Asher's History:
Asher was barely twelve and a half when things started to get really weird around him, though he doesn’t really have many clear memories about it, and would have mostly shrugged off the weirdness if it’s wasn’t for the consequences that started to build.
The usually cheerful boy had been in a bad mood for a while, mostly because he was starting to get discouraged about befriending the local children in the village nearest to Brightward’s secluded forest home. This was actually to be expected since Asher had been attempting the same thing ever since he was first introduced to the village at six, so it was actually rather surprising it took this long for him to get discouraged. His grandfather was a ruff man and didn’t think much about his grandsons’ gloom, blaming it on something he called pure Burt tea, something that confused Asher but he didn’t ask because he didn’t like tea or water at all recently. But then things got weird. Asher would lose memories at the time and find things destroyed, or burring in an eerie purple-red fire. First harmless things, like small tasks that frustrated him or burnt claws marks on trees. Asher didn’t equate this incident to himself, thus after a while told his grandfather who become more cornered over his grandson than Asher even remembered. The man wrote a hurried letter to someone who owed him a favour while things only got worse. The blackout happened more often with Asher often waking up to his great distress of his grandfather or pets being injured, not knowing it was him doing so. Things escalated and escalated until a beautiful woman walked onto the ground to a distressed old man, a crying boy, and a burned down cabin.
This woman was not a woman, but a demon of the ocean far away from home to teach the son of her enemy how to slay her kind to stop the end of human civilization. Not entirely because she wanted to, she didn’t care about humans and didn’t want to teach one to slay her kind. But she did very much owe a member of Sabertooth who owed a favour to the child’s grandfather, and she got to stick it to that stupid fire demon by corrupting her son (or purifying in this case). Her name was Myrtoessa and she had and job to do and she would do it well. So she took Asher away to teach him the magic that would suppress his demon side while his grandfather stayed to rebuild their home.
Myrtoessa and Asher came to the immediate problem of not liking each other, due to both their opposing natures and personalities. Asher fought everything Myrtoessa tried to make him do and threw many a tantrum so the ocean demon’s first challenge was to not kill her student out of frustration. She quickly realized that the other problem would be his natural affinity to fire, and to change its affinity to the opposite of water. Thankfully in her mind, the solution was simple, throw the boy in the water. Unfortunately, this was found to be an extremely painful experience for Asher that almost killed him. After a few more tries of different degrees and Asher becoming seriously scared of his teacher, Myrtoessa had to admit she was stumped as to how to get this boy to change his magical nature. It was then when Myrtoessa was alone comp templating this that some water spirits who had been watching their attempts the past few days appeared before her, not because they wanted to show themselves to a demon but because they felt really bad for the child. They advised that he first needs to learn how to appreciate and love water before accepting it into himself, advising the demon teach the boy gently.
After deep contemplation, Myrtoessa followed their advice and woke her student up at down to show him the morning dew. She taught him the place of water within nature and why it was important. She taught him the philosophy behind the ebb and flow of water. She talked about the ocean and its moods and blessings. About rain and weather, rivers and puddles, life and death in the water. Myrtoessa, despite her demonic nature, was reminded about why she loved the water and despite his misgivings about the woman, managed to inspire Asher. But it was only after a visit from the boy's grandfather and some solemn encouragement for this path (“A wise man once said when life places stones in your path, be the water. A persistent drop of water will wear away even the hardest stone.”), along with some advice and supplies for bribery for Myrtoessa, that the student and teacher duo became a lot more cooperative. While he didn’t fully understand why he had to, Asher put more effort into learning, mostly when he realized and got excited over learning magic for the first time. Myrtoessa on the other hand followed the old man’s advice and introduced water as a good thing in more traditional manners of juice after training on a hot day and soup during cold nights. They spent mornings practicing combat, then time washing a meditating on the water before lunch then magic theory and basic spell lessons in the afternoon. In the evenings Myrtoessa told stories of her home underwater and stories of battle and how to beat certain monsters. Finally, when Asher could sit in the water meditating without pain when he eagerly reached for a cup of juice when he willingly woke up early to watch the morning dewfall, did Myrtoessa think he was ready to become an Ocean Demon Slayer.
She waters for a storm to start and took Asher to a clear part of the forest. In the midst of the main, she summoned the water to her, created a giant orb of water around them both with her demonic aura in it. She then instructed her student to accept the water and remember its true purity, grab that purity and use it to reject the taint or he would die. Asher had learned enough in both philosophy and practical magic that Myrtoessa believed he would succeed, but if he didn’t? Then at least they didn’t have to worry about the prophecy. But she privately hoped he would succeed. Asher struggled both against the weirdly familiar demonic taint and suffocation itself, not sure how to fight off both. Just as he was about to blackout, he realized it not about rejecting both, but accepting both and letting it flow. With that Asher opened his mouth and reached deep within himself to consume the tainted water, barely managing to drain it all. The fire in him balked at the water and revelled in the taint, and Asher worked all his will to subconsciously fight it. The corruption spread as he struggled before a bright flash of light erupted and Myrtoessa was thrown back from its holy power. There, glowing with white marks, stood and awed Asher, the new Ocean Demon Slayer. Myrtoessa was weirdly proud of teaching this kid to basically kill her and her kind.
The two spent more time together afterwards, helping Asher to hone his magic to be graceful yet deadly in his attacks. Asher learned he favoured using a weapon with his magic, helped from his grandfather’s sword lessons to channel and slash at his enemies with holy power. He also very much likes slayer type roar spells and often cast it just for fun to his teacher’s annoyance. But soon the house had been rebuilt and the now thirteen-year-old feeling happier and calmer than he had for years, and had cool new magic to boot. Myrtoessa knew there was little left for her to teach Asher at this point and that his fireside had been successfully repressed so with a tearful (Asher) and uncomfortable (Myrtoessa) goodbye Myrtoessa left to return to her home, leaving Asher to with the freedom to write his own destiny.
Skip a few years with Asher's grandfather's mysterious passing, leaving behind a brokenhearted grandson and a letter to the mysterious Edmond Sabin of Sabertooth...
Asher was barely twelve and a half when things started to get really weird around him, though he doesn’t really have many clear memories about it, and would have mostly shrugged off the weirdness if it’s wasn’t for the consequences that started to build.
The usually cheerful boy had been in a bad mood for a while, mostly because he was starting to get discouraged about befriending the local children in the village nearest to Brightward’s secluded forest home. This was actually to be expected since Asher had been attempting the same thing ever since he was first introduced to the village at six, so it was actually rather surprising it took this long for him to get discouraged. His grandfather was a ruff man and didn’t think much about his grandsons’ gloom, blaming it on something he called pure Burt tea, something that confused Asher but he didn’t ask because he didn’t like tea or water at all recently. But then things got weird. Asher would lose memories at the time and find things destroyed, or burring in an eerie purple-red fire. First harmless things, like small tasks that frustrated him or burnt claws marks on trees. Asher didn’t equate this incident to himself, thus after a while told his grandfather who become more cornered over his grandson than Asher even remembered. The man wrote a hurried letter to someone who owed him a favour while things only got worse. The blackout happened more often with Asher often waking up to his great distress of his grandfather or pets being injured, not knowing it was him doing so. Things escalated and escalated until a beautiful woman walked onto the ground to a distressed old man, a crying boy, and a burned down cabin.
This woman was not a woman, but a demon of the ocean far away from home to teach the son of her enemy how to slay her kind to stop the end of human civilization. Not entirely because she wanted to, she didn’t care about humans and didn’t want to teach one to slay her kind. But she did very much owe a member of Sabertooth who owed a favour to the child’s grandfather, and she got to stick it to that stupid fire demon by corrupting her son (or purifying in this case). Her name was Myrtoessa and she had and job to do and she would do it well. So she took Asher away to teach him the magic that would suppress his demon side while his grandfather stayed to rebuild their home.
Myrtoessa and Asher came to the immediate problem of not liking each other, due to both their opposing natures and personalities. Asher fought everything Myrtoessa tried to make him do and threw many a tantrum so the ocean demon’s first challenge was to not kill her student out of frustration. She quickly realized that the other problem would be his natural affinity to fire, and to change its affinity to the opposite of water. Thankfully in her mind, the solution was simple, throw the boy in the water. Unfortunately, this was found to be an extremely painful experience for Asher that almost killed him. After a few more tries of different degrees and Asher becoming seriously scared of his teacher, Myrtoessa had to admit she was stumped as to how to get this boy to change his magical nature. It was then when Myrtoessa was alone comp templating this that some water spirits who had been watching their attempts the past few days appeared before her, not because they wanted to show themselves to a demon but because they felt really bad for the child. They advised that he first needs to learn how to appreciate and love water before accepting it into himself, advising the demon teach the boy gently.
After deep contemplation, Myrtoessa followed their advice and woke her student up at down to show him the morning dew. She taught him the place of water within nature and why it was important. She taught him the philosophy behind the ebb and flow of water. She talked about the ocean and its moods and blessings. About rain and weather, rivers and puddles, life and death in the water. Myrtoessa, despite her demonic nature, was reminded about why she loved the water and despite his misgivings about the woman, managed to inspire Asher. But it was only after a visit from the boy's grandfather and some solemn encouragement for this path (“A wise man once said when life places stones in your path, be the water. A persistent drop of water will wear away even the hardest stone.”), along with some advice and supplies for bribery for Myrtoessa, that the student and teacher duo became a lot more cooperative. While he didn’t fully understand why he had to, Asher put more effort into learning, mostly when he realized and got excited over learning magic for the first time. Myrtoessa on the other hand followed the old man’s advice and introduced water as a good thing in more traditional manners of juice after training on a hot day and soup during cold nights. They spent mornings practicing combat, then time washing a meditating on the water before lunch then magic theory and basic spell lessons in the afternoon. In the evenings Myrtoessa told stories of her home underwater and stories of battle and how to beat certain monsters. Finally, when Asher could sit in the water meditating without pain when he eagerly reached for a cup of juice when he willingly woke up early to watch the morning dewfall, did Myrtoessa think he was ready to become an Ocean Demon Slayer.
She waters for a storm to start and took Asher to a clear part of the forest. In the midst of the main, she summoned the water to her, created a giant orb of water around them both with her demonic aura in it. She then instructed her student to accept the water and remember its true purity, grab that purity and use it to reject the taint or he would die. Asher had learned enough in both philosophy and practical magic that Myrtoessa believed he would succeed, but if he didn’t? Then at least they didn’t have to worry about the prophecy. But she privately hoped he would succeed. Asher struggled both against the weirdly familiar demonic taint and suffocation itself, not sure how to fight off both. Just as he was about to blackout, he realized it not about rejecting both, but accepting both and letting it flow. With that Asher opened his mouth and reached deep within himself to consume the tainted water, barely managing to drain it all. The fire in him balked at the water and revelled in the taint, and Asher worked all his will to subconsciously fight it. The corruption spread as he struggled before a bright flash of light erupted and Myrtoessa was thrown back from its holy power. There, glowing with white marks, stood and awed Asher, the new Ocean Demon Slayer. Myrtoessa was weirdly proud of teaching this kid to basically kill her and her kind.
The two spent more time together afterwards, helping Asher to hone his magic to be graceful yet deadly in his attacks. Asher learned he favoured using a weapon with his magic, helped from his grandfather’s sword lessons to channel and slash at his enemies with holy power. He also very much likes slayer type roar spells and often cast it just for fun to his teacher’s annoyance. But soon the house had been rebuilt and the now thirteen-year-old feeling happier and calmer than he had for years, and had cool new magic to boot. Myrtoessa knew there was little left for her to teach Asher at this point and that his fireside had been successfully repressed so with a tearful (Asher) and uncomfortable (Myrtoessa) goodbye Myrtoessa left to return to her home, leaving Asher to with the freedom to write his own destiny.
Skip a few years with Asher's grandfather's mysterious passing, leaving behind a brokenhearted grandson and a letter to the mysterious Edmond Sabin of Sabertooth...
