Fire's Mage (Book One) Kyoko of Fire Country

Chapter Eighteen

Talia knew guilt. Many who had gone through one war or another knew it, knew it like a lover's gentle embrace. While many mourned for the those they had lost, she couldn't help but get stuck one the what if's and she wished she knew what had caused the Neci Massacres. Wished they had talked to Leela and Amna before they were forced to flee.

Now she didn't know if it was Amna and Leela who killed their clan. If it had been them, she wanted to know what had tipped them over the edge, there had been no signs, no warning.

Not to mention Red Light was attacked a year later, Three Major Wars in less than a hundred years. This wasn't something her father-in-law would be pleased with. He had died in the First Major War, someone putting an arrow in his back.

He had created the village, he had encouraged the creation of other villages, so people could finally live in some peace after the five hundred years that Mages and Warriors had been at war either each other.

Generation after generation knowing nothing but war, nothing but bleed shed and heartache. Hatred, pain and loss, that's what Talia's siblings had told her. The ones who were still alive when they joined the village at least.

"Mum," Mahdi greeted a tome of a book sitting on the table as he waited for her. It would seem that some things would never change.

"Mahdi, son, is there something I can help you with?" Talia asked as she sat down.

"Danielle and Nadia have sent letters," he told her, while her handing her a scroll. One simply saying 'Grandmother' on the edge, tears swelling in her eyes. "They've made it to Mountain with hassle, said they'd catch up with Dad while they were there."

"It's nice knowing my granddaughters are fine," Talia told him, smiling as he pushed a bowl with rich and curry in front of her, not something she'd usually make for breakfast. But since her son had gone through the trouble, it didn't bother her much. "Nadia still doesn't know what to do wit herself does she?"

"She never did," Mahdi reminded her. Nadia was a strong willed child, but she never knew what to do with herself. Even if she did train as a Warrior and fought during the Third Major War, it wasn't something she knew she wanted to.

"Not since Kinga's death," Talia reminded him. She still missed her daughter, since she died in her arms during the Second Major War. There was nothing her teammate could have done, but give her enough time to say goodbye to her family. Something many didn't get the chance to do. "She was only ten when Kinga died."

"We lost many to that war and the one that followed it," Mahdi said as he placed his hands on his back. His hair starting to grey, Conner's had done the same when he was Mahdi's age. "Such worthless lose of life."

"We would have lost more doing nothing," she told him, they would have caught between Wind, Lightning as they fought Water, it was the best thing to do at the time.

"It never gets any easier, does it?"

"No, it doesn't. Even after seventy years."

"I miss Uncle Dainton and Uncle Emil."

"Emil was good at turning my father's hair grey."

"I heard Father's dad was good at the same thing," Mahdi reminded her. A smile on his aged face, once upon a time, she had carried him in her arms. Soothed his hurts, how time flew and how much she had missed.

"So I was told," Talia agreed. She had missed talking to her children, even when they were growing up, she never had a lot of time for them.

Sending them to pre-Academy when they were three before they were allowed to enter the Academy at eight. At least those who had chosen to go down that path. Like Oprah, who was happily living in Mountain Country with her husband and children. "I never met him, he had died before I was born."