A wolf ran through a collapsed village. It was the head of its pack scouting forward, past a row of defiled bodies of humans and elves. The area had not a single house intact, yet despite the burn marks, not a single fire was in sight. The wolf pounced forward past the dead men and women; the corpses were rotted and not food that was edible for the pack.
The wolf ran forward and, past a torn-down house, saw two almost identical men standing near one of the bodies. One looked like a child no more than the age of ten, while the other was a grown man. Yet the faces were almost the same: white hair, pale skin, and deep purple eyes. Despite that, in the eyes of the wolf, they were food, and fresh food at that.
To an ascension wolf, there was nothing more to life than to scavenge for food, to mate, and to die. Ascension wolves that inhabited the main continent were very different from the average wolf. They were more intelligent, with human researchers in the current era estimating that the average ascension wolf had around the same thinking capacity as a five-year-old human. They also strategized before hunts, so sending out a scout beforehand was not uncommon.
As the wolf stared at the two men, getting ready to go back and inform the pack, his eyes began to tremble. The short 10-year-old child had locked eyes with them. They were spotted! The wolf quickly turned to run, but began to hear tremors underneath them. The ground started to crack slowly as a tall golem emerged and stabbed the wolf straight through the chest with a spear.
The wolf howled in pain as blood trickled out of the hole in its chest. The child began to walk towards the wolf with a look of calmness in his purple eyes.
"Back off, it hasn't died yet."
The young boy ordered the golem and approached the wolf; the wolf, however, had no concept of understanding for the common language, so the boy's words were unable to be processed.
"You are going to die, wolf. Is that really what you want?"
The young boy spoke again, yet this time the wolf understood; the wolf's eyes grew wider, surprised at how it was able to understand. Yet the blood kept pouring from the wound, and they're connection to the world, they're soul began to diminish.
How am I supposed to speak to a human? Wait, no, he's not human! He's an elf, his ears are pointy! The wolf was overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions despite his time slowly ticking down.
"Are you prepared for the consequences that it takes to live, wolf? If so, I understand you and your soul's true thoughts. Yet to live on after being spared is to live on without a past and only loyalty. Is that a consequence that you will accept?"
My soul? But I just want to live. I don't care about anything. This pain is too much. I don't want to feel this any longer, and I don't want to go. So I must accept it. Do you understand? Please understand.
The wolf began to glow as the elven child raised his hand and whispered a few words.
"I contract this wolf, his soul will become a part of my soul world. He shall now live under my own guidance."
The older man who looked almost exactly like the child walked over slowly.
"A wolf is a weak thing. Putting it under you as a lackey is useless and not merciful. It would've been better to just let it die. You've given it its wish of life, just for the sake of giving it the new hope of death. Life is sometimes not a living being's salvation."
The older man spoke in a critical tone. He looked down at the wolf that had begun to fade away and continued.
"The king of the ascended continent has passed, and the council has taken over. There is no other person of qualification with mixed blood able to gain access to the throne. This is why you must persevere past this notion of connection with your servants. To be able to wield the power of souls is to be able to reign over them without empathy."
The boy listened adamantly and responded.
"Father, I understand, the wolf has quite good scouting potential, and that is why I took him in. I have no room for carrying the burden of useless subjects."
The older man nodded and replied.
"Don't worry, Cecilus, in a few years' time, your power will give you enough servants that these miserable souls you carry won't be needed; they will be discarded, and you will be the forefront of the convergence in the eyes of everyone."
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Marina walked past the Crow residence every day on her way back home. It was a giant, one of the biggest houses she had ever seen. Sometimes she would stand in awe in front of the large garden that stood in front of the mansion. To live a luxury life seemed nice, yet to her, the concept of growing her own plants felt amazing and alien all at the same time.
Marina was a slave, the bastard daughter of a nobleman and a slave woman. Today was one of the few days she was allowed to meet her mother.
"Fire! Fire in the village!" A man ran past her as she was walking away from the garden.
Fire in the village? I see the smoke right now! I'd better get back to my house fast. Marina quickly came to a conclusion as she bolted in the direction of her family's estate. Her family did not live in the village, but instead in a manor that overlooked the forest to the west of the town. She had no doubts that her own residence would be fine.
If the fire had started at the manor, it would've been triple the work for me and my mother for the rest of the year! Marina ran back and saw the manor in perfect condition, as expected. She entered through a side entrance and grabbed a broom to begin her daily chores. The faster I clean, the faster I get to see mother!
Marina's mother was a slave who was bought out on another continent. Since the start of the convergence between the kingdom of Heimwelm and the kingdom of Ascension, the slave laws were unregulated and not as strict as they were at the old border. When the king of Ascension had been assassinated after agreeing to a joint kingdom, the convergence had been put to a standstill, and the laws had never moved over.
After Marina's father, the duke of the borderlands, Hart Forwhilst, had a child with his slave, his wife had gone through a stage of depression. Her treatment of most of the female slaves had already been bad; however, after Marina was born, she was forced into a position as a slave instead of the bastard daughter of a duke by the duchess. Her mother's mental state had also begun to falter after the birth of her daughter, as she had thought that she had successfully escaped her status as a slave. The duke's position, however, was mostly gained through his marriage with his wife, so his own confidence would always plummet when questioned and ordered by his wife.
As she continued to do chores around the mansion, one of her half-siblings approached her. It was her older brother. There was quite an age gap between them, with Marina being only 11 while her brother, Trey Forwhilst, was already 23. Why is he here? We almost never interact? Her brother began to speak solemnly.
"Father isn't here, so I regrettably have to be the one to inform you of this. Did you see the fire on the way back home?"
"Yes, only a bunch of smoke above the village while I was walking back". Marina responded respectfully.
"Well, I unfortunately have to inform you that the fire was started by your mother, and she was the first victim to be taken away by the fire. I do not know for sure whether it was intentional or not, but according to a lot of direct witnesses, I believe she started the fire and then committed suicide with the flames. I'm sorry, Marina."