Chapter Two

Nimue sat on a park bench next to Ember and watched the children play.“So what happened?” Nimue asked Ember, who just arrived.

“First, bandits came to invade our village. Luckily, a few soldiers were visiting their families so they fought them off, but not super easy. They were still hurt by them. After that, the monsters came. At least twenty came into our village and ended up killing all the soldiers first. As I ran, I saw…. I saw my family being torn apart.” Ember shivered. “In the end, only six of the monsters survived but they still managed to destroy everything.”

Nimue noticed that Ember was much more mature than other children her age. Ember acted like she was completely fine, but after an incident like that, Nimue imagined that she would never have a child-like moment for the rest of her life, even if she wanted too. Her childhood ended as soon as the attack started.

“How about we go to meet your new teacher?” Nimue exclaimed, trying to change the subject. Ember’s eyes opened again, with an extravagant sparkle.

“Can we?!”

Later that day, Ember was sitting on the wall, looking out to the forest. She made herself seem easily distracted by other things, but no matter what she did, she saw her mother's body motionless on the ground, her brother and sister being torn apart and eaten, and her father…….. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She lost everyone. Her neighbours, friends, and even family. She lost everyone she knew. One of the guards walked up to her. “Hey kid, It is dangerous up here. You should get down.” She ignored him and sat unmoving for a few seconds. “Hey, kid…” He put his hand on her shoulder. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward, almost making fall down off the wall.

“I’m sorry. I was just lost in thought. I didn’t hear you.” she said, helping him up. She started to walk to the stairs leading down.

“I would recommend coming here past midnight. The guards posted here at night are super nice and lax. Don’t lose your sleep though.” The guard called to her.

“Thank you.” She called back. She went to the grass park and sat under one of the trees planted there. She began to read, in an attempt to distract herself. People were pointing at her and whispering to the others around them. It looked odd to see such a young child looking so mature. Some children started to play with a ball nearby. “Hey, guys.” One of the boys whispered. He pointed to Ember. All the children smiled knowingly. The best thrower in their group aimed and threw their ball. Right then, Ember stood up and walked away, having the ball barely skim her. She picked up the ball and threw it into a tree so that they could not reach it. They glared at her as she walked away. The boy flushed with embarrassment, then quickly turned red with anger. He knew right then that he hated her. Ember was extremely annoyed, but she didn’t show it. Three of the kids were in her class, and she would be stuck with them for the next thirteen years.

“Eye colours rank our society by power. People with grey eyes foretell no great things and usually become farmers. Brown eyes show a bit of potential, and usually become farmers or guards for minor towns. Grey-blue eyes hold a bit more ability and most of them become good mages.” One of the girls seemed happy with that.

The teacher continued. “Dark green eyes are slightly better with magic powers. The rarest eyes are emerald green, bright purple, and electric blue. All of these have extreme magical potential, all in order from least to greatest. There is one colour of the eye that hasn’t been seen in centuries, but if you do find a person with silver eyes, it is very likely that they will beat you in battle, even without the proper training, as they have the ancient spirits backing them, even though they look very similar to grey eyes.” The teacher eyed Ember but quickly looked away.

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“The only way to differentiate the two is their magical power. If you face someone with silver eyes in a fight, you will definitely lose. If you are extremely skilled in sword fighting, and they are just magic-based, it that will not just end badly for you, but for the people around you.”

Ember was intrigued by the eye colour’s potential, and she pretended she had silver eyes. Soon after though, she stopped pretending.

Ember loved her moments alone on the bench, but to the other children, it was something that drew her apart. She loathed her classmates. They hated her because she had grey eyes instead of electric blue, or maybe even an emerald green like all of the others, but that didn’t matter to her. At least she hoped it wouldn’t get to her, but how she longed for eyes that everyone else wouldn’t frown upon.

Instead of talking to everyone about what she was going to do once she finished school, she would stay in her room and study, hoping to make up for her grey eyes. All the children had dorms, and many had older siblings or cousins they would stay with until they were old enough to stay in the school alone. The only exception was Ember. She had her own room that was closer to the guard towers. It was larger than the other rooms and had access to the outer walls. She had a large desk in the opposite corner of the door, and a bookshelf across from it. The bed was hidden on the same wall as the door in the corner, and the closet was right next to it. Her room was bland and flavourless. She only had what she needed, and she liked it that way.

Ember was sitting at the desk, with a book open on the dark wood. The book was about magic theory, even though they weren’t supposed to start magic until they were twelve. Ember wanted to show her classmates that eye colour meant nothing if they didn’t try. If she tried as hard as she could, while they were fooling around, she might be able to become the head of the royal guard; Her dream. To be at the top of everything, and to be able to show people her power. She smiled when she thought about it.

She kept reading, and soon she had completed the book and moved onto the next one; Lost Magics. This one she had to bribe their librarian to give to her if you could call it that at least. She had made a deal with the librarian that if she read the whole book within a week, along with two other books, he would let her keep the book, and give her a different book, Forbidden Magics. From her teacher, she had borrowed some reading glasses that helped her process the information faster. It was a bit harder because she was so young, but the glasses helped.

,|?:; She let out a sigh. Her eyes turned to the window, where she saw children running around and laughing. It brought tears to her eyes. She knew that no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn’t ever get the chance to feel that joy again. She knew that she could never feel the joy of the wind on her face, to know the joy of being surrounded by lifelong friends. She would never feel the same. She saw the cruelty of the world. The hate. She looked at her hands. They clenched closed. She closed her eyes to stop the tears from flowing. One tear grazed her hand, and a surge of energy was released. It didn’t seem like a great wizard’s blow, but it did make a small black flame burst from the skin that was struck for a second and then disappear.

“Did you see that?!”

“Of course I saw it! It was as unmistakable as a flare!” The three spirits were watching over her to see what would happen next.

“That does prove she is a Potential though. If she is also a silver then she will be perfect for a host.” Nova said with wonder.

“ We must take care to keep her pure though. You know what happens to most of her kind. Especially when Halo spoke to the first.” Adrielle looked towards the third spirit.

“Don’t look at me like that. You refused to speak to them and I couldn’t just let them be killed off.” Halo said angrily.

“We also cannot let her see us though. If she gets older with us near her for her whole life, she might be able to see spirits earlier than the others.” Nova reasoned, distracting their child-like quarrel.

Adrielle sighed. “I guess you are right. Just one more thing though. We should watch the headmistress closely. Something about her reeks of malice. We wouldn’t want her to Turn because of a human.”

Midnight came fast. Ember was sitting on the edge of the walls looking out towards the mountains. Below her, she could see a group of foxes playing among the trees and heard the howl of the wolves. She took a deep breath of air, turned around, and walked to one of the watchtowers. As she was walking, she felt something brush against her shoulder but saw nothing there. She shook off the butterflies in her stomach. She wouldn’t let her fear overcome her again. She would prove that she was better than the others; Prove that her weaknesses wouldn’t overcome her and that she could fight a war.