The Lord scoffed. "They know nothing outside of fighting for control over the ports."
The incident with the babe was not a new event, when they had their first child, Isabella, three years ago she too displayed this phenomena. But then something unique happened, a spider spirit appeared from within the babe's hair, the size on a fingernail. It crawled all over his face causing the baby to giggle softly.
"This- This is insane!! How can the bloodline manifested so strongly?" The Lord Aemilius exclaimed. This time he could not keep his control. Turning to see if Lady Theodora had any idea. She too was equally shocked.
"Does this mean the Veil is weakening and..." The Lady hesitated to speak but still continued. "The curse may be lifted earlier than we thought."
The Lord could hear the excitement bubbling within her question but chose to ignore it.
"Regardless, with this reaction we need to clean the household to better accommodate our needs, My Lady." He said. Now that the Ash Von-Kade Bloodline had manifested in such a manner regular mortals could not be kept as servants any longer.
"Worry not. Ambrosius has been were bored recently. I will have him take the position of Butler for the household." Lady Theodora said.
"Yes, he will probably clean the household without us even asking to. Lets, follow your arrangements My Lady." The Lord said.
"We can start the tutelage of both the children then." Lady Theodora stated.
Having calm down from the excitement brought about by the spider spirit's appearance, the Lord and Lady began to prepare the changes that were required. Within the few months many servants and staff of the noble Ash Von-Kade were either laid off or disappeared mysteriously.
While the port of Aquileia, welcomed new proprietors. For those who kept watch on the city political landscape would surely have noticed the noble house of Von-Kade take on a more discreet position.
The babe, now named Aurelius, was couple months old and his little spider friend was still the same size. Normally, he would be in the care of a nanny but with his special condition he was under the care of Butler Ambrosius. Soon the rhythm of the noble house was set and time passed from the wanning winter to earlier visages of spring. The mountainside and coast liven with the breath of spring flowers and sweet dew of romance. The household hid their actions so as to not attract any attention from the city and other noble houses.
The Aurelius of now was no different from a new born child. The Tomas of the past had yet to awaken within the mind of the child but the promises of the Entity came into fruition as it had said.
The spirit spider was one such promise, and the supernatural royal bloodline was another.
"My Lord." The little spider spoke into young Aurelus' mind.
"Whoa. Why are you yelling. Man is reincarnating always this rough?" Aurelius commented.
Being a babe only a few months old Aurelius for the most part would spend his time sleeping. Only in the recent few weeks would he stay awake long enough observe his surroundings.
"My Lord, now that you have completely adjusted to your new life, I would like to have a name and a direction of how I should grow. This is so I can better help you. My Lord." said the little spider.
"Name. Huh. Since you will be there to answer all my calls, it reminds of Siri but I don't want to use that name. Let's go with Cerci. As for your growth. I want you to focus on intel gathering and assassinations. Can you grow in that direction?" Aurelius spoke to it through their mental tether.
"That is absolutely possible. I will start by developing skills to better gather intel and keep in mind assassination development." Cerci answered.
"Now I would like to bring to your attention some important matters. First would be about the royal bloodline, you have is a royal demon bloodline with the clan name of Ash Von-Kade. The second would be the powers you requested. The powers belong to not only you but your entire bloodline, meaning weather manipulation, spirit companion, powers of the mind and psychic. Oh and immortality." Cerci stated.
"Wait a minute. How do you know about the encounter with that entity?" Aurelius questioned.
"Um. I am your spirit companion and as such am connected with your soul and spirit, there are few things we can keep from each other." Cerci answered.
"I realise that I might have been vague about what powers of the mind and psychic mean, do you have any info on this?" Aurelius asked.
"Yes, there are a total of twenty-five abilities included in the powers of the mind and psychic of the twenty-five there are four abilities that you are restricted from using for now." Cerci stated.
Cerci then using her mental tether to info dump all the intel regarding the abilities of the power mind and psychic. To summarize, the powers included the basics like telepathy, empathy, telekinesis, and such.
The conversation with Cerci seemed to have taken up all of Aurelius' energy causing him to fall back to sleep. The days went by like so, where Cerci and Aurelius kept each other company. Aurelius spent some time trying out telepathy with maids and other servants but found it quite challenging.
Days turned into weeks, then months and Aurelius was now two years old. Nothing really happened in the time frame, the only major event was Aurelius' first meeting with the Butler Ambrosius. He had taken the charge of nanny to the young lord and his siblings. During the meeting he had also learned that he would be having younger siblings.
"Young Lord, now that you are two years of age you can finally start to learn the families true heritage. You will soon start your lessons with your older sister, Isabelle." Ambrosius stated.
"Learning the family heritage?" Aurelius questioned to Cerci.
In the past two years Cerci, after directions form Aurelius, had fully taken the role of intelligence agent. She had spread her webs all over the manor and even major parts of the city, there weren't any secrets that Cerci didn't know.
"That would be the weather control, powers of mind and psychic, and other powers that are part of your royal bloodline. Among other knowledges." Cerci answered.
After meeting Ambrosius, Aurelius spoke to Cerci only through the mental tether and used telepathy with Ambrosius.
"Ambrosius why start only now?" Aurelius countered.
"Well that is only because the young lord's bloodline has finally stabilized. The family heritage is quite illustrious including many pathways and areas of study. It will take a long time for the young lord to fully learn and apply this knowledge." Ambrosius answered. "Now I must leave the young Lord, as you see your younger siblings need my care."
Ambrosius left after that, not waiting for Aurelius' answer.
"Cerci, I have to say I am so thankful that I asked for a such a family otherwise who knows how long it would take for me to learn and apply all the powers I asked for. I have tried so hard to practice my elemental Wind powers over the year and have made no progress muchless the powers of the mind and psychic." Aurelius commented.
"That is to be expected my lord." Cerci stated.
Aurelius spent the rest of the day eating and reading up history of the region. He had found this quite relaxing after having failed to learn his power by himself.
Next day even before the sun had risen Ambrosius had come to wake up Aurelius. He having never been awake this early was not too happy and even notably displeased but he could not over power Ambrosius.
He was led to the family library, a sanctuary of knowledge and history where a deep sense of reverence and curiosity mingled in the air. The walls were lined with towering shelves filled with leather-bound scripts, their spines worn from generations of careful handling. Soft light filtered through stained glass windows, casting colorful patterns across the rich mahogany floor. Here, amid the silent whispers of the past was a clearing made to house to desk. On one such desk was the maiden of five years, Isabella, her burgundy-tinted hair catching the light as she quietly read, her pale green eyes flickering with curiosity and calm strength.
"Sit here and wake up. You need to be up at this time from now on." Ambrosius said in a commanding tone to the still sleepy Aurelius.
Cerci had long woken up, in fact she barely needed much sleep. Seeing that Aurelius was acting rather childish she crawled all over his face making it impossible to continue to act drowsy.
"Ahh! Cerci! Will you stop that!" Aurelius exclaimed. He had mentioned to Cerci time and again that she could crawl anywhere she wanted expect his face. He found it very creepy.
Hearing his comotion Isabelle looked up from her book then paused.
"Now than we shall began our class." Ambrosius stated. "We will start our first class with the history of the family."
"Before that Ambrosius. Might you explain when I will be able to have a spirit companion myself?" Isabella asked glancing at Cerci.
"To answer your question Lady Isabella I will need to explain to you the history of the family." Ambrosius stated matter of factly.
"At a time long in the past so far back that it is deemed to be The Beginning, all manner of beings walked the realm. At this time the old gods governed with grace and wisdom. In this age there were beings of similar divine station and powers and the family can trace itself to this time period." Ambrosius said.
Isabella put down her book and listen carefully. Aurelius was intrigued as well since he wanted to know how is wish had manifested.
"Then all of a sudden the old gods left their stations leaving all beings confused and lost. The beings of the realm began to test the old rules and soon chaos ensued. In the chaos many beings were killed, some chose to escape the chaos and hide while others that were too strong were banished. When all seemed lost a being bareing divine status took it upon themselves to retore order. Claiming to be the new Gods the restructured the realm in their image." Ambrosius continued. "The New Gods then defined good and evil, those that supported its rise were deemed righteous while those that didn't were deemed wicked and evil. And the ancestor of the family was judged as such." Ambrosius said.
"So the progenitor of the family bloodline was deemed as evil in the eyes of the new order?" Isabella confirmed.
"Yes, not only that the New God then proceed to make a dimension beneath the realm to house and imprison all it claimed as evil. The servants and supports of the New God took it upon themselves to be the jailers of the wicked searching every corner of the realm for the damned." Ambrosius answered.
"Then how does the family still walk the realm?" Aurelius questioned.
"The answer to your question lies in what happened after the New order was established." Ambrosius said. " After all the beings that opposed the new order were imprison or in hiding or banished from the realm the mortals of the realm came to the centre stage. Through the mortals the New God found traces of the old gods and after careful observation the New gods learnt that mortal's faith could empower them. Thus a new age of mortal empowerment came restricting the non-mortal beings into dormancy." Ambrosius paused expecting a question but continue since there were none.
"As this age progressed even the supporters of the new gods were restricted and later banned form interfering with mortal affairs. It was during this time that the beings in hiding took the chance to rise and bring great strife to the realm they might have succeed had the new god not learnt of the faith of mortals. Alas, the revolt failed and as a result the New Gods created a barrier, later called The Veil, that forcefully divided the mortal and supernatural." Ambrosius had finished with this crash course in history.
"Is this Veil the reason I can not have a spirit companion?" Isabella questioned.
"Yes, my lady. The Veil is also refereed to as the curse by our family." Ambrosius clarified.
" What being was the progenitor of our family?" Aurelius asked.
"That being no longer exist as it had came too close to threating the new order it was banished. It was of a devouring nature it could devour the vitality of all things to empower itself and gain authority over it." Ambrosius said. "Our family is not like the progenitor as it was effected by the new order and instead the bloodline now can only devour the souls and psychic of any beings. But such abilities are oppressed by the Veil and can not be used easily." Ambrosius answered.
"One thing of note is that the supporters of the new god intermingled with the mortals and created a demi-mortal race that could wield their power in the mortal realm and control the mortal empires." Added Ambrosius. "Well that will be all for history lesson, and moving on to the power of telepathy.