Alina: Light & Shadows

Chapter 2

As I grew, it became increasingly clear that my destiny would not be easy. My family tried to hide their disappointment, but their glances betrayed what their mouths dared not say.

My father, in particular, tried to appear patient.

“Magic takes time,” he often told me, “and some flowers bloom more slowly.”

But his forced smile told me everything I needed to know.

At school, things were not much different. The other students seemed to already have a clear idea of who they would become. And then there was me.

I often looked at myself in the broken mirror next to my bed, trying to see in me what others seemed to notice immediately: an evident inability, a hidden flaw within my very being.

Physically, I certainly wasn’t what one would expect from a future mage. I was slender, almost too thin, with brown hair always disheveled, escaping every time I tried to tame it.

I kept it tied in a messy braid, which by the end of the day had already come undone. My hands were often stained with ink or dirt, a sign of my clumsy adventures.

And my eyes? Well, they were perhaps my most distinctive feature: a pale green, almost translucent, which my mother said were like “the light filtering through leaves.” But to me, they just seemed another mark of my difference.

I wasn’t imposing, nor particularly beautiful. I was small, with hunched shoulders as if I were trying to hide from the world.

Even my clothes seemed uncooperative: too big, too loose, as if I were trying to conceal every trace of my body, too awkward and embarrassing.

Even my walk was uncertain. I walked as if the ground beneath me were always ready to give way.

Yet, despite all this, there was something inside me, a spark I couldn’t fully understand.

Sometimes, I felt it deep within, like a gentle burn beneath my skin. It was as if there were another version of me, a more confident, more powerful one, just waiting to emerge.

But every time I tried to let it out, it always ended up causing disasters.

Once, during a transmutation lesson, my task was simple: to transform a small stone into a flower.

I stared at the stone, then closed my eyes, focusing on the image of a red rose. I felt the energy coursing through me, the words of the incantation on my lips. When I opened my eyes, the stone was no longer there.

In its place was… a clump of grass that smelled terrible. The other students laughed, and I lowered my gaze, trying to ignore the heat rising to my cheeks.

But there was more. That day, as I watched the clump of grass quickly rot away, Master Arion fixed me with a look I couldn’t quite comprehend.

Was it fear? Or some sort of curiosity? Whatever it was, she never mentioned it. And I didn’t dare to ask.

My days continued in this manner, a slow routine of small failures and sporadic sparks of a power I didn’t know how to control.

But while I desperately tried to fit in, the world around me was changing.

The animals in the forest grew more restless, and whispers in the village began to speak of strange shadows moving at twilight.

No one knew what it was, but a sense of fear began to creep in.

One night, while returning home after a particularly humiliating day, something changed. I was walking along the path that cut through the woods near the village when suddenly I felt watched.

The wind, which had been calm just a moment before, began to blow with a sudden force. The trees seemed to whisper words I couldn’t understand, and a shiver ran down my spine.

I stopped, trying to determine if it was just my imagination or if there was truly something there, hidden among the trees.

“Who’s there?” I asked, my voice trembling more than I wanted to admit.

No answer. Only the wind.

I took a step back, ready to run, but something stopped me. A shadow moved quickly among the trees, and for a moment, I thought I saw eyes glimmering in the darkness.

But they were not human eyes.

“You’re not like the others,” a voice whispered. It was like an echo in the wind, yet so close that it sent chills down my spine.

“You are different.”

I ran. I didn’t stop until I reached home, my breath heavy and my heart pounding furiously in my chest. When I told my mother what had happened, she looked at me with concern but said nothing.

Maybe she knew something, or perhaps she was just worried about my growing paranoia. In any case, the feeling of being watched wouldn’t leave me for a long time.

In the days that followed, other strange events began to occur. Small things, like objects moving on their own or lights flickering for no reason.

Some started talking about curses. Others thought it was an omen. But me? I began to think everything was somehow connected to me. Even if I didn’t understand how.

I often wondered who I really was. And why, among all, it seemed that I was the one who couldn’t find my place.

But whatever the answer, it was becoming clear that the world was waiting for something from me. And perhaps, in the end, I would be forced to discover it.