The Scrolls of Fractured Memories

CHAPTER ONE'

Following the ravenous bar splurge with a woman, Syrene, that she had befriended, Cora Alinac enjoyed for herself a satiable and gratifying night with a man named Jodan. He was a decent man with a well built and defined body that she'd approached in a bar not just a few hours ago.

The night was a blurry but starry one, as she glanced at the empty bed chamber that was not so empty at some point of the day that was coming to an end. She let out a breath. Another day. Another day in her life had just. . . elapsed. She wished she was with someone, who would be with her in a constant type of way. Days had progressed into months and years into her life and she'd been alone, all this time.

She missed her family, how things were before. Before everything had changed. The entirety of her life flipped upside down in a day's worth of time. The frame of her kin, friends, people. But all that was behind her now. As much as she wished things would go back to the way it was, it wouldn't. As much as she wanted to go back, she wouldn't. Couldn't.

She peered the dark sky again, moonlight from the window of her house, stretching and seeping near her quilt. As she got up, and went to fix herself something to eat, dressed in her plain chemise and a nightgown. She decided on some fruit. As she tread along her house, she felt something. Felt something stir in the plain nothings of Galea.

Magic.

Magic of the Mist.

She guarded caution. Mistbloods this close to her hadn't happened in a while. And the magic she detected came off vehement. She reached for the shortsword that she kept stashed behind the galley of her house and bent and sat on the hardwood floor. She was skilled in archery but her bow and arrows were kept in the far closet that was, well, not so approachable right now.

She made sure she kept herself hidden and concealed. The darkness to her advantage, she gripped the shortsword firmly into her hand, she needed to be alert, this could not go wrong.

Moments passed. Nothing happened. She hadn't made a sound, staying still and keeping her breath steady. Damn it, whoever this was, was precisely nimble. And she began thinking of someone, someone whose agility was compared to none. Shaking her thoughts, she heard the curtains blowing from the open window. And then she made out footsteps.

This person had clear strides, heavy, much like a man's. But agile. Then they stopped, she perceived that he had reached the door. Subsequently, the creaking noises of the lock on her oak door voiced, she felt panicked but ordered herself to be calm. She could do this. She'd been trained to do this.

She took a more ground based position, being as quiet as she could, being quick was a necessity. She felt the door unclick and swing open.

Steadying herself, she waited.

"Well, is this any way to welcome me, Riv?" a rough but soothing voice said as she went completely still.

Nikolas.

Nik.

It was her brother.

He was really there, standing right in front of her with amusement shining in his cerulean eyes, the moonlight mixed with the warm hues from the light in the lamp he held in his hand leading his light brown skin to glow.

She felt the sword drop from her hand as she stood up and saw her brother striding over to her with an oil lamp in his hand. She almost snorted, she would have, looking at him with a lamp in his had as if he needed it. But she was too bewildered. Staggered. She had been seeing him after a decade. Right after it happened.

They had gone their separate ways after what both of them did.

"Talk to me, Rivannah, come on now." He said, grinning. He was grinning. He just decided to barge in after 10 years of not meeting her in person, except for his stupid letters time to time, saying he was alright and everything and everyone no- she was safe. "What do want me to say brother?" She snapped "You just decided to come here now? Unannounced?"