The Ash Orphan Chapter 2 - Two Blades

(author note: my friend said that ts shi so corny n cringe so Ik that I cant write anything about friendship etc so please dont bully my corny ahh I can only write sword fights etc good 🥀🥀🥀)

Day 2

Kaius woke up early today, about yesterday; he thought that he can be Antonio’s friend since Antonio fought well, maybe he could teach Kaius some tricks. He walked down to the training area and found Anton…Ant..Antony? Nevermind. Hes not that important anyways. He found the boy. “What do you want?” the boy asked with a frustrated tone, Kaius scratched the back of his neck awkwardly-he wasn’t good at communicating with people at all. “uh. uhh. lets be friends.” “HUH?” the boy laughed mockingly at Kaius, maybe not mockingly, Kaius doesn’t know what the boy meant. “?” “What do you mean ‘lets be friends’, ash kid?” the boy asked in a slightly rude way. “I need you to help me train. please?” “oh god, you’re annoying as hell you know? Nevermind yeah I’ll help u train.”

***

The morning air was crisp with the sting of sweat and dirt as Kaius gripped the wooden training sword, his knuckles white from effort. Antonio stood in front of him, arms crossed, eyes narrowed like a disappointed older brother. “Again,” he commanded. Kaius raised the blade, adjusting his stance just as Antonio had shown him, left foot forward, knees slightly bent. His muscles ached from the day before, bruises still blooming purple under his skin, but he pushed through. “You’re still swinging like you’re trying to chop down a tree,” Antonio barked, stepping in suddenly and knocking Kaius’s sword aside with one sharp flick of his wrist. “You need to think faster. Every fight is a conversation—stop yelling and start listening.” They reset. This time, Kaius tried to feel the rhythm of the movement: the shift of weight in his legs, the way his shoulder turned before his wrist did, the way Antonio’s eyes flickered before he made a move. He was still slower, still weaker, but something was changing. He blocked a strike. Then another. His feet moved better. His grip was more confident. “Better,” Antonio muttered. “Still sucks, but better.” Hours passed. Sweat dripped down Kaius’s temples, soaked into the collar of his shirt. The blisters on his palms began to split open, but he didn’t ask for a break. When Antonio threw him to the ground for the fourth time, Kaius spat dust from his mouth, got up, and raised his sword again without a word. Antonio looked at him, a flash of reluctant respect in his expression. “You’re a pain in the ass,” he said. “But you’re tougher than I thought.” For the first time, Kaius cracked a weak smile. He didn’t know if he was getting stronger or just more stubborn—but either way, he was learning how to fight. And for the first time, someone was finally teaching him how to survive properly. “Thanks, Anton” “MY NAME ISN’T ANTON. İTS ANTONİO FOR GODS SAKE.”, he said annoyed, since it wasn’t the first time Kaius called him by the wrong name. Kaius cracked a warm laugh at Antonio’s protest, the tall, older boy’s girly pout making it look even funnier to Kaius. “Don’t make me kill you, Kaitor!” “STOP OH MY GOD” at this point Kaius is wheezing not only because of Antonio’s girly pout, from the way he misspelled his name again as “Kaitor”. “I’m hungry, ash kid.” “I have a name too.” “oh?” the boy said sarcastically “I’m hungrier, trust me, Antonio.” “Then shall we go, my prince?” “Yes, my handsome knight”, they walked down the halls with that playful banter. At cafeteria, there was the usual food; xidreona bread and water, it was not enough to satisfy their hunger but enough to make the hunger go away-at least for now. “Xidreona bread? Again? İts not even tasty at all…” Antonio says with his signature girly pout. “What are you, a duke? İts the normal food, why are you complaining?” “No but I hate it. At least I know which food is tasty and which one isn’t, Kaius.” “Oh shut up.” Kaius bites the hard bread “The fuck? why is it so hard?” “I swear to god you’re too dumb for your own sake. İts literally Xidreona bread.” “oh.” they both try to eat the hard bread with water to make it softer. “shall we go to the library after eating?” Kaius asked to Antonio and Antonio replied with a muffled nod from the bread. “how old even are you, Antonio?” Antonio answers after swallowing his food “uh. I don’t remember. Like 15…Yeah I’m 15.” “How do you even forget your age…” Kaius says with a small sigh of annoyance. When they came to library, the librarian greeted them with a weird smirk. They quickly went to the history books section, Antonio walking faster than Kaius since he was more interested in books than him. “Where’s the Destruction of Etrad?” “…Are you seriously gonna read a book about that when you have someone from Etrad in front of you?” “Yeah, obviously.” “okay then, if u say so, prince Antonio.”

***

“HOW COME YOU CANNOT FİND A GOOD BOOK ABOUT THİS?!” Kaius yelled in a annoyed way at Antonio “I’m trying, dumbass!” The librarian hushed them in an instant “Folks! Shh!!” “Oh sorry Ma’am.” “Yeah sorry Ma’am.” the boys argued quietly. “İts your fault dumbass. You couldn’t find one single book?” Kaius whispered angrily, “I’m trying! I’m not good at finding books from the cover..” “Why?!” “Damn it I don’t know how to read okay?!” “HUUUUHH” “…” “damn” “…” “why though? Aren’t you like 15?” “yeah…” “…” Awkward pause. Kaius cracks a laugh at the absurdity of the event. “Don’t laugh, ash kid!” “I’m going to cry from laughing so hard- Hahhaha..-” “Shut up…Not like you know how to read perfectly…” “I’m not laughing at that! I’m laughing at how you tried to find that book but you didn’t even knew how to- Hahahah..- how to read!” Antonio smacks Kaius’s head in a embarrassed way. “The prince Antonio is flustered? Quite the sight…” “Shut up!” “okay okay don’t get mad, my prince.” few minutes later of trying to find a good book that explained the destruction of Etrad, Kaius found a good one. “Found it!” “whoa! How will I even read it though..?” “Oh damn I forgot about that…Well jokes on you I know how to read, I can read it for you maybe.” “What do you mean ‘maybe’, ash kid?” Antonio smacked Kaius’s head in an annoyed way. “HEY! That hurt.” “İts supposed to hurt!! Read it to me!” “ugh fine.”

“Page 148 – Chapter 4: “Words from south gate survivors”

“The smoke was so thick, I thought the sky had turned to stone.”

— Leria Tann, age 11 at the time of the bombing

The South Gate fell at dawn. Not because soldiers breached it, but because it was ordered open from within. Archive fragments recovered from the Etradian communication towers confirm a coded transmission—designated Whitedove-9—was sent to the gatehouse moments before the artillery barrage began.

people witnessed that describe the attack as “not a siege, but a massacre.” Civilians had gathered in the lower quarters, seeking refuge. The Spassau fire units struck the water lines first, ensuring that the fires could not be extinguished.

“I saw the banners before I heard the shells. They weren’t our banners.”

— Thomel Veir, former Etrad city guard

The official Spassau records claim the city was a “strategic military zone.” However, records recovered from the Etrad infirmaries indicate that 74% of the casualties were unarmed civilians, and over 3,000 children were registered missing within the first 24 hours of occupation.

Perhaps most damning are the recovered orders from General Varnik of Spassau’s Third Division:

“No prisoners. No survivors. Let them choke on the ashes of their resistance.”

To this day, no court has investigated the South Gate assault. The names of those killed are etched into a crumbling wall outside the ruins—now fenced off and written ‘unsafe for visitation’.”

Kaius’s expression hardened as he read this page, he looked at Antonio’s eyes to see some pity for the “pathetic” ash kid, but he found no pity, nothing related to pity but raw anger. “How can people be so cruel?” Antonio murmured with a solemn expression “That’s just inhuman.” he continued “I didn’t know Spassau generals could be this barbaric, yeah I know they must be brutal and all that but its too much, even for the Spassau; the kingdom of war.” “I know.” Kaius closed the book and putted it on a nearby table, he didn’t liked these kind of books, he hated them. “Wanna go to the windy hill?” Antonio suggested to clear Kaius’s head from the cruelty of Spassau, “Oh. Okay.” Kaius noticed the slight pity in Antonio’s eyes even though he tried so hard to hide it, Antonio pitied him, Antonio thought lowly of him, low enough to get upset over a dumb thing such as empty words written in a shitty book. “You know…Antonio. Don’t pity me.” “I’m not pitying you, Kaius.” “Uh-huh. As if Id believe you. Your eyes say it all, Antonio.” “Oh. I’m sorry.” “Nevermind, lets go to the windy hills.” “I know I suggested this on my own but shouldn’t we be finding information on the destruction of Etrad?” “I don’t want to.” “Okay if you say so.” “I don’t want to go to the staff for permission to go out too. Lets just escape from the back gate, it wont be for long, they wouldn’t even notice” “Okay, lead the way, ash kid.” Kaius shoot Antonio a glare at the usual nickname but then sighed lightly and started walking out of the library to the back gate. When they reached the back gate, Kaius easily jumped up to the gate fences and then got out of the orphanage easily, waiting for Antonio to do the same. “How do you even jump that high..?” “C’mon! İts not even that high, Antonio.” “Uhh.. Ill try then.” Antonio tries to jump up to the gate fences, but while jumping down to out of the orphanage he accidentally tore off the end of his shirt to the gate fences “Oh fuck…İt was my new shirt…” “Don’t care about the stupid shirt and just come!” Antonio whines but comes anyways, both of them running to the windy hills that’s not much far away from the Spassau city. “Fast!” “But my clothes will get dirty!” “For the sake of god, what are you, a princess? I said hurry before the staff notice us!” “They wouldn’t even notice if we escaped for real!” Kaius drags Antonio along to go to the windy hills faster. “I can see the windy hills!” Kaius exclaimed enthusiastically, Antonio smiled at Kaius’s childish excitement. As they reached the windy hill, the fresh air surrounded them with a warm wind, the dandelions are flying freely in the summer time, Kaius sat in front of the cliff of windy hills, swinging his legs down the cliff. “You’re gonna fall!” “I wont.” “…” “Come sit next to me.” Antonio sits next to Kaius with an uncertain expression with a nervous smile plastered on his face. “İts windy up here.” “That’s why they called it windy hill.” “You’re right.” Kaius picks up a dandelion and gives it to Antonio “Don’t be so nervous, aren’t you from Spassau? You must be used to staying on this cliff.” “Yeah but I’m scared of heights.” “So? That doesn’t mean you cant have peace up here, just don’t look down and only watch the sky.” “Okay…I trust you.” Antonio took the dandelion and blew it to the air, watching the sunset. “You’re weird” Kaius says suddenly “What do you mean?” “You’re in the orphanage but never escaped, never had fun at all.” “I’m just not used to being here.” “How? Aren’t you here for long.” “Not exactly. I came here 3 months ago actually.” “What happened? Did your parents die or something?” “I never lived with them, I stayed with my auntie but she committed suicide.” “Oh.” “You wont ask why?” “I don’t wanna rub salt on your wound by asking it.” “Ill answer it anyways, she had a huge debt against the jeweler.” “Why? Did she rob him or something?” “What?! No of course…She would never. İt was just a misunderstanding between her and the jeweler and the jeweler took it too seriously by sending people after her and doing messed up things.” “That’s rough. What happened to your family though?” “Oh, them. I don’t really know. Auntie never talked about them, not even a single word. I wish she would say something, anything about them before she died.” “…” Kaius putted a comforting yet awkward hand on Antonio’s shoulder, no one has comforted him when he needed it so he wanted to comfort Antonio now. “I’m not good at comforting right?” “Of course. You suck at it. But still feels nice.” “We should go back to the orphanage, I bet the staff is freaking out right now.” “But I don’t really wanna go, not when I had fun for the first time in here.” “We can have fun everyday, lets go.” Kaius got up and offered a hand to Antonio to help him get up, Antonio took his hand and got up, then they started to walk to the orphanage back.

***

“YOU BOTH ARE DUMB KİDS!!” the headmaster roared furiously. Now the headmaster was scolding them for escaping. “What if someone- someone kidnapped you guys?!” the headmaster notices that the two boy weren’t even listening to him and sighed. “You both are nothing but trouble. Go to the dorms and don’t come out until morning.”