WHITE DARKNESS - BLACK MAGIC SAGA - BOOK 1

THE ICE QUEEN

Kingdom of Eskarya, Gleaxsiara Institute

Friday, 23rd of September

The Rebellion.

The war which changed the world.

Descending from Paradise, two gods, siblings, started a new regime together. Aztra, the eldest and goddess of spirits, was represented by her usual companions, dragons, ancient creatures which ruled the world. And Osnos, the youngest, god of resistance, represented by a chimera and their immense toughness.

The eldest governed the world in peace in the kingdom of Eskarya, caring for her people, teaching the arts of Elemental Magic and the different uses of it. Aztra then started conquering new territories, expanding the lands of her empire but also letting them live in peace. She started generating more resources and brought fortune to the kingdom, making her the Dragon Queen, a woman which protected her people and destroyed everyone who tried to maim it. She was loved, adored and bowed to. She was sacred, a gift from the above.

This angered Osnos, the youngest, who, filled with avarice and materialism, spent the money of the people in his selfish desires. Him, drowned in jealously and enraged with his sister and the people who bowed to her, started gathering an army to overtake the kingdom by force. He started spreading word of the rewards he would give if her sister was betrayed and yanked away from her throne. Killing thousands who wouldn’t join his forces.

Aztra was then informed of the killings, the devastation, and tried to stop her brother, but he didn’t care to listen. He was angry with her, jealous of the love it was meant to be for him because he was the man, he was the strongest, she wasn’t. He tried to take her crown but failed in the attempt of it. Aztra then banned him from the kingdom, thing that angered him even more.

Osnos declared war to his sister, and started creating weapons, beasts who would destroy her. He called them the Phantominds, soldiers made of shadow and hatred, capable of annihilating each ounce of magic and life. He also descended to Inferno, freeing the son of his lost brother, Hekenar, to reign by his side.

The war started, and with disadvantage of not having such weapons, Aztra’s army started losing very quickly. Villages were destructed, pacts, traditions and family bonds, all destroyed by the jealously of one man.

The killing of Aztra’s seven daughters broke her soul, but her hope was lifted when she found out one of them had given birth to a baby girl. Aztra made sure to hide the daughter, mixing her with noble families who would protect her. Still, this wasn’t much to overtake her brother, the invasions of countries next to the rapid decreasing of her army made her recur to an extraordinary measure. So, knowing she wouldn’t win the war, she created a plan which would someday bring relief to the world.

She created a prophecy, a spirit who would host the dragon inside of the seventh generation of the baby girl who had been saved.

Osnos then won over the war with unfairness and Aztra was killed in battle by him, not knowing of her secret plan.

He then took place in Eskarya as king.

And dammed all who questioned him.

It was when the Mixture then happened. Magical beings and creatures mixed with Nonchanters, people without magical ability, coexisting by equality.

Peace as far it went, had then governed for a good few years as the scars and trauma from the war were healed, until two years after the rebellion a terrorist movement called The Abolition, from Kashber, started rebelling against the rules of king Osnos.

At the start of all, it hadn’t been as bad. The Abolition had begun with their deceased founder Vasil Israilov, followed now by his son, the ‘Great General’ Nikolay Israilov. This group were people who still believed in Aztra, and refused to extinguish her name from their tongues as the new law said it. They wanted to seek revenge for the Queen they once had, and claimed an heir of hers was still somewhere hidden, waiting for the moment to bring fortune and demolish the evil king. The killing of Osnos’ offspring started when Vasil appeared dead at the centre of Kashber. People had risen then and trained as an army to conquer the territories once claimed as Aztra’s.

Osnos, hearing of many sons and daughters of him being chased among the Atax continent, sent the Eskarian army to fight to Kashber.

By then the army leaded by Vasil’s son started to infiltrate inside Shiat and Monatry, freeing the people and gaining force as a unit.

A century passed then, and the war continued. Osnos continued to keep living and ruled with iron fist next to his nephew and even if his army had managed to restrain the three countries from growing on territory and as far as everyone knew, The Abolition was being taken down.

Of course this wasn’t true.

Many families had sent their sons and daughters to fight, still many of them refused to sacrifice their magical core and die. That was the new problem now, the lack of army.

This is why, a pretty girl had stolen paperwork from her father’s office, hoping she could have more information on the war.

“Leevanna.”

Lhu O’Neyl waited a second, feeling her coffee and white curls wave back by the cool wind of the outside. And even though her 5’6 height could let her see that her best friend was focused on something, she had to tiptoe on the ground to see what was so interesting. But when she saw pages of some kind, she thought it was a book, so this time she scolded.

“Leevanna!”

From a few feet afar, a girl with white hair was being illuminated by the moonlight, and, without taking her eyes off her incredibly fascinating paperwork, she replied, almost humming, “Hm?”

“It’s time for dinner. And haven’t I told you to not lose yourself into reading when it’s getting dark?”

“Ugh, I know… But this documents are yet so interesting,” she complained, closing the file in annoyance before getting up from her seat and start following the olive-skinned girl.

“If I didn’t get to you, the Phantominds would, at least thanks.” Lhu, glaring her with her big amber eyes, stuck out her tongue at her. The white-haired girl, chuckling leisurely, left a kiss on her cheek thanking her and letting Lhu held her hand.

A big gesture from her, a thing that surprised Lhu, who cheerfully smiled at her and held her by the arm, so her head was on top of her best friend’s.

The jade-eyed did not like to be touched. She despised it.

It was common for her to react aggressively or even be scared if someone dared to do it. That was the reason she had worn black leather gloves on her first year.

“What were you reading anyway?” Lhu asked with curiosity, seeing her best friend open again the file on her hands as they walked. “Is that… Is that about the armies? Where did you get it?!” as her hands yanked on of the papers from the file, Leevanna shushed her.

“They are from my father’s office,” Lhu looked at her with wide eyes, scared. “I know, I know, but I intent to ask Maglor to return them. He is on a trip, my father, so he won’t notice,” she sighed. “But look,” her finger pointed a line. “At least we now know that your cousin and mine are alive,” she smiled.

It was Lhu’s turn to sigh, “Those idiots,” she shook her head. “Even I don’t understand how they volunteered for it. I cannot believe my uncle even let Ashton train with Nonchanters.”

Leevanna’s parents had taught her to never trust a Nonchanter, or a Hybrid — people born from the Mixture of magical races and Nonchanters — because they had created monstrosities to the magical race. Especially her father was the one who had traumatised her about it, and even though she didn’t understand the meaning of those words, she had absorbed that idea and internalised that idea as a kind of mantra. And there was this thing called choice, which she didn’t get to have, ever. She had to follow that belief, not because of her, but out of fear.

There were times when she questioned those ideas, the way her parents had forced her to grow up with and the things she’d had to learn via punishment. But then there was this question: What difference would that make? Would her parents start to love her? Absolutely not. She could be able to sleep for more than two hours? No. That would erase her traumas?

That was a good joke.

She had to follow those thoughts, she had to be mean to them, she had to — she told herself that every single morning and at any hour of the day. She needed a reminder.

As the conversation with Lhu went on, the curly-haired made a question, “But why do you have those documents?” Lhu frowned. “You can’t really do anything.”

“That is where you happen to be wrong.”

Lhu stared at her, “What do you mean?” she asked. “You can’t possibly be thinking of going to the war, you aren’t even of age.”

“Not that exactly,” Leevanna bit the interior of her cheek. “But I can help with strategies, they are out of Mathamancers.”

“Your father would never let you; you know it,” Lhu’s eyes again on her friend. “You are a woman and a royal one. He would die first than let you.”

“He doesn’t have to know.”

Leevanna accommodated her hair, she had some beautiful braids on, and she had to make sure they were all still in place. Lhu glanced at her by the corner of her eye as they walked towards the entry of the Banquet Hall.

Although the brunette had known the white-haired for years now, there were some things Lhu was so intrigued to ask but at the same time afraid of. It could be that maybe many times there were people who asked her how she had managed to be by Leevanna’s side without getting a sour look or even a scream when she touched her.

Lhu knew tough, she really did. It had taken some time to finally be able to start digging in, but then Leevanna herself had started doing it, opening herself to the one who she now called her best friend. And even if at first it was hard to understand, Lhu had learnt that Leevanna was full of dark memories that with the pass of time, had become terror-struck secrets that you could only imagine happening in the same pit of the Inferno. They infected her, made her raw in black magic.

Leevanna truly most of those memories blocked — as any person who has been through traumas, as a mechanism of defence to protect herself; main reason why getting to understand them was particularly hard for Lhu to piece together, for the reason that all seemed to be connected somehow.

The main thing Lhu had discovered, not on self-accord, was that those secrets made big explosions with the simplest things, just as gasoline does next to the fire. Leevanna tended to have episodes, that’s how she called them at least — they could be depressive or angry ones, depending on what had been the trigger.

They mostly were at night, because of her nightmares, but then they came in summer, or festive days. And there was a reason nobody, except one time, had seen her have those explosions: she could do irreversible harm.

But how would people notice the way she was broken behind the façade of that beautiful whitish hair she took care of every day, her shapely figure that captivated most people and those jade eyes that were as clear as glass decorated with long as well as thick eyelashes, ending with pink full lips which let escape the most meaningful and teasingly things out of them. And that skin so white and flawless that you had fantasies about being able to touch it and feel its texture...

Leevanna Vaughan was the most loyal person Lhu had ever known. She was like a child still, funny and clumsy, clingy sometimes just as well as sensitive — though she was very mean if she wanted to.

Where did you get a spell to be like her? She was so smart — brilliant —, and even though she was cold and emotionally distant with the rest, they liked her.

Everyone was always talking about her.

« Why the Ice Queen? » « The way she looks at you with such coldness... The way she had seemed to build an empire with those ice walls that surround her. How everyone is always willing to do anything for her. She is beautiful but hurtful. »

But Lhu knew that her best friend, her sister, wasn’t just a pretty face, she wasn’t just an ornament to stare at. Leevanna was everything, she was the whole. Everyone else revolved around the things she did, the way she behaved, why she was so unique and rare among the rest. Why her eyes seemed so cold, so hopeless? Why she reacted so awfully if someone touched her? Why every single time your eyes landed on her you just knew that she didn´t have it easy, that her brain wasn’t her ally?

The way she thought was just so fascinating. She could say one thing at first but then hear the rest of people and came down to her own kind of idea.

Leevanna was strong, and not just in magic, but in resilience; after all she had been through, she was still here, standing. Her brain was capable of just take her to the extreme until she was panicking, but then it could make her just shut down and become dark as the light inside her went off.

Her demons were always with her, following and haunting, making fun of her emotional weakness. Demons which claw around her intestines, twisting them until she puked, hanging like monkeys upon her coldblooded veins, and fold her spirit into itself, like ants which numbed her body leaving her with the incessant tingle in her skin as she is suctioned like dust in front of a vacuum down into the dark abyss of her pain.

The torment in her eyes haunting her in every way possible, scaring any possibility of being happy. Why no one saw her smile. Why nobody had seen or heard her cry or admit she was having a rough time. She could be so sweet and gentle if she wanted — help people around her without asking anything in return — or be the meanest person who had ever born.

The way she controlled all that surrounded her just to feel good and secure with herself. The necessity she had of knowing that if she was judged for her actions, nobody would give her any mercy. Never.

But Lhu would never have envy of her — she knew so many things about Leevanna that were simply just fearsome, but she was not afraid —, so when someone asked if she would do something to be like Leevanna, Lhu always said ‘no.’

“And speaking of the f*****g devil,” Leevanna snorted, snapping the brunette out of her thoughts and looking forwards, (making the small jewels she had made appear to make friendship bracelets with the girl by her side), directly to Eisdrache Vailant, who had sat in front of them with a playful smirk.

“Talking about me again, darling?” uttered the boy without even saying hello and challenging her with his eyes.

“We were talking about how irritating and bloody annoying you are, darling,” she replied and blurted out as much sarcasm as possible on the last word ending with a smile with the same feeling. “Want to join us?”

“The fact that my name is that bushy head of yours is enough for me,” then Eisdrache winked at her causing the white-haired to roll her eyes in annoyance before making a gesture of disgust.

“Piss off, Vailant,” her tone of voice was bored. “It would give us all a good laugh to all if you shut that bitchy mouth of yours for once.”

“Look who talks about having a bitchy—”

“Didn’t you hear me? Shut your mouth before I owl your daddy.”

“You little cu—”

“And there is again,” the girl rolled her eyes, annoyed. “Do you need a zipper?”

Eisdrache took off his middle finger. “At least I don’t have a bloody filthy, bushy nest as hair.”

“Oh, so you’re going to drag me now?! What did you say about my hair?!” her hands slapped the table as she stood up.

“That looks like a nest full of bird shite!” his hands also slapped the table, and he stood up. Both looked at each other with narrowed eyes.

“Yours looks like a f*****g spaghetti meal but burned and uncooked,” she fought back ending with a sarcastic smile. The eye-contact intensified. Glowing cold crystal-like jade and glistering pale grey encountering.

“Sit down, you spoiled little brats,” laughed Mason Stein. Both teenagers gave the final death-look to each other and huffed before they took off their middle fingers.

“At least I know I come from pure magical royalty,” Leevanna’s eyes shone in proud as well as her smug. Her whitish hair revealing she came down from the ancient of magical families. The maternal side of the jade-eyed came down to six generations, all women, ending with the girl, who was the seventh, coming straight from the royalty.

Eisdrache rolled his eyes. “The only thing you’ve come from is Gryrkus,” his platinum hair with black strands pushed back by his fingers. Leevanna stuck out her tongue.

Around them, everyone was talking about the school that would be refuging in Gleaxsiara Institute of Fine and Obscure Magical Arts. Due to the Abolition threatening to take over Kilska, the Minister of said country made the king the request of transferring the students from Stouvania Academy of Magics to Eglary and protect them and their studies, keep them away from the war.

It was true, to a certain extent, but Leevanna, now that she had read her father’s document, knew that the truth was different. Crueller, raw and burning as the flames of fire. It was a necessity, she knew, but that didn’t make it right. The lack of resources and soldiers for the army had made the king and generals of the army make decisions, so they created what would be the Paragon Elemental Tournament of Physic and Magic that took place every year. It had started almost thirty-five years ago. It held twenty champions that were selected from a duelling between houses and students, then said selected would compete in fiver tasks, each for an element. Just four remained winners, making them High Admirals of the elemental armies. The other sixteen who didn’t win were scattered between Generals, Captains and Soldiers depending on how close they had been from winning.

Her gaze then passed through the new crew that would be coexisting with her. Stouvania Academy had arrived a few hours earlier in a profligate Pegasiphix caravan made of the finest materials such as gold and diamonds. The school practised much of the Purity, the movement which decreed Nonchanters as lower lifers from magical and royal beings.

Kilska was known from their extensive population of Kereys, descendants of the first Pegasiphix that landed on earth. These enchantresses usually were Clairvoyants and Seers of great knowledge that would control Divining Astral Projection; their blood was usually used for beauty and intelligence potions. They were also very powerful when it came to fire and earth elements.

This country was administrated by Óegnus Kyai, the son of a spy for the government inside the army of Osno’s sister in the First Rebellion. His father had been the key to destroy Aztra from within, and now his son was headmaster and Minister of Kilska.

No Nonchanter lived in Kilska, just pure races and some Hybrid families, but it was mainly the powerhouse of the armies, training their students to one day be part of the army. That was the reason Stouvania had come to stay inside Gleaxsiara Institute, so they could be safe.

A few minutes later everyone was settled in.

Two more large tables had been set for the new school.

Leevanna swept her eyes through the professors’ table. Angelice Laverne, the Head of the Office of Sports and Tournaments — and the lover of the Head of Elements — was present. Leevanna narrowed her eyes slightly. The gears of her brain working. Her eyes then fixed on Sthepon Reeves, who nodded once at her. Leevanna mimicked his movement.

“Good evening my dear children and Stouvania fellows,” at the words of headmistress Harmony Armstrong, all eyes were on her. “Today as many of you already know, we welcome Stouvania Academy inside our walls…” at the whispers this started, she snapped her fingers, silencing the whole hall. “It’s secret to none of us that we are at war, and that our resources for the army that will help us is decreasing rapidly… So, the Parliament has decided to merge us for the Paragon Tournament…” a stern look on her face. “I will now give word to Miss Angelice Laverne to speak about it… Please, ma’am.”

The woman, auburn hair which reached her hips perfectly put up in a ponytail, stood up from her seat and walked to the podium.

“Good evening,” she greeted, all of the alumni answered her. “With the recent attacks on Kilska and Anthal, the Paragon Tournament has been designed to host as many champions, who are not to be faint-hearted, since it requires great strength of the mind and a perfect control of your given element… A final warning still… Once you are in, there is not out,” and Leevanna swore the woman in dark robes was looking at her. “Woman from House Vasilka of Gleaxsiara are still not to be participating… This due to your duty to your families, who have already agreed,” then Angelice’s eyes swept throughout the dining hall. “The students must be from sixth year and up, and they will be participating in five tasks, all of them involving the elements. With this said, I shall grant you great luck.”

As the cheering and clapping continued, Leevanna bit her lip.

“Of course they don’t want royal woman participating,” snorted Freya Sagecross. “Duty to our families, bullshit.”

“Don’t cross yourself, sweet thing,” grinned Rhazel taking a grape to his mouth. “Let men handle the war,” Thea Levine threw a piece of carrot at him, they laughed.

Leevanna remained silent.

Yes, she had a duty. A one she must fulfil.