Ashvik was a Midster with a Aiykyam-Sahasyam lineage. In Illume, Midster was a derogatory term given to the children born from inter-race marriages. Pragyas, Sahasyas and Aikyas considered such marriages blasphemous. Each race had a different but rigorous punishment to prevent such unions.

 

Born from an innocent love, Ashvik's life only found miseries and deaths while he grew up. His mother, Ashmi, was a wealthy Sahasyam official who served in the grand Embassy of Sahasyasth and was stationed in the capital of Aikyasth. As a child, Ashmi was a voracious reader and preferred philosophy in her leisure time. Inspired by Indra Manu (a Shura), she believed in equality for all, a noble thought that she always kept hidden. She feared her superiors, who hated Indra with a passion.

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She would find solace in a shopkeeper, Ashvik, who delivered essentials to the Embassy in Halcum. Ashvik was an illiterate but handsome Aikya. And it was his unique desire to learn and ask questions that brought them together. Ashmi feared a brutal backlash if they were ever found together by anyone. But the innocent Ashvik pursued love as a blessing of his Mother Goddess, Aikya.

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Her actions brought the wrath of the Ambassador, who transferred her back to Viryasth. But it was not long before she realized that she was pregnant. Ashvik was reprimanded and brutally stoned to death by a fierce mob as inter-race marriage was considered blasphemous throughout Illume.

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The Sahasyas valued the life of their citizen but despised such marriages. The Sahyasyam Court forced Ashmi into slavery, where she died in hunger and exhaustion after giving birth to Ashvik, who was then adopted by a Pragyam slave. At the age of twelve, the same Pragyam slave was forced by her owners to send Ashvik to the slave camp. There the Sahasyas trained him to become a soldier. For a few years, he served in the peaceful Northern Command in Sahasyasth, where the soldiers hated him for his rowdy and manner less demeanors.

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Ashvik finally found a family in Aryan, Aditya, and Abhaya when he was transferred to the War Camp in the South. Their friendship would become a legend, and that is why I preferred the first chapter(The Four Friends) of "Illume, Ashes and The Wind", to be dedicated in their memory.

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