The sight of my magic invigorated me, and strength flooded my veins.
I would not leave here without it, I thought again.
“Sky,” Jett called, seeing me. “Here!” He flung something at me. I caught it easily, thanking the young man with golden hair for my renewed dexterity.
I held two swords in my hands. My swords. How had they gotten them? I didn’t stop to think about it. I slung the swords onto my back and then unsheathed them. I didn’t have to touch the shadows now to destroy them, and within a few minutes, the room was almost empty of them.
I saw Jett run towards Iain’s desk. He crouched when he reached the base of it, and I understood what he wanted. I took a running start, and then leapt onto his back. He stood, thrusting me high into the air with the aid of his own magic. I landed squarely on Iain’s desk, and before he could react, pressed my right hand sword to his throat.
“You made a mistake when you retrained me with these.” I told him.
~Chapter Nine~
“Are you alright?” Jett asked me for the thousandth time.
“Fine,” I responded. “Just exhausted.” I was suffering the ill effects of too much exertion after not enough nourishment. I’d been fed another bowl of beef broth, though I’d left half of it when my stomach gurgled in rather unpleasant fashion. Steam rose from the abandoned bowl beside me, and I resisted the urge to drain what was left.
“Where are Iain and Netalia now?” I asked him. “In the dungeons below us. Some of our people are watching them.”
“Will they be able to stop them escaping?” I asked. “They’re powerful. Are your people?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he sat heavily in the chair behind Iain’s desk.
“How are you feeling?” he asked me again, and I sighed.
“ Fine,” I said exasperated. “Why do you keep asking me that?”
“Because I’m trying to decide if you’re strong enough.”
Why did everyone have to be so cryptic?
“Strong enough for what?”
His dark eyes met mine.
“For your memories to be returned.”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry.
“You can return them to me?” I asked. “But Iain said that Phoenix took them.” “Phoenix did not take your memories,” he’d said as much, but I didn’t know how much to believe. “Iain took your memories when you broke the rules. You were banished.”
I clutched my head. I was so confused. I didn’t remember ever being here before, I’d lost a year of my life, all of these new people in this strange land were pointing fingers at each other – you took her memories, no, you took her memories.
“I can send you home if you like,” Jett was saying, though he seemed sad at the prospect. “I can deliver you back there and remove any trace that you were ever here.”
I considered it. A few weeks ago, that was all I had wanted. But now, the thought of going back into my normal life when I knew that there was magic in the world… I was already shaking my head.
“I at least want my memories,” I told him. “I want to be able to make an informed decision.”
“Are you sure-”
“Yes,” I snapped. I held out my hand as though he’d just hand it over. “Care to reintroduce me to Sky?”
He grinned at that.
“I think you’re going to like her.” He replied, and then reached over and took my hand. A blur of colours whirled past my eyes. I was lost in the visions as they filled me up. A girl with long curly hair and bright blue eyes. The young man with golden hair.
Dustin.
The man in the rose garden. The reason I’d been banished. I’d fallen in love. The twin swords were so familiar because they were my swords. Though they’d been plain when I owned them. The engravings had been carved into them since I’d been gone.
And the man in front of me.
“Dad.” I choked, and then his arms were around me and I was crying into his cloak.
He gripped me to him so tightly it almost hurt. I wiped my eyes on his clothes and then took a step back.
“Or Jett. Which do you prefer?” I asked, my eyes watery.
He pretended to mull it over.
“Dad has a nice ring to it.” He said finally and we both grinned at each other.
“Where are my friends?” I asked. “Are they here in the castle?” “They are indeed, though some of them joined me when you first arrived. Dustin managed to tip off a few of your classmates that you were here; believe it or not, Iain and Netalia continued classes as though nothing was different. Whenever you went somewhere, they made sure that the area was clear of people.”
Wow. I’d been right when I’d seen the stalls in the stables and been in the library.
“They tried to make me kill Phoenix,” I said, my head in my hands as I remembered. “I almost did.” As I recalled the moment they’d asked me to kill him, I remembered their incentive. I grit my teeth as the overwhelming need for my power gripped me. My father took my arm and sat me down next to my lukewarm bowl of broth. To distract myself from the cravings, I allowed myself another sip of the liquid. It quelled my hunger as well as the yearning for my magic.
“Sky. They took your magic. Do you know what that means?” I shook my head. “It’s not widely spoken about, but when a mage has their magic taken, it can instil immense withdrawal symptoms.”
“Like a drug addict?” I asked. “I wouldn’t know, personally, but yes. The idea is the same. You would’ve done whatever was necessary to get your magic back if there was any chance that you could. It’s very dangerous, and they’ve abused something sacred,” his features hardened. “A mage is always entitled to their magic.”
I sensed there was more to his words than he was letting on, but information was coming so fast and furious that I didn’t bother pursuing it. Instead, I asked the question that had been burning on my lips since sitting down in this office.
“Can I get my magic back from Iain?” My heart thudded as I waited for Jett’s reply. I wanted it, no, needed it to stay sane. Otherwise I didn’t know what would happen.
“You can,” he said, and relief washed through me. “It’ll be difficult, though.”
“I don’t care,” I said immediately, and then cringed as I heard myself. “I mean, I would really like it.” “It’s ok,” he said, taking my hand in both of his. “I know how it feels to be without your magic… well I know in theory. I’ve never had to suffer through it before.”
I nodded, though still felt ashamed. I closed my eyes as the image of my sword swinging towards Phoenix’s neck played yet again in my mind’s eye.
“Where is Phoenix?” I asked, expecting Jett to reply easily. Instead, he took a deep breath and looked down. I felt his hands tighten around mine. “Dad?” He looked up at me. “Where’s Phoenix?”
“Exile,” he said, and my heart stopped. “They exiled him shortly after they banished you. They couldn’t send him to the human realm, he has no life there. So they exiled him to the North.”
I breathed heavily through my nose. The rage that was rising inside of me was beginning to overpower even the desire for my magic.
“So we fought to keep him here, out of his step-father’s clutches, and now they’ve exiled him.”
“Yes.”
“But he came back,” I recalled the rose garden. “And said he’d see me again soon.”
Jett smiled. “Well, he was apparently full of confidence in our ability to get you back. He tipped us off about you, what they were making you do, what they’d done to you, and then he returned to Orthandrell.”
“Why?” I asked, completely baffled. “Why would he return to the place he was trying to run from?” “These questions are best answered by those who know more on the subject,” he replied. “There will be a few people arriving in a couple of days to help us sift your magic from Iain.”
“Okay,” I could use a few days of peace to let this all sink in. But there was another matter weigh
ing heavily on my mind. “Je-Dad... could I contact my mum? Is there any way to do that?”
“I can have a letter delivered to her,” he said, his voice suddenly taking on a strange quality. “What would you like to say?”
I sat at his desk for some time, gnawing on the end of a quill. In the end, I just wrote down what had happened as clearly as possible. It was inevitable that she’d think I was insane, but I couldn’t to lie to her; one day I hoped to prove this all to her.
I finished the letter, holding it up to read it. Satisfied that I hadn't left anything out, I blew the ink gently to help it dry. I caught Jett looking at me strangely. “What?” I asked, still holding the parchment aloft.
“I’m just trying to get my head around the fact that I have a daughter,” he said quietly. “All circumstances considered, our reunion was a bit far-fetched, don’t you think?”
I put the letter down.
“Why did you never visit?” I responded. “Why did I never hear from you?” “I had no idea you existed,” he picked up my hand and folded it between his. “Up until the very moment you were banished, I didn’t connect the dots. It had been so long since I’d seen your mother... and to think I had been standing in her kitchen when I rescued you from the fire!”
“I didn’t believe it either,” I said. “I’d gone so long without a father that to have one again felt... false. Wrong, almost. No, not wrong,” I corrected as his face fell. “Different, I suppose.”
We sat together quietly, until I asked another question that I’d always wondered about.
“Do I have grandparents?”
“You did until a few years ago. Both lived and died in Gowar. They lived long, happy lives. Of course, they would’ve been happier if they’d known they had a granddaughter.”
“Any aunts or uncles?”
He was already shaking his head, having guessed my next question.
“No, just me. I was an only child.”
“Well, ‘just you’,” I patted his hands and grinned. “How does it feel do be a dad?” “So far I’ve gone through a whole whirlwind of emotions, but I tore through a universe to get to you and to be quite honest, I want to challenge Phoenix to some kind of duel. Apart from that, I guess I just want to be a barrier between you and the world but... I really can’t, can I?” His dark eyes were wide, and I realised he was truly asking.
“I don’t think so,” I said, trying to ignore the tears that had gathered in my eyes. “When I was littler maybe, but now... Now I’ve got to fall and get hurt and learn on my own.”
“I understand,” he tightened his grip on my fingers. “But anyone you want to be dealt with, just point and nod, alright?”
I laughed through my tears. I stood and he hugged me to him, resting his chin on my head. “You tore through the realms for me,” I sniffed into his robes, suddenly realising what he’d done to get me back. “You blatantly defied Iain and Netalia and started a revolution.”
“I’d rip through any universe just to make sure you were safe,” he murmured quietly. “As for the revolution... well, let’s just say that was a by-product of fatherly love. I needed a small army to get you back.”
He kissed me on top of my hair on then let me go. “Now, I feel I’ve been selfish keeping you all to myself. I think there are some students who very much want to see you.”
I grinned widely at that. As much as my body yearned for power, my heart ached for my friends.
“Where are they?
~
I didn’t have a chance to knock on the door once before it was thrown open. “You’re here!” Yasmin screeched and pulled me into a hug. Two more people joined us, and I looked up to see Rain and Ispin grinning down at me.
“Can I get in there?” someone asked, and I peered around Ispin’s curly hair to spy Dena.
I opened my arms to her. She held me tightly.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, but she was grinning. “But I’m glad you made your way back.” I returned the smile. I knew she was hiding the fact that I’d told her my human name. It was probably better this way.
I hugged Theresa and Petre, then looked around.
“Dustin said he’d be here soon,” Rain said, perching on the table. “He was on guard duty.”
Guard duty? I began to ask, but then remembered. “Oh, right.” Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably. Just as Petre opened his mouth to say something, there was a light knock on the door and then Dustin entered, towing Raven with him.
“Hello,” she said to me, somewhat subdued. “Good to see you again.” “You too,” I said, smiling. I remembered bringing down the rogue scout with her in the woods outside the Academy. “What are you doing here?”
I hadn’t meant to sound like I was accusing her of intruding on our private reunion, but when she glanced worriedly at Dustin, I felt like I’d swallowed a small pebble. I suddenly remembered his interest in meeting her when I introduced her to the group.
Oh. Dustin, oblivious, hugged me as tight as anyone else had. I beamed at him, momentarily forgetting my consternation about Raven.
“Thank you,” I told him warmly. “I’ve been informed that you were a major player in bringing Iain and Netalia down.”
“I’d like to think myself somewhat responsible,” he said. “But I just wanted to get you out of there. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on.”
Didn’t it? I still felt like I was swimming out of my depth.
“Mother sends her greetings,” Petre said from beside Rain. “She and Father will be here soon with my siblings.”
I smiled, but something about his sentence stood out to me. Then I figured out what it was.
“Siblings?” I asked, my eyes wide. “Plural?”
“Yes,” he confirmed, his eyes sparkling. “Little baby Sky is one year old now.”
Tears brimmed in my eyes as I hugged him again. “Congratulations on a little sister,” I told him, punching him lightly in the arm. “How does it feel to be a big brother?”
He rubbed his arm, pretending to be miffed.
“Well, I was already a big brother, Sky. Oh, and Samlin is dying to see you.” I brightened even more, if that was possible. Petre’s little brother Sammy was one of my favourite people in the world. I looked forward to seeing him.
“Does anyone know what’s going on?” I asked the group as a whole, sitting in a chair just below Rain, who still presided over the group on her table. “Because I am so confused.”
The group as one, looked to Dena. I followed their gazes to meet my best friend’s eyes. “Well, it’s been a year since you were banished,” she began. Everyone was settling in and I realised there was a lot to tell. “Everyone was really shaken up about it, and there was almost a full-scale rebellion just from the students about it. But before we had time to recover and maybe think about doing just that, they exiled Phoenix.”
Everyone in the room looked down. I licked my dry lips.
“Why?” I asked. “Was it just because of us, or-”
“Yes,” Dena said, but Theresa cut in. “You have to tell her the whole story,” the red-headed girl said, her yellow-green eyes hard. “Or there’s no point in telling it.”
“What?” I demanded. “Dena, what’s going on?”
She sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “They exiled him because of you two, yes, but also for another reason. You see, after you were gone, he lost the plot a little.”
My heart twisted painfully. “Eleanora tried to calm him down. She tried to be there for him.”
Eleanora. The young woman who had tried to make my life hell for the one year I attended the Academy.
“What happened?”
Dena closed her eyes and tried to form the words, but failed.
“He took her magic,” Theresa said for her. “He stole Eleanora’s magic.”
“ What?” my mouth fell open. “He did
what?”
“She went back to her family in Thurin. She’s no longer a mage.”
I was shaking violently. Ispin put his arm around me.
“How can he do that?” I asked. “Can anyone do that?” “No. Only him.” Theresa folded her arms. “They sent him away because they couldn’t risk that happening to anyone else.”
I found myself nodding, as though approving of his exile. I stopped immediately. “And Eleanora?” I asked. “No one has seen or heard from my soul mate in almost a year,” Dustin said, his voice hard. He had his arm around Raven. “I’ve been to Thurin several times, but each time her family would not allow me to see her.”
“Rumour has it they’re not treating her very well,” Ispin said, uncharacteristically grave. “My family are close to hers, but they haven’t been getting on lately. My mother disagrees with what they’re doing.”
Poetic justice, the colder side of me snarled. I recalled the way Eleanora reacted to my claims of slavery amongst the servants who were the lower members of society due to their lack of magic.
But the other side of me remembered the good parts of her. She had fought for Phoenix, had risked her life to keep him in the castle. And now he’d taken her magic from her and lowered her to the status of the very people she’d belittled.
“Do you think they’d let me see her?” I asked, but everyone ignored the question. I took that as a no. I doubted that Eleanora would want to see me anyone, would probably misinterpret why I wanted to see her. I desperately hoped that she didn’t think that I’d gloat. After all, I was as magic-less as her at the current moment. That meant she would be going through the same withdrawal symptoms as I was.
Except she’d been going through them for a year.
I shuddered at the thought. Luckily, Dena was continuing her story and all eyes had turned to her. “After he was exiled and Eleanora had returned to her home estate, Iain and Netalia tried to return the Academy to how it had been before. They succeeded, in a way; I think all of the students had been through so much that they just wanted to try to regain some degree of normalcy again.”
“That’s not to say we didn’t fight,” Yasmin told me. “We gave them as much trouble as we dared to. We still learnt, but we refused to hand up assignments, we’d miss classes as often as we could, we never returned library books…”
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