KaPuR tUliS: 2012-04-01

Saturday, April 7, 2012

WORKAHOLIC

Dalam dunia ni takder keja yg tak penat,semua penat..
kalau tak keje nak mkn apa??
so kita ni sbgai manusia kne lah berkerja mencari rezeki..
nak cari rezeki ni ada 2 jenis..
1 yg haram,1 lgi yg halal..
yg haram to contohnya merompak,rasuah.
manakala yg halal to berkerja dgn usaha kita seperti kerja di restoran,sbgai cikgu,perniagaan.
agama mengajar kita mencari rezeki yg halal...

ak plak dalam sehari buat dua kerja,pgi di Nando's dan malam di CC Spydernet..
Buat dua kerja dlm satu hari nie mukan mudah kerna kita ni manusia bukannya robot..robot pon kalau buat kerja tanpa henti pun mesti rosak inikan pulak manusia.
tapi ak buat ini semua ada sebabnya..ak hanya perlu bertahan untuk 3 bulan sahaja...

cerekarama cinderella blues by tv3

EMBERS – CHAPTER 6

My fingers drummed against my leg as I sat by the fire. The man stood beside a chest of clothes, biting his thumbnail. He was a head taller than me and probably twenty years older. Thin, short scars decorated his face.

My voice sounded slow and hoarse as I broke the silence, “So you’re telling me that the Specters can come out in daylight?”

He cocked his head. “That’s what I just said, wasn’t it?” My face grew hot. When I didn’t say anything, he continued. “The cloak that you just saw is their new protection. They’re able to come out now anytime and anywhere.”

“Why?” I asked. My heart raced inside my chest, my feet ready to spring into action at any moment and take me back out into the forest.

His charcoal eyes pierced me before he looked back down at his hands. “You know very well the war that is being waged between the living and the dead. The Specters have become desperate. They have new,” he paused, “strategies. They’ve become bolder since branches of the Order are going up in smoke.”

“Branches?”

“There’s more than just one,” he said.

“How do you even know about the Order?” I asked. He was no regular huntsman. Mage? Warlock? He smiled ruefully. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Erik. I made a peace agreement of sorts with the Order. They asked me to join them, but I’ve found better things to do with my time,” he looked lazily into the fire. “What is so special about you that the Order was trying to protect?” His eyes shone with mischief. The ruby burned in my pocked, so hot I almost yelped out in pain.

“Nothing.” I refused to meet his gaze.

He looked at me again and sighed. “Show me the ruby. It’s in your pocket. I won’t take it. I just want to see it.” I gaped at him, my heart dropping into my stomach. He smiled, “You and your friend Aaron are not the only ones with special powers. As rare as magic people are, you still run into one every once in a while.”

“You’re a mind reader,” I whispered. Great. Now he could see exactly what I was thinking. So much for trying to escape.

He nodded, “Now show it to me.” I hesitated and he rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” I said. I slipped my hand in and pulled out the red ruby. He looked at it, eyes wide.

“What’s the matter with it?” I challenged. It looked the same as it always did, crimson light pulsing from its depths in a quick one-two beat.

He raised his eyebrows. “Do you know what you’re holding?”

“No, not really,” I said. “I’m trying to figure out what it does.”

He smiled. “I’m lucky I ran into you then. Or vice versa,” he said. He walked across the dirt floor, his body feet away from me. “That blood-red gem you’re holding is my heart.”

My jaw dropped.

“Your heart? You’ve got to be kidding,” I said.

He nodded. “Hard to believe, right?”

“But I took it from the Specters. They’ve been guarding it for centuries. How is it your heart?” I closed my fist. This was a just a trick. It had to be. To make me give the ruby to him.

“Not centuries. Just as long as I was alive. It didn’t really have a form until I came about.” He noted my raised eyebrows and waved a hand at me.

“It’s too complicated for me to explain. Too complicated for you to understand,” he said. “I’m not asking for it back.”

“How are you alive then?”

“It’s still beating, isn’t it?” he asked.

I looked down, watching the ruby pulse again. “Yes,” I said slowly.

“As long as it beats, I stay in this world.”

“Why did they have it?” I asked. If I was going to believe this whole “heart” thing, he needed to at least try to make me understand it.

“It’s how they live. A trade of sorts. They need it to survive. You’re a mage, you should know that.”

“But they usually kill people, not keep pieces of them,” I reminded him.

His face grew serious as he nodded, “Yes, that’s true.”

Silence filled the room and I slipped it back into my pocket. His eyes followed my hand but he made to move to walk across the room and take it from me. It was just what I needed: a bargaining tool.

“I have to get Aaron back,” I said. “Tell me how and then we can talk about giving you your heart.”

“I told you already I don’t want it,” he said.

My heart sunk. “At least tell me where I can find him.”

He paused, his fingers tracing over his sword. “We can’t be rash about it. Marching into a den full of Specters isn’t going to solve any of these problems,” he said calmly. “You still don’t understand everything.”

“What is it that I don’t understand?” I spat at him. Rage boiled under my skin and I tried to take a deep breath. I was still a Novice learner when it came to magic. I didn’t want to kill anyone on accident. Not just yet anyway.

“Aaron is only the first of many who will disappear.” He paused as he gazed into the fire. “I need to take you back to the Order, understand?”

“The Order? I thought it was destroyed.”

He laughed. “This is what happens when you come from such a small village. Your home was only a branch. The main one is nearby.”

Heat flooded my cheeks and I looked down at the ground. Foolish. “And they’ll know what to do with the – with yourheart?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It’s really worthless to us. But it’ll be safer with them than it will be here.”

My eyes burned. Aaron was gone and it was all my fault. Erik walked toward me. His steel eyes softened.

“It really isn’t your fault. Everything that’s happening. Losing the stone made the Specters understand that they really haven’t been living. It was only a matter of time before they attacked us, declared war officially,” he said.

I fingered the knife at my waist. “We will find Aaron first though, right?” I asked.

“It’d be best to get you to safety first. To get you away from me,” he said.

Why? I wanted to demand. If he was such a danger to my safety, why was he helping me? I swallowed. “We need Aaron. He can teleport.”

“It’ll be too dangerous.”

“I will not go to the Order without him,” I said slowly.

Flames crackled across his silver eyes. He stared at me hard but I refused to flinch, refused to look away. He sighed.

“Fine. We’ll get your friend. But then I’m taking you back to the Order. Ending whatever quest it is that you’re on.”

“Our mission was to discover what the ruby was. We lost our home, we were following the path it gave us…” I stuttered.

“Right back to me.”

“You’ll need to go to the Order and explain to them about your heart. They’ll hear you out, maybe let you have it back. They didn’t know what it was,” I said.

“They’ve known for a while now,” he whispered beneath his breath.

I blinked at him, put on my best pleading face.

Erik bit his lip. “Fine, but the ruby stays here. If we lose it to them, the battle’s over.” I nodded.

He pulled me over to an ancient trunk that sat in the middle of the room and opened the lid. Inside was another container, smaller and lined with purple velvet. He opened the latch and I placed the ruby inside. Taking a red pen, he drew symbols around the lock. The box sizzled for a moment before it settled down into the depths of the trunk. He did the same with the outer box. Standing up, he turned to me and said, “You sure you’re ready?”

“I’ve never felt more prepared,” I said. Butterflies buzzed in my stomach.

He nodded. “Then you’ll need all the sleep you can get. Rest up. You can rest there,” he gestured to a worn leather chair in front of the fire. I watched the smoke curl toward the ceiling. Sparks sizzled as it touched the enchanted rocks. At least he was smart enough not to let us suffocate.

“I’ll be in the back room. If anything happens, come and get me.” With one last look, he ducked his head under a carved dirt archway. A flap of fur swung shut over the entrance.

I sat down on the chair, felt it creak under my weight. Shadows from the fire flickered across the red clay walls. The light blinked off the symbols of protection; I only knew them because Aaron had taught a couple to me. Invisibility, Silence, Dark. Only readers could understand their significance. A makeshift kitchen, with a boiling pot and an herb holder, sat toward the back of the room.

Snores issued from Erik’s room. Already out. I crept over to the trunk and traced the edges of the rough wood with my fingers. Maybe this would give me a clue about him. Tendrils of my magic enveloped the lock. The metal sizzled, burned my power. Mind-readers, I thought bitterly. I stared annoyed at his door. I guess the Order wasn’t the only society who kept secrets. I’d trust him for now. But if he did anything out of the ordinary, I’d be out of here faster than Aaron could teleport.

EMBERS – CHAPTER 5

Green needles covered the ground. They crunched under my feet as I landed. Pine needles, I reminded myself. The cool air spilt into my clothing. A breeze sent a shiver down my spine. It didn’t help that we stood in the shade of a tree. Absentmindedly, I ran my hand across the trunk. It was rough and pointy as it shed pieces of bark into my hand. The amulet had returned to crystal clarity. I shoved magic into the gem again, but the sparks slid off the surface.

“Damn it,” I swore. “You took us all the way into the middle of nowhere and now you’re abandoning us.”

Aaron raised his eyebrows, “When you start talking to inanimate objects, I know we’re in trouble.”

“Shut up.” I slipped the jewel back under my clothes. “I know exactly where we’re going.”

“Uh huh,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“Just follow me,” I said and set off into the woods. Aaron sighed and followed, his city shoes snapping twigs beneath his gait. The sun peeked at us from above the canopy of leaves. At least the golden rays were the same here as in Brita. Speckled light danced across the floor and, for lack of a better option, I decided to follow it.

Flowers thrived beside their bramble archangels, bushes populated by the strange pairing. Ironic, I thought as we skirted thorns and sidestepped petals. Aaron tramped behind me, his steps punctuated every so often by yelps of pain as his skin caught on dangerous points. I shook my head, glad he couldn’t see my smile. Even if he was the most inept partner ever, there was no one else in the world I could imagine on a trek with me through the mountains. Not that I would ever admit that to him.

As we progressed farther into the forest, the overgrowth choked out the colored blossoms. Tree roots twisted up in snarled bunches from the ground, intent on tripping our feet. The air grew thicker; the sun disappeared for stretches of time. It was as though something compressed the woods. As if something had sensed that we didn’t know where we were going. I was about to turn around and retrace my steps when I realized that I could no longer hear Aaron’s footfalls behind me. My windpipe tightened and I whirled around, hand on my knife. He stood yards away from me, rooted in place, his eyes staring skyward.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

He didn’t reply.

“Aaron,” I called again. He said nothing, his eyes focused on the canopy. I shook my head. Of all times for him to want attention, now he chose to make me confess that I didn’t know where I was going.

“Seriously, Aaron. I’m talking to you,” I repeated. Again, only silence. Annoyed, I walked over to him. If he wasn’t moving, I’d drag him back with me. I grabbed his arm. His skin was hard and cold to the touch. His irises did not register me, their surface glassy.

“Aaron?” I whispered. His skin marbled, his expression empty. A few of the leaves above me rustled and my heart pounded in my chest. This wasn’t right, didn’t feel right. A shadow flickered in my periphery and I tried to pull him behind a tree. But his body remained rooted to the ground. Leaves rustled again. I tugged at his arm, but I could not break his trance.

The air went still and I ducked behind a tree trunk. From the splintered bark, I watched Aaron’s frozen frame. I licked my lips, my palm sweaty against the cool metal hilt of my blade. The silence of the forest made my ears ring. I flattened my left hand, ready to spin a shield, when a loud pop boomed through the trees. Wind whipped my hair from my face and I gasped for breath. Black dust began to materialize next to Aaron. It sparkled as it formed a cloaked figure, its face hidden by its hood. I swallowed hard. The figures from the Headquarters fire. My body tensed as the misty being approached.

Suddenly, a hand clamped around my mouth and pulled me down to the forest floor. I tried to scream, but it came out as a gasp.

“Don’t yell. If you do, we’re both dead,” a man’s voice whispered urgently into my ear. I struggled against his hold. Something sharp pressed into my back and I went limp.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Just stop moving or it’ll hear us,” he ordered. I kicked him in the shin. The man swore under his breath, but his hold did not loosen. “I should just let it have you,” he said. “But I’m too much of a gentleman.” I rolled my eyes.

The black mist glided toward Aaron above the floor. My stomach clenched. So it wasn’t human. Great. Now this situation had reached the umpteenth level of bad timing. The dust sparkled. I let my mind delve into my magic reserves, but they were empty. I had used it all up on that stupid rock. The glittering specks settled on Aaron and enveloped him in black mist. Moments later, they disappeared just as the ashes from headquarters had blown away in the wind.

A voice, different from my captor’s, whispered in my ear, “Melody, Melody, sweet song, we know you.” I shivered as the cold wind blew down my back like an icy breath. Specters. It wasn’t the first time they had called to me, had told me they knew my name.

Anger roiled inside me with a heat that boiled my blood. I bit my captor’s hand hard, my teeth sinking into his flesh. Howling in pain, he pulled back and I dropped to the ground. I spun on him, knife drawn. Blond hair, pulled back from his face by a leather thong, framed silver eyes. He seemed to glow, his pale body fluorescent against his dark tunic. A long-sword balanced from his hilt.

“Where did they take him?” I asked slowly. I wanted to dive to the ground where Aaron had been, search for any sign of him, cry out his name. But I had the man to deal with now. I watched him warily. I should’ve let the Specter take me with him. At least then I’d know where it had gone.

“There’s nothing we can do now right now. They’ll be back,” he said. A thin line of blood oozed from the bite mark on his hand. At least he knew better than to grab me this time. “We have to get off the trail.”

Trail? I glanced around the forest, but I didn’t see any path. I gritted my teeth together and nodded tightly. If he left, I’d be alone, wouldn’t know where to go. Still, I did not put down my knife.

“Fine. I’ll follow you,” I said.

He nodded and set off into the trees at a run. The cold air stung my lungs as we raced away from the spot. My mind buzzed as I replayed Aaron’s stony form disappearing into the darkness. The man stopped in his tracks and I barreled into him.

He shot me an aggravated look. “Watch where you’re going,” he whispered. I shrugged. He grunted and knelt down onto the ground. Leaves rustled as he searched the forest floor for something. A click popped through the silence and the man pulled up a trapdoor.

“Get in,” he ordered. I hesitated, my hand resting nervously on my knife. “We don’t have much time.”

“Why should I trust you?” I asked.

“I saved your life,” he said. Again, I didn’t move. “Do what you like. But I wouldn’t stick around out here if I were you.” With that, he disappeared down the hole.

A screech, like fingernails against porcelain, echoed through the forest. The hairs on my arms prickled and I took a step toward the opening. The cry ripped again through the air and I didn’t need any more convincing. I dove into the entrance and the door clicked shut behind me.

EMBERS – CHAPTER 4 by Salena Casha

“Melody, we have a problem,” Aaron’s voice drifted toward me. I looked up from the fire-pit where I sat cooking our breakfast. Another problem? As if we didn’t have enough already.

“What is it?” I raised my eyebrows. I had sent him down to catch some more fish from the river. Unless the entire population of salmon had died, I didn’t want to hear his news. He reached into the back pocket of his trousers and pulled out a scroll. Our faces stood out in black ink, imprinted on the front page.

I snatched the paper from his hand. “What does it say?”

Aaron was one of very few people in Brita who could read. Only a handful of people were born with that type of power. The Order had used his gift to its advantage and communicated with other organized protective groups through Aaron’s cryptic scribbles. Not that we had ever seen any fairies or other Mages. The Order members were the only magic folk we had ever known.

“The authorities are looking for us. They think we had something to do with the fire.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “We have to leave before they find us.” I didn’t respond. I could feel his stare boring a hole in my back. I breathed in the sweet scent of flowers. Spring would arrive soon.

“Where would we even go?” I asked, my voice soft. Brita was the only place I had ever lived. Born into the disgusting streets, full of filth and death and danger, I had thrived here. My blood ran in the gutters and my magic coursed through marbled veins in the city walls. If I left, I would lose a piece of myself. He shrugged and sat down next to me. He patted my hand, his blue-veined skin pale against my bronzed complexion.

“It’s okay,” he said.

“It’s not okay,” I shot back. My magic sizzled on the ridges of my fingertips. My skin glowed gold. Anger raged through my body and I breathed out as I tried to stabilize my core.

“It will be,” he continued. Fear flickered across his eyes, but he held his ground. “The ruby will tell us what to do.”

“Why do you bother believing that fairytale?” I asked and rolled my eyes. I shoved my hand into my pocket. The rough edges of the ruby blistered across my fingertips. I held the crystal up to the light, watched the sun glance off the surface. “It’s just a stupid rock. There’s nothing important about it.” I glanced at the stone and my heart skipped.

“What?” Aaron demanded. He moved toward me.

“It’s just, I think I saw something.” I brought the gem close to my face, challenged the cracked edges to speak to me, to show me something. Nothing. I sighed. Now I was seeing things. Great.

Aaron’s hand closed over my fist and I met his gaze. “Your magic. Maybe it brought out a message.”

“I doubt it,” I said.

“It’s worth a try. That is unless you’re afraid of being wrong,” he said and crossed his arms in front of his hollow chest.

My power still sat, unused, on my skin’s surface. Blue sparks speckled the glass before seeping inside the gem through a fissure at the edge. Must have happened when I’d tried to break it open. My magic burrowed into the gem. It trickled like grains of sand into openings and pockets. I watched as it formed itself and settled. A mountain peak appeared in the ruby, sparkled in the afternoon sunlight. Four words engraved beneath the image blinked and shuddered. There were no mountains in Brita, just rolling hills and grassy plains. And ash, I added. I could still taste the acrid powder that had been blown by the wind and settled on our bodies the night before.

“Look,” I said and held it out to Aaron.

He stared, his eyes wide. It took him a few moments to study the symbols, to read their meaning. As I watched him, heat crept up my neck. We couldn’t survive without each other and it made my head ache.

“It’s the Cora Ley Mountain Range,” he said.

“Do you think you can take us there?” I asked. I choked on the words, my breath coming out in a cough.

He nodded. “You sure you want to?” he asked. I wished I could bottle up Brita’s wind and take it with me. Not that I was sentimental or anything.

“We should go,” I said finally. Aaron nodded and looked back down the valley, back at where we’d last seen Headquarters and the river and the streets of Brita. I felt dizzy as he slid his small hand onto my wrist. His skin felt cool, like ice, and I shivered.

“It’ll be okay,” he said. The corner of his mouth twitched into a watery smile.

I nodded tightly as I ignored the knot that twisted my intestines, as I tried not to dig my feet too hard into the ground. My magic slipped through my shoes like roots. It touched the stones and the dirt and the waterways, traveling toward Earth’s core. I let my tendrils embrace all that was Brita. All that was me.

“Good-bye,” he whispered to the wind. Pressure crushed down upon us and my vision tunneled. As my patchwork home disappeared into darkness, I remembered to let go.

EMBERS by salena– CHAPTER 3

I slammed the jewel down against the boulder. My knuckles throbbed but the stone was still intact. Too bad it hadn’t cracked open and spilt its secrets onto the grey rock. Aaron looked over at me from where he sat. He clenched a handful of grass clippings, torn out by the root, in his fist. The Jove River trickled by us. Miles downstream, along the Brita Boundaries, it expanded large enough for barge traffic. But here, it was just a thin brook; barely a creek. And quiet enough for me to think. Below us, the village center prepared itself for nightfall. Below us, the Captain sat at his desk and awaited our return. I dug my nails into the rich soil.

“Melody, really, we’ll figure something out,” he said. I waved my red knuckles in his direction and he frowned.

“There’s nothing to figure out,” I said. The Captain’s threat whispered through my mind and my heart clenched as I tried not to look down at headquarters. Tendrils of sun flickered over the grass. The last rays flashed across Aaron’s glasses. “It won’t work for me. I don’t know how to make it show us anything.”

This wasn’t a fair test at all. How was I supposed to be able to figure out this secret? What if it was just a regular rock? All I wanted was to bury my face in my hands and sob like a child. But I couldn’t let Aaron see me cry. He had always been the weaker one, the one I comforted. And now in crisis, I couldn’t let the roles change. Squinting into the distance, I ground my teeth.

“Melody…”

“What? Is there some other stupid advice you want to give me?” I snapped.

“No. It’s just…”

“We don’t have time for this. For anything. We’re just going to get kicked back onto the street. Is that what you want? For us to become performers? You know what happens to Order members who are dismissed. They don’t last very long out there.”

Resignation folded his shoulders. His eyes gazed at a point above my head, his mouth hard. “Just look.” He raised an arm and pointed behind me. I followed his gaze.

Crimson light lit the valley below us. At first, I thought it was just the glowing remains of day. But the beams moved and flicked. I shaded my eyes. Flames stretched up toward the sky, a threat to set the clouds on fire. I could see Headquarters, see the wooden beams through which smoke spiraled. The structure creaked, on the verge of collapse. Dark shapes moved around the perimeter. From beneath their cloaks, matches flew onto the enflamed pyre. Magic sizzled under my skin and pulsed readily at my fingertips.

“No!” I rose and scrambled forward.

“Melody!”

I ignored him. It was a half-mile descent to the village through the thinly grassed meadow. I could get there in minutes. An explosion shook the structure. Tremors traveled through the ground. My knees slammed into the hard dirt as I lost my balance. I had to get there. Had to save them. I pushed myself to standing when Aaron grabbed my wrists. His brows curved down into a frown.

I felt for the knife at my waistband. “We have to help. Teleport us.”

“Are you crazy? We could land in the center of a burning room and die. We can’t risk it,” Aaron said. I wanted to remind him of all that the Order had risked for us long ago. That we owed them our lives.

“But it’s our duty,” I cried. The acrid tang of smoke stung my nose. I blinked away haze as I glanced toward the flames.

“No,” he said. “Our duty is to protect the stone.” He pulled me onto the ground. Grass tickled my bare legs and I wanted to wrench myself away but he gripped me hard. His voice lowered to a whisper. “Whoever set the fire is probably looking for it.”

I needed to tell him that he was wrong, but as I looked back at the shadows around the flames, my blood cooled. My arms went limp but he did not release his hold.

“We have to get away from here,” he said. I nodded and he pulled me to stand.

“You can let go,” I said. He hesitated, still holding my wrists. I rolled my eyes. “I promise I won’t run.”

“Fine,” he said. We made our way back to the river and I slipped the stone into my pocket. Silky plumes of smoke funneled into the darkening heavens.

The lazy current of the water made it easy for us to cross the river. The cool liquid seeped into my leggings and glued the fabric to my skin. I grimaced as I followed Aaron out of the stream, my clothes heavy. Grass crunched beneath our feet as we hurried away from Brita. It would’ve been nice not to have to walk, but Aaron never went outside the Britan boundaries. Teleportation required familiarity of some form or other.

Not that we knew where we were going anyway. I’d never been outside the boundaries either, never been outside the outline of the country. When the night sky had completely blacked out the light of the sun, other than the eerie glow of the coals that were once our home, I curled my magic into two glowing orbs that balanced on my palms. The landscape before us rolled toward the horizons in hills of never-ending grass. Aaron barreled on ahead of me.

“Wow.”

“What?” He called back over his shoulder.

“Nothing. I just didn’t know you knew how to walk,” I replied. I could picture his eyes rolling back in his head, annoyed that he had me for a partner.

“Wait up.” I panted up the hill to where he stood. His black curls rustled in the wind, the muscles in his back tensed. I placed a hand on his shoulder and he shrugged it off. “Aaron, we should stop. Rest. I can hide us. At least for the night.”

He did not turn and I walked around to face him. In the orb’s blue glow, his eyes glistened. His body shook as he wiped a hand across his nose.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered. He shook his head, arms crossed.

“It wasn’t just your home,” he said.

“I know.” I moved toward him but he stepped back.

“It wasn’t,” he repeated. And I could see him for what he was beneath the magic: just a homeless, orphaned thirteen-year-old boy.

“I’m so sorry,” I said and I grabbed his shoulders. On the verge of tears, he folded into me, his body thin beneath my hands. I helped him sit down on the cold grass. In the night air, I wove a cube of protection around us. His eyes traced the pattern as my magic glowed and then disappeared, an ebb and flow of familiarity. I lost myself to the buzz, to the patterns. Stay strong, I reminded myself, biting my lip. Aaron’s sobs echoed in the space as he cried into my shirt just like he had when I first met him.

When the Order had found me, I had been seven years-old. I was playing in the street, dressed in rags. Sitting on my haunches, I watched as blue sparks trickled from my fingers and fell onto the concrete. Flowers bloomed where my magic touched the ground. People in Brita had acted less than kindly toward me when they had seen such displays of power. One day, after a nasty incident with a shopkeeper, the Captain approached me and told me to come with him. I’d been horrified, thought that he would take me back to the orphanage I’d escaped. But I was too small to fight him. He brought me to Headquarters, gave me a bed to sleep in, food to eat, a place to train. He taught me how to use my magic.

They found Aaron when he was five. I had been at the Order for a year when they brought him in. All the Order children younger than nine slept in the same room and he was assigned to be my bunkmate. He cried all through that first night. When I asked him what was wrong (right after I threatened him that I’d strangle him in his sleep if he didn’t shut up), he clung onto me and cried until the sun came up.

As we had learned, the Order was a group of Mages. They were born with magic to protect their fellow ignorant brothers and sisters from dark forces that hid in all corners of civilization. War was caused by darkness as was famine and disease. The Order fought those that sought to bring evil into the world. We had all sworn to protect and serve the human race until we were no longer needed. Like that was going to happen any time soon.

I held Aaron against me even though my stomach ached. The Order was gone. The people who had loved us, who had accepted us, who had taught us how to use the magic that had alienated us from other humans, were gone. Rocking him like a baby, I whispered words I didn’t believe into his ear until he fell asleep in my arms. Slowly, I shifted him onto the ground. He lay there, snoring.

“I’ll take first watch,” I whispered and stepped outside of the protective circle. The acrid smell of smoke drifted toward me as the wind blew through my thin clothes. My nose wrinkled at the stench. It would have been a beautiful night if the flames from headquarters did not still blaze and bathe Brita with a golden glow. I swallowed and swiped the tears from my cheeks with a quick hand.

Be strong, I whispered to myself. So I watched the fire settle down to embers and, as the sun rose, cool to ash. My nails pressed red crescents into my arm, but still, I watched. My home was truly gone.

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