The Conflict of Magics

It was both frightening and wonderful. When she laid her head on the bed to conclude her day, she had expected to wake up the following morning in an instant as she had for the past few weeks but when she awoke, she found himself sweating and panting, the sheets of her bed were drenched with her sweat even though snow had begun to settle on the recently discovered province of the Newlands. She looked out the window and realised that the pale red from the moon, Qata yet blanketed the night. When the snow fell, it was a sensation that she was unfamiliar with, and something she had looked forward to since the day her family had been chosen among the thousands that had applied to the Emperor to settle in. She remembered being stunned and awestruck by the mountains that jagged all across the land, a far cry from the flat lands of her homeland. From the day she was born in the province of the Rhylands, she had only known the experience of a temperate climate and the thought of experiencing a weather known only to the northern kingdom of Vularia was enticing and exciting. When the first snow fell, she remembered her younger brother running out in excitement screaming at the top of his lungs while the parents, though normally strict allowed him to do so as they themselves had never experienced such a climate. Her name was Maia Farthern and on the dawn of the 36th day of the Month of Pryme, in the year 1112 AL (After the Light), she turned twenty years old, eligible to fulfil her dream of joining the Warrs. As Maia sat there on the edge of her bed, she heard her younger brother Niles shifting on his bed on the other side of the room. The room that Maia and Niles shared together was the last room to be built by their father before he brought them over. It consisted of two beds, two nightstands and a mirror. A singular window was installed near Niles’ bed and it provided a view of the sunrise. After a bit of massaging, she felt the blood return to her legs and soon she slowly walked over to Niles who was still shifting restlessly on his bed, Maia studied her twelve-year-old brother whose ash hair was pasted by his sweat to his forehead. She could tell he was having a nightmare because he was making frightened noises at the same time. Maia knelt before Niles and with her soft hands, carefully shook him awake. "Niles?” She whispered but her brother continued squirming. He was mumbling about snakes. She began shaking him and raised her voice by a little. “Niles, it’s me.” But yet no reaction, finally she gave small slap on her brother’s cheek and called him out. “Wake up!” Niles’ small eyes opened with a jump and was soon gasping for air. Maia held her brother’s back and passed him a glass of water from the nightstand. Niles gratefully took the glass and drank it greedily and when he was done he seemed much calmer. “Thank you, sister.” “A nightmare?” Maia asked, it was rare for him to be having nightmares. Off the corner of her eyes, she saw the sky beginning to brighten from the window. “Yeah, I’ve never had one so real before.” Niles replied, Maia was silent as she placed a comforting hand on Niles’ shoulder and rubbed it. “ If it makes you feel better, I had one too.” Maia said, to which Niles’ eyes widened in surprise. “Did you dream about being eaten by giant serpent too?” Maia shook her head, “No, mine was a bit… unique. I don’t know how to even describe it.” “Just tell me from the beginning.” Niles replied as he straightened himself on the bed, his full attention on his sister. Grateful, Maia tried to remember the details of the dream she had, then with a deep breath, she began. “I was in the dining room with father though I couldn’t see his face. It was devoid of features except his mouth but I recognised his puff of white hair and beard, he was dressed in his favourite azure robe and he was drinking his cup of moondrop like he always did. I did not think that it was odd for father to not have a face because I greeted him but all he did respond to an unseen figure beside me. I turned to where he was talking at but there was no one there and when I turned back he was gone, there was only me in the room. I remember… there was a blinding flash of white light and voices that I could not recognise. They were all talking at the same time and every second that passed only increased the intensity of their voices, I felt as if my brain was beginning to implode but then the voices stopped but the light remained. There was only silence for a moment and I had tried calling out but my voice did not even want to escape from my throat, I remember feeling scared and my heart was beating fast. I walked fast towards the vast emptiness, at that point I didn’t care if I was walking towards eternity, I just wanted to escape the helplessness I felt just by standing there. Then most amazing thing happened.” Maia had not noticed that she began to smile. “I felt lighter and soon I was floating towards the sky above. It was dark as night except for a single star above that shone down on me, as if it was guiding me towards peace. I just… closed my eyes and allowed myself to the pull and when I opened my eyes, I was standing before a flower. Then here was the strangest part: It did not feel like I was the one looking down at the flower. I cannot explain it but it felt like I was just looking through the eyes of another. I didn’t feel like myself. I don’t know if it makes sense, Niles.” She asked her brother who seemed as confused as she was. “ Maybe that’s the reality of dreams.” He said slowly, carefully choosing his words. “It’s not supposed to make sense but somehow it still does.” She nodded, slightly proud that her brother could analyse something such as this. “It was a Tristan Flower because it had the distinctive circular interconnecting petals with shades of black and red. Niles, do you know why at that moment I was wary of the flower?” She then asked his brother who was still attentive, he thought for a moment and said, “Rhylandier culture sees red and black as colors of death and destruction.” Maia nodded again, “Yes, even in the dream I knew what it meant but somehow, my or rather the person I’m looking through. Their eyes and soul were still captivated by the beauty of the flower. Even if it was a dreaded symbol, in my heart felt something akin to an affection. Then without any more hesitation I plucked the flower from the ground. Then the dream collapsed. I felt the ground start to shake and soon a crack began to form from beneath my feet. The flower dissipated from my fingers and soon I was falling down the crack. The last thing I remembered was my own scream.” Maia fell quiet after she was done, she had not expected to be able to recount her dream so fluently as she did. She felt that at some point in the middle, her mouth separated itself from her consciousness and carried forward without her. “Wow, your dream is so much more interesting than mine.” Niles replied, a genuine expression came over his face. “I’m not too sure about that, mine ended with a death by falling.” Replied Maia with a pat on her brother’s head. “ Still better than being eaten alive…” Niles replied, her voice turned quiet. Maia could tell he was genuinely frightened and traumatised by the dream and silently pulled him close for a hug. Then she thought of something. “Remember the forest from our home?” Half an hour and across a lake from the small house that their father had built was a vast undiscovered forest stretching far beyond. Their father had said that according to the imperial map, it was possible that what laid beyond the forest was the ocean facing the North-east. “ What about it?” Niles asked. “ I think we can do our own exploration before the emperor’s scouts arrive.” All of a sudden, the fear that gripped Niles had disappeared without a trace. “But father wouldn’t let us go near that!” He protested but Maia knew that whenever Niles protests, it just means that he wanted to be sure that he would do what he wanted. “Not if we tell him that we would just be on the outskirts.” Maia winked at her brother who excitedly begin jumping up and down his bed. “Do you think we’ll see fairies? What about Nistrams? Sarophims?” All the while Loreno was trying to control her laughter. “Calm down, brother. We shall see what lies in the forest.” Niles suddenly stopped with a realization. “Wait, isn’t today your birthday?” “Is today the 36th?” Niles then nodded, “Then yes.” The next thing she knew, Niles was wrapping his small arms around her, “Happy birthday sister!” He said happily. Maia patted her brother’s back, feeling the warmth from Niles’ hug eradicating the cold morning. “Thank you, brother. You have to let me go, I can’t breathe.” Maia joked before Niles finally let her go. “Are you going to tell father about what you want?” He asked, to which Maia groaned. “Only if he remembers about my birthday.” She said with a shrug. From the age of five, Maia’s wish was to join the Warrs, the main policing army of the Empire but for unknown reasons, her father had always been against his daughter joining despite the origins of the Warrs rooted in the Rhylands when it was founded by the farmer Merrick and his close comrade, Alori Lo Eentra. She remembered walking past a house with her father in the poorer section of Bilange, the capital of Rhyland. She did not know who the house belonged to, only that there were men gathered outside the home and they wore dark coloured suits with some of them rolling their sleeves to their elbows. That was when she noticed that all of them wore a bracelet around their right wrist. She had asked his father who they were and what was the bracelet but his father only acknowledged that they were the Warrs and pulled his daughter away from the house without any more explanation. Her fascination with the Warrs began when in school, she met a boy who claimed that his father was a member. In his excitement she interrogated his friend with questions such as what did they do, where were they and most importantly what were the bracelets. Her friend explained with a tinge of smug that they were the army that would answer the emperor in the event that Lacra would fall into war with the other kingdoms, but in peacetime they served the people by being the police. Since most Warr members were humans without the ability to cast magic like the sorcerers can, the bracelet they wear on their wrists was called a Feldom’s Bracelet and it contained a Efversian byproduct which allowed the user to either kill a target with bursts of fire or freeze a target by encapsulating them in solid ice. The boy proudly said that the Warrs were the pride of the empire and more so for him because his father was a member. Maia’s fascination with them soon turned to ambition the more she read up on the history and mission of the Warrs. Maia soon felt the morning ray grace her face. “Let’s go to the dining room. Mother and father should already be waiting there.”