Glory and Gore

Chapter 7:Through the Mist

   WISTERIA

PEOPLE used to believe that magic is a gift, but I think it's more like a death sentence. When your life is in constant danger just for living, who would want to became a blessed?

But fate is inevitable. Look what it got me in the end, I am stuck in a place I didn't even know which part of Eritrea it was, hiding from people who want me dead.

I sat at the edge of the four-poster bed, and stared at the scar that was left in my arm when the General performed what he called the amplification. My mind is still hazy from what I witnessed. It feel as though I'm still recovering from a hangover.

I haven't talk to anyone since then nor ate a single thing Nina offers me, in my head, I thought that if I started to trust the Magic Wielders, then I might really believe that I am one of them.

I darted my eyes from my arm to the window across the room. A thought of jumping off the window and run away had occur up in my mind, but then the door suddenly swung open which made me brought me back to my senses. I knew it was Nina who entered base from the hem of her white robes.

"The General is here to see you." she announced.

The General emerged behind her.

"Thank you, Nina." the man had said.

Nina then left, leaving just the two of us.

I rose from the bed to face the man. I felt a sudden uneasiness between us. His presence alone is enough to make me feel wary and uncomfortable. Perhaps I haven't met someone like him, or maybe there is no one quite like him. He was wearing the same set of black robes just like the one he wore the first time I met him.

"Do you need anything?" I asked in small voice.

"I've come here to check on you." he began gently. "Nina told me that you haven't eaten for the whole day. I just want to make sure you're not trying to starve yourself to death."

I looked away. It's not like I'm really trying to starve myself to death but being hunted by witch-hunters, my foot is already on the grave. Like part of me is already dead.

"I know it is difficult for you to accept the truth, Miss Sovetsky. You have life before this, but you are one of us now." he went on.

I slowly look back and met his eyes.

For the second time I look in his cold, dark eyes, this is the first time I saw a glimpse of emotion into it - and it was hope.

"You only want me under your protection because of m-my power." I felt something got stuck on my throat when I mentioned 'my power'. "What does it even means to you?" I asked with a challenging tone.

He gave me a I'm-glad-you-asked look.

"Everything...your power means everything, Miss Sovetsky." said the General earnestly, placing his arms behind him as he paced around.

"Each day of our lives, we live in fear of being hunted. And it is my duty to protect my kind - our kind. But my power wasn't enough to provide the protection that our people needed, so I ask the saints for a miracle. A miracle that would help me change the fate of our war-torn world, and they gave me you."

He strode towards my directions which made me backed away. His stare is intense and meaningful as though it's trying to communicate to me.

"You are our hope, Wisteria. Our light bringer."

"Me?" I scoffed. "How? If a man like you couldn't provide the protection your people need, then so do I." I snapped defiantly.

"This isn't just about the Magic Wielders, but the whole kingdom." the General stated calmly. "The Aldanorian hunters is enemy with everyone who supports us. The war between north and east rendered the kingdom broken beyond repair. But through your magic, we can put everything back how it used to be."