MORPHOGIA #2 (WEBNOVEL)

CW : SUICIDE, DEATH, MURDER

MORPHOGIA, AN EARTH FULL OF VICES

SEGMENT #2

It was the usual routine for us in our household, where we would show up in the main hall for the staff to inspect us. Adulthood was something big for us in our household, though lots of us have been training to be our father’s heir, the seat keeps changing until someone becomes an ‘adult’ in other words, we’ll go through a metamorphosis, we change from being humanoid to having the animalistic features the adults have.

“Atlan?” The inspector called out for my brother, who was nowhere to be found, I had knocked on his door multiple times, it was routine for us to race on who would wake up earlier than the other and we would let the other know who the winner is by waking the other up through knocking on their door. I thought it was odd that Atlan didn’t respond to the knocking, as if he was awake, he would knock on mine earlier.

What happened just an hour ago gave me this sense of unease deep inside of me slowly turned into dread when the entire hall was turn into a swarm of noise and chaos as this was out of the ordinary, we didn’t break free from our routine because we’ve heard the stories of what happened to other savar when they go against their father.

“We’ll report this to Master Baatar after this, let’s continue with the inspection.” The staff easily shrugged it off, when they do this, it was obvious what it meant. Atlan possibly fled from home.

The dining hall was filled with whispers that morning, everyone wondered why and how Atlan escaped, even if we both weren’t named the Silver Mane once, we were practically unofficially established ourselves as the standard ceiling within savars. I was trembling, I know sooner or later Father will call for me, after all I am the only one who everyone suspects would know what happened to Atlan.

The younger savars would assume that us who are on the top of the hierarchy to be favored and could be a little less fearful of our Father, but the truth is I still feared Father. After all, it is apart of our culture to call us in our lowly forms ‘savar’, a derogatory name within our language. Only through adulthood and our metamorphosis process, could we be seen as proper children in our Father’s eyes, we would be called ‘zulzaga’ rather than ‘savar’. So for now, we are only political tools, trophies or on special occasions, examples.

So, what if a savar still remains in our lowly forms after becoming of age? Well in our household, our mothers would recall the story of nergui, well he had a name once but Father forbade us from saying it, that was how much he was seen as a disgrace in our household. Nergui was the previous Silver Mane, he was killed on the day he turned 18 because he never achieved adulthood and went through metamorphosis.

Nergui’s death was so traumatic that his own mother killed herself from the grief, yet no one made a big deal about it, if anything it was used only as a scary tale for us savars what happens if we don’t achieve our ideal forms. It made savars like me who only has a few years left before our coming of age fear like it’s the end of the world. No matter how many times I tried, I still wasn’t able to unlock my metamorphosis.

Other than nergui, we also had another example living amongst us, unironically enough, one who came from the same womb as nergui.

I looked up from my plate of breakfast, a boy 2 years older than me was holding a tray of his meal, looking at me with intent. Bayar.

“Naran, I need to talk to you.”

T.B.C