Chapter 1: Kristhalla Knightley

“Grand Auntie...Grand Auntie wake up, wake up it’s time!” A young girl, with pig tailed hair attempted to rouse the older woman from her slumber. “Come on Grand Auntie, you promised!”

The older woman, Cassandra, stirred in her bed, “Krista, is that you? Alright honey, alright I’m getting up, Grand Auntie is just tired” She went to sit up and patted the young girl on her head, “Are you excited for today?”

For being older than 50, Cassandra looked young for her age, her skin was still smooth, her dark auburn hair flowed nicely to her shoulders, and she loved to move around, except for now apparently.

“Of course, I am!” Krista shrieked. “It’s Affinity Day!”

“My, my, then I shouldn’t keep you waiting, let’s do discover your affinity.” Cassandra replied.”

Hustle and bustle, the castle was filled with energy. An annual event for New Dawn’s youth, and one of the few times that Knightley Castle’s wall were open to the public. Any child around the ages of five to ten are offered the chance to congregate around the Grand Tree, where the affinities of those children can become known. At four, Krista didn’t even have the patience to wait the extra year, she was more than ready to learn.

After being dressed, the two walked down the halls of the castle where they chanced upon Krista’s mother, Cynthia.

“Mother!” Krista shouted as she ran to hug her. “Krista, my little girl, and Auntie Cassandra. What will you two be doing today?”

“Yes, we are going to dis- disoffer-” Krista stuttered as she failed to properly pronounce the word.

“Discover, honey,” helped Cassandra.

“Yes! Grand Auntie said she knew a special spot, so she was going to take me there.” Krista said grinning ear to ear.

“That’s great honey, I wish I could be there, but your father and I have some important business to attend to. Promise when you get back, your father and I will be the first you tell your affinity to?”

Krista wouldn’t have it any other way, “Do you think I’ll be red like dad, or green like you?”

“No one knows, but I think don’t think you’ll be like me or your father. Maybe you’ll even multiple affinities like your Grand Auntie,” Cynthia said.

“Speaking of her father, where is that man on such a busy day?” Cassandra asked with an unsubtle hint of ire. “I swear, I never knew what you saw in that oaf. The only good thing he’s given us is this little one here,” she added while playfully rubbing her Grand Niece’s head.

“Really Cassandra, this again! Why can’t you just accept that he’s a good man; he’s hardworking, he’s kind, and he made for a really fun chase.” Cynthia cooed while giggling creepily.

“It’s people like you who give the women in New Dawn a bad reputation.” Cassandra replied with a sneer.

“Like you were any different, or such I just go and get Jerimiah?” Cynthia said with a sick smile.

With a shocked expression Cassandra weakly cried, “I was young! He- he, how do you… If your mother was alive, I’d kill her!” before storming off.

“Go along now Kristhalla, you don’t want Cassandra leaving without you.” She said now with a victorious smile.

Without even realizing why things too heated, or maybe just too young to care she hugged her mom and ran off, “Love you mother, see you later.”

“The nerve of some people. Next time I see her I’ll- Oh Krista, sorry for leaving you back there,” apologized Cassandra.

“Why do women have a bad reputation?” asked a curious Krista. “I’ll be a woman when I grow up, will I also do bad?”

“I sure hope not,” Cassandra quietly whispered, “Don’t worry about that too much, it’s just a playful rumor. It just isn’t uncommon for some women, especially those from New Dawn, to develop… possessive personalities.”

“Possessive?”

“It means to hold onto to and not want to let go.”

“Why is that a bad thing? I don’t want other people taking my things.”

With a heavy sigh Cassandra continued, “That’s not a wrong way of thinking of things, but that mindset becomes difficult when dealing with matters of the heart, like love,” she finished while staring westward.

“But I love mother and father, and I love you, and I never want to give you away!” responded Krista fiercely.

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“And that’s okay, that’s why I said you don’t need to worry about it. We’ll talk more when you’re older, instead, why don’t we focus on what we came here to do? Krista, what are the names of the three Great Cities?”

“I know this. New Dawn, Soaring Sun, and Falling… Starlight!” Krista answered with joy.

“And why are they the Great Cities?”

“Um…” Krista didn’t remember the answer to this question, choosing to say the first thing that came to mind. “Because they are the oldest?”

“Are you asking me?” Cassandra probed.

“N-No, I was just seeing if you knew. It’s something that everyone knows.”

Not wanting to ruin her Grand Nieces big day, Cassandra relented, “Okay, then it’s because of the Grand Trees. Each of the three Great Cities hold a Grand Tree at their center. For us, it is this one here, Vitnova.”

They were both in a large clearing. The castle was built to encircle a single entity, the Grand Tree. Rising up 100’s of feet and stretching out longer than a house, the single tree that effectively made up the sky in New Dawn. Had it not been for the fairies, the small eel like creatures that flew through the air, no light would permeate over New Dawn.

At the foot of the tree were many children touching upon Vitnova. Around them were many other children who had previously touched the tree, some were playing around with their newfound abilities with their parents, others were vomiting their breakfast, suffering from wilt, and more others were unconscious from wither.

“Is this your special spot Grand Auntie, because we might have to wait a bit before we can get close.”

“My special spot is a bit higher, hang on.”

Cassandra grabbed onto her Grand Niece and held Krista in her arms. Cassandra’s body glowed with a compact and dark red hue around her body. She jumped off one off the nearby walls before and landed on one of the high branches.

“Again! Again, Grand Auntie! Let’s go higher!” Krista laughed.

“I think we are more than high enough, plus this is the spot I wanted to show you.”

They were only 20 maybe 30 feet off the ground, the only reason nobody could see them was the massive amount of foliage around them, and the fact that everyone was already too focused on the other children. Cassandra found a nice place and had Krista snuggle on her lap. Prolonged exposure to Vitnova could be dangerous, especially for a child, so Cassandra reminded Krista not to move too much.

“Why is this place special?” Krista asked.

“When I was much younger, when I was 15, was a… harsh time of my life. Expectations were hard and it never seemed like I could keep up. Then a helpful stranger came into my life, gave me some bad advice, and turned my life around. He did it right here, and this place has been important for the rest of life.”

“Can I ever see the stranger?”

“Who knows, I haven’t for decades. Maybe things may be different for you. Besides, what’s more important is you.” Cassandra picked Krista up one more time and held her to the trunk of the tree. “The Grand Trees are what allows us to access wattiez, an energy always flowing around us. Go on, touch it.”

Krista eagerly did as she was told, and suddenly felt a force around her. It was like something was grabbing her and slowly crawling up her arms until it covered her entire body. It wasn’t an all together unpleasant feeling.

. “What you feel there is the energy generated by Vitnova. It should feel like a rushing river crashing onto you. It’s a powerful force so try not to get overwhelmed.”

She didn’t really know what Grand Auntie was saying, the energy was making Krista feel good, in fact, she wanted more. It was like taking a nice, hot bath except the water was over her head. Only she could breathe and stay there forever.

“Impressive, usually you should feel some discomfort, but you seem more than fine. Now I need you to hold onto that energy, fight against the river, imagine yourself forcibly changing the water’s direction.”

Again, Krista didn’t understand the harshness that Cassandra was referencing, so she did the closest thing she could imagine and moved her head from the water. Then felt her first sense of discomfort, a tingling sensation as she was compelled to dive back down.

. “What… what now Grand Auntie!” Krista was beginning to pant heavily as the whole experience was very tiring.

“Well now just open your eyes and see what affinity you have!”

Krista could hear the excitement in Cassandra’s voice, and quickly opened her eyes to meet Cassandra’s shocked face, “What color are they Grand Auntie, what is my affinity?!”

“B-Brown?”

The two spent hours repeating the test over and over, at some point Cassandra even took it upon herself to try the more dangerous method of pumping wattiez into Krista’s body, but still no change. When they got home, they went straight to Cynthia and George telling

them everything. They did not take the news well.

“Our daughter is untethered?!” Cynthia shouted. “How is this possible?!”

“Light, calm down, I know this is bad but-” George tried to add it.

“Bad?!” Cynthia asked in a rage. “No, this is terrible! What are we going to do? If the other kingdoms find out about this, who knows what they’ll do. Untethered do not last very long in Stellar George.”

“I know, I know, but I already made some adjustments. Kristhalla will remain in the castle and kept hidden from the populace. Cassandra has already offered to take time off of her duties as Grandmagi until we find someone more suitable to watch over her, plus we can just act like her vase is very small, so she can’t perform any form of wattiez well.”

Cynthia usually loved to see this side of her husband, the pragmatic strategist, but right now it caused her nothing but pain, “Fuck!”