The Conflict of Magics

Jiqare, colony of the Newlands

Every single fibre of her body was screaming and begging her to turn back. The forest seemed serene when they saw it from their home, but as they stood before it she realised how ominous it truly looked. The warmness they felt as they got closer radiated to complete heat to the point that she felt beads of sweat trickling down her forehead. Niles was scared before but now he was petrified, he held on to Maia’s hand and she felt him trying to pull her away from the forest. “I changed my mind, I want to go back.” He was right, they should go back. But why couldn’t she just agree to it? “Niles, we can’t go back now.” She said.

“But why? The boat is still there, let’s just push it back to the water.” He begged, the tears began to form. Maia studied her brother, she wished that she came alone instead. If father’s reason as to why she can’t join the Warrs was because she was a girl, then she needed to prove to both her father and herself that she deserved to be a Warr. “Niles, you don’t have to go in with me, but I must.”

“Why?” Niles asked again, the tears near-blinded his eyes. Maia just shook her head, “I need to prove to him that I deserve to be one of the Warrs.”

“But… but how will this prove to him?”

“I don’t know, all I know is that it would help in any matter.”

“Maia, please. You don’t have to do this.” Again, she shook her head. “You’re too young to understand why I want to be a Warr so bad, Niles.” She said quietly and let go of Niles’ hand. She began walking towards the forest. “Stay here until I get back.” She said to him before entering the forest, leaving Niles outside.

If Maia was sweating standing outside, she felt her chest drenched almost immediately. This was a temperature that she had never experienced throughout her life, she imagined being on top of a fire. While she walked, she studied the inner workings of the forest. It was clouded with leaves that absorbed too much of the sunlight until only slivers managed to reach the ground. Before she entered the forest, the sun was shining brightly above them but inside, dimness populated it. She took a step forward and felt her feet sunk to the ground with a splash. She cursed as she lifted her foot up and saw that her light-blue shoe was already stained with mud. She eventually ignored it and continued forward. Niles followed closely from behind, clutching his sister’s dress, she felt that he could accidentally ripped off her dress if he held on any harder. “Niles, don’t hold on to my dress too hard. You’re going to tear it off.” Immediately he let go and Maia saw how her brother looking down on the ground, ashamed. She smacked his head and he let off an annoyed voice, “Hey!”

“Stop looking so sad, brother.” She said with a smile. He had wanted to go back to the house but she insisted on them going in, the very least she could do was make sure he would be enjoying some parts of it. “We’re just going to explore some parts and we’ll head back home.”

“Why can’t we just go now?” Niles asked, sounding tired and exhausted. “Come on, Niles. We are the first ones to set foot into the jungle, before any of the emperor’s royal explorers! Don’t you want to know what lies within the forest, maybe new creatures?”

Niles shook his head, “I don’t care. I didn’t know the forest would be this scary. I want to go home now.”

At that moment, Maia felt a rising anger within her. It wasn’t the same anger she felt in the house, but it was something she was familiar with. She began regarding her brother as a nuisance.

You were the one who wanted to come here and I’ve brought you here even though it’s my birthday, you ungrateful boy.

She then turned and began walking deeper into the forest without her brother, trying to ignore his pleadings.

What a birthday. She thought to herself, in the span of one morning she had walked away from two of the most important people in her life and both of them had called out after her. The more she walked, the darker the forest seemed to have gotten darker and darker. She paid most of her attention to looking for new creatures that did not exist in the Rhylands.

Then in the distance, she heard muffled voices. She stopped, her heartrate increasing in an instant. Maia knew she would be expecting to see creatures but not spirits. Her mind went blank the more she thought about it. Then with a snap, she remembered the reason why she was here and shook herself out of the fear.

A Warr never allows irrationality to control his decisions. A Warr can only decide according to his senses.

Her will resolved, she then channelled her efforts to the voices. The voices began to dispel its’ corporeal nature and soon, now that she was hearing more and clearer. One voice? No, it sounded more like two or three of them. The voices were coming from over a small slope arching upwards. Maia then began to cautiously walk up the slope, avoiding the fallen dry leaves and wet puddles of mud. Soon she fell into a dilemma, if she just climbed up the slope, the voices would more than likely see her. She groaned as she thought about it and after hesitating, kneeled down on the ground, her rims of her skirt soaked with warm mud. She knew that when she get back, it would not be her father that she would have to fear, but her mother. Maia then hoped that Niles had already waited for her outside the forest near the boat. She was regretful of leaving him just like that but she did feel at that moment that he was holding her back. Nonetheless, she would still apologize when she meets him.

She crawled up the slope, flinching every time her elbows sunk into the ground. By then, she could hear the voiced even clearer.

“This war will give us the glory we seek.” A male voice said, Maia did not recognise that voice but his intonation and groove gave her the impression of a scholar.

“Only if that partner of yours do what he is supposed to.” Another male voice replied, Maia thought the voice was familiar but she can’t place an exact thought to it.

“Rest assured, he knows the gravity of the situation as much as we do.” A different man scoffed. “I’ll believe it when I see how he will attempt break the relation between Sorcerers and humans. I’m surprised, honestly. Why is it that you sorcerers wish to sour this age-old relation?”

The scholar voice gave a small chuckle. “As expected, Unrefineds yet lack the imagination to comprehend simple cause-and-effect.”

What are they talking about?

“Do not insult me, you unnatural bastard. It was your people’s own mistake to allow us to refine the knowledge of Efversia. Now look how high we have towered over you.” The male voice spat, his voice containing unreleased rage.

There was a momentary silence as Maia stayed completely still. Then a cry of pain emitted from the other side and Maia guessed it was from the man. “Arrogant men.” The scholar voice said, he was calm and collected. “Without us, you would still be crawling in caves, never to recover from the Great Separation. Do not presume that we are equals in this plan.”

They were not spirits, she knew now but what were they discussing about? She then began to inch closer to the peak of the slope. She needed to see how they looked like. When she did, she saw a man wearing a grey suit writhing on the ground in pain clutching his feet, Maia saw layer of his pants around the thighs began to be stained red with blood. Standing over the man was an old man of about fifty years old wearing a long robe coloured with silver and his eyes displayed a lack of sympathy for the man. “

Alright, alright. I’m sorry, please remove this pain!” The man said, tears began to form in his eyes when the male raised his left palm. The man stopped squirming as the pain slowly dissipated. “Listen here, Unrefined. I will explain to you once more what we would do.”

As Maia listened to their conversation, her eyes widened and her breathing turned rapid. She needed to run back to her father and then to the village chief. What she heard was treason and could overturn the centuries of peace the empire had worked to preserve. When she turned and slid back down a figure manifested right before her eyes. She could not see the face as he was hooded. For a moment, the two of them only stared at each other, Maia’s body was frozen completely while her mind screamed for her to run. Then the man spoke.

“You know too much, I cannot allow you to live.” He then raised a hand and with a flick of his wrist, Maia felt her chest begin to burn. She clutched her chest as hard as she could but the heat was still building up inside of her until is started to hurt. Tears began to form in her eyes as somehow, she knew this was her time to join Caliath. Then she heard an ugly snap from inside and her breathing shortened. She collapsed completely to the ground and rolled to the base of the slope. She was still alive but only for a few more moments and the man had disappeared. She did not know how long she laid there but every second that passed, she felt her lifeforce draining away. Then she someone rush towards her from the trees, it was a small figure with black hair and with all her effort, she called out his name.

“Niles…”

Her brother’s knees collapsed beside her, his eyes were red from the tears. “Maia, I couldn’t just go back… I needed to… Wanted to… I saw that man but I was too scared to come out even after he left... I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I was so scared….” He stuttered uncontrollably. She was not concerned so much about herself, all she wanted to do was to make he would be safe but there was no time. She needed to tell him. She needed to tell somebody.

“Listen… Sorcerers…” She wheezed as she placed her palm on her brother’s cheek. Her world was beginning to turn dark. Niles was only more confused. “Sorcerers? Was he a sorcerer?”

“Sorcerers…” She wheezed again, this was it, the next word will be her last. “Traitors…” She finally said and her last thoughts was of her brother, mother and even her father. She regretted not saying kind things to him that morning, she regretted dirtying the dress her mother had made for her, she regretted leaving her brother alone in the forest again.

May my voice reach Caliath

The messenger of the nameless and unformed god

And may she bring my prayer to Him

Master of fates Master of our lives

It was by thy will that I was born with immense luck

And it will be by thy will to decide whether it shall follow me But for this, I pray that He shall put me to rest As she breathed her last, the last thing she heard of was the screams of her brother.