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Akilae was on his way back home from another scouting trip and was still about a day and a half's walk away from home. For the moment he was perched atop a hill overlooking the lake Koralifel. It had been a strange feeling, eating his lunch and yet feeling the lake's presence even from the distance. In a way it pleased Akilae as only Oblivionites were effected by the lake. He was not of pure blood but that side of him was still strong enough for the connection to exist. On the other hand the lake's aura was not a pleasant one and it made something in his stomach tighten uncomfortably.

Not quite ready to continue his trek homeward Akilae had pulled out his harmonica and began to play an old familiar tune. It was a lullaby his mother had sung to the young hybrid boy when he had been smaller. The tune was of dovaa origin and one of the few facets of that culture his father had allowed into the household deeming it to be of no real consequence.

While Koralifel's essence filled him with unease the lullaby soothed his nerves a bit and served as some much needed practice. Akilae had been too busy lately to spend much time on music.

Akilae had noticed the approach figure, before she spoke but not as soon as he would have liked and he blamed it on how the nearness of Koralifel still unnerved him. Violet pupils had roamed over the stranger's body and Akilae had been surprised to see it was a Peiso dovaa approaching. The young boy had been even more shocked when he had placed the features of the woman to an old memory just as she spoke. Esmeralda! How strange to see her here and that she remembered him. It filled Akilae with glee that he'd been worth remembering and he shoved away the voice in the back of his mind that said it was only because who would forget meeting a hybrid.

Akilae had stopped playing after she spoke and lowered the harmonica to let it rest in his lap for the moment. "Hello Esmeralda, you've grown up," he replied, stating the obvious. "Did you know the song I was playing?"

"I'm twelve now so a little bigger but not too much." Both of his parents were fairly tall and Akilae was anxiously awaiting a growth spurt that would mean he might one day also attain that height. Beyond that he found it hard to notice when he was growing because he saw himself every day and he always looked the same to himself. his mother had claimed that once he was permitted to take Ysali as his clan he would likely see a rapid amount of change as young dovaa in her family tended to mature quickly after that point.

"I have been good," Akilae stretched as he replied to an earlier question. "Mostly I just have lots of lessons." When he wasn't out on scouting duty he was in weapons training or learning more advanced things about the geography of the various continents. Politics too was a subject all novices regardless of division were expected to become proficient in. There were very few moments in Akilae's days when he had nothing to do.

"What about you?" Esmeralda likely had far more interesting things to say than he did.

"I live in Soudul, just not in the capital," Akilae's reply was light in tone, free of any of the malice an angry hybrid might have at banishment. A little fidgety he turned his harmonica over and over in his hands as he spoke. " Soudul is not a safe place, it's smart to feel scared." Dragons were far from the only dangerous creature that walked these lands and even Akilae had to be careful of where he went and when.

"I do not think Soudana would appreciate a dovaa trying to study her dragons." Here there was an edge of warning to Akilae's voice accompanied by a frown. He could not force Esme to give up on her pursuits but he didn't like the idea of a non oblivinite trying to discover all the secrets of his goddess' creations. "I won't help you with that." It was fine to walk and talk with her or to observe other dragons but Esme would find no aid in Akilae when it came to her Diabi studies.

" I wouldn't want a sibling," though the threat from moments before hunt in the air Akilae was making an attempt at least to switch to a more nuetral topic. His parents were not planning on more children and Akilae was glad of it. He had so much to prove still and did not need more competition.

Akilae had bristled at Esmeralda's anger, he would fight her if he had to. She was older than him and bigger but that meant little if she had forgotten how to fight.

"Abronaxus' people would not let me set foot on their plane." He growled, getting to his own feet. "I have never hurt a dovaa in my life but I would not be welcome to walk among people like you. I am not given even a chance."

The boy's hands clenched into fists and he ground his teeth in agitation. "I cannot enter the Obsidian city but no one has tried to make me leave Soudul." There were places he wasn't welcome to be sure and others where he got strange or withering looks but there had not yet been any violence against him or attempts to track him down and forcibly remove him from the continent.

Not to mention that the Oblivionites of the Order treated him as one of their own. He served Soudana and he did his best to be useful which was enough for their approval. He would never be the same as them because his blood was not pure but he was not a true outcast.

Dovaa and their culture were mostly a great mystery to Akilae. His mother did not speak of her people often and not until after the final battle could he set foot on the celestial plane. The other races said Soudana was cruel and merciless but it was Abronaxus who allowed his people to segregate themselves away from the rest as if they were better and cast away their hybrids to fend for themselves on other continents as if they did not exist then.

Despite the invitation to sit again Akilae remained standing, he did not trust Esmeralda and would rather be prepared to strike if a fight broke out. Instead the boy glared down at his companion although a tiny bit of tenseness exited his posture for the moment.

"Even if my mother took me to the city we would never get passed the guards, it is not worth it to even try," he grumbled and crossed his arms irritatedly over his chest. Only in the future would he meet that side of his family and learn more about dovaa culture or what it had been before the dovaa became the Oblivionites servants.

"My mother taught me the song I was playing, she said is was a dovaa lullaby," he replied with a thoughtful look on his face. "She tells me what I need to know about that part my body, she will help me pick a clan but beyond that it doesn't matter ." Akilae sighed and kicked at the dark sandy dirt "I can never be a dovaa because who would recognize me?" There were rumours and rare cases of a hybrid being accepted by a racial leader after performing great feats and thus being allowed to enter and live within a main city. So far as he knew those hybrids with dovaa blood had the hardest time since they had to do something truly amazing to get the notice of dovaa who were sealed away in their own private world.

No that Akilae was secretly yearning for Marcus' approval anyways, he was a child of Soudana and it was in her name that he would fight. Of course he didn't care for Draco Verrano's approval either as the man was something of a controversial topic within the Order and his father claimed he would not be Soudana's favourite forever.

Akilae disliked dovaa even more at Esmeralda's comments. Everyone had their place within the order. All children were sorted into divisions when they came of age but not everyone served on the battlefeilds. Even then he had seen blade's who were simply untrainable as anything beyond mere guards but who's culinary skills were unmatched. No one was allowed to be lazy and do nothing but you didn't have to be a warrior to belong to the Order.

Akilae of course an an exception, he was born with a special purpose and to deny or fail at it would be shameful and problematic.

Irritation was overwhelmed by pride when he was asked to play the lullaby again. he didn't get requests to play music too often and never things he had learned from his mother. In return Akilae was impressed that Esmeralda's memory was good enough that should would be able to memorize and replicate it later. His mother had said that sort of thing was a skill some people had, playing and learning by ear instead of reading the notes off of paper.

The boy nodded and took out his harmonica again, a small smile gracing his lips before he began to play.