Attention

  "The Ethereal Elixir" is a story about a young Prince named Sairek Ceareste who leaves his sheltered life in his castle to explore the open world. He goes out on a journey to find out the true circumstances of his mother's illness, an illness which had killed her when he was still only a toddler.
...Or is he really? His own doubts leave him to believe that he is only making excuses for himself and is merely trying to escape the daunting responsibilities of needing to run a country—a responsibility he curses on a daily basis, a responsibility given to him by nothing more than being born in 'royal blood', in his eyes.

In his journey, he will meet and befriend a young girl from the countryside who will teach him how different one's life can be by just being born in different circumstances and who helps educate him much about not only the world, but what being ‘loyal’ means. Loyal, not in just a subject who will follow him for being born with the title he has, but someone who will teach him what the true meaning of friendship is and stays with him for who he is, rather than what he is.
Sairek will also meet another boy who is kind in heart... A demon; cursed by not only his birth for being born in the human world, but also cursed by being the type of demon he is, making his circumstances incredibly difficult in his environment - grasping the difficulties of struggling with what he is versus who he is. Sairek will realize just how cruel fate can be, not only from this demon he befriends, but eventually from his own circumstances as well. Although two completely different figures in the terms of society and even in biology, Sairek recognizes just how similar the both of them truly are to each other despite physically, being worlds apart.
Sairek will meet one more boy, a mercenary who struggles with his own identity in life and faces extreme hardships on a near daily basis as he tries to puzzle who he was before he had forgotten, but through that search, becomes enshrouded in an event that causes Sairek to question the purpose of nobility in general. Through him, Sairek struggles with decisions of what is considered “right” versus what is considered “good”, and must question what he defines “justice” to be.

He is a Prince, "shackled by the binds of nobility". He is fated to run a country by birth regardless of whether he likes it or not. Such grand responsibilities must eventually be faced, or they may come invading into his life; harming not only his subjects, but also ripping away from what he has grown to treasure most on his enlightening journey. Sairek, ignorant and sheltered from his time living in his protected castle, goes out on his journey and learns just how shady, cut-throat and unforgiving the world can truly be.

He must decide at his young age just how much his responsibilities and what is expected of him to his kingdom can test the bonds of his relationships with his friends, subjects and even himself. Should he surrender 'who he is' versus 'what he is' to appease his responsibility to his country, or does he throw it all away and doom his country selfishly for himself and his friends? Should he shake the foundations of the world order to appease the mass public, or toss it into disarray because it is the “right” thing to do?

 

 

 

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Please be warned, this story contains very mature themes that may not be suitable, or may be offensive to some readers. These themes do involve minors. Ethereal Elixir while being light-hearted at times and isn't dark and 'edgy' for the sake of just being 'dark and edgy', is nonetheless, a serious story about a boy and his friends who do experience extreme hardships, just like sometimes we may experience in real life. People do crimes, do disgusting things, have offensive values and abuse others. Children also makes mistakes, and sometimes have to learn the hard way from those mistakes. Just like in real life, life can be light-hearted and joyous at times and some events may lead to very dark or even criminal situations as well.

While I want to spoil as little as possible in the synopsis or this warning, as well in that these themes are not the main driving point of the story, the story still involves minors that are on the cusp of being teenagers in a fantasy world and will experience situations of:
Violence, death, scenes of sexual nature such as recognizing one's own sexuality, questioning one’s sexual orientation and learning what one’s body can do.
Other scenes contain abuse and contain topics and plots related to that of racial differences (albeit, with humans and demons).
Just like how we struggle with some problems in the real world and there are people that do truly horrible crimes, this fantasy world has its own problems and struggles that these characters must face, too.
This is not a story that everyone will be comfortable with and I understand that. If any of these themes may be offensive or triggering to you, then I would strongly suggest turning away, and I advise to remember that despite how uncomfortable or offensive some scenes may be, that this is fiction. It is not real and no real persons and locations are involved with my writing.

All views, opinions or otherwise that are written are, not written to express the authors' own views and opinions! They are written explicitly for each fictional characters' views and opinions themselves. The characters and the setting itself is written in such a way to be intentionally and critically flawed in many areas!

I strongly urge you be at least 18 or older to read the content that is written here. While the story isn't nowhere near completion at the time of writing this and may be subject to change, what content in the story that is currently there is written with an adult reader in mind and already includes some of the above themes.

Other than that, I hope you enjoy the story. This story is 100% free. I have not put up any ads or anything as I do not wish to monetize off of some of the heavier and taboo themes within the story (if there are any ads, that's Blogger's doing - not mine). I simply want to write and share my story that I am creating with the world.

No parts of this story may be republished, profited or posted anywhere else without the author's express permission.

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Current State:

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas.

 

I tried, but it was very lonely. I only have one cat left now, and he's over 22 years old, so he's probably not going to last much longer. Still seems healthy otherwise aside from temporarily losing focus frequently, but that's normal for a cat his ancient age.

2024 has been a very... rough year for me, what with losing 3 one after another. As soon as I thought I finished grieving one, another one would die. And I know soon my 4th and last will die as well.

I didn't post an update when the third cat died -- but it was because of a cancerous tumor that grew in her mouth. I sought options but she was so old (nearing 17 years) that places wouldn't even operate on her because the operation was guaranteed to kill her, and probably only to give her a few months longer at most, and the operation to help her would have been pushing  five digits in cost which is multiple ranges out of my budget. Best I could do was improve her quality of life best I could for the four months she had left. This is partly why there was no update; any free time I had was devoted to making her last days the best they could be. She died surrounded by love when the time came for her to go.

I'm looking into adopting new kittens who need a permanent home but that probably won't happen until around spring. Of course the new ones can't replace the old ones I grew up with but that's not really the point. But I also don't want to be alone, especially with a bunch of cat belongings that will just be littered all over the house otherwise with no cats to enjoy them that will remind me of my old fluffy family.


I wanted to push my writing in 2024 initially, but obviously losing cat after cat after cat starting in May, it just didn't happen.
I'm hoping to try again in 2025, but I don't think I'll have time to for next year either. Things are becoming more and more expensive with little relief to the rising costs, which makes it more and more difficult to stay afloat. Not knowing if I can even eat the next day is a scary prospect. I've already been there and I don't want to be in that position again. I'm still only barely above the surface and that's with financial aid from a friend. I've been trying to save up for a phone (I don't even own one because I can't afford one) but having multiple cats dying is surprisingly very expensive. The cremation costs between all three of them have been an additional thousand dollars alone, let alone the multiple thousands I spent trying to prolong their life or make their final days as comfortable as possible.

Regardless, I'm going to try to tentatively start working on writing again. It's my passionate hobby and being away from it for over half a year doesn't feel good and I miss it, even if the amount of people who read what I write is minimal. I knew a story like this was niche anyway. That said, this may not be the story I begin getting back into the swing of things again. This isn't unusual for me when I try to de-rust after a writing hiatus.

I want to try getting a more public eye on my writing. I do a lot of writing, but it's mostly for me -- even this story, but the problem with that is that it makes it very hard to receive critique. I want to be a good writer and I want to write for other people, too. I don't want to only just write in my little corner.

Also X (formerly known as Twitter) is the only avenue I used to give an eye to my writing right now, and if you know anything about the platform -- it doesn't like that. So I need something else. Specifically, something that someone can see, likes, and wants to see more from me.


I'm still thinking about it, and I don't know how my schedule for 2025 will be looking, but that is how my situation and thought process stands as of right now.
For those who follow this story for it specifically, I'm sorry that this is not the best or most encouraging news for a chapter to be up soon, but that's just how it is right now. I wish it was different. I'd love to go back to just focusing on it, but I reasonably just cannot do it right now unless something changes for the positive. I'm very sorry. I will of course try my best to try and push something out, but I cannot make any promises and I don't want to half-ass anything or put out something when my head wouldn't be in a good space.