“Why, Jack?”

Jack sighed with a low chuckle. He held Ermand’s shoulders. 

“If I, as an elder brother, were to pick something good for you. I wouldn’t go anywhere less than Agledon. You should know that this was a decision we deliberated on as a family and agreed it was for your own good. I know it will be successful in the end.”

“Successful? Why didn’t you just ask me before cancelling the rest of the applications?”

Before Ermand could question any further, Jack turned and disappeared upstairs, which left him more frustrated. While he stood pondering over Jack’s words, Mrs. Chisel entered the kitchen. She had already prepared Ermand’s favourite chocolate sparkle pie and was about to cut it into pieces.

“Want to taste this, Ermie dear?” she asked.

“Of course, but mom, why did you let Jack cancel my request for other colleges?”

Mrs. Chisel paused from her work and turned to Ermand, her brows crinkling with worry.

“Ermie, if you join Skor colleges, you’ll never find your true destiny--“

“What destiny can a Chisel expect from a society where people choose clans over trust?” 

Ermand’s voice became stern. He had always expected what he would do when he turned eighteen. Whether he should join any educational institution or continue with his impecunious job in the café downtown had always been a dilemma for him. Since he and his family belonged to the middle-lower clan where people struggle to have a proper meal three times a day, great universities like Agledon were just a faint illusion to him. Although his brothers studied there, he knew Agledon would only choose the best, and as far as he validated himself, he wasn’t any better like them.

“Ermie, you can get better employment than the jobs provided at the Skor colleges,” Mrs. Chisel suggested. The worry in her brows never left.

“Are you not understanding me? I’m a Chisel! Chisels do what they always do. Work in potion factories, construction sites, household labour,” he nearly bursts out.

“Why are you limiting yourself, Ermie?”

“I’m not limiting myself. Others already limited us. Great colleges are not meant for us, and especially not someone like me! I don’t even know where I belong--“

“Ermand,” Mrs. Chisel walked swiftly toward him. “Do you even understand what you are saying? Ermie dear, your destiny is already written. You just have to know the direction, and we’re helping you with that. Even Lapels, the lowest clan, joins the college. We always want the best for you.”

Mrs. Chisel’s eyes got wet as she tried to explain to him. She was a sensitive woman. If Ermand spoke more, he was sure her eyes would flood with tears. Ermand didn’t want his mother crying because of him. She had loved him more than she had loved two of her other sons, and he knew that better than anyone else.

“Okay. I-I’ll go,” Ermand sighed, but smiled when he noticed his mother’s face gleam. 

“Where is my Specialization book? Mum, I had already told you - and what’s that? Chocolate pie?”

Jason’s voice, similar-yet distinct from Jack’s, came from the living room. Like all the others in his family, he had dark auburn hair and dull brown eyes.

Ermand went to grab a plate, breaking the moment that had already been broken.

“I’ll get it, Jason,” Mrs. Chisel answered him.

He dilly dallied toward the small kitchen counter but froze when he saw Ermand cutting his piece out.

“Hey! Cutting out the best piece before others come, huh?” Jason snarled at his little brother with his glare never leaving Ermand’s amber eyes.

“My intentions aren’t like yours,” Ermand snapped back and began cutting the rest of his piece.

“You should know where you are. If it weren’t for my parents to adopt you while you cried hungry and alone in the streets, you’d have been--“

“Jason, that’s enough! If you want to eat, just take a piece and go. Stop troubling others,” Mrs. Chisel fumed. She hurried toward the boys.

Jason, Jack’s elder brother, also studied at Agledon University in the fifth year. He disliked Ermand from the moment they brought him home. Over the years, his saying that Ermand won’t fit in their family became stale as anything. However, Jack was always there to contradict his assertion, saying that he had no one close to him more than Ermand and none could replace it. Although both of them live under the same roof, the two brothers always showed different attitudes toward Ermand.

“What did I say? It’s true, he’s living just because we gave him everything. Literally everything. Now, we sent an application to join the best and well reputed college in the whole of Iyerth and--“ 

“And a horrible brother like you!”

Jack interrupted Jason, entering the kitchen with his bag in one hand and a small glass bottle with a dark green coloured liquid inside. It was the first day of Jack’s third year and of course, Jason’s fifth year while Ermand had to wait for a few more weeks to join the college even if he was not surely interested in joining there provided that only if he’s selected. 

“Shut up, Jack!” Jason shouted in his usual moody tone. Jack muttered something under his breath as he went to grab his piece of chocolate pie. Ermand felt a bit relieved. At least when Jack’s there, Jason won’t bother to trouble him much.

“What’s special about today, mum?” Jack asked, seating himself on a chair.

Suddenly, the door opened as if someone had broken into the house. A man in his late forties hurried into the kitchen, trying to catch his breath. His eyes were slightly puffy and the panic and rushing formed beads of sweat on his forehead. He had been away from the Chisels’ eyrie, their home, for a couple of days, and his family hadn’t received a single note from him from the past days. Mrs. Chisel and the three boys gawked at the man, who was panting and gasping for breath.

“What is it, Helmuth? Is everything alright?” His wife hastened toward him and helped him sit on the nearest chair. She looked more terrible than him.

“F-finally... Geoff-Geoffrey knows about... what exactly is it all about... Ermie’s dreams...”

Mrs. Chisel gestured to Jason to pour water into the mug next to him. She grabbed the mug from him and gave it to her husband. He choked while he drank. It seemed as if he ran miles to get home.

Mrs. Chisel’s dull brown eyes were cautious upon him. Meanwhile, Jack scanned the look of his father’s clothes. It didn’t look weary or messy, but was a criss-cross of wrinkles.

“Helmuth, what did Geoffrey say? And why do you look exhausted, as if you’re coming home after a battle?” she asked after Mr. Chisel put the empty mug back on the table.

“It’s a long story… by the way, Ermie, have you got your--“

“Yes, dad. He had got it this morning—” Jack interrupted.

“He has got it?” Jason winced.

“Yes, he has. Feel bad, Jason?” Jack added a triumphant smirk on his lips. He folded his hands and leaned back in his chair.

“I don’t care, he’s not even a part of us.”

Mr. Chisel and Ermand were quite exasperated, as well as indignant at that remark of Jason. A moment of silence lingered in the air until Mrs. Chisel interrupted with her naturally cheerful tone. “Well, it’s time for breakfast. Get ready with your plates. I have cooked--“

The ringing of their doorbell interrupted her.

“I’ll get it,” Jack said, rising and hurrying to the door while Jason also followed him under suspicion because Jack wasn’t a person fascinated about getting the door. Ermand couldn’t hold the suspense and he ran after them. Mr. and Mrs. Chisel drank their morning coffee after chuckling to each other.

“Kids…” they sighed.

Jack opened the door to find a package in front of him. “Jolly! I didn’t expect such a fast delivery,” he said, picking up the package.

“What is it that you ordered?” Jason enquired, hastening after him.

“Does it matter?” Jack smirked and took the package upstairs with a certain amount of heed he had never considered for any package, which doubled up Jason’s doubts. 

He gritted his teeth and followed Jack. When Ermand was about to close the door, he found a small piece of paper on the rocky step outside. He grabbed it before it got swept away by the wind. It was a receipt of what Jack had ordered. “Transformation and translation preparer…” Ermand read. He frowned and turned toward the stairs, his eyes traced up to the first floor.

“How dare you order it without letting me know about it!” Ermand heard Jason bellowing at the top of his lungs from upstairs. Ermand knew it.

“Oh yeah? I can order anything I want as long as I buy it from my collected money!” Jack roared back.

“I won’t let you have that, give it to me--“

Before Jack could complete, Ermand heard a thud. The delicate wooden ceiling cracked while dust flew from the gaps. The next moment, the yelling and bawling started again. Helmuth immediately stood up from his chair and stomped toward the stairs. His wife followed him, both their faces looking baffled.

Only when he raced through the stairs did the atmosphere turn back to normal. Ermand heard him barking furiously at the boys. Mrs. Chisel was with him downstairs, the only person who didn’t know what had happened. Everything went quiet except for Mr. Chisel’s harsh rebukes.

When all of them climbed down, they plastered a guilty look on their faces, and Mr. Chisel looked as cross as two sticks. He carried a small glass bottle with some bright and glittery orange-red solution filled in. Mrs. Chisel gasped at the sight of it.

“I never expected this from you, Jack!”

“Why do you need that thing, Jack? Don’t you remember what happened that day when Aillard used the same potion to be sorted into his individual self and para individual, and the consequences he had to face because of that?” Mrs. Chisel told him, a furious tone accompanying, that rarely escapes from her.

“Because he didn’t have an idea about how to use it in a strict sense, but I have. Also, it’s my third year. I gotta have some handy stuff...”

“You call that handy?” Mr. Chisel questioned in an uncanny tone, a tone that never left him unsettled.

“What’s wrong with the preparer?” Jack scowled, his eyes never leaving the bottle in his father’s hand.

“What’s not wrong with the preparer?” Mr. Chisel asked coldly.

***********

This is one another re-edited chapter of mine, I'd love to know your thoughts on the story until now, I know it's pretty soon to ask, but let me know if it did strike up interest in you to read.

Question : Your favourite character as of now?

Yours,

Safa Keira