New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Back in Montreal's urban region, in the underground facility under Jack Boudreau's control, Jonathan was using his free time training his wind magic out of New Eden.

The boy had been having a rough time using his wind swords with his right arm, ever since it had been severed and reattached. It was like the mana flow between his body and the limb wasn't quite right, and his blade refused to form correctly.

It either formed haphazardly, or the wind couldn't solidify correctly, because he had to focus on the shape. Jonathan wasn't sure whether it was a physical blockage or a mental one.

He couldn't discard the second possibility, since he still had nightmares about the event.

In the very few hours he did indeed sleep, every day, he sometimes woke up in sweat, tearing up from sheer fear, his dreams fluttering with images of the demon holding him by the throat as he slashed his arm off. His mind even sometimes delved deeper into those, making him see and feel as if the demon cut up the rest of his body, as well.

For a six-year-old child, images like these were more than enough to cause permanent trauma. Yet, Jonathan was fighting them back as best he could.

He knew he should seek help to overcome this fear, but he refused to. The maturity he sometimes showed was terrifying to his grandfather, who wanted nothing more than his grandson to live a normal life.

But that ship had sailed long ago, when he was the only survivor of a car crash that took his mother and father from the boy, at the tender age of two. Ever since that day,  Jonathan had been growing up so fast that Jack sometimes feared he would think like an old man before reaching the age of majority.

Jonathan rose from his butt, taking a last sip of water from his bottle, before going back to his mana training. Usually, around this time of day, he switched to target practice in another room of the facility.

But he refused to train on that until he could get his wind swords working correctly in his right hand again. So he stubbornly resumed his focus, and conjured his mana into a wind blade, focusing on shape and strength.

Jonathan got the shape to hold, using most of his focus there, before trying to thicken the mana in the wind element. But just as he started infusing more mana into it, the blade started wobbling uncontrollably, until it burst into a sharp gust of wind, blowing Jonathan to his back.

"God dammit!" Jonathan screamed, his back to the cold floor.

Tears started forming in the corner of his eyes, as desperation was slowly creeping in. Even if he knew he could still use his full power in New Eden, he wanted it to show on Earth as well.

What was the use of becoming stronger on one side, if it didn't show here, too?

"I don't want to become useless… I don't want more people that I care about to die… Not again…" he cried.

Doctors had said after the crash that he was too young to remember any of it, but they had been wrong. Blurry images flashed in his mind of his mother, crawling to the back seat after the crash, making sure he was ok.

She had a large piece of something shining embedded in her stomach, and was visibly in pain as she checked up on him. She had smiled when she confirmed he was okay, before dropping to the top of the overturned car, unmoving.

That was the only thing Jonathan remembered about it, but it was already much for him to bear. He refused to watch another of his loved one's die.

Brushing away the tears from his eyes, the little boy got back to his feet, a look of resolve in his eyes.

'I'm going to make this work again! I have to!' he thought, channelling his mana into his hands once more.

***

Back on the island of Montreal, in a rich part of town, Violette was currently in a pool, floating on her back, with an instructor positioned behind her, holding her head above the water.

"Good, Violette. You're doing great! That's it. Keep your body relaxed."

Violette was learning to make herself float in case she ever fell into the water again. It was one of the first things the instructors were teaching her, to save her from possibly drowning again.

Her mother, Katherine, was on the side of the pool, angst clear on her face. But regardless, she was proud of her daughter's progress.

The instructor slowly let go of the little girl's head, letting her float on her own. Violette didn't even notice as he ever so gently took his hand away.

It wasn't until he called out to her mother that she realized she was managing on her own.

"Look, mom! I'm floating!"

Katherine nervously looked at the instructor, who smiled back at her, making a thumbs up with his hand.

"You're doing great, my little flower. Stay focused, though," she replied.

As Violette noticed the instructor was a few feet away, she tensed up a bit, and her body started sinking a bit. The instructor rapidly swam back to her, maintaining her head above the water again.

"Whoa, breathe in, breathe out. Stay calm and keep your muscles relaxed. I'm still right here."

Violette calmed down, feeling his hand back under her head, and her body floated back to the surface.

"You're doing great, Violette. At this pace, you can start learning how to swim by the start of next week. But before that, you'll have a little test to pass. Is that okay with you?"

Violette nodded her little head, nervous at what the test entailed. But she wanted to learn, no matter the difficulty of it.

She thought of all the possibilities of her knowing how to swim, given she was a water mage inside New Eden, and her imagination went wild with ideas.

'I need to learn this! It'll make me stronger!'