Kingdom of Light

imtroduction

I am a witch. Same as my mother, her mother, her mother's mother and so on. They were all the same. Same raven hair cascading to their waist, same green eyes burning with passion. Same dark shadow powers. Except for me. I had blonde almost white hair, I had powers that shone like the brightest star, but black eyes like the night sky. And when I first opened my eyes my mother told me she saw the stars in them. They were black with flecks of white dotted in throughout, and that's how she named me Despirina, her little star. My mother was from Tenabris, the land of dark where the nights were long and full of life, the days short and quiet. My mother fled that land long ago, when it became the land of a different dark, of evil. She fought for her land, for what it stood for, but her powers were not enough, so she fled to the only place she knew would be safe, the land where the days were long, the land bursting with light. She fled to Ladecia. The King and Queen welcomed her with open arms, they welcomed in a young woman eager to fight and one that proved useful in Ladecia's war against Tenabris. She started as an ally and became a friend. She fought alongside the king for years until both armies were tired, weary and struggling to fight, when both armies withdrew to recollect themselves, retrain, and gather more forces. It was then my mother realized that she was pregnant, the day she found out was the day the Queen also announced she was expecting. Two friends, two children born days apart, it was fate they said. We grew up together. The best of friends, closer than can be. We did everything with one another, took our first steps together, played together, explored the palace and the grounds, everything. Our favorite pastime was to lay on the grass beneath the willow tree by the lake and look up at the sky, day or night. Many times we would tiptoe out of bed meeting in the hall and laughing with glee as we ran through the palace and down to gaze at the stars. And there we would lay pointing out the planets and constellations until our eyelids were heaving or the sun would threaten to peak over the horizon. Our days were filled with playing and soon lessons. My mother would privately teach me magic and we soon found that I was the opposite of her once again, where she brought death I brought life, she brought harm and chaos, I brought healing and peace. My childhood was perfect, I had a loving mother, the King and Queen were both like a second set of parents to me. And I had my best friend and a palace to roam.

I was a small thin teenager now 13 or almost 14 as I sat in my private lesson with my mother while she repeated the same story we had heard countless times since we were old enough to sit still, of the Father and Mother of the Land, of their marriage. Of the six children, born nine months later, each one bearing a different and unique gift. The Cradle that the Mother created this land from. How she poured water into it, then placed a rock and flower from her garden and lastly her children. Then how she threw it over the Edge and created this Land. Her land, as the children grew older they divided the land into six territories, creating five straight lines across the land. Ignisia, the land of fire, Mareor, the land of water, Caelis, the land of air, Lutum, the land of earth, Tenabris, the land of dark and lastly my land, Ladecia, the land of light. Some say the lands are named after the six children, but we will never know. There is nothing else to discover, no one else to ask, just our land, surrounded by water, and when the water stops, the Drop begins. The Drop is what we have come to call the eternal waterfall that is beyond our edges, a couple people have fallen off as a dare or as punishment, Jax's older brother was captured by Tenabris soldiers and pushed off the edge when we were twelve. Jax wouldn't come out of his room for days. We both didn't. He was my older brother, not by blood but I grieved him just the same. I traced the grooves in the wooden table with my finger out of boredom and my mothers voice slowly faded into the background. "Despirina!" She snapped. "Are you paying attention?" I slowly shook my head, I had learned long ago not to lie to my mother. She pinched the bridge of her nose and put one hand on her hip, a gesture which meant she was annoyed.

"Go. Play, we will resume this tomorrow when you are focused." She sighed. I darted out of the room before I realized that Jax still had a while til his lessons were finished. I walked idly through the halls looking at paintings and exploring rooms. I was settled in the library with a book when I heard a familiar voice call my name.

"I'm in here!" I shouted with a grin. I marked the page in the book and tossed it to the side as the steps grew closer. I ducked down behind a couch near the door. My smile was so wide my cheeks hurt. I heard him pause at the doorway, probably looking around.

"Rina?" He called. That was my cue. I jumped up and yelled at him and he screamed like a girl.

"Rina! You scared me." He said playfully as he lightly punched my arm.

"The look on your face." I said doubling over with laughter.

"Oh, you think that's funny do you?" He taunted and raised an eyebrow.

"No! No! Please!" I gasped between laughter, my words were meaningless as he easily slung me over his shoulder tickling my sides and dropping me on a couch. I rolled onto the floor grabbing his ankles and pulling him with me as he continued to tickle me. We were a mess of arms and limbs pushing and pulling until we both laid breathless on the floor, our stomachs pained from laughing. I sat there recovering with a smile on my face. I looked over at Jax to see he was already looking at me with a smirk.

He leaned in close and whispered, "Got you back, didn't I?" My breath hitched in my throat as he pulled back a little only to pull my face towards his and kiss me. It was short but it meant the world to me, it was our first kiss, my first kiss and his, another thing we did together, but as we pulled back the face he made was serious.

"I have to tell you something." He whispered. My heart dropped to my stomach and I felt the dread take over, "Ok." was all I could manage.

"I have to go away to school," He said.

"For how long." I whispered my voice betraying me and breaking mid-sentence.

"5 years." He said. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't speak, I was losing the most important person in my life, I just cried. I cried until his shirt was soaked through with tears and I had none left. I cried all of my tears at that moment and when he left the next day I kept calm even though my heart was breaking. And as he climbed into the carriage that would carry him far away from here, from me he caught my gaze one last time and I knew in that moment both of hearts broke, for how could we bear to be away from one another for so long after 13 years, how could we still be close like we were. We couldn't, not after 5 years, 1,825 days, 43,800 hours, 2,628,000 minutes. The answer was that we couldn't.