The Last Mage

Chapter 1: A New Life

Brielle made her way down the twisted dark streets toward the apartment she and her father and mother would be occupying. Her father had finally reached one of the top positions in the company. He was no longer stationed by the grinders that had claimed so many lives. And she would no longer live in the cramped one room apartment in the slums. True she would still be sharing facilities with everyone in the building but now she would have some space, maybe even her own room. To have a little privacy would be nice. She tried not to think what happened to the people who had lived there.

They climbed the thin stairway quick as they could. Her father's broad shoulders were squished in the skinny stairway, rubbing both walls but at least he didn't have to duck like in their old place. She scanned the notice on the board to find their room. Her eyes grew in excitement as she saw their number filling not one space but two. She had her own private room! They were also on the floor just above this. Luck was with them. Their other place had been five flights of stairs and to the end of the long hall. She decided life couldn't get better when she saw a few girls who looked her age head down the same hall she and her family were walking to. She'd have friends to hang out with after work.

Not for the first time she thought of those stories her mother used to tell her of her great great-grandfathers adventures. Back then the children didn't have to work but got to go to school with tons of other kids and just play afterwards. No demons. No Zarlo setting tortures for those who displeased him. Just the forest and happy town, running about the valley in the shadow of the great white walled building that had been the hope of all the people. If you looked hard enough through smoke and darkness from a top floor you could see the hill it used to sit on. A forbidden hill to all. Zarlo was frustrated at loosing the building or whatever was in it and you could always tell when he was extremely angry for the lightening and darkness would cover that hill so thick you wouldn't be able to see the foot of the path leading up.

Legends told in secret spoke of the Guardians in their green and black uniforms fighting back the demon hordes to the last and then giving their souls to hide the heart of what Zarlo searched. She used to have her mother tell her the legends late into the night of the Guardians. Sometimes her dreams would add to the legends scenes of four Guardians standing before a shining object and an old man would smile and wink at her. That would always be the end of her dream. The four Guardians wouldn't be able to see her but the old man always included her with his smile. Sometimes she would be dreaming something entirely different and the old man would appear, holding a glowing orb in his palm, its light blinding her dreaming eyes and waking her. She wondered about the old man and why she would dream of him but as there was no one who knew the answer it would probably stay a mystery forever.

She looked about the small room, not so small from her experience. Her family had lived in a room as small as this all together and now she had it to herself. She was delighted to find she had a window. It made the room brighter and more cheery than candlelight could. She was even happier with its view. She could look through a gap in the buildings and see the rise the remains of the Center sat on. A very small opening to see the one thing Zarlo could not darken. There still remained a few of the white stones that made the building. The walls were mostly toppled but the rubble still sparkled brilliant white in the setting sun.

She sighed and turned from the window. Darkish grey walls after that view made the room seem small. But it was her room and she would give it her mark. Emptying her pockets of their contents made her feel quite light. She set the rocks on the shelf that was probably meant for other things. But she'd rather throw her toothbrush in the corner than those rocks. They each had a special memory with them. Found in the field where she worked, one was a dark purple that had caught her eye, another a tint of blue and yet another seemed too bright a red to really be a rock. The other four were in weird shapes and one had a shell of some creature stuck in it. She had even found an arrow once. It had been old she knew from its rough, warped wood but when she had blown the dirt away she had found it to be white. It had to have been from the war of the Guardians for who else would have had white wood for arrows? It had been too long to hide up her sleeve so she had given it to one of her older friends who still cherished it.