Taking her place

The first time I used magic, I created a rose of glass for my older sister for her thirteenth birthday and she was ecstatic to receive it. Her black hair shone just like the rose under the sun and her beautiful smile flooded away all my worries for a split second before she ran off in excitement to show it off to our parents. I continued to stand there with my hands shaking as tears rolled down my cheeks at an uncontrollable speed. The reason being was because the moment I had used magic something began to flow into my mind. 'Perhaps a dream I had forgotten about?' I tried to lie to myself, but it did not work.   What I saw was my previous life as someone in perhaps another dimension, who died the moment her or should I say my family took a trip to visit extended family on a rainy day and suddenly everything began to spin and it all went pitch black.   It would have all been alright if the images had stopped there though...   For some reason as soon as I remembered my past I also gained new memories of perhaps the future.   I tried to shrug them off as hallucinations but after so many coincidences I began to realize that I would not be able to run away from my future. It did not quite hit me until our parents were murdered, unfortunately, that is what it took for me to finally accept it. One night after the yearly celebration of the moon goddess’s creation, the day when the people in the streets were at their loudest a man in black paid our family a visit. He managed to kill our parents as they tried to protect my sister and me but all we could do was run. We ran as far as we could but if my memories were correct a man would find us and raise us as his servants and after that my sister would find a boy with a curse upon him that would forever change her destiny. That boy would actually be a man cursed to turn into a boy during the day and in the night, he would turn into a man. He would then fall in love with my sister and she would die exactly a year after their meeting.   As we ran with all our might my sister began to slow down. She had been hurt as she tried to protect me from the man in black. Even though our father a well-known knight trained her, a fifteen-year-old girl could still barely do so much against an assassin. "Lenna... Close your eyes," I told her as I grabbed her hands and looked at the front of us. "What? Why?" She asked as she put one of her hands on her knees to breathe. "He's following us, although he won't be able to kill us if we continue to run towards that direction, we will be found by the man that will lead you to your death," I said as she sighed loudly. "Blair, this really isn't the time to be talking about your dreams," Lenna said as she pulled my hand towards the direction that we were running in. Her words stung like thousands of needles, but I knew that if I had been in her place, I would have been thinking the same thing. "Fine, just don't blame me if you get nauseous," I said as she looked back at me and her eyes widened as if she was going to scream something, but it was too late. I had already begun to use my magic on us to transport us somewhere far away from here. I knew that using this amount of power would hurt my thirteen-year-old body, but I had no other choice. I knew that if we met the man ahead of us my only family member that I had left would eventually lose her life and I did not want that to happen. Blood began to flow out my mouth as we were surrounded in blue light and slowly, we began to disappear.       I put my hair up as I look at myself with the mirror and sigh softly, although the day looks nice there is something at the pit of my stomach. Some kind of strange feeling that I cannot seem to comprehend, I have felt love before and understood that the feeling was warmer and softer, but this feeling isn't warm. This feeling is hot and extremely violent. It feels as if something is trying to crawl out from inside me and it makes me anxious. "Is something wrong?" Lily my maid asks as she looks at me with a soft expression. "No, I just have this weird feeling lately. I think I might be nervous." I say as she smiles at me and fixes my clothes. "Lady Lenna and you make the master of this house very proud." She says as she looks at my knight garment. "Too bad you two decided to become knights. You would have looked so beautiful in a dress today instead of pants." Lily says as she sighs softly.   That day when I teleported us to another place, we found ourselves in front of the Artema household where the master of the house took pity in us young orphans and decided to adopt us. She allowed us to keep our names, but our last names were changed to match our new mother, Akuna Artema.   "Blair!" I hear Lenna shout as she runs towards me. She is wearing a similar outfit to mine since we are both knights in training but hers is a dark red with white rose designs on her clothes while mine is black with small dark blue flowers in the wrists of my jacket. Our capes also differ as hers is dark red with a pure white inside, while mine is black with a dark blue inside.  "Come! Mother wants to tell us something and it’s supposed to be important!" She says as her cape hangs from behind both of her arms, making her look like a superhero in action while mine just hangs from my left arm.   "Yeah I heard, that's where I'm heading," I say as she smiles with sparkling eyes. "You are so not cute! What happened to my adorable little sister that would smile all the time?" She asks as she tries to bother me. "I grew up?" I say as she looks at me with her smile slowly disappearing. "Why did you decide to become a knight?" She asks as she stops in the middle of us heading towards our mother's office. "Was it because of me? To protect me?" She asks as her smile completely disappears. "No,” I tell her as I face her now serious expression with my own serious expression. "I did it to protect myself. You are perfectly capable of protecting yourself but if I do not learn the basics, I will just become extra baggage, and let's face it. I'd hate it if our parents saw me as a weakling when our father was talented." I lean closer to her as I say, "but that's not really what you wanted to ask is it?" I say as I put my hands behind me. "Do you want to know why I’ve changed so drastically?" "I know that you are seventeen but ever since you were small you've always given this mature vibe, but it wasn't always like that." "But I already told you why," I say as she sighs deeply. "If this is about your past life memories..." she says in an annoyed tone. "It is actually," I say as she rolls her eyes. "I just want to make sure you are alright. If I am to be married off-" "You won't be if anything the one to be married off is going to be me," I say as she looks at me with a pissed off expression. As she is about to say something, I cut her off "I already told mother that I don't want to inherit the family. That if anyone should inherit a family of knights, it should be you. After all, I am just a knight to not fail my blood, unlike you who became a knight because that's your passion."   A moment of silence is left hanging as my sister tries to find the words to say next, but she is unable to find anything to say when I begin to walk again, and she follows behind silently. When we arrive at the doors, two guards bow as they open the doors for us, and we enter. Lenna smiles widely as she bows to our mother while I bow as professionally as I can. "As always, you two are as different as night and day." The woman sitting down slowly stands as she sits in her chocolate brown couch and signals at us to have a seat across from her. Her silver hair is proof that she is not blood-related to either of us but that makes no change in how she views us and how she feels about us.   Daliah Akuna Artema, the woman was unable to have children, so her husband left her. When she was in despair we appeared in front of her home and she took that as a miracle, but little does she know that on that night the miracle was her.   I try to hide my nervousness as I put my hands together and she smiles softly. "I wanted to talk to you about something important, I am of old age now so I can't really be doing this anymore but there was a lost child walking the streets at dawn in the middle of nowhere and I decided to take him in. He seems to not remember who he is but he was wearing high-quality clothing, so I take it that he is just lost so he will be staying here as a guest and I would like the two of you to take care of him." She signals to one of the servants as they step out of the room and I swallow hard as Lenna smiles brightly. "Of course, we'll take care of him! You can definitely depend on us!" She says as she looks at our mother with sparkling eyes. "I’ll even teach him how to be a knight!" 'It can't possibly be...' "I don't think that's what a child wants to do," I say as I sigh softly. "Please forget about depending on Lenna for something like this, if anything I’ll make sure the child is well taken care of." "I feel somewhat relaxed now thanks to my lovely flowers being so cooperative." Mother says as she covers her mouth trying to hide a smile.   The doors slowly open as a maid enters with a small boy of about eight years of age as she bows and leaves the room. Leaving behind a small boy with a worried expression. He grabs the front of his shirt as he nervously looks at the ground. "Child come." Mother says as he walks towards us and I begin to rub my forehead. 'How the hell did he still appear in our lives.' The young boy looks at all of us nervously as he continues to stand. Lenna is about to stand but I beat her to it as I kneel in front of the young boy and lift him and sit him down into the couch next to our mother. A part of me does this because I know what will happen to my sister if she is the one to gain the attention of this man and another part of me does this because the me in my past life had younger cousins then her and always wanted a younger brother. I observe his shirt and notice that his buttons are done incorrectly and begin to redo them. "What is your name?" I ask him but he does not answer. He just looks at me with curious eyes. "He doesn't seem to remember." Mother says as she looks at me with a troubled expression. "Then what should we call him?" Lenna asks concerned. His hair is dark like my sisters, but his green eyes stand out. "Kuro," I say as I remember the name from my past life when I see his hair. "Kuro, what an interesting name." Mother says as she looks at the boy and asks, "shall we call you Kuro?" The boy excitedly moves his head up and down as he looks at me with high expectations. "Then Kuro it shall be," I say as I smile softly. "Alright, Kuro! Get ready to be taught how to be a knight!" Lenna shouts as she smiles widely. I sigh as I think to myself. 'If only you knew who this kid really is...you'd probably ask him to teach you...'