Ternia

Evander

Training began early in the morning, the trainers talked about their being a possible attack on the palace and to be completely ready for anything to happen. Now, they didn't say that directly to us, but I was eavesdropping and that's what I got from it.

I was one of the very few from Chrystalanthia from my training group, most of my group was Elarian or Thalassian.

"Good morning!" One guy greeted me with a nod.

Another dude gave me a handshake. "Mornin'."

There was this chill guy at breakfast who sat beside me. He seemed to be introverted. "You don't seem to be from here." The dude looked at me with his big black rimmed glasses sliding down his nose. "I'm Valen, a royal knight. My duty is to protect the children but the children spend more time with their parents these days." Valen moved a chess piece. The woman in front of him moved another, he captured one of her bishops.

"I'm not..." I sipped my already lukewarm coffee.

Valen pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose just slightly, making his eyes appear larger. He looked to be too innocent, too sweet to be able to kill somebody. "Do you belong to the Star or the Fairy?"

"If the star means Starleen, then I'm a star."

"What did you say your name is again?" He rotated his stool to me.

I couldn't help but smile in response to the awkward place I had put myself in. "Evander, is there a problem?"

"No." He slowly shook his head. "None at all. Nice to meet you, Evander. Hope to see you succeed in training soon."

...

They gave me a crystal sword, not something I've ever worked with before. It was heavy, freshly sharpened and shined.

We started off by slicing palm trees and sand castles. The men around me grunted and groaned throughout their every movement.

"Faster!" Coach screamed in our ears.

Sweat dripped from my temples and ran down my forehead. My shirt became stained with sweat marks that would be impossible to wash out.

...

The sound of the castle gates was grating against my ears as the first attack they warned about proceeded. I bit my tongue as I stood in my place getting ready to kill whoever brought down those doors. And within ten minutes, the doors fell to the floor. Tall, slim shadows walked through the corridor, their bodies weren't seen yet by the light.

A striking young woman slowly made her way to the center. The green in her dress was in a way blinding, I found it difficult to look away from something so beautiful. We locked eyes and had a menacing smile. "I see you're bringing outsiders in, Theodora!" She crowed. The woman had a cold smile but could haunt dreams and probably did. "Come on!" She continued. "Fight your own battles! Daddy always helped you win, and now that he's dead all you can do is hide." She walked to me, her long icy fingers brushing down my jawline to my neck. "You don't belong here." Her mood shifted to something sweet, her smile almost warm. "I'm going to win, you're wasting time!" She bellowed.

"Coligny, you shouldn't be here." Orion emerged between two warriors. "Go home and I'll save you the trouble."

Coligny stared deeply at him, her eyes memorized his angles, she watched the outline of his body, his walk. "You don't know anything." She bit at him.

"I know that you're trying to kill my family!" Orion barked. "I have a wife! And children! But of course you of all people don't know that. You don't know love even if it slapped you across the face. A good sister wouldn't be trying to hurt her family!"

She walked closer to him, her heels echoed off each wall that surrounded us. "A good sister wouldn't have driven her own sister to such measures."

Orion grit his teeth together. "Theodora and Bridgetalyn never hurt you!"

"Oh, you'd be surprised what family does when no one is watching." Her words were bitter and cold. They hit you like shards of glass. Coligny backed up to the army that made her entry. "Show them what the mysterious dark trees can do." She whispered.

"Orion!" She shouted over the raging excitement of her fellow people. "We're cruel because of what other people did, not us. I didn't choose this life, they chose it for me. I just want to be seen. That's all."

Coligny turned her back into her wooden crowd and was gone. And the palace was in complete ruins.