Memories of SIGAL

VEE

I opened my eyes, frustrated, and breathed.
"Okay, Ovidia, again. Try to focus."
I sat more comfortably on the ornate mosaiced floor, surrounded by fourteen other fourteen-year-old Mahicans who were unlocking their own abilities for the first time. A strenuous exercise, and not just because I wasn't born a Mahican.
I kept on trying to draw out the magic inside, the magic placed there by the virtue of my being Marzelle Origon's ward, and just when it bubbled forth, I heard it. This one line of song rendered in a sweet, soft, child-like, high alto voice.
"Life goes on and on and on and on and on..."
Then all my energy got directed to finding out the source of the sound, and on not finding it, dissipated. Twice.
"Ovidia."
I know, I know. I'm coming, I mentally rolled my eyes at our Unsealer.
Okay, here goes.
Pure Mahican energy...I sought it out again, closed my eyes.
Pure...Mahican....energy.
Amid the mumblings of my comrades, I took myself back to when it all began.
In the Great Stave, the musical sanctuary of my mind, I was five years old again.
The frozen winds whipped furiously against my face.
"Mom...MOM!"
She wasn't there. The men, spectres, ghouls, I didn't know what, were circling, coming closer. My heart thudded in my chest even as I recalled their icy grins
and solid yellow eyes. I didn't know what they wanted, why they were after me. I just knew I was kicking and screaming as they caught up and dragged me through the snow.
"Of course mom's not here. She never is," I told myself. Suddenly I felt something sharp and cold against my neck, then huge guysers of snow exploded, and forcefully yanked away the object on my neck. Someone heavy flung herself on me as even more snow exploded.
"Hi, kid."
I couldn't respond; my teeth were chattering. "Can you run?" I nodded. "Awesome, because we're going to be doing a lot of that...on three." More snow guysers in the distance. "THREE!" Somehow she had picked me up and was bounding. Very far. Whoever the pursuers were seemed to forget I existed and focus on her. "Get behind me, kid!" she cried when she dumped me on the ground. The things enclosed her as they did me, only she stomped her foot, summoned a snow wall and held it between them and us. "Now, run. RUN!" she ordered, voice rasping.
I ran as fast as I could, which wasn't fast considering I was in summer clothes on a snowy mountain and I couldn't see where I was going, stumbling every so often.
Blurred images floated through my mind: falling again, a distant scream, the feel of something colder, more painful than fear in my chest, and something... slipping...away.
I was so cold...
"Listen to me. Focus on the sound of my voice."
I cried out; the offending instrument was yanked out rather forcefully. I was getting even colder at the sight of my blood soaking my shirt.
Still slipping...
"Hey, come back here," she sounded like she was chewing something...that she tried to stuff into my mouth. Ew. I wanted to spit, but she held my lips together.
"Kid, wanna live?"
A nod from me.
"Better swallow."
Gulping down whatever that was, I realised she was right. I warmed up from within...and suddenly felt electric-like currents singing through me.
Perfect.
Racing from my brain to my shoulders to my fingers, I felt it, was ready to open the gates for it...
"Life goes on and on and on and on and on..."
No distractions, Ovidia. Let it flow. Focus.
Life goes on and on and on and on and on..."
I pushed past the temptation to listen, but it kept pressing on my consciousness...
"Life goes on and on and on and on and on and on...and on and on and on and on... and on and on and..."
No... don't...
''AAAH!" My voice came out a hoarse shriek. "I KNOW LIFE GOES ON, BUT WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" My eyes flew open, hands clutching my head.
The Unsealer smiled sadly.
"I'll tell your mom to come pick you up."
I could only nod.