The Makers of Destiny: Monarchy

Chapter Five: As Many Questions as Answers

Betrayal. Anger. Shock. Those were the first things Lillian felt. She sat there numbly, the feelings thrumming through her veins. Then slowly, but surely, rational thought poured back in.

"Why do you care so much?" she chided herself. She didn't know why she felt such a strong reaction at Ameria's refusal to talk. Who was she to even care anyway? A nosy girl, nothing else, sticking her nose into business that's definitely not her own. It was nothing more than shock. She had never felt quite comfortable with Ameria before; the simple fact that Ameria had been willing to disclose secrets with her had made her overly trusting. Of course, the secrets were a bit more the average secrets, but still.

She glanced at Ameria. The young girl was sitting cross-legged on the bed, her face schooled into a perfect mask of aloofness, looking unwaveringly at Lillian. Something in her eyes flickered, as if she knew just how exactly how much her rebuff had affected Lillian.

"Her eyes are too big... and she doesn't blink enough," Lillian thought randomly, unnerved by Ameria's large irises.

Ameria's face stayed the same, the seriousness looking extremely out of place on her for some reason, but some tension seemed to leave her. Suddenly, a calm flooded into Lillian.

"Okay, it's not the end of the world," a tiny voice scolded her. "You can still ask questions, find out more things. She said that she can't tell you about the prophets, not the other sects."

Lillian fingered a small keychain that she hooked to the belt of her skirt and let the familiar sensation ground her. Her other hand gripped the fuzzy blanket on Ameria's bed tightly. After a second or two, she took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I understand. You can't go babbling magical secrets to anyone you meet. So, no prophets, no seers, no mysterious connection between them, what about the...," Lillian racked her brains for the names of the previously mentioned sects, "wizards?"

A relieved smile broke out across Ameria's face. "Right. Wizards and witches. The name is sort of self-explanatory. People who do magic. Like the rest of us." She spreaded her arms, gesturing to an invisible crowd." Well, prophets and seers can't do magic, not the ordinary way at least, and genies are a special case, but that's beside the point."

"So what makes a wizard a wizard and not a..." Lillian struggled to remember the other names.

"Sorcerer or enchanter."

"Exactly that. They sound more or less the same to me," Lillian scoffed.

"That's simple," Ameria said enthusiastically. "Origin."

Lillian raised her eyebrow, a neat trick she had picked up. "Origin," she repeated.

"Yes, origin," Ameria replied. They looked at each other for a second, before bursting out laughing. "Yes, origin," Ameria echoed, trying to hold back laughter. "Wizards and witches; their magic is hereditary, passed on by genetics and bloodlines. Their children will also be wizards slash witches and so on, unless they are a very weird mutation, or that their family tree has been all muddled up with ordinary humans and they just happen to get the worse half of the deal."

"And the sorcerers' and enchanters' powers aren't?" Lillian asked.

"Well, the sorcerers' are."

Lillian huffed, "Well then, how does that work?"

"Once again," Ameria began, "sorcerers have a strange beginning, like seers. The difference between wizards and sorcerers are that they did not exist originally. However, their creation wasn't quite as unprecedented."

"Meaning?" Lillian prompted.

"You've ever wondered why humans have magic powers?"

"Huh?" Lillian responded, startled. She was having trouble keeping up with Ameria's thought process.