"What else am I supposed to call you… when you are my big brother?"
Rael's eyes widened as a question slipped from his mouth unconsciously. "What do you an?"
The boy looked at Rael once before he began his story.
"My father and I lived in the peaceful forests of Socrana long before it beca what it is now. It was a peaceful and quiet place."
He paused, his blind eyes seeming to look at sothing far beyond the room.
"My father, Eidolon, was a blacksmith revered across the world. Kings, Emperors and even Demigods traveled for months just to commission a single piece of artifact from him."
"But after I was born he stopped making artifacts for others."
Rael listened silently.
"You see, my father only forged for because I was born blind due to so curse." Winter's smile was soft. "He spent decades creating artifacts that would help navigate the world without my eyes. A hat which saved from rain. A cane which alerted from danger. He made countless such artifacts for ."
The blacksmith, Eidolon's shadow or perhaps just a mory made manifest, continued his rhythmic hamring in the background, each strike perfectly tid.
"But the one thing he wanted most… he could never achieve, which was to create an artifact to restore my sight." Winter's voice cracked slightly. "It wasn't because he wasn't trying his best. He forged hundreds of them like lenses blessed by celestial light, masks infused with phoenix tears and even crowns made from the World Tree itself, every one of them should have worked for a normal person and each one failed because of the curse."
He took a deep breath.
"Still, my father never gave up, he just smiled, ruffled my hair and said 'Tomorrow, Winter… Tomorrow I'll figure it out.'"
Winter continued.
"Then one day, an arrogant and demanding human emperor ca. He wanted my father to forge him a weapon that could kill gods." Winter's tone darkened. "My father refused but the emperor was powerful but so was my father. They fought for three days and three nights until finally, my father erged victorious."
"The emperor agreed to leave us alone and made an oath binding his very divinity to his word." Winter laughed bitterly. "We should have known better that arrogance doesn't bow."
The temperature in the room seed to drop.
"One day, when my father was away gathering materials, the emperor attacked and he kidnapped ." Winter's hands clenched. "He wanted to use as leverage and break my father's spirit."
"Things… escalated but as my father brought him the weapon he asked for, he killed right in front of my father without rcy." Winter's voice beca hollow. "He snapped my neck like it was nothing."
"When he found my broken body, when he held in his arms… my father called upon an ancient being he had made a contract with decades ago, a being far beyond mortal comprehension."
"He summoned The Trickster."
The mont Winter spoke that na, Rael's eyes widened and even his cloak started fluttering wildly as if recognising its previous master.
"The Trickster…" Winter spoke reverently. "A God who laughed at fate itself and a man who danced between certainties and made mockery of inevitability. He appeared before my father with a smile that held a thousand secrets and eyes that saw a million futures."
Winter's blind eyes stared directly into Rael's erald eyes.
"My father begged The Trickster and asked him to save and to take under his wing until I could protect myself."
"The Trickster agreed to honour his contract but a resurrection never ca without a price especially for soone like who carried a seed of divinity."
Winter's expression grew distant.
Rael leaned forward unconsciously. He recognised the Seed of Divinity as he himself had awakened one during his evolution.
But Winter continued without caring for his curiosity.
"My father didn't hesitate and offered his life in exchange for mine and so I was saved and the Trickster took in."
"He took to places beyond mortal comprehension, realms where ti moved sideways, where concepts beca tangible, where reality itself was rely a suggestion." Winter's smile was genuine now. "He was strange, whimsical. One mont he would be teaching profound truths about the nature of existence, the next he would be playing pranks on minor deities for his own amusent."
"But between his countless moods, his mysterious lessons and his maddening riddles… he told stories… stories about a boy who would co."
"His true successor."
Rael's eyes widened in shock but he controlled it imdiately.
"He spoke of this successor with such fondness, such genuine pride, even though they hadn't been born yet." Winter continued. "He would always tell about how one day I would et soone extraordinary, soone who carries his legacy but surpasses even his expectations."
Rael still couldn't understand the point of the story.
He had learned crucial information about Trickster, yes, but none of it explained why Winter called him big brother.
So he asked without hesitation and fear. Especially now, knowing Winter was a friend of the Trickster and the chances of him harming Rael were low.
"But why big brother?"
He also wanted to ask how the hell the Trickster had known he would co to this world at all but after everything Winter had said, Rael doubted Winter knew the answer to that question either.
Winter's lips curled into a smirk.
Only now, after hearing his story, did Rael understand why that expression felt so familiar. Winter had spent most of his mortal life with the Trickster, he must have picked up that annoying smirk from him.
Winter in the anti answered.
"Although the Trickster never truly accepted as his disciple, to , he was always my master. He taught everything I know and he was the one who helped understand and evolve the legacy of my father."
Winter paused before going on.
"So even if I am older than you, and stronger than you in power, in terms of seniority…" His smirk deepened. "You, as his successor, still stand above , an unofficial disciple."
His blind eyes settled on Rael.
"And that makes you my big brother."
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