It was six o'clock on an otherwise normal, sunny day about fifteen years ago. The weather was warm, and the sun was just starting to slip over the hazy edge of the horizon.

I had just finished my last patrol for the evening and was fully prepared to race home as quickly as possible, despite the heavy fatigue lingering in my limbs from a long day of work. My stomach - twitching and rumbling within my gut - was looking forward to a hot, hefty meal, prepared the night before and waiting to be heated.

But that was when he called. And when he called - I answered. That's the impact he had on me and my life. With his usual voice - joyful, merry, and energetic - he asked me to swing by the house for a drink and a talk.

Although my stomach groaned loudly and my body begged for rest, I surpressed the desire for warm food and comfortable clothing. Slipping my phone back into my uniform pocket, I began my trip to your house...

All the way on the western border of Aginem.

***

"You want me to what?!" I shouted. The question he asked had stung my ears with its pure absurdity. I nearly dropped the drink in my hand like some cliche movie.

Despite the obvious disapproval in my voice and the scowl on my face, he asked again. But this time, he looked me directly in the eyes when he said, "I want you to use your magic to place a barrier on him that will stunt his magical growth. I know you know how to do it."

My jaw dropped, and I looked at him in disbelief.

"But he's only three, Rollan!" I yelled, hoping my logic would change his mind. "He's so young. He's just starting to develop his magic now! If I place a barrier his magical growth will instantly stop. He'll become one of the weakest in the country!"

He glanced over to you - playing on the living room carpet with the new set of toys he had bought the previous week. Your hair and eyes were a picture-perfect copy of his, but your distinct facial features were exactly like your mother's.

I rounded on him again. "You know how this country treats low magic commoners," I hissed, my face glowing red hot. "They'll cast him aside, ridicule him. You'd sentence your own son to that pitiful life? I-"

Before I could finish my plea, he raised his hand, shutting me up instantly.

His warm hazel eyes glanced over to you again.

"And they'd treat a demon who can't control his magic any better?" he said curtly. "Not even Aryl could give me a useful idea on how the mixture of human and demon would develop. We've never seen it before. So we can only assume the worst - a scenario in which a hybrid of both races would eventually become extremely dangerous." He shook his head. "No one else I've told about his birth has mentioned or suggested this possibility, but my best guess is that his humanly emotions will fuel his demonic side to unstable levels."

He sighed heavily. "I thought he wouldn't inherit his mother's genes after you placed the barrier on her own demonic powers, but I guess we were both wrong in assuming so."

"Yes, but-" I interjected, but he threw his hand up once more. I went quiet again.

"They're coming for him," he said firmly. "You know that just as well as I do. If they get a hold of him as he is now, he'll become the biggest threat this world has ever seen. His power will be unpredictable, and they could use him as a weapon. That is why I called you here today. And that is why I'd like you to place that barrier." His voice had become surprisingly direct and serious, something very rare for the jokester of a man he was.

I couldn't find the right words to say - the words that would change his mind. After a moment, my gaze dropped to the carpeted floor, because I knew he was right.

"All right. I'll do it," I said with a deep sigh, succumbing to obvious defeat.

After another brief discussion with your father, I finally turned on my heel and walked toward you. 

You were still playing on the living room floor, making any explosion noise you could think of while simulating fights with your action figures. You loved those figures, which were the small, handheld plastic representations of the Top Ten Heroes. Ironically enough, I was one of them.

The fading sun, now only a fraction of a red disk, shined over the distant tree tops and landed in streaks of deep orange through the windowed sliding doors.

Your mother poked her head around the corner. I stopped, noticing her blood-red eyes. I could only assume she listened in on the conversation from a distance. 

Wearing the rose patterned apron she claimed made her feel more "human" and "motherly", she brushed back her crimson hair with her hand. She smiled to me quietly and nodded, displaying her silent approval.

Just before I grabbed your attention, your father called out to me again.

"Hey... You know what Lorita and I will do if they come for him, right?"

You mother walked over to your father. He wrapped a loving arm around her waist.

I stopped and nodded slowly, avoiding their eyes. I finally looked at your mother, and she silently nodded again. She was never one for many words, but she always treated me lovingly like a brother.

We had spoken about what they would do many times since you were born, but neither he nor I had brought the topic up in quite some time. We were near the end of a devestating war, and humans were on the verge of victory, so we had to have some plan if the enemy tried to capture you to turn the tide. It seemed like that time had finally come.

"Then," said your father, "I need you to promise me something else before you place that barrier."

My annoyance with his requests reached a breaking point. My anxiety was already narrowing my vision and crushing my chest.

"I already said I'd incorporate that message into the barrier!" I snapped. "What else could you possibly want?!"

His stoic expression didn't falter, but he remained silent.

It was your mother who spoke up this time. 

"Once the seal loosens and his power emerges, he will run away from himself. The thought of diving into a power so dark, so immense, in a society like you humans have today... He'll hate what he is.

"He'll be exactly like his mother was." Your father added, glancing at your mother with a soft chuckle. "I can already tell."

She rolled her eyes.

He returned his thin, hazel eyes to me. Which now, for the first time, showed the smallest sign of weakness and vulnerability.

"So promise us this. If she and I are both gone... You'll be the one to help him find himself. You'll help him control that new and scary power. You'll be there for him, so that he never feels like he's all alone."

His trademark smile beamed across his face, a smile that had the power to settle a demon like your mother.

She interlocked fingers with him, then looked at me.

Her eyes shone blood-red in the glow of the dying sun.

"Will you do that for us, Khohn?"

***

I made that promise with your parents. I thought it would be impossible for both of them to die. So I cast a barrier spell within your psyche to block the effects of your demonic magic.

It wasn't until that one fateful day ripped everything apart, right at the seams.

***

You were five years old, still young and innocent. You were a momma's boy, and she always comforted you when you were sad or hurt. Your father always made you laugh, and you continued to grow into his miniture replica, despite my barrier spell still swirling within your brain.

It all started as a normal spring evening in Aginem, just like any other. The War was at a close, people roamed the streets happily, and I was on a simple, uneventful patrol of a town neighboring yours.

But the sky, normally a light blue with orange clouds at that time, had suddenly transitioned to a pitch black. Chilling winds whistled over the streets. Civilians fled to their homes. We well knew the sun never set at that hour. 

It wasn't until I got that damn call that everything we planned for went to complete shit.

Your father called, and I knew something was wrong the moment he spoke. He told me the demons finally attacked and were closing in on your house. He said that he and your mother would hold them off as long as they could until help arrived. But I had to come take you away.

I had never heard such a frightening tone in your father's voice before. He was always the cool-headed Hero that never feared. Today, however, true panic was embedded in his voice.

It all happened to fast. I didn't know what to do.

I called for backup from the Hero HQ.

I told them that your town was being attacked by a mob of demons. Only Rollan and Lorita were on the scene, and they needed backup ASAP. I then ran as fast as I could to your house, knocking over anyone who stood in my way. I didn't even bother grabbing my hoverboard. 

Thankfully, I was the first Hero to arrive.

"Take Riarshi and go!" Your father screamed, blood pouring down his face. Hundreds of demons stomped their way across the large field at the back of your house, their blood-red eyes flaming bright in the distance. It was like a massive wave of black slowly flooding the land.

I lept down from the hill and blasted a hole in the side of your house. It was billowing black smoke, and flames roared from the roof. I had to move fast.

Just as I was about to enter the smoking house, you came running from the back door, flailing your arms with tears flying from your eyes. You cried and shrieked for your parents, stumbling toward them the entire way.

Your father's eyes bulged. He screamed for you to get back. You didn't listen.

Suddenly, the demon leading the army shot a large, purple sphere of magic at you. Your mother jumped in the way, taking the entire impact to her back.

Her blood splattered onto your face as she tumbled across the yard. Her long scarlet hair matted on her wet, gaping wound.

This was your trigger. The ground beneath you shattered and lightning struck wildly around your body. Your eyes glowed a deep blue and a black force enveloped your body. The seal I had placed on you had loosened.

Your mother rose to her feet once more. She was a tough demon herself, so one attack wouldn't finish her.

"Rollan - that's it - that's his power," she muttered with a weak and fading voice. She coughed blood.

"Shit! Get him out of here NOW!" Your father cried. The surrounding whirlwind grew more intense, shaking the ground and cracking bolts of lightning across the yard. Lawn chairs and broken pieces of wood lifted into the air, swirling along with the clouds in the sky.

I had to act. I finally jumped in and gathered your small body up in my arms, holding you strongly against my chest. You didn't go without a fight.

"Let me go!" you wailed in a deep and demonic voice, making my stomach drop. You weren't a child anymore. In that moment, I finally realized that this was why your dad wanted that seal.

I took one final look at your parents as they clasped hands for the last time. I turned and vaulted away from the scene, all while you wailed and sobbed for your parents in my arms.

"I'm sorry, Riarshi," I murmured weakly. I placed my hand over your face and unleashed a bright, green light from my hand, knocking you unconscious. I had stopped your transformation by re-tightening the seal. However, it came at a price - I had to delete your memories. It was the only way to settle the growing darkness. 

I had turned my head for a second when I saw the massive explosion. A combination of red smoke and blue static erupted, flooding the sky. A powerful and rippling shock wave shot through the air, almost knocking me to the ground as I continued my retreat.

I took you to a nearby medical clinic and told the staff you were a civilian child I managed to evacuate from the nearby battle.

"What's his name?" one healer had asked.

My body froze. I had to think on my feet. "Riarshi... Thomas."

A last name slightly different from your father's - Tomidas.

Because you unexpectedly inherited your mother's demonic magic, your father had kept your birth a secret from everyone except a select few. Being your father's friend since our days in the Hero Program, I was thankfully one of those people.

After your birth, he moved you and your mother to a small rural town in the far West of Aginem, retiring from the POH permanently and officially going off the radar.

The team of healing Heroes frantically grabbed you and rushed you to the infirmary to check for injuries.

It was then, when no one else was around at the entrance of the HQ, I finally burst. Every emotion I kept pressed to the bottom of my heart suddenly flooded out and crumpled me to my knees. Some older veterans of the POH would say that Heroes don't cry, but I put a quick end to that rumor, right there on the steps of the Hero HQ.

The red smoke and blue static cleared, dissolving, along with the infinite darkness that infected the evening sky. The sun returned.

Your parents were gone, and all I could do was run away.

***

I promised your father I would take care of you, that I would help teach you how to control your powers. I unfortunately couldn't keep that promise.

"I'm taking you off of his case, Khohn."

"But Commissioner Aryl, I promised Rollan I would mentor the boy - that I would help him control his powers! Come on, you have to give me that chance!" I pleaded, clasping my hands together as if in prayer to the Divines. 

"I warned you in that letter about how dangerous he is. But you were too careless and now he's fully aware of his heritage." The old man's gray beard shifted horribly with his frown. His weather-beaten face glowed bright red with anger. "If he wasn't dangerous then, he is ten times more now!"

His voice rumbled the gold statues lined up along the maroon-colored walls of the office. His yellow eyes suddenly shot down to my hand, in which I held something I had completely forgotten about.

"Give me what you have in your hand." he commanded. He ripped the paper from my grasp without receiving consent.

He had called me to his office from the apartment they had you housed in at the time. At ten years old, you were still too young to be left alone, so I forced you to sit in the waiting room outside of his office. Before I entered to talk to the commissioner, you handed me a drawing you made. It was of us. I had to take it. 

The old man squinted his wrinkled eyes and read the messy crayon handwriting on the top of the page.

"Riarshi and Mr. C.," he growled in his rough voice.

Yellow magic lit from his hands and burned the paper so that nothing was left besides small ash particles floating into the air.

"I told you not to get close to the boy, yet you let him give you a blasted nickname!" he howled, slamming his fist onto his paper and trinket cluttered desk. His shining yellow eyes almost burst from their hollowed sockets.

All I could do was look at the ground. I knew what he was about to say and braced myself for those words.

The commissioner regained his composure, fixed his collar, and maintained his stern glare.

"Get him home... Then never associate with him again," he commanded. "I will assign a new team to take care of the essentials. Your part is done."

I wasn't through, though. My emotions took over, as evident by my screaming voice.

"How can you just leave this boy all alone? With everything his father meant to you... even after Rollan saved your life, saved the entire POH?!"

Aryl stood there, expressionless. I had hit a sensitive nerve. His nose then crunched in disgust.

"That boy is not his father," he hissed.

He had one last thing to say to me as I made my way to his door, fuming and defeated.

"If I discover you involved yourself again... you and the boy will be subjected to whatever punishment the courts find fit. And I don't see them siding with a demon."

He forced me to erase everything about me from your memory. Everything we did, every memory we made would be gone forever.

Commissioner Aryl claimed this was the only way to keep you safe - to keep your emotions in check. We couldn't have you searching for revenge.

After I took you home that day, I sat you down on the couch and made you your favorite snack - apples and peanut butter. I only wanted to see your carefree face one last time before I had to take it all away. 

When you finished the last bite, you looked up to me, smiling, saying how delicious it was. You didn't know that I had a hand behind my back. And along with the glowing green spell emitting from it was an uncontrollable shaking. I bit my cheek, but that didn't help distract me from the emotional pain.

You asked me if I could make the same snack for you tomorrow.

I agreed with tears flowing down my cheeks and walked over to you. I threw my hand over your face, casting the barrier spell.

But I didn't completely follow orders.

I kept our memories together intact and only deleted my face.

***

After your - uh - performance we'll call it... at the Showing, Commissioner Aryl came directly to me from his booth, where he hissed and hollered at me for a good fifteen minutes. 

I reassured him I was just as shocked as he was that you managed to find your way into the Hero Program. He reminded me of his order from eight years ago, and that the repercussions were still in place. He, however, never looked into it again since he was certain you would fail out within the first week.

That is where he was wrong - that is where everyone who had doubted you was wrong.

Despite the handicap I placed on you years ago, and despite all the doubts you have faced throughout your life, you always blocked out the noise and focused on making yourself the best man you could be.

And trust me, I've seen it.

I've watched you go from the loner Lagic kid in class, to the one cracking jokes with your friends. It warmed me whenever I noticed it. You found exceptional friends in those two, Riarshi.

Oh, Tabito and Hara didn't rat you out, by the way. After your argument, both of them actually pounced at me the second I fibbed that I was planning to only expel you. They demanded to take a share of the blame because they sat idly by while you fought for their honor. They yelled and hollered, screaming that I had no idea what a true hero was, and that any sane person would stick up for what they thought was right.

Things eventually calmed down after I dropped my facade and told them that no one was actually being expelled.

Also, Tabito didn't deliberately choose you for the duel assignment. It was I who forced him to take you on as a partner. This is what I talked to him about after your spar together. He refused at first, claiming that he wanted you to have a fair chance in the assignment, but I instantly shot him down.

I knew you wouldn't be able to beat him with just your human magic. With something important on the line, I believed you would jump into your power and control it with your own free will, especially when fighting your own friend. I never expected you would ignore magic all together, denounce it even.

And although you and Hara have always been at each other's throats, I've spotted her watching every one of your assignments in class. Her eyes lit up every time you would pass or succeed, and she would wince every time you were hurt. It's not my place to tell you the details, but there is something she has been battling herself, something I've sadly witnessed first-hand.

Despite fighting your own inner demons, you've connected with others who are fighting their own personal battles, helping each other forward toward your goals.

I'm... sorry, Riarshi. I didn't mean any of those things I said to you earlier tonight. Drawing out an immense negative emotion was the only way I could fully loosen the seal I placed thirteen years ago. It was the only way I could force you to dive into your power without hesitation. 

I know I was strict with you throughout the Program, demanding you to "push your power", but this was the only way I could get you to stop running from yourself.

You should be close to waking up anytime now. Sorry, I had to knock you unconscious again. Now that your seal has loosened, and the memory barrier has broken, you should be hearing and seeing all of this in a dream.

I hope you can forgive me for leaving you alone those many years ago. It was never my intention.

Once you wake up... I'd like to introduce myself one more time and give you a message that is far too long overdue.

Today, I'd like for us to create a new beginning.